A New Beginning...

In 2005, at age 60, I went on my first solo camping adventure - the destination was Maine and I drove my big black conversion van.  If you really know me, you know how much I loved that van and when I sold it, I almost ran down the road trying to get it back.  Since that sad day, I've camped in a trailer, a tent and a popup.  I enjoyed tent camping as I liked being right in nature   When I moved on to the popup, it seemed to combine van and tent camping and that was a plus. It was easy to tow with my Explorer and not too hard to setup.  I took it to Maumee State Park a few times and camped in Georgia twice.

I became disenchanted with the popup after awhile because I felt it was in charge of my trips not me.  The setup while not hard was time consuming and I decided I only wanted to camp in one location on each trip - too much trouble putting it up and down.  Also, I didn't want to pack up wet and toward the end of each trip, I was constantly checking the weather because I had to leave when it was dry - not much flexibility.  The final straw for me was at Maumee in June when the daily temperature was in the 90's.  If I went away from the trailer I had to close the windows in case of rain and the popup became a furnace.  Every time it rained and I was in the trailer, windows had to be zipped up, then zipped down and then up - drove me crazy!!! I totally felt ready for a change and after a talk with Larry, the decision was made to sell the the popup and buy a Ford Extended Transit (15 passenger). So, the trailer is gone and I'm  the proud owner of a Transit and have already converted it into a camper van.  The van is large enough to make the conversion while still leaving enough seats for family.

The conversion was easy to do because basically I just visualized my black van set up and duplicated it as much as possible. I had so many camping supplies that my expenditures were only about $60.  The first project was seat removal and then setting up a frame for bed and this was accomplished with the help of Larry and Jill's husband, Steve.  We had an old futon frame and that was modified to be used for the bed frame.  Changes were made and it is perfect. It can be lifted at the end of the frame (close to a back seat) so that someone can sit in the seat and have leg room.

Instead of that blue mattress I used foam and blankets to make a mattress that is comfortable for my very sensitive back.  I have storage space under the bed and have most of my screen house supplies there.

I have a pantry area, microwave, chair, TV table, potty pail, gate to keep Mitzi in and screens for side and back doors.  Some people might think it's crowded but I think it's perfect - totally fits my needs and even Mitzi's chair is ready for her when we travel together.

Now when I travel I can stop whenever I want and simply plug in and I'm setup for one night or extended stay.  I also don't have to worry about packing up dry - I'm free to come and go as I please  - I love the flexibility.
I still have some work to do but basically ready.  My plan is to head for Savannah, Georgia mid October and maybe down to St. Marys for a short visit and a quick trip out to Cumberland Island.
I'm  once again taking along my little travel companions Specs (my mother's nickname) and Ellie (for Eleanor Roosevelt) - two women who inspire me in so many ways.

Of course,  best travel companion ever - Mitzi - will be right there with me too.

So, as I prepare to celebrate my 73rd birthday, it's a new beginning for my camping adventures.  I'll continue  doing  solo camping but sometimes I'll share them with family and friends.  And with that, onward and upward.

Frankie, Grace and Me

Frankie, Grace and Me

      Recently, I finished Season three of Frankie and Grace.  This Netflix series is about two friends, Frankie, who is very free-spirited and Grace who is uptight and focused.   These two women, who are in their early 70’s, have been thrown together as housemates by a set of circumstances that include betrayal, divorce and the coming out of the closet by their ex-husbands, who have, for years, been lovers.   The storyline weaves through the complicated lives of Frankie and Grace, their ex-husbands and their children.  The series is laugh-out-loud funny and yet it is often thought provoking and sometimes sad.   Jane Fonda, at age 80, stars as Grace and Lily Tomlin at 78, is Frankie.  These two actresses plus an excellent supporting cast and a strong storyline make the series one of the most popular on Netflix.

      My daughter gave me a Roku and a subscription to Netflix for Christmas.  She suggested I watch Frankie and Grace and once I started, I binged and made my way through 3 seasons in one week.  As I went from episode to episode, I found myself strongly relating to the two women because, like them, I am also in my early 70’s and have lived through crazy, sad and painful experiences.  Often while I was binging on the series, I thought  it should be titled, Frankie, Grace and Me.

     There is an episode in the third season where Frankie and Grace both end up on the floor suffering from intense back pain.  They can’t get up and both are trying to be first to reach the phone by pushing, crawling and rolling over each other.  I found myself laughing so hard that I thought I was going to fall  off the couch.  Then, suddenly, everything changed, Grace was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, upset and crying because she didn’t want to ask for help or need help from her children.  She told Frankie, a mother should be the one helping her children, the children shouldn’t be in a situation where they have to help their mother.

     This part of the aging process is probably difficult for most women but especially for those of us who have been very independent.  I am one of those people who rarely asked for help, but now, after two back surgeries and two shoulder surgeries, I find my life has changed.  I remember the first time I was made aware of this fact and also remember the experience threw me for a loop.  I was shopping at Meijer, obviously  having difficulty reaching an item on a top shelf and  a young woman asked if she could help me.  I stood there processing what had just happened and replied, “I used to be you” meaning, I used to be the person who said, “Can I help”.  It was extremely difficult to say yes, but I did.  From that point on, I’ve found myself increasingly saying yes to offers of assistance and even more significant, when I need assistance, I ask for it.  Each time I’m in this kind of situation, I feel a little piece my independent self slip away.  As I watched Grace sitting there so upset, I knew exactly what she was thinking and it was depressing.

     Last night during the last episode of the 3^rd season, Frankie had a small stroke and found out 10 years prior to this small stroke, she had experienced a more significant one that went by unnoticed.  These two events, the stroke that just occurred and the one in the past, scared her and she felt her world turned upside down.  Frankie found herself facing her own death, it stopped her, changed her, and pulled her down.  She felt weak and was controlled by the thought that she was vulnerable and her life could end without warning.  Frankie no longer could float through life being her hippie, wacky self.  At that moment, Frankie had a choice to make, live a life constantly aware of impending death and being paralyzed by that thought or choose to live a life knowing death would come, it’s inevitable, but feeling hope and the renewed freedom to continue her journey with joy and passion.  With the help of her best friend, Grace, Frankie chose joy, hope and passion.

     The episode ended with Frankie and Grace up in the sky, floating over the ground, carried there by a huge balloon.  They stood in the balloon’s basket, laughing and talking, and looking at the future.  Frankie told Grace that they would solve their problems and deal with life as it hit them and then the background music became, “Who knows where the time goes” and off they went, continuing their journey together.

     I sat on the couch crying, because I know Frankie’s fear, especially when I find myself thinking about our familial predisposition to strokes and heart disease.  I become afraid identifying every headache as a signal for a stroke and every case of heartburn, the beginning of a heart attack.  It’s during this kind of thinking, that I face the reality of death and it scares me.  As I sat there, watching the episode unfold,  I realized that the sequence of events, the stroke and everything related to it was overpowered by the movement of the balloon,  rising up and heading off into the sky. Frankie and Grace had both acknowledged, we don’t know what the future will bring but we can still soar.

     At age 72, I find that I can either continue worrying about how my life will end or put those thoughts away and choose to live life with “gusto”.  Mary Oliver’s poem, I Worried, expresses this choice with great clarity.  We can sit and worry, thinking will this happen or will that happen or we can put those thoughts away and go out in the world and sing.  I want to go through the last years of my life singing, being free to have adventures and “wallowing” in the love of my family.  I want to be like Frankie and Grace and soar, not knowing where life will take me, dealing with unexpected rough weather and hoping for a soft landing with few regrets.

February 9^th, 2018

My Maine

My Maine

Driving along the coast of Maine, going from one place to another generally might take longer than you might think because you are constantly dealing with Peninsulas. Just be aware and enjoy the scenery. 

I visited the Pemaquid Peninsula a couple times and really enjoyed the area. This information is from those trips and the information might not be completely accurate, just check on-line.  I camped in the Sherwood Forest Campground and spent most of my time in the New Harbor area. If you go there - don't miss the lighthouse on the tip. The Pemaquid Lighthouse was chosen to represent Maine on the quarters issued for the States.

 In New Harbor is the famous Shaw's restaurant - if you buy a lobster, check out the tank in bottom part of restaurant - you can choose a big one and they'll cook it there.  I didn't buy the dinner because, I didn't need the side dishes - I just wanted
one huge lobster although, the onion rings are the best I’ve eaten.  If you are sitting on the outside deck watch for the seagulls, they steal your food.  The deck on Shaw’s is wonderful - overlooks the harbor and you can watch the lobster boats coming in and going out. You can take a day trip to Monhegan Island - great trip and the boat docks at Shaw's. 

If you are aware of Rachel Carson, you might be interested in the Salt Pond Preserve in New Harbor where she did a lot of research for her book "Edge of the Sea".  New Harbor is very small but a great place to visit.  For more information about the Pemaquid Peninsula, go to my entry "Off To Maine - Again".

I enjoyed the Pemaquid Peninsula but it’s the area north of Bar Harbor that I love the most. I've spent about 8 vacations in the part of Maine known as Down East and farther up, the Bold Coast.  This is the part of Maine I truly love and I highly suggest, if you go to Maine, you spend time in this area.  Many people travel to Bar Harbor but not a lot continue up Route 1. The area north of Bar Harbor and up to Eastport is what I consider the “true” Maine. I take 95 up to Bangor and then Rte. 1A to Ellsworth. There’s an L.L. Bean Outlet store in Ellsworth (FYI). From Ellsworth you can drive over to Acadia National Park which is on Mt. Desert Island.  

Also on the Island is Bar Harbor – lots of stores and lots of tourists (not my favorite place but my girls loved it).  In Acadia, you can bike or walk the carriage trails - go for a horse drawn wagon ride that takes you around the carriage trails - go to the Jordan Pond House for popovers and tea (a little pricey but good for the "soul") and take the trip up to Cadillac Mountain for a wonderful view of the surrounding area including the sea.  There's much more to do in Acadia - you can check on-line.

As you make your way back to  Ellsworth,(on the Trenton Bridge) there are lobster pounds - good for lobster dinners, etc. On the road to the Schoodic (Rte 1) you can stop at Wimpy’s for a good seafood dinner. From Rte. 1, take Maine State Hwy. 186 to Winter Harbor.  As you go through this small town, stop at the Winter Harbor 5&10 - famous for the huge variety of items for sale including lots of shirts. There’s a nice coffee shop across from the dime store.  I have to admit, I love the Winter Harbor 5&10. 

Winter Harbor is small but worth a visit. Take a left from186 and it will take you to the entrance of Schoodic section of Acadia.  There’s a one way road that goes around the park. I don’t believe motor homes can drive through it – check on this if your driving one.  Stand at the tip of the peninsula and you can experience the power of the sea.  Waves crashing on the granite rocks - if you are lucky, you will be there after a storm - huge waves.

There is a fairly new campground in the Schoodic Park but I don’t know what it’s like. As you leave the park, you enter Birch Harbor and you’lI drive by Ocean Wood Campground.  This was the campground I originally went to on my first trip to Maine at age 60.  It’s on the coast and probably one of the best Campgrounds in U.S. (my opinion).  It was closed for awhile and is now owned by Roxanne Quimby (Burt’s Bees) and should be reopened in 2018. If you drive through Birch Harbor, try out the Pickled Wrinkle Restaurant but don’t eat the pickled wrinkles (ugh!).  

Continue up Rte 1 and you'll come to Milbridge.  I rented a cottage known as Two Jetties in July 2016 and 2017.  I rented it through VRBO. I could write a whole post just on Milbridge and probably will.  For now I’ll just write about a few favorite spots.  Chipman’s Wharf is a good place to buy fresh lobster (right off the boats).  There’s a campground (Mclellen) in Milbridge but I really only like one site. I do recommend it as a place to visit for a picnic right on the rocks overlooking Narraguagus Bay.  I like the Vazquez Mexican Restaurant in town.  The Mexican dinner is about $8 and really is enough for 2 people.  They make the tortillas right there.  

Look up this restaurant as it has an interesting history. River Lilly’s is a fun place to shop. Petit Manan Wildlife Refuge is close by and the Hollingsworth Trail is a nice walk out to the coast.  Driving away from Milbridge going north on Rte. 1 you might want to stop at the store that looks like a giant blueberry - called Wild Blueberry Land in Columbia Falls.

As you might expect, they sell everything related to wild blueberries which are a major crop in this area.  The wild blueberry barrens are beautiful in the Fall.  Continuing north on Rte. 1, don’t miss Jasper Beach in Machiasport. It’s off the beaten track – you definitely need to check on-line to find it.  I love this place – billions of beautiful stones.  I went four times and each time carried off bags of them.  It’s not just the stones, the beach is also beautiful.  It’s on a cove – if you walk to the end of the beach you might even want to go for a swim near the tidal stream that flows into a large wetland.  Jasper Beach is one of my favorite spots to visit. Again heading north up near Lubec is Cobscook State Park.  Jill and I camped there one year.  It’s a beautiful area and has some great campsites – no electric.  Going to Lubec and Eastport is another great experience - Lubec has the beautiful lighthouse with red and white stripes - also you can hike on the coastal trail starting near the lighthouse.

  Eastport is the eastern most point in US - you can watch first sunrise to hit the US.  Also, from Lubec, you can cross the International Bridge and go to Campobello Island (New Brunswick, Canada) - it’s about a 3 minute drive.  I’m going to do a whole new post that will deal with Campobello as it was one of my all time favorite places to camp. You need an enhanced license or passport to enter Canada and if taking a dog, check the requirements – probably up to date shots and for sure, rabies.  The girls and I took a whale watch tour – Island Cruises Whale Watching located on Campobello and Jill and I took a tour out of Eastport (Eastport Windjammers) both are excellent.

You might want to take a hike on the Down East Sunrise Trail which is a 87 mile multi-use corridor from Ellsworth to Ayers Junction in Eastern Maine near Eastport.  I walked parts of it.

There are so many things to see and do along the coast of Maine north of Bar Harbor and FYI, technically north of Bar Harbor is considered East but that’s a whole different story.  You can check on-line for more on that subject.  Anyway, I’ve mentioned many places I love to visit and you can check on-line for more info about them and for more spots to visit. 

There’s no doubt about it – I love Maine and will probably be heading back next summer.

“Maine days, days so wonderful you’ll want to do them over and over again.”  Quote from the movie, Fallen Angels.   

Little Miss Creativity

Many people know me as the Farm Lady but I'm also known as Little Miss Creativity - well, actually I just adopted that name for myself today.  The thing is, I am very creative when it comes to problem solving. Some of this I learned during Peace Corps days but living on our farm really honed that skill.  Like most farmers, I was always figuring out how to do things, using what we had and adapting.
This week I really put my mind to figuring out a couple of problems with my popup.  This first was a problem with hitching.  I'm by myself when camping and depend on the screen in my Explorer to show what's behind me as I backup.  The problem I have is seeing the coupler - everything is black on the trailer hitch including the coupler and really difficult to clearly see it. I talked to Larry and we decided to put orange paint on it.  This was a huge help.  I hitched with only 2 attempts and  I think that's pretty good for a novice doing  it alone.  I mean, you have to be so exact with placement of the ball under the coupler - geez, I'm good!

Ok, that was one problem taken care of but I had a bigger one and that was backing up the trailer - a real nightmare for most of us beginners.  I have some theories about this subject - I've given it a lot of thought.  I truly believe that someone who is knowledgeable should give instruction and then go away. Too much help can just be confusing.  Larry gave me the basics, tried to continue helping but that didn't work.  I need to stop and think - ok, I want the back end of the trailer to go right so, I need to turn the wheel in opposite direction.  Every time I have to change direction, I have to go through this thought process.  If I'm given enough time and I'm not being watched I'm not too bad.  I just want to be left alone, for example, first camping trip, ready to back up and some old guy places himself behind my trailer and starts giving hand signals.  I thought, "what the hell, leave me alone".  In my opinion when someone tries to do that it just causes confusion.  So, what to do - well,  I came up with a solution, orange pails.  I was at Maumee in Ohio and was backing my trailer into my site cement pad - should have been relatively easy as it was basically a straight shot but, what a mess.  I just couldn't see what I was doing - had no reference point.  Now, genius that I am, I decided to place one pail on one side of the area that I'm backing into and another pail on the other side.  Now I can look at the side mirrors, see the pails and know where I'm headed.  Tried it out and it works.  This is not to say the backing up issue is resolved because it's not - backing a trailer is a struggle but this pail idea is going to be a big help.  So, onward and upward, enjoying my solo camping adventures and trying to confront and resolve the problems I face.

Confidence, Too Confident - My Dilemma

I admit to being a novice in the world of popup camping.  I've done it 3 times -  last Fall up north, April in Georgia and May, I went to Maumee State Park in Ohio.  Since that Maumee trip, the trailer sat, closed up, in our backyard.  Each of my three trips helped me gain confidence - pulling the trailer, setting it up, taking down, etc.  On each trip, I had a few problems but by the time I returned from Maumee, I felt good about my experiences and the knowledge I'd gained. We'll, from then till now, I didn't do anything with it, it sat closed up in the backyard.  So, a few weeks ago, I  set it up and that went pretty good. I decided  to take it down last week and as I was doing it,  I was proud of myself,  it was going so great - confidence that's what I had, great confidence - apparently, too much confidence because, I forgot to take off the safety arms and what a mess.  There are two and they fit on a front and back strut so if there's a malfunction, the roof can't collapse. By not taking them off,  I jammed them and couldn't get the roof up or down. Thankfully, Larry was here and working together we fixed the problem and it doesn't look like damage was done - whew! So today, I decided to hitch the trailer to my Explorer - yep, really confident that I could do it - started turning crank to lift front end of trailer and, it stopped - I couldn't get it to go up for coupler to be higher than ball.  I looked at the bottom of the trailer and the front stabilizers were in the air - crap, I forgot to put the four stabilizers up.  I corrected the problem and looks like no damage to rear stabilizers - whew! There's a fine line between the confidence that I need to go on trips with the trailer and too much confidence where I create real problems for myself and potentially can damage the trailer.  I'm working to blend the "confidence" and "too much confidence" and then, maybe, be "cautiously confident". Also, I need to remember the whole, "you gotta have a plan man" and am making lists so that every time I do something with the trailer, I'll use these lists as reminders and hopefully stop having these kind of issues. I can get frustrated and sometimes want to kick myself for stupid mistakes but, in the end, I love being a "solo camping grandma" and just will keep going till I can't go no more.

Aren't You Afraid?

I've written about fears relating to solo camping in a previous blog.  As I said then, I'm rarely afraid - maybe 4 times since I started camping alone.  Recently I was thinking back to a camping trip that I took to Ohio Amish country. My main destination was Lehman's store.  They sold to the Amish and I could make purchases using their catalog.  I think this was in 1999 when I still had my red Farm Lady van.  I think of this trip as the camping adventure from hell.  This was before internet and before GPS and I remember getting lost - not a little bit lost but big time lost.  I was in a very rural area and I just drove around and around searching for a campground.   I finally found one - it was already dark and I  went to bed.  The next morning someone told me about a nice campground not far from Kidron.  When I reached the campground I thought it was really nice.  It was wooded, big sites and I had lots of privacy because I think I was the only camper.  I remember, very close to my site, was a small lane that led to an Amish farm.  After I was settled, I drove over to Lehman's.  I thought I was going to find a small, interesting store with lots of items the Amish would need for their farms.  I couldn't believe it when I saw bus loads of tourists shopping there.  I was really disappointed and went back to the campground and decided to read my book - a good mystery.  I was sitting in my lawn chair with my feet resting on the picnic table bench - just sitting there minding my own business when this horse drawn wagon came charging from the lane, into the campground and stopped at my campsite.  The driver (about 20 years old) jumped down off the wagon, walked over and sat down next to my feet.  He started talking to me, asked what I was reading and then went into a long story about an Amishman in Pennsylvania who killed a woman by stabbing her and slicing her up and on and on it went.  I thought to myself that he was crazy and told him I had to go.  I went to the campground office and told them what had happened and they seemed totally unimpressed.  If I had been in a tent or my popup I would have left but I  felt relatively safe in my van.  That night I was sleeping and about midnight, I woke up and realized a car had just pulled in and was parked next to me.  The whole campground was empty but they parked next to me. Now I was afraid and spent the rest of the night awake - knives close to me.  The next morning at dawn the car left.  A little while later I left - I wasn't waiting around for some crazy Amishman to slice me up or some random person to kill me in the night.  As you can imagine it wasn't one of my favorite camping experiences but didn't stop me from continuing my solo camping adventures.

Off To Maine - Again

Tomorrow I'm leaving for my 10th trip to Maine.  I'm looking forward to sitting by Pigeon Hill Bay in Milbridge, watching the lobster boats and smelling the salt air.  There's no doubt about it, I love Maine and consider it my second home.  My adventures in Maine began in 2005 when I turned 60.  As I wrote in a previous blog post, I sent a letter to Oprah asking for her help in finding the best campsite in Maine and I described exactly what I thought the best campsite would have to offer.  Oprah never responded  but I found a little blurb in a Maine travel guide and that little blurb led me to the best campsite ever - site 22, Oceanwood Campground in Birch Harbor, Maine which is on the exit road from the Schoodic National Park (the "wild" part of Acadia).  Back in 2005,  I was going to spend my second week in Maine at site 22 but my first week would be at the Sherwood Forest Campground in New Harbor, Maine.

New Harbor is on the Pemequid Peninsula which is down near Boothbay.  I had two inspirations for going there.  First, Barbara Cooney (Miss Rumphius author) lived in Damariscotta and second, Rachel Carson explored a tidal pool in the New Harbor area as part of her research for Edge of the Sea.  Rachel Carson became a great inspiration to me after I read a biography written by Linda Lear and Barbara Cooney's, Miss Rumphius, is one of the best children's books ever!
The tip of the peninsula is where you'll find the beautiful Pemiquid Lighthouse.  I sat on the rocks at the base of the lighthouse and had my first encounter with the rocky coast of Maine and the giant waves.  The lighthouse and the grounds are not to be missed.

 
I visited the lighthouse more than once and then would head over to Shaw's Fish and Lobster Wharf Restaurant.  I would pick out a large lobster in the lower part of the restaurant, buy an order of onion rings up on the second floor and then sit on the deck watching the lobster boats bring in the catch. It's a working harbor and from the boats the lobsters are loaded into crates and then loaded into trucks. You can watch all this from the deck.

The boats for the Hardy Island Ferry Service for Monhegan Island dock right next to Shaw's.  My first adventure with the Hardy boats was an evening cruise around Muscongus Bay.  There were thousands of lobster trap markers around the bay.  I'd never seen anything like it and was very excited and enthused.  Toward the end of the trip, we were told to write our impressions on a sheet of paper, turn them in and then there would be a drawing.  The winner would be able to go on an all day trip to Monhegan.  My enthusiasm led me to write a great review and really I don't think there was a drawing, I think they simply read my review and said, "she wins".  That next day I went to Monhegan and spent all my time sitting on the rocks watching the huge waves - they were amazing.  Off to my right was the vacation home of the artist, Jamie Wyeth.  By the time I decided to move on, it was time to board the boat and I lost my chance to walk around the small island.  Fortunately, I returned during another vacation with Jill and explored.  There were no cars back then, and at the end of the tourist season,  there were only 65 people left on the island.  Great place to visit and lots of artists go there to paint.

I visited Rachel Carson's tidal pool more than once.  The first time I was annoyed because another visitor wanted to talk to me and I just wanted to sit and soak in the ambiance and be with Rachel.  I didn't want to be rude so I just left and returned later.  Tidal pools are full of life when the tide is out.  I go looking for them whenever I'm on the coast.

I went to Damariscotta to do laundry and visited the Skidompha Library.  Barbara Cooney donated about $200,000 to the library and the children's section was named for her.  She died March 10, 2000 after writing many wonderful children's book, - Hattie and the Waves, Roxaboxen (always makes me cry), Island Boy and, of course, Miss Rumphius (and more).
When Jill was visiting Maine with me, we went to North Country Wind Bells in Round Pond which is also found on the Peninsula.  We each ended up buying a bell.  Mine still hangs in the crooked willow tree in my backyard.  You can check this out on-line.  I've even seen their bells for sale here in Michigan.  High quality.
I visited the Pemequid Peninsula twice - once on my own and once with Jill.  Both times I camped at Sherwood Forest Campground.  It was an older campground but clean and the sites were fairly large and both times my site backed up to the woods.  I see that it's still open but I don't know what it's like now.  If you're interested in going, check out the reviews.
I won't be returning to the Peninsula but it's an area that I highly recommend for those who want to visit Maine. 
I'll be leaving tomorrow for Milbridge, Maine but won't be camping there.  Last year I stayed at the Two Jetties Cottage and on Sunday, I'll begin a 3 week stay.  I'm really looking forward to this vacation.  Milbridge is located in the part of Maine I know best.  It's about an hour north of Bar Harbor and about an hour south of Campabello Island, New Brunswick - I camped for two weeks on this Island a few years ago and probably one of my favorite vacations ever.
I'll be posting about my vacation if I can find wifi. I think I can sit outside the Milbridge Library and do this.  Mitzi can be with me there which is a must - she will go with me everywhere on this trip.
So for now - I'm alive, looking forward to sitting on the deck at Two Jetties, onward and upward.