Plus One : New Hampshire

To those of us who live in Maine, New Hampshire is our neighbor to the immediate west. As a matter of fact, New Hampshire is the only state that Maine shares a border with. I have only been in New Hampshire one time and that was a quick pass through the S.E. corner of the state on my way to Maine. I do know, however, that it's a beautiful place with lots of  year-round outdoors activities, ranging from fishing and camping in the summer to skiing and snowboarding in the winter. A quick look at the New Hampshire Travel Guide provides us with many options of things to do in the state. Navigate your way through the guide to discover what might be of interest to you.

Colorado Chronicles : Royal Gorge

Royal Gorge is one of the coolest places I have seen in Colorado. Take a look at these images and you'll see what I mean. The suspension bridge at Royal Gorge was at one time the highest suspension bridge in the world at 1053 feet above the Arkansas River. When I visited there many years ago, there was actually a sign that read "No Fishing From Bridge" ! I. Am. Not. Kidding. One of the neat things about Royal Gorge Park is the abundance of deer that are quite used to human contact, and I had a photo of me feeding a deer from a McDonald's cup that I held in my hand. Talk about a marketing opportunity ! I lost the picture. Oh well. I know many of my friends in Texas visit Colorado on a regular basis and I highly recommend Royal Gorge (take Canon City Exit off I-25) as a stopping point. The grandkids would love and you would, too.

Maine Minutiae : Calais

Calais is city of about 4000 in Washington County, located in the easternmost part of Maine. I have driven through Calais on several occasions, but never have spent significant time there. I can, however, tell you that Calais (pronouned kal-us, not kal-ay, as one would expect) is a neat little place on the banks of the St. Croix River across from the Canadian Province of New Brunswick. In 2009, the city celebrated its BiCentennial, though there have been permanent residents of the area since the 1600's. Calais is also home to the lighthouse at Whitlock's Mill. The Family and I will be headed to Calais during the 4th of July festivities being held at near-by Eastport, my wife's hometown.

Texas Tidbits : World's Richest Acre

I thought that with all the recent bad news about the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, I'd post an oil story with a slightly better ending. On October 3, 1930 a guy named "Dad" tapped in to what was then the biggest pocket of oil in the world. It was located smack dab in the middle of Kilgore in East Texas. Thus, The World's Richest Acre was born. Soon Kilgore sported nearly as many oil derricks as people. Today there are still replicas of those 1930's derricks in downtown Kilgore. I have seen them and it's a weird sight to behold seeing all that oil field equipment in the middle of town. Kilgore is also home to the East Texas Oil Museum which has received visitors from over 120 countries.

Colorado Chronicles : 50 Things You Didn't Know (Or Maybe You Did)

Before moving to Maine four years ago, I was living in Colorado. Central City to be exact. 8600 feet above sea level at my house. Lotsa casinos. Old Mining town. You probably didn't know most of things about Central City. Did you know Doc Holliday died in Colorado? Or that Denver once turned down a chance to host the Olympics? Those and 48 other things you may or may not know about The Centennial State are on this list. Amaze your friends and win bar bets with your near-encyclopedic knowledge of  completely useless, but darn cute, trivia about Colorado.

Maine Minuatie : Whales

Whales. Whales? In Maine? You better believe it, Orca Breath. There are about 85 species of whales and at least six of them can be seen in The Pine Tree State on a regular basis. You can do some great whale-watching along the coast of Maine, and there are thousands of miles of coastline in the state, and they are a ton of businesses that offer whale-watching trips. My family and I haven't done it yet, but checking out the largest mammals in the world in the Gulf of Maine this summer is definitely on the Shoemaker Family Summer Tour '10 agenda.

Texas Tidbits : Armadillos : Hillbilly Speed Bumps

Many things come to mind at the mention of the word "Texas"...Cowboys, Longhorns, oil, to mention a few. Another one is the armadillo. The armadillo has immortalized in print, folklore, TV commercials and even song (see "London Homesick Blues"). I know all my friends in Texas have seen an armadillo at one time or another. Most likely as a "hillbilly speed bump", or roadkill, laying on its back, arms out-stretched possibly with a longneck beer bottle in its grasp. There is even a Armadillo World Headquarters  in Austin ! So the next time you see an armadillo (Spanish for "little armored one"), grab a Lone Star Longneck and crank up some "London Homesick Blues" (I wanna go home with the armadillaaaaaaaaa") and salute our little 9-banded friend, the armadillo.