海角大神

As cooped-up Americans have burst into the great outdoors this summer,聽there鈥檚 been one predictable, irritating side effect: traffic.聽

Interstates are jammed. A year of pandemic-limited travel has produced聽pent-up demand for vacation road trips.聽Which is why you鈥檇 think lots of people would be yelling at Mike聽Saxton.

Last week he and his Midwestern trucking crew hauled a giant聽prefab building into a Maine vacation area where roads were already聽packed. And got stuck.

Twice.

The first time, the trailer hauling his heavy cargo bottomed out when聽trying to make a sharp left onto a bridge over the Penobscot River.聽The second time, Mr. Saxton had made it onto Mount Desert Island 鈥撀爃ome of Acadia National Park, one of the most-visited parks in the聽country 鈥� when he got stuck at another sharp turn.

The delays surely made some people mad. But that鈥檚 not the whole聽story.

The cargo was a special building to house medical equipment at the Bar聽Harbor hospital. As it crept along the coast, social media posts closely聽followed its progress and hailed the crew鈥檚 efforts to keep going,聽according to the Bangor Daily News. People offered food when they聽were stuck. In Bar Harbor Mr. Saxton got an ocean-view room, a lobster聽dinner, and lots of offers of breakfast.

And a GoFundMe page to bring Mr. Saxton back to Bar Harbor聽under聽less stressful conditions raised $2,600 in a few days. 鈥淟et鈥檚 get him here聽for a proper vacation!鈥� said organizer Molly Damon.