Memorial Day Weekend at Flagstaff Lake

It has continued to be a very busy time leading up to this 3-day holiday weekend at Cathedral Pines campground in Eustis, Maine. 30 miles north of the campground we stayed at a year ago and 23 miles from the Canadian border of Quebec, surrounded by the western mountains and vast forests. Recreational opportunities abound year round for for hiking, skiing, Snowmobile/ATV riding, biking, boating, hunting and fishing. Somewhat removed from the haunts of most people, a little more effort to stay connected in the digital world it is regardless a rewarding visit for most everyone that visits. Friday turned out to be a tiring day for me as I arose at 5am, had a light pre-breakfast, did some time on the elliptical, more of a full breakfast, cleanup, prepared and took E'oywn to the kennel then made final preparations of loading up the truck and camper for the trip once Carol returned from a half day at the office. Drove about 2 and a half hours meeting up with Lois and Jim at the campground. Once setup I grilled up some burgers to go with sides put together by Carol and Lois, add in a few glasses of wine I pretty much crashed into bed at about 9, early for me in spite of the constant motion of the day. Maybe I've aged a bit in the last year.

The campsite we had gave us the ability to position the RV to lookout across a portion of the lake to the north though no mountains could be seen from this location. Walking around the eastern edge of the campground did provided some beautiful views of the Bigelow Mountain Range. Yesterday morning with a nice sunny start of the day Carol and I did a little bike trekking from the campground after which the four of us spent the afternoon at our wife's cousin David and his wife Karen's camp/lodge as David prepared various tasty items as lightly fried calamari and dolphin both of which he had fished for awhile back cooked to perfection and we finished the visit over home made venison and pork sausages with plenty of sides - there may have be a variety of beers and wine consumed as well. Today Mark, Carol and Lois' nephew and wife Megan and their kids Brock and Lydia came by for breakfast and we piled it on again. They have a camp nearby as well that they used for some of the recreations mentioned earlier. Carol and I have chosen to spent the day at the campsite chilling, an afternoon rain has sprung up as I write this post, Carol is catching nap. Hoping the rain lets up soon, I have more grilling to do. Tough weekend but I can handle it.

Fence me in

Not to bad of a Mother's Day weekend, managed to get a little bit done. Saturday we got the post and railings up on the deck, very nice touch. If the weather forecast for the coming weekend improves Carol and I will setup the screen room and breakout the grill. If it does stay wet I'll be in deep grass for awhile as I didn't get to mow as Sunday afternoon it rained. I did spread some grub killer though around the front and side lawn. Hope that will discourage the moles for the remainder of the year and through the winter. Then yesterday afternoon Ian made his Mother's Day call so as always it was good to hear from him and fill us in on the latest of what he and Ali have been up to. Some extra good news there as they will be returning to New England this summer sooner that had been.

The longest spring... continues

With winter behind us I'm reminded that overall the time from mid February through March was relatively mild, almost spring like. When we recently hit a colder, snow spitting, damp weather streak I found myself getting very impatient with it all, quite frustrating. Looking back I think it had to do with the perception that in more normal times after the cooler early spring it was about time for an improvement in warmth, etc. forgetting that "spring" had an early start. Made sense, at least I had a self made explanation. At this point it looks like maybe another week and sense of the season will match with reality. Helping my recovery of reality this weekend we recovered the camper from winter storage. Nice to have it back in the yard and begin to prepare for the Memorial Day weekend at a campground in western Maine we'd been wanting to stay at since we began RVing. The Holy Grail of Maine campgrounds in a somewhat wilderness setting. Another words, poor TV reception.

After parking the camper in the yard and grabbing some lunch Carol and I ran some errands that included some shopping at a home improvement where among some other items we bought the materials to put up some long overdue railings along our backyard deck. That and putting up the screen room will be part of our activities during the next two weekends as we approach what I hope is our longest summer.