USA

Yesterday was an excellent day. Clear skies, warm temperatures (70-80 degrees Fahrenheit), and amazing scenery along the Maine Coast.

I stopped by the Owl’s Head Transportation Museum which was really interesting, and stopped in Camden during the evening. I also did a 3.5-mile hike up and down Mt. Battie in Camden, which was very steep and probably not the greatest idea for getting ready for the Boston Marathon on Monday, but absolutely worth it from a surreal spiritual sense with the views from up above.

It’s also funny to say this, but I am in love with my rental car! Yes, a Ford… the sky blue Mustang Convertible I wrote about yesterday. What a fabulous machine! America can build great cars!

Off on my last drive in the ‘Stang back to Manchester, New Hampshire. Then, I should be in Boston not too long after hopping on a free shuttle from the Manchester Airport. Signing off from the beautiful city of Portland, Maine.

“How cool you’re in Portland, Maine,” wrote my friend Lisa. “I’ve actually been there once before, and it is really a cute town. I remember I accidentally parked illegally, and instead of giving me a ticket, they left me a note that said something like ‘we know you are from out of town so we won’t give you a ticket. Thank you for visiting Maine.’ It was quite nice of them.”

I had to agree with Lisa — Portland is a very cute town with a beautiful downtown, harbor, shops, and restaurants. The funny thing is I had a near-similar experience to Lisa for parking. You see, I had overstayed my meter time by two or three minutes, and right when I got to my car, a meter patrol guy was in the middle of tearing a ticket from his ticket pad and slapping it on the windshield. The split second after he did this I said, “sorry,” and he turned to me somewhat embarrassed and ended up apologizing in return. Continue reading »

“Camden,” advised my friend Melissa before the start of my New England trip, “is a nice, quaint little town to stop and shop, lunch, etc. We had a fabulous time there.”

As it turned out, Camden also made for a great stopping and turnaround point during my White Mountains to Blue Seas drive. Continue reading »

“Since ‘The Kank’ has no gas stations, stores, or hamburger clowns on its 34-mile stretch to Conway,” wrote Gary McKechnie in his book, Great American Motorcycle Tours, “the town of Lincoln has thoughtfully added a flood of ugly stores and smelly things. Race past these and into some of the most mind-boggling alpine scenery and rideable roads you’ll encounter. Goose it to 60 and get into the rhythm of the road, but be prepared to brake when you reach some 20 mph hairpin turns that deliver you to scenic viewing areas such as the Hancock Overlook.”

These words came to mind as I followed a Suzuki GSX-R rider, not nearly able to match his speed or corner-carving prowess and bemoaning the fact that my rental car had an automatic slushbox instead of a proper stick. But that was the only complaint I had, and it was a minor one. After all, here I was in the White Mountains in a Ford Mustang convertible — much better than, say, a Ford Focus I thought I was going to get from the rental car agency — and the weather was gorgeous enough to have to top down all day. And the alpine scenery was, well, mind-boggling all right. Continue reading »

One could probably say that my northeastern U.S. trip started sub-optimally. After sleeping only one hour, I was blasted out of bed by my 100-decibel alarm clock at 3:30am and due to my grogginess, driving down towards the Denver International Airport was quite a chore. (Should’ve taken the Shamrock shuttle instead.) Then, on my Southwest flight to Manchester, NH, I was completely enveloped by the Texan Congregation of Fatsos which made sitting (much less sleeping) quite uncomfortable.

The woes of the morning were suddenly erased when I arrived at the Manchester airport, with just one sentence from the girl at the rental car agency (Budget) that I had a reservation with. Continue reading »