Acadia National Park - day 2

Cold! Would you believe we woke up to 59 degrees? Jim had to turn on our heater before I'd get out of bed!

But that didn't stop us from going on a Ranger-led bike ride! It was sooo nice. There is a system of carriage roads on the island, originally built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. No cars allowed. What a great place to ride.

ooooh wild blueberries! And the ranger let us stop and eat some.

We also spent some time at the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. I think this is the poster view for Acadia park. Except there are supposed to be crashing waves. But, the ocean was pretty calm: I told you we had no Internet. Well, that's just not acceptable! So, we found a connection to go along with lunch at the Jack Russell restaurant: And, I even used a trip to the public library as the source of my weekly article for RV.net!

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Acadia National Park

oooohhhhhhhh

cool

beautiful

And we had a suspicion that satellite Internet would be a problem when we saw all these trees on the entrance to the campground. We thought it might find a hole thru the trees, but we're too far north also - the angle is too low to go over the trees. And, there's no Wi-Fi -hey! there's not even any electricity! And, the verizon signal is way too weak to connect. there go plans A, B *and* C. So, it's on to plan D - the local public library's hotspot. We came here just to check email and enter this post, but we probably won't come back. That means ... We're on vacation! bye! will be back on the road day after tomorrow. it is sooo beautiful here!

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Maine Lobster Festival and Lobster Crate Races

Jim has been a lobster-hunter for many years. It's been all Florida spiny (clawless) lobster since I've known him, but his early days were spent catching lobster in New Jersey. So, the Maine Lobster Festival was a must see on our itinerary. Here's the centerpiece of the festival .. the cooker! Oh .. no, *this* is the centerpiece - where you eat them! These are soft shell lobster - you can tear them apart with your fingers - you don't need the nutcrackers and other utensils. Here's a live lobster on the right ... the bright orange is what happens when they're boiled. Does the one on the right look a little nervous to you? Saturday was pretty gray and foggy. But, Sunday afternoon turned sunny and beautiful for the Lobster Crate races. What are lobster crate races, you ask? Well - they float the crates and string them together in a line across the water. 50 crates all strung together. If you are light and fast enough, you can run across them. Like walking on water. But, if you hesitate, even slightly, down you go. What a fun time! They've been doing this for many years. Most contestants only made it across 1-10 crates before they went down in the 60 degree water. It was very exciting when one made the run all the way across the 50 crates ... they got to catch their breath on the dock, then head back the other way trying to run across the same 50. A really good score was 100 crates or more. Can you believe the record was 3,007 crates! And, that 'World Record' had held for 25 years. But, it was broken today. You gotta watch the video to get the full flavor.

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Greetings from Maine

We've added 2 new states to our map! Massachussets and Maine. Massachusetts was just an ovenight at a rest area.

Our destination was Rockland Maine because our friends, Greg and Marilyn, told us months ago that they would be here for the Lobster Festival - so we put it on our itinerary. We decided not to wait for the festival to start eating lobster! Marilyn has a big pot just perfect for the occassion. And, Greg showed us the proper way to drink wine from a box! This is going to be a fun few days! Today was the parade in Rockland to kick off the Lobster festival. A true hometown event.

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Computer Heroes

When we did computer training and support for a business in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, we were often known as 'computer heroes.' I remember one client said she was going to give me a cape to wear!

Well, I have my computer heroes too ... for different reasons ... and one is Elliott Masie. Back in the late 80's, early 90s, he organized a conference for computer training professionals called the 'Computer Training and Support Conference.' It was a great conference. I don't remember the numbers exactly, but I think there were usually 1 - 2,000 attendees from all over the country. I would attend as a participant and, in later years, as a presenter ... he called us 'faculty.' He knew how to make us (computer trainers) feel special. We were always very motivated after one of his conferences.

My memory quilt even has a couple patches from one of those conferences. It is a special memory. (note: Van Valkenburg was my last name then)

So, when I saw that we were planning to pass close to Saratoga Springs, the home of his 'Masie Center' I thought I'd drop in! We were lucky, both he and his wife Cathy were in and we got to spend a little bit of time chatting before we had to hit the road again. He's still in the business of furthering the role of training, but instead of concentrating on how to teach people to use computers, it's more about how to use computers to help people learn anything. It's always an interesting conversation whenever Elliott's involved. His current conference is simply called Learning. And, he produces an email newsletter called Learning Trends.

One thing that I love about our nomad lifestyle is the opportunities to connect, and re-connect, with people all over.

Thanks Elliott and Cathy! Hope to spend some more time in Saratoga someday. It looks like a nice place. Good luck with your horses!

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