At last! A Day Away From Home!

Vacation Week is almost over with just today and tomorrow remaining. As I did Tuesday I will take the time first thing this morning to attend my senior fitness session. I heard earlier this week that we do have some weather heading in later today, but it shouldn’t interfere with the fitness session this morning.

Gator Wife and I finally got at least a short day trip into the vacation this week. We spent part of Wednesday driving around Sebago Lake and heading over to Freeport. We got to see firsthand many of the lousy roads that are so prevalent around the state.

On the plus side, though, most of the roads we traveled had work crews hard at work doing some road rebuilding and repairing. One of the longest stretches of work was on the road on the west side of Sebago Lake from Standish up to the town of Sebago. It appears to be in the process of being totally rebuilt and riding on it, even with the two or three construction delays, was a real pleasure.

It was well signed warning of one lane traffic and construction delays and the people on either end of those single lanes keeping traffic safe were doing an excellent job of being fair in both directions.

Another place where heavy construction caused delay was on Route 202 between New Gloucester and Auburn. That one had a rather well marked detour to take us around the actual construction. There was no trouble following the detour, except if we had been on a schedule, we would have quite a delay.

On the other hand, I suspect most travelers in the summertime Northeast are used to construction and plan accordingly. I know we did when we were taking major trips in the past. Road construction opportunity and vacations simply have to coexist.

We did get a chance to ride on one of those roads that can cause damage to cars. Route 126 between Auburn and Freeport, especially approaching Freeport, was a good example of why we said yesterday the legislature put sales tax collection on auto repairs. I’m neither a fast nor foolish driver so we maneuvered on the road without damage. But it was easy to see why cars need such things as alignments after riding on that one. And I understand that didn’t even approach many roads in the state.

It was nice getting away from the house for a little while and having a chance to have some lunch away from the routine.

Did you see in yesterday’s Portland Press Herald about the call for volunteers to test taking more of your money away from you? Yep. Researchers want to install computers and GPS devices in cars to see how much more money the government can collect over the gas tax. It seems the gas tax throughout the country isn’t enough to fix the roads. Instead of charging you by the gallon, they want to charge you by the mile.

We’re told the GPS devices aren’t for tracking where people go but rather to know where the vehicle is to adjust to the current gas tax there for calculation purposes. All the researchers say they want to do is compare the current situation with the new idea.

Of course once those GPS devices get into cars, someone in government will come up with all sorts of new mischiefs. I kept thinking of that story while we were driving around yesterday.

GiM