Category Archives: skowhegan

Sunday 30th August 2015 – I HAVE HAD THE WORST …

… night’s sleep that I have had for years. Unfortunately, it seems that Ford’s designers went astray when designing the Ford Ranger and he is not meant at all for sleeping in. For a start, the seat doesn’t fold back flat, and that simple little thing would have made a whole world of difference.

I can hardly say that I was tossing and turning because there wasn’t the space for that, but no matter what position I chose, I just couldn’t get comfortable and everything was in the wrong place. This is quite a disappointment, but you live and learn, I suppose.

I had breakfast at Dysarts, in keeping with my policy of being financially grateful to everyone who helps me out on my travels – hash browns, toast, jam, coffee and orange juice, and then I hit the highway.

My drive today has taken me through some really beautiful countryside, but I haven’t had the time to stop and admire it as I’ve been tracking down RV sales yards today.

I’ve managed to do four but as you might expect with it being a Sunday, everywhere is closed. Consequently when I found a really cheap motel right in the centre of my route I holed up here for the rest of the afternoon. There’s no point going much further on and wasting fuel only to find that I have to come back by here anyway tomorrow.

The motel is called “The Whispering Pines” and it’s at Skowhegan. It’s run by a very friendly old couple and is like a timewarp, stuck in the 1970s. Mind you, the prices are also stuck in the same timewarp and that suits me fine. I don’t need anything more than this when I’m on my travels. A good shower, an internet connection and a comfortable bed.

The plus side is that there is a fridge, so everything has gone into there until morning, and they also have ice-box facilities so I’ve filled a couple of bottles with water and I’m freezing them off too, to use as cool packs.

strawberry moose giffords mini golf skowhegan maine usaStrawberry Moose met a friend today too.

In Skowhegan there’s a huge ice-cream parlour with about 1,000 varieties of ice-cream so seeing as it was a gorgeous day, I went for a look to see what they could do for me. There wasn’t much in the way of ice-cream but they had several varieties of dairy-free smoothies.

giffords mini golf course skowhegan maine usaThey had a crazy golf course there too so I relaxed with my smoothie watching the antics of the performers on the course, while His Nibs went to chat to his cousin for an informal family reunion.

Later that night I found a pizza place and ordered a mushroom, black olive and onion pizza. They had two sizes, small and large, so I asked for a large, and no wonder I had a look of surprise with my three slices of vegan cheese. The “large” was 16 inches, so I reckon that it’s pizza for breakfast and lunch too.

Back here I watched a film but I don’t feel much like it. I had a bad night and it’s been a long hot day and I’m going to fll asleep in a min ….

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

0

Friday 27th September 2013 – IN WHICH OUR HERO COVERS SOME GROUND

Yes, I’m never going to get anywhere at the rate at which I’m travelling. Albany is still a good several hundred miles away from Skowhegan and The Lady Who Lives In The SatNav tells me that I can get there by 19:00 tonight if I put my foot down (ha ha).

traffic jam skowhegan norridgewock maineAnd so after a healthy three or four miles I come to a sudden halt in a traffic jam. It’s not a traffic jam really but roadworks, and this sets the pattern for the morning’s route – roadworks everywhere as they prepare the road for the winter. It’s really not my day.

But taking my time to successfully negotiate the chaos I can, in fits and starts, begin to put my foot down every so often and try to cover the road as quickly as possible taking all kinds of circumstances into account, more of which anon.

highway 8 highway 11 highway 27This area is pretty good however if you are the kind of person that suffers from multiple personality disorders though – you can each of you travel along your own road and yet stay together in the same vehicle.

But if any of you think that I am taking the … err … mickey unnecessarily, just ask yourselves why I always hire a seven-seater vehicle when I’m over here. It’s so that each one of mine can have his own seat.

practising warm up Oxford PLains Speedway MaineOther things of course contrive to get in my way, like they do. Seeing a load of campers and hearing a load of noise, I go over to investigate.

I find myself at the Oxford Plains Speedway and it seems that there’s racing, a kind-of mini-Indy500 racing series this weekend, and I have stumbled upon the practise sessions. No spectators admitted, but that’s not the kind of thing that has ever stopped me before, has it?

But only one car spun off the track and there were no multiple pile-ups so it wasn’t all that exciting. But someone watching with me did ask me why there are no successful women Indycar racers. I replied that it’s because they have to keep on stopping to ask for directions.

Winnipesaukee and Pemigewasset valley railroad new hampshireThe next thing that interrupts my passage is encountering the Winnipesaukee and Pemigewasset Valley Scenic Railroad at Meredith, and so I stop to see if there are any steam locomotives here. Apparently not – it’s not like Chama, where I was in 2002
 – just old diesel shunters.

But I had an interesting encounter nevertheless, something so rare in the USA that it’s worth recording.

I went over to Ye Olde Gifte Shoppe. It was closed but there was someone behind the counter happily twiddling her thumbs – she saw me try the door and eventually came over to open it to talk to me. She wouldn’t let me in, and told me “sorry, we’re closed, I’m just here to wait for the return of a train that’s gone out with a party of tourists feom Indiana – you’ll need to come back tomorrow”

I replied “well, I won’t be here tomorrow”, so she just said “sorry” and closed the door.

Sounds just like Medicine Bow in 2002 doesn’t it?

mascona lake new hampsireSo, hours behind time, as the sun goes down, I encounter Mascona Lake here in New Hampshire.

There’s a big camp site here just on the edge and so this is where I’ll plan to stay the night. The trouble with pressing on farther in the dark is that you never know what you might (or might not) encounter, and what you might miss out on along the way.

In the meantime, to our new reader who sat down the other day and read over 200 pages from start to finish, a big hello. Why not introduce yourself?

-5