Tuffy and I are going to take a little road trip in late August to Bangor Maine, of all places. I’ve never been to Maine. It only occured to us to go there after Tuffy discovered the 2012 American Folk Festival which takes place on the Bangor waterfront. What better excuse than folk music to take a road trip?
The list of performers looks great, featuring a wide range of folk music – from Cape Breton and French fiddle music to Cajun – DL Maynard!!!! – to blues, bluegrass, sacred steel guitar, western swing, Lakota hoop dancing, Buck dancing, Columbian, Malian and more.
Today I talked to the Michelle the awesome CAA travel rep, who set us up with a perfect hotel and an handful of maps. It’s been a while since we’ve taken a trip to anywhere. I haven’t even managed to sneak away for some camping and fly fishing. Both of us are excited to take off for a few days.
It looks like there are basically three routes. One goes through Canada quite a way on the 401 then dekes down. Another crosses into the States at Buffalo and comes at it from underneath. The third route is the one on the map and right now that’s the one I’m thinking about. It follows the 404 to Prescott and then crosses into Ogdensburg and continues east through the States. A week before we go, Michelle the awesome CAA travel rep will put together a route map for us taking into account construction along the way. I have to say that I’m used to doing travel arrangements on the computer, but this time I decided to see if the folks at CAA could help me out, since I am a member, and I have to say dealing with a friendly human is the way to go. It takes 12-14 hours to get to Bangor from Toronto no matter which route you take. We’re planning on taking two days to do that.
There was a time when I did long road trips to the mountain west with my buddy East Texas Red. We would just power through to our destination. I recall one year we made it out to Cody Wyoming in 36 hours. By the time we got there I was in a haze. I can’t do that kind of road trip anymore. These days I’m good with 6-8 hours on the road with plenty of stops and side-trips along the way. I had actually hoped to get out west this season, but by plane this time, but it just hasn’t been possible this year. I think the last road trip Tuffy and I took was with Candy and Stagg – it must be 5 years ago now – when we met up at the International Accordion Festival in San Antonio and drove through east Texas and across Louisiana to New Orleans. That was a lot of fun!!
So as I said, we’re both really excited to get away. We have someone staying at the house looking after the dogs and cats while we’re gone, which is a great arrangement. The dogs look after the house, and T keeps them fed and watered and walked. The cats of course will run the joint as usual.
DL Menard is 80 now. It’s great to see he’s still getting out to play! Here’s a taste of his music from YouTube.
27th Street 
I’ve not been to Bangor for ages but it holds special memories for me as that is where my uncle Vic lived for much of his career. For 25 years, he was a political cartoonist for the Bangor Daily News. I loved going there as he had piles (and I mean piles!) of books everywhere, whereas my own family didn’t have any. He was also a history buff, another reason for feeling I was born into the wrong family. To get to Bangor, I used to drive through Magog into Vermont and New Hampshire and I’ll always remember the vista one September of a field turned orange with ripe pumpkins, stretching as far as you could see. Funny what stays with you.
Did you know that Bangor is where Stephen King lives? I’m not a fan but my daughter is, and when she was in the area, she just had to get a photo taken outside his gate (big and black, of course).
Enjoy your trip.
Hi Karen,
I find piles of books hard to resist too! I’ve never been through Magog, but I think I’ve read about it in Richler’s book, Solomon Gursky was Here. I’ve heard Stephen King lives in Bangor. I’m not a fan of his books but I bet he’d be an interesting fellow to have a beer with. Good to hear from you. I hope all is well. cheers.
ok this is hilarious… I wasnt sure just exactly how far away Bangor was from where I live near Alliston so I went to google and punched in ‘distance Alliston Ontario to Bangor Maine’ The first result returned by google was a thumbnail map that i could click on along with the information that the exact distance was 1104.1 km. Pretty much what I expected. The SECOND item returned by google was a link titled ..
Welcome to Tim Hortons
http://www.timhortons.com/
Offers coffee and doughnuts in locations across Canada and the United States.
that just broke me up. Really though if you are gonna drove 1104.1 km you better bring along a map that shows where all the donut shops are. Between the bold statement that the distance was 1104. km and the list of donut outlets I guess that is all you need to know.
I dont know much about Maine except that it is home to the Maine Blackfly Breeders Association, a delightful outfit with catchy slogans like ‘May the swarm be with you’ and ‘we breed em you feed em. Their website is at http://www.maineblackfly.org/index.html . Once there you can buy wonderful blackfly products and even read blackfly limericks like..
A pretty young mother superior
went flyfishing deep in the interior
the fish were not biting
just blackflies delighting
her very superior posterior.
Sounds like a fun trip, Im jealous. Dont forget to set the camera to take movies.
What a wonderful trip! Going into it with the knowledge that you will take 2 days to get there will be so much more relaxing and will allow you to enjoy the new scenery instead of just tracking the miles. Sounds like a great festival awaits at the other end.