It was a beautiful morning of blue skies and already the temp was at 70 degrees. I think we’re a little off with the time change. We woke up at 6 AM, tried to get back to sleep, and were unsuccessful. We finally got up at 6:30 and were pulling out of the parking lot at 8:00. Pulling through town, it looked deserted on this Saturday morning and so was Highway 9 as we headed west to Bangor. The road took us up into the hills with views of lakes below us.
At the top of the bluffs, we found large areas of blueberry fields (see above pic). This is the height of blueberry season and the pickers were out working the fields. There were lots of blueberry stands along the roadside as well. Highway 9 took us through mainly uninhabited areas where we wove among forests, lakes, and streams.
We got to Bangor around 10:00 and crossed the Penobscot River that runs south of town.
The rest of the way was Interstate, until we got to the coast. There were more warning signs for moose, but we saw nothing. We came across some construction of a bridge over the Kennebec River.
By 11:00, the temp had climbed to 81degrees. Traffic got really heavy as we reached the coast. Bob commented on the amount of traffic and said, “Shouldn’t these people already be where they are going?”
It was crazy as we traveled from Bath to Boothbay along the coastal highway. Crossing over the Kennebec River in Bath, we caught a glimpse of the shipbuilding operation located there.
Traffic now became bumper-to-bumper as we approached Wiscasset.
The bridge became a bottleneck for everyone headed east. Once we crossed the river/bay, we turned off on the highway to the campground, there was no traffic at all. What a zoo!
We arrived at Shore Hills Campground at 1:00 and checked in at the office.
They assigned us a really nice, private wooded site.
We set up camp and just hung out after our drive today of 241 miles. Auggie explored the campsite, dug a few holes, and then kept an eye out for squirrels through the camper door.
We were finally able to make phone calls cheaply now that we were back in the States, so we did some business and called family and friends. We did more trip planning for the next week and watched the Olympics. We had a great meal of swordfish on the grill and went up to the rec hall in the campground to hear some music later after dinner. They had a great band, Elmore Twister, that played classic rock and roll, rhythm and blues. We stayed for about 2 hours, did a little dancing, and left about 9:30. It was “date night” at the campground. We came back to walk Auggie before turning in for the night. We have a big day of sightseeing tomorrow in Boothbay Harbor.
