new orleans to eastport, me

[angelqueen]

I am planning a trip from New Orleans to Eastport Maine at the beginning of August. I will be traveling alone (52 yr old woman) with my 50lb dog in a small two seater sports car. I went to North Carolina two summers ago with the same dog in the same car. It was no problem but this will be a bit more arduous. I am planning on taking at least 4 days. I will return starting on sept. 15. Any advice?

[AZBuck]

Four days is just about the minimum needed to make this trip comfortably. While the shortest route (I-59, I-81, I-66, I-95) is scenic for the most part, I think you'd be better served by staying on I-81 up to Binghamton, NY and then taking I-88 over to Albany and using I-90 to get onto I-95 outside Boston. This keeps you out of the traffic in and around Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Hartford which you won't have time to see anyway in 4 days. With a little bit more time you can get off the interstates occasionally and mix in some slower driving on scenic highways such as the Natchez Trace and the Blue Ridge Parkways as well as see some things along the way.

When I used to travel with my own dog, I know that I had to stop several times a day to let him get some exercise. He was happy just riding but was much happier if he got out to run or swim (he was an English Setter). The best places for this turned out to be little, out of the way state parks. These are often not that far off the interstates, but require a little advanced planning to find the ones that are particularly near the highways.

Other than that, I think you'll find this to be a great trip. You'll be travelling up the Appalachians for the most part and it's a beautiful ride, as is the trip Down East. What takes you to Eastport? I bought some land up there many years ago precisely because there wasn't much up there. But there is Quody Head (easternmost point of land in the US) and Campobello Island just across the border in Canada. And the coast of Maine, of course!

AZBuck

[angelqueen]

I have friends bought two houses there. they are fixing one up and thought it would be agood place for me to escape the heat! Do you still have the land? Real Estate is about to boom there!

angelqueen

[AZBuck]

Hmmm..... It's been 'about to boom' since I bought the land 30+ years ago. It's raw land tucked up against a corner of the Moosehorn Wildlife Refuge and was not bought to make money, but to have a place to go and camp when I lived in Maine. Still own it but haven't been to it in years.

It will be cooler than New Orleans for sure, but a word to the wise - stop at the Kittery Trading Post when you first enter Maine and stock up on Old Woodsman's Fly Dope, pure DEET. It's only half a joke that Maine's state bird is the black fly.

AZBuck

[angelqueen]

Something on the eastport,me website said that for some reason they dare bothered by the flies and mosquitoes that are nearby. It is on the info site not the chamber of commerce site. i do know what you mean, I used some of that stuf when I was in Kenya and Tanzania last summer. Thanks for your help. Let me know if you have more ideas.

[Mark Sedenquist]

Thanks for your help. Let me know if you have more ideas.

You are going to Eastport! -- I would love a photo of the whirlpool! Any chance you will be going out there? That channel just of Shackford Head state park has the largest whirlpool in the western hemisphere.

But I digress, one of my favorite places in Maine is Stonington Harbor on the southern tip of Deer Isle -- pretty fun place to watch the tall ships and sit back and watch the ocean. If you go, please stop by the Purple Fish Gallery and say hello to Evelyn and Jan Kok, proprietors of the Purple Fish Gallery.

Mark