Labor Day 2014

Holy crap am I tardy on getting stuff posted up here!  What can I say, life is flying by!

Here's what I can remember of this year's Labor Day Maine Event...

Young Michael met me at my house and we rode up on Friday morning.  The weather was quite nice for us; clear(ish) skies and no rain, so we made great time and traffic didn't beat us up too badly.  The rest of the folks coming up later the same day wound up getting pounded with traffic, especially in the dreaded town of Wiscasset.  (As Rob said so many, many years go; "We hate Wiscasset.")

Arriving to the clearing, there was nobody around so we mulled about for a bit and I got my tent set up.  Before too long, Dave, Karmen, Olvia and Rob arrived and we set about to gathering some dead trees for the fire as well as some last minute site prep.  Once the other campers began to arrive, we made busy setting up canopies, fetching picnic tables, etc.

I apologize that from there, things get kind of hazy in terms of what happened and when, but I will do my best...

Friday we milled around the campsite, catching up with each other, sharing stories, enjoying the campfire, playing one card, and having many many laughs with each other.  Always a good way to spend an evening.

Saturday a few of us headed out on the bikes and did a bit of sightseeing and then grabbed lunch at a seaside restaurant which we stumbled upon last year, and which we should make a point to visit again next year (Maybe Sunny will still be working there!)  After that, was back to the site for the awesome spaghetti dinner and more laughter and good times.

Sunday was the official feast, with lobsters aplenty and all kinds of offerings for those of us that don't eat the sea spiders.  Full bellies all around!

Bill and Tara had to head out that night so we wound up doing the ceremony in the daylight this year.  I'll be curious what folks think next year; should we do it in the daylight again?  I've always thought that the dusk/darkness added something to the event, but we'll see.

We had a number of knightings this year, and the fold is getting larger and larger.  What were the given names this year?  I can't tell you that, you'll just have to go up next year and find out when everyone introduces themselves.

The forecast had been calling for rain on Sunday and Monday, but we lucked out in that we managed to get the ceremony in before the skies starting peeing on us.  Once that started, though, things got wet, fast.  And this is when we really love having two huge canopies to hunker under!

As the night wore on, folks began taking their leave and heading off to bed.  Zig and I were planning on getting up at the ass-crack of dawn, so we turned in before the night had gotten too long in the teeth.  Of course there were others who far outlasted us, but those folks were staying for one more night so they didn't have to worry about getting up early...

...so when I woke up the next morning and poked my head out of the tent, you can surmise that I was not surprised to see a large pyramid of empties stacked outside my tent door.  I will now surmise that you will not be surprised to hear that I used those very empties to spell out the words "Eat Me".

Lastly; the rain had passed by during the night and while the morning was very wet, we managed to actually break out into sunshine about halfway home (young Michael had met up and rode home with us as well).  It'd been another successful Labor Day!

Ok, some pics;

I managed to snap a pic of that nursery again this year.  Hurry, hurry!  Only 17,381 mums left!

The Lobster Buoy restaurant.  I loved the look of the empties lined up on the half-walls here.

The Food Network was actually filming here when we stopped by.  They kept bringing out sandwiches to folks who were dining outside, and filming them for a show segment.  They looked over at our table a number of times, but dirty bikes don't make for good television, so we didn't make the cut.

Last pic; on our Saturday sightseeing ride, we rode down to the point of Port Clyde, parked the bikes and strolled the beach for a bit.  This tin puffin was bolted to one of the rocks above the tide line, and seemed like a good candidate for a Kodak moment.

And there you have it; the 2015 Labor Day event!