Waterville to Portland and beyond ... end of the trip!

7/28: Rode 65 miles to Freeport, a strange tourist attraction built around shopping (LL Bean's outlet is open 24 hours). Rain started about 1/2 hour after settling into the Hampton Inn.

7/29:  After a drizzly 20 mile ride, met Oscar, a colleague from Fairchild, for breakfast at Bintliff's  in downtown Portland.  One of the best breakfast menus I've seen anywhere!  Click the link and check out the menu.

Since I didn't order the Maine Lobster Benedict for breakfast, I had to have my Maine lobster fix for lunch, so I stopped into Anjon's, about 5 miles south of Scarborough.

$20 gets you all of this! 

Topped it off with a hot fudge sundae at Martel's down the road a bit in Saco.

In Maine, there are lobster roll trucks instead of Taco trucks (CA) or Fry trucks (MI and ON).

So, around 5:00 I'm hungry again, so ...

I had to try one, so I stopped at an old fast food place.  It came with a massive amount of frys. 

By then I was only 5 miles from Portsmouth, where I checked into The Inn at Strawbery Banke.  An old (circa 1790) house converted into a B&B.

7/30:  My friend Shawn, drove up to meet me for breakfast. 

We drove down the coast a bit, then I continued on bike about 12 miles to the Newburyport T station and caught the train to Boston. 

where I met up with my cousin Randi and Paul (pictured left).  

Paul and I rode out to their lovely house in Lexington, where we were joined by their daugher, Rebecca and my sister in law, Janet, who happened to be in town for a conference, for a lovely dinner.

Thanks to Randi and Paul for their warm hospitality.

7/31:  After lunch with Randi and Paul, rode about 7 miles to the T station. Got off at South Station, put the bicycle on the Amtrak to ship it back to San Jose.

Amtrak's easier and cheaper than checking it on the airplane.  $82 including the box, from/to any Amtrak station.

Pictured left is one of the many nice things they did with the real estate that got freed up by "the big dig".

Final odometer reading for the trip:  3125 miles.

Stayed that night at The Inn at Crystal Cove, which is only 5 miles from the airport, but has no shuttle, so you need to take a 2 busses and take the T one stop to get to Logan.

The place is cheap ($120/night with tax) compared to about $200 for the hotels with airport transit.

It also has a much nicer setting (left) than your typical airport hotel.

8/1:  Arrived in Palo Alto to surprise Alexandra for our 20th wedding anniversary!

St. Georges to Waterville, ME

Back in the USA after uphill ride from Saint Georges.  Rain started shortly after crossing border.  Stayed at Parlin Lake resort, about 12 miles south of Jackman, ME.  A lodge with cabins and a restaurant.  No other businesses within 12 miles.

7/27:  80 mile ride through Skowhegan to Waterville.   Nostaligic city for me.  Spent 2 wonderful summers at Camp Belgrade, about 15 miles from Waterville on Great Pond.

Every summer the whole camp went to the Skowhegan fair.
Before the fair we always got the lecture not to eat burgers unless they were from the 4H  (tricinosis danger).

Birthdays were celebrated at Rummel's Ice Cream.  The building is still there but is now Gifford's.

Great dinner at the Last Unicorn.

Farewell to Quebec

7/25:  Rode back into town early to Paillard, where the best croissant in Quebec is found.  Paillard is on Rue St Jean, which is closed to cars after noon.  At the top of the street is Saint John's gate, which is part of the old city's wall.

Best view of Quebec old city with Chateau Frontenac (where I stayed last year) was from the back of the ferry to Levis.

Rode 76 miles south to Saint Georges, about 35 miles from the Maine border.

Montreal to Quebec via Berthierville, Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade

Montreal is pretty bicycle friendly.  Many dedicated bike lanes on various streets, separated by barriers.  Lots of commuters take public transit to downtown, then pick up bikes from kiosks to get to their workplaces.

7/22:  First 25 miles riding North are mostly dedicated bike lanes following bike route #5.  The bad news is that sometimes it detours from the most direct route (#138) which adds mileage.

Hundreds of seagulls overhead near Repentigny.

luckily, no bombs fell on me!



Typical view of St. Laurence from rte 138.

Ended the day at Berthierville after 65 mile ride.

7/23:  70 mile ride to stay at the lovely and inexpensive ($70) Auberge du Manoir Dauth in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade.  Main house was built in 1842 and is still in the hands of the family that built it.

Across the bridge is the town church.  Almost every small town up here has a large church similar to this in the town center.

7/24:  Rode up to Quebec, mostly following Chemin du Roy  (El Camino Real for us homies).  Stupid Bing maps showed my hotel being downtown... so I rode there and discovered that there was no hotel there...
After calling the hotel for directions I discovered to my displeasure that I had to backtrack about 5 miles.  At least the stay was free, as I had accumulated enough Best Western points for a free night.

The bad news:  I was pretty far from Quebec's culinary center (old city).  The good news is that it's Quebec.  The food is excellent even in suburban restaurants.

Kingston - Perth - Ottawa - LaChute to Montreal

 7/18:  A very warm 80 mile ride to Perth, followed by a very nice dinner at Bistro 54.  Left is the Capricciosa:
Veal scaloppine with sea scallops, jumbo shrimp, lobster and smoked oysters. Mushroom risotto.

7/19:  An excellent breakfast of sticky buns, still warm from the oven, at Sunflower bakery... followed by an easy 50 mile ride to Ottawa.
The last 10 miles were on lovely bike trails
Stayed upscale at the Westin... where they have no laundromat and they charge extra for WiFi and use of their so-called business center....

So, I went to dinner at Play, my ATF Ottawa restaurant.

 The Scallops at Play followed by:

Pork Belly.

and topping it all off with the Fudge Brownie.

7/20:  80-mile Ride to LaChute, QC... mostly along rte 148 on the Quebec side of the Ottawa river.
Found this little gem along the roadside.  Decent croissants and lovely looking pasteries.

7/21:  Montreal
My rear wheel has had a dent in it for some time, and it was finally time for a new wheel.  Luckily, I found an excellent bicycle shop on Rachel St. on my way to my hotel downtown.  They had the right stuff in stock, were open Sunday (most aren't) and had it finished in just a couple of hours while I hung out in a coffee shop nearby that had wifi and tiramisu.

Rochester, NY to Kingston ON

7/14:  A very hot day in Rochester with Sister Liz and family spent swimming, followed by ice cream at Orbakers drive in (since 1932), hiking in Chimney Bluffs State Park, topped off with BBQ at Sticky Lips.

Thanks to Liz, Dave and Aaron for a great time in Rochester / Pittsford.

Departed early for Oswego early Monday 7/15.  After 80 miles of hot sticky riding, settled into my hotel and collapsed.

7/16:  Left Oswego at 7:30AM.  By 8:00 it was already 80°.  Discovered that I had lost my Nook reader after I got about 10 miles down the road.  Hotel couldn't find it.  Bought a Samsung Galaxy android tablet at the Best Buy in Watertown (60 mile ride).

7/17:  Breakfast with Edie Coleman, someone I worked with at Fairchild , who lives on Chaumont Bay, about 20 minutes drive from Watertown.  Good to see a familiar face.

Took the Ferry from Cape Vincent, NY to Wolfe Island (Ontario).  $2.00 fare for a short trip.

Lots of massive windmills on Wolfe Island.   Note how small the trees are compared to the size of the windmill.

They also have a number of these small solar panel installations (note more windmills in the background).

Sunset over the 401 in Kingston, ON.  This is my first attempt to take a photo with the Galaxy.  The colors look nothing like the colors I saw.

Sunset pictures never look anything like the actual sunset.

Sarnia, ON to Rochester, NY.

7/10:  Biked 84 miles from Sarnia to Intersoll, a small town east of London.  Stayed at the Elm Hurst Inn, a very nice bed and breakfast with fine dining restaurant (left).

7/11:  Biked to Hamilton (63 miles) and caught a bus to Toronto... which a more interesting city than Hamilton to spend a night in.  Ate at the George restaurant.   1st course :  Duck breast (left)

followed by a very tasty beef tenderloin.

7/12: Took GO train/bus to Niagara falls the next morning.  (There are plenty of better pics of the falls online than I could take.) and re-entered USA on Rainbow bridge.
Biked about 65 miles to the Erie Canal Schoolhouse B&B in Albion NY. Lovely place, which included a tour of a museum which includes a miniature carnival.  Nice restaurant a short walk across a pedestrian bridge.   Owner greets every patron.  Real friendly town!

7/13:  Biked 45 miles to Pittsford, outside of Rochester.  Will be staying with my sister, Liz and her family until Monday morning.

Over 2000 miles ridden so far.

Midland to Sarnia via Lapeer

6/8 :   A fond farewell to Midland, MI starting with a  healthy breakfast, followed by a very muggy 78 mile ride.

With a reminder of home.
Ernie's is ubiquitous.


Settled in for the night to Lapeer, just 20 miles east of Flint.

6/9: Another hot, muggy ride to the Blue Water Bridge, Port Huron, MI where a nice MDOT  guy gave me a lift across the bridge to Canadian customs (no bikes allowed on bridge).

Oh Canada - the promised land of fry trucks (at least in Ontario).

...food of the Gods.

Even after an afternoon snack at the fry truck, I couldn't resist the homemade chips on Lola's menu.

About 1800 total miles bicycled so far.

Glen Arbor - Cadillac - Midland MI

Spent 4th and 5th of July with Cousins Steven, Shira and family in Glen Arbor, including:

The 4th of July Parade

Followed by outstanding citizen fireworks displays on the shores of Lake Michigan on July 4 evening.
July 5 featured a 30 mile loop around some of the local bike paths and roads through Maple City.

Headed out on July 6 to Cadillac (a hilly and hot 76 miles).   The high point of the day was dessert!

July 7:  About 47 miles SE of Cadillac is the town of Clare, famous for its donut shop (my kind of place).  Cops & Donuts was a bakery that was about to close, and was rescued by the area police force.  A unique example of crowd funding!  Today there were tons of bikers (Harleys).  The local motorcycle gangs were running a "toys for tots" fundraiser, and  Cops & Donuts were giving free donuts to bikers who donated toys.

Cool article from the SF Chron was on their wall!

From Clare, biked another 32 miles to Midland on the lovely paved Pere Marquette Rail-Trail.