Yesterday we went for a little ride to go to the Waldo Hancock Bridge and Fort Knox in Prospect just outside of Bucksport. The bridge is only 1 of 3 in the world that has an observation tower at the top. (Now remember the following numbers) The observation deck is 442 feet in the air, it gives you a 360 degree view of the area. The elevator to get to the top is the fastest in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, it rises 5oo feet per minute. Stick with me, these numbers will mean things soon. So to go up 442 feet it only takes 50 seconds. Once at the top you have to climb 2 more flights of stairs to get to the observation deck. You can see surrounding towns and mountains (Saddleback) and the coast. We thought we may see more foliage, but we were probably a week or so to early.
We stayed in the observation deck for about 2o minutes Boy 1 and Boy 2 had about all they could handle. Here come the numbers, do you remember them? We walked back down the 2 flights of stairs to get to the elevator. Stop, we only made it 1.5 flights, the line at the elevator was backed-up. Then after about 3 minutes we hear this voice down below. "The elevator is broken, it should only be a few minutes and then we should have it going again". Oh yeah, did I mention this is a state run park and building? Now we are in a stair well with lines of people behind us and in front of us. So now we are trying to enterain the boys, good thing there were still some windows to look out. Here comes that voice again. "We are still trying to fix the elevator, but we may have to walk down the emergency stairwell" (442 feet=44 stories with 2 children). Remember, we still had some small windows to look out, look there's 2 guys walking down the road of the bridge. Look a firetruck. Look another fire truck. Oh here comes an ambulance.
The voice, "Does everyone here feel they can walk down the stairs?" "Sir, would it be easier for you and your wife to be in front with the kids or in the back of the line or are you fine in the middle?" Look another rescue vehicle coming. The voice again, "This is the 2nd time today we had to walk everyone down." They didnt mention that when they took our money!!
Well the good news is was we only had to walk to the road not the ground, the bad news our legs were jelly when we finally made it to the fort to walk around. There we were met by fireman and firetrucks that would take us back to the parking lot. This was great for the kids. They rode in the back of a heavy rescue truck. Oh yeah, did you notice I had no stats on how fast the elevator went back down.
