NascarBen's Journal

Back from my trip..
Sunday.. arrived at the campground and got my site set up and then went into Ellsworth for a couple little things, like breakfast and batteries. (oops) Need to back track a little, since I got there late I knew I wasn't going to be eating at my campsite so I went into Bar Harbor for dinner and decided I would try a place I hadn't been yet. I went to a place called the Pier. Great food, I had the Lobster Salad cobb, which had lobster and seafood salad, along with fresh greens and tomatos, etc etc. A very delicious salad. The service of the waiter absolutely blew, so for that alone I would not recommend going in there as a party of one since some of them are money grubbers looking only where they think they will make great tips, I being a little miffed that I was obviously getting 3rd rate treatment, left a minimal tip and walked out without presenting the bill to my waiter. (end oops) (oops part 2) I also met the woman camping the site diagonal from me just as I was headed out for town, she came over to find out if the water at the park was safe to drink. I think she came and asked because she'd seen me filling up my 2 gallon drinking jug. (end oops part2) I decided on a whim to ride up coastal route 1. I ended up driving by my late grandfathers place in gouldsboro. A couple things about the place are the same as I remember from 16 years ago, but that is about it. It was nice to see the place again though. Headed back to my site and crashed at about midnight.
Monday.. got up at 9. Had breakfast and headed over to my step grandmothers place to visit with her. I found her house and she was home. She didn't recognize me until told her who I was, then she had a huge smile and offered for me to come in for awhile. We sat and talked for a good couple of hours. She wanted to know how things had gone for me in college and how work was treating me. I asked her how her grand daughters were doing since I had spent time with them when we were all younger. Her oldest granddaughter is 28 and the youngest is 26, so I fit right in the middle. They've both finished college, one is off traveling around the world and the other is just about to get married. So after I left there I drove by my aunt and uncle's place.. they were home, but I didn't want to stop and visit with them so I just checked out their new house and kept on trucking. Tried calling one of my other Aunts and some family friends, but nobody picked up, so I figured that was the best I could do for one day. So of I headed to the grocery store to pick up my weeks supplies. I got a couple of little steaks, hot dogs, a couple burgers, and a pork chop for my diners. I found some excellent energy bars/meal replacement bars, called Cliff Bar's.. I would highly recommend these to everyone. They come in a large variety of flavors, they go down easy, and they break down pretty fast so you have energy fairly soon after having one or two of them. Picked up a 6pack of 1 liter water bottles, 2 bags of ice cubes, and 1 brick of ice and I was set at the grocery store. I got back into Bar Harbor and putz'd around there for a little while and took a couple of photos and did some people watching from the car. Then headed back to Blackwoods for dinner. Cooked dinner and hit the sack.
Tuesday.. woke up at 8:30 and had breakfast. I said good morning to my neighbor across the way as I was taking care of a little bit of trash, and asked if she'd had any problems with the water. I drove around the park loop looking for a trail I wanted to hike. For anyone who hasn't been to Acadia, it takes up most of Mt Desert Island. One the eastern half of the island they have a huge loop that you can drive in your car and it's just called the Park Loop. So after going around once I decided to pull in near Jordan's Pond and hike the trails there. Right as I was pulling in guess who parked her car in front of mine. That's right.. the woman from across the way. So we talked for a couple minutes.. she was there to do some biking and I told her that I was heading out to hike, so we both wished each other good days and said we'd see each other later. So I headed off and hiked Pemetic Mountain, great trail of moderate difficulty, it was a 4 mile hike round trip, but the view was great from the summit. Back at the campground that evening I saw my chatting buddy come back so I wandered over and asked how her day had been and she told me that it was a good ride up until she got lost, she ended up riding a mile and a half more than she planned and was a little more sore than she'd like to be. She asked about my hike and I told her about the trail and the great view out over the ocean and the harbor's from the summit, then I let her go so she could go stretch and relax. While I was unpacking some of my stuff and getting a fire going for dinner she came over and introduced herself and told me her name was Regina, and I likewise introduced myself, we chatted for a minute or two after that and then she went back to her site and I went back to cooking.
Wednesday.. got up at 8:15 had breakfast said hi to Regina and asked what she was up to for the day, she said she was going to hike cadillac mountain, I told her that I was going to go to Echo lake and swim and relax, then we headed our seperate ways for the day. Well it was foggy over at Echo Lake in the morning so I went into Bar Harbor to take care of an errand I promised a friend I would do, and I figured I would wander around a little since things weren't busy in the morning. So I picked up the beer my friend from work wanted and then I poked my head into a couple of the stores, and I picked up a shirt for myself at Geddy's and then some "Life is good" gear for myself and my folks. I also found an improv comedy group that did nightly shows so I planned on coming back into town that night to go to the 10pm show. Then I went to sand beach and hiked the ocean trail and another stretch of trail that I didn't find a marker for, but I hiked about 4 miles, pretty nice right along the coastline, and it was really easy going. After I finished with that I headed back into town and rented a motor scooter for a couple hours. I took that and my camera up to the park loop and cruised around stopping here and there to get some really nice pictures and then I headed back into Bar Harbor and drove up and down the side streets to burn up my last half hour. Then I drove back over to Echo Lake and went swimming for a little while and laid out under the sun to get a little tanning in. Drove back into Bar Harbor and snagged an ice cream at Cj's, they are probably the best place to get Ice Cream in Bar Harbor, so if you are ever over there make sure you stop in. After that I went back to camp and had dinner. A new guy came in to fill the site across from me and next to Regina. While I was cooking my dinner he was having trouble getting his tent up before dark and Regina went over and helped him out, then later on she came over and told me that she and Alains, that's the new camper (I found out later that he was an immigrant from Lutvia), were going out for Lobster at some place over on 102 that someone had told him about and they wondered if I would like to go. Having already eaten I had to sadly decline, but said that I hoped they got there and enjoyed their dinners. A little while later I left for the comedy show. I have to say that the Improv group was awesome. It was fairly interactive, obviously, kind of like being at "Who's line is it anyway". I even volunteered to go up on stage and help them get information for their next skit, which ended up being what I might dream about that night based on what I had done that day. I think they were glad that I came up on my own, since a lot of the crowd wasn't very... well active I guess is the best way to put it, so I hammed it up a little bit in places ;) ya know, just being myself and that got some good laughs from the audience and from the comedians themselves which I thought was pretty darn good, since I obviously don't do humor for a living. After the show was over several of them came over and said thanks for coming up, and for putting on a good show, and one of the women who worked at the comedy club heard me mention that I was looking for a new job and told me about a place where her brother works and they were always looking for new people, so I'll have to check out their website tomorrow. Another woman and her husband came up to me on their way out and asked me about good trails to hike that would be easy, since I had mentioned the hiking that I'd done that day. When I got back to Blackwoods I was was pretty tired so I just crawled in and crashed.
Thursday...got up at 8:45 saw Regina and asked how her hike up cadillac was and she said great, but she was tired. She was going to Echo Lake for the day, so I said enjoy and that I might catch up with her their later. She said that would be cool, and we headed off for our respective days. I went into Bar Harbor and drove out to Bar Island, which you can do at low tide, and hiked a couple of the trails there. The trails were short, the views were nothing spectacular, and it was hot and muggy.. So all in all that seemed like a pretty big disappointment, but what the hell you never know till you go. After being so damn hot I went to the grocery store to replenish my ice supply to keep my food refrigerated. Then I headed off to Echo Lake again. When I got there though.. that side of the island was foggy so I figured I wouldn't go swimming, but I would go down and lay out for a little while and relax. I ended up seeing Regina there and we got to talking about what we did for a living etc etc. I asked how the Lobster dinner had worked out and found out they they got lost initially and then all the places they found were closed. When we got back to the campground I saw the two of them and said I knew a place where we could go for Lobsters if they were still interested. Well I guess Alains had never had lobster in his life so he wanted to go and Regina was jonesing for some good food and hadn't had a lobster in years. Well let me tell you.. being an experienced native when it comes to lobsters and a great deal of generally useless knowledge it was quite informative for them to see me go at a lobster and to have me guide them through eating one, and equally humorous for me to watch ;) Also a woman who had been at the Improv show came over and asked me how my hike that day had been, since I had mentioned that I was planning on going the night before at the show, that got Regina and Alains looking at me, and the both said, "Boy you are pretty popular around here". That got me laughing and I said well everyone gets to be famous for 15 minutes, just some people do it in small towns. After we got back that night Alains went to bed and Regina invited me over to her site for the evening. I went over and we had a couple glasses of wine and I whipped her ass 3 times in a row at phase ten, much to her mirth and frustration, there were a couple of death threats near the end of the last game. After that the sky had cleared a little and we decided to go for a walk. We wandered around the campground for about an hour without any lights just to see if we could, that was fun. Then we headed over to the camp ampitheatre and laid down on the benches and watched the stars for a couple hours. Saw 5 shooting stars too.
Friday.. got up at 8:30.. packed up my gear and supplies. I was going up cadillac mountain, and I wasn't going to let me talk myself out of it. I wanted to know if I could do it, and if I was in good enough shape for it. So I told Regina and Alains what I was up to and that if they didn't see my 7pm they should send a Ranger up after me, because I was probably dead. Round trip was about 8.3 miles and a good 2/3's of that are done without any tree cover, so it is a pretty tough climb. The trail is listed as moderate, and that's about right, but let me tell you the views you get all the way up the south side of the mountain are AMAZING. However when you get back you are done.. done done done.. So right after I got back I scavanged up some tylenol for my shoulders and then headed off for a long overdue, and much needed and desired hot shower. Later that night Alains and Regina came over to hang out. I was burning off the last of my wood since that was my last night in ANP. So we all talked about life, relationships, sex, politics, aliens, heh you name it we probably talked about it at some point. Went to bed at 2 am.. that hurt because I had to get up at 6am to meet my folks in Boothbay Harbor for a car show that they wanted me to see.
Saturday.. got up at 6:20 am... that was not easy, but got up packed up my site and was on the road in an hour. Got to Boothbay Harbor at 11:30. That wasn't bad since I had to drive through construction in Ellsworth, and around a huge parade route in Hallowell. The car show was a little disappointing for me and my folks, since only about a 4th of the cars that were there last year made it this year, according to my folks, but we made the most of it. I checked out a couple of 71 Mustang Mach1's with 351's. Those were pretty sweet cars, to bad neither of them were for sale. Then we wandered around the train museum for a little while. After that we headed in town for a nice Lobster dinner and then headed home to my folks place.
Sunday.. got up at 9:30 took another long hot shower and then hung with my folks till around 2, then I headed home to my apartment. Once I got home I took care of some laundry, got my mail, you know the usual crap you do when you get home from a vacation. Now I'm here finishing this off so I can go to bed, because works coming and I'm not really all that interested in going, but I should at least make it look like it. Weigh in will be in the moring and I'll catch all of you later. :)