Weekend Road Trip (7 of 20)- Portland, Maine to Altoona, Pa.

You know you've been blogging way too long when you google a term like 'lobster van' on Google Images, and you get a link to your own blog! Such is the case with this image, which is from Myrtle Beach, SC. We have also previously used the Shell Gas Station in Winston-Salem, NC, first built in 1930 which no longer in operation, but has thankfully been preserved as a tourist attraction.

But, today we are actually asking you the devoted blog-reader who has assuredly been with me ever day since we start in September of 2005 how far apart the city of Portland, Maine, is from Altoona, Pa. Of course, since most of our fans are in Uzbekistan and Norway (well, we like to believe that though we were actually linked to an Uzbeki web site--not sure if it still exists!), they are probably confused!

Of course, everyone knows, well everyone outside of Tashkent and Oslo, knows that Maine is known for their lobsters and that is why we chose that image. But, even folks in les etats unis, may not know that Altoona, Pa., is the headquarters of Sheetz, which has like 3.4 million gas stations on the east coast. I have pumped gas at their stations in Ridgeway, Va., Greensboro, NC, Akron, Ohio, and well_Altoona, Pa., among many other places.

Both Portland, Maine, and Altoona, Pa., also have double-A minor league baseball teams in the Eastern League. Friday night, the Portland Sea Dogs lost 9-7 to the New Britain Rock Cats in Connecticut. They host the Binghamton Mets from New York state at 6:00 p.m. on Monday. We were curious to see what a sea dog looked like, and we saw this great image from jellyfishday.blogspot.com, but this blog's managing editor Dennis Alexander* thought the lobster was more suitable.

As for the Altoona Curve, they lost to the Richmond Flying Squirrels (I guess they got permission from the Jay Ward estate as well as the copyright holders of "Rocky and Bullwinkle") in Virginia 3-2 on Saturday.

For this project, we looked at the distance between Longfellow Books, an independent bookstore in Portland, Maine, and Robert's Service Station in Altoona, Pa., which may be one of the three not-Sheetz gas stations in town.

Uh huh, it looks like our Honduran intern Javier**, who is on Spring Break from George Mason University, actually forgot to Mapquest this. Sorry, dear readers. We will have a talk with Javier.

But, we have the answer now; is it:

A) 9 hours

B) 10 hours

C) 11 hours

D) 12 hours

Speaking of indy bookstores, we just saw Sarah Vowell promote her new book "Unfamiliar Fishes" about the American colonization of Hawai'i on C-Span 2 (Book TV). Vowell's talk was recorded at Book People, an indy bookstore in Austin, Tex.

Catherynne M. Valente will talk at Longfellow Books in Portland, Maine, about her new book "Deatless" on Apr. 28 at 7:00 p.m. The book is apparently about the conflict between magical history and actual history.

The answer to last week's Weekend Road Trip Quiz was C) 41 hours, 57 minutes_ that's how far apart Las Vegas and Pawtucket, RI, are. See you back here soon....I hope!

*- Dennis Alexander is my psedonymn and in-joke; it is rarely used

**-Yeah, as you expected, there is no Javier the intern!

Status Update_ Today, I Learned About Blue Lobsters

Of course, when one mentions the word lobster, you either think of an overrated American chain restaurant (Red Lobster), Maine or the '80s New Wave band from Athens, Ga., the B-52s (pictured here).

But, until I read a story in the current issue of "Mental Floss" by Adam K. Raymond, I was not fully aware of blue lobsters. According to Raymond, one in every four million lobsters are blue. They are this color because of a gentic defect.

We tried to get a picture of a blue lobster up here, but they were quite difficult to hotlink.

If one wants to learn more about lobsters in general, I highly recommend Trevor Corson's excellent 2004 book "The Secret Life of Lobsters." Corson also wrote "The Story of Sushi."

Within a few days, we are hoping to let you know how far apart Portland, Maine, is from Altoona, Pa., in case you really, really want to know!

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- The Spanish Quarter in N'Orelans?!

There won't exactly be bull-fighting on Bourbon Street, but the Twitter site for VisitNewOrleans tweeted the following today:

"You don't need to be in Spain for the Running of the Bulls."

This message was posted before Spain won a historic World Cup semi-final game by a
1-0 score over Germany thanks to Carles Puyol who scored in the 73rd minute of play.

According to VisitNewOrleans, folks from the city will gather at The Ernst Cafe/The Chicury Sunday at 11:30 a..m. They will be spotting bullhorns and re-enacting the fabled Spanish event in a PEAT-friendly manner as there will not actually be bulls running loose in New Orleans. The Twitter site jokingly said most folks there will likely be intoxicated.

This sounds like a perfect place for the Rev. Franklin Grahama (R-NC) to visit on a Sunday morning as the ultra-radical televangelist once said that New Orleans deserved Hurricane Katrina because it was a 'city of sin.'

In other tweets, the Los Angeles Chinese restaurant The Mandoline Grille reported that they were having a lunch special on Vietnamese chicken curry today (hey, it's only 1 p.m. over there right now!).

And, "The San Francisco Weekly" tweeted that for $8 area residents can have a 'lobster corn dog' (shouldn't they have this in Portland, Maine, instead?!) at a place called Unwind on Union, which is actually located in Laguna, Calif. (we presume that's a San Fran 'burb).

Closer to home, both Bluefield, W.Va. (91 degrees) and Blacksburg, Va., aka Hokietown (94 degreees) broke record temperatures yesterday.

Meanwhile, it is in the mid-90s here in Mount Airy, NC, (not actually where I am at) where the public library has actually banned Twitter, which is probably quite populat at those Internet cafes in Baku, Azerbaijan, where I checked my email for the week I was there in 2008. The irony is that Azerbaijan happens to be a dictatorship!

Silly Photo to Fill Space_ Big Lobster

Unlike my sister and brother-in-law who reside in a nice plush mansion in Provo, Utah (that is an in-joke), I can not afford to eat lobster every night. But, I'm not sure I would want to eat one quite this big. As author Trevor Corson said in his book "The Secret Life of Lobsters," when it comes to lobsters, bigger is not neccessarily better. Ahh, this brings back memories of my trip to Belfast, Maine, back in the summer of 2007. As one might expect, there are lots of lobsters up there!