Thoughts from travelers

. Outside the Yarmouth visitor information center, John and Elizabeth Imad, a newly married couple from Yarmouth, Mass., were bound for Bar Harbor on Wednesday. They said they were unaware of a bridge problem. They already had planned to stay on Interstate 95 to Bangor, then to head southeast to Ellsworth.

. Ruth Clark and Karl Wendelowski, both of Peterborough, N.H., were unaware of a bridge problem. They planned to take Interstate 95 to Augusta, then travel east on Route 3 to Bar Harbor. On their return trip, they planned a stay in Searsport, and didn’t expect to avoid the Waldo-Hancock Bridge.

. Outside an information center in downtown Freeport, a family from Massachusetts – who were not heading to Mount Desert Island on their trip – said they had followed I-95 to Bangor when MDI was their destination in previous trips.

. Outside Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro, David Chalk of Del Rio, Texas, was heading south after visiting Bar Harbor. He took Route 1 north and south, he said, because “that’s the route.” The delays on the bridge amounted to “minutes,” he said. “I didn’t really pay any attention,” he said, though he had read newspaper accounts of the problems.

. Dick and Nora Abrams, traveling in a 30,000-pound motor home to Surry in Hancock County, said they learned of a detour from their travel association. The Florida couple recently had attended a Family Motor Coach Association meeting with 3,900 other members in Buffalo, N.Y., and learned when they received their itinerary for Maine of the bridge being closed to vehicles of their weight. Both said they were disappointed to be routed away from the bridge.

“We always go that way to Surry,” Nora Abrams said Wednesday while the couple was stopped at the Augusta rest area. “It’s very inconvenient.”

. Dave Fedeli of New London, Conn., was at the Kennebunk rest stop for lunch Wednesday and said he had no knowledge of the situation at the bridge. Fedeli was traveling in a passenger car and on his way to Milbridge to visit friends. He said he had no problem with crossing the bridge or having to wait in line. “Not from my standpoint,” he said. “Traffic is usually pretty light there anyway.”

. Dan and Annette Goforth of Amarillo, Texas, had just picked up some brochures at the Kittery information center and were settling down in their motor home Wednesday when they were told of the bridge restrictions. The Goforths were on their way to Ellsworth, followed by Campobello Island, in a 34,000-pound Airstream Land Yacht. The Goforths are members of a 39-vehicle Top-of-Texas Caravan, which had a printed itinerary from Texas to Prince Edward Island. The large three-ring binder showed no indication of problems at the bridge. Dan Goforth said they planned to take Route 3 from Augusta to Belfast, then follow the detour up Route 1A through Brewer down to Ellsworth.

“Well, I guess that’s the way it goes,” Goforth said. “We’re in no hurry. We don’t have to be back in Texas until September 15. You know, they say if you travel in an Airstream it adds nine years to your life. That’s what they say, though it helps to take it slow.”