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We woke up this morning to yet another dreary day in New Hampshire. We've done pretty well avoiding the actual rain, mostly we've only been caught in a little drizzle. This time was much the same, it had rained all night and the roads were still wet, but the rain seemed to have subsided, though it was 59 degrees.. Not taking any chances, and as a windbreak to the cold, we went ahead and put on our rainsuits. Our hotel did not have breakfast, but there was a McDonald's just down the street, so we loaded up the bike and headed over for the Big Breakfast. While there, we encountered what we always do in the mornings at McDonald's - the towns senior citizens gathered together for the 99 cent coffee. This time they were mostly men, and we talked a little with a couple of the old timers including one guy who, at 94 years old, looked like he was in his 70's. I hope I am doing as well when I am 94!
After breakfast, we headed out on US-2E and quickly left New Hampshire behind. We were heading due east to the Acadia National Park which shares
and island with Bar Harbor, ME. There isn't a single secondary road that cuts across Maine from west to east, so our path was convoluted and involved a bunch of different country roads across the state. It's about a 4 hour ride of nearly 200 miles, and after an hour, the roads began to dry out and the temperature began to rise. For a New Englander, it would have been warm, but for a Floridian - let's just say we kept our rainsuits on just a little longer. The ride was pleasant and interesting as we passed through mostly unpopulated forest land, a few small farms, and a few very small towns. The Vermont small towns were picturesque, the New Hampshire small towns were still quaint, but with a touch of commercialization, the Maine small towns were purely functional. There were very few shops hoping to attract tourists, mostly the kinds of shops used by the locals. The land had also flattened out considerably, so there wasn't a ski industry to attract tourists, though there were a lot of small lakes and campgrounds.
By the time we reached the coast and turned north on US-1/ME-3 it was in the
70's and the sun was trying to come out. We stopped at a scenic overlook and took off our rainsuits and enjoyed the warmer weather. The Maine of US-1 was the Maine we had expected. A little more commercialized like New Hampshire and lots of boats. There were little harbor towns everywhere with a combination of locals who made their living on the sea and tourists who were just visiting. The clouds had not completely disappeared,but the weather was definitely getting better.
It was only about 2:00 when we arrived, much too early to head for the hotel, so we made a beeline for the Visitors Center at Acadia National Park. There we got the map, talked to the park rangers about what to do in the morning, stamped our passports, and watched the obligatory 15 minute movie. As we were leaving, we met another Goldwing couple from Virginia who were also on a motorcycle trip. They had headed north from Virginia and were about to head west to Niagara Falls. We gave them a few tips, and steered them to the Thousand Islands on the way to Niagara. They were very nice, and we exchanged some war stories
about our adventures. It turns out that they bought their motorcycle from the exact same dealer in Chattanooga that installed my new rear tire as I was passing through in what seems like so long ago.
The park is located on one side of Mount Desert Island, with Bar Harbor located in one corner between the park and the sea. Cadillac Mountain is in the center of the park, and there is a loop road all the way around the mountain and a road to the 1530 foot summit. Along the loop road are several spots to stop, do a little hiking and take some pictures. This will take us, I expect the better part of the day. If we had more time, there are many other things we could do. There is a carriage road where we could either take a horse drawn carriage ride, follow on a bicycle, or just hike. There is a hike out to Bar Island that can only be done at low tide. There is an airport nearby that offers helicopter, biplane and regular small aircraft scenic flights. And, of course, there are probably hundreds of boat tours, ferries, whale watching, and fishing.
There are also many other parts of Mount Desert Island, both inside and outside of the park to explore.
Since it was getting late in the day, we decided to hold off exploring Acadia National Park until tomorrow, and go ahead and ride into Bar Harbor. It wasn't too crowded, and evidently a cruise ship docked in the harbor was just bring back its last tender of passengers. So we wandered about some of the shops, but didn't find anything particularly interesting, though you could see some of the cruise ship jewelry shops and Del-Sol T-Shirt shops beginning to spring up. We did find some reasonably priced t-shirts and got that out of the way today, so tomorrow could be dedicated solely to park exploration.
Our hotel was 30 minutes outside of the park in nearby Ellsworth, and as we had passed through Ellsworth on the way to Acadia, we assumed there would not be a restaurant within walking distance and decided to use this opportunity as an excuse to have dinner in Bar Harbor. There are many restaurants along the harbor in Bar Harbor, and even more a little inland. Most have god reviews from Yelp and
TripAdvisor, and the prices go from a little high to ridiculous. So we picked what looked like a good one right in the middle of the harbor called Stewman's. It was only 5:00, which for normal people is a little early for dinner, but for Florida old people like us, it's just a little late. We sat on the upper deck, overlooking the water, and off to the side we could see 3 huge lobster pots boiling away as they were cooking lobsters for dinner. Jody ordered her first lobster roll, and I had Fish & Chips with haddock - it was a quintessential New England moment. Jody's lobster roll was mounded over with huge chunks of lobster and my haddock was crisp and tender. Dinner was great!
After dinner, we headed back to find the hotel in Ellsworth. Our hotel for the next 2 nights is a bit unusual. It's called The Sanctuary, and it's a bed and breakfast on a side street off US-1, just north of the main part of town. It's actually converted from a nursing home, so the rooms and the layout are a little unusual. When originally opened, the rooms only had a
sink and toilet, and there was a communal shower on the first floor. Now some of the rooms, like ours, have an added shower. But it's clean, comfortable, and reasonably priced (Bar Harbor hotels are typically $250 to $450 per night). We met the owners and you couldn't ask for nicer people. We talked for a while about our motorcycle trip and the perils of opening a bed & breakfast.
Tomorrow, we are ready to head into the park for a full days adventure. The weather report is good, and we would love to break out of the cycle of rain in the afternoons!
234.2 Miles Today
5763.8 Miles Total
3.829 Gallons Today
143.045 Gallons Total
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