Day 16 - July 15 - 4 States in one day

From Ellesmere Maine, just west of Bar Harbor, we headed off to travel through New Hampshire and Vermont on secondary highways which we had been told by other bikers were particularly scenic, and nice rides.

The morning through Maine was pretty slow; a fair bit of traffic, and small towns placed more closely than one would expect to find at home. But pretty nonetheless; more forested in Maine than I might have guessed. True of Maine, but particularly of New Hampshire and even more of Vermont in due course, one has a sense that the towns are movie sets: a preponderance of brick buildings, circa mid-1800's, well-maintained for the most part, and lots of civic decoration, whether that be as simple as U.S. flags all down the street, or various more elaborate decorations.

Stopped an a small town (Farmington, Maine) for coffee, and were engaged by various locals intrigued by the distances involved in the trip. Hve found folks here - but everywhere we've been - extremely friendly and engaging.

After coffee the traffic began to lighten up and we began to make better time (read: have more fun riding when you can go faster).

Found the state line from Maine to New Hampshire, and took a picture because there hadn't been any "welcome to Maine" sign when we entered at the ferry terminal.

Stopped for lunch in yet another movie set, this one in Gorham New Hampshire, eating at a cafe that had been in business continuously since the 1800's.

After lunch the riding just got better - we were in much more open road, and very pretty. Gradually drifted into Vermont, and started climbing into lush green hills/mountains. At one point I saw a sign saying we were 6 miles from the Sugerbush ski resoort, and the area had that feel - mountainous (although in that green, summer, way), and economically prosperous, with ski club cabins in sight, and appropriate recreational retail.

The ride westbound on Highway 2 had been good; the ride southbound on Highway 100 was outstanding. For some reason very little traffic; descending down long twisty hills; then long, forested twisty sections along a river. Different than the Cabot Trail, but the riding was darn near as good.

A Ben & Jerry's cone (Ben & Jerry's originated in Vermont I learned) in the exquisite Vermont town of Montpelier, then back at our terrific Hwy 100.

By the time it intersected with Highway 4 we were close to the New York state line, and thought it might be fun to have touched four states in the day, so we kept going. But after crossing the line, it was getting on to 7:30 p.m.; we'd started at 7:30 a.m., and we all were getting tired. Rather than pushing on to the resort community of Lake George (only about 50 kms away), we stopped at a roadside motel (the "Budget Inn") in Whitehall New York, which turned out to be a half-closed-down pretty economically depressed town from the look of it. Dinner was not-bad "homemade" lasagna at the pizza place across the road.

Tomorrow into Adirondack State Park in New York (the park is big: larger than the states of Masachusetts and Connecticut), taking again a secondary route, Hwy 28, then probably on to Rochester New York, and the beginning over the following couple of days of just "booking it" over interstates through the most heavily populated central area around the Great Lakes.