8-16-06 (Wednesday): I had a heck of a time posting today. Apparently blogspot.com has a new beta version, and it just wouldn't let me log on to the old version. I finally succumbed and signed up for the new version. I really wanted to post today! The new version actually looks kind of neat--quite a few of the improvements look like they'll be useful.

Anyhow--on with the events of the day!

I'm sitting here in my spotless camper. We got busy this morning and did a thorough fall cleaning--shampooed the carpet, washed the windows, scrubbed the bathroom and kitchen. It took only 3 hours! There are a lot of advantages to this scaled down life we're living!

After our cleaning frenzy we treated ourselves to lunch at a new Chinese buffet. It was pretty good as buffets go. Not as good as the one in Apopka, though, Lucie! Then we headed off to rent some kayaks. There's a sporting shop near the campground that rents kayaks for 24 hours for $25 and applies the rental toward the purchase of a kayak within a month. Since we're planning to buy kayaks, that seemed like a very good deal.

We got little blue 9-foot recreational kayaks. They're made out of plastic and you sit down in them right at water level. I'll post some pictures of them tomorrow--I didn't take my camera today because I wanted to make sure there'd be a way to keep it dry.

We put in on the Megunticook River in the shadow of Mt. Battie and Mt. Megunticook. It was really fun! We saw a loon (they're bigger than I thought) and a couple of blue winged teal. We took out at a lovely picnic area and had a rest in the shade before heading back. The paddling was almost effortless and the day was gorgeous.

Tomorrow we plan to take the kayak to Camden and put in at a little beach there (assuming the ocean is calm). We'll paddle out around the lighthouse and see our campground from a whole new perspective. On Friday we're going to Fort Point State Park. Should make for some interesting posts!