Maine - Day 22 - rainy Brunswick

Range Pond Campground

Wednesday, 22 August 2018

At last night’s campground, when I asked about wifi, they said they were putting me in a site that was near their repeater, so I should get at least an okay reception.  I didn’t last night but tried again this morning when nobody else was up and competing for the bandwidth.  That still didn’t help.  No wifi again.

The dogs and I were walking in the pitch dark, which made it hard to see our way around the campground – even though the drawing of it looked totally simple – just 2 big circles.  Not simple at all when it’s so dark I had to use my flashlight just to be sure we were on the road.  And no starlight either because the front that was drowning Madison, Wisconsin, a day or two ago is pulling into here.  Oh, well.  We got our walk in without any other dogs causing trouble.

today's route

Less than a mile down the road from the campground I saw a sign for Judge Roy Bean Road.  Why on earth, do you suppose?  As far as I know he had zero connection with Maine.

Of course, on these smaller back roads I’ve been traveling in this part of the state, I often see signs warning of a school bus stop ahead, and they remind me school will soon be in session all over the country.  That will mean being very careful not to come around a curve too quickly because of possible school buses littering the road, and it will mean getting ready for v-e-r-y slow school zone speed limits going through some of these villages with just one main road.

I stopped in Lewiston to pick up a prescription I’d transferred to a CVS there, and the dogs wanted walking at the same time.  Nearby we passed a restaurant that advertised Alabama BBQ, which made me curious.  Luckily there were a couple guys outside the restaurant talking and, when I asked what made it Alabama BBQ, one of the guys said because he was from Alabama and he was the owner and the cook.  And I guess that’s as good a reason as any.

I saw a sign for Memphis BBQ on the way out of town, but I’m guessing that might be a different story.

I saw a Maine license plate that said JIMZCAH.

I was aiming for Brunswick, wanting to visit Bowdoin College in memory of my Uncle Tom, whose generosity helped make this trip possible.  Unfortunately, by the time we got to Brunswick the heavens had opened up to a startling extent.  I was lucky enough to find a legal parking spot right across the street from the college and took the dogs out for a little reconnaissance tour.  But about when we set out, it really started raining and even Dexter decided he’d had enough after a block or so.  But I knew they needed the bathroom break, and they were already totally soaked, and I had rubber boots and an umbrella and was hoping I could take a photo of a building or two anyway, so we went on.  Sadly, the photo was not to be.  It was really really pouring.  I started understanding what Madison had been going through.

Since my uncle was going to school here in the 1930s, you know it’s been around a while. I found this sample photo online. I’m sure it’s a lovely campus when you can see it – lots and trees and nice-looking buildings. 

somebody else's photo of a Bowdoin College building

We drove down Route 1 from Brunswick toward Freeport (a full 7 miles away), and I was vaguely hoping I could visit LL Bean while I was in the neighborhood.  After I passed through so much standing water on the road that I was worried even in a high vehicle like my RV (thinking all the while the mantra our weather people in Austin kept repeating: turn around, don’t drown), I decided to come back another day and headed north toward tonight’s campground.  They too have promised me a wifi signal.

As I have now come to expect, the online directions by both the campground and Google were woefully inadequate.  I ended up down a narrow local road that went on and on and finally hit a state road I didn’t recognize.  After driving on that awhile I found a garage that was open and stopped for directions.  It was there I learned the name of this pond and campground isn’t pronounced “range” as in home on the but instead “rang” as a bell.  Nothing like local knowledge.  Ditto for getting directions that actually worked.  But I’ve met some nice people that way.

And on one of those little local roads I was luckily going pretty slowly because I came around a curve and saw in front of me 2 does and 3 fawns crossing the road.  They didn’t do it in a bunch, either, and the last fawn came bounding alone out of the woods on the left side of the road, got part way across the road and stopped and dithered a bit, and then got brave enough to finish the crossing.  Just in time, too, because the car behind me apparently didn’t know why I’d stopped and came up fairly quickly on my left side just after the fawn had reached the side of the road.  The driver was so impatient I doubt if he even saw the deer.  But it was pretty great for me to see.