Joe & Karen's Adventures

We have had a bit of a setback with our riding.  Joe has been very sick and was in the hospital for 5 days.  So we have not been out biking for at least a month.  There have been some nice weather that would have been great biking weather.  But now he is on the mend and we hope to getting back out there and posting more pictures.  Our friend Joe from Maryland - who we stayed with on our bike trip was up in this area this week.  He had biked from Key West to Bar Harbor.  Joe met up with him and his riding partner in Falmouth for a brief visit. 

It was 60 degrees and biking weather, although very windy.  We met at the parking lot on Baxter Blvd. and stopped for our new favorite treat - Bubble Tea. Bubble Tea is a chinese drink that comes in a variety of flavors and has tapioca pearls in the bottom.  Very Yummy.  We rode around the city for a while and came upon a park on Munjoy Hill that gave us a very different and varied view of the city.  Coming back around the boulevard we encountered a strong headwind.  All in all it was a good ride, leaving us with 14 miles under our belts.

Last wednesday we had the pleasure of hosting a guy that was biking from St. Augustine Florida up the Atlantic Coast and turning left towards Washingto n State.  Jeff left St. Augustine about a month ago and I found his journal on www.crazyguyonabike.com. I was interested in his journal because he was following our same route and he had some of the same pictures posted that we have.  So I began reading about his adventures.  We extended our invitation as with other touring bikers to stay overnight, get free meal, shower and whatever else they may need.  So Jeff contacted us from York Maine, a days bike ride from here.  He arrived about 6pm, we had supper and talked about our different adventures on the road.  He left the next morning and headed for Fryeburg, Maine.  He has since crossed into Vermont.  You can follow his journey by clicking here.

Look over on the left navigation bar under "My Links" there is a new link "Maine2Florida Bike Trip" that will take you right to the first pages of our bike trip journal.  Once there, scroll to the bottom, the days start at the bottom and go up from there.  To get to the next page, click on "newer" at the bottom of each page.  When you go to each page, start reading from bottom to top.

We have been doing alot of riding, however, I have not been posting them on here like I used to.  We have ridden to work a few times, but the time involved has not made it worth it, so I have been going out in the mornings before work and Joe has taken his bike for after work.  But on the weekends, we have been cranking out the miles and done some of our favorite rides along with some new ones.  We are gearing up for a short bike trip at the end of this month - Bar Harbor to home.  We have a wedding to go to on the 28th and will leave from there and drive to Bar Harbor.  The next morning we will leave my car at the motel we are staying at and start our bike trip back.  We are taking 4 days and have already made reservations for each night.  The exciting part too is that Sue is joining us on her 1st bike trip - ever!  We are traveling light with out any camping gear and as we learned on Maine to Florida, you really don't need much to survive on the road.  So.......I am just taking my small panniers, Joe is taking the B.O.B. Trailer, but it won't be nearly as loaded as last time.  We have given Sue a set of panniers we have from our trip in '99.  So we are looking forward to getting back on the road and spending our days, pedalling, taking in the sights and having a good time. I am going to keep a journal for this trip on www.crazyguyonabike.com.  I will post the address to my page once we get started.

This weekend we took a couple of good rides, on saturday we parked my car in Freeport and started out from there to Brunswick, we did a 42 mile loop up through Harpswell and back to Brunswick and on to Freeport.  The weather was okay, but not what was predicted. There was a coolness to the air all day and fog as we got closer to Harpswell.  We stopped for lunch in Brunswick at Applebees.  On Sunday, we drove down to Biddeford and parked on Route 9 at the Boat Launch, we rode out Route 9 towards Cape Porpoise and on towards Kennebunkport. We rode past The Bush Estate and were amazed at how many people actually were stopped there to gawk towards his house.  It is not like he was coming out to greet them or wave from his porch, there was nothing to see - except the house.(?)  I guess that is exciting to some people.  We continued on the road along the ocean into Kennebunkport, stopped and had lunch then continued on our way.  The ride back was great - back roads and little to no traffic.  Round Trip was 35 miles.  The best part was the weather was perfect - about 90 degrees! with a bit of humidity.  Great biking weather. 

Well it has been a while since I last updated our riding.  We have biked to work a couple times a week in the last few.  Typical rides leaving from Yarmouth.  Although it is nice to get to work by bike, it has become a mundane ride and we always end up at work!  The weather has been great for riding and we have managed to get a couple of our favorite rides under our belts for the season.  May 10th, Joe, Sue and I drove up to bike the Bear Notch Road Loop we like.  The temps were in the 60's as we started from the Ranger Station at the Conway end of the Kanc.  We stopped at the covered bridge and did a 3 part cache and then continued on our way.  By the time we reach the top of Bear Notch we were starved and finished all the snacks we had with us.  The downhill was an awesome 4 miles.  We decided not to stop at the store at the bottom thinking that there would be restaurant down the road.  Unfortunately, the restaurants were all closed until we got to Glen.  They were about to close but let us order anyhow.  The total loop is about 42 miles.

Today, May 18th, we drove down to Ogunquit and biked a loop down through Cape Neddick to York and back to Ogunquit.  It was only a 27 mile loop but we had a great time.  The roads were great for riding down there, going through all the little towns and along the ocean.  Alot of the roads were rolling hills.  We ate breakfast at a restaurant in Ogunquit before we headed off on our bikes.  We had not eaten before we left home and did not get down there until around 11.  We each had an omelet which held us all day.  We got back to where we had parked my car and found I had a flat tire on the back.  Apparantly I had picked up a nail somewhere on the drive down.  So we had to take the bike rack off the car to get the jack and stuff out.  My spare tire is attached to the back and luckily it was brand new.  Joe got all but one lugnut off the flat tire and since the tool that comes with the car was cheap and wimpy he could not get the last one off.  However, luckily for us, Sue has AAA.  So she called and they sent a guy right over.  The guy got out of his truck and the first thing he said was "What did you do wrong?" to which Joe replied, "you must be the guy from AAA?" trying to be friendly.  However, as it turns out the guy was not.  His reply was "if I wasn't, I wouldn't be here".  We all just kind of looked at each other without saying a word as the guy proceeded to get the lugnut off and replace the tire.  He finished with a grunt and after we thanked him he drove off.    We all commented on how rude he was and started to load the bikes back onto my car.  A guy approached us that works in the Antique shop that we were parked at asked about our ride.  Sue told him how we had arrived back to find we had a flat tire and told him how we called AAA and that the guy who came out had the personality of a rock.  The young guy replied, "oh, that's my uncle"!  Of course Sue apologized all over the place and the guy laughed and said how grumpy the guy always is.  He knew right away who we were talking about, it was pretty funny.

This past week the weather was great for riding.  It actually allowed us to commute to work two days this week, Tuesday and Thursday.  Although it makes for a long day, time wise, it is worth it to get out of work and then not have to deal with the traffic as you drive off. 

This weekend was taken up on Saturday with yardwork.  The weather was great, but we needed to get some things taken care of.  So we planned a ride for Sunday.  Sue decided to join us for her first ride of the season.  We parked in Portland and rode out to Baileys Seafood for lunch in Scarborough.  The bike path was completely clear of snow all the way out, unlike two weeks ago when Joe and I tried to do the same ride.  Unfortunately, the weather was not as bright and warm as yesterday as we rode in the rain all the way out to Baileys.  It was a light drizzly rain, but unexpected.  By the time we were done eating it had stopped and as we rode our last 1/2 mile the sky was actually getting brighter.  Oh well, it was still a good ride and since the weather was a little wet there were not that many people using the path so we had it pretty much to ourselves.

Round trip was only 28.5 miles.