June 21, 1989
Lewiston to Waldoboro
Today was a much better day. We paced ourselves much better. Even though we covered seventy miles (our longest day so far), we were nowhere near as tired at the end of the day. I thought this was one of the prettiest stretches of the trip.
We began the day with a brief stop for donuts and coffee at a Dunkin Donuts before heading northeast out of Lewiston. We chose to have a snack first and then ride a long stretch before stopping for a real breakfast. This strategy worked well. We arrived in Richmond, twenty five miles away, at about ten and sat down to a great breakfast - Rachael had a Spanish omelet and I had bacon and eggs. Rachael has eaten many omelets on this trip. She has grazed pretty heavily this week and is a bit fearful that she is putting on weight; but she looks great to me.
One of our resolutions from the day before was to take longer breaks during the day. In this spirit, we spent an hour or so in the park by the Kennebec River fter breakfast, reading and relaxing. We both felt well rested when we resumed the ride.
About two miles out of Richmond, Rachael's rear tube blew out. The tire was pretty worn, and cut through in two places. I patched it and we started off again, hoping to make it to Damariscotta, twenty miles away, where we would try to find a new tire. We didn't make it. Less than a mile down the road it blew out again, punctured in the same spot. This time I patched the inside of the tire as well as the tube, using tape and cardboard. After that we were able to ride the rest of the way without breakdowns. This stretch of the road was beautiful - very rural and remote, with broad vistas, lovely fields peppered with wildflowers an old stone walls. It is really a rather primitive area, and none of the roads are even marked. Without a guide we would never have found this route.
Damariscotta provided a good opportunity for us to play tourist. It had a good restaurant (where Raxhael had iced tea and bean dip and I had lobster stew and a beer) and a well stocked gift shop. I got a tee shirt with a loon on the front for myself, and a stuffed lobster which I mailed home to Johanna, and Rachael found a new sweatshirt for herself with a watercolor-like fish on the front. This is really a eery pretty little town. Oh, yes - we also found a new tire here, which Rachael put on her wheel down on the waterfront. Her first tire replacement experience.
From Damariscotta we continued on to Waldoboro - where, not too intelligently, we added about a three mile loop to our trip while trying to locate a grocery store, only to end up where we had started from - and then biked five more miles to a campground, lovely place with the usual crowd of mosquitoes waiting, which we reached at dusk.
After a gourmet spread of cottage cheese, muffins, grapes, beer and pop, we retired to the safety of our tent.
Today's ride: 58 miles (93 km)
Total: 422 miles (679 km)
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