Kent Family Magic Circus Daily Blog: Maine and Plymouth Rock.

OK, there are a lot of pictures below to help get caught up on the blog. We have been at locations where I have either no time or no internet and so it goes.
We spent last week in Union, ME performing at the Union Fair and State Blueberry Festival. We have performed here a couple of times in the past (4 and 5 yeas ago). In fact, this is where we met and performed next to the Flying Wallendas those two years. This year we were the feature family act and set up our larger show. We rekindled old friendships and made new friends and had a wonderful time. With the exception of one day we had perfect weather. The one day I speak of had rain all night and we had a nice sprinkle through our second show that day. Amazingly the audience stayed and got wet with us. I mean there was over 100 people sitting on the grass and bleachers watching the show in a steady sprinkling. The rain ended five minutes before the show did.

After five days at the fair we relocated to an RV park and played tourist for two days before moving on to MA to play tourist there. We visited two light houses while in Maine and we had a clam bake as well as a day of Lobster. With lobsters averaging around $5/lb we each got our own full lobster without having to take out a second mortgage. The clams were likewise dirt cheap but very tasty. Since we have never worked with clams from the shell before I had to take a steamed one over to the vendor in front of our stage, they sell fried clams, ad ask what parts were edible. We got a quick lesson and then they gave us a free order of fried clams. You know I promoted them all week, I did! The popcorn vendor across from us likewise kept us in flavored popcorn all week. Blueberry Popcorn was the best. Mami got white chocolate flavored. While in Maine we also had a basket full of wild blueberries, and we also had blueberry pies. Mami also made home made clam chowder from the before mentioned clams.

On our date night Mami and I drove into Camden and walked around the harbor and checked out the shops and stores. We were only really just window shopping. There are a lot of artists out there. Since school had started most of the tourists are rich old folks wearing docker shoes, docker shorts, docker long sleeve cotton shirts with the shirt tails out and sleeves rolled up. The finished the out fit with cardigans on their shoulders and sunglasses on their faces. Seriously there were a gaggle of folks dressed just as I have described. I felt under dressed in Walmart shorts, white tennies, and a Berea T-shirt. Mami looked great in the summer dress(see pix below.)

In MA we have settled into an RV camp close to Boston and Plymouth. Today was Plymouth. Plymouth Rock is underwhelmingly small. Part of the reason it is small is that various folks have tried to move the rock from its location to the town square, one eventually got half of it there as it broke in half in transit. The other half remained at the original location. While in the town square various folks took parts off the rock to use as corner stones for their homes. Most of these folks were ancestors of the pilgrims and politicians. Sometimes a piece was given to a local hero. But before it all but vanished it the remaining part of the town square half was returned and cemented back to the other half and a portico was built over it. The remains (bones) of the early settlers which were found during various excavations and construction were kept in the top of the portico until a crypt was built for them on the center of the burial land (a picture of this is below). The area has a monument, statue, or dedication rock for one thing or another every ten feet. One is a rock with a plaque set in 1970 as the spot where native Americans come on Thanksgiving every year to lament the coming of the white man and his plaques and lies. The best monument is actuall about a mile from the rock up a hill a bit in a residential neighborhood. It is the Monument to the Founding Fathers . Kirk Cameron made a documentary about it called "Monumental". It is very Christian and very moving and very cool.

Juggling for Massasoit.

Handcuffed near the Mayflower II

Blueberries in Maine. They are smaller than the store bought ones. But tasty.

Everyone got to choose their own lobster. Try that in Cali.

The kids and fans. That is the Blueberry Queen in holding Tator-tot.

Balancing a chainsaw in ME....no it was off.

On the main drag in Plymouth we came across a funny sign for a beer made in our home area.

Balancing a 100lb log.

The queen tries to learn the Unicycle.

Though I choose not to take the tour on board I could not resist a selfie in front of the Mayflower II.

Maximus kills a fair patron.

Selfie again.

This musical artist played on the stage near ours. For a promo pix she got Jim to balance her guit-fiddle.

Balancing bear.

Jim near the portico that house Plymouth Rock.

Max meeting kids at the Fair. (Boy could these pix be any more out of order????)

Jim doing a selfie at Owl's head Light house.

Date night in Camden. Boats everywhere. Strangely the Atlantic doesn't seem to put a salty smell into the air like I have experienced in Cali. Perhaps the air flowing in from the Pacific and out here the wind was blowing out from the land to the sea. ?????

The Monument of the Forefathers. The statue is a lesson on the principals and values of our founding fathers for a successful and prosperous and peaceful society. Liberty, Law, Education, Morality.

Bug of the day. (Haven't done one of these for a while This caterpillar was taking a stroll on our cooler. Most fuzzy ones turn out to be moths. I will look up what kind later on.

This is the crypt I mentioned. It sits on a hill above the rock. The bones of the settlers found over the years buried around and on this hill were gathered and put in here.

Here is Plymouth Rock. Like I said, underwhelming. But it made live a little better for the pilgrims. They buoyed the Mayflower a way out from the rocky shore and took small boats in. This rock, at high tide stuck out over the edge of a small cliff and was a perfect stepping stone from the boat to the shore without getting wet. Since it was November, and cold it was certainly a blessing. Otherwise they might have had to jump in the cold shallows and pull the boat in.

Mami and the three small ones took the Mayflower tour. It was surprisingly smaller than they thought. 100+ folks crammed into this boat for a nasty voyage. A real refining fire of a trip.