The Moose Not The Mouse - Day 8 - Rainy Days

[roonlou]

7th May 2009, Thursday

Ouch! Ah rubbish! Both eyes glued shut this morning! So much for my vague attempts at not cross contaminating my eye condition! Right eye not as severe as the left, that’s got to be a good sign. The question is, does the left eye infection count as a fourth ailment, or a continuation of the third?

Really gloomy morning today, the rain is quite heavy, but no mists to strip our views yet. Also, found it quite difficult to wake up, could have slept on and on and on. Finally found the strength to leave the bed briefly and grabbed some juice, and tweaked the thermostat up in the living room. Returned to the vast bed for our now traditional episode of “Lie to me”, if you’re wondering why it’s the only thing we’re watching, it’s for two reasons; 1: It’s really good, and 2: It’s the only thing we’ve got to watch!

This morning’s breakfast consisted of fruit, yogurt and a mash up of blueberry muffin and chocolate shreddies! Gotta love those wheatie treats!



We got ready for the day, and due to the weather decided to take the 20 mile scenic drive up and round the lake to see if we could witness Mount Kineo – a 1789ft mountain rising from Moosehead lakes. The guide described it as a great place to hike, and play golf, and only accessible by a ferry that runs in the warmer climes.

So off in our now pleasingly grubby van (Roo was trying his hardest to get it as dirty as possible to return to Dollar next week), we headed off up the soggy track and onto the tiny town of Rockwood.

Not much of a scenic drive in the pouring rain, but was nice to get out and about. When we arrived at Rockwood we headed for the ferry terminal down at the docks. Now, I thought the town of Greenville was small with its one pub, one restaurant, one clothes shop and one drug store – but Rockwood was just one shop! And looked decidedly abandoned in that out of season way.

We could just make out Kineo Mount jutting out from the dark waters of the lake, and then the peak quickly disappearing into the mists and rains of the New England skies.



Moosehead region was created by glacier activity many thousand of years ago, and you can almost see the inverse curves that were cut into the surrounding mountains by the slow moving ice digging out the massive bowl that eventually became the network of deep lakes and ponds. You also get the feeling that not many people have been here since then. It’s very remote, and almost prehistoric and of course very beautiful.



The rain was not giving in, so we leapt back in our wagon and headed back to Greenville to get a hit of modern technology with the wi-fi at Northwood Outfitters.

We parked up outside the shop and stepped out of the cold driving rain into a pleasant and warm store. It’s a massive shop filled to brim with clothes, shoes and souvenirs, and there was a café at the front where you can plug in, and get on line. There were a couple of other people in there, including a giant red dog, called Leaf Erickson, named after a famous explorer apparently. It would also appear that Leaf liked being petted on demand, and later barged underneath our table for compulsory attention.

We ordered a couple of extra shot lattes and indulged in some surfing. We sent a couple of emails to the folks at home, and checked the weather out for the next few days – guess what? More rain! I read the local paper and we lost ourselves for a while in absorbing useless information.

Tummies grumbled to remind us of lunch time, and so we headed out of town and down the muddy roads back to our cabin on Wilson Pond for a big old plate of Boston Baked Beans on toast! We spent the rest of the afternoon messing on the laptop, and gaming on our Nintendo’s.

Flicking through the provided paperwork, I found another scenic point only 6 miles from our lodge, an old ski resort that promised 360 degree views of the area. So with camera in hand, off out we headed in the still rainy day. A short drive later, turning up a promising and very steep hill side, we were disappointed to find the access road closed off – and were denied the fantastic photo opportunity.

Ah, never mind, we’d probably not been able to see much due to weather conditions anyway! We returned to base for an over competitive game of crib, and a cold beer to warm us up.

Roo was very excited by the bad weather, and again indulged his pleasures in building an even bigger fire to keep the wet gloomy evening out. By this point he’d learnt the trick of opening the windows up early to keep the temperature below 30 degrees.



With the window open we soon heard the unmistakable call of the Loon; a long eerie piercing prehistoric whooping. And low and behold, we spotted our friendly black and white birdie chums on the lake.

For dinner we had a fantastic feast of Dr Pepper Mesquite marinated pork chops (yes, pork again, we’d been drawn in by a pack of six loin chops that looked really tasty – but I was trying my hardest to make each pork experience different than the previous), parmesan potato and carrot mash, with roasted asparagus with blue cheese dressing. Roo and I both love cooking; we’re not great chefs or anything, just find it very relaxing to prepare a nice meal. This was our first ever self catering trip in the states – so we were really enjoying this aspect, especially checking out the local supermarkets for interesting treats.



We played some more crib, listened to music and enjoyed a shot or two of whiskey. Apart from my redden eyes this was the first evening for ages I’d felt probably well and really enjoyed the company of my husband.

We had some ice-cream with Reese’s magic sauce, that was runny but set and went all crispy when poured over the cold ice-cream – lovely nutty chocolate ness. Then off to bed with sleepy tea, and an episode of the old classic show – you know what one I’m referring too, it’s still the only thing we’ve got! And as my cold is much better, just half a shot of the Cherry Knock out medicine – just to be on the safe side!

[Guest]

Great day again!

[Guest]

Shame about the missed photo opportunity. Hope the weather picks up soon.

[Guest]

Another great report with lovely photos.

[orlandosgr8]

Shame about the weather, but it sounds like you had a lovely day anyway.

[ethanjosh]

Great day again, love this holiday

[DIBBadmin]

This thread has been automatically closed as it has not been posted on in 365 days.