Wednesday – August 1, 2018
Finally On the Road
We are off on our trip now! The day started for me with an early morning Rotary Club meeting after finalizing packing about 1AM. After my meeting I was in the office through mid afternoon wrapping up some things and finally we headed out a little before 4PM. The goal for the day was just to make some progress toward Canada. We made it 220 miles to Portsmouth New Hampshire before we stopped for a quick dinner at casual place called Habibi Mediterranean Cafe. The fresh pita that came out with the appetizers was quite a sight to see and we really enjoyed our meals.
Welcome to New Hampshire – Live Free or Die 
Welcome to Maine – The Way Life Should Be
After dinner we did a quick exploration of downtown Portsmouth. It is a charming area with lots of restaurants and shops. We didn’t linger as we were both tired. It would certainly be worth a visit to the area for a weekend at some point. The North Church of Portsmouth is very picturesque especially with it’s steeple lit at night.
That’s about it for day one. Another hour took us past Portland Maine to Freeport and the Super 8 Motel. It’s actually a very good budget property. Tomorrow we head to New Brunswick Canada and maybe the LL Bean store after breakfast. We traveled 303 miles over 5 hours on our short first day.
Beautiful spire on that church. I imagine people used that decades ago as a landmark when coming home. On the Canadian prairies, the grain elevators were the tallest buildings by far, and a welcome sight in the distance, especially coming home on a cold winter’s night. They are mostly all gone now, but we used to call them prairie lighthouses.
I took a photo of one of those grain elevators in Saskatchewan coming into Montana on a small road. I found it worthy of the shot. I found the plains have their charms. Did an eclipse chasing trip in 2017 that was almost 6000 miles (or about 10000km for those who have abandoned the Queen’s measurements!). That trip was centered on Broken Bow in Custer County Nebraska. We enjoyed our trip through plains and found many things to visit and enjoy.