Matt and Carol's Travels: 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: