Geocaching Adventures and Misadventures

Nikki and I went for a ride to Greenville today to go have a picnic at Kristie and Brad's Moosehead Camp. Of course, you can't go for a long ride like that without mapping out some waypoints along the way to find some caches! And...Nikki's never been, so I thought this would be a great introduction for her.
Our first stop was on the Greenville Road on the ride there. What should have been relatively easy to find, was not found by us! It's listed as "What a spectacle" and I suspect, I must have been quite a spectacle to Nikki as I was tramping through the woods in my flip-flops (yes, I did bring sneakers, just didn't think I actually needed them on this nice wooded trail)! According to the GPS, I was within 1 foot of the cache, but after going around and around, getting gouged by trees and possibly walking through poison ivy, I gave up. I lifted every single log in there and found a spot it should have been under, so I'm quite sure this one has been muggled.
After a rainy lunch at camp, we headed back home and took a side-trip to Dexter for a Reny's fix and what I thought would be a Dunkin Donuts coffee for the ride home. Guess what...Dexter doesn't have a DD and they never did. What dream was I in where I actually drank a cup of DD coffee that I bought in Dexter??

Back on the road, we had a few caches to look for in Guilford. The first took us to this historical covered bridge. According to my coordinates, we we supposed to jump 50 feet to the water to find this one. I don't think so. The coordinates were going crazy and we walked back and forth to find a logical spot, but here again, we left without a find. At this point, I was quite sure Nikki must be thinking I had no idea what I was doing! She even got her phone out and started texting as soon as we got in the car. I said, "Are you telling everyone what a loser your mother is?" (She wasn't, or so she said.)We had several others to check, but it was raining so we settled on one last one, called Deer Crossing. Here the land was posted, but the owner placed it, so it was A-OK to be there! I must tell you, Mark wrote the clues for me last night, and Nikki and I tried to read them. Here's how I read this clue, "Easy peasy-bone of a tree-just look around and you'll find me!" As soon as we rode by the spot, Nikki said, "Hey, I bet it's by that tree right there." I looked in the direction she pointed and headed there as soon as we got out of the car. "That tree right there" that I saw her pointing to turned out to be about 20 feet from the actual tree she was pointing to! So, I was dumbfounded. Here's where I read the clue out loud again and said, "What the heck is a 'bone of a tree'? Nikki said, "I dunno" as Guinness, her dog, was pulling her everywhere except where she wanted to be! I began mumbling, "Bone, bone, bone. Oh, I get it. Bone means dead, so there must be a dead tree somewhere." That's when I walked over to the dead tree stump Nikki had originally pointed out and I immediately saw it and accidentally yelled, "I found it!" Then I moved away and told Nikki to head over this way to find it. And then Guinness helped her out by dragging her right through the geocache site until she let go of his leash and he did a little exploring of his own.



So, we found our first (and last) cache of the day. Nikki humored me by being silly while taking all the trinkets out of the ammo box, we both got our feet dirty, and we laughed a lot. I'd call this day a success, even if we did find just one measly cache! And by the way...there was no "bone of a tree," according to Mark, he wrote, "Base of a tree." Silly me.

First Steps

This post is late-but I wanted to honor my youngest daughter's 25th birthday with this poem by Kate Miller

First Steps
when you were new
just minutes old
and baby bare
they caught your
pedaling feet
just long enough
to ink them black
and press their prints
upon a glossy sheet
of pearl-white paper

two tapered soles
of elfin size
creased with lines
unique to you that
mark you mine
ten rounded toes
like stepping stones
left and right
a perfect pair
adventure bound

From the Porch

Here's an attempt at a blog post that might be interesting. I and still trying to"find my voice" here and have yet to do that as I sit in front of the screen. When I was on my porch today, I thought about how chilly it's getting (I'm loving the cooler air) and then I began thinking about the season that just passed and I rehearsed a wonderful post in my head. That seems to be my problem. I have rehearsed many wonderful posts, but once I sit down to type them...not so good.

This past summer was probably the best one I've had in a long time. I felt good-really good. Last summer I couldn't get anything done because I was extremely exhausted all the time. Last fall, I got my health in order and what a difference a year makes. I got to see my girls a lot. Kristie trained for a bike ride with us, so we saw her more than usual. Nikki worked most of the summer, but needed help with her big black bear of a dog, Guinness, so we saw her at drop-off or pick-up. We love our grand-dogs: Izzi and Guinness.

We got an old boat and took that out on the river, Stump Pond, and Cold Stream. The motor gave us some troubles, but we still had fun getting it in the water and cruising around in it. Next summer we'll be able to go even more.

We biked a lot. I currently have 1,536 miles on my bike and I haven't hung it up yet! We did two organized rides, one with the Health Access Network that Dr. Nesin organized. That was a 54 mile ride from Enfield to Old Town then back to Enfield via the Southgate Road. Another ride was for the Penobscot Land Trust. That was a shorter one of only 28 miles around the river through Old Town, Brewer and Bangor. All the rest of our mileage was put on close to home with loop-trips we designed. I think my favorite ride of the summer was a 40 mile loop ride we did in "The County" where Mark is from. Beautiful country. Beautiful farms. Beautiful porches.I rode in Brad's airplane. My son-in-law got his pilot's license and bought an airplane. He took me for a ride over my house so I could take aerial shots and he thought he was quite funny when he banked the plane back over again so I could get more shots. Kristie and I both turned green and I was looking for a barf bag after that. I got a lot of shots (most I had no clue I took because as soon as he banked the plane, I just began snapping pictures). I pretended I was fine because wouldn't that look bad if I was the first person to ride in his plane and get sick?? Then he took us north and we flew through the peaks of Mt. Katahdin. This is the second time I've flown over Katahdin and it's amazing. I've climbed it 6 times and it's so majestic to see it either way-from the air or underfoot. He got a thumbs up from me for being a great pilot. It's amazing how much he had to learn and I am in awe of it all. I'm going up again soon to see the fall leaves.
Our annual Hayburgh Weekend was a success. We've been having our camping party at the Hayburgh Acres (Hayburgh Acres is actually my house! Mark's last name is Hayward and mine is Oldenburgh-so we combined the names) now for 4 years in an effort to get the whole family together for a whole weekend in a camping atmosphere. The weekend is completely full of fun outdoor activities. Sometimes we start the event off with line dancing and there's always good food. There's swimming in the pool. Badminton, wrap around, and beanbag madness are games everyone likes to play as well. Each night we have a campfire. This year, we all shared our favorite memories of mom and dad knowing it was the year of their 50th. During the day, everyone goes over to Kristie and Brad's camp to ride their boat and the Jet-ski. While we're all there, Mark stays back and sets up the best part of the weekend. Each year, (being the phys. ed. teacher he is) he designs some sort of a physical challenge game we all compete in. One year it was a scavenger hunt through the woods. Each time we found an item, we had to go back for our next hunt but before we could go find it, we had to do a physical challenge (jump a weighted rope 100 times, throw a fox tail in a bulls eye, etc). One year we did an amazing race sort of game where he had clues in envelopes and we had to find trail markers hidden everywhere. This past year he did a version of A Minute to Win It-he called ours I'm in it to Win It. It was raining, so we had to do everything in the garage. It was fun though. My niece is trying to capture an Oreo in her mouth by scrunching her face up to make it move!

I worked all summer, but only when I wanted to! I love that kind of a job. I work for Jan K. at the university in her book room. It's such a different job than what I do year round. I unpack new books and label them. I organize the books in her book room. I restock books on the shelf that others have left. Then Jan comes up with a new idea (Let's put all the books in Room 308!) and I move them all again! So, it's a physical job, but a good one. Whenever she'd ask me when I'd be in the next week, I'd say, "When it rains." Because of the incredible weather we had, I had to break my own rules about working. Many days I worked when it wasn't raining!

I took two classes over the summer. I wrote stories in the Northeast Writing Institute. I actually worked on some stories for my parents anniversary book. I might be able to figure out how to link it here so you can all look at it. I also took a fiction course instructed by Kate Kennedy. She's an amazing writer and an amazing instructor. I was really working out of my comfort level, because I rarely write fiction. She truly guided us all along to get our pieces done!

Mark painted the kitchen cupboards during my fiction seminar I took. It's something I've been wanting to do since we moved in here, but I have a hard time starting big projects like that and finishing them! And...he's a much better, maybe neater, painter than I am. They look amazing. I chose a cream color for the top cupboards and an avocado green for the bottom. I love them.

We celebrated my parents 50th anniversary. They make it all look so easy.











I went to the wedding of my best friend's daughter. It was a beautiful day on the coast of Maine.



Mark and I got interested in Geocaching. We might make our own caches next year for others to find!

I sat on my front porch every single day. I had tea with my best friend on my front porch. I practiced my guitar on my front porch. On my front porch, we had a sing along while my uncle and my cousin played guitar. On my front porch, I watched summer turn into fall. I love my front porch. I am truly blessed.

Why I Haven't Written on My Blog (Or anyone else's for that matter!)

So my 3 sisters and I have been writing a book for a special occasion. This year, my parents have been married for 50 years. You don't see that very often nowadays. Last Sunday, we celebrated their 50 years with an intimate gathering at my daughter's camp on Cold Stream. There were 21 in attendance. If we had our way, we would have invited the world, but we already did that on their 30th and last year they reminded us they didn't want a big party for their 50th. They really meant it. So we planned a family barbecue with only the immediate family. It was actually a very special day. The weather was perfect. The grandchildren enjoyed playing beanbag madness and riding the 4-wheeler up and down the dirt camp road. The dogs all enjoyed a jump off the dock into the water. And the rest of us, our hearts swelled with pride at this great accomplishment. We played "To Tell the Truth" where we learned some little stories about our mom and dad that we never knew-like where they first kissed (neither could agree on this answer!), their first vehicle as a married couple (it was a Jeep, I never saw that one), and their favorite part of being married for 50 years (both agreed it was raising the 4 of us...awwww). Dad said his favorite times were taking us all camping.

The food was fantastic-Brad cooked the Rib-Eyes on an open fire, salads were served and the corn was sweet and yummy. After mom and dad cut the cake, we had an anniversary dance and then we shared the book we had been working on for months! I projected the whole book on a big screen so everyone could see it as mom and dad flipped through the pages. This book will be a family treasure for years to come. I'm glad we all wrote these family stories because the older I get, the fine details start to get fuzzy. I want to remember them forever. Just like the 50th anniversary party. I didn't want it to end.