The Margaret Todd at Sunset from the Sand Bar
12 July 2026
June 1 was my last official day as a full-time employee. It was also the first clear morning all week. The light of dawn through the space between the curtains woke me up before my alarm, which I had set for 4:45.
There was a low cloud layer to the east. This could be spectacular or a bust.
On weekdays, there's always a lobster boat or two puttering out of the harbor before sunrise.
The clouds change color too.
While I had the Canon out, I used the 40x zoom to see what was up with the breakwater repair. A box of boulders, apparently.
Neither spectacular nor a bust, but still worth 21 minutes. I went back inside, pulled the curtain all the way closed, and went back to sleep.
By the time I woke up again and got dressed, it was after 9:00 a.m. Jack had already showered and was reading in the puffy chair.
I had an exporatory road ride planned. We'd been on Cooksey Drive in the car on our way to Northeast Harbor. I wanted to scout it out on Janice before bringing the Slugs at the end of August.
I followed Route 3 past the Sieur de Monts entrance to Acadia National Park. The road surface was New Jersey style for a bunch of miles. Past the town of Otter Creek, the pavement got smoother. Then I turned off onto Cooksey Drive. The road is beautiful, narrow, winding, and steep. I was going in the only direction that wouldn't have people cursing at me.
At one point, I passed some folks who were obviously at an overlook. I stopped to see what was there.
The overlook includes a path to the water.
I continued down the road, thought I missed a turn, doubled back, realized I hadn't, and returned to the descent. At the bottom, I turned onto Steamboat Wharf Road and found myself face to face with more scenery. (I deciced to change the GoPro battery again, not yet knowing that one cannot move the bike before restarting, which creates a GPS discontinuity, which Rouvy will not allow. Not that it mattered. The camera didn't pick up a GPS signal for the first three miles and the rest was too shaky anyway.)
A few minutes down the road, I stopped again at Seal Harbor.
My plan was to follow Stanley Brook Road into Acadia. I'd never used the Stanley Brook entrance. It's a long, gradual climb in the woods, with the brook on the right. There's also a road on the right that I thought of using for the longer ride, but as I passed it, I saw a sign that indicated it was for park staff only. So much for that. For the real ride, why not do the stupid thing and turn around at the top? It would be a fun descent. I wanted to stay out of the park for the longer ride so that we could stop for a break in Northeast Harbor, then take Sergeant Drive (another scenic stretch) north towards Bar Harbor. Today, though, I took Park Loop instead. It was weird passing the Cadillac Summit Road entrance without turning onto it. To avoid the milled section of Park Loop, I turned towards the Hulls Cove entrance road.
There's a turnoff halfway, but it's so overgrown that I couldn't see the water.
Turning around a little, I could just make out the long slope of Cadillac (on the right).
In our afternoon wanderings, we ended up in a shop that had souvenir glasses for a bunch of states. This was New Jersey's:
Neither one of us was sure what these glasses were supposed to hold. Can you do a shot of champagne?
We'd bought tickets to see The Mandalorian and Grogu at Reel Pizza, which is the little movie theater in Bar Harbor. It's also a restaurant, sort of. One can get take-out pizza, or order food to be delivered to one's seat. The tickets were dirt cheap.
The front few rows were couches. Each row behind them had counters. It was a comfortable little place.
We had dinner at Blaze, then walked to the sand bar for sunset. The tide was finally out at the right time.
I had to go back to Mustache Rock.
In this light, Hipster Rock was less Cousin It.
It was the "golden hour."
We had our nightly ice cream, and then I went out to catch the moonrise. This time, I arrived as it was on the horizon.
Still amateurish, but at least I got a little detail this time.
Not bad for a last day of work.
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