We have a date! A launch date that is: Thursday June 4 at noon at the Pine St launching ramp in Waldoboro. Maine Cat wanted us to bring Ms. Ortolan down river to the mooring at Broad Cove so we would get to watch the process from factory pickup, along Rte 32 (often marked “Frost Heave”) to the all-tide launch ramp. The tide range would be 11 ft that day!! The other day on our way to Friendship to sight-see and beach-comb we stopped to scope out the ramp. High tide coincides with launch time; excellent planning!

Low tide at the launch ramp

Too late I thought to mark where we are. Find the red dot for Nobleboro; below it and south of Rte 1 is Pemaquid Pond (not labeled) we are near the top on the right hand shore.

Mid-Coast: Brunswick through Penobscot Bay

Over the past month we’ve had time for sightseeing, hiking, checking out the local egg selections and lobster offerings. We’ve enjoyed a front row seat for a wedding and reception at the campground; decidedly low-budget but everyone was enjoying the warm sunny day. Those who could, came with their campers for the night.

Fort Edgecomb on Sheepscot River by Wiscasset

We brought a picnic lunch and were happy to find picnic tables overlooking the bluff-perfect.

Sheepscot River- no vessel would get past the fort

The best around!

first of the season- he or she?

Aboca Beads sits on Main St Damariscotta along with an inviting selection of shops, cafes, barber shops, salons, and a fantastic book store that is up for sale. Naturally I had to visit the bead shop and then we walked around, coming upon a small lobster shack selling a variety of lobster items and fresh ones for $9/lb. As high as that price is, it was less than the $10.49 we’d seen and passed on at another place.

But for our money we got lobster learned. I never thought about it, but the larger claw can be on either side so lobsters can be left or right-handed as well as soft or hard and male or female.

Caution- LOW ceiling

While I hit the bead shop Russ ducked into this barber shop; formerly the customs house many years ago when this waterfront space was only a large dock overlooking the harbor between Damariscotta and Newcastle. In another incarnation it operated as a seafood market and the owners poured concrete, which raised the floor. A small eatery then came along, flooring added, so now anyone over 6 ft tall needs to stoop and grab a chair fast.

Complicated bottle return at Hannaford

All this for returns at 5 to 15 cents each??

The campground (surprisingly) does not recycle but we always have plenty to recycle and wanted to find place to take it.

Maine is serious about recycling (or keeping the roadsides clean) and levies a 15 cent deposit on wine and hard booze. We generally don’t bother with returning bottles, just recycle them with all the rest.

But get a load of the lengthy return  process that one smart company talked Hannaford into. Buy a special bag, get a card, bring your bag in, and days later when your returns are processed you get credit for the bag cost and the bottle deposits. I think that’s the simple explanation. If you only have a few bottles, you can see customer service to get a smaller bag.  The other option is taking your bottles to a redemption center and wait in line. We are collecting our returnables and will  visit a center before we leave here. The store provides bins for other plastic, glass and paper items so we bring a bag every trip.

Whaleback Shell Midden- exposed shells after artifact digging

Larger shell midden across the river

lobster traps recycled into unique seating

Lobster club at Happy Clam

After visiting Port Clyde and the Marshall Point Lighthouse, we needed lunch! Tenant’s Harbor, a few miles away in the direction we needed to go, offered one dining option and we took it. Russ chose the Lobster Club and I must say, from the tiny nibble I was allowed, it was darn tasty!

The Rising Tide Community Market in Damariscotta

Rising Tide felt just like Foodworks in Old Saybrook and even more so like the Middlebury, VT Natural Foods Co-op; the only thing missing was Benj, Lily and a busy deli counter!

Motorhome Annie’s musical selections: XM 7 Seventies, Blue Man Group. From the iDevice: MeccaLily’s Breath of Life album, Norah Jones

Low tide at Port Clyde

The area we are in is called Maine’s mid-coast. I am not sure why but Port Clyde seems to be a very well-known place even though it lacks the bustle and plethora of shops of Boothbay Harbor or the cultural scene of Rockland. Maybe that’s the charm. 🙂

When I was a very much younger child I visited Port Clyde (along with other Maine locations) with Mom and Dad, so I was curious to see what might be recognizable, or not. I recalled tall docks with lobster traps (and I guess back then the traps were wood?), a few shops and a green building.

Ferry to Monhegan Island departs from Port Clyde

Seaglass was lying around waiting for us to pick up those precious pieces; a few even looked old and were properly smoothed by sand and water.

Linda Bean’s Lobster Traps called to us. What the heck are those you say? I’d been seeing ads in the paper for Linda Bean’s café; was this a Bean of THE L.L. Bean fame? Ah yuh, sure was. We wandered into the most inviting and practically only shop in town, the Port Clyde General Store and yes, it was green.  Roughly equal parts grocery, café, and gift shop, the upstairs contained a small art gallery. On the wall leading up I stopped to admire Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World”, one of the best-known American paintings of the middle 20th century. It depicts a woman lying on the ground in a treeless, mostly tawny grass field, looking up at a gray house on the horizon; a barn and various other small outbuildings are near the house. I’m sure you know this painting; if I do then anyone would! ( my reason for mentioning this painting will become clear later)
So back to lobster traps; not the type the lobsters crawl into, but edible ones that less creative preparers term lobster ravioli! They scored extremely high on our list of favorite lobster ravs; the filling really was nearly all lobster.

Delightful reading all over the package

Linda Bean’s Edible Lobster Traps

The Marshal Point Lighthouse sits on the point; dare I suggest it’s called Marshall Point? Just a couple miles south of Port Clyde. As you can see the lighthouse and keeper’s house were separate and back in the day the walkway was covered. This must have been one of the cushier outposts; not on a rocky god-forsaken island, pleasant living accommodations and a not horribly tall lighthouse to manage.

Marshall Pt Lighthouse- constructed 1832

Forrest Gump fans may recall this walkway.

The house and kitchen addition are now a (free) museum with easy on the eyes displays of local industry, mainly lobstering and quarrying. Family history is important too and we got a huge kick out of seeing our name many times.

How clever is this display of a family tree?

In late 80’s we found and drove around Rackliff Island

Our ancestors were very advanced!

Part of the extensive genealogy research that Russ’s dad compiled, was finding Rackliff Island, located between Rockland and Tenant’s Harbor. I’d remembered that years ago (BB- before Benj) we drove up to spend a few days near Ogunquit, staying at a motel in Wells. The drive to Rackliff Island had to have been long and sans GPS- imagine! But we found it by asking around once we got to Thomaston and drove over a short causeway to a pine tree forested island with a few homes and many lots for sale.

Are these “Rackliff”s related to William Rackliff (Rackleff) or to Russell William Rackliffe? Not sure, but we have enough data to continue the research should the urge overcome us.

One room contained genealogy and notebooks full of local info.. and a gorgeous water view

Also in this room sat a table and on it a notebook with pictures and info about the locale filming of the tiny scene in Forrest Gump where Forrest (but Tom’s brother Jim really did the scene) during his coast to coast run, arrives in Maine. Inspired, we watched the movie that night. Near the end is a scene where Jenny approaches her childhood home which is now dilapidated and loaded with bad memories. She begins throwing rocks at it, then collapses on the ground, a la “Christina’s World”. I didn’t make the connection at the time, but a fleeting sense of recognition poked my subconscious.

When we checked it out, wow did that movie have even more historical nods than we’d caught. Savannah, of course was the setting for Forrest on the bench but although the story is set in Alabama I wasn’t sure that the filming happened there. Russ (who has more time and a better, faster iPhone) is our resident researcher and asked me to guess where most of the movie was filmed (the town, Forrest’s home, etc) and digging deep…   I answered, Beaufort, SC! The look he gave me- astounded and amazed!! Eyes could not have been wider- how did you know? Oh just a WAG, but an educated one- hey we’ve been through there more than once. This was just days after I correctly named the location (Wrightsville Beach, NC) of another movie. But I’ve digressed.

Wyeth’s “Christina’s World” was indeed the model for that scene and when you see them side by side; it’s uncanny. Do you think that painting hung for easy viewing at the General Store on purpose? I do. The painting location was Cushing, which is across the St George River from Port Clyde; very local.  Click here to go to Artsy’s Andrew Wyeth page and enjoy more fascinating Wyeth artwork.

Motorhome Annie’s recent musical selections: XM 59 Willie’s Roadhouse, XM 17 James Taylor.

From the iDevice: Kingston Trio, Solid Ground album by Izzy Bradburn, Patsy Cline, Spyro Gyra (formed in the late 1970’s in Buffalo, NY)