2016 Labor Day Maine Event

 

McCarthy and family were heading up on Friday morning, as was I, so it just made sense to go up together.  We went back and forth between leaving super early to beat the traffic, or wait a while and let traffic die down.  Well, when Thursday came and we were both excited about the weekend and wound up staying out late (not together, we each had our own plans), so it was agreed that we’d go with the later departure.

We agreed it’d be easier to meet up along the way so I sat on a 95 overpass and waited for them to come along.  Before long, there they were so I shot down the on-ramp to catch them, assumed the sweep position, and off we went.

The only section of heavy traffic we encountered was at NH, at the tolls.  This may initially make sense but wait; the lanes which were crawling were the high speed EZ Pass lanes.  You know; the lanes that are sectioned off and have signs posted to maintain 65mph?  Yeah, those lanes were traveling at about 10 miles an hour, for several miles before the actual toll spot.  The other lanes?  The ones which lead to the manned booths, where you have to stop and pay?  Those were zipping along at full highway speed.  Awesome.

After we finally got clear of that nonsense, traffic moved pretty well for a Labor Day weekend Friday.  We arrived in Rockland and headed to the Trade Winds and got Steph and Ally settled.  They’d be hanging at the clearing with us, but then coming here to sleep in comfort.  No rain to worry about, hot showers, soft beds.  Smart girls.

After that, we realized we were pretty hungry so I suggested Waterworks.  I thought this place brewed their own beer but that was not the case (it’d been a while since I’ve been here).  They had a semi-decent selection of brews so all was not lost.  The menu was so-so and the food was road worthy but that’s about it.  (I think I’m going to scratch this place from my Rockland rotation.)  But the beer was at least good...

A quick stop at the Beverage Barn for some hard stuff and we were off to the clearing!  Aaron, Chrissy, and his daughters Skylar and Jayden had arrived the night before, as had Dave, Karmen and Olivia.  The NY crew had arrived earlier in the afternoon and Rob was there with Kyle and Natalie.  Oh yeah!  Brian (Sir Curious George) was there, too!  It’s been 23 years since he’s attended and it was great to see him.

So with so many people already in attendance, suffice to say we were a bit late to the camping party but we found decent spots to set up and were soon settled in and kicking back for the night with good friends, good stories, lots of laughter and even a bit of a fire to complete the atmoshphere.

 

Almost as soon as I arrived, Natalie came up to me with some Shrek Cotton Candy (a stick covered in spider and caterpiller webbing) so of course I pretended to eat it.  Then she threw one of those plant burrs at me which of course stuck right away.  I managed to peel it off and toss it back, and it stuck in her hair.  Oops.  So a couple of us were gently removing it when Kyle appeared with a humungous clump of them!  He lobbed it at me, I dodged...and well...now Natalie had an even bigger issue...

Fortunately, we managed to get her untangled completely.  The only down side was that these things leave little barbs in the things they get stuck in, so there were a bunch of them stuck in her shirt, which was aggravating her skin.  Once she changed shirts, she was good to go.

Saturday, we milled about, got some cleanup done on the clearing (most of the stuff had already been done before we arrived but there’s always a few small things to touch up when you’re out in the woods).  I hadn’t packed well for the trip; I’d neglected to pack snacks on the bike and had been pretty starving the night before, so I headed out on the bike to find me some breakfast and then hit the grocery store for supplies.  I tried McDonald’s first but the idiots in line annoyed me too much (the first guy went back and forth with the amazingly patient and polite young man behind the counter.  The patron kept questioning his order, the kid kept politely explaining and listing out his order, even printing the receipt and showing the patron each item in order, but the guy was too frikkin’ stupid to understand that everything he’d wanted, was on his order.  That took about 10 minutes.  Then up comes a lady fresh from Walmart (judging from her outfit), wanting to buy a coffee and charge it to a gift card.  Ok, no problem.  Then she wanted to recharge the gift card.  Ok, no problem.  She’d used something like a dollar for the coffee, but wanted to charge $10.97 on her credit card and put that on the gift card.  No, wait, she wanted it on a different credit card, and wanted only $9 and change.  No, wait, the first card, and now it’s back to $10.97.  After about 5 minutes of this (all while the kid was again patiently smiling and being helpful), I gave up and went across the street to Burger King and went with the 2 for $10 Whopper meals.  (I ate them back at the site, and yeah, all that fat and crap probably took a year off of my life but man was I hungry and man did they taste good.)  After the BK stop I hit the food store to stock up on snacks and ice for the cooler, and headed back to the site.

 

I did stop to snap this cool pic along the way...

Here's a swing that only Dave and McCarthy could put together...

The wheelchair has been foating around the clearing for years and years, and between the ropes that Dave and McCarthy had with them, they were able to rig up this scary looking thing.  I kept waiting for one of the kids' heads to bounce off of one of the support trees but it never happened.  I even took a turn (for weight testing, of course) and while it did twist a tiny bit, it remained straight between the trees.

 

Around 1, the crew was hungry again so we jumped on the bikes and headed to The Slipway for the traditional lunch on the pier.  The place was jam-packed!  I’ve never seen it so busy, and we actually had to wait for a table to open up but it wasn’t too long of a wait and we were soon seated, libations in hand and food on the way.

Our view from the parking area...

 

After that it was back to the site where we pretty much settled in for the rest of the day, played lots of cards with the kids, and had a truly enjoyable, relaxing Saturday.

 

Oh yeah!  Remember my boots?  The ones I'd left here (on purpose) about 15 years ago?  They were pretty worn out and I didn't need them for the ride home, so I'd left them on a big rock just to see what would happen to them.  Each year, I'd go check on them and even snapped a pic at one point (which is down on the basement wall).  Then one year, I went to look for them and they were gone.  I asked around and Karmen said she'd found them when cleaning the area and had tossed them out.  Damn.  Oh well...

 

But then this year, Dave found them!  He was off....seeing a man about a horse, and happened to stumble on them.  He didn't know whose they were but did comment to the group about having found an old pair of boots.  No way!  Could it be?

 

Yep!  It's them!!

 
My phone is still playing games with me (sideways pic) so here's another one.

Karmen must have not tossed them but just moved them, instead.  These are absolutely my boots!  I thought this was all kinds of cool and now the experiment can continue.  Let's see how many more years they will last.

Sunday was breakfast on-site, courtesy of Master Chef Robbo, and some more cards.  We kicked around for a little bit, getting things ready for the Sunday Feast.  Soon the lobsters had arrived and too many chefs (myself included) set to trying to help Charlie, Dave, Rob and McCarthy get the food all cooked and served.  The feast was as awesome as always and our bellies were completely happy.  After cleanup, and with a good solid base in our stomachs, we set to emptying the coolers with reckless abandon.

When the sun began to settle, we got the chairs gathered ‘round the stage and the torches set and lit...

 

 

King and I had discussed things earlier and there was to be a knighting this year.  Also, Jerry had elected to pass the Sheriff torch to someone else, since he is no longer able to attend in person (we miss Jerry!).

The ceremony began with the usual greetings and salutations, followed by a moment of silence.  After that was the presentation of all knights and ladies to the group, followed by the knighting…of Aaron!  His given name shall hence forth be; Sir I Got A Guy (Aaron usually is “the guy” to get stuff done but whenever something comes up that he can’t take care of, “he’s got a guy” that can).

Next up it was time to announce our new Sheriff…it’s Olivia!  Jerry had written her a letter to let her know ahead of time, and he also sent out his official sidearm, and a new badge, just for her.  It was pink, and looked very cool.  Oliva was pinned, handed her weapon and given her charge (both for the pistol, and for her duties).  She took them quite to heart and without much encouragement, went on to shoot McCarthy 8 or 9 times during the night (he’s apparently very resilient).

From there, we invited folks up to share stories and memories of Labor days past.  We had several takers and while there weren’t a lot of stories told, there were many laughs in the group as well as many fond memories stirred as well.

Lastly, the closing of the ceremony.  We all gathered ‘round for The Toast, gave a hearty rendition of it to the sky and woods around us, and then disbanded to continue the revelry long into the evening.

For some reason, this apparently seemed like a great pic to take at some point in the late evening...

The next morning, we got off to a slightly later start than usual.  Rather than the normal 7am departure, it was about 8am when our tires were rolling along toward home.  McCarthy’s son and I were able to make a little better time due to being on two, and were soon skimming around cars when chances would allow.  We hit some traffic at the Maine tolls (to be expected) and into NH (also expected) but aside from that, made decent time despite the solid volume of vehicles sharing the pavement.

It was another great year up in the woods of Maine.  We actually had a larger group than last year.  It didn’t rival the heydays of when Russ was alive, but it was definitely a good showing.

I already wish it were time to do it again.

Ride Hard, Take Chances