Day 10 – Post Curry Thunder Hole

Miles Driven – 49
From – Bar Harbor (Maine)
To – Bangor (Maine, not Wales)
Inches of Rain – A Gazillion
Interesting Things to Do in Bangor – Zero, Zip, Nda...
Hotel Room Temperature – 125F

Today’s Photo Link - http://www.flickr.com/photos/32017704@N03/sets/72157609086377434/

Thanks to a combination of a Leadership Conference being hosted in our hotel and a distinct lack of hotels open this time of season, we had to leave Bar Harbor and the Acadia National Park area a bit prematurely. We still had a couple of must-see’s to check of the list and luckily there was a quick 3 mile walk that took them all in so, despite super-grey clouds and the imminent threat of a Mancheser-esque downpour, we managed to bash them out before the 11am check-out deadline. Attraction #1 was Thunder Hole, a natural phenomenon where the Atlantic has bashed away the sandstone but not the granite, resulting in a cave that basically makes a huge splash and explosion noise each time the sea laps against it. It was a strangely hypnotic sight although Molly was less than impressed. The second attraction was Otter Cliffs but there wasn’t an otter in sight. Being America, I fully intend to sue for false advertising, emotional distress and I’ll probably throw some whiplash in for good measure.

The day gets distinctly less interesting at this point as we hit the road and drove in the rain to Bangor. What can I say about this particular budget hotel? They have free cookies at the front desk…and therefore it is the best hotel ever. There is a spa pool thingy which has the weird twist of not allowing kids between 9pm and 10pm…presumably the lights go dim and Barry White starts blaring out but we’ll hopefully be in the boozer instead. And check out the photo of the patriotic light switch – Americana at its very best.

A quick search on Google for eateries in Bangor threw up BK, McDonalds and Wendy’s within the list of 10 suggested places. Not a great sign so we actually did fairly well to find the Muddy Rudder where the food was not bad but luckily the beers were huge. Post-lunch entertainment really doesn’t warrant writing about as there were a bunch of chores to be done, including finally getting some health insurance although it doesn’t actually kick in until 1st January so I’ll have to lay off the Greco Roman Wrestling ‘til then.

Now, being Northern, I inherently know how to treat a lady – hence dinner tonight was in the truck stop located round the back of our motel. But this was no ordinary truck stop – it has its own line of clothing for a start (an obligatory $6.99 t-shirt was purchased, of course). It sold burger flavour dog food. And “tyre checkers” which are self-defense baseball bats in any other language. Still, the food was pretty good (for a truck stop) specialising in Maine classics like Yankee Pot Roast and their 24 hour cooked baked beans…and the portions were predictably huge.

The next couple of days involve about 400 miles of driving to get across to Stowe in Vermont which will be our base for a couple of days over Kate’s birthday. Why Stowe? Because it’s close to the Ben & Jerry factory. Girls are so easy to please…