Thursday, June 09, 2005
There Is No Number 7
posted by Jonathan at 11:58 PM
A few brief programming notes:
1. I am working on a design for the site (rather than a default Blogger template), I hope it will be ready by monday. The design will allow me to have some peripheral content, such as links to my friends' sites and some other non-trip related items. I have mad photoshop skillz.
2. As I mentioned, I hope the new design will be ready by monday, but I am notoriously bad at time estimates, as well as self motivation.
3. The design will probably feature some Google ads. Sorry, but I have no other income currently ;)
4. I am not going to update every day. I'm hoping to update 5 times a week, but there may be weeks when there are only 2 updates, maybe even less. Frankly, these things take forever to write, particularly futzing with the photos and links, though I hope that as I get more practice, they will be faster. Also, when I write, I don't always have an access point, so sometimes the articles actually may be posted the day after the writing.
5. I haven't yet figured out the best way to present the photos, hoping to figure that out as soon as the design is done.
6. San Dimas High School Football Rules! 1 point if you get this. Difficulty: easy. Leave it in the comments.
8. I have some articles that are in the draft stage now that are from earlier in the year, which I am going to pre date when I post them, so they show up chronologically in the archive. When I do that, I'll also link to them in a new post.
9. I don't think I've ever written anything brief in my life, belying my program notes heading above.
Newport, Alive with Pleasure
posted by Jonathan at 11:53 PM
Current location: Dover, DE N 39 10.611', W 075 31.428' elev. 83 ft.
Tuesday night I stayed with family in Stetson, ME, then drove home to Danvers, MA on wednesday. Nothing much to write about for Wednesday, except that I went to see Cinderella Man with my mom, and slept at my dad's. I'm now on my way to Myrtle Beach to visit my sister. I'm in a big hurry to get there, because she took time off work to accommodate me, so I won't be making a lot of stops and have abandoned Route 1 for now.
On the way, I stopped in Newport, RI (N 41 30.061', W 071 19.020' elev -30 ft.) today. I was actually the best man at a wedding in Newport last spring (for one of my best friends, Jeff), but when in the town, I didn't really have much of a chance to explore and regretted that, so I figured I'd make a quick stop today.
Everyone has said the only mansion in Newport I really needed to see was the Breakers, the summer home of the Vanderbilt family, built in 1895. I got to the mansion, and bought a ticket for the tour. At $15, I was already beginning to think it was not a good deal.
Its pretty weird to be in a tour group as an individual. You see the other folks, couples, and families, and pairs or trips of friends, and they all kind of look at you with that face, the one that indicates that they are trying to comprehend how someone could be taking a tour without at least one other person to help them make fun of the tour along the way. I guess their looks are valid, but they don't know I can make fun of the tour on here, and don't need a partner.
You know there's really not much to talk about the Breakers.
I'm frankly disappointed, the Newport Historical Society is raking in the dough with the outrageous entry fee, but when you get in the house, everything is in bad shape! I would expect a restoration to have restored furniture, carpeting, tapestries, but all the furniture is worn, the carpets have been bleached by the sun, and there is not a lot of protection on the historical artifacts. I was just a bit surprised that since the house is not actually used except for tours, that it would actually look like it was in heavy use. For instance, the door to the kitchen was worn, as if it had servants kicking it open every single day. Little things like this bothered me about the Breakers.
Additionally, you can't take photos inside the Breakers, except at the Upper Loggia, and Lower Loggia, which are two Italian style porches. They never really give any reason for this, but I can't assume that flashes would damage the items inside the house, they are already in bad shape.
One final note about the Breakers, the house and the tour were not all that impressive at all. In retrospect, the tour was worth about $3, not $15. If I remember correctly Newport, Alive with Pleasure is the slogan for a cigarette company. Well, Newport sucks, like smoking. So the title of this article is meant to be ironic.
The rest of my journey today included Connecticut, where I quickly stopped and picked up my mail at my PO Box. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to stop at FactSet to say hi to people, because I had to get across the GW bridge before too much traffic hit. Obviously, I hit a lot of traffic on the GW anyway. Next was the Jersey Turnpike. I did stop at one of the rest stops along the turnpike, and just wanted to point out that the men's room had those big bowl urinals, they are almost as big as toilet bowls, where everything is just hanging out there, you could practically sit on them, with no privacy walls. Whoever thought this was a good design decision should be shot. The best urinals I have ever seen were at the Westchester Mall, the urinals have their own stalls with doors. After Jersey, I took exit 4 off of 95 in Delaware. I am driving down US Route 13, which goes over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel into Norfolk, VA, but stopped in Dover, DE for the night.
Tuesday night I stayed with family in Stetson, ME, then drove home to Danvers, MA on wednesday. Nothing much to write about for Wednesday, except that I went to see Cinderella Man with my mom, and slept at my dad's. I'm now on my way to Myrtle Beach to visit my sister. I'm in a big hurry to get there, because she took time off work to accommodate me, so I won't be making a lot of stops and have abandoned Route 1 for now.
On the way, I stopped in Newport, RI (N 41 30.061', W 071 19.020' elev -30 ft.) today. I was actually the best man at a wedding in Newport last spring (for one of my best friends, Jeff), but when in the town, I didn't really have much of a chance to explore and regretted that, so I figured I'd make a quick stop today.
Everyone has said the only mansion in Newport I really needed to see was the Breakers, the summer home of the Vanderbilt family, built in 1895. I got to the mansion, and bought a ticket for the tour. At $15, I was already beginning to think it was not a good deal.
Its pretty weird to be in a tour group as an individual. You see the other folks, couples, and families, and pairs or trips of friends, and they all kind of look at you with that face, the one that indicates that they are trying to comprehend how someone could be taking a tour without at least one other person to help them make fun of the tour along the way. I guess their looks are valid, but they don't know I can make fun of the tour on here, and don't need a partner.
You know there's really not much to talk about the Breakers.
I'm frankly disappointed, the Newport Historical Society is raking in the dough with the outrageous entry fee, but when you get in the house, everything is in bad shape! I would expect a restoration to have restored furniture, carpeting, tapestries, but all the furniture is worn, the carpets have been bleached by the sun, and there is not a lot of protection on the historical artifacts. I was just a bit surprised that since the house is not actually used except for tours, that it would actually look like it was in heavy use. For instance, the door to the kitchen was worn, as if it had servants kicking it open every single day. Little things like this bothered me about the Breakers.
Additionally, you can't take photos inside the Breakers, except at the Upper Loggia, and Lower Loggia, which are two Italian style porches. They never really give any reason for this, but I can't assume that flashes would damage the items inside the house, they are already in bad shape.
One final note about the Breakers, the house and the tour were not all that impressive at all. In retrospect, the tour was worth about $3, not $15. If I remember correctly Newport, Alive with Pleasure is the slogan for a cigarette company. Well, Newport sucks, like smoking. So the title of this article is meant to be ironic.
The rest of my journey today included Connecticut, where I quickly stopped and picked up my mail at my PO Box. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to stop at FactSet to say hi to people, because I had to get across the GW bridge before too much traffic hit. Obviously, I hit a lot of traffic on the GW anyway. Next was the Jersey Turnpike. I did stop at one of the rest stops along the turnpike, and just wanted to point out that the men's room had those big bowl urinals, they are almost as big as toilet bowls, where everything is just hanging out there, you could practically sit on them, with no privacy walls. Whoever thought this was a good design decision should be shot. The best urinals I have ever seen were at the Westchester Mall, the urinals have their own stalls with doors. After Jersey, I took exit 4 off of 95 in Delaware. I am driving down US Route 13, which goes over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel into Norfolk, VA, but stopped in Dover, DE for the night.
Jon of Acadia
posted by Jonathan at 10:23 PM
On Tuesday I spent the day in Acadia National Park, N 44 21.149', W 068 13.475' elev 1529 ft, in Maine. You can find the photos here. The weather on Tuesday was astoundingly beautiful, probably the best weather I have seen yet on the trip, so I was definitely blessed.
I started the trip by going to the visitor's center, and purchasing the National Park Pass for $50, which should allow me to enter any national park without paying anything more through June 2006. At the visitor's center, I also picked up a map of the park, and watched a short film about Acadia's history and features.
On the way out of the visitor's center, I met an older woman who was staring intently at a map of the park. She stopped me on my way to my car, and asked me if I knew how to get to the one way loop road in the park. I explained to her that I had just gotten there myself and that I didn't know, but I assumed it was the road out of the visitor's center. She told me she had already been out that way about three times and was unable to find the one way loop road. I thought this was strange, because on the map, it seemed pretty straightforward. So I showed her on the map, and she started getting agitated with me, and muttering under her breath. Well, at this point, I was kind of sick of this, because I just wanted to get out there and see the park myself, so I tried to get a word in edgewise to her muttering that perhaps she should go ask a park ranger. When I was finally able to say this to her, she looks at me and exclaims "I don't believe this!", and I told her to take it easy, so she responded with "yeah whatever", and stormed off in a huff. Whatever indeed.
I finally got underway in the park, and unfortunately, the roads really hug the hills, which while it makes for great driving, it causes my XM Radio to go in and out of service, which absolutely drives me crazy. There are a lot of scenic pull offs along the way in the park, and I stopped at most and took photos, and used my binoculars and just chilled at the spots. After a very short while, I came to the one way loop road. It was impossible to miss, proving once again, that people are idiots.
The first main attraction in the park is Sand Beach, which is a very beautiful beach in a protected cove.
I wandered onto the beach and spent about an hour and a half there just taking photographs, exploring, and digging my feet into the sand. The ocean water was exceptionally frigid; my feet went numb after only about a minute of exposure. There was, however, a little stream which flowed onto the beach, and the water in the stream was really warm and made for some good wading. There was also a lot of cool tide pools; I've always enjoyed playing in and around the tide pools. Both sides of the beach had a lot of rocks, so I got some good photos on each side. On the left side, I climbed up the rocks and up to a cliff about 20 feet above the beach. At the top of the cliff, there was this cool tree growing out of the rock. About this time, a very thick fog started rolling into the beach, which made some great photos. You could literally see water rolling off the ocean and dissolving into the air.
After the beach, the next attraction was Thunder Hole, where at certain times of day, the tides create a thunder like drumming sound on the breaker rocks.
I didn't spend as much time here, but I did take a lot of photos. One interesting thing to me was that I kept seeing the same people at the same attractions, i.e. I saw people at the visitor's center, they would make the same stops as me on the road pullouts, at the beach and at Thunder Hole. As long as I was taking at the attractions these people were taking the same amount of time. But no one is friendly, no one acknowledges that they just saw you ten minutes ago.
Just wanted to take this opportunity to make an inside joke from a family trip to Acadia when I was much younger.
Look, Jon, do you see the whales?
The final big attraction in the park is Cadillac Mountain, which is the highest point on the east coast of the US.
There were some great views up here, and the only thing to really mention is that the wind at the top was some of the most intense I have ever felt (standing in place, at least). The wind was strong enough that I had trouble standing up, but the great part about it is that it was a very warm wind, which gave me this really great feeling. I closed my eyes and just felt The Warmth, like a natural high. This leads into song number 2 on the Jon Sheldon Across America Soundtrack, The Warmth, by Incubus.
I started the trip by going to the visitor's center, and purchasing the National Park Pass for $50, which should allow me to enter any national park without paying anything more through June 2006. At the visitor's center, I also picked up a map of the park, and watched a short film about Acadia's history and features.
On the way out of the visitor's center, I met an older woman who was staring intently at a map of the park. She stopped me on my way to my car, and asked me if I knew how to get to the one way loop road in the park. I explained to her that I had just gotten there myself and that I didn't know, but I assumed it was the road out of the visitor's center. She told me she had already been out that way about three times and was unable to find the one way loop road. I thought this was strange, because on the map, it seemed pretty straightforward. So I showed her on the map, and she started getting agitated with me, and muttering under her breath. Well, at this point, I was kind of sick of this, because I just wanted to get out there and see the park myself, so I tried to get a word in edgewise to her muttering that perhaps she should go ask a park ranger. When I was finally able to say this to her, she looks at me and exclaims "I don't believe this!", and I told her to take it easy, so she responded with "yeah whatever", and stormed off in a huff. Whatever indeed.
I finally got underway in the park, and unfortunately, the roads really hug the hills, which while it makes for great driving, it causes my XM Radio to go in and out of service, which absolutely drives me crazy. There are a lot of scenic pull offs along the way in the park, and I stopped at most and took photos, and used my binoculars and just chilled at the spots. After a very short while, I came to the one way loop road. It was impossible to miss, proving once again, that people are idiots.
The first main attraction in the park is Sand Beach, which is a very beautiful beach in a protected cove.
I wandered onto the beach and spent about an hour and a half there just taking photographs, exploring, and digging my feet into the sand. The ocean water was exceptionally frigid; my feet went numb after only about a minute of exposure. There was, however, a little stream which flowed onto the beach, and the water in the stream was really warm and made for some good wading. There was also a lot of cool tide pools; I've always enjoyed playing in and around the tide pools. Both sides of the beach had a lot of rocks, so I got some good photos on each side. On the left side, I climbed up the rocks and up to a cliff about 20 feet above the beach. At the top of the cliff, there was this cool tree growing out of the rock. About this time, a very thick fog started rolling into the beach, which made some great photos. You could literally see water rolling off the ocean and dissolving into the air.
After the beach, the next attraction was Thunder Hole, where at certain times of day, the tides create a thunder like drumming sound on the breaker rocks.
I didn't spend as much time here, but I did take a lot of photos. One interesting thing to me was that I kept seeing the same people at the same attractions, i.e. I saw people at the visitor's center, they would make the same stops as me on the road pullouts, at the beach and at Thunder Hole. As long as I was taking at the attractions these people were taking the same amount of time. But no one is friendly, no one acknowledges that they just saw you ten minutes ago.
Just wanted to take this opportunity to make an inside joke from a family trip to Acadia when I was much younger.
Look, Jon, do you see the whales?
The final big attraction in the park is Cadillac Mountain, which is the highest point on the east coast of the US.
There were some great views up here, and the only thing to really mention is that the wind at the top was some of the most intense I have ever felt (standing in place, at least). The wind was strong enough that I had trouble standing up, but the great part about it is that it was a very warm wind, which gave me this really great feeling. I closed my eyes and just felt The Warmth, like a natural high. This leads into song number 2 on the Jon Sheldon Across America Soundtrack, The Warmth, by Incubus.
I'd like to close my eyes and go numb
But there's a cold wind coming from
The top of the highest high rise today
Its not a breeze cuz it blows hard
Yes and it wants me to discard the
The humanity I know, watched the warmth blow away
So don't let the world bring you down
Not everyone here is that fucked up and cold
Remember why you came and while you're alive
Experience the warmth before you grow old
So do you think I should adhere
To that pressing new frontier
And leave in my wake, a trail of fear
Should I hold my head up high
And throw a wrench and spokes by
I'm leaving the air behind me clear
So don't let the world bring you down
Not everyone here is that fucked up and cold
Remember why you came and while you're alive
Experience the warmth before you grow old
Monday, June 06, 2005
There's Only Two Planets In The Solar System
Current location: Ellsworth, ME N 44 32.117', W 068 24.601'
Today I made the long journey from Fort Kent, ME to Ellsworth, ME, along Route 1 the whole way. This part of Route 1 travels along about 200 miles of the longest undefended border in the world TM. Today was mostly rainy and overcast the whole time, just generally gloomy. I left Fort Kent with a watchful eye for the Maine solar system model, a scale model of the solar system, which supposedly spans 50 miles. I was driving for about two hours before I finally saw my first planet, Jupiter.
I got out in the middle of a rain storm, and trudged across a really wet, cold, knee high field of grass in shorts and flip flops to get this photo. Since Jupiter is smack dab in the middle of the solar system, I decided to double back, to see if I could find the asteroid belt, Mars or Saturn (since I wasn't sure which direction the model was headed.) I drove north on route 1 for about 25 minutes, and didn't find Mars or Saturn (Earth, Venus, Mercury or the Sun for that matter), so once again, I turned around. I drove past Jupiter again, and some ways down the road (maybe 10 miles), I found Saturn.
Here it is in all its ringy glory.
Saturn was a much easier planet to photograph, it had a dirt road leading up to it. Even though it is supposedly a scale model of the solar system, Saturn was about the same size as Jupiter.
Continuing down route 1, I was unable to find Neptune, Uranus, Pluto, or any Kuiper Belt objects, leading me to conclude that the model is actually set 5 billion years in the future. In this future, the sun has turned into a black hole and swallowed all the objects in the solar system smaller than Saturn, Jupiter, and their largest moons. Trust me, this is the only logical conclusion.
A while later as I was getting close to Calais, ME, I did come across this compromise.
This Earth model photo is from a gift shop marking the 45th parallel, the mid way point between the equator and the north pole. This Earth is about the same size as Jupiter and Saturn, which really throws a nick into my black hole theory.
About an hour after lunch time, I passed through Calais, ME N 45 11.323', W 067 16.696', the easternmost border crossing in the US. I was surprised to see the Canadian, Maine and US flags flying at the same height at a government building in Calais. I was also surprised to learn Calais was settled in 1604, (by the French) earlier than 1607 and 1620. In middle school and high school history classes, you always learn about early settlements at St. Augustine, Roanoke, Jamestown, and of course, Plymouth, but it seems you never learn about the early French settlements in North America.
On the way out of town, I saw my first hitchhiker for the trip. He had a sign for his destination, but the print was too small, I couldn't read it. I drove by him really slow, and was actually a bit tempted to pick him up, just for the adventure and the story, and to be able to say I picked up a hitchhiker. But, my car would have been a little cramped, because he had a huge bag, and I have all my stuff as well. Plus, he looked a little too seedy for my tastes. Unfortunately, because I drove by him slow, and because I had out of state license plates, I probably got his hopes way up that I was actually stopping for him. Oh well, I'm sure I'll have another opportunity.
After Calais, I veered off Rt. 1 for a little while onto Maine Rt. 190, which goes out to Eastport, ME N 44 54.242', W 066 59.866', which I believe is the easternmost point of the US. The weather actually cleared up a little here, so I was able to get some good views out to the ocean and across to New Brunswick. Much to my dismay, my atlas shows Rt. 190 practically meeting up with Rt. 189 and back out to Rt. 1, but in actuality, a bay separates them, so I had to double back on 190 out to Rt. 1 again.
The final part of the day was the journey from Eastport to Ellsworth ME. Ellsworth is the Crossroads of Down East Maine as you have to go through Ellsworth if you are traveling to Acadia/Bar Harbor, Calais, or Bangor from the south. I found a cheap motel in Ellsworth where I settled in for the night at about 7 PM. Unfortunately, I am not able to get WiFi at this motel, nor can I connect to Verizon through my Bluetooth dial-up, because I am on the extended network here, so I'll have to find some WiFI on tuesday in order to post this.
One thing I noticed today is that about 90% of the Maine homes along Route 1 had at least 2 strategically placed lawn ornaments. Most of them were of the bear family black silhouette variety, but I just find this phenomena a little weird. I would roll trough a town, and see these figurines in every yard, and on every farm house stoop. If I were to own a house along Route 1 in Maine, rather than bear or moose silhouettes, my lawn would be host to my own little scale model of the solar system, the Jon Sheldon version.
Today I made the long journey from Fort Kent, ME to Ellsworth, ME, along Route 1 the whole way. This part of Route 1 travels along about 200 miles of the longest undefended border in the world TM. Today was mostly rainy and overcast the whole time, just generally gloomy. I left Fort Kent with a watchful eye for the Maine solar system model, a scale model of the solar system, which supposedly spans 50 miles. I was driving for about two hours before I finally saw my first planet, Jupiter.
I got out in the middle of a rain storm, and trudged across a really wet, cold, knee high field of grass in shorts and flip flops to get this photo. Since Jupiter is smack dab in the middle of the solar system, I decided to double back, to see if I could find the asteroid belt, Mars or Saturn (since I wasn't sure which direction the model was headed.) I drove north on route 1 for about 25 minutes, and didn't find Mars or Saturn (Earth, Venus, Mercury or the Sun for that matter), so once again, I turned around. I drove past Jupiter again, and some ways down the road (maybe 10 miles), I found Saturn.
Here it is in all its ringy glory.
Saturn was a much easier planet to photograph, it had a dirt road leading up to it. Even though it is supposedly a scale model of the solar system, Saturn was about the same size as Jupiter.
Continuing down route 1, I was unable to find Neptune, Uranus, Pluto, or any Kuiper Belt objects, leading me to conclude that the model is actually set 5 billion years in the future. In this future, the sun has turned into a black hole and swallowed all the objects in the solar system smaller than Saturn, Jupiter, and their largest moons. Trust me, this is the only logical conclusion.
A while later as I was getting close to Calais, ME, I did come across this compromise.
This Earth model photo is from a gift shop marking the 45th parallel, the mid way point between the equator and the north pole. This Earth is about the same size as Jupiter and Saturn, which really throws a nick into my black hole theory.
About an hour after lunch time, I passed through Calais, ME N 45 11.323', W 067 16.696', the easternmost border crossing in the US. I was surprised to see the Canadian, Maine and US flags flying at the same height at a government building in Calais. I was also surprised to learn Calais was settled in 1604, (by the French) earlier than 1607 and 1620. In middle school and high school history classes, you always learn about early settlements at St. Augustine, Roanoke, Jamestown, and of course, Plymouth, but it seems you never learn about the early French settlements in North America.
On the way out of town, I saw my first hitchhiker for the trip. He had a sign for his destination, but the print was too small, I couldn't read it. I drove by him really slow, and was actually a bit tempted to pick him up, just for the adventure and the story, and to be able to say I picked up a hitchhiker. But, my car would have been a little cramped, because he had a huge bag, and I have all my stuff as well. Plus, he looked a little too seedy for my tastes. Unfortunately, because I drove by him slow, and because I had out of state license plates, I probably got his hopes way up that I was actually stopping for him. Oh well, I'm sure I'll have another opportunity.
After Calais, I veered off Rt. 1 for a little while onto Maine Rt. 190, which goes out to Eastport, ME N 44 54.242', W 066 59.866', which I believe is the easternmost point of the US. The weather actually cleared up a little here, so I was able to get some good views out to the ocean and across to New Brunswick. Much to my dismay, my atlas shows Rt. 190 practically meeting up with Rt. 189 and back out to Rt. 1, but in actuality, a bay separates them, so I had to double back on 190 out to Rt. 1 again.
The final part of the day was the journey from Eastport to Ellsworth ME. Ellsworth is the Crossroads of Down East Maine as you have to go through Ellsworth if you are traveling to Acadia/Bar Harbor, Calais, or Bangor from the south. I found a cheap motel in Ellsworth where I settled in for the night at about 7 PM. Unfortunately, I am not able to get WiFi at this motel, nor can I connect to Verizon through my Bluetooth dial-up, because I am on the extended network here, so I'll have to find some WiFI on tuesday in order to post this.
One thing I noticed today is that about 90% of the Maine homes along Route 1 had at least 2 strategically placed lawn ornaments. Most of them were of the bear family black silhouette variety, but I just find this phenomena a little weird. I would roll trough a town, and see these figurines in every yard, and on every farm house stoop. If I were to own a house along Route 1 in Maine, rather than bear or moose silhouettes, my lawn would be host to my own little scale model of the solar system, the Jon Sheldon version.
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Now Entering The Town Of T2 R9
posted by Jonathan at 11:12 PM
Fort Kent, Maine N 47 15.169', W 068 35.699' elevation 598 ft
I left Keith's house in Kennebunk at about 12:30 in the afternoon today, my destination: Fort Kent, ME, the starting point for US Route 1. About two thirds of the trip was I-95, the rest, Rural RT. 11, a back road highway.
The day's journey got off to a foreboding start. I was on the interstate traveling in the left lane at about 75 mph. I had not been traveling for even 10 minutes, when about 300 feet in front of me, a pick-up truck in the right lane carrying various furniture dropped a mattress. The mattress bounded through two lanes of traffic, right in front of me, and almost up over my car. I saw the whole thing take place in slow motion, as it wavered in the wind, then caught up in a gust and just hovered in the air like a parachute before rocketing at me. It was surreal, like something you'd see in a movie about comic book superheroes. Luckily, I was able to use my video game skillz to swerve out of the way, and keep in control of the car during the swerve. For the next 15 minutes or so, my heart raced as I realized how very close to a serious accident I was, and on the very first day of real adventuring.
One of the things you really notice driving on a less than busy interstate, is the abundance of crows lurking on the side of the road. It seemed like these scavengers were just waiting for me to hit a rodent, rabbit, deer or other hunk of meat, so they could have a tasty snack of road scrape. Nothing really deters the crows either; they'll be munching in the middle of the highway, only flying off at the last possible second before a car hits them, flying the quickest loop possible to get back onto the road. They have no fear as you drive right by them at 75 mph, their beaks only inches from becoming a tasty road snack in their own right. Even honking my horn driving past had no discernible effect.
Speaking of road scrape, near the end of I-95, I spotted a big dark mass by the side of the road, about a quarter mile in the distance. As I grew closer, I started to realize what it was. It just got bigger and bigger, until I drove by, and I could see it was the largest road kill I had seen in my life, a full grown female moose. The carcass was huge, and even in death, rose above the height of the windows on my car.
Northern Maine is pretty desolate. You really get a feel for being in the middle of nowhere when you run across a sign that reads the following: Leaving town of: East Bum. Now entering town of: T2 R9. Yes, as a matter of fact, the towns in northern Maine are named after droids.
It was about this time that I started to run into smoke. Unfortunately, I did not see any Smokey The Bear signs telling me the day's threat level assessment for forest fire was: Hey jerk, You have to travel through one. Only you could have prevented this. At first it wasn't so bad. Visibility was obscured, as you can see from this photo, supposedly a scenic overlook of Mt. Katahdin at the end of the Appalachian Trail.
As you can('t) see, David Copperfield got to the mountain a few minutes before I did.
In the fire, I even had the windows open for a time, as the smell was only slightly smokey and I was somewhat enjoying it. As I drove into a thicker part of the fire though, I could feel my eyes start to get scratchy and tear up, so I had to switch to AC, which was not a pleasant thing; it was such a beautiful day sunlight and temperature wise. Additionally, the AC really eats into my gas mileage, an important note considering the budgetary constraints I have placed on myself.
I exited I-95 for Rt. 11 at exit 264, about 100 miles from 95's end. It was about this time that I finished driving through the fire, and left the forest altogether for some more hilly terrain, with fewer, smaller trees. In Alaska, I learned this type of land is called Taiga, which is Russian for tiny sticks or thereabouts. Rt 11 was actually a pretty fun drive, about 110 miles from I-95 until the New Brunswick border, town of Fort Kent ME.
Driving the one lane highway was immensely pleasurable in the late afternoon cool sun. Driving up and down mountain roads gave a great roller coaster effect. The temperature had dipped to the low seventies / high sixties, and there were plenty of trees lining the roads to provide the effect of strobe shade. I was mostly sticking to about 10 miles above the speed limit, as I was running into few vehicles. I also passed a few on the dotted passing areas.
About 35 miles before I reached my destination, I came to the bottom of this large hill, and started driving up it. Like I mentioned before, I was mostly sticking to about 10 miles an hour over the speed limit, but since I had just come down a hill, I was probably going about 20 miles an hour over the speed limit. Near the top of the hill, there is a large white Bronco driving down in the direction approaching me. As I got about halfway up the hill, he was about 300 feet in front of me still, and he flashed me, then turned on blue roof lights. A cop. He drives by me, then quickly turns around, as I am pulling over. I am thinking to myself, what a great way to start out the trip, with a speeding ticket in from the West Bum, ME Police Department. So he gets to my vehicle and asks for my license and registration. I unbuckle my belt and go in the glove box for my credentials. I ask him what the offense is, and he says speeding. I ask him how fast and he says "70 in a 50". I hand my credentials over to him, and he asks where I am going. I say Fort Kent. He asks if I am on my way to the university, and I say, "No, I am going to Route 1. I am doing a long trip down the coast of the US." At this point, I think he is more suspicious of me, he gives me a dirty look and asks rhetorically "long trip?", thinking perhaps I am a terrorist or a smuggler. He then checks out the back of my car, which is filled with maps, coolers, food, clothing, camping equipment, which confirms my story for him.
So now, the long wait. I prepare my story. I think to myself, how can I get this guy to have a little sympathy for me? It is the first day of my trip and this is not the way to start it. Waiting and waiting, can I plead with him for a warning? Perhaps I can demonstrate that if I was traveling uphill and he downhill, that it would have been impossible for him to get an accurate reading on my vehicle. Convenient that he clocked me at exactly 70.
About 10 minutes go by and he brings back my license and registration. I am about to start pleading my case, when he says to me: "I am giving you a double warning. One for speeding, and one for not wearing your seat belt. Maine has a very tough seatbelt law". I start to protest, as anyone who knows me knows I always wear my seat belt, and make those riding in my car wear theirs. I even waited to unbuckle until he could see me unbuckle it. He says in response "I saw you putting it on as I pulled you over". This is all utter bull crap, but I keep my mouth shut, because I am starting to realize "hey, this guy's not so bad after all. Sure he probably estimated my speed, but he is giving me a warning instead of a ticket." He goes on to say that had I gotten a ticket, it would have been $210 for the speeding and another $45 for the seatbelt, so as I am leaving, I am starting to feel pretty good. Instead of bad luck, I have had 2 incidents of good luck today.
After about 45 more minutes, I finally arrived at Fort Kent, which is the northernmost point of the contiguous United States. I found US Route 1 at the end of Route 11. They have this crappy little marker to show off the starting point of Rt. 1:
Directly north of the start of Rt. 1 is the border crossing to New Brunswick. There is a checkpoint, and a bridge over a Fish River to Canada. The US customs officer inside has the boredest look I've ever seen in a border guard. I can tell he sees the same 15 cars cross the bridge every day, and not much else, as Mainers and / or Canadians cross for entertainment in the town on the other side of the river. The grass is always greener.
From what I have seen, God is alive and well in Fort Kent, as about a quarter of the buildings are churches of varying denominations. Here is a photo of the actual Fort Kent.
The billboard entering Fort Kent proclaims it to be the friendliest city in Northern Maine, which must be a dubious distinction, because I have yet to run into a friendly person. Living on the front lines of the War on Terror TM seems to have dissipated the friendliness in favor of a general malaise and distrust of outsiders. I have gotten some of the dirtiest looks cruising around town to get my bearings. I think the Terrorism Alert Level is at a permanent red in Fort Kent. The locals seem particularly suspicious of people driving foreign cars with out of state license plates, and covered with the leavings of tens of thousands of dead bugs, accumulated in the 850 miles of the trip thus far.
I left Keith's house in Kennebunk at about 12:30 in the afternoon today, my destination: Fort Kent, ME, the starting point for US Route 1. About two thirds of the trip was I-95, the rest, Rural RT. 11, a back road highway.
The day's journey got off to a foreboding start. I was on the interstate traveling in the left lane at about 75 mph. I had not been traveling for even 10 minutes, when about 300 feet in front of me, a pick-up truck in the right lane carrying various furniture dropped a mattress. The mattress bounded through two lanes of traffic, right in front of me, and almost up over my car. I saw the whole thing take place in slow motion, as it wavered in the wind, then caught up in a gust and just hovered in the air like a parachute before rocketing at me. It was surreal, like something you'd see in a movie about comic book superheroes. Luckily, I was able to use my video game skillz to swerve out of the way, and keep in control of the car during the swerve. For the next 15 minutes or so, my heart raced as I realized how very close to a serious accident I was, and on the very first day of real adventuring.
One of the things you really notice driving on a less than busy interstate, is the abundance of crows lurking on the side of the road. It seemed like these scavengers were just waiting for me to hit a rodent, rabbit, deer or other hunk of meat, so they could have a tasty snack of road scrape. Nothing really deters the crows either; they'll be munching in the middle of the highway, only flying off at the last possible second before a car hits them, flying the quickest loop possible to get back onto the road. They have no fear as you drive right by them at 75 mph, their beaks only inches from becoming a tasty road snack in their own right. Even honking my horn driving past had no discernible effect.
Speaking of road scrape, near the end of I-95, I spotted a big dark mass by the side of the road, about a quarter mile in the distance. As I grew closer, I started to realize what it was. It just got bigger and bigger, until I drove by, and I could see it was the largest road kill I had seen in my life, a full grown female moose. The carcass was huge, and even in death, rose above the height of the windows on my car.
Northern Maine is pretty desolate. You really get a feel for being in the middle of nowhere when you run across a sign that reads the following: Leaving town of: East Bum. Now entering town of: T2 R9. Yes, as a matter of fact, the towns in northern Maine are named after droids.
It was about this time that I started to run into smoke. Unfortunately, I did not see any Smokey The Bear signs telling me the day's threat level assessment for forest fire was: Hey jerk, You have to travel through one. Only you could have prevented this. At first it wasn't so bad. Visibility was obscured, as you can see from this photo, supposedly a scenic overlook of Mt. Katahdin at the end of the Appalachian Trail.
As you can('t) see, David Copperfield got to the mountain a few minutes before I did.
In the fire, I even had the windows open for a time, as the smell was only slightly smokey and I was somewhat enjoying it. As I drove into a thicker part of the fire though, I could feel my eyes start to get scratchy and tear up, so I had to switch to AC, which was not a pleasant thing; it was such a beautiful day sunlight and temperature wise. Additionally, the AC really eats into my gas mileage, an important note considering the budgetary constraints I have placed on myself.
I exited I-95 for Rt. 11 at exit 264, about 100 miles from 95's end. It was about this time that I finished driving through the fire, and left the forest altogether for some more hilly terrain, with fewer, smaller trees. In Alaska, I learned this type of land is called Taiga, which is Russian for tiny sticks or thereabouts. Rt 11 was actually a pretty fun drive, about 110 miles from I-95 until the New Brunswick border, town of Fort Kent ME.
Driving the one lane highway was immensely pleasurable in the late afternoon cool sun. Driving up and down mountain roads gave a great roller coaster effect. The temperature had dipped to the low seventies / high sixties, and there were plenty of trees lining the roads to provide the effect of strobe shade. I was mostly sticking to about 10 miles above the speed limit, as I was running into few vehicles. I also passed a few on the dotted passing areas.
About 35 miles before I reached my destination, I came to the bottom of this large hill, and started driving up it. Like I mentioned before, I was mostly sticking to about 10 miles an hour over the speed limit, but since I had just come down a hill, I was probably going about 20 miles an hour over the speed limit. Near the top of the hill, there is a large white Bronco driving down in the direction approaching me. As I got about halfway up the hill, he was about 300 feet in front of me still, and he flashed me, then turned on blue roof lights. A cop. He drives by me, then quickly turns around, as I am pulling over. I am thinking to myself, what a great way to start out the trip, with a speeding ticket in from the West Bum, ME Police Department. So he gets to my vehicle and asks for my license and registration. I unbuckle my belt and go in the glove box for my credentials. I ask him what the offense is, and he says speeding. I ask him how fast and he says "70 in a 50". I hand my credentials over to him, and he asks where I am going. I say Fort Kent. He asks if I am on my way to the university, and I say, "No, I am going to Route 1. I am doing a long trip down the coast of the US." At this point, I think he is more suspicious of me, he gives me a dirty look and asks rhetorically "long trip?", thinking perhaps I am a terrorist or a smuggler. He then checks out the back of my car, which is filled with maps, coolers, food, clothing, camping equipment, which confirms my story for him.
So now, the long wait. I prepare my story. I think to myself, how can I get this guy to have a little sympathy for me? It is the first day of my trip and this is not the way to start it. Waiting and waiting, can I plead with him for a warning? Perhaps I can demonstrate that if I was traveling uphill and he downhill, that it would have been impossible for him to get an accurate reading on my vehicle. Convenient that he clocked me at exactly 70.
About 10 minutes go by and he brings back my license and registration. I am about to start pleading my case, when he says to me: "I am giving you a double warning. One for speeding, and one for not wearing your seat belt. Maine has a very tough seatbelt law". I start to protest, as anyone who knows me knows I always wear my seat belt, and make those riding in my car wear theirs. I even waited to unbuckle until he could see me unbuckle it. He says in response "I saw you putting it on as I pulled you over". This is all utter bull crap, but I keep my mouth shut, because I am starting to realize "hey, this guy's not so bad after all. Sure he probably estimated my speed, but he is giving me a warning instead of a ticket." He goes on to say that had I gotten a ticket, it would have been $210 for the speeding and another $45 for the seatbelt, so as I am leaving, I am starting to feel pretty good. Instead of bad luck, I have had 2 incidents of good luck today.
After about 45 more minutes, I finally arrived at Fort Kent, which is the northernmost point of the contiguous United States. I found US Route 1 at the end of Route 11. They have this crappy little marker to show off the starting point of Rt. 1:
Directly north of the start of Rt. 1 is the border crossing to New Brunswick. There is a checkpoint, and a bridge over a Fish River to Canada. The US customs officer inside has the boredest look I've ever seen in a border guard. I can tell he sees the same 15 cars cross the bridge every day, and not much else, as Mainers and / or Canadians cross for entertainment in the town on the other side of the river. The grass is always greener.
From what I have seen, God is alive and well in Fort Kent, as about a quarter of the buildings are churches of varying denominations. Here is a photo of the actual Fort Kent.
The billboard entering Fort Kent proclaims it to be the friendliest city in Northern Maine, which must be a dubious distinction, because I have yet to run into a friendly person. Living on the front lines of the War on Terror TM seems to have dissipated the friendliness in favor of a general malaise and distrust of outsiders. I have gotten some of the dirtiest looks cruising around town to get my bearings. I think the Terrorism Alert Level is at a permanent red in Fort Kent. The locals seem particularly suspicious of people driving foreign cars with out of state license plates, and covered with the leavings of tens of thousands of dead bugs, accumulated in the 850 miles of the trip thus far.