Sept 4 Day 3

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Today we traveled through a small portion of New Hampshire and along the coastline of Maine.  We ended the day just north of Acadia National Park, in the town of Ellsworth Maine.

The weather was beautiful, with partly cloudy skies, and temperatures in the upper 70's and low 80's.  A great day for a ride along the coastline of Maine.

After packing the bike and trailer we headed out on the Mass Turnpike toward Boston, then turned north toward New Hampshire.

Traveling along the the east coast is much easier with an EZ-Pass toll tag, without one, your constantly digging for change and stopping for toll tickets.  With the EZ-Pass, you just shoot right through the booths, no stopping needed.

Passed this fellow along the turnpike, not sure what all the stickers and pictures of socks meant, is that some sort of sports team ??  :):)

About an hour after hitting the road this morning, the wing odometer turned 40,000 miles... just getting broken in.

We made it to the coastline and crossed the border into New Hampshire.

Interesting, when you cross into Maine, there are signs saying things like "Worth a Visit, Worth a Lifetime", "Vacationland", and "The Way Life Should Be", but when entering New Hampshire you get signs indicating that the Liquor Store is open on Sundays!

Perhaps the traffic advisory lights flash due to the drunks causing accidents down the road?

Being a holiday weekend, we saw plenty of these guys along the road.  No speeding today!

By late morning, we reach Maine and start our trek along Coastal Highway 1.

A pretty strange combination of products...  perhaps one needs a bath after cycling or skiing?  I guess it's not so strange when you realize that the actual town we are in is Bath Maine.

Along the way we start to pass by some of the famous Lobster Shacks on the coastline.

This lobster shack, known as Red's Eats was recommended to us by one of Lennie's co-workers.  It is well known across the US, and considered one of the top ten places in the world to get fresh lobster.  The building itself is a real lobster shack, relocated into town, and about the size of a large van.  You wait in line, order at the window, and eat at a table outside behind the building.

They are famous for their Lobster Rolls, basically a hot dog bun, grilled and packed with fresh, and I mean FRESH, lobster meat.  In fact, there is MORE than one entire lobster in each roll !!

You cannot tell from the photo, but the line runs clear down the street.  We get in line and it ends up being over a TWO HOUR WAIT for our lobster rolls, this place surely is popular !!  In fact, there is another lobster shack just across the street, and believe it or not, there are only about 5 people in line at any one time.  Folks would rather wait more than two hours than eat across the street !!  We were in line in front of a couple from Atlanta who claim they drive up here twice a year to get Red's Eats lobster rolls and visit the area.

Supposedly, on a busy summer day, 25,000 cars stop in this little town to visit Red's.  The local council is actually considering putting in a bypass road around the city because Red's visitors cause such a traffic problem getting through the town.

Oh, almost forgot, the lobster roll was wonderful.

The scenery along the coastline was beautiful, with tons of boats, and water as far as you can see.  It doesn't appear that Irene caused much trouble in this area.

Traveling along the coastal road takes you across a ton of bridges as you cross dozens of little inlets along the ocean front.

This bridge in Prospect Maine is known as the Penobscot Narrows Bridge.  It is really interesting in both looks and function.  It is a cable-stayed bridge with a unique twist, one of the towers is actually an observatory.  It is open to the public, and an elevator takes you up roughly 440 feet to the top where there is a 360 degree observation deck, and the observatory. 

The end of the day brings us into Ellsworth Maine, just north of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.  This will be our home base for the next two nights.

Tomorrow we plan to spend the day in Acadia National Park, and around the Bar Harbor area. It looks like the weather will be cooler, with a chance of rain and thunderstorms, hopefully the forecast will be wrong :)

We covered 295 miles from Auburn MA to Ellsworth ME, taking our trip total to 890 miles. Below is a map of the route from today.