Live Free or Die

I started following a different route. Directions from my book about cycling up the Atlantic coast. I can use my GPS if I want to locate a library or a restaurant, but I didn't want it for one other thing, and really didn't need it at all. I stopped at a library in Beverly Farms, a community just north of where Nick lives. I made photocopies of all of the pages of directions up through Bangor Maine. These directions are stupid easy. No worries about the book being 15 years old - it doesn't seem like much has changed up here. Following these directions helped to make my day fantastic. The scenery and weather helped with the rest.

I'm traveling up the coast with one beautiful view after another. I can't get lost. I'm exploring every little downtown. I don't even deserve to be this lucky. Dude, you've got to see this.

I'm taking pictures. I'll post them when I get an easy chance to do so. I'm not in the mood to mess with that, and with a 4 gig card in my camera, I don't really need to. I'll go back and post them in the appropriate places. They're date and time stamped, so no sweat.

I went 60-something miles, and was ready to quit while I was ahead, but didn't see a good sleeping place. I got into New Hampshire. Live free or die, bro. I love that. I stopped at a whale watching tour booth and asked about camping to see what kind of answer I could get. The girl there was just goofing on the internet anyway, so she really tackled the question in a helpful way. I said I could just as well sleep where there were some woods, and this prompted some real help. Three turns away, and only half a mile was the town forest. She thought that would be perfect, and nobody would bother me. It sounded good, so I went and checked it out. She even wrote down the directions for me. Indeed, it was exactly what I was looking for.

Since I'm so smart, I bought liquor and soda earlier in the day. Not enough to kill me though. At 7:21pm I was typing and sipping and sitting on a bench watching two dudes practice lacrosse. Waiting for the sun to go down. As the sun went down, the mosquitos came out in force. This worries me, 'cause where I'm headed, the mosquitoes are supposed to run especially amok in mosquito clouds. I wasn't too bothered at all on last year's trip, but I've been getting pretty effected while hiding/camping this time. I used my mosquito suit. I had to slap some big bloody fellas. The good news is that the bites don't last on me very long, and don't itch for very long after the bite. Having those guys land all over me is still not fun at all.

Too much liquor. I was stumbling around and making calls. I didn't drink for the past two days, and I guess you can call that making up the difference. You could also call it baseball, or simply the facts. I've been carrying the new Dr. Dog album around on my iPod, waiting for the right time to hear it for the first time. All fucked up in a bag in the woods was it. Wow. That is an album. You should hear these guys. I'm happy to know them.