20020625

June 25, 2002

Day 47

Start: Bar Harbor KOA, Bar Harbor, ME
End: Dixon’s CG, Neddicks, ME
Miles: 213

The high today was 87f and the low was 53f last night in coastal Maine. Sunny, but high, thin, clouds and a breeze made it feel cool (until you walked in the sun for a bit).

The drive down here was easy, once we got out of Bar Harbor and Ellsworth. We took the Maine Turnpike to avoid most of the trucking traffic. We hadn’t realized how much traffic I-95 carries this far north. 

We got off I-95 and into the campground. We checked in and were taken to our site by a guy who turned out to be a former submariner (USS Conger) and worker in Portsmouth Naval Shipyard here. That brought on a bunch of stories (his in a typical native Maine accent) and did-you-know questions. Finally, Ed had to go do some work, so we set up the trailer and took off in the truck.

I gave Dolores a tour of the lower Maine beach strip – York Beach and environs. There’s a big, wide, beach with lots of people sunning and playing volleyball on it. There’s a whole bunch of water with nobody in it, because it’s cold. The smell is salt water and decaying seaweed. The beachfront drive has 
lots of shops and restaurants. Outside the shopping district, there are lots of inns, motels, rental cottages and other accommodations. 

We drove down 103 to Kittery Point and then Kittery, where we turned into the back gate of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. I was prepared to have the truck searched, but the Seabee on guard let us in after looking at my ID card. I must look non-threatening, or perhaps the type who would forget a match with which to light his shoes. 

There’s a chain link cage around and over the train track into the yard; it has a gate on each end. When a train car arrives, it’s rolled in one end of the cage and left there until someone feels like searching it. That could be a day or two. Finally, it’s rolled out the other end. That sounds like a great way to keep bad things out.

I gave Dolores a tour of the non-secure part of the base. We finally found the little exchange by asking for directions (we were in back of it) and bought a few things there. The old Naval Prison buildings are still there. The building that was the enlisted barracks is across the pond from the prison – some say that was intentional, to remind the grunts of the fate that would befall them if they screwed up badly. Now, the building is the Bachelor Officers Quarters; I wonder if they get the same story. After seeing where the Russo-Japanese war treaty was signed in 1905, we left by the old main gate and went into Portsmouth, NH. 

After a search for a parking space, we stumbled across one and fed coins to the meter sufficient to last the rest of the afternoon. We walked the half-block to Market Square in the center of town. We wandered a little, then had a frapuccino at Starbucks. We visited the little tourist kiosk and gathered brochures. 

Then we hopped onto the “loop trolley” that takes a fixed route around town. You can get off at any of 15 stops. But if you get off, you must pay full fare ($1) to get back on and continue. Given the lack of parking around this old (1623) town, it’s a bargain. We went all the way around on the trolley, putting into our minds what we’d do tomorrow.

Then we went to dinner at a place I’ve used in the past to take employees to dinner. It’s called the Dolphin Striker, on Bow Street near the tug pier. First, we had drinks in the Spring Hill Tavern downstairs. The old well they discovered when they put in the bar in 1975 now has fish in it. Then we went upstairs to the dining room. The food was very good. Dolores had the crab cake appetizer and then lobster ravioli, and noted that the lobster used in the dish had at least four claws and very little tail. I had a strawberry and asparagus salad with spinach leaves followed by haddock picata, also very nice. Dolores enjoyed watching the crowd pass by on the sidewalk and wondering what the town would be like in other seasons.

We waddled back to the truck, drove to the campground and settled in the little house in the campground in the woods for the rest of the night.

We decided that the urge to go home is stronger than our need to explore more. Therefore, we’re not going to stay another day. We’ll go see Dolores’ sister on the other side of New Hampshire tomorrow, then head for home, to arrive Friday.

Finally, we wonder how Fred and Marlene and the others from Ontario are making out in their trip to Newfoundland. We sure hope they’re not still ice-bound in Labrador and wish we could have seen them. Knowing how hard it is to find a modem connection up there, it may be a while till we find out how they’re doing and where they’re doing it.