The last day of my short escape...
I woke up at one o'clock in the morning to the sound of heavy rain. My thoughts? "Hey - it's not time to wake up, and maybe by the time morning really rolls around everything will be dry again." Unfortunately I don't have any control over the weather, and it was still quite wet when I woke up. I promised my bike we would ride today; now I needed to figure out when and where!
Breakfast first though... as we sat down to eat this morning, the first course was fresh fruit and a very interesting fruit drink. I had to ask what it was - somehow the intricacies of the flavor didn't allow me to identify the parts of the whole. It was something called an Orange Dream: orange juice, milk, sugar, vanilla, and ice, all whirled together in a blender. Very nice, and a good change of pace too.
I dressed for walking in damp weather, and headed to Acadia once more. I really wanted to ride Park Loop Road again, but I couldn't get excited about riding it a second time in rain and fog. By the time I stepped out of the B&B the rain had pretty much stopped, and although it would have been very easy to change my morning plans back to riding, I didn't. And I'm actually glad that I drove the loop and walked across some of the rocks along the coast (with my camera, of course - you didn't doubt that, did you?). As it turned out, there were sections of the road that were quite foggy, so I was pretty happy to not be wandering through the fog on two wheels.
The sky was getting lighter as I left Acadia and headed towards home. It was a very funny day with variations of cloud-shrouded light, from dark gray and stormy to light and back to stormy again. As I headed towards the west and south, I wondered if my search for a dry road would have a successful end. I drove through several long stretches of rain, still hoping. Freeport loomed, and I pulled off of the road. There's a loop ride between Freeport and Brunswick that's documented on the Explore Maine by Bike web site, and I thought that would be a good ride for today. As it turned out, I did part of the ride, but as is somehow fitting for this trip, I did my own variation. I headed for the loop, but as I was supposed to take the left at a Y-intersection I noticed that there was a "construction ahead" sign. Hey, no construction for me today! As it turns out, the other side of the Y was the return road for the trip - Flying Point Road. No construction signs, and I like the name of the road. I think I'll take that road...
It was mainly an out-and-back route for me, with a little bit of extra wandering thrown in too. (I guess I'll just have to go back to Freeport another day to do the loop ride as documented!) It was another quiet back road, full of rollers. Fully leafed trees, ferns, it really must be summer! I even passed a field full of belted galloways, although the silly animals didn't cooperate by standing close enough to the road for a decent picture. I tried though.
It was a good ride, made even better by my very lucky timing. The roads were dry as I rode, but the air was very damp. I was riding through a very heavy mist. It wasn't a sight-obscuring fog, but the dampness was noticeable. It wasn't unpleasant, although I imagine it wouldn't have been as nice if the temperature was a few degrees cooler. I'd call my timing pure luck today - just as I finished my ride, it started sprinkling. I no sooner stashed my bike in the back of my car when it started pouring! Some days timing is everything, isn't it?
...time to head home (for now). I found it very interesting that as I started heading home from my almost wet bike ride, driving to the west - the roads were totally dry just a mile from where I had been standing in that downpour.
