Season 2 Episode 4 (9/11): South Thomaston to Bath

Season 2 Episode 4 (9/11): South Thomaston to Bath –

51 miles. 3,458’ climbing. 

Ugh, the roosters crowed at 5:30 a.m. and kept at it for an hour. That’s something they don’t advertise at the Weskeag Inn, but otherwise last night’s stay was wonderful especially its peaceful location on the banks of the Weskeag River. Pretty interesting to see a tidal river. 

Weskeag River

Inn owner and hostess Ann fueled us with blueberry scones, quiche and her signature dish, French apple crepes from the recipe handed down to her from her French-Canadian grandma memere. And topped with home-made Maine maple syrup, that she helped boil the sap from the tree tapping. I didn’t even know Maine maple syrup was a thing. It was all so good, we ate as if we didn’t know where our next meal was coming from. Come to think of it, we didn’t know!

We talked with Ann about the local economy and the nature of her seasonal business that pretty much shuts down to zero guests after leaf peeping season until Memorial Day. The exception is when out of town relatives come at Christmas, her place is the “extra room”.  

She also let us know the U.S. National Toboggan Championships, with a chute that launches riders onto the frozen lake, happens at the nearby Camden Snow Bowl. Definitely something I’d like to check out in the winter. 

About a half hour into our ride, we came to Thomaston. Not sure why I love small town USA with diagonal parking on Main Street? Is it nostalgia for the small towns like Island Pond, VT where Heather and I met at age 11 and 14 respectively? But that’s another story.

Main St., Thomaston, Maine

In spotting the many flags, I wasn’t sure if the display was on account of it being 9/11. Though in general, I find small towns and rural USA to display more of red white and blue. Heather and I have been continuing our morning routine since staying at the former Fort Clark Springs in Bracketville, TX last fall. Every morning we recite aloud the Pledge of Allegiance to the first flag we ride by. Today’s pledge has more meaning to me as we recall our personal memory of 9/11. Heather was teaching on Wall St. that day, and felt her building shake. She made it safely home after walking about 4 miles when 8 months pregnant with Matt. I worked in Tower One back in 1990 for 6 months when I first moved to NY. So easy to take so much for granted and lose sight of the simple truth that there but for the grace of God go I. 

On the topic of morning routine, the death of Queen Elizabeth II has triggered a nearly forgotten memory. Growing up going to public schools in Canada, my older sister and I sang in class in the morning the Canadian anthem plus God Save the Queen. How odd. 

At about 11:30, we came to a sign that was speaking to me, and I stopped. 

A sign that spoke to me as I was indeed craving!

Heather questioned why I stopped and said this place is not going to have what I’m looking for. But my curiosity led me to enter into what seemed a health store. I met Maryjo (MJ) who proceeded to tell me about their heathy shakes with all the many benefits especially the vitamins and minerals. I didn’t need to hear them - she had me at the word shake. 

Shakes but read the health benefits!

I went back outside to tell Heather I was getting a shake, to which I got an eye roll as 1) it was before noon, 2) she doesn’t like stopping, and 3) we had an ice cream store recommended to us already in Bath as our destination. Why did I need two shakes today? She thought I was ridiculous. 

The answer of course is I don’t “need” any, but the treats, sweets, food and shakes is all part of my mental cycling game. A cross country ride, where you have to get on your bike day after day, on some days you’d rather not, is plenty physically challenging but I’d say is more mentally so. If you think about cycling 2,800 miles, it‘s daunting and seems insurmountable. But when I break it down into daily rides and even more so into my morning ride to a treat, and then a midday ride to lunch and then an afternoon ride to a rewarding and refreshing cool dessert, it’s manageable. The anticipation is fuel itself.

True, we were already planning on ending our ride at Witch Spring Hill Ice Cream which our friend Diane highly recommended to us. But for me there was no dilemma, for where is it written thou shalt not have two shakes in a day? Plus there’s YOLO. 

So back to Heather, she came inside and assessed and in her very Heather like way, not to be outdone by me said if you’re having one then I am, too. 

We chatted with MJ, a special Ed teacher during the week, who managed the crew here as her weekend gig. She explained the whole shake making process as if it were an apothecary. 

Well wouldn’t you know, it was my craving but Heather’s raving! She went bonkers over her salted caramel liquid lunch, meal replacement shake. She carried on about how if we lived here, she’d be here every week. My personal review was this was great as a meal, but is its own category that cannot fairly be compared to an ice cream dessert shake. 

MJ and crew with new superfan!

And wouldn’t you know it, four hours later when we pedaled up to the Witch Spring Hill Ice Cream - it was closed. Lesson learned! Without apologizing for distorting the proverbs, a shake in the mouth is worth two in the mind, or don’t count your shakes before they blend. And on the practical side, check store hours online before pedaling uphill and 1.5 miles past your accommodations.

We arrived at our home for the evening, our first Warm Showers (WS) host of the trip. We were looking forward to it as we’ve been hosting riders at our home this spring and summer and enjoy the interactions. 

[For new readers unfamiliar with WS, it’s a wonderful community of strangers hosting strangers who show up on a bike and without pay. The medium of exchange is conversation and learning about one another. You can learn more here.]

We text our kids daily upon arrival to share we safely arrived and are off our bikes for the day. Heather included that we are at our Warm Showers host in Bath, Maine. To which Syd quickly replied, isn’t that more like a Warm Bath? Touché. 

Our hosts Joe and Charley were wonderful and typical WS hosts which is to say they are genuine, sincere, interesting and interested, hospitable, trusting, adventurous, kind people. Salt of the earth kind of folks!

It turns out we also lucked into an experience as if we were staying with Kramer and Poppie (Seinfeld reference if you need). For dinner, we made our own pizza, all “very supervised” as Kramer would say! Joe had built his own wood-burning brick oven in his yard, and they even had pizza shovels to make us feel like pros. The result was scrumptious! 

Joe’s self-built pizza oven

Making your own pie

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