Stop Two in Maine

 

This was a short two-hour drive to Bangor area. Our next campground was Pumpkin Patch RV Resort.

Our first few days at Pumpkin Patch were rainy, but after the rains took a break, we headed out to the seafood market for some live Maine lobsters, and a few scallops. The person at the seafood market was a lobster fisherman for 40 years before hanging up his boots, and turning to selling lobsters. We picked a couple of live pound and a half lobsters. The gentleman told us that a dead lobster is still good to eat if it is kept refrigerated, and eaten within 24 hours. That sounded good to us, our plan was to have them for dinner the next day.

The next day... NADA... the same afternoon we bought them, we just couldn't wait. Have no fear, they did not go in with the rubber bands on. We had to go out and buy a stock pot for the occasion, but forget one important item... shell crackers. Ingenuity prevailed, the back side of a heavy knife, and eventually a "claw" hammer, it is an intended pun, the claws were quite thick and hard to break open.

This was Carol's lobster, with a few pieces eaten, mine was still cooking. We got to enjoy the experience of having a Maine lobster the challenging way, and it was fun, but not a required repeat. The market guy sells flash frozen lobster meat, as well as fresh shelled lobster meat. That workout required a nap after lunch; didn't need dinner either after all that lobster.

The next day we journeyed into Bangor to visit the "Discovery Museum". The drive was good, parking was a bit of a challenge. The street parking was diagonal, but not deep enough for our truck, even if there was a spot. Fortunately there was a public parking structure a short walk from the museum.

This building was on the way to the museum, which was just around the corner. The building is circa 1871. This was the street across from the museum:

This was an interactive museum designed for visitors to experience different things, hence, discovery museum.

REPTILES ON EXHIBIT

Meet Henry, he is one of the residents here.

Henry is a "Northern Blue-Tongue" Skink that lives in the coastal region of Northern Australia. He eats a variety of items from the plant, animal, and insect categories, and loves snails. The Blue-Tongue Skink is not the average kinda guy, he can get to be two-feet long, other skinks don't usually get over 12 inches in size.

This is "Crush", who is currently fasting... its mating season and he is looking for a mate. This will go on until July.

Moving from the retiles we came to a room called "Head Down Diamond". The room recognizes athletes from Maine.

IAN CROCKER

(HELPED TO WIN GOLD IN THE 4X100 BUTTERFLY DURING THE 2000 OLYMPICS.)

ERIC WEINRICH

(MEMBER OF THE 1988 OLYMPIC HOCKEY TEAM; HE PLAYED WITH THE BLACKHAWKS AND THE CANADIANS IN THE NHL.)

MIKE BORDICK

(PLAYED FOR THE ORIOLES, AND HELPED THE METS WIN THE 2000 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP.)

JOAN BENOIT SAMUELSON

(WON THE GOLD MEDAL FOR THE WOMEN'S MARATHON IN THE 1984 OLYMPICS.)

CINDY BLODGETT

(PLAYED FOR UNIVERSITY OF MAINE 1994-1998; SCORED 3005 POINTS.)

These were just a few native Mainers that made it in the world of sports.

They had a room set up for discussing water pollution on a child's level, and the kids were having fun playing in the water.

As in most states, stormwater is not directed to a water treatment facility, so all the junk that falls into the stormwater ends up in our bays, harbors, or streams.

Being that this museum is three floors, we headed up to the third floor to work our way back down. The first interactive area on this floor was right out of the elevator, and that was a fire engine, kid size.

They can dawn firefighter gear, drive the truck, roll out hoses, and play with the dials.

Maine has a lot of waterways and a bay that they are concerned about, and want to teach the children how to preserve them. This was achieved through the efforts of the 2019 Maine Science Festival and Lucas Richmond, a Grammy winning composer. The first step was a group of meetings between Maine scientists up and down the coast, then conversations with middle school students throughout the state. The conversations with the students was two prong, climate science, and composing a symphony.

After each gathering Mr. Richmond would ask "What would you as the next generation like the final message of this piece to be?" invariably the answer was the same, to inspire hope for their generation as well as future generations. This anthem would be sung by the children in the final moments of the work, which was to be titled "The Warming Sea". In other words, trust in science and future generations might have a fight chance. Mr. Richmond was now on his way to writing the symphonic work.

Every bar represents a year of the water temperature change in the harbor, from 1820 to 2019. Certain historic events are illustrated musically as it progressively marches through the years. These include a foghorn introduced in 1859, and 1938's first released papers on climate change. The music increases in volume and rhythmic speed to the present millennium... blasting forward into 2020. At this point all the musical elements come to a full collision of forces as clanging harbor bells foreshadow the children's appeal for hope.

(You can here this symphony on U-Tube, just go on the internet and type in "The Warming Sea", and it should be the second video.)

Here both choruses join together for a final message, peering into the future with uncertainty. The work concludes on the same unresolved chord it started on.

In addition to the children's chorus, there was a chorus that included women as sirens. You remember sirens in the Greek mythology, they drove sailors to their death through alluring music. In this symphony, the women sirens sing of climate change deniers whose alluring messages of complacency ensures the ultimate doom for those listening. Their portion is sung in Greek, the myth's origin language with a contrary polarization to the children; their melody is a direct pitch inversion to the children's anthem.

The next place was out of this world,

it was an interactive center of the planets, mostly Mars.

Sometimes gravity fools us when we think of how objects move through space. For example:

It reminds me of times driving in the California mountains where you could stop the car at the bottom of a dip, put the car in neutral, and gravity would pull the car up... at least so it looked liked. The fact of the matter is that the other side of the dip was downhill too.

In this area visitors could play basketball with a ping pong ball, net, and a vacuum hose blowing air. The ball would ride the air until the air is moved, and hopefully the ball went in the basket.

Looking for some sun, well here it was. It took me a couple of minutes to find the sun, but I did.

This is how the sun fits in our universe.

Then there's the "invisible science" nook:

An interactive center to discover how magnetism works.

Another center teaches the kids about how the brain works:

They also talk about the heart and how it works. The video is the heart in action. That seat was low for an oldie, reminded me of getting in and out of my Hyundai. What you should be seeing are flashing lights within the heart, the blue is the right side of your heart, and is receiving the blood back from the rest of your body, then sent to the lungs to have oxygen added back in before leaving your hearts left side and back through the body.

On to the second floor we went. A lot of this floor was an illustration of travel and transportation. Near the elevators is an exhibit regarding the Cole Express company, who were a major factor in the transportation scene here in Maine. The company started in 1917, and was bought by Roadway in 1992. We will talk about Cole at a later date, time permitting.

If you were a Cole truck driver, this was your color. I don't understand this, Carol was not comfortable pulling the 5th wheel, but she will pull a 53 foot trailer. It must be the sense of power she likes.

... HAD I BOUGHT A VESPA

I SEEM PRETTY COMFORTABLE DRIVING MY OWN SHIP

READY TO CRUISE THE COAST

SOMETHING FAMILAR TO MAINE

(Yes, two seal pups.)

CAN'T SEEM TO GET THE SEA OUT OF MY BLOOD

Time to head to the first floor, our adventure of discovery had come to a close. We headed to the next best thing to a successful adventure... lunch.

This is the building the museum is in. They only use part of the first, second, and third floors. Our lunch was at the pie shop across the street. That pie would be pizza, just so you know, and no dessert. From there we headed home to rest, that would be Carol rest, me, nap.

Nature is wonderful... at times. Here we were lucky to see a family of Killdeer.

MOM (top) and DAD (bottom)

SOME OF THE BABIES

As I sat and watched this family, it was obvious that the chicks followed mom around, and dad stood watch atop the mount he was standing on in the photo.

My first exposure to this family was the second day we were here. I was walking trash to the dumpster not paying attention to where i was going, I heard their shrill chirping, then I noticed the mom playing injured. Once I saw her playing injured and the dad running around me, I saw the little ones running. After that day I steered clear of them, and let them take care of their business. 

This day had one of the better sunsets... I should say the only sunset I had seen since we were here.

 The next day I decided to walk the front portion of the property, and I was surprised by what I saw, that's because we drove by it every time we came back home.

We shall see what else we can do in between the raindrops.

Here We Are at the Pine Tree State

 

It is important to listen to Garmin when it says the border is five miles out, but in the case of the Maine border, that didn't apply. We saw the sign as we were passing it by, it was like Maine didn't want us to know we crossed into their territory. Here is the option I am forced to deal with... an internet photo of their sign.

The blur we saw only said "Welcome" to Maine.

As we traveled into Maine, we hit the information rest stop. Information was broken into regions, which made it easier to find flyers that interested us. The staff working the information desk suggested that we stop at a scenic pullout for a view of Mt. Katahdin (a.k.a. Ktotonuk or K'taadn). Ktotonuk in Passamaquoddy means "Highest Land". The 19th century spelling of K'taadn (Greatest Mountain) is preferred by the Penobscot tribe today. 

The weather can play terrible games with us sometimes, and today was one of those days; here is our view of the mountain...

If you squint, and I mean really squint, you can see the outline of the  mountain, just under the clouds.

This mountain has a lot of religious meaning for the Native American Indian tribes in the region. The Wabanaki people still believe that their life force lives deep within the mountain. They honor their ancestors, and their connection with the mountain by making an annual journey in a sacred manner during the season of healing.

There is the legend of Pamola. The name Pamola can be pronounced several ways, in the Penobscot the "P" sound like a "B" (Bumole), and in Passamaquoddy it is "P" (Pomule).

So, in Wabanaki mythology, Pamola is a mysterious winged spirit... part bird, part man... who lives in Katahdin. At night he makes the wind blow by flapping his wings. When irritated, he creates violent winds and snow storms. He might appear suddenly with a whirring whizzing sound. A question is asked regarding fog that quickly closes in on the Knife Edge... is Pamola annoyed?

This is what visitors could see, again, this is thanks to the internet.

Looks exactly like our photo... only different. I love that statement, for so few reasons.

At this point we were 2/3rd of the way to Houlton. Houlton must be a fair sized community, they have a Walmart. Here's our turn, Better keep two hands on the wheel.

We arrived on a warm day for this area, but its not the temperature that I struggled with, it was the humidity. Getting set up cost me about two gallons of sweat... and its suppose to get warmer tomorrow. The site is a very nice site, the sun comes in on the door side of the trailer... awning can handle that, and goes down behind the trees next to us.

This is a large campground, and is well maintained. The sites are grass for now, but if I understood the owners, they will slowly convert them to a gravel/decomposed granite mixture, or something equivalent.

They have a couple of small ponds on the grounds, one of them visitors can take a kayak or peddle boat on the water. I walked this pond because the owner said that the "Lady Slippers" were in bloom, boy was she right. It is my understanding that this little flower was on an endangered species list for awhile.

They are apparently making a come back here.

Our first full day of adventuring included the local Walmart, just a couple of miles down the road. Since I left all cleaning gear at home, I decided to try something different, seeing how campgrounds don't like to let us clean up our RVs. My experiment was with a Swiffer wet/dry mop. I got home and tried it out on the back of the trailer, and it took several wet thingy-bobbers to get the road grime off; the dry thingy-bobbers are worthless for what I need now. I figure they may work if I dust the outside of the trailer at each stop. Oh the stress, it was just too much, I'll try another day to clean the left and right sides. With that said, we are planning our road trip for tomorrow.

I chose this specific campground for one reason, to visit the scale solar system. Back in early 2000's the local communities and the University of Maine, Presque Isle (UMPI) got together to create, at that time, the world's largest scale solar system. The model was built on the scale of 1:93,000,000. To give you an idea of the size of the model... its 40 miles from the sun at UMPI to Pluto in Houlton, where we are staying.

This will be our route to the sun, all up Hwy 1. For more information you can visit:

https://www.mainesolarsystem.com/destinations

Now that you have your ticket to board the "Solar System Express", lets get going. We of course started at Pluto since we are staying near. For some reason there are two Plutos in this solar system; it appears to have something to do with its unusual rotation around the sun.

FIRST PLUTO, LOCATED IN HOULTON

(represents average orbit)

Drive 11 miles to Pluto #2:

PLUTO #2 OUTSIDE THE AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM

(represents present orbit)

Drive another 1.3 miles to Neptune:

IN LITTLETON

For you Biden lovers, and Trump haters:

In the yard next to Neptune 

Venturing past Neptune, we travel another 11 miles to Uranus:

OUTSIDE CITY HALL IN BRIDGEWATER

Our spaceship will travel another 11 miles to Saturn:

 DIRECTIONS - "TOP OF THE HILL"

Jupiter is only another short 4.5 mile trip.

EASY TO FIND - "ACROSS FROM A FARM"

As we get closer to the sun, traveling distances shortened. Mars is only 3.8 miles.

The directions for this one was - "By the Welcome to Presque Isle Sign." We initially overshot it and had to fire our retro blasters to find it. The "Welcome Sign" isn't welcoming anymore, there is no sign.

It is only another .4 miles to Earth:

"BY PERCY'S AUTO SALES" SIGN

Here they did the same as Pluto, they show the relationship between earth and the moon:

Venus again is a short shot, so don't blink; it was only, .4 miles.

Venus could be found in front of Presque Isle Chamber of Commerce.

Mercury is but another short .3 mile blast from Venus.

"ACROSS FROM GRIFFITH'S DEALERSHIP"

Flip your visors down, we are heading for the sun, and it is located at University of Maine, Presque Isle.

RECENTLY MOVED OUTSIDE

(previous location was inside Folsom Hall)

We landed at Tim Horton's for lunch, and we will probably not do it again. We jumped back in our spacecraft and headed home.

After we got home I took a walk to the office to look around and found a little surprise:

I got a great deal on them because they had been sitting on the shelf for two years.

This campground we would come back to once I get my passport renewed.