On The Way Up

With our homemade camper hitched up to the truck and the truck packed to the brim with supplies we head out of our driveway for the five-hour, coastal drive up to Bar Harbor, ME.

            We’ve made this trek once to twice a year since 2012 and the ride never gets boring.  Each and every time I find myself feeling the same child-like excitement when we exit Route 101 East and merge onto Route 1 North in Portsmouth, NH because I know the Atlantic Ocean is going to come into view in a blink of an eye.  Seeing the dark blue water and waves splashing up on the rocks gives us chills.  The drive also offers amazing views of Maine’s costal cities Portsmouth and Portland.  The ocean offers an incredible backdrop to the two cities buildings and businesses. 

            As we drive up Route 1 North we see all the wonderful antique and consignment shops that just litter Maine’s coast.  We see some new shops along the road but we also see our favorite shops that seem to be there year after year like old friends.  The one place we make sure we stop at was our great find from our first trip up to Bar Harbor, ME in 2012.  The place is called “Treasure’s and Trash Barn” and it is located on Route 1 North in Searsport, ME.  The name suits the place because when you are driving along you come upon a large, Colonial style, white house with an even larger, dark brown barn and you see what appears to be trash and scrap strewed about the yard.  However, when you pull into the driveway and walk through the yard and barn you realize that it isn’t rubbish, its treasure.

            We get back into the truck and maneuver ourselves back onto the great roadway of Route 1 North.  We laugh over what we found in the barn and say what we should get the next time we stop by.  Route 1 North takes us to Route 3 south in Ellsworth, ME.  Again the excitement builds and the chills begin because before I know it we’ll be traveling through Trenton, ME, over Thompson Island, and stopping in downtown Bar Harbor for dinner before ending at the Blackwoods Campground in Acadia National Park.