entering ME

it's been so long, i've forgotten where i left off in summer-travels-posting...

...we went up to Boston, and then over to NY, and then through VT and NH...

It was raining when we left New Hampshire. We were sad to leave. We dropped off Jeremy at the Manchester airport, and the area was none too pretty. We didn't really have much of a plan, and the rain stifled ideas. We headed for the coast and starting looking for a place to camp. I think the hope was that it would be nice in the morning for a bike ride along the waterfront. Instead, we drove along 1A where we were told we'd have nice views. Which we would have had if it were clear.

And we headed up into Maine.

We stopped at the state welcome center, only to find it closed. But we were saved by a few computers that let us navigate the parks and camping sites online. So we found a few options and got back on the road, figuring we might as well cover ground so long as it was raining.

Our destination: the desert of Maine. oh yes.

We chose the spot because 1. we could find it and 2. it was by L.L.Bean which was a stop we had in mind.

So, we camped in the rain.

(hot dogs and couscous presumably. hot dog buns: side loading.)

The next morning we actually showered since we were wet and gross...
and then we had to spread e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g out in the back seat to dry: sleeping bags, sleeping bads, tent, towels, tarp, clothes....
And we went to visit the desert, since we had a coupon after camping there.

it was as you can imagine: ridconculous.
Courtney explains it here.

So we left and headed into Freeport. Here we visited the L.L.Bean outlet where I found a pair of hiking boots (to go very nicely with the socks daddy gave me, which are on my feet far more often the boots are). And then we went to the actual store which is huge and quite entertaining.











and then lunch, the most memorable: we had a lobster roll. amazing.


We got back in the car and started driving; we hugged the coast on Route 1 passing through Camden.

It was here I believe that we found a grocery store to buy some dinner - some fillets of fish and gnocchi. We were looking for a place to picnic, and found a state park where we drove up Mt. Battie for this lovely view of Penobscot Bay.
But the park was closing, and I had my heart set on picnicking by the water. We figured we'd stop for dinner, and then spend the evening driving all the way up to Acadia. So we drove onward looking for a nice spot on the road. We came across a small public beach, and proceeded to unload the car of the necessities for cooking dinner. I think this is probably where the photo of me in the back of messy Scout comes from. I can explain: besides the wet things drying in the back seat, we had our bikes on the back of the car. This makes using the trunk a huge ordeal. The result is that we would pull things out through the back seats, creating serious disorganization in boxes of foodstuffs and bags of clothings. And when the wet tent and sleeping bags weren't in their pouches, well, it was a bit like a volcano of camping gear had exploded in the back of Scout.

Anyway, we set up the stove on the beach and started cooking our food, enjoying the water and sand. But the folks there sure thought we were weird. We got sideways glances, and heard stern warnings to their kids to stay away from us. Beats me. We had such a nice meal of our salmon and gnocchi. And then got back in Scout, heading for Acadia NP.