This is my 85th and final daily blog for my trip around most of the United States. Paraphrasing JK Rowling’s dedication of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, I credit you, my blog followers, if you have stuck with me until the very end. This exercise gave me something to look forward to every night- and helped me to see the bigger picture and themes.
I had three good stops today on my way back from Acadia. The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens on Booth Bay is the only such gardens in the state – Maine’s climate isn’t the best for flowers. It’s a beautiful place to walk around. The Children’s Garden features props and plants for many picture books written by Maine authors, such as “Blueberries for Sal” by Robert McCloskey of “Make Way for Ducklings” fame. And read the story in one of my pictures on how this place came to be. A group of nature lovers planned it for years, found the right land, put up all their own houses as collateral and built it. It seems their faith has paid off – there were over 100 cars in the parking lot on a Monday morning.
The Maine Maritime Museum in Bath consists of most of the actual buildings from the Percy and Small Shipyard at the time Bath was one of the leading builders of wooden sailboats and schooners in the world 100 plus years ago. There were many other nautical exhibits, on lobster fishing, lighthouses and American sea trade with the Caribbean islands. Then we took a cruise on the wide Kennebec River, seeing where it flows toward the Atlantic Ocean, a couple of lighthouses that are still shedding light and the Bath Iron Works that is still building destroyers for the US Navy.
A couple of weeks ago Daniel got us free tickets for a program at 7:00 tonight
at Boston’s PBS television WGBH on an upcoming 6 hour series next month on the 50th annivety of the first moon landing. They showed a few historical clips – President Kennedy inspecting the Saturn rocket with Werner Von Braun and the next day making his famous “We go to the moon” speech; also emotional footage of Frank Borman’s wife and other astronauts’ wives and children nervously watching the TV coverage of Apollo 8, the first time in history men left the earth’s atmosphere.
I am glad I got to see the familiar skyline of my hometown Boston as I dashed in from Maine to make this program. I have spent the last 12 weeks exploring this amazing country. All the work and innovation required to travel to the moon is one of the most amazing things our country has ever done. My fervent hope is that the United States of America still has some amazing thing still ahead of it!
Mark Seliber – Natick Massachusetts – 3 June 2019
I have two good coming home songs.
“Home At Last” by Steely Dan. I didn’t fight in the Trojan War or take 20 years to get back, but I did have a hell of an Odyssey.
“Home Again” from Tapestry. I could argue that Carole King is up there with Irving Berlin, Richard Rogers and Paul McCartney as the greatest pop melody writers of the 20th century. This is a simple yet beautiful song. “Now I’m home again and feeling right”.
The panel at WGBH 
Model of the “Wyoming”, built in Bath – the largest wooden ship ever built 
The Kennebec River heading to the Atlantic Ocean 
A small operating lighthouse on an island in the Kennebec River 
The Children’s Garden in Booth Bay 
The mans 
Mark's cross-country trip 