Tour Day 58 A Day Of Stereotypes Aug 22 2010

BANG, BANG, BANG. That is what startled me awake last night at roughly midnight. After those sounds were quickly followed up by manic laughter. Right away I knew what had happened. In a drunken fit someone had discharged his or her gun in the air out of joy. I found it funny that this would happen on my first night in America but just the same I fell back to sleep right away.

That was for about 30minutes until I woke up with a pain in my butt. Now this is going to get gross for a second so if you don’t want to read it skip the paragraph. I though it was just a normal ass pain I mean it was my first distance ride in a few days but curious I wanted to feel if it was a saddle sore or not. Well I am glad to report it was not, but what it was was a mondo zit on my butt cheek. With one squeeze it popped and automatically I felt lighter and less pain. I knew that the next days ride was going to be much more enjoyable.

The tourist centre told me to watch out for a few patches of road today, and they were right. I hit two 10km patches hat were just messes. It was so broken up that I would have rather ridden on a pothole filled gavel path. It just beats you up so much that a small hill feels massive. And the downhill’s you cant get any speed because you are having to duck in and out of the shoulder (if you had one).

I cannot complain to loud though because much like Manitoba they are trying to fix it. Once back on smooth pavement I thought it would be a perfect time to plug in my ipod. To bad it was not in my handlebar bag. Trying not to panic I checked my laptop bag. It was not there. At the rest stop I unpacked my tent as a last resort and it was not there either. It sucked I was jones'ing for some music. The highlights of most of my days include belting out the lyrics to “get down Saturday night”. Then the penny dropped they were in my shorts.

So at lunch I had to unpack all my clothing just to get it. The lunch stop was a gas station that was filled with tourists heading to Nova Scotia. I had at least 10 people ask me which roads to take and distances on those roads. It felt very rewarding to hand over said information.

Even better then lunch this gas station had a map showing campsites. Perfect one was 50km away making a nice 160km day. With music in my ear I was like a man possessed. Towns were flying by and my stop was quickly approaching… or so I thought. The stop I had planned turned out to be just cottages and no camping so I had to press on. Thankfully Ellsworth was just 10 miles away. It is my first large American town I have visited and it lived up to every stereotype. The first thing you see is the Wal-Mart. Next to the walmart a mcdonalds. Then when you are at the campsite every site has a NASCAR flag, or a piece of NFL memorabilia. Personally I don’t think this is a bad thing because it shows that they have passion for something. Which is more then I can say about a lot of people on this planet.

The riding here in Maine is nothing to special yet. The only thing I have to comment on is the amount of houses for sale, and the amount of dilapidated houses that still have people living in them. I thought I would have to go deep into America to see the impacts of the economy but this really hits close to home.
Trip Distance: 182km
Ride Time: 8:44hr
Avg. Speed: 20.93km/h
Total Distance: 8509km
Total Ride Time: 395hr
Destination: Ellsworth, Maine

I want to comment on the bus thing because it has been bugging me I did not take it because I was tired of riding I took it because the riding back to moncton was going to be super boring and tedious. I would much rather spend those extra 3 days in Florida or New Orleans. Places I have wanted to see my entire life. Not antiginoush… a place that no one wants to see ever.