Last weekend’s Lohnes family excursion to Owl’s Head Maine was really a fun trip. While my wife may not be a huge car person, she does like to travel and see new places. She also likes to plan stuff like Rommel used to, so the logistics of the adventure keep her entertained. You’ve probably already seen the gallery of photos from the museum, so here’s the travel log and a slew of road trip photos from our journey to Maine. Boasting a population of 1.2 million people, Maine has roughly the same number of residents as Rhode Island, and 22-times the land mass. Outside of larger population centers like Portland and Bangor, it is rustic, rural, and beautiful. It is also harsh, as you’ll see in the photos and travel tails below. 

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We set off on a cold Saturday morning with the kiddos strapped into the backseat and about two hours worth of driving to complete in order to get to our first destination, a diner in Wells, Maine. Our goal was to take the highway just far engouh to catch Maine Coastal Route 1 and then take the back roads for the rest of the trip.

Living south of Boston, we pass this every time we head to the city:

Yes, it is a massive LNG tank, but it is also the world’s largest piece of copyrighted art. It was painted by Corita Kent in 1971 and while it may appear to be innocent stripes of paint. Jones managed to work in some Vietman War protest into the action. Note the blue streak, on the left side is the face (and beard) of Ho Chi Minh.

Continuing north, another famous, or infamous Boston landmark, the enterance of the Tip O’Neill Tunnel, one of the major pieces of the “Big Dig” public works project that ran over budget by billions and improved the average Bostonian’s commute somthing like 8 minutes. Yay.

One of the funny things about the Big Dig project was how eager people (including us) were to drive through it. We literally went on a dedicated drive the month this thing opened just to drive through it! The real payoff to the project and something that has become a Boston landmark is the Zakim bridge that follows this tunnel. The widest cable stayed-bridge in the world it is a really neat looking structure.

Truthfully, from the bridge to the northern Mass. border is pretty boring. Once we jumped off the highway and onto Route 1 in NH, we started to feel like we had entered the land of the lobster. There are lobster themed signs, restaurants, used car dealers, you name it. This billboard caught our eye and Kerri (my wife) took this photo.

Portsmouth, NH is an awesome city by the water. They have great ship building history and some incredible neighborhoods where the houses are nearly 300 years old. They also have a port that always seems to be active. Here we caught a ship full of sand and salt being unloaded. Tom and Jack, our two and four year old sons were all excited to see the big crane and clamshell bucket work, so we pulled over and watched the action for a couple minutes.

Before leaving Portsmouth we cruised one of those ancient neighborhoods. All of these houses are full of people and we can only imagine what their values are. This is quite literally one of the oldest neighborhoods in the United States, called Strawberry Banke

Hot footing out of Portsmouth with a growl in our collective stomachs, we set out for Wells, Maine, home of the regionally famous Maine Diner. This was to be the first of two diners we had selected to mow down at on the weekend adventure. The Maine Diner has been on “Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives and is often featured on food television programming in New England. 

We’re happy to report that the place certainly lived up to the hype. The kids devoured their hot dog and cheeseburger while Kerri and I went for a light lunch of pot roast, mashed potatoes, and in my case, a bowl of their highly regarded clam chowder. I wiped it all out in a hurry. Pot Roast in New England is a big deal and the diner really did the job of providing a level of quality right up there with the pot roast your mom used to make. Warm cornbread muffins were also provided at the start of the meal. Epic win. This is a must eat at place if you ever find youself in the Wells, Maine area.

Continuing on up Maine Route 1 we spied tons of cool old buildings. Route 1 is interesting in the fact that it ranges from beautiful rural country to clogges, congested, strip-mall lined areas. These old buildings caught our eye.

We came upon this big fellow near Freeport, Maine. Think is an an old Muffler Man that has been modified? 

Finally, we closed in on our stop for the night, Thomaston, Maine. One of the last things of significance we passed by was the Bath Iron Works, a huge ship building facility owned and operated by General Dynamics. Some of America’s most advanced and powerful warships are built here.

After an evening at the hotel where the kids got to hit the pool and the adults got to hit the bottle (in a responsible fashion) we awoke with plans to hit the Owl’s Head Transportation Museum for the “Winter Movers” show. We made a last minute detour to check out Owl’s Head Light, a very cool old lighthouse built in the 1800s. We did this despite the fact that the ambient temperature was 16-degrees and there were winds whipping right around 20mph. Yes, it was below zero by a bunch up on the lighthouse but it was an adventure. We had the kids bundled like eskimos! The keeper of the lighthouse was not home when we visited but the house attached to the light seems like it would be a great place to spend the summer in. Here are some photos from the park the lighthouse is in and the lighthouse itself, along with at least one of my wife horsing around.

We hit the road for the museum after leaving Owl’s Head Light and had a great time seeing all of the exhibits, including the Lombard Steam Log Hauler chugging around in a field. The girls decided to hop on the sleigh ride and test out the lowest horsepower attraction in the joint, only two hp!

Here’s our gallery of photos from the museum, featuring cars and cool snow vehicles, not horses!

Finally as we were heading out of Owl’s Head to hit diner number two and ultimately the highway, we took a quick swing by one of the coolest historrical sites in Maine, the mansion of Revolutionary War hero Henry Knox. Knox was a huge figure in the war and amongst his accomplishments was leading the group of men that dragged all the cannon from NY’s Fort Ticonderoga through the snow to Boston with teams of oxen. It was a 300 mile trip that took them 56 days and scared the red coats out of the city of Boston (a city holiday called Evacuation Day still marks the event). This was Knox’s retirement home. A 22 room mansion on a hill, it is a very impressive structure. It is located in Thomaston, Maine. 

Finally, we made the last stop of the trip, Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro, Maine. This was the place that my father in law and I stopped to eat at the day Goliath came home, so we knew what we were in for. Moody’s has been open for 75 years and is the perfect New England diner, going so far as to serve oddball Moxie soda, which 99% of the world has never heard of, and .005% of the population actually likes. I am in the .005%. Moody’s is a lot less flash and dash than the Maine Diner was, but we’d argue that the food was even better than the great grub we had in Wells, the day before. Going the classic route, I went with an egg salad sandwich with hand made onion rings, a tall, cool, Moxie, and topped it off with the best slice of lemon meringue pie I have ever had. Long story short, Moody’s was the perfect end to a great weekend adventure. 

My wife…the comedian…