Day Twenty-Two – Homeward Bound

July 12, 2016 – Bumpy Road

Sure enough, we’re both up and moving at five and everything goes like clock work. The last things go in the suitcases, tea is drunk, last dishes are washed, dried and put away.  The place is shipshape.  Last night we swept all the floors and shook out the rugs and we think we’ve done all we can.

At seven we’re on the road and stop one last time at La Grange to drop off the trash and say our final good-byes to Sharon and Dana.

When we stop for gas I glance at my email (my phone is still the only one that works out here in God’s country) and see that at 7:20 Delta told us that our 12:36 flight is delayed.  We could have slept in;  but we’re on the road now, so we might as well keep going. Interesting side bar - a lady at the Irving Gas Station leaves her car running while she goes inside!  I guess things really are different in Maine!

It’s a pretty direct route from Princeton to Bangor and we deliver the rental car and enter the airport right on our original schedule.  We go to the ticket counter to drop off our luggage, hoping that we haven’t exceeded the fifty-pound limit.  We looked it up last night, and there’s a seventy-five dollar overage fee! I don’t know what Marilyn’s weighed;  but she passed!  Mine was only thirty-five pounds!  We get new boarding passes and the young trainee works mightily to find us a new flight from La Guardia to Tampa.

Bangor has only six gates, but they have a café that serves breakfast and a special room for Maine Troop Greeters!  So many of our military leave and arrive back in the USA through Bangor. 

After breakfast we decide to go through security and settle down at our gate.  They don’t really have the facilities for TSA pre-check; but at least we don’t have to take off our shoes or go through the x-ray thingie.  There are charging stations and since we’re going to be here a while we plug in and play computers.  There is a lady sitting next to us and she is listening to the comments we’re making as we edit our photos.  Finally she has to ask what game we’re playing!!  Comments like, “I just need one good head” really caught her attention!  She asks if Marilyn knows what she is saying! Out of context, when you don’t know we’ve got photos of beavers, it does sound pretty skeevy!

The new departure time keeps changing and the three of us all get different messages, via text or email or Delta app.  The Delta rep on site is an older gentleman with only six months before retirement.  He’s extremely entertaining!  After a couple of hours Delta provides five pizzas, a box of snacks, and sodas!

Finally our flight arrives.  It isn’t a long flight and we arrive in La Guardia with nearly three hours before our flight home.  We don’t even have to worry about finding our gate, since it is right next to the one through which we arrive.

There’s a lady sitting across from us with a take-out salad and Marilyn asks her where she got it.  We follow her directions to the huge salad bar and hot bar.  You fill your container, weigh it, label it, and go to the self-serve payment station. It’s so straight forward that I’m surprised when I have to help a guy figure out the scale machine!

We’ve carried all our luggage with us and trekking all the way back to the gate is a bit challenging;  but we make it.  I’m starving since I couldn’t eat the pizza and dive right into my salad.  Marilyn has hers, too, and finally it’s time to board.

We’re all set to go at our scheduled departure time of 7:20, even though we’re in the last row and there isn’t a window that we can see.  The bad news is that there are twenty-four planes ahead of us!  Finally, finally, we’re in the air!  A beverage and some peanuts and eventually we’re on the ground in Tampa. 

Of course we’re about the last ones off the plane.  Because of the new construction, there is a man directing us to the tram.  From there we go down to find that our

 luggage is already on the carousel.  We snag our bags and head outside.  Wrong.  Stu was waiting for us at the tram!  We must have walked right past him.  He had planned to help with our bags.  Instead we meet him outside the elevator in the parking garage and he loads us up.

We take Marilyn home first, and then I’m finally home.  Stu brings in my heaviest bag (yea, okay, so I’ve got a roll aboard, a back pack and a carry on!). Mostly, I think he wants to see the progress on the kitchen!  He checks out the new wiring and the new ductwork. All is going well!  It’s after midnight and I owe Stu dinner.  Maybe tomorrow night, since I don’t have a kitchen and will enjoy eating out!! What a trip!!

I've set up a kitchen on the hearth!  Thanks, Marilyn, for the idea, and Matt, for the high-powered extension cord!

Day Twenty-One – Last Chance for Maine Critters

July 11, 2016 – Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge and evening excursion

Even without an alarm we’re up and moving pretty early.  That’s good since we plan on being up tomorrow at five! There’s lots of time for stretching and early morning coffee and tea before thinking about breakfast.  That’s probably going to be the other pizza, since all the hard part’s done!  Assembly is all that’s required.

Our last morning, as the boat catches the early light.

 

We’re both going to check a suitcase, so I’ve expanded mine to avoid having to worry about what to pack where.  Once I’ve made up my mind to spend the extra fee, everything becomes so much easier!  Well worth the money!

The morning has dawned bright and beautiful, with blue skies and a gentle breeze.  Of course it’s still pretty chilly out there;  but it’s worth it!  We have a leisurely breakfast and then set out for Moosehorn NWR. It’s a little further than we remember, but it’s all we have on today’s agenda and sure enough, there’s the sign pointing the way to the headquarters.

On the way we stop at a wildlife viewing area;  but nobody much being very wild!  There are a few geese in a far-distant pond and some unidentifiable feathered beast in an osprey or eagle nest.  It doesn’t look like either but it’s pretty darn far away, too!

At the HQ, the ranger is very informative, telling us that they have seen a yearling black bear around the headquarters area for the past month.  He likes to eat the daisies!  She also tells us that loons have been seen on Round Lake, about seven miles south and there is even a mated pair with a chick!  They stay on the water most of the time because their legs are so far back on their bodies that they are ungainly on land.  She also gives Marilyn several coloring books for the grandkids about the wildlife in Maine.

How cool is this carving on the base of a moose antler?

We set off for Round Lake, which is actually outside the Refuge.  Along the way we startle a fawn who flees down the side of the road, then suddenly turns and bounds across the road just in front of us!  There is also a little bird that we will have to identify later!

Finally we find the spot the ranger had described, with a boat ramp and a rifle club across the road.  We don’t see or hear the loons;  but there is a gaggle of geese just entering the lake!  They’re a lot of fun to watch!

We go a bit further, since the road follows the lake shore, and see a family preparing to swim in that cold water, but no other critters, so we turn around and head back north.

These people had about a dozen of these cut-outs in their yard!

We spot the Woodcock Trail and feel the need to go exploring, even if it’s only a 1/3 mile.  There might be something!  And we really need to stretch our legs.

 Back on “the tar road” as the ranger called Charlotte Road, we find a wildlife blind and this gives us some great birds!  The blind is so cleverly constructed so as to accommodate people of different heights! I really appreciate that; but we don’t actually use the slots;  rather we shoot from the open front and back of the blind.  Either way, whatever works! 

 

We get to watch one little guy making a meal – or maybe just an appetizer – out of a dragonfly!  And there is what we think is a family of four who are constantly leaving and returning to the same little group of trees.  Marilyn spots a nest in the ceiling of the blind and she thinks it is probably theirs.  The young are fully fledged;  but seem to want to hang around with mom and dad a little longer.

 We’ve tormented these guys long enough and head back to La Grange so we can check in with Delta.  We sure don’t want them to give away our seats! When we arrive there is a chair blocking the ramp and a sign that says the stain is wet and we should use the left side of the steps.  Sharon is on the front porch to make sure that people actually read the sign and follow the directions!

The computer in the lobby is connected to a printer and I’m more comfortable with paper, even though we’ll have to get new boarding passes when we check our luggage.

Marilyn is going to check us in while I post yesterday’s blog; but the computer doesn’t cooperate, so she has to go downstairs and use Dana’s.  I’m all through and she hasn’t come back!  I start to go see what’s going on, but you can’t go the way we did the last time because someone is now using that apartment, and I can’t find another way down! She comes back presently, and we gather our things.  Sharon  and a  friend are sitting on the front porch shelling peas, and they offer me a pod.  They are so sweet! 

Sharon tells us that she and Dana will be by to get us in their boat for a “smooth” ride this evening and we pick our way down the front steps, avoiding the wet stain.

Back home we do as much last-minute packing as we can until morning and make dinner – GF penne pasta and the last of the spaghetti sauce.  There is just the right amount and we congratulate ourselves on how well we figured out our meals.  There will be a few things left;  but Sharon and Dana can make use of them and, after all, we helped ourselves to what was in their fridge when we arrived.  It all works out!

We’ve finished dinner and are having our last glass of wine when we hear the boat pulling up.  We hurry down to the dock and get settled in our seats while Dana puts the newly-filled gas can back in the shed that houses the generator.  The other family has been using it, too, and I guess it goes pretty fast when there are six people using water instead of just two!

This boat ride is just amazing and quite the finally to our Maine adventure.  The lake shore is lined in many places with marshes that you can actually walk on.  It makes me think of Lake Titicaca and hope no one steps off into the water like a certain Oleson I know!  At one point Dana pulls up to a marsh and steps off to retrieve some pitcher plants to show us and for Sharon to plant!  He lets us feel the soft hairs that become insect traps when you pull your finger back out!  And Sharon shows us how you can pour water from them, just like from a pitcher! 

No one knows what this guy is;  but he can move that extension like a fisherman casting a line!

The most exciting thing for me, though, was the arrival of some beavers!  We had been looking at their house when we noticed one swimming across the lake!  And he slapped his tail and made a huge splash!  And the performance was repeated a couple of more times!  I’ve never seen an actual, in-the-wild beaver before!  What a thrill!  And what fun to try to guess when the splashes would come!

Just getting ready!

And, BAM!

And there was a huge flock of tree swallows that chose one particular tree as their base of operations! 

 

And then, oh my goodness, there was the sunset!

But the evening wasn’t over.  We docked the boat and walked the Dana and Sharon’s screen house.  It’s a little four-sided structure with screening on three sides, facing the lake.  Sharon had brought a basket with wine glasses, cheese, and nuts and a lovely red wine for us all to share as we waited for full dark and laughed at Dana’s continual stream of stories and memories.

The truck is parked here and we all pack up the picnic and climb into the truck.  Dana takes us to a meadow from which we can really see the stars.  It is gorgeous and we can hear the loons calling, too.  There are even fireflies!!  Neither of us have the right lens, as we were only expecting wildlife, not the heavens!!  After a few frustrating attempts with our cameras, we give up and just lean back against the truck to take it all in.

After Dana and Sharon take us home and we exchange thank yous and good-byes, I drag out my tripod and other lens – and a flashlight! – and go down to the lake’s edge to give the old college try to capturing the night sky.

Half moon has always been special for me.

By the time I come back in, Marilyn has gone to bed and I follow suit.  We are hoping to be up at five and gone by seven.  Of course, we hadn’t anticipated a midnight bedtime;  but it was worth it!