Where's Paulie?

Knucklehead's missus wanted to drive home by way of Albany, NY rather than having to drive through Connecticut - too much traffic through there.

So we do that and then join up with the regular E-W traffic in Newburg, NY in the Hudson Valley.

Having seen an episode having lunch in a bar on the coast of Maine, Knucklehead says, "Isn't Orange County around here?" His wife with a map says we are in it now. So Knucklehead says "Where is Orange County Chopper?" So she googles it on her phone, gets directions and we are driving right past it! Holy crap!

So we stopped and shopped! If they had had one in my size I wouldn't be riding in the car with them now! Paulie was no where to be seen but I have included a few pictures of choppers from the store.

We stopped the night in Wilkes-Barre, PA and hit the road again at 7 am for the last 200 miles. It appears that the scenic detour to Albany adds about 120 miles to this adventure so we might have got home yesterday had we gone for speed.

On the road again

I woke everyone up and we hit the road at 7 am. I took first shift driving - I figured I'd stretch my legs and put some serious miles behind us while it was still early.

Afterwards I took a turn at navigating and then I had a bit of a rest. I have included a few pics of that scene.

Meanwhile I've got the old guy strapped into the back seat. He's back there drooling. And every time we pass a car from New Brunswick, Ontario, or Nova Scotia (the Canadian Maritime provinces), he yells "Welcome to America!" I'm sure you can imagine how entertaining this is. And he's doing it for Texas now, too. Lord help me!

I have also included a picture of a windmill farm we passed driving south. This one is in Mars Hill, ME.

Meanwhile, we have reached about Waterville, ME. Another 20 miles to Augusta, the state capital. And then about an hour to Portland where shortly after we will leave Maine for much worse places.

I love Dr Phil!

Did you know Dr Phil is on for two consecutive hours on OWN! Knucklehead's mom watches it - I love it despite what Knucklehead says.

Today was a day to wind down, to finish stuff before leaving tomorrow. And it started out good. I got those things done by 9 am.

We kind of glided into noon when we had lunch out. Our bill came in at $983! And we didn't even have pie (see pic)!

We ran a few errands when Knucklehead's wife mentioned locking in a price on winter fuel oil. So it began again. He discussed this with the oil company and locked in a price. There goes an hour.

Then the insurance agent called. Knucklehead is looking into insurance on the home. Apparently there are some things that will have to be done to the house for this. Another long term project!

Tomorrow we hit the road early for our 800+ mile ride home. I expect to be home Saturday and you can expect to see the last entry of my amazing travelog.

What I did on my summer vacation

I think this has probably been the most I have ever worked on one of my vacations. Something new almost every day.

Yesterday the crew from Maine Public Service came to cut down trees from the front of Knucklehead's mother's house. I have included a before and after picture. There were two maples, a birch, and a spruce. They'd been there about 35 years and had grown into the power and utility lines. And his mother had become nervous about them being over the house.

Knucklehead had contacted the utility about two months ago to have them removed but due to the storms up here they have not been able to schedule it. They have had at least one tornado plus tremendous amounts of rain and thunder storms. Fortunately the guy responded to a request to do it while we were still here. Knucklehead has arranged for a tree service to remove some additional trees and to clean up the "treemains". Unfortunately, due to the storms, they are also backed up. Alas...

Today is the last day we are here and there are still things he needs to do. Let's hope he can finish before he leaves tomorrow!

For Knucklehead, this is DucKie reporting from Presque Isle, Maine, the Star City of the Northeast.

What's a padaduh house?

Does anyone have an idea what a padaduh house is?

Yes, Karn. Do you have an answer?

A house made of padaduhs? That's a good guess, but no.

Around here when they say potato lazily it sounds like padaduh.

Uhm, no, Karn. It is not a house made from potatoes. Another good guess. But we are done guessing - please sit down.

A potato house is a barn-like structure, typically partly underground used to store harvested potatoes. I've included a picture of one below. This one belonged to Knucklehead's uncle when Knucklehead was younger - more on that later. I have also included another photo of a big potato field - you might tell from the sky in the picture that we've been having some rain.

No, Karn. It isn't raining potatoes.

The inside of the potato house is divided up into large bins that are used to contain the potatoes after they are harvested. In the case of the uncle, harvesting was done by school children picking potatoes. They would pick into a basket, dump the full basket into a barrel - it took five or more baskets to fill a barrel - and the barrels were picked up by a flat-bed truck and dumped from the top into the bins. Being partly underground helped to keep the potatoes at a controlled temperature - not too hot and not too cold.

Later, during the winter, the potatoes would be processed - run across a conveyor, sorted for size, rocks and bad potatoes removed - and bagged and then shipped to whatever market the farmer had sold to. Or perhaps shipped in bulk. Knucklehead recalls his uncle's potatoes being sold as seed potatoes before so those were probably shipped in bulk. Anyway, that was how it was done. I have included one picture I found of potato picking. This is his uncle's but I cannot identify the pickers. The tractor driver is another uncle who ran the "digger" for his brother during harvest. This brother was a teacher.

Which brings me to the next part of this lesson.

No, Karn. He wasn't a potato teacher. Please sit down.

In Northern Maine, they let out school for three to four weeks in October for potato harvest. The small farmers - around 100 acres or so - would pay the students about 50 cents a barrel to pick. Older students might choose to work for a farmer who used mechanical harvesters but those were too expensive for the smaller farmers. Our hero and his siblings typically worked for his uncle. When he was in high school, he worked on the truck that picked up the filled barrels. You should try to roll a full barrel of potatoes - maybe 150 pounds - on a moving truck.

Knucklehead's father used to tell a story of overhearing some Canadian workers talking about a big fellow who would roll two barrels at a time while smoking a pipe - that was my uncle. He could roll two barrels at a time across a plank board from the truck to dump them into the potato house bin.

I guess that's enough history. On Tuesday, Knucklehead took some photos they'd found over to his father's cousin - they were of his sibling s and kids. Hadn't seen that cousin in 20 years or more. He had a daughter in Knucklehead's class. He was also a potato farmer.

An easy day?

Today was a bit slower - or at least Knucklehead didn't feel like he needed to be airlifted from anywhere.


Today we made a trip to the landfill at a neighboring community because the van and trailer we borrowed had a sticker for their landfill and it was free. After that, we re-loaded with some other wastes and recycle goods and took them to the local landfill and then to the recycle station. Both sites said we couldn't dump liquid wastes at their locations so we unloaded what we could at each and we ended up at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the rest!


Knucklehead spoke to the agent from DEP for a bit and found that this locale has a single day each year where they accept hazardous wastes (paint thinner, deck waterproofing, brake fluid, etc.). For this year, that was a short while ago. So it would be another year and a coincidence if Knucklehead were in town for that event. I think the DEP agent finally felt some compassion for Knucklehead (it might have been the tears) and he offered to take the small amounts we had on our trailer and dispose of them with other "overpacs" that they put together on DEP cleanup jobs. What a relief! We finally got rid of everything (nearly) that we have been trying to get rid of from his parent's basement.


I think we have a run left for the town charity to unload a few minor items and then turning in some bottle and can recycling for cash and we're done!


While all this was going on, Knucklehead's wife made a run to the post office and library and delivered a bunch of food to a food pantry that he and she had bought the day before.


Later this afternoon, Knucklehead took his mother's car to the local dealer to get the Maine State Inspection completed (annual) and have an oil change and tires rotated. That was a nearly flawless process that took 90 minutes of his already limited life.


And the sisters have decided to plant a few plants into what was formerly a small vegetable garden. The idea is to make it have some life (other than weeds) rather than be just a tarp-covered plot of land but to keep it from having any maintenance requirements for his mom. It looks nice - I've got my webbed feet crossed about it being zero-maintenance.


Tomorrow is the last day for the two visiting sisters (Florida and Wisconsin) - they fly home early Wednesday. I plan to leave on Friday for the long drive home - to arrive on Saturday.


We've accomplished a lot but there seems to always be something more to do (example the car). In a brief conversation this afternoon, it sounds like Knucklehead's mom might be interested in wintering with the sister in Florida but would like to store her car somewhere in town out of the weather. A new challenge!