Bugs .... BIG Bugs!!!!

This spooky forest was the view when I got up early yesterday.  The golf course at 6:00 am was a little foggy as the grounds crew were mowing and vacuuming the course.  Luckily I didn't get whacked by any errant golf balls!!  

By 10:00 we had eaten our free pastries from Panera Bread ... yes FREE!!  Just sign up and they give you free food for your birthday, for almost every visit and even just for signing up!!  We left Montpelier Vermont heading south on Hwy 302, a beautiful truck route so we would miss the mountains, then on to 25a, 25b and 25c I think ... at which point I got totally lost and didn't care any more!!  It seems there are no good roads that go East and West, so we went northeast, then southeast, and vice versa, winding around many small towns and villages, not getting over 40 mph, so you might not want to follow our tracks on this one!!

Finally we hit the border of New Hampshire ... Live Free Or Die!!  Thinking the roads would improve and we would hit a freeway soon, I checked my watch for the time.  Hmmm I think this is going to be a L O N G day!!

Mr. Thompson, Governor of New Hampshire was proud of his highway ... he had his name on a sign every few miles.  What he SHOULD do is drive it once or twice.  This road was SOOOO horrible it chattered my teeth and scared the dogs into the bedroom.  At barely 7 feet wide I drove over the line in many cases trying not to get swatted by branches.  Even at 25 mph for most of the way, it was awful!!  

Finally ... smooth pavement ... but it only lasted a mile or two and we were back to cobblestone driving.  At one point it even looked like they just dumped the asphalt with a truck, spread it a little with rakes and let people drive on it. The 12 and 14% grades didn't help our speed any as we threaded around the many finger lakes in this area ... along with the 35 mph signs and State Troopers!!  I do have to say however that it was beautiful ... green and beautiful!!!  I love this back road driving, just not the roads!!

At long last ... MAINE!!!  Unfortunately, that didn't help the road conditions any ... 

Thank goodness we met this truck at this exact intersection, and Tom stopped to let him turn in front of us.  He was hauling rafters for a house ... and at least six feet of the peak was hanging out over the side of the truck.  Talk about wide load ... he was driving over the middle line to keep the lumber from hitting the trees!!  

Hwy 3 for awhile, then back on 25, then 16, back to 25 until we finally picked up Hwy 95.  I'm telling you, this was a navigator's nightmare.  With one hand on the computer and one on the map, Barbara didn't get any knitting done on this day!!  I teased her that her finger must have slipped a couple of times, but she got us there in the end.

There are Moose signs everywhere, but we haven't seen any critters.  This was the first sign that actually had a picture AND a red ATTENTION sign!!

With accidents on the other highways, we chose the Toll Road.  Here you pay BEFORE you get on the highway.  No matter where you get off, you pay the full price tag.  $7.90 at this station, $6.15 at the second one.  This time I was sure to ask for a receipt.  After driving the toll roads in New York, I was sent an email saying I hadn't paid ... and I had no receipt.  I'm pretty sure it was a scam, trying to get my bank account number, so I just deleted it ... but where did they get my email address??

At long last, after about 7 hours driving with a short puppy break, we arrived at the Red Barn RV Park in Holden Maine, just south of Bangor on Route 1A.  Don't try to use your GPS for this park ... it won't work ... just drive down 1A until you see it on the left.  If you miss it, there is a huge lumber yard next door you can turn around in!!  Don't ask me how I know!!

Wasting no time whatsoever, we jumped in my Jeep and headed 30 minutes South to Ellsworth for some BIG BUGS!!  That's what we California Scuba Divers call them!!  The Union River Lobster Pot Restaurant was crowded like I've seen no other.  With three parking lots, we finally found a spot in the very last one!!

Let me tell you ... they had lobster.  Four huge pots of them, from one pounders to over three!!

We had about a 20 minutes wait for a table, so we sat in the chairs outside and talked to the guy doing the cooking.  He gets the order through a window on the kitchen, bags the lobster and dumps it in one of the four huge vats of boiling water.  They also serve clams, mussels and fish, but we picked out a couple of THREE pounders!!!

Isn't he beautiful???  It takes about 7 minutes per pound to cook these babies, so we had to wait another 30 minutes before chowing down!!  This plate is 20 inches wide and full of yumminess!!  Tom had steak and lobster, Barbara and I had the 3 pound special ... with cole slaw, bread and baked potato it was $36.00 ... and well worth every penny!!!

Since they didn't have bread pudding, we had a huge piece of chocolate cake!!  I think I'm in heaven ... lobster and chocolate cake!!  Life is GOOD!!!  And I expect to eat many more lobster pounds before leaving Maine ... maybe even stick a few in the freezer (like 25 or so)!!!