State rethinks its rest areas
MaryJane Crawford was fine until she left Aroostook County. Every so often -- she could count on it -- there would be a place to pull over, get out, stretch her legs and take a break from the long trip.

But once she neared her Madison home, rest areas were harder to find than the Invisible Man.

"Every rest area up there is open and we hardly met a car on the road," Crawford said. "It's so ridiculous that up there in the boonies they have all those rest areas open, (but) from Newport to Canaan there's no place. There are no restaurants or anything."

Over the past few years the state Department of Transportation has been taking a look at highway rest areas -- those turnouts with parking spaces, toilets and a few picnic tables under the pines that have served generations of weary travelers -- and closing many of them.

Kennebec Journal