More of Maine

Making our way west towards home, we stopped just outside of Bucksport to visit a gem we hadn’t read or heard about until we came across it (quite literally) on Route 1 on our way to Acadia on Thursday afternoon – too late in the day to stop. 

The Penobscot River Bridge and Observatory near Bucksport opened in 2006 to replace the previous aging structure.   The bridge consists of cables held up by two towers; the western tower has an observatory at the top, accessible by elevator, and providing 360 degree views of the surrounding area.  The height of the tower is over 447 feet – taller than the Statue of Liberty, but about 100 feet shy of the Washington Monument.

Out towards the Atlantic Ocean

That's our RV from 45 stories up!

At the base of the tower is Fort Knox State Historic Site.  Not to be confused with Fort Knox in Kentucky – the one with all that gold --- this one was built in the 1850’s to protect the strategic Penobscot River from British attack.  It was a delayed response to the American Revolution and the War of 1812 when British ships made their way up the river and gained control of the surrounding towns.  Fortunately, the fort never saw live action nor any enemy ships, but it did serve as an encampment for short periods of time during the Civil War and the Spanish-American War.  Both the fort and the observation towers on the bridge are built of Maine granite. 

My last picture of the day speaks for itself!

What is it?

When's the last time you saw one of these?

Acadia National Park - Part 2

We like to travel before the school year ends and the summer rush.  Even though this is the “quiet” time of year relatively speaking, Bar Harbor on Saturday morning was bustling.   We could only imagine the crowds on a warm summer night, or whenever the cruise ships from points south dock, spilling out tourists from around the globe.

We had to make our way through a crowd just to get this picture – the lobster is apparently quite the draw for photo ops.  

Chris posing with a famous lobster....

...and the crowds we had to fight to get our chance for the picture (you can see part of the lobster's ice cream cone under the "FUDGE" sign)

What struck us about some of the tourists was how the sophisticated, multi-lens cameras that they used to lug around have been replaced by cell phones. 

 

After an hour or two of touring Bar Harbor, we headed for the quiet side of Mount Desert Island, and drove along the perimeter on routes 3, 198, and 102.  These pictures are from the town of Bass Harbor.

 

Acadia National Park - Part 1

Today we toured Acadia National Park along the park loop auto road on the eastern peninsula of Mount Desert Island.  Considering how close it is to us compared to some of the national parks out west, I’m almost ashamed to admit that it’s been 32 years since we last visited here!

The weather was more October-like than what we would expect in early June, but that didn’t interfere with our sight-seeing – although the views from the top of Cadillac Mountain were a bit disappointing due to the low-lying clouds. 

Among the highlights of the loop were the “Wild Gardens of Acadia”, with neatly bordered paths among native plants and flowers – Jack-in-the-Pulpits, Ladies Slippers, Cinnamon Ferns, and others.  In the midst of our meanderings in the flowers was yet another surprise --- former coworkers that we hadn’t seen in at least a decade, who just happened to be visiting at the same time!  It’s funny to think that if we had been just a minute or two earlier or later, we never would have known that Elaine and Bob were also visiting Acadia.   It also makes me wonder how many places we’ve been where we just missed seeing people that we know!

     


















 

Dramatic scenery and wildlife were abundant throughout the park.

Outside of Bar Harbor

Today we took our time up the coast, stopping at the Maine State Prison store, the Owl's Head Transportation Museum near Rockland, and Camden for a walk down its scenic Main Street.

1926 Snowmobile

The Transportation museum has a sizeable display of old vehicles, including automobiles, motorbikes, and a replica of the Wright Brother's plane that flew for several seconds over Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in December of 1903.

Camden Harbor

I took a number of pictures but have had trouble uploading any because we're at a campground outside of Acadia National Park with limited Wi-Fi - and barely any TV reception.  Horrors!  Such is life when we're roughing it! 

We'll be here for another couple of nights, so our updates may have to wait.  I'm finding some success this morning by logging in before any other campers seem to be awake.  

Variety - Wildlife Refuges, Globes, and Retail

Just a couple of miles from last night's campground, we found the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, which provided us with a short guided hike through a preserved marshland.  Rachel Carson is mostly known for her 1962 book "Silent Spring", which led to the banning of DDT -- the "silent" referring to the steadily declining bird populations.  The site we visited is one of several parcels belonging to the Carson NWR along the Maine coast.

We continued on the coastal route towards Freeport, but as in the past, we relied on the AAA Guide for information about the towns we drove through --- Kennebunkport, Saco, Old Orchard Beach, etc.  When we got to Yarmouth, we were excited (no exaggeration - we're admitted map nerds) to read that we were close to "EARTHA", the 41.5 foot rotating globe at the headquarters of DeLorme, the company known for publishing maps and those famous detailed atlases of our states.

Me at Hudson's Bay (on the third floor of EARTHA)

The gift shop was full of maps and globes and fun puzzles and games, so we couldn't leave without at least buying a Maine Gazeteer.

John with his brand new Maine Gazeteer (in front of the second floor of EARTHA)

Then it was on to Freeport, which has changed  immensely since we first saw it 32 years ago.   We recall that back then, L.L. Bean was the only game in town - open 24 hours.

 
Now Freeport has become a factory outlet Mecca with just about every brand name you can think of -- Ralph Lauren, Orvis, Talbots, Patagonia etc.   The saddest thing I think, is that the town's beautiful old Carnegie Library is now the home of the retail outlet for Abercrombie and Fitch.  I suppose it's better than tearing down the venerable century-old building, but, really --- Abercrombie and Fitch, the purveyors of the vapid and self-obsessed?  Such is progress!

Maine 2015

This year, we've decided to head "Down East" - a shorter trip, but then again we don't have to spend days driving through the plains states to get to our destination.
Our intent had been to tow my VW Golf so that we'd have the option to park the RV for a couple of days and tool around in a car for a change, but alas the Golf is just a little too tall to fit into our enclosed trailer. 
I'm glad that John likes to take the scenic route - once we got to Hampton, NH, we followed the coast up to Wells, Maine instead of taking I-95.

Hampton, NH

 The weather promises to dry out and warm up over the next few days, but this evening we're nestled inside with the heat on, protected from the dank upper 40's outside.  AH, there's nothing like roughing it!
Sea-VU Campground lives up to its name, but I wonder if we'll see any of tomorrow's sunrise, or if it'll be as gray in the morning as it is this evening.

The VU from Sea-VU RV Park