Day 15 – July 20: A Day with Mixed Emotions

I have many other cool pictures to share but the internet is to slow to post them here - sorry.

This morning was spent touring around Acadia National Park which is near Bar Harbor Maine. As I mentioned previously, President Obama was here this past weekend. Everything was back to normal as far as I could tell.

Acadia is a very beautiful and busy National Park. There are many walking trails and is also very popular with the bicyclists. One of the many highlights of the park is Cadillac Mountain which is a large granite formation. It is only about 1,500 feet but you can drive to the top and provides amazing views of the harbor and ocean front. The drive is much easier than Mount Washington was! Another neat feature is the Sandy Beach area. This was the only nice sandy beach that I found where you could actually get to it and spend some time relaxing. The sun was shining and the waves were crashing; what a beautiful morning. Around much of the area, you could see fishing boats putting out there nets and traps to provide everyone with fresh seafood. To do my part, the final meal I had in Maine had to be a fresh boiled lobster. I purchased it at a Lobster Pound which is a small restaurant that cooks and serves lobsters. They are boiled in large pots of salt water heated with wood stoves. It was good but I will still take steak over lobster any day.

About 11:30, after finishing off my lobster, I came to the hard part of my trip. It was time to turn around and start heading back towards home. The turning point is always difficult for me. It has been a very good ride so far and I am thankful for that. I am also anxious to get back home to see Cathy (my wife) and sleep in my own bed again. However, knowing this trip will quickly come to a close and soon I will be back into the normal home/work routines causes mixed emotions.

Once again, I must thank Cathy who continues to support my interest in motorcycling and doing these trips even though it puts an extra burden on her to deal with problems that arise while I am not there (computers crashing, hot water heaters not working properly, power outage due to storms – just a few of the problems that occurred while I have been gone!). Without her willingness and support, these trips would not be possible.

After much consideration and pondering this morning, I decided to alter my route for my return trip. Initially I had planned to return via Canada by going around north of the Great Lakes. However, one of the areas I still wanted to see on this trip is the Adirondacks Mountains in northern New York. This is where Lake Placid (winter Olympics 1980) is.

So, after my lobster was finished, I headed back across Maine and through New Hampshire and the White Mountains again (oh darn!). Tonight I am staying at a campground near East Thetford Vermont. Tomorrow, first the Adirondacks and then east towards Niagara Falls. I have already seen it once, but as long as I am this close, I may stop and see it again. Some depends on how long my return trips takes. I plan to be back on Friday if possible but it may push into Saturday depending on how things work out.