Day 39 - A Day of Idyllic Maine - From the Cold of Bar Harbor to the Warmth of Kittery

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It rained hard last night. It was if someone knew it was our last day this far north on this trip and we were turning south into the warmth and wanted to make one last point. Breakfast at The Sanctuary was good, we spoke a little with the owner about her hotel and understand that they are offering it as a B&B for now, but the ultimate goal is to set it up as an artist retreat as there are plenty of other spaces available besides sleeping quarters in the building. We wished them luck, loaded up the bike and headed south..

The plan for the day was to stay on US-1S all the way along the coast of Maine until we crossed over the bridge from Kittery, ME to Portsmouth, NH. This is another of those "bucket list" roads as US-1 follows the coast of Maine and passes through several small picturesque villages along the way. While the morning started out cold and wet, even though the rain had completely subsided, the temperature in Ellsworth was 66 degrees and overcast, but the weather forecast for Portsmouth was 88 degrees and sunny - music to a Floridian's ears! As we headed further south, the roads dried off, the temperature began to rise and the sun slowly began to peek out from behind the quickly disappearing clouds.

The coastline scenery was beautiful, and we passed through a few small Maine towns, but the first one of real significance was Camden. It looked exactly like what I pictured a Maine town should look like. There was a Main St that was lined with funky little shops, cafes and restaurants. Behind the shops was the bay, and ships were lined up at the docks and moored out in the bay. The sun was shining and the temperature had risen into the 70's and we were ready to lose our coats and get off the bike and walk around. We checked out the little shops, Jody found some earrings and socks she liked. We wandered around the docks and checked out the local art galleries. Most of the galleries catered to paintings and most were seascapes - duh. But there was a little sculpture and some mobiles. The people were friendly, and nobody seemed to be in any kind of hurry. It was awesome!

We passed through a few other small towns as we continued to head south on US-1, but we didn't stop again until we reached the teaming metropolis of Wiscasset. This was an even smaller little town, but just above the bridge leading into town was along line of people standing down the road and around the corner. We had to stop to find out what was going on. It turned out they were all standing in line for a tiny little shack called "Red's Eats" which is supposed to be some sort of landmark lobster shack. People were chatting and standing in line, and the whole think had some sort of festive atmosphere. We stopped into one of the funky shops and Jody found a bucket of sea glass that you could fill a little bag with as much as would fit for $3.99 so she got plenty for her next jewelry project. There was also a sign in the door that they sold Moxie merchandise, so I looked and sure enough they had a great Moxie t-shirt. The guy also told me that if I bought a t-shirt, I would get a free can of Moxie. That was a deal I couldn't refuse, so I got my first can of Moxie on this trip. For those who don't know what Moxie is, it's kind of an old fashioned sarsaparilla drink that I used to get when I was a kid. It's an acquired taste, most people who try it for the first time think it tastes like cough medicine, but I still love it!

As we continued further south there were towns like Freeport and Bath and many others, but we noticed that the further south we progressed, the closer we got to New Hampshire and Massachusetts, the more touristy and commercialized the towns became. One downtown area was just a series of Prime Outlet stores. But the road was still fun, and the scenery was still excellent. The Garmin Lady was yelling at me for most of the trip, because she had a better way to get us to the hotel more quickly, but I just ignored her and continued down US-1. The only time I had any trouble staying on U-1 is when I reached Portland as Portland is a fairly large city, and somehow I just lost my way. So we stopped at a gas station as we needed gas anyhow, and I asked the lady how to get back on US-1. It turned out it was easy and soon I was back on path.

By the time we reached Kittery, the sun was shining and the temperature had reached 88 degrees. It was a beautiful day! I finally had to break out the sunblock and apply it liberally to my hands and arms. In the end, I wasn't quite able to finish my journey to Portsmouth completely on US-1 as there was evidently some bridge repair work in process at the US-1 bridge from Kittery to Portsmouth, so we had to cross over on the I-95 bridge. It was our only foray onto the Interstate today as we quickly exited and were back on the secondary roads.

In no time we were pulling up to our hotel in Nashua, NH. Lately, whenever I visit Lowell, I end up staying in Nashua as the hotel selection is better and the rates are better and since we are right next to Route-3, we can be in either Lowell or Manchester in a matter of minutes. We originally had planned only 2 nights in Lowell, but we really didn't want to be traveling on the 4th and besides, we needed the break to meet with friends and family. Tomorrow we visit Lowell, my childhood home and maybe we can even have some Elliot's Hot Dogs!

262.3 Miles today

6100.9 Miles Total

3.588 Gallons Today

151.680 Gallons Total

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