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Published: September 14th 2006
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Time for another chapter in our life in Maine. Yesterday was quite an exciting day. Woke up to beautiful weather so we decided to take a canoe out for a test ride. We have the river mapped out in sections so we know how difficult each section is and how it takes to travel it. We started with the smallest section so we could get our feet wet as we haven’t been in a canoe for years. The river is very pretty and easy for the inexperienced to handle. Most of the time the river was only 3 to 4 feet deep and very slow. No rapids or anything to worry about. I was in the front and let Mike handle the rear paddle and acting as the rudder (steering wheel). The trip took us almost 2 hours. The only difficult thing is trying to recognize where you need to get out of the river. There are designated boat ramps all along the river but the river banks all look alike and there aren’t any signs that are easy to see from the water. The boat ramp signs they do have posted area small (about 12 by 8 inches) posted on
Canoe
Don't worry, the water is only 3 feet deep. a tree and brown and dark yellow in color. Very hard to see. The river was very beautiful and calming. We saw very few houses, mostly just trees and water. We were back at the campground by 11AM.
Then the skies started to get darker so we looked outside to see what was happening. There was a thunderstorm brewing in the mountains. Lots of thunder and it was getting louder, closer and more frequent. Mike and I hadn’t seen a good thunderstorm since we were kids so we went out to our patio area under the awning to watch the show. Our patio faces down the valley so we had a great show with all the lightning and thunder. We could actually see the rain making it’s way up the valley toward us. Like a giant cloud or fog coming up the valley. Well, everything was great until the storm actually moved on top of us. We didn’t anticipate the winds that went with the storm. Our awning was out to protect us from the rain and it was great for the whole 3 minute the rain was gentle, then the wind gusts hit and the rain changed from gentle to whipping and heavy. Our awning started to come out of the ground where we had staked it down. Mike grabbed one end I and I grabbed the other (opposite end was attached to the trailer) and we held on. We felt like we were in a scene from the movie “The Perfect Storm”. We couldn’t put the awning away because the storm was on top of us. All we could do was hold on until the winds died down and storm moved over us. The awning actually ripped (about a 2 foot rip) before the winds calmed down enough for us to retract the awning halfway. Once Mike could grab his end again a huge pool of rainwater had collected and it all spilled on top of him. What an experience! Well, we got the awning retracted partway and fastened down to the trailer. We so soaking wet so had to strip down and leave our clothes outside the trailer. No mud rooms in these trailers. When we got inside and toweled off the storm came back to say goodbye only this time it brought some hail with it. The whole experience was so awesome. All we could do when we got back into the trailer was laugh.
We ended the day with a potluck with the other staff. Our bosses had mad a huge pot of beans and cooked it in a pit in the ground with coals. We usually have a potluck once a week with everyone bringing a dish. The evening went well except for the mosquitoes and our table turning over on us. Mike and I were sitting next to each other at a picnic table and our neighbor started to sit down next to me (which made 3 of us sitting on 1 side of the table and nobody on the other side) The table flipped onto it’s side and the food (full plates) went flying. We saved ourselves but the food was a complete loss.
We ended the day with a rousing game of shuffleboard.
Today (Sunday) and tomorrow are our days of working. I am working in the registration office and Mike is outside emptying trash and cleaning campsites. Not everyday can be exciting I guess.
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