I got started at 8:30 this morning, a couple hours earlier than yesterday, and despite similar challenges with hills throughout the day, managed to double yesterday’s mileage. If I continue to double my mileage every day, I will reach my destination in record time!

Being on a bike allows me the chance to see some history along the route that might otherwise pass me by. And being interested in historical sites also provides a clever red herring that suggests to passersby that I am a guy on a bike who is really interested in history, as opposed to a guy on a bike who is really tired and will grab any excuse he can to stop and rest.

Here are a few photos of the Penobscot River Narrows and the bridge I took to cross it, and also a marker for a battle there that was one of the greatest defeats for the colonists in the American Revolution. In 1779, in the largest combined infantry/naval operation undertaken by colonial forces, the colonists failed to overtake the British at Fort George, and needed to burn or sink their vessels as they fled.

Here is a view from the bridge:

I couldn’t resist stopping at “Just Barb’s Restaurant” in Stockton Springs, where I ordered blueberry pie (a Maine specialty) and ice cream, which I ate at a picnic table in front of the restaurant.

Tonight, we are staying in Belfast, Maine (population 6,700), where the river that runs through town is called the Passagassawakeag. The river’s name, which is Native American, is believed to mean “a sturgeon’s place,” or a “place for spearing sturgeon by torchlight.”