NERR 2023 Routes & Itineraries
Saturday October 7, 2023
Kickoff location: Salisbury Beach, MA
Salisbury Beach to Rockport, ME
We will be kicking off at Salisbury Beach, on the Massachusetts coast in the morning and traveling north before ending the day in Rockport, ME.
If you plug "Joe's Playland" into your GPS, that will give you a pretty direct location. As you can see on the map (circled in red), there is a parking all along a loop at the end of the road. At that time of the morning, all/most of those spots should be open for us. There are also public bathrooms that will be open at that time too.
This route has some REALLY scenic coastal roads, espcially during the first half of the ride. It also has one of the longest highway stretches in recent NERR history, but today is a long day at almost 5 hours and 192 miles, so this stretch was needed to keep the time reasonable. Plus we have a museum stop on this leg!
Kickoff time: 9:00AM SHARP (also known as A.I.S. time)
Notes:
1) The very first section of 1A in Massachusetts (shocker) is VERY bumpy. Sorry!
2) The first bathroom break will be when we get to the museum, about 2 hours from kickoff.
3) Getting through Portsmouth, NH as a group will be nearly impossible. It's a busy town, especially on a Saturday, and there's no good way to get through it. We'll try to regroup on 103 in Kittery, but I'm not sure there's many places to do so, so we'll just have to play that by ear. If not 103, I know there's space on 1A in York, ME to regroup.
4) As mentioned above, there's a 60 mile stretch of highway on this leg.
5) Gas stop in Waldoboro, ME about an hour before we get to the hotel.
6) The last couple hours of this leg have some really cool backcountry ME roads with some bridges and coastal scenery mixed in.
7) After the gas stop in Waldoboro, if you've had enough cruising for the day (I hope not!) and just want to get to the hotel, just simply follow route 1 from there and it'll take you right to Ledges by the Bay. BUT, you'll be missing some AWESOME cruising!
Sunday October 8, 2023
Rockport, ME to Bar Harbor, ME
This will be one of our shortest routes ever, at only 125 miles, so people will have plenty of time to enjoy Mt Desert Island and the Bar Harbor area.
We have two planned stops that day. The first one will be at Fort Knox and Penobscot Narrows Observatory and our final stop will be a return visit to the Seal Cove Auto Museum.
While we have been through these areas multiple times over the years, the majority of this route will still be brand new to everyone, with lots of changes, just as they've all come to expect during NERR events.
A.I.S. time: 8:30 AM SHARP!
Link to route:
Important notes:
1) Each point of interest stop will be 1 hour
2) There are no gas stops marked on the route, but if one is needed, we will do a short stop for gas, almost immediately after leaving Fort Knox. We'll make that a game day decision.
Monday October 9, 2023
Bar Harbor, ME to Rangeley, ME
This day's route will start bringing the cruise away from the coast, in a western direction, though Maine's high peaks region. Today's leg is about 180 miles, with just over 4 hours behind the wheel
Our first hour on the road, won't be the most scenic part of the day, it will be bringing us to our only day's point of interest stop. We should be arriving at the Cole Transportation Museum around mid-morning. This will also be a great point for any stragglers to get back in the pack, as we have a little bit of tough driving before this point.
The route we will be driving, doesn't have too many gas stations large enough to take us, but we do have one planned at just about 100 miles in & that will be our only one for the day. We suggest if you are going to need gas at any point that day, to get it then, so you can stay with the group as we enjoy the best part of the route later in the day.
This is also a great point for everyone to gather back up, before the best and final part of the day's leg
After we leave that stop, we are in for our best driving of the day, as we cruise through Maine's most mountainous area, on our way to Rangeley. This could possibly be our greatest scenic Maine route ever.
A.I.S. time: 9:00AM
Link to route:
Important notes:
1) Our museum stop will be 1 hour
Tuesday October 10, 2023
Rangeley, ME to Rutland, VT
This leg will continue to head in a western direction, ending in Rutland. This is one of our longest legs ever, at almost 230 miles and with around 5 hours behind the wheel.
This will be one of those days that is just all about the drive, with no planned attraction stops. While we didn't get to pre-run this leg in it's entirety, we have driven around 60 percent of it.
We got some exceptionally nice roads along this leg, with possibly some of our best ever, especially if the Fall colors cooperate with us.
There are two gas stops planned, for bathroom breaks and they are also set up so that it should be easy to gather back up, if the group gets broken apart.
We do have two small stretches of "Interstate" driving, but they are just two lanes wide and they still have some grest scenery. When we drive these roads, we will only be traveling the speed limit, so if there are stragglers, they will be able to catch the pack again, without having to hammer down
A.I.S. time: 8:30AM SHARP!
Link to route:
Important notes:
1) For once, things are pretty straight forward, so no special instructions.