Hey This Ain't All Fun and Games

The Tuesday post that was never written would have talked about how we arived Monday night around 9:00 at the Eastland Motel, 5 miles from the easternmost point in the US, after another long day in the saddle. Then we woke up before dawn and rode the couple miles to West Quoddy in order to be the first two people in America to see the sun.

We arrived at the lighthouse at 5:20 am, 6 minutes before sunrise, to find the whole peninsula fogged in. Couldn't see squat. Well, it sounded good on paper anyway...

We didn't know at that time that it was an omen. We had about 375 miles planned for the day; the remaining 300 or so miles of US Rt. 1 to the Canada border, then another 75 or so to our hotel in Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec, on the banks of the Gulf of St. Lawrence where we would catch the ferry across.

The day dragged on without much drama, and the only stop we had of any length was at the H-D dealer in Caribou, ME. That, and an extended gas/ice cream stop to help beat the opressive heat.

It was already late when we got to the border, so we were having a quick meal at Subway, when it started to rain. It came and went quickly, so we headed for the bridge and Customs. The last thing we needed was the half-hour or more spent waiting for a random immigration check to be completed. In the meantime, a nice thunderstorm rolled in and really put a damper on things.

The day ended much worse than it began. Long story short, we ended up riding through rain, detours, and actual MUD where road construction had both lanes torn up at the same time. Then it got dark. The reflective 'watch for moose' signs were barely visible; and the rest of the segments of road construction I guess the darkness was a blessing because we couldn't tell if we were on milled pavement, dirt, mud, or whatever. Best we didn't know.

We rode the last 40 or so miles in the dark, and a hotel was never a more welcome sight. We were still behind schedule, but safe and sound.