So… that was a great weekend to get out of town, huh?
Granted, we had plans for over a year to attend a wedding on Oct. 11 in western Maine, and only after the Penn State football schedule came out did we know that we would, in fact, be missing a Penn State home football game. But being good Penn State football fans we gave our tickets to an old friend and PSU alum who lives north of New York City and would use them to take his kids to their first Nittany Lions game.
Now, we can all discuss the relative merits of people who schedule weddings on fall weekends – my wife and I got married on Aug. 9, well before football season started – but, luckily, Penn State was given a game against Northwestern this season on Oct. 11, which we assumed would be an easy win.
Then Penn State chose to make it Homecoming, which made us feel a bit more conflicted, but again, the tickets were being put to good use. And since we live here it was much more of a “Homecoming” for our alumni friend than for us.
So, we happily trudged off to the Pine Tree State last Thursday, secure in our decision and comfortable in the knowledge that Northwestern would be the panacea for what ailed the football team. Well, weren’t we wrong.
First, I should note that we drove to Maine because traveling there from Happy Valley can be difficult otherwise. Flights from State College to Philly, with a connection to Boston, and a rental car and three-hour drive from there made the total time almost equal to our drive. Plus, the potential weather changes required us to pack an entire summer-to-winter wardrobe (the wedding service was outside) that meant schlepping and checking full-size suitcases.
Taking the train would have meant leaving our car in Lewistown for several days and taking two days to get home since The Pennsylvanian only makes one trip a day. Plus, again, a rental car from either White River Junction, Boston or Portland. Which made the entire trip both ways several hours longer than a drive. Or we could have driven to Harrisburg and gotten a little more flexibility on trains, but still spent several hours more traveling than by car.
And so it became clear that we would put 1,000 miles on the Honda Pilot over this extended weekend.
We did, however, take the scenic route and add an hour to our travel time each way rather than use the interstates. As anyone with driving experience knows, the quickest route from here to Maine involves the following interstate highways: 80, 81, 84, 290, 495 and 95. Through some very populated areas. The interstates in Pennsylvania are generally fine, but once you hit New York state, traffic volume always picks up and even though the map may start out saying nine hours travel time, it’s not uncommon to end up in traffic jams that add as much time as you saved from the scenic route.
So, we drove directly to upstate New York, and across and through Vermont and New Hampshire. Sometimes on four-lane highways, but mostly on two-lane roads.
The only issue with this scenic route is it makes pit stops for you-know-what a little more interesting. There are no Sheetz (we didn’t see one after we left town), not to mention no highway “Rest Areas,” and there are fewer other options beyond local businesses in many of these small towns.
So, when you are looking for known-quantity fast food places for both sustenance and relief, they are few and far between. In fact, on the drive to Maine, once we left New York state, we saw only two brand-name fast food places – a McDonald’s in White River Junction, Vermont, and one in Lincoln, New Hampshire.
A side note: According to the internet, Vermont has only 27 McDonald’s in the entire state, and Montpelier is the only U.S. state capital without one. Although, with a population of 648,000, that is one McDonald’s for every 24,000 residents – which is consistent with the average in the entire country of one for every 24,900 residents (340 million people and 13,658 McDonald’s). Dunkin’ stores, however, were seemingly everywhere!
Another interesting feature about driving in Vermont is that if you do spend time on the interstate highways there, Vermont has apparently not gotten the memo that it’s nice to have signs before the exits that tell travelers the names of the food and lodging places available there.
Everywhere else we drive on interstate highways we know as we approach an exit that there’s a Hampton Inn there, or a Subway, or a Cracker Barrel. In Vermont you just get a generic symbol for a bed to signify a hotel, or knife and fork to signify eating places, only to find when you exit it’s a small barbecue shack with no public restrooms.
One last thing we discovered on our picturesque drive northeast to Maine was that leaf-peeping is apparently a big thing. A HUGE thing actually. Small towns like Lincoln and Conway, New Hampshire, had more traffic than downtown State College on a football weekend. And the two-lane roads we drove for hours always had plenty of traffic on them. Though, I will mention this to anyone who might be considering going this year: We overheard a local saying that the fall foliage this year was the worst they’ve had in decades.
Then when we finally arrived at our destination – Highland Lake Resort in Bridgton, Maine – we were pleasantly surprised. It was the “official” hotel for the wedding guests, and as with most accommodations in backwoods Maine it was not a chain (no Hilton Honors points!), but we had done some investigating online and it looked very comfortable.
You should know, however, that the word “resort” here is a bit of a misnomer in today’s language. The property has about 30 rooms spread out over three buildings that would probably be more commonly described as a “motor lodge.” Sitting on a few acres along Highland Lake, it offers all the amenities you would expect a lake resort to have – boat docks, canoes, kayaks, pedal boats and fishing gear – as well as many games and playrooms.
But, to the “motor lodge” description, each room has a door to the outside and a porch with chairs and table, plus parking right by your door. In any case, it was very quaint and completely self-sufficient with a café and small snack bar if you didn’t want to go anywhere else.
But the one thing that set it wonderfully apart for my wife and me – and which became words of wisdom as the weekend progressed and Penn State football’s tale unfolded – were the transcendent writings that were located all around the resort.
The owner had taken the time to have spiritually-oriented signs all around the property and painted wonderful sayings on lots of the walls – in the rooms, the common areas and the café.
My wife, being someone who really leans into the spiritual aspects of life, was thrilled as we walked around the property and read the signs. One about children and how their awe and wonder awaken us to life’s joys. One about trees and how they teach us to dig deep and stay grounded. One about the earth’s bounty and how the soil, rain, plants and animals nourish us.
And one that she especially appreciated was offering gratitude for the Divine Feminine. The “countless women throughout history whose love, strength and compassion have shaped humanity.” Even better was that this particular sign had its own little garden space and bench set aside for contemplating the divine feminine. It was a perfect place to stay while visiting to celebrate a wedding.
As Saturday went on – the wedding started at 4 p.m. – some of the attendees would pass along news of the Penn State game. After the wedding festivities that night we went back to the resort and were greeted by these signs reminding us that there are bigger things at play in the world and that it was OK.
The next morning as we sat eating breakfast in the café, a quote painted on the wall behind us reminded us, “All things break. And all things can be mended.” Words that became even more prescient as the day went on.
As the news about Coach Franklin broke, having had a son who lost two head football coaches during his college playing career, we felt for the players and that quote in the café again was present in our minds.
As I said, we picked a great weekend to get out of town, huh?
