Travel to the Start
A 2,000 Mile Drive to Maine
On Sunday afternoon (May 2, 2021), my youngest daughter dropped by and removed the stitches from the dog-bite wound near my ankle. Hey, after years of helping with med school expenses, it's about time that I realized some benefit from having a doctor in the family! The multiple wounds from the dog attack ordeal were not completely healed, but they were nearly so and I had been able to do some easy cycling for a week now. The rest of the family came over and we grilled some meats and veggies and had a proper farewell meal. Here I am with the youngest members of the fan club;
I got the last of the 4-shot rabies series on Monday morning (May 3, 2021) and my wife then dropped me off at the Tulsa airport. I had reserved a full-size pickup from Hertz, but they didn't have one and instead offered me a Chevy Colorado - I managed to get a very good price for the downsize and it turned out to be just the perfect size anyway. After the paperwork I hurried home, loaded my bike and gear, kissed the wife goodbye, and hit the road for the 4 & 1/2 hour drive to Little Rock. After a brief stop at Doc's place to load his bike and gear, we headed out to put some miles in before dark. Google maps showed that we had 27 hours of driving time ahead of us, and in order to arrive in Bar Harbor on Wednesday night we were going to have some long days. We ended up at a hotel in Jackson, TN on Monday night.
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Tuesday was the longest day, as we traveled from 7 am to 10 pm. Considering stops for food, fuel, and restroom breaks, we still managed more than 12 hours of driving time and covered 840 miles that day and stopped just outside of Buffalo, NY. We drove a northern route; from Tennessee we headed up through Kentucky and Ohio, then across Northern Pennsylvania and into New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and then into Maine.
Thanks to the hard day on Tuesday, we "only" needed to drive 715 miles on Wednesday to reach Bar Harbor, and we reached our destination by 8 pm. Due to the late change of plans to ride this route, we had nothing reserved for Bar Harbor or anywhere else - we were driving in the rain the entire day on Wednesday, and it was about 45 degrees outside, so we really didn't want to camp. Doc was busy researching lodging while I did the driving, and he spent a lot of time on the phone and managed to arrange lodging for us at Bar Harbor, Bucksport, Rockport, and Newcastle. So now we could relax a little bit knowing that we had somewhere to stay for the first few days! We arrived at the Quality Inn in Bar Harbor after a journey of 2,100 miles in 2.5 days, and we were pretty much shot. We unloaded the bikes and all the gear into the hotel room, and dried the bikes and did the minor reassembly and prep work needed to get them ready to roll tomorrow.
We are a very long way from home - it's cold and rainy and generally foreboding - we are exhausted and we haven't even pedaled an inch yet - we have felt safe and warm inside the rental vehicle as we watched the world go by, but we turn the vehicle in tomorrow and then all we have is our own power to move us along - it's going to be a great adventure! At least, maybe it will be, I think - good night, y'all...
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I'm salvating at the chance to follow another of your cycle trips (a bit like those rabid dogs). You've so many challenges to face but I reckon you'll do it, no worries (as we say here)
Wishing you a safe journey.
Lednar (my name spelt backwards)
2 years ago