Day Three - S. Albug, Vermont to Ashland, Maine (443 miles)
The rain hung around us. After a warm shower we got underway around 7:00. The rain held off for about 10 minutes. Sunday morning driving through the rain in Vermont; not the most fun. We stayed on U.S. 2, and jumped on I-89 south to make some time, and try to get out of the rain. By the time we reached Montpelier the rain had stopped. We shed the rain suits, and traveled on U.S. 2 toward St. Johnsbury. We stayed on U.S. 2 through New Hampshire. U.S. 2 is a great road, not a whole lot of twisties, but just enough to keep things interesting. It is easy to make good time on this road; its wide and well marked making passing easy. We rode U.S. 2 until we got to Bangor, ME. At Bangor we headed north on I-95. Once we got about 25 miles north of Bangor I knew we were heading into some sparsely populated areas. There is nothing out here; it's great! At one spot we went 56 miles in-between exits. This is almost like out west. We jumped of the interstate at Sherman Mills on St.Rt. 11. We stopped here to get beer for our camping that night. $15 for a twelve pack, once again I knew we were in the sticks. The helpful grocer told us there were many rest areas along St.Rt. 11, and it would probably be alright if we were to camp in one. As we traveled north on 11 we did see many of these rest stops, but they were clearly marked: "No Camping". So we went on to Ashland. Once there we got a bite to eat and asked about the local motel. They wanted too much for a night's sleep, so we decided to press on. On our way out of town we came upon a Sportsman club along the Aroostook River where a sign read: "Camping at Own Risk". This was us! We set up camp, built a fire, and started polishing off the expensive beer. Along came the Sheriff. We were worried he would ask us to leave, in the dark, in the cold (45F) after we had had a few. This was not the case, the Sheriff was overly gracious, and promised to check on us periodically throughout the night.
