My sister and brother-in-law have been trying to get me to try collecting stamps at National Park Service sites for a couple of years now. I finally decided to give it a try and started getting stamps about a year ago. It's turned out to be quite the obsession. I purchased one of the big books as I figured I might get into it enough to justify being able to add pages to my passport book.
In support of that obsession, I decided to go Maine to collect some stamps from that corner of the country to go along with the ones I got last year from Alaska and the ones I got in Florida in March of this year and lots of states in in-between places.
Back to the Maine trip. I squeezed a week into my schedule between work calls over the Memorial Day weekend. And naturally, my route was predicated by being able to collect NPS passport stamps along the way.
I started off by going through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I've been by some of the visitor centers dozens of times, but have never stopped. This time I stopped at the Clingman's Dome Visitor Center (VC) and the Oconaluftee VC.
The Oconaluftee VC is just up the road from the Blue Ridge Parkway, and that was the next step in the plan. Riding up the BRP is always delightful, but this time I had a reason for stopping at each of the VCs along the way. All the way up the BRP I was able to collect unique stamps at all but two of the VCs...one because it didn't open at all on Thursday and the other because I was there an hour before it opened and I didn't feel like I had time to wait. I had to accept that there were some stamps that I wasn't going to be able to collect on this trip. And hey, keep your eyes on the prize...a stamp from Maine in Acadia National Park.
The next step was to continue on up through Shenandoah National Park and see how many of those stamps I could get as well. And just like the BRP, I got most of them, but not all. A campground wasn't open for the season yet and a VC had already closed when I got there. Sometimes you have to accept that you might need to make a second, third, or fifteenth trip to get some of the more elusive stamps.
Some of stops over the next few days were a few minutes and some were longer. I don't think there were any that I couldn't have spent more time. Eye on the prize though...to Maine and back in a week. A few hours at Harpers Ferry wasn't nearly enough...definitely need to go back. Next was a stop for the C&O canal in Brunswick, MD. You could spend a few days going to a series of VCs for the C&O. Still in MD was Catoctin Mountain Park.
Then it was into PA to visit Gettysburg. Cindy and I spent a full day there a few years ago, but I think I could go back and do it all again. This time I just bagged the stamps since I had been there previously. Then it was over to the Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site. I took the time to watch whatever videos were available at the VCs if it was a park I hadn't visited before, so that really slowed things down. But that's ok. I learn stuff at virtually every stop. Valley Forge was next on the list, and I need to go back. I think you could easily spend a day in that area. But eye on the prize.
Next stop was in Providence, RI where I visited the Roger Williams National Memorial. I didn't even know who Roger Williams was (other than a quasi contemporary singer). He was the guy that founded RI...made 5 trips back and forth from America to England and finally got the King to set Rhode Island aside as a separate colony.
Another stop that deserved more time and will get another trip was the New Bedford, MA Whaling National Historic Park. New Bedford was one of the richest towns in the world at one time based on the amount of whaling money that passed through.
A short stop at the Minute Man National Historic Park was just not enough. My appetite has been whetted for a much longer trip through this area. But Maine is calling.
And finally I was in Maine. I had been camping along the way several nights, but it was almost cold when I got to Maine. As it had been at home in Tennessee, it had been warmer earlier, but a cold front had passed through. I decided to motel camp just outside of Ellsworth north of Acadia National Park. I actually got to Ellsworth before dark, but I decided this was a good chance to get a good dinner and relax a bit. I was 4 days into the trip.
Day 5, Sunday, and I needed to be back home by Tuesday evening. So I got up early and made my rounds of Acadia. I did take time to take a few pictures and visited a lighthouse at the southern end of the island. But there is definitely more to see. Maine has only 2 NPS sites, and having visited Acadia now, I decided the other site, adding ~150 miles to the trip, would have to wait for another time. I had the ultimate prize, but now I had to get home.
Leaving Maine I made sure to stop at what they refer to as a lobster pound. Look it up if you're curious. It's a term applied to a specific type of restaurant in the area, and it seems to be specific to New England. Then it was over to near the NH/VT border. I stopped at another motel just outside of Hanover, NH, the home of Dartmouth College. That was a surprise to me. I've certainly heard of Dartmouth, but I had no idea where it was.
Getting up early the next day, I went by the Augustus Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. This guy was America's preeminent sculptor in his era, and he and/or some of his assistants designed a number of our coins (buffalo nickel, some of the gold coins, liberty dollar, etc.) Good stuff. He did a cool sculpture of Admiral Farragut which hit home...we have a community on the western edge of Knox County named after Farragut. I spent an hour here and could have easily spent much more. But I jumped back on the bike and headed over to the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park, the only NPS site in VT. I watched the 30 minute video and I'm glad I did. All three names associated with this place have made huge contributions to the environmental movement in the U.S. going back to the mid 1800s. Really good stuff.
A not so quick jump over to Saratoga National Historical Park, and this is another place that needs lots and lots more time. But time to get home. It was Monday and I needed to be home in 30 hours. I did make one more stop at the Martin Van Buren home in Kinderhook, NY where he retired after losing his bid for re-election as President. I mentioned Van Buren's nickname Old Kinderhook to someone after my return, something I remember from my history books, and some people had never heard that. Sad. Our education system just isn't consistent around the country.
I rode into the night and stopped near Sharpsburg, MD because I wanted to go by Antietam National Battlefield first thing on Tuesday. My GPS was telling me a straight shot home would have me back in Knoxville by around 4:00 p.m., but that didn't include any stops, of course. My short visit to Antietam DEFINITELY calls for a return visit.
Finally, a few miles down the road and just off the interstate came my last "park" stop of the trip at the Cedar Creek & Belle Grove National Historic Park near Middletown, VA. The volunteer at the desk told me I should watch the 15 minute video, and I figured I could handle that. After all, I didn't have to be back until 6:30 p.m. The video was longer than that, but it was worth it.
Now feeling the pull of home, I jumped on the bike and headed south with 7 1/2 hours to cover 425 miles. Piece of cake. A couple of gas stops, a few stretch breaks and I actually pulled into my driveway at 5:30 p.m. That gave me a few minutes to sit down briefly before I rode to work at one of the local theatres. I arrived with a good 12 minutes to spare. Not bad for a week long trip.
While in Vermont I stopped and purchased a sampler of different grades of maple syrup. I feel like this whole trip was not much more than a sampler as well. Now I need to plan a month to go back to the same places and really see what there is to see. Our park system has a variety of cool historical sites and some just plain old beautiful places that have needed preservation. I don't think I saw anywhere near all there was to see at any of my 19 park stops. I want more. I need more.
For now I'm getting my ducks in a row to make another little jaunt out to the Mojave National Preserve in California along with at least one "park" stop in each state that I pass through between here and there. I've only got a week, but I'll have a western sampler to go along with my NE sampler for this year. For next year I feel the call of the eastern Canadian provinces to go along with the western provinces that I visited last year. And I get to do all of this on two wheels. Very cool.
