We Are All Here and Ready To Go

Travel Day 9 -- Timberland Acres RV Park, Trenton, ME (44.507341,-68.388820)

Today Michelle and I traveled south on Route 102 along the west side of Sommes Sound to visit the towns of Southwest Harbor and Tremont.

Southwest Harbor is a town located on Mount Desert Island, with a population under 2,000. It has one school, Pemetic Elementary School.

Southwest Harbor has a Coast Guard Station. Everytime I see a Coast Guard Station, I recall that the Coast Guard doesn't have a bad duty station.

Hinckley Yachts maintains its headquarters, design, construction, and repair facilities in Southwest Harbor. Hinckley Yachts, founded in 1928, is a manufacturer of luxury sailing yachts and jet-powered picnic boats. In an effort to keep its reputation of fully handcrafted boats, Hinckley relies on a manual assembly line process to create its yachts, meaning widespread automation is nearly impossible. Due to the custom format of the yachts, Hinckley does not go through model years, rather it attempts to make “two major changes per year” to its line of vessels. The Hinckley Company (the mother company of Hinckley Yachts) also provides such services as yacht service, yacht brokerage, charters, and boat insurance. Hinckley currently conducts operations in seven locations across the North East and South East regions of the United States.

Hinkley builds both motor yachts and sailing yachts.

We motored along Rt 102 to the village of Tremont and spent a little time at Bass Harbor Head Light Station.

Bass Harbor Head Light is a lighthouse located within Acadia National Park on the southeast corner of Mount Desert Island, Maine, marking the entrance to Bass Harbor and Blue Hill Bay.

This plaque gives information on the bay and the light.

The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Bass Harbor Head Light Station on January 21, 1988. Today, the house is a private residence for a local Coast Guard member and his family. Tourists can get close to the bell and light via a concrete path, but most of the grounds remain private. There is a short walk which takes you to a series of wooden steps that lead you down onto the many granite boulders that provide a great view of the harbor side of the lighthouse and the harbor itself.

This awesome photograph of Bass Harbor Head Light is by Matt Shetzers. Check out his website for more of his photography and his workshops.

This is the lighthouse and the residence

By then our stomachs were yelling for lunch. Finding nothing along the road, we continued on to Bar Harbor and sought out someplace on the water. That turned out to be Stewman's Lobster Pound, where we began our serious efforts to over indulge on seafood. Michelle had a Lobster Roll and I had a bowl of Seafood Bisque. Stewman's Lobster Pounds are the only authentic oceanfront lobster pounds in Bar Harbor, Maine.

We spent the afternoon packing the Cougar and joined our caravan buddies for an "Empty the Fridge" dinner to get rid of all the stuff we can't take across the border into Canada. It was a good opportunity to get acquainted with our travelling companions.

Here we are. Thirty-seven souls about to take off on a 54 day adventure through the Maritime Provinces of Canada -- New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia (both islands), and Newfoundland (but not Labrador).

Some in the group are close friends, some are casual acquaintances, some are strangers. I think I can safely say everybody knows someone and nobody knows everyone. In our case, the only people we know well are Carole and Nelson Hommel.