Nov 6th - Biking to the highest point on the Atlantic Coast.

Jena and I awoke today groggy from a late night bonfire and two bottles of wine but soon were moving around organizing the P(RV)ius and cooking breakfast. Breakfast was warm, delicious, and consisted of leftovers from last night, tortillas, Parmesan cheese, hot sauce, toasted bread, and hard cider.

 After we tore down our campsite, I got to saddle up and climb to the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park and it was fantastic. Jena dropped me off at the bottom of the five mile switchback climb and I headed up. There were a couple of things which made this ride a little different than how I normally bike. First off since I do not yet have my cycling shoes I made do with tennis shoes which makes climbing a little more tedious and I spent a lot more time in the saddle than out. Which brings me to the second thing which is that my lowest gearing is 42-26 which is not ideal climbing gear especially if you are spending most of the time hunkered down in the bucket. Lastly though, today I rode with music which I almost never do and I even made a playlist which I never do and as Mr. Frost once wrote, that "made all the difference." Why I say this is that the playlist I put together was almost perfect, but what made it more perfect was that I put it on shuffle and my iPod played a perfect riding set. Let me explain. As I headed up the winding switchbacks I was listening to a solid mix of AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Black Sabbath. As I reached the summit Jamie Lidell's "Another Day" came on and let me relax a bit and as soon as I had my warmer gear back on and was ready to go "Born to Run" by The Boss started up and I started down. Probably a mile into the descent The Boss faded away and was replaced by Aaron Neville's "Don't Know Much" and as I whipped through the turns I was singing along to the glory of that song. Then as I rounded the last bend Springsteen once again came on. This time with "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out." That lasted until I was on the outskirts of Bar Harbor and just as I started down the last hill into town none other than Mr. Andrew WK came on with "It's Time to Party" and ushered me into town.

Sorry, not many photos from the ride due to a lack of point and shoot digital cameras (thanks Panasonic and Canon - both just up and quit on us on this trip). So I've been shooting with a small film camera on our rides, which once we're in Portland I should be able to get developed. We are now relaxing in Bar Harbor, getting ready to head toward Portland tonight.