Most folks know that I-95 is one of the most important north-south highways on the US east coast. It stretches from Maine to Miami, a little over 1900 miles. We’ve been to the southern end, and since we’re in Maine, decided to go to the northern end, which is a few miles east of Houlton, Maine, on the border with New Brunswick, Canada.
We set off cross-country on Saturday, traveling through the small towns of Lee, Springfield, Danforth, Orient, Cary Township and Hodgdon. Again, lots of snowy fields, pine and birch trees and rolling hills. It felt like it did when we were bucketing across Scotland, as the roads are up and down and quite rough from frost heave.
We got to Houlton feeling hangry, so we found a lovely brew pub, the Shire Ale House. It is inside an indoor arcade, in the old sense of arcade. A family bought the arcade and are developing it. There’s a kitchen gadgets store, a shop selling crystals and incense, the brew pub and a live gaming shop. The gaming shop is board games, DnD, action figures and such, with maybe some computer games. Lots of interesting folks.
The brew pub seemed to be a combo of Irish and Hobbit, with neat names on the menu (see below). Deb had the Gunslinger pork chop and I the Roast Beast, both of us the roasted root vegetables (lots of yummy beets!) and a glass of Mason porter. You’ll remember from earlier post that we had lunch as the Mason Brewery in Bangor. The food was great!
After lunch, we found a used book store and browsed for a while. Deb found a great knitting book, but Jim was unable to find family histories, which he collects if they pertain to family lines.
We came back via I-95 for speed, also hoping for a different view of Mt. Katahdin than we saw on the way up.
Steve Steele
I think I’d like to visit that brew pub! The place had Irish and hobbit, with some overtones of Hogwarts (the snitch) and Dark Tower (the gunslinger). Slick!