Project Tandem Blog
Conserve. Record. Change.
Category Archives: Maine
Bored with our blog?
Us too. We’re 100% stir-crazy here in Portland, waiting until I can take a deep breath without hacking… but tomorrow my family is visiting my grandmother outside Boston, so we’re going to strap the bikes on the rack and hitch a ride. The plan is to get close enough to our scheduled route that we can complete the 11,000 miles in a year and then still have a little warm weather at the end to do New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts in late summer/early fall 2009! It’s getting pretty chilly up here in Maine at night, so the sooner we can get a little bit south, the better.
In the meantime, check out our Photoshelter page if you haven’t already- it’s http://pa.photoshelter.com/user/projecttandem and see some of our favorite photos from Maine! We have a different gallery for every state we’ll be going through, so keep checking and we’ll keep adding photos like these ones…
Also check back tomorrow for the very exciting addition of our interactive map! Yay! Our genius friend Matt Bagwell threw it together for us and we think it’s a super cool way to follow us all around America. More on it tomorrow…
Still a little sick… but feeling better!
Over the worst of it… knock on wood. We’ve been passing the time resting, but also applying for grants and setting up the “office” here so we can use the cool LaCie hard drives they sent us to upload and store photos and audio from the road. We also got some exciting packages here in Portland… a box from Isis, a women’s outdoor clothing company that sent me some long underwear and a hat to keep me warm on the road so, thanks Isis, and if you are a lady looking for some super soft long undies… I suggest you browse over to their site- the link is to the right! We also got a package of clothes from Ibex, a clothing company that makes outdoor/active wear specializing in merino and organic wool clothing for cycling! Ibex really hooked us up with riding knickers, short and long-sleeve jerseys and “woolies” for each of us! Pretty sweet stuff. We’re actually wearing it even now as we type. We took a little ride today to test my lungs and try to head off some of our stir-craziness, and we just never took it off after. That’s a pretty ringing endorsement for cycling clothes, which we generally change out of and into “comfy stuff” as soon as we get off the bikes. I know, kind gross to hang around in exercise clothes, but these are kind of magical… they don’t smell and stay dry and warm… I suspect they are going to be pretty perfect for Project Tandem! You can check out Ibex gear on their link to the right!
So that’s all the news here- we’re hoping to be back on the road in the next couple of days. We’re trying to figure out whether to get an assist a little further south to start since the nights are starting to get pretty chilly up here in Maine. We’ll keep you updated!
Delay
So I’m sick. Yup. Rode almost 100 miles before getting a cold. And I have asthma, so of course, the cold gets into my lungs and the doctor say no riding for a few days. Which is good, because this morning Alan got a sore throat. So it goes. So we’re taking our forced time-off and writing more grants (because we still need boatloads-more money to keep this thing going for a year), taking it easy, and packing and re-packing to try to get our bikes a little lighter.
On the plus side, you can go to the Project Tandem website and check out our Photoshelter galleries! We only have a few photos up as of now, but if you’re bored at work… check ‘em out! The link is under the Media Tab.
Day One Revisited
Day one of riding… Tuesday, September 16th. We left at 8am from our friends Matt and Ethan and Tommy’s house in Rockland, Maine and took off with some degree of success (we came back to the house 10 minutes later thinking we left the cell phone- though it turned out it was in Alan’s back pannier). A couple minutes later we were on our way again! Here we are right before leaving…
We rode for about 15 miles before encountering what we were pretty sure was the largest hill in the world. Check it out. It was a half mile climb. Ouch.
But we survived. And went on another 20 miles before we found a nice park with restrooms to stretch and relax in. We were pretty tired at that point, but close to Wiscassett, which is a pretty little town with a few campgrounds, so we rested, and then kept going.
In Wiscassett we met a very nice woman who, after learning about our project pointed us about half a mile up the hill to a place called Morris Farm. An organic, educational farm that was spectacularly beautiful. The people working there were super nice too… they insisted that we stay the night at their yurt in the woods behind the fields. 
So we did. And we cooked ourselves a yummy little dinner.
Sandwiches! Consisting of organic Morris Farm grape tomatoes, cabot cheddar cheese, and Morris Farm organic salsa. Yummm!
Then we crawled into our sleeping bags at roughly 9pm and passed out. We could not have asked for a better first day.Day Two Revisited
Due to individual technical complications with our sleeping bags neither of us got a very sound sleep the first night, but we woke up in good spirits anyway.
The early morning light was amazing for making photographs, however we also had an interview scheduled for 8:30am. So we made our way down from the fields. 
After conducting our interviews, making a few more photographs, and having a quick breakfast we were on our way, destination: Portland. The ride took us through gorgeous farms with rolling hills.
Right outside of Freeport we officially hit 100 miles! Of course, we took a picture. We thought it was a big deal.
Right outside of Freeport we officially hit 100 miles! Of course, we took a picture. We thought it was a big deal. 
With 100 under our belts and 50 for the day we pulled into Portland just as the sun was setting.
We rode through Portland to Mo’s parents’ house, had a quick dinner, warm showers, and passed out again at 9pm with really sore legs. Day One (of riding)/Day Two (of riding)
We’ve arrived in Portland, Maine. Which means we rode 97 miles from Rockland to here in 48 hours. Our thighs are sore are we’re going to bed. Tomorrow we’ll post and tell you all about how amazing it was and all the cool people we met and things we saw. Tonight? Sleep. Goodnight!
PT’s First Day
So today we had our first interview and photo session with a fantastic family in Camden, Maine. More on them soon as we process the shots and audio we took. But the first day of shooting was great and it was so much fun to have our cameras right with us on our bikes. 
All we have to say is, Maine is one gorgeous place. We’re loving our time here and of course it’s great to see friends at the Maine Media Workshops. We’ve got it cushy tonight- our sleeping bags on a mattress in a spare room in some friends’ house, but tomorrow night we’ll be camping somewhere between Camden and Portland, ME! We can’t wait- stay tuned for some good stories from the first day!