Day 06 turned out to be a very dreary and dull overcast/wet day. Jacob wasn’t feeling very well, so we opted for a quiet day around the hotel and Bangor (photos 1-2). We had a good breakfast at the hotel again and played games.

I went out on an errand to look for some pharmacy stuff for Jacob at a nearby mall. Like most malls in North America, it has been decimated. I went to Dick’s Sporting Goods on a separate errand. I normally have a small shoulder bag that I carry with me, almost a man purse, and the last one I got was from Mountain Equipment Co-op. They still sell the model, which lasted me quite some time, but I thought if I could find something similar while on our trip, I’d grab it and have a souvenir too. Dick’s had bags in about 8 different places in the store, none of them like what I was looking for…I would have considered a more traditional messenger bag too, as I seem to have lost mine (I might have given it away without realizing it at one point), but nada. I wandered through the mall anyway looking for any bag store or sports store, but nope, not a one. Nor was there anything resembling a pharmacy although the map of the mall showed lots of POSSIBLE stores, none of which were where they were supposed to be. Or at least, not anymore. I gave up on the bag and stopped at a grocery for Jacob’s stuff.

We went to a local Applebee’s for lunch, which was surprisingly good, and surprisingly busy as we went after the lunchtime “rush”, early afternoon, and they were still busy.

We were looking for an indoor activity, and had a recommendation from a website to try the Galen Cole Family Land Transportation Museum. It had cars, trains, bikes, snowmobiles, snow ploughs, fire trucks, farm equipment, etc. It wasn’t very busy, and as one big garage/warehouse, volunteers were able to provide info as needed. They had a small scavenger hunt you could do while touring the museum where you “spot” various wheels and mark which display they were from on a checklist.

Much of the museum’s material had been donated. When it started, they announced in the paper they were creating the museum and asked if people had items to give. Lots of people did — including farm equipment, for example, that had been used by grandparents or great-grandparents and then left to sit in barns or fields for 50 years before being restored by a descendant and then donated. Similarly, the museum also included a full rural “train station” from the area. The railway company had called the creator, Galen Cole, and said, “Hey, we’re getting rid of this train station, do you want it?”. Cole did, and he got it for $1 on the condition that they come and take it from the land. Which he did, putting it in the museum. Until a few years later when the company sold off the land, which Cole bought, including four more stations with it. The train station in the museum was pretty cool, including the post office portion. A true slice of history to walk into, from an adventurous time when rail travel was more fundamental to cities and small towns.

One of the volunteers, an older gentleman in his 70s at least, although I suspect more like his 80s, took to chatting near the end. I mentioned our plan to go on down to Boston. He told me how he went to one of the fast food chain’s training schools in Southern Maine when he was a younger man, and some of them went into Boston two or three times. His conclusion? “It wasn’t for me.” He had no interest in a big city, and he hinted that he basically had spent his entire life in the Bangor area with no interest to go anywhere else, and certainly NOT to anything resembling a big city. It would be nice to just sit and chat with him for a decade or so. But, alas, the museum was closing. We visited the Vietnam Memorial outside with a helicopter (Huey, UH-1), and the WWII memorial (with jeep and tank), plus a covered bridge. We added to our photo collection (photos 3-39).

We still had a bit of daylight, even if it was rainy, so we decided to drive around downtown Bangor. Saw a mural or two, lots of churches, a Masonic lodge, etc. Then across the bridges to a waterfront park, for views of Bangor’s “skyline” (photos 40-63).

We stopped near the hotel to check out a store called BAM — Books-A-Million. It is a large Chapters/Indigo-like store, very modern but welcoming, with a decent magazine section, lots of mainstream adult and kids books on the main floor with genre stuff on the second, along with games, puzzles, and anime out the wazoo. We picked up a game or two, and a puzzle. I could spend a week there. Or just move in. A wonderful store.

As we had already ticked off Jacob’s desire for Pizza Hut and Applebees, it was time to fulfill Andrea’s dream — Olive Garden for dinner! We played trivia while we noshed, and Jacob was more in heaven than Andrea — the menu had a WHOLE section devoted to Alfredo sauce.

It was a light day for driving, with only 23 km logged. On photos, we only took 84 and I curated that down only slightly to 64.

2023-07b July – Day 06 Around Bangor

64 photos