One of the many great things about Maine is that it’s so close! It was basically a half day of travel! While I did have to fight traffic a bit, it was very nice to get home before dark, as opposed to the middle of the night when you travel out west!
This morning started earlier than I wanted it to. Rain. It started lightly enough, I woke up because I was getting wet – my phone was wet (I kept it in my bed right by my pillow where it wouldn’t fall out) and the pillow was wet! I reluctantly closed the window – there was a breeze and it was very nice! I did go back to sleep, only to wake up again at 4:30 when it started raining harder. Again though I was able to go back to sleep before I finally got up at 6:30. I’d wanted to be up by 7, so that was fine.
I had a lazy morning drinking coffee, eating pop tarts*, and reading a new book I’d gotten about the strange customs of Maine, it was a quick read and I finished it up!
Finally I got in the shower, packed up the final stuff, and washed the dishes and did the final RV clean up.
Then it was time to get the RV out. I put on all my rain gear! I had to dig my tevas out of my bag because I didn’t want to get my “good” sandals wet/muddy. I unplugged it and then started analyzing how to get out without hitting the obstacles I narrowly missed yesterday.
I’d originally thought I’d pull forward then back up a bit more to angle away from the posts, but now that we’d had a soaking rain for 4+ hours and the grassy site was barley dry enough for me to safely park on yesterday I didn’t want to do too much driving around – didn’t want to get stuck in the mud! I rolled around a few other ideas, turning right out of the site rather than left (I’m pretty sure it was one way but LOTS of people were going the wrong way!), back all the way across the empty site behind me, go beg for help, and other ideas…finally I decided to go with my original plan so I looked around to double check where everything was (my mirrors were rather useless covered with water!) and pulled forwarded – after a few feet I got out to see where everything was – I was safely beyond the water post and it looked like I’d be able to get past the electric post too if I just kept going, so I did, but very slowly. I got out to look after a few more feet, and sure enough I was past that too…hmmm…didn’t look like I’d have to back up, I could just pull directly out! Just had to make sure I could get past the site # sign which I couldn’t find the mirror (I’d wiped the mirror off with a paper towel, but it didn’t help much) so I got out yet again to look, and it was so far away there was no way I could hit it! I kept going forward – I wasn’t convinced I wasn’t going to hit the sign, so I think I got out to look 1 more time, then I gave it some gas and it almost got stuck in the mud, but confident that I wasn’t going hit anything I gunned it and the RV popped right out of the site on to the road and I was off! For once it was something easier done than said!
It was a little before 9 and I was on my way. I stopped to top off the tank and pick up some snacks for the airport, then made my way through downtown Rockland and out to Leisure Maine.
I pulled in at 9:30 – a full hour before my deadline. I met up with Bruce again and told him all about my adventures! We talked a bit about the “hiccups” at the beginning of the trip and he allowed as to how he’d had reservations about the coach battery – as had I – when I checked it out. I now know that next time if there’s any question I’ll ask them to check it just to be sure! We did a final walk through and I mentioned a few other minor things that I’d noticed that might need attention and soon the RV was all checked back in.
Rene was headed out in the direction of the airport so he offered to give me a ride, if I was willing to wait about 45 mins – since my flight didn’t leave until 12:55 that wasn’t a problem at all. I sat on the couch and played iPhone games until about 11 when Rene was ready to head out. We got the airport around 11:30, so it was perfect!
When you fly Cape Air everything must be weighed – you even have to disclose your weight when you check in, and if you don’t know (and admit that rather than making something up) you get to step on the big luggage scale! There were 2 folks on my flight from Australia and they didn’t know their weight in pounds, only kilos, so they had to get on the scale! My bag was weighed – 63 pounds! Holy crap. It was no where near that heavy on the way there. Must have bought more stuff than I thought I did. Or maybe it’s all the wet clothes I was bringing home – clothes still wet from my swim in Richardson Lake, boots & socks still wet from fording the creek! (why in the world these synthetic clothes haven’t dried yet is beyond me!) I had to pay an extra baggage fee of $25 – cheaper than mailing the stuff home! I was worried that United would also charge me, but they didn’t (other than their normal checked baggage fee).
The weather was really bad in Boston and there were huge delays, our plane didn’t arrive from Boston until 1:30, so we were about an hour late getting out, but it was ok because I’d given myself a long layover, so now I was down to a short layover!
The Rockland Airport is very small. I think it’s in a trailer – it might be a double wide… There were only 8 of us on the flight. They had 3 TSA people and a Sheriff! The TSA people were quite through. Nearly everyone’s bag was x-rayed, hand checked, and then x-rayed again. I know with my computer bag the lady looked and took out my keys, then sent it back to the x-ray. She also swabbed the inside of my computer bag for chemicals! The big airports don’t do all that!
When it was time to board they took us out 1 at a time and directed us where to sit. When it was my turn the gal said “sit behind the pilot or in the co-pilot’s seat – I thought she meant the seat behind the co-pilot (which is where I wanted to sit so I’d have a good view) so I sat there. The next guy who got in sat in the actual co-pilot’s seat and I was bummed that I’d could have sat there had I understood what she meant!
We did manage to get up above the clouds where it was sunny! It was neat to watch the pilot, but a bit unnerving when he pulled out his blackberry (after telling us to turn off our cell phones) and put his headphones on! Well really just one, he still had his air traffic headset on! But I guess it’s like listening to music while you drive!
When we landed in Boston we were taxiing to the gate and on the runway next to us was a giant 747 Air France! It pulled out in front of us and we followed it! That was pretty cool!
We got in about 3:00 and I quickly got over to the United desk, checked in for my flight to Dulles and went back through security. There was an overpriced pre-packaged sandwich stand right next to my gate so I grabbed a sandwich and a cookie and got to the gate.
The flight to Dulles was on time. It too was a small plane – only 4 seats across, but it was a jet! We arrived right on time! I grabbed my bag and headed for the car – it was seriously heavy, but not so bad that I couldn’t do it!
After driving the RV my Saturn VUE felt like a compact sports car! It was hard to remember that I could just go without thinking about my every move quite as much! It made me twitch a few times that the mirrors were so small!
Traffic wasn’t so bad and I was home about 7:30!
I opened my bag to discover that my pillow was very wet. I’d packed it on top, and I guess my bag sat in the rain at some point and the zipper isn’t waterproof! I’d wanted to wash the sheets tonight anyway (I LOVE freshly washed sheets and after two weeks of sleeping under my sleeping bag, I’m looking forward to a real bed!) so it was no big deal. I did put the pillow in the dryer for a few minutes, it came out very fluffy, that might become a new routine!
Hopefully the sheets will be dry soon and I can get them on the bed and crawl in!
*Pop Tarts - I know Russell pointed out that it was a cherry frosted pop tart in the "Internet Cafe" pic - I'm not sure I have eaten pop tarts since Camp Mohawk in 1987, but when I was hiking up Penobscot Mt I saw some Pop Tart pieces that someone had dropped, and suddenly had a craving! I decided to splurge and buy some, more snacks/dessert, but it worked out great when I ran out of milk/cereal with not enough days to warrent buying more! They were quite tasty, but I probably won't be buying them again until the next big hiking/kayaking trip! :-)
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