Our Bike Trip

This weekend Aaron and I went on our very first bike trip together. I'll be honest; I wasn't real keen on the idea when Aaron brought the trip up to me the first time. I had never been on a long ride before. The longest I had gone was 4 hours and I was sore when we got home. But I thought why not. Once I agreed to go, we went to LL Bean to get some wet weather gear. And boy are we glad we did! All day Saturday it rained off and on but it was still a lot of fun. The wet weather gear worked great and I had enough layers on to stay warm.

Saturday, bright and early, we headed north to meet up with the rest of the group. There were 9 bikes and 11 people on the trip. The first day we went all the way to Presque Isle and stayed at the Presque Isle Inn and Convention Center overnight.

Sunday morning we woke up and headed north. We went all the way to the top of Maine! For about an hour or so we rode parallel to New Brunswick, Canada. There was only a river separating the countries. We could have swam there easily!

This is how north we were!

It was awesome seeing Maine on the Harley. The state is beautiful! Aaron and I both commented on how much northern Maine reminded us of PA. We had such a great time! I will be the first to admit I am surprised I made it all in one piece.

The whole trip was about 800 miles and each day we rode about 11(+) hours. We had a lot of stops in between...thank goodness! We stopped about every hour / hour and a half so people didn't get too sore.

I didn't take a lot of pictures on the ride because the camera spent most of the ride in the case. But I did manage to get a few.

Here is the crew in Millinoket, ME. You can see Mt. Katahdin in the background. OK, so if you squint and really look closely over Aaron's right shoulder you can see it in the distance.

Some of the riders in front of us. This picture was taken the second day. It looked like it was going to rain but it didn't. It was a nice day for a ride. Not to hot, not to cold.

Us on the road.

A random windmill farm we rode past. I think they are so cool!

Aaron and I at a stop in Frenchville, ME.

My babe on his bike.

I saw a lot of strange things on the ride. And I certainly wasn't expecting to see the planets. I thought they were picking on me when they told me to be on the look out for the solar system. But alas, they were not! I am not sure why but up north along route 1 you can see the Maine Solar System Model. I missed most of the planets but I did manage to get this picture of Uranus. I got one of Saturn too but it is really blurry so I will spare you. They each have explanations below them on the ground for you to read. Weird.

I had such a great time on this trip, I told Aaron that we should explore all states we live in this way. On the Harley I really looked around, smelled the great outdoors (the good and the bad) and I was really able to take it all in. A bonus was that we figured out how to put my iPod on underneath my helmet so I even had music to listen too while enjoying the sites.

Some bad parts of the trip were that we lost a rider along the way. She was a novice rider and around going around a corner she lost control in some dirt. She wasn't going fast at all so she didn't hit very hard. She ended up with stitches and a brace on her right leg. It was scary seeing her laying there! And scary when they put her in the ambulance. I am so glad she is alright!

Another not so good moment was me seeing my first moose. I did finally get to see a moose but not quite how I wanted. Next time I hope to see a live moose on the side of the road, not a mushed one in the middle. Gross!

I am happy that I went. I never could have seen so much of Maine otherwise. I really am looking forward to our next bike ride!