MAINE: my final frontier. These are the voyages of the Scooter Vespa 250 i.e. Super. Its continuing mission - to explore America's most heavily forested state - to roam the vast coastline, numberless lakes, and mighty mountains. To boldly go where no scooter has gone before!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

It was a cold and dreary day ...

Mike (http://scooterthefun.blogspot.com/) couldn't have said it better, and I can't add much to his account, except that we split up at the wrong place in Auburn. You see, although I haven't been through Auburn for a long time, and even though I didn't recognize the city for all the changes, I convinced myself that "then we can go through Windham instead of Portland - simple."

Mike agreed, but when I bore right, he went left. Almost instantly, I realized that I was indeed very wrong. Instead of Windham, I rode to Naples. Look on Mike's map - I chose unwisely.

Still, we had great food and an hour in one of Maine's better used bookstores (Twice-Told Tales in Farmington.) And the ride was fun - and wet and windy.


Mike has the mirror image of this photo on Scooter for Fun.


Here's one difference between crowded southern Maine and the much more rural central part of the state: The barns are painted and showy down south - not many truly working farms left. But up here, the cost of a coat of paint waits until the equipment is paid off.


The best part of having so many pine trees in "The Pine Tree State" is the fact that there are always green trees in the forest!


All ready for haying - in a few months. Never too early to get ready.



Another big difference between urban and rural Maine: This perfect, pretty fence is for show


Those loosely piled stones are all the fence a working farm needs



10 comments:

  1. It still looks a little nippy in your neck of the woods... great you got out anyway.

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    1. Sonja,

      "Nippy" is a word we use every month of the year up here. If one wants to ride - and I truly do - one must brave the nippy, the chilly, the raw, and the occasional "Are you insane?!"

      Tom

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  2. That must have been a really good ride. Except for your pointy horizons, the landscape is very similar to here. Thanks for the views! And I love used book stores...

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    1. Martha,

      You'd to visit "Twice-Told Tales!" And in Portland, we have Carlson and Turner. Look it up on the Internet. And I know Mike (Scooter for Fun) has invited you to visit Maine - we'll take you to coffee shops, book store, and even coffee shop bookstores!

      Tom

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  3. I don't know, Tom..... you never cease to amaze me. I wasn't more than 15-feet from you at this stop, yet I never saw any of the stuff you saw and photographed.

    I guess that's the difference between city boy and Mainiac. To me a barn's a barn. Never thought about the paint - and I hadn't a clue what those funny machines were out in the field, and don't all stone fences look all neat and fussy?
    Clearly, not. I am very thankful I ride with you. You open my eyes to new wonders all the time....... like, I wonder why we were dumb enough to attempt this ride!
    Ciao.

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    1. Mike,

      Don't think of the ride as "Dumb." Let's consider ourselves "Adventurous Discoverers!"

      Tom

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  4. Tom,
    I've mentioned growing up in Michigan before. Stones. We had plenty. It was that whole glacier thing. As a youngster every spring I would ride on the "stone boat," which was just a large piece of sheet metal hooked to the International Culti-vision "A" by a chain. My job was to put the stones the frost heave had brought to the surface on the boat. We didn't put them in the fence row, rather every farmstead had a large stone pile. Now, many of those houses are gone as farms just kept getting larger. The barns are gone, too. Oh well, times change. Again, thanks for surfacing memories.
    ~Keith

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    1. Keith,

      I've found that the further north and west one goes in Maine, the more unchanged the world seems.

      Tom

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  5. Tom:

    with the exception of those stone fences, it looks similar to our rural farmlands, except you have less traffic.

    if all rides went smoothly as planned, there would be no memories

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast
    My Flickr // My YouTube

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    Replies
    1. Bob,

      You're so right. Very few of the best days of my life have been enjoyed as a result of a plan.

      Tom

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