The Things You See Along the Way: Bangor Edition and One Good Fence…

I’m feeling a bit logy today as the effects wear off from the anesthesia that I was subjected to this morning for my colonoscopy.  But I don't think they meant computer when they told me not to operate large machinery.

Most of you out there who have been in my shoes know, of course, that the colonoscopy itself is far less irritating than the prep day before.  But what gets me even more than that is, in my case, to finish off the prep, I had to take the last dose at 1:00 am.  Then, of course, it’s a good couple of hours before you can actually get to sleep after that.  Since my procedure was at 8:00 am, I was up at the crack of dawn and out the door on about two and a half hours sleep.  Soooooo, if I make some mistakes here today, it’s the fatigue speaking.  BUT, I will say this, it’s all a small price to pay to make sure that there’s nothing untoward going on in the old plumbing down there and I'm free for another five years.

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When we were in Bangor in August, we didn’t have a lot of time to look around, but if you saw my last post, you know that we did spend an hour or so driving around town looking at stuff, which is one of my favorite things to do.

I was very surprised to see that The World’s Best Drunken Noodles are served in Bangor.  But my surprise was mainly because I have no idea what a “drunken noodle” is.  I’d try one though.

I like looking in people’s windows while we drive around.  But I’m not a voyeur.  I don’t want to see the people who live in these places; I’m just interested in their stuff.  I liked the looks of this place with the fan and the orchids in the window.  The building itself was nice and strong looking.

In case you’re driving in Bangor and forget where you are, I recommend driving by this sign.

This is The Thomas Hill Standpipe.  “Standpipe” is just a fancy way of saying “water tower.”  According to the website 10Places Every Stephen King Fan Must Stop While in Bangor, Maine, “The Thomas Hill Standpipe served as the inspiration for the haunted and dangerous water tower in It and it's said King wrote much of the book, published in 1986, on a park bench in the small park at the base of the tower. The Standpipe was built in 1897 and holds 1.75 million gallons of water for the city.”

  It is one of my favorite King books.  He confirms the utter and total creepiness of clowns in this book.  I remember It keeping me awake at night when I was reading it.  I couldn’t get the line, “We all float down here” out of my head for months.  Well, the line is obviously still in there even now.

But I would say that even if you aren’t a fan of Mr. King's work, this is worth a stop if you’re ever in Bangor.  It is one fantastic building.  Made me wish I had brought my wide angle lens along.  Oh, well…

So that I will be able to link up with Theresa’s Good Fences today, I’m throwing in this pic.  If we had had more time, it looked like a place that would be a very nice stop for a draft beer.  Well, at least it would be on a nice day, which it wasn’t when we were in Bangor.  And that’s why my pictures of the Standpipe (above) look like they were converted to black and white.  Nope.  Those shots are in living color.  It was just a black and white kind of day.

The Things You See Along the Way in Vermont…

If you were having your yard dug up, would you want it done by the bourgeois?  When I first saw this, it occurred to me that this might not be the best name for a company, but then I thought about it for a little longer.   The word bourgeois means conventional, conservative and hide-bound and the antonyms are adventurous, inspired and original.  Yes, if I wanted someone to dig up my yard, I’d want them to be bourgeois.  I don’t think we need originality in yard digging.

Ever seen one of these before?  Me, either.  I like the originality though, don't you?

The bears in Vermont are so refined, they wear clothes and they always recycle.

Even without the license plate, I would have a pretty good guess where this car has its home base.  My favorite of the bunch is, “Never give up on your dreams, unless your dreams are stupid.”  Great advice!  Well, I kind of like the “Drink Vermont Beer” one, too.  

But seriously, I really am already against the next war.

Fellow blogger Nicki (Bended Road Photos) recently posted a gas pump similar to this one. The difference is that the one she posted has the Esso logo on it.  Seems her father was an Esso dealer back in the day.  I am sure that fans and collectors of petroliana could point out more differences between the two pumpls besides the brand name, but to me they look like they might be of similar vintage.  We ran across this pump at Calvin Coolidge’s birthplace in Plymouth Notch, Vermont.  My father owned a service station in Ohio and was a Gulf dealer so, of course, I had to take a snap.

 

Here’s an aside about Coolidge.  An interesting thing to me about him is that before he became president, he was mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts, where my daughter Carrie lives and Calvin’s wife, Grace Anna Goodhue, who was a graduate of the University of Vermont, taught at the Clarke School for the Deaf that is located down the street from Carrie’s abode.

I know that the above is true but is this?

OOPS!  I forgot something.  As we were traveling down the road, we spied this sign:

If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you may know that I fell in love with Scotland when we visited a few years back.  While we were there, we visited the Isle of Skye and I wanted to buy a Skye tartan scarf because I really, really liked it.  Well, long story short, I didn't buy it and have regretted it ever since.  When we spied this sign, Greg turned around and let me go in to look for my Skye tartan.  Now, I have it and it's beautiful!  Yay!

Thanks, Greg!

The Things You See Along the Way...

When we were in North Carolina with our friends Dona and Bob, we discovered that all four of us like train rides.  As it happens, there’s a train called the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad that leaves from Bryson City every day.

We booked passage for the Nantahala Gorge Excursion, which “takes you across Fontana Lake and into the beautiful Nantahala Gorge.”  The train was comfortable with an attendant who would fill your "free" mug with coffee, tea or a soft drink while the train moseyed along.  Here’s what the interior of our car looked like.

And here are a few of the things we saw along the way…

The train took us to the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) where we had an hour layover.  Just enough time to stretch our legs and have a nice glass of local ale.  But we did see some interesting things during our stop.

Like these two peeps who were obviously so worn out they were willing to nap on gravel.

And these three dogs.  The two already in the truck watched with rapt attention until dog number three was safely in the truck.  They must be best friends.

The scenery on the way back to Bryson City was just wonderful.

One of our fellow passengers seemed to like it quite a lot.

A nice day was had by all.

The Things You See Along the Way…

We got back from our trip to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park a couple of days ago and I have been working to get caught up with this and that.  I thought I would share with you a few things we saw along the way.

Somewhere in Pennsylvania, we got off the highway to avoid heavy traffic and passed through a town, which I believe is Pottsville, home of Yuengling beer.  Anyhow, I was taken by this doorway.  The sign above says "Grateful Thread."  Do you suppose they sold clothing or fabric?

Have you been wondering what's happened to Superman lately?  I spotted him hitching a ride somewhere in Virginia.  With the state of the world the way it is right now, I think he needs to wake up and get to work.

Once we got into Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, we were dazzled by all the entertainment possibilities.  Too bad we weren't staying close to there.  I would have liked to know what that pig would have said about the state of my mind.

You know, people always have to write on things.  They just can't seem to help it.  We saw this particular graffiti on a stone wall inside The Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  Reminds me of my mother who used to say, "If you have kids, you can't have anything nice." Of course, she got a good crop of nice kids and, you know, she would definitely admit to that.

I think when you are traveling in the mountains and they tell you to downshift, you should do it.  Boy, I can still smell this guy's breaks.

Stopping at one of the information centers for a bathroom break, I decided to  hold my bladder and to take pictures of crows instead.  These guys were arguing with a chicken over the possession of half an apple.  I could have watched them for hours.

And all this happened before we got to our final destination.  I love being on the road.

The Things You See Along The Way...

We took off for our trip south this year on a bright, crisp New Year’s Day and we learned something from that.  Traveling on New Year’s Day is a great idea.  While most people were home nursing hangovers, watching the Rose Bowl Parade or breaking their New Year resolutions, we were putting miles under our wheels.  It’s lovely traveling when there’s practically no traffic.

I think people who believe that Americans have lost their work ethic would be encouraged by this photo.   This was taken on New Year’s Day in Pennsylvania.  These people weren’t home nursing hangovers or watching the Rose Bowl Parade.  No, they were definitely working.

Sometimes you get a little hungry on the road, so it’s nice to have an invitation to lunch.

One day while we were in Apalachicola, Florida, we saw a bunch of men coming out of a building with white boots on.  There was a pretty steady stream of them.  My first thought was that it was a troop of men on their break from a “women’s club.”   You know, a “women’s club” like a (wink, wink) “gentlemen’s club” and that they were (wink, wink) go-go dancers.  But on second thought, those boots might have something to do with the oyster industry down there.  I never did find out.

Here’s a little something I’m sure most of us don’t want to see.  This was taken at the ferry stop in Fort Morgan, Florida.  We didn’t take the ferry, but it wasn’t because of the snakes.  We've seen these signs in the South, both in Texas and Florida.  I've never seen one up this way.  I guess we don't have to be cautious around our snakes in Massachusetts.

I wanted to stop at this place, but unfortunately the timing wasn’t right.  For one thing, I am a Lambert and could be related to these people.  For another thing, I had to wonder about the “throwed roll” thing.  My mother is only a Lambert by marriage and, even in her prime, she wasn’t much of a cook, but she could bake and I bet she could have throwed a roll in her day.

And, by the way, that’s MR.! Bingo to you…

The Things You See Along the Way…

One of the things I really love about traveling are the odd and interesting things you see along the way.  One of those things we saw on our recent trip to the Canadian Maritimes was the World’s Largest Lobster.  It’s located in Shediac, New Brunswick.  We saw this guy on another trip to New Brunswick along with the World’s Largest Axe, which is located in Nackawic, NB and the World’s Longest Covered Bridge located in Hartland, NB.  I think these three things alone are worth a trip to New Brunswick so I won't even mention that you can walk on the ocean floor there, too, at Hopewell Rocks.  But we didn’t have time to stop for any of those things this time except for the lobster.  Here he is:

And I was fortunate to get this shot of this adorable kid imitating the fisherman.

While we were stopped at a traffic light, I spied this sign advertising a Yard Sale.   It made me think that all Yard Sales would be more successful if there were BBQs and Music included.  Brilliant!

I have found that many places lay claim to the World’s Largest Potato, but this is the largest potato that I’ve ever seen.  It’s located at The Canadian Potato Museum in O’Leary, Prince Edward Island.  I will say that I am a big fan of potatoes and I was disappointed when we pulled into the parking lot just as the place was closing for the day.  But that didn’t stop me from getting a shot of Greg and Olive next to this prodigious spud.  As you can see, Olive was unimpressed.

Best bumper sticker of the entire trip.

This is not a good picture, but it’s the only driving Canada Geese we the whole time we were in Canada, so I think they deserve to be included.

I don’t want to be left out of Theresa’s Good Fences, so here’s one I managed to pick up along the way.  Also not a good photo, but it’s a pretty cool fence.  It would look weird if it were in Arizona, but it’s right at home on PEI.

Linking to Good Fences!

The Things You See Along the Way: Going more than a mile in...

 We were sitting conversing with some friends before we left on our road trip and talking about the route we planned to take. Greg said, “We're going to stop in Montgomery, Alabama and check out the Civil Rights Memorial. It's a mile in.” I looked at him askance and said, “A mile in?? I thought it was, like, right on the street.” Greg gave me one of his patented “Greg” looks and said, “A Maya Lin...NOT a mile in.” And he is right, of course. The Memorial was designed by Maya Lin, the woman who created the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. and it is accessible and right on the street, not a mile in.

The Memorial is a striking design. It consists of a conical piece of black marble with a round smooth top engraved with important events in the Civil Rights Movement and the names of 40 people who died in the Civil Rights struggle between 1954, the year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled racial segregation in schools unlawful and 1968, the year of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. Water flows from the center of the circle in ripples over the edge of the cone. Behind this is a curved wall, inscribed with the words from King's I Have a Dream speech, “...we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

The day we were there, it was still pretty cold out although it was beginning to warm up. We were disappointed to see that the Memorial was roped off because of the possibility of ice on the ground surrounding the Memorial. It didn't look all that icy to me so I went around the barrier and Greg followed. Out of nowhere a guard showed up to remind us that we were not supposed to be in there. But he was very polite about it and didn't hurry us up too much.

We then went on to the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where Martin Luther King, Jr. was pastor from 1954 to 1960 and where he helped to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In our inevitable way, we were too early and the church wasn't opened yet. Since we had to get on the road, we just admired the outside and went on our way.

But before we left Montgomery, we had to drive by Riverwalk Stadium, the home of the Montgomery Biscuits AA baseball team affiliated with the Tampa Bay Rays. Low and behold, it was open. So we parked and went in. Being inside a ballpark in the middle of the winter is a special treat even when no one is playing.

We traced the route of the Selma to Montgomery Marches of 1965 only we did it backwards and ended up in Selma. We drove into Selma over the Edmund Pettis Bridge where the marches began. Selma is a charming southern town and we enjoyed our short time there. And we appreciated being able to visit the sites where such profound events took place that we both so clearly remember from our youths.