Sunday, July 5

Sunday, July 5^th

Before went to bed last night, we watched as the tide came in. In the afternoon, there were mud flats and now, this morning, at high tide, the inlet is deep. We’ll have to find a tide schedule so we’ll know when we can launch our inflatable raft. Good times are just beginning.

Great night’s sleep (I think it’s the cool air)—slept with the windows open. Last night, I had a bit of a panic attack. I thought what was I thinking when I made the reservations for 7 weeks. I was thinking that I’d have a television for the nights. The cabin is in Washington county and even though all of the residents got a converter box, no one gets television reception (unless they have a satellite dish). No television at night? Hmmm—this will be a true test for me. Can I survive in the boonies (the beautiful boonies) without a television? Will I run out of things to do? Will I become the boring person and become bored? Stay tuned.

Bob listed all of the things we brought with us to do: many books (and we can get more—Just finished a very good book by Michael Connolly—The Lincoln Lawyer), art equipment (and a lot of it), cards (he hates playing cards), my keyboard and his banjo, my harmonica (and lesson book), DVD’s (and there is a rental place in town), writing, and there’s even more than this that we haven’t thought of (night fishing?). This is a true adventure. We also picked up at least 100 booklets, pamphlets, newspapers in the Maine visitors Center—one of the best we’ve seen in our cross country search. We are going on the whale watching tour and the Puffins tour. We are also on a Wildlife Refuge so we can do a lot of exploring and, I hope, do a lot of walking.

This morning, Bob made coffee in the French press and we had two big mugs each. Then we tried connecting to the Internet and that worked very well—so it might be a matter of weather conditions, time of day, or whatever else could interfere with the signal. Thank goodness this cabin has enough outlets for all of our technology chargers. Phones (x2), the laptop and my beauty accessories –oh boy—what would I do without electricity?

So, maybe I have no excuse any more for not writing. Should I begin with the lobstermen article? Should I write an article about northern Maine, its beauty and its anonymity? Should I work on my BOOK? I guess the possibilities are endless and I am excited about the prospects of actually having TIME without guilt (so I cannot obsess about all the stuff we brought with us and the fact that they are cluttering up this little cabin and I want to reorganize and clean—oh, where’s my Paxil?).

We hung around the cottage drinking coffee and even though we went to bed early, we didn’t get up until 10:20—we’ve got to change that. We read some of the brochures we got from the Maine Visitor’s Center and unloaded more stuff out of the van. I was happy to put things away and get organized.

Bob said, “Want to take a drive?” I was up, dressed, and ready in about 15 minutes. We drove around the area and then took 187 for a drive to who knows where? We had no plans because we knew everything was closed, but we wanted to venture out and discover what was northeast of us. We passed through little towns like Columbia Falls, Cherryfield, past a giant blueberry (that sold guess what? All things blueberry) and ended up on Beals Island. There we found a young couple selling food from an trailer attached to their house. I had a delicious lobster roll (my first in Maine) and (don’t laugh Mookie) Bob had a burger, fries, and cole slaw. Business was booming for this young couple as everything else was closed—but the food was excellent (either that or we were very hungry).

Bob took a road on the island that took us past a marshy area. We stopped (of course) so Bob could investigate (translates to look for frogs and turtles). I discovered the tadpoles (and we now have one to see what species it is). The road led to a Nature Conservancy building but no one was around. We left the beautiful island but not before noticing many very cute houses for sale on the coves.

Arriving in Milbridge, we stopped for some fruit and veggies at the grocery store and came back to our cottage. We’ve been reading, Bob set up a suet feeder for the birds, and he is trying to identify a beetle that he found (and took a picture of). Maybe early to bed tonight so we can rise earlier tomorrow—we can’t sleep our time in this beautiful state away.