Another forty miles on the odo...

Forty miles-- a distance both too short and too long. When one thinks of driving forty miles-- to get to a store, say, it seems like quite a trek. Belfast to Ellsworth or Bangor. When one thinks it is only half the average distance of a day's ride on the x-c trip, it seems paltry. To me, yesterday, it was a long ride. Our plan was to have a shorter day, ride to Beaufort, have lunch and return. We thought that a side road would keep us off 101 for longer than it did, however, and by the time we finished the gauntlet-- NO shoulder, rough road surface, high traffic-- we decided to go home the long way around, repeating our Sunday ride in reverse. This we did, far more elegantly than the first time because we knew the way and because fate gave us a tiny reward in the form of a really nice three mile bike path that took the sting out of some of the miles. Even route 70, a four lane highway, was better than 101, however, because it had a shoulder and we whizzed along quite nicely. In Newport I was sad to see an owl sitting by the side of the road. While I was watching it a man came out of a shop and told me that the owl had been there all day. A wildlife person had tried to catch it in a net but the bird could still fly a bit and had evaded capture.