Thursday, 23 September. Warm, sunny.

Excellent. No pictures. Just go.  Plan to spent day(s) at Gettysburg. Eisenhower’s home is there too.

Wednesday, 21 September.  Warm, sunny.  The setting sun is beginning to bother me each afternoon.  Clouds would be good, as long as the moisture stays in the sky.

Shelburne Falls, MA, and its Bridge of Flowers was a great surprise.  I was actually just looking for a post office.  See the pictures.  It began as a trolley bridge then fell into disuse.  After a while, some townspeople thought it would be nice to cover the eyesore with flowers.  Works.

It took 3 hours to go 100 miles.  Got a bit lost finding a gas station, but mostly local roads are a big pain.  Massachusetts has a very irritating concept of speed limits.  50, then 45, then 55, then back to 45, etc.  Some cars seem to just go 45 all the time.  The evidence that they’re messed up was at the New York border.  From 40 to 55 with no change in roadway.

Drove down the Taconic State Parkway, which parallels the Hudson River on the east side.  Doesn’t allow trucks or trailers, so it’s nicer (though slower) than the Thruway on the west side. I was planning to visit West Point, but time was running out and I didn’t want to rush it.  Realized that Hyde Park was on the way, so I decided to visit a house of one president rather than a campus with thousands of cadets.  A rally of Model A Fords was there.  The Library/Museum had a special exhibit detailing the White House’s 36 hours following the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Very interesting.  I could have stayed all day.

A quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, shown below, stopped me short.  See its caption.  My Grand Adventure has had many thoughtful twists and turns.  This one might be the oddest.

Not too many stops, but I traveled 320 miles and almost reached my day’s goal.  Tomorrow is a designed short day, then I decide which latitude to travel at.  Depends on temperature.  I’m hopefully going to take I40 and try to get on a few old stretches of Route 66.

Bridge of Flowers. It is really beautiful. The town had some interesting shops. Wanted to stay longer.

Odd roadside sculpture.

Odder roadside store.

Nice memorial to a senator/governor in an otherwise empty park.

I don’t understand the quote.

Model A Fords. This is just a few. There might have been more than 30 of them.

“Yesterday” was December 8th, 1942. On the evening of December 7th, 1942, “I had an hour’s visit with nine honor juniors of Colgate University. I found them an extremely nice group of young boys.” My father was one of them.

Tuesday, 20 September.  Warm to hot, clear skies.

A lot of touring; not much mileage.  Local roads out west mean 70 MPH and no towns.  Here it’s 45 MPH and lots of towns.

Old Orchard Beach is your typical resort town that caters to the blue collar crowd.  Lots of it is closed for the season.  (If I saw a “Closed for the season” sign in San Diego, I’d assume that the store was permanently closed.)  They had just had a biker weekend, so the bars had “No group colors” signs.  I don’t think my Honda Gold Wing jacket applied.  It was interesting to walk around only because it seemed to be a throwback era.  If I’d been there in season I’d have kept driving.

Saco, ME, is one of those towns that clearly is led by long term inspired management.  Well laid out, nice government offices, historical markers, and a museum.  And what a museum!  I toured just one of three floors.  It’s not just local history.  An excellent place that doesn’t shy away from the darker histories.  The radical locals (with a KKK chapter) were mostly focused on keeping out the French-Canadians and Roman Catholics.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Rode behind a truck carrying manure for about 15 miles on a country road.  Ah, the sweet smell of nature!

The State House in Concord isn’t nearly as pretty as Vermont’s, but the interior is much more museum-like.  The lobby has a display of battle flags from over a hundred New Hampshire military units, ranging from revolutionary times to WWII.  Many portraits with detailed histories.  The gift store has an impressive collection of campaign memorabilia: the welcomer proudly pointed out that every candidate must visit the State House to register for the primary.

Gilsum, NH, is my paternal grandmother’s hometown.  Never been there before.  I visited both her grave (with the graves of more distant relatives) and the town.  It’s literally a one stop sign town (a “T” intersection).  The general store predates my grandmother. While standing outside that store I recalled To Kill a Mockingbird, alluding to being able to understand people better when you stand on their porch.  I never met my grandmother, but at that moment I felt a connection.  Maudlin I know, but there it is.

I only drove a little over 200 miles, but I saw an awfully lot of America.

Old Orchard Beach, complete with cheap looking amusement park, pier, and candy store.

Saco, ME.

Origin of “grandfather’s clock”?

A contract to become an indentured servant. Note the “Shall not commit Fornication, nor contract Matrimony”!

I was taking a picture of the marker when I noticed the library sign. Scary! I do not know what it’s referencing.

Concord State House.

The stare of authority.

The State House gift store.

My grandmother. To get the lettering to stand out, I sprayed it with white foam from a can of windshield cleaner, then wiped off the excess.

I was intrigued by the heading first, then the languages.

Monday, 19 September.  Drizzle.

Rested in Place.  Visited L.L. Bean.  Very cool store.  Friendly.  Lots of non-store features, such as a huge fish tank.  Not as big as a Bass Brothers store, but more pleasant.  They sell furniture!

Cold River Distillery.  Barrel aged vodka.  Maine Beer Company.  Monster pretzels.  McDonalds like no other.

Joshua Chamberlain.  Maine’s George Washington.  “Soldier, Statesman, Scholar”.  Museum closed on Mondays.

Travel resumes tomorrow.  Don’t know if it’ll be focused on history or nature.

Bean got it’s start by making boots.

This is a McDonalds. Really. Freeport has some rigid rules.

A bench I found. Touching.

An important figure during Gettysburg.

Sunday, 18 September.  Cloudy, no rain.  Staying with cousin.

Maine Maritime Museum.  Massive.  Extremely well documented displays. It’s mostly about the local shipbuilding history, but that was a huge part of Maine’s history.  Highly recommended.  Nice lobster exhibit.

Had the absolutely best lobster meat I’ve ever had.  Can never be improved, only equaled.  Picked out of the sea 15 minutes before cooking.  Microwaved for seven minutes.  It’s what omnivores do.

Rest of the day reminiscing with cousin.

Maine Maritime Museum. The metal sculpture describes the actual dimensions of the schooner Wyoming, largest wooden schooner ever built.

The second of three very high tech destroyers being built in Bath. $2.5 Billion for this ship.

Before and after pictures. Microwaved. PETA, avert your eyes.

Saturday, 17 September.  Nice weather.

Very long day on highways.  Threat of rain tomorrow, so I hustled down further than planned.  Staying at a cousin’s “mansion” on the water near Portland.

Saw a tidal bore in Moncton, CA.  Incredible.  Agains the laws of nature to see a wavefront coming up the river.  Turbulent water followed.

Worlds largest axe.  The things towns do for notoriety.

580 miles!!  Never more than 10% above the speed limit.

Tidal bore. The river flows left to right. The bore goes upriver. About 5 MPH. Video is better. Look on youtube.

Some leaves are changing color.

Woodstock, Canada.

Friday, 16 September.  Warmer.

Drove through Charlottetown.  The first discussions to create a Canadian Confederation were here 1864, which is a common informational point throughout the town.  A lot of late night partying was involved by all accounts.  (PEI in fact didn’t join the Confederation for six years.  Railroad debt pushed them into it.)  The State House is under renovation.  It’s not a very impressive building, having used imported stones rather the island’s sandstone.  Nearby church is much more handsome (No picture! go figure).  Lots of parks.  Cows Ice Cream shop.  Nice shops, but not too many of them.  The population is only 32,000, which is a quarter of the island’s total.  Real estate is cheap, from a California perspective.

Drive to the ferry was okay.  Once again my $#^%* GPS tried to get me to drive down a gravel road.  Ferry boat (“Confederation”) is huge.  It had pictures of an earlier, much smaller ferry that I believe I was on circa 1963? Motorcycles get on first, off first.  In Truro tonight.  Had perhaps the worst smoked ribs of my life.  Well done, glued to the bone, and spicy hot. Not a good memory of Truro.  But they had a Coors sponsored celebration last night. Best One Horse Town.  Won by number of votes cast.  Hotel host theorizes that the townspeople have nothing else to do but click on a web site.

For days I’ve been struggling with some kind of itinerary to visit Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and maybe Newfoundland.  Concerns are that hotels are expensive, rain is forecast, and I should probably get new tires.  But I’m here, so why not push myself?  The decider arrived last night when I woke up with “Just go home” repeating itself in my head.  So home I’m headed.  Prince Edward Island was always my final destination, so this is not defeat.  “This far and no farther.”

1976. Only other US vehicle I saw on the island. I’ve disliked VW buses for a long time, mostly for their lawn mower engines. But this one had some modifications. Had some pep.

Twenty minutes to offload! A calvary of motorcycles. Thought of the scene from Jaws.

Nice view on departure.

Thursday, 15 September. Clear, windy, cool.

Rested in place.  Intended to be a short day.  Tuesday was hard.  Went only a short ways, but the view was magnificent.  Pounding waves.  A feeling of power and immortality. Not very different than any eastern coastline, but the seas seemed darker.  The water is supposed to be warm actually.  Runoff from the St. Lawrence Seaway.  Surprised that the island is mostly built on sandstone.  I could buy a sandstone t-shirt, “Made with PEI Dirt”.  Found a specific reference that PEI was part of the Appalachian Mountain chain.  I’m within walking distance of where the author of Anne of Green Gables grew up: Lucy Maid Montgomery.  Lots of gables on houses, mostly green.  Her home is part of the National Preserve, along with 25 miles of coastline.  There is actually another book around that describes the real life of a local orphan girl named Ellen, whom Montgomery reportedly admitted was the basis for Anne.  I haven’t fact-checked that claim.

Lunch was at a very popular restaurant by attendance.  There was a line of people waiting for it to open.  Lobster roll.  Sausage bun with lobster meat and seasoning.  Local beer.  One man, on seeing my CA plate, asked “How did you tow it?”  A first.  Another restaurant has two sides; one for normal eating, another dedicated solely to “Lobster Supper”.  “Longest salad bar on the Island”.  I haven’t found a place that has live lobsters swimming around, the source of many a childhood nightmare.  Why am I looking?

Lots of “Closed for the Season” signs.  Cavendish is a popular resort area on the Island. Many golf courses and children’s parks.

Called it a day at about 3.  I’m not overly tired, but playing it safe.

The bun had a flavor to it. Lots of lobster!!

The lighthouse is now a cottage.

Wednesday, 14 September.  Threat of rain.

The plan was to make a quick ride to Prince Edward Island to beat approaching rain.  A short detour to the Bay of Fundy National Park.  The Park was shrouded in fog and cold.  It was simpler than I remember and I drove its length quickly.  Not much of a view.  The small town of Alma was also disappointing.  Unfortunately I’d arrived just at high tide, so the ocean was going nowhere.  I got the sense that, as with Alaska in May, there was a definite tourist season that I was missing.

The drive from Alma seemed to promise nothing exciting, but by following a few signs I struck gold.  Tasted blueberry wine.  The “unoaked” brand was best.  We had a good discussion about the horrible avocado wine I tried in southern Florida.

Cape Enrage was true to its name.  The tide was going out and the waves just seemed to be stationary.  It gave the impression that something was wrong in the world.  The overcast skies and very strong winds gave it a realistic tone of anger.  A tiny lighthouse that only blinked “Danger” and a small but different gift shop. Ziplines!  The drive in and out had great views of flat flood plains bordered by high hills.

Further on was a well maintained memorial of an old and now nonexistent shipyard.  They’d built the outline of a old ship.  It was difficult to imagine a shipyard in the windswept river/tidal pool.  A flood control dike changed the terrain.

The rest of the drive was fast and unspectacular, though a high crosswind made it a little too exciting and I was getting hit by little bits of rain.  The “Confederation” Bridge to Prince Edward Island is long and only two lanes, but fortunately the wind was from behind.  $17 toll charge, which I guess they’ll mail to me. I had to drive across the island to reach my lodging.  The island produces 25% of all potatoes in Canada.  The smell was not unlike Iowa’s.  Fertilizer.

Over two years ago this crazy idea to touch four corners of the continent on a motorcycle formed in my head.  Success, sort of.  I’ve still got to get home.

Odd. Seems to honor first Canadian woman to get a Captain’s license. Takes a bit to get to that point.

Blueberry wine. No grapes used. Bought a bottle.

The view from Waterside Winery.

Interesting fake chimney.

Not a very helpful warning.

It looks like a ship. . .

. . . But it’s not.

The Petitcodiac River experiences a “Bore” twice a day. A tidal surge, 8 MPH and 3 feet high. Its nickname is The Chocolate River.

Tuesday, 13 September.  Beautiful day!

The first half of today’s ride was full of towns, which slowed me down substantially.  The second half was full of trees, which touched on boring.  There was a little traffic to distract me.  Also a lot of road repairs all day.  At least six instances of one-lane traffic.

Discovered Ed Muskie’s hometown of Rumford with an appropriate memorial.  They also have a statue of Paul Bunyan and his bull “Blue”.  What would have been nice waterfalls is now mostly a hydroelectric plant though they have worked to pretty up the view.  The town unfortunately also has a paper mill.  But it’s in a pretty valley that appears to offer lots of recreational options.

Bangor has a wonderful Land Transportation Museum.  I could have spent hours in it.  An entire row of old snowplows that looked like something out of a Mad Max movie.  Sometimes a claim to fame is just a little lacking in substance: The Museum notes that it’s next to the only “perfect” cloverleaf interchange in Maine.

Getting into Canada was odd.  The entry point brings you in facing west.  There is absolutely no activity on the American side, which I didn’t expect.  Failed to get money, reserve a hotel room or fill up my tank before entering.  Lost cellular service (I’m not paying Verizon $10 a day!).   Had to find a McDonalds or other establishment.  Then had to drive an extra hour east to get a properly priced hotel.  Arrived in the dark, which I try to avoid (fear of moose, etc.).

This looks just like the statues I remember from Old Forge, NY!

I can imagine the warning being on a bathroom door.

I always thought that Ed Muskie was too nice a guy to be a politician. His hometown certainly liked him.