Day 4: Providence, RI to New Haven, CT - December 30, 2008

Today's post will be brief as Debby continues sickly, thus causing the intrepid US 1 Routers to sleep in, pack slowly, and depart sluggishly.



Here is Ian in the very full Mossmobile, which after much rearranging of suitcases and holiday loot, was all ready to go in Debby's driveway:


After winding through much of Rhode Island that we didn't know existed, our first stop was in North Kingstown, at the Fighting Seebee statue. The Fighting Seebee was the mascot of the WWII Construction Battalion. Apparently Ian did something to upset the Seebee. Please note its highly efficient use of multiple arms as it gets ready to pounce on the offender.


While our AAA guidebook mentioned something about a "plaza," we discovered instead a sprawling stretch of pavement and a massive Kohl's behind the Seebee to round out the pastoral paradise.

After meandering down through the lil' Ocean State, we arrived in the late afternoon in Mystic, CT.


We didn't have time to make it to the famous Seaquarium this time around, but no matter; aquatic life found us in the lovely downtown area.

We visited the Mystic Art Center, which unfortunately was between exhibits and thus had some nice thumbtacks and numbered slips of paper on display. So we were left to provide the art. We bring you the "deep shot" of the day.


And what's a visit to Mystic without a stop at the famous Mystic Pizza where a big-haired Julia Roberts dreamed of a better life for her and her down-and-out sisters?


Ian's quaint snack cost a whopping $7+. Look closely at that "slice of heaven" and you can see your dreams reflected (or glowing orange) therein.


Mysteriously, we ended up at Ian's apartment in New Haven, despite a brief attack from a backseat driver who insisted on taking the wheel. With this one at the helm, who knows where tomorrow will take us?


And our route map for today:


View Larger Map

Day 3: Rockland, ME to Providence, RI - December 29, 2008

We begin Day 3 of our tumultuous travels by paying homage to the Mossmobile II, much weather beaten and beloved, in all its hardworking beauty.

Our first stop of the day was the Maine State Prison Store in Thomaston, ME. It is open every day of the year and is filled with an astonishing array of beautifully crafted woodwork, including furniture, model boats, and napkin holders. (We were somewhat puzzled by the penitentiary-themed gifts; wherefore the motivation to lure your local robins into a cozy Maine State Prison birdhouse?) The store's towering masterpiece, however, was a biker's dream, a muscular staff-wielding sea god (complete with NEPTUNE tatooed across his six pack) steering his Harley through the waters with a large-breasted, long-haired mermaid as his enthralled traveling companion. Unfortunately, Department of Corrections regulations and a burly mustachioed police officer prevented us from taking any close-up shots, but we did manage to sneak in this photo across the street -- Neptune and his lady friend can be seen coasting by in the right window.

We next took a turn for the bovine at Udder Place in Brunswick, ME; witness the giant cow sunbathing in the rooftop coffee cup behind Farmer Ian...

...followed by a stop at the massive, world-famous LL Bean outlet in Freeport, Maine, where Debby's LLBean boots finally received an answer to the question they had long-pondered: who's yo' daddy?

Then it was our best boot forward (ohhh!) down the road to "the Big Indian." The rumors are true. He is in fact, quite big, as you can see by comparison with our stunning model.

A short scoot down Route 1 took us to Eartha, the world's largest revolving and rotating globe, housed at the DeLorme map company. Due to old age and geographic arthritis, Eartha was in stasis upon our visit, but sitting pretty nonetheless. Here she is inside her home in Yarmouth, Maine.


What's that you say? You were thinking of the late, great Eartha Kitt? As a diversion from route 1, you can read more about Globe Eartha's soul sister with the "come hither personality" here.

And now back to our journey... which continued on to Portland. We stopped briefly here for lunch at a salty establishment with the somewhat optimistic title of Happy Teriyaki, where an oddly placed Christmas tree with a train set skirting its middle and a giant technicolor mural of Manifest Destiny made up the schizophrenically charming decor. As Debby was plagued by the virus that has nestled itself in her inner ear, it was an all too brief sojourn in what looked from the passing car like a promisingly inviting place.


From Portland, we puttered on to Scarborough for a taste of Lenny, the Chocolate Moose, the world's ONLY life-size chocolate moose. Sadly, no licking allowed. Lenny was spruced up for the season and has even been given a few buddies in his blue chocolate pond.


And finally, we met up with some real moose. Real dead moose, that is, at Kittery Trading Post in Kittery, ME. KTP is a massive department store catering to avid hunters, grannies, and 8-year old Ritalin addicts, and its taxidermy displays are ready to pop out and say hi from where they are waiting among the flannel shirts and booties.



As night fell and we neared the end of our day's travels, the darkening sky was lit anew with the lights of Saugus, MA. This stretch of Route 1 has been nicknamed "Frightening Saugus" (for its glaring neon splendor) by a philistine who just didn't understand. Here man prevails against cactus at the Hilltop Steak House.



Our route for the day:


View Larger Map

UPDATE: FTtTT reader Jeanne Klainer writes us that the Mama and Baby Bear posing near Lenny the Chocolate Moose were created by Maine sculptor Steve Lindsay. To learn more about Steve's work, check out his website here.

Day 2: Caribou to Rockland, ME - December 28, 2008

Our stay at the Old Iron Inn Bed & Breakfast in Caribou was for the most part lovely, though a radiator that actually worked would have been nice. (Good thing we weren't there the previous night, when temparatures dipped to about 4 degrees Fahrenheit.) The Old Iron Inn has, as you might imagine, quite a collection of old irons -- we're talking the kind that you heat on the stove before using -- to go along with the aviation history book collection, the rash of model warplanes hanging from the ceiling, the small gramophone collection, and a bevy of busts of Abraham Lincoln. These are all the brainchildren of Kevin McCartney, one of Old Iron's two inkeepers and a professor of geology at the University of Maine Presque Isle. Kevin was the driving force behind the Maine Solar System Model, a to-scale mockup of the eight planets of the solar system plus the sun, Pluto, Ceres, Eris, and several moons (including the Earth's and Charon) that spans some 90-plus miles from Presque Isle to Topsfield. He also turned out to be a bit ornery in person, lambasting downeasterners as not "real Mainers" across the breakfast table while his wife toiled in the kitchen making us blueberry pancakes. He said that he'd been collecting the irons since high school, which made us wonder what kind of kid he was. In any case, it seems that we were not the first travelers to pass through on a US 1 road trip, but most of the others were on motorcycles; the Southern California Motorcycling Association promotes a "Four Corners Tour" every year which involves touching each of the four "corners" of the contintental United States -- two of which are Madawaska, ME and Key West, FL.

Above, Debby poses with the bureau/sink that we found in our bathroom. As we prepared to leave Caribou, we picked up a brochure for the Solar System Model, which conveniently places all of its landmarks on Route 1. Here I am in front of Jupiter, a couple dozen miles past Presque Isle:


As you can see, a thick layer of fog coated our trip throughout the day. This reduced the value of the so-called "Million-Dollar View Scenic Byway" to about a buck-fifty, at best. We still managed to catch a few good sights, however, including this pretty bridge in downtown Houlton...

...and, a few miles south in Hodgdon, this crazy-ass "shoe tree":

We also took a quick stop at the Oldest 45th Parallel Marker, though said marker was nowhere in sight. Instead there was this rest area with a themed shop that was, sadly, closed (like most other things in Maine on the Sunday after Christmas).


After lunch in Calais at Carmen's Pizzeria, we took a quick detour to Eastport to view the "Easternmost Goofy Statue." This was originally a prop for a FOX television show that was filmed in Eastport, but quickly became a monument to the fireman who won the grand prize and shortly thereafter lost his life as a first-reponder in the 9/11 aftermath.

Despite the glory of the statue, Eastport itself seemed in rough shape. The only property not boarded up across the street, right on the waterfront, was the realty company's:

Once again it got dark early (this time promptly at 4pm), and between that, the low visibility from the fog, and an uttler lack of street lights on Route 1, our sight-seeing ambitious were significantly hampered. By the time we entered Hancock County, we were only too eager to get back to Rockland for a delicious chicken piccata dinner courtesy of Ma Klainer. We did manage to stop by Wild Mountain Man Ray Murphy's place for a minute to take a picture of his chainsaw art, howver:


Our route for the day:

View Larger Map

Day 1: Rockland to Caribou, ME via Fort Kent - December 27, 2008

Our epic journey down the entire 2,377-mile length of US Route 1 began Saturday in Rockland. As you can see from the pic above, we dealt with crappy weather the whole way; sections of northbound I-95 from Bangor to Sherman were essentially one lane because the fast lane hadn't been plowed since the previous snowstorm. This caused some excitement when we got stuck behind a truck going 40 mph and finally succeeded in passing him on maybe the sixth try.

That was just one aspect of our rough start. Debby was coming down with a cold and I was not far behind. Our first stop, at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport, was foiled due to the Center's unannounced (on their website, anyway) closure until January 11.

We stopped for lunch in Bangor and took in the gargantuan Paul Bunyan statue while we got gas. The Sea Dog Brewery served a decent burger but took a damn long time to do so. They also charged me for a refill of my (admittedly excellent) root beer without warning. Afterwards, we snuck a look at Stephen King's house with spiders sculpted into the gate.
In scenic Masardis on Route 11, we stopped in the general store to ask if we could use the bathroom. The proprietor informed us that they in fact had no restroom, and that we would need to try the next town up (Ashland) if we wanted one. The lady knitting in the rocking chair that had been deposited unceremoniously in one of the store aisles looked on without comment.

After miles and miles of frozen wilderness, Fort Kent (pop. 1,978) seemed like a bustling metropolis. Stores that were open past 5pm on a Saturday night! Imagine! A late start, longer-than-anticipated stops, and the lousy weather all conspired to put us behind schedule. By the time we reached Ashland, the sun had already set, and nearly half of our journey was undertaken in pitch blackness.


In Fort Kent, we walked around a bit, bought some postcards, and began the official trek down US Route 1 South. The darkness did have one benefit for us, which is that it made the lights across the St. John river in Canada that much more appealing. We found ourselves a bit tantalized by visions of life on the other side; there certainly seemed to be a lot more people over there! Mostly our bank of the river featured light-up fiberglass nativity scenes on people's lawns, a number of signs inexplicably proclaiming "Welcome to Maine!" rather far from any international border crossing, and Chinese restaurants of questionable authenticity (or health standards).

By the time we got to the Old Iron Inn in Caribou, it was past 7pm. Our hosts recommended a decent Italian place called Napoli's downtown, and at their suggestion we trudged through the icy fjords to get there rather than drive.



Here was our route for the day:

View Larger Map

And some more pics: