NEC 2006 Day 2
[backdated to the date]
Very nice day, but very, very hot. So hot in the room that very little sleep was had. Got up about 5, rested until about 6, then went to run some hot water over my shoulder and back. Off to breakfast at about 6:30.
Got on the road about 7:45 and rode for a bit with Barb’s friend Lisa. It was tough going for a while until my shoulder and back warmed up or the Ibuprofin kicked in or whatever it is that happens around mile 20. But since I couldn’t turn my head (and could barely hold it up) I couldn’t see whether Lisa was with me and eventually got separated from her somewhere around Kittery, ME. I was moving at an okay pace, but I felt every single bump in the road.
This is about my fourth or fifth time through that area and every time I go there I try to remember to take a picture of the Dark Shadows house, but always forget.
The only real car trouble was in Kennebunk where an SUV with a Dick Cheney bumper sticker was upset at having to share the road with anyone and leaned on the horn quite heaving and swore like a vice president on a senate floor as she passed.
The first rest stop was again at Nubble Light, quite scenic. There was a guy there (not one of us) towing his two dogs in a Burley trailer, and another guy who liked talking to anyone about bikes for a long, long time. I think he must have been there for an hour talking to various people.
As I say, it was hot. Hot hot hot. And the next rest stop was in the parking lot behind a Cumberland Farms. No shade, no breeze, just hot. One of the two-day riders was sagged into the stop with a flat tire. She was getting quite upset that no one had a spare tube for her and she got fairly irate that it could be up to two hours before the mechanics would be by to fix her tire for her. I was just about ready to give her my spare tube until I saw her actually stamp her little feet and not being able to get what she wanted. A friend of hers finally came into the stop and gave her a tube, then she went about pouting that no one would fix it for her. I don’t really have a lot of sympathy for that. You really need to be self-sufficient as much as possible and if you don’t come prepared, don’t whine about the (volunteer) mechanics not getting there in a timely manner. This ain’t the tour. There are no team cars. It was hot. I left.
Ran into Jim B and daughter Denise at the third rest stop, traditionally at the Lobster Pot restaurant, only about 12 miles from the finish. I got yelled at by the matre d’ for using the rest room without buying anything. They put a port-a-john outside for those who didn’t want lunch, she said. It “taxes the system” apparently. Grossly inflated prices for mediocre food for the 100 or so riders who did eat lunch there apparently doesn’t tax the system. Whatever.
Rode on into UNE in Biddeford in time for a quick swim and some more sweating.
Then was time for the two-day riders to go home. It’s always a bit sad to see them go. Loading the bikes onto the truck and getting on the bus for home. It gets very quiet after the bus leaves, particularly because it takes the Babineau brothers with it. They’re the high eye around which the maelstrom of Team Adipose revolves.
Only one minor accident today, a two-day rider scraped his arm and back, but nothing terribly serious. He took a spill in front of Pres. Bush’s (41) house. “And I even voted for him,” he said. I don’t think he was home, though. Notable shortage of men in shades with earpieces.
Excellent dinner and no roommate tonight. They must think Mike is still riding or something, but, for several reasons, he was unable to do the full seven days. Wonder if I’ll have a room to myself for the rest of the ride. I doubt it.
UNE gets OLN, so the tour was on in the common room, but so are the laundry facilities. It must have been 120 degrees in there. I’ll get my tour news second hand, TYVM.
Tomorrow we head inland.
