Observations in The County

Once in the County, to stay in Maine, you must turn off Interstate 95 before you hit Canada. There isn’t much to see along the Interstate so by this time the town of Houlton looks like a vibrant happening town. In a way, it is because as we continue on Route 1 and continue to the following towns there is one unkempt house after another. Yards filled with debris, some that have obviously spilled out of the house, right out of the front door, filling the porch and down the steps onto the lawn. At 50 mph, it’s hard to decipher just what’s in the jumble of stuff, refrigerators, barbeque grills, mattresses stand out. There are very few houses that are painted, and those just have a layer of vinyl siding coming unglued. This agricultural area is clearly struggling and was before our economy crashed.

Every few miles along Route 1 there is a small clearing with a park bench, a plaque and a large ball mounted on a pole. It’s a planet. Each one you drive by represents another of the planets in our solar system. Saturn was my favorite, but even these “sculptures” are dilapidated and crumbing with disrepair.  I guess it was someone’s project they got a grant for to brighten the drive along the route. It probably worked great, but now the planets have gotten lost amid the depression.

A striking stand out feature smacks your line of vision when you spot the first windmill. And that is truly an old word for it because these are not windmills in that old romantic sense for certain, these are wind turbines.  They look like crisp, clean, kinetic sculptures with some alien conspirator’s purpose. The first one looks out of place, a mile or so in the distance, but as we drive on and get closer we see there are actually several wind turbines aligning the top of the hill. They are built on Mars Hill, in fact. It’s a marvel, a wonder, a spectacle that is slightly frightening in its highly unnatural appearance. On this very windy day they were all turning at the same slow and deliberate speed, but not in unison.

As we pull into the truly vibrant town of Presque Isle (by-the-way, it is not an island in any way, nor is it near the water), there is one lonely wind turbine off to our left on the campus of the university.  It looms large because it is much closer to the road than the others on Mars Hill. It really creeped me out when I looked at it because on this very windy day it wasn’t moving at all.