Journey for a Journey part 3
The contest had taken us from Nebraska to upstate New York, to Vermont, to the coast of Maine (and a few other states in between). I was hoping being on the edge of the world meant there wasn't much more driving to do.
After arriving at Red's Eats in a small town in Maine and finding the clue "a few doors North" in the window of a closed Antique shop, we started hunting for the next clue,
. . which we found here.
(We took these photos the next day by the way, which is why there were no other people rather than hundreds).
Red's Eats and this fortune telling shop across the street were surprised by more business than they could handle, and the locals in the area were just as surprised. The clue from the phone number mentioned "blend in with the locals and head North to do some window shopping." It also had a comment about finding a wood shop that used hard labor and an antique shop which was owned by someone who's name rhymed with what she made. We drove North a little and found a prison museum, which we thought might have something to do with the hard labor clue, but ran into a dead end.
After wasting a bunch of time just looking for a parking spot again, we started getting discouraged and almost gave up right then. I took a few photos of the area while we were trying to figure out what to do and realized how tired we were as the adrenaline started wearing off.
Heading back to the area around Red's Eats, Frank found this little, almost hidden store that sold soap. Hoping this might be the clue we needed, he tried to get information from the lady there, who immediately insisted she didn't know anything. Instead of leaving right then, Frank kept asking questions. She finally admitted that locals regarded East as North because of the direction the freeway curved just outside that town.
He also found out that there was a woodworking shop in a town to the East that sold items made by inmates.
Convinced we had what we needed, we left the majority of the crowd behind and rushed to that shop, where the owner also insisted that he had no clue what was going on (and were in the middle of making a sign for his window that stated that).
However, walking across the street to a nearby shop did help us out. The owner also admitted that she had no clues, but that if it were her, she'd go to another store down the road called Angeliques Antiques. We asked how many other people she had told that to, and she guessed around 15!
We drove until we found Angeliques Antiques and sure enough, the next phone number was in the window on a small piece of paper on a table full of merchandise. The message basically said, "Head the direction you were going. Look under the next rock you find and check out a line of beautiful real estate. One will stand out. You'll know which one. If you like the property, call the owner."
Despite getting to Maine late, we still had some chance, so we started driving around looking for a real estate office. We called one, but it was not the right one.
We noticed a place called "Journey's End Marina" and stopped in to rule it out, even though we didn't expect the clue to be in such an obvious spot (which was also full of people). We were leaving the marina when we got a call from Toby that someone had found the Journey 10 miles away in Tenants Harbor.
We rushed out the the general location posted online, but got there just in time to see someone driving the Journey away off the street we just turned onto.
And it turns out, my cousin (who supposedly went home) was there also, although I didn't know it at the time because we drove past the barn.
He had driven from New York to Concord, New Hampshire just to find a vacant hotel. The next day when the clues went that direction, his wife decided she was going to continue the search for the car while he was asleep in the rental van, so he ended up waking up in Maine.
I was pretty mad we missed the crew and getting to see Ryan again (what were the chances he'd be there also???), but I did get to take a few nice photos on the way back out.
And then a few more on the way out of Maine the next morning:
Back in the town with Red's Eats. Now that I'm not tunnel visioned trying to rush around, I have time to look around a little.
Did I mention trying to sleep in this thing has to lead to some great business for chiropractors?
A few more scenic photos on the way out of Maine:
And a few from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois (I went ahead and stuck with the barn theme):
(it took me a second to realize why this one was extra exciting from a distance)
The dogs hated this one. They barked non-stop the whole time we were parked in front of it.
(The rental car people are going to be pissed).
Because of our time constraints, I was also disappointed that we didn't get to do any hiking on this trip. After driving 30 something hours without stopping to make it back in time for work, -someone- (not me) was too tired to notice the gas gauge was on empty and we ran out 3 miles from our hotel where our personal vehicle was parked. To his credit, we did have to take a 7 mile detour because of closed roads right before it happened. After reconsidering my hiking wish, I've decided that the moral here is be happy with what you have.