If Route 1 continues like this, I’m going to have difficulty leaving it. The traffic was light, the weather amazing (in fact it was properly hot), the scenery stunning, and the hard shoulder (mostly) wide and smooth. What more could you ask?

• Today’s Distance (miles/km): 79 / 128
• Time in saddle: 6h 50
• Max/min temp – in sun (°c): 44°/19°
• Climbing (feet) : 4,221
• Calories used: 5,050
• Today’s 2nd Breakfast: Wendy’s in Ellsworth, on Route 1, Maine
• cafe time: 3h 18

The day started with a drying session in the morning sun, after all the rain yesterday. I still managed to get going by around 8am.

Of course it was also hilly, but the downhills were sensational. I pulled up at the top of one long climb…

…because there was road work being done, and met Dan who was holding the big STOP sign. He was a big guy with a lot of tattoos, and asked me where I was headed. I really enjoyed being able to repeat a line I used once when passing through construction in the Rocky Mountains – true today as it was then – and answered ‘Wendy’s’. He laughed, and said ‘At Ellsworth? Nice. Where have you come from?’, and I said, Halifax. ‘Get the *£@! outta here!’, said Dan. ‘That’s SWEET!’ I asked if he was going to be out there all day long. ‘Just about’, he said, ‘but then I’m heading home to watch the cycling’. ‘What, do you mean the Tour de France?’ I said, not quite believing what I was hearing. ‘Sure, jeez what an incredible first week!’, and we were off, talking cycling and discovering that we had the same bike-hero (apart from Jacques Tati, of course), Wout Van Aert. Eventually I had to get riding again, so we said farewell, both laughing at the randomness of the discussion in the middle of nowhere.

Otherwise, it was a very effortful but uneventful day on the bike, full instead with more randomness, in the way of thoughts. It struck me at one point that almost the entire blog is really just a collation of lots of scraps of paper from my handlebar bag. I jot thoughts down on them as they occur to me along the way, then translate them into semi-comprehensible posts like this one. So most of what you read here started life as a small piece of (slightly damp) paper.

Uneventful, except perhaps for the crossing of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, a magnificent structure that just sort of appears out of nowhere and really takes your breath away.

Want to see something quite unpleasant? This is what it actually looks like when you’re plastered in factor 50, dripping with sweat, you’ve just pulled over into some shade after climbing a two-mile killer hill, and your bike computer is reading 43 degrees Celsius. Sorry. Look away if you’re of a nervous disposition.

As for my campground this evening, Searsport Shores Ocean Campground, what can I say? I’m here for two nights, and could not have chosen a better place to spend the time. I haven’t even had time to look at the beach yet. The welcome was wonderful, including a bowl of strawberries kindly donated to my search for fresh food, and also an anonymous donation to Humanity & Inclusion in the from of waiving my campground fee. An amazing gesture and hugely appreciated.

After a camping supper the evening ended with a fireside uke and harmonica jam with Ed at the tent next door. He’s a really tall guy with a fine bushman’s beard and wears a flat clap reversed, and is riding a brand new (enormous) Triumph motorcycle all over the east coast. He used to be a professional blues musician (keyboard mainly). He played me a beautiful country waltz tune he’d written, then we ran through Walking My Baby Back Home as a duo, in C (his Honer harmonicas were in C and D).

This is Day 6 which can only mean one thing – tomorrow, which I think is a Friday, is a rest day!! I’m certainly ready for it after today. I’ll see you all back here on Saturday for more life along the coast of America.

Things That Are Funny – here’s some from today:

If you’d like to see a very short video of me trying to deflate my new mattress, just click here.

And lastly today, in the spirit of randomness, a picture of an eagle wielding not one but two chainsaws. On that note, goodnight. Bx