July 9 - Mendon, VT to Ellsworth, ME - 335 miles

Vermont was beautiful; extra green forests with cleared fields here and there, and beautiful New England style homes and buildings.  We hadn't gone far when we sighted a covered bridge across a clear and pretty little river.  Of course we had to stop and take photos, but also to examine the structure of the bridge, being the curious types we are.

There were several ski resorts in the area of Vermont that we crossed, Killington and Bridgewater among them.  The ski hills were not very high, but it was obvious from the many resorts that skiing brought many people there.  In the summer, these are turned into golf, tennis, and horse back riding resorts.

The prettiest town we went through was Woodstock, VT.  It had beautifully maintained large houses, mostly brick with white trim or wood siding painted white, with black trim.  These houses are the essence of what we think of as the New England style, and beautiful examples.

The Woodstock area had lots of Bed & Breakfasts, lots of shopping, and lots of antiques.  It had cute names and signs.  Ones we liked best were the "Apple Butter Inn" (Norm said if they had homemade bread and lots of butter to go along with the Apple Butter, he'd stay there), "Scotland by the Yard" (an import shop with Scottish woolens) and "Bearly Used Books" (complete with a Teddy bear on the sign).

New Hampshire was notable for its winding roads through heavily forested rolling hills.  Also, we went through towns with the central square (the "Commons"), and turn-of-the-century style Victorian homes, either kept up extremely well or restored beautifully.  We went through Lebanon, Plymouth, Sandwich, and Ossipee.

As we came into Maine, we saw the homes where the two-story, many room house is attached to the barn through a connecting shop, tool shed, or whatever.  Many were of the vintage of working farms, but now with no animals.  Others were designed to look like the days of the barns, but contained big garages now.

We rode East until we skirted Portland, and headed North for Route 1 along the coast.  The coast road was very scenic, with inlets or bays and marinas full of boats.  Then inland for a distance, until we reached Rockland.  

However, within the last 50 miles to Rockland, the temperature dropped very rapidly,  from a pleasant 74^o down to about 59^o.  This may not be much if you are in a car, but it's a lot on a motorcycle.  We had to stop and put on warmer clothes, and then stop again and do it again.  This rapid cooling produced fog, and while we had adequate visibility to ride, we couldn't see the Maine coast for the next 100 miles or so.  We did arrive at our motel all right, and are ready to take the "Cat" (Catamaran) ferry from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in the morning.

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