2020, Days 31 & 32: King of the Road

October 9, 2020

Happy Birthday to Julie, my blog facilitator!

Last night the temperature got down to 34 degrees in Farmington. So we held off starting today until it warmed up a bit--10:00. Once again, we had winds from the northwest, so often tail winds and sometimes a headwind. And hills, lots of hills. But today, neither of us took any wrong turns. Much of the day we rode alongside a river; the views were beautiful. The last 10-15 miles had one good hill just about every mile. Finished in Palmyra after riding 4:10, 52.7 miles. Pretty much the same as yesterday, sans the rain and the waiting..

Destination: Bangor, Maine (cue Roger Miller’s “King of the Road” from the 60s). We are staying in Bangor for the next three nights; should ride through town tomorrow and beyond. Sometime next week, I hope to claim that title as my own: “King of the Road!”

October 10, 2020

Today we had hills, then More Hills, then BIG HILLS! In the first 25 miles or so from Palmyra to Hermon there were 20-25 hills of various steepness and length. I got a little reprieve from there through Bangor, ten miles or so; and then it went crazy. I don’t know how many there were, but each one seemed like at least a 200 foot elevation climb. I rode 56.25 miles in 4:55, finishing on the outskirts of Ellsworth.

All would have been good at that point, but Mom parked facing some large boulders. After I got the bike loaded, she took off trying to get across traffic and high-centered the car on a couple of them. The front wheels were in the air, so we had no drive power. Mom was pretty freaked out. I was calling AAA when a guy with a jeep asked if he could help us. He connected his tow rope to our trailer hitch and pulled us back off the rocks. All the dash warning lights went out once the wheels were back on the ground. I thanked him, then we pulled out onto the highway to see how it would drive. Everything seemed to be working okay. When we got back to the motel in Bangor, I called AAA to get a referral to a repair shop, which they gave me. I called the shop, and even though it was a Saturday afternoon, they told me to come in. While Mom did laundry, I took the car in for an inspection. The undercarriage and bottom of the bumper showed a few scrapes, but there was no mechanical damage. Tender mercy.

But those hills wore me out; looking forward to a day off tomorrow.

After mom and dad's adventures and mishaps the last couple of days, they also made a trip over to visit the manor of Steven King, a somewhat macabre attraction that plays it up a bit for the leaf peepers that drive through town. Great time of year for it, too, the autumn spooks go right along with the thematic scenery.

Dad also picked up a hitchhiker this weekend. Not the thumbs-up-on-the-roadside kind, the burrow-in-your-ankle kind. Lyme disease risk and such. So, mom and dad got to spend a good portion of the morning at the Urgent Care to get the little sucker removed properly, and are counting their blessings that it was a minor medical issue and not a broken bone like another one of the patients there that day. It'd be a real shame to leave off this close to the finish line. Be careful out there, dad! Only about 100 miles left to go!