Mmmmmoose? Yeah right

Made it to the far Northeast.  Things are different here, let me tell you.
For one thing they have the most incredible road signs.  (Picture included)
One sign in particular is interesting.  It says something like "Moose are 6
times more likely to be hit for the next few miles.  Avoid moose."  I should
take a picture of that sign.  So far, we haven't seen any.  Rose is starting
to think moose live with the big fat dude (Santa Clause).

Our first campsite in Maine is located in the resort town of Bethel.
Believe it or not, but winter is high season here. Activities for the summer
are boundless and the weather sounds much better.  A guy at the gas station
said it was 70 below zero last winter (with the wind-chill factor).  Can you
believe they will tolerate that sort of temperature without even ONE coffee
shop in town?  A person could make a mint here with a latte machine (and I
am not talking about a mint latte).

We toured the Bumpus Mine and actually got to dig for some of the rare gems
that still remain in the tailings.  All of us got "rock fever".  We hardly
go anywhere now without trying to find a beaut.  While on our tour of the
mine we did find several pieces of tourmaline.  The better grades of this
semi-precious gem is aqua-marine.  Our pieces were small, but a trophy for
us never-the-less.  One of the better parts of the experience for Rose and
Chris was carrying a flashlight into a cave.  They were wonderful at the
digging part as well.  In fact, the tour-guide was impressed enough with
them that he worked with us an extra hour, after everyone else had left, to
make sure we even found some rose quartz.  We had ourselves a couple of
happy pebble puppies.

Here is something interesting (especially for our friend Todd).  Way back in
the olden-days in Maine, they mined and cut granite to use as curbs for
their streets.  This must be better than cement...or at any rate cheaper.
But wait--there is an update!  We witnessed new curbing being done and they
are still using granite!  Pretty curbs.  Bad roads.

We did get a couple of days of rain.  In fact, one day we left camp with the
temperature inching up to 80 and bright sunshine.  We left our awning down,
and when we got home it was down further and slightly lobsided.  It seems
thunderstorms build quickly when the humidity is high.  That is exactly what
happened and no one was available to put our awning away.  The park managers
were busy rescuing a group of 60 teachers stuck on the river avoiding the
lightening bolts.  Smart teachers decided to stop on an island rather than
go to shore to wait for the storm to pass.  The managers apologized to us as
they usually go out in the park to rescue awnings, but just couldn't do it
with those teachers being stranded and all.  Of course, we understood.

Believe me, we are learning from every mistake--so far there hasn't been any
mistakes that have even slowed us down, or changed our mind about this
adventure.