Where's DucKie been?

That's the question everyone has been asking. I'm still here - it's just been a few busy days. Let's start at the beginning.
Going back a few days, Knucklehead decided to buy his mother a new TV to replace a small one she used in a second room. He ordered one from Sears as they didn't have one in stock. After waiting a week, he got it on Friday, connected it, and put a DVD in wrong-side up and it got "stuck". After 30 minutes of trying to get it out, he returned it for another. This one was fine and he then learned what he probably needed to do to have removed it. Oh, well. It's why I call him Knucklehead.
Wednesday morning, his mom was doing laundry and the drier sparked a few times. He opened the back and found the wires melted. He called for service from Sears. The repairman came Thursday morning. After about 30 minutes (and $126), it was determined that it wouldn't make sense to repair it. He and his sister
ran around and paid extra to have one delivered the next day (Friday). It was delivered Friday morning at 8:30. Turned out the power outlet was wrong and I had to rewire it. Then the circuit breaker started chattering. So he called for an electrician who was able to come 15 minutes later. He found that the wiring was all correct and he had to replace the curcuit breaker. Whew! What a whirlwind! The drier is working fine now.
And all this happened before we had to go to the graveyard for the burial of his father at 11am!
The burial was fine and the weather was good. Afterwards, Knucklehead's cousin hosted a reception at her house. Very nice. And it was good to see his uncles and a couple cousins. And that was it for Friday.
Meanwhile, earlier in the week he and his two sisters had decided to rent a trailer to empty stuff out of his mother's basement. Turned out the cousin who hosted had a trailer! And rather than haul to the dump, she suggested that there was a charity in town that might take the stuff.
On Saturday, we spent 6 hours cleaning "junk" out of the basement and hauling it to the charity. And they wanted everything! The old broken drier. Small pieces of scrap wood. An old fold up bed. Books. Metal. OMG! They took nearly everything! It was great! He didn't have to pay to take it to the dump and this place was closer. But it was six loads and they were beat.
Now all that remains is a single trip to the dump for the items that are left. That will be Monday.
Sunday was a day of rest. Knucklehead's lovely wife suggested the he and she take a hike on the trails at the local state park, Aroostook State Park. The trail map had two mountains and a ridge trail in three miles and they didn't realize the trail would be so steep. Oh, really?! Two mountains! Guess how long until he wanted to turn back. Well, I will say he didn't complain but he wasn't happy about any of it. After a three hour hike, they made it out without my having to call for a helicopter rescue. I'm pretty certain Knucklehead won't repeat the hike. I have included a few photos of the trip and a sign on the road to the park.
After the park, we took a quick ride over to the site where the first trans-Atlantic balloon ride started! What a thrill, right? I've got a picture of the balloon statue and the plaque - hope you can read it. The balloon landed somewhere in France.
And that is where DucKie has been.

Isn't it hilly, pictures at last, and talent

I finally got around to getting those promised photos of knucklehead's primary school and high school. The primary school, Gouldville Elementary, is no longer used as a primary school. The high school is still in service - though they've probably added indoor plumbing since he was there.

When knucklehead was in college and working on the coast of Maine, a fellow from down there commented on how mountainous it was in northern Maine. Knucklehead had said he hadn't thought so. Here's a picture I took across some rolling land with small mountains in the background. It's like this all around. I guess knucklehead was wrong - it is very hilly.

The last picture I took of a little craft thing we found while cleaning the basement. Knucklehead made that - don't know when. He was probably 19 or 20, I'd guess. It even has his signature on the bottom. Now he is bragging about how much foresight he showed back then because it says "Mail..." - that it can be used for more than just mail because of the "..." Isnt that clever!

The last two days

The weather these past two days has been good for me; less good for the people. Yesterday was in the 50's, today in the 60's and both days had rain. I love cool rain; knucklehead has to wear a jacket. He walked 3.5 miles last night and whined about how cool it was out. Waa wa wa.
For the most part, they've been cleaning stuff these days - cabinets, carpets, etc. Today he spent some time boxing old books in the basement. Now they are trying to figure out how to move junk from the basement to the dump or recycling.
Knucklehead's older sister arrives tonight from Wisconsin. Her plane was late.
I've included two photos today. One is a field of potatoes in blossom. Not a great photo but this shows a field of white blossoms. I drove nearly 10 miles out of town trying to find a field with different color blossoms but had no luck. This area has lots of these potato fields.
The other is an hilarious picture of knucklehead as a kid - I think around 2nd grade. His father used to cut his hair if you can believe that! There is a picture of his brother, a year older, with the same fine haircut. Today this would probably be child abuse. But look - he had hair one time!

I am loved!

I have hit the big times! My blog has finally been discovered by the movers and shakers. Take a look at the pictures - I'm on billboards, art galleries, magazine covers, and I'm in negotiations for a movie. More to come on that.

Today, knucklehead did some more cleaning and book packing. But really, who cares. After our walk this morning he's been complaining and whining all day that his feet hurt. Gawd!

Also today, an uncle and aunt on his mother's side of the family drove up from southern Maine for a visit. Very nice - that was a 5 hour drive! That side of his family is having a reunion at the end of the week in New Hampshire. He won't be attending due to the burial on Friday.

Crack of dawn

Knucklehead woke me at 5:30 this morning to go for a walk. Good grief.

First we walked his old paper route (about 1.5 miles), then we walked up to the high school (about 0.6 miles), then got onto the bike trail and walked across town and the back home (3.6 miles total).

He wanted an idea how far he used to walk as a kid doing his paper route and walking to school. Up hill both ways and in 2 ft of snow in August, I'm sure.

I should have taken some pictures but he wouldn't stop. We passed his elementary school, his high school, a house he'd painted in high school, etc. I'll get some later.

Yesterday

Didn't do too much yesterday. Knucklehead trimmed some trees then helped me to wash the big windows on the front of his mom's house - two big 6' x 6' windows. Then in the evening we went to visit one of his uncles and aunt. This is a younger brother of his father - 81 years old.

Tombstone, Arizona?

This is not a post for the weak at heart.

After lunch today knucklehead and family visited the graveyard where his father will be interred on Friday, July 29.

You may recall his father died unexpectedly on March 5 but, due to the snow and frozen ground, people who die in the winter in northern Maine are not buried until after spring. Knucklehead's family is getting together again for this step.

I have included a photo of his father's tombstone (Jeramiah Patrick) and footstone. Since I was there I took a photo of knucklehead's uncle's (Ralph) stone and the stone for some of his great aunts (Edvia, Cecilia, and Carrie Campbell) and uncle (Tom Campbell).

Sorry for the gruesome post. It's what we did today.

That along with going through his father's books. His father had lots and lots of religious books. These are being boxed for donation. We will also be going through his college books.

A day of travels and scares

It seems that my photos don't post in the same order that I place them - sorry about that. Hope you can work them out.

So, today I left the coast of Maine for the far north. See the picture of me looking longingly out at the morning fog before I leave Mount Desert Island.

Our first stop was Stephen King's house in Bangor. That's the picture of the red house. In the second closer picture of the house, if you can blow it up, you will see that the gate on the fence has the shape of a spider web in the center and the columns have bats. Spooky, huh?

Our next stop was the campus of the University of Maine at Orono where knucklehead claims to have received a BS in Chemical Engineering. I'd guess it was about 1908. As we were walking around campus, we came across a black bear! So I kicked its butt and bronzed him.

What? Yes I did. That wasn't a statue there before! Well, anyway, there is a picture there of the full bear (I am at the very bottom by his feet, if you can blow it up), a picture of some stupid sign that I swear wasn't there when I found the beast, and a picture of his face. I know. Scary, right.

Oh, and there is a picture of the Folger Library on campus from the mall. It turns out that Stephen King has donated all of his papers to the library - he is also an alumnus. King is also a very large philanthropist in the area. Knucklehead says King is probably the second most famous graduate, whatever that means.

Finally, we continued our interminable drive north to Presque Isle, Maine. I've included a photo of the highway so you could see the traffic.

What's that? You ask "Where are the cars on the highway?" THAT'S WHAT I SAID! If this Presque Isle is indeed (a) the "Star City of the Northeast" and (b) the largest city in the largest county east of the Mississippi, where in the heck is everybody?

There is nobody on the road! We set the GPS (not that there are any turns) and it says "drive 110 miles on US 95 north". OMG! 110 miles of empty road and trees! There were more cars at the MacDonalds we stopped at in Houlton (the northern end of US 95) than we saw on that entire ride! And when that ends, it's another 50 miles north on US Route 1! And people live up here? Apparently not. The place is referred to as "The County" and "God's country". I guess nobody else wants to live here.

I will admit that the area has a kind of open beauty. There are fields and fields of potatoes and many are in blossom. Different potato varieties have different color blossoms so some fields have white and others have pink or light purple. It's kind of nice - I will try to get you a picture while they are in blossom; I'll bet not many of you have seen fields of potatoes in blossom.

Now that's odd

We haven't had much rain while we've been here on the Maine coast but in no way did I think we'd had a drought. Just look at those pictures! The ocean is drying up! I just can't believe it - it wasn't like that this morning when we left the house. This is just incredible...it has to be related to global warming. I just...what? Low tide? Well then, nevermind.

So those pictures were taken in Sedgwick, Maine where knucklehead's best friend's mother has a summer home. I took the pictures from their front yard looking out the Benjamin River into Eggomoggin Reach. Knucklehead spent some time there in summers when he was a kid. We were visiting his friend's mother. The house was built in the 1800's.

And then when we got back to the house after the visit we found that someone had erased the mountains on the island. I mean just look at that picture - no mountains! How could they do that? What? That's fog? Uhm..okay.

What I did today

Today was a bit slow but, again, the weather was terrific.

We drove to Acadia and to the top of Cadillac Mountain. I've included a few pictures. Pretty drive. Beautiful scenery. And for educational purposes, I have included a picture of some kind of lichen that grows in
three colors (green, black, and pink)! How wierd is that?

We were going to go hiking but decided to eat in Bar Harbor instead. We ate at a Mexican place. Then instead of hiking, we went canoeing again for an hour. We went into a marsh because Mrs Knucklehead wanted to see some wildlife. We saw some of my duck brothers and nothing else! What a waste. Heck, we saw a wild turkey the other day in a local town! No need to canoe in a marsh.

Then we took knucklehead's friends out to dinner. Very nice place - Red Sky - I can recommend it if you are ever in Southwest Harbor.

Tourist tales

I thought I should fill in you people "from away" on how you come across to the natives here. And perhaps the best way is with a few stories.

The first has to do with the picture below. It shows the town of Bar Harbor and an island called Bar Island. There is a trail that can be driven that connects the island to the mainland that is only available for 90 minutes at low tide. So far this summer, three cars have been flooded by trying to drive across when there is water. I saw one in the paper two days ago! How dumb are tourists?

Next is the story of a man "from away" who was staying in Northeast Harbor. One morning he called the police to report vandalism on his car overnight. The police came and reviewed the situation and then explained to the man about seagulls and the mess they can make. Really? The guy couldn't tell birds had crapped on his car? This story was also in the paper. Seems the locals don't have a problem laughing at the tourists.

Also, in general the natives aren't too impressed with people from Massachusetts. They have an interesting nickname for them - Massholes. Good for a chuckle.

Take a hike!

There are lots of hiking trails in Acadia. I wonder how many have access to emergency services for the elderly.

Anyway, after lunch today we went for a hike along Long Pond. I am not sure what kept this from being a lake but it was pretty big! I have included a picture.

I guess we went a couple miles all told - I thought I was going to have to drag the old guy out, at one point. But it was another beautiful location with a great view. The temperature today was around 85 degrees.

The signs around the pond say "No swimming. Drinking water source." Of course, across the pond we saw kids jumping in from large rock formations. And we saw a water skier, who we thought was likely to take a dip at some point.

Rocks, Family Reunion, Scary Things, and Pizza and a Movie

Another day, another set of adventures.

Today we drove over to Schoodic Point, the only part of Acadia National Park that is on the mainland. Amazing place - I've included a few pictures. The place is at the edge of the ocean with beautiful pink granite. A million years ago, or so (when knucklehead was a teen, I guess), magma pushed up through the Earth's mantel and forced itself through and into cracks in the granite. The result is the amazing black stripes you can see in the granite. The tide was coming in. it was amazing! Beautiful place.

And guess who followed me? Right. Mr Talkative. And then I see the entire family (you can see them in the picture). And one is just as stuck up as the next.

I didn't let them ruin my mood. That didn't happen until I saw the spook on the beach. I got a picture of that, too. Meanwhile, knucklehead ran away like a sissy.

After that  we went to Bar Harbor to Reel Pizza. It's a movie theater that serves pizza. Of course I didn't get to go in - "I'm not buying a seat for a stupid rubber duck" my a**! See if i drive home next time he's out after dark.

So I go walking around Bar Harbor when I come across this brass frog (see pic). I'm like "what the...?"

A duckie of a day!

My goodness! How many beautiful days do these people get around here? Today was another great day.

Around noon, the old guy and his lovely wife, Stephanie, went out canoeing in the cove on which they are renting. Spent a bit over an hour exploring the cove and the marina, going around the lobstah boats and sailboats. Lovely weather. I thought the old guy would have passed out working that hard. But he is getting a little too much sun - it even looks like he got sunburned on the joint of his little toe through his sandals! What a wus.

This evening we drove to Mount Cadillac (named after some French guy) to watch the sun set. I have included a few pictures. Unfortunately, there were clouds on the horizon so we lost the sun before it hit the horizon. And wasn't the wind blowin' somethin' wicked! I tell you what! So it was nice but not quite a sunset.

And again, my cousin comes on over but doesn't say a word! I wonder if he's mute. I'm like - "cat got your tongue?" - but nothing.

I am not sure what the old knucklehead was thinking being out that late - perhaps it's sunstroke - but I had to drive us back to the house since we don't let him drive at night.

And thus ended our day.

Pride day?

There was a big annual parade and event today in Southwest Harbor. I wasn't sure for a while if it was a "pride" parade or what. Turns out it's an annual flamingo event with crafts and such - proceeds going to a community hall.

Later Mr and Mrs had dinner with his boyhood best friend and wife. Good times.