6-28-06 (Wednesday): Another great day (are you bored with our great days yet?)! It’s our day off. It was supposed to rain, so we’d planned to do laundry and housework and then go to a movie this afternoon. Instead, it started clearing up at mid-morning, so after we finished our jobs, we headed for Pemaquid Point. It was a pretty drive (they all seem to be) of about 40 miles.

Our first stop was the little town of Round Pond. Here in Maine, a pond isn’t a little shallow, fresh water body of water. It’s often a large, salt water bay, which is what Round Pond is. The little town is quaint (again, like almost all the little towns up here). Here are some of the pictures we took in Round Pond.

We had lunch on the porch of a little restaurant on the shore. Food sure tastes great when you’re hungry and have a wonderful view!

This is "The Little Brown Church." It's on the National Register of Historic Places. I couldn't take the picture from a spot where you could see the whole view--it's perched right on the rocky shore.

This is the little general store in Round Pond. It had everything from penny candy to hardware. I picked up some cute toys for Hudson and
Austin.

Our next stop was Rachel Carson Salt Pond Preserve. It’s on the shores of Muscongus Bay and is actually a part of the Atlantic that’s trapped when the tide goes out (like a huge tidal pool). It was windy and quite rough today, and the tide was high, so we didn’t really see it as a pond at all. Rachel Carson got a lot of her information for the book The Edge of the Sea.






The beach is very rocky (ranging from pebbles to basketball sized) with two large areas that look almost like rocky reefs. The rocks are light graywith veins of white and specks of black. A brochure about the area says They’re called granulite and they were originally layers of quartz, feldspar and biotite. 420 million years ago, the rocks were squished together (that’s a technical term) by the collision of the continents, which generated such intense heat that some of the granulite was melted, sticking the different layers together.

The rocks were quite beautiful, and there were so many that I coveted some for the garden and walkway we’re building, but the signs said not to take any, so we didn’t. There were several kinds of seaweed, snails and birds in the area, as well as wild roses and sweet peas. Lovely! Here are some pictures.

We continued our drive down the point to Pemaquid Lighthouse Park. Next to Portland Light, this is my second favorite lighthouse of all time. The surf was crashing on the rocky reefs
stretching out like fingers from the lighthouse. We walked down about halfway to the surf.

Many people were close enough that the waves were almost crashing almost over them. Later, when we went in the little museum, there was a newspaper article about a guy who did that and was washed out to sea. It took rescuers ½ hour to reach him in a boat, and he died of heart failure. His body temperature was 80.5 degrees.

Once again, the scenery was spectacular. (I’m running out of adjectives to describe this coastal country. Someone help me out here!)

It started pouring down rain (I mean, the skies just opened up) just as we left, and it rained the whole way back. Kind of a miserable drive, but we thought the trip was worth it. When we got home, I made pizza with grilled veggies. Yummy!

6-27-06 (Tuesday): Yesterday was rainy all day. After work all I wanted to do was veg out on the couch with a good book and a cup of hot tea. Wiley went fishing again—the man doesn’t even mind going out in the cold and wet when it comes to fishing! We now have plenty of fish for our fish fry!

Today started out gray and cold, but wound up sunny and warm and great! Work was fun today—all kinds of interesting people on the phone and checking in. I made a reservation for Art Linkletter’s grandson and chatted with him for a while! I also had a young family with the cutest little girl coming camping in a tent—their first camping trip. She reminded me a little of Anna—very chatty and charming.

After work, we drove down to Birch Point Beach State Park. We’d been there once before at high tide and I loved it. This time the tide was very low, and it was like an entirely different place. I like this park a lot because there are big flat rocks to walk around on with lots of tidal pools. The forest comes right down to the edge—lots of spruce trees—very northern looking.

We walked way around the point and watched the fog roll in. The wild roses were in bloom everywhere there was a patch of sunshine for them, and the smell was fantastic—cool salt and seaweed scented breezes mingling with the sweet smell of roses. Wow! We stopped at Subway and had some pretty decent sandwiches for dinner, and then went grocery shopping. When we got back, I went in the camp store for a while and chatted to Fran, my fellow Workamper and friend.

It’s a lot like living in a small town here—with all the advantages and disadvantages of small town living. It’s hard to keep any secrets living and working in such close quarters. By the same token, it’s great to have friends so close by and chat with them every day. Fran has volunteered to work a couple of shifts for me so that I can go visit my new granddaughter in July. I’ll work a couple for her so that she and Richard can take a much-needed long weekend. Plus we can feed each other’s cats.

I think I've decided on the subject for my first sketch--the steeples of those two churches I told you about in my 6-21 blog. I won't try to do the churches, just the steeples. Here's a picture of them.

Life is good!

6-25-06 (Sunday): It’s been a great weekend. We started back to work yesterday (morning shift this week). Everything seems to have fallen into place and we’re both feeling quite comfortable with our job duties now. It’s funny how something that seemed so overwhelming now seems easy. I think we (especially me) got too stressed over the small stuff, and when we started to relax it all started to make sense and became quite easy.

Yesterday was Richard’s 62^nd birthday (Fran and Richard are the workamper couple who were here last year, and we’ve become friends). They’re from Maine, but way up near the Canadian border. They have an unusual sounding accent, which we’ve since discovered is French Quebec—they’re both fluent in French. It doesn’t sound like a French accent, though!

Anyhow, Fran and Richard invited us out to dinner to celebrate. It was great fun. We went to a restaurant called Conte’s, which is on the harbor in Rockland. It’s a really fun place. It looks like an old boat house or lobster shed, with lobster traps stacked outside. Inside, there’s a short menu (about six items) on a roll of butcher paper hanging from the ceiling. The waitress meets you up front and you decide what you want right there before you sit down. There’s a puppy wandering around and fish nets hanging at the windows and crates of books and lobstering equipment stacked everywhere. None of the tables and chairs, plates or silverware matched. We got a table right by the window, and while we waited for our food, we watched the lobster boats go in and out of the harbor. We watched a dog (outside on a leash) who played with a cat who must have been an old friend, judging by the way they interacted.

We stopped for ice cream at the grocery and then ate it back at our RV. Fran and Richard’s RV is a huge, fancy motor home, but they admired our humble place, called it cozy, and we just had a great evening together. I even won $4 on the lottery ticket I bought at the grocery store!

Wiley has been working so hard on our little yard and it’s looking so nice. Here are some updated photos of our home, sweet home (that's a fire ring on the left).

Today, I enjoyed checking in some of the first customers I’d ever made reservations for. One of them was from Winter Springs, where I lived when I first moved to FL. I can’t believe I’m living in such a gorgeous place, having so much fun at work and still getting paid for it!

After work, we took a walk around the neighborhood area of Rockland, away from the harbor. Previously we’ve only been to the shopping and harbor area. Parts of the neighborhood were rather run down, but even so there were gardens full of flowers and children playing who looked well cared for. I didn’t see any litter or graffiti. So, despite the peeling paint and older cars, it was a nice neighborhood.

Many of the houses were obviously turn of the century (or older).

I’m fascinated by the attention to detail that some of these older homes have. (Note the detail under the window on the picture on the right.)

I took some pictures (tried to be discreet—people live here). I think I’m beginning to be inspired to take up sketching again.

The garage at right was much more interesting than the house it was attached to! And the colors on the house on the left were very cool!

When we got back, Wiley went fishing and I turned on my favorite radio station and sat on the patio and read for a while. I still feel like I’m playing hooky when I goof off on weekdays!

I took this picture out of my kitchen window while I was cooking dinner--don't I have a great view?!

We miss you all—wish you were here! Can’t wait for Wiley’s family to arrive next week. We have so much to show them.

6-23-06 (Friday): Wiley finally caught some fish yesterday morning! One of them was very strange looking. Someone told him it was called a wolf fish—it has very sharp looking teeth.

We’ve had some showers yesterday and today, which is not exactly what we wanted for our days off, but we made the best of it. Yesterday we took a drive south of here. We went to the Maine State Prison Store, which had a lot of really beautiful woodwork—furniture and toys, etc. I guess the prisoners have lots of time to devote to hand finishing! We drove part of the Georges River Scenic road, and it really was pretty—very hilly, lots of deep woods, and no development to speak of. We’ve been surprised at how sparsely settled this whole area is. We haven’t seen a single housing development and very little commercial development—no offices, shopping centers, etc. Most of the businesses are small and family owned. There are old fashioned general stores, hardware stores, auto repair shops, drug stores and farm supply stores. There are also lots of nurseries and garden centers. It doesn’t seem to be a depressed area, but with no large cities, we’ve wondered what on earth people do for a living! We know there’s lots of lobstering, and we’ve heard about lumbering and granite and limestone quarries, and of course there’s a strong tourist economy, but it makes you wonder! We’ve covered 20 miles in every direction from the campground (at least), and only seen one McDonald’s and one Walmart!

We also drove up Mt. Battie at Camden Hills State Park again—the view is worth seeing more than once. Then we went over to the ocean side of the park, which was closed the first time we went there. We had a nice walk on the seashore trail. The sea was very calm and there were lots of wild flowers in bloom. We had the place to ourselves (the advantage of having weekdays off). There was a lobster boat off in the distance pulling in the traps. The evergreen trees in this part of the world are very large and dark—almost forbidding. A variety of ferns cover the ground in their shade. It has a storybook quality, like something out of a fairy tale.

We finished our drive by circling through Waldoboro and Friendship. We found a secluded beach where most of the large boulders had mica all through them—they sparkled in the sunlight! Very different from most of the rocky boulders on the beaches we’ve been to.

Today we drove due west to Augusta, the capitol of Maine. Then we looped back east by another route, stopping in Lincoln at an antique tool store we’d heard about. It was more like a junk store with class! It had every kind of tool (antique and modern) you could imagine, interspersed with books, records, art, rugs, antique trunks, comic books, 1950’s kitchen implements, dressmaker dummies and ratty furniture. You could spend hours picking through the stuff—and it was priced quite reasonably! Wiley got a filet knife for 75 cents and a tool of some sort for $4.

Across the street was a tee shirt store that prides itself on using water-based inks, which are environmentally safe. I bought a tee shirt that proclaims: “Black Flies: Defenders of the Wilderness”! That gave me quite a chuckle. I’m still scratching the bites on my legs and arm!

I’ve noticed a preponderance of towns in this area named for the virtues:

Freedom, Friendship, Hope, Industry, Liberty, Union and Unity

They’re all tiny, old villages with their own unique personalities. I think those are much better names than the typical subdivision names in Florida (which tend to proclaim nonexistent hills or even mountains, forests that have been mown down, brooks that have been dammed and polluted or other pretentious nonsense like fakey English town names or superfluous “e’s” on the end of words like “Brooke.” Anyhow. I like the simplicity and straightforward honesty of the people and towns around here.

Back to work tomorrow—morning shift this week.

6-21-06 (Wednesday): 40 years ago today, I gave birth to my first born son--what a great day that was! And he turned out great--happy birthday, Tom! Here's the latest picture of Tom and his family: Kristin, Anna and Margo (and another granddaughter on the way in July!). I've never seen the girls look so serious--they must be missing their Granny! I sure miss my sons and their family. Wiley’s family is coming up soon, and it’ll be great to have family around for a while. We’re looking forward to showing off our new home town!

What a beautiful day today! We slept under a blanket last night, but it’s warm enough to swim today! We were cleaning house and doing laundry by 8 AM this morning, and finished by 10 AM! I washed windows, vacuumed, scrubbed kitchen and bath, cleaned the kitchen and changed the sheets and towels. Wiley checked the tire pressure on the camper (a weekly chore—if you don’t keep the tires properly inflated, it stresses the sidewalls), lubricated the rails on the slide, swept the patio and did a little yard work.. Having such a small space and so few possessions sure makes for less work!

We goofed off the rest of the day. We had breakfast at a little café in Thomaston, which is just south of us. They had some great local offerings, including crab cakes or haddock patties as breakfast meats! I had a great omelet with tomatoes, fresh basil and sharp cheddar. Wiley had oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins and a home made wild Maine blueberry muffin—there were more blueberries than muffin! Then we drove around Thomaston. It’s a very old town (1600’s) and there are a number of mansions that were owned by ship’s captains and a Revolutionary War hero (Knox). There were also two churches with very interesting architecture side-by-side. This isn’t a very good picture because there were lots of cars on the street, but you get the idea.

This afternoon we went to see Pixar’s latest movie, Cars. We got there early, so we took advantage of our waiting time by cleaning the interior of the truck. We have a battery-powered vacuum cleaner and baby wipes in the truck, and it’s amazing how good it looks now! We enjoyed the movie a lot (more than I would have thought I’d enjoy a movie about race cars). It felt almost sinful to be sitting in a movie theater on a week day in the middle of the day! After the movie we ran the truck through a car wash, so now the outside looks as good as the inside.

On the way home, we stopped at a Goodwill store and browsed around. I found a pair of designer jeans for $4.99! Then we went grocery shopping and headed home. I made my famous zucchini casserole and marinated some chicken that Wiley is cooking on the grill right now.

Here are some more pictures I took recently (in no particular order).

This is Monkey's new friend,

Chloe (we think she's a long-lost twin!).

Chloe owns Fran and Richard, one of

our workamper couples.

Rockland Harbor













Seagulls - Rockland Harbor

6-18-06 (Sunday): Not much to report yesterday or today. We’re working the afternoon shift this week, so we’ve had to learn a different routine. Yesterday I worked with the other workamper who’d already done the afternoon shift. Today I was on my own. Everything worked out fine. I checked in a bunch of campers (including one who arrived two days earlier than scheduled!), made a bunch of phone reservations, sold lots of ice cream, wood and ice, and closed up shop on my own. None of it is hard, just a lot of steps to remember, and think on your feet. I’m not nearly so nervous as I was at first. All the campers are so nice! It’s fun talking to people from all over the country (and some from Canada and England)—everyone has a story.

I’m still suffering with the bug bites I got a couple of days ago while gardening for Lori’s friend. I counted 80 bites on my legs alone. I also have bites on one arm and my neck. They itch like mad. On the druggist’s recommendation, I’m using Benedryl lotion. I discovered last night that you can’t take Benedryl by mouth when you’re using the cream, so I’ll skip the evening cream and take a couple of pills. I need to get some sleep! I woke up a lot last night scratching away, and I sure don’t want scars!

The weather has turned absolutely beautiful this week—70’s during the day and mid-50’s at night. We had the heat on last night!

6-16-06 (Friday): Yesterday Lori recommended us to friends who wanted some help with weeding their gardens. We spoke to them on the phone, and they agreed to pay us the same hourly rate as we earn here at the campground. We thought it would be a bit of a lark and give us a chance to meet some other people. So we headed over to Lincolnville this morning. Lisa is an artist, and part of the house she lives in is over 100 years old (a Cape Cod). The gardens were beautiful but very weedy. We spent 4½ hours and earned $80 (she gave us a little bonus). She was very pleased with our work—she kept saying we’d gotten more done than she’d thought.

As we got in the truck to head home, Wiley noticed that I had some bloody marks on my neck and legs. Then we realized he had some, too. I never felt anything biting me, and the marks didn’t itch, but something sure chewed on us pretty good. When we got home, I looked up biting flies on the internet, and I’m pretty sure what we have are black fly bites. I’d noticed a lot of gnats swarming around me, but didn’t worry too much about it because I’ve never known gnats to bite. Turns out black flies are a kind of gnat. They’re also known as buffalo gnats because they have a hump on their backs like a buffalo. Guess we’re going to have to wear long pants for a while!

6-14-06 (Wednesday): Today is Margo’s birthday (Tom and Kristin’s youngest—at least until mid-July when their third daughter is due). I’d been looking for two weeks for a present for her, but there’s just not much in the way of toy stores here. I found something today while we were in Bar Harbor (more about that later). Kristin says both girls are still playing with the little dolls I had gotten them as a little surprise when I was up there last time, so I got some similar dolls. They’re so small the girls can carry them in their pockets (they’re called “Polly Pocket Dolls”) and the clothes are made of soft plastic, so they’re easy for little fingers to put on and off.

We headed out early for Acadia National Park. It’s about a 2½ hour drive (very scenic). It was spitting rain for part of the way up, but since we were just planning to do the 20-mile drive around the park, we weren’t too concerned. We just needed to get outside after so many rainy days.

The park is the most spectacular place I’ve seen this trip. It reminded me a lot of Skyline Drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains, except that the vista below was wild ocean dotted with wild islands. We bought a CD that we listened to along the way that talked about the history and geology of the areas we were driving through. It’s not a huge park (I think it was 6,000 acres), but it’s pretty unique in that it’s the only place on the East Coast where there are mountains so close to the seashore. It’s also unique in that the land was bought up by some of the fabulously wealthy people of the time (Rockefeller, Ford, Carnegie, etc.) specifically to give to the U.S. government for a park. Rockefeller then built a network of carriage roads throughout the parcel complete with stone bridges designed by a famous architect. The land was given with the caveat that no gasoline powered vehicles were allowed (that must not have gone over very big with Henry Ford!). People (called rusticators) used to flock to the area to ride horses, hike and ride in horse-drawn buggies on the roads. There were many mansions built in the area, too (they called them “cottages”), most of which burnt down in a tremendous forest fire in 1947. The fire also destroyed the ancient spruce forests that covered the area. The “new” forest is quite lovely, with a wide variety of deciduous and evergreen trees and a diverse wildlife population.

We got out of the car and walked around some of the best areas. There’s a wide variety of trails, ranging from paved to climbing over rocks. On one of our stops, we’d walked down to look at some tidal pools. We were probably half a mile down from the parking area when a young man in the party walking behind us started staggering around and then fell. My first thought was that he was drunk, but I quickly realized he was having a medical problem. His mother was looking for some sugar for him, so I guess he was diabetic. I jogged back up to the truck and back (yeah, I’m in pretty good shape!) and got a peach left over from our lunch. Someone else had an orange. He was doing much better by the time we left them. I wonder why he didn’t have some hard candy in a pocked! That could have been very serious!!

My favorite part of the whole day was Thunder Hole. It’s an area where there’s a cleft in the rocky cliff and the wave action has undercut the cliff. As the waves come in, the air in the chamber is compressed and makes a loud noise. It was only a gentle booming when we were there because the surf wasn’t very rough, but I guess it sounds like thunder in heavy surf. The waves also spray up quite high and there’s a walkway right down to where they’re crashing. Quite a few people in rain suits were going down to get wet. I’ll bet it’s a fun spot on a hot day!

Another fun spot was Sandy Beach (one of the few sandy beaches we’ve seen in Maine). The granite rocks in this area is pink due to its feldspar content. The cliffs seemed to be glowing on this cloudy day. Plus, Wiley found a sand dollar.

We stopped in Bar Harbor on the way back. It’s picturesque, but far more touristy than Rockport and Camden (the villages near us). We walked around through some of the shops (I found a great variety store where I got Margo’s birthday present and also picked up a sketch pad and some pencils for myself). We watched the ferry come into the harbor. We had a slice of pizza in a busy shop that also had great looking subs. Then we headed back home, tired but happy. I'm posting all the Acadia photos here at the bottom so I can caption them for you. Enjoy!

Vista from scenic drive (note the
seagull).

Wiley on Cadillac Mountain in Acadia. The granite up here is pink!

Fog on Cadillac Mountain (taken

from Sandy Beach).

Cadillac Mountain and Lupine

Pitcher Plants

Thunder Hole

6-13-06 (Tuesday): After work today we did a little yard work and housework. While I was doing laundry, I met a woman who is full timing in a 28’ trailer with 5 children that she’s home schooling! Later I met her husband and kids, too. What a nice family! They’re taking a year off and traveling around the country, using the places they go and the people they meet as the basis for their children’s lessons. They bought a FEMA trailer very inexpensively in Ft. Pierce, FL. She sure had a lot of laundry!

We had linguica (Portuguese sausage) for dinner again—we’ve gotten quite fond of it. We also finished up the corn on the cob—I think it must have been Zellwood corn. It was really sweet. After dinner, I took Monkey for a stroll (I go where she decides to go. My only job is to keep her out of the woods (ticks) and not tangled in anything). I ran into Kip, one of the home schooled children I was talking about earlier. What a delightful young man. He appeared to be around 10 years old, but we had quite an interesting conversation. He spoke about the cat they’d had to leave behind and how he was handling those feelings. I asked him what he’d liked best so far in their travels, and he said “all the people I’ve met!” That seemed like an unusual answer from such a young boy.

Wiley and I both had an ice cream attack, so we went into Camden and window shopped and ate ice cream at a neat little outside shop right on the river. On the way to Camden, we stopped to take pictures of the Belted Galloway cows, which are quite a tourist attraction in this area.

Not only are many of the stores and homes in Camden very picturesque, but they also have a lot of charming gardens. I particularly liked this one, which had granite steps and this cute gate, and then a flower-bordered path up the hill to the house. It was kind of dark when I took this picture, but you get the idea.

6-12-06 (Tuesday): Today was a much better work day than yesterday. The boss lady didn’t come in until late, and I had time to make the coffee, put out the signs, read all the notes from the previous day, listen to the phone messages and make a couple of reservations before she came in. I felt more relaxed because I wasn’t being watched, and I didn’t make any mistakes! I even got a “well done” from the boss. When Jean (the second shift workamper) came on, we went over some things together, which also helped. She’s made some of the same mistakes as me and had some of the same questions. We also realized that some of the instructions in the various sources are contradictory and/or confusing. We’re not going to point this out to anyone, but we feel better knowing that we’re not stupid—parts of the job are confusing for newcomers! It's kind of funny, I was unsure how I felt about Jean when we first started. Now I like her a lot.

Wiley and I got off work at 2:00, and Wiley really wanted to go fishing. It was a beautiful day—warm and sunny—and I just wanted to sit and read a book and relax. So he headed off to wet a line and I headed for the bluff to read and watch the ocean. It was so-o-o relaxing! I watched a sailboat head from the far left of my view around Indian Island Lighthouse all the way off to the furthest right I could see. The lobster pots were bobbing gently in the swells and the water made a gentle plopping sound on the rocks. The chipmunks were busy digging something up from the leaf litter and scurrying over to plant it in the rock wall at my back. I kept losing track of my book and finding myself gazing out to sea in a reverie. Delightful!

On the way back to the camper, an old black dog started following me. We don’t allow dogs loose in the campground (liability problem), so I walked around trying to find her owner. No luck. So I found her tag and called her owner. The goofball was working at a commercial facility ½ mile down the road and hadn’t realized the dog had wandered away!! Either the poor thing had walked down Rt. 1, which is extremely busy, or she’d cut through the woods, crossed the creek (which is swollen and running very fast), and wandered through the tick-infested woods. He said he’d come get her in a half hour, so I tied her up, gave her some water, and watched over her so she wouldn’t bark and disturb the other campers. Poor thing got very attached to me. Every time I got up, she got up, and she whimpered pitifully if I left her. The owner finally showed up almost an hour later. I told him that was about to call the pound because we just couldn’t have a stray dog wandering around the campsite. He was very apologetic and said he’d keep her tied up in the future if he took her to a jobsite.

Tomorrow is the last work day for this week. Next week we work the afternoon shift. I’m not only enjoying a 6-hour work day, but I’ve got no commute! You can’t beat that!

Here's a better picture of lupine than I posted the other day. It's in bloom everywhere!

6/11/06 (Sunday): Okay—so I’m not the cash register queen. And I’ll admit I’m not the credit card machine queen, either. And the one thing I thought I’d done perfectly (taking a reservation) would have been perfect if it had been on a regular weekend, but it was a special weekend (Lobster Fest), so I had to call the customer back and tell him there’s a minimum stay of 3 days and I needed the full amount in advance instead of a deposit. As first days go, this one was pretty bad. I’m just glad I wasn’t doing brain surgery or something. I think part of the problem was that I was supposedly on my own, but the boss lady was in her office where she could hear everything I was doing.

I had so many butterflies in my tummy that I couldn’t eat the lunch Wiley fixed and brought to me! (Isn’t he a sweetie?!) Fortunately, even a bad day is not unbearable when it’s only 6 hours long. Wiley and I drove over the breakwater and hiked out to the lighthouse (7/8 mile each way). The rain finally broke this afternoon and the sun felt so great! Just as we reached the end of the breakwater we saw the ferry go by. The captain tooted his horn and the passengers waved. The sea gulls were out snacking on sea urchins, and the water was so clear we could see the starfish on the rocks below.

When we got home, Wiley made crab cakes from the meat he picked yesterday from the crabs he caught. I’m not a big crab fan, so I had the pierogies we bought ready-made at the grocery store.

Tomorrow is going to be a better day. I think I’ve made my mistakes and am ready to wow them. Send me some good vibes!

6/9/06 (Friday): Yesterday was so rainy and nasty that I didn’t even want to get out of bed! I feel like I’m getting moldy! Our little yard is a swamp, there’s mud all over our patio carpet, and even the chipmunks haven’t come out from under our rock wall. We had to do laundry because so many of our clothes were wet and muddy, but the laundry room is about a city block away. So we took plastic bags to put everything in so that it wouldn’t get wet coming back. I went into the office for a while and practiced on the spare cash register. I feel pretty confident now. I’ve got the basics down, it’s just that when I make a mistake, I'm still just learning how to void it, and doing unusual stuff like making refunds or giving discounts. I guess people are just going to have to be patient!

In the afternoon we went down to Thomaston and saw the movie “RV.” It was absolutely hilarious! Robin Williams used to be my favorite comedian, but then he did a couple of shows that I didn’t like at all. This movie was the old Robin back again. It’s about a guy who fears he’s losing his high pressure job to a younger guy and that he's growing apart from his kids. He decides to rent an RV and take his two teenagers and his wife on a trip to Colorado. Everything that could possibly go wrong does. Parts of it are kind of slapstick, which I don’t usually care for, but overall it’s pretty funny.

Today is not sunny, but at least there’s none of that “Maine Sunshine” hanging around. We packed a picnic lunch and headed out for a scenic drive. We made two big loops, one north of Rockport (where the campground is) and one south. On the northern loop we drove through deeply wooded hills with some gorgeous lakes and rushing creeks. There were some farms (it’s blueberry country there) and isolated homes, but no development at all. I love that about this area—I haven’t seen a single subdivision and planned community. There’s only one Walmart for a huge area, and no big cities. The major industries are lobstering, fishing and logging. The northern loop villages are quaint—many houses have lobster traps stacked neatly in the front yard and boats parked beside the trucks. (These traps are on a dock right behind a house, but many times they're stacked right in the front yard! They're all different pastel colors, too--very pretty!)

I’ve been a fan of the famous American artist, Andrew Wyeth, since I was in high school. He lived in Pennsylvania and summered in Maine. His father (J.C. Wyeth) and son (Jamie Wyeth) were also artists. Many of Andrew Wyeth’s paintings were done right in the area of Maine where we’re staying. He was particularly fond of painting an old farm house owned by a family named Olson, and used many locals as subjects. That house is now a museum, and we visited it today. It was quite thrilling for me to see the places Wyeth immortalized in his paintings. If you’d like to see some of his paintings, here’s a good link: http://www.birdsnest.com/awyeth.htm

We were walking back to the car when a very different looking bird landed in a shrub right next to us. He was smaller than a robin, all black except for a yellow crest on his head and a white stripe on his wings. I’d never seen anything like him. I was pointing him out to Wiley when the bird started singing a very sweet song. Out of nowhere, I said to Wiley “I don’t know where this came from, but I think it’s a Bobolink.” When we got home, I looked it up, and it was a Bobolink. I think my mother, the inveterate bird watcher, must have been helping me out from the Great Beyond! I have no other explanation for that name popping into my head!

The lilacs are fading here now, but the daisies, wild roses and lupines are coming into bloom. The hills are just covered with colorful bloom. Everything looks so different here. We still feel like we’re on vacation, even when we’re working, because the scenery is just so breathtaking. Even the barns look different. They’re bigger, mostly two stories, and usually covered with cedar shingles. They’re often painted dark red or green, or left to weather a dark gray. The houses are very plain and boxy. It’s hard to tell the really old homes (many dating from the 1700’s) from the newer ones, because they still use the same style. There’s an old verse about New Englander’s that goes: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” With our new, simplified lifestyle, we feel like we fit right in here, where the houses and towns all seem simple and practical.

Does anyone know what people who live in Maine call themselves (like people who live in Florida are Floridians)? That’s been bugging me ever since we were in Massachusetts and someone referred to Maine natives as “Maine-iacs.”

But I digress. We wound up in Thomaston, just south of home, at lunchtime, and we stopped at the public landing for our picnic. Then Wiley needed to wet a line (again unsuccessfully), and I was sitting on a bench admiring the view. This poor guy and his wife were trying to back up their pick-up and boat trailer. He tried. Then she tried. There was no one else around. I felt sorry for them after about 10 minutes (really!), so I asked them if they’d like some help from an old lady who’d never backed up a boat trailer, but knew a little about backing up a travel trailer. They eagerly agreed, and I got him most of the way back to the boat launch before an old fisherman came over and helped them finish up. They were so grateful! Turns out it was a brand new boat and the friends who were supposed to meet them at the boat launch to help never showed up. Lord knows Wiley and I have gotten enough help from complete strangers on our travels! I felt like it was pay back time.

We got back home about 2 PM and Wiley immediately went out to the picnic table to pick his crabs that he caught two days ago. I think he’s going to freeze the meat, so I’d better get busy and prepare some dinner. That’s all for now folks. Stay tuned for the next installment of Joyce and Wiley’s Great Adventure!

6-7-06 (Wednesday): We had our last day of training today. It’s been quite an experience learning something entirely new. I enjoy most of it. The cash register is kind of intimidating to me. I don’t have any problem with ringing up normal sales, but making refunds and correcting mistakes is confusing. I’m going in tomorrow (my day off) to practice. They have a spare cash register set up that we can practice on without messing up the real one. I think I’ll do much better when I’m not performing in front of all the other workampers (most of whom have worked on cash registers before).

Wiley had the day off today (I’m off on Saturday, but he has to work) because during training week we don’t have the same schedule. Starting next week, we’ll be on the same schedule for the rest of our stay. Wiley went fishing in Lincolnville. He didn’t catch any fish, but he caught 5 rock crabs and a lobster with hand lines. He was quite excited! I’m glad he finally caught something. He’s been trying just about every day, and it’s been cold and rainy up here.

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that our workamper neighbors, Fran and Richard, mentioned that they’d bought an electric space heater because the central heat burns up your propane pretty fast. We buy our own propane, but the campground pays our electric bill. So we went up to Walmart and picked one up for less than $20. We like it a lot—it’s quieter than the central heat and seems to provide more uniform heat. What a great idea! So far, Fran and Richard are our favorite of all the workampers we’ve met. We have a lot in common. It’s a really friendly bunch. Even the other campers are fun to talk to. Everyone has a story (or two!), and all kinds of people like to camp.

We’ve begun compiling a list of what we want to do with friends and family who want to come visit. It’s getting long quite quickly! Some of the possibilities are:

• Go on a lobster boat with a real lobsterman and watch while he brings in his lobster traps. Apparently you also see seals and all kinds of birds and you travel past islands with lighthouses and interesting histories. That’s $20 for adults and $5 for kids under 14. If I agree to distribute brochures to campers, they get a discount and Wiley and I get a free trip! (The boss lady told us about this, and said it was fine for us to do this.)
• Fishing (for the guys) and shopping in Camden and Rockport’s antique and gift shops.
• Have a lobster boil and/or eat at a lobster shack.
• Drive up Mt. Battie on the old carriage road and admire the view of Camden Harbor from 1300 feet up. Then take a nature hike on Mt. Megunticook.
• Visit the Farnsworth Museum where many Wyeth paintings are hung. Wyeth painted in this area.
• Take a ferry over to one of the 15 Maine islands that have a year-round population.
• Go on a tour with one of the kayaking companies in the area.
• Walk the breakwater out to the Rockport Light and go in the lighthouse and museum at the end (7/8 mile one way).
• Go to the Maritime Museum in Rockport.
• Go to Birch Point Beach State Park and sit on the rocks and have a picnic.
• Take a scenic drive to Owl’s Head lighthouse and Port Clyde lighthouse.
• Go to Rockport Harbor and see the lime kilns and the Andre statue and see the tall ships in the harbor.

And that only covers the things we’ve already done (except for the kayak tour and shopping!). So start thinking about what you want to do when you’re here!

Since today was the last day of training, Lori and John (the owners) treated us to a lobster boil. We had to have it inside because of the rain. All the workampers (from both campgrounds) came—6 couples. Lori and John supplied the lobster, wine and beer, and each workamper couple brought a side dish. In addition to my pasta salad, there was coleslaw, Watergate salad, corn on the cob, a Mexican dip for an appetizer, and 3 kinds of dessert. We had a great time getting to know one another, trading stories about our travels and families. Since each of us only works 4 six-hour days a week, we won’t be working together, but we’ll be sharing a job. So I think it’s great that we have a chance to socialize. It’s much easier to work with people when you feel like they’re your friends.

It’s getting late—time to all it a night.

6-6-06 (Tuesday): More training today. We had practice exercises that were kind of tricky (deliberately so). Lori had listed 6 different situations that we had to make reservations for and then assign a site. Sites are assigned based on what kind of hookups are needed, the size of the camper, etc. Rates are based on the kind of site and how many people. There are also rules, like: the rate is based on 2 adults and 2 children and if there are more people, there’s an extra charge. There’s also a limit on how many people are allowed per site. Rates are also higher on holiday weekends. That sort of thing. Anyhow, I really messed up on one reservation because I didn’t realize that they were requesting two pull-through sites. But I got all the rest perfect! Everyone else got quite a few wrong! So I felt pretty good about that.

I can’t remember if I mentioned that tomorrow Lori and John are having a get together for us to celebrate the beginning of the season and the completion of our training. They’re providing the lobster and wine and each couple is bringing a side dish. I’m bringing my “famous” pasta salad. The Dykes clan always asks me to bring this to every pot luck. So I made this when I got out of training today. Here’s the recipe:

Joyce’s Pasta Salad

1 box tri-color rotini (you can use any pasta)
6 hard boiled eggs, chopped (reserve two to slice on top, if desired)
½ bell pepper, chopped finely
½ sweet onion (Vidalia), chopped finely
3-4 Italian plum tomatoes, cubed
1 small can sliced ripe olives, drained
½ cup grated parmesan cheese (fresh, not dried) (reserve a little for topping)
McCormick’s Salad Seasoning Mix (to taste)
½ bottle French’s low fat Zesty Italian dressing

Cook pasta according to package directions (al dente—don’t overcook it). Toss the pasta with the remaining ingredients. Season to taste with the Salad Seasoning. If desired, slice two hard boiled eggs to decorate top, sprinkle with more Salad Seasoning mix and grated parmesan. Chill for at least a couple of hours or overnight.

I use a mini food processor that my mother-in-law gave me to do the chopping. It really makes this go fast.

While I was making the pasta salad, I also whipped up one of my quick and easy meals for me and Wiley for dinner—chicken cous cous salad. It’s very easy and versatile because you can change the ingredients around. Here’s the recipe for it:

Joyce’s Chicken Cous Cous Salad

2 cups couscous
About 1 cup cooked chicken, chopped (or one large can of water packed chicken)
½ cup dried cranraisins (or raisins)
½ cup chopped almonds (or pecans or other nuts)
½ sweet onion, chopped
½ bell pepper, chopped
1 tart apple, coarsely chopped (not peeled)
Italian salad dressing (low fat) to taste

Cook cous cous according to package directions, but add the cranraisins to the water before bringing it to a boil. Toss the other ingredients together with enough salad dressing to make it slightly sticky (you don’t want it very wet). Chill before serving (although we ate it warm tonight and it was pretty good).

After dinner we took Monkey for a walk and chatted with the other workamper couples. Then we drove into Rockland for ice cream sundaes, which we ate in the truck parked at the waterfront at sunset. There are a lot of sailboats docked in Rockland’s harbor, and it was quite beautiful to see them silhouetted against the darkening water and sky as the lights came on in all the little houses and buildings all around the cove. (This is not my picture--I got it from the City of Rockland's site. But it's exactly the view we were looking at.) Rockland is the closest fairly big town. It has a Walmart, Home Depot and a good grocery store.

I wish all of you could see how gorgeous this place is!

6-5-06 (Monday): I started today with a real chuckle. Wiley wanted to check the camper’s tire pressure because it’s not good to let it get low. It stresses the sidewalls. Anyhow, to check the tire pressure, we have to bring in the slide. So, as usual, I made sure Monkey was out of the way (she was on the couch) and started bringing in the slide. Monkey went bananas as the size of her domain decreased! She leaped from the couch to the chair to the counters and table and back again, circling the entire trailer twice, meowing loudly! Once we put the slide back out, she returned to her usual morning spot on the back of the couch where she can look out the window. Quite a hoot!

Today was my first full day of training. Lori and John have another campground about 3 miles from here. They have three work camper couples there: Joyce (!), Carolyn and Marcia (I haven’t met their husbands yet). Those three women and the three of us here all squeezed into the camp store and Lori began the training. It was very well organized. We each got a manual with all the procedures spelled out so that we didn’t have to take notes. There was lots of hands on practice and role playing (we paired off with one of us playing the camper and the other playing the worker). I must say, it was some of the better training I’ve ever received. I feel much more confident already. In addition to the practice work, we took turns handling the real phone calls, store customers and the two couples who checked in today. It’s actually kind of fun—lots of interaction with people whose interests are similar to mine. I have two more days of this, and then I'll be on my own!

I liked the other workampers, too. Carolyn has a pronounced southern accent and a great sense of humor. She cracked us up. Joyce has spent some time in Virginia and Maryland, so we had something in common (besides our names). Marcia is the quiet one.

Wiley cleaned the swimming pool this morning and cleaned out a couple of cabins this afternoon. We both finished up at 4 PM. It's great working just 6 hours a day and not having a commute! And, of course, those 3-day weekends are going to be nice, too! Since it was still early, we went and checked out the two thrift stores nearby. We were hoping to find some Corelle and/or a small vacuum cleaner, but no luck. We had sloppy joes, homemade French “fries” (I actually bake them instead of frying them), and fresh corn on the cob. Yum!

After dinner we watched the news and potted around the camper. Then, just as the sun was starting to set, around 8 PM, we walked down to the ocean and sat on a rock and watched the sunset. Of course, we’re on the Atlantic, so the colors we were watching were all reflected ones, but it’s lovely nonetheless. The lighthouse on the island close to our bluff (which I now know is called Indian Island Light) was glowing faintly pink, and the string of islands stretching southward from it were lit one-by-one, as though the islands were spot lit for a few minutes of fame each. How long has it been since you took the time to just sit quietly and watch a sunset? Wiley and I are truly enjoying each other’s company and simple things like sunsets and observing wildlife.

I think of all of you often, but tonight my friends, Julie and John, are especially in my thoughts (that's them in the picture on the left with Wiley). They’re going through a very rough patch due to John’s eyesight. Also, my friend Kay is in the hospital and I know Troy is taking good care of her, but they’re in my heart as well. I don't have a picture of Troy and Kay--take my word for it, they're good looking folks! (By the way, all of you know that you can click on any of the pictures I post to make them bigger, right?) These friends of mine are very special people and I know they’re going to get through whatever happens to them, but I want them to know we’re thinking of them.

May peace and love flourish in your lives. Goodnight!

6/4/06 (Sunday): Yesterday was just an ordinary day—laundry, grocery shopping, housecleaning and errands. It was cold and rainy (and it is again today).

Today was the first day of training for both of us. Wiley had a whole day, I just had a half day in the afternoon. Tomorrow through Wednesday is a full day of training for both of us. Wiley learned the procedures for cleaning the bathrooms, location of circuit breakers, cleaning the swimming pool and some other outdoor routines. I learned how to take registrations over the phone, run the credit card machine and cash register, opening and closing procedures and assigning campsites and cabins. It suddenly occurred to me yesterday that I was going to be learning something entirely new and either might not like it or might not be good at it. I guess I must have been doing okay today, though, because they left me alone twice—once for lunch and once when they had to run an errand. Of course, both times when they left, something I hadn’t learned yet came up. I just wrote down all the information I thought I’d need and told the caller I’d call them back in an hour. Then I checked into how to do it when they got back. I figure there’s nothing life threatening going on here, and people aren’t going to freak out if I ask to put them on hold or tell them I’ll check on something and call them back.

One area where I think I really shone was talking to people about things to see and do in the area. That’s one of the reasons we wanted to get here earlier, so we could check things out. Campers are mighty nice people, and part of my job is to make sure they have a good time. One of the campers today was talking with me about things to do on a rainy day, and I mentioned that we’d been to the Down East store right next door to the campground. Down East is a magazine about Maine, and their offices have a little gift shop. Lori overheard and came out and was telling us that our office/store, which is in an old stable (circa 1900) was originally the stable for the polo ponies for a large estate, and the Down East offices are in the original estate house. The polo fields stretched between the two. She had some old photos and a couple of polo sticks that they found in the barn. The estate owner went bankrupt in the Depression and sold the property off.

Monkey is having a second childhood. For the past two nights, she’s hunted down pens and played with them, something she hasn’t done for years! She likes to chase them across the tiled part of the floor and then hide them under chairs and in corners. It’s especially funny when she gets on her back juggling the pen with all four paws in the air! I’m so relieved that she’s taken to this lifestyle!

I’m so sick of rain and cold—tomorrow is supposed to be nicer, but I’ll be in training all day.

Got to fix a quick dinner now and get organized for tomorrow.

6/2/06 (Friday): As they say in Maine, today was wicked good! We started off routinely enough with a trip to the Ford dealer to have the truck tires looked at (they were wearing unevenly). Dealer didn’t want to do anything about them—said it was probably from hauling the 5^th wheel, and that they weren’t badly worn. I’ll look into it a little further, but I’m inclined to believe him.

Since we were partway down the peninsula, we decided to drive the rest of the way down to Port Clyde. It’s a very scenic drive (like all of them in this part of the world). Many of the houses have stacks of lobster traps in the front yard and work boats in the back. We visited the lighthouse there and Wiley tried fishing from the rocks, but it was pretty high up and the rocks were slippery, so that didn’t work. Besides, it was drizzling and kind of chilly.

We stopped at a little shack on the pier and had a great lunch. The place had apparently been written up in Gourmet Magazine and had also been on the Food Network. After lunch, we headed back toward home, but got sidetracked by the sight of a guy fishing on a little inlet. We parked and Wiley fished while I sat on a rock and read. The rain had stopped by now, and the scenery was excellent. Wiley caught one striper, but it was undersized. Meanwhile, I was taking pictures and enjoying the view. A couple of guys came into the pier with six big crates on their boat, three of rock crabs and three of lobsters. I chatted with them a while. This was their best catch of the season so far. I asked what they’d do with it now, and they said they would load them on the truck and take them directly to a couple of restaurants.

We headed home again, and again we got sidetracked by a sign pointing the way to Birch Point State Park. This is my new favorite place in Maine (I seem to find a new one every day)! It had a rocky beach, but unlike most of the other beaches, these were big, smooth rocks. It was low tide when we arrived, and the spaces between the rocks had many tidal pools. They’re very interesting to look at. The pictures don't do them justice because the water is so clear it almost disappears. They have different kinds of seaweed in them and many small crustaceans. Again Wiley fished, and again I sat on a rock and read. Heavenly!

We finally did make it back to home. I made an omelet and fresh picked corn on the cob for dinner. Now it’s time for a shower and bed. One of the few things I miss is a bathtub! I’d love to have a nice hot soak right now!