Who knew Maine could get so wet?!

Portland, ME

Today has been, to borrow a phrase, wetter than an Otter’s pocket. It was forecast to be wet, but the ferocity of the rain has kinda taken everyone (including Maine-ers) by surprise. It has of course restricted our activities somewhat because who wants to go and stand in the rain? Still, we’ve been out all day even if it was mostly in the car.

The day started with a Howard Johnson’s continental breakfast – a bit more downmarket from the Hilton’s eggs Benedict the morning before. A heck of a lot cheaper too, and I am quite getting used to fruit loops 🙂 Before the traffic we were heading off out to Freeport to beat the crowds. Sid is no longer with us, he’s been banished for bad behaviour with a PIN number and replaced by Emily, a proper English girl. Sadly Emily seems to have come with a girl’s sense of direction as she tried to send us along closed slip roads to the I-295 and the like. She also got very stroppy when I missed a turn. Wimmen, eh?

Eventually we negotiated long enough with madam to set us on the right road and were quickly in Freeport, a mere 20 mins up the road. Not too soon either because the car parks were filling up. We dodged straight into the LL Bean store and spent a happy hour exploring. Sadly I am informed that you can pick up rifles and crossbows on X-ray machines at the airport. Ah well never mind.

We then did a bit of a whistle-stop tour of Freeport as neither of us partic like shopping, even at discount prices. A beverage later and I headed out on US-1 North into Maine. This road runs the length of the country, from Florida right up to the Canadian border in Maine, about 60 miles north of where we were. Our plan was just to head north a bit on US-1 and then east a bit and then come back, and that’s just what we did. Took the ME-27 right down a finger of land to the very end, with nothing between us and home but the Atlantic, then slowly back by a different road to US-1. By this time it was late afternoon and the rain was still hammering down so we repaired back to Portland and visited the Maine Mall.

I’ll quickly draw a veil over proceedings here, but suffice to say I visited the Apple store and my credit card took a severe beating. I guess I need to work extra, extra hard when I come home!

Tomorrow has forecast to be a lot dryer and even sunny with it. That’s good because we have a long hop south to Rhode Island. Emily has been given her instructions already, so here’s hoping she plays ball. Just in case I have all the maps downloaded, so we have a backup!