Days 75-77: Troy, ME and Heading West Again

I think I've once again missed a day somewhere, as tomorrow will e our 78th day on the road.  We left Seawall Campground on Thursday, and drove to Bangor.  Our main stop was at the Ford dealer, as we could not get our clock set properly (it was ticking off one minute per hour).  There was also an interior panel below the glove box that had come loose.  We got the clock fixed, but will need to schedule a stop at a Ford dealer down the line, giving them enough of a heads up to order the replacement panel for us. 

We Googled Tripadvisor to see what there was to do in Bangor, and the #2 attraction was the Cole Land Transportation Museum.  At $7 each it was within our means, so we stopped in.  When we arrived the loudspeakers were blasting God Bless America (presumably on the hour, every hour).  The museum is a shrine to the Cole family, who had a successful regional trucking company, but it was also a nod to all the various Maine land transportation forms.

A Model T Ford converted for driving in the snow.

One of two known Stanley Steamer vans.

A fire truck, complete with safety net!

While there a docent pointed out a narrow strap rail used for a very early railroad (certainly the first in Maine, and very early in general - pre-1850s).  He recounted how the train ran into Bangor, and how at one time someone's pig had been run over and killed by the train.  The owner sued, but lost when it was ruled that the pig was trespassing on the rail right of way.  So the person had salvaged as much of the meat as possible, and boiled all the fat down to lard.  They then went to where there was a slight incline in the rail line and spread the lard along that stretch, making it impassable to the train!  We thought it was a great story of about not getting mad, but getting even.

From there we returned for a night at Chris and Deb's in Troy, ME.  We brought a pork roast, some vegetables and artisan bread, and made dinner.  Before doing that, Chris helped me figure out how to get the solar plug inlet on our camper correctly wired, so that we can order a solar panel to help keep our battery charged when we aren't on shore power.  That included a trip to Unity to a tiny hardware store that had the 10 ga spade connector that I needed.

With the chores done, we settled down to learn a new card game, Hand and Foot (aka Canasta).  And we followed that up with some Spite and Malice, lasting nearly until midnight.

In the morning we were treated to some Scandinavian-style buckwheat pancakes (more like crepes), blueberries, cantaloupe, bacon, home-made maple syrup and fresh brewed coffee.  Once Lana started getting antsy we decided it was time to go.  Of course she saw a deer run off and chased after it, and for a while we wondered whether she would find her way back if she chased it far enough.  But she eventually did return.

So we drove down to Brunswick for the start of our journey west, but stopped first to see about lowering the gearing on Alea's bike, so that she'd have an easier time on steep hills.  That search eventually land us in Bath, where we are waiting at the Patten Free Library for the new drivetrain to be installed.

Patten Free Library.

We are hoping that it will be ready in time for us to ride thirty miles out of town to our intended destination.  If not, we'll be camping in Brunswick and heading out in the morning.

A cool looking YMCA sign.

While waiting, we've taken advantage of the Library's free wi-fi to download a number of software updates for our laptop (which we haven't used much in the past few months).  That'll keep it from gobbling up our mi-fi data (there have been updates in the past that ate up $10-$20 worth of data).