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?!

I wasn't going to post tonight, because Wiley and I had to work this morning and nothing too interesting happened. But I identified a gorgeous, fragrant flower that's growing wild all over, and I wanted to show it to everyone. It's called "crown vetch."

The rest of the Dykes clan went up to Lincolnville for a much publicized strawberry festival. Apparently it was very small town--one flat bed truck made up the parade (which they missed), and there was almost nothing left of the strawberry shortcake and strawberry pie. They enjoyed the drive anyhow.

Katelyn and I went wading in the stream that runs through the campground and eventually splits in two and forms two small waterfalls that fall into the sea over the bluff. It was fun. We are cooking up a scheme: I'm going to write a children's book about Maine and Katelyn's going to illustrate it. She's already started on a picture of Louise, the seagull who visited the lobster boat. She's also drawn a very creditable lobster. She's quite a good artist with an eye for detail. I think we might be on to something!Tomorrow they're going to Acadia for their last full day in Maine. One of the campers who was checking out had an admission ticket left that was still good for a couple of days, and they gave it to us, so they get to go for free. I know they're going to have a great time. We sure enjoyed our visit there.

Have a great evening everyone. I'll post again in a couple of days.

July 7, 2006 (Friday): Today was Marguerite’s 70^th birthday. We showed her a really good time!

We started with breakfast at Fitzpatrick’s Café in Camden. It’s a local hangout that has fantastic blueberry pancakes (among other things). It’s very casual—you stand in line and order from a menu on a chalk board. You get your own coffee or juice and then sit down until they call your name. When Wiley and I were there the last time, there were waitresses with attitudes (when they brought out a particularly large stack of pancakes, they hollered that they were looking for a fat guy). Today, there was just a young, very quiet waitress. We had a great time eavesdropping on the locals exchanging gossip before they went about their days.

We sat for a while at Camden Harbor and watched the ducks that were feeding at the base Next we headed to the little town of Owl's Head, where we stopped at the general store. There were already 5-6 people in there, so adding the eight of us made it one very crowded tiny store! Mag bought some gifts to take back and Katelyn bought some candy. I tried to buy a string of lobster lights for the camper, but the clerk seemed to be having a bad day and got so flustered that he asked me to come back later!




The post office in this tiny town is also small and quaint. We also noticed that instead of fire hydrants, they have a fire pond! It looked like an ordinary pond, but there was a sign that noted the water was for use as a fire pond only. We decided they probably owned a tanker truck that filled up in the pond. I wonder how the minnows smell when they cook over the fires!







Our next stop was Owl's Head Light. There were a lot of steps up, so Wiley quit at the base of the light. The rest of us went to the top. There's no keeper on site, so you can't go in, but the view from the top is fantastic. There was a group of kids there fromm a local camp--very polite young people. Mag talked for a while with the owner, who said his whole family was involved in running the camp.








We visited the beach in the same park. Dave fished and Wiley and Mag sat at a picnic table and enjoyed the sun and the breeze. Cathy and Katelyn walked way around two points beachcombing. The tide was way out, exposing lots of interesting rocks and tide pools.


The whole time we were driving and exploring, Cathy and Mag were looking for lobster trap buoys to take home. Cathy spotted one on this beach, and practically leaped from the car to retrieve it. Unfortunately, it was chained to the ground and obviously belonged to someone. We teased her that someone in the nearby house had been video taping her the whole time and would later show the whole thing off to friends and have a good laugh.




Owl's Head Beach is very scenic. This is the view of the lighthouse peeking over the spruce and hemlock trees.











Our next (and last) stop was Port Clyde, where we planned to have Mag's birthday supper at the Dip Net Restaurant. The Dip Net is famous for its blue lobster. Yes, it's really blue! This is a fairly unusual genetic mutation. We'd seen a blue lobster in Cape Cod in the aquarium. The kids got a large charge out of seeing this odd creature.






We enjoyed eating our lunch outside on the water.












After lunch, we wandered through one last quaint little store, the Port Clyde General Store.



We ended up at the Dairy Queen and took our treats over to Rockland Harbor and devoured them sitting at the harbor watching the boats and seagulls. We hope you had a very merry 70th birthday, Mag!

7/6/06 (Thursday): The good times continue! Today Wiley, Bruce and David went fishing (very early). Then Cathy brought Mag and Katelyn and Senior over and we went to the breakwater and joined them. Senior walked out on the breakwater a good way (cane and all), then we set him up with a chair and we left the guys and us gals walked out to the lighthouse (except for Mag, who opted to sit on a bench and people watch). Cathy found a lobster trap float, which she’d been looking for. She’s so talented—I fully expect her to do something great with it!

We left the guys and went into Rockland for lunch at the Rockland Café (chili for everyone except Katelyn, who had a crabcake sandwich). Then we did a little shopping. We had to leave around 1 PM so we could get back in time for the lobster cruise.

We had some ice cream on the dock while we waited for the lobster cruise. Wiley got to talking to one of the employees for a schooner that does day trips, and he wound up getting him to offer us a free trip in exchange for promoting his cruises (this is the deal we got from the lobster cruise guy). It’s a great deal, because people are always coming into the office and asking me what’s fun to do in the area, and if we’ve done it ourselves, I’m happy to promote it. So if you come up to see us, Lucie, we’ll take you for a cruise on a two-masted schooner!

The trip on the lobster boat was really cool. It was an old lobster boat, but it was fitted out with a video camera. He went out a long way, past the light house that we can see from the campground (Indian Island Light). Then he pulled up a couple of lobster traps and put them on a table in the boat. He got one lobster and a couple of crabs.

He told us all about the life cycle of lobsters and the process of catching them.

Katelyn was the only one on the boat to be allowed to hold the lobster!

While we were cruising out to see some seals, Louise flew onto the bow of the boat and walked up to the window. She paced back and forth peering into the window at us until Captain Al got out her herring. Captain Al said she appears the first day he puts the boat back in the water every summer. She doesn't visit any of the other boats, she just likes him!

Then we went around Robinson Rock (a small, rocky island about 2-1/2 miles off the coast) where we saw harbor seals. My camera didn't have a big lens, so I couldn't get a picture of them, but we could see them quite clearly. They were swimming in the water and hauled up on the rocky island. He told us all about the seals. They roam many hundreds of miles searching for food, but always come back to the rock they were born on to breed. He also had videos of seals from all over the world.

Then we cruised past an island where the bald eagles were nesting. We actually saw an eagle chick in the nest. Finally, we went past a sea bird rookery. The whole trip was just fascinating!

We ended the day with a fish fry, clam bake and lobster boil. The guys are cooked the seafood, I made a pasta salad, Cathy made the garlic bread and Mag husked the corn on the cob. We had another campfire. Life is good!

7/5/06 (Wed.): We had a wonderful day today! Wiley got up really early and took David fishing on the breakwater. Bruce was supposed to go too, but he got an upset stomach and was up all night. So he stayed in the motel to rest.

The lobster cruise was cancelled because of fog. We’ll do it tomorrow if the weather clears up. So we went to Birch Point Beach State Park instead. As usual, we took our time getting there and made a few stops along the way.

First we stopped at a tiny general store. It was almost 150 years old and had a nice variety of food and other merchandise. I bought a lobster dish to hold my dish scrubbee. It was about $8, but when the lady gave me the charge receipt, it was for $71.00! She had a heck of a time figuring out how to cancel the charge. I felt very sympathetic—I’d done something very similar my first day on the job in the camp store.

Next we went to a little combination general store and café and had sandwiches and pizza and enjoyed the view over the Wesaweskeag River where it empties into the Atlantic. The Keag Store (pronounced as "gig" by the locals) was built in 1925. It started as a millinary shop and later housed the post office. The owner fell in love with a mail carrier and they married and ran it as a general store. It's been handed down through the family since then. The owner, Sharon Allen, opens at 4 AM every day to provide breakfast to the lobstermen and fishermen who work out of the local harbor. The guys and Katelyn fished from the bridge for a little while and Cathy, Mag and I went through a nice antique store. Cathy bought a tree-top ornament and we had a nice chat with the owner. This is me with a friendly (antique) moose (that's me on the right).

After lunch we headed for the beach. It was a lovely day—warm sun and cool breeze. There was a large group of school kids there from a local camp. The tide was really low, exposing the tide pools. Wiley and David went fishing from the rocks and the rest of us sat at a picnic table that a nice young man offered to us. He was the driver of the school bus the kids had arrived on. We had an interesting conversation with him about growing up on an island and going to a one-room schoolhouse. We later found out that he’d lost his son in Iraq last year. There were also a couple of kids with buckets full of jelly fish that they were showing off to anyone who would listen. It was so great to be with family again!

We came back to camp and sat around the pool for a while. Then we did hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. I’d made some potato salad this morning before we left. We ended the day with a fire and s’mores.

It was memorable!

7-4-06 (Tuesday): Happy Independence Day! We had a very enjoyable day with our family. Wiley and Marguerite, Cathy and Bruce and David and Katelyn arrived late last night. We met them at the motel this morning and had coffee and pastries on the balcony. Their suite is quite nice, with a bedroom, loft for the kids, and charming decor. Unfortunately, it also has a lot of steps and a very low sleeper couch, which made it difficult for Wiley. So we took an additional room for them. The suite is in an old house on a hill high over Clam Cove. There's a nice view of Clam Cove.

The weather was terrific early in the day. We headed for the campground and had the grand tour. I'll let the pictures do the talking for me:

Here are Mag and Wiley standing
on the bluff at the campground. As you can see, the day lilies are in bloom, although the rosa rugosa are beginning to fade.





Here's Katelyn on a rock on the bluff. Isn't she becoming a leggy beauty!













What a handsome group! Left to right, we're looking at Wiley, Bruce, Cathy, Katelyn and David. We really enjoyed touring the campground and introducing our family to our co-workers and some of the campers who are our neighbors and friends. But we were anxious to do a little more touring before Wiley and I had to go to work at 3 PM, so we headed a few miles north to Camden.

We had lunch sitting in the sun right on Camden Harbor in the Bayview Restaurant. The breeze off the harbor was quite cool and the fog started to roll in--luckily I had some spare jackets in the truck. Then we drove up Mt. Battie in Camden Hills State Park. David and Katelyn enjoyed picking out the islands in Camden Harbor. You could actually hear the band playing on the shore near the restaurant where we'd just eaten!

On the way back to camp, we stopped at Rockport Harbor, home of Andre the Seal (I discussed Andre in an earlier blog). The kids enjoyed climbing on Andre (until David fell off). I told him I'd save this picture to show his first girlfriend. It's an aunt's job to plan for the future like this.



Are you sure it's shipshape, mates?









Katelyn really liked the belted Galloway cows that we passed on the way back to camp (and they obviously liked her, too). Wish we'd had longer, but Wiley and I had to get to work!

There's a whole new crop of wildflowers out there. Like the roses, the lupine are about done. Now we have daisies, black eyed susans, queen anne's lace and lots of others that I don't recognize.

Tomorrow we're taking a tour on a real lobster boat! Stay tuned. (By the way, where are all my readers? I miss hearing all your comments!)

7-1-06 (Saturday): Today was a work day. We worked from 3 PM to 9 PM. I checked in 37 customers! The campground only has 85 sites, and we were already about 1/3 full, so you can imagine that I had a really busy afternoon!

Wiley cleaned the bathrooms and then worked the lobster bake. (I don’t know why they’re called lobster bakes, because they actually boil the lobsters. But that’s what they call them all over Maine!)

It was nice and sunny most of the day, but the clouds started rolling in and we’re having thunder storms this evening. I sure hope the weather is going to be nice for Wiley’s family’s visit.

I did spaghetti sauce in the crock pot today and we just ate it over macaroni. Nothing like eating dinner at 9:00 PM! I hope we don’t have heart burn all night. I think starting tomorrow that we’ll eat supper at 2:00 or 2:30, and then just have a bowl of cereal or something before bed.

That’s it for tonight, folks. I’m beat!

6-30-06 (Wednesday): Well, 2 out of 3 is not too bad I guess. We enjoyed a little sunshine for ¾ of our first day off. It rained today and yesterday. We stayed home Monday and Wiley worked in the yard. I worked around the RV a little and also read and worked on the blanket I’m making for my new granddaughter. In the afternoon, we went and saw “Prairie Home Companion.” I loved it; Wiley thought it was boring. It’s about a small town live radio show that’s been bought by a big corporation and how the lives of all the performers are affected by that. If you like Garrison Keeler, you’ll love it. It was funny and deep at the same time.

Today we decided to go to Bangor (about 2 hours away). Our ultimate destination was the shopping mall there. In our usual fashion, we made some stops along the way. First we stopped at a little diner for breakfast. All the food was made from scratch and just excellent. We got to talking to the waiter about fishing and crabbing, and it was very interesting. He was telling us about some pink crabs that used to be considered trash, but that are now considered highly desirable. He called them “peekytoe crabs.” Wiley looked them up on the internet later. Here’s what we found:

Peekytoe Crabs of Maine
Until the 1990s, the peekytoe crab (aka Maine crabs, rock crabs, sand crabs, or mud crabs) was a discarded byproduct of New England lobster catches. A local slang term for the little crabs was picket or pick-ed toe, referring to the sharp point on the crabs' legs. This evolved into peekytoe about the time that Portland seafood wholesaler Rod Mitchell of the Browne Trading Company, realized their culinary potential and began selling them to upscale East Coast markets.

Now, the peekytoe is much in demand by discriminating chefs. Peekytoes are not marketed live or whole, but one of their attractions is the speed and care in which the sweet pink meat is handled and picked out. Pickers take the crabs straight from the boat to cook, shell, and send out to restaurants immediately.

Information on peekytoe crabs courtesy of www.chefs.com

The waiter also told us about an island just off Searsport called Sears Island. He said the fishing was good there. We were curious about an island you could drive to, so we turned off on Sears Island Road, and sure enough, it went right to the edge of the mainland and Sears Island was right in front of us. However, the bridge was closed to vehicles. So we pulled over to watch some guys digging for steamers (clams) and picked up some nice, flat rocks for our garden path that Wiley’s making. We plan to go back on a nicer day and walk over the bridge and explore the island. We also stopped in the Job Lots store in Searsport and got a really nice (name brand) golf shirt for Wiley.

As with so many of our planned adventures, the initial goal wound up being the least interesting part of the trip. The mall in Bangor was just a mall, and we didn’t even buy anything. Plus we didn’t get many pictures because I didn’t want to take the digital camera out in the rain. We did make a short stop on the way home to take a look at this neat spring. We would never have noticed it on the side of the road except that an old gent in a pickup truck was filling plastic jugs with water. It's a public spring right on the side of the road! The base is a bathtub sized block of solid granite with a shallow depression carved out (we think it might have been for watering horses). The cold spring water comes out of a pipe. There's a brass plaque on the front dedicating the spring to someone's father (dated 1869). Shortly after we saw this, we passed an old fashioned pump with a jug of priming water sitting beside it. It was also on the public road with a parking spot beside it.

Back to work tomorrow (and the weather is supposed to be gorgeous!).