Ridiculous Road Trip #2 Day 58-59 Portland

From this point on in our journey, cell service, wi-fi, and fortitude for keeping up with the blog became more challenging, and I (Fiona) ran out of steam. Kudos to Doug for taking up the torch 3 years later and catching up on all the adventures we had for the rest of the rest of the ridiculous road trip and after! Don't worry, I'll still sneak in a few notes here and there! 😘   

May 27, 2023

One last panorama shot of the lighthouse at Winter Island State park in Salem, before we drive to Portland, Maine.  Since it will be 3ish hour drive (longer with a camper), Doug decides to hike along the beach - there are some nice trails here, with plenty of rabbits.  The rabbits do not seem overly bothered by the spooky cave full of snakes.

Portland Visitors center has a lifesized lobster trap.  Later, when we go to Newfoundland, we'll see a lifesized lobster trap that is anatomically correct, which makes the whole thing make more sense.  This one is easy for Doug to escape, which he does, waggling his tail in excitement.

We stop for a pretty hike in York, Maine, hiking up Mount Agamenticus.  Doug gains a new respect for Maine hikes, since there's plenty of boulder clambors that are considered "moderate" trails.

Fiona could always find my dot, and the map looks very flat, so she didn't worry about me.  She probably would have, if she'd seen some of these photos instead of the shiny green dot.

Doug: Along the way, I terrified myself by finding this snake.  Fiona confirms this could be a copperhead, so the fact I was scared out of my mind being an hour hike away from Fiona wasn't just my general terror of snakes.

We decide to camp outside Portland in Wassamki springs campground.  We are swayed by the coffee stand and the beautiful trees.  We decide to have a nice rest for the night and prepare for tomorrow in Portland.

 May 28:   Portland starts as every good city tour should -- Donut Tour!     After walking, learning the history of the town (all of which I've forgotten), we determined that the best Donuts are at Eighty-eight.  You can see the donut holes, which they specialize in, including Bamm Bamm donuts.

Along the way, we see the sights of Portland - the old port, the Maine lobsterman statue, and a great bookstore display with "best first lines of novels".  Doug got very excited by the first line of one of the novels, and eventually purchased it because the first line was great. (The Secret History, by Donna Tartt -- sadly, though the first line was great, the rest wasn't as good, imho: "The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.")   For a book whose first page is great and the novel is good, see Uprooted by Naomi Novik)

 

We returned to Wassami campground to revel in the trees and the pond.  

Ridiculous Road Trip #2 Day 54-57 Massachusetts

May 23

We headed out from our on the beach campground into Massachusetts. From the name of our next campground, it seemed like we would be on another beach, but sadly, it wasn’t the most picturesque campground. And to make matters worse, they also didn’t allow swimming. Sigh.

Luckily, there were pretty things to see outside our campground! We took a quick drive to Sandwich, Mass and admired the pretty (and weird) things at the Sandwich Glass Museum. 

We wonder what’s up with the ducks and geese in Sandwich. 

We attempted to walk along the Sandwich Boardwalk, but it was under repair. Here’s the Sandwich Beach instead.  

May 24

We took off early from the campground, and headed out to Provincetown, at the tip of Cape Cod. And I got all sorts of National Parks stamps along the way, as we stopped for sights along the National Seashore. 

Highland Lighthouse

Further out along Cape Cod, the Province Lands Visitor Center. 

For the first time, I didn’t have to talk Doug out of going in for a swim. 

Somewhere in, or slightly before this photo, is a seal. 

Then we made it all the way to Provincetown, grabbed some lunch, and got ready for our whale watching tour!

It was windy, and wavy, and cold, but we got some amazingly close views of 5 humpback whales. The photos and videos can’t capture how amazing it was to see these fantastical creatures. 

It was a little windy

May 25

With Cape Cod under our belts, we headed further up north along the coast of Massachusetts. And we spent a few nights in another odd little campground, just 2 miles from the center of Salem. Little did I realize, when I booked the campsite at Winter Island, that we would be effectively camping in (officially adjacent to) a parking lot. Also part of a trolley tour. 

You can see the Salem Trolley tour passing behind Ora

But, we still had a fine time with our stay in Salem. We did a lot of the Yellow Line (previously known as the Red Line) walking heritage tour. The Witch Dungeon Museum did a surprisingly excellent reenactment and tour! And the  tourist trap shops were highly entertaining, despite Salem’s love/hate relationship with tourists. 

Doug met a turkey on the sidewalk

May 26

We took a quick drive north of Salem, to visit the Hammond Castle. It was fascinating that there was a secret room beneath a secret staircase, which also had a secret wine cellar! Doug was also entertained that the circular library had the weird voice amplification effect, which his workplace also (accidentally) has in places. It seems Mr. Hammond was a bit of a quirky mad scientist, because in addition to his inventors lab, the guest room doors sneakily were wallpapered to blend into the walls, so guests would be confused and concerned when they woke up and couldn’t figure out how to exit the rooms. 

Conservatory 

First robot dog

A curse, in Latin

After our castle tour, we headed back to Salem to catch some lunch and a few more sights, before we headed to what ended up being a private tour of the Daniels House. It’s one of just a few original homes in Salem and our tour guide did an amazing job weaving the history of Salem into modern day parallels. Doug and I were both struck by one of  his phrases, “History doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes.”  

House of Seven Gables

Imagining the fears of the past

Carvings to protect the home from evil influences. 

After our private tour, we also toured Salem’s Satanic Temple. 

Having exhausted ourselves, we headed back to our campsite, and Doug was thrilled beyond belief to be able to recreate the visitor guide’s cover shot of the sailboat by the lighthouse right outside our door! A fine ending to our time in Massachusetts. 

Massachusetts!

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