Buzzy World Tour--Maine Adventure
31 August, 2003-Windsor Fair

Moxie and Buzzy in front of the sign. The sign points either left or right and lists towns in Maine named for countries and the distance from South China to that town.

From top to bottom, the towns and distances are:
China, 7 mi.
Poland, 56 mi.
Peru, 58 mi.
Norway, 63 mi.
Mexico, 69 mi.
Egypt, 73 mi.
Sweden, 79 mi.
Denmark, 95 mi.
Lebanon, 114 mi.
Sweden, 232 mi.--Yes, Sweden is listed twice, because we have two of them in Maine. The US Postal Service loves us for this! I have no idea who or why the one in western Maine was named that except that nearby towns include Norway and Denmark. The one in northern Maine is actually called New Sweden and was settled by folks from that country.

At the fair, we walked around briefly, scouting out the best food deals (yeah, right, six bucks for fries, but at least we found the place that gives you the most for that six bucks!). Along the way, a dragonfly hitched a ride on my kid brother's shirt.

Then it was off to the grand stand to watch/bet on the horse races. Buzzy got into the whole betting thing...

He watched several horses warm up before one of the races and spotted Number Seven in bright pink.

Buzzy placed his bet and watched the race. Dead last. This horse didn't just come in dead last, it broke stride from the other horses several times. The horse was wearing a pink number, so I'm betting this was a fluffy plot. Actually, none of the family did well on this day. We have never seen so many horses break stride. It got to the point that I warned the rest of the family which horses I was betting on and that they should avoid'em. If you could bet on the horse that was coming in dead last, I'd have made a fortune today!

After the races, we walked around. There were several sculptors made of recycled materials including the giraffe here. Buzzy liked how it swayed like a tree in the wind.

Buzzy even got to meet up with Oakie™ the Oakhurst Milk mascot. Seconds before this shot, Oakie tried to eat Buzzy. I'm disappointed I couldn't take that picture in time-- an acorn eating a squirrel! Buzzy wasn't too pleased and retreated to my shirt pocket for the next hour or so.

After dinner, we went through the exhibition hall to discover that a picture I entered won second place in the nature catagory. I'm proud of that one. I took it back on a camping trip with the Jackman Boy Scouts in June along Churchill Stream soon after sunrise. The mist and sunlight were just right. All with a cheap instamatic camera.

Upon leaving the exhibition hall, my mother spotted a Beanie Baby booth run by Dave's Beanies of Calais, Maine. While my mother shopped, the worker behind the cash register (Lorraine Daggett, Dave's wife), asked about Buzzy. I explained about Buzzy's 'world tour' and she was impressed. She asked if he had nuts for the trip. Assuming she meant edible nuts, I replied no. She reached under the table and produced Nuts the Squirrel, complete with an ID necklace that spelled out NUTS on it. She introduced the two squirrels to each other, saying, now Buzzy won't be lonely on the rest of the trip. Well, it must have been love at first site for the two squirrels were near inseparable for the rest of the evening. Buzzy did try his luck at Skeeball to win a prize for Nuts, but didn't succeed. He was good though, showing how strong squirrels are for their small size. He scored 130 points (you need 160 to win a prize) with five balls.