How far is it............really?? (Calais, Lubec: living in, prices, moving to)

[Elcarim]

The maps can tell me the distances in miles, but as you Mainers know, miles don't mean **** in the snow and ice! How long does it really take to drive from Eastport to the Indian township just west of Calais? They, apparently, do a lot of hiring in DH's field there, but we don't want to live there. So, we need to find somewhere that we want to live but is still easily driveable.

[Mainer61]

Do you mean Princeton?

[island mermaid]

According to Mapquest it says 1.5 hours and 52 miles....hmmmm mapquest has usually treated us right but I don't know about that one.....

[Elcarim]

Originally Posted by Mainer61

Do you mean Princeton?

That's the one.

[Maine Writer]

Indian Township is one town past Princeton and one town before me. It takes an hour. We have a friend who has worked for IT for about five years and loves it.

Princeton and Township aren't the same town. Indian Township is a reservation with its own form of government, police, fire, forestry, roads, etc.

[Elcarim]

Does he work for the Fire/EMS services, MW? That's what DH is looking into. Downeast EMS told him they are always hiring, so he's going to be contacting them when we get an offer on the house, so he can start pursuing that.

[kellysmith]

From Lubec to the intersection of Route 9 and 1 is about 45 minutes on a normal day. You would take a "shortcut". Seem to remember it's 191 then 214, but honestly don't remember and don't want to go look at the gazetteer to find out. From that intersection to the firehouse in Indian Township is probably 10 to 15 minutes. Eastport would be about the same. You would stay on route 1 to get there. It's probably longer time-wise then getting from Eastport to IT than from Lubec to IT. Pembroke is where 214 comes back to route 1 so that would be more convenient than either Eastport of Lubec. I travel to both places for work so have some experience. On bare ground times are what I state. In a storm you might be traveling at 25 mph instead of 50. If I was moving to that area and wanted to be near water, I'd look at Grand Lake Stream. It's just a hop and a skip from iT and though it's not on the ocean, it's nice. Day trips to the ocean will give you that experience. That's what most of us do in Maine. You will be quite isolated there, but that will be the case in most of Washington County...and that's not a knock on Washington County.

[Coaster]

If you're absolutely committed to living in Eastport, you might want to look for work closer to home. The highway between Eastport and Princeton (Route 1) is two-lane and it can get pretty dicey in the winter. I think one hour is in good weather, and with gasoline prices where they are the travel time, expenses, and general hassle may not be worth the job. OTOH, if Eastport isn't a requirement, there are several rather nice towns closer to Princeton, such as Robbinston and Calais.

[Elcarim]

We aren't really "set" on any one town right now. We definitely want to be on the coast, though. We're used to driving an hour or more one way on a good day and two hours on bad days! It's really awful.

DH only works 2-3 days a week for 24-36 hours at a time, so he doesn't have to do the 5 trips a week that most people do. A normal month will only have him out for 15 days out of the month at most.

[AustinB]

Gas prices in Calais were $3.24 last weekend. I've heard that the passamaquoddy tribe prefers to hire fellow natives first. I'd check to see what their hiring preferences might be.