
I continued up Route 1 and it was gorgeous. The sun came out and the leaves were beautiful. 8 miles of the road is called the Million Dollar View. I don’t know if it was quite that sum but it was just nice to see sunshine. I then headed over to cross the border back into New Brunswick. I’m not sure if it was due to the size of the facility or the fact that I was traveling along but I got grilled! Because I wanted to go on the scenic byway I ended up crossing over at a very remote border station.
I pulled up and rolled down my driver’s side window. Well the lady approached my passenger side window so I rolled it down and she asked me the basic questions. I told her I was going to Hartland (about an hour away) to see the World’s Longest Covered bridge. She asked skeptically “you came all the way from New York to see that?”
She then asked me to go ahead and pull over, shut off my engine and pop my trunk. I did and I could hear them rustling around. She then asked me about school. I paused for a minute. The only sticker on my car says “I support America’s National Parks”. There’s no indication that I’m in school (other than my youthful appearance) so I thought it may be a trap. I said no, I graduated and I work full time.
She then asked “when was the last time you spoke to an immigration officer?” I told her I had cross the border a few hours ago at Roosevelt Campobello so I guess it was then. After I showed her my map indicating my route and how I had ended up at that obscure border crossing she let me go after warning me that I could not come back through this border crossing because it would be closed. I understand these people protect their country’s security but it’s sometimes frustrating to deal with them. I moseyed on down back roads through some gorgeous scenery.
I drove across the bridge and parked at the visitor’s center to take some pictures. It was so pretty. The sun was starting to set and it was such a quiet little town. I walked across the bridge and back (which took a while).
I headed back out of town to find my hotel. What’s funny about the bridge is that it’s one lane and there’s no light so you basically have to look at the other end and see if there’s another car coming and hope they see you coming. I was originally going to head north out of New Brunswick and cross back over but it looked like a small town on the map so I went back across the Hartland border crossing.
I didn’t want to take the chance that I would drive all that way and have the border be closed. Plus I wasn’t sure if border crossings were on Atlantic or Eastern time. This crossing was much easier and the guy even said “welcome home”. No agent has ever said that to me before. It was nice. I headed up to Presque Isle, Maine where I had Hampton Inn reservations. The sunset was stunning.
I hadn’t seen that nice of a sunset in a long time. On the drive I was flipping through the radio and heard the Jeopardy theme music. Apparently in Maine they play Jeopardy on the radio! When I got to the hotel I turned on the TV and got to see the end. How cool is that!?
I think the Hampton thought I was some VIP because they treated me so nice and gave me a king corner room. Quite the upgrade. The hotel also had free soup and salad for dinner which was a nice relief from my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
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