Day of Walking 

This morning Russ announced that is was so hot in Durham that it was reported to feel like it was 115°. Thank goodness it was only 62° here first thing in the morning with a perfectly blue sky. With the down right chilly morning it was perfect to get in as many steps as we could. Russ set off ahead of Warren and I and walked to the break water so he could get in his weekly call to his Dad while walking.

Warren and I met him at the parking for the break water and we booked out to the light house in record speed. Since it was still early there were very few other walkers to slow us down. The only deterrents were when we came upon the father and mother who were trying to extract a fish hook from their young son’s nose and his brother sitting on the side of the rocks, head in hands, obviously the guilty caster who hooked his brother. The little boy with the hook was very brave and silent as we heard the father call for the pliers. We just kept moving until I noticed that the rubber sole of my ten year old Keens was coming off from the back. Hoping not to trip and fall in the ocean as it slapped the bottom of my sole with each step I slowed down my pace.
After the first walk of the day we got ready to go to Belfast to meet Sheppy and Dick Vann for lunch. We arrived in the cute harbor town a little early so we walked the streets looking in the stores. Once of the best things about Maine is the originality of the stores. My very favorite one was a fabric and art supply store. I cold have spend a year and a million dollars there. I may still need to go back.
Lunch with Sheppy and Dick was lively as ever. Sheppy and I had a year’s worth of catching up to do. After we covered all the regular topics we got onto politics. You know how quiet and demure I am so it came as quite a surprise when a women sitting behind us leaned over to share some political news with us about Sarah Huckabee Saunders having better hair and makeup now that there is a new communications director. Thank goodness our restaurant neighbor was in agreement with us about the state of the government. Turns out she and her husband we from Pawleys Island. You meet the nicest southerners in Maine.

After parting from Sheppy and Dick we walked the rest of Belfast, crosing the foot bridge to go to the eastern side of the river and back. On our way home we drove Russ through the bayside community of Northport. If I had a house in Maine I would want it to be in this little Victorian community with tiny homes close together that had once been a Methodist camp.

In direct contrast we stopped at a big mountain retreat center that had been built by MBNA when they were still a bank. We drove to the top of a mountain to the summit with glorious views of all of Penobscot Bay. The center had 40 cabins you could rent and a big fitness center. It had no character and no soul and there was hardly a person anywhere on the giant property.
We arrived home and I in my exhaustion feigned need to write this blog, while Russ went back out for a last walk so he could break the 20,000 step mark. I am perfectly happy with my 14,000 steps even if they are only 2/3 the length of Russ’ stride. It’s 68° here now and I am so glad I am not in 115° anywhere else.