June 7th

We started out with another "fresh" morning in Maine, but it warmed up nicely in the sunshine.  We headed inland today, away from the coast.  Seems there are too many bays and inlets to negotiate around if we were to stay closer to the coast.  We rode through the sizable  town of Kennebunk, and quickly into the town of West Kennebunk.  The traffic was pretty light on a Sunday morning, so made for easy riding.  To quote Marilyn B - "once again, lovely homes and rural properties, green countryside, lakes in the woods and small settlements".  The first 30 miles or so were pretty easy going.  This is a river crossing close to the village of Standish.

And then the hills began.....  Nancy I., a local from these parts, promised us ice cream at Skippy 's Scoops at 40 miles.  Alas - Skippy was not open until noon and we were there at 10:30. Another missed ice cream opportunity!

The scenery was lovely, but much like other days so I didn't stop for many photos.  Just as we turned onto Depot Rd at mile 51 I noticed this street sign going the other way.  Seems like an odd name; wonder what the story is.

On Depot Road we had a long winding downhill with ugly railway tracks at the bottom where we lost all momentum.  No sure it made much difference, though, for the long killer climb with grades up to 16%.  I must say I didn't enjoy the last 30 miles or so very much.  Narrow to no shoulders, traffic in places, crappy pavement and hills.  And the hills were probably the least annoying part.  With lots of turns to look out for it's hard to take your eyes off the road for even a second to check the cue sheet or your mileage.  Oh well, the drivers seemed to be mostly OK with us all over the roads trying to avoid the cracks and potholes.

We encountered another bike event towards the end of our day.  A women's ride out of Freeport, so for the second consecutive day we benefited from having course marshals out for another event.

A bunch of us were at the hotel by 1-ish so we had a lovely lunch (lobster roll & salad for me) at a bistro just down the street.  Freeport is the home of LL Bean and there are three huge stores plus an outlet.

I managed to find a few sale items that I don't need but bought anyway.  Lots of other outlet stores in town as well so I spent some time browsing about.  Can't believe I missed high tea back at the hotel!  We're staying in a lovely hotel - the Harraseeket Inn.  Probably the best place yet.

Tomorrow is our last rest day.  May T. (from our ST13 trip) rode with us today and is going to take some of us over to her place on Little Diamond Island tomorrow.  Great to see her again and very kind of her to take us for the day.  Three more cycling days......

Stats for the day.
103 km from Kennebunk ME to Freeport ME.  That takes me over 4000 km for the trip so far.  3500 feet of climbing and comfortable temps (13C to 24C) and sunny.