Sunday 18th September 2011

[20:21]

We packed up our things once again - to be honest, we've not actually unpacked in reality, just grabbed stuff we need from our cases as and when. We went down for out last breakfast at the lodge - this is an odd breakfast as there's only one choice. Today it was yoghurt, grenola and strawberries, followed by apple pancakes with sausage. Once we'd done, we said our goodbyes to Michael and Carol and headed off South.

On the way, we passed over a temporary bridge - this has been erected in the three or so weeks since Hurricane Irene passed over the area. The original bridge is still there, but is now unstable as the flood water undermined one side of the foundations. As this is a main route, they have set up a temporary bridge whilst the original is repaired.

Instead of heading directly South to Portsmouth, we headed East and made a very brief stop off at Portland just to have a quick look around. It also meant that we have now travelled into four different states in the US - Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and now Maine.

We then moved further south onto the interstate and towards Portland. The drive almost emptied the car of petrol so I had to stop off and put some more in it - I've not filled it this time though, as I think we might be able to last out the remainder of the rental with the 10 gallons I put in. We are supposed to return the car on Wednesday and all we have left is the drive back to Boston from here (about 60 miles).

We arrived at our hotel at just after 4pm. on check-in, the guy at the reception (who is the spitting image of Malcom McDowell which is quite cool) was offering beer to celebrate that the building is a converted brewery. It certainly looks the part with washed down, bare brickwork everywhere. Reception has a white iMac for general use. Rooms all have iPod docks (of course) plus an iPad pre-loaded with all the nearby restaurant menus and other local stuff.

It's also got a very mac décor - we've started calling it our iRoom :) Best of all, the iPad is keeping Linda quiet, giving me time to write this on a proper computer ;)

Once we'd got our cases in, we went for a wander about the town - it's quite a small place as far as we can see, but it's got a lot of history behind it, so it's not a small wooden building type of place.

We had a meal, out the back of a restaurant on the open air. Although it was a chilly night, they had their gas heaters on so the people watching the Patriots game on the big TV could keep warm. It was a good meal too!