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Locked on 07/13/2004 9:52:11 AM PDT by Admin Moderator, reason:
Hobbit Hole XIII: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1170490/posts |
Posted on 06/26/2004 8:07:15 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
Special Wedding Edition: The Hobbit Hole XI - No One Admitted Except on Wedding Business!
New verse:
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Upon the hearth the fire is red, |
Still round the corner there may wait |
Home is behind, the world ahead, |
Communist/Socialist
Left and Leftier
Quite honestly, I think the RATS are just rearranging the deck chairs. Edwards is their "hope" for the future.
IF the economy holds and we start getting good (actually the real) news from Iraq, Bush will win.
That is, in a fair election Bush will win. Florida 2000 was nothing compared to the cheating we will see them try to do this time.
Welcome back bro.
Morning!
You're ~too-sexy~ for your class g'nad.
This got long. Sorry! I will have pictures tonight, but don't have any now...
OK, so by the time we left, we had decided to go to Deer Island and camp there for the weekend. That meant driving a little over seven hours (more once you add in stops) to Eastport, Maine, and then taking a ferry over to Deer Island. We tried to reserve a campsite ahead of time without luck (no one ever answered the phone), so we were just trusting that SOMEthing would be available.
So...in an attempt to get on the road by seven, I told everyone to get ready by six. Picked up the town bothers at six, and then went to get the other one. He was actually just about ready, amazingly...which shoulda tipped me off that something was about to go wrong...
So, we got on the road and headed east. Had gone maybe forty miles when the subject of ID came up - I had said "Remember your ID!" about every other sentence the night before and hadn't nagged 'em that morning. Well...of course it turned out that the youngest bother didn't have any ID with him. We wouldn't have been able to get into Canada or in any case back into the US without major hassle if he didn't have it...so we turned around and went back.
So...we were more than an hour late in the end. But the rest of the trip to Eastport was uneventful, except that they kept giving me a hard time for wanting to start at places with decent bathrooms. OK, so I'm a sissy...on the other hand, if anyone wants to know where the most beautiful gas station bathroom in the state of Maine is located - I found it! We stopped there on the way back, too. It was glorious...
We got into Eastport and found the ferry dock, but there was a handwritten paper sign taped over the schedule with a temporary schedule - apparently one ferry was wrecked earlier this year. The last one mentioned was at six thirty our time - seven thirty Canadian - but there was a star by it saying it didn't run until July. BUT it was July 1st, so we figured we were OK. The time was also crossed out, but it was in different color ink, and we figured the star probably meant more than the crossed out time.
So...we got out our instruments to pass the hour or so until the ferry was due. We had played for awhile when a guy at an outdoor table at the restaurant above the dock started yelling for us to come up and play up there...offered to buy us drinks and stuff. We did go up and play, and though we'd already turned down the drinks, he said something to the waitress and she came out with four opened beers. Heh...two of us weren't even legal, and I'm sure that woulda looked good if we'd had to go through customs...
But Jim had one and he had her go get other drinks for the rest of us. We played for quite a while and talked to the guy...he was quite a character. To hear him talk, he knew everyone in town and his name would be an "Open, Sesame" everywhere we went, if we chose to use it. We didn't try it out...
But in the end, no ferry showed. And it was starting to get dark, we were in a strange town without a place to stay, and it was starting to cloud up. Great.
We decided to go to Campobello Island (which you can drive to), and find a place there. A friend of ours had mentioned a hotel. We did find it, but it was disappointing to say the least. Cabins, basically, and the lady charged us a lot for having extra people, even though they were just sleeping on the floor. But at that point Jim and I at least were tired and cranky and just wanted the day over. We went to sleep, and Stephen and Bill went out to wander on the beach in the cold and the heavy fog that had come up.
It stormed in the night, and the next day was incredibly foggy and cold and wet. We caught one of the very first ferries to Deer Island...it was spooky, though, because you couldn't see anything except the little strip of dark water right alongside. And I was nervous anyway...driving a car onto a floating object (even a big, stable floating object) just isn't something I felt real happy about. And they kept making jokes. Stephen said if it started to sink we could just clap our hands and chant "I DO believe in ferries!" and we'd be all set. Ha ha.
Deer Island is probably very, very pretty...but I wouldn't know. When we were there, you couldn't see anything but fog. We drove around it a coupla times and had breakfast at a very tiny, very pleasant little diner - at that point we were all desperate for coffee, for one! We also went to a little store and got some paper plates and a set of ceramic mugs we figured we could use while camping. Then we went to the campground to register, but it was pouring rain. Not to mention it just wasn't the greatest campground...the sites were tiny and not very well marked, and there weren't many places where you could have a fire. Back to the mainland...and the younger guys were taking THEIR turn being cranky.
We ended up finding a nice campground near Calais, Maine. It was on a lake rather than on the ocean, but very, very nice. BIG, private sites, fire pits in each one, a beautiful lake, pool and other games in the office building, clean bathrooms...just nice. And over THERE, it wasn't raining. Damp, but not raining.
We got the tents set up and stayed there for the next two nights. Did some daytrip wandering as well, but mostly hung out at the campground. THe family that ran it was really nice. They were just starting out - the campground had been closed for five years before they bought it, and they were still working on making it what they wanted it to be. Because it's fairly new, it wasn't crowded at all. There were plenty of people there for the fourth, but not as many when we first got there. There was a nice family a couple sites over that we talked to a bit. Four teenage girls...you can bet Stephen got to know 'em. *rolls eyes*
The last night they had a guy come and sing for a bit, and afterwards Stephen and Bill asked if they could play and did. They did a couple of Stephen's songs, some Celtic stuff, and then Bill played pipes. They were a hit! The people that ran the camp said if we wanted to come back again, they'd let us stay for free if we'd be willing to perform one night. Kewl...
Sunday we went to church, and then headed home. Got back here by not much after six...we made really good time. It was a good weekend, if nothing like we planned! We didn't see much of the ocean. *sigh* It was so foggy most of the time!
I have to admit, though...the closer we got to home, the more I admired the scenery. I just don't get tired of it. I consider myself very, very lucky.
Heh...I made that mistake this morning, too. Grrr...
Heh, I'm not getting on until Friday...
Well...I know it's my own fault. Had a lotta marshmallows and ice cream and other junk this weekend.
I can just picture you and your sibs gathered around playing, and how much of a hit it would be! Glad you found that nice new campground in the end... Good story!
Pretty adventurous for a hobbit lass. But sounds like you had a fun time. Lookin' forward to the pics.
Where do you get whey powder? A natural foods place?
Oh, hey, any news on the CO trip?
Heh...I was so homesick a lot of the time! Silly, I know. And the best times were once we had our little campsite. We had a little propane stove with us and got to make coffee and fry onions and such for meals...those are the parts I liked!
But sometimes it's nice to go away just so's you can come back. I KNOW it's gorgeous here...but occasionally I take it too much for granted.
Any healthfood store will have it...it's pricey so we don't use very much.
Bodybuilders use it. GNC has it...so any place that sells bodybuilding potions will have it. It comes in vanilla flavored which I assume you could use, but I prefer the natural flavor.
Heh...somebody on another thread referred to the "Botox/Breck" ticket...
Methinks it's worth a tagline change.
I told the wife this weekend that we needed to go camping.
She just stared at me.
I hope the pictures came out OK! Have pictures of the van on the ferry in the mist...and other foggy pictures!
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