Tillie's Back!

Tillie the VW has been on the road again adding Massachusetts and Maine to her state map and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Bridge said she ran like a top most of the way refusing to start only one time. Even then she was only half a block from the best VW mechanic in Nova Scotia and the repair was minor. (Tillie must be Irish with the luck she has had in choices of places to break down.)

At any rate we met up with Bridge in Tillie on Vinalhaven, Maine unloading from the ferry. I love the new sign that's appeared in the ferry loading area - am not sure if it refers to people or cars...

Photo 3 is Bridge in the ocean in front of the cabin where we were staying(cold as in brrrrrrrrrrrr is the only way to describe the water in that part of Maine!) Bridge was feeling a pit drowsy before he went in but was awake for hours after that little dip so I guess it did what it was supposed to.

Photo 4 is at the Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine. You are seeing the backsides of 4 of the 8 mule hitch (take my word - it is NOT easy to take a photo of 8 mules all at once let alone hitch them up and get them to go anywhere).

Photo 5 is the "Philadelphia" at dock at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum - a wonderful little museum on the Vermont side of Lake Champlain especially if you're interested in history and sunken ships.

Taking the ferry across the Lake Champlain we headed to Tupper Lake, NY for a stop at the new Natural History Museum (also called the Wild Center). We can't say enough good things about it. A beautiful facility and it's only going to get better. It's a MUST SEE the next time you're anywhere close. The bridge goes across the "pond" - don't you love the stick railing? It looks so easy but I'm sure it's not.

Further down the road at the end of Long Lake you can enjoy the air both on the ground and in the air or do as we did and have lunch while you watch the planes take off and land on the lake. The trees are not quite in full color yet, but pretty nonetheless.

And lest you think this trip was all fun and no work, that's John on the tractor & our friend Karol moving BIG rocks around to rebuild a terrace in front of the house in Vinalhaven. Thank heavens for big machinery/toys. Years ago when the terraces were built they probably used men, rollers and perhaps a horse. (Of course those men were probably also younger and knew what they were doing!) Even so, our modern day guys did a pretty decent job.

Poolville

Poolville is one of those "destination" communities... you just don't pass through it on the way to anywhere. One needs to know it's there and hope the GPS can find it.

Admittedly there's not much in Poolville except for some beautiful old homes and a great little restaurant. It's so small in fact that I couldn't even find a population for it. Getting there from our direction is always fun as you get to pass the neighborhood goat commune - lots of little kids around. I'm not sure who's watching who in this photo...

Just on the outskirts of Poolville is the "Poolville Rural Cementary" (I always wonder where the city cementary is when I read that sign.) It's very old with headstones dating back to the early 1800's. And to leave no doubt in your mind that it is rural, that's corn being grown in the field along side.

Poolville is also home to a little known but very popular art gallery. In fact the number of folks it attracts would make many galleries very envious. If you're in the area please note it has "unusual" hours - Wed. & Sat. only from 7:10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Some galleries serve refreshments to attract visitors. This gallery works the other way - it takes your garbage... We try to visit at least a couple of days a month. Care to join us?

Family Fun Day...

Well we didn't stray far this week (a turn of the season cold pretty much wiped me out for any travel.) However...
This afternoon was another of our town's planned bicentennial events - Family Fun Day. After many days of hot dry weather, it of course rained most of the day. Our residents should work for the postal service - rain, snow - some of us still manage to turn out.
Most of the kids had never played any of the old-fashioned games. The sack race (can you believe we actually had to make our own burlap sacks?! - the feed companies use plastic or paper these days) was as much fun as always even if we did have to limit it to three at a time (we ran out of burlap for bags!)
Then there was the "hollerin'" contest but we could only get six kids to give it a try and two of them wouldn't do it unless no one looked at them (am sure that doesn't stop them at home!) Surprise, surprise! The shyest one had the loudest scream going (somehow the kids didn't quite understand the difference between hollerin' & screaming but no one was going to argue. Not to mention the adults were all too shy to compete themselves...)
The pie eating contest - (personally I find eating contests disgusting but I was outvoted.) For a bit of history it was called the "William Bulkley Pie Eating Contest". Now you may think I'm trying to associate "BULKley" with eating but in fact he was the person who developed the Chenango Strawberry Apple in our township. And the pies were, of course, apple.
For a little more exercise in the rain there was the spoon race where you had to race balancing a raw egg in a spoon (the wimpy adults including myself are all under the eaves of the roof watching.)
But the most popular game of the afternoon proved to be the good old fashioned egg toss. On wet grass it was pretty unbelievable how far a raw egg could bounce without breaking. Eventually we had a winner. Then the kids wanted to play again & again until all the eggs were broken. The rain did come in handy after all....

The GREAT New York State Fair!

The end of August in upstate wouldn't be complete without a trip to the New York State Fair (at least once every 4 or 5 years). As always there was lots to see and do...

The sand sculpture is a good place to start (if only because you can look at it while you enjoy your baked potato with all the fixin's - still only $1). Then there was angora rabbit shearing in the poultry barn (it also houses the rabbits). It's also where they have the "Crowing contest". I fully expected to see/hear folks imitating roosters but, I guess when you've got the real thing on site, that's not necessary. Instead they put the "contestants" in cages where they have 15 minutes to crow. The most crows wins (we didn't stay...). For some chickens it was a "bad hair day". Tom looked like he was dreading November. The goose was huge - probably mean too. Back at the rabbit shearing - all that fur came off that rabbit! If your cholesterol is low, a trip to the fair is a good way to raise it a notch or two. You can get anything fried...

There was a woodworking demo going on outside the ag museum by the guy with the beard which John said was great. I went inside and talked to "Bob". Lunchtime for the piglets. (We did try to find Norm, our neighbor and the world's largest pig, but am not sure where they put him that day...) Lunchtime for the triplets (goats) and shearing time for the sheep (it was a HOT day!). Are those seals so did someone just do a bad job of shearing? Meanwhile in the dairy barn cleanup chores are going on while the butter sculpture stayed cool in the dairy products building (it's still possible to get a glass of milk there for a quarter). Back at the museum the demo is going on once again.

A lot of walking but a fun day!

Tillie did NOT take us to the fair (but we did go on a yellow school bus). Tillie has instead gone off on another adventure. From right to left we have John, Bridge, James, Emily (the dog is Roscoe). Bridge (who is the true owner of Tillie) came to take her on a three week adventure to Maine and Nova Scotia. John is pointing to the states of Massachusetts and Maine that Bridge will add to Tillie's window collection. Last word was they had made it to Bar Harbor with no problems (much to John's relief - he felt like he was sending his kid off to school!)