Road trip 2013 - searching for what makes Maine the way life should be

Monday, June 3rd.  Log of thoughts.

• Just south of Long Lake, saw my first moose of  the trip.  Tried to back up and get it's photo while it was standing on the side of the rode.  By the time I got back to where it had been, it had ambled it's way just into the shadows of the woods.  Still got a photo, but hard to see!
• I arrived in Madawaska Saturday Evening. 
• Checked in at Martins Motel, and based on the recommendation of the woman who checked me in, went to Molly's for dinner. 
• There I met James, who was dining alone also, at the table next to mine.  I was very nervous to start talking to him, but I finally decided to go for it.  To break the ice, I asked him where the bridge was in town that takes you across the St John river to Edmundson, CA.  That was all it took to get him talking, and led to me getting a great interview with him while we ate dinner.
• Sunday morning, my alarm clock woke me up an hour earlier than I had wanted, because it had automatically reset to be in the Atlantic time zone.  It also was saying I was going to be paying international roaming charges on my phone.
• Went to the bridge and after talking to the straight faced customs official who told me it was okay if I walked halfway across the bridge to Canada. I did just that.
• Couldn't find people walking around on Main St, so I drove to a Walgreens store and stood outside the front door.  Got my second interview from Melissa.  Nice woman but no photo.  Then tried to get an older gentleman to talk to me, but he said he didn't have time because he was off to church.  Soon after the manager? came out and asked if she could help me.  I explained what I was doing and almost! got her to interview with me.  But being the true professional she is, she said she could not do it on company time.  I gave her my business card and asked her to send me her thoughts and photo via e-mail.  She seemed enthusiastic about it.
• Then went to Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church to try to find some people.  Mass was about to start and I talked to the Father (Jaque) on the front steps just in time.  He was excited for me about my book project, and told me he'd make an announcement in the church that I would be outside after and looking to talk to people about helping me with my book.  So I sat through my first Catholic mass, and then interviewed 3 people after! Bernard, Tom, and James.  Tom had his two boys with him, who were excited to participate too!
• Feeling great about the flurry of e-mails, I set off to my next stop, Fort Kent.  On the way, had to stop at the little airport I had seen a sign for Saturday evening.  After winding my way up quite a few miles into the hills, there I found the airport on a plateau.  And there I met David, the airport manager/pilot/plane owner.  He was the only one there, and gave me a great interview.  As I was leaving, he commented about my Prius and said it was great I was using something that was easy on the environment.  I responded back saying it sure was saving me money on gas with all the miles I am putting on.  But then he emphasized that the real important thing was that I was reducing greenhouse gass emissions.  In that moment, I felt a little ashamed that I deflected his first comment about helping the environment.  I hadn't acknowledged him complement, partly out of fear that he was maybe being sarcastic about it and my car.  He was not.
• Made it into Fort Kent.  Got two interviews outside a restaurant (Susan and Melanie), and then one with a really nice guy (and park ranger) named Ronnie, who was cleaning up around the Fort Kent historical site.  Ronnie really emphasized the friendly community aspects of Fort Kent.  Said he had a son who lives in Cumberland and he and his wife are engineers.  They would like to live in Fort Kent, but no work there for them.  Fort Kent is a trade off between economic opportunity and quality of life.
• After Ronnie, I hit the road for Calais.  Went Rt 11.  Beautiful countryside!  Roling hills, vistas, lakes, farms, old barns, school busses sinking into the grass. :)
• Stopped in Portage.  Quite tiny town on Portage Lake.  Finally saw an older guy filling up his riding lawn mower at the local gas station.  So I approached him, said hi, and tried to engage with chit chat about his mower (I originally thought it was an ATV so I made a comment like "that looks like fun" - duh... :)  So after some small talk, I told him what I was doing with the book project and asked if he would talk to me about it.  He stood up straight, stopping what he was doing, looked me square in the eye, and said, "I hate Obama".  I should have ended it right there - but I couldn't! He kept talking (after I replied, "well, that isn't really what I wanted to talk about, I want to talk about Maine").  He went on to tell me about how he was a vietnam vet, was losing his toes one by one due to agent orange, that he went into the war supporting it, but later changed his mind and is now anti war.  He said the US can't control all these 'tribes' around the world.  He finally talked a little about Maine.  Said he was living in the only part of the state he could, because it is conservative.  The southern part of the state is liberal.  But even where he is has changed, not as great as it used to be.  He wished me luck with my book and went on his way.  I felt sad for him.
• The next guy that arrived at the gas station was Travis.  Really nice younger guy who was eager to help me with my book! 
• Hit the road again - satisfied that I had taken lots of great pics, and got a good number of quality interviews.
• Road through a tremendous T-storm.  Unbelievable sheets of water coming down.  Major wind gusts moving my car around.  Rain stops, the hail!  I ducked into some guys driveway near Holton to hide under his tree.  He was on his front porch talking on his phone when I asked if it was okay to pull into his driveway.  He yelled "what?"  I just rolled up my window and pulled in!  It was over in less than 5 minutes.
• Landed in Calais.  Went for a run along the river path.  Then dinner/beer at a great little pub called Karen's.  Karen is the owner, and she was the bar tender last night.  Originally from Canada, she told me she had laid sheet rock for the first 20 years living in Maine.  Then when the local diner went up for sale, her daughter said she should buy it.  Karen did buy it, the very next day!  Then when the space next to her diner went on the market, she bought that too!  Made that a pub.  Keeping the two separate.  She is a character, and very friendly and likeable.  Great bar tender.  No idea how she did sheet rock for 20 years.  Oh, and she told me she and her husband were doing sheet rock for the motel I am staying at now (The International), when he stepped on a loose floor joyce and fell 10 feet onto the basement  floor and broke his back.  He recovered!
• Now it is Tuesday morning, and time to talk to some more Calais people!