M109 Trip to Owls Head, Maine

[Katahdin]

My wife and I took the M109 up to Owls Head this past weekend, it was my wife's idea so I was happy to oblige. She wanted to see the antique autos at the annual Owls Head auction that was held there.

Here's a link to the auction with lots of pictures of the cars and trucks and how much they sold for. Its a nice auction for this area, some would describe it as the "Pebble Beach" of the north, but that would be a bit of an exaggeration. The auction location also houses a great museum of vehicles and airplanes from the early 1900s.

Owls Head is about a 200 mile round-trip for us, and we towed along the Jeep TJ so we could make a few side trips. The jeep is connected to the medium towbar using modified M151 shackle mounts bolted to the frame. This pic was taken just before we set off on Friday morning.

 

[Katahdin]

Our first stop on the journey was the world famous Moody's Diner for lunch.



My wife and I both had great meals and dessert, would highly recommend this stop for any tourist traveling through. The hills into Waldoboro can be a little challenging for a deuce, I had to downshift to 3rd gear a couple times, but when I needed to there was a slow-vehicle-lane on route one.

If you'd been to Moody's you're probably wondering where to park a deuce and a towed Jeep, but they have a gravel lot near the back that you can park and loop back to Route one on. A little parking recon on Google Maps helps.

 

[RAYZER]

That's a nice looking rig!
Your trip I bet was a lot of fun!
You must have more pics.

 

[Katahdin]

For both nights of the weekend we camped out a place called "Lobster Buoy Campsites." This was a small little RV park right on the Ocean.

To say they were MV friendly was an understatement. That had been eagerly waiting for our arrival even though I had made the reservation several months ago. This is a small family run park, and they said the M109 was one of the neatest "campers" they had seen in 30 years.



Note, this park doesn't have wifi or even good cell phone reception, and the owners prefer it that way. They would rather have kids playing outside then tuned into an iphone or ipad.

 

[Katahdin]

I call this pic "Camp Deuce."



We did have a nice little view of the ocean out the rear door, my wife enjoyed looking out from there in a camp chair.



But if you want the back-in-to-the-ocean spots you should reserve them well in advance. This RV park has earned some loyal customers over the years.

Note - My M109 is not an RV conversion, I prefer to keep it multi-purpose. For a bed we placed a futon mattress across two sets of 6-foot baker-type scaffolding. Even the bed is multi-purpose!

 

[Trailboss]

Great way to enjoy the M109A3. Nice rig.

 

[Bill W]

My family history right back to 1754 begins in Waldoboro Maine, I've eaten at Moodys several times. I have not been to the Owls head Lighthouse since they did the dedication wreath laying tribute to my Grandfather back in 2004 which marked the 75th aniversary of the Flying Santa Flights to the lighthouses that he ( Grandfather ) started in 1929. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

 

[Katahdin]

In keeping with patracy's "Get in Shape" thread we took the bikes out for a scenic ride.

Along the way, we saw a M-37 "planted" in someone's yard. Now I feel like a dub, here I am posting pictures of the trip on SS and I didn't take a picture of that M-37. But there is one along this route.



There is also no less then four places to stop if you want to buy some fresh Maine lobster.

 

[Katahdin]

I was just getting to Owl's Head lighthouse Bill W! I think you'll enjoy these pics. (link to map)

The lighthouse is part of a state park and is under the care of a conservation group, it was open when we were there. Here are some pics of the lighthouse and some taken from inside.

 

[Katahdin]

Another lighthouse that was open that day was the Rockland Breakwater Light.

This breakwater was constructed in the late 1800s and is almost a mile long, and built from some 700,000 tons of granite. I can't imagine the undertaking that was without modern machinery. Here's some pics.



During a storm the entire break water can become submerged.

 

[Katahdin]

That's it for pics. I'm just going to close by saying the funniest moment on the trip was the ride back home -- We got caught in a rain shower around Damariscotta and rain water came in around the passenger-side windshield and was spraying on my poor wife's lap. The look on her face was priceless and I had a good laugh! Anywho, she was a good sport about it and we stopped at rest stop at Sherman Lake (now Sherman Marsh since the Dam let out) and plugged the windshield leak with a towel. But before long the weather cleared up and we made it back through Portland without any issues.

Enjoy! Hopefully this thread makes some of you land-locked-lubbers want to visit our good little state here in the Northeast.

 

[JCKC]

Nice pics and write-up! This land-locked-lubber spent a week enjoying Maine in late July and climbed Mt. Katahdin! It was great!

 

[phil2968]

...I had to downshift to 3rd gear a couple times...

Try this next time when you run out of power in fourth. Downshift the transfer case to low and go to fifth with the transmission. If you still lose speed drop to fourth. That big gap between 3rd and 4th is a killer on the hills. Fill the hole using low range.
Besides, split shifting is fun!