Roads into roads

Morning, driving once again, north, north, then a short distance to the east. A turn to the north again, still enjoying the speed and easy driving of limited access highways. And then... a narrow road cutting through the hills, still heading north but veering to the east. A last turn to the east, east into Bathurst.

As I headed north from Bangor, the road passed through heavily forested land. And then, I started getting the sense of climbing, of winding through the hills. After I crossed into Canada trees gave way to fields for a bit. And then the trees closed in once again.

Funny, I had looked at the map before I left, but somehow the realization that I-95 went straight to the border with New Brunswick just escaped me. I was trying to pay attention to the exit number - I didn't want to miss it. It would be really hard to miss since I-95 curved to the east, passed by Houlton, Maine, and continued straight to the border. It would be impossible to miss that border crossing!

New Brunswick has 5 scenic routes mapped through the province. It turns out that a good chunk of the 2-lane roads that I took today is part of the Appalachian Range Route. The terrain? Very hilly. Beautiful. Green.

The Maine Public Broadcasting Network stayed with me until I headed down the last steep hill leading Mount Carleton Provncial Park. And then... no sound from the radio. That's pretty good though, considering that I was listening to stations of MPBN from when I entered Maine in the southwestern corner of the state. It appears that all of the stations in that network broadcast the same programs on the same schedule. When I lost a signal, I just needed to search for the next available signal.

The sky started with a solid cast of gray this morning, and it was constantly changing. At one point sculpted bright white clouds hung in front of gray. And then... the gray deepened, and water started falling from the sky. Drip, drop, bigger, bigger. I was on route 180, heading east, when the serious rain started. It was raining so hard that it was diffiult to see. It felt safer to just keep driving though, because visibility was bad enough that it seemed that sitting on the side of the road would be more dangerous than continuing to move. I have to say that I was really glad that I was in my car in that rain and not on my bike. Biking in that would have been more than a little miserable.

Ah, it's time for my car's wheels to stop rolling.

Where am I? In Bathurst, at Gite Authentique B&B, my home for the next two nights.