My position is: 43:21.215N 70:28.477W

We left Wood Island Harbour in bright sun and a light south westerly wind and motored the 13Nm round Cape Porpoise to the Kennybunk River, arriving with the whole afternoon ahead of us. The entrance is quite narrow and we were followed in by a small schooner, which was providing trips round the bay and was a distraction as we negotiated the somewhat narrow channel. As we passed the Harbourmaster’s office he hailed us and asked if we wanted a mooring. We had been a bit unsure what we wanted to do so accepted his offer but were unable to hear the instructions as to how to identify his moorings. Slowing down, we let the schooner pass us in a wider area, and its skipper kindly pointed out which buoy we could take.

We went straight ashore and walked into town passing a memorial garden for Barbara Bush. The Bush’s have property in the area so their presence was much in evidence. The town centre was mainly aimed at up market tourism but there were several places selling various sorts of fast food – hot dogs, lobster rolls, sandwiches, ice cream etc – so we were able to find something to eat.

Ted fancied looking round the trolley museum and the local tourist map made it look quite close so we set off to walk there. However the map lied – the scale grew smaller the further away you were from the town centre! It was not even an interesting walk, but was along a main highway with no sidewalk, however once committed we felt we should press on, as we kept believing it was further to go back than forward (it probably wasn’t the first few times we discussed it!) and eventually we arrived an hour before it closed after a 5 mile walk.

It was an amazing tribute to the efforts of a lot of dedicated people as it was developed and maintained solely through voluntary efforts and all the people we met were enthusiastic volunteers. However judging by the amount of restoration work still to do it felt like an uphill task for everyone, particularly as all their money was raised from individuals and not through grants.

We had a ride round their site on a restored track and visited the sheds where they undertake their restoration work. There was even an old Blackpool tram, but that had been there since 1954 and was still not finished. I was particularly impressed by the fact that in order to have the authentic light bulbs in the trolleys themselves – incandescent ones, which are no longer produced commercially because of the move to energy saving bulbs – they had to buy the whole of the factory’s production run at a time. I was also impressed by the efforts they made to engage with families, organising special pumpkin carving weekends for Halloween with whole fields of pumpkins available for visitors to carve.

We couldn’t face the 5 mile return walk so got a taxi to come for us. The journey took a lot less time but it was still long enough for the taxi driver to give us a run down on her fitness regime, her thyroid problem and her voting intentions – Americans do love to share personal details! Back in town we bought ice creams and a blueberry pie for later and then went back to the boat.

Approaching the Kennybunk River                                                                   Moored off Kennybunkport. GWB keeps his boat further up on the right

The Barbara Bush Garden                                                                                                     Building Regs?

First sighting of New England fall colours                                                The long un-winding road

1904 trolley (tram) we took a ride in                                                        they were known as bowling alley trolleys

The conductor tells us all the history                                                                                 Boys playing with their toys!                                                                      

Blackpool tram salvaged in 1954. They cannot run it as their wires are too low for a double decker                                 Plenty of work to do

They have a lot of working ones from around the world,  all with interesting histories                  Early voluntary work on the track