August 13th
Thursday
Miles 58
North Conway, New Hampshire to Portland, Maine
Last night we did not sleep well, possibly in anticipation of this being our last day.
It was a beautiful day, perfect weather for riding. The temperature was 54 degrees as we left North Conway early hoping to get through the remaining road construction before morning traffic increased. We rode on wet, packed dirt for almost two miles before reaching the Maine state line entering the town of Fryeburg. After Fryeburg traffic picked up and the road became very rough with no shoulder. When it had a shoulder it was too broken up to ride on so this part of the ride was slow and stressful. We decided to stop in the next town, Bridgeton, to enjoy breakfast on the patio of a local cafe serving fresh baked goods and quiche. After discussing the route, and at the recommendation of locals we decided to take highway 302 to Naples then on to Portland. We had a lot of hills, traffic was heavy, but on this road we had a good, wide shoulder. Between towns we rode through forested areas and past several lakes.
We knew we were getting close to the coast as we started seeing restaurants serving lobster, even McDonalds had a sign that advertised lobster rolls. We arrived in Portland and enjoyed having bike lanes as we made our way to a hotel close to the airport.
Our last day on the bike! Wow, it is hard to believe what we set out to accomplish has been done and we won't be getting up tomorrow morning to ride to the next destination. It is great to finish riding 4300 miles coast to coast. It feels exciting and sad at the same time.
The road shimmering in the sun, there is a lot mica in the gravel used.
Wow! Congratulations! What an incredible accomplishment! I know what you mean by it being both sad and exciting. We've been home for 3 weeks and I miss it a lot! What an amazing adventure you had, and the memories will last forever. It's been great following your blog. Have a good trip home and do some relaxing and celebrating when you get there!
ReplyDeleteThanks Paula! Today is our anniversary so we are going to celebrate both with a Maine lobster dinner in Bar Harbor.
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