Maine, We Have Arrived!

Travel Day 4 -- Kittery Trading Post Parking Lot, Kittery, ME (43.113284, -70.735070)

Our trip today was northeast from West Point, NY to Kittery, ME traveling 275 miles in 6.5 hours. It has been a long time since our last visit to New England. Highways, landmarks, and road signs jogged our memory of adventures past including our frequent holiday trips to Michelle's parents in Lowell, Mass. As we traveled along I-495 in northern Mass, exit signs seemed like old friends.

One highway sign in Connecticut caught my attention. Who would have thought that an innocent road sign would become a landmark for such a terrible event.

We arrived in Kittery at 1515 EDT. After pulling into the Kittery Trading Post parking lot, we checked into the store for permission to park overnight. Permission was cheerfully granted so we found a spot along the perimeter, parked, and headed for the store. Whenever we park in a store parking lot we do not disconnect the truck.



We shopped for a couple hours looking forward to the possible arrival of Nelson and Carole Hommel. The Hommels are best friends of many years. They were long time neighbors at our home in Ohio and now we are part time neighbors when we spend the winter in Florida at The Great Outdoors. Michelle and Carole are "quilting buddies" of long standing. We had discussed the possibility of joining up at Kittery Trading Post on this trip. We didn't see them this evening, so I guess they wandered in a different direction. Kittery Trading Post is an historic classic outdoor store. We have a lot of memories here. However, like everything else, it has changed.



I got a bad case of sticker shock in the fishing department when I saw fly rods at $800 and not much relief when they were on sale for a mere $450. I settled for two books: "GPS Made Easy" by Lawrence and Alex Letham and "The Striped Bass Book" by Milt Rosko. I wanted the GPS book to help me get reacquainted and proficient with my two handheld GPS units. It has been a long time since I did anything with them. The Striped Bass book is in preparation for my fishing trip for Stripers in Nova Scotia.

For dinner we crossed the street to the Weathervane Restaurant, eagerly anticipating our first taste of New England seafood in ages.

Michelle had her first Lobster Roll of the trip (note the New England hot dog roll) ...

... and I had a bucket of steamers and a beer.

Simple fare but they are each our favorites and we have been looking forward to it.

Unfortunately the service was terrible. We had a waitress who refused to acknowledge our presence and we got no service until the manager finally intervened. He served us himself and the service was perfect. He stopped to chat several times during our meal -- obviously trying to make up for the bad start. All ended well.

After dinner we headed back to the Cougar and read for a while -- then to bed contemplating our arrival in Bar Harbor tomorrow.