Jumping into Maine

...4 wheels rolling

I told Denise I'd pay attention during our drive to see if I could see anything to write about. After all she needed to pay attention to the road since she was driving - and I can bounce around the car and look out the windows.

We drove and drove and drove. It took about 5 ½ hours to roll from Fundy National Park to Bar Harbor - about the amount of time that Denise thought it would take.

The road leading out of Fundy National Park rolled up and down some pretty steep hills. One hill was marked as a 10% grade, and I thought that would be the steepest hill on our drive today. But guess what? One of the downhills on route 9 in Maine was marked at 12%. I think Denise was really glad that she wasn't riding her bicycle up those hills!

Last night Dense was chatting with Rick (our B&B host) about the St. Stephens border crossing. She remembers waiiting there in a line of cars for what seemed like an hour when we drove through New Brunswick on our way back from PEI back in 2005. It's really good that she mentioned that to Rick because he told her there is a second (tiny) border crossing just past St. Stephens. We were the only car crossing at Milltown, no lines! And apparently a new crossing is under construction just past there, along with a better road - one that doesn't require going through the downtown of St. Stephens. Hmmm... I wonder if that will be open the next time we go to New Brunswick. Oh, I don't know when that will be, but I don't think that Denise is done exploring there yet.

After we crossed back into Maine, we headed towards Bangor on Route 9, eventually angling towards Ellsworth and Bar Harbor. It looked like taking Route 9 would be a little shorter than Route 1 - but even if it was a little longer, Denise thought that it was a much better driving road. It kept switching from 2 to 3 lanes, with an uphill passing lane. There wasn't much in the way of towns, just a ribbon of road.

Ah, we're here! Where? At the Holland Inn in Bar Harbor, our home for the next two nights.

Tomorrow? I'm pretty sure we're going to be biking. If I know Denise we'll probably go back into the park again after our ride. After all she needs to keep the cameras happy too.

--- journal entry courtesy of Rover