Sunday 7/28 (Day 15) - More Rain in Acadia
     Got up at 7 this morning for the Birds of Acadia hike. It ended up kind of sucking. Within 5 minutes of the talk, I realized that I was one of the best bird watchers there as many didn't have bird books and a few didn't even have binoculars. We spent 45 minutes in the parking lot with the guy going over how to focus, how to look up birds, things to look for ect. A waste of time after making myself get up early. Nothing we ended up seeing were things that I couldn't have seen in Minnesota. That said, I tried to focus on his teach techniques which was beneficial to some extent.
     Went up Cadillac Mtn for a lunch and a good view. Within minutes after getting up there, fog started rolling in killing the view! There is lots of fog here. I still had my lunch and walked around a little.
     The rain started in again after lunch; just in time for my run. I did another stretch of carriage paths. The legs were definitely tired today after logging a lot of miles the last few days.
     Dinner was for sure the highlight. I was back at the supply store for my paid shower (with a lot of quarters this time) and decided to pick up a 6 pack of beer. I got to talking to the guy and asked him where a good place to get a reasonable lobster meal would be. "Right here", he said. I said, no, with sit down, but they had a screened in porch on the side! I ordered a lobster with damn near every side they had on the menu (potato salad, coleslaw, clam chowder) and his wife got working on the lobster. All of it was homemade! They were fine with me cracking open my 6-Pack, so I sat, enjoying the evening, drinking Maine beer and eating lobster! Not to slow down too much, I threw in a slice of her homemade blueberry pie for dessert. After tip, I think it was $30. Hell of a deal.
     After dinner, I checked out the "Head" light house, crawled around on the rocks for a little, then headed back to the campsite to read and sleep. More rain, but still a solid day on the island.

Day High: Dinner at Mom and Pop's place
Day Low: Fog on Mt. Cadillac? Are you kidding me?
Stats
Miles: ?
States: Maine
License Plates:
Bird Species: Common Yellow Throat, Hairy Wood Pecker, Hermit Thrush, Raven

Saturday 7/27 (Day 14) - Acadia in sun!
     Woke up early again with a campsite in mind. This time I was good to go. Got a walk-in site for $14/night and headed to the harbor cruise I had signed up for. The boat ride was great. It was around some of the islands and out to "Isleford" a small town on one of the islands. The trip was lead by a park ranger and one of the captains was a good bird watcher so I chatted it up with him a bit. We ended up seeing harbor seals, tons of ospreys, and Common Guillemot. The sun started coming out to make for an awesome day.
     After lunch, I went to "South Beach" for a cold swim in the ocean. Think Lake Superior in late July. The waves were huge! Like 7 foot swells sometimes. I did a little body surfing, but it was so cold that it was hard to stand for very long.
     Completed another run on the carriage paths and went for my shower at the nearby camping supply general store. There are no showers at Seawall. I walked in with 5 quarters thinking that surely it wouldn't cost more than that. A quick glance at the sign read (to me) 1 quarter for 2 minutes. I plugged in my 4 (it took 4 a time) and was taking my sweet time, enjoying the hot water, and rinsing out the running stuff. Next door, I could hear this poor dad and some kid screaming and refusing to shower. Poor timing in a paid shower. The other compliant kid had commented on how it had almost rinsed off with that set of quarters and I was thinking to myself, how slow can these guys be? 8 minutes for a dollar. Slowly it dawned on me that the 4 quarters wasn't for 8 minutes but for 2! I had misread the damn sign. It was $1 for two minutes. And I had brought no other quarters. I kicked it into high gear and suds-ed everything down as fast I could, knowing I had already wasted a lot of time. It turned out I had about 20 seconds left, I was still trying to rinse when the thing turned off on me. Like a chump, I was scooping water up as it drained to try to get the last bits of suds off. Lesson learned.
    Dinner was mac n cheese again along with a healthy supply of Maine brewed beer. A great day in Acadia. Fantastic weather. I couldn't have asked for much more.

Day high: An awesome swim at the South Beach
Day low: Paid showers? Are you kidding me?
Stats:
Miles: ?
States: Maine
License Plates: Alabama
Bird Species: White Throated Sparrow, Herring Gull, Osprey, Black Backed Gull, Cedar Waxwing, Common Loon, Common Tern, Black Guillemout

Friday Day High: A great run on the carriage paths
Friday Day Low: Holy rain!
Stats:
Miles: 95 or so
States: Maine
License Plates: N/A
Bird Species: N/A

Friday 7/26 (Day 13) - A wet introduction to Acadia
     Woke up at 5:15 this morning in attempt to nab one of the non-reservable campsites at Seawall Campground in Acadia National Park. It was about 45 minutes to Desert Island, and then another 30 to get to the campground. I woke up to rain that only seemed to strength as I drove closer to the ocean. By the time I got to the campground, I decided screw camping for the night, but at least wanted to get the low down of how hard these are to get. I chatted with the ranger for a while, and figured I would just get a motel for the night.

I think this is where they make the sea breeze shampoo

     Swung by the"Common Good" cafe just down the road for some coffee and to research the cheapest motels. This place was great. It was all free-will donations that help fuel a soup kitchen in the winter for the lesser fortunate of the island. I quickly found that a lot of the motels were already booked, and many were more expensive than I wanted. The steady rain continued, so I pushed off finding a room and headed for the carriage paths thinking I might as well run and get that out of the way.
     The carriage paths are amazing. Great surface of crushed rock, steady grades (though lots of hills!), and awesome views. I made it my goal to run every stretch of the 45 mile circuit before leaving.
     Soaked after the run (and it was still raining), I dried off as best I could and headed to Bar Harbor for some soup and finding a motel for the night. Found "Robbin's Motel" for $68 after tax. Considering I was looking at over $100 for a lot of other places, I thought this place was a steal.
     Cooked dinner with the camping stuff to save cash and did an evening walk out to "Bar Island" during low tide. It had finally stopped raining by 8:00, after probably 1.5 in of rain. A thick fog hung over the island. Very surreal. A cool end to a soppy day.

Thursday High: Driving through the Green Mountains, the White Mountains, and rural Main!
Thursday Low: Ben and Jerry's tour. Could have been better
Stats
Miles: 397 miles
States/Provences: Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine
License Plates: Rhode Island, Connecticut, Wyoming
Bird Species: Wild Turkey *(In Maine!)

Thursday 7/25 (Day 12) - Onto Maine
     Today was mainly a travel day. Left Montreal bound for Maine with hopes of putting myself in position close enough to get a non-reservable campsite tomorrow morning early (7AM). The Vermont route was 40 minutes longer than going through Canada, but I wanted to check out the Ben and Jerry's factor, see the Green Mountains, and let's be honest, keep checking off those states :).
     My first stop was in Burlington VT for a run in town/along Lake Champlain. I found a decent bike trail to run on that followed the lake, but there weren't too many views, too much woods in between. Right when I was finishing my run, there was a mailman walking down the street so I asked him where a good deli nearby is. He lead me to Henry's Deli. By suggustion, I got a grilled chicked greek sandwich. Awesome.
     Ben and Jerry's was a bit of a let down. I took the 30 minute tour which was good enough, but was hoping to sample multiple flavors, even if just a small teaspoon. I must have been spoiled by the Theo Chocolate tour, because we ended up with a smallish sample cup of one flavor. Good, but come-on guys!
     Vermont and New Hampshire are quite mountainous. Not as large as the Rockies obviously, but still a lot of relief. That said, it didn't feel rural. More like English Countryside rural. It always seemed like there was a village nearby.
     Finally got into Bangor around 7:30ish and researched the cheapest possible motel on my smart phone. Ended up at "Vacationland" Motel for $66 after AAA discount. The place was actually great! A solid breakfast, good wifi, and a minifridge. After a shakeout run, I did dinner at the family restaurant across the street. got a Crab Roll, chowder, slaw, and a huge mound of french fries and demolished it. Actually an awesome meal and a good price for seafood and quantity. Looking forward to Acadia!

Wednesday 7/24 (Day 11)- Montreal day 3a (eh?)
     After being out until 3 last night, we got a late start to the day. Took it a bit easy in the early afternoon, then headed back to the brew pub for happy hour. After a couple beers, we moseyed to an all you can eat sushi place downtown. My first experience of it in the US. Pretty good food! After dinner, we walked downtown a little, then went to another comedy show, but the 8:00 this time. Same thing, a "Mystery" show so you don't know who you are going to see. Another 8 comedians or so, the headliner being Colin Quinn from weekend update back in the day. I was impressed with the whole lineup!

Day High: All you can eat sushi was bomb, but the comedy show was awesome
Day Low: N/A

Stats:
Miles: N/A
States/Provences: Quebec
License Plates: N/A
Birds: N/A

Tuesday 7/23 (Day 10)- Day 2a (eh?)

A shot of really thick maple syrup candy at the market

     Day two in Montreal was more of checking out the town. Forgot to mention that we walked through Mcgill's campus yesterday. Today, we drove up to the top of Mt. Royal Park to check out the view. Did a little hike up there too. Next up was a market, kind of like a farmer's market with some non-local stuff too. Lunch was downtown at a Lebanese place for a Shawarma chicken wrap. Evidently Montreal has a large Lebanese population too. On the way back, we walked through the casino just to do it I guess. No gambling though.
     Hit up another run along the water front and the islands just off of downtown. Dinner was Poutine! Very dirty and awesome. Afterward, we hit up a bunch of bars in the downtown. The Distillery did huge cocktails in mason jars. I had a mojito and some milk and maple based one. When in Rome.
     There is also the international comedy fest going on in Montreal right now, so we got $20 "mystery" tickets to the 12 AM show. You don't have any idea who will be on stage. We had a good mix of 8 comedians or so, the largest name being Jess Ross from comedian central's "roasts". Other than one guy, it was a great show.

Day High: The first Poutine experience. Everything I could ever want it to be.
Day Low: Humid as hell on the run.

Stats:
Miles: N/A
States/Provences: Quebec
License Plates: N/A
Birds: N/A

Monday 7/22 (Day 9)- Montreal

     Got a reasonable start this morning, bound for the Canadian border. Pierre-Paul's parents (whose house I crashed at) live on the "South Shore" of the St. Lawrence which is actually an inner-ring suburb of the city, but very close (think Edina). I dropped my bags off and we took off for downtown and lunch. PP took me to a deli called Schwartz's for a brisket sandwich. Delicious. Afterward, we hit up a bagel place called Fairmount Bagels (lots of Jews in Montreal) to bring some back for his ma. We also snacked on one. Happy hour at Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel, the best beer place in the city as proclaimed by Pierre-Paul. The place was awesome.
     Late afternoon, I waddled out on a run along the river. There is a path that separates the canal and the St. Lawrence. The thing is amazing. It stretches on for miles. There was even a small dirt path that ran along the water, though I accidentally stumbled upon some old fat dude bathing nude. Woops.
     Evening was chill. His mom made a great dinner. Emilee was there with her parents. A good day.

Day High: First time in Montreal!
Day Low: Why is it that you never stumble upon beautiful models bathing nude?

Stats:
Miles: 56
States/Provinces: New York, Quebec
License Plates: N/A
Bird Species: N/A

 

Sunday 7/21 (day 8)- Headed North
     Got up earlyish at deLaubs, and headed back to Princeton via Penn Station and the commuter train. Henderson met me at the station with the honda and I was Montreal bound by noon. The first hour of this drive wasn't much, windy suburban roads of New Jersey and New York, but it turned into rolling hills and fantastic views pretty quick. North of Albany, I took a pit stop in Glens Falls at a small brewery to pick up another growler. It seemed like a really cool town. Right at the edge of Lake George and at the bottom of the Adirondacks.
     It was slower going than I had hoped, so I showed up to Cumberland State Park (outside of Plattsburgh, NY) chasing a setting sun on my run. The park is near a peninsula on the lake, so it was amazing views for the run. Other than that, this was mainly a travel day. The miles put me right on the edge of the Canadian border.

Day High: Seeing Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. I really want to get back here to explore them!
Day Low: Hard to even place one...

Stats:
Miles: 350
States: New Jersey, New York
License Plates: Nevada, Delaware
Birds: Ring Billed Gull

Saturday 7/20 (Day 7)- Another Day in Manhattan

    Hauled myself out of bed and took a rather sick subway ride to Central Park for my run. The weather had cooled off a little bit, but I still felt nauseous on the ride over. I've run in the park a number of times before, but this place is still awesome. Like a carnival of distance runners. The legs still didn't feel great, but better. I ended up on the carriage paths for a while which were great for the legs.
     Early afternoon, we hit up an all you can drink brunch in East Village. They definitely delivered. Lots of mimosa's, bloody mary's, and a couple margarita's. This put us down for a while, but was well worth it.
     Later in the evening, we headed over to the high line park. This is one of the coolest sites in NYC. It's this raised rail road bed they converted into a park that stretches a couple miles on the second story. We walked it with the setting sun and a storm rolling in. Absolutely gorgeous.
     Dinner was a couple Budweisers and some anchovy pizza. Not a bad way to wrap up my stay in New York.

Day High: The high line was one of the coolest things I've done in New York. Check it out if you have never been there!
Day Low: The nauseous, hungover subway ride to Central Park sucked quite a bit.
Stats
Miles: N/A
States: New York
License Plates: N/A
Birds: N/A

Friday 7/19 (day 6)- Manhattan
Well, deLaubs had to work today (I guess some people have to do that almost daily) so I was on my own until 5:30. Had a rather cavalier wake up, which was rather stupid to put off the run in soon to be 100 degree heat. By the time I got to the Hudson river, it was hot as hell. I dragged through one of the most miserable runs in quite a while, but there were plenty of water stops and I didn't die.

Yup, still Manhattan. Look at that view!

     After a shower and some dunkin doughnuts, I was northbound on the "A" train to Washington Heights. I've never been there before, and wanted to see the park, plus Chris said the Cloister art museum was worth checking out. I'm not knowledgeable on art and have a rather short attention span, and this was European medievel art which makes it even tougher. Jesus was big with you guys, we get it, moving on.
      That said, the building itself was pretty sweet, and the courtyards (cloisters) were fantastic. They were replicas of places in Europe, and many had tried to use as many of the original pieces from the ruin as possible. Very cool.

Balling in 100 degree heat? Ain't nobody got time for that...

     After the museum, I wandered the park a little, then hit up a Dominican place for a late lunch. More "new age" fare, but delicious nonetheless. On the way back to lower Manhattan, I snapped a quick pic at Mr. Audubon's grave and Rucker Park. Two very different landmarks, which attract wildly different people, but both oddly significant in my life at some level.
     Waiting for deLaubs, I wandered Chinatown for a while, got Vietnamese Iced Coffee, and took it all in.
     Happy hour after work somehow turned into dinner at a Venezuelan place, which turned into drinking games at his place, which turned into a late bedtime (for a sleepy midwesterner at least) which turned into a hungover run the next morning....

Day High: Feeling like I know NYC fairly well for someone that was never lived there? Washington Hts, Rucker, no map the entire trip (albeit a smartphone) Good Stuff!
Day Low: Holy hell it is hot. That was seriously a miserable run. The Sri Lankan food from the previous night didn't exactly help...

Stats
Miles: N/A
States: New York
License Plates: N/A

Birds: N/A

Thursday (Day 5): East Coast Adventures

Finally slept in for a day at Henderson's place as his air conditioning was getting fixed. Gave him a ride into school and got lunch at this hoggie place with massive (18 in+ long) sandwiches for relatively cheap. After lunch, I took the Princeton dinky to the NJ transit rail which brought me into Penn Station. I've been here 4 times now, but it always seems to send a little shock into your system when you enter Manhattan. A lot of people and tall buildings.
     deLaubs had work until 5:30, so I spent my free time at the new WTC Memorial. It was fantastic. In the three other times I've been to NYC, I've seen it transition to a large hole in the ground, to a blocked off memorial in progress, to a nearly completed plaza. I ended up befriending an employee and talking to him for a while about the memorial and the "survivor tree" that has lived through all the hurricanes and terrorists attacks and has been again replanted at the same site!
     The day wrapped up with meeting deLaubs, catching a dirty hot run on the East River, and eating some fantastic Sri Lankan food for dinner. A great start to my time in New York.

Day High: The Sri Lankan food with deLaubs was amazing! Very good to catch up and great quality.
Day Low: The run I suppose? Legs were tired and it was balls hot out. Though it was great scenery. Not many lows to this day.
Stats: 
Miles: 10 or so
States: New Jersey, New York
New License Plates: LA, NM
New Bird Species: Canada Goose, Cormorant
 

 

Wednesday (day 4): Onto New Jersey

     Actually got an early start today from PA and rolled towards Philadelphia. It was surprisingly rural most of the way in. I say that not in Wyoming terms, but more like English country side. There were lots of houses and farms we passed, but not the constant stream of suburbs that I expected. I ended up skirting the edge of Philly and got there right at rush hour. The other direction-lane was a parking lot, mine was free-flowing. Dumb luck I guess.
     Princeton was great. I met Mike for a late, sweaty morning run around their cross country course, then we met the GAC gang for lunch. Walked around campus a bit, saw their geology building, caught up on internet, and then hit a second run in the evening on the "Tow" path. Also a former canal-turned running path. This thing was awesome. Endless miles of flat, gravel along a river.
    Mike took me to a sweet brew pub for dinner. Burgers and beers were fantastic. Other than that, this was a chill day. Glad to catch up with good friends!
Day High: Got to meet up with a bunch of former gusties. Henderson aside, we also met Brooke, Kim, and Tilman for lunch in downtown Princeton. It was great time.
Day Low: It is fricking hot out there. The run was miserable, walking around campus was miserable.
Stats:
Miles: 100ish
States: Pennsylvania, New Jersey
New License Plates: N/A
New Birds: N/A

Tuesday (Day 3): Onward to the east coast

     Woke up today to finally see the Hocking Hills in day light. Simply amazing. Absolutely gorgeous hills. Lots of relief; the drive in last night was constant up and down and around sharp corners. Had a beautiful (though hot) run in the park along the edge of the gorge and back through the bottom of it for a nice loop. This is a must see if you have never been here!
     Fired up the reliable civic again for a long drive east. Rolled country roads in Ohio past sleepy towns that seemed really old compared to even a Taylors Falls. Sliced the interstate through Wheeling, WV, which also looked stunning in the valley surrounded by hills. Very sad that coal ultimately gave it a life, but also a death of sorts.
     Eastern/Central Pennsylvania was also gorgeous. I'd been through the Appalachians before, but felt like I appreciated them better this time around.
     My day ended at a state park east of Philadelphia name French Creek SP. I snuck a quick run in with the setting sun, and repeated my hotdog/sauted onion/green pepper dinner with my growler from Columbus. Can't complain on the grub for a second night in a row.

Day High: Hocking hills actually panning out. Who would have thought that you could learn something by reading a newspaper?

This guy is sorely lost somewhere in rural central PA

Day Low: The Pennsylvania Turnpike. Have you ever been on this crap before? This is a place where they charge you extravagant amounts of money to drive on their crappy, limited access road, where they post the speed limit at 55 mph due to "construction" but seemingly haven't touched the bumpy surface in decades. They've got you like the Gunflint Lodge has that Milkway over your head at $3 a pop. It's all about that supply and demand. Not many other options to cross the state.
Stats:
Miles: 442
States: Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania
New License Plates: ND, AL, WV, NC, NY, CO, WA
New Bird Species: Blue Jay, Rufous-Sided Towhee, Chipping Sparrow, Pileated Woodpecker, Mocking Bird, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Mallard Duck, E. Blue Bird, Barn Swallow

Day High: Columbus, Ohio brew pub hooking me up!
Day Low: The washed out section of the I-M Canal bike path causing me a miserable last part of my run in the nearby highway
Monday Stats:
Miles: 623
States: Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio
New License Plates: MO, NE, ME, AR, CA, MA, VT, MD, WY, KS, AZ, Wash DC, VA
New Bird Species: Mourning Dove, Chimney Swift, Indigo Bunting, Killdeer, Rock Dove
 
 

Monday- Ohio Bound

     A bit of a late start today in Madison after a great night with Andy and Katherine, but was onto new territory after a great homemade latte from Andy. Took a quick pit-stop in LaSalle, IL for a run along the Illinois/Michigan Canal. Back in the car bound for Indiana. The scenery down there is a heck of a lot like cruising usa: just rolling hills and endless farm fields.
     Ohio was surprisingly gorgeous. Way more trees, rolling hills. Made a quick stop in Columbus, OH for a growler of beer at Barley's Ale House. Seemed like a great town. Lots of people out and about, and a lot of restaurants. After getting lost in the ring roads of Columbus due to closed ramps and road construction, I was headed south with the setting sun to Hocking Hills State Park.
     Didn't get there until dark, so it was a light-less meal and tent set up. At one point, I thought there were a couple fire flies in sync next 10 feet off in the brush. Turned out to be a couple of eyes! Couldn't figured out what is was though, the thing scampered off into the brush.

Day One

Sunday- 7/15

Day one:
 Got a reasonable, albeit slightly hungover early start this morning after the wedding. Was on the road by 7 AM bound for Madison. Stop one was a long run in Menomonie, Wi. Wasn't sure where I was going to stop to do this, but saw a sign on the highway for the Red Cedar River State Bike Trail, so I followed it on a whim. It ended up being a great crushed limestone bike trail along the river in the driftless area. A cool small town too.
 Arrived in Madison around 3 PM. Enjoyed a nice swim in Lake Menona with Andy and Katherine. We proceeded to the One Barrel for a pint and a pretzel, then next door to the texas taco "tubbs" for dinner. Finn met up with us for dinner which was cool. Post dinner, Andy, Finn and I biked downtown to the "Paradise" bar to meet Ryan Brownell for a drink. It was cool to see downtown again. All in all a successful first day.

Day High: Enjoying the good vibe in Madison with good siblings and friends.
Day Low: Lunch. Hot, With too many mosquitoes, gnats and in Wisconsin.

Stats:
Miles: 273
States: Minnesota, Wisconsin
New License Plates:
MN, WI, NH, IN, OH, SD, IL, OK, OR, FL, MI, SC, PA, IA, TN, TX, KY, UT, GE
New Bird Species: House Sparrow, Starling, Am. Crow, Cardinal, W. Breasted Nuthatch, Catbird, Song Sparrow, Kingfisher, Yellow Bellied Sapsucker, Rosebreasted Grosbeak, Red Eyed Vireo, Goldfinch, Robin, Phoebe, Turkey Vulture, R Tailed Hawk, Red Wing Black Bird, Great Blue Heron