Sept 6 Day 5

Today was a short riding day, as we traveled from Ellsworth Maine to Freeport Maine.

Rain passed through Ellsworth early this morning, but slowed to a drizzle by the time we were packed and ready to hit the road. We spent a few extra minutes in the hotel lobby donning our rain suits next to a small fireplace. By the time we got our gear on, we were actually hot, but knew we were heading out into some chilly and wet weather. By the time we pulled out of the parking lot the rain stopped!! Our gear must have scared the weather away, as we had NO rain for the entire ride to Freeport. We actually stopped about half way and took off our rain gear as the sun poked out, and the temperature started to climb into the 70s. I think we got pretty lucky today, and expect tomorrow will be a different story.

We arrived in Freeport Maine around 3 pm, and dropped our luggage off at the hotel. Then we headed into town for a little shopping.

Freeport is the location of the original LL Bean store, now referred to as the flagship store. The store never closes, it is actually open 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.

LL Bean was founded in 1912 by hunter and fisherman Leon Leonwood Bean. Bean had developed a waterproof boot made with a combination of lightweight leather uppers and rubber bottoms. Bean sold the boots to hunters. He obtained a list of nonresident Maine hunting license holders, prepared a mail order circular, set up a shop in his brother's basement in Freeport, Maine, and started a nationwide mail order business. By 1912, he was selling the "Bean Boot" (some called it the Maine Hunting Shoe) through a four-page mail-order catalog. The boot remains a staple of the company's outdoor image. In fact, there is a large boot sculpture in front of the main store entrance.

From boots, the company has branched out into a number of different areas, including hunting and fishing supplies, clothing, biking and kayaking products, etc. The Bean store in Freeport is made up of a number of different buildings. One building is the main store, which carries men's and women's boots, clothing, camping supplies, tents, maps and books.

There is another building that contains the hunting and fishing products.

There is even a third building that carries various "home" products including furniture, kitchen supplies, bath and bedding products, and even lamps and tables. A pretty vast product line considering it all started with a pair of boots.

Bean also has education programs connected to many of its retail outlets to support the outdoor interests of its customers. Customers can participate in a number of outdoor activities without prior arrangement by signing up in the store on the day of their visit and paying a small fee. Some of these activities include archery, clay shooting, fly casting, bicycle rides, and sea kayaking. More advanced classes are conducted as well, but generally must be reserved in advance. There is also a small park like area among the buildings. I ended up running out of "shopping interest" and sat outside in the adirondack chairs to people watch while Lennie hit the "home" store.

After walking around LL Bean and a little bit of Freeport, we headed back to our hotel for the evening.

A quick check of the weather, and it's hard to believe that we stayed dry all day!

Tomorrow we will head south to Plymouth Massachusetts.

We covered 146 miles today traveling from Ellsworth to Freeport, taking our trip total to 1143 miles. Below is a map of the route from today.