October 3 - “Go ‘Merca”

Topic of discussion on our way to the easternmost point in the U.S.: why are there so many American flags displayed along the roads in the small towns of New Hampshire and Maine? Is it because they are so close to Canada that the flag will let you know if you made a wrong turn on your way to New Brunswick?  Or is it just … ‘Merca? Wse were led to lean to the second option after seeing a “Wake up America” sign just outside of Franklin, Maine.

 

We passed the Wild Blueberry Heritage Center. Everything was painted purple. Buildings. Fence. Propane tanks. The most impressive things, however, were the massive actual blueberries that giants dropped and didn’t bother to pick up. They were as big as our car! 

 

Here’s another patriotic statement we saw. Have you ever been driving along and see one of those multi-part billboard messages? You know, the kind that begins on one billboard, then continues on the next and the next. This one actually had the pledge of allegiance spread out on little signs, with one phrase of the pledge on each, that went on for about a mile. Impressive.

 

When I scrambled to put my phone down and grab the camera for a picture, I accidentally put my phone on talk and transcribe mode. Check out what it heard as I read the pledge put loud:

“Taylor public oh we’re gonna punch who is the stands awesome one nation under God under God real in justice”

 

Oh well. After all we were “Down East” at the time, whatever that means. Actually, we think it refers to the area of Maine known as Acadian or anythijg east of the town of Ellsworth. They consider themselves different from the rest of Maine. Kind of like Texans … or Galvestonians.

 

We found our first lighthouse. It’s called Quoddy Point, and there is a granite marker that looks like a headstone on the property. And that headstone marks the site of the easternmost point of the United States. Pretty significant accomplishment for us. We’ve been to the farthest south in Key West. We’ve been to Alaska, as far north as we care to go. And in April we head to Hawaii, so that will cover the farthest west. This site was kind of underwhelming, though.  Not many people were there, either because it was so remote or maybe because it was so cold.  The visitor center on site was closed as well.  We did find a gift shop a few miles down the road.  Very sweet young girl working there.  All she could talk about was her travels with her grandfather. Keep those up, young lady.  Grandpa needs ‘em. 

 

But we weren’t satisfied to simply be at the farthest east the U. S. has to offer. We wanted to go where the time zone changed yet again, but that meant leaving the country. Coincidentally, we were able to pick up the road to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s summer home in Canada called Campobello. It is an international park, so Chris was even able to get her book stamped.

 

The entry into Canada was easy. We showed our passports and answered the nice lady’s questions. She waved us through. We were able to tour the house, which is now a museum. We also saw the famous Bay of Fundy. That’s the place where the tides are outrageously exaggerated. We got there pretty close to the low tide mark, so nothing looked really earth-shattering. The house visit was interesting, though.

 

Now, our exit from Canada back into the states was a bit more interesting. Our entry guard was a strictly by the book guy. When he got to his question about fruit, I knew we were about to be boarded. I told him we had bananas and apples and oranges in the ice chest. Boom. I had to get out of the car and haul it out.  Actually, he lifted it out for me. Guess I looked frail. But I had to dig out the oranges. Come to find out, bananas are ok. Apples are ok. But you can’t bring oranges into the states, even if you bought them here in the first place. They can catch a horrible Canadian disease and pollute every orange tree in the U.S. before we would be able to eat them all. Can’t have that. I had to dig out the bag and turn it over. He did ask if we wanted the bag back. No diseases can infect the bag, of course. That’s silly. We let him keep it. And speaking of silly, he didn’t even flinch at Chris’ medicine we had in there. Syringes and all. Thank you for that.

 

We were finally allowed back into the country, citrus-less. Rather than head right to the hotel, Chris found yet another site that had a national park stamp. This one was at the point on a peninsula known for the waves crashing against the rocks. It was a pretty pretty place. The Atlantic Ocean is, in a word, cold. I guess the date might have something to do with that, but we sure wore our heavy winter jackets … proudly. And I do have to say that it made me kinda homesick seeing all that water. It didn’t help that after we checked into the hotel we had seafood. Chris had shrimp quesadillas. I had popcorn shrimp. My take? I miss Shrimp n Stuff.

 

The hotel was very helpful at check-in. I was given a goodie bag with a bottle of water, an energy bar, maps of the area, two chocolate cookies, and a Hershey bar actually personalized with my name. Very cool.

 

Matthew 7:24 says, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

Father, please be with the couple from Florida we met in the line at the restaurant. Give them a safe journey and many happy memories. Amen.