Last Sunday was one of those days that lives in a person’s dreams, especially in dreary March. The sky was bright blue with hardly a cloud to disturb it. The day was sunny and hot, but not too hot, and, more important, not humid. A perfect day for a bike ride from Hallowell to the Richmond town line, about 20 miles, round trip. We had planned to meet our friend Jill at the Liberal Cup for supper at around 4:00, so with our bikes in the car, we drove to Hallowell in the early afternoon and parked in the town parking lot by the Kennebec River.

In Hallowell, we picked up the rail trail and rode to Gardiner. The Kennebec was to our left, and the air still had the sweet, green smell of late summer, the smell of growing plants. We’ve ridden this route in early fall, and the smells are different, nuttier and less green as the plants wind down for their long winter rest.

The Kennebec—not wide, not mighty but lovely nonetheless—was as blue as the sky. I enjoy biking by fields and forests, but there is something extra special about biking along a lake or a river. Biking by the ocean is best of all, but since I live in central Maine, lakes, ponds, and rivers are what I get, and they are certainly good enough.

My husband, Clif, and I left plenty of time for dawdling along the way. I took pictures of flowers and the river, and he took pictures of doors for an upcoming photo exhibit of his that will be shown at Railroad Square Cinema in February 2014. At a little store in South Gardiner we stopped and bought homemade snacks and iced tea. Twice we left the main road for smaller roads that follow the river.

Even with our dawdling, we made it back to Hallowell in plenty of time to meet Jill. How good those fish and chips were, and the cold soda was especially refreshing.

As we Mainers would put it, Sunday was a finest kind of day.