We woke up fairly early to pack up and start the next portion of our trip, which brought us back into the US. Another 252 miles from Amherst Shore, Nova Scotia to Eastport, Maine, which is a little island off the coast of Maine and right across the border from New Brunswick. It is the most eastern town in the US.
Before we left the campground, though, Zach wandered around exploring while I packed up the tent and our belongings. He came back to the car with a handful of cicada shells from cicadas that had molted. I’m not sure what he plans to do with them, but he was quite proud of his find and put them into a container and we took them all the way home with us. When we reached the US customs booth on the border of New Brunswick and Maine, Zach was very concerned that he was following the rules and asked the customs officer if it was okay to bring cicada shells into the country from Canada. He was assured that as long as there were no live insects in the car, the shells were just fine.
We arrived in Eastport in the early afternoon and Zach picked out his bedroom first. A dear friend offered us the use of her little house on the island for as long as we needed it. Zach and I were both feeling the effects of living out of our car and tent for the past three weeks and really needed a place of rest, and this was the perfect spot for us. Real beds, real showers, a real kitchen and stove to cook on and a refrigerator and freezer so we could empty out the cooler for a little while.
Zach scoped out the two bedrooms upstairs and when I walked up to see what he was doing, he was already curled under the blankets and made himself at home. He also made the couch his home for the weekend, as well. He loves to relax and having a couch and a strong wifi connection to watch his train and lightning videos was all he needed to feel at home. That, and the rainbow flag on the porch. When we pulled up, he saw it and said, “Look, it’s a rainbow flag! Just like home!”
It was nice to take it easy, sleep in a little, and not have to feel like we needed to rush around to see area attractions, but rather just relax and do nothing if that’s truly what we wanted to do. One of the neighbors stopped by a couple times with fresh lettuce from his garden and then with raspberries from his bushes, still warm from the sun. He also brought over a field guide to insects when he found out that insects are one of Zach’s most favorite things in the world.
We didn’t do anything earth shattering during our time in Eastport. I knew there were things we could do in the area, but honestly, we both just needed to have some down time so that’s exactly what we did. We slept in later, we lounged around the house, we played on our laptops, we ate good food, we took it easy. I did take out some of the art supplies that I was told were in the drawer next to the couch and stitched for a few hours to create something special for my friend as a thank you for the amazing opportunity for rest and relaxation. It felt so good to do some hand stitching and get creative with felt, beads, floss, wire and a corkscrew. We took a drive to the dollar store in town and Zach got himself some containers for bugs and spent quite some time with a push pin, putting air holes in them, so we both got our creative time in.
We looked up the time for low tide, as my friend had told me about a special little cove that had a ton of sea glass and other treasures after the tide washed out. We went down to the cove in the evening and spent about an hour collecting treasures. When I told Zach what we would be doing, I think he thought I meant that we’d be finding pirate’s treasure, like gold and silver. He was a little disappointed that we didn’t find anything that would end up making us rich, but it was still a beautiful evening and relaxing. I brought home a full bag of little things I found on the beach and have grand plans to create something amazing with them.
We left Eastport with renewed energy and clean laundry and a couple nights of good sleep on comfy beds and then continued on. It was just what we needed for the final push of our trip home.