Day 68: Jefferson, ME

Another interesting day.  It was overcast most of the day, and the temperatures hovered around 59 degrees for most of my time in the saddle.  That was just on the edge of being uncomfortable: it was too warm to put on tights or a heavier jersey, and too cool for my gloves, arm warmers and vest to adequately warm me, except when climbing hills (of which there were plenty).  Of course it was those hills and a persistent headwind that made finding the right clothing combination so difficult.  You'd get warm enough going up, but then get chilled by the wind and your own sweat on the descents.  Put on more clothes, and you would really cook on the climbs.

My 52 miles started with me finding a couple ahead me who were riding along my route.  I quickly caught up with them and they responded by quickening their pace.  It was fun being towed along in their slipstream, but it made it very difficult to navigate, since it was rare that you would come across anything that would tell you what road you were on.  I wasn't worried too much about that, since if we went too far east I'd be in the water, and too far north would put me on US 1 - it was pretty easy to head generally northward.  A few miles into the ride I realized we weren't on the road that I wanted to be on, but I kept going until finally pulling up next to them to see if they knew where I was in relation to my route.  It turned out that it was just ahead of us, where they turned south and I continued north.  The detour ended up adding an extra 2.5 miles to my day's mileage.

The rest of the day's ride was less eventful, with only one other brief unplanned excursion at Damiscotta.  The ride ended at Waldoboro, and from there we drove up to Jefferson, ME, where we had been invited to stay with Ralph and Deb Martin (Ralph is a distant Williams cousin of mine).

Ralph had been reading the blog about how we hadn't had any luck in Freeport finding interesting water views, so after getting the camper set up and talking Lana for a long walk we all ventured back down to the coast.

The first stop was at The Narrows Tavern in Waldoboro, where we had dinner (it was evident from the look of some of the regulars that tourists weren't supposed to know about this place).  But the food was excellent and the prices were quite reasonable.  More importantly, it was possible to have a conversation without anyone having to raise their voice.

The next stop was Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, located at the end of one of the several peninsulas in the area that jut out into the Atlantic at Muscongus Bay.  There, in the absence of trees, the wind was even more noticeable than it had been earlier, and the temperature had dropped several degrees, though it felt even colder with the marine air.

We completed a loop tour back to their place, at which point it was necessary to feed Lana.  The mosquitoes were out in full force, so I had been given a bug zapper racket to help fend off the swarm.  Between her being swarmed (the mosquitoes found her much more interesting and appetizing than the two of us) and the resultant "Zaps!" from me waving the racket around, poor Lana was completely bewildered.  She looked positively pitiful as she attempted to scarf down her dinner at an even faster pace than normal.  

Once that chore was done, we went inside for desert in the form of Deb's homemade Carrot-Zucchini Cake.  We then finished off the evening chatting and playing a new card game (the name of which slips my mind).

In the morning we were treated to coffee, breakfast (courtesy of their chickens, Dolly and Lady), and more of Deb's homemade muffins.  We followed that up with a couple of rounds of Spite and Malice, which we learned is the equivalent of the commercial card game Skip-Bo.