Distances
- Biked: 53.9 miles
- Walked: 1.3 miles
Slept great in a very nice bed. Breakfast buffet was great too. Very fluffy scrambled eggs that had brie in them with a spinach topping. Fresh blueberry scones along with fresh blueberries, strawberries, and cantaloupe. There was also shaved beef and corned beef (I got some of the latter). They had blueberry juice which I sampled and I also had a small bit of OJ along with lots of coffee. They had several flavors and I tried a few. All were good. I also had a bit of granola (maybe quite a bit).
Gazeebo Inn Breakfast
The innkeeper was really nice and making the rounds chatting. He was still floored by my bike journey. He recommended I visit the Wedding Cake House near Kennebunk on my way up, so I think I’m going to try for that.
I had bought a 64GB Samsung MicroSD for recording video on the GoPro camera I’ve been borrowing from Nathaniel on this trip. I had just about filled the 64GB card he had in the camera and when I swapped the card it wouldn’t recognize it. I tried using the guest computer at the Inn and it wouldn’t recognize it either. After some futzing I wound up transferring several GBs of time lapse images to my phone’s microSD card to free up space. Unfortunately the transfer rates were slow and this took almost 40 minutes to do. As a result I got a much later start on the day than I had intended. But the super friendly and accommodating staff at the Gazebo Inn made it a really good way point on my journey.
I set out with a goal of reaching Portland and unsure whether I wanted to try to hit Kennebunkport again on the way back (it was a few miles out of the way and I knew reaching Portland was already going to be a long day of biking). To start with I biked over to the coast to ocean ave and took it north for a couple miles until it dead-ended. There is a little barrier island type formation along Ogunquit which is connected by some land bridges and a lot of marsh. Along Ocean Ave is all beachside residences and great views with some sandy beaches but almost no commercial things. There were two lobster shacks I saw (still closed in the morning) and one or two places offering guest rooms for rent (not hotels). The views were great and I stopped often to take pictures. Including a spot where I used a sign post with the gorilla-pod for my camera to take some selfies. Just before leaving the barrier island there was a more substantial beach area that was starting to bustle with visitors for the day. I walked out onto the beach and touched the Atlantic Ocean, realizing that while I had been admiring it the whole trip I had not gone down to the water.
Ocean View in Ogunquit
Me on the Shore @ Ogunquit
Sandy Beach at Wells
From there I headed back inland to US 1, stopping at a Hannaford to buy a big bottle of water. It was a warm day. There was frequent shade provided by trees and a good breeze when I was on my bike so not really unpleasant, but I wanted to be careful about dehydration. On the ride north along 1 I was really going back and forth on whether or not to hit Kennebunkport, but ultimately decided the point was to take the scenic route and I could do it. So I got off on Route 9 and rode into Kennebunkport where I stopped and strolled for a little while. Exploring the South side of town in a little more detail since I kind of skipped it the first time through. I really like the quaint atmosphere in Kennebunkport. A small, square of businesses maybe a quarter mile or so to a side. All independently owned selling little goods and home cooked food. Fresh sea breeze blowing in, fluffy clouds in the sky, and beautiful homes.
Magnet, Gibran’s in the Background
I stopped in Gibran’s, a little gift shop in town. I found a magnet that I really liked so I bought it for my fridge as a souvenir. I spent a few minutes chatting with the elderly shopkeeper (Ms. Gibran?) about my travels and the weather. She was really nice. After taking a few final pictures I hopped back on my bike, crossed back to the south side of town and took 35 towards Kennebunk. This took me down a row of old homes built by ship captains at a time when they were transitioning to be “landlubbers.” One of these was the Wedding Cake House. This is the only one I stopped at to grab pictures, hoping the timelapse grabbed some good views of the others. Some were really nice. The wedding cake house was quite odd with all of its “icing” ornamentation, however it looked a bit run down and in need of a fresh coat of paint. I rolled on to Kennebunk, making a quick pit stop at the public library. Then I rolled north along rt 1.
Wedding Cake House
In the morning on my ride I hadn’t been feeling really great. Nothing really descript, just not quite well. I tried to keep drinking as much water as I could thinking dehydration may have been part of it or would have made it worse. Once I got most of the way to Saco I was feeling much better. When I had stayed at Old Orchard I had bookmarked on my google map the Fern Leaf Bakery in Saco (just a couple miles from Old Orchard) that was advertised as the best blueberry muffins in the region in a local magazine I had flipped through. I made it a point to stop here when I got to town. Unfortunately they were out of muffins for the day. Instead I got a monster cookie (sugar cookie with M&M’s) and a pumpkin spice steamer. Both were tasty.
Fern Leaf Bakery, Saco
At this point I still had a good 90 minutes of riding to reach Portland and it was already late afternoon. I knew I could make it before sunset which was still 3 or 4 hours away, but I knew there was risk of thunderstorms later in the afternoon and didn’t know if that was in effect for Portland. I pressed ahead pedalling as fast as I could. A large part of this segment I did on the Eastern Trail, a well groomed biking and hiking trail that runs through Portland. I had traveled on part of it on my way out to Sebago on the beginning of my trip. I was able to make great time on this trail. It was mostly flat, very well packed dirt, and very few other people.
As I closed on Portland the skies were looking more and more menacing. 30 minutes out I started seeing flashes in the distance so I pedaled faster. I started laughing out loud at how ridiculous it felt to be pedaling full speed toward a storm hoping to stay dry. Then at 15 minutes out my luck ended and the sky broke. I was approaching a bridge across the river into the city and there were no structures or anything else near me except the highway. I quickly pulled over and broke out the rain cover for my backpack. I purchased this on Amazon just before leaving and it arrived Friday just in time for me to stick it in my luggage before heading to the airport. I hadn’t even tried it out before but it proved to be pretty self explanatory and I got it on in under a minute. The rest of me got no such luck. Just in the moments it took me to get the cover on my clothes soaked through. So I threw my protected bag on my back and kept pedalling.
There was lots of lighting and the thunder was near instantaneous which was kind of frightening. Water got inside the holder for my cell phone tripping out the touch screen and screwing up the audio GPS navigation I was getting in my ear to navigate me into the city. As a result I went off track once I got into the city. The 15 minutes it was supposed to take wound up taking more than 30. Fortunately the rain abated after 15 minutes and I was able to reset my bearings with my phone. I arrived at the Inn at St. John sopping wet and was pleased to discover they still had vacancies and gave me a room. The St. John Inn is a really old building that has some suites but also small rooms with shared hallway baths. I got one of these small rooms. It was cozy but quite nice and had everything I needed. It also has no elevator and a very cryptic set of stairs that changes on each floor. My room was on the 3rd floor.
Inn at St. John, from their Website
Lobby of St. John, with real wind up Grandfather Clock
I headed up to my room and snapped some pictures of my soggy self. At this point I felt pretty happy, triumphant over the elements. Though some minutes before I was kind of miserable not sure where I was going and essentially swimming into the city. My rental bike had fendors which I was kind of happy for since I was riding through some deep puddles, but they probably didn’t do much with all the water coming down from above. I was particularly unhappy at a crosswalk that despite pounding on the button went through a couple of rotations before illuminating the walk sign for me at the peak of the downpour.
Soaking Wet in my Room
In my room I changed all my clothes, the ones in my pack (along with everything else in there) had stayed dry, money well spent on the rain cover. My wallet was soaked through (it had been in my pocket) and so were my shoes. I had no alternatives for these. I tried using the room hair dryer on my shoes for a bit letting it sit on each one for a few minutes, but as I expected the result was really just warm wet shoes. I hunted for a place to eat on my tablet and decided on Silly’s in the east end, it was a couple miles away and so I decided to ride my bike. At this point the storm had passed and the sun had come out again. There was no more rain for the rest of my trip.
Silly’s is the type of restaurant that I think would be equally at home in Portland, Oregon. The place is hodgepodge mix of retro type decor from the 50’s/60’s with pictures of elvis, bakelite tables, and various old style ads on the walls. On the bar side they have the leg lamp from A Christmas Story. The napkin holders on each table is an old style plastic Thermos Lunch Box (the kind we took to Elementary school in the 90’s). The food is an eclectic mix of carnivore, vegetarian, and vegan. With an emphasis on giving things silly names and in silly combinations. Example they have Chicken in a Boat, which is sort of like a chimichanga however it is grilled chicken with a thai peanut sauce and veggies wrapped in a tortilla and fried. They also have a vegan version called the Tofu Dinghy. I got the Relativity, a small grilled cheese pizza with a spinach salad, feta crumbles, and very thinly sliced tomatoes on top. It was really good. For dessert they have a huge list of shakes, gluten free brownies, key lime pie, the karmanutelleon (seems to be a french silk pie made with nutella) and a rotating selection of layer cakes. Some of the cakes are vegan some are not. I got the vegan chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and a scoop of ice cream. It was also very good. Afterwards I pedalled back to the hotel.
Inside of Silly’s
My Relativity Pizza
Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake a la mode
Back in the room I set my devices up for charging and decided to take a shower, figuring I wouldn’t be inconveniencing anyone that late and wouldn’t need to deal with any line for the shared bath in the morning. The room came with robes which is to my recollection the first and only time I’ve stayed in a hotel with complimentary robes. Naturally I used one to take my shower. They were a little scratchy, not the highest quality, but it was kind of fun none-the-less. I did some searching for things to do the following day and then went to sleep.
Maine Cycle 