Bar Harbor to Bangor- Bill's Orange Vest.

After seeing the top of Cadillac Mountain, Brad and I spend the second half of the day tooling around Bar Harbor then decided to start heading west toward Bangor. The sun started to set and riding west into the sun is not a good idea no matter how dark your sunglasses are. So near Bangor Maine we stopped to get gas and directions to an affordable hotel. I fueled up, moved my motorcycle out of the way and went inside the gas station shop. I noted that this shop had two pay phones hanging inside with two old fashioned phone booths painted on the wall behind them so it appeared the pay phones were in the painted phone booths. I thought it was neat since phone booths are becoming a thing of the past. I'll try to take more pictures next time...

I walked back outside and Brad is talking to another customer pumping gas. This guy is associated with the military too such as the National Guardor Army Reserve. So we got to talking for some time. We got directions to a good hotel and bar near the airport in Bangor. Brad and I start talking about motorcycle vests. Notice our pictures - Brad wears a leather vest proudly displaying his ride pins. Bill wears the orange vest that meets the military regulations and no ride pins. Bill actually out grew his leather vest and is too cheap to buy a larger one! Anyway Brad told me that many people were asking him questions about his pins and the vest was causing others to start conversations. He suggested that I stop wearing my orange vest and wear my leather vest with pins because no one will come up and start talking to me about my vest! Well later we find our way to the hotel. While unpacking our bikes a woman comes up to me in the hotel parking lot telling me that I have a cool orange vest! So ha! Turns out that woman wears one just like mine! My orange vest does get attention and invites people to talk to me.

We did laundry at the hotel. The hotel even had complementary laundry detergent and scented dryer sheets! I know we are tough bikers but we like clean and fresh smelling clothes. We ate dinner at a bar near the hotel and planned to continue west thought New Hampshire and Vermont tofind some covered bridges we heard about.

Acadia National Park and Cadillac Mountain

After lunch at the Bar Harbor Lobster Pound we rode into Acadia National Park. We stopped at the entrance so Brad could tighten up his shifter peg that was coming loose. Good thing he had his tool kit with an allen wrench that fit! I took a picture of the Acadia sign to use in the 2009 ABC’s of Touring Contest. That is the picture above.

We started riding up Cadillac Mountain and stopped at the first scenic pull over that overlooked Frenchmen Bay. From 1613 to 1760 the French occupied the small islands pictured and battled the English for possession of the islands. By 1800 Bar Harbor became known as a popular summer resort with pleasure boats. I suppose it is still known as a resort with some pleasure boats. The bay with the islands and mountains is a great back drop for a vacation!

We slowly rode up Cadillac Mountain’s smooth and curvy road. The road had large rocks in lieu of a traditional steel guide rail. Yes, guide rail-some say guard rail but I read somewhere where a civil engineer referred to the rail as a guide rail to guide vehicles through a curve. I think the use of natural rocks was a great idea on this breath taking road. The road was cut into the rock of the mountain and there was an occasional small waterfall over the rocks.

At the top of Cadillac Mountain we found a small gift shop and some walking trails. I bought some post cards at the gift shop and then found Brad out on one of the trails. He renamed the mountain Cardiac Mountain! Here are some pictures from the top of the mountain. Notice the view of the bay and islands. There was a wooden fence across the rocks to keep us from stepping on some sort of moss. Beautiful views! I would really like to see the views in the early fall when the trees are full of colors.
We were walking toward our motorcycles and noticed two more motorcycles had parked next to ours. There was a tall white haired man and his bride bending over reading the names of the states listed on the license plates. As Brad and I got closer we heard the gentleman call out Illinois and Utah. We quickly responded that those were our bikes. The four of us stood behind the motorcycles at the top of the mountain. We initially spoke about our trip and how Brad & I met and started our annual rides. Then the gentleman’s bride…I am calling her his bride because they looked so happy together! I am sure it has been many decades since they were newlyweds! Anyway the woman told us about her husband being on a satellite radio talk show a couple weeks prior. The radio DJs had her husband talking about taxing methane gas from cow droppings. There was a proposal to tax farmers per cow due to the amount of gas cows produce. I am still puzzled about this conversation but it was comical. Later Brad handed the couple our 2BikerGuys card. The gentlemen replied by handing us one of his cards. He turned out to be a State Representative for Maine! That just made the cow gas tax conversation even more comical. He did not endorse the tax simply an entertaining conversation. As the Representative handed us the card told us to give him a call sometime. Brad is witty and asks if we can call in him to get out of jail while on our bike trip. This caught the gentleman off guard and he stated that he wasn’t sure about that. So we asked if we could simply hold the card up when we ride past the toll gates without paying!