Our side trip to Gloucester on Wednesday was a trade-off from going to Boston. I didn’t feel like going through the time and hassle of going all the way to Boston for an undetermined agenda, especially when it meant leaving Ollie along for a long day in the trailer.
Gloucester was a relatively easy trip – 45 minutes along a beautiful drive – and it offered some attactions of its own. From the earliest days of the colonies, Gloucester was the center of the commercial fishing industry. It sits just off the south end of the Gloucester Bank, a very fertile fishing ground, and it possesses a safe, accessible harbor. It thus became an important and prosperous city early on in the colonial period. The influence of fishing is apparent everywhere in today’s Gloucester. From the memorials to the Gloucestermen lost fishing (over 5,300!) and their wives and children, to the commercial fisheries and fish markets on the waterfront, to the tours offered for whale watching, the maritime nature of this city is clearly apparent.
Gloucester is larger than I expected. On this trip I’ve become used to seeing towns that were of historical note that were little more than a few blocks of main street with some homes scattered around. But Gloucester has the feel of a small city. It bustles with activity, and there are shops along some of the side streets that were well-patronized on this weekday morning. Adjoining Gloucester are Rockport and Gloucester-by-the-Sea. Along the waterfront of GbtS are some unbelievable mansions with even more unbelievable frontage to the ocean. I would have loved to have stopped and taken pictures, but there was no place to pull over.
The waterfront downtown has the famous Fishermen’s Memorial Statue, which stands between the water and a wide boulevard in the middle of the city. Next to the Fishermen’s statue are plaques that list the names of every fisherman who has perished at sea since the early 1700s, listed year by year. To see all those names was a really moving experience to me. Sure enough, I was able to find the names of the crew of the Andrea Gail, from the movie The Perfect Storm.
All around were flowers of many types and colors, planted and tended by volunteers. Very beautiful.
After a couple of hours of walking and driving around Gloucester, Ollie and I headed back to Salisbury. I stopped for lunch at a small roadside restaurant that looked like the kind of place that has amazing food. My hunch was correct. The blackened haddock tacos and clam chowder were incredible, made even better by the view of the salt marshes from my picnic table.
And then it was Friday, May 13, time to leave Massachusetts. The day’s drive was short, just 66 miles but a world away to Wolfeboro, NH. Wolfeboro is on the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee and claims to be the oldest summer resort in America, dating back to the last colonial governor of New Hampshire who started it all by building a summer retreat there in 1770. Lindsay and Amy were our hosts at their Boondockers Welcome site. Lindsay is 71, and comes across as simultaneously gruff and kind, willing to do anything for anyone even if they do irritate her. Amy is 59 and has been retired from Verizon for eight years. She was extremely sweet and spent a lot of time talking with me, which I really appreciated. Their home, which they built over 20 years ago, is deep in the woods about five miles outside of town. The whole area is absolutely beautiful, dominated by hills (mountains?) of mostly pine and oak trees. It’s worth mentioning that the bugs here were as numerous and as agressive as I’ve seen anywhere. I didn’t realize that I was being bitten, but as I write this three days later I am still covered with bites on every area of my body that was exposed.
While there are quite a few people in town, I got a feeling of remoteness more than anywhere else I’ve been on this trip. Not including my hosts, the Granite Staters were an interesting group and I find it hard to describe them. I would not say that they are friendly. There seemed to be an irritability and crustiness to them, and I did not feel particularly welcome much of the time. Yet there were some that warmed up a bit as we spoke.
Two nights in New Hampshire could have been more, but it was on to the next stop, near Kennebunkport, Maine. I had been looking forward to this stop and was afraid I had not left enough time for it. We had just one night at this campground in Old Orchard Beach, ME. As it turned out, that was enough. After setting up camp I drove into Kennebunkport to see what it was about. It was easily the biggest disappointment of our trip. There are 3-4 blocks of cute shops on the main street, but the rest of the town is small and unremarkable. The main street was so crowded with tourists that I did not seriously consider stopping, as it did not seem worth it. It is a cute little town, but in my two weeks in New England I have seen plenty of cute little towns, and I would not place it in my top ten of the CLTs I’ve seen. Likewise, the campground was subpar. I arrived a few hours before the stated check-in time and they charged me $30 for early check-in, because they could. This even though there was no one at my site, and only four of the 30 or so sites in my area were occupied for the night. I get the extra charge if it puts them to some inconvenience – early cleanup, etc. But this cost them nothing in either time, effort, or cost.
The one bright spot of this stop was a side trip we made that evening to Freeport. Freeport is the home of L.L. Bean, and what I saw of it was very appealing. L.L. Bean has a whole shopping campus in the middle of downtown, with several buildings linked together. Very cool.
On Sunday, May 15 we headed to Bar Harbor. This will mark several milestones of the trip. It is our farthest point away from home. It is also the halfway point of our trip, both in time and (approximately) in total miles travelled. Within a few days we will be on the downhill, homeward side of our journey.
The weather on Sunday was rainy and very cool all day. Highs around 50 degrees after 85 and sunny the day before. Due to the rain and gloom and a need to do some housekeeping, we didn’t do much on Sunday other than head into BH to see what the town looked like before heading to the laundromat. The Maine adventure begins tomorrow. My friend Cathy Herman is flying in before heading home from visiting her kids and will be spending a few days exploring with Ollie and me. A little company will be a nice change of pace after a month of flying solo. There’s much to be said for sharing experiences.