Ride Stats

 Total Miles Ridden:        2,963

Total Vertical Climb:       64,968 ft.

Longest distance Ride:     97 Miles
    Walden to Fort Collins CO

Hardest Day's Ride:     3,944 total vertical climb through 4 passes, 80 miles.
Eureka to Ely, NV

Journey's end with lotsa lobsta!

Sat. 7/23 evening in Augusta, ME

Hotel was about 15 minutes north of downtown, where all the good restaurants are.  Used Trip Advisor and found a really groovy restaurant.  The Oak Table.   Small place, where the owner is the chef.

I was seated at the "chef's table" which is just a counter behind which the chef prepares all the meals.  It's an open kitchen similar to the counter at the Town restaurant in San Carlos... so you get a meal and a show.  The hostess/server seated me there next to another person dining by herself.  We had good conversation and good food together.  More fun than dining alone.  We each went for the "Four Course Tasting" menu, which is really 5 courses if you count the dessert.  The dishes are small enough that by the end you have had enough dinner.

I had:
CHARRED CORN BOWL
SUMMER VEGETABLE PANZANELLA (freshly fried croutons, bacon, lemon)
HOUSE SPAGHETTI (pork and tomato ragu)
PINELAND FARMS STEAK TIPS  (beefy polenta, scape pesto)
DARK CHOCOLATE FONDUE (good for 2, with fun dippy things)

By the time Dinner was over, it was getting dark.. which also meant it was cool enough to ride back to the hotel.

Sun. 7/24 Auburn

Auburn and Lewistown are "twin cities" ... each one on opposite sides of Androscoggin River.  On the way down from Augusta, I dropped into the Apple Valley Bakery in the town on Monmouth where I encountered this screed a few doors up from the bakery:

bunch of soreheads!

This chicken at the entrance to was the only saving grace of the bakery. 
Most of what they had was day old, and not very good.

Monday 7/25:  Ride to South Portland through Portland.

Arrived in downtown Portland for a late lunch, around 2:00 PM.  Had a great lobster roll (chunks of lobster meat in a toasted roll with lime mayo) at the appropriately named Highroller Lobster Company.

Then around the corner I found Eighty 8 Donuts , which started out as a food truck, parked at Stowe ski resort in the winter, then in downtown Portland for the summer.  They now have a permanent location.

I ordered 3 cocoa pow pow and 3 cinnamon sugar.  Expecting 6 total... I ended up with 12... and no cocoa pow pow.  The owner told them to make 6 more for me... so I ended up with 18.  Had them for midnight snack and the next day's breakfast.   Fortunately they're only about 1.25" diameter.

Rode down to South Portland after lunch/donuts.

Long'bout 8PM was hungry again.  Walked down to a bar/restaurant and got some fried clams at the bar.  They were having trivia night.  The guy next to me and I formed a team.  We did terribly... but had a good time.

Tues 7/26:  -  The great lobster ride!

Lobster Lunch at Lobster Shack in Ogunquit.  Had some Chowder (pronounced Chowdah) before the 1.5 lb lobster.  

Then down the coast to Portsmouth, NH for dinner (at Jumpin' Jay's Fish Café) with my cousin, Josh from DC, who was in Portsmouth for a business meeting.

Seafood Pasta - Really good!

Followed by dessert!!

Wed 7/27: 

Short ride to Newburyport to catch the commuter train to Boston North Station.  Great breakfast at the Roundabout Diner, followed by Fried dough about 90 minutes later at Blinks in Hampton.  

Beach at Hamtpon, NH... Proving that I really made it to the East Coast!!

Arrived at the bike shop in Lexington to have the bike packed at about the same time my cousins Randi and Paul got there.  The original plan was to stay at their place for the night, but they came down with Covid about 12 days earlier and were still testing positive... so instead we had dinner outside at their place with my sister-in-law, Janet, who lives in Brookline, and I stayed at her place.  

Thurs 7/28:  The end!

Brookline has a pretty strong Jewish presence... so lunch the next day had to be deli.

Corned Beef on Rye at Michael's Deli  in Brookline.  
Food and music (he played some live Frank Zappa) excellent!

Got a Lyft to Logan.  Traffic was diabolical... but made it with time to spare.

Thanks to Janine for picking me up at SFO!!

Dropped off the bike for re-assembly at the Caltrain bike station in SF.  Was back in the saddle today (Sat 7/30).

Quebec City and Maine

Fri. 7/15 : 

To avoid Montreal city streets, and construction (Rue Barree) I took public transit to Repentigny, a northeastern suburb to start my ride.  I was trying out a new biking navigation app that failed the test, but added about 5 miles to my trip before I uninstalled it and went back to Google Maps.

Most of the ride was pretty pleasant and I arrived at Le Auberge de Lac St. Pierre, about 10 miles west of Trois-Rivières, in time for dinner.

Lac St. Pierre  is just a wide section of the Saint Lawrence river.

View of the lake from my balcony

Wild Boar appetizer:  Sautéed wild mushrooms, mustard onions

Duck!

Sat. 7/16:  Portneuf

Strawberry season in Quebec.  Lots of stands selling local produce.  Picked up a couple of ears of corn for dinner, and a basket of lovely sweet strawberries.  Stopped at a casse croute (fry stand) for some french fries before heading over the motel.

Sun. 7/17:  Quebec City

Mostly following Velo Rte 5, which mostly runs on the shoulder of a provincial road, but then heads down towards the river on a peaceful rural road, which seems always to be closed at some point, forcing a detour up a steep hill back to the main road.

Breakfast at Tutti Fruiti in Quebec suburb

Hung out in Library to use computers and stay cool

Sunset from my window

Stayed at a nice hotel in Vieux Quebec (up on the hill where the old fortifications and the Chateau Frontenac are), that I had stayed at 7 years ago.

Maple Pie

Mon. 7/18:  Sainte-Marie

I've slowed the pace of my trip in order to not get caught in the rain, and to synchronize my arrival with my nephew, who is going to be in Portsmouth, NH on a business trip.  We plan to meet up for dinner on 7/26, and if I went at my usual pace, I'd get there a few days early.  Also,  Accuweather has been showing precipitation every few days, so shorter rides allow me to time things to avoid the rain.

About 60% of this ride was on paved, dedicated bike trails.

Tue. 7/19:  Saint Georges

This is the last town before the US border.  Stayed at le Georgesville, a 10-story hotel in the center of town with the best restaurant in town.    Unfortunately, there was no guest laundromat in the hotel, and, worse yet, there was no laundromat in the entire city (population 31,000).  The good news, is that Jackman ME (population 782), the first town south of the border, has Scrub yer Duds, which is a laundromat / ice cream store.  Just what I needed. 

Wed. 7/20:  Jackman

Yes, there's a laundromat, but the french fries are pre-fab.  The ice cream is from Giffords, which is based in Waterville (where I'm writing from today).

Moose xing sign... saw these every few miles from the border for the next 50 miles south.

Thu. 7/21:  Forks - rafting town on the Kennebec River.
After breakfast at Mama Bears, rode the 28 miles to Forks.  It's a town geared towards rafting and fishing in the summer, and snow mobiling and hunting in the winter.  Lots of locals who support these activities, or other services for the recreationers.  Since it was a short ride, I got there pretty early, a good thing 'cause it was getting really hot and humid.  There were some major thunderstorms coming through in the afternoon.   Inn by the River has a restaurant... a little high end compared to the rest of the town... but OK for a light lunch.   Next door is Marshall's, a dive bar/restaurant where the locals hang out, drink and shoot pool.   Went there and had a good pulled pork sandwich for dinner.   After a break in the rain, went back to the Inn for dessert and had interesting conversations with a couple of local guys in their late 30's .  Both like to spend a fair portion of the day kayaking down the Kennebec river.

Friday. 7/22 - Sat 7/23:  Forks to Skowhegan to Waterville - then to the site of Camp Belgrade

65 mile ride to Waterville through Skowhegan.  Waterville is mostly known for Colby College. 

Skowhegan holds the Skowhegan Fair in August.  Waterville is also the closest town to the place where I went to Camp Belgrade for 2 summers in 1961 - 1962 when I was 8 and 9 respectively.  I am currently writing this part of the blog from the Belgrade public library.    Whenever someone in a bunk had a birthday, the whole bunk would go to Rummel's Ice Cream in Waterville.  Our transportation was the back of what appeared to be old Army trucks.  This was in the days before seat belts etc.

Rummel's is still operating there, but was bought by Giffords, an ice cream store in Skowhegan, about 20 miles north of Waterville.  

Moose in front of Gifford's Ice Cream in Skowhegan

Had some OK Chinese for dinner, followed by a monster eclair at Govenor's restaurant and bakery across from my hotel

On Sat. morning, headed out to find my old camp site.  Passing through Oakland, ME there was an Amish stand selling tomatoes, baked goods, quilts etc. so, of course, I bought a doughnut .  The people who were manning the stand were from Reedsville, PA... a town not very far from State College, PA, where Penn State, my alma mater is.  

The camp was sold in the late 1970's to a developer who subdivided the property.  It's now a community of summer homes called "Loon Cove" .  The only recognizable remnant of the camp is what used to be the mess hall, which was shrunken down somewhat and is now the community center.

A nice lady, Louise, a resident of Loon Cove, caught up with me by the lake.  It turns out she grew up in Macungie, near Allentown, where I grew up.  She also is a Penn State graduate, but a little older than me.  She lived in the same dorm that my mother did when she was there.  Small world.

Louise - a homeowner on the former site of Camp Belgrade, on the shore of Great Pond

It's now about 88° (accuweather "real feel" = 99°).  Time to brave the heat and go check into my hotel in Augusta.  

Hanging out in Montreal - Food Fantasy

 7/14 - 7/15  Montreal

Rode 40 miles from Hawkesbury to Vaudreuil to catch a train into town... again avoiding excessive urban riding on lousy streets (potholes, construction, etc.).

Scallop appetizer at Le Boulevardier

Lobster w. Ravioli appetizer

Frosty Puff (A hot toasted puff filled with Vanilla Ice Cream, Carmelize hazelnuts, and Nutella) at Juliette & Chocolat

Croissants in Montreal are underwhelming compared to what I get at Arsicault in San Francisco.  

They are inexpensive... I guess you get what you pay for

Pâtisserie Au Kouign Amann

Guillaume

The view from behind.. can't unsee that.

The high-born ladies at Le Boucan... Barbeque dive / bar.  Had the pulled-pork poutine

Dessert at Mr. Puffs.  It's over the top!!

These appear to be made with rice flour.  The crust is crispy, inside is chewy.  Served warm.

Toronto and points east towards Montreal

Thu 7/7:
64 mile ride to Cambridge, a Toronto exurb.  Lots of shopping centers / big box stores, etc.

Fri 7/8:
Took the bus to Toronto.  Streets in the urban areas (from Brampton to center city) are Bike-Hostile.  

Restroom at Lunch

This left most of the day free to do some errands:

Needs haircut

Gets haircut

and, of course, good eats:

Cheap eats:  $12.35 including tax and tip

Then Dessert at Summer's Ice Cream

Sat. 7/9 - 7/10    Ride to Brighton, then Napanee.

Nice little town between Toronto and Kingston.  Strange motel (Presqu'Ile Beach Motel), dumpy on the outside, but the room was nice, clean and comfortable with full kitchen.  John, the owner, takes cash only.    
Good restaurant:  The Gables

Rack of Lamb

While at breakfast, a few miles down the road, I discovered that I had left my reading glasses in the room.  I called John, and he found them, then drove down to the restaurant to deliver them.  Bought him coffee and we had a nice chat before heading out for Napanee.

Sun 7/11 - Ride to Perth

70 mile ride with 1 big steep hill about 3/4 of the way (After Westport).  

Mon 7/12 - To Ottawa

55 Miles, mostly flat, but Google routed me onto dirt road for a few miles.  

Nice dinner 

Mon 7/13 - Layover in Hawkesbury... dodging thunderstorms all day.

Wisconsin, Michigan & Ontario

 6/30 :  To Milwaukee

Short (33 mi), but hot ride to Milwaukee.  Best Western has no laundry, so... had to improvise and change in a laundromat restroom to get the wash done.  After that was out of the way, went over to Leon's for a Butter Pecan Frozen Custard 

My hotel is about 5 miles from downtown, so I rode down for dinner at Amalinda, a nice Spanish / Portuguese place.

Skirt Steak

7/1 :  Cross the lake to Michigan   

Ferry departs @ 6:00 AM... had to check in by 5:30, so woke up around 4:15 to make that happen.

Setting Sail at Sunrise

Arrived in Muskegon, MI @ 9:30 (1 hr time zone change) and had breakfast at a Muskegon diner that was having its debut under new management.  It was somewhat chaotic, but they muddled through somehow... then headed out to Grand Rapids.  Most of the ride was on dedicated paved bike trail.  

Had a late lunch of Fried Chicken at Tupelo Honey, a "southern comfort food" restaurant downtown... then proceeded to my hotel near the Grand Rapids Airport, about 8 miles from center city.

7/2 :  Owosso :  

A 78 mile hard ride over crappy roads.  Not much else remarkable.   Michigan roads are mostly horrible.  There was a parallel bike trail, but it was crushed stone, so the going would've been even slower than braving the crappy road.

The politics of this area is kind of what you might expect from rural Michigan.  Here's a sample

7/3 :  Auburn Hills:  

This is a Detroit suburb which has a lot of automotive buildings, but also a huge Amazon warehouse complex.  Again, shitty roads and a lot of broken glass.  Got a flat about 0.7 miles away from the hotel, so I just walked the last mile and repaired the flat in the hotel.  My tires (Schwalbe Marathons) are very hard to remove, so I ended up breaking 2 of my 4 "unbreakable" tire levers.  Fortunately, I also brought an additional lever that seems to be truly unbreakable, and managed to get the tube patched and everything put together for the July 4th ride to Canada.

7/4 :  Ferry to Canada: 

Algonac is a small town on the St. Claire River that has the only ferry service to Canada.  It goes to Wapole Island, which is mostly inhabited and governed by the Wapole tribe (first nations).  Many of the island's businesses are marijuana dispensaries.  From the Ferry landing on Wapole island to Wallaceburg, where I was staying, is about 20 miles.    One side-benefit of arriving in Canada on the 4th of July is that most restaurants / businesses were open.  It ain't a holiday here.

7/5:  To London

78 mile ride to London.  Left late since there was rain that didn't clear out until about 10:00 AM.  Mostly flat.  Some tailwinds.  A lot of farmland, not a lot of people.  There was, however, an interesting farm store/bakery/cafe (Parks Blueberry Farm) about 1/3  of the way there... lunch time.

London seems to be a little worse for wear since the last time I came through town (2019).  I think Covid took its toll.  I see way more homelessness than I remember seeing last time.

Dinner at The Works, a burger joint downtown

Iowa - Land of Bike Paths

 Fri 06/24:  Overnight in Stuart. 

Thunderstorms in the early morning.  Boring little town, but nice bike paths to Des Moines.

Paved and flat

Rode to Altoona, IA.  This is a tourist attaction town with a large amusement park.

Saturday 6/25:  Rainy day.  Rented car to get to Iowa City.  First stop was Jimmy John's, my favorite BBQ joint in Iowa City

Sunday 06/26:  Iowa City

Returned car to Cedar Rapids airport in the early morning, then met Dan and Lisa Katz, and their daughters, Lauren &Natalie for lunch at Poe Rooftop in Iowa City.  A good time was had by all.  Then a couple of hours in the very nice Iowa City Library, after which, I took the scenic route up to Dan and Lisa's house for a visit.   A really nice day with a really nice (Iowa Nice) family!

Monday 06/27:  Iowa City to Clinton IA

A long 85 mile ride with a fair amount of rolling hills.  Clinton is on the Mississippi.

Tues 06/28:  to Rockford IL

Mississippi River from Clinton IA

Started out the morning by stopping at Krumpets, a really nice, homey bakery/cafe in Fulton, IL.   Then a 90 mile ride to Rockford with a stop for lunch (Liver and Onions) at Brother's Restaurant in Lanark

Wed 06/29:  to East Troy

East Troy is a village about 30 mi SW of Milwaukee.  It's has a village green in the center and a really good pizza place (Sauced)  

While I was having my dinner a kid at the next table found a painted rock.  Apparently this is a thing that the kids in the town do.  They paint up small rocks and hide them in plain site.  This particular rock was painted in 2018.  The kid who finds it then re-hides it.  It's sort of like a perpetual easter egg hunt.  Pretty cool!

They say I'm over the hill!

Friday 6/17:  Steamboat Springs

Arrived around 3PM.  Had lunch at Back Door Grill, a pretty good burger joint in the downtown area. 
Arrived at my hotel just before the thunderstorm started.  Then went to a grocery store and picked up some Ramen YakiSoba for a late hotel/microwave dinner.  

Sat. 6/18:  Across the Great Divide to Walden

Rode up to+ Rabbit Ears Pass ... but was so engaged in the book I was listening to that I neglected to stop at the Continental Divide sign for a new pic and didn't realized I had passed it until I was already about a mile beyond the top.  There's a good pic in my June 23, 2015 post titled "Across the Great Divide" which includes the same scene from my first Rabbit Ears Pass crossing from 1985.   After the pass it was a fairly easy ride to Walden, the small town in the middle of nowhere, where I'd stayed twice before.

Had dinner at a the All Smoked Up BBQ, where I ran into Pete and Susan, a pair of bicyclists about my age from the Sacramento area, who also happened to be in the room next to mine at the motel.  These intrepid souls were biking from DC and were about heading northeast into Wyoming where, if they hadn't encountered enough headwinds yet, were sure to encounter more through Wyoming and Montana.

Sun. 6/19:  The High Point of the trip!!

The up is not too bad... 

Walden to Cameron Pass.  2,218 ft climb over 30 miles

and there was still some snow near the road and lots more on the taller peaks.

The ride down is splendid, along a rushing river (Cache le Poudre) ... although there was some rain.  I sat out some of it in a cafe in Rustic, about 1/2 way down.

Cameron Pass to Ft. Collins:  5,400 ft drop over 67 miles!!

Dropped into my hotel in Ft. Collins after the 99 mile ride and slept like a rock!

Mon. 6/20:  Just Visiting 

Rode down to Doug's Diner in Loveland to meet my cousin Debbie for breakfast.  There was a wait, so we drove to a nearby donut shop and spent the next 2 hrs catching up.  

Then biked another 20 miles down to Longmont to Stan's house.  He was an owner of  the local rep company that I worked with when I was with 2 different semiconductor companies.  He also bicycles a lot, is my age, and we had very similar career trajectories. 

He and Stephanie fed me a nice lunch with home-made soup.  It was great to see him again! 

Stan and Me. 
I take terrible selfies!

Then we biked down to Louisville together, and I went to stay at my cousin Lee's house for the night.  It'd been a while since I spent quality time with Lee and her husband, Jeff... so it was great to be with them.

Tues. 6/21:  Family, Friends, and Amtrak 

Late breakfast at Jeannot's Patisserie & Bistro, a very nice place nearby that only opened this year.  Lee also gave me a quick car tour of Louisville to see some of the devastation from last year's fires, which destroyed a large number of homes in communities nearby.  Lee and Jeff had to evacuate, but the fires didn't hit their development directly.

Around 2PM, we drove down to meet Fred and Sherry at the Thirsty Lion, next to Denver's Union Station.  They drove up from Pueblo, where they had recently moved from Allentown, PA to be closer to son and grandchildren.,. so the 4 of us were all Allentonians.  Unfortunately, Lee left before I remembered to take a picture...

Fred and Sherry et. al. at Thirsty Lion in Denver

Then I got on Amtrak's California Zephyr to Omaha... which was about 2 hours late.   The Zephyr was fully booked, as it was when I took it from Sac to Reno on June 2.  In fact Francine, the grumpy conductor from the Reno trip, was on the Zephyr for this trip too.

Wed. 6/22:  The Midwest isn't all flat!

Finally arrived in Omaha around 6:30AM, still 2 hrs late.  

1st breakfast in Omaha.  No tables, though.

Bob Kerry Bridge over the Missouri, the border between Nebraska and Iowa

People think Iowa is flat.  Well.. some of it is, and some ain't.  Today's ride wasn't.

Omaha to Avoca (45 miles).