East Coast 2021:
Day 6 - Hampton, NH

	Wednesday, September 15, 2021: We headed south just before 8 AM. We were only about a block off of Route 1, so it was quick to get back to it.
	We crossed over the Penobscot River, ...
	... and looked over at Fort Knox and Penobscot Narrows Observatory. The observatory is actually in one the bridge towers, and is a platform to observe the river and surrounding area, not the stars.
	We saw buildings with lighthouse themes, mailbox posts with lighthouse themes, and sign posts with lighthouse themes. They were everywhere.
	We passed over the Passagassawakeag River, and looked out at Belfast Bay, hoping in vain to see the Atlantic Ocean.
	We drove past the Lobster Pound Restaturant in Linconville Beach. Don't you just want to put your face in the lobster cutout near the entrance?
	You have to respect a restaurant that puts everything in its name: Claws.
	We still had milk to drink, so we really had no choice but to stop at Dunkin.
	Our first stop of the day was at the Railway Village Museum. This 35-acre complex has historical buildings and other items of interest brought from around the state and presented as a walk-through village. We paid our entrance fee and headed toward the back of the complex.
	We stopped to see this enthusiastic fellow first, of course.
	These goats were so excited to see us, they kept climbing the fence and pushing their heads out to us.
	Debbie spotted a coin-operated goat food dispenser near by. We didn't feed the goats, but Debbie left a stack of quarters for some lucky person to find so that they could feed them if they wanted to.
	We made a quick pitstop at the train station.
	This is what we were here for: Maine's Merci Train.
	It was really well preserved, had all of its shields, the US insignia, and the Merci Train insignia.
	There was a single plaque attached to it with an explanation of the boxcar.
	This gas station was for a brand we'd never seen before. The Tydol brand was part of Tidewater Oil, and was only in the Northeastern US, and ceased operation in 1953, which is probably why we never heard of it.
	At the back of the complex was the Antique Auto Museum, which we had been encouraged to see by the woman working the ticket counter. Her husband works in the exhibit which contains about 50 very old and very well-preserved cars and trucks.
	This 1958 Ford Thunderbird Tudor Series 63A was one of the most recent vehicles, ...
	... as was this 1957 Thunderbird. This one apparently only came in two colors: Dusk Rose, like this one, and Bronze Metallic.
	There were many cars from the 1930s, like this 1937 Packard Club Sedan. Look at the white wall tires and the driver's side mirror attached to the spare tire.
	This 1937 Packard Phaeton had a custom body by Rollston and was one of only three made.
	The hood ornament was spectacular.
	Here's a 1931 Peerless De Luxe Master 8 Cabriolet. Peerless was an automaker based in Cleveland, Ohio, and was one of the "Three Ps of Luxury" along with Packard and Pierce-Arrow. This was one of the last vehicles produced by Peerless, which went out of business in 1931.
	The bed of this 1926 Dodge Brothers Express 3/4 Ton Truck had a newspaper in the back covering Lindbergh's arrival in Paris after his historic solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.
	We left the auto museum and went next door to the model train exhibit.
	This billboard urged us to "Drink Moxie" which is the official Maine soft drink since 2005. Fun fact: the word "moxie" comes from this soda, which was first produced in 1876 and said to have medicinal properties.
	The level of detail on this model train set was fantastic, down to the road signs with distances to towns in Maine.
	It's about Maine, so of course there is a lighthouse.
	We both loved this little tiny farm, with pumpkins, cabbage, and other plants. We wondered if they changed the crops based on the season, or if there were always pumpkins in this garden.
	The tiny power station had tiny power lines strung up on tiny power poles. Adorable. We also enjoyed the DUKW Amphibious Vehicle (known as Ducks in the Wisconsin Dells) in front of the power station.
	What rural landscape would be complete without John Deere?
	We had passed the Dragon Products, LLC, plant on our way through Thomaston about an hour earlier, so it was nice to see the sign for it here.
	This tiny US Route 1 sign was especially fun to see since that was our reason for being here.
	More of the Dragon Products operations, ...
	... including this awesome quarry.
	We left the museum and crossed over the Sheepscot River into Wiscasset.
	There were signs of something that had been built along the river's edge, but we had no idea what it was.
	There was a parking lot on the other end of the bridge, and signs that they had lobster rolls, so we happily pulled in. We quickly changed our mind and left when we saw that they were charging $30 for a single sandwich.
	When we crossed the Kennebec River into Bath, we saw Bath Iron Works and their shipbuilding yard. It looked like they had a Zumwalt-class destroyer and an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the yard, which was very impressive.
	We passed lots of cannabis dispensaries throughout Maine, which had legalized recreational marijuana use in 2016.
	In Freeport, we passed the L.L. Bean outlet store, which we had seen back in 2009. However, the big boot statue didn't seem the same. It turns out that this time, we saw the Bootmobile rather than the statue, which was pretty cool.
	We decided to stop for lunch at Day's Crabmeat and Lobster, which had much more reasonable prices.
	We settled on a lobster roll and crabmeat roll combo, with fries and coleslaw. Both were extremely delicious.
	We crossed over the Presumscot River headed into Portland, and ...
	... saw the factory building for B&M Baked Beans, a market leader in baked beans in the Northeast.
	We passed this cemetery that had these five very old headstones right up against the road.
	They were all very well preserved considering they were from the mid- to late-1800s.
	We drove through the town of Kennebunk, which celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2020.
	This vintage gas station had the name of one of Debbie's former employees.
	We passed the Wine & Cheese Shop, which was shaped like a block of cheese and had a mouse on top.
	A yellow lobster on your sign? Were they all out of the red ones and you couldn't wait?
	As we entered Kittery, Maine, we saw this monument to the USS Thresher, which was a nuclear submarine built in Portsmouth Naval Shipyard near here. She was lost at sea during diving trials in 1963.
	You don't have to wonder what they serve at this restaurant, nor wonder where it is.
	We were able to see the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard from the Route 1 bridge over the Piscataqua River, but we couldn't see anything very interesting.
	Another drawbridge, and again it was down. Bummer.
	Welcome and Bienvenue to New Hampshire! Again.
	This Route 1 sign was slightly different than the others we had been seeing. It was all white, with a thin black border around the shield.
	We finally got a picture of the metal roosters that we had been seeing throughout New England. This one had two chicks at his feet.
	Another seafood-themed restaurant. That neon sign must be fun to see when it is lit up at night.
	We checked into our hotel for this day, Lamie's Inn and the Old Salt Tavern.
	It was a quick stop, just to drop off our stuff, take a quick bathroom break, and head right back out. We were headed into Manchester, New Hampshire, to see the sights.
	The first sight in Manchester was Frank Lloyd Wright's Toufic H. Kalil House, a Usonian design built in 1955, ...
	... followed immediately on the same street by the Zimmerman House, another Usonian design built in 1951. Both houses are on the same street, and both are now owned by the Currier Museum of Art, which conducts tours of both properties but not on Mondays so we contented ourselves with a drive-by glance.
	Our next stop was the New Hamphire Merci Train, which was in a glass exhibit enclosure at the end of a street.
	We didn't want to make special arrangements to see it, so we took some pictures through the windows.
	Debbie noticed that this one had a brass plate on it, which we hadn't seen before.
	On the way back to our hotel, we saw the old Amoskeag textile mill along the Merrimack River, which has been turned into upscale loft apartments. The building was an entire city block long, and had fantastic brick work.
	We also passed this monument to Casimir Pulaski, who was a hero of the American revolution. He was a brigadier general in the Continental Army and reformed the cavalry into an effective fighting force. At age 34, he died fighting the British at the Battle of Savannah. Fun fact: he is one of only eight people to have been awarded honorary United States citizenship.
	This section of NH-101 is available to be adopted, if you are interested.
	This amazing sand sculpture was at the entrance to our hotel. It is announcing the next Hampton Beach Sand Sculpting Classic in June 2022.
	The hotel shared space with the Old Salt Tavern, so it would have been wrong of us not to order dinner from there.
	Debbie had the lobster roll (naturally), and Tom had the shrimp linguini Alfredo special, which was so large that we saved most of it for breakfast the next morning.
	We finished the day watching the live stream of the historic Inspiration4 launch. Miles today: 281. Total miles from Fort Kent, ME: 641. Day 7 >