Judy P's Tickle Trunk

We’re heading south in search of heat. Or sunshine at the least. Our first stop was Stockton Springs, Maine, to overnight with friends. No, we didn’t go by train but I did spend some time on the tracks.

Back when I used to have real knees, I would always get up and go for a run before breakfast when I was in a new town. It was the best way to get a sense of the place, in the early morning quiet (that was before retirement when chances were, if I were travelling, it would be on a weekend day). This day I got up and went for a walk along the tracks at the bottom of our host’s property.

The morning started out quite cool and there was still snow about from the storm a couple of days earlier. But there was some warmth in the sun and it wasn’t long before I opened my coat.

Although they assured me that there would be no train I did frequent shoulder checks. Being run over would surely ruin my spring vacation. I haven’t walked on railway tracks in years. I think the last time was when I was seven or eight when we used to walk to the public swimming pool in Lewisporte along the railway tracks. There were plenty of active trains back then but no one ever told us to stay away. I suppose had we been deaf they might have discouraged us but it was a convenient route and shorter than taking the main road. I guess they thought you’d have to be pretty stunned to let yourself get run over by a train.

Anyhow, there was plenty to see. To one side was a panoramic view of where the Penobscot River opens into the bay.

I looked up. The bare trees looked a little eerie in the morning light except for this one; I anthropomorphized that it was a mother tree, wiping a speck of dirt off the face of a resistant child tree with the tip of a branch she had just licked.

I looked down. And discovered that the metal plates holding the spikes were dated. This area of track had been repaired in 1930, 1945 and 1984. There’s a heck of a lot of iron in a railway, I decided. Wonder if any of this came from Cape Breton.

I looked across. This house looked lovely but very shy peeking out over the bank.

I didn’t go far. I poked around in a few yards, admired some very chatty crows and got excited about a cardinal. By the time I got back there was fresh coffee and the day was warming up nicely. More on country living in Stockton Springs next time.

© Judy Parsons 2014 Click on any picture for a larger view.