Twenty minutes later we were back on the highway and at exactly 12:30 we picked up Hwy 161 to Coburn Gore. The mountains got higher, the forests got thicker and even the tiniest villages fell away. The signs reading Caution, Moose Crossing, were plentiful. We seemed to be the only car on the road heading for the international crossing at Coburn Gore, Maine. What a surprise it was to finally find it: a one gate border crossing in the middle of nowhere! No cars were on the US side waiting to cross, there were no adjacent buildings and no Duty Free. Up ahead about 100 yards into Maine, was a general store of sorts. It contained no food but I was finally able to buy some beer and wine to take to our friends. We started off on Maine State Route 27 at 1 pm, delighted to have finally entered Maine.
We spent the next two hours driving through beautiful countryside on winding highways surrounded by forests, hills, streams, and many small lakes. We were entirely alone for those two hours until we got within 40 miles of Augusta, Maine about 15 miles from Liberty. We eventually arrived at Pat and Howard’s ‘camp’ on the shore of St George Lake at 4 pm. As in our earlier visits the view was breathtakingly beautiful. That evening, sitting on their stone walled porch looking out over the water and listening to the calls of the loons, it was easy to put the frustrations of the day behind us.
We had a wonderful visit with our friends and on returning to Canada a week later (with hearing aids returned), people asked how the road trip went. To this day, Bob tells them the car was a dream to drive and to ride in, but that he’s no farther ahead than before. The car has so many safety features, he couldn’t learn them all on the trip.
My answer to how the road trip went is simple: while safety features are designed to offset human error, human error will always find a way to intrude and to triumph. What is the primary lesson I learned from the road trip? Never leave home without a CAA trip tic or at least, a detailed provincial/state road map of the area you’re travelling to. The road atlas doesn’t pick up those untravelled, remote area highways that human error will always take you to.
Pat & Howard on Camden Bay, Maine
Larry S5 years ago
Laughing big time. And I can see the sternness in Bob’s face, and the attempts for Barb to refrain from giggling or laughing out loud!
Like the final punchline about the map…..I am soooo dependent on the Garmin!
Maggie5 years ago
Gary and I laughed out loud, we went thru of the same pain, Learning everything on our new car last year. We love the new safety features though.