4th – 9th Sept: Days 149 – 154
So Rick’s planned short 7 day visit was now curtailed to whistle-stop 5 days and was to start with an 8 hour, 350 mile drive from Burlington to the Maine coast. A 3-state day for us, but actually a 4-state day for Rick who woke up in New Jersey. We drove across Vermont, a small sliver of New Hampshire and into Maine. We had 2 stops for fuel, 2 stops for coffee but at lunchtime found ourselves in that rare place in America: the doldrums of fast food. We managed to find a supermarket with an amazing self-service fresh salad/deli bar, each assembled a container of deliciousness (the boys’ containers somewhat lacking in green), then drove on to find a nice spot to pull over and eat it. We were starving, but unfortunately there were no cute little riverside picnic areas. Or even any lay-bys. Or any pull-out spots of any kind. We drove on for 40 minutes, the food warming up on Rick’s lap, all getting a bit testy. FINALLY we found a bit of dirt big enough to park on and inhaled our lunch without even getting out of Big Dave. Spirits and blood sugars boosted, we continued to head East.
We eventually rolled over the bridge onto Mount Desert Island at about 5.30pm. This was our first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean, and so the completion of our transcontinental journey, a bit of an emotional moment. Mount Desert (pronounced ‘dessert’) Island is home to Acadia National Park and the reasonably well known town of Bar Harbor. The island is shaped a bit like a pair of testicles, although this was not promoted by the local tourism office. Acadia occupies most of the body of the right testicle (as you look at the map), Bar Harbor is in the upper right testicle, and we were staying on the tip of the lower left testicle in a small village called Bass Harbor. Bass Harbour is a very small working fishing village with only a couple of restaurants and a shop/petrol station. Our campground was equi-distant from the village one way and a light house in the other direction, so after we set camp we grabbed a beer each and walked the 0.6 miles up to the light house point to watch the sunset. We weren’t the only ones to have this ideas, as you might imagine.
We had a campfire that evening, and the boys did the predicted brotherly catch-up over ‘a few beers’.
The first night sharing our space was quite tolerable. The dinette became Rick’s bed, and no-one snored too badly.
The next day we off-loaded TC from BD, and took the bikes over to Acadia. We had bought Rick a cheap bike from Walmart, as this was going to be much more convenient and not much more expensive than renting a bike each time he needed one. We had also bought him some accessories.
Acadia has a great network of bike trails, based on the original old carriage trails, and we cycled about 12 miles through the woods and around some lakes.
We found a lakeside perch to eat our packed lunch and despite the clouds-a-gathering, the rain stayed away. On the way home we stopped in at Bar Harbor. This is a pretty spot, but the town has been taken over by tourist ‘tat’ shops. So we bailed and drove up to the top of the tallest point on the island, Mount Cadillac. Unfortunately the peak was in the clouds so not much of a view, but apparently this spot is the first in the USA to see the sunrise. There was no risk of us experiencing this. After getting back to Tin Can we had a wash and brush-up and risked the rain by cycling to the village and had a seafood dinner at a charming restaurant on the front.
We managed a few drinks outside before it got too cool and then ate far too much inside. The rain stayed away and we groaned all the way home with full stomachs.
The next day we headed back to Acadia with walking shoes on and a few planned hikes. The first destination was a blow-hole called ‘Thunder Hole’. It was a picturesque 2 mile coastal walk from the carpark to get there but it was singularly unimpressive as there was no swell and we got there a bit too close to high tide. We grabbed a sandwich lunch and then embarked on a second walk in the afternoon. Unfortunately the forecast rain eventually arrived and we were soaking after 5 minutes.
The committee voted to turn around and go and find the car museum instead. Good decision, and the car museum (located mid left testicle) was fantastic with an amazing collection.
That evening the committee decided to go back to the same local restaurant, (and to eat a bit less). We went by foot rather than by bike as the rain continued and umbrellas are a bit more effective at low speed.
The next day we moved down the coast to our next stop, New Harbor, about 150 miles away. Lunch was a highlight of the day: a lobster roll at a waterfront lobster shack.
A local delicacy of basically the meat of half a lobster, mixed with mayonnaise, served in a buttery toasted roll. Expensive, but worth every cent. It was delicious. Our campsite was a wooded site aptly, but slightly oddly, named Sherwood Forest. We hastily set up then took advantage of the beautiful late afternoon sunshine by cycling the 3 miles down to the Permaquid lighthouse.
This lighthouse features on the Maine quarter, the design winning a vote by the Maine residents.
Back at camp we set in for another evening of campfires and booze, introducing Rick to the fine game of Weasel Bag. He was a natural.
We had an early start in the morning as we had booked a boat over to Monhegan Island from New Harbor.
We had to be at the wharf by 8.15am, which was a 15 min cycle away. It was a lovely sunny day, but breezy with a good running swell. Luckily I had some seasickness tablets because the next hour was ‘challenging’ and my eyes did not leave the horizon for the whole trip. Even Nick was a bit green by the time we arrived on the island. Monhegan Island is about 12 by 1.5 miles and has about 40 full time residents.
It is criss-crossed by hiking trails with a rugged coastal loop trail around its perimeter. We had 5 hours on the island before the return boat. We started with coffee and then did a 2.5 hour hike around the lower perimeter loop.
The coast was amazing and rugged and stunningly beautiful. As we returned to the village there was a small ‘oasis-in-the-desert’ moment as we stubbled across the Monhegan Brewing Company. The boys had a couple of pints of the beer and I had some of the finest ginger beer I have ever had.
Lunch was more delicious seafood offerings from a small shack on the beach (Lobster BLTs: or LBLT, and haddock chowder) and after another coffee and a mooch around a couple of small galleries and shops we were back on the boat. The trip home was much calmer and we had another lovely evening by the campfire. Dinner was breakfast sandwiches. Crazy.
Sadly Rick had to leave us the next day. We packed up and headed towards Portland airport. We deposited him at departures, and reassured the parking official that we wouldn’t be cluttering up the drop-off lane too long. He looked worried enough to make me think that he was half expecting us to start the generator and put the awning out. We didn’t need a big emotional goodbye as we will be in the UK next month and be cluttering up his spare room for at least a week.
We headed down to our stop for the next two nights, York Beach, on the southern Maine coast. Our hostess was a very chatty affable chainsmoker called Diane who had a tiny dog which looked more like an animated fluffy slipper. Both were lovely. The town was a cute little seaside affair with a cool beach, lots of eateries, ice-cream shops, a small arcade (We converted $25 of cash into 30 minutes of fun and 2 very plastic LED yo-yos) and, you guessed it, another light house. We cycled around, admired some large summer homes, visited the next little village (with lots of other sunday afternoon day-trippers) and did a small coastal walk (none of the advertised seals, lots of people looking for seals) and generally blithered about.
Tomorrow off to Massachusetts.