Day 178, Fri. Sept. 28, 2018- Back in the USA! Brake check and WW2 connection.

Coming across the border as Ruth said... "Was the friendliest and most welcoming we have ever had." IT WAS TRUE! 'Mendendez' had a big smile and was most pleasant. Pretty  good looking I would say as well. It went smoothly, even the exam of the trailer and the usual questions. It does happen!
The new customs at the American side is excellent and up to date with 5 lanes for busy time. Today there was one line and we were about 9th in line. (7-8 minutes).

The new border customs station at Calais ,Maine

The general route to Skowhegan Maine,  from the Canadian border (St. Stephens) is Route 1 to I-95 and then finish with US 2 which goes through Skowhegan. (I-95 heads down to the "Big" cities of the USA ...NYC, Boston, Baltimore, Washington DC)

I had an appointment at OK Tire (St.Stephens)  for 10:00 AM,  where I bought the tires a few days ago. I needed to get the  trailer brakes adjusted.  Ideally one would do that every 3,000 miles, but I know we were over that as we have traveled over 3,000 miles in Canada alone  the last 60 days with just the trailer. So it was done and they are working nicely. It was rainy at the shop so they had me back the trailer into  the bay to work on it.  It was a "Squeaky clean" back in. I think the young man that did it was having difficulty with the space as there was no space on the outside of the  trailer because of the tight walls. Undercarriage of trailers are close to the ground.

US 2 between Bangor and Skowhegan. Some color.

There MUST be roadwork in the summer, (Full bridge replacement.)

Some of the color on US 2.

It was raining lightly for about 1/2 the way there, and once we got on Rte #1 we moved along through the mixed pine, spruce and maple forests. At this time they are starting to get color and there were "swatches" of it at times and some stretches of brilliant color. In the northern Aroostook County there are very few people. It is 6,800 sq. mi. and has about 70,000 people. (10 persons per sq. mile?)  Here, it is called "THEE county".

In Bangor we connected with the son (Joe)  of a WW2 Navy man. Joe had written a book about the carrier that his Dad served on and for a Father's day present connected him with many of his shipmates . The result of that after a few years was a book about the CVE 27 USS Solomons. My brother served on the same ship and that is how we made the connection on the internet. He  lives about 45 minutes from Bangor, but said he and his wife Carol, would meet us there for lunch. It was a good spot as there was a huge parking lot for the trailer. We shared thoughts and ideas in the short time that we had. THANKS JOE!   If you are ever in Bangor and want to be exposed to some "Diner memorabilia, "Ricky's Diner" is the place to go, They have car shows every week and the walls are filled with "50's memorabilia.

From Bangor,  I -95 moves south and we took that until the town of Newport where US 2 is close enough to pick up into Skowhegan. It seemed when we came over the "mountain" that the colors stopped being as brilliant as before. (blocked by mountains,  the cool air stayed north?).

Last night before the rain there was a 'sundog' in spite of the wires I took this from the trailer door.

Tonight we stop for one night at Two Rivers RV in Skowhegan right off US 2.

 Now we have settled into a campground called "Two Rivers" where there is a capacity crowd this weekend. Folks are getting in those last great days of summer.  At the next campground, (Lake Champlain)  I put off reserving it until this week, and the 'registrar'  said "You got one of the last two sites".  Lesson learned. Weekends are always a tight fit for getting in the parks.

It was interesting to see the sun set just after 6:00 PM EDT as in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick it was an hour different.

Tomorrow is one of the longest mileage days on the trip. All the way across New Hampshire and Vermont to Lake Champlain (Colchester) . It will be a beautiful trip we believe and we will take our time. Sorry there are no stops for us this time. I think that (NH, VT) is on one of our old DVD's!!!