Baa Ha Ba

Day 86, June 26, 2011 Baa Ha Ba

0 miles, averaging 0 mph

Route from Hadley’s Point Campground to the Town of Bar Harbor

Best Moment – Neita and I went to the Reading Room of the Bar Harbor Inn for a celebratory dinner (more about that later.)  Anyway there was this pianist who played the entire 2½ hours that we were there.  The setting was spectacular and the music a nice touch.

Worst Moment – Hey it was a day for rest and relaxation – what could be annoying about a day like today, yeah, the sun didn’t shine, but I’m sort of getting used to that.  At least it never really rained.

Well, it wasn’t supposed to rain too much today.  We thought that we would explore Bar Harbor (or as some say, “Baa Ha Ba.”)  Bar Harbor is actually on Mount Desert Island.  Acadia National Park and 3 other coastal harbor towns are also on the island. 

The island’s municipalities, in conjunction with LL Bean, have arranged to provide free propane powered, shuttle transportation around the island.  The bus will pick you up nearly anywhere along the route and let you off at your requested stop.   All the buses meet at the Village Green where you have an opportunity to catch a bus on a different route.  The ride into Bar Harbor from Hadley’s Point takes about 25 minutes along the very scenic coast. 

We caught the 11 am bus for town.  I’m taking my bike in for a major tune-up before heading west.  The bicycle shop was amazing.  There were four mechanics working and that was Sunday morning.  They had a huge selection of new bicycles and a giant fleet of rental bikes.  Cycling is big here – there are supposed to be some wonderful carriage trails through Acadia.

We strolled through the shops, not really looking for anything, but finding a lot that we would like to have.  There was one shop that had beautiful wool or alpaca coats for a mere $700.  Neita thinks she could use one of them in our new home.  They were lovely and oh so soft.

I’d finished reading the book about the Enron scandal – still can’t believe how arrogant, and stupid, the leadership of the company was to break and ignore accounting standards.  There was a great old bookstore and I purchased Matterhorn – a novel about the Viet Nam War.  We had lunch and saw where we would like to have dinner, made reservations and caught the shuttle back to Ruby. 

Lazy days are wonderful.  We both had leisurely naps and then caught the bus back into town for dinner.  The Bar Harbor Inn and Spa is certainly elegant.  It sort of reminded me of the genre of hotels like the Hotel Del Coronado.  The hotel is on the water’s edge with a view of the harbor and other islands.  Their fine dining room, The Reading Room, is all windows with views of the water.  We were told that had there been a sunset, our table would have been the perfect place to view that – still we enjoyed the spectacular views.

Neita had lobster again – this is beginning to be a habit of hers.  I had a delicious Dijon encrusted rack of lamb.  It was a perfect way to celebrate my bicycling and Neita’s driving a motorhome 6086 miles all of the way up the east coast via Key West, from Phoenix, AZ.  After another day of R&R I head west on Tuesday. 

 After Dinner Drinks

Bar Harbor at Night

If you would like to donate to my ride, my link for the Lance Armstrong Foundation is http://grassroots2011.livestrong.org/billsbigride197.  I really appreciate your support.