sufficient

The Desert of Maine and LL Bean

Tuesday morning, thankfully, we woke up to sunshine. Unfortunately, as we took down the tent, we managed to get our pillows and all of our gear sacks wet. Scratching together the $1.50 in quarters it took to operate the dryer was quite a feat. The time our clothes were in the dryer did allow us to shower, however.As we checked out of our campsite at the Desert of Maine, the man behind the counter informed us that we got complimentary admission to the desert itself as part of our stay. Woohoo!! We had been curious, but not curious enough to pay the entrance fee.

The Desert of Maine is no desert, as it gets over 40 inches of rain a year. A true desert gets less than 10. It was created by over-farming in the early 1800s. Aside from its uber-hokie-ness, it was maddening to tour the place. It was evident from the large amounts of vegetation that the owners were keeping it in its desert state by continually dragging their tractors over it, fighting off the new growth vegetation. What a horrible example of environmental conservation.
After our complimentary tour, we hopped in the car and headed for LL Bean. We were chagrined to learn that LL Bean is open 24 hours a day and has no locks on the door- too bad we hadn't known the night before in the pouring rain.It was great fun to ramble through its enormous campus and stare at all the things we could never possibly need. We strolled through downtown Freeport which is full of outlet stores, grabbed a lobster roll for lunch, and continued up the Maine coast.

Labels: travel

posted by CP @ 8:41 PM 0 thoughts