Day One Hundred Fifty-five, 090802 - N. Turner, ME

Day One Hundred Fifty-five, Date Sunday, August 2, 2009
Time in Saddle: 8:58
Distance for the Day: 77.14 miles From Searsport, ME To North Turner, ME
Accumulated Trip Distance: 7332.45 miles
Altitudes: Starting/Ending 40’/510’, Highest: 682’ Accumulated: 4701’
Speeds: Avg: 8.6 mph, Max: 40.3 mph
Weather: 61° mostly cloudy all day turning to rain by midnight
Expenditures: $15

I woke up at about 5:15am and got up at 5:30am, then broke down and was ready to roll by 6:15am. I stopped at Dunkin Donuts from 7:30am – 8:40am to charge up notebook, do some blog writeups, and get a bagel w/cream cheese, donut, and hot cocoa ($5). Not much of interest happened, today – it was just a travel day. At 11am I stopped for drinks and food ($4), and continued west on Rt 3. I stopped a few more times during the day for drinks and food ($10). At 3:30pm I had dinner at Burger King ($6), and charged up my notebook. Continuing west on Rt 202. I did notice, every now and then, during the course of this trip, young males would shout something at me unintelligibly from their cars or trucks. This morning, one cried out, “Sweet ride, homo!” I ignored him. Today, I got *three* shouts from young males in trucks. Coincidence? Or is this a Maine thing? Oh, here’s another trip tip: the crotch cloth. I found that I could stuff small hand towels around my private parts, and this would keep my underwear clean for a much longer time. I could then wash the hand towels and re-use them over and over. Saves a bit of space trying to stock lots of fresh underwear, not to mention the problem of trying to find someplace to get naked enough to change underwear. The weather became overcast and drizzly the last hour of the evening. I was riding through hilly, private residential landscape, and not much in the way of decent stealth camps, when I finally came to a firehouse next to a baseball field. There was some kind of meeting being held, as there were cars parked in front of the firehouse. I got permission to set up my tent next to the firehouse and field (N44 20.476’ W70 14.891’), and by 8:12pm I was all set up and inside my tent with munchies, drink and book, which I finished (Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”). I was mostly dry, warm, and had a nice sleep. I did get awaked at 11:30pm when it rained hard late in the evening, but then stopped after about a half-hour or an hour. As usual, the tent worked like a charm.