We were rudely awakened by our alarm at 7 a.m. The morning was cool and windy. We enjoyed a continental breakfast on the deck and AM dried some now clean bike clothes in the dryer. We set off down Route 1 until we arrived at the newly built Penobscot Narrows Bridge. We stopped for a photo op and then rode another mile or so to Fort Knox for some military history. Inside the fort, we visited the office of the Pulitzer prize-winning Powder Magazine, checked out the green rooftop, and noted that the soldiers must have been about 4 feet tall to fit into their bunks.

We took a short ride across the bridge and over a small part of Verona Island and arrived in the town of Bucksport. Bucksport is home to an ice cream parlor, a tattoo parlor, a nail parlor, and not much else. We had lunch back on Verona Island, which included "jumbo popcorn chicken" (try to figure that one out) and a bacon cheeseburger.

We pedaled on, eventually crossing ME 176 -- our road into the lovely Blue Hill Penninsula. We passed lots of farms and even saw a bald eagle hunting in a field! We arrived in Surry after 9 miles. We briefly considered going another 7 miles into the town of Blue Hill, but the locals suggested an even better route down Newberry Road. Four miles down the road, we hit a small public beach on a pretty cove across from Mt. Desert Island. We relaxed at the beach for about an hour, chatted up some more locals (the only other 3 people at the beach), and turned around for the ride back.

We rode about 11 miles up ME 172 to Ellsworth. We took a wrong turn and descended a steep hill to Main Street in Ellsworth and then proceeded down Route 1 South. AM had a bad feeling about this and we asked another local for directions. He confirmed that we had to go back the way we had come, so we did. It nearly killed us, but after an incredibly tough climb, we arrived at the Twilite Motel. There were no restaurants around, and the thought of re-climbing that hill to the hotel made AM's head explode. Luckily, Jordan headed straight for the phone book and tracked down Charlie's pizza. Charlie made and delivered the best sausage and pepperoni pie AM had eaten in her life. We enjoyed our dinner and then topped off the evening by watching one of the only episodes of Gilmore Girls that AM had never seen before.