Day 2

June 5, 2009

What a glorious morning to wake up in a lean-to shelter on top of a hill at the foot of a giant windmill.
To start things off, the mosquitoes were so bad I couldn't resist using the firepit to 'smoke em out'.
But, once I got that taken care of, I broke camp and headed down the hill.
I followed the ski lift all of the way down to the resort and continued right through the parking lot all of the way into town.
Believe it or not, I'm actually following the International Appalachian Trail, which leads me straight to the front door of Al's Diner.
I didn't see Richie, Potsy or Chachi, but I did meet a beautiful waitress, named Melissa, whose mom worked right along beside her.
Together, they twisted my arm until I tried my first ever 'Whoopie Pie'. (which, apparently, is all the rage in New England) You'll have to google it.
It was pretty good. Obnoxiously big, but pretty good.
From here, I picked up and hiked south on Highway 1 until I came to the Whited Bible Camp.
The place looked quite accommodating and extremely empty, so I was tempted to duck into the Aroostook Pentecostal Tabernacle and call it a night.
Somehow, it just didn't seem like the thing to do, though, so I kept heading south until I reached Bridgewater, Maine.
Now, from Presque Isle, stretching all of the way south to Houlton, they've built a scale model of our solar system. The sun is located at the University of Maine, while Pluto (though no longer a 'real' planet) is located at the visitor center in Houlton.
So, lo and behold, while in Bridgewater, I was fortunate enough to have my picture taken sitting next to Uranus.
How many of you can say that?
Whoopie pies and Uranus.
That's more than enough excitement in one day!
So, putting that behind me, I was finally able to settle down and turn off to the right of the highway, on a little jeep trail, to 'ditch and pitch'. (ditch the road and pitch a tent)