Following the Beam

There is a dog barking as I am very close to someone’s house inside a graveyard. Every time he comes out he barks and I can hear the owners talking about him hearing an animal. Let’s hope he doesn’t run off and come bust me tonight in the small village of Vassalboro, Maine.

I’m having a bit of problems getting data fro my GPS to show where I’ve come from, and where I ended up, and hopefully in the next few days I can stop to troubleshoot it.  My Stat’s and photos all rely on the location data as I have a tough time remembering where things were taken quite often, and at the end of the day the last thing I want to do is review the photos and tag them with extra information  manually. I’ve been mucking about with some of the code to automate my daily logs so this is likely the issue. First few weeks of kinks and then it’s all downhill from there.

I’ve had quite the interesting past few days here in the USA – I woke up in Winn quite early in the morning due to sun rising an hour earlier (It rises at 5:20am here) and was up and on the road by 8, rain coming down, but not enough to get the rain pants on. It was an easy 15km into the next city where I took the opportunity to stop into a restaurant for some breakfast and coffee. My new rule is if it is shitty outside, it’s time to deal with someone else making breakfast for you – Even better is that it is ridiculously cheap here to sit somewhere. $4.99 for unlimited coffee (4 please!) and a 3 egg cheese omlette with hash browns, and 6 slices of toast. When I was sitting in there an older couple said they saw me pedaling, and I asked if I looked as if I was struggling, they laughed and we kept to ourselves the rest of the time they were there. I caught up on some emails and looked at a map to see what was coming for the day, and while I was getting up to leave one of the waitresses came over to me and let me know my bill and gratuity had been taken care of by the older couple. Apparently they were regulars, both retired and one was a Maine State Trooper. I was pretty much flabbergasted, and left them a little note for the  next time they came in. I couldn’t help grinning for the next 10km. The rain picked up so I gave in to put on the rain pants and put a plastic bag over the speaker system, as I wasn’t interested in riding silently today. Disco was on the menu and I made decent distance riding Highway 2A which while busy at times, it had a wonderful shoulder, great paved conditions, and next to no climbs. My momentum has been building over the past little bit and I’m remembering little tricks like rocking my handlebars back and forth when climbing a hill, and starting to shift a more fluidly with the Rohloff Hub and Grip Shifter. Shifting has been wonderful, where as in the past I would have to take my hands off the handlebar causing some instability while riding to shift from the drop handlebars I once had on the old bicycle. The noise is starting to dissipate from gears 1-7 yet I do notice a bit of slippage sometimes when shifting multiple gears at once, and the problem has seemed to get worse today – this is likely a small tension adjustment of the shifter cable. Time to read the manual.

I can’t say I was soaked, but certainly moist, rain seeping into any hole it could find, and my internal body heat starting to condense inside the jacket and pants. I made it to a city named Old Town, pulled out my Phone (which has now turned into simply an Mp3 Player, Wi-Fi Access Point Sniffer, and mail retriever). I found a great signal at a bar across the street and popped in figuring that it was too  ugly to cook still and sat down and made conversation with many of the locals drinking massive 28oz beers for $2.25 – I abstained and ordered another coffee and a burger, while I sent a batch of email I had written in days past, and started to plan out where I was going to stay. I spent an hour and a half in the pub with locals telling me where nice hotels were, and one telling me where a huge graveyard could be found, beside R.M. Flagg, a store (you can’t miss it!). The name sounded familiar and I put it in the back of my head, deciding to try my luck at a last minute stay using the Couchsurfing Service. I was very close to Bangor Maine, and wasn’t going to make my originally intended location – Waterville as I had made a slight calculation error to the tune of 1.6x – Yup, somewhere along the lines my mapping system switched over from the metric system to the ass backwards units of measure the United States uses, in fact, they are only 1 of 2 countries that still use miles! The other country is somewhere in Africa. I sent off a few requests and hopped on my bicycle knowing that I was sufficiently amped up on caffeine and I’d take my chances trying to find an open Wi-Fi network along the way to see if anyone would respond in time. Next thing you know, I was in the parking lot of R.M. Flagg – pulling a great signal and feeling quite happy that someone had accepted my last minute request. I plugged in the directions into my GPS and snapped a photo of the building I was at for some unknown reason..

It wasn’t long thereafter that I stopped on the bike and realized why it seemed so familiar to me. I was in Bangor, Maine, home of a very well known fiction writer who goes by the name of Stephen King, who has written an epic set of novels about a nomadic gunslinger searching for enlightenment, and is chasing a dark being, known as Randall Flagg. This made me laugh and I started thinking back to the 7 series book collection which I have read more than once and plan on going back to it quite shortly – The character buildup made me feel like I was almost a part of them, the storyline goes from interesting before morphing into a world that is quite similar to our own – parts of it takes place during various times of the 1900’s and early 2000’s. This was Stephen King’s first book, which he set aside thinking it wouldn’t go anywhere and eventually released the first volume to the public, with great response – It took him nearly 35 years to complete the whole series, with fans begging to know the ending. It nearly never was completed as in 1999 Stephen King was hit by a van while walking one day.

I pedaled through the downtown area of Bangor, with its funky rounded buildings, and unique architecture before soggily banging on the door of my last minute couchsurfing request. It was a family who were very welcoming to me, and made me feel at home within a matter of minutes. Great conversation was had throughout the first part of our meet up and I was feeling good after a shower and getting my bedding together. At the dinner table we continued talking and I mentioned the R.M. Flagg store that I had stopped and past, mentioning to them that I was a fan (but not his number #1 fan) of his writing and thought that he lived close by in the area. They mentioned that they saw him all the time, always with a nose in a book while walking his dog, a Corgi and he has done great things for the community (no wonder why he didn’t sere a van trying to run him over!). I asked where he lived, and they proceeded to laugh – He lived right across the street. After dinner I headed out with some of the younger residents and they showed me his 2 houses, one being apparently his personal library and guest house recently purchased in the past few years and his main residence. Wrought iron gates sealed off his property to the outside world, complete with the letter “K” embedded into the gates, and gargoyles on the top posts. We took a photo of me doing a headstand and I walked away from the experience again floored from the coincidence.

I’ve been calling this Phase “Killing Time” traveling without any real purpose through the United States, and have since realized that I should go and visit all the locations outlined in the series of books – So I’ll be switching things up and ‘Following the Beam’ from now on. Do read the books, they aren’t your typical horror child that jumps out of the corn field after pulling a dead cat of a graveyard and throwing it into a car that wakes up at night and drives over your enemies. This is superb writing, and an inspirational journey of someone searching for something in their life, but not entirely sure what it actually is, even when they can see it plainly in sight. Tell me what you think if you make it through them all – Apparently a series of movies (3) are coming out with 2 seasons of TV episodes in between them all in 2013 or 2014 – This could be cool, and I’m excited to see the movie adaptation. I’ve also heard a rumor is that there is to be a Dark Tower 4.5 – Filling in the gaps. I’m happy with the story as it is, but will be more than happy to shell out a few bucks and restart the whole series again when it does come out.

I had a poor sleep however and tossed and turned throughout the night, even though it was a wonderful warm environment, comfortable bed, and quiet – no earplugs required. I awoke at 6:30 unable to fall back asleep and eventually gave in to the coffee demon dealing with some loose ends left over from Newfoundland. I checked the weather and planned out the next few days, hoping to get myself to Portland Maine for the weekend for a few days rest. There are a couple meetup’s happening and I intend on showing up at them to meet some new friends and hopefully find a place to hang my helmet. One of the hosts of the house I was staying at, Susan was very helpful in trying to find me a place to stay tonight (and actually succeeded for Waterville, although I had already passed it by the time I received word). Today was  bit of  rough ride, lots of hills, and very poor road conditions, although it saved 20km for the overall route. Sometimes I’m not sure if that is a real gain as I lose it all struggling up hills. However some of the scenery was beautiful, lots of trees that haven’t filled in yet, which has been a common site since I restarted on the road making way for huge rolling pastures, old Victorian Houses and a huge amount of graveyards. I spied a few 1700 markers along the way – there is an awful lot of history in this area, not to mention lots of people. Apparently the city of Bangor swells from 70,000 to 230,000 people daily due to the surrounding areas coming in for work. I noticed a rush at 5-6pm passing me, and kept my rear blinker light on, turned down the music and made sure I was visible. Everyone’s been very helpful to me so far, very happy to stop and speak to me and waving and honking. Some are saying I’ve got a lot of guts to do what I’m doing, hey at least its better than them calling me crazy.

I’ve got a fairly long day ahead of me tomorrow if I’m to arrive in Portland for 5:30pm – 113km is showing on the maps, which shouldn’t be too much of a problem – My muscles are used to the workout I’ve been giving it, and my body has started turning into ripples again. This is cool, but it also means I need to watch my food consumption, as I don’t want to start losing too much weight. I ate 2 loafs of bread, 1 brick of cheese, 6 Little Debbie’s Cookies, 2 Bananas, 4 packets of Oatmeal, 2 Oranges, 1 Apple, 2 cans of Soup, 2 cans of Oysters, and I’m going to eat a packet of Pop Tarts right now for a night time snack. Who cares if I just brushed my teeth!