Falling in Love with Maine

Relaxing on my hands and knees
Relaxing on my face
Reclining in the bear trap of its tender, warm embrace
Glazed with coniferous green
Glazed with excitement and dread
Exhausted from oversleep
Awake but still in bed
Shaving razor’s rusty but the sting brings you exactly back to

Maine
Is the world that went south
Maine
Is a punch in the mouth
Maine at the top of the chart
Has crushed my evil heart

Maine
Is the devil you know
Maine
Is the heaven below
Maine
At the top of the chart
Has crushed my evil heart

I love you anyway (I love you anyway)
I promise there’s no other state (there’s no other state)
But only if you stay away (but only if you leave)
And leave . –  John Linnell

I think I’m officially falling in love with Maine.  It’s still too warm for the leaves to be changing but there is a crispness to the morning, the sweet smell of pine wafts in the air and of course there is an endless sea of lobster.  I’ve been dreaming about lobster for breakfast, lunch, and dinner since we left Austin.  We arrived in Kennebunkport at our first campground in Maine, Red Apple Campground.  We had called the day before to book our site and request 2 steamed lobsters be delivered to our camp for dinner.  Went for a quick swim in the pool and promptly at 5:15 p.m. our lobsters arrived.  You have to put in your order by 10am, which we beat by about 3 minutes without ever knowing the deadline. Luck is ours, together.  To our surprise they were soft shell lobster that you could easily peel, just like a crawfish.  Every year or two, sometime between July and early Fall, a lobster will shed it’s hard shell so they can continue growing or wind up on someone’s plate!  After a long day of travel, we felt very pampered. First a dip in the pool and than Lobstah! Yes, Yes, Yes.

On our way to our next campground we passed through Portland and then Freeport, which is the headquarters of L.L. Bean.  The complex is huge and stays open 24 hours.  Douglas bought 2 jackets and I found 2 long sleeve shirts since we were expecting colder weather in Acadia National Park the following week.

  We had a late lunch of fried clam bellys, fried shrimp and a lobster roll at Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster Company in Freeport. The lobster roll had a very light coating of mayo and was piled high on a vertically sliced hotdog bun…there must be some special name for this bun, but we are at a loss. Their fry batter was more like a funnel cake.

We had heard the best lobster roll in Maine was at Red’s Eats in Wiscasset.  We also heard the wait could be up to two hours in the sun!  Well, neither one of us was game for a two hour wait so we opted to go across the street to Sprague’s and picked up two lobster rolls for our evening dinner/late nite snack/ breakfast. There is so much lobstah, it flows from one meal to the next.

Scored a water view site at the privately owned Sagadahoc Bay Campground but slowly the water began to recede with the low tide creating an extended beach.

Below are some pictures that include a man named Richie who is grabbing a quick 5 pounds of clams for his family that night.  It took him about 45 minutes to complete the task. Folks around here either steam the clams or fry them. The secret is to wander around the vacated sea bed until you find a decent area of air holes that the clams use to breath. Then use your hands as a rake to move the muddy sand to find the clams. The sign here said that the clams must be 2 inches to be had.  We would have given it a try, but we didn’t have a license, the tools and Lisa didn’t want to get muddy. Douglas ventured out alone to see the empty seabed and take photos.

Sunset at the campsite.

  Did I mention that the mosquitoes are very hungry in Maine?  A single angry mosquito can do a lot of damage in a small campervan…and Maine’s state bird is the Mosquito! The next morning I did yoga in my Yoga Shala and Douglas made us a delicious egg & lobster sandwich.  I love this life!

Southern Maine has flat sandy beaches along the Atlantic coast.  As you go further north, the area reminds us more of Nova Scotia.  The area is swampy looking with finger like islands and peninsulas.  Then as you travel further north, the coastline turns to craggy granite cliffs with smaller beaches.  One of the best beaches is at Reid State Park, on Georgetown Island — not far from our campground.  When we checked in to this park there was a scribbled sign on the office stating ‘Bad Fly’.  I asked the Ranger what this meant and she said there were swarms of biting flies on the beach. She said, if the swarms hit, you can get your park entrance money back.  The flies looked like regular house flies but were not well behaved.  The large granite outcroppings on the beach were amazing and the rocks and sands sparkled with some type of glittery rock.  Douglas was brave enough to go for a swim in the frigid ocean! He will pretty much jump in any body of water that doesn’t look polluted.

After some beach time we headed to one of the fishing village islands of Georgetown, for more lobster .  Unfortunately, the highly recommended Five Island Lobster shack was closed during the week due to their summer help going back to school.

Luckily, we were able to find an even better location to sample lobster, at The Lobster Shack, Cape Elizabeth. The lobster tails were somewhere in between softshell and hardshell so we did need claw crackers to eat.  The ocean view was to die for!

That evening we stayed at Bayleys resort mega campground on the ocean near Portland and caught a morning flight to New Orleans to help my parent’s celebrate their 60th Wedding Anniversary.  Good-bye trusty Traveler Blues Van!