Bangor, ME.

 

Well, our trip has completed and our journey was now changing.  I had planned that the trip would end around this time and had envisioned renting a car for the drive back to Austin.  Randy, Beth, and Sandy will be heading back to Colorado over the next couple of weeks.  I couldn't convince them that they needed to swing by Austin to drop me off.   :>)

After looking at car rental rates, it became clear that it was cheaper to fly so I reserved a flight out of Bangor, ME. 

The Paul Bunyan campground was just outside of Bangor and provided a convenient dropoff point for me without impacting the rest of the group's travel plans too greatly.

The campground was an inviting place to hang out and their welcoming committee was enthusiastic.

Randy and Beth took advantage of the horseshoe pits and Sandy spent some time blogging.  I decided to ride into Bangor to see the sights.  On the way, one of the local church message boards posed a thoughtful question.  It brought to mind my undersized underwear.....

Here is where Stephen King and his family live so I had to stop by.

His tree carving is phenomenal and I am sure it reflects some images from his books.

The gargoyles on his front fence say "Hi"

Further down his street I noticed a mini library and just had to check for any Stephen King novels.

Alas, there were none on either shelf.

The Paul Bunyan statue downtown is a testament to Bangor's logging industry, one of the largest in the country.  There was no Babe the Blue Ox mentioned and we came to understand that several states claim Paul Bunyan as their own.  Babe the Blue Ox is a Minysota thing.

The Bangor waterfront area along the Penobscot River is a handsome park for a gritty city.

The downtown area was busy late in the afternoon but easy to ride through.

There were many gorgeous houses in Bangor and I especially liked the update being done on this one.

Bangor doesn't have many bike lanes that I could find but they do have long sidewalks that support biking.  The line on this street is really just a road edge line; too narrow to ride safely during rush hour.  The East Coast Greenway goes through Bangor as an alternate path from the coast of Maine.  Several signs on the waterfront highlighted the way.

At some point, I had to pack.  Since I had not intended to fly, I ordered a suitcase for my bike and was worried about weight limits but managed to get both my checked bags under 50 lbs!  A standard checkable suitcase works well for my bike.  Airlines have a nasty habit of charging lots of money for bikes packed in bike boxes whereas a checkable suitcase doesn't invoke large shipping costs.

Here I am mostly packed and celebrating that I may limit my flight to two checked bags.  Later, as I got the bags weighed it was a worthy celebration!  As you are reading this, I am about to board my flight to Austin.  So, this will likely be my last post of a remarkable east coast bike ride!