Bar Harbor was a blast. The city was really cool and my dad was right. If you aren't dressed from head to toe in Patagonia you don't fit in. Luckily I looked like one of the locals. Unshaven, cargo zip pants, hiking shoes, and mostly all Patagonia. The people in the bars were super friendly, and the food was all around amazing. Even the pizza was really good. One man even bought me a beer because of what I was doing. He loved the fact that I just did it for no reason other than to do it. We talked for a while, mostly about the trip and eventually about breweries. He told me to visit Gritty's Brew Pub and to tell the guys that he sent me. He knew the owner and played golf with him frequently.
I didn't sight-see as much as I thought I would. I was just too damn tired. I mostly walked around the town for two days, and took naps in various places. My favorite place to nap was on this grassy knoll overlooking the harbor. It was great watching the various yachts and lobster boats cruse in and out. It was very soothing. I really wanted to go sea kyaking, but it was quite windy both days I was there and I didn't feel like putting a lot of effort into it. I wanted to just float for a while around the coast, not really do any work, and relax. 10-15 mph winds seemed like they would make that plan difficult. Whatever though, I'll do it next time. I'm definitely coming back to Bar Harbor. The place is just hands down perfect.
Leaving Bar Harbor was hard. I had so much fun relaxing there and walking around I did not want to leave. While I was there though my last roommate from Michigan State and I got to talking. He had just came back from a cruse and was jealous of my trip. Originally he thought I was nuts, but he admitted to it sounding really cool and something that he would have liked to do. At this point in my trip I felt as thought I had completed everything I wanted. I conquered the hardest portion of the Northern Tier and did it with great time. Every Cyclist I have talked to has been shocked I made it to Bar Harbor from Detroit in 18 days. "You must have just flown!" they would say. I was tired, sick of riding so much, and wanted to take a break. So when my roommate Joe and I got to talking I suggested that he drive up here and we take a brewery tour of Maine.
I got the Idea when I was at the Bar Harbor Brewery. I saw this little pamphlet that had all 25 Maine brewery locations on it. I thought that it would be really cool to go visit all 25. Plus, if you do all 25, with signatures from each, you get a prize from the Maine Brewers Association. Joe was the first person to show me how to extract brew, so it was almost an instantaneous "YES". He just had to make sure he had some things in order and he would get back to me. It didn't take long for him to say that he was in and that he would be leaving in two days.
Our plan would be to circle the state and hit all 25 breweries, then move down the east cost to Boston, if we have time, to get more breweries under our belt. Joe also suggested that because we both want to own a brewery one day that we should see if we could write this off as an R&D expense. I mean, hey it's worth a shot right? We technically are going from place to place to discover what and what does not work, which is a form of research. One place we do want to go is the Dogfish Head Brew Pub. Unlike the major Brewery, the Brew Pub has a lot of test beers and exotic creations. Ever since their show on Discover Channel, which was great by the way, Joe and I have been wanting to visit. It just looks like a whole lot of fun.
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