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Published: January 10th 2024
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SK Tour
The King's House We woke up early in the morning and headed to the Portland airport to pick up our rental car to head to Bangor. After a stopover at Dunkin Donuts (Drea’s favourite!), we made it to Bangor just before 9:00 am for our Stephen King tour of Derry, Maine (aka. Bangor).
Some of the interesting things we learned on the tour included
1. The philanthropic impact the Kings had on Bangor such as setting up scholarship funds, building baseball fields, community pools and playgrounds, and improving the hospital and library infrastructure without putting his name on any of it except of course his local rock’n roll radio station, WKIT
2. Ensuring that a Ronald McDonald House was established in Bangor
3. Learning about Carrie and seeing the house used as inspiration. “Carrie,” was one of Stephen King’s first attempts at a novel, about a young woman who possesses telekinetic powers. After Stephen King was disappointed with the first few pages of the manuscript, he tossed it in the trash. His wife, Tabitha retrieved them and encouraged him to finish the story. “Carrie” which arrived in bookstores in 1974 launched Stephen
SK Tour
The storm drain that is said to have inspired Georgie's horrific meeting with Pennywise the clown in IT King’s career
4. Seeing Stephen King’s red Victorian mansion now used for the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation and not open to the public
5. The house next to King’s purchased by King in 1980 from a noisy neighbour will become a writer’s retreat for up to five authors at a time.
6. A local store by the name of Flagg's. Yep, it inspired the name for King's great evil incarnate, Randall Flagg.
7. King found many of his other character names on the gravestones in Mt. Hope Cemetery (including Carrie and Georgie)
8. The storm drain that is said to have inspired Georgie's horrific meeting with Pennywise the clown in IT
I highly recommend the SK tour in Bangor. The tour guide was very knowledgeable of Stephen King lore and his family has known the Kings for years. We learned a lot about Stephen Kings life and inspirations for his novels from the tour.
After the tour, we had some lunch at a local Irish Pub and then checked out some of the shops in Bangor. I bought
L.L. Bean
Christmas Display a Shining T-shirt and Drea bought a Stephen King book “Misery” first addition.
We then made our way back to Portland with a stopover at the “
L.L. Bean Flagship” store. That day the L.L.Bean Flagship store was having a northern lights and tree lighting ceremony. We enjoyed some hot chocolate and met some reindeer while listening to holiday music. I also ended up getting a lobster magnet at one of the shops nearby.
While we were at the LL Bean Flagship store in Freeport, Maine we were lucky to have found a gas station nearby because the car was running on empty. Then we headed back to Portland to drop off the car and head to dinner.
Portland restaurants were busy that night and we did not have reservations. We finally were able to get a seat outside at “Duck Fat”. The food was so good that I did not take pictures.
Tomorrow is our last day in Portland. We have no plans, just walking around Portland and checking out the various shops. Until then!
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