Maine USA

The following morning we stopped at the Tim Hortons to get some breakfast and then headed off to Saint Stephens where there is a border crossing with the US. Vanessa does not do very well with border crossings, she gets very angry about waiting, and she always thinks that people are being discriminatory against her or useless at the job. I did my best to keep her under control while we waited for the border guards check all of our documents get everything stamped and allow us into the US. While we were sitting there we did see one person get rejected entry and sent back to Canada. It took an hour for us to clear passport control.

Now we're in the US and of course one of the first things we see is a gun shop. We just stopped briefly to take a photo. No need to buy any guns on this trip (I couldn't find the photo after).

We keep driving and at some point Vanessa decides that she really wants to go have a look at Eastport. Now, this is along a road that only runs out to Eastport and back. It is kind of pretty going between the islands. Eastport itself doesn't really have much to it. There are bunch of wooden buildings in differing states of disrepair and a High Street that doesn't really have much to it. We went into the Home Run Brewing pub and although the staff were friendly enough we were disappointed by the beers and didn’t finish them before leaving (which is very unlike us). We then went to the WaCo Diner where we had more lobster. It was a decent meal and I remember it being affordable.
   

We continue driving and at some point come across an abandoned motel. It definitely looked like the kind of place that Bates would run. Thankfully it wasn't open and so we didn't need to test it out. We're not sure if that coke machine worked or not though.
 

So Vanessa really loves taking photos of rocks and i really love taking photos of water. So when I saw another waterfall on the map we had to stop to give it a look and see if it was any good. It was less of a waterfall and more of a little cascade, pretty similar in size to some of the ones I did in my adventure race that year. However it is always nice to get out of the car.

Something else I had found while looking on the map was a sardine museum. The both of us love small tinned oily fish and so we thought this museum would be a fun little stopover. We got to the museum and although the door was open, it was clearly shut and unmanned. We were not sure if we should go in or not, but next to the museum was a wooden slightly rundown house with an old fat man sitting in the window with his shirt off watching TV and drinking beer. Now we didn't know whether to approach this man and be shot, or if he might be able to tell us if we could get into the museum or not. It turns out that he was a really friendly guy and his wife phoned the owner of the museum to see if we could go in or when she would be back. We couldn't go in that day and they would be open in a couple of days’ time which was of course no good to us. From the door it looked like there might be some interesting stuff in there and so maybe call ahead if you intend to go to see if it'll be open or not (although it is literally a caravan sized “building” that had sardine tins from different eras and that’s literally it).
 

Not far from the museum we stopped to take some photos over the Bay where the water was fully out and the boats were sitting on the bottom. This was just another little stop to stretch our legs and to see what we could see.
  

The next stop was the old pond railway trail. This was an old railway line that is being partially torn up to make a walkway through the forest and out to some mud flats. We expected to be eaten alive by mosquitoes but this didn't happen. Instead we got to see some crabs running around and just enjoy a nice walk through the forest without many people around us.
     

For that night we decided we were heading for Bar Harbor. It was one of the few places Vanessa was adamant we should go visit after reading good things and being recommended it by a few people that we met along the way. We got in to town and checked into the Anchorage Motel. It was a very busy motel but the rooms were nice. We headed out into town to see what there was to see. There was an interesting looking high street, all closed because of the time, and we found a store that had a sign in the window offering kayaking trips. So I booked it right there and then on my phone so we knew what we were doing the next day and we set off to see if there were any store that were still open and to also see if we could find anywhere to eat. We both picked up some watershoes so we wouldn’t have to get our normal shoes wet and discovered that there was nothing really that we wanted to eat at, having been put off speaking to a local about the overpriced tourist traps of restaurants in town. I grabbed an icecream and then we went back the motel to decide on dinner. On the way in to Bar Harbor we had passed a number of places that had these massive pots steaming away outside that were selling lobsters, that seemed way more charming and a lot less touristy. We were not yet totally lobstered out so we headed back to one of these places – the Bar Harbor Lobster Pound. We placed the order for what was probably too much food for the two of us, grabbed a couple of drinks and then went out the back to wait. They had some cornhole sets out there so we decided to have a few rounds of this. It was no surprise that I beat Vanessa at this and it was a whole lot of fun to just let go and be a bit silly. We were not the only ones doing this as another couple was also playing on the set next to us. The food came and we ate our way through the very tasty lobster, enjoying the cute ambiance complete with fairy lights and picnic tables and a cute little ice cream shack. Finished up our drinks and then went back to get some sleep before our kayaking the next day.
   

The kayaking started with a briefing with the guide and where we met the rest of the people we would be kayaking with. It turned out that nearly everyone else in the group was part of a larger group of older folks who were on a cycling trip and this was their day off, so we were definitely the tag alongs for the day. We got the briefing (I am not sure how much of it Vanessa really understood or took in based on the expression on her face) and we loaded in the van for a 30 minute drive out to the launch site. There was a lot of fog on the water when we arrived but we all got into our kayaks and headed out into the foggy waters. At the bay where we launched from there were some floating caning buildings as well as many commercial boats. We headed out into the Bartlett narrows and although it was very foggy we managed to see some seals and some porpoises. We also saw a young bald eagle and heard an osprey. We were quickly told that the planned paddle would have to be adjusted as it was very strange and there was no wind at all, which would make the intended paddle a lot harder as normally they have the wind pushing them along as well. We were told that this could be the calm before the storm as there was a hurricane that was forecast to make landfall the day after we were there. The new plan was just to stay around the Bartlett Narrows, maybe stop on one of the beaches on the island owned by the Rockefellers and then go back to where we started to drive back. The fog started clearing, we had one hard and fast shower of rain and got to see a bunch more wildlife (seal jumping, a bald eagle nest, cormorants and fish farms).
      

We got back into Bar Habor just before 2pm and so headed out to grab ourselves a bite to eat. Of course I started with an ice cream (I can’t remember the flavours I chose but there were so many to choose from and they all sounded so good). Then we found a bar/restaurant to have a nice meal at. The best thing here was the fact that the cocktail came with a slice of bacon in it. Sooooo good.
  

On our way out of Bar Harbor we went past the house that hosts the Stephen King & Tabitha King Foundation. It is a creepy looking house as you might expect and has some homages to his books and films around. We couldn’t go into the grounds but got some photos and headed on. We were also conscious about getting away from the coastline before the storm came in.
  

Now we were just making our way inland, to get away from the coastline and also because we needed to start making our way towards Buffalo, even if we still had a couple of days to get there. We stopped briefly at the Carmel Veteran’s Memorial and then also at the Skowhegan India. Both are worth a quick visit to get some local history, and made for good breaks from the car seat.
 

The weather was now getting pretty bad and it was dark as well. We were just looking out for motels along the route we decided to drive and in the end we came to a town called Rumford. This is a town that really seems on the decline. We were not so impressed when we arrived in town and thought that we would just go get some food first and then see if we could find somewhere to stay. We were at what seemed to be the only place in town at the time and had what can best described as a pub style dinner. Satisfied, we had seen a little sign not far away that said it was a hotel/bar and went in to see if they had a room. The girl behind the bar told us that unfortunately there were no rooms available, to which a guy at the bar looked up from his meal and said that his brother owns the place and he was sure a room could be made ready. He left his meal on the bar and disappeared for 30 mins to get the room ready while we had a couple of drinks. The room was made ready but while we waited we had got talking to some interesting folks at the bar who told us some of the history of the town (basically it is all closing down because the mill was shutting and the town was basically built around the mill and its industries). She was a local teacher but a bit weird and lived fully off grid on a plot of land she inherited from her family in the area. We ended up staying at the bar until it was closing and then went up to our room. It was newly refurbished and was really nice (if not quite finished yet).

The next morning we were up relatively early and went for a walk to see the town (nothing to see) and the mill. The mill is build on the river and uses the waterfalls to make hydro electricity to run the whole place. It was a nice walk even if we couldn’t see a great deal from the footpath. We found out after that there was a much better view from a roadside park on the way out of town.
 

Now, before we left town we needed breakfast still. So I looked at the map to see if we could find a diner and I found a place called Dick’s in an adjacent town called Mexico (there are a lot of towns out in this area that are named after counties around the world). So we headed off to Mexico to get some Dick’s for breakfast. The diner was exactly what we were looking for. I had a steak for breakfast and Vanessa really enjoyed her endless filtered coffee (read: coffee-flavoured dishwater) ????.
  
 

New Hampshire

On our way to the border we stopped at the Wheeler Mica Mines, which were supposed to be some type of museum, but it was shut so onto the border. We then stopped at the Reflection Ponds a the roadside. It was just a small bit of water but there was a nice gravel parking area that I made the most of the rental car to be a bit of a chav in.

While stopped, we were looking to see what was going to be the next stop. And I noticed a lookout called Mt Washington and it seemed to have some good reviews. We decided to drive over and see what it was all about. You have to either pay a small(ish) fee to drive yourself up or you need to pay a much higher fee to be driven up in a mini van (there is also an option to hike but we neither had the desire or the time to walk up there). Mount Washington, standing at 1,917 meters (not very high, but high for the area) in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, is famed for its severe weather, holding the record for the highest wind speed observed at the Earth's surface, 372 km/h (231 mph), recorded in 1934. They made a very big deal about the steepness of the road and how “narrow” it is, but, living in the mountains of Switzerland and driving around the Alps, this was an easy road to drive. From the top we got some nice views and grabbed a bite to eat before grabbing a photo at the top top and heading back to the car to drive down.
    

Not far from here we came across an abandoned amusement park called Six Gun City. As you might have guessed it was in the theme of cowboys and Indians. We read about it and it seemed that it was very popular in its day but it has closed and fallen into disrepair. We really wanted to go in to take a look around but there was clearly someone working in one of the only buildings still being used as an office for the camp site up the road owned by the same people.
  

We then headed along to the next town on our list which was Lancaster. Here there was another covered bridge and what seemed like a pretty interesting high street. We stopped and grabbed a snack from the Polish Princess Bakery and even managed to call the kids while we were there (I am sure we called the other times before this but I specifically remember sitting outside of the bakery talking to them). We walked up the street here to the Crane’s Snowmobile Museum, which guess what, was closed. There was a sign on it saying you could call them to get them to come and open it. But I had noticed a couple of things on my map that I still wanted to get to that day and we decided we didn’t want to call and wait around for the museum to be opened for us.

 

Vermont

We then came to the Goodrich Maple Farm. This is a family run farm and they did a really good presentation about the whole production and refinement process. The guy giving the presentation was really funny and was more than happy to answer all of our questions at the end. They of course had a well stocked shop on site and we loaded up on produce (i.e. silly amounts of maple syrup-related products) before heading off to the next stop.
   

The next stop was something random I found on the map. It was the Largest Zipper in North America. Now, after the giant lobster and all the big shit that I saw in Australia growing up (big lobster, big pineapple, big banana, etc etc) we had high expectations. We actually walked past the zipper 3 times before we realised what it was. So yeah, you can totally skip this one if you are driving through the area.

And now for a real treat, we made it to the Ben & Jerry’s factory in Burlington. We were a little later to arrive than I had planned (due to how hard it was to find the “big” zipper) and we almost missed the last tour of the day, but I sweet talked them into letting us rush in and jump on the tour that started just 5 mins before we got there. We got to see the whole inside of the factory, and got a lot of information about the process and history of the company. It was interesting to hear that while the rest of the world gets their Ben & Jerry’s from the US, Europe has their own factory as the US made stuff does not meet the food standards for import. The European factory is in the Netherlands but he wouldn’t tell us much more about it. At the end of the tour I got myself a huge 3 flavoured ice cream of flavours we can’t get at home and we wandered up to the Flavour Graveyard to read about all the crazy flavours that they have made in the past and how long they were around for (some only lasted months before being laid to rest).
        

We then made our way down to Lake Champlain and the town of Burlington. It was dinner time so we stopped at a Buffalo Wild Wings to get some food. They wings came in every range of hot and we both enjoyed the wings, even if some of them were just too hot. It was a proper sports bar with screens up everywhere and some groups of people at tables watching different games on all the TV’s.
 

New York State

We were now clearly in driving mode as we had to get to Toronto but the following evening. So we set off to see just how far we could drive that night. The roads were small and windy and the weather was particularly bad. I think I also drove for at least an hour in the dark without seeing another car. In the end I found a small motel just as we were coming to Interstate 87. We took the room, overpriced but fine and had a sleep before the long next day.

The next day we went a little down the I87 before turning back off onto some smaller roads through tiny towns that would cut us across eventually to the I90. While it was very scenic there is not a great deal to write about from this part of the trip as we were just driving trying to make sure we got to where we needed to be before the end of the day.

The highlight of the day though was this little diner that we passed and then went back to, which had some friendly old women running it and made some really good bacon baps for breakfast.

Once we got onto the I90 there was even less to see and we were just cruising along and listening to music, even talking to each other a bit.

We made it to Buffalo and headed over to the Niagara Falls (on the American side). There were obviously a lot of people there and we managed to find a parking space in a multi-storey car park and headed over to the viewing platforms. The river is very impressive and the different stages of the falls were great to see (like I said, I love water and waterfalls). We decided we didn’t need to go out onto the river to have a look but we did pau to go up the Observation Tower which did give a much better view. It also included the option to go down to the bottom and follow the walking path up close to the falls. It was even more impressive from the bottom.
   

We could see why people might have said that you would get a better view from the Canadian side as it does allow you to look front on at the falls, but the view points from the US side do give some pretty impressive views as well.

Read the other posts in from this holiday