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Driving northward along US Route 1, take extra care to slow down near the Maine Idyll Motor Court near Freeport; you don’t want to miss this one. Built by depression-era laborers, the cabin has provided a quiet night’s sleep for three generations – each under the management of the Marstaller family. While chipmunks scamper underfoot, you slip into and out of shadows painted by swaying trees and the darting sun. Later when you step into an office filled with family pictures, you might chat with the current owner, Lewis, who offers a mimeographed poem that have guided his family’s stewardship of the Maine Idyll: “To all who travel on life’s road of pleasure and pain: You who stop here should forget your troubles and griefs, your feuds and hates . . . May your stay at the Maine Idyll be as a day of sunshine, new courage, friendship, and hope.” One other thing: when you pull into the Idyll and find a local worker singing while he tends to the cabins, don’t be alarmed. Folks tend to get musical around here.

All text copyright Andrew Wood. Photos copyright Jenny Wood and Andy Wood.