Wood's Prairie Travels

When deciding which roads to take on our way back home from New England, we considered many options and routes. Traveling south to Gettysburg made it to the top of our list, especially after several family and friends asked if we planned to go there. Although history classes teach about the Civil War and the battle of Gettysburg, visiting the actual site and looking upon the various fields of battle, really brought the history to life. The visitor center had an excellent movie describing the three days of the battle of Gettysburg. In addition, there was a narration of the cyclorama.  “Cyclo-what?” You may be asking... the cyclorama is a 360-degree oil painting that fills a whole room. It is 42 feet tall and 377 feet wide. The painting depicts the last day of the battle of Gettysburg. The way in which the lighting changes during the narration draws the attention of the audience to particular portions of the painting. At one point the narration describes the smoke from the cannon fir...

After exploring much of the eastern coast of Maine, it was time to turn our sights westward. We stopped at an information center, to gather more maps. The lady at the desk stated, “One option would be to go on the Kancamagus Highway”. I said, “The Kanga-what?”  She smiled and replied, “Kan-ca-mag-us, people pronounce it many different ways”. Then she hesitated and added, “You may have slow traffic with the leaf peepers”. Quizzically, I asked, “The leaf what?”  Her reply was, “We call them ‘Leaf Peepers’. The people who come to see the fall colors. The Kancamagus is a popular drive for that, but it really slows down as the cars creep along.” Although too early in the fall to see the best fall colors, we decided we would go “Leaf Peepin and creepin’ ” on the Kancamagus Highway across central New Hampshire. The two-lane road follows the Swift River winding over the White Mountains.  One short hike led to Sabbaday Falls. The leaf strewn trail was a golden walk in ...

Sitting just off shore from Ellsworth, Maine, is Mount Desert Island on which the Acadia National Park is located. This island is also where the famous Bar Harbour is located. Acadia is known for being one of the busiest national parks. In part, this is due to its proximity to the large east coast population. Although we visited mid-week in mid-September, it was definitely a busy area.   After crossing onto the large island, we first headed for Bar Harbor on the northwest corner. Yikes! It was a crazy busy tourist area, not the nice little port we had expected. The narrow streets of the town were lined with cars, restaurants, and touristy shops. People were strolling along the busy sidewalks. There was definitely no parking for a pickup and once on the main road through town, we couldn’t get off... Okay, scratch the plan of exploring the port. On to Acadia National Park. There was an entrance to the park road that follows the perimeter of the park just outside of Bar Harbor, so...

We continued our exploration of Maine by travelling north up the coast. The way the land juts out into the Atlantic in a series of peninsulas and islands surprised us. Looking at a map of the mid-coast of Maine appears to be crooked fingers reaching out to the sea. Although traveling each peninsula would take much more time than we had, we did explore a few of them. The first we peninsula led out to Popham Beach State Park. We drove out a winding tree-lined county road that eventually led to a sandy beach with a few islands just offshore.  Evidently when the tide is low a person can walk out to the islands, but if they don’t carefully monitor the tide, they might find themselves stranded! We were satisfied just walking in the water and waves.  Due to the number of rocky points and islands along this coast, there are a large number of lighthouses that help mariners navigate safely. We sort of accidentally came across one lighthouse called Squirrel Point Light. It is on an i...

While sitting on the bank of the Atlantic Ocean, we perused flyers and visitor information magazines we had picked up. One flyer in particular caught our eye. A two-hour trip with a lobster fisherman while he pulled his lobster pots. Better yet, the excursion left from the port of Ogunquit which was just a short distance up the coast from us. The following day with a calm ocean under a blue sky we boarded the boat to go “Lobsta’ Fishin” (the new England accent was pretty pronounced in parts of Maine). Our captain has a string of pots just offshore from the port. While we cruised to pick the first pot, we learned that lobster fisherman can have up to 80 pots out. They alternate picking some pots while others are soaking. The lobster fishery is highly regulated. Each of the feisty lobster caught in the pots were carefully measured to determine if it could be kept or if it had to return to the ocean. In Maine, the carapace (back) has to be between 3 ¼” and 5” in order to be a “keeper”. Th...

Our first morning waking up on the coast of Maine had a few clouds offshore which gave the sun quite a canvas to paint on. We watched the colors change from magenta just before the sun rose to a golden orange when it appeared on the horizon. Sipping our coffee while watching that glowing orb climb further above the horizon was rather novel for us from the west coast. Although it was hard for me to put the camera down, after a bit I had to just set it down so I could watch the color show.  Before long I became fascinated by the way the sun shone through the waves just before they crested with a foaming spray. At first it appeared to be a golden light shining through the clear water. However, as the sun rose higher into the sky, the light shining through the waves had the color of light green sea glass. What a gorgeous start to our day.