From Canada to the States
Trip Start
Aug 12, 2006
1
5
11
Trip End
Oct 07, 2006
Lake Rangeley,
Maine,
United States
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Now for that dreaded 16 hour bus ride down to Boston. Ok, the dread was worse than the bus ride and the expected 16 hours become only 10. We got a goodnights sleep and apart from the border crossing into the States all went relatively smoothly. The border crossing was quite amusing. We all piled off the bus around midnight into the US immigration offices
Canoeing on the Kennenbrook River
. After our pleasant greeting by the control officer, he told us that because of the visa we required both would have to pay US$6 each. I was a little surprised at this, especially hearing how these immigration people are known to blackmail innocent people, and asked the reasoning behind this fee as I've never had to pay it before when entering the US. The officer less than politely told me that this is standard as we were crossing the border and it's not included as it is when flying into the US. He then asked us what our purpose for being in the US was. I said holiday. For some reason I am still not sure why, but he didn't like this and basically told me that he had the right to refuse our entry into the US and for me not to be such a smartie. From there I kept my mouth shut and decided to leave the rest to Brent. Aparantely he wanted more of a detailed explanation of our trip. Still not sure if he was being serious or trying to be funny but we made it thru thank goodness. So we arrive in Boston and head to our hostel. Not a bad little Hostel in the heart of Boston. Clean, dorms ok and only a couple of smelly people, but overall it was cheap and central.. We spent a couple of days in Boston before heading around to Cape Cod. At the bus depot in Boston we met a lovely Aussie girl who was going our way and on arrival asked her gran to give us a lift to find our hostel on the Cape. This was awesome as without their help we may of spent a couple of hours walking the streets as it was tucked away in the middle of nowhere
Moose
. Great hostel with cabins and a couple of really cool chicks running it. On the Cape we hired cycles for a couple of days, and took on more than we bargained for on the second day which unfortunately didn't leave us much time to see the rest of the Cape. But we did make it up to Provincetown to take a picture and grab a beer.Next stop the State of Maine which has been suberb. I would have to thank Brent for deciding to travel up here as it wouldn't be a place I would of thought to travel too. Or maybe we should really thank Stephen King who was the inspiration. Stephen King bases most of his stories in the New England Region, and if you know his stories ie. Misery, or Needful Things which are ones I know, you would get a feel for where we are. He lives in Bangor and as part of our road trip and with a little detective work we found his house or shall we say Mansion, drove past and took a few pics. Anyway, I've skipped a little ahead of myself.
Back in Boston, we picked up our rental car and navigated our way through the spaghetti highways, and got on the correct one up towards Maine.
Our first stop was beautiful Kennebunkport where we had lunch. This is also the town where ex George Bush has his Summer home, so we dove past, saw, and took a photo. Well as you do. La de la. Continued on and after enough driving for one day we checked into a highway Motel just outside Portland, called very appropriately 'Budget Inn'
Stephen Kings house in Bangor
. It had a washing machine, telly and king sized bed and after staying in hostels for the last week this suited us just fine. From Portland to Freeport, home of ALL outlet stores. Of course it deserved a stop although nothing else can fit in our backpacks and no we are not sending any more parcels home. Considering we shopped for a couple of hours I think I withheld extremely well andwe both only left with 1 item of clothing each. From Freeport to Bangor became interesting driving as it was bucketing down with rain, torrential rain in fact with fork lightening and stuff. Pretty hairy driving into an unknown town in these conditions but we survived and found our way to Circuit City which is where we decided to buy this laptop. It was cheap ok, and although I was a little hesitant as to why we need a laptop on holiday, it has become a great purchase and has made life alot easier and I guess it's time for me to start living in the 21st century. A nice chilled out night was spent in the Ramada Inn. I'm a bit worried I'm getting to used to this hotel life it's going to be tricky going back to Hostels after this.
From Bangor we drove over to Bar Harbour, a little island just off the mainland consisting predominately of the Acardia National Park. We heard about this area from a the ladies at the hostel in the Cape, and it really is stunning and was definitely a great recommendation
The Whissel Corn Roast
. We spent an awesome couple of days there sightseeing and hiking around the island. Oh and I shall not forget, winning my challenge of Adventure Golf! It's now 1 all. Bring it on. ;-)After sadly leaving Bar Harbour we drove inland to Rangeley in our continuing search for Moose. Now if I thought Bar Harbour was gorgeous this certainly tops it. Rangeley is surrounded by a number of lakes and forestry. The leaves are just starting to change their colours and we can see how amazing it must look at it's peak. Shame there are no hostels around, so we are staying in the Saddleback Motor inn. Very cozy and it overlooks Rangeley Lake. It's soo beautiful here we've decided to stay two nights which gave us a whole day here today. So this morning we got up bright and early and went canoeing. And guess what? We saw Moose! 3 of them. It was very cool. We also saw Loons, (a Canadian/Maine duck) and a Heron. This afternoon we took a scenic flight across the lakes giving us an awesome view of the lakes and surrounding area and saw another Moose. It's been a great day. Off to New York tomorrow. Not sure how we are going to feel about the city after being here. So until our next adventures......
