We normally stay off interstates and love to travel the back road through the small towns of America, but this trip we used the interstates (and toll roads) to make our trip quicker. The first toll we encountered was on I-84 east of Newburgh, NY. It was actually a toll bridge and not a toll road. As we approached the toll booth we noticed only one sign - Cars $1.00. It did not list motorhomes or trucks. As we stopped to pay a thought entered our minds. Remember the movie Vacation with Chevy Chase (a.k.a. Clark Griswald) where he had demolished his car by driving off the end of a road. When asked "how much?" the grizzly mechanic / sheriff who repaired the car asked "How much you got boy?" as he pounded a tire iron in his hand. Well, the grizzly woman at the toll booth looked up and said "$5.50." We don't understand how a car is $1.00 and a motorhome pulling a car is $5.50. At another interstate booth the sign said "Cars $1.30" and we were changed $1.70 for the motorhome and car. It must depend on the mood of the toll collector or if his child needs braces.

DeLORME, maker of maps, mapping systems and GPS systems, told us we could stay in their large parking lot as long as we wanted so we stayed three nights. Of course we rewarded them with $230.95 worth of purchases. Linda is the family navigator and she had concerns about their older program she routinely uses and questions about the latest products. Jeremy Naiden gave Linda a personal one hour seminar on Street Atlas USA Plus.

The large front room of DeLORME's building contains Eartha, the world's largest rotating and revolving globe, the largest printed image of the Earth ever created. The detail is so great cities, rivers and lakes can be easily identified. Eartha has a circumference of nearly 130 feet and rotates on its axis at 23.5 degrees just as Earth does. If you travel up I-95 get off at Yarmouth (exit #17) and see Eartha.

Just up the road a few miles is Freeport, home of L.L. Bean. It is a small unique town with enough shopping places to bankrupt a person and we tried. The weather was great so we rode the scooter to Freeport twice and ate in two places, seafood at Gritty McDuff's and lunch at Jameson Tavern, established in 1789. We looked at clothing in many stores but kept returning to L.L. Bean because of the selection, quality and friendly sales staff. Being on a motorscooter we could not carry much back to the motorhome so we had two shopping trips and spend $500 on clothing. Ouch, this is getting to be an expensive area.

We returned to Freeport on the scooter for a 4th of July concert in the park and fireworks. About 3,000-5,000 people attended the concert of folk music and then the fireworks began. What weird fireworks!!! Fog rolled in before dark and covered the skies. We would hear a boom and then see the fog glow pink followed by another boom and the fog glow blue. Everybody was gone before the fireworks ended and we rode the scooter back to Yarmouth in darkness and fog.

 In Boothbay, Maine we met friends Rich and Diane Emond and they showed us the sights around the Boothbay area and of course we ate some delicious Maine lobster. Those who follow our travels know we have been meeting the Emonds on the road the last 3 1/2 years. Rich retired from IBM but Norm and Rich never worked together. We have nearly identical 2000 Dutch Stars and Honda CR-Vs. The next two months we will have the pleasure of traveling in Canada with the Emonds. In 1997 we planned to visit the Maritimes and figured two weeks would be enough time to see most of the sights but we couldn't work out our vacation schedules. Last year we planned to visit the Maritimes but Norm's cancer canceled those plans. Finally, we are heading to the Maritimes and now we hope ten weeks will be enough time to see it all.