From Portland to...Meat Cove. Now with extra backpost-y goodness!

Now with bonus material after the break: The Missing Latvia file... (Click "Read More")

Hitching out of Portland was a piece of cake: I took the #7 bus to Falmouth, asked somewhere where the 295 onramp Northbound was, and walked over there. No sooner had I stuck out my thumb than a BIG GMC 2500 pulled over, and I was beckoned in. The driver, Kris, had hitch-hiked when he was growing up in northern Maine, as had his son over the more recent years occasionally. He thought it was complete nonsense that someone would be reasonably afraid of a hitch-hiker; furthermore, as a Mason, he felt obligated to help out his fellow man (I WISH more people thought that way), and gave me a ride halfway to my destination! He's held all sorts of jobs, and even took a slight detour so that I could grab some photos of the gorgeous Maine Coast.

Kris dropped me near Belfast, Maine, where I camped for the night under some very light rain, enjoying the feeling of being back on the road. I would have continued to hitch, but the light was fading fast, and I had a good campsite already with a nearby 24h truckstop (running water, toilet, food if necessary). I was in no hurry, and drifted off to sleep easily.

The next two days saw me hitch a number of rides north to Calais, Maine, where I crossed the border with some suspicion, slept for a night on a root, and in the morning hitched all the way to Antigonish. I hung out there for a day with Viera, staying for one night with a creepy acquaintance of Viera's, and afterward (I was not terribly thrilled with the experience), headed north for some scenery and enjoyment.

Hitching up to Cape Bretton and the Cabot Trail (http://www.cabottrail.com/) was a breeze, one single ride got me over the causeway. Two lifts later got me up to Cheticamp, where I had a quick hot cocoa and sat for a while to enjoy the blowing wind and rocky inland-facing coast. One LONG walk out of town lead me to a small grocery store approximately a kilometer from the entrance to the National Park. After perhaps a half hour of hitching, a young Quebecois dude picked me up and offered a lift. He had a military ruck in the back, and looked like he was in training. As it turned out, my driver friend was attending the Canadian Naval Academy in nearby Sydney, the 'capital' of Cape Bretton.

With my new Quebecois friend, I took a trip for a full 24 hours circling from Cheticamp up to Meat Cove (where we camped for a night), and back down to Cape Ann. Camping at Meat Cove was a HORRIBLE idea, mostly due to the wind, and compounded by the rain and snow which hit our unprotected selves. I managed to survive the night by thinking about the warm, warm sun which would break in the morning and remember that as wet and miserable as I might have felt, I was warm, and therefore the worst that I'd become would be sleep deprived. Eventually I was able to drift off to sleep, occasionally waking due to cold feet, repositioning myself, and returning to sleep.

The second half of the trip will be added with an update



The Latvia File!

After parting ways with Marten, I grabbed the tram out of Riga and waited until the last stop. I knew that the road eventually became the highway to Ogre, and that it should be relatively easy to get a lift. Still, I picked up a MASSIVE piece of cardboard, and wrote the four letters of my destination on it...just in case. I wandered around for a while, evaluating the validity of the spot suggested on my fave hitching website hitchwiki, and eventually settled on, yes, that exact spot. I waited perhaps fifteen minutes before a car pulled over and I was on my way.
Ogre is only 30km or so from Riga, and my driver was headed towards Daugvapils, beyond Ogre. He spoke a good amount of English, and actually ended up dropping me directly at the intersection where I was to meet my host! I thanked him profusely, got out, and watched him drive away. Ogre was, from my view, a strange mixture: a few tall apartment building mixed in with what is significantly forest and very suburban. I had arranged to meet Agnese, my host, at a street corner at a certain time. She had mentioned something about working, and having had such good (and quick) luck with nearly door-to-door hitching, I wandered around for a little while, picking up a drink and some ice cream, before settling in to watch a film on my laptop.
A little later on, after some mild confusion, I met up with Agnese! At first she seemed a bit timid, but this quickly dissolved to reveal a friendly and outgoing personality bursting. I can't actually remember what we did that first evening, save for some tea, and going to sleep around dawn. My first full day in Ogre was spend chatting, viewing pictures, playing with rats (her rats are hella cute, see earlier post), and making Ogre Burritos (NO cheddar cheese! The horror...). I did mention this time in an earlier post, but didn't quite do it justice.

hey Agnese, can I post the pictures of me playing with your rats in here?