One of the delights of marrying Barney some 30 years ago was an introduction to L.L. Bean, Lands End, and Eddie Bauer. Whenever we’ve been close to the east coast of Maine, we’ve made a stop at Freeport to visit L.L. Bean. This trip home makes our third time to visit the headquarters for this great business. We’ve seen it grow from two buildings, one of which was for the outlet store. Never been here? Now you get to see what it looks like!
Barney found a beautiful KOA campground about 15 minutes away from L.L. Bean. Looks like it is a destination spot for families during the summer season with a swimming pool, lots of open fields, and horses to ride.
cabins in the background 
lots of open spaces for camping
This old stone fence on the left must have been part of an old homestead. The newer stone fence on the right is one we saw as we drove to LL Bean.
old 
newer
L.L. Bean
love the boot entrance 
canoe paddles for door handles
As we walked around the retail building to the main entrance, we saw these locked moose in the front window.
Here’s the story of these locked moose from when they were found in May 2006. They died after their antlers became locked in battle during the previous fall’s rut.
Moose facts
- largest antlered animal in North America and the largest member of the deer family in the world
- an average bull moose (adult male) weighs about 1000 pounds, and an average cow moose (adult female) weighs about 700-800 pounds
- their “scruffy” look in late spring and early summer is because they’re shedding their winter coats
- some areas of Maine have more moose per square mile than anywhere else in America; Maine has about 27,000 square miles of moose habitat
- they are browsers eating primarily leaves, twigs, and buds of woody plants—about 20 pounds of plant material a day
- favorite foods are willow, aspen, maple, birch, pin cherry, mountain ash, and balsam; during May to October they eat large amounts of aquatic vegetation
- breeding season—the rut—starts in late September and runs through October
- bulls over age 4 are the more dominant breeders
- cows usually have their first offspring at 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 years of age; first births are usually a single calf, while twins are common for older cows
- calves are born in May or June, weight about 30 pounds, and stay with their mother the first winter
- lifespan of an average Maine moose is about 10-14 years, but many can live up to 20 years
- death usually comes from hunting, poaching during off season, road kills, accidents like drowning, black bears hunting them, and disease
- this disease is referred to as “brainworm” and is caused by a tiny worm that invades the moose’s central nervous system and often causes paralysis and death; this worm is common in Maine deer but causes them no apparent problems; deer can indirectly spread the brainworm resulting in few moose in areas where deer population is abundant
Now we know all about Maine moose!
inside the store
They sell everything in their stores from clothes . . .
to kids’ snow toys to bags of all shapes and colors . . .
even to this river canoe that can seat 10 people!
As I said in the beginning, the first time we came here the L.L. Bean store was almost the only building around. Now this is a destination place with fancy hotels and every store you’d ever want to see. If you ever come here, be sure to try the chocolate chip cookie at the L.L. Bean cafe. They are delicious.
After an afternoon of shopping, we got ready for our 2-day blitz to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.
best Walmart overnight ever
While we’ve shown Walmarts where we’ve spent the night, this Walmart in Glenmont, New York, is the best Walmart ever for staying overnight! Why? Because the store was closed at night so the parking lot was quiet, big rigs can’t stay here running their generators all night, and the parking lot was flat so we had an easy setup.
On our second long day of driving, we drove through . . .
Now on to Colonial Williamsburg!
