Sunday 14 October 2001

Well, what a surprise. At the border there was a queue of about four cars which took seven minutes to be dealt with, rather than the three hours which they'd warned about on the radio, and then it was our turn. We told them we were British, and braced ourselves for the usual minute inspection of our passports and accompanying grilling about our intentions in the US multiplied by a factor of ten. The reality was that they didn't even look inside the passports, gave the truck and trailer a two minute going over, told us that Acadia National Park (which we were making for) is beautiful at this time of year, and waved us on our way with happy smiles. This was our easiest border crossing by far, for which I suppose we have Tony Blair to thank for bombing the Afghanis so promptly at Bush's request.

At the information centre in Houlton we picked up the usual heap of brochures, and obtained directions to a good place for lunch. It turned out to be an unremarkable looking family diner a little way out of town, with a large number of cars parked outside and patrons stuffing themselves inside due to the outstanding  quality and quantity of the food. We both had marinated sirloin tips, and I followed up with a huge piece of chocolate cream pie. We'd never have found it ourselves, so thank you very much, Houlton Information Lady.

Fortunately we managed to stay awake during our afternoon drive south. On the way there was a lovely old dilapidated 19th century house surrounded by brilliant foliage ...

... which we both coveted. Stayed overnight on a deserted peninsula at Seaview Campground, Eastport, where we comprised 50% of the guests.

Monday 15 October 2001 - Wednesday 17 October 2001

After the torrential rain stopped we hitched up and headed for Acadia National Park. A beautiful drive, if a little damp. One of the highlights was a kind of red ground cover plant which looks absolutely glorious when it extends over several acres ...

We stopped at Mt. Desert Narrows Camping Resort near Bar Harbor, a pleasant enough site which costs a whopping $60 per night in high season but is down to a mere $40 at this time of year, including our own phone line.

Over the next couple of days we went round most of the park, stopping for walks occasionally when the wind and rain allowed. There is nothing particularly spectacular about Acadia, but it's all very pretty and peaceful. Some of the time the air was absolutely still with mirror reflections in the lake ...

... but at Schoodic Point a little later there were some serious winds and waves ...

We ate lots of good seafood in  Bar Harbor itself, including our first lobsters. Quite nice, but you have to do an awful lot of cracking, ripping, sucking and prodding to get about 3oz of meat, 2½oz of which is a single lump in the tail. We also discovered Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale, which is highly recommended.

Thursday 18 October 2001 - Friday 19 October 2001

Headed towards Portland today. One tyre had started slowly deflating, so we called into a tyre place to discover that it and the one on the opposite axle needed replacing; they'd worn down to the canvas on the inside as their pressure had been set too low. Oops.

On Thursday evening we found the only campground in the area still open near Saco; all the others had closed for the season on the 15th. Very pretty views over the lake ...

... but freezing cold at night.

Next day we went into Portland, an attractive place with plenty of character (although it does get damn cold in the winter) to be tourists. We'd hoped to visit the only remaining inhabited Shaker village which is about 30 miles away, but as luck would have it we'd hit Columbus Day and it was closed. Instead we walked round the wharves and the old section of the city, visited the art gallery where there was a traveling exhibit of American Impressionists from the Smithsonian, saw round Longfellow's House, bought exotic foods from the market, and ate a couple of nice meals.

Back into Massachusetts tomorrow, to see our friends prior to beginning the long trek south-west for some winter sunshine.