Our trip home from Fredericton, NB was pretty uneventful. Rather than return via the Canadian route and retrace some of the path through Quebec and eastern Ontario we decided to take "the American Route" through Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York. Our idea was to make time on the Interstate system and only stop for a couple of overnights on the road. We had fine weather and enjoyed the drive but didn't do much touristing.
The first overnight stay, Monday, was at the
Kittery Inn & Suites in Kittery, which is just at the Maine/New Hampshire border. The last night, Tuesday, was at a
La Quinta in Batavia, NY just outside of Buffalo. We might have made it home with only one stop but this was hectic enough. Kate was nursing her painful ankle injury, often times stretched out in the back, and I did pretty much all the driving. On our last day, Wednesday, we crossed at Lewistown/Queenstown Heights and were home by early afternoon. Glad to be home where our cats have been kindly cared for by our friend Chandel from
Trusted House Sitters.
Our first stop on Monday, before leaving Canada, was to visit the
McAdam CPR Railway Station. This was one of those "
peculiar travel suggestions" that Kate is so fond of. When we were visiting the
Resurgo Place/Museum in Moncton Kate had asked if there was an interesting train station in town. The guide remarked that although there is a train station in Moncton, it's not particularly interesting. If you want to see something really interesting visit the former CPR station in the town of McAdam. It's an alternate route to Maine but well worth the diversion.
That's a view of the McAdam station above. There's an extensive
Wikipedia page with lots of information but here's my quick summary. It's quite large, built of stone, three stories with guest rooms on the second floor and staff rooms on the third. The station hotel was built around 1900 to cater to wealthy travellers to/from the US. The station is the first within Canada on what was a rail line destined to link the east coast to the US. It was abandoned by CPR/VIA back in 2005 and has since been restored and maintained by a local historical society. That's quite the feat as the village of McAdam, at last census, was barely 1,200 bodies. The station is an important landmark designated as both a National and a Provincial Historic Site.
I recall a couple of interesting stories about the station. First, when the station was shutdown CPR had told those working there to take anything they wanted. They did, the station was effectively stripped by the townsfolk. However, when the McAdam Historical Restoration Commission was set up and they went about restoring the station all those artifacts were donated back to the station. Second, apparently kitchen staff (at the restaurant and luncheon counter) were in the habit of tossing dirty dishes into the nearby lake to expedite cleanup. There's quite a display of broken dishware retrieved from the lake. How did they get away with that?
We did not have time to take a tour but were taken on a bit of one nevertheless — they insisted! There's a spacious waiting room in the middle with a restored ticket office and station masters office. At the very far end there's a massive lunch counter room and between them a very large fine dining area. They have special event dinners here (like at Christmas) and have even catered weddings. At the other end there would have been area for baggage, mail room, customs and the like. Several exhibits on the war effort, train crashes, and more history were on display in that area.
We were talking to one of the fellows who is very involved in the management of the site. I had noted that the building had a newly shingled roof and wondered about the cost. He was telling us that they're trying to upgrade the heating system (although it's only open during the warmer summer months, it has to be heated all year round) and how much it cost just to maintain the building during the cold winter months. We were surprised that it's this small community, not National Parks and Monuments, that keeps this place going. They of course get some national and provincial funding and grants. During the summer/tourist season, when they are open, they get 50-100 visitors each day. Visitors who tour the building are another important source of funding — which helps to explain why they insisted we do at least some of the tour (we didn't go upstairs to see the guest rooms).
From McAdam it's a short drive to cross the US border at the towns of Vanceboro (ME) and Saint Croix (NB). We followed the two lane Route 6 through to Interstate 95 at Lincoln where we could really make time. It was a pleasant drive through densely forested hill country where the leaves were brightly on display. There were, no surprise, several logging trucks along the way. Some quite large. I was surprised at how much forested land there was on this trip. Here in Southern Ontario, where we live, there remains some forest but most land is flat, well drained, and intensely agricultural.
We zoomed quickly along Interstate 95 to Kittery where we had reserved a room. On check in we asked the clerk about local eateries. She replied, "Well, there's Roberts" ... followed by a long pause. So I guess that's where we have to go. She gave us no other options; but this was a good choice. It's only a few miles back on Route 1, which runs parallel to the interstate.
Roberts Maine Grill and Raw Bar is a pleasant modern facility in a clapboard building, with a faux lighthouse entrance, set on a large tidal creek. There's a small outdoor area on the second floor but the weather is cool and it's not open. Reg has yet another lobster feed — this time it's steamed lobster with lots of butter and corn bread. Kate has a lobster risotto. Both were yummy, just as good, if not better, than anything we've had on this trip.
The next day, Tuesday, was a long 8 hour drive to Batavia, NY, with only rest area/fueling stops along the way. We are only briefly in New Hampshire (there's all of 20 miles of NH that butts onto the Atlantic shore); we skirt around Boston and meet up with Interstate 90 that will take us all the way to Buffalo with our overnight stay in Batavia.
The interstate system is pretty great but most of it on this trip was on toll roads. In Maine there were staffed toll booths where you would stop; but they weren't taking any Canadian cash and we didn't have any US money. They gave us paper receipts/bills and that evening we were able to login at the web site to pay the fares. Interstate 90 was different; instead of toll booths they had toll sites along the way to capture your licence plate or transponder signal. Since we didn't have a transponder at the end of the day we logged into another site to give them our Mastercard and tie it to our licence plate. I've not seen the bill yet but I'm confident it was not cheap. We might have avoided this expensive route by heading cross country on secondary roads through the moutains; that might have been fun, it would have been scenic and taken much, much, longer!
At Batavia, which seems to be a horse racing destination, we note a crew of Mexican Americans who are doing some restoration work on the entrance to the La Quinta where we are staying. They were busy and spoke to one another in Spanish. Should Trump get his way, will these be part of the 10 million deported? And if so, then
Who's Gonna Build Your Wall?
— An update on the New York Interstate fares. We were billed only $28.43; that's far cheaper than the fare to use the Ontario 407!!
