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September 20, 21, 22
September 23 September 24 September 25 September 26 September 27 September 28 September 29 September 30 October 1 October 2 October 3 October 4 October 5 October 6 October 7 October 8, 9, 10 |
Thursday September 20, 2007
After packing up my car, we left Kingsport about 11 am. We got as far as Abingdon (Cracker Barrel) for lunch. The entire day was spent on I-81 heading north. Not much interesting happened along this road on this day. We stopped for the night in Winchester, VA, almost on the Pennsylvania border, and spent the night at a Best Western there. Dinner was at a sports bar called Glory Days. It was a quiet night. Friday September 21, 2007 We drove all day, mostly on I-81, stopping for lunch at Kildare's Irish Pub in Moosic, PA, in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area. The afternoon was spent crossing New York state. The road system near Albany was a mess getting through. No construction, just confusing signs. We stopped for the night in Chicopee, MA, just outside of Springfield, MA. We spent night at the Hampton Inn there and had dinner at Bernies Dining Depot, a local establishment where about half of the tables are in an old railroad dining car. We were lucky enough to get a table in the dining car. Pleasant experience. Saturday September 22, 2007 We didn't have far to drive today. Our target was South Portland, Maine. We arrived at the New Hampshire border well before noon, so we spent some time finding some of the places we would need to be at the next weekend. We exited I-95 at Portsmouth, NH, following the directions for the Durham Boat Company, where Carl has a lesson scheduled next Saturday. One of the workers was there and gave us a short tour of the place. Looks nice. It has a nice access to the Lamprey River behind the building which is still enough for beginners... Our next target was the Hickory Pond Inn, a bed and breakfast that we'll be staying in next weekend. It's just over a half mile from the Durham Boat Company, making it convenient for Carl to get to his sculling lesson. Then it was on to Portland, where we followed the Mapquest directions to the ferry dock for tomorrow. Since we have to be there at the crack of dawn, we thought it might be nice to find it in the daylight... With our scouting finished, we headed on up the road to Freeport, Maine, home of LL Bean. We had lunch at a chowder house in Freeport - clam chowder and corn/crabmeat chowder. Yum! It was a Cool day and the soup just hit the spot. We spent a few hours wandering around the flagship LL Bean store, making three small purchases before heading back to Portland to check into the Econolodge there. Dinner that night was at the Old Port Sea Grill in downtown Portland, in the waterfront area. Good food, but the place was hard to find. The lighted sign was just too tastefully underlighted for finding while driving by. After a good dinner, we returned to the hotel to crash for the night. We have to get up early tomorrow. |