We left Saturday morning around 8 am. Late start for the first day of touring standards, but we have become accustomed to arriving at 10 pm at our daily destinations, so Einstein was right, time is relative. We slabbed it to the Brunswick, ME area some 175 miles to get up into our touring area. First stops included a couple of transportation museums, Italian motorcycle dealer and the Harpswell Meeting House built in 1758 and a National Landmark. From here on we would travel back roads and US Route 1 up the coast of Maine.
Passing thru Wiscasset we picked up the Nickels-Sortwell House built in 1807 at the peak of the ship building era.
In this town you will also find a more frequented spot than the National Landmark is Reds Eats. It never ceases to amaze me that people will stand in long lines just to get a lobster roll. I have yet to succumb to the tourist attraction; the lines are too friggin long.
One can’t really hug the coast of Maine. You have to bob in and out of the various crooks and crannies, isthmuses, and other pieces of land along the coast. A 200 miles trip can easily turn in 1,000 mile trip, so you have to pick your spots and just go. We headed to Boothbay to pick up a Train Museum. This was a 30 mile round trip.
Back in Wiscasset, we headed in land for a bit to some presidential places for points, like Jefferson, Washington, and Warren, making our way back to water in Rockland. Here we are looking for some turn of the century schooners that are National Landmarks. Now Rockland Harbor is divided into to various mooring places, so you have to roam around looking for the tall masts and old looking boats. We are weaving in and out of the streets, harbor places, down alleys, thru marine repair places and parking lots. We turn down this one narrow road and VIOLA
These boats are now used for 3 day to 4 week cruises, I am sure the cost is more than a Super 8 stay. I ask the crew if they knew where the rest of the boats were. She said some a returning from Boston Harbor from the Tail Ships festivals, but the rest are over there as she points over the harbor. Of course we weave our way over to this point. Now these boats are kind of like forts. Once you seen 4 or 5, they all take on similarity (like they all float in the water), however we happened on to Isaac H Evans. One of the crew member was doing some maintenance, which I asked if he minded that I take some pictures. Note only did he not mind, but had us come aboard for a more intimate look at one of the boats. They are truly amazing. We ended up spending probably 45 minutes here.
Out of Rockland Harbor and not having our fill of schooners, we head to Camden. I spent a couple of days up here with my cousin in 2007 and I wanted MeAsWe to see this harbor. It really is a picturesque place. We grabbed pics of the Mercantile and set sail for our next spot, some more presidential type places, Monroe, ME (treasure hunt points).
As you can see from the picture, we are running out of sunlight (actually we have run out), and I begin to think maybe we should call our destination place to see if they have any rooms for the night. A call to the Pine Shore Motel and the conversation was something like
PSH: How many people, smoking or non smoking
Me: 2 adults, smoking
PSH: Will you book for the night.
Me: We will take the room
PSH: You better take any room, the area is filling up
Me: We will take the room thank you
PSH: I am sorry we don’t have any rooms
Me: I don’t understand, we will take the room
PSH: We don’t have any
Well this conversation went on a bit. It finally got thru to me they didn’t have any rooms available and the person was advising me to take a room someplace because the area was full. Between the cell phone and my hearing, I was obviously missing the most important part of the conversation. DUH !
We continue to travel and I decide we would look for a place in Bucksport. We come onto the Penobscot Bridge (we will we ride up tomorrow) and take some pictures, cross the bridge and see a Best Western down the street.
We pull in there and they are full, suggesting a place up the road. Head for the Bucksport Motor Inn and the neon sign says "vacancy" (hopefully the NO is not burned out). They have one room left (yeah right) and it does not have AC. It is now 10pm and probably not going to get easier to find a place. We fill out the prerequisite forms (I always make up the license plate number because I can't seem to remember it), grab the keys and head for Ming’s Garden for dinner. As we pull out on Main Street I see the NO lit up, dang she wasn’t lying, phew ! We have some dinner and call it a night.
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