It isn’t often you get to meet a living legend.  I met Dick Pulsifer today; he has been building Pulsifer Hampton Boats in Maine for more than 30 years.  Google the boats and check it out.  He is very friendly and great person to talk with.  I may have to take a trip by his shop and check it out.  If you decide you want a great boat and have an extra $50,000 give him a call.  It is one of those boats you can probably sell in 20 years for what you paid for it.

We finally saw Gene and Christina today.  They were able to get toot-toot the local water taxi to pick them up.  They were running out of food after 3 days of being fogged in on the boat.  I think they were both getting a little stir crazy.  We let them take our vehicle and go buy groceries while we went back to the show.  I don’t know what Maine did before Carole showed up to improve the economy.  Fair warning if you get a present from her over the next year it will probably be from Maine. 

After lunch it was on to Searsport and Hamilton Marine so Carole could get a new foul weather jacket.  After three days of fog looks like it may become standard gear.  She talked the lady into a 40% discount.  Kaye Cole would be so proud of her.

The “cottage” is almost perfect.  It is just what you dream of a cottage on the Maine shore.  Great view (we think, only fog so far) off to distance islands.  It is unbelievable quite her.  Not a noise anywhere.  The photos give you a flavor of the place.  The only issue is the connect speed here is slower than sorghum syrup on December morning at the camp house.  Because of that I will only put in one or two photos up at a time.

The fog was so thick this morning our friend Gene couldn’t find the bow of his boat.  We got wet just walking down the street to the show.  An umbrella did no good.

The boat show is more than just boats there was a lot of really nice furniture, art, jewelry and other stuff to spend money one.  The selection of boats was pretty limited when you compare it to St Pete, Miami or Annapolis.  Sabre Yachts had a big presence.  It is nice to check out a million dollar yacht but I don’t see one in my immediate future.  It even had power windows!  Thos. Moser wasn’t at the show.  That was somewhat of a disappointment.  There were a lot of furniture makers I had not heard of before who had some really beautiful stuff.  Carole says they have plenty of time to work on their craft up here because the days are so short and the winters so cold.  There is no laying out by the pool to work on your tan.  I think part of it is they can be more productive in the summer with the cool temperatures and longer days.  It is just damn hard to work when it is 98 degrees in the shade. 

We never met up with Gene and Christine.  They were socked-in with fog all day.  Gene dropped the dink in the water to head to shore.  When he did the fog moved in and he had a hard time getting back to the boat.  It finally lifted about 5:00 today but that was too late for them to do anything in town or the show.  Looks like heavy rain tomorrow so they may be stranded again. 

The photo on the right is the B&B we are staying in.  Nice room and a great breakfast this morning.

Tomorrow it is on to Brooklin, the wood boat building capital of the world.  

Streets Made of Gold

I remember hearing in Sunday School when I was a kid about “streets paved with gold”.  I could never figure out why someone would want to do that, it just didn’t make sense to me.  I guess I was born an engineer.  Well today I found a street paved with gold.  I-95 in New Hampshire has to be that road.  It is 15 miles long, eight lanes wide, bumper to bumper and everyone pays $2.00 to be on it.  It has to be a major source of income for the state. That 15 mile section has to pay for itself every year with the fees they collect.  I don’t think there are but 3 interchanges on it in the state but they get their $2.00 from everyone traveling between Boston and Maine.  Not only that but they have liquor stores in the median and the whiskey is cheaper than in Massachusetts and Maine.   So everyone stops buys booze and takes it out to their car in grocery carts full of bottles.  OK maybe it isn't biblical but it is a cash cow generating millions of dollars in income every year. 

We arrive in Rockland late this afternoon.  The B&B is right downtown across from the ferry terminal.  We had a nice walk thru town checking out shops.  You know how much I like to go into shops and find good buys on ear rings and things for the house.  Thank heaven for husband benches and traffic to watch, otherwise suicide was in my future. 

Talked to our friend Gene this afternoon they arrived by boat after a long delay for fog this morning.  I think he was very glad for all the electronics on board.  He was able to stay safe and miss other boats with radar and chart plotters but lobster pots only show up about ten feet before they wrap around your prop.  We will be wondering around with them at the boat show tomorrow.  They have a lot of big tents set up.  There are of course boats but also boat toys, furniture, art, crafts and other “Maine” things.  It should be fun.  We have a two day pass so if we don’t see it all tomorrow, we will have Saturday to finish up. 

By the way the temperature here is 70 deg.  Might be time to dig out the jackets tomorrow.  

Corn, corn and more corn

We covered a bunch of states today.  Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut.   

Corn, corn and more corn.  There are just fields and fields as far as the eye can see.  The southern part of the trip was mostly looking at corn fields and BIG barns.  I don’t know why gas prices are going up.  ($3.95 for regular here)  There is enough corn on I81 to fill all the gas tanks in New England.  We followed I81 north and then hit I84 East to miss the Big Apple.  I didn’t want to spend a couple of hours in bumper to bumper traffic in New York City.  I spent one hour on the George Washington Bridge in 1976 and swore I would never do that again. 

I81 takes you in to the mountains north of New York.  It is a nice drive with lots of scenic vistas over some very nice valleys.  Of course you get to look at a lot of trees at 65 mph.  Yea they don’t drive as fast as we do.  Of course it would have been good to maintain 65.  Every few miles all along the path there were construction zones with double fines and speeds down to 45 mph.  Traffic really built up north of New York and drivers got more aggressive.

Danbury, Ct is a nice area.  Traffic is not conducive to cruising around town.  Tomorrow it will be on to Rockland to the Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors Show.  I am looking forward to the show.  Our story is going to be we have been sailing our 55 ft boat (well if you add the davits and the anchor off the front you can almost get there) and we are thinking about changing to a boat to do the inland water ways.  That should get us a good tour of the Hinckley’s, Morris’s and Saber’s.  I working on some intelligent questions to ask so they will think I know what I am talking about.  In case you don’t know “how many miles per gallon” isn’t a question that will get you on board the boat.  A few years ago I went to a boat show and was really interested in a $1,200,000 boat; I offered the guy $850,000 cash if he could have it ready to go in two weeks.  You should have seen the expression; he was looking for a contract.  Actually my boat neighbor has me on a mission to find him a good Saber in the mid 40 foot range to bring back to Pensacola. 

We have a couple of boat buddies from Pensacola that are going to meet us in Rockland on their boats.  It will be good to see them and share a meal.  Hopefully we will get to do a little sailing with them while we are up here.  

Funeral Ready

So another adventure again. Before it can begin, the house has to be funeral ready. Carole won’t leave until the house is presentable. She wouldn’t want something to happen to her and strangers go in the house and find the bed unmade. We had to put on clean sheets and make up the beds before we headed out this morning. I was so glad we are headed north today.
 We saw three south bound backups that went on for miles. If we had been on our side it would have taken an extra three hours to get here. Sometimes you are just lucky.
We are in Staunton, Virginia tonight. It was picked as a place to stop because it was, like halfway between two points, convenient to the interstate, and had places to eat close by. Boy what a find. This place was settled in 1747! It is the home of Woodrow Wilson with his library here. It is a very cool old town. Lots of history, very vibrant downtown area, large beautiful churches and a courthouse square. I wish we had planned some time here. We make take a couple of extra hours tomorrow morning to look around before we hit the interstate. Virginia is such a great state with so much history and varied topography. I keep telling myself we need to spend more time here. That damn bucket list just keeps getting longer.

State College – Falling Waters – Charleston

Still didn’t see Joe. OK I am no longer a fan of Penn State, if Joe wouldn’t come see me I am not going to cheer for him anymore. The leaves are still pretty as we head south on more narrow winding roads.

To get to Falling Waters you first have to go to Nowhere, turn left to SomePlace, the right into Whatyoucallit and then after another 50 miles on noname road you finally arrive. Serious it is in the middle of nowhere. It was developed as a retreat from the city and they accomplished that goal.

Falling Waters is the most fantastic houses I have ever seen. It has to be on your bucket list. I have seen the photos, read the article but I had idea how great it was going to be. It may be one of the most perfect houses I have ever seen. Well there was that little thing about not being able to stand up in some of the rooms; apparently, the family who owned it were short people. Overlooking that, the views in and out of the house are amazing. Each bedroom has its own bath and terrace. There are cantilevers everywhere. Balconies, rooms, bookcases, shelves, desk, everything is cantilevered. The setting in the woods is unbelievable. It is perfectly sited in the rock outcropping taking advantage of the stream and views of the valley. Can you tell I really liked it?

Charleston, West Virginia is a nice town with a river running thru the middle of town. We walked a restaurant near by to celebrate Carole’s Birthday.

Today we are on a mission to get home. Nothing but driving. Wonder if Fuzzy Butt our cat will speak to us when we get home.

Lake Placid – State College

A killer day. Nine hours of driving and only 2 hours on interstates. We wound around down and thru every small two lane road in New York and Pennsylvania. That was the bad news.

We had the most beautiful drive we have been on ever! The leaves on the west side of the mountains where in full color. I think we may have hit the peak color for a lot of the area we went thru. The road winds thru the woods with little lakes every few miles. I wanted to stop get some birch bark, build a canoe, paddle of across the lake and look for a moose or bear.

We happened across the Museum of the Adirondack, which is totally in the middle of nowhere. I would have loved to spend a bunch of time there because they have one of the largest collections of Guide Boats in the existence. We didn’t even try to go because I knew I would be lost. I did go thru the museum store and buy a bunch of books I didn’t have. Carole found some of her china in the store and they had a couple of pieces she didn’t have. We both left happy but I would like to go back some time and spend several hours checking out the boats. If you don’t know what a Guide Boat is you need to Google it and check them out. They are basically canoe that you row.

I expected Papa Joe to greet us as we entered State College but I guess he must have been busy. I think I am going to give up on football. Joe doesn't welcome me and Nick doesn't call me at half to ask for my advice.

On today to see Falling Waters, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs.