Going the furthest

 Last weekend, my brother and I took a trip to Maine, which was to meet a specific goal- we set our farthest points in all directions in a single year. We set the furthest West first, in Devil's Tower, Wyoming and then the North, in Virginia, Minnesota, both in the same week in May. Then, in September, when we visited the NASCAR Hall of Fame, we took a quick detour into South Carolina just to say we had been there, setting the new South point. That just left East, and I knew my furthest East had been on Cape Cod, which while I have not been there in several years, I have been to a few times. I got looking at the map and determined to get further East than that, a trip to Maine was in order, and Bath was the first town that is past the Cape. In the end, we ended up going a few towns further East and set Edgecomb, Maine as our new furthest East point. 

The green stars are the new records, the yellow stars are the old records, and the red star is home. I can't  believe that we were actually able to pull it off, and I can't believe I got my health corralled enough to do it, especially the Maine trip because my health has been acting up badly these past couple of weeks. My doctor literally prescribed that I get out and do more things, and we are sure making that happen. 

Oh, but we didn't just drive out to that point and then turn around. Oh no...if we are going to do a trip, my brother is going to find us something fun to do and he sure delivered on that! 

We stopped at the New Hampshire Welcome center...

which had an actual fireplace in it! The worker added another piece of wood while we were there.

I hadn't been to Maine since 2004 but I remembered this bridge.

Maine is a beautiful state.

This is downtown Biddeford, Maine, where we went for lunch

The real highlight of the trip for me, however, was the Maine Automobile Museum, in Arundel, and it was INCREDIBLE!

I believe this is the first time we've ever parked next to a Studebaker ever. 

Some turtles in the office

This is the view when you walk into the front door. A pink Thundered Bird! (this is an in-joke. The closed caption called it that when my mom was watching Perry Mason)

1938 LaSalle

Airflow!

Overland

A 1935 DeSoto Airflow! The Airflow had at one time been in my top 5 most wanted cars to see. Before that day, I had only ever seen two in person. 

Cord

A 1960 Edsel Convertible! This is the rarest Edsel, with only 76 being made, and it's estimated that around only 10-15 still exist. This is only the second 1960 Edsel I've ever seen in person, and the first convertible!

1959 Edsel Wagon

Crosley

A better view of the DeSoto

Tucker. For a car that had only 51 ever made I've now seen 6 or 7 of them.

Messerschmidtt. This is only the second time I've ever seen one of these German microcars in person. 

A Reliant and an Isetta. First time I've ever seen a Reliant, which only has three wheels.

Yes, this is a car. No, you couldn't get me to ride one! Actually, it's so low to the ground that I don't think I could physically get into it. 

When a classic Porsche is one of the more mundane cars in the museum you know it's a good museum.

Citroen Traction Avant

1953 Volkswagen Beetle

An extremely rare snowmobile conversion on a 1920 Buick

A Delahaye, a rare French luxury car from pre-WWII. Only the second I've ever seen. 

They sell old cars as well, and the prices are not crazy like most places are. That Chrysler LeBaron convertible with the tan top you see was only $1500 for example. 

Oh but that's not all. One of the most amazing experiences happened....

I got to sit in the Edsel and the DeSoto! I still can't believe this happened, and I am and will be forever thankful to the guy at the museum that offered me the opportunity! 

We hadn't gotten to the furthest point yet but I said to my brother as we were getting back in the car, that if we just turned around and went home right then, I would be happy. Me in the Edsel is actually now my profile picture on Facebook, too. 

But we didn't go right home. Here's Portland, the largest city in Maine. 

Like I said earlier, Maine is just beautiful.

Some places were decorated already 

We stopped at the Andrescoggin Swinging bridge, which is really more like bouncing bridge. I was a quick "oh heck no" but I did go a few feet out...

I bet the river views are beautiful out in the middle of the bridge. I'll never know, haha.

The Bath shipyards

A lobster sculpture

New England architecture is so nice.

This is my furthest East right here, we turned around in some parking lot right then. 

Is this not quintessential New England? 

Love the architecture.

Uh, yeah, the Atlantic Ocean on the GPS! 

We went to Fort Popham, which is a Civil War era fort that they started working on in the 1860s, used until WWI...but never actually finished. (makes me feel a little better about my large number of unfinished projects!) Note the flags. It was extremely cold and windy here.

I know I've seen Fort Popham on TV, but I don't remember what show. When I went inside it I recognized it instantly even though I had never been there.

I brought the camera with the long zoom capabilities. 

A panorama of the beach

A shorebird of some sort.

This is actually a retirement home! 

We went to the Maine Maritime Museum, which is a HUGE complex of 15 buildings. I couldn't do it all, my health just didn't allow it. So we want to go back and finish. 

This cracked me up so much.

This is the elevator. I realized a few days later that we didn't go upstairs or find out if there was more museum up there. 

Lighthouse

Scrimshaw

Native American canoe.

They had a lot of models of ships, so as a modeler I was really enjoying that.

I also love paintings of ships.

The other side of the shipyard.

The weirdest part of the museum?

Yeah, the art work that is just peanut butter and jelly on bread. Not real peanut butter or anything else, just supposed to look like it. I wonder how often this art has been licked?

This is just a brace from one of the ships! They were massive.

The Wyoming, the largest wooden ship ever made apparently, was made right there on what is now the grounds of the museum.

A diorama of the land that is now the museum circa 1900.

There's an approximation of the Wyoming, essentially a large model, They did have to make the masts lower than the real thing so airplanes wouldn't crash into them! 

To put in perspective how large this was...that's ME walking in the right side of this picture that my brother took! And I am not a particularly small person!

Rocking chairs made out of lobster traps. People traps, haha?

I LOVE lobsters. I consider them pet class animals. if I could I would get every one from the grocery store and give them a happy life that doesn't involve cooking them. 

A wall of rubber lobsters.

A singing lobster and a dress that looks like a lobster.

It was snow flurrying while we were there too which was nice. 

We did head home after that, a roughly 5 hour drive...I slept most of the ride home. I fell asleep somewhere in New Hampshire, woke up briefly when we were switching onto I-90 and then not until Hartford basically, then not again until Waterford and then not again until back in New York. I missed out on so many awesome night time views and pictures. 

These last two photos are of Hartford.

Naturally, I took a lot more pictures than I posted...I came up just 5 short of 3000 for the trip. In that I also set another record....I have now taken more pictures in 2022 than any other single year of my life, with more than a month to go still! I have three albums from this trip on my website:

Trip to Maine

Maine Automobile Museum

Maine Maritime Museum

Thanks for reading!