On a chilly Saturday morning we had a go at the Maine-ly Moose Cross Country in very pleasant parkland in Portland Maine. The poor race organiser was somewhat discomfited to find that, thanks to a big charity 5K on the same morning on the waterfront, his numbers for this year were down from well over 100 to 51. The good news was that, despite the cold and a bit of a multi terrain course, I was 9th overall in 21.07 and won a t-shirt and a pint pot, Vicky got a voucher and a t-shirt and a pint pot coming 38th in 34.06 - then again everyone who stayed for the prize giving got a prize. The term cross country seems to be applied differently here, I could have run most of it off road but most competitors ran on the tarmac paths which constituted over half of the route - I don't think anyone wore spikes!
Portland is full of excellent pubs many of which brew their own ales. We found Gritty McDuffs, one of the pioneers of US microbrewing, right opposite our hotel, we were also impressed with the Sebago and Infiniti brewpubs, both are recent newcomers to the scene - in each case great beer was accompanied by excellent grub. But the best in our opinion was the Thirsty Pig where we were served with ales and sausages (I chose the Lithuanian selection and Vicky had the Thai banger!) by a very interesting cheerful chatty lady with tattoos and ironware decorating her in interesting places. We were fortunate enough to find such Californian marvels as Lagunitas Maximus and Stone Lukcy Btasrd (both 8% plus) together with a fine range of local Maine beers.
En route we are just beginning to find our way around the wonderful Interstate highway network. These are good roads and easy to drive on (but don't break the speed limit!) Two highlights have been as follows:
Pulling off I95 near Bangor, Maine, in need of a bite to eat, I was a bit dubious at seeing a massive fuel station surrounded by massive articulated trucks, but we were fairly desperate so thought we'd give it a go. It was a revelation - inside locals mixed with truckers mixed with tourists like us, the menu was extensive filled with American classics like 'sausage, gravy, biscuit and eggs' and 'loggerburgers'. I had a corned beef sandwich - nothing like you'd imagine - it's more like pastrami - very tasty and hit the spot. Vicky's soup was much more of a stew!
Again in need of a break before the final leg of our journey this afternoon, we called in by a crossroads in the middle of nowhere in southern New Hampshire. I thought I could do with a coffee to keep me going for the final hour or so. It went like this - first stop Jersey Mike Subs must sell tea and coffee 'Oh yes just press that button for fresh brewed tea' - out came Iced Tea, and they didn't do coffee. Back in the car over to the plaza, Shaw's supermarket was closed and desolate, Walmarts next door (the reason Shaw's was shut) was huge but had no cafe - back in the car and over to KFC, no hot drinks (?), still the waitress suggested Wendy's. Bingo - coffee for 99c - but no tea. I went for the coffee and Vicky went over the road and, for the second time this year, entered a McDonalds. We hit McDonalds in Malta in February after the Malta Half Marathon but the only previous time I've seen her in one was in 2001 when we won some McDonald's vouchers at a race in Southport. You can imagine how difficult this must have been for her! Meanwhile back to Wendy's - this is a burger chain which operated in the UK around twenty five years ago, I seem to remember their burgers were square. In any event this very original marketing tactic can't have worked because Wendy's disappeared from the UK. But they're still here and, having asked for a hot coffee, I was in turn asked if I would like the senior's discount - on enquiring what this was I was told by a very Disney-like young lady that meant it was a free coffee! I ended up giving her a 50c tip and putting 50c in the charity box so I suppose I was down by 1c overall - but I felt much better and the coffee was good.
We're cold now - coming over Hogback mountain the car temperature gauge registered 15 degrees. Of coure this is Fahrenheit which American seem to prefer. So looking at the picture above you'll see that we were down to around minus 9 degrees centrigrade. Brrr!
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