Bar Harbor - Day 1

Well I am here in Bar Harbor.  Carey and I traveled to SLC on Friday to catch the plane and I spent pretty much the entire day traveling.  I got into Bangor Maine at 12:00 at night and then just went to the motel.

I took a shuttle into Bar Harbor this morning and got here about 1:00.  I had to go to the bike shop to pick up the bike that I shipped out here.  It arrived in great shape, which I was a little nervous about.  I had read some horror stories about how the bike was bent and all from shipping.  I had transferred already all my stuff from a suitcase and a box that I loaded on the plane to the panniers that I am carrying and just loaded the bike and took off to look over Bar Harbor a bit. I went down to the pier and had a little Maine Shrimp which was delicious.   It’s a pretty cool little town.  Cruise ships and stuff stop here and its pretty much a tourist trap.

The trip pretty much officially started at 4:00 this afternoon.  It was actually a bit later than that because the tour leader was in town shopping.  We are just camped at a camp ground outside Bar Harbor.  We had a pasta dinner tonight with chicken and veggies in it and it was really pretty good.  I was real interested in how and what we were going to be cooking here, so, so far, I am quite pleased.  We also had a little meeting on the rules of travel, like always wearing the helmet and obeying traffic laws and such.  One thing I was a little surprised at is they discourage us all from riding together.  They say that it is just too hard for traffic to get around us.  I was kind of hoping that I could just follow and not have to worry about following the maps.  We also talked a bit about how to read the maps and all.  It will be interesting.  I am hoping that I don’t get too lost.

Tomorrow we are going on a “shakedown” ride.  We are to get up and load just as if we are leaving, but we will return here.  We are going to ride through Acadia National Park which should be beautiful.  Well, I am going to put the sleeping gear to the test tonight.  I am sure it will be the same as when I went with the boy scouts camping.  You really don’t sleep well until you are a few days into it and you are completely exhausted. Goodnight!