The BIG Day!

Uncle Glenn Did It!

What an incredible day we had here in Maine!  We woke early to a beautiful, sunny

morning and we left the house at 8 AM to head to Calais to finish our journey.
Since it is late and it was a long, emotional day, this post will be short with many
more details to follow tomorrow.  We just wanted to let you know that we made it
to Canada today and that everyone enjoyed this exciting adventure!

Just a little tease......more photos to follow!

Ready to set off from the outskirts of Calais to the Canadian Border!

Everyone was excited to get going!   

CLICK HERE TO SEE A VIDEO!!!!!!

By the way, today was also our 40th Wedding Anniversary!




Check back tomorrow for many photos and more
description of our day!

Foggy Soggy Blog!

No sunrise this morning but we were up early and decide to leave the hotel

at 6:35 to try to beat the thunderstorms as the weather channel said might be possible.

 We traveled more than an hour to reach the point at which I picked Glenn up yesterday on Rte. 9

It was a muggy, soggy, gray morning but the scenery was still 

photo worthy.  Quiet and peaceful river in the early morning.

Dense Fog!

Happily, Glenn did have his red blinking light on the back

of his bike.   In some places, visibility wasn't more than a 

car length.  The roads were still fairly quiet at 7:45.

We found our mile marker from yesterday's ride easily.

What wasn't easy was letting Glenn hit the road in the 

fog and rain with a slight hint of thunder.

Glenn couldn't be dissuaded from this important day of riding

so he took off at 7:55 heading to Calais!  I waited for a few minutes 

then caught up with him when the thunder AND lightening began to

be a threat.   He waited the storm out in the car for 20 minutes 

then pedaled on in the pouring rain.  What made this most difficult

was the fact that his well used Gore-tex rain gear is not waterproof

anymore.   Not a good time to discover this fact.

Glenn was off again after his storm break.  You can't tell in this photo but he was

already soaking wet as evidenced by the puddles he left behind on the

passenger seat!  Perhaps he needs one of these silly umbrella hats!

For the first 20 or so miles, I continued to play this leap frog

game with Glenn, just to be close by in case he needed rescuing.  

When we were 20 miles from Calais, he sent me ahead to explore

and we planned to meet 5 miles from the Canadian border which

would be our end point for today.  I happily forged on to see

what I would find in Calais and to venture across the border to

St. Stephen, New Brunswick where we will have a celebratory

lunch on Monday when we official finish the ride with the entire family

present.   It was exciting to see signs for Calais.

With my passport in hand, I headed across the border into Canada.

The customs agent was very friendly and I don't think I appeared to 

be a threat, especially after I told her that I was just headed to a restaurant

over the bridge and would only be staying in Canada for 15 minutes :)

TRIVIA QUESTION FOR TODAY!

St. Stephen is Canada's Chocolate Town.

What town is know as the Chocolatetown USA?

Email the answer to lynnhirsch@yahoo.com

I loved this artwork painted on a storefront in St. Stephen.

This was my first clue that the river I had just crossed was the St. Croix.

After my visit to Bistro on the Boulevard to firm up our lunch

plan for Monday, I was on the road to head back to the USA.

That has to be the shortest stay I have had in a foreign country....ever!

There was a long line to cross back into the US so I took a 

few photos.  I was waiting for someone to confiscate my camera for

taking photos in a customs area.  I know that is a no-no in airports!

I did, however, spend more than a few minutes being debriefed by the US

customs agent about my rental car, what I was carrying in the bike case

(which was Sam's Club purchases for our week in Bar Harbor), if I 

was bringing any fruits and vegetables back from Canada, what I was doing

in Canada (that answer was probably not one he hears often).  He finally

let me go after telling me that he went to school to become a customs 

agent in Georgia and he found it unbearably hot!  

I didn't realize, until I tried to book our lunch in St. Stephen,

that New Brunswick is not in the Eastern Time Zone but in the 

Atlantic Time Zone so a little ride across the river adds an hour

to the time.   Lunch on Monday will be at noon for us but at

1 PM for the restaurant.....Confused, ey?

Since we didn't find a "Welcome to Maine" sign as we entered

from New Hampshire on Monday, I was happy to find this one 

as I returned to Maine from Canada.  

After my jaunt to Canada, I found Glenn five miles out of town.

Drenched, cold and happy to be done, he sloshed into the

car and we headed to Subway for lunch and a quick change

into dry clothes.  He tells me that he found a new use for the

hand dryers in the restrooms....the one in Subway was a 

Full Body Dryer today!  

The stats for today are amazing considering the weather conditions:

42.41 miles pedaled in 3 hours and 6 minutes.

Only 2070 calories expended....despite the very hilly terrain.

Unfortunately, the computer did not calculate his ascent but I am

sure it would have been the highest number on this leg of the ride.

Tomorrow we'll try to sleep late, relax and get ready for the

kids and grandsons to arrive.   We'll all meet in Bar Harbor and

have a quiet weekend before we all head to Calais on Monday 

morning to finish this ride.  Glenn tells me that when he was getting

close to Calais today, he slowed down to take it all in since this

journey is coming to an end next week.  Very bittersweet.

If you don't hear from me during the weekend, you will surely hear from me Monday

or Tuesday.  Thanks for your continued support and encouragement!

Have a great weekend!

The Rain in Maine Stayed Plainly in Glenn's Lane

Thanks for the input about the Trivia Question from yesterday!
Three great answers came in and we found that they were ALL CORRECT!
Everyone wins Maine Wild Blueberry Jam!

What is this area of Maine called and why?
Wendy Kapiloff guessed MID COAST MAINE
Barb Kay chose JEWEL OF THE MAINE COAST
and the answer that we had in mind was suggested by
Marty Homeijer  - DOWN EAST.
The meaning we found was:
 "When ships sailed from Boston to ports in Maine (which were to the east of Boston), the wind was at their backs, so they were sailing downwind, hence the term 'Down East.' And it follows that when they returned to Boston they were sailing upwind; many Mainers still speak of going 'up to Boston,' despite the fact that the city lies approximately 50 miles to the south of Maine’s southern border."


Just a quick little note about some stores that I have noticed in the last few days.
The use of the state name in the store name seems to be quite popular here as witnessed by:
Mainely Sewing
Mainely Pottery
Mainely Music
AND
Mainely Meat on Main Street

Ready, get set.....

It seems today was lubrication day!   First the chain.....

Next the cleats on the bottom of his shoes!

So much to do to get ready to ride!

Rain day preparation!

Glenn's comment after today's ride,

"Rain, rain go away....don't come back tomorrow"!

The starting point for today's ride could not have been 

more color coordinated with Glenn's gore-tex rain gear!

Glenn took off at 8 AM this morning from Searsport, ME hoping to

dodge the rain drops and thunderstorms that were predicted.

Our plan was for me to head directly to Ellsworth to try to check in to

our next hotel very early and Glenn would follow.   If the weather turned bad, 

he would ride into the hotel for shelter until the storm subsided.

Of course, I couldn't go DIRECTLY to the hotel without stopping for

some photo ops.  This bridge and observatory were very interesting 

and unexpected in this rural area of Maine.

The top of the left pylon of the bridge is the observatory.

At 437 feet, it is the world's tallest observation tower.

  The Penobscot River across from Bucksport is a beautiful vista.

Another try at "Drive by Shootings" from the bridge.

At the time, I was the only one on it so I had plenty of time to stop and shoot!

After checking into the Ellsworth hotel and unloading the car, I headed to

Bangor to meet an old friend for lunch.  Nancy Anderson Davis was my

next door neighbor in Lakewood, NJ, from the time I was 5 until I was 13.  

We probably haven't seen each other in 40+ years but reconnected on Facebook and had

a great time catching up.   Nancy lives in Dover-Foxcroft, ME, about an

hour northwest of Bangor and we have been waiting for a few years for 

this ride to get Glenn and I close enough to visit!

More support for I Care I Cure I Cycle!

Thanks, Nancy!

Back to Glenn....He did stop at the hotel to dry off and relax while it

continued to rain.   He suddenly noticed that it had stopped and when he

checked the forecast, no major rain was expected during the afternoon so

he decided to head out again and added another 50 miles to his total

for today which is 80.18 miles!   He worked off 3947 calories and

ascended a mere 4503 feet.   I left Ellsworth to find him at 3 PM 

and finally caught up to him at 4 PM.    

The scenery along my route to find Glenn was very pretty and very rural.

I think I may have seen three other cars on this road that I traveled for

24 miles.  This lake was the highlight of my wanderings today.

I finally found Glenn along Rte. 9.

No rain and comfortable temperatures.

Since there are no shops, restaurants, houses or any
kind of landmark to remind us where to start
tomorrow, we'll go back to mile marker 242 on Rte. 9

Glenn took this photo about 5 miles before I picked him up.

He was very excited to see a sign for Calais, a town that

has been our final destination for 47 months!   It is

amazing to be this close to the goal.   Coincidentally, Glenn has

about 47 miles to go before he reaches Calais.  I will drop him

off where I picked him up and I will head north, maybe even crossing

the border into Canada....I have my passport, just in case.

Glenn will stop about 5-10 miles before reaching the border 

to allow our children and grandchildren to be with us when he

completes the ride next Monday, which is also our 40th

wedding anniversary.  

More rain and thunderstorms are predicted so we'll need 

lots of positive thoughts to accomplish what we need to

do tomorrow! 

Click here to donate now :)

Pedaling for $10,000 this trip!

Water, Water, Everywhere!

We have a Trivia Winner!   Congrats to Susie Eisert!

There were several correct answers for the trivia question.

The one that Susie and I found most interesting is that:

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote " Uncle Tom's Cabin" in Brunswick while her
 husband taught at Bowdoin College.  This novel, about slavery, 
inflamed the anti- slavery sentiments of the Civil War.

Abe Gindoff was very close with the second answer 
 to the question about Bowdoin College and how it relates to the Civil War:
Joshua Chamberlain, a brigadier general for the union army who fought
valiantly at Gettysburg, later became the President of Bowdoin College!

Glenn departed Brunswick at 8 AM and tried to take Rte.1,

a shorter route than his GPS indicated.   There was a reason that the GPS 

did not send him that way....he was riding on a road that did not allow

bicycle traffic.   He was soon pulled over by a policeman with

the siren and lights going to warn him about his error!  A four

mile delay didn't put him too far behind in what turned out to be a

92.93 mile leg in 6 and 1/2 hours of riding time.

Today's ride took Glenn through farmlands, near the coast and over challenging

hills, ascending 5727 feet today.  We decided that Glenn should probably

go further than Camden today since the weather was great, Glenn felt

energetic and the threat of rain for tomorrow could slow him down on the next leg.

He rode an extra 25 miles today and has 34 miles to go to reach Ellsworth

which is to be the end of tomorrow's segment.   Even in rain, he should be able to

accomplish that :)   I picked him up in Searsport at 3:30 this 

afternoon and I'll drive him to this new starting point in the morning.

In answer to some questions about Glenn's bike GPS, I took this 

photo this morning after he set it for the next overnight town, Camden.

The computer on the GPS also calculates his mileage, time pedaling,

caloric output and measures his ascent each day.

One of the great parts of doing this trip up the east coast has been

meeting up with friends along the way.  Today I had lunch with

Mirka Zapletal, a dear college friend of our daughter, Jill, and her Mom,

Tertia Cote.  Mirka  had plans to be in Lincoln, NH spending 

some time with her family during the time our journey through Maine

was scheduled to take place so she offered to drive the 2 1/2 hours

each way to meet me for lunch.   We had a wonderful visit!

Thanks for joining me and supporting I Care I Cure I Cycle!

Strolling of the streets on Brunswick, Maine, with Mirka

and Tertia before we went our separate ways today.

Glenn snapped this photo from a bridge near Belfast, ME.

Belfast is located at the mouth of  the Passagassawakeag River

estuary on Penobscot Bay.   Try saying that one three times fast! 

Today was the first day that the scenery included mountains.

This area is home to 800 foot Mt. Battie and 1,380 foot Mt. Megunticook .

The riding was more challenging but the terrain included great

Vistas.   Looking forward to more of this as we head north.

Camden Harbor was our destination for dinner tonight.

Just an easy walk from our motel, Camden's downtown area

has cute shops and a plethera of restaurants, many on the water.

After a quick shower and a change of clothes, Biker Glenn

is ready for an evening on the town, an early evening that is.

I think Glenn has been asleep by 9:30 each evening on this trip.

Thank goodness I have the blog to keep me busy!

The population of Camden triples in the summer months thanks

to summer residents and tourists.  

TODAY'S TRIVIA QUESTION:

Locals referred to this region of Maine as _________

and how did it get that name?

Another t-shirt on the line....or perhaps some wild blueberry jam!

It is Blueberry season here and everything has blueberries

in it.  I hear we'll have blueberry coffee cake for  breakfast

here tomorrow morning.  I smelled it baking when I checked it.

I was looking back through all of the blog entries this morning and I 

came across this top 10 list that Glenn and I compiled

on the very first leg of this ride in FL in November 2009.

I changed a few words but much of it is still perfect!

10 Great Reasons to Ride Your Bike from New Hampshire to Maine 

at the Canadian border:

#10.........Better than working!

#  9.........A good way to travel north in New England without having to pay all of the tolls on Rte. 95!

#  8.........Proving to yourself (and others) that your body can do it!
#  7.........No need to pack much clothing because all you have time to wear is biking attire!
#  6.........Eating whatever you want because you know that you will burn off those calories daily!
#  5.........Great cure for insomnia by getting so exhausted each day that you can sleep anywhere at night!
#  4.........An opportunity to discover new talents like blogging!
#  3.........Another way to enjoy the Maine sunshine other than sailing or hiking!
#  2.........The chance to spend quality time with your spouse!
#  1.........Great thing to do for a worthwhile cause like I Care I Cure!