Gotta Get Me Back to The Base

So I get lost.  Alot. This is the song I sing when I am lost:

X
man on the bus screaming about presley man on the bus screaming about presley all tied up got a knot in his hands he says ‘presley sucked on doggie dicks i’m the king of rock ‘n roll if you don’t like it you can lump it you gotta get me back to the base you gotta get me back to the base presleys been dead the body means nothing man in the back says presley sucked dicks with a picture of lil stevie over his head i’m in the back with a hole in my throat man on the bus screaming about presley rips a newspaper up in his hands helicopter shoots down a military spot everybody runs from screaming about presley 

The Maine Coastline is long, almost 3500 miles long, which is 600 more miles than separate Richmond VA and Portland OR.  Otherworldly and wild, sometimes real smelly, it curves in and out and around followed lovingly by Rt 1, unironically known as Main Street when it winds through certain towns.  I use my Maine Gazetteer as often as I can but my routes through migrant territories often pull me from one page to the other and I get mad and have to call people (ok boys) for help.   In the middle of the blueberry barrens I noticed one road that seemed a constant.  Baseline Road.  This road seemed to lead nowhere and interest nobody but me.

Here’s what I found out about it:

The first survey of Columbia (Township 12) was conducted in 1785. In 1857 the Base Line was completed. The Base Line … refers to a 5.4 mile perfectly straight surveyed line, which was one of seven used by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey for triangulation to establish positions for mapping the North Atlantic.

Apparently Ben Franklin’s great great something relative surveyed it and Jeff Davis even got in on the action in some way.  I like the idea of a perfectly straight line through nothing, a line that other lines can use to measure themselves against.  

Then when I was interviewing in Hillsboro Oregon last week, I got lost again.  Stupid Daniel, the Brit Twit on my Garmin had lost satellite reception again.  And there it was, Baseline Road.  To say that Edwin The Creepy Shriner Doll and I were Thrilled would be an understatement. I won’t say that my travels so far have fulfilled the X song or Amazing Grace — I was lost and I’m still not found per se.  But I’m getting close to figuring out which direction is straight and true.  I’m leveling out.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseline_(surveying)

1 year ago  /  0 notes