The people of Aroostook County, Maine, win my award for most awesome community today. When you construct what is billed as the largest complete three-dimensional scale model of the solar system in the world, the choice is a no-brainer.

Doug Bachler, the coolest guy I know (after Hank, of course), sent me this link about the model solar system today. (Doug enables my geekiness, so he deserves special mention by name.) Click on the map on the site to see the solar stretch of stunning science.

The lovely Aroostookians built a 40-mile long model, to scale, of the solar system, setting one mile as the distance between the sun and the earth. (Don't' know where this wonderful scientific paradise is? I didn't either. It's way the heck up there in northern Maine, bordering New Brunswick and Quebec. Looks lovely on Google Earth.)

Anyway, the local community built the model along Route 1 between the University of Maine-Presque Isle and the Houlton (county seat) Information Center so visitors could view all the planets from their vehicles. You can't see Pluto from the road - it's on a plaque at the information center, according to the site - but Pluto isn't a planet anymore. You'll just have to get out and stretch your legs to see it.

The models are mounted on 10-foot high posts and you can read all about them in the brochures provided at the information center. Jupiter and Saturn measure four to five feet across, whereas Uranus and Neptune come in just below two feet across.

I think I'm moving to Maine.