To NORTHEAST!
May 14-16 2023
PART 6
I-95 enters Maine and includes the Maine Turnpike, a toll road. Lots of folks think of Maine as one big peaceful forest with a rocky beach, but it's suffered the same creeping suburbanism as other places. And in some ways worse. But I focus on the state's better aspects.
Another Maine welcome sign.
At least there's not much of a Maine lecture - just friendly slogans.
Looking down the York River from I-95 to the US 1 bridge.
I-95 goes under Burnt Mill Road.
Kennebunkport is where the Bush compound is. They put the "bunk" in Kennebunkport!
I-195 has to be one of the least used Interstates. It's only 1½ miles long and serves only Saco, a city of 20,000. But it had been planned since the 1950s. I-195 was completed in 1983.
We took I-295 through Portland. We're lucky we found this, as I-95 had a blatantly misleading sign telling folks to take an exit way up on the north side of Portland to get to I-295. This was designed to cause people to pay more tolls.
As I-295 crosses the Fore River, we look over at the Veterans Memorial Bridge, visible at right.
This exit has a rather interesting setup.
I-295 in Portland.
A view of downtown Portland!
Another good view of Portland.
I-295 continues through Portland.
There's something hilarious about that I-295 shield, but I just can't figure out what.
As I-295/US 1/ME 26 crosses Tukey's Bridge, a 1960 span at Back Cove, we look over at the East End Rail Bridge.
I-295 on the north side of Portland.
I think this is a view of the Martin Point Bridge, which carries US 1 at the mouth of the Presumpscot River. Relax, I'll discuss US 1 more later.
As I-295 crosses the Presumpscot River, a rail bridge is seen at left. A bridge for ME 9 is too low to be seen.
They tried tricking us into joining I-295 way out here at the Falmouth Spur so we'd have to pay more tolls. The Falmouth Spur is the unsigned I-495, but there is no direct connection to it from I-295 north.
I don't know what this arrow sign on US 1 in Brunswick is supposed to mean.
As US 1 goes under a rail bridge over the Androscoggin River in Brunswick, let me introduce you to some US 1 lore. To get through the rainy days when I was growing up, we invented a game in which we pretended we were conducting an auto race on US 1. We started in Maine and headed south with little pieces of paper on a road atlas. TV shows and movies back then were full of conflicts between outlaw heroes and bumbling lawmen, and our cars were chased by Maine State Police, who we called Mainstays, because of Mainstay dog food. To save time, our cars had built-in toilets, and the waste would just empty out onto the road.
US 1 through Brunswick is interesting because of little exits like this.