We wake up to cloud that rapidly shifts and lifts to once again reveal the hills and mountains around the lake. Heidi has already gone to pick up Casey’s sister from Boston airport so we go out to breakfast with their next door neighbours, Diane and Walter, in their motor boat, along with their lovely dog Bailey, a Golden Doodle (a cross between a standard poodle and a golden retriever).
Photo: Mike and his new friend, Bailey
It’s 6 miles to Meredith, one of the towns dotted around the lake, but the journey is worth it. On Sunday mornings it seems like everyone is out for breakfast, and we have to wait to be seated. My dish is fried potatoes, sweet beans, and steak tips that have been marinated in bourbon. Oh, and toast. I can’t eat it all, well, when I say I can’t eat it all, I can’t eat it all and eat Mike’s pancake that he can’t finish so the toast has to go.
On the way back to the island, Casey points out some of the huge houses that have been developed on some of the other islands. Former presidents (the French one for instance), senators, rock stars and even the former Chang Kai Shek, have owned or still own homes here. Some of them are ridiculously large, especially when you consider that these are seasonal homes, just somewhere to go when it gets too hot. How that tiny percent live!
Nancy’s flight is late so it’s well after lunchtime before Heidi arrives back. I feel a little woozy (for no particular reason that I can figure out and no, alcohol wasn’t the culprit), and lie down for a couple of hours and sleep until it passes.
Because the weather forecast was so grotty for Boothbay Harbor, with fog and no wind to shift it, Mike is reluctant to leave the boat for long because the batteries will gradually lose their charge due to the huge draw that the fridge and freezer make, so we have to go back and get the generator going to charge them up. We pack our stuff into Casey’s lovely motor boat and he takes us for a long spin around the lake before getting us back to the car.
Photo: Heidi and Buckley
Photo: Casey at the wheel – sort of
Photo: A small summer pad(!)
Photo: Approaching the boathouse
Photos: Getting parked
The drive back to Boothbay Harbor starts well. We ignore the sat nav at first but then it decides to take us the way we want to go anyway so we listen. My phone rings and gets me in a panic for a minute but it’s only Heidi telling me that Mike has left his Kindle on the island so she will have to post it on to Maggie for us.
We have an altercation with the law on the way back, well, not with the law but with EZpass, the automatic toll-paying thing. Joe has a little box in his car which automatically pays any tolls in Maine (as we found out yesterday after charging $1 to it). It doesn’t work in New Hampshire. We are approaching a toll booth and I have my 75c all ready in my hand to pay but as we approach the light goes green. Mike gets all confused and thinks we have crossed into Maine and that EZpass has taken over again and drives off. What actually must have happened is that the toll booth operator hit the paid button before I had the chance to pay her and that’s why the light turned green. I told Mike this as we were driving away but it was too late – we couldn’t turn back. Aggh! We are now probably fugitives from the law (or have at least incurred a traffic violation for Joe) and all because of a mistake over 75c.
After that Mike perfects the art of keeping his hand over the box once we get to Maine so that Joe’s credit isn’t used. He screws up once when he has it covered then removes his hand to pay. The machine immediately takes another $2 from Joe and the stupid woman at the booth doesn’t know how to cancel it.
A sign tells us that there are long delays on the I95 so we make a detour only to find that there are long delays on the 295 too, or so the sign says. We find our way back to the original road at the point where the delays are supposed to be (we do this by accident) only to find that yes, there are road works but no delays at all. We could have stayed on that bloody road after all. Still, it gives us a chance to see the ‘other side of the track’ so to speak.
It’s amazing, we have done the whole journey in lovely sunshine but as we approach Portland we can see wisps of fog appearing over the trees. Sigh.
Jeannius is right where we left her, waiting patiently, batteries still (miraculously) with charge in them so all my lobster, crab and scallops are intact and guess what? It’s foggy!
Position: 43 deg 15 min N, 69 deg 38 min W
Distance so far: 1786 miles
I am thoroughly enjoying your and Mike's adventures up NE coast. That boat in the photos reminds me of the one Henry Fonda had in the movie- On Golden Pond.
ReplyDeleteMy brother in law has a "camp" on Lake Winn... also. Glad your fine driving on the wrong side of the road , so to speak and have been able to feast on some good lobster. Tell the truth, is it better than Anagada lobster??
Enjoy your escapades.
Diane from ttol
OK - MY opinion of the lobsters. They are smaller than the Anegada kind but pound for pound, much, much cheaper. The meat is just as succulent and the huge chunks of claw meat are fantastic, something the Anegada lobsters are missing. It is also easier to get the meat out. On balance, for me, they are better in Maine.
ReplyDeleteYep, you really need claws with Lobsta'.
DeleteDiane (:-)