We left Fred and Jane's place in Gilbertville and headed northeast toward the beach. We wanted to stay in a MA state park, but they were full. So, we opted for a standard RV park that was close. The park was pretty pricey, but it was clean and quiet. From there, we headed up the beach route into New Hampshire.
The photos below are what we saw.
As
we crossed over the border into New Hampshire, we spotted what appears
to be a nuclear containment vessel at a power plant.
We
had lunch at a small cafe and then headed north on the beach
route. The next little city we came to was a mad house.
When we saw things, we were going to park and check it out, but parking
was hopeless. So, we had to satisfy ourselves with what we could
see from the cab of the mog.
Kathleen spotted this pair of custom bikes near the boardwalk and was able to catch a photo.
Ah,
yes. School is out. And given that this crew is not
sporting the "freshman 15", I am guessing it is high school that is out
for the season.
Aside
from school being out and being the week before the 4th of July, there
was a sand castle competition, thus the parking congestion. Look
at the detail in these figures.
This must be an Asian tiger; it has suffered a loss of face.
Check this out! I am not sure what it is, but it is certainly well executed with exquisite detail.
Looking
back toward the sand castle competition area, the crowds were easily
visible. But, this beach is mostly a "show and tell" operation as
the water is quite cold. Note the dearth of bodies in the surf.
Further
up the beach, the sandy shore turned into rocks and nice beachfront
homes.
More
shacks on the shore. For whatever reason, this section of coast
was draped in large, expensive homes. This one has particularly
nice stone work.
This
home, while very nice, was nowhere near the biggest or nicest we
saw. Since we were driving, and we had no notice of oncoming
sights, most of the homes we were not able to photo. But, trust
me, these were some awesome places.
More
shacks in the distance. This small bay had quite a few surfers
braving the cold water. Note that most of them have wet
suits. Of course, the waves are minuscule.
While
I was shooting one of the small bays, we had an overflight from a big
C5A cargo jet, likely returning from the middle east. These
planes are truly huge. I have seen them at the Miramar Airshow
and they are almost indescribable.
As
we traveled along, we passed many marinas with nice boats. As a
yachtsman once told me, "a boat is a hole in the water into which you
throw money". If true, and I don't doubt it a bit, then there
were some pretty big holes in this marina.
There
were some nice inns along the coast.
We
passed this structure and I have no idea what it is other than big and
medieval looking. The crenelated towers put the building over the
top for me.
Just
before we passed into Maine, we hit this nice church.
I
took a wrong turn and just by happenstance came upon this nicely
restored old Ford. What luck!
Once
we crossed over this bridge, we were in Maine.
As
we crossed into Maine, we had a great view of some of the
infrastructure along the river. The structure in the foreground
is a railroad bridge where the center span raises and lowers.
Other
than normal biological functions, there are several things that you
MUST do if you end up in Freeport Maine. One is visit L.L. Bean's
flagship store (which we did) and the other is visit the Desert of
Maine. We spent the night at the "desert" and while interesting,
it surely cannot compare to any of the Great Basin Deserts, Death
Valley, the Mojave or the Gran Desierto del Altar in northern Sonora,
Mexico.
It
was rather odd to see sand dunes interspersed with dense trees.
Oregon has coastal dunes where pine trees are intermixed with sand.
The
sand in the Desert of Maine has cryptogamic formations, just like
deserts in the western U.S. Cryptogamic soil is actually a
specialized community of cyanobacteria, mosses and lichens.
Wikipedia has an extensive page on these structures.
You
may call this a Ferris Wheel, but I call it the "Barf-O-Tron".
Our
route took us past the Bath Iron Works where repairs on several Navy
ships were underway.
This
road sign made us laugh.
Many ex-military trucks see service as construction vehicles. This one was being used as a platform for a drilling rig. We photographed him in the oncoming traffic stream.
We
passed the village of Wiscasset and there were a bunch of folks lined
up at "Red's Eats". As we approached, it was clear that the mog
is a chick magnet: notice the smiles on the ladies' faces as opposed to
the frowns of disbelief on the men's faces.
We
passed many scenic coastal villages.
We
ended up at an RV park that Kathleen chose in Searsport, ME. This
photo above was shot from our deck that we had as part of our
site. We had a nice, unobstructed view of the bay.
A
few days ago, we were shocked to see a pig on a leash. Today, we
got some kind of sheep with horns being led around the RV park.
Check out the rack on the one in the rear. The young gal had a
devil of a time controlling him; he pulled her around with impunity.
Across
the bay from our deck a pair of tugs were heading out to sea.
Also
visible from our deck was this barge/tug combination. They stayed
anchored there all night.
For
some odd reason, I awoke at 0430 and noticed that the sun was about to
come over the horizon. So, I grabbed the camera and attempted to
get a photo or two. The water was smooth as glass, a radical
contrast to the wind-whipped white caps of the evening before.
As
actual sunrise neared, the colors got more vivid.
Interestingly,
after the sun crested the ridge, the colors started to fade. I
tried shooting into the sun, and while my camera can "handle" that,
mostly what I got was lens flare. Those photos did not make it
into this page.
The coastal areas of NH were interesting and were very crowded due to the impending holiday and warm weather. When we reached Searsport, the weather turned. We got a small amount of rain, but the temperatures dropped about 20 degrees making sleeping in the camper much more tolerable. In fact, for the first time in months, we actually used our sleeping bag instead of just sheets. When we finished at Searsport, we continued northeast to Bar Harbor, ME.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2010, all rights
reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.