The cue sheet for today's ride can be found at Southern Coast cue sheet, or click on ride description for a starting point.
I woke up to a beautiful day that seemed more like summer than fall. It was sunny, and the temperature was supposed to climb into the 80s. A good day for a bike ride, even though I prefer temperatures in the 70s. I stopped at Starbucks to pick up a cup of coffee for my drive, then headed off to Wells, Maine. The Southern Coast tour (tour 21) started at the Wells Intermodal Transportation Center. There is a park and ride lot there in addition to the train parking lot. I could have taken the train up and back for the day, but I chose to drive so I had the freedom of not having to stick to a train schedule.
The ride followed US 1 for a very short distance, then followed Maine route 9 and assorted back roads. Staying on numbered roads doesn't work too well if you want to see the coast - it's the back roads that follow Maine's very jagged coastline. I rode along Kennebunk beach, and then through the resort / tourist town of Kennebunkport. From there the route continued to go along beaches, then back to route 9, Then out to another beach, then back to route 9. Biddeford Pool was the northernmost point of my day. It was very pleasant riding on some pretty empty roads. I imagine that the beach roads would be a bit congested if I'd done this ride in the summer, but mid-week in September gave me wonderful riding conditions.
I grabbed some Gatorade as I left the house this morning, but uncharacteristically forgot to grab some energy bars. I was going to pick some up along the route, but I just didn't get to it. As it turned out it didn't matter because there were plenty of places to eat along the way. I had a wonderful lobster roll for lunch at Cape Porpoise Lobster. It was just stuffed with fresh lobster meat, with no filler at all. Just lobster and a little bit of mayonnaise in a grilled bun. Yum!
When I stopped for lunch one of the women at Cape Porpoise Lobster said she thought it was too hot to ride. I told her about my hot, hot summer of riding. Temperatures in the 80s are much more pleasant than the 100+ degree days that I had in Missouri and Kansas, and today I even had a small breeze off the ocean to make it more pleasant.
I'm so used to looking for places to stay from my summer trek that I continued to look on my day trip today. There were quite a few inns and B&Bs, but most of them were not near any restaurants. When I'm traveling by bike, I have a strong preference to staying places that are in walking distance to food. I probably could have found some if I really looked, but today was a day trip, and it was more a curiosity for me than a necessity!
