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Day 2, the continuing saga. Unexpectedly gorgeous weather today.
Boy, did we make a racket on the expressway. Think I'm the only one without switchable active exhaust, so I made up for it with paddle shifting, and keeping it above 5000RPM. We may have exceeded the speed limit at some point. But oh, the sound...
Spent sometime with the President and CEO of LL Bean. He is the tall guy in the white shirt. Very nice. Lest you think our host was just sitting down all the time (from the earlier photo)...O Contrare, he arranged a police light and siren escort from the highway off ramp to the reserved parking lot right in front of the store. Through red lights and blocking traffic. Priceless.
I hate these "weekend" proposals, or even more than the weekend ones, the inconsiderate ones that are asked for over holiday's!!!! That really pisses me off!
Weather cooler and overcast today, but some of us (aka me) felt obligated to put our tops down anyway for the run up the coast. Very nice time at the Owls Head Transportation Museum and Farnsworth Museum ( the 3 Wyeths, mostly).
FYI, When I get home on Sun, I'll upload my 200+ pictures to Dropbox, and post a link here.
Our marvelous hosts Jay and Liz. Shutter speed too slow...
Ed won the Sonax cleaning product package, generously donated by Sonax. His beautiful E-type didn't appear to need any cleaning products!
Jay chats with Maine's finest. He really did arrange escorts through a few towns.
Bonnie (secretary of J.A.N.E), behind the wheel of my car. Luckily, you can't see the speedometer - the 2K RPMs was a temporary condition. The drain plug of her E-type wouldn't seal properly, so she was my welcome copilot.
Jay and the proprietor of Archer's, with the lobster club. Yes, lobster + BLT... followed by angiogram.
Wish I had a garage door like that.
The camera doesn't do a good job with IRR (Matt's car, on the right). Deeper and prettier than shown.
Mortal enemies?
For sale this fall, at auction. Just the car.
Modern art, or car ****? You be the judge.
Ready to roll... Six F-types, six colors. I love it!
Our final dinner together, at the hotel. We're visiting the local Jaguar dealer (who we saw a lot of over the past few days - good people). Breakfast, preview the F-Pace and XE, then head home.
Adding a few more. Just fantastic sites, food........oh my god sooooo much food! Gastronomic gluttony has reached new heights. Police escorts both days, many chances to really "ahem...open up shall we say"
our cars on the interstates and some nice twisty coast roads. Breakfast at Blueberries in Topsham, ME
More preventative Police public relations. Blues and Twos made getting out in and out of town a breeze.
Owls Head Transportation Museum. All I can say is...GO! That's an order.
Wanted so much to run the runways.
2002 Schumacher F1 car. The actual car. Most winning F1 car in history.
Clamdigger (05-08-2016),Foosh (05-07-2016),jaguny (05-08-2016),Mbourne (05-07-2016),mjm3457 (05-08-2016),Unhingd (05-08-2016) and 1 others liked this post. (Show less...)
Lisa and I want to thank you for your tireless effort in make this such a success. Sorry we could not stay for the entire weekend and had to miss the Saturday and Sunday events.
Looking forward to the crab run if that works out timing wise.
The 2016 Lobster Run finished today. Jaguar Scarborough opened up just for us, and had a nice breakfast of pastries, cheese, coffee etc. A very nice surprise - they had beautiful overnight leather bags for us, with the Lobster Run logo embossed on the bags. As if that wasn't enough, the ladies also got several yellow roses in honor of Mother's Day. A class act!
What an amazing gift!
They also had demo (not driveable) versions of the F-Pace and XE for us to sit in. Very nice.
Jay really pulled out all the stops for us. When he said all the places we'd be visiting owned, staffed, run by his close personal friends, I thought that was bit of hyperbole/artistic license.
It wasn't.
These folks were all terrific, and showed us the best of what Maine has to offer.
So, huge thanks, in no particular order, to...
Continental Tire, for the great T-shirts (see picture.)
L.L. Bean President and CEO Steve Smith. He gave us a nice welcome talk, and answered our questions, in addition to providing us with very nice tote bags, with the Lobster Run logo (see picture.)
The Press Hotel proprietor Jim Brady and GM Michael Strejek. Great place! (The welcome plate of strawberries and blueberries in our rooms was well received.)
David at Alagash Brewing gave us a very nice tour. Allagash gave us all tee shirts (see picture), and free beer tasting. (What's not to like?)
Tina and Danny Libby catered our lobster roll lunch in a nice L.L Bean park - amazing lobster rolls, as promised. They ship anywhere, so look up their website. I will be.
We had a very nice breakfast at the Wadsworth-Longfellow House. A shout out to:
The Speckled Axe [owner Matt Bolinder], Casco Bay Butter [owners Jennell and Alicia], Union Bagel [owner Paul Farrell] and Standard Bakery [Co-owners and husband and wife Matt James and Alison Pray].
For our interesting tour of the Wadsworth-Longfellow House: Visitor Services Manager John
Babin - as passionate as they come - Nan Cumming, Director of Institutional
Advancement, and the entire staff of the Maine Historical Society.
For our terrific meal at Scales: Michael Burke, General Manager, and Co-Owner Dana Street.
Our enjoyable prose reading was presented by writer extraordinaire Robert Gibbons and his beautiful wife Kathleen. Very interesting folks!
Our nice dinner at Paciarino - Chef and Owners Enrico Barbiero and his wife Fabiana de Savino.
Owner and head chef Drew Victory at Blueberries for a great breakfast. (I have one of their Whoopie Pies waiting for me in my kitchen... if I'm ever hungry again.)
[edit - I missed Owls Head!]
Thanks to Toby Stinson, Special Events and Auction Coordinator, at Owls Head Transportation Museum. Great tour, and we got great parking spots! Neat place.
[/edit]
Lynn Archer of Archer's on the Pier, for a great lunch (and a great location). Jay was right, the lobster club was unreal.
Thanks to Communications Officer David Troup and Director Christopher Brownawell of the Farnsworth Museum. I didn't realize how much I like Andrew Wyeth. Wow. And to Gordon Page Sr., Director of Rockland Maine Street.
We had a terrific meal in the Press Hotel, at Union. Thanks to Executive Chef Josh Berry, Executive Sous-Chef Matt Duley, Director of Food and Beverage Justin Jaret. Try the spring chicken thighs - oh my!
A special thanks to Rick Smith (General Manager) and Will Haynes (Director of Marketing) at Scarborough Jaguar/Land Rover. They participated in a number of events (Will brought what I'm guessing was a 2016 Caldera Red R Convertible to a number of events - you'll see it in many pictures). Great guys, and a great dealership. Thanks for the bags and roses (see pictures.)
Jay really did have police escorts for us in a few towns - Jay really does know everyone in the state of Maine.
So, thanks to the Freeport Police Department, the Brunswick Police Department, the Topsham Police Department, and the Rockland Police Department; the men in blue rock in these departments in these towns!
Thanks to Wayne Carini, Roger, and his crew at F-40 Motorsports. Nice guys, and generous with their time. A few nice cars too (see the Dropbox link for pictures) [They're in CT, not ME, where a few of us met up.]
Thanks, Marko, for the yellow 2016 Lobster Run decals - you'll see these on our cars in many pictures. Marco also made larger plates which he presented to Jay, and to Wayne Carini. Well done!
All the participants were great fun. I apologize in advance for errors and omissions:
Jay and Liz (our tireless hosts) (ME)
Marko and Tamela (PA)
Lance and his guest Terry (MD/VA)
Matt and Donalyn (central Colorado!)
Dick and Eileen, from J-A-N-E (MA)
Zach and Lisa (Quebec)
Howard and Joanne, J-A-N-E (MA?)
Bonnie, whose poor E-type wasn't quite ready (NH)
Judee (ME)
Ed, J-A-N-E (those are his E-type and Mark II in the pictures) (ME)
Dave (aka Me) (MA)
Lobster Roll, slaw, Maine potato French fries, mug of clam chowder, and the real thing, whole Maine lobster (soft shell), along with requisite bib and crackers. We walked down to the Portland dock and had dinner last night after the group left. We missed all of you already.
Dave, great summary of Lobster Run, sorry we missed so much. And the photos tell the story in images. Thank you so much. Let me know when you come to Colorado; we have a room for you anytime, and I want to talk physics with you. To the other Lobster Runners, wow, you made it special, and we have the memories.
Jay and Liz, nothing left to say really, but a heartfelt thank you to you both. We were lifted by the privilege of meeting you and your introduction to a little of Maine. It wouldn't have been the same without you. We have a few more days to experience more of Maine before we start back for home.