the Way of the Turtle

A TURTLE IN MAINE, Part 1 -
On the Road Again...
Friday, September 19, 2008

Got off to much later start than I'd hoped for, and didn't leave Albany until 4 PM... which gave me an 11:30-12 midnight arrival time at my motel 15 minutes from Bar Harbor. The drive was exactly what I expected... a bloody long time (almost 8 hours) spent in the car, with a few tense moments of dealing with other idiot drivers.

The first 4 hours were fairly routine... I've driven both the MA Turnpike and I-495 a few times over the last couple of years, both for races and even for the trip to Nova Scotia Ann and I made back in 2004. It was kind of cool crossing the NH/Maine border and looking down the river to see the bridge we ran over about 1 mile into the Eastern States 20 Mile race in March 2007.

After that I was mostly in (for me) parts unknown - I've only driven to Maine once before, and we took a different route to get to and from the border crossing into New Brunswick, Canada. It was also getting dark, and driving through Maine in the dark was a bit nerve-wracking... it's bad enough to be concerned about deer darting out in front of the car, but seeing signs warning you to watch out for moose crossing the road puts a scary spin on that, given the size of those critters!

Had a few minutes of worry as I was cruising the final few miles and noticed that some of the motel signs weren't lit, but fortunately mine was... unfortunately, there was no one at the office! I spent a few minutes worrying that I'd be spending a very cold night trying to sleep in the car before reaching the owner on an outdoor courtesy phone, so that he could tell me to check the key box because my key was probably in it. Hurray!

Room was pretty basic and pretty cold, but I figured out how to get the heater working, grabbed my sleeping bag out of the car for an extra layer on the bed, and crawled under the covers for a few hours sleep before heading into town in the morning...

JMH