Each day gets better

   The first few days on the road are spent ramping up the body and mind to cope with the long rides.  Another fifty  miles covered on my fourth was reasonably painless, finishing up in Penobscot. I am getting in the groove.      

   Departed the campsite at 8:26 and had an outstanding breakfast in Camden.  Dined with a woman from Niantic, Saunders point, who was cruising along the Maine coast without her husband for week.  She saw my Mystic Cycle Center shirt and struck up a conversation. 

     The hills mellowed out the further away from Camden I rode. A blazing heat made up for the gentler climbs.  First Belfast, then Searsport and followed by a nowhere town, Stockton Springs, where I found an undiscovered Maine cafe for lunch.  Real Maine is still out there and today I experience a bit of it.  A key to a knowing that a town has been discovered is when the gold leaf and Edward Jones investment house signs start appearing. Don't stop, just keep bicycling.

    Wanting to get off route one, I turned off onto 166 and headed south with the Penobscot Bay on my right. Several miles down, I turned east onto 175.  Things got rural and deserted real fast.  Cresting the fifty mile mark, I was ready call it quits for the day.  No such luck, no stores, no nothing and hills were getting steeper.  Sucking down water at a quickening pace, I knew I needed to find a campsite soon.  Alas, a country store; a woman wearing well seasoned paint clothes came out of the store where I asked her where a camp site might be.  One thing led another and Laura loaded me and my bike into her Suburu and drove me to her place in Penobscot.  Before leaving the store she asked if I would remove my shades so she could see my eyes. No problem.  As we drove along, I related my travels to her. She asked how I could afford it. Fifty bucks a day on the road and I keep my overhead  real low.  Down a dirt road she drove to her house, barn and pastoral setting which all added up to a wonderful place where she and her partner lived.  Getting acquainted with her digs, she walked me over to the healthiest pot plants I have ever seen. She glows it for medicinal reasons for the local community. I was given an education on pot cultivation, the different types of plants, how to tell when it is time to harvest and so on, really interesting.  Turns out the part about the sunglasses and how I could afford to travel so much was her way of figuring out if I was federal narc. 

      Laura had fresh peaches she just picked. I picked more and ate way too many.  I am paying for it now! At first the plan was for me to camp down by the water but she offered me a room above her partner's office, who happened to be away on business.  Anyways, Laura and I covered a multitude of subjects and had a real pleasant time. Laura is a real saint. Once again, someone is looking out for me.  To boot, she is cooking me a killer breakfast but warned me that her rooster  tunes up at daybreak. What a day I have had. 

Perhaps, I will make it to Bar Harbor tomorrow.