Maine point

I took a drive up to the Knox/Waldo counties of Maine today. For anyone reading this unfamiliar with Maine, this is the beautiful area northeast of Augusta on the route to Belfast and the coast. I am always struck by the beauty of central Maine when I haven't been there for a while.

Another thing I'm struck by is how most of Maine, once you get off the interstate or away from the touristy south coast, is in many ways untouched by time.

Unity, home to a college and the popular Common Ground Fair, has one little block of recently built town offices and business -- and that's it.

Thorndike is there on the map, and people apparently live there, but what used to be its down center is a grouping of boarded-up, falling down clapboard buildings.

In between Augusta and Belfast, a distance of some 40-odd miles, there are no box stores, no Rite-Aids, not even a large grocery store.

Belfast and Augusta have both grown a little over the past couple decades, but not much if measured by the standards of the rest of New England.
One thing that struck me about Maine -- prosperity has never, ever touched it. Not when times are good, and certainly not when times are bad.
I don't think I really have a point to make here about anything. Just an observation -- Maine is still the least known and understood state in New England.