A Maine International Bike Ride
This week, I'm taking a break from this blog's normal "helpful" content (I hope) to use this site to document a multi-day ride I did this week with my friend Cheryl Drda. We did this as a fund-raiser for our church, Westbrook-Warren Congregational Church/UCC in Westbrook, Maine.
- Online at our GoFundMe page
- By check to Westbrook-Warren Congregational Church/UCC, 810 Main Street, Westbrook, ME, 04092. Write "bike ride" in the memo line.
Thank You's
I'm going to do this up front, in case you don't read all the way to the end. We received support from a number of sources, and I apologize in advance if I'm forgetting anyone.
- Westbrook-Warren Friends Club, for funding our custom jerseys
- Xtreme Screen & Sportswear of Westbrook, for giving us an excellent deal on printing the jerseys
- Rev. Dr. Leslie Foley, for being our chauffeur and Sherpa, above and beyond initial planning
- Her son Kyle for putting up with all that boring time in the car
The Theme
We came up with a theme of "A Maine International Bike Ride". If you live in Maine, you probably know that there is an area of central Maine in which there are a number of towns named after international cities or countries, per this famous road sign (and others like it). We thought that since international travel is not recommended right now, or even possible from the United States to many countries, this would give us and our audience a flavor for the next best thing, during these times.
We originally set our sights on all of the towns mentioned here, plus Rome, Belgrade, and Vienna, in a big loop. That added up to over 230 miles, which we split up into 4 days of 50-75 miles each:
However, after the first day, from China in the east westward to Vienna, by way of Rome and Belgrade, we decided we had been overly ambitious. To give ourselves some credit, it was a pretty windy day, due to the approach of tropical storm Isaias, and it was blowing directly against us at an average of 10 MPH. But it was also hilly, and we are both slightly out of shape compared to other years, due to less riding this year because of the pandemic. The hills, wind, heat, and carrying packs combined to make a much longer and harder day than we had hoped for.
So we ended up not only taking off what would have been the second day, to wait out the storm, but also shortening the rest of the route to 3 days of lower mileage, by dropping the 3 westernmost towns of Sweden, Denmark, and Naples.
The Message
In keeping with being a fundraiser for the church, we designed jerseys incorporating the church as well as phrases that were important to us, such as "Black Lives Matter" and "God it Still Speaking" (a UCC slogan).
Partly as a practice trip, Cheryl and I had participated in late July in an awareness-raising action in which cyclists used the Strava cycling/running app to ride routes that together spelled out "BLACK LIVES MATTER" on a map from NYC to Maine. Altogether, 379 people participated in 545 activities that included bike rides, runs, walks, rows, and swims. We cycled about 35 miles of the final "R", from Limington to Scarborough.
Another recent book on the racial theme, which I read last year, is "White Like Me", a personal reflection on the specific ways that being a white male has made life easier for author Tim Wise.
I would also highly recommend anything by Ta-Nehisi Coates. His book "We Were Eight Years in Power", a collection of essays originally published in the Atlantic, is an excellent review of the continuing legacy of structural discrimination from post-Civil War Reconstruction to the present day. It is an excellent choice for anyone wondering why we're still talking about race in America 150 years after slavery was ended.
Finally, getting back to bicycling, a few years ago I read "Bicycle/Race", by Adonia E. Lugo, Ph.D., who writes about racial empowerment through bicycling, and her time in the national bicycle advocacy world.
The Ride
To keep our church members engaged, we made a practice of stopping at each town and doing a Facebook Live video in which we gave some history on the town, and sometimes on the international country or city itself. Production quality varied, due to poor cell connection and/or traffic noise. You can view the videos at the links below, if you want. I've also included the transcripts of what we read, and a link to a document of more detailed route notes, linked as "Route Notes", in case you are a cyclist thinking about doing some of these rides.
Did you know that Ed McMahon was once a carnival barker in Mexico, Maine, or that Milton Bradley, the creator of Monopoly and other board games, was born in Vienna, Maine?
Day 1: China, Rome, Belgrade, Vienna
Day 1 was tough. The wind was against us, probably from tropical storm Isaias, as we pedaled uphill in the heat, particularly between Waterville and Rome. It took us longer than anticipated, pulling into our motel in Farmington (midway from Vienna to Peru) just at sunset.
We had one comment about our "Black Lives Matter" theme, from a customer of a convenience store somewhere along the way. He passed us and said "All Lives Matter". I simply replied "Yes, they do" and left it at that. As he exited a few minutes later, he wished us a good day.
At Vienna, we saw another variation of the international sign, and a similarly-designed one giving distances to Vienna Austria and about a dozen other towns of Vienna in the United States. These are include in the picture link below.
Pictures from Day 1, Route Notes
China
China, Maine was first developed by a family named Clark, who settled in China in 1774, and they started the Jones Plantation in 1796. There was a Massachusetts legislator named Jack Washburn who later moved to the town of China and named it thus after an at the time famous hymn titled "China", written by Tim Swan in 1790. The name of the town was thus named China because people objected to the name Bloomville, thinking that they would confuse it with the nearby town of Bloomfield.
Another interesting piece of history about China is that this is where African Americans settled from 1790 to about 1860, when slavery was still legal, slaves would escape, and freed slaves would move to China because they knew that the slave hunters would not come and find them there, this far north. So they knew it was a safe haven for African Americans for about 70 years.
Facebook Live, Listen to "China" hymn
Rome
Rome, Italy started as a small monarchy which became a republic in the 6th century BC, then an empire under Julius Caesar. For Christians, Rome is hugely important as the foreign occupying power of Palestine during the time Christ, whom it crucified, only to become Christianized itself with the conversion of Emperor Constantine three centuries later. Following repeated invasions by outsiders, the Roman Empire eventually become the medieval Holy Roman Empire, seat of the Roman Catholic Church and its leader, the Pope.
The town of Rome, Maine, is part of the Belgrade Lakes resort area, near Augusta. Incorporated in 1804, it was described in 1839 as "a beautiful farming town" with "a pleasant and flourishing village". It was named after Rome, Italy.
Belgrade
The history of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, goes back to prehistoric times. It was conquered by Rome in the 2nd century, and was passed between several other empires over the centuries since, including that of the Byzantines, the Franks, and the Ottomans. They gained their independence from the Ottomans by revolution in 1804 to 1835. Following WWI, when Serbia was attacked by Austria-Hungary, Belgrade become the capital of the new country of Yugoslavia. Initially inclined to neutrality at the start of WWII, Yugoslavia was drawn in nonetheless, suffering heavy Nazi bombing as well as some Allied bombing. Serbians during WWII also suffered systematic persecution, known as the Genocide of the Serbs, at the hands of the Nazi puppet government in Croatia. After the war, Yugoslavia become a socialist federation that included Serbia, only to fracture back into independent nations during the various Yugoslav wars between 1991 and 2001. These wars were marked by many horrible crimes against humanity, at which time Serbia became home to the highest number of refugees in Europe, a third of them in Belgrade.
Belgrade Maine, by contrast, has a relatively peaceful history. Incorporated in 1796, and named after the Serbian city, it was first an agricultural town, along with some small mills powered by water from the multitude of lakes in the area. With the development of the railroad in the 19th century, it become a thriving resort area. Its summer residents included E.B. White, author of "Charlotte's Web", and Ernest Thompson, author of "On Golden Pond", which was inspired by Belgrade's Great Pond.
Vienna
Vienna, Austria is known both as the "City of Music", due to its musical legacy that includes Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, and Richard Strauss, but also as the "City of Dreams", home of the world's first psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. It is thought to have been inhabited since at least 500 BC, first by Celts, then by Romans in 15 BC. Among notable historical events in Vienna, it is noted that a plague in 1679 killed nearly a third of Vienna's population. Today, it is the second largest German speaking city after Berlin, and is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Vienna Maine was initially called "Goshen", but was incorporated as Vienna in 1802. I was unable to find any record of why it was named Vienna, but perhaps a town leader was a musical connoisseur, as by this time Josef Haydn was already well established in the Austrian Vienna, Mozart had died about 10 years before, and Beethoven was well on his way to fame. Vienna Maine's most notable person was Milton Bradley, of the board game company, who spent the first 11 years of his childhood there.
Facebook Live, Another musical association
A Chance Encounter
We arranged to stay the first night at the Mount Blue Motel in Farmington, midway between Vienna and Peru. The only other guests we saw were a couple of fellow bicycle tourists, Jennifer Hershey and Michael Johnson Chase, currently of New York City. They tour together by eBike and blog on the theme of Climate Change, with text by Michael and illustrations by Jenny. Please visit their CarbonStories blog, and also see more of Jenny's illustrations on her Instagram page at Deeofo.
(Here I am modeling a homemade mask by Brenda Plummer. Thanks, Brenda!)
Day 2: Mexico, Peru, Paris, Norway
After getting a "rescue" by car from the motel the next morning, to spend the day and night at home while tropical storm Isaias hit the state, we were chauffeured back up to Mexico the day after to continue the trip. We found this day to be much easier than the first day in terms of hills, wind, and heat, and we had also planned a third fewer miles. Today's big challenge turned out to be about 5 miles of dirt roads, not ideal for our skinny-tired road bikes. The dirt road also coincided with the steepest uphill, from the town of Sumner into Paris, but finally we were rewarded with several exhilarating miles of paved downhill into Paris and South Paris.
A customer at a variety store in Sumner where we had lunch warned us that folks around there wouldn't much appreciate our Black Lives Matter ideas. We were just about to leave anyway, so we just wished him a good day and started moving.
Pictures from Day 2, Route Notes
Mexico
America has a long history with Mexico. We fought a war with them from 1846-1848, gaining most of what is now the American Southwest from Texas to California. Coming just before the American Civil War, the slavery question was a major political factor in the Mexican War debate, as abolitionists feared the expansion of slavery into the American West. Notable opposition to the Mexican-American War included Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Henry David Thoreau, who spent a night in jail for refusing to pay a tax to support it. Post-war, the history of our two countries became intertwined, with many Mexicans immigrating and becoming citizens, or migrant workers following the harvest at American farms. Tension continues, of course, as issues around immigration continue to divide Americans, sometimes fanned by politicians.
The town of Mexico, Maine, was incorporated in 1818, with the name being inspired by local sympathy for Mexico's war for independence from Spain, which was currently going on. It is a small paper mill town, located directly across the Androscoggin River from Rumsford. TV personality Ed McMahon lived in Mexico for 3 years as a young man, working as a carnival barker.
Peru
The name Peru is thought to have derived from "Birú", which is either the name of a local ruler in the early 16th century, or perhaps simply a common native name according to one of the Spanish conquistadors who explored the area that became Central and South America. Prior to European conquest, native cultures are thought to have inhabited what is now Peru for over 12,000 years BC, most famously the Inca civilization. European conquest was harsh, introducing disease epidemics to the natives, subjugating them to forced labor to mine gold and silver, and importing African slaves for additional labor. It took a war of independence led by Simón Bolivar to liberate Peru from the Spanish in 1824. Unfortunately, Peru has continued to struggle up to the present day with political and financial instability.
Peru, Maine, is an extremely small town, population 1,541 as of the 2010 census. It was granted by the Massachusetts General Court to several residents of Falmouth, Maine, and first settled by Merrill Knight in 1793. It was incorporated in 1821, and named "in the spirit of liberty and solidarity for" the emerging nation of Peru, which declared independence from Spain later that same year.
Paris
Paris, France, was already a trading outpost along the Seine when the
Romans reached it in 52 BC and started a settlement on the "left bank",
and by the end of the 12th century, had become the political, economic,
religious, and cultural capital of France. Today it is the fourth
largest city in Europe, after Berlin, Madrid and Rome. It is also
consistently ranked as one of the most expensive cities in the world to
live in. Paris was the epicenter of the French Revolution in 1789, part
of a worldwide anti-monarchist movement that include the American War of
Independence. It subsequently suffered under Prussian occupation during
the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and of course Nazi occupation during
WWII.
An accidental construction fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in
2019 destroyed much of that historical building, and the rebuilding
effort has provoked debate over whether and how to update the design of
public spaces versus faithful recreation of the original architecture,
and the appropriate use of public money.
Of interest to Cheryl
and John, one of the iconic images of Paris remains a Parisian citizen
pedaling their bicycle along the Champs-Elysee or along the banks of the
Seine, a baguette and a bottle of wine in the basket.
Paris,
Maine, the county seat of Oxford County, is actually the official name
of the town which includes South Paris, although South Paris is the
official post office designation, and the name most people know it by.
Incorporated in 1793, the town also includes Paris Hill, with views of
Mount Chocorua and Mount Washington on a clear day. The town is believed
to have been named after Paris, France.
Norway
Settlers were attracted to Norway, Maine, beginning in 1786, because of the abundant soil for farming in the area. However, the native people were in the area for thousands of years prior to the American Revolution. After the Revolution, the Stevens Family decided that they were going to clear the land and provide homes for their families, as well as start a saw mill and grist mill. There were also grist mills in 1796, and Norway became incorporated in March 1797.
There is a controversy about the name. Some believe it was named after a native word, "Norage", meaning "falls", and some people believe it was named after the country of Norway.
During the Civil War, Norway and other municipalities in Oxford County were the first to form a militia, called the First Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
There is abundant water from Lake Pennesseewassee, that drains into the Little Androscoggin River, and the water power was able to help build a thriving industrial and manufacturing area, including cloth, furniture, a box factory, and a shovel manufacturer. They also made harnesses, trunks, and carriages, as well as shoes.
Facebook Live (bonus: Church bells from the Second Congregational Church of Norway)
Day 4: Poland, home
It must be an unwritten rule of bicycle touring that every day, there must a challenge. Day 1 was the combination of headwind, hills, and heat. Day 2 was five miles of dirt road. Today, we had a flat tire less than a mile out of Norway. Fortunately, we were prepared with a spare tube and tools, and were back on the road in about a half hour.
Other than a series of three large hills south of Poland Springs, on our way back to Westbrook, the route was fairly easy. We followed Route 26 out of Norway to Gray, utilizing mostly wide paved shoulders, and we didn't even have to walk up the hills! We were welcomed back to the WWCC parking lot just before our estimated arrival time of 3:00 PM.
Pictures from Day 3, Route Notes
Poland
Poland, Maine, was granted by Massachusetts General Court in 1765 to a group of soldiers who fought in the Battle of Quebec. It was then nullified in 1741, as there was a fight between New Hampshire and Massachusetts as to land rights. It was later settled in 1767, by Nathaniel Bailey and Daniel Lane. It was called Bakerstown Plantation, after Captain Thomas Baker, whom they fought with in the Quebec War. They took 600 acres and built a magnificent hotel that was there until after WWII, and had famous visitors such as Joan Crawford, Jimmy Durante, several statesmen, and even a President.
Poland is famous for Poland Springs Water. They started to bottle it in the early '60's, but the original bottling plant was destroyed by fire in 1975. At that time, it was rebuilt, and later taken over by the Nestle Corporation, although the water is very pure and very good.
Donations
Thank you again to the WWCC Friends Club, Xtreme Screen & Sportsware, and Leslie for all the help! We hope you have enjoyed following our travels, and that you will consider donating to our church, if you are able and willing. You can donate online at our GoFundMe page, or by sending a check to Westbrook-Warren Congregational Church, 810 Main Street, Westbrook, ME, 04092. Please put "bike ride" in the memo line. A sizable amount of our church budget relies on room rentals and meals, none of which have been possible since March, and for who knows how much longer.
Stay safe out there!
The town of Poland is (likely) also named after another beautiful Timothy Swan hymn.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/IZRld2j1nhM
https://www.pressherald.com/2020/02/10/askme-why-does-maine-have-so-many-towns-named-for-foreign-countries-and-cities/
Awesome! Thanks, Scott!
Delete