Day 8 of our Great Lakes Adventure

We were on the road by 7 this morning, CST. First thing on our list was to get some gas it was $2.63 a gallon. Next we stopped at Tim Hortons for breakfast. We are learning more and more about this neat restaurant chain. Like McD's this chain supports children's groups and donates quite a bit of money to a special organization that helps kids. Unlike a fast food restaurant, when you eat there the coffee is served in real glass cups and the food on real plates. They ask that you keep your trays and dishes on the table when done so the staff can clean them up. We had a breakfast sandwich and muffin with our coffee.

The highlight of today was for Jim to do a cache that was in honor of Joshua Chamberlain, in Brewer, Maine. Jim has read several of Joshua's books and has always admired this civil war hero. The memorial was a real treat, with a larger than life statue of Chamberlain, many quotes from throughout his life, and a mini version of the battle strategies used at Little Round Top, part of Gettysburg. When the park was being built a tunnel that was part of the underground railroad was discovered, that was in 1994 and it became an intregal part of the display. The bust of slave, cast in bronze sits atop the opening, looking like he was immerging from the tunnel. Also an actual piece of railroad is set up to represent the underground railroad. The geocache was very difficult to find and had not been found by the last few teams that had attempted it. I gave up, but Jim determined to persevere like Chamberlain did, came up with the geocache.

We continued traveling to Bar Harbor, Maine where we walked along the ocean before going to a park to have lunch. We also stopped on the college campus to see a huge whale skull. We spent a few hours there and opted to not go out on a ship whale and puffin watching as the weather was looking threatening and we wanted to continue on. Both of us were surprised that the ocean view included many islands with mountains, and bays, not just water like we had envisioned. The tide was low, so things looked dirty and did not smell all that great.

Taking Hwy 1, the Scenic Atlantic Hwy, we traveled through many quaint little towns that had been settled in the 1700's, some more touristy than others. It reminded us a bit of Door County in Wisconsin. We tried to find buildings that were most likely there when Chamberlain went through the area. Some of the bridges were massive and one that went across the Penobscot River was the strangest bridge we had ever seen. It had two poles with wires right down the middle between the lanes looking almost like ship masts.

We are settled in at a Comfort Inn in South Portland, Maine for the night. Of course we had to have seafood for dinner, so we went to "Weathervane" a small New England chain restaurant that is very similar to a "Red Lobster", there are only 14 of them. I had two fresh lobsters for $15.95, I chose to shuck them myself so had to wear a bib, although Jim may have needed it more than I, since he sat across from me. It had been over 27 years since I had fresh lobster.

We traveled only 236 miles and found 10 geocaches, but the memories made are too numerous to count.