A First Impression of Ogunquit and Maine

Date: 10-14-13
Location: Ogunquit, Maine
Written by: DJ Doran

TAKE NOTE: This post was written while DJ & Joey were on their RV roadtrip across America. Sadly, their trip ended before it really got started. No worries, Shelly & Lucia are taking the Connextions Out n About Roadtrip to new heights, exploring one RV park at a time!

After leaving Burlington VT our plan was to make our way down I-89 toward Manchester New Hampshire before connecting to I-95 north toward Portsmouth and across the Piscataqua River Bridge to Maine.  I am generally not a fan of driving on interstate highways when on a road trip because I feel like you lose that whole sense of connecting to the places that you pass through when you are driving 65 mph for hours and hours.  However, in this case we had left later than we had planned (as usual, hahaha) and were trying to get to Ogunquit with plenty of daylight ahead of us. 

As Priscilla made her way up I-95 Joey told me to take exit 7 which was 2 exits ahead.  I could see the bridge on the horizon and realized that exit 7 was the last exit before the bridge.  I put Priscilla’s turn signal on and prepared to ease off of the highway when to my surprise there were barricades blocking the exit!  As we drove past where we were supposed to get off the highway I could see that a cement mixing truck had apparently miscalculated his speed and had overturned…  Frustrated that I could not exit and pissed off that we would most likely have to pay another toll to cross the bridge and then again to come back so we could exit, I began bitching and complaining to Joe like he had could have anticipated this detour and somehow prevented it.

After a few minutes of raised voices while we drove across the bridge and trying to figure out the best way to turn Priscilla around, we both suddenly realized that we in fact did not pass the exit we were supposed to take but rather we had left the State of New Hampshire and crossed into Maine and the exit numbers had started over again from number one. With only six more to go, we both breathed a sigh of relief simultaneously, first that there would be no toll to pay in order to cross the bridge and secondly that we had not passed the needed exit to continue toward Ogunquit.  After a few moments to regain our bearings we both started to laugh at our own stupidity or as Joey pointed out, MY own stupidity…

As we pressed on, we both commented about how Maine smelled different, seemed different. We couldn’t put our finger on exactly why we felt this way, just that we did.  We glided down exit 7 toward York and Ogunquit as the weather transitioned into a bright and sunny fall day.  Like everything about our road trip to date we had not originally planned to visit Ogunquit, but at the suggestion of a friend, we had decided to alter our timeline and route to fit it in. 

From the moment Priscilla drove into town we both knew that we were about to experience something “special”.  The Quaint B&B’s, shops and restaurants that lined the main street were all decked out in Halloween and fall decorations with people walking and shopping.  We made our way through the narrow street looking for a place for Priscilla to rest and then decided to turn around and park at Maine Street Video Lounge where our friend Steve was working and waiting for us to arrive.  I resisted the urge to blow Priscilla’s two huge trumpet horns as we made our way back and was relieved when I spotted a space long enough for me to pull in right in front.   Priscilla groaned to a stop and I shut down the engine.

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