John White (and Creean) on a bike: SOAKING WET!

Cree says:

Starting from the end of the day, when we got to the hotel

⁃ specifically, the bathtub to take our socks off

⁃ yes, in the tub because of X1000 pieces of dirt

⁃ yes, this dirt hatred runs in the family

All I could do was look down and say “good job legs!”. Sweet, sweet delusion.

Riding that far ,70miles, (in that time frame) for the first time is the hardest physical activity I’ve ever done. I know. Shocker right?

The song “everything is awesome” from the LEGO movie came into my mind right off the bat (thanks for that mind!), but really except for the phenomenal landscape, not so awesome says my neck, back, head, etc.

Honestly though, my morale is still humming along with that tune because, again, what an experience. I’m excited and full of electrolytes going into day 2!

Dad joke of the day (on a back trail) “Are those the Red Coats up there? Yep.. they are on our team (dad had a red coat on)”

He says:

Memory is short, but there may have been only 1 ride 7 years ago that was more challenging than today. When you are thinking 63 miles and maybe 6 hours of riding, that turns into 70 miles ( must have mis-calculated something) and 10.5 hours of riding.... that's soul sucking. We basically had pouring rain for 8 hours on day 1 ( I rode 5 weeks, CA - FL without a drop of rain last time). We had 12 miles of riding on an old dirt path ( wet and soft and you get the picture). Who knew Maine had so many rolling hills.

On the other hand, Creean was just AMAZING for her first real day out there. She has no quit in her and she had every chance to throw in the towel. What a trooper.

The scenery was stunning today along the coast of Maine, it's just too bad visibility was about 500 yards and we had to have our head down most of the way just trying to keep it going. After we meandered through Portland, we found our way on to an old rail road bed trail ( not blacktopped) that went through low laying marshlands. We were off and on coastal highway 1 and 1A where the traffic was somewhat heavy but plenty of road space.

Kennebunk, Wells ( founded 1643), and York Harbour are all quaint Ocean side towns with very nice little old homes. Portsmouth, I'm sure was nice, but we were both happy the rain finally stopped, on busy highways and way focused on the road.

Meandered through rural Hew Hampshire the last 18 miles or so in to Exeter and so relieved the day was over.

The sort of bad news was picture taking was not good when it's raining so hard so little to show the beauty of it all here. ( also, probably lost my simple digital camera today due to water).

Stats:

Stats - 70 miles

Calories - 3,250

Time - 10:30

Total Climb - 1,836 feet
Portland ME - Exeter NH
Room 212
TL Juan's Mexican

Starting off with all smiles 7:00 AM