East Michias  June 24

The skies wept today, the gods I’m sure knowing that this was my last day. Less poetically, it rained and the fog rolled in and out. That made for a funky final day weather-wise but didn’t diminish my experiences even though my shoes squished when I walked.

First order of business, as usual, was breakfast. Rolling into town yesterday I saw a small sign stating there’d be a breakfast at the Masonic Hall today from 7:30 to 10 a.m. $5. So, up to the hall I slogged. In I stepped, a foreigner among the locals. They looked up briefly at the bedraggled stranger but quickly returned to their consumption.

“Sit anywhere you want and I’ll be right with you,” said a man with a belly that couldn’t be contained by either his shirt or pants.

Soon I was wading through my $5 meal: 2 eggs any style, 2 sausage patties, 2 slices of ham, 2 pancakes, hash browns, a piece of toast, coffee, juice and a great bowl of homemade baked beans. Just the kind of breakfast a bike rider needs—volume and calories.

Lubec as seen from Campobello
Island.

“This is pretty much the place to come on the fourth Sunday of every month,” said the man sitting next to me. “I’m surprised to see you here. Out-of-towners usually eat at the inn where they’re staying or one of the restaurants downtown. Welcome.”

I did feel welcomed as we talked about Lubec’s slow transformation from dying former fishing village to tourist attraction. www.visitlubecmaine.com

Despite the rain I was determined to cross the Canadian border and visit Campobello Island just across the Narrows of Passamaquoddy Bay. Up and over the bridge I went, got a stamp of approval from a Canadian customs official and I was in Canada. A mile and a half up the road was the Roosevelt Campobello International Park at the site of the former president’s summer “cottage.”

As a child, a young man and as President, FDR spent many vacations on the island in New Brunswick’s Bay of Fundy. He was visiting Campobello when he was struck with polio when he was 39. “My left leg lagged. Presently it refused to work, and then the other…” 

It was interesting to see FDR as a child, young man and father without polio in a film about him. My reference has always been of him as President long after he was in a wheelchair.

Roosevelt’s cottage is on a relative small piece of land, 4 acres, and is one of several in a row along the shore line. www.fdr.net

The approximately 1,000 Campobello Island residents and the folks across the border in Lubec lead closely integrated lives, explained the lady at the Campobello tourist info office, weaving her fingers together.

“Lubec has a hospital that we use because we don’t have one,” she explained. “They don’t have a pharmacy so they come over here. Our fire departments support each other. We buy groceries in Lubec because we don’t have a grocery store.” www.campobello.com

I went back over the FDR Memorial Bridge and headed back the way I came. Dee, my loving lady, will drive up this way tomorrow to meet me and carry my weary body back to CT.

Monica (left) and Cindy, a chocolate
dipper.

On the way out of Lubec  I stopped at Monica’s Chocolates. Dee and I visited Monica 6 years ago when we came this way. She had just launched her handmade chocolate business then and was still operating it out of her kitchen.

Today she has 12 employees at her high time in the summer, ships candy all over the U.S., sells retails and wholesale, and operates out of a shop/production center on the edge of town. This is from a woman who moved to Lubec 10 years ago from Peru not able to speak a word of English and had no job.

She came to Lubec to care for her husband who had taken a job as director of engineering at a fish processing plant but suffered a heart attack. He read English books to her so she could learn our language when her country seized her company and refused to allow her to return.

A clothing designer in Peru who employed 65 people, Monica cleaned houses and fish in Lubec while she read books on candy making. Making chocolate candy was relatively inexpensive to start. She designs her own chocolates, some of which have a Peruvian influence. She creates her own peanut butter, toffee, caramel and other fillings. Instead of just putting blueberries in a bon-bon, Monica lets the berries ferment in wine for up to a year. “I don’t use any preservatives or chemicals so you get the full flavor of each element,” Monica said.  www.monicaschocolates.com    

It was a sweet way to end my ride.

To understand why I'm riding and raising money, please go to the first post--April 26.
To make a donation to the ALSA, please go to: http://web.alsa.org/goto/deirdresride