8-2-06 (Wednesday): Another day off, another adventure! Today we stayed close to home for a couple of reasons. First, it was really hot (at least by Maine standards). Second, Rockland is celebrating its 59th annual lobster fest, and the crowds are incredible. Our campground is completely booked--not even a tent site left. And last but not least, we'd been wanting to check out the Conway Homestead and Merryspring Park, which are only about a mile from here.

Our first stop was the Conway Homestead. It's a farm house (Cape Cod) that was built by Robert Thorndike, the first white settler in the area, around 1770 and restored in 1962. It was one of the earliest houses in the region. The Thorndikes lived in the house until 1825, when it was sold to Frederick Conway, whose family lived in the house until 1916. We had a tour by a very knowledgeable woman named Brenda.

The interior roof timbers are fastened with treenails (trunnels) and many cellar beams still have their bark covering. The laths in the walls and ceiling are made of hand-split hemlock. You can still see the marks of the broadaxe and adze with which the beams were hewn. The floors were very wide boards that were orange colored. They're called pumpkin pine, and the coloration is natural. There were furnishings of the period in the house (which also had an addition built in the early 19th century and furnished appropriately). I was surprised at how comfortable and attractive it was, especially considering its age. I could live in a house like that!

On the grounds of the house are a barn, a blacksmith shop (wherein dwelt a curious chipmunk--can you spot him?!), a victorian privy and a maple sugar house. Many tools and other interesting artifacts were stored / displayed in the outbuildings. Altogether a very interesting morning!

The curious item over Wiley's head is called a "Swing Dingle" and it was used for carrying buckets of water. I noted that the opening for the neck is quite small, so I suspect this was a job for a young child. I find the name quite amusing!















We had lunch at a Chinese buffet and then headed for Merryspring Nature Center, which has a botanic garden, trails through a meadow and a small arboretum. It was very hot, so we didn't spend as much time there as I would have liked. Even so, we saw many beautiful wildflowers. (If any of you can identify some of them, I'd love to know what they are. I think the pink one is some sort of sweet pea, and the odd white fellow is what we called indian pipe when I was a kid. The lavender bell-shaped flowers are everywhere right now.)

We want to go back on a cooler day and walk more of the trails, especially in the arboretum. Apparently they maintain a group of American chestnut trees, which don't reach full maturity due to a blight, but which they want to maintain so that if they ever cure the blight they'll have a source for genetically pure seeds.




After dinner there was a rain shower, and we decided to take a walk in it to cool us down. We chatted along the way with some of the other campers who had the same idea. I think Wiley and Monkey found a great way to end the day! I call this shot "Do Not Disturb"!