OK, I don't know anyone here in Bangor, but what's wrong with taking a little detour just for me? I have always been so interested in this place. When I used to work for ING, I would take any free moments in my stupid cubicle searching Realtor.com for cool little towns I could escape to and Bangor was high on my list. After reading On Writing, by Stephen King, and hearing his stories about Bangor, I was intrigued. From that moment on, I knew I had to visit.
Bangor actually exceeds all of the crazy expectations I had for it. I am amazed how almost every house and business is circa 1930 or older. They don't have the one "cute" part of town with strategically placed banners and farmer's markets that everyone visits on Sundays to buy their tomatoes. No, all of Bangor is cute. Well, parts of it are pretty f'd up like everyplace else, but it all takes such a lovely photograph. The city itself is highly liberal. All politics aside, liberal cities are just a lot funner to live in. The art community is alive and thriving here. The downtown area is filled with posters about fun community events, like free movie festivals in the park, CD release parties, art festivals and auctions, and overall fun, cheap and interesting things to do. The cost of living in Bangor is very reasonable. Besides the killer winters, year-round rain and completely awful roads, this is the most appealing place I have seen in quite a long time. I want to live here. It is such a hip and interesting little place without being full of itself. Also, the local economy isn't post-apocalyptic like a lot of other places in the country at the moment.
I have been sick for the past few days and I have not been in the greatest of moods. I mentioned how annoyed I was watching all of those happy people doing happy outdoorsy things on the drive over. I was not one of the happy people, and naturally I wanted all of them to fall off their bicycles and tip their little kayaks over. I was feverish and my nose was running like a faucet and my nose was raw. I literally had to stuff tissues into my nostrils because I couldn't drive with the drama happening in my sinuses. I was a complete scary, ugly mess, and the bumpy roads just made everything worse. While I was fantasizing about shaking my fist at the happy people in my state of crazy old-man passion, George actually got car sick. Poor baby. It is the first and only time he has ever gotten car sick. I was pretty done with the whole allergy/anti-depressant commercial happening all around me too, but I didn't take it to the level George did. I told you he was a drama queen.
The people walking around downtown Bangor all looked so happy as well. The blue sky, and sunshine and adorable Norman Rockwell setting really made me think I might be in the Twilight Zone. Yesterday I heard someone say how nice it was to have the good weather...two sunny days, wow! Since we were on the second day of perfect weather, I tried to clarify...so when were the last sunny days? The woman looked at me like I was an idiot and told me the two days of sunshine were the only sunny days all year. No wonder everyone was so happy. I had some time to rest and I feel a lot better now. I am sad to be headed out of here tomorrow. I sort of want to apply for a job and stay a few months.
I had a great day today exploring Bangor on foot with my camera and visiting the museum, which is free every day in 2009. This place has so much charm and charactor, it almost isn't fair to other cities. It has a way of drawing interesting people. Most people are locals, but a fair amount found themselves here. When I asked Daphne, the woman who works at the hotel front desk, what brought her to Bangor she gave a polite answer that didn't really answer the question. With a little more prodding, she told me she and her husband wanted to move to New England and they threw darts at a map, and that brought them to Bangor.
There are a lot of interesting people here, interesting in a good way and interesting in the not-good way. To me, interesting is so much better than boring, that I will take a bit of the bad-interesting to get to the good stuff. I had a strange night at the bar the other night. I wanted to get some food to take to my room, but it was Sunday night, so everything was closed. The only place I could find that was still serving food was a bar where I had quite a lively night drinking shots with Stephen King's former "wrong crowd" friends from the early 1970s that claimed to have done various drugs with Stephen when he first got married and was student teaching. Those were pretty interesting stories, but I made sure to avoid that pub for the rest of my stay in Bangor. It didn't really help me with the whole, sensation overload thing. Oh, and the beautiful girl who was hitting on me all night at that pub didn't help with the whole mind overwhelm thing either. I was flattered, I was just too overwhelmed to comprehend the rednecks who were telling me horrifying Stephen King stories on one side of my barstool, and the beautiful girl trying to pick me up on the other side of my bar stool. Too much going on there....I was truly dumbfounded. I really felt like the Universe was playing a big trick on me.
I am off to New Hampshire to see my friend Matt, then Massachusetts to see Steve and then to New York to see another Mat, but with one "t". Then upstate New York then Connecticut. I am having serious challenges with organizing all of these people and appointments and documenting and planning where to stay, and keeping George happy and comfortable. I am always worried I am going to run out of money before I can finish. It is so hard to ask people for help with finding places to stay. For this portion of the trip, (with the exception of the one person I knew in NY who I had the awful falling out with), most of the people on the east coast are people I haven't seen in so long that it just seems weird to ask to spend the night, especially with a cat. So much worry! So much rejection! So much drama! So little stability and no predictability. It kind of got to me a few days ago, but I am rested and feeling better and ready for to dive back into my journey. My God.... I didn't know what I was in for. I knew I wouldn't know, but I didn't know it would be like this. I know this sounds a bit corny, but it really helps to see the "followers" (thank you #19, whoever became a follower today) and it helps a lot to see the comments from everyone. I really appreciate the support. It is a bit of a lonely experience, and really appreciate everyone that has reached out to me. Thank you!
