Stop Time: 1430 EDT
Start Location: Thomaston, ME
Stop Location: Madawaska, ME
Lodging:Martin's Motel
Dinner: Dolly's Restaurant
Miles Traveled Today: 292
Weather: Sunny to start, showers in afternoon, heavy lightning/rain in evening (but we were not riding then!) 58-90
Today was the day to get to the first checkpoint, Madawaska, ME!! Beautiful cool, sunny skies started the day. Since we were so close to the coast it was in the 50's in the morning. We followed the coast line on US 1 for several miles before heading back over to I-95 at Bangor, ME. That was our first stop for some more coffee, gas and a restroom break.
Just north of Bangor, the speed limit on I-95 goes to 75mph so that was nice. The scenery was beautiful all the way up to Houlton, ME which is where I-95 ends.
We were surprised that the (lack of!) scenery along US 1 north of Houlton was not much. A lot of the local properties were run down and pretty "junky". We ended up stopping by Caribou Harley Davidson where I just had to buy a shirt (found out the Madawaska HD shop was closed until next Tuesday due to a death in the family). We came back south the next day on SR 11. Even though it was wet, it was a much nicer ride!!
Just north of Caribou we did run into our first rain. Not much for long and not enough to put our rain suits on, so we did get a little wet!! We dried out quickly after it ended.
Then we made it to Madawaska and the Four Corners Park. I had called Joe LaChance to let him know we were arriving. Joe is the creator and curator of the Four Corners Park. What a beautiful job he has done and continues to do. Joe picked us up at Martin's Motel in his car and gave us a tour of the town. (It rained pretty hard just after we arrived at the motel and unloaded our bags.) It stopped raining and the sun came back out so Joe took us back to the motel to get our bikes for the actual certification pictures.
Beautiful park with a nice fountain
Joe also presented both Bill and I with a special certificate from the governor of Maine
Joe took a picture of Bill and me by the entrance sign
Next Bill and I had a little celebration back at the motel!!
We have really been lucky with the rain at the same time being on our motorcycles. A huge thunderstorm moved in as we were sitting on the motel porch and poured the rain. Lots of lightning too. The electric even went off one time at the motel.
Kinda a funny story at the restaurant. This is a small local restaurant that is not used to having large crowds. With their special it seemed all the locals (and two out of towners) wanted to take advantage of the menu and prices!! There were lots of people there and no places to sit. We asked a waitress and they did not take reservations, names or seat people. It was, as normal, just seat yourself. So, Bill & I, being an "old" retired vice president and director took charge (can you imagine that?? hehe). We went around and asked the people waiting how many were in their party and took note when they had arrived. We then watched the tables and told the respective party when to seat!! We were the maitre d'!! When we finally seated ourselves our waitress, Lori, said to us that she had been watching us and that we had really earned our table!! She was so nice to us!
We had a great meal. Here is what we had: Beer & water, salad, two HUGE pork chops, Poutine, Ployes (links below as to what these are!!) and butterscotch pie for dessert. Our bill was $9.83 for all of that (again that was 1988 prices!!). Here are a few pictures:
Here is Bill doing the chief (since he had been a VP) maitre d' duties (I was in the back room with the folks waiting) - geez, some things never change!! hehe:
Pork chops and Poutine:
Wonder why Bill has such a smile on his face?????
No comment needed!!!!
The butterscotch pie was homemade, of course, by the 75 year old mother of the owner. It was really GOOD!:
Here is the evidence and the grand total of $9.83!!!
Highly recommend this place for a nice friendly home cooked local meal in Madawaska, ME!!!!
When we came back out, guess what, it was still raining pretty hard. We had decided that we would walk back to the motel, but the rain changed our mind. Bill sat in the swing while I gave Jean at the motel a call. She was there in about 2 minutes to pick us up!!!
We really had a great experience in Madawaska, ME. Just really nice common people everywhere we visited. Oh yeah, the gas station attendants at the local gas station where we needed to get our certification paperwork done where great too and went out of there way to tell us they would check to make sure there was plenty of paper in the pump credit card machine for us the next morning.
It continued to rain into the night making sure we would have a wet departure on our first day of the USA4CT the next morning!!
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