Day 43 (10.14.07) - Eastport to Addison, Maine

Miles Driven: 133 (distance traveled about 70)
Weather: Partly sunny/overcast, cold wind at times, 55 F

We left Eastport fairly early and drove on to the town of Lubec. This is where the bridge is to Campobelo Island, but we didn't take this since the Roosevelt cottage was closed. Lubec and Eastport are roughly the same amount East, but Eastport (population about 2,000) is a "City" whereas Lubec is a "Town", so the both have their claims to being the easternmost something.

The downtown area isn't much to look at, this is the more attractive side of "Water Street" (I think Calais, Eastport, and Lubec all had a "Water Street"):

Just across the road was a small, average looking house. However the sign outside said "Monica's Chocolates" so we decided to check it out. Sure enough it was a small chocolate 'factory. Monica Elliott is from Peru, she didn't care for the cold Maine weather, but hated Peru more so there she was. She said she had five employee's and kept pretty busy. The "New Yorker" magazine had done an article and featured her chocolates, so business was really doing well. Her prices were a little steep for our taste, but after having wandered in and eaten free samples, we tried to find something we could afford. The chocolates are good, maybe mass production is a little easier on the wallet however?

http://www.monicaschocolates.com/

We wandered around the back roads of Lubec a bit (they all seemed a little like back roads) and found a beach. Mom objected to the cold wind, but after I brought back a rose hip that was about two inches across, she decided to brave the wind and get a picture of it. What I don't understand is how wild roses can still have blooms in Maine in mid-October!

Just across the Campobello Narrows, we could also see the Canadian Lighthouse called Mulholland Light. This seems to show up in quite a few of the Maine postcards and booklets paired with the US Quoddy Lighthose below (they are fairly close together).

So finally, after 42 days on the road, 6,115 miles and a lifetime's worth of memories - we reached the Easternmost Point in the United States, not the city or town, but the Point. It is at Quoddy Head State Park about 4.5 miles east of Lubec.

<<Insert Cheers, applause, balloons, noisemakers, etc. here>>

In the summer, this is a well known spot for whale watching - but today there were only a few birds and some cold tourists braving the fall breezes just to say we'd been there. It looks a lot like the Washington coast though.

So for the next two months or so, we'll be heading South (when we're not going in circles of course).

After leaving Quoddy Head, we tried taking the coast route (on the map it looked more scenic). We did pass a typical Maine Lobster village, but most of the time couldn't see the coast at all - so we'll probably stay on the main highway more in the future. This is the town of Cutler, but it looked like others we saw today also.

The coast road rejoined the main highway at a town called Machias (pronounced Mach-EYE-us of course). This is derived from an Indian word meaning 'bad little falls' from the river that runs through the town. The falls aren't that little and are quite nice, again root beer colored from the tree tannin, although this shot doesn't show the color very well.

We took a side road to look for the Stinson Cannery, but found out it was in a different city than we'd thought. Just as we rejoined the main highway we saw this unusual gift shop - and finally learned that those lovely 'ground covers' we'd been seeing were wild blueberry plants! Out here, they are very low to the ground unlike the waist high bushes we have back in WA.

After spending a little more money on blueberry scones, truffles, butter (yes, blueberry 'butter') and canned blueberries - I pulled over at the Pleasant River RV park where they do (finally) have wi-fi internet access. The signal isn't the best (I've had some problems tonight), but I'm finally able to get the blog caught up. Now if I could say the same for my sleep, some of the business I needed to take care of, and some RV housekeeping - we'd be sitting pretty.