7/8/17 The First Mile

July 09, 2017

A day of dancing through the rain brought us to the end of the road.

After a leisurely morning on the porch with our friends, watching grosbeaks, nuthatches and blue jays vie for the bird feeders while we were drinking beneficial tea made from chaga they had collected in the woods, we said our farewells and headed out into the warm morning.

The Grindstone Falls on the Penobscot River lured us into our first stop of the day. Happily ignorant of the weather brewing around us, we tarried in the sun and enjoyed our stay.

Our road companion for the rest of the day was route 11, as we headed into Aroostook territory. Scene of a bitterly contested border dispute between America and Great Britain, a conflict erupted in 1839. Hungry for the timber that could be gleaned from the lush forests, both sides held firm until a treaty negotiated by a Brit married to an American gave us the boundaries between Maine and New Brunswick that exist today.

With Mt. Katahdin in our sites, we swerved over potholes and navigated miles of gravel. Road warriors that we are, having battled the Alaska Highway, the fight with this stretch, over chunks of rock and frost heaved pavement, was easily won. Following the Fish River, we swam through miles of pristine forest, our progress only hindered by worrisome clouds that converged on our periphery. A few drops of rain goaded Rascal to run some rubber and we sluiced through the storms.

Rain wary, we put in early at Fort Kent. And there we were - 2390 miles from Key West at the end (or the beginning depending on your direction) of Route 1. Another directional milestone for us, I posed for pictures by the signpost. Walking in the rain that we evaded all day, we headed to dinner at the Swamp Buck. The "best food in town" put us into a poutine coma, and we stumbled home to bed.

So close to the border that we can smell Canadian bacon, Rascal rests on her haunches, poised to fly into another country. Riding American, we are secure in our nationality, but crossing over always poses an unknown scenario. There will be different money, metric miles and Tim Hortons everywhere! How will we survive? Easy riders, our worries are few. Tomorrow we will cross and rise into Canada, ready to conquer the Provinces. Three joined as one, Rascal, Jules and I will set out to cross The Great White North. Explorers of life, we ride into our unknowns, constantly plotting new maps that redefine us. Tomorrow is another page of our atlas.