WTAG-TV? I-86

[Mark Laurence]

When I first lived in Maine, the Airline was my favorite road trip.  
There was no electricity and no telephone for most of the route, and the 
weird non-names for towns (Entering Township 1 Range 7) added to the 
sense of complete isolation.  For about 45 miles there was only one 
outpost, a general store in Beddington, and when they got telephone 
service and electricity, it made the front page of the Globe.  For 
people today who panic when they lose cellphone service, that would be 
quite unsettling.

When you neared the eastern end, you'd be at the top of a hill 
overlooking Calais and St. Stephen and you'd start picking up Canadian 
radio stations, adding to the sense that you'd made a major journey.

Mark

vzeej5wn@myfairpoint.net wrote:
> The Airline is WAY better than it used to be in the days when it was 
> narrow, hilly, badly paved, and full of curves and dips.  It's been 
> considerably widened and straightened in recent years, and one can 
> actually get from Bangor to Calais in about two hours, maybe even a 
> little less.  That having been said, however, the road is still 
> treacherous in the winter and in fog.  There's a good bit of truck 
> traffic on it, and moose can pop out of the woods anytime.  When it's 
> nice out, it's a pretty drive.   -Doug
>
>
>
> Quoting Kevin Vahey <kvahey@comcast.net>:
>> I was in Calias one night and the locals flat out told me I was not
>> driving 'The Airline' that night because of fog and we wound up in St
>> Stephen for the evening.
>> That road is no picnic in sunshine either.
>>
>>
>> On 11/25/09, vzeej5wn@myfairpoint.net <vzeej5wn@myfairpoint.net> wrote:
>> > You can say that again.  The idea seems to have been, "Let's lay out a
>> > route from Portland to Calais and make it as convoluted as possible."
>> >
>> > Even more confusing is the numbered highway layout on the Blue Hill
>> > peninsula, on the east side of Penobscot Bay.  Look at it on a map,
>> > check out the three-digit route numbers, and see if you can figure it
>> > out.  It's at least as entertaining as "Where's Waldo?".    -Doug
>> >
>> >
>> > Quoting Kevin Vahey <kvahey@comcast.net>:
>> >> I think you can count the number of people in Maine that call the 
>> road
>> >> between Bangor-Calias as Route 9 on one hand. It is 'The Airline'
>> >>
>> >> Maine SR 9 has to be the strangest road in the US. No matter where 
>> you
>> >> go in Maine it seems to appear :)
>> >>
>> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_State_Route_9
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
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