The search for america’s small, hidden and bizarre festivals
Contra Dance--Belfast, Maine launch slideshow
Yankee Hospitality
When it comes to hospitality, those of us from the South don’t like to think we can be beat. Certainly not by the steel-hearted northern Yanks. But after a week in Maine, it’s hard to hold much belief in that stereotype. Cold and soggy applies only to the ground up here. Our gracious hosts in Camden, Tenants Harbor, and York opened their doors and hearts to AFP in a major way. We are so incredibly grateful!
With the help of couchsurfing.com we discovered our long lost mom and dad, Paul Cartwright and Susan Shaw. We had a hunch that Paul and Susan were going to be cool, but we never anticipated developing such a friendship so quickly. Ross was immediately in awe when he saw Paul’s built-from-scratch recumbent unicycle. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Paul builds boats, houses, docks, igloos, and can rig up just about anything you can think of. Check out the swing in the living room and the junk mail chute in the kitchen. The backyard was covered in about 3 feet of snow so the pictures on the fridge had to suffice for seeing Susan’s garden but she gave us a demo of how she hybridizes daylillies. Think Darwin meets Thomas Jefferson in this household. Darwin also doubles as a massage specialist. Everyday we learned something new about this incredible duo.
paul and susan from Ross McDermott on Vimeo.
The hardest thing to learn was that Paul is in way better shape than us. We just about puked running up Mt. Battie trying to keep up with Paul. But we did catch an amazing sunset and moonrise on our last night. However, the coup de grace may have been sledding back down into Camden under the glowing light of the full moon on what can only be described as a road turned awesome luge course. At the bottom is where we made our infamous contact page photo.
As we mentioned in our last post, Alison and Adam from National Geographic “Wild Chronicles” made the trek up to Camden to film a short piece on AFP that will air on PBS sometime this fall. Be prepared for some serious “documentary” work…”arriving” in Camden, “meeting” Paul and Susan for the first time (this was hilarious!), and of course interviews about tobogganing and couchsurfing. Paul and Susan had no idea their post on couchsurfing.com would lead to TV stardom. We’re thrilled about the love National Geographic is showing us with grant money and the Wild Chronicles piece (oh yeah, and the bowls of chowder too).
The incredible hospitality continued south of Camden in Tenants Harbor, when our new-found friend from the Contra Dance, Hannah Wheeler put us up for a couple nights. With a house right on the coast, this West Virginia girl is getting pretty comfortable living the Maine lifestyle. The lobstermen at the lunch counter are a bit salty but she seems to hold her ground pretty well. The sheer beauty of the Maine coastline just can’t be beat and we were able to take in some special moments. We also got some good advice from the gentleman towing the Dodge Lodge out of a nasty ditch, “You boys enjoy your continued tour of the coast of Maine. Next time, keep your truck on the road.”
Our last stop in the Vacation State took us to York, Maine and the world headquarters for Grain Surfboards (total number of employees…6). Owners Mike and Brad gave us a tour of the shop and the process for making some of the most beautiful wooden surfboards around. Which led us of course to ask the obvious question you’re all asking yourself, what are people in Maine doing making surfboards? Apparently, they surf here. Even in winter. We had hoped to photograph some winter surfing but the tides weren’t cooperating. Nevertheless we are super appreciative for the guys at Grain who offered us some great conversation, an overnight parking space, and the sweet decal to bejewel the camper.
This is all to say that Maine was extraordinary and the people we met were awesome. Competitive toboganning is now something we can cross off our list of life goals. We hope to make it back in summer when the blueberries are plump and the ladies are as red as the lobsters.
Waltzing into Maine
Adventures in Maine from Ross McDermott on Vimeo.
No one said navigating the Dodge Lodge through ice and snow would be easy. In fact, we had to get towed out…twice. Virginians just aren’t cut out for driving on frozen lakes. But when it comes to dancing, state lines no longer matter. See Ross’s latest video for some of our driving and contra dancing adventures in Maine.