Brunswick to Bar Harbor

Another early morning but this one wasn't planned. We both just woke up at around 5:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. So we got up, got dressed and got our things into the car. As we left Brunswick we stopped for coffee and headed out on US1. We drove for about a half hour and stopped in the Newcastle-Damariscotta area. We found a box in the Glidden Street Cemetery. This was a nice place. An old cemetery right in the middle of a neighborhood. We enjoyed our early morning walk in the cemetery and even talked with one of the neighbors who lives across the street from the cemetery. From here we drove into town and stopped to get a box just outside the library. This was a quick find and after stamping in and rehiding the box we returned to US1 to continue on. We drove for a little while just enjoying the views and the fact that there wasn't too much traffic on an early Sunday morning. As we got into Waldoboro we looked for Moody's Diner. On to look for a letterbox and two to get some more coffee and some breakfast. First, we made our way to the satellite parking and quickly found the box. I took it back to the car to stamp in. I was pleasantly surprised to find that rubbberpeace and rbrhorno were the first finders of this box. Once I stamped in and rehid the box we went to the restaurant for breakfast. The place was packed, so we approached the counter and got a number. We thought we would be waiting for a while but it turned out that the staff was really efficient and they got the tables ready pretty fast. We only waited about 10 minutes before getting a seat. We got our coffee and ordered breakfast - eggs, bacon and some incredible blueberry pancakes. Now that we were fueled up it was time to move on. We drove to Thomaston and stopped to look for a box. I wasn't able to find it and it looked like they were doing some repairs and that they may have taken the box. So we left that place and continued on to a cemetery and found a nice stamp there. The cemetery was old and we enjoyed our look around.

From Thomaston we drove down ME131. We passed through St. George on our way to Port Clyde and the Marshall Point Lighthouse. We arrived at the lighthouse and walked around enjoying the place and the views. This lighthouse was in the movie Forrest Gump. He ran to the light when he was running all over the country. After looking around and taking some pictures we searched for two boxes. One was listed as unknown and the other one had been found around April of this year. We weren't able to find either one. But I had a box to plant here. A few years ago I was involved in an LTC swap for the game Clue. I carved a location and it was Maine. I used this very lighthouse as the image and decided that since the stamp was just sitting in a drawer at home it would be good to get it out there in a traditional box. So we found a place to hide the box, wrote out the clues and decided we needed to continue our journey. Driving back toward US1 we kept our eyes out for Wiley's Corner. There was a box at a cemetery there and we thought we would look for it. Now, we missed finding this spot on the way in and we had little hope of finding it this time but we kept our eyes peeled. Eventually I spotted a street sign as we drove right by it. So Thomas turned around and we headed in and found the cemetery. I found the box and while stamping in realized there was a bonus box. I gave that clue to Thomas and he went and got that box and brought it to me. While I stamped in to both boxes Thomas had a look around. I realized he was talking to someone. I just kept stamping in and then rehid the boxes. By this time the man Thomas was talking to had left. Thomas told me that the man was the caretaker and told Thomas some stories about the community. This man was in his 70's and still lived in the same house he was born in. Turns out this area was pro South in the Civil War because a lot of them were in shipping and did a lot of business with the cotton farmers in the South. He also pointed out a gravestone with a political statement. It said "The Constitution must and shall be preserved!". He also told Thomas about his family and pointed out a family plot that had a large family stone with a few people listed on the back. Turns out his great, great, great, great, great grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War. (*Not sure if I put too many greats or not enough greats.) It was an interesting visit and we were glad we stopped here. But it was time to continue on. Back on US1 we drove to Moose Point State Park and found the walking trails. We set out to find the Foliage of Maine Series (11 boxes). It started out fine but when we got to box 5 we couldn't find it. So we continued to box 6 - couldn't find that one either. Then found 7 & 8 but we were unable to find 9 & 10. I am assuming that in the logbook which was in box 10 there was a clue for the bonus box listed. But since we didn't find box 10 we didn't find the bonus box. So we headed back to the car and drove towards Searsport. Now we were on the hunt for the Coat of Arms Series. This series was spread out in 5 different cemeteries around Searsport. We did them backwards since we came in to Searsport from the opposite way the clues were written. We stopped at Gordon Cemetery, Mt. Hope Cemetery, Village Cemetery, Elmwood Cemetery and Bowditch Cemetery. It was fascinating to see the old headstones. Some were there for a hundred years or more. We found all but one of the boxes and I am pretty sure it was missing. The clue took you a very large pine tree that had a limb that had fallen off and was laying next to the tree. The box was supposed to be between the limb and trunk - didn't find it.

By this time it was getting late and we still needed to find some dinner and make it to Bar Harbor. As we drove toward Bar Harbor we could see a bridge in the distance that looked very interesting. We pulled off at a scenic view area and took some pictures. Then we kept driving and we drove over this bridge. It is the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory - yeah, that's right, an observatory. There is an elevator that takes you up into one of the towers and you can look out over the river. Pretty cool - but unfortunately we were too late to go up into the tower. Maybe next visit. By the time we got to Ellsworth we were starving so we ended stopping at Jasper's for dinner. We had a pretty good meal and got to relax for a little while. Then it was on to Bar Harbor. By the time we crossed over onto Mount Desert Island it was dark so we didn't get to see much but that didn't matter. We were both tired and wanted showers and to get some rest. So we are ready for tomorrow and Acadia National Park.