Bar Harbor Maine 9/20/2011

Well, after sleeping poorly because I was thinking about things that still had to be done before leaving for our trip and also thinking of a few things that had not been done such as a few miles on the bike, it is time to get on the road. I made one  more call to Liddy at the Bar Harbor Bike Shop and confirmed our bikes had been received (via FedX) then Mary and I went to Rudy's.  Picked up Rudy and Mary dropped us off at the Santa Rosa Airporter in Rohnert Park and our trip is underway.  Arriving at SFO with plenty of time, we ate and made our way to the gate for for the red eye flight to Philadelphia with connection to Bar Harbor.  The flight was full.  Young man next to us was going to Virginia where he is a 2nd year law student at William and Mary, he had helped his girlfriend get settled at Stanford University where she is a grad student. He promptly went to sleep and slept the entire flight to Philadelphia.  After arriving we sat for a while in the white wooden rocking chairs between B and C concourse watching the airport wake up.  It is cloudy outside and from the way people are dressed maybe a little cool.  We went to the Legal Sea Food restaurant and opted to have the Steel Cut Oatmeal served with walnuts, raisins and brown sugar,  in lieu of the famous clam chowder (served at presidential inaugurations) as it was 5:30am.  We then walked over to our gate and discovered one of our plane mates from SF was sleeping on a few of the chairs, snoring very loudly.  We chatted with Boots who had been to her sister's wedding in Denver.  Her sister is Lannie of the famous Lannie's Clocktower Cabaret in the 16th Street Mall in Denver, Colorado. Lannie is in her 60s and Boots said it was a great wedding.  Boots was on her second day traveling en route home to Maine. Canceled flights due to equipment failure, long delays, overnight in a hotel with no luggage, she was ready to get home and we were five minutes from our  scheduled departure time and no mention of boarding.  I woke the sleeping snorer and asked him if he was going to Bangor, uh uh, back to sleep.  We got on our flight to Bangor to find the flight was not full.  As we take off one end of one of  the ceiling panels dropped down a few inches.  Flight attendant reports same to crew chief and rows 11 to 13 are emptied in case the  panels continue to fall. We are in row 14.  Boots moved to the front and I am thinking whether it is save to have her so close to the pilot as she seems to be plagued on her trip home.  No problem, the flight is good and we land with no problem.  Boots' ride and her long gone luggage are at the airport and our shuttle is at the door. James the driver has one of those meeting people signs with my name (misspelled of course )on it.   Helen the Shuttle person had called my cell phone when we landed to confirm we were there and to direct us to James.  Helen is our age and has ridden the same route from San Diego to Florida we rode 10 years ago. We say goodbye Boots, a very pleasant lady and Paul, her ride home, and take the shuttle the 50 miles or so to Bar Harbor.  We are the only people on the shuttle and James stops at our motel for a second while we check in, drop our bags, put on some riding gear,  back on the shuttle to the Bar Harbor Bike Shop.  Our bikes are in good shape, and Fred and Joe at the shop discuss local riding with us.  We locate the local free shuttle, stop by the police station to chat with the chief, a FBI National Academy grad, about local eating etc.  He suggests one place and tells us to avoid the "two swipe" place on the corner. The department is working a case involving credit cards being swiped two times for same meal, not by accident.  We had our lobster dinner/lunch at Geddys. Chatted with a couple from Illinois who are in town on the Caribbean Princess cruise ship, one several to make port this week. It is windy, misty and forecast for tomorrow is sunshine. After a brief ride/walk around town,we opted to take the free island shuttle back to our motel as the road is busy with no shoulder. On our walk we listened in on a tour and discovered the local Civil War Memorial has a Confederate Soldier on it.  Seems the manufacturer of the statue made them for both Southern and Northern cities and a town somewhere in South Carolina has a Union soldier on their monument.  The mistake was discovered about two years after delivery and the towns opted not to spend the money to exchange statues.    In the room, called home, tried to write a blog but was having trouble getting on line so called Brian my neighbor at home for suggestion and discover in mid conversation the problem is my mind is gone as I haven't slept well for two days. I figure out the problem and shower and go to bed at 6:30 local time (3:30 California time). Rudy is already asleep.     We are up at 6:30 am, sunshine as promised, coffee in the room, finished my blog and we are off to face the day.  We are in Bar Harbor today and leave in the morning.

Larry and Rudy, looking forward to checking out the island and Arcadia National Park.