What’s That Bright Ball in the Sky?

Monday, October 1, 2012

What’s That Bright Ball in the Sky?

It wasn’t raining this morning when we got up but wasn’t promising to be a nice day. We did rejoice at some sun shining at one point but it soon disappeared. It was damp and windy.
We decided that we wanted to see the Penobscot Narrows Observatory and that we would just go, rain or no rain. So we had our empty propane tank refilled, took it back to the site, and then headed for the Observatory and Fort Knox Historical Site rain or no rain, mist or no mist.
It was well worth the trip. The bridge is a thing of beauty. I hope the pictures turn out well. The ones taken from the van were taken through rain spotted windows so I’m not too sure about them. Tom was doing most of the picture taking so I’m not sure what views were captured. I can’t wait to see them.

There was a sign there with information about the structure of the bridge. I think that the cables were made of 1/5” diameter material. Seven of these were twisted together and then coated. I’ve forgotten most of the details but the “WOW factor” remains.

An interesting side highlight was that we had to cross the Penobscot Narrows Bridge to get to the Observatory. The old bridge was right next to the new one. The new bridge is much higher than the old one and I could look down on it from the shotgun side of the van. Looking down I saw a huge nest that was built on the cables of the old bridge. I estimate that it could easily have been 30” in diameter and 20”-24” high. There was quite a bit of nest building debris on the floor of the bridge. The indentation on the nest had enough room for a very large bird and a few chicks. When we were asked if we had any questions I had forgotten about the nest. Darn!

Then we headed off to Fort Knox. The weather was still misting so we were careful walking on the wet granite. It was amazing to find out how this fort was built to protect the territory from an attack by the British who wanted, among other things, the vast forests to make masts for their fighting ships. Most of the fort was made of granite. A few of the casements had the canons placed by the window to show how the canon was shot. After the canon was ready to be shot (with a 100 lb ball loaded) it was rolled toward the narrow square window. It was aimed by the Gunner and when he gave the signal another soldier pulled the string that started the process of the canon actually firing. As the canon recoiled back along the rail the shutter banged closed. We saw more of the fort including some shadows made by the sun and the sides of the fort. But soon we had to return to the campground.

After lunch the weather turned really nice so we went geocaching. We got 4 out of 4. The two more interesting ones was a fake bird house hung at the windows of the Acadia Welcome Center and a mailbox supposedly belonging to G. O. Kash.

Then it was time to buy food for the van (gas) and water and milk for us.

When we finally got back to our site we started dinner (grilling for the first time since we started our trip) and organizing for a travel day tomorrow. So we will be moving tomorrow so that we can get on the road. At least I want to get to our new “home away from home” as early as possible because tomorrow is also laundry day.

Dinner and dishes done we are ready to settle down to enjoy the night and be rested for tomorrow’s adventure. The weather is supposed to be nice and we are looking forward to a good day for traveling.