...wow, and I thought yesterday was hilly!

Today was FULL of large hills.   We also were dealing with a painful knee, irritated skin, and tired bodies.  

We ate a hearty breakfast and headed out.   Dad had his compression sleeve on to start the day, he also rubbed tiger balm and took some pills to help.   We made it to Ft. Knox and the Penobscot observation bridge.  

Dad was really struggling and we thought he may call it quits, but he found a way to ride that didn't hurt.   We made it to Ellsworth and ate lunch and stopped at the Walmart for a knee brace.   We then headed on the hard hilly trek to Mount Desert island.   WOW!   I had been hauling SCHLEPP and this was rough.   I didn't walk but I wanted to.   We arrived early enough to hang out and for mom and dad to eat some lobs tag. We stay for two nights.   Everyone needs to rest.

Mom kicking butt up the hills!  So proud of her! 

The Down Easter Inn

Of course I pick the bed and breakfast two miles off the course up a few hills at dusk.   We had arrived and were very excited and hungry.    There was no way we were riding our bikes back to town.   The owner of the inn was kind enough to go pick up an order of sandwiches for us.  This woman made our night.   Without her there wouldn't have been dinner.

60 miles of what? Oh yeah BIKING.

Today we had a long day of travel along with wanting to see some things along the way.   We started off about 7:15am looking to have breakfast on the road.  We stopped at this awesome diner called Deb's. While on the road we stopped for beer in Rockland and walked around a bit.   The highlight was definitely the breakwater walk to the light house.  Dad has really wanted to see some lighthouses but this has been difficult because they are extra miles off the path making it hard.  

One of our goals has been to be at our next stop by dinner.   We rolled into Belfast after 6pm with six miles to ride.   We could not stop long but went over the bridge near  harbor walk that looked really cool.

About a mile from the hotel dad's knee gave him trouble.   To the point that he had to get off his bike and walk, he was limping noticeably.    

In was 8pm and nothing but the grocery store was open.  Tony and I rode our bikes to get turkey sandwiches.   This is the second night in a row we have had to eat sandwiches at our hotel.  

Pop!

We had an eventful first day of riding.   We were pumped to head out.  About 1.5 hours in dads tire popped!   We had our first quick fix and it went smoothly.  We stopped by the flagship LL bean store. Bought a large bike pump which we decided was necessary because pumping the tires with a little pump sucked!  We ate whoppie pies which were awesome.   Overall the day was a success!  Ready for day two after some sleep and fuel. 

The vote was 1. Pumpkin 2. orange 3. peanut butter 4. classic.

'Twas the night before wheels down...and

We went downtown to hydrate with beer before the adventure!  We were able to get to two breweries which means we are closer to getting our free Maine Brewers guild truckers hat.  It's gonna be awesome!   Mom and dad got their bikes and of course there were some small issues that included a slight deflation in the tires.   Our big pump was too big so we had to pump it with our little pump!   That takes work..whew.   

We drove through 9 states to get here.  I'll never get over how small these states are.   Here are just s few: 

The count down begins!!!

SCHLEPP arrived!

Our mascot arrived!   Now our trailer SCHLEPP is complete!   Can't wait to see what this guy look like rolling down the road.   

Sag wagon! Just kidding! :)

The week leading up to today has been up and down emotionally.   After our terrible ride 4 weeks ago.  Things had not been going great.   Tony's knee had been hurting and we were not riding as often.   Last Sunday his knee really started to hurt and he was thinking that the trip wouldn't happen for him.   We all were starting to be very disappointed.   He decided last minute to get a doctor's opinion.   We love our nurse practitioner.   She is down to earth and wouldn't steer us in the wrong direction.  She said it was his IT band.   He had a second opinion with the same result.   That doctor was humorous and said "so you were pulling a bike trailer up a mountain?"   Interpreted to mean..."ok, no wonder your leg hurts, silly!"   He hit up physical therapy and now we ride!   We will be doing some stretches and icing everyday along the way but we are both feeling good about the trip.  

What time is it?   Road trip time!   We gotta get to Maine to start this 

adventure!