Augusta Maine
After our delicious dinner in Freeport, Maine, we drove north to Augusta, Maine. We will stay in the same hotel for the next 3 nights. This is a bonus because you don’t have to pack up every morning.
We are such a large group that we stay at several area hotels. Our start this morning was at a hotel around the corner from our hotel. We always arrive early and continue with our morning routine.
Our morning routine includes Brad checking the motor when we start Jane, and picking up the instructions. Brad often walks during this time as well. I check the tires and making sure the speedometer is plugged in and ready to go. I try to clean the car the night before, but if it rains, I have to wait until it dries out. This morning was cool and drizzly, she wasn’t having much cleaned up today.
Today is Championship Saturday. Today we will typically have more legs. We had 8 legs today. This creates higher scores, but the catch today is we cannot throw out any of our scores. We needed to run as clean as possible, no pressure.
We rallied all morning around beautiful Maine. Despite the cold rainy weather we did our best to hold speed, maneuver through turns and change speeds as concise as possible.
We finished the morning at Seal Cove Museum. We were pleasantly surprised to meet up with Jane and Sherald at the museum. They had arrived early and toured the museum.
Seal Cove has some very old brass cars. One car that was particularly interesting was a car two ladies used to promote the right for women to vote. In 1916, two women who represented the Suffrage effort set out on the road to put the word out. They were sponsored by the Suffrage Association and went to all the major cities in the US. One women drove and the other cooked as they camped out at the different stops. Both women would give lectures in the places they stopped. (I may have talked about this car on a previous stop at this museum, we have been here a few times.)
The other interesting story from Seal Cove Museum was about another strong and forward thinking woman. Bertha Benz was the wife of Karl Benz. Karl Benz is known to be the first inventor of the motor car.
In the late 1800s it was thought that woman were not capable of maneuvering a car. There was also discussion that driving could affect women’s reproductive organs.
Bertha however was not swayed. After encouraging her husband to road test the vehicle with no success, Bertha and her son drove the automobile 65 miles to visit her mother.
Bertha did some inventing of her own. Along the way, Bertha realized the wood brakes were not optimal. She stopped at a cobbler’s shop and asked for leather. She put leather atop the wood and created the first brake shoes. Bertha also encountered the fuel line clogging. She used her hair pin to clean out the line.
Bertha and her son not only made it home safely, they promoted the invention along the way. The myth that it would affect a woman’s reproductive organs was also squashed by Bertha. She had her 5th child 15 months later.
Seal Cove never disappoints, the stories and the lunch were fantastic.
We finished lunch and headed a short way down the road to start rallying again. We headed to Acadia National Park after lunch. We rallied through a small portion of the beautiful coastal park and then headed back the direction we had come from.
We finished the long day at Owls Head Museum. We have visited Owls Head in the past, but this time we were lucky enough to share it with several friends. Jane and Sherald were at Seal Cove and Owls Head. We were also joined by our friends Allan and Brandon. Allan and Brandon are not only our friends, they are the geniuses that keep Jane going for the 2400 plus miles we rally her every year. We were able to FaceTime with them in the evenings with questions. They know every nut, bolt, belt, hose, and wire on Jane.
We toured around Owls Head. Because it is a transportation museum and not just a car museum, they have several airplanes, fire trucks, a Gypsy Cart and other vehicles that date back to the beginning of motorized transportation.
We ended the day with a lobster dinner. When in Maine…
We made the hour drive up the coast to Augusta. It had stopped raining so we cleaned up Jane and covered her for the night.
MissHathawaysGreatRace 