State Fair

Cuddin' Jane wanted to see the Maine State Fair which had two days to run, so off we went to Skowhegan for the day on Friday. Another perfect day. We were fortunate to have Roy, a farm boy from Tennessee, who had both shown in and judged livestock at fairs to tell us the fine points of what was happening. One outfit showing Belgian draft horses also runs a campground in VT and we may look them up next week. The fair was a lot smaller than we had imagined. You enter by driving though a culvert under the race track, park in the center of it and then walk through another culvert to enter the grounds. We decided if they had a heavy rain, you would have to swim in. The two engineers (actually Jane is also an engineer) Roy and Gene examined in detail all the antique tractors, wood splitters and sawmills and discussed them endlessly. We spent a lot of time with the horses, but also toured all the other competitions and exhibits, ending with the sulky races which Gene seemed to know a lot about. There were only two races left when we arrived. On the last race Jane placed a bed on #2. Gene and I both picked #4 based on his good looks. Jane's horse was next to last, but ours came in second. Unfortunately, we had not bet.

I have neclected to mention how much the folks here in Main fly the flag. It is everywhere on houses and business and mailboxes and most towns have them flying on the power poles through town. Some folks have multiples lining the front of their properties. A habit the rest of us should adopt.

The food here in Greenville is the best we've had in Maine. Gene thinks it is because the sportsmen come back here year after year and they get repeat business while on the coast they have an endless supply of new tourists. In the evenings we gather around our campfire at our campground until bedtime, then meet at 9 the next morning for breakfast to go at it again.

Saturday is Gene's turn for memory lane and after touring the history museum we head up the west side of the lake to Rockwood where he camped 30 years ago. In the photo of Jane, Gene and me, that is Mt. Kineo in the background on an island. Gene climbed the lower end of it with infant daughter Emily strapped to his back. This island was the site of a huge hotel in the 1800's. They had 500 rooms and a dining room that seated 425. There were many steamships that ferried the tourists from Greenville up here as there were no roads. The hotel had a staff of 1000 to tend to these tourists. The hotel burned but there are a few outbuildings left. Unfortunately, the campground Gene used to stay at in is now a private estate, but we could see part of it from the road over the Kennebec River which starts here. The marina at Rockwood was very busy with folks lining up to launch. We then explored some of the backwoods, namely a route along a stream and past two ponds that Roy may want to canoe someday.

The forecast for Sunday is rain, so we will see what it brings.