UPDATE!  It's not too late to sign up for the terrific club motor tour of Maine we've got planned for the weekend of June 23rd-24th, but you must act now!!!  The Down Easter Inn in Damariscotta, where we'll be staying on Saturday night, has been very accommodating to us, but they can't hold those rooms forever!  If you don't make your reservation NOW, you probably won't get in!  Read on...

last month, we announced an AONE overnight motor tour of Maine that Mike Torrusio is putting together for us, and here are some more details!

On the weekend of June 23-24, we will be hitting the high and low roads of Maine for a two-day jaunt that will not only take us along Maine’s wonderful, rocky seacoast (replete with ocean views, lighthouses, and small lobster and seafood shacks), but will also scoot us along some of mid-Maine’s twisting, turning, watch-out-for-that-cow back trails. To experience both of these wonders requires more than a day, which is why we are hosting a two-day extravaganza filled with winding roads, photographic vistas, shopping repasts, and more down-shifting in one weekend than you’d do in a month.

Although the route is finalized, we’re keeping the details a mystery, but it’ll go something like this: We will start off with a meet-and-greet rendezvous on Saturday at 10 am in Saco, Maine at the Golden Rooster Restaurant, a friendly, home-style place where you can have a cuppa, nibble on some toast, or down something more substantial. After that, it’s kick tires and light fires as we whip through the Old Orchard Beach area, around Route 77 and Shore Road to the Portland Headlight—a great spot for gift shopping and photography (not to mention a pit stop). We’ll avoid Portland itself, saving it for some other time, and whiz around Scarborough, and then northward through North Pownal, Lisbon Falls, Bowdoinham and into Richmond for a late lunch at a jazzy little place called the Railway Cafe, whose owner is himself the proud owner of a 1969 Alfa Spider!

After sating ourselves, we will cross the Kennebec River, working our way toward Wiscasset, and then shoot northward along the Sheepscot River, where we will cross over at the Reversing Falls. A few more turns through the mid-coast back roads will bring us to the end of the day at The Down Easter Inn in Damariscotta. They have rooms for us and the price is very, very right for Maine at this time of the year ($100 double, $110 king). Damariscotta and New Castle are twin cities, and each offers fun places to eat and to explore. We’ll find a place where we will feast upon the best culinary treats that Maine has to offer.

After spending a restful night and downing our Down Easter continental breakfast, we will start the second day by wandering southwest through Bath (with maybe a tourist stop), and then finding Route 24 straight to Bailey Island for a late lobster lunch on the water. Filled to the gills with those red crustaceans (or scallops, clams, mussels, hake, haddock, oysters, or what-have-you), we will cull the seaweed-strewn rocky coast for sea glass, or just hang out at the waterside, before turning the key and pointing south to head home.

Okay, now it’s time for you to act! Reservations at the Down Easter Inn are not only necessary but NECESSARY. You must make your own reservations before May 15th for the night of June 23rd by contacting the Inn at 973-267-1697 (until May 24), 207-563-5332 (after May 24), or deinn@midcoast.com anytime. Once you do, please contact Mike at miket@maine.rr.com or 207-252-5787 to let him know that you’re signed up so that he can get a head count for restaurant planning purposes.

Directions to the starting point and other final details will be included in next month’s Velocissima.  Here is a list of links to the various attractions mentioned above:

Golden Rooster Restaurant 
Portland Head Light
Railway Cafe
Reversing Falls
The Down Easter Inn
Damariscotta
Newcastle

This should be one fun two-day binge—let’s rev up and get ourselves going!

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