Day 11 – July 2nd, 2019 – Lincolnville, Maine to Boston, Massachusetts: ~200 miles
Ray S shows off some Guzzis.
Missed Day 10? – Day 10 – July 1st, 2019 – Bar Harbor, Maine to Lincolnville, Maine: ~100 miles
We woke up to a beautiful view of the water and enjoyed a continental breakfast.
Thanks to that satisfying breakfast, we were able to resist the temptation of “Taste of Maine.” We had to pull over for a photo of the giant lobster on the roof, though!
One of my best friends from high school is Amanda – we had met up with her earlier in the trip and she took this excellent photo of her dog with RT while on her morning walk.
Photo by Amanda Donaldson
Her mom (Becky) has been amazing to Vy and I over the years, and she had just opened up a new restaurant in Brunswick, Maine called The Odd Duck. Apparently, they were doing quite well!
We paid Becky a visit, but unfortunately the restaurant is closed on Tuesdays. Still, she was there getting ready for business on Wednesday, and it was wonderful to catch up with her. I’m really proud of her, and I hope that if you’re close by that you’ll check her restaurant out!
This mural on the side of her restaurant is called the “Dance of Two Cultures”, and its commemorates “cultural exchanges between Brunswick Maine and Trinidad, Cuba” – a city Vy and I were in the previous year.
Putting through town, I spotted a Husqvarna Svartpilen 401. It was the first one I’ve seen in the wild, and since then I’ve only seen one other. That may be why Husky has dramatically cut the MSRP on them from $6,299 to $4,999. I think they look fantastic!
McDonald’s wanted to build a restaurant in Freeport, Maine, but the town had strict design codes and insisted that the national chain have a building that looked like it belonged. Mickey D’s solution was to remodel the Gore House, a home originally built by a wealthy merchant named William Gore in 1850. The interior is what you’d expect though there’s a fireplace and the seats have a bit more “New England” feel to them. They also embraced the local culture for the menu, which includes a lobster roll.
“Local Flavah!”
A bit further south in Yarmouth, we stopped by Garmin’s headquarters (formerly DeLorme). They host “Eartha”, the world’s largest rotating…world, I guess.
It was built in 1998 to a scale of 1:1,000,000. Baby Jack apparently wants to go back to Cuba, too.
Impressively, the whole thing rotates thanks to two electric motors – one spins it on its axis, the other rotates it around the center of the floor every 18 minutes to simulate an orbit.
My sister made a few recommendation for places to check out in Portland, but we only had time for one. We chose The Holy Donut, which is notable for making donuts out of potatoes.
I went with maple, Vy went with cinnamon sugar, and we took a few extras with us as the RT has plenty of luggage space and we’d be seeing my sister that evening. You can definitely tell that they don’t taste like traditional donuts, but the potato-based creations are still tasty.
Apparently we were on a lighthouse kick this trip. A notable one is the Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. It opened in 1791 (after George Washington ordered its construction in 1787), though obviously it’s revamped a few times since. That makes it the oldest lighthouse in Maine.
It was decommissioned due to automation in 1989.
It’s surrounded by a park that makes for a beautiful place to explore or for Vy to attack you. Awwwwwww.
Bike-urious reader Ray S (who you may remember from this excellent Bought on Bike-urious) invited us to stop by, and he wheeled his acquisition out for us to admire.
Ray demonstrates proper usage of the rear handlebars.
His love of Guzzis is also evident in this quirky sidecar rig.
Frankly, he could open a mini Guzzi museum of his own.
But it’s not just Guzzis – he’s also got a few other classic twins like this H-D and a Ducati 860 that he later put up for sale.
Ray also hit me with an old photo – I have to apologize to him, it’s been so long since we went on this trip that I’ve forgotten who the subject is! We were struggling to identify the bike. Can you?
I liked the classic enduro-ish silhouette of the motorcycle on this caution sign.
From there we cut through 15 minutes of New Hampshire en route to Boston to crash at my sister’s place. Seeing as we’d be spending a couple of days in the city, I figured this calf in the back of a pickup truck would probably be the last one I see for the rest of the trip…
Tomorrow, we treat Boston like tourists!
On to Days 12 and 13!