North Edgecomb, Maine 9/23/2011

We were up and packed and down the road into Belfast fairly early. Overcast, no rain and quite warm, no jacket or arm warmers.  We went  over the river on Highway1 instead of the pedestrian foot bridge as I missed the turn listed on our maps.  Worked out ok as it eliminated climbing up the hill from the much lower foot bridge; however, probably missed a good photo op from the foot bridge. Stopped and asked  a city worker laying a border of bricks along the sidewalk where we might get something to eat.  Several suggestions and the first one was pastries etc;  so across the street to Weavers, one of the oldest bakeries in town.  It has been at the present site 47 years. Buildings across the street were beautiful and erected in 1876 and 1886 and I suspect the bakery building was a contemporary.  I went to bathroom located in the back.  The mixers and other equipment (and maybe the baker) appeared to be 19th century vintage.  Nice people in for coffee and conversation.  A table of retirees and a couple of tables full of people in town for the Common Ground Country Fair including a lady who lived in Berkeley Ca for many years before moving to Belfast. We have met several people with California connections. We had a huge bowl of oatmeal with raisins, blue berries and brown sugar.  This area is famous, and for good reason,  for the wild blue berries.  They are small but very tasty.  We had them in Bar Harbor as well and you see signs along the road advertising them for sale.   We made a mistake and took the advise of Herman, a coffee drinker in the coffee shop, and stayed on highway 1 instead of our Adventure Cycling Association maps.  Our nice wide shoulders soon became not so wide so we had narrow shoulders along with traffic and noise for a few miles.  Riding like that increases the tension and brings your shoulders up around your ears.  We came into Camden passing many beautiful homes and Camden itself is lovely and full of tourists.

We had lunch in Waldoboro at Moody's, locally famous. Met a lady on the way out who had ridden in Denmark for three weeks and enjoyed it very much.  Denmark is very flat which sounded good as we had some pretty good hills today.

As is our custom we keep a log of animals seen, signs of interest and road kill.  Road kill to date on this trip includes several grey squirrels, at least three skunks today, two snakes, a variety of birds.  Living animals include one Deer, lots of squirrels, caterpillers  determined to cross a busy highway for some reason, and birds and we hear cricketts when not on Highway 1.

Signs include one on Mt Desert Island informing us that Thunder Hole restrooms were just ahead. It struck us funny.  Saw a sign today advertising some lots for sale that were surveyed, percolated and covenanted.  I understand the first two and my mind ran a bit wild with covenanted....no witches on the property perhaps, or maybe a coven of witches included.

It was warm and muggy today and we saw one sign that said 75 degrees.  We called ahead and made reservations at the Pioneer Motel but never asked about dining in the area.  Turns out nothing is close.  We called the Two Cities Taxi and Mrs Hatch arrived in the company's silver Lincoln Town Car.  She teaches kindergarten but is filling in for her husband tonight as he was going out for dinner with his Bulgarian friends who work in the area during the summer.  Seems there are a lot of Romanians in the area during the summer as well.
Spoke to my old friend Pat Webb tonight.  He lives in New Hampshire and we will probably have dinner tomorrow night with Pat and Florence, perhaps in North Windham if we make it that far.

57.5 miles today.  No rain, tired ready to call it a night. Skyped with my daughter in Ireland. Wished my mother in law a happy birthday.  Spoke with my sister in Oklahoma. All in all, a good day.