7/29/06 (Saturday): Just a quick post today. I have to go to work at 3 PM. Wiley is off picking blueberries. I just finished some housework, including defrosting the freezer. Ugh--I'd forgotten what a yucky task that is. Most RV freezers are not self defrosting, though, so I guess I'll have to get used to it. I guess I'm going to have to make a blueberry pie or something when Wiley gets back. There are so many wild blueberries in this part of Maine that some of the wildlife preserves open up for blueberry picking, and that's where he is today.

I've been doing a little research about the lobstering industry. My interest was piqued by our recent visit to Shaw's Wharf, where we watched the lobster boats come in. It's definitely the major industry around here, and there's an aura of secrecy about it that intrigues me. Here's an interesting site that covers some of the basics: http://www.gma.org/lobsters/allaboutlobsters/lobsterhistory.html

We went last night to a special fund raising auction at the local Goodwill store. They had a tent we coveted which was being sold in a silent auction. We didn't get it, but we did find an LL Bean carryon bag for $7.99. It's a really nice one, with wheels, handles and even backpack straps. Lots of compartments, too, and in really clean and good shape. I'll get to try it out in a couple of weeks when I go to visit my new granddaughter.

We picked up some peaches at the local market that look misshapen and ugly, but taste absolutely delicious. I don't know if they're local or not. The flavor is like a combination of peach and pear.









Finally, I can't resist posting this photo. Isn't it a shame that Wiley is finding it so hard to adapt to this lifestyle?!

7/26/06 (Wed.): We had a great day off. We packed a lunch and headed out early (about 8 AM) for our 5 PM Puffin cruise. That’s right—we left in the morning for a cruise that didn’t start until 5 in the afternoon (and it was only about an hour away). The reason for that is that we’ve discovered we thoroughly enjoy getting there as much as the destination.

We went to Damariscotta first. It’s a nice sized little town with a pretty downtown area that we’d visited once before in the pouring rain. We did a little shopping in Reny’s (pronounced “Rennies”), which is a chain of very small department stores. For those of you old enough to remember dime stores, Reny’s is like a dime store merged with a Walmart, but small like a dime store. It’s a great place to buy household goods, linens, clothing (they carry brand names) and hardware. The town is on the Damariscotta River. The name is a Native American word meaning “plenty of alewives” (a kind of fish). We wandered around the town and the riverbank for a while.

Then we headed toward Fort William Henry and Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site in Bristol. This area was settled by Europeans in the 17^th and 18^th centuries and inhabited by Native Americans long before that. The fort has been partially reconstructed.

The Fort House was built in the last part of the 18^th century. It didn’t really have anything to do with the fort except that it was built near it. The ruins of 14 stone cellar holes can also be seen with a sign explaining what archaeologists believe each building was used for.

There’s also a cemetery with gravestones dating back to the early 1700’s. There was an art class visiting the site and we enjoyed loo

king over their shoulders at their work. We had lunch at a picnic table overlooking Pemaquid Harbor and Wiley fished for a while. I took a little snooze.

Our next stop was a spot we’ve been to before—Ocean Pond. We wanted to try to catch it at low tide so we could explore the tide pools, but once again it was high tide. The beach is a field of large, round boulders that makes it very difficult to walk. At least it wasn’t foggy this time!

Finally, we headed (the long way around) for New Harbor and Shaw’s Wharf where the Puffin Cruise docks. We took a gorgeous ride through the area around Round Pond.

There was an old stone school and numerous small farms that looked like they’d been there for centuries.

This old barn's foundation was made of ancient rocks. There were sheep grazing in the pasture below the barn, and a couple of them had on what looked like canvas coats! I have no idea what to make of that!

This tiny patriotic shed sat beside the road with no other buildings in sight.

We got to Shaw’s Wharf quite early and enjoyed watching the lobster boats come in. This is the first time we’ve ever watched the entire process.

The boats come in one-by-one, as though on a schedule (and maybe they were). The lobstermen wore orange rubber overalls and knee-high boots.

The dock master met each boat and gave them a stack of crates. The crew, usually 2 or 3 people) counted about 40 lobsters into each crate and hefted the crate onto the dock.

The dock master (quite an elderly gent, dressed in dress trousers and a golf shirt) weighed each crate and then ran a line through the handles and floated the crate beside the dock.

Eventually there was quite a long line of crates.

After all the boats had come in (about 7-8 boats), the dock master went to the other end of the dock and used a big winch to lift the crates up to a waiting refrigerated truck.. We watched 30-35 crates loaded into the truck. Some of the crates also went directly into the nearby restaurant’s cold storage room.

We were the first to board the Hardy II. It took about an hour to cross Muscongus Bay, which was studded with 72 islands. The captain kept saying how nice and calm it was, but the boat was rolling and heaving pretty impressively in my opinion. I didn’t get seasick, but I certainly wasn’t tempted to partake of any of the food they were serving on the lower level! One of the island we passed had a lighthouse (Franklin light) on it, and we could see why a lighthouse was important—the waves were crashing mightily on the rocks of the island.

We saw a couple of harbor seals and many seagulls and cormorants on the way to Egg Rock where the puffins are nesting. There was an Audubon naturalist on board who explained how Audubon Society and Nature Conservancy acted together to restore the puffin to this area. Puffins had been hunted nearly to extinction in the early 1800’s in this area. Scientists took chicks from Nova Scotia and raised them on the island so that they were imprinted on it and would return to nest. They also had to rid the island of seagulls, which feed on puffin eggs and chicks, and they put up decoy puffins to lure returning birds. It took 4 years before they finally found a nesting pair on the island. We saw several puffins floating in the water quite close to the boat. My pictures didn’t come out well, but the collage is from Audubon's website. Visit the website -- there's a live camshot of Egg Island so you can see exactly what we saw. http://www.audubon.org/bird/puffin. Check it out! Puffins are not as big as I thought—I’d always pictured them as being like small penguins, but they’re actually about the size of a small seagull.

It was almost 8 PM by the time we headed home, and most of the restaurants in Damariscotta were closing up. We had planned to have a seafood dinner, but we were so hungry by the time we finally found a pizza place in Waldoboro that we devoured our pasta and garlic bread with gusto.

Altogether, today was another memory maker in our continuing great adventure

7-25-06 (Tuesday): We just got off work and now have 3 full days off to enjoy. The weather is beautiful this week--high in the mid-70's, low in the mid-60's, with a great breeze.

Yesterday afternoon we went into downtown Rockland to mail a package. Then we strolled around the historic downtown shopping area. We stopped and had a Coke at a table outside and I got to looking at the architectural detail in the old buildings. Most of them have gift shops in the lower part now and the upper floors have apartments or offices. The details are quite interesting. To me, the faces on this building look like Shakespeare.











We also enjoyed the window decorations in some of the shops. I thought Mag and Cathy would like to see these old wooden buoys. If I ever see any for sale, I'll pick them up for you.










Wiley caught more fish yesterday morning (Spanish Mackeral). Too bad that he's going to have to feast alone--don't you wish you were here?!

That's all for now, folks. Stay tuned. We're hoping to go on a Puffin cruise tomorrow!

7/21/06 (Friday): We took our tent and went camping on the Schoodic Peninsula for our days off this week. We had a great time—very peaceful. Our campsite was right on the water, so Wiley was able to get in a lot of fishing.









We enjoyed the sunset from our screen room and then had a nice campfire before bed.

We took a drive out on the peninsula. It was very foggy. We could hear a couple of lobster boats working very close to shore, but could not see them. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. My camera battery ran low, so I
bought a disposable camera.

I was quite surprised to find this lily growing out of a crack in the rocks quite close to the salt water!

Here I am hiking on a lovely trail in the Petit Manon National Wildlife Refuge.

One of the trails at Petit Manon National Wildlife Refuge was full of low bush blueberry bushes. We picked about a pint and made blueberry pancakes with them when we got back. Delish!

Most of the houses in the area were very simple, boxy, utilitarian abodes. I thought this one was cute--a small house, but look at all the gables and the ultra fancy trim!

Not much else going on. We’re still looking forward to visits from our friends. Lucie is coming in mid-August and Julie and John will come in early September. We’ve had some rainy days the last couple of days, but it’s clearing up now.

7-22-06 (Saturday): I have to charge up my camera and get some pictures developed before I can post about our trip to the Schoodic Peninsula. But I wanted to post pictures of my new granddaughter, Claire. Isn't she gorgeous?! She's ready to leave the hospital in this shot.










This is a great family shot. Left to right, that's Tom, Anna, Margo, Kristin and Claire in front.











Here's Claire just hours after her birth. (Poor babies--they have to have those drops in their eyes) I can't wait to hold her in my arms.

7-20-06 (Tuesday): I have a new granddaughter! Claire Isabel was born on 7-18 at 7:22 AM. She weighed 6 lbs. 10 oz and was 20-1/2" long. Mom and Claire are doing fine. They're coming home from the hospital today. I'll go up for a visit on 8/9.

Wiley and I are tent camping until Friday, and the internet connection here in Down East, Maine is not very good. I'll do a posing all about it on Saturday or Sunday.

7-17-06 (Monday): I’ve been lax keeping up with my blog, and now I have so much info that writing it is almost overwhelming! So, please excuse me if this particular blog seems a little disjointed. I’ll date each of the 3 days I’m writing about and just bang it out.

Wednesday, 7/13. We decided to drive the rest of the way around Penobscot Bay. It wasn’t as interesting a trip as I’d thought it would be. The area is much less developed and there were no touristy areas. It appeared much less affluent than this area—more mobile homes and in general less well kept up. Also, the road wasn’t as close to the coast as it is here, so there were fewer scenic views.

That being said, we did have a good time. Our first stop was Fort Knox (not the one in Kentucky where all the gold is kept). This one is located where the Penobscot River flows into Penobscot Bay, near Bucksport. It was built between 1820 and 1840 to protect Bangor. We had a tour by one of the volunteers of the Friends of Fort Knox. He did a magnificent job. Wiley especially enjoyed it (forts aren’t my thing). The fort never fired its weapons in anger and was never attacked. The guns were only fired twice, once for an Independence Day celebration and once for a citizens birthday (both times the guns were fired with powder only, but a bunch of windows in town were shattered). During the Civil War, it was used as a training base for Civil War soldiers and it was also used during the Spanish American War to house 200 troops for a month. I was fascinated by the construction, which was done by stone masons from England. The steps in this spiral staircase were each carved from a single piece of limestone (including the round part) and then stacked so that they were perfectly even and level. Quite a feat!

Next we stopped in the little town of Penobscot. We stopped in the general store there and I bought a raffle ticket for a two-person kayak. The proceeds of the raffle were to benefit the fire department.

Then we stopped on Caterpillar Hill, which was a high meadow loaded with wildflowers that sloped gently down to the Bay. (Enlarge the picture to see the beautiful sky!). There were signs with the history of the Penobscot Bay area, which dates back to the Revolutionary War era. The sea has always been (and remains) the mainstay of the economy.

Next we went to Deer Isle. Wiley fished from the breakwater and I walked around the little town. There was one huge mansion, which now housed an antique store and was in need of renovation. The remaining houses and the old school were tiny, but still occupied. Deer Isle was settled by Europeans in 1755. The first settlers were farmers, but gradually they became fishermen and seafarers. Shipbuilding was the dominant industry in the first half of the 19^th century. The island also had sawmills, gristmills, cooper shops (barrels), and a carding and fulling mill. Lots of seamen signed on to operate the yachts of the wealthy visitors during the gilded age. The first granite quarry appeared in the late 19^th century. Granite from the local quarries was used to construct major buildings in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C. and Annapolis. Granite is still quarried today on Crotch Island (look on a map and you’ll see how appropriate this name is!).

Our final stop was Stonington, which had a pretty little harbor with lots of working lobster boats and lobster shacks. The traps on the left in the picture were piled on a floating raft anchored out in the water!

Thursday, 7/14: Today was Mark’s 39^th birthday. I called him before he left for work. It was good to hear his voice. He and Heather and the boys are having a good (if very busy) summer. Hudson and Austin are on the swim team again this year and enjoying it very much.

We’d done so much driving yesterday that we decided to stay closer to home today. We went to Moose Point State Park, just a few miles north of here. The tide was very low and we enjoyed some beach combing. We also took a scenic drive to Ragged Mountain. The wild flowers are still spectacular--black eyed susans, queen anne's lace, liatrus (purple) and numerous others. I think these are bachelor buttons, but I'm not sure.

There’s a commercial ski slope there called the Snow Bowl. It’s said to be the only ski slope on the East Coast with a view of the ocean. There’s also a lake there with a swimming beach. We brought home some wildflowers--Monkey enjoyed them a lot!

Friday, 7/15: Stuck close to home today and did laundry and housework. Visited with our neighbors and did a little shopping, too.

Saturday, 7/16: Had a rough day at work today. It’s Blues Festival weekend, a major event in Rockland. The campground has been completely booked for weeks. I accidentally cancelled the wrong site, and when the camper later came in, I didn’t have a site big enough for his rig. Everything worked out okay, but it was majorly stressful there for a while. I had trouble sleeping for fretting about it.

Sunday, 7/17: In an effort to de-stress a little after my sleepless night, we took a hike on Mt. Battie. The Maiden Cliff trail is short (about 1-1/2 round trip), but very steep and rocky. It ends at a high cliff overlooking Lake Megunticook where there’s a large cross commemorating a 12-year-old girl who fell to her death in the 1890’s.

They were on a May Day outing and she was chasing her hat that was blown away in the breeze. The wild blueberries were starting to get ripe, and we saw wildflowers and this toad, who must have been sluggish from the cold, because he didn’t even try to get away.

It was cold and foggy on the ground, but quite warm and clear as we climbed higher.

And that brings us up to date! We’re planning a tent camping trip for next Wednesday through Friday. We’re going up to what’s called “Sunrise Country” to see the more northern coast of Maine. We’ll keep our cell phone close, because our new granddaughter is coming very soon! Love to you all—we miss you!

7-16-06 (Sunday): This is just a short post, because I need to get ready for work this afternoon. I have some pictures and plan to write about a couple of recent adventures, but it'll have to wait a bit.

I just had to post this link that Mag and Uncle Ed sent me about a lobster with a split personality! Check it out--it's really wild!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060715/ap_on_fe_st/rare_lobster_5

More later.  Have a great day!

7/12/06 (Wednesday): We still feel like we're on vacation! Since we only work 6 hours a day, our workdays usually include a small adventure, and when we're off we keep finding new stuff to do. We we're off work until Friday. Today we decided to have breakfast at our favorite spot in Camden, Fitzpatricks. When we took the family there last week, I thought the hash and eggs that Cathy ordered looked good, so I tried it this time. It was very good--different from any hash I'd ever had before because it was made with mashed potatoes. But I'm getting ahead of myself. On the way to Camden, I decided to turn onto a road I'd seen before that looked interesting, and it was. It looped around the harbor through a densely wooded part of Camden with just a few gorgeous homes perched on the bluffs.

This scarecrow reminded me of trips to our beach cottage near Annapolis. The corn fields along the way all had scarecrows. But I haven't seen one in years (except at Halloween). There are lots of crows here. They wake me up many mornings squabbling in the trees around the campsite.








We even found another fishing spot for Wiley--a very small piece of shoreline is owned by the Nature Conservancy and open to the public. Wiley's looking forward to going back when he has his fishing gear with him, and I'll take a chair and a good book.








After breakfast we went to the docks to see if we could get a free spot on the schooner Lazy Jack II. That's the deal I mentioned in an earlier blog that Wiley had worked out with the captain. They thought it would be a good idea to give us a free sail so that we could promote the schooner to our customers (and telling customers about fun things to do in the area is something the owners want me to do anyhow). There was space on the 10:30 sail, so we went.

Unfortunately, it was a very calm day, but we had a good time anyhow. Lazy Jack II is a new schooner built from a 1935 design similar to a famous schooner called the Ticonderoga. It's all fiberglass with wood trim, but it looks like an old schooner. This picture is from their website which has lots of interesting information: http://www.schoonerlazyjack.com/ (click on the compass rose to view the different parts of the web page).

We had beautiful views of Camden Harbor and the Curtis Island Light as we departed. That's Mount Megunticook in the background. We had a relief captain rather than Captain Sean. I forget this captain's name, but he was quite knowledgeable about the area and the sea life we were seeing.








I especially enjoyed talking with the deckhand, Mark. He's had an amazing variety of summer jobs, ranging from construction to renting snow boards in Montana to being a deck hand on a fishing boat in Key West. He just got his degree in environmental science and hasn't decided what he wants to do with it yet. I told him it seemed to me he already had a great life!






We got to talking about workamping, and eventually the other guests on the boat got involved in the conversation. Everyone seemed to want details about the lifestyle. It seems so natural to us now, but other folks seem to think we're pretty daring!

I got to raise the foresail (and yes, I'm going to throw out the baggy bottom pants!). Mark explained the complicated arrangement of 3 sails, two masts and many lines and blocks and other paraphernalia.



Isn't Wiley looking relaxed and happy these days?! He's getting in as much fishing as he can squeeze in. I asked him the other night if he missed anything about home other than his family, and he didn't! The only think I miss is my bathtub.

Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, so Wiley is planning another drive. We're thinking about rounding the tip of Penobscot Bay and going down the other side. Tune in tomorrow for more in the continuing saga of Joyce and Wiley's Great Adventure!

7/11/06 (Tuesday): The Dykes clan left yesterday morning. We didn't see them off because they left early to go by Freeport and shop at LL Bean and we had to go to work. We had a wonderful visit. It was great to spend time with our famiy again, and I think everyone got to do what they wanted.

We finished up our work week today. We haven't decided yet what we're going to do on our days off. We bought a little screen room just big enough for two. It doesn't need any poles or anything--just pops up all by itself. It's really nice to have a place to sit outside without being bothered by the bugs. We got it at Job Lots (similar to Big Lots) for just $30. It'll also be nice to take with us when we go tent camping.

Monkey has a couple of new tricks. She's decided that one of our cabinet doors should never be closed, so she opens it for us whenever we close it. First she sits and stares at it very intently, making a low growling sound. Then she flips it open with her paw, examines her work, and goes back to whatever she was doing. She doesn't try to get in the cabinet, she just wants the door open. Guess we're going to have to buy a child proof lock! She also likes the new screen room. We put a tarp down on the ground under it so that she can't get to the grass and nibble it (when she eats grass she pukes it up on the carpet). Her other new trick is chasing any bugs that get into the camper. She'll stand up on her hind legs in the middle of the floor and swat at a fly! What a hoot--she's 20 years old! That's 99 in people years!!

Work is going very well. I'm enjoying meeting all the campers and telling them about the fun things to do in the area. I have some $4 off coupons for a schooner cruise that also earn me a small commission. I've handed out quite a few of them so far. We also get to take a free cruise on the schooner. We'll probably do that tomorrow or Thursday.

I printed out some of my photos and put them on a piece of foam board and hung it in the living room. I'm enjoying my new collage. Here are some photos that I haven't posted that I thought you'd like to see.


This is my newest shot of my granddaughters, Anna and Margo. Anna is starting to look more and more like me (for better or worse)!












This is us packing up for our great adventure. We put everything in the driveway and weighed it before we loaded it so that we wouldn't put more weight in the camper than was safe.










Wiley found a luna moth when we were at Westmoreland State Park (where the Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay) in Maryland.










The street lights at Hershey Park in Pennsylvania are shaped like candy kisses!












We're in New Haven, Connecticut now--even the statues at Yale where hats and ties!












This is a replica of the Mayflower, the ship that brought the Pilgrims to our shores. It's amazingly small!

















Everywhere we've gone along the coast have been fantastic lighthouses. This is one of my favorites -- Portland Head Light, in Portland, ME.










So that was the quick version of our great adventure! Stay with us for the rest of the ride, won't you?!