Across the street from the MOFGA grounds (this is still on Oct. 14) we saw this sculpture
marking Northern Solstice Alpaca Farm. It didn’t seem to be open, and we had just got in the car and were psyched for moving a little, but there it is, and if we see them at the Fiber Fest next year we’ll know who they are. I didn’t see any yarn offered on their web site, just as well.
On the way to the apple day we had noticed a surprisingly large train depot in Unity, that is, surprisingly large for the size of the town. On the way back we stopped (notice the inconsistency — we must have only been psyched for moving two miles) to check it out. It’s the headquarters of a sightseeing rail line that seems to have rejuvenated that corner of the town.
We walked over to the ticket office and noticed a train headlight shining on us from a hundred yards down the track. The morning foliage trip was just returning, its steam engine chugging along, driving wheels turning smoothly.
There’s no mistaking the power behind even a smallish steam locomotive when it goes past at a distance of a few feet. We think we’re pretty hot stuff today with electronic technology, but let’s pause a moment to admire the 19th and early 20th century mechanical engineers who designed those puppies without CAD systems and the machinists who built them without numerically controlled machine tools.
OK, we paused…
It was too late to consider a sightseeing trip right then, but we filed the Unity Depot, and the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railway, in our memory for another time. We wouldn’t even have to get up as early to get there when the train leaves as we had to get to Apple Day when it started, and this time we know the way.
Rather than backtrack to the turnpike, we took route 202 towards home. We were thinking we might stop for supper in Augusta, but we got there long before supper time.
Somewhere along the way, maybe near China, we passed a farmhouse with interesting stone monuments in the yard. I turned the car around at the next opportunity so we could get a closer look. Maybe someone who runs a granite quarry brought home factory reject stonework to display? The grass was mowed neatly around each piece of stone, so it’s a deliberate display. And for goodness sake, these are big heavy rocks, not the kind of thing someone just tossed in the back seat.
We stayed on route 202 into Lewiston/Auburn, where we stopped in Big Lots, got lots of interesting stuff (a $7- pair of dark glasses, because the sun was in my eyes, was the biggest-ticket item we got there) and asked directions to Lowe’s, and went to Lowe’s to use up a gift card I had got as a rebate on a ladder purchase. We had no trouble spending it, and loaded the car with a storage rack for garden tools, a new toilet seat (oops — too much information?), a garden rake to add to the storage rack, a case of bottled water, and more. By then it really was supper time. I took a couple of wrong turns trying to get to Ruby Tuesday’s and went through downtown Lewiston and Auburn another time. Unless there’s lots more construction and change of traffic patterns, I think I’ll be able to find Lowe’s on my own next time.