Solo running trip up the coast of Maine via sprinter!

[Mrshakedown]

Moving further up the coast and into Lubec I stopped off to visit North Quaddy Head Light.

Another sight to see.

And one of the van as i so love my van, the places it brings me and the experiences it allows for.

I’m truly a grateful and blessed man for reasons much more so than my beloved van.

 

[Mrshakedown]

One more of the light then mane st Lubec.

Lubec is adjacent to Campobello island also known as Canada.

Lubec is also a very economically impoverished area. None the less places like this have soul, I will say I see lots of sadness around, and lots of hate. The hate is hard to see and hurts my soul as the hate is clear as day coupled each and every time with extreme mental illness and poverty.

None the less places like this give me a certain pause just as do the deep woods by my lonesome.

They make me greatly for what I have both in the physical tangible material world but also spiritual and or well that my faculties as they pertain to mental illness and sanity are in check at least by comparison to the extreme end of not.

That’s not a put down or to say anything about how others live. It’s just to say I’m grateful as life on this earth is like hitting the lottery. Anyone of us coulda ended up almost anywhere in any situation under a myriad of circumstance.

There are so many who live with so much misfortune. Life is both long and short so I count no chickens..


the building above was once a cannery. across the street left of this picture in the next picture is a small cottage that was once and originally a clam shack. My dear friend purchased it twenty times twenty five years ago and turned it into the home you see in the pictures.


From the other way me of maine st. Literally he owned the house at each end of main st is the old bank. It doesn’t look like much but inside it’s the most wonderful craftsmanship you could ever imagine. The vault is still there and a work of art. I’m not sure how old it is but it’s made like things are no longer.

 

[Mrshakedown]

And directly across the street what used to be Anabells.

Whatever it is now it’s not the Anabells I remember. It once was a small town drinking mans bar. In the winter the back of the building would fully freeze over. We would go back and forth from the bank to the bar, bar to the bank.

As Roger Waters of Pink Floyd said so we’ll “the memories of a man in his old age, are the deeds of a man in his prime”


Town warf.


Hardware store, piss off Home Depot!


Another small light

 

[Mrshakedown]

With nothing left but to head home I still felt the need to explore. Maybe more so at this point. I felt flat a bit numb to be honest but grateful.

And sorry.

I got in the van with the intent of heading home but couldn’t resist to drive down one last road I was not sure where it would lead.

It ended up being another dead end out in a peninsula.

It offered a view of the town of Lubec from across the water.

Although my legs were trashed from the day prior I also wanted to go for one more run before the long 7-8 hour drive home.

Every trail or road this part of Maine all seek to lend you on a beach.



Shortly after this rundown abandon dock I’d find a huge neon yellow sigh warning underground high voltage wires.

I did my best to avoid danger and found myself down a dirt driveway and the very tip of the peninsula and a old abandon house.

I fell in love with this property. It was situated amidst the most beautiful field. With its very own pebble beach this place was idealic.

To be honest it was the perfect piece of coastal Maine property I’ve been searching for. A younger me would be glad to bring it back to life. Shit even now id be up for it. But sadly the sickening sites I see so abundant in this specific area of Maine tell me I would never be happy here as my soul would constantly be in turmoil.

The run ended up being short with a wonderful conversation with a great man whom had transplanted from New Jersey twenty years prior. Interesting fella having spent his life as adolescent suicide prevention counselor.

We chatted about the ins and outs of living and n Lubec, he gave me his phone number and told me if ever back this way and Covid behind us to look him out and he would join me for lunch.

Life is truly a blessing.

As is this tuna can van that allows me to adventure.

 

[Mrshakedown]

It’s own pebble beach and some busted windows. The opportunity to farm here by the sea blew my mind.

Could be a wonderful simple life free from the diversions and distractions modern life and technology has imop forced upon most of us convincing us or telling us from inception are if value.

Its my oppinion we have complicated the shit out of life. Made it about all the wrong things..

I won’t buy the house but I will walk away from the city, the van will help me find that place and I will simplify down to the very basics.

It was a great trip that ended sadly in a southern New Hampshire Walmart parking lot watching teenage kids go no place fast.

 

[Mrshakedown]

One last comment only cuz something got my goat as I was writing this,

I got a email from a regular sprinter retailer.

Let me just say i loath marketing to sell stuff. Like we need a reason to buy more shit.

Anyway the email suggested that a adventure van was not a adventure van if it was not fully kitted out. I spend massive amounts of time adventuring in my cargo van.

The outside looks the part and the inside will but that’s not not the point.

The point is the interior Is covered in Noico. I have a Maxair not hooked up but opens. I T-vent widow for ventilation and it works ok. A air mattress, a sleeping bag. A container with cooking gear and dishes, a box for food, a couple solar lanterns a couple Yeti coolers and a pile of books.

I don’t not have fun, and I’m not suffering the slightest. Honestly I suspect more creature comforts will actually take much of the experience i so treasure out of the experience.

So don’t let the media and marketing make you think you need a fully finished van done up to the nines to to get out and explore. Honestly a hatch back car and a sleeping bag and the desire are really all you need.

 

[Mrshakedown]

It’s important me thinks..

Nice pics. You're living well.

 

[RVCuisineScene]

I enjoyed going thru your posts, Good to see you made it to the real Down East of Maine and especially Cutler! I spent last week along the coast now back in my cabin in the Mts outside of Farmington, the weather has been spectacular this fall, in three weeks I'll be closing up the cabin and heading out west, thanks for your posts!

 

[Mrshakedown]

Good to hear form you,

It was a great trip. Heading out in about a hour back to Vermont for a few days.

I really enjoyed myself, traveling solo and just moving along without much agenda is a real joy,

I hope you also enjoy your travels, I’m envious. I hope to make it out west next year for a 3-4 week trip. Probably Idaho and Wyoming.

Long term I’d like to work seasonally for stints such as you do. I think with my work I could make it happen.

I loved the natural beauty of “the real down east”. I was however as already stated a bit put off by a myriad of other things. Not so much I didn’t enjoy but it surely challenged my mind a number of times to not get to grumpy and pissed of by what I was seeing..

And yes the weather was unreal, like hitting the dam lottery unreal. I felt like a very lucky man the entire trip.

I enjoyed going thru your posts, Good to see you made it to the real Down East of Maine and especially Cutler! I spent last week along the coast now back in my cabin in the Mts outside of Farmington, the weather has been spectacular this fall, in three weeks I'll be closing up the cabin and heading out west, thanks for your posts!

 

[2021_3500_LowRoof]

How deep is that camp site from a road

 

[Mrshakedown]

If your talking the one next to the ocean in the later pics with the towers in the background, like a easy stones throw.

It’s a glorified pull off I suspect for fishermen or clamers.

It’s not a campsite at all. I was shocked I didn’t get a knock on the door. No real town police that far north so I worry less but still.

Your not having a campfire that’s for sure. During the day I’m sure you could do whatever you wanted.

How deep is that camp site from a road