JoyUnspeakable

We are finally home. A four-hour-and-twenty minute drive took us nearly seven hours (with two stops). I’m exhausted.
This morning, I got up early and ventured off to Foxwoods. I figured since I was only 20 minutes away that I should check out the famous poker location. Unfortunately for me, the only games going were No Limit, and instead of waiting for a Limit game to start, I sat at a NL game. There is a reason why I want to stop playing NL. It’s because I suck at it. I lost a bunch of money in two hours, and I left a big loser. Oh well.
Back at the hotel, the family was about to head to the pool, so I got in my suit and joined them. The pool was very nice. (we stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites, which was very nice).
After we checked out, we went to Mystic Pizza for lunch. I was a little worried it was going to be a tourist trap, but I thought the pizza was very good.
I liked Mystic, and I hope we get the chance to come back and check out Mystic Seaport, and the Aquarium, as well as other things to do there. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have time to check anything out.
Our drive home was long. Very long. New York was beautiful to drive by on the way out, but was a nightmare on the way home.
I’m glad to be home again. Not too excited to go straight to work tomorrow; it would have been nice to have a day at home, but that’s okay. Going to go to bed early.

This was a crazy day, indeed! This morning, we started our voyage home. The plan was to leave early and head to the Lobster Fest in Rockland, Maine, check that out for a few hours, and then head to Mystic, Connecticut for the night. For the most part, that’s what we did. Except we had a two-hour delay while I stopped in the ER in Skowhegan. About 30 minutes into my drive, I felt a sight pain on the left side of my bladder, and soon after the pain became excruciating and traveled all the way to my back on my left side. I have never felt such pain in my life before. The pain didn’t go away. I tried stopping at a rest stop and using the bathroom, but no luck. I couldn’t make the pain stop. I started getting hot, a little dizzy, my fingers in both hands started to tingle, and I needed to get to a hospital. I set the GPS, but as the pain got worse, I wasn’t sure if I would make it that far. I had to travel about 25 miles to the nearest hospital. When I realized I was about 4 miles away, I decided to tough it out, which was really hard. I think I went through 3 red lights in town to try and make it to the hospital. Anyway, they hooked me up to an IV and after an x-ray, they told me I had a kidney stone! After some meds, I started feeling better, but I knew the pain wasn’t done yet.

Here’s a funny story. We left at the same time as my parents from Jackman, except they were going to visit friends in New Hampshire. When they set their GPS, it told them to go North; we were going South. So we went out separate ways. Marie called them to tell them I was in the hospital, and it turned out that they were in the same town as us having breakfast! Their GPS didn’t take into account that in order to go the route that it planned for them that they would need their passports to go in to Canada! Oops! So, they had to turn around, and go the same was as us. They were able to meet me at the hospital and make sure I was going to be okay. (Love you Mom & Dad!)

Anyway, we finally got out of the hospital, filled my scripts, and went on my way to the Lobster Festival. It was a painful drive while I waited for the drugs to kick in, but eventually they did.

The Lobster Fest was basically a small city carnival with rides, games of chance, and plenty of food, including lobster. And they had lobster-themed activities. The only one we really got to watch was the lobster crate race. For that, they took 50 lobster crates and strung them together in the water between two piers. People took turns attempting to run across them and back as many times as they could. I believe the record is something like 4,370 or something. Most people were getting less than 20, though. It was fun to watch the people try to run across.

Unfortunately, the weather was really rainy while we were there. It did let up enough for us to enjoy the afternoon enough, though. I’m glad we got to stop.

We’re now in Mystic, Connecticut. We checked in to our hotel. I think I may have passed my kidney stone! I guess I’ll find out how I feel tomorrow. I’m not taking any chances, though; I’m taking my meds tonight! Not sure what our plans are for tomorrow. Looks like there are tons of things to do, but we don’t want to be here all day – just the morning. So, I guess we’ll see what we have time for.

It’s our last night in Jackman, Maine. I really enjoyed this trip. I’m not sure if it’s because it was Maine, or because most of my family was here on vacation with us. Probably more the latter, but Maine was beautiful, and I would love to come back.
Today, my Dad and I went on three small hikes to waterfalls. Unfortunately, the first one wasn’t marked very well. We were supposed to hike a mile into the woods. While we could hear the falls, with the trail not marked at all, we weren’t comfortable with being able to find the car after finding the falls, so we turned back.
The other two falls were very pretty. Dad and I took lots of pictures. I hope they come out nice.
The rest of the day was spent packing and loading up the car, with a small swim in the middle and a trip for ice cream at the end.
We are getting up early to start our trip tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow – we are going to stop at the Maine Lobster Festival! I can’t wait!

Not much excitement today. Mike and his family went home today. Domino and Carolena miss their cousins Michael and Ileona. My family mostly hung out here at the cabin. We left to go souvenir shopping, and to pick up some more milk and stuff at the grocery store. Mom and Dad went back to Greenville, and returned with three cooked lobster. I think they were about 1.5 pounds each, and only cost $10 each. Pretty awesome deal. This evening, Dad and I went moose searching, and we finally got a sighting. There was a mom and it’s kid, walking through a creek. We were able to get a couple of pictures of them before they disappeared. I wish we could have gotten closer. Marie made friends with another vacationing couple from North Carolina, and we played Hearts against them this evening. Marie won.
Only one more full day left in Maine. Not really sure what we are going to do.

Today, my dad and I went and rented a canoe for the day. I originally wanted to do some crazy long canoe trip to some hidden falls, but then I was told that trip is often only done over one or two nights of camping. That’s too bad. I would have loved to do it. Just not really prepared to do anything like that.
We rented the canoe from Crazy Cove. The lady who we rented it from reminded me of the crazy lady from Misery. We only used it for a few hours, but we had a good time. We paddled up to where I knew the kids would be playing, and we took the kids, two at a time, out for a small trip. First, Dad and I took out Ileona and Michael, and then Dad and Marie too out Carolena and Domino. Then Dad and I paddled across the lake to the other side to eat the lunch that we packed. The weather was not that great. It was cloudy, a little rainy at times, and a decent breeze. Unfortunately, I ended up getting a little sunburned on the top of each knee, and a little on my arms. My knees feel uncomfortable.
This evening, there was an ice cream social, where they brought out an old hand-churned ice cream maker. We all took turns churning, and ate ice cream. It was good.
After, we went moose hunting again, but struck out again. We ran into another car at a scenic overlook (which was beautiful as the sun set), and spoke to them. They were locals, and gave some moose-finding advice. I’ll have to try again tomorrow. I think our problem is that we are starting out too late.

Today, Mike and I went on a serious hike. We climbed 1800 feet to the summit of Bald Mountain. This was probably the hardest hike that I have ever been on. It was really neat. Along the hike, we saw a grouse, some frogs, and a snake. Unfortunately, there was a lot of clouds out, so it wasn’t entirely clear when we made it to the summit. But the pictures look pretty good.
On the way down, I took a couple of spills. The ground and trees were soaked. And some of the areas on the trail were very muddy. Those areas sometimes had long narrow trees that could be used to walk on. Unfortunately, I took a spill and landed flat on my butt in the middle of the mud. I think k saved my camera in that fall, but then I took another spill, and jammed my thumb really bad. And in that fall, the camera got more wet. It still works, but there is moisture in the view finder right now. Hopefully, that will clear out.
This evening, Rachael and I went looking for moose, but still no sightings.

This morning, I got up around 6am, and I went for a bike ride. I rode in to town, and a little past it, and rode back. I’m going to guess that I rode about 6-8 miles round trip. It felt good to get out on the bike. I haven’t ridden in so long.
This afternoon, Mom and Dad wanted to go check out the shops at Greenville, Maine. The rest of us decided to go, too. Turns out there is a 3-hour boat tour on the boat “The Katahdin” that leaves from there, so we decided to go on it. It was really nice, despite the bad weather. Before the tour, there was a decent amount of rain, along with some thunder and lightening, and even a bit of hail. But it just about stopped when the tour began. During the tour, the kids got to go in the captain’s room and got to steer the boat, and I got to go down in the engine room to see the engine at work. The scenery was beautiful, but it seemed like a whole lot of the same thing: trees, mountains, water, some houses.
On the way home from Greenville, Mom and Dad spotted a moose, and even got pictures of it!
After dinner, Mike, Rachael and I went looking for Moose. We drove around, and even off-roaded a bit, but all we saw was one deer. Maybe tomorrow night.

Today we only really did one thing. This morning, the kids and the dads went on a hike to Moxie Falls. It was about a 30-minute drive, and a one mike hike. The falls were amazing at 90 foot drop. There were several small falls before we got to see the big one. We brought our suits, and we got in the water just above the big drop. The water was a little cool, but it wasn’t bad at all.
The rest of the day was spent snacking and hanging out at the cabin.
There were a couple of downpours and thunderstorms today, too.
The day was capped off nicely with a complimentary wine and cheese social with the neighbors.

Wow. This place is awesome. Almost done unpacking. Beautiful cabin. It’s going to be an awesome week.
No AT&T service here, though. And if I want WiFi, I have to go to the lodge.
On the way up here, there were plenty of rafting places. I’m sure we will be on the water a few times this week.
This is the first time I bought my bike on vacation. I’m so out of shape, but I really hope I use it a lot. Maybe by the end of the week I’ll be in better shape. Ha.
Dad brought his guitar and is playing it now, singing with the girls. Nice.

Well, at around 54 miles to go, I texted my sister-in-law where we were. One mile later, I lost cell phone service. I’m officially unable to be reached.
We are at a rest stop of some sort. It is beautiful here. We are at a lake, with trees all around. I took some pics that I will add to this post later.
Ow! Some stupid bug just took a bite out of me.
We stopped at Dave’s Diner for lunch. I got possibly the best tasting chicken cordon blue sandwich I have eve had there. Domino talked the owner into giving me a free brownie because my name is Dave. It was yummy.
Ok. Marie is out of the bathroom. Next stop, Jackman!