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Monday, October 4, 2004

Upon crossing the New Hampshire border I find myself praying the repeating scenery will take leave of me.

And indeed, my prayer is answered, the scenery does turn more interesting. Countryside is replaced with forested mountains and the little towns are a less frequent occurrence. The evening is soon upon me so I pull over to take the day's parting shots. This is a nice view (and it turns out, my only pictorial view) of New Hampshire.

Each of the three rows above are contiguous panoramas. I'm surprised how poorly the camera handles the subtle changes in light as I swing my camera from left to right. The changes from red tones to green tones are not only striking, they are rather disappointing as well. But believe me, the panoramic views were spectacular, regardless of what my pictures portray.

I drive through the rest of New Hampshire and almost across the entire State of Maine in total darkness. Well, of course my headlights are on, but all photo opportunities are a done-deal. And that is too bad. Based on the large elevation changes indicated on my GPS navigation during the drive, the scenery would have proven to be interesting in the least. But that's part of the problem with long distance driving, if you don't get an early start, the tail-end of the trip is likely to get gypped in the picture taking category.

I overnight near Acadia National Park, at Ellsworth, ME. I want to stay at another Walmart but don't have a clue where the closest one is (in retrospect there was one just 3 miles down the road from where I parked) so I hunt around for a good parking spot on the street. Weary of getting caught again van camping by the police, I look in vain for a street that's filled with parked cars. But to no avail, I end up parking on a car-free street, at the end of a wide lot, away from the property owner's house. Certainly I will be safe, especially if I leave early in the morning before anyone is up and about.

So after parking I settle in for the night. Tomorrow I look forward to seeing what Acadia National Park has to offer, having heard so many great things about it from a number of my friends.