July 24, 2013

Our last day. We will have pedaled across the country. It doesn't seem like a big deal to us, but the people we meet each day seem impressed. Oh well.

Roger knows how to start out such a big day with a good breakfast.

July 23, 2013

We could not find lodging in Bar Harbor, so we decided to stop short of it and ride into the harbor and Acadia National Park the next morning when Dee would be there with the truck. Then we could spend the day seeing the park and not worry about finding a safe place to leave our bikes and gear for the day. Plus, then Dee could tour the park with us.

We woke up this morning at the campground to our coldest morning in a long time, 57 degrees. The heat has broken enough that Katie and I were feeling cold. Everyone but Chris got a great night's sleep. For some reason, Chris could not sleep and spent his night walking to the bathroom and saving the snacks on his bike from the coons. The rest of us did not know this on waking up. We usually cannot make a move without Chris being awake and ready to get moving. All of us thought that Chris was already gone to the bathroom or something getting ready. We were all up and moving and packing, when all of a sudden we started hearing grumbling coming from the tent. It was Chris just waking up. We were almost packed up before he finally heard us! This NEVER happens!

We woke up after a good nights sleep by everyone (except Rog, the rest of us thought it was a great nights sleep). The girls packed up their spider tent, after we all slept in quite a bit for the first time in a while.

July 20, 2013.

We woke up after a pretty warm and sticky night at the Naples Campground. The campground has breakfast at 7, so we were all packed and ready to roll when breakfast opened up. The breakfast is very reasonably priced and pretty darn good. This campground is 8 years old, and is going to have a great future if they keep being so awesome.

Laura wants me to put down a special note that the blueberry muffin was awesome.

July 19, 2013

"Isn't it too hot for biking today?"

We were asked this many times today. The answer is probably "Yes". Anyway, back to chronological order, because that is the order that I took my pictures....

We got to bed a bit late for a crazy early start, so we slept in until 5:45. Mistake number one. It didn't take long until making it to the Maine border.

I remember crossing Andy Rd, otherwise today was too hot to commit things to memory.

First of all, Al gets what Al wants so this is why I am writing the post.

WE CONQUERED THE LINCOLN AND THE KAN!

We got up this morning at 4:45 to try and beat the heat. Unsure of our destination plan for the day, we had some Lucky Charms and OJ to start us off. Chris and I have a rough time eating so early in the morning so we ate slow. We hit the road later than expected around 6:30, still not too bad. Leaving, we had to go up the steep driveway, even Roger walked his trike.

Going to keep this short. We got up early from our great stay with Barb and Wally (Wally was not home) Smith. We could have stayed and talked with Barb for a week or more!

Short post placeholder. Will post more later.

Got up at 4:45 and hit the road early to beat the heat. Middlebury gap starts out crazy steep. Over 15%. Our stranger friend from yesterday gave us an alternate route to spread out the first steep section but we went for it head on.

After the first half mile, the road leveled off a bit to a 5 percent climb. A few miles later and we were almost to the top. One last steep 15% grade to go. Laura and Katie say they have never sweat like that before. Indeed I have not seen it. they were soaked. This really was the steepest climb on nt.

I added more information, and added the pictures to day 21. Looking back, that was when we learned that we were in for some major climbing. Even the flat days were starting to become hard! It sure was a beautiful area. I wish we could have stayed and played in the water.