Unanticipated trip to Maine.
(posted from Camden Hills State Park campground, Camden, Maine)
(This post covers 12-18 September, 2008)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 18 September-
This morning we walked back up to the L. L. Bean store. I was hoping to see a PakBoat canoe and their new folding kayak but Bean doesn’t carry them. I also wanted to check out their camping and hunting and fishing areas but I was disappointed in how little high-quality gear they now carry. The store is overly heavy on clothing and prices seemed high.
We drove on up Route 1, enjoying another perfect-weather day. At Rockland, we visited the Farnsworth Museum, once again very happy to see the work of the Wyeths. Afterwards we walked around town a bit, then drove out to the Olson House in Cushing. We had dallied too long in town and the Olson House closed earlier than we realized so we arrived only fifteen minutes before their closing at 1600. We were amazed to walk through the attic-level rooms and see a print of an Andrew Wyeth painting in each—showing how Wyeth had committed the view from that room to egg tempura. Incredible.
We then drove on to Rockport, where we watched the sun set over Rockport Harbor, thinking and talking about our friend whose funeral we attend tomorrow. He had a mooring here and this is where we came when we helped him sail his wooden ketch from Baltimore to Maine five or six times in the early and mid-90’s. Though born in Maine, he had been a college professor in Harrisburg, keeping his boat in Baltimore Harbor in the winter and Rockport in the summer. The trip generally took about two weeks and as crew our only expense had been for bus and train fare home. What an incredible gift he had given us to invite us on those trips.
After Rockport we drove on to Camden where we took a campsite at Camden Hills State Park.
----------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 17 September-
Today we drove the 500-some miles to Maine. We still had some last-minute preparation to do for the funeral and the trip so never got away until 0930. We drove out I-78 to New Jersey, then up through New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and into Maine by 1900. After a break at a Popeye’s on the Maine Turnpike (good biscuits!), we drove on to Freeport. There we parked in the Visitor’s Center parking lot downtown and walked up to the L. L. Bean store— just for a little exercise after our long day.
Our drive up had been wonderful. We had a perfect day and had very little trouble—just a few traffic slowdowns around Boston. When I gassed up Mocha Joe I saw he had made over 17 miles per gallon, much of it at 65 miles per hour.
It’s great to be back in Maine. We last visited right after my retirement in 2005.
----------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 16 September-
We spent the day doing chores for our trip to Maine. I buzzed in to town to pick up Labashi’s vacation pictures and return our rented movies, mowed the lawn, washed the van, and packed and loaded gear and clothes back into the van. What a full day!
----------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 15 September-
Today I ran errands to ensure our payments for state and local taxes made it on time. Along the way I picked up a replacement sewer clean-out cap to replace one our lawn-mowing-guy destroyed a few weeks ago (and somehow neglected to mention). Fortunately, the damage was to the cap alone and a new one cost only $2.50.
Late in the day we received a surprising phone call. A friend of ours had died unexpectedly near his summer home in Maine.
We spent the remainder of the day trying to find out more details and make contacts, then deciding we would attend the funeral.
That afternoon I took a four-mile walk along the creek near home to clear my head and think about the upcoming trip.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 14 September-
Today I thoroughly checked out the motorcycle, buzzing around town to deliver Labashi’s 15 rolls of exposed film to the processor and shop for a new DVD player. I settled on a reasonable deal on a Sony player at Wal-mart, then picked up a movie at the nearby Blockbuster and of course visited my long-lost buddies at Starbucks.
That evening we watched Morgan Spurlock’s “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?”. Highly recommended.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 13 September-
This morning we drove to Chambersburg to visit my Mom in the assisted-living facility and meet with her care-givers.
We spent the late afternoon and evening going through all the accumulated mail and realized we nearly missed a tax payment. If we had returned on the 15th as planned, we probably would not have noticed in time and would have had to pay a small late penalty.
That evening we watched ‘Batman Begins’, a two-year-old Batman movie we somehow overlooked. Not bad. Afterwards we watched a ‘Desperate Housewives’ episode and just as it finished the DVD player stopped responding. Looks like we’ll need a new one.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 12 September--
This morning I updated the blog to post our return from the Alaska trip. I want to gather up some stats on the trip and will post a summary of them later.
We had a rainy day today but still spent much of it unloading the van and doing some cleaning and re-organizing and making calls.
I put the charger on the motorcycle battery and checked out the vehicles which had been sitting in the driveway for three months. Cherry Larry started up fine and has no problems. Labashi’s car started okay but had a very low front tire. It also had rust on the brake rotors which make a terrible noise until it runs for a few miles. I pumped up the tire using a bicycle pump then took it up to the gas station for more air and a fresh tank of gas. Later in the day she took it to town and the tire lost about three pounds of pressure so I’ll have to check it more closely—there may be a nail.
That evening we watched another four episodes of ‘Desperate Housewives’- 3.
========= END OF POST ==========
(posted from Camden Hills State Park campground, Camden, Maine)
(This post covers 12-18 September, 2008)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 18 September-
This morning we walked back up to the L. L. Bean store. I was hoping to see a PakBoat canoe and their new folding kayak but Bean doesn’t carry them. I also wanted to check out their camping and hunting and fishing areas but I was disappointed in how little high-quality gear they now carry. The store is overly heavy on clothing and prices seemed high.
We drove on up Route 1, enjoying another perfect-weather day. At Rockland, we visited the Farnsworth Museum, once again very happy to see the work of the Wyeths. Afterwards we walked around town a bit, then drove out to the Olson House in Cushing. We had dallied too long in town and the Olson House closed earlier than we realized so we arrived only fifteen minutes before their closing at 1600. We were amazed to walk through the attic-level rooms and see a print of an Andrew Wyeth painting in each—showing how Wyeth had committed the view from that room to egg tempura. Incredible.
We then drove on to Rockport, where we watched the sun set over Rockport Harbor, thinking and talking about our friend whose funeral we attend tomorrow. He had a mooring here and this is where we came when we helped him sail his wooden ketch from Baltimore to Maine five or six times in the early and mid-90’s. Though born in Maine, he had been a college professor in Harrisburg, keeping his boat in Baltimore Harbor in the winter and Rockport in the summer. The trip generally took about two weeks and as crew our only expense had been for bus and train fare home. What an incredible gift he had given us to invite us on those trips.
After Rockport we drove on to Camden where we took a campsite at Camden Hills State Park.
----------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 17 September-
Today we drove the 500-some miles to Maine. We still had some last-minute preparation to do for the funeral and the trip so never got away until 0930. We drove out I-78 to New Jersey, then up through New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and into Maine by 1900. After a break at a Popeye’s on the Maine Turnpike (good biscuits!), we drove on to Freeport. There we parked in the Visitor’s Center parking lot downtown and walked up to the L. L. Bean store— just for a little exercise after our long day.
Our drive up had been wonderful. We had a perfect day and had very little trouble—just a few traffic slowdowns around Boston. When I gassed up Mocha Joe I saw he had made over 17 miles per gallon, much of it at 65 miles per hour.
It’s great to be back in Maine. We last visited right after my retirement in 2005.
----------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 16 September-
We spent the day doing chores for our trip to Maine. I buzzed in to town to pick up Labashi’s vacation pictures and return our rented movies, mowed the lawn, washed the van, and packed and loaded gear and clothes back into the van. What a full day!
----------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 15 September-
Today I ran errands to ensure our payments for state and local taxes made it on time. Along the way I picked up a replacement sewer clean-out cap to replace one our lawn-mowing-guy destroyed a few weeks ago (and somehow neglected to mention). Fortunately, the damage was to the cap alone and a new one cost only $2.50.
Late in the day we received a surprising phone call. A friend of ours had died unexpectedly near his summer home in Maine.
We spent the remainder of the day trying to find out more details and make contacts, then deciding we would attend the funeral.
That afternoon I took a four-mile walk along the creek near home to clear my head and think about the upcoming trip.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 14 September-
Today I thoroughly checked out the motorcycle, buzzing around town to deliver Labashi’s 15 rolls of exposed film to the processor and shop for a new DVD player. I settled on a reasonable deal on a Sony player at Wal-mart, then picked up a movie at the nearby Blockbuster and of course visited my long-lost buddies at Starbucks.
That evening we watched Morgan Spurlock’s “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?”. Highly recommended.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 13 September-
This morning we drove to Chambersburg to visit my Mom in the assisted-living facility and meet with her care-givers.
We spent the late afternoon and evening going through all the accumulated mail and realized we nearly missed a tax payment. If we had returned on the 15th as planned, we probably would not have noticed in time and would have had to pay a small late penalty.
That evening we watched ‘Batman Begins’, a two-year-old Batman movie we somehow overlooked. Not bad. Afterwards we watched a ‘Desperate Housewives’ episode and just as it finished the DVD player stopped responding. Looks like we’ll need a new one.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 12 September--
This morning I updated the blog to post our return from the Alaska trip. I want to gather up some stats on the trip and will post a summary of them later.
We had a rainy day today but still spent much of it unloading the van and doing some cleaning and re-organizing and making calls.
I put the charger on the motorcycle battery and checked out the vehicles which had been sitting in the driveway for three months. Cherry Larry started up fine and has no problems. Labashi’s car started okay but had a very low front tire. It also had rust on the brake rotors which make a terrible noise until it runs for a few miles. I pumped up the tire using a bicycle pump then took it up to the gas station for more air and a fresh tank of gas. Later in the day she took it to town and the tire lost about three pounds of pressure so I’ll have to check it more closely—there may be a nail.
That evening we watched another four episodes of ‘Desperate Housewives’- 3.
========= END OF POST ==========
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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