6 July 2024 - Doreen's Birthday and Last Day at Hilltop Campground

 Happy birthday to Doreen!  Kind of an uneventful day for her. We will celebrate more deliberately at our next stop!

We received heavy rain last night and it's "pea soup" here today. Last day here, so we headed into Calais, fueled the big ol' brown truck, stopped by the post office and mailed some old school birthday cards, stopped at the grocery store and bought fridge and pantry items, and then back to the campground to complete our pre-departure tasks. 

While in Calais we passed this interesting building with what appears to be an old, recovered advertisement for  "Dr. Thompson's Sarsaparilla.  Cures When Others Fail.  The Great English Remedy"

"Built in 1847, the Hill Brick Block at the corner of North and Main Streets is both much the same today and much changed." "(They have a) photo that was taken about 1900 and the building was filled with businesses on the ground floor, lovely apartments overhead and a third floor occupied by Dr. Thomson Medicine Company and Laboratory."  This is an example of the many other areas we have visited and how no matter how long you stay you never see it all.  Always a reason to come back!

We've thoroughly enjoyed our stay here in the Down East area of Maine and our time with Chick and Joanne McCoubrey.  We love being able to sample the local cuisine and beverages!  As with all of our military comrades, our friendship runs deep.  We are so thankful we are able to travel and spend time with our great friends!

Tomorrow we will pull chocks fairly early and head over to Bangor on Route 9 and then south to the Portland area and further to Scarborough and Bayley's Camping Resort for the next five nights!  Estimated 250 miles, about 5-1/2 hours for us.

5 Jul 2024 - Lunch in Machias Maine with Chick & Joanne

 

Another great day here in Down East Maine!  This morning we drove to Chick and Joanne McCoubrey's house and then headed to Machias, a village on the coast.  The word Machias roughly translated in the Passamaquoddy language to “bad little falls”, which describes the beautiful and rugged waterfalls located on the Machias River in the center of the community. The falls provided the power to the historic mills that lined the waterway to the bay. Interesting fact that Machias was the site of the first naval battle of the American Revolution.

The reason we headed to Machias was during our 2016 Maine visit we met Chick and Joanne at a restaurant called "Helen's" which had delicious food and Doreen's favorite, an awesome blueberry sangria!  As we arrived it was obvious there was likely not a single parking space in Helen's parking lot, so we opted for Mason's Brewing Company just down the road.  

I had a glass of their Brown Ale American, and Doreen & Chick had a cocktail called "Don't Raspberry Me, That is Rude"!  It included St George Citrus vodka, St George Raspberry vodka and lemon acid water.

Mason's Brewing offers a wide variety of food,  and I had to snap a picture of my monster halibut sandwich!   It reminded me of one of our Iowa pork tenderloins hanging over the bun and consuming the plate.  I ate some fries, the slaw and only the fish portions that hung over the bun, and brought the entire rest of the sandwich back for dinner here in the RV!

After leaving Mason's Brewing we stopped by Hannaford Food so that Doreen could pick up some blueberry wine, and she found a couple.  

As we were running short on time with Liberty, we drove to our campground so we could let her out and show Chick & Joanne our camper.  We then headed back to their house in Meddybemps.  Joanne used to be a hair stylist, and so she gave Doreen a trim while Chick and I sat out on their deck and enjoyed the afternoon.  They have an awesome view of Meddybemps Lake from their back deck and from their living room windows for that matter!  I can only image this view in the winter with snow on the ground.  

Sadly we said our goodbyes to Chick and Joanne, and thanked them for their hospitality and friendship.

Joanne prepared an awesome blueberry pie with blueberries from their farm, and a rhubarb cake also grown right here!  She sent us back to the RV with a few pieces of both along with some tomatoes she had grown, so our dessert tonight was awesome!!

Does not get any better than this!!

Tomorrow we will drive to Calais to refuel the truck, replenish the pantry and fridge, and stop by the post office.  Back at the camper it will be the normal "day before we leave" tasks.  Sunday morning we will depart Down East and drive over to Old Orchard Beach for a few days!.  

4 Jul 2024 - Happy Fourth of July! Eastport Maine Festivities!

 Happy Fourth of July!  We spent part of the day in Eastport Maine, which claims to be the largest 4th of July celebration in Maine!    This year's theme was "Eastport 4th of July and Old Home Week Celebration 1776-2024".  Their schedule of events started on Sunday 30 June and extends through Saturday 6 July.  Liberty accompanied us as we had no idea how long we would be gone, plus "Liberty" + "Fourth of July".... it seemed so appropriate!

As we entered Eastport we contributed to the local fund raiser that supports this event.  In trade, the young lady that took my money complimented us on our beautiful truck! 

I was a bit reluctant to attend this as I hate dealing with parking and traffic issues, coupled with narrow streets, etc.  But, a little advanced planning paid off as we scored parking at the elementary school in trade for a short walk. 

The walked to the downtown area was nice.  We passed many very old, well-maintained houses.  

The streets were lined with lawn chairs as folks obviously knew the route of their parade and they reserved their spots in advance.   

After a few blocks we arrived in the downtown area.  Again, many, many very old buildings in a New England fishing village.

As we turned down the main street it was obvious we were at the right place!  We strolled down the street that had been blocked off of vehicular traffic.  

There was a large group that gathered in front of a bandstand and we arrived just in time to watch the blueberry pie eating competition, and what a blast!  It did not last long.  I believe those who participated got to take their uneaten portion home with them if they wanted.  One young lady walked away clean, with a whole pie!

We continued down the street that was lined with shops and booths of all sorts.  Again, the buildings along the main street are very old.  Some have been fixed up and some are showing their age.  

Eastport Savings Bank 1887

We drank some Narragansett aka "Nasty-gansett" when we were stationed at Loring! 

The remnants of a car show that occurred before we got there.  

We strolled all the way down the street and then headed towards the water and walked that pathway back.  There were fishing boats of all kinds,  and a Navy ship docked that was to be open for tours.  

This ship is some sort of dredging operation with huge water pumps.

Two huge centrifugal water pumps

These appear to be dredges of some sort

I looked for Popeye, Olive Oil and Bluto but never saw them

Some other neat pictures from Eastport, along the Cobscook Bay and Passamaquoddy Bay:

The backs of the businesses along the main street.

A walkway between the buildings and the shore

"Nerida" Eastport Mermaid 2015

This statue was built in 2001 for a Fox TV mini-series "Murder in Small Town X"

Eastport shoreline

We decided to make the break before the parade started as we did not want to get trapped in town.  As we headed back to the truck we captured these pictures 

One of the many parade vehicles decorated nicely!  Probably has a huge bag of candy inside to be thrown to spectators, if they do that here.

Got a chuckle out of this one!

Ayuh!  I love this place and the people who call Maine home!

We called it a day at Eastport and headed up to Calais to see what was going on there.  Nada!  Was like a ghost town! Had we found a restaurant open we might have stopped but there was not much moving, so back to the campground for lunch.  I had the last of my lobster that Dianne Noskowiak sent home with us from what was left of our lobster dinner there.  Two lobster rolls!  They were $25 each at Eastport today!  They tasted great!!

That is it for today.  Tomorrow we plan to have lunch with Chick and Joanne in Machias plus Doreen is going to look for some of the blueberry wine she got up here last time.  Happy 4th everyone!