Monday, July 11, 2011

The real Maine fishing villages we fantasised about!

We've found it!  It's called Scarborough and it is at Pines Point.  It was settled in 1658, and has a population of 20,000 (hard to see that though).  We are at a campground 1/2 mile from the town.  We rode in and rode around (with no panniers on, unbelievably light bikes!). The most amazing thing, apart from the gorgeous streets, houses, fishing boats, was that as we got about 2 km down the main street, there was a sign saying 'welcome to york county' (but it had capital letters!!).  Straight away there were all these ugly condominium buildings and we felt like we were on the Gold Coast.  Therefore, we figure it must be pretty pricey to own one of these houses in Scarborough.  It certainly would cost a lot in paint and maintenance, the onshore wind and sea breeze would deteriorate the properties pretty quickly.

here are some photos:









The last two days have been really interesting.  My legs were hurting so much yesterday, the riding was hard (even though it shouldn't have been).  Used some Deep Heat last night, stayed in a nice hotel w(well a Hampton Inn) and they are all better today. Having said that, the ride today was really easy!!  We worked out that it was my fault for 'sprinting' and being 'Andy Schleck' on the day from Bucksport to Camden. I was feeling really good, and pushed myself too far! Paid for it!!!

Apart from discovering our Maine Fishing village, we had a fantastic visit to the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath.  One of the most interesting museums we have seen (and we have seen a lot of them!).  It is actually on the site of a real shipbuilders, where they have built ships starting with wooden schooners.  A schooner has 2 masts , a grand schooner, 4 masts, and they also built ships with 5 - 7 masts.  These days, the firm is still in operation, building Navy vessels.  You can tour the ship building yards (every day except Sunday, and we were there on a Sunday, darn it!).

There were still the original buildings that were used in the wooden ship building, and a really interesting museum talking about the original fishing and ship building settlements of Maine, through the huge international trade from Maine with the ships built here, into the WW1 and WW2 roles, with Portland churning out Liberty Shipss at 2+ a week.   We were right about why there are all these antique shops here!

Dry Dock for the Navy Ships at Bath Maine

Front half of the life size sculpture of the wooden Grand Schooner 'Wyoming', 6 masts, where it was built at the now Maine Maritime Museum, Bath
Photo of the full size of the 'Wyoming' sculpture, they are eventually going to full it in.Shows how HUGE the ship was
The rear of end of a REAL new Navy Ship being built in the shipyards at Bath, Maine as we rode past (as close as I could get)

We rode from Freeport today (the original home of LL Bean, which has huge stores there now - but one pays full retail, we both needed new cycling gloves, ours are worn out, and we certainly paid full retail!), and then a whole town of outlet shops - but in pretty buildings.  I was planning on spending some money, but fortunately couldn't find anything.  Very unlike me with outlet shops in the US.  But did identify which ones to go to at the end of our trip!

Our route was through Portland, Maine.  We were planning on stopping and spending a day there, in the 'historic centre'.  But when we got there, it was dirty, lots of poor people handing around, crowded,smelly and we didn't like it at all, so we left.

As a consequence we are running ahead of schedule, we have just completed 826kmn of riding.  We will have to work out what we are going to do with the extra days.  Don't fancy hanging out in a pup tent for two days.  We might go to Boston a bit earlier, and cycle out to Harvard and Cambridge then spend an extra couple of days with Helen/Carolyn!

Themes for today: Smells and the American people:

As you might know, I have hyper-sensitive smelling skills.  So it seems relevant to talk about the smells today.  It was a hot day 34 degrees celsius in Portland (thankfully we have a nice onshore breeze here, so we will hopefully be able to sleep!).  This heightened the smells (good and bad!). Fantastic smells of summer flowers as we rode through Yarmouth.

Then on to the bad smells.  Coming in to Portland - stinky mud from the swamps/bogs around the 'back cove', with the low tide.  Portland central.  Really strong smells of fish from the harbour, smells of 'city' - reminded me of New York in winter, like the sewers and subways.  On our bike trail, more smells of bog, and then, ewww, manure!  We couldn't work out where it was coming from, but mused that it was because the bike trail had been developed on a covered up landfill.  But, then, we saw the 'manure fertiliser truck', fertilising the playing fields!!!

Finally, the sweet smell of the sea, the 'briny' smell that David Baldacci wrote about in his latest book, set in Maine.  And of course, right now, drinks time, the lovely smell of Corona with lime in it, on our picnic table.  Of course, we don't smell!  Not after riding for 69km!!!

The American People
We forget when we aren't here.  We forget about the gap between the haves and the have nots.  We forget about the Republicans versus the Democrats.  We forget about how big the people can be!  We forget about how most Americans don't seem to have any sense of humour. I reckon that's cause they only get 2 weeks holiday a year, so they have to be serious about enjoying it!

We can totally see how 'The Biggest Loser' is such a successful and profitable franchise.  We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Freeport last night, and one of their core offerings is a free full cooked breakfast (in the room price).  I wonder if that is why at  breakfast this morning be both felt totally anorexic.  If you are ever worried about how much you weigh, just come to the US for a visit.  We can't understand how these people can let themselves get so big.  Yesterday in Wisacasset, as we were getting our bottles of water for the ride at an 'Irvings' (ubiquitous Canadian petrol station, and life saver on many occasions!), a huge man aged in his early 30's said 'do 20 miles for me will ya'.  We of course politely and jokingly replied, but he would have been a good candidate for The Big Loser.

The amazing thing is that it is virtually impossible to see a 'normal NZ sized' person.  They are either incredibly skinny and chic, or pretty darn big.  When you see the chips they eat with everything, and the sugar encrusted Fruit Loops that all the kids were having for breakfast, you can start to understand why.

Till next time. Carey and Peter

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