Maine on the Fourth of July During a Hurricane

The carful of kids are in Portland, Maine, continuing our three-week road trip from Texas to Nova Scotia. It's been an exciting trip, especially after getting our SUV stolen in Montreal and Hurricane Arthur making landfall at any minute.

We drove down from La Mauricie National Park in Canada, and ended the day with a shopping spree at the LL Bean Factory Store to replace some of our belongings. Spencer crawled in at sun-up after his adventure getting a new passport in 24-hours.

Originally, I had an itinerary packed with activities ranging from the Portland Lighthouses, a trip to the Wadsworth-Longfellow House and a causal dinner at the Lobster Shack. Then the carful of kids were to leave after breakfast for Saint John, New Brunswick, with stops at Stephen King's house, St. Croix Island International Park, the Reserving Rapids of the Saint John River and end the day on a tall ship to go whale-watching on the Bay of Fundy. Well Hurricane Arthur blew that up like the fireworks displays up and down the East Coast.

Love Locks on Commercial Street

The carful of kids have managed to keep our lodging reservations but the activities I arranged are being edited. All I can tell myself is I'm doing the best I can, given hurricanes and stolen vehicles. Our hope is to get back on schedule by tomorrow at Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy but the weather is not cooperating.

We walk around the Freeport Village Station, an outdoor outlet mall off of I-295 close to the LL Bean Flagship Store in Freeport, grabbing necessities before the forecasted rain begins. Shopping is not my thing but this is the place to do it and I'm thankful all my stores are close together.

The carful of kids head back to Portland for lunch at the Portland Lobster Company. They feature New England clam chowder and a full menu of local seafood, right outside their doorstep are the Love Locks, started in February 2013 by a group of friends.

It's after six in the evening before the carful of kids say good-bye to Melissa, who is flying out in the morning, and head east. We are in two different rental cars with Spencer in the lead car, on our way to Saint John, New Brunswick. I'm following with the kids so I can keep an eye on him since he has had six hours of sleep in two-hour intervals over the last 48 hours.

According to Google the quickest way to Saint John is along State Route 9 but Google Maps does't know about Hurricane Arthur. The drive is 300 miles and should take us close to five hours. We are 40 miles from the Gulf of Maine and I can see Hurricane Arthur in my rear-view mirror.

Maine is a wooded wilderness, a good portion of the state doesn't have roads large enough to show up on a map. I have to forget about driving through for a chai latte, there are no coffee shops, we can't even find gas.

The wind has whipped up mist so dense that I can't use my brights. We're on a two-lane highway that has forest on either side so impenetrable you can't see beyond the first row of trees. The darkness is so oppressive that the house lights are snuffed out before they reach the road.

Not only am I battling visibility, the wind is batting at me and my stupid Canadian Kia like a cat bats a half-dead mouse. Trying to stay positive, the road is mostly deserted because of the Hurricane Warning that was issued hours before. I've driven some nasty drives but this is one of the best.

My only hope is the moose are smarter than us and are staying in for the night.

The carful of kids finally make it to the Canadian Border and they haven't seen anyone for hours. The Canadian Border Patrol Officer look over Spencer and his newly-minted replacement passport in his rental car real good. They look at me, I wave back. When it's my turn--I roll down the windows, I wake up the kids, I show him our passports, I pass him the Montreal Police report, a printout of my itinerary, another letter of consent from Spencer stating he is aware that the kids are crossing the border and retell the CBPO my epic tale of woe. They apologize and appreciate that we decided to give Canada another try; they promise that our car is safe in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Hey, that's nice. 

The carful of kids drive on but we lose an hour at the border when we cross over into the Atlantic Time Zone. It's still another hour to our destination but the weather and the road conditions have improved slightly as we are outpacing Hurricane Arthur.

We finally arrive at the Best Western Saint John Hotel at 2 a.m. local time and park under the portico to unload; it doesn't offer much protection. The rain smacks us sideways in the face, Hurricane Authur is mad we beat him here. I wake the kids as Spencer grabs the bags and we make our way to the room, thankful we made it.

Now here's to hoping the electricity stays on through to breakfast.