Monday, May 22, 2006
Today should be titled The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
The Good:
1. Started the 4 Corners Tour from Madawaska, ME. I took the required pictures, got the receipts, filled out the paperwork, personally delivered it to one of the postal workers going into work and headed for Key West.
2. Made it to Quoddy Head LIght, the easternmost point in the United States. Took a water and soil sample and documented it with polaroid and digital photos.
3. Got the Stamp at Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, ME. I think this makes 7 states and who knows how many stamps.
4. Had a wonderful ride down US Rte 1 from Madawaska to Quoddy Head - mostly good road surfaces, no Bambi or Bullwinkle sightings and absolutley NO TRAFFIC going in my direction - no blue hairs, no campers, no farmers. Nice non-technical road, 55 mph speed limit, so 65 was pretty good speed
The Bad:
1. The bad is being behind the landscape truck heavily loaded with fertilizer on a two lane road facing a 22 mile construction zone. We'd get to the flagger, wait and wait while I inhaled diesel fumes for 5 minutes, then slowly climb up to speed only to meet another flagger and repeat the procedure.
The Ugly:
1. Take The Good and The Bad, add rain and 50* temps -yeeecch!
All in all it was a pretty good day even with the rain and cool temps. I got excited about being on the very easternmost point of the US, stopped, took pictures, etc. Water was at low tide and you could see the diggers out there looking for clams. I even saw a truck out on the flats! Because of the large tidal change, the lighthouse looks like something from MYST sticking out of the water with almost no water around it.
There are a lot of old buildings out here, many in need of some seroius attention, many beyond hope, just waiting to falldown. There are also a lot of places for sale, many on the waterfront, but I can't even imagine the prices they might command. Who'd want to live out here, though? Not me - too much of most of everything I dislike: traffic, congestion, expensive, high taxes (almost sounds like Wisconsin...)
I lost a tremendous amount of time getting to Quoddy Head and Acadia - so much so that I didn't make it to New Bedford, MA as planned. Got as far as Portland, ME and called it quits. I'll have to make up the difference tomorrow and the plan lookd doable - get up early,, get thru Taxachusetts before early monring Bostin traffic madness, get my stamps, get thru NYC around noon and get out of Dodge! Fortunately, my original plan was for a short day, so this revision doen't make it too arduous.
Did I mention how anxious I am to get off the East Coast?
Daily stats:
GPS mileage: 522 miles
Cumulative miles: 1843
Driving average: 53.3 mph
Overall mph: 43.8 mph
Driving time: 9:47
Stopped time: 2:07
Total time: 11:55
Later,
Mike
The Good:
1. Started the 4 Corners Tour from Madawaska, ME. I took the required pictures, got the receipts, filled out the paperwork, personally delivered it to one of the postal workers going into work and headed for Key West.
2. Made it to Quoddy Head LIght, the easternmost point in the United States. Took a water and soil sample and documented it with polaroid and digital photos.
3. Got the Stamp at Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, ME. I think this makes 7 states and who knows how many stamps.
4. Had a wonderful ride down US Rte 1 from Madawaska to Quoddy Head - mostly good road surfaces, no Bambi or Bullwinkle sightings and absolutley NO TRAFFIC going in my direction - no blue hairs, no campers, no farmers. Nice non-technical road, 55 mph speed limit, so 65 was pretty good speed
The Bad:
1. The bad is being behind the landscape truck heavily loaded with fertilizer on a two lane road facing a 22 mile construction zone. We'd get to the flagger, wait and wait while I inhaled diesel fumes for 5 minutes, then slowly climb up to speed only to meet another flagger and repeat the procedure.
The Ugly:
1. Take The Good and The Bad, add rain and 50* temps -yeeecch!
All in all it was a pretty good day even with the rain and cool temps. I got excited about being on the very easternmost point of the US, stopped, took pictures, etc. Water was at low tide and you could see the diggers out there looking for clams. I even saw a truck out on the flats! Because of the large tidal change, the lighthouse looks like something from MYST sticking out of the water with almost no water around it.
There are a lot of old buildings out here, many in need of some seroius attention, many beyond hope, just waiting to falldown. There are also a lot of places for sale, many on the waterfront, but I can't even imagine the prices they might command. Who'd want to live out here, though? Not me - too much of most of everything I dislike: traffic, congestion, expensive, high taxes (almost sounds like Wisconsin...)
I lost a tremendous amount of time getting to Quoddy Head and Acadia - so much so that I didn't make it to New Bedford, MA as planned. Got as far as Portland, ME and called it quits. I'll have to make up the difference tomorrow and the plan lookd doable - get up early,, get thru Taxachusetts before early monring Bostin traffic madness, get my stamps, get thru NYC around noon and get out of Dodge! Fortunately, my original plan was for a short day, so this revision doen't make it too arduous.
Did I mention how anxious I am to get off the East Coast?
Daily stats:
GPS mileage: 522 miles
Cumulative miles: 1843
Driving average: 53.3 mph
Overall mph: 43.8 mph
Driving time: 9:47
Stopped time: 2:07
Total time: 11:55
Later,
Mike
