New England Wrap-up

Now that we have moved inland, all the way to Upstate New York, I must reflect back on our two week stay on the upper Atlantic Coast.  Our first week was spent in Trenton, Maine, in a very nice, quiet RV Park near Acadia National Park on the Central Maine Coast.  They call this area “Downeast Maine”.  WE called it, initially, the “Lonely Maine Coast”, or something like that.  It took us awhile to discover the hidden charms of Downeast  Maine.

 

Still, in a Coast vs. Coast comparison, Oregon easily wins for pure natural beauty, ENUFF SAID! Instead, what I think about most with regards to Maine is LOBSTER!  Yes, it’s front and center and all around!  And I learned to LOVE it during our week-long stay in this state.  Always before, back in our former life as lifelong West-Coast residents, I’d passed on lobster tail served in local restaurants as being too extravagantly priced. Yet here, you could eat lobster without emptying your bank account.  And, after a “lazy lobster lunch” (live baked lobster with the meat stripped out and laid on the plate ) and a lobster roll lunch (lobster meat rolled into a hot dog bun with mayo and other needless crap, somehow considered a Maine staple),  I was ready for the MAIN EVENT, namely  a whole lobster boiled live and delivered to the table in shell, beaded eyes staring at us accusingly.

Elaine, bless her heart, and even though she is NOT A SHELLFISH aficionado, unless we’re talking shrimp or crab, joined in that historic first "whole lobster day"with one of her own, and on they came.   I was hooked; Lobster rolls were a poor imitation of the real thing; and the “real thing” was pretty darn good!  

A week after we arrived in Maine we moved down to NE Massachusetts.  We were still on the Coast, but a world apart from the relative isolation of “Downeast” Maine.  Here we had people, and their cars, everywhere; so much so that I got a little paranoid about those “beasts”.  I mean we could be on the loneliest country or beach road imaginable, poking along, enjoying the sights, only to look into the rear view mirror and discover one, maybe two or more, cars bearing down on us.  Close tail-gating was pretty much a given fact, other, more erratic, driving behavior, an all too familiar scene.  

 On our first foray into an otherwise quiet and serene small coastal town, we quickly discovered what I soon came to label the “Massachusetts Shuffle”; that is we would be proceeding through an intersection only to have a car from a side street turn directly in front of us.  Most times this was a rolling stop on their part; they would pull up, still moving forward, and just roll out in front of oncoming cars, regardless how close the through traffic was.  I honked a few times at the “offenders” (though never resorting to a “friendly” one-finger salute), but really I don’t think they cared a bit about my take on their offensive driving.  Maybe I should have expressed my feeling more emphatically!

Despite the traffic travails, we had a terrific time in Massachusetts, and enjoyed great weather throughout; and there was so much history here, family and historic, that we agreed we could easily spend a month or more in the area at some future time exploring everything in more depth.  

We moved on to the Adirondacks in upstate New York on Thursday, October 3^rd, tracing a lovely route through Autumn foliage in New Hampshire and Vermont on the way; and were ready for new adventures and discoveries as we continued our retirement travels.