Maine
7 September 2023
146 miles
After breakfast of leftovers, we checked out of the hotel, and decided to drive up to Fort Kent, which is the start of US Route 1. The drive was pretty easy, going through several small towns, including Caribou and New Sweden along the way. We found the “1 mile“ marker right beside the border-crossing to Clair, Canada. We took several pictures and admired the view across the Saint John River.
Then, we took US 1 all the way back to Presque Isle, which was 84 miles. We have now traveled the 84 most northernly miles and who knows how many hundreds of the most southernly miles of US Route 1. I’m not sure we would ever drive the full 2,400+ miles, but who knows?
We stopped by Tim Hortons in Presque Isle for a sandwich to share and then went 3 miles down the road to Aroostook State Park. (We had to make one stop along the way as I had forgotten one of our ice packs in the refrigerator at the Best Western Hotel. They were still cleaning the room and I found it exactly where I left it.) We got to our campsite and got set up like the old pros that we are. The park is really nice – only 30 sites – our spot is a nice size, and the wood fringe provides privacy on three sides. It was supposed to rain this afternoon, so we tried to set everything up so that we could sleep in the truck in case it storms overnight. As I write this entry, it is very pleasant with blue skies and temperatures in the upper 70s (6:00 PM).
8 September 2023
<20 miles
It was a “down day” for us. It rained throughout the night, and I had a really hard time getting comfortable with the damp weather. Not that it was wet in the tent as it certainly was not. But the damp permeates all, and I was really feeling it. Anyway, we had our morning coffee and managed to cook eggs and toast for breakfast in between the misting rain. We took the Roofnest down and ran into town for ice. We got back to camp, and the sun was shining, so we put the tent up to dry. We heated soup for lunch and hung out at the site for the rest of the afternoon. We had a really nice fire (we bought two bundles of wood) for the evening, and finally called it a night around 10:30 (after beef stew and cornbread for dinner). It was, once again, forecast to storm overnight, so we opted to sleep in the truck.
Footnote: We haven’t had an issue with bugs/mosquitoes (except for bees in Acadia) until this evening. We are both completely eaten up – despite using Deet!
9 September 2023
158 miles
We have a reservation to check into our VRBO tomorrow in Buxton Maine, which is 300 miles or about five hours from Aroostook. So, we opted to leave the park this afternoon, and spend the night in Bangor. By the way, it didn’t storm last night as predicted, but we did have rain between 5:00 and 6:00 in the evening – just enough to get everything wet! We took our time with coffee and breakfast this morning, and even built a fire (well, Markus built a fire). The sun was intermittent, but still helped to dry out our site. We got everything packed up around 1:00 in the afternoon – we weren’t in a hurry! We made a reservation at the Home2 Suites in Bangor, and after a stop at the Hannaford supermarket for dinner (rotisserie chicken with salad and Pad Thai noodles), we checked in and settled in for the evening.
10 September 2023
149 miles
After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and set a course for Buxton, Maine, and our VRBO “Stille Wasser.” It was a drive of about 2½ hours (uneventful), and we arrived about an hour early. Since we had time, we decided to stop at Hannaford for a few provisions (mostly breakfast), and by the time we got to the house it was only 10 minutes before the official check-in time of 3:00. We got the car unloaded and explored the house. The home is completely surrounded by woods, and you can see a glimpse of the river (about 250 feet away) out the kitchen windows / French doors. The structure is “cabin-like” with exposed beams, which must have been more than 15 feet in the great room. The kitchen has high-end appliances (KitchenAid) – except for the microwave which is the $39 special from Walmart. 😊 The stove has six burners and some kind of “steam“ function on the oven, in addition to bake, broil, and convection. There are a few niggly things about the house that aren’t quite right and / or finished but the overall impact is impressive!
The first thing we did in the kitchen was to use the oven to bake a pizza. Then we sat down to watch Sunday baseball. What a night! We capped off the day with dinner of chicken and broccoli alfredo. Magnifique!
11 September 2023
30 miles
God bless the USA. We shall never forget.
We got off to a slow start this morning, lingering over coffee and news (reading on the Internet). It was noon by the time we got around to making something to eat so we opted for maple and sage rubbed pork chops, which were delicious! After eating, we set out on a shopping excursion to find sleeping pads for the tent. We had success at Cabela’s – and got a 10% veterans discount! We were also shopping for a new jacket for Markus, but had no luck.
We got back to the house around 4:00 and had leftover Pad Thai with additional chicken for a late lunch. We weren’t very hungry later for dinner, so we ended up eating a chicken sandwich as we did laundry and got our showers. One thing I discovered about the house and the “energy“ efficient dryer – it isn’t! It took hours for everything to dry, and it was 1:00 AM by the time we got to bed. I was not a happy camper!
Footnote: I would describe the house as eclectic – in a funky, fun way!
Footnote 2: We used the pot filler above the oven to refill our 4 gallon water bottle for camping – really cool!