More of Presque Isle - Aug 14, 2008 -

To round out my day, I found the site of the first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight just south of the city of Presque Isle. Three men started here and ended in France, flying from August 11 – 17, 1978. Now, the city celebrates by having a hot air balloon festival yearly. I will miss it, as it is this coming weekend, when I will be in the middle of Maine. There will be less than 30 balloons, so I’ve seen bigger, anyway. It’s a good thing though!

Just down the road from there was a letterbox hidden at a one-room schoolhouse. It is pretty big for a one-room school! They open it on weekends for tours and history lessons.

I visited the town park around suppertime, looking for a series of 8 letterboxes that illustrate the important features of Aroostook County, but I only found the first one. The second goes from there, but the narrow trail in the woods was impossible to follow due to downed trees all over the place. I tried to get through it, but I couldn’t see the trail after the first group of trees and there were no markings. Each stamp depended upon finding the one before, so I had to give up. The first stamp is in the shape of the county. I bet other stamps are replicas of a moose, a bear, a buck, a tree (or woods), a loon, a potato, and a fish. I even tried doing it backwards, but it ended at the big open park and I couldn’t tell which trail one would have come out of at the end.

When I got back to the campground, it was good to see I had full bars on the phone and that it was not "roaming" so it wouldn't cost me extra to make calls. I called Mom and we talked for about half an hour. It's so nice to touch base with loved ones while "drivin' da country"!