The Island is Flooding ...

Little by little, Mount Desert Island is starting to succumb to the relentless downpours. Yesterday early afternoon as we prepared to leave Bar Harbor for Acadia and the Park Loop Road, I noticed that route 3 leading south of town was blocked off and the schoolyard soccer and baseball fields at the southern edge of town were completely submerged.

Later yesterday, we were prevented from driving back across the island by a policeman: route 233 leading back from Somesville was flooded partway across, apparently. We doubled back to route 102 north and tried to cut across Crooked Road, but that was no-go, too. We forded the first flood after we saw the car in front of us make it through (though the water was *damn* high and it probably wasn't good for the brakes), but the second flood was obviously impassable. Which was frustrating since we had made it most of the way to route 3. We had to turn around and wind the several miles back to 102 and then take that all the way to the top of the island, where the causeway connects it to the mainland, and then take route 3 the long, slow, winding 9 miles back down to Bar Harbor.

At night on our way back from Miguel's restaurant -- under new ownership and its menu has definitely improved: the vegetarian enchiladas were incredibly delicious, though all the sugar and tomatoes and stuff is probably one of the reasons I feel so lousy today -- we saw water bubbling out of one of the manhole covers on West Street. I just don't think the island is going to be able to take much more.

Categories: personal, holiday, vacation, maine, travel, whining, grumbling, weather, rain, monsoon, autumn, newengland, dogs, pets, byjjmg