Sunday, July 11- Jud Strunk Country

We made it to the US border around 11:00 this morning and crossed into the area of Maine that singer/songwriter Jud Strunk adopted for his own. For those who may be reading this blog who do not know, Scott and his family have long been Jud Strunk fans. Scott’s dad used to deliver mail to Jud’s mother in Springville, and Jud is now buried there in Maplewood Cemetery.

We started exploring the town of Eustis where the little village of Stratton sits. Jud’s song, “Bill Jones’ General Store” begins, “There’s an old wood sign, just outside of Stratton, Maine, and it says, ‘If we ain’t got it, you don’t need it- Bill Jones’ General Store.’” Ever since he was little, Scott wondered if it was possible to see that sign. Well, if it ever existed, it’s long gone now. But we had lunch at the White Wolf Inn in Stratton and visited the Dead River Area Historical Society nearby. The man at the door of the historical society said he remembered Jones’ General Store well, and he had bought his first .22 there. The building that the store used to be in had burnt down, but he told us about where it was. He was very nice and gave us a Maine magazine that had an article in it about Jud. We looked around the museum and found a corner that had a large number of posters and articles hanging there about him. There was also an old guitar in a case that said it had come from Jeff Strunk, and since that’s Jud’s son, we assume that it was Jud’s guitar, but the man at the door didn’t know for sure.

From there we went to Rangeley, where we knew there was a sporting goods store selling CDs of Jud Strunk music that his son had put together. It took us a little while to find the store, but while we did, the girls did some shopping. Anna and Emma had been nice enough to be watching their DVDs with earphones since we had crossed into Maine so that Scott could play Jud Strunk mp3s. Now we put in the CDs. We drove back to Stratton, and heard Jud say, “There’s an old wood sign…,” just as we started to come back into the town. We could have stopped at the “Rack” at Sugarloaf where Jud’s grandson, Mason Strunk, sometimes performs his grandfather’s songs on Sundays. However, when we called ahead at lunch time, the woman said that Mason had just been there and wasn’t going to be back that afternoon because he had “baseball things” to do. He’s only about 14 years old or so. So we continued to listen to the CDs as we headed to Farmington, where Jud lived. We passed the airport where we think he died. On the CD, we heard him tell how he wrote a song in twenty minutes on the road between Madison and Bangor. The song he wrote was his most well known and best loved, “A Daisy a Day,” and the road was the one that we were going to be taking to our hotel tonight.

However, the real highlight of the day for the girls was the wildlife. The first animal that we saw was right at the border. A red fox was sitting on the side of the road watching us. Our goal was to spot some moose, and we actually got to see three of them. The first two females were just standing on the side of the road between Rangelely and Stratton. They looked so posed that we hardly believed they were real at first. We were stuck by how big they were and how dark their fur is. Their brown was so dark it looked black, and Julie said they must be chocolate moose. Julie stopped the car and Scott immediately began fumbling for the cameras, but the two moose just harrumphed and tuned into the woods before we could get any pictures. Similarly, Julie spotted another female standing in a sunny spot beyond the trees as we were driving down the same road. Once again, the moose refused to stick around for a picture. Still, we succeeded in seeing some moose, and that was exciting.

Tonight, we’re sleeping in Bangor, and we’ll be crossing back to Canada tomorrow.