One Year of Blogging

I did it! I posted daily for an entire year on this site. That was the commitment I made as I started here and today I fulfilled it!

This hadn’t been a particularly successful blog as the few who come here know. I don’t think there is too much interest in travel stories. Or maybe it’s just mine. I think of it like showing pictures to people of your vacation trips or baby pictures, they’re a lot more interesting to you than other people.

I remember when I began adventure traveling. I would take pictures of interesting things and then show them to people when I returned home. But after seeing the glazed look and obligatory smiles a few times, I stopped forcing them on my captive audience. I realized then that these adventures aren’t nearly as interesting if you’re not a part of them.

For awhile after that I stopped taking many pictures traveling. I didn’t see a reason since no one was interested in these adventures. But later I realized these photos are for me. For memory preservation. As I age and memory fails, these pictures are an extension of the gray matter in my head.

I’m glad I realized that as these photos are the best means I had to preserve this special time in my life when I was physically and financially able to adventure travel.

I still have not posted my most interesting experiences here. But I will over the next few months. I’ll try to keep this blog alive, even though it’s on life support now.

I thank again my few readers who come this way to read the ramblings of an old man trying to hang on to the memories of past adventures. Although there are still new ones on the horizon, I doubt I’ll be returning to the Peruvian Amazon, or visiting the tribes of Africa again.

From here forward I’ll be posting about 3 times per week rather than daily. It’s just too much work for a retired guy to do. Although I enjoy it, it also can be a burden at times.

Thanks for staying with me on my journeys through time and space. And for reading all that science and fictional crap I write as well.

Maine a Photo Essay

I thought it a good post to feature my favorite state of Maine in a post. I try to travel back to my home state several times each year, especially since flights and hotels are free for me 😀.

Today I’ll offer up the state in pictures and videos from my perspective…..

Starting from the western part of the state is the beautiful Rangely Lakes areas and an extension of the Appalachian Trail known as Height of Land:

Not far from this part of the state is Coo’s Canyon. An area still active for gold panning in the warmer weather. But, in the winter I find it more scenic with the ice and snow.

These ice log jams in the spring can inflict damage if the ice melt along with spring rain brings massive waters off the mountains. The resulting head pressure of the rising waters have been known to take out bridges such as this one here.

Perhaps the state is most famous for its rock bound coast and rugged coastline. Not much sand in this state on the shores!

In the winter the lakes freeze to depths of 3 feet or more of ice. This makes for fantastic recreational activities such as skating, ice fishing, and I even remember ice races with cars in my hometown as a child.

I can’t neglect the wonderful lighthouses that fit the coastline! This one is located at Pemaquid Point.

Portland Bay can be quite scenic as well:

Careful of the fog on your scenic drives!

I love the small towns along the coast that few people visit. These quaint towns are the essence of the real Maine:

Summer is when most tourists come to the state, for good recreational reasons:

4th of July hometown celebrations are a part of all small town America:

I hope you enjoyed this visual tour of my home state. I’m sure you have the same feelings towards your home town and state.

Around the World

"We just went around the world!” Those were the last words I can recall that my father said to me. Just prior to a trip to Japan, I travelled to Maine to visit my parents. I tried to get up there every two or three months to see them as they were advanced in age.

On this particular trip, I took my parents for a road trip as I often do when I visit them. My mother and father are avid roadsters. They just like to be in their car and driving through the state. My father in particular loves to drive, and he spent many years behind the steering wheel just driving he and my mother around. When my father got to an advanced age where it was becoming impractical to drive, I would often take he and my mother for long drives.

On this day, I took my parents for about a three hour car ride. We drove in a circle of about a 50 mile radius. When I returned them back to their home, my father thanked me for the ride, and then he said that we just went around the world. Those are among the last words I recall that he said to me.

I asked him what he meant by it, and he clarified. He told me he recalled as a young child being piled into the car with all his siblings, and his father, taking them for a similar drive. When they finished his father would use that quote.

I thought about that later when I was in Japan. My parents whole world was in a 50 mile radius from where they were born. Of course, they made some trips out of the state and even the Canada, but 99+% of their life was spent in a 50 mile radius. Not unlike most people of the world.

My father passed away while I was in Japan. I've often thought of the last day that I was with him. I think of that trip often and those words that he spoke. It made me realize just how small the world is for most people in it. For most of the people in the world this is sufficient. It certainly was for my parents.

I still travel to Maine and visit my mother who is 92 years old and lives by herself still. She doesn't get many opportunities these days to take these road trips. I try to visit her every two or three months and I always take her for long drives each day I'm up there. I often take her on that same trip that I took her and my father on just prior to his passing. I take her around the world that she knows

I took the scenery that I grew up with for granted when I was young. It was only in my adult years that I really appreciated the true beauty of that 50 mile radius that is their world.

I will be happy to give you a small flavor of it in this post.

Coos Canyon

This canyon was a favorite stop off place of my parents. The canyon with the waterfalls was easy access from the main road so they could just pull off into the parking lot. They were picnic tables there and even a store across the road where they could buy a sandwich and eat it if they liked.

This is also an old gold panning river. It is still active today as you will see people in the summertime panning, whether they be inexperienced or people who truly do it to make a profit of this precious metal.

Furthering the drive past Coos Canyon located in Roxbury, between Rumford and Rangely, is an area known as Height of Land.

Tomorrow I’ll post more pictures of this 50 mile radius which was their world.

Although the world of so many on this earth is restricted to a 50 mile radius, and often much less, my parents and myself were blessed to get this 50 miles in the heart of Maine.