We are in Maine, but by tonight we want to get to the Ben & Jerry's
factory in Vermont. Vermont and New Hampshire are not large, but
Maine is larger than you might expect. We have a fair amount of
driving to do.
First, we went to the beach at Fort Popham on the Maine coast.
They wanted to charge us $8 to get into Popham Point State Beach,
so we opted for the fort instead, since it is free. All we want to
do is dip our toes in the Atlantic Ocean, so we can truly say this
is a "coast-to-coast" trip. The water was cold, but the beach was
nice. Lots of little kids playing on the beach and in this dark
stone fort. The parents suggested we bring flashlights "next time."
Of course, we didn't make it through the town of Bath without Mary
wanting to go shopping in the cute boutiques there. I found us a
couple of Maine lobster baseball caps - mine blue, hers pink.
We drove north on 201 to Showhegan, then headed west on highway 2,
which will take us all the way to Montpelier. It took hours to make
this back-roads drive, but it was beautiful. Mary did some of the
driving through one section where it rained a lot and there were
storm warnings on the radio, but that lasted only about an hour.
We got to Waterbury after dark, only to find that there is only
one hotel in town, and only the VIP room is available. Beyond our
budget, but tempting. There are lots of B and B's but it's a bit
late to come in without a reservation. We found a nice room near
Burlington, about 25 miles further up the road. We'll have to backtrack
tomorrow but we saved a lot of $$$ staying farther away.
