We've been traveling since March 3, logging in 13 states in 20 weeks. We've reached 6,200 miles on our tripometer, which was set to 0 when we left Orlando. Amazingly, our blog views have roughly accumulated at 1 per mile; we have 6,126 blog views as of today! So far in our travels, our constant goal has been to drive North. Now, we've reached the Northern terminus of our trip, and we've turned the van Southward. Bar Harbor, Maine, was as far North as we decided to go. It seems odd now to be heading back South, turning our eyes and minds towards the western portion of this country. Of course, we still have many stops in New England and New York before we return to Pittsburgh, which we approximate will be in about a month. Though this is the end of our Northward trek, we still have the preparation for and actual experience of our wedding, which doesn't seem like it can possibly be so soon, then we have our Westward trek, which will be a new adventure entirely. 

In our travels, we've gained a completely new perspective of America. We have seen so much, but we've also skipped over a lot. At first, seeing the whole country in a year seemed like a reasonable goal. Now, we realize we could have spent an entire year just exploring the Eastern Seaboard. It seems impossible that we've seen so much in just 13 states over the past 4 1/2 months. For so long, all I wanted to do was travel in Europe; I'm so glad we took the time to explore what was in our own backyard first. America has some wonderful things to offer. 

Leaving Maine, which for so long was our ultimate Northern destination, felt like an appropriate time to step back and look at where we've been these past 6,200 miles. Maine was especially good to us, and driving out of Maine wasn't an exception. We stopped for lots of photos, trying to capture scenes that encapsulated our Maine experience. 

We were spoiled with so many of these fantastic views! 

This sign on Ellsworth's Main Street might have went a little far with using New England dialect! (Translation: Oh yeah, you bet we have summer candy, chocolate, Needhams taffy, and lobster too.) 

We've passed an astounding number of antiques stores and markets, and have stopped at our fair share. We loved all the vintage signs on this shop. 

If there are two things New Englanders love in the summer, it's their lobster and their ice cream, both of which are located on every corner. It amazes me that New England has more ice cream shops than Florida ever could have dreamed of. Lobster is also everywhere, especially at this time of year in Maine, when it is in season and sells for about $4.00 per pound, cheaper than buying hamburger! 

We've been charmed by the character of so many small coastal towns, where we've found gems like this old fishing boat. 

Driving through Maine and approaching New Hampshire, we had to stop for this amazing landscape. Views of rocky rivers like this one really are our all-time favorites. 

We took photos of the rocky river from this bridge. 

A fishing boat coming in with the day's catch. 

Get all your ducks in a row! The water was this astounding green color due to all the lush greenery along the river bank reflecting onto the water. 

This is the Androscoggin River Swinging Bridge. It was constructed in 1892, and is one of the few remaining active pedestrian swinging bridges. It is a Maine Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. 

The view of the Androscoggin River from the swinging bridge, which was a lot of fun to cross. They could've named it the bouncing bridge with the way it lurched and bounced around when people crossed over it.

Groundhogs are one of my favorite critters, and, after sitting quietly by the river for a while, we turned around to realize this little guy was happily eating just a few feet away from us. We got the camera out very slowly so we wouldn't scare him away. We've been lucky enough to see so many creatures on our Northern adventure this summer: groundhogs, bald eagles, ospreys, a seal, a moose, Northern Pike leaping out of the water, deer, fawns, and others. The North is still wonderfully wild and well worth seeing.

Again, we'd like to say we appreciate our readers; thanks for traveling North with us! 

After taking in the views from the Penobscot Narrows Bridge Observatory, we spent a few hours exploring Fort Knox. 

In the 1800's, Maine was involved in a number of border disputes with Canada, and officials felt a fortification was needed to protect this section of the Penobscot River from the possibility of a British invasion. Officials were especially interested in protecting the city of Bangor, which was rich in lumber used for shipbuilding. 

Fort Knox was constructed from 1844-1869. By the time the construction was completed, the technology and building techniques were nearly obsolete. For example, there were two batteries (sections of the fort equipped with cannons) facing the river. Each battery had a hot shot furnace, which heated cannonballs to a temperature hot enough to catch ships on fire. By the time the fort was complete, ships were no longer made of wood; they were constructed with iron, rendering the hot shot cannons useless. 

Fort Knox never saw battle, and was purchased by the state of Maine and turned into a National Historic Landmark. 

The fort has been very well-maintained and was unexpectedly fun to explore. There were endless tunnels, doorways, and rooms. This underground pathway led to Battery B, where cannons would have defended the river. 

Many of the dark corridors required a flashlight! 

These doors were made of incredibly thick wood and were covered in strengthening rivets. The entire fort was made of granite, making it the first fort in Maine to be constructed of something other than wood. All the granite, brick, and other materials used for building had to be brought to the site by water, and a complicated process including pulley systems, belts, and oxen was used to distribute construction materials around the fort. 

People were dwarfed by the size of the fort; it was massive. 

Fort Knox was constructed with multiple layers. Each layer was designed to be another obstacle for an attacking enemy to have to move through. 

A Rodman Cannon with a placard beside it detailing firing instructions. This cannon would have taken 8 men to load and fire it. 

A recreation of one of the gunpowder storage rooms located in the fort's interior. 

When we were done at the fort, we were surprised to find this incredible beetle on our van's window. His antennae were as long as one of my fingers! 

Often, we Nomads avoid historical attractions that charge an entrance fee to help ourselves stay on budget. Fort Knox and the Penobscot Narrows Observatory, though, were things we decided to pay to see. It cost $7/per person for both the Fort and the Observatory, which we felt was a great deal. We spent hours between the two things, and really enjoyed them. We wish more places were like this: reasonably priced to be accessible to everyone. Thank you, Fort Knox and Penobscot Observatory, for a great time! 

We stopped at a pull-off area to get some photos. From where we were, we could tell the bridge was big, but it suddenly dawned on us that we were viewing a truly massive structure when we saw how tiny this pick up truck was in comparison to a single wire. 

Crossing the bridge was a bit harrowing; it is quite long! 

Over the weekend, we got a chance to go back and visit the bridge's observatory tower, one of only four in the world. Of those four, this one, the Penobscot Narrows Bridge Observatory, is the tallest at 420 feet, or 42 stories, high. 

The bridge consists of 181 segments like this one. Each hollow segment weighs 300,000 pounds, and contains 70 cubic tons of concrete and 20,000 pounds of steel. 

The bridge included two of these towers. The observatory was located at the top of this one, where the glass windows were. 

From the base of the observatory tower were great views of the river and its banks. At one point, we saw something swimming and breaching the water frequently. We joked it looked like a seal or a walrus, but when Dave was able to take a photo and zoom in, we discovered our aquatic friend really was a seal! Unfortunately, our seal buddy was photo shy and hyperactive to boot, so we only had a fairly blurry whisker face picture and decided to save everyone an eye strain headache and left it off the blog. It's crazy to think Maine's Northern location and this river's proximity to the ocean allows critters like seals to live in it. 

When we got to the top of the observatory, which was reached by a super-fast elevator, we were welcomed by these stunning views of the Penobscot and the surrounding area. 

In this photo, you can see Fort Knox, which we visited right after the observatory. 

Looking straight down, it was really obvious how high up we were. The van looked so tiny. 

Especially on this beautiful sunny day, the views were incredible. 

A view of the rest of the bridge and the second tower, which does not contain an observatory. Here, you can see old pylons, which supported the previous Waldo-Hancock Bridge, constructed in 1931. In 2003, severe cable corrosion was discovered, and it was determined the bridge could not be saved. While the new Penobscot Narrows Bridge was being built, the old bridge was reinforced with 16 strengthening cables, a feat never before accomplished on a standing suspension bridge. Penobscot Narrows opened in 2006, and the observatory opened in 2007. 

Amazingly, the weight of the bridge and vehicles crossing it is supported by many of these tiny cords, made up of 1/5 inch thick pieces of steel, each of which can support 30 tons! This bridge was an admirable feat of engineering, and perhaps even more amazing, was conceived, planned, designed, permitted, constructed, and opened to visitors in only 42 months. 

The patterns this boat made in the water looked really neat from so far above. 

We spent last Sunday through this Friday at the Morgan Bay Zendo in Surry, Maine. Getting there was another instance of pure road magic. While at a public library in Augusta, I picked up a Maine Organic Farmer's Association newsletter and saw a mention of the Zendo. I found their website and learned they were having an upcoming Mediation and Gardening retreat, for which scholarships could be available. Feeling like we needed a bit of time to relax, I immediately emailed the contact for the retreat, Nancy. After several emails, it was decided Dave and I could spend the week in exchange for a few hours of work each day. 

In the end, there were not enough people signed up, so the Gardening and Mediation retreat itself did not take place, but the week took on its own shape and was turned into just the retreat we needed. 

To access the Zendo's grounds, you park in a gravel lot and walk down a 5-minute magical forest path. 

The path was lined with lots of moss. It was especially concentrated in the Moss Garden, which branches off the main path. 

The moss coupled with the stillness of the forest lent to its ethereal quality. 

The smaller cabin on the left was our home for the week. It was cozy and felt like the perfect fit. It was lovely to sleep with the screen door and windows open and listen to the frogs and watch the lightening bugs illuminate the inky black sky. 

On our first night in the cabin, we were awoken by an incredibly loud animal sound. We thought at first it could be a screech owl. It was prolonged and other-worldly sounding. All day we wondered what it could be. The second night, we heard the sound again. It was clearly being made by the same animal, though the call was slightly different. We got another clue when we heard the loud crunching sound of something moving across the ground and knocking one rock against another. We knew then we were not dealing with a screech owl; our mysterious night visitor was something much bigger. Eagerly the next morning, we looked up sound clips of moose calls, and were delighted to find that our creature was indeed a moose. A large bull moose. A dirt road ran behind our cabin, and we assumed the moose used that road as part of his evening stroll. He literally was right beside our window when he bellowed at us. We speculated he could smell us, and was sending out an alarm call, or perhaps he was just a talkative moose. Each consecutive night, we set up our voice recorder, hoping to catch our moose friend on tape. He never bellowed in the night again, and we'll never be sure whether he continued to walk by us, silently, in the night. We certainly feel overjoyed at being so close to such a majestic animal and being treated to hearing his calls. 

This was the common area at the Zendo, containing the kitchen, meeting hall, and bathrooms. It was wonderful having our own kitchen for a week. I loved being able to cook, and we enjoyed snacking on things like hummus and cheese, foods we can't have on the road with our lack of refrigeration. 

There was one other resident for the week: Peter. He had come to spend a week meditating, reading, and working on his poetry. A more perfect match-up never could have been planned. We got along famously with Peter, and enjoyed having dinner together each night in the meeting hall. Some evenings, we just chatted, but other nights after dinner, we pulled out our laptops and notebooks and held impromptu readings of our work and writing workshops. One night, Nancy joined us, and we workshopped part of a book she wanted to publish. It was so refreshing to be in a writing workshop again. They were certainly one of my favorite parts about college, and it was just perfect that Peter was at the Zendo during the same time as us. None of us minded that the Meditation and Gardening retreat was no longer happening; we turned the week into our own personalized writing retreat. 

Every morning, we met in the Zendo to meditate from 7:00 to 8:00, except for Sunday morning, when we meditated from 9:00 to 11:00. 

As one of our work projects, Dave and I cleaned the windows and scrubbed down this foyer area where shoes are removed before entering the Zendo. Before, we had thought the wood was plywood because of its dusty, light color. After washing it down, though, we discovered it was actually beautiful cedar wood. 

Inside, Dave and I pulled up all the tatami mats (the straw colored mats underneath the cushions) and vacuumed there, as well as the cushions and the tops of the mats. We also mopped the floor. 

While we weren't working or meditating, we had time to work on a lot of little side projects we hadn't had time for on the road. Dave spent a lot of time with sewing, and one of his accomplishments was this "Know What you Eat" patch on my jean jacket. 

One of the downfalls of this area was all the bugs. I apologized to Dave for making fun of his bug hat purchase; never have I been so grateful for something! 

Dave's initial project was to work on clearing the cattails out of the property's pond, which was rapidly growing in. 

Dave worked for three days on the cattails. They develop complex root systems, and thus were difficult to wrangle out. 

On day three, after Dave emerged from the muck with these buckshot looking bug bites on his front and back, we decided the pond was too much and requested different tasks. However, he did manage to make some progress, and helped the Zendo determine they need a professional dredging for the pond to survive. 

The upside to the pond was all the frog friends we made. 

I am tickled pink by the sound of bullfrogs. 

Before our mid-week evening meditation, we were treated to this flock of turkeys crossing in front of the Zendo. 

We had such a fantastic week, and feel refreshed after such a relaxing time. Thank you, Nancy, for having us, thank you Peter for sharing the week with us, and thank both of you for sharing your writing with us! It was a time we won't soon forget.