PaulGraz's Daily Blog for The Great Ice Cream Run!
Day 6, Thursday June 14th: Sturbridge MA to Rockland, ME:
Happy Flag Day!
Mass was very nice, but I'm really looking forward to moving into Maine.
I've never been to Maine before and I'm sure this is going to be a very scenic
day. The number of cars in our group is small enough that we're mostly
traveling as a single group.
The group skipped a few ice cream stops today. This
has happened a few times along the run simply because there isn't enough hours
in the day to hit everything on the route sheets. Our first stop today was
in Haverhill, MA at Englands MicroCreamery. This was another one of those
AMAZING stops. They pulled out all the stops for us. We arrived to
find the street closed and a local police officer directing traffic. We
thought that they did this for our group - but the truth is that there was a
fire further down the block. But still, being able to park some of our
cars in front of the shop was nice. This shop was really, really cool.
They make all their ice cream right on the premises, and that's all done in a
glassed-in area - you can actually walk to the rear of the store and watch the
entire process in action. The "highlight" of this stop was the Guinness
ice cream. The idea of beer-flavored ice cream didn't appeal to me, so I
went with blueberry instead. But everyone said the Guinness was fantastic.
After we all got our ice cream, we found out that it was the owner of the shop
that was serving us, and she stood up on a chair and gave us a full overview of
her business and their products. One thing I really liked about this place
- and I think ALL ice cream shops should do this - is that they charge by the
ounce. "You get what you pay for and you pay for what you get." So
the small, medium, and large sizes that they offer are really just starting
point. If you want an extra-small, or an overloaded large - you always pay
appropriately.
But wait, there's more! The local police officer that was directing
traffic told us to bring ALL the cars onto the closed street and park in front
of the store for a photo op. And the store owner brought out her big vinyl
banner for the shot too. AND - the mayor of Haverhill came out, shook
hands, and talked to each one of us! WOW! Finally, that same
police officer gave us an escort out to the highway! What a great town!
Heading north on the highway, we had a rather close call. A trailer
hauling aluminum siding not far in front of us dropped a few pieces, and they
were straddling the left and center lanes. Everyone hit the brakes to
avoid the debris in the road, and luckily - there were no collisions.
Whew!
So after that, we headed north to York, Maine. This was a very cool little
coastal town. We stopped at Brown's Old fashioned ice cream, right down
the street from the Nubble Lighthouse. More blueberry ice cream!
Believe it or not, there were a few people in the group that wanted something to
consume that wasn't made of dairy products - so we stopped for lunch. I
had my first lobster roll! This is a Maine thing I guess - basically
lobster meat served in a hot dog roll. It was Wicked Good!
J
I learned a few things about Maine today: Lots of people drive Saabs here,
lobster and blueberries are everywhere (but never together), and there's no
greater compliment than saying something is Wicked Good!
After that we had some NON-ice cream stops lined up. First the Delorme Map
Store, home of the worlds largest revolving globe. But this stop also had
ice cream, technically: Freeze-dried Astronaut ice cream! Then it
was just up the road to Classic Custard. (Just past the Big Indian, we
were told...) This was really good, as
frozen custard always is - but Abbott's frozen custard in Rochester NY still has
the best frozen custard in my book. Right next door was a classic car
dealer, there was lots of gawking over the Delorean (even though it wasn't a
very good one). Then we went up the street just a
little more to hit LL Bean. (I bought some Maine Wild Blueberry Preserves
there).
Then it was a dash up to Rockland, ME - we had to get there by 8pm because
that's when Thorndike Creamery was closing. We made it with a few minutes
to spare, but the owner was very cool and she stayed open a little late for us.
After that - check in at the Navigator Motor Inn, which was a very nice little
independent coastal motel. The internet here was rather unreliable, so I
got further behind on my updates to this blog. And they still use keys
here - real keys, not card keys! We asked the nice guy at the front desk
about possible places to eat - it was now almost 9pm and this is a rather small
town. He suggested that most places stop serving at 9pm, so we might as
well just eat at the hotel's restaurant. As it turned out, they were about
to close up too - but since we were staying there, and we were a large group -
and mostly because these are really, really nice people - they decided to stay
open late for us. The food was great and the service was excellent.
Um, I mean, Wicked Good!
As always - see my pictures link for the photos of the day...
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