rain rain rain

It’s been raining, virtually nonstop, since I started pedaling south on the East Coast Greenway three days ago. I experienced nearly 90 minutes of sunshine on Saturday when I arrived at the Sun Shed farm. I was awarded with a bald eagle drifting overhead as an augury of sorts for more rain—because it rained all day yesterday on my ride down to Ellsworth, ME.

But before I left Rebecca and Varien were kind enough to give me a tour of the farm. Here’s some of the menagerie:

Baby rabbits in their “zoomy stage”

A few of the the two different types of porkers on the farm (bred for different purposes)

An alpaca, sheep, and goats galore

Tiny piglets, no larger than the length of my feet

They’re predominantly a breeding farm for pets and service farm animals. Great tour, great stay. Thanks to Rebecca and Varien!

But I had to get on with the pedal pushing, despite desperately wishing to stay warm and dry.

The Narraguagus River inlet on a prototypically rainy and foggy late-Spring May day.

My first stop was the Milbridge House Restaurant for the first real (non-energy bar) meal since lunch the prior day. And this sheet of a cheese omelet, sated my hunger…

… and I had a leftover breakfast sandwich for later, to boot.

The hour I spent inside the Restaurant was the driest I’d spend all day.

Even though I’d stop at Traceys Seafood Diner later in Sullivan, ME, I was so deeply chilled and wet that I had to keep repeating the adage on the wall to myself.

After all, I chose this adventure so I have to take the crappy weather with the good weather to come—though it won’t be for another six days as this weather system of rainy 40 to 50 degree days is stalled over the region.

But there’s plenty to see through the fog and rain. Like long cove at low tide before the diggers go out to harvest clams.

Or the peaks of Acadia National Park in the distance across Frenchman’s Bay…

… just kidding, the peaks—Mt. Cadillac, Champlain and Dorr Mountains are completely socked in by those distant clouds. But it’s, nonetheless, a beautiful scene in this light, too.

No funky farmhouse in Ellsworth tonight just a cheaper hotel. But it will provide what I sorely need: warmth, dryness, laundry and a hot shower.

My surgically repaired right knee is cranky again. But that’s become par for the course on big elevation or big mile days. Today was elevation, as the miles were modest.

Bike Day 29:
Start: Cherryfield, ME
End: Ellsworth, ME
Miles: 38.40

The knee will be back to (somewhat) regular size tomorrow morning. And tomorrow morning I’ll head to Bar Harbor, ME, to await the tour group. We’ll all meet each other for the first time on Wednesday. The “down” weather days at least will be tempered by good company. There’s how “Life Is Good.”

Here’s the cure… plenty o’ ice!

What I’m Reading:

Much of what we see now is fake, and the reality we face is full of horrors. More and more of the world is slipping beyond my comprehension.

— Jia Tolentino / “My Brain Finally Broke” / The New Yorker