We picked up the bikes and loaded them into Steve’s Honda Ridgeline truck for the ride out to a car park at the north end of Eagle Lake. From there we set out south along Eagle Lake, and then Jordan Pond to Jordan Pond House for Popovers, then back north on different roads to the east side of Eagle Lake, and back to the car park.

Roger poses beside the bicycle with Eagle Lake in the background.

Eagle Lake

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

We had been before in 2008 (I think it was), just as they were getting ready to sell a sizable portion of the collection in order to be able to settle the estate of the founder of the museum who had died.

While there we took the opportunity to become “Charter Members” of the museum.

Firestone Wheel

White Wheel

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Lady Slipper Orchid - Frauenschuh - Sehr Schön

A photogallery of images from the day’s walk is below.

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

We arrived in Hartford on Memorial Day Monday evening, and pulled off the highway where Lisa had found there was a Super 8 motel for $50. As we were heading to that, a large sign for America’s Best Value Inn advertising $45 for a night caught her eye, so we went there. We didn’t have much to do in Hartford, so went out to eat dinner, then returned to the Inn to sleep, then Tuesday morning headed off to the Connecticut State Library and Archives.

The Good

Connecticut State Library and Archives is in a quite magnificent building that also includes the Supreme Court, the State Archives and the State Museum.

Connecticut State Library Archives and Museum

It is over the road from the Connecticut State Capitol – also an amazing building.

A view from the steps of the State Library, across Capitol Ave to the State Capitol.

We only had a few hours in which Lisa hoped to unearth some information on the above mentioned Otto Salewski (Saluski, Saleski, no matter how it got spelled), so didn’t have time to look at much else.

The Genealogy and Family History section is but a small part of the State Library, but it made up for this with a very knowledgeable, helpful and friendly staff who seemed to have all the answers. We placed an order to have some Voter Registration Registers for the town of Sharon brought from the Archives (they were in off site storage), and about an hour later they had arrived so we could view them. We also looked at land records and a few other records for the town and found quite a few mentions of Otto Salewski.

The Bad

On Monday evening I had looked on the GPS for Dining in the area of where our Inn was, and it came up with a number of restaurants of different flavours. So off we went to find Johnson’s Sea Food. But at the designated address there was almost no sign that a restaurant had ever been there. I guess that explained why really the only thing I could find online about it was a review in 1995. It had probably disappeared soon after the review!! Most of the other places were closed too – some just for Memorial Day, and some it seemed probably permanently. We ended up at the Burger King right beside the Inn.

The Ugly

America’s Best Value Inn at Hartford, CT had to be the WORST motel we’ve ever stayed in. The reviews on the page linked here do it justice I think – in fact we did perhaps get the best room they had from the sounds of the other reviews – I agree with one – it should be shut down!!!

Room #130 – the toilet was leaking all over the floor – not overflowing from the top of the bowl, but leaking from the back under the tank somewhere. I called Reception to ask for a new room. Eventually “my repairman” – and elderly man who looked for all the world like Martin Short’s Ed Grimley except that the hair was more back than up comes along with a plunger, probably thinking “stupid guests – they overflowed it”. Eventually he figured out what I was telling him that it was NOT overflowing, but was actually leaking somewhere. There was a not so pleasant smell here too – kind of like the non-smoking room had been smoked in, then a whole spray bomb of some ghastly thing to try and hide the cigarette smell let go in there.

Room #136 – this room was barely big enough for the bed in it, and there was no table or anything else on which to use a computer. Same smell as Room #130, but at least the toilet didn’t leak.

Room #128 – a duplicate of Room #130, so a nice table, the toilet didn’t leak, but it did smell.

Outside the place looked like it must operate as Party Central. There were dozens, probably hundreds, of beer bottle caps all over the parts of the lawn we looked at, matched by about an equal number of cigarette butts- what a mess!!!

Above our room was a sign that said

No Trespassing – Police Take Notice

Now I don’t know if this was a suggestion that even the Police weren’t to trespass, or if it meant that Police would take notice of Trespassers. Whatever it meant, the Health Department apparently hadn’t been there in a very long time.

We left in the morning and will NEVER return!!

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

For the last several long road trips away the silence has been filled by playing PodCasts from my iPod through the car stereo using an adapter that feeds the output from the iPod into the AUX button on the car stereo. (A GM9-AUX is what is needed for GM Cars from 1995-2003 like our 2002 Camaro. MUCH better than the iTrip I’d used previously to broadcast an FM signal to the car radio).

I installed this in June 2007 before I set out to drive alone in the car from Caledonia, Michigan, USA to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (and back again) – 1,550 miles each way. This worked splendidly and allowed me to make a major dent in the backlog of “The Genealogy Guys” podcasts I had accumulated – I listened to 52 episodes over the 6 days of driving, and got caught up from the start of the PodCast to January 2007 – but still ended up behind.

On return I wrote to George and Drew and claimed the title of “Genealogy Guys PodCast Endurance Champion“, for which they bestowed on me the title “Marathon Man”, for the 52 episodes listened to during that 3,100 miles of driving.

In May of 2008 Lisa and I took a trip from Caledonia, Michigan, USA to Newark, Delaware, USA to Bar Harbor, Maine, USA to Caledonia, Michigan, USA – a “mere” 2,500 miles, and again it was Genealogy Guys PodCasts all the way – another 42 episodes caught up on.

During the rest of 2008 I managed to actually get caught right up to date by August – by listening while mowing the lawn on my “wee tractor”. But when lawn-mowing stopped so did most PodCast listening, and episodes started to accumulate again starting in early November 2008.

In May of 2009 we set out on a repeat of the May 2008 trip – Caledonia – Newark – Bar Harbor – Mount Washington, New Hampshire – Caledonia. Armed with only 18 episodes of The Genealogy Guys PodCast left to get completely caught up I also added some others from my “accumulation” on my Mac Pro – a bunch of episodes of This American Life from Chicago Public Radio, and about 30 episodes of “Car Talk” with those two nuts Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers.

So it was George and Drew – The Genealogy Guys again from Caledonia – Newark – somewhere in New England – Connecticut I think when their most recent episode finished playing.

From Connecticut to Bar Harbor to Mount Washington to Bowling Green, Ohio (for genealogy research for Lisa) to Caledonia it was 24 episodes of Car Talk – Tom and Ray Magliozzi – AKA “Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers”, with their zany humour, insults, car fixes, car non-fixes, The Puzzler (of which we were able to solve quite a few and simply didn’t understand others) and their various callers with their problems – mechanical, social, ethical and marital.

What do you listen to in your car when on long road trips?

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

Travel Days were:

• 24 May pm – Caledonia to New Stanton, Pennsylvania – abt 440 miles;
• 25 May am – New Stanton, PA to Newark, Delaware – abt 245 miles;
• 27 May all day – Newark, DE to Bar Harbor, Maine – abt 625 miles in 12 1/2 hours;
• 2 June am –  Bar Harbor, ME  to the Mount Washington Cog Railway 255 miles in abt 5 1/2 hours, then to the summit of Mt Washington and back by Cog Railway;
• 2 June pm Mt Washington Cog Railway to Latham, New York (very near to Albany, New York) 216 miles in about 5 1/2 hours – a very long day!!!!!!;
• 3 June all day – Latham, NY to Bowling Green, Ohio – abt 620 miles in 10 1/2 hours;
• 4 June pm – after 7 1/2 hours in the Jerome Library on genealogy research – abt 200 miles back to Caledonia in abt 3 /12 hours.

Total travelling about 2,650 miles.

We spent 26 May in Newark, and then 28 May to 1 May in Bar Harbor where we did some local travelling around to Deer Island, Schoodic Head, and Cadillac Mountain and Acadia National Park which added another 270 or so miles.

Total mileage run 2,916, which used 105 gallons of fuel, which ranged in price/gallon from $2.22 in New Jersey to $2.96 back home in Caledonia.

So the number Don is waiting for is 27.76 mpg. Best run was 445 miles from somewhere in New York state back to Caledonia – 30.1 mpg. Worst run was all the mileage run around Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park – 24.3 mpg.

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

So Don and Mindy, Lisa and Roger set off in the red Camaro for the day’s trip.

Looking South - the Wider View

The image above is a panorama looking south from mainland Maine (Maineland I guess??) towards Deer Island.

Deer Island is separated from the Maineland by a reach of the Atlantic Ocean, which is bridged by the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge

The Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge

This is from the south side of the bridge looking back toward the Maineland.

Once on Deer Island we proceeded down to the south and Stonington (Maine), where after a quick look up and down main street decided to eat at the Fisherman’s Friend Restaurant that is right by the harbour in Stonington. What a place – seating for about 140 people, and there were just the 4 of us there.

The Seagull

We’d seen a sign for “Nervous Nellie’s Jams and Jellies”, so with memories of the great place in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula run by a brotherhood of monks called “The Jam Pot” we followed the signs and after initially overshooting the driveway found ourselves in a car park surrounded by some very “odd” creatures – see this separate post about the Artwork there. But the great variety of jams and jellies on sale lured us into buying 4 jars.

We followed the road out to the eastern-most end of Deer Island, in fact over a causeway to what was probably originally another separate island to a place called Sunshine, and while out there looking for the end of the road found a large granite outcrop that angled up off the road, so we had to drive up on to that.

The Camaro, the Granite and the Trees

Caterpillar Hill Panorama

The Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge

After that it was back to Bar Harbor, with a detour via the Atlantic Brewing Company  - Don wanted to get some ginger beer, and I wanted to just smell the Knox Road Grill in anticipation of a meal there at some stage, but alas we got there 1 minute after they had closed.

A photo gallery of the pictures from this day can be seen here

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

Expect Delays...

Apart from this mess, it was just a looooooooong day for the 625 miles, but we’re here now for a few days, and it’s almost already forgotten. Luckily we don’t have to go home this way!!!!!!

But the travelling is certainly made easier by the use of the E-ZPass I got for the car a few years ago which means we don’t have to stop and fumble with money to pay the various road tolls in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maine (Ohio hasn’t yet joined the modern age and we do have to stop and hand over actual money at the Toll Booths there). Some Toll Booths require you to slow down to 15 mph, or 10 mph or even 5 mph, but the newer ones – “Express” let you just drive on through at 55 mph, and somehow their technology can read the E-ZPass transponder that is stuck to the top of the windscreen inside. It is read, and the toll deducted from our account, which is automagically replenished when it’s nearly empty. A great time and hassle saver.

A sign of a different nature took our fancy today when Lisa, Don, Mindy and I were heading out for a drive to Deer Isle down to the  south west of Mount Desert Island (more on that in another posting tomorrow…)

A Septic Message

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Today, Monday we left New Stanton and arrived in Newark, Delaware to the home of Mary Lee and Minor – friends from about 14 years on AOL together as Macintosh users in the Members Helping Members (MHM) area – about 2pm.

Spent the afternoon chatting and catching up on news, then Roger and Mary Lee made dinner – baked chicken, baked potatoes, roasted veges (zucchini, yellow squash, onion and red pepper) and salad with Cranberry Tiptops – one of Mary Lee’s specialties.

Delicious as always....

Wednesday we head up I-95 to Bar Harbor.

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