On to Bar Harbor...

July 15, 2007
Trenton, ME

Saturday’s drive up the coast from Boothbay to Bar Harbor was quite nice. Actually, we’re staying in Trenton, but most people would assume that’s in New Jersey so why be confusing. We’re staying at a new campground just before you get to Mount Desert Island (who comes up with these names, anyway), home to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.

Even though the forecast for Saturday was mixed, the day was actually quite pleasant for the 3-hour drive up the coast. We backtracked along ME-27 to US-1 and headed “north”. I use this term lightly because we were generally heading east as much as north, into the heart of “Down East Maine”, and the road rarely runs straight in any one direction for very long anyway. In fact, for one stretch of about 10 miles, we were on US-1 North, ME-3 East, and ME-15 South – all at the same time.

We actually arrived at the park a little earlier than I thought, since I guessed wrong in resolving a perceived difference between what Streets & Trips (software) and Woodall’s (RV directory) had as the location. Imagine my surprise when we drove right past the park just seconds after I pointed out where it was to Geri on the GPS in the coach. Or, at least, where I thought it was. It turns out that S&T was right this time (it’s usually wrong if there’s a question). My only consolation is that there have to be a lot of people in the same boat, since they had a sign 100’ after the entrance telling drivers how to make a safe U-turn ¼ mile down the road.

Once we got parked and had the basics in place (power on slides out dish up), we hopped in the Rover and headed for Bar Harbor for lunch, as we were both too hungry to focus on more campground tasks. We had a nice ride into the little burg, and randomly chose a restaurant, Parkside, with outside seating. We just made it in time for lunch service before they stopped seating and I found a parking spot right around the corner, both good signs. The choice of outside seating – not so much. We hadn’t even ordered yet when I was heading back to the car to grab those “emergency sweatshirts” we bought in Hampton Beach. Suitable layered, we ordered a couple of glasses of Hess Select Chardonnay, and – what else – lobster rolls. This installment in the great lobster roll quest was another success, with a #2 finish at this point. The quantity was overflowing (beating even Red’s), but the roll itself was too soft, damp, and “doughy” and could have used some toasting. The lobster was nicely-dressed and the added lettuce and tomato were a good touch, although Geri thought it a bit much. The lobster itself had been boiled instead of steamed, not that there’s anything wrong with that, which imparts a different taste to the end product. Overall, well done but not quite Red’s.

Back at the park after lunch, we finished up a “full deployment” setup. This means that all the chairs and outdoor cooking equipment is in place and all the patio lights are hooked up. It’s not a tough or time-consuming job, but if we’re on a short stay or I don’t get around to it right away, it just seems like these things don’t get done as easily.

After a quick break, we put together a nice dinner of grilled steaks (the last of the Costco steaks we brought with us), with grill-roasted red potatoes and the rest of the asparagus we picked up in Boothbay. A cheap Yellow Tail Cabernet (gotta use it up before the border, no matter how much it cost) was the selection du jour, and it did us fine. For “dessert”, we had “Al-tinis”, a drink that Al concocted for us while we were in CT. It’s made with 2 oz Hendrick’s Gin, ½ oz Triple Sec, 3-4 drops of lime juice, shaken with ice and strained into the closest thing you have to a martini glass. One will help you sleep. Beyond that, you’re on your own. Good stuff.

Today, we did a driving tour of Acadia National Park, taking the “Park Loop Road” around the eastern side of Mount Desert Island to the southern tip, then back inland and up to the top of Cadillac Mountain. It was sunny with high clouds when we left the park, but by the time we got near the ocean, clouds and fog were rolling in from the south. The landscape reminded me quite a bit of the Oregon coast, with the same kind of rocky terrain and pine trees (everything except the soaring heights of the Oregon cliffs). I had a chance to walk along the shore road for a little bit and try for some photos, although the weather wasn’t exactly right for good landscapes. This was especially true from the Mountain, where I thought we were on Mt. Washington for a bit with 40+ MPH winds blowing. There are some beautiful views overlooking Bar Harbor to the east, Northeast Harbor/Southwest Harbor to the west, and offshore islands to the south – just not today with the clouds and fog. Today was more of a scouting trip for a trip later in the week, I think. I’ll sort through picture downloads later (probably tomorrow) and post some representative samples.

During our drive, we stopped for a quick snack (turkey sandwiches) in the park, which just reinforced how we need to do a better job of preparing for days like this. We have a cooler in the car and should have packed our own snacks, plus some things for the pups. Anyway, when we headed back to the park, we stopped at the local IGA grocery for tonight’s dinner. Suffice it to say, we’ll need to head to a real grocery during the week, but we at least found some quick comfort food: pork chops for broiling and garlic mashed potatoes. Since the rain started as soon as we left the store, tonight was another excuse to try out the micro-convection oven, where neither of us is completely comfortable. We had a passable experience, although I still don’t know how long to cook things and the oven doesn’t seem to know how to preheat. I didn’t kill us with undercooked pork (I hope) and we had a nice 2005 Bourgogne (Pinot Noir), so all’s good. It may be time for dessert, or another Al-tini (but probably not both). Accordingly, I’ll sign off for now…

Last day in Boothbay

July 13, 2007
Boothbay, ME

No paraskavedekatriaphobia here. Who cares if it’s Friday the thirteenth? Not us. In our house, it’s just Merlin’s Birthday. The big dog is 9 years old today, and just as feisty as ever. A little slower up the stairs at times, but who isn’t at his age? Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Last night we ate well, which means we ate light. After a mid-afternoon lunch, neither one of us felt like cooking or eating when we got home. Since we had salad greens on hand and a chicken breast in the freezer, voila -- salad with grilled chicken sounded perfect. Accompanied by a cheap California Pinot Noir (Pepperwood Grove, actually not too bad for $5/bottle), it made for a nice late dinner.

Today dawned brighter than we’ve seen is over a week. There was no fog and the welcome sunshine was accompanied by a light breeze. We almost had our coffee out on the patio, except that we both got tied up online, Geri searching for new recipes and me checking to see how well our IRAs did in the market -- :-) -- and updating our Quicken data. I checked to make sure that Geri’s prescription refills made it to our mail service in South Dakota (they did) so we’ll get a mail shipment next week before we leave the US.

We took another drive today, this time out through the Southport peninsula. It’s rumored that Martha has a place there, but I think people are confused with Southport, CT, to be honest. Needless to say, we didn’t see her but we did have a chance to stop at the local public pier for a while. It was nice to snap a few photos and just sit for a while. We’ve noticed that “sitting for a while” is a popular activity at the vacation homes here. I reckon it’s the same as “settin’ a spell” in the South, and something to be savored. This is obviously a popular vacation hangout, as we’ve seen as many out-of-state cars as those from Maine. The majority are from New England plus New York and New Jersey (the latter surprised me, given the popularity of the “Jersey Shore”), with a good dose of Quebec representation. We’ve seen only a couple of plates from the Maritimes (they have their own vacation spots!) and from elsewhere in the US. That’s too bad, because it’s really nice here.

After our excursion to Southport, we headed back to Boothbay Harbor. We’d thought about doing a short tour boat cruise, but the skies have started to cloud up so we stopped in the local Coffee House and Wine Bar. OK, we didn’t have any coffee, but we had a couple of nice Cabs (St. Francis and BV), a California Mourvedre (Cline) that was decent, and a Spanish Tempranillo/Garnacha that was downright port-like. This was accompanied by a cheese plate that, while not labeled and sequenced correctly, was also decent. We just wished the place had an outside seating area; it was basically the first floor of an older colonial house just up the street from the main shopping district. They had paninis and some tapas-like offerings in addition to the cheeses, about 30 wines by the glass (no flights) and 6-8 beers (including Guinness on tap, if I’d been so inclined). Traffic was on the slow side, so it’ll be interesting to see if the place is still here the next time we come through (whenever that is).

After we got home, we lit the “bar” sign, mixed a cocktail (purging ourselves of another bottle that won’t need to make the border crossing to Canada, Tanqueray “Ten”) and sat outside for a while. The gathering clouds held off for a bit and the sun came back out. We’re parked next to a relatively new Prevost conversion by Marathon Coach (Marathon’s factory is right across the street from Monaco’s in Coburg, OR, right off I-5). For those who don’t know, Marathons are 1.5-2+ million dollar rolling mansions that make ours look trailer-park-ish in comparison. Anyway, their sides are polished stainless steel up to the mid-line, and very reflective. Since the sun was shining at just the right angle, we felt like George Hamilton getting a tan while we were sitting out, at least until the sun went back behind the clouds. We’ve only seen the “Prevost People” once in the 4 days we’ve been here, and that was only for a few minutes while they stopped by to check up on things. We’re assuming that they’ve just parked it here while they’re spending time on their yacht. After all, if you can afford a $2 mil coach, what’s wrong with another few $$$ on a boat? And we’d be right with ‘em if the damn PowerBall numbers came through… :-)

Tonight, we’ll continue to “live off the land” and eat away at things in the freezer. Geri had tucked away some pre-made tortellini with proscuitto and cheese, and we picked up some Rao’s sauce at the Hannaford’s, so we’re continuing to get ourselves ready for border crossing. We'll couple it with a nice 1997 Barolo from Pio Cesare that I've been saving for a good meal like this. Tomorrow, we’ll have the last of the steaks we brought with us, and we’ll be ready for seafood once we cross into New Brunswick.

Well, that’s it for today. I’ve uploaded a few of today’s snapshots at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GeorgeandGeri/AlbumBoothbay2

Hey, it's not raining!

July 12, 2007
Boothbay, ME

Well, a front must have gone through overnight, because the weather is certainly better, at least for today. It’s hard to call it a cold or a warm front, though, since temperatures haven’t changed much. Today’s high might have been in the mid-70s, with a breeze off the ocean keeping things cool. As I sit here outside composing this post at 6:30 PM, it’s down to 71°F and dropping. At least it was fairly sunny today, after the morning gloom burned off.

I had thought about making a road trip today or tomorrow, driving inland around Sebago Lake, cutting west into New Hampshire to the Conway area, and then up to Mount Washington. It looks doable on the map but when I routed it out it was over 3 hours driving time. I decided to hold off for now, since we’re only here until Saturday AM and I’m not sure I want to commit an extended day for a side trip.

This morning, we finally got down to making some reservations for the Maritimes. We’ll stay a week each in St. John, New Brunswick, Halifax and Sydney, Nova Scotia, and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (4 weeks total). We may change things around a bit, as one of the places booked doesn’t have the preferred electrical connection available. This won’t be a huge issue as long as we don’t need air conditioning, as a 20 amp circuit can keep the batteries charged up and run the coffeemaker and TV. Worst case, we could probably run the generator, although most campgrounds frown on that. I’ll call a couple of times over the next two weeks to see if we can get upgraded if there’s a cancellation.

This afternoon we spent several hours exploring “downtown” Boothbay Harbor. It’s really a pretty small touristy area about 5-6 blocks long, with a few waterside eateries, a bunch of B&Bs and small hotels (many with themes; one is built to look like a tugboat), and several tour boat docks. Some of the boats are selling whale watching cruises, but it strikes me that this isn’t really the right time of year for that so a bunch of tourists are probably getting “skunked”.

We started with lunch and a brew, naturally. We ate at one of the waterside restaurants (“Gray’s Wharf”), sitting on the outside patio. It was quite nice, sunny and an appropriate breeze (refreshing but not chilling the food). Geri had a seafood sampler and I had a lobster roll. I’m thinking that I need to use this time to do the lobster roll survey and see if Red’s in Wiscasset is still the champ. Last year (or was it the year before?), we tested Elaine’s outside Newport, RI (good, but not Red’s). Today’s verdict: good lobster, well-picked and dressed oh-so-lightly with mayo (as opposed to Red’s which comes “naked” with butter or mayo on the side), slightly cheaper ($14 v. $16), and definitely a lot lighter on the meat (Red’s was falling off the roll on all sides). Advantage: Red’s.

After eating, I moved the car (2 hour parking limit) to a small lot by the water and we continued our walking tour. Geri picked up a couple of souvenirs (“It’s 5:00 Somewhere” twirlie things for us, Pat & Al, Melisa, and the Bowers), and we bought a neon “Bar” sign for the coach for when we entertain. I’m not sure how much use it’ll get but it should be fun when we’re at rallies and the like.

We took a drive later in the afternoon, through East Boothbay to a place called Ocean Point, where you can see a couple of islands, 2 lighthouses, and many boats and lobster trap buoys in the coves. It wasn’t really late enough in the day for good photo light, but I snapped a few anyway.

Before we started out today, I repacked my 35mm bag into the new backpack I got a few weeks ago. I’ve got some work to do because I expected more to fit in the backpack; I just need to find everything’s “place”, I suppose. I believe I’ll be keeping the shoulder bags as a complement to the backpack since, if I had to guess, the old bags will be easier to manage when we’re touring by car and making scenic stops along the way while the backpack will definitely be best when hiking any distance to a photo opportunity is involved. On the other hand, moving everything back and forth between two bags doesn’t seem like something I’m likely to do on a regular basis. We’ll have to see how this one works out…

In any event, here’s a link to a few shots from today’s batch:

http://picasaweb.google.com/GeorgeandGeri/AlbumBoothbay

Red's for more lobster

July 11, 2007

Wiscasset, ME

As mentioned earlier, we planned to head for Red's, a little lobster shack in Wiscasset, at least once while we're in the Boothbay area. Well, today was the day, since we weren't going anywhere specific due to the weather. After Geri got the second load of laundry in and we applied first aid to my dog bite, we drove back along ME-27 to US-1, then south a mile or so to the village of Wiscasset, arriving just after 2 PM. The line didn't look too bad fron the front, but it actually went around the building and down the hill!

So, we waited in line and got our rolls. Each roll has over a whole lobster in it. Granted, they're probably the smallest lobsters allowed by regulation, but it's all in there. They're steamed perfectly and the whole thing is loaded into a toasted hot dog roll, butter and/or mayo on the side (we had one of each). Geri had a fried zucchini and I had french fries to keep up out fried food content. We sat outside to eat, which was OK since we'd dressed for cooler weather. Even though it was cloudy, there was little wind and the fog over the water stayed away. We finished up before someone else needed the table (the line was still moving along slowly), feeling satiated for today.

Do NOT bite the hand that feeds you Greenies

July 11, 2007

Boothbay, ME

Those who have met our dogs generally know that they're pretty good about their food. They tend to eat together and, although Maya likes to pick which bowl she'll eat from (being the alpha), there is never a conflict at feeding time.

Greenies (a pet treat) are another story, though. Maya likes to eat her Greenie as fast as possible and Merlin likes to play with his. This allows Maya to steal Merlin's if he' not paying attention (or even if he is). When this happens, we have to chase Maya (usually under a bed) and retrieve Merlin's treat.

Well, it happened again today. They were both on the couch and I thought I'd be right on top of it and get Merlin's Greenie from Maya before she had a chance to run with it. BAD IDEA. As soon as I went in, they both started snarling. As I pulled Merlin's piece from Maya's mouth, she came down hard on my thumb, cutting a nasty gash about 1/2" long on the face of the finger and crushing the nail on the other side. Lesson learned: let the alpha have the darn treat!

Off to Maine

July 11, 2007
Boothbay, ME

Yesterday, we had a nice, short drive from Salisbury, MA to Boothbay, ME. We left on I-95 and cut over to I-295 south of Portland, and then took US-1 through Brunswick and Bath (home to Bath Iron Works, a ship building company that used to be a client when I worked at Towers Perrin). We arrived early in the afternoon, and were back online quickly since I needed to follow up on the eBay sales. The remaining payments were made, so I needed to get things shipped (I listed with a 2 business day from payment target date). Fortunately, everything was packaged up and sitting in the back of the Range Rover. I used ups.com to generate all the pre-paid labels and find the nearest shipping outlet. I was able to get there before closing time, although I knew I was in Maine when I realized “you cain’t get theah from heah” on the way to the shipping place. Boothbay Harbor is a small town with narrow streets. Some are one-way, and most of them are actually marked as such. Others, you have to guess (no cars parked on your side and no street signs facing you generally means “don’t go here”).

Well, I’d printed out directions from the ups.com web site and things fell apart quickly when they tried to send me the wrong way on a one-way street. “No problem,” I thought as I backtracked and entered the address into the Range Rover’s GPS. “Oops,” I thought as the GPS wanted me to go the same way. At least I could see the target on the GPS map, so I angled toward it, only to come to the wrong end of another one-way street. I had to loop around again and figure out how to come back at it, but I persevered. I dropped off the 4 boxes and headed home (all one-ways in my favor this way).

We did a “full deployment” at the camp site, since we’re here for a few days, and hoping for some decent weather (more on that later). I’d taken out the last of the frozen NY Strip steaks (from Costco in Phoenix) the night before. We need to clean out the fridge and wine storage unit before we cross into Canada later this month. Meat is generally a no-no and booze is severely limited (1.5 litres/person), so we have our work cut out for us. :-)

On the way back from the shipping place, I stopped at the local Hannaford’s market and picked up some salad greens and asparagus to go with the steaks. We sat outside and relaxed with the last of the Yellow Tail Chardonnay before cooking the steaks. Since we have the equipment, we did all the cooking outside: Geri made pan-roasted red potatoes and sautéed asparagus, and I used the last of the mushrooms for a sauce, so we made a dent in the supplies. We had the last bottle of “Aureus” Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, which was another Costco find (we bought a case and haven’t seen it since). With “Luau Hawaiian Honey” ice cream for desert, we had a great “on the road” meal.

This morning, the weather’s been either fog, drizzle, or light rain. It’s supposed to lift later, but who knows. The forecast (for what that’s worth) for later in the week is better, as a front is supposed to pass – eventually, so we’re cleaning up odds and ends this morning (me updating the blog and Geri starting some laundry). We’ll head for a local lobster shack for lunch and kick back in the afternoon, I’m thinking. There might even be some “nappage” to be had, although we probably need to work on campground reservations for the Maritimes… :-)

A quick stop in Hampton Beach

July 9, 2007
Salisbury, MA

This post will be delayed (for the first time in a long while, we have no Internet connection!) but I’ll compose offline.

We left CT on schedule Saturday, heading for Salisbury, MA. Well, almost on schedule, since I’d planned to leave around Noon and we got under way a little after 1 PM. This was no big deal, though, as I’d planned a later than normal departure and a relatively short hop for the day.

We did quite a bit of the departure preparation on Friday, so we had a relatively easy morning to say our goodbyes and get on the road. I was able to pack all the things I sold on eBay and get them ready for shipment as well. The good news: all the visors and window blinds were sold except for the two traditional Venetian blinds from the kitchen and bathroom. The bad news: everything needed to be packed up! I found the boxes I needed (primarily 6” x 6” x 48” long square ones for the blinds) at The UPS Store in Enfield. Two items were paid for quickly so I was able to get them shipped before we left. One set of blinds was going to Canada, and the buyer asked me to ship them USPS instead of UPS, so I printed out the pre-paid mailer/customs form and took it to the local Broad Brook PO. Well, the lady working there (she’s been there for years) just didn’t like the looks of me or my stinking package. “No, you can’t drop off pre-paid here”. “No, you can’t ship that to Canada”. “No, the postage is wrong”. She had to ask her supervisor every time she tried to stall me, and got overridden each time. Fortunately for everyone involved, both the supervisor and I chose to view the exchange as humorous as opposed to frustrating (easy for me, since I knew I’d already done it right from the online system, which would error out if anything was not to spec). Dropping off the other package at UPS was much easier (drop and go).

Anyway, I picked Salisbury as our first stop for a couple of reasons. First, it’s right on the way to Maine, where we’re headed. Second, it’s about 2.5-3.0 hours drive depending on traffic (which is more of an issue on a Saturday than you might think unless you’re familiar with the crowds heading to the beaches on the weekends). Third, we have a favorite lobster place, Brown’s, where we like to stop. Other than that, there’s nothing else per se we need to see in Salisbury, or in Hampton Beach, the local “hot spot”.

It was cloudy and rain was threatening when we arrived at Black Bear Campground. It was a pretty rustic park, much more so than what we’re used to, but easier to navigate than Rusnik’s where we stayed a few years ago with the “Learning-mobile” (Rusnik’s is where I learned not to hit curbside rocks with the front of the bus while making a sharp turn into the campground). Black Bear bills itself as “big rig friendly”, and we were indeed able to maneuver around OK. Most of the sites are for smaller, older rigs (tight, back-in, 30 amps) and there were a lot of seasonal units in place that you could tell hadn’t moved in years. There were also more travel-trailers and families with kids than we’re used to, but that’s to be expected sometimes. There were a few sites designated for larger motorhomes, and we had a nice 75’ pull-thru that was easy-in/easy-out. All of the roads were packed gravel and crushed rock, and the sites were mostly done in rough cut wood chips (aka “rustic”), so we had some extra work to keep the coach and the pups clean.

We did a “quick deployment” (just slide-outs and window awnings, no outside lights, grill, etc.) because of the weather and the fact that we were only staying a couple of days. Geri spoke with her son Mike by phone, and he told her that her son Peter was in Hampton Beach for the weekend, so we made plans to catch up with him on Sunday. We had a quick pasta dinner with a nice Chianti (no fava beans) and called it an early night.

On Sunday, we got a lazy start. The weather was variable, with the sun peeking out one minute and the clouds overtaking it the next, typical for New England. We headed to Hampton Beach to meet Peter around Noon, and got caught in a horrendous traffic jam. The main “strip” in Hampton Beach is only about 1 mile long and like many seaside towns, is a one way street with the “back street” a block in from the beach going in the other direction. Also like many other spots (think South Street in Philly), a popular activity is to “cruise the strip”. We’d been to Hampton Beach before, but we’ve never seen anything like the slow down we experienced. It took us over an hour to even get onto the “strip”! We parked at the first lot we found (robbery at $20/day but we took it) and walked the rest of the way. You know that the traffic’s bad when Geri, with her breathing difficulties, can make better time on foot.

We met up with Peter and his friend, Val, for lunch. The sky was threatening but we ate outside anyway and had a nice, light meal and a brew. After lunch, Peter and Val went to get their car and Geri and I went to buy “emergency sweatshirts” since the temperature had dropped 10° and the wind had increased 15 MPH while we were having lunch. Temperatures in the low 60s and a threat of rain is nothing new for this area. Why we didn’t plan better and go prepared for weather is beyond me; we know better. Anyway, now we have a set of cheap (2/$30) “Hampton Beach” hooded sweatshirts that will stay in the car.

Peter and Val finally arrived (they had to go 10 blocks, after all), and we fought the traffic to the end of the “Strip”. Traffic just disappeared where the turn for the back street is, just like magic. We took a ride north on 1A, the shore road, past some beautiful vacation homes. Some were older estates, with manicured grounds and an older feel. Others were newer, with a faux age to them. A few just looked out of place, but there’s no accounting for taste. All in all it was a nice ride until we got back to Hampton Beach, of course. Traffic on the back street was even worse later in the day, as weekend/day visitors joined in. We finally got close enough to where we were parked to hop out and walk the rest of the way. Peter and Val were planning to continue their drive south to Salisbury Beach, and the head back to CT on Monday.

We fought the “exit traffic” all the way back to the campground (which is right near I-95 and the I-95/I-495 junction) and relaxed for a while with the dogs and a glass of wine before heading to Brown’s for dinner. We waited until after 8:30 PM to leave, and traffic was gone by then. We got our first “lobster fix” (I’m sure there will be more to come on this leg of the trip!) with a 2-pounder for Geri and a 3-pounder for me. We like Brown’s because a) they steam the lobsters instead of boiling them and b) they serve clarified instead of melted butter. We benefited from our late arrival (there was a line out the door waiting when we went by around 5:30 PM), as we had out pick of tables and no wait. People thought we were “professionals” since we brought our own tools (they crack the shells but we like to bring our own crackers and picks to get all the good meat out) and we had a nice bottle of “Sweet Cheeks” Chardonnay that I brought back from Oregon in the spring. We ended up being the last ones to leave around 10:30 PM and they closed the doors behind us.

Monday morning brought the same variable weather, so we did some cleaning up around the coach in the morning. I made a “Dunkin’ Donuts” run for breakfast, and we got everything ready for our Tuesday departure. Just for grins, I connected the park’s cable TV and the darn thing worked. We’ve had problems with cable in the past, and I assumed that (eventually) I’d have to trace the coax and re-wire something. This wasn’t a priority since we usually have our DirecTV working. Now I need to figure out what I did right this time (or wrong the other times) if we need it again. Not all parks have cable, but it’s nice to have that option if we need it. It’s good to have the local version of The Weather Channel sometimes, since the satellite version doesn’t show local forecasts and radar.

We decided to head back to Hampton Beach in the afternoon for an early dinner, because we know there are a variety of food stands there. We decided to go into Hampton Beach “the back way”, heading north on US-1 then east on NH-101. Traffic was nil, and we found a $3 parking spot. There must have been a big exodus, because things were pretty quiet. We had a huge slice of pizza (every shop has “the largest slice on the beach”) that was really two “normal” slices and, as we were eating, the clouds darkened and it started to rain. We decided that it was a sign that we needed to get inside, so we went to “The Purple Urchin” and sat in the upstairs bar area for a brew. Geri had a Stella Artois and I had a local wheat beer; both were good. While we were sitting there, the wind shifted to the east and a heavy thunderstorm came through. Since the water was blowing 25’ into the bar area, we headed for a drier place to wait it out.

In the “it’s a small world department”, we chatted with a couple at the bar from East Hartford, CT, who were on vacation with their kids. Geri lived in East Hartford “BG” (“before George”), and we lived near there for many years. Since we were Internet/TV-deprived, we weren’t aware of the tremendous temperature difference across New England. While we were relatively chilly at 62°, temperatures in the Hartford area (about 120 miles away) were in the mid-to-upper-90s. We could have used some of that warmth!

After the storm let up, we headed for our next “snack”. Geri had a craving for fried clam strips and I had a batch of fresh-cut French fries. Just as we started to eat, the rain started again, so we quickly walked a couple of blocks to the nearest arcade and found a table among all the carnival games. Noisy, but dry. During the next break in the weather, we finished off our grazing up and down the “Strip” with a couple of fried doughs. We finished up just as the lightning started again, and we just made it back to the car before the rains came again, so we headed back to the campground to bail out the pups. Typical for New England, it hadn’t even rained at the campground, less than 5 miles inland. Since we’d already eaten enough, we just finished off the evening with a Yellow Tail Shiraz and some Key Lime Pie ice cream; oh, yeah!

On Tuesday morning, we head for Maine, so we pretty much got everything ready before calling it a night.