Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Camping Alone with the Super Moon



Goodness gracious, this update to my camping trip has taken forever.   I'm back, now, still digesting my experience.  I had the time of my life up there, in downeast Maine.  I feel so comfortable off the grid.  Where do you feel most comfortable?  We all have that place where we feel most ourselves, unpressured, at peace.


This year, I experimented with new behavior.  Which is to say, I didn't totally keep to myself.  Mostly, yes, but not totally.  I met scads of people - well, a dozen or so, who invited me to share campfires, drinks, card games, parties, the study of green crabs, concerts, a writing workshop and local food lecture.  I declined the card games and the parties, but accepted the invitations to check out the green crabs, attend jazz and chamber music concerts, participate in a writing workshop, sample local food, share drinks and campfires and s'mores.  I made new friends who live in Maine.

 
I invited myself to the home/studio of my favorite sculptress to hang out with her and her wonderful work.  I brought home one of her sculptures.  I love this woman, a woman in her seventies who is this wellspring of creativity.  I want to grow up to be like her.



A woman camping alone is indeed a rare thing.  So rare, in fact, that I've only seen it once in the eight years I've been doing it.  This year, I countered my embarrassment at being seen alone with the fantasy that my independence may just set an example for the ladies I encounter.  I think I sparked a vision for a young lady, by the way she eyed my bike and my camper.  To all the couples I see: let's say one of you dies.  Does that mean your love of camping gets snuffed out, too?




Can you beat this beauty?  I will camp until I can camp no more.  I figure I have 15 years ahead, for I see people close to 80 enjoying the experience.  It might be wise to cut down on my solo wilderness trekking, though.  I do admit I should have brought a cell phone and maybe my pepper spray when I hiked in two miles to pick blueberries.  I did bring my camera, in case a brown bear ambled by.  Maybe I will cut back on my jogging down deserted country roads.  I do bring my pepper spray for the beastly dogs that nip at my heels.  Maybe I will shorten my bike rides round Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park.

BUT NOT YET
 
Not when there's a super moon out there.

Monday, August 4, 2014

Taking On the Dark

My camping trip so far.

Day One


Day Two


Day Three and Four -This is Maine?

I was supposed to be camping in the woods by Day Two.  But my RV had other ideas.  It started shaking like crazy 150 miles into my trip.  Wasn't the road.  Must be the tires?  Nothing looked out f order, but I stopped at a Holiday Inn Express in Massachusetts, to go to Town Fair Tires first thing next morning and have the tires checked out. Two hours into this look-see, they told me the RV's front wheel assembly was rotted.  Fix.  Pronto!  I got this repair done by a local mechanic they recommended, but the RV still shook like crazy afterwards.  So this dear (really - he's the sweetest part of the story) mechanic pulled apart the RV's undercarriage to get to the bottom of all this shaking.  Wasn't the drive shaft. Or the U something. Finally... he noticed that the rear wheels had no fresh balancing weights, which they should have had IF the wheels were actually balanced in the first place by Town Fair Tires.  It was obvious.  The rear tires hadn't even been off for the look-see.  They weren't, um, round any more, like wheels should be? 

Yes, too late to fix that day.  The mechanic, and me, were pretty ticked off.  Unwilling to spend big bucks for a motel again, I spent my second night tucked in next to old cars at the mechanic's Used Car lot.

Day three. That morning I got some coaching from the mechanic:  Be gentle but aggressive with the #&* at Town Fair Tires. Armed with indignation and tenacity, I got my money back from for the work they never did, bought two new rear tires for half price and got a free front end alignment. 

By noon I was on my way to Acadia National Park, arriving too late to stay there.  Not too late for a lobster dinner, though.  KOA was home for the next two nights.   I made it to the Craft Show in Bar Harbor Saturday and Sunday as planned.  My favorite Artisans are there!

Day five.  Arrived at Cobscook Bay State Campground, off the Bay of Fundy, for the site I reserved at the stroke of 9 a.m. on February 10 this year.

Day Five


View from my site.  Not another camper in sight.  Disconnected from the distractions of loud conversations, used cars, mammoth RVs, electricity and Wi-Fi. 

Bliss


Wish you were here!  Shhh.  Let its peace soak into our spirit, lay bare our darkness, and empty us of all but love.