Saturday, August 19, 2011

We had plans to go and visit Tom this week.  As with anything that involves our family, a simple little visit turned into an expedition to Maine!  It went something like this.  Hank was off from work for the week and we thought it would be wonderful to take a quick 3 hour trip up to New York with Ellie and Max and visit Tom.  So the afternoon before as I was baking and cooking up some of Tom's favorite meals and snacks we get a text from Tom.  He wanted us to know that he was thinking of flip flopping his hike which just means he wanted to go to the end of the trail and hike South.  That was followed by the text that asked if we'd drive him and 4 of his hiking buddies to Maine.  Oh my, I wish you all could have seen the gleam in Hank's eyes as he quickly envisioned a "road trip". 

So our quick 3 hour trip north, sight seeing, a comfy room and a short ride home the next day turned into a drive to Highland Falls, NY.  We knew that we would have hungry hikers so we brought a picnic lunch that we all shared in a small gazebo where we spent an hour eating and getting acquainted with Foon (Alex), his girlfriend Red Socks (Megan), Wiskers (Nathan) and Cliff (Matthew) and of course the Rookie (Tom).  Afterwards we all piled into the van and headed to Kent, Connecticut to fetch a package being held for Cliff at a local outfitter.  Then we headed north to Maine stopping only for restroom breaks and an impromptu picnic dinner that turned into a mosquito biting festival!  We rolled into Augusta, Maine at 11:30 at night; Hank and I were exhausted--we headed to bed---the young folk....they slept in late the next morning! 

Thursday found us at Denny's for breakfast well more like brunch but closer to lunch! Then to Walmart and Dick's for supplies and then finally on the road again.  We drove, and drove some more.  We saw lots of signs on the interstate warning us of moose in the area.  We never saw a moose!  When we finally reached the area of Baxter State Park we needed to find a hospital for Cliff who needed his arm looked at for a possible infection.  While Cliff was being evaluated we all ate another picnic dinner sans the mosquitoes this time.  Then it was off to Rite Aid to get prescriptions filled and finally towards Katahdin.  Of course our hikers had  no camping reservations so we had to take them to a nearby campground.  When we left the group, they seemed pretty pysched to be there at the mountain.  They were planning on climbing on Friday, August 18.  And then it's just several hundred miles back down to NY! A piece of cake.

Red Socks, Foon, Cliff, Wiskers, Rookie

 

                                             

Mount Katahdin in the background