Funny how when you rent a car at an airport, or anywhere else for that matter, you get whatever they have on the lot and you are stuck with whatever plates are on the car. For us we had New York plates and we didn't think twice about it until we found ourselves being treated differently throughout our vacation – most likely due to the fact we had New York plates!
Now I have nothing against New Yorkers, but once you get into New England tourist country, the natives (or fellow tourist) may have some pre-conceived notion about New Yorkers.
And so we found ourselves being cut off, given break jobs and basically treated like the scum of the earth all week – something we figured was due to our license plates.
A great big thank you to the crazy gal coming out of the Maine Mall who was in front of us when lanes went from 2 to 1 and gave us a brake job for no reason at all. She proceeded to do that for the next half dozen stop lights and turns until we'd had enough and decided to follow her.
I'm guessing there's nothing more frightening to Miss Maine Soccer Mom than a couple of grey-haired (alleged) New Yorkers chasing her down for her crazy driving.
And then there was the day it was pouring rain in Portland and we decided to head down to the waterfront to 3 Dollar Dewey's for a beer. It's where we'd gone a number of times when we were dating 30 years ago.
We lucked out and got a parking space right in front of Dewey's. We looked for a parking meter and seeing none, we agreed that it was so far down Commercial Street that perhaps they weren't using meters here.
We entered Dewey's and had a cold one, some fried calamari and ruminated on some great memories.
Ninety minutes later we came out of Dewey's to find a soaking wet parking ticket tucked into our wiper blades.
We looked at each other and shouted, "What?"
Again we looked for the meter and finding none, I grabbed my camera out of its bag and got back out of the car, trying to shield the lens from the downpour while I looked for some sign that we'd broken a parking law.
There ... five parking spaces down from us was the meter and sign announcing that all vehicles in that block had to pay that particular meter, retrieve the receipt and place it on the dashboard of the car. Where was the sign announcing that you had to pay for parking? It was about 8 feet tall and nestled between the leaves of a narrow tree where no one could see it.
So, the city of Portland, Maine gets it's tourists – by placing ONE parking meter in the middle of a block with ONE sign that is hidden (as it was through many of the blocks on Commerical Street). Anyone pulling into a parking space as we did – in the pouring rain and BEFORE the meter sign – would not know to pay to park.
Portland is a large city with plenty of commerce to keep it going. It doesn't completely depend on its tourism industry, yet that industry is a large part of the state's coffers. Why would you deliberately set up the tourists to fail by placing a meter system like this where few can see it?
Did the meter officer see that we had New York plates? Probably. Did he/she get a kick out of fining us? I'm sure he/she did.
The $15 fine was annoying. We have no problem with feeding the meter and we always have plenty of quarters on hand to do so. We were further incensed by the ticket's statement that you could not fight the fine and win, so please just pay it.
We did, grudgingly. After all, we were driving a rental car and that's who the city would have gone after in the end.
The next day we went back down to Commercial Street as the rain had finally stopped and the foggy waterfront was a plethora of photo opportunities for me and my camera. We headed back to 3 Dollar Dewey's for lunch and low and behold, more than half the cars parked in the same block, as well as the previous block, were loaded with tickets ... every single car was from out of state.
I love Maine. It's one of my favorite places in the world. It is beautiful from the ocean to the mountains to the lakes to the little villages scattered along the coastline. But when a city like Portland sets up the very people who come there to spend their money and help keep the merchants and city in business, by fining them for failing to pay for parking in a poorly marked area – why would anyone come back?
What a laugh!
They come back for the same reason we do ... the enticing salty tang of the waterfront, the mournful sound of the gulls flying overhead, the shouts of the lobstermen as they unload their daily catch, the hustle and bustle of businessmen and women, tourists, families out for a stroll, the old cobblestone streets, funky, whimsical shops, the delicious seafood and beers that line the Old Port Exchange, the views from the pier, the promenades and the parks, the gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, the snow, the fog, the summers ... Maine has it all and I just guess it was worth a $15 parking ticket.
Tomorrow we leave our beautiful Maine sanctuary to find ourselves in the horrors of LaGuardia airport.
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