Took the ferry out to Vinalhaven Island for Father's Day. We both remember the town being a bit more vibrant than we found it this time. Maybe covid has hit the economy harder than we'd anticipated.
Upon reflection, there really wasn't much there to begin with. The closure of one bakery/cafe and one restaurant, together with the breakfast-only posture of one that remains, didn't help. And a 'not until well and truly lunchtime' opening time of the other left us with exactly one option...a food truck. In the middle of a dusty, shadeless dirt parking lot. And they were out of crab for the crab melt, and steak for the cheesesteak sub.
We had nice burgers, and onion rings made 'fancy' by adding Parmesan, truffle powder, and pepper for an extra buck. Lunch was on a picnic table under shady trees. Next to the ferry landing. Which we boarded at the very next opportunity. First in line.
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I've always loved the different pace of island life. Sailing over to any of these islands feels like stepping onto a foreign land, as so many things are done in a slightly different way.
Walking to town along what passes for a Main St here, I noticed a line of universally dusty, dark colored pickup trucks driven by dusty, weather-worn men in faded ball caps. They were pulled over to the left shoulder, against traffic. The shack that appeared to be their destination was signed 'Lobster Co-op'. But peering into the truck beds revealed only scraps of wood, rope, and rusty metal bits. No lobster tubs, so they weren't dropping off, and no coolers for picking up lobsters for dinner. A mystery.
Turns out the Co-op also hosts the one gasoline pump on the island. How wonderful. I recall taking our car over to Islesboro Is, and filling up at the general store. The gas hose had been twisted and driven over so many times that a fine spray of gas erupted from a middle kink when the pump was on...trick was to hold the hose away so the spray landed on the gravel, not your leg. Or your cigarette, I suppose. Like I said...just slightly different ways.
Anyway, we only have one pump in town ourselves, so not too unusual. What I did love was that each truck waiting in the mid-day heat was shut off with the windows open, and an arm hanging out. In a mainland town this would have been a line of SUVs driven by harried Moms, windows tinted, engines sweating with the A/C on full blast. Nice change of pace
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In other news...Come to find out this site was down for a while. Not sure how long. My hosting company doesn't apparently run any sort of heartbeat check on sites? Anyway, got the issue resolved within a day. But it did take two phone calls and a chat session to finally get someone knowledgable to engage. The number of wild and inaccurate suggestions thrown about by tier 1 techs in the interim was truly unsettling. Ah well.
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