2am in Freeport, ME

The light from your headlights is replaced by the dim glow of yellow light coming from black streetlamps and you step out of your car. You don't bother suppress the slight grin that comes from knowing that just hours before mobs of people were frantically searching for the prize possession that you came upon so easily. It was here the whole time, just not for them, a parking spot within walking distance of L.L. Bean.

The tourists have gone now, packed up and headed up Route 1 to their little motels on the beach, or south to New Hampshire. The lights are dim in the Gap, Polo and Banana Republics stores down the street. Further down there is an old white building which looks like a town house, but is actually an elaborately disguised McDonalds. Even they have thrown in the towel for the night.

There is a part of you that would like to sit on your cars bumper and simply wait for them to return, flooding back in with the sun. You could just sit there and laugh at them as they hiked in, feet aching, all the way from the "raccoon" parking lot. The parking lots here are not numbered. To number them would imply a sense of order that seems to have been purposefully neglected. Instead the lots have been named after the small critters of the state. In the daytime you can meander through a river of parked cars passing from "Rabbit" to "Moose" and then on to the next without even noticing the change. But that's for another time, tonight you are here on a mission, and you already have your parking spot, no more than a few hundred yards from the front door of L.L. Bean.

L.L. Bean, an amazing place really. Featuring hunting, fishing, outdoor gear and clothing, it is basically a store for hicks. At some point, however, it won the heart of the American public and became trendy. How wonderful it is when pure function actually becomes trendy. People came from all over to shop there, more business followed, and Freeport became what it is today. Ben & Jerries, Subway, and more little outlet stores than you can shake a fist at line the street. L.L. Bean even went ahead and opened its own little outlet store across the street from itself. The town is now so popular, that L.L. Bean has to remain open 24 hours a day, so the hicks can still have access to it, and that is why you are here at 2am.

You wrap around the side of the building and head in the old front door. On the inside, the place seems anything but deserted, although you know that comparatively, it is. A few customers wander around, poking through the racks, but mostly it's the blue vested clerks making them selves busy restocking shelves, handing out information, or anxiously awaiting your purchase. Ah yes, that purchase, the one you would rather not make.

To avoid the inevitable, you cut left into the hunting and fishing section, after all it would be a shame to come all the way down here and not check out the orange camouflage and spinner baits. You are half tempted to do a little product testing by grabbing a couple of lures and tossing them in the trout pond up by women's clothing just to see, but you fight it.
You could spend hours in this store, it is even less organized than the parking lots, and after the recent remodeling, you are completely lost. At least they had the courtesy to leave the camping and hunting sections where they were. You wander aimlessly for a while looking for that gift that your sister absolutely must have for her birthday tomorrow, and finally locate it on a rack upstairs.

You make your purchase and escape out the side door by the fly fishing pond, and set out for your car. After a moment of mourning the loss of your parking spot, you pull out and head up Route 1 for a short clip and then cut over to 95 north and you are on your way home.

Congratulate yourself, you have just been in and out of Freeport and done everything there is to do there in under an hour. Not many people can do that.


Recommended: Yes

Best Time to Travel Here: Mar - May