Hey guys, it's that time of year again and we just started booking our hotel rooms for the trip. 2011 will be our 4th year doing this and the number of participants have grown every year. Still not a huge group, but it's not uncommon to be cruising down the highway with at least 30 different musclecars at any one time.
For the third time in our four years, things will be kicking off from a new location, this time at the Wyndham Hotel in Portland, Maine.
Once the trip gets underway Saturday morning, we will be heading over to Route 1 and following the coast up through some of New England's small fishing towns until we arrive at the Owl's Head Transportation Museum in Rockland, Maine. After everyone gets their fill of what Owl's Head has to offer, the Rod Run will continue north and if the weather cooperates we will take a quick stop in Camden, to make a run up Mt. Battie and get a lookout over Penobscot Bay and actually be able to see Mt. Desert Island off in the distance. From there we will continue onto the Penobscot Narrows Bridge as we cross over onto Mt. Desert Island and Bar Harbor for our final stop of the day. Hopefully we will be there by mid-afternoon, so that everyone will have plenty of time to take in some of the Eastern Seaboard's most beautiful coastline, while also enjoying a nice ride through Acadia National Park. As we lose daylight, people can take in the sunset over the harbor on the town green, and then later can enjoy a nice relaxing night at any one of the many the restaurants and bars downtown. For the more adventurous, they can re-enter the park and take a late night ride up to the top of Cadillac Mountain under just the light of the moon and stars. Yes, I mean drive up a winding mountain road that has NO lighting. Bring a flashlight!
When Sunday morning comes around, the early risers can once again take a trip up to the top of the highest peak on the Atlantic coast, to take in a sunrise over the harbor, from the first place in the United States that the sun rises every morning. Our first stop of the day will the Cole Transportation Museum in Bangor, Maine. From there we will head west along Route 2 into New Hampshire, until we arrive in the Mount Washington Valley area.
As always (except maybe 2012), the Northeast Rod Run will conclude on Monday. This is when we all usually head our own way, but for those that want to extend it a little more, the trip will continue in the shadows of the Presidential Mountain Range.
If this sounds like your type of thing, go over to our small website at
www.northeastrodrun.com (we're still making improvements all the time), sign up on the forum and check things out. You can also search us out on Facebook and MySpace (that one isn't updated too often) and see plenty of pictures, from past trips on those sites.
Thanks for reading and hope to see some of you on this year's Run!