There and Back Again

No, this is not a tale by Bilbo Baggins, which is too bad because if they made a story of this movie, I'd really make a lot of money. The title will make more sense as you read on.


So has happened since I last wrote. Quite a bit actually. I went white water rafting on the Kennebec River with some friends from work, which was awesome. It is such a rush and, surprisingly, it wasn't that cold. Granted the wet suits probably helped some. We got up to camp very late Friday night and pretty much went straight to bed. The next morning we woke up, ate a small breakfast and started getting ready to head out onto the river, but not after some training first which included a lot of shouting and throwing. We then stacked the rafts onto the van 3 high and headed to the dam. After carrying the raft down the steep steps to the river and jumping in we were we on our way. There were a lot of sweet waves. I was sitting in the front and think that most of the time I was so far off of the water that my paddle was mostly only pushing air. The other great thing about a front seat is that you catch a lot of waves right to the face and chest.

At one point, Buddy's brother had fallen off this raft type thing that he was on himself. So we pulled over to the side of the river, and the next thing I know, Buddy was handing Lee the rope telling him to hold on and a second later he was jumping into the water action hero style. After a little delay, his brother showed up to guide our raft until we were able to meet up with Buddy again. After eating lunch, I was told and shown how to jump into a whirlpool. It is pretty sweet. It sucks you down, spins you around, and then spits you back up down the river. That night after getting into dry clothes we went to check out Moxy Falls and also had a fire which Sarah (my co-worker) lit with a large blow torch. The Moxy Falls are beautiful. On Sunday we went to the Common Ground Fair on our way home. Buddy and I liked to refer to it as "Hippiefest". It is all about organic living for the most part and anything else you can associate with hippies, except Woodstock. When I got home, I was able to wrap up my already fun weekend with a cook out at the Foley's. Mmmmmmm... grilled food.

Now, remember the title of this blog? It is about to make sense:
I was referring to the fact that I was able to take a brief weekend excursion to the motherland (aka Minnesota) the first weekend of October to participate in the celebration of the joining of my friends/classmates Jeff and Carrie in Holy Matrimony- not holy macaroni, but that is what I was saying when referring to how much fun it was see be there and to see so many friends again. Duluth was a little on the cold side, but the wedding and reception where a lot of fun. The dance was quite a blast as well. You should have seen me cutting the proverbial rug (is that the right use of proverbial? what I wanted to get across is that I wasn't actually cutting any rugs. Don't want anyone thinking I was participating in vandalistic acts). I digress. I don't want to brag about my dancing skills, but....





The next day I was able to hang out with Alicia, Bryan, Rob, Julie and Andrew. I did lose both games of Settler's but it was still fun. Watch out if you play with Rob though. He is a self-proclaimed cheater. It was fun to hang out with all of them again. We went to the playground for awhile, and I learned that I can still tolerate a pretty sweet tire swing ride, and I can swing quite well still. More weight equals more momentum though I guess. The flight home was very non-eventful which was nice. I was able to sleep the whole way and enjoy Benny and Joon on the bus ride back to Portland.


Upon return home, I met my new roommate who had moved in the night before. Matt will be joining the ACMNP kids (Sarah, Rob, Kim). So we spent the rest of the weekend hanging out. We tried to do some fishing off of Land's End, but unfortunately didn't catch anything. However, it was a beautiful night and was great just sitting out there. Maybe we would have caught something if we would have remember a flashlight considering how dark it was. Actually, it wouldn't have mattered. We tried fishing again on Wednesday. Again, it was dark. We tried going farther south this time and finding a beech right on the open ocean. We finally got directions to a state park where there was a good area. We parked outside the park, as it was closed, and walked in. We got down to the water and climbed down to the waterline. Granted this was more difficult then it sounds as it required walking down semi-steep slippery rocks. I almost lost it once but managed to maintain standing. I'll admit I was a little nervous that night of rogue waves and of getting marooned as the tide was coming in as we were fishing. Not to mention, the wind eventually got a little cold. Unfortunately, we were again unsuccessful in our endeavors to catch fish and haven't been able to go again since. However, we would have to go quite a ways south by now as they are all migrating.


Last weekend Rob, Matt, and I went hiking in White Mountain National Forest. We hiked Caribou Mountain which is 2828 feet above sea level and about 6.5 miles round trip. The leaves were vibrant, the air was brisk, the sun was bright, and the company intelligent and ridiculously humorous (and a little gassy). We crossed numerous rivers, streams, and creeks. There were a lot of water falls and cascades. The view from the top was pretty stellar as well. You could see the rest of the surrounding mountain range, including Mount Washington (not seen in picture) which is the highest point on the Appalachian trail and I believe East of the Mississippi. It was a sweet hike. On the way home, we found a great little greasy spoon restaurant where I ate a ginormous greasy burger. It was so good. If that wasn't a great enough find, further down the road about an hour or so, we found an ice cream shop that was closing for the winter and giving away 2 for 1 ice creams. Talk about luck. Unfortunately, despite our best to charm the young lady at the window she would not give us a 3 for 1 deal considering our odd predicament. (Catch the pun?) I got Maine Black Bear ice cream. Let me tell ya- that flavor is sinfully good. Honestly, I can't believe they don't have in everywhere.


I wrapped up the weekend with a good Sunday. I went to church, which was followed by a potluck (Mmmmmm... potlucks). Then after doing laundry, the Foley's, Matt, and I went over to Nate and Jen's to watch the Patriot's vs Cowboy's football game. They have the best place for hosting, not only do they have a big TV, big living room, and really comfortable couches, but Nate loves to make delicious foods. I mean, these two have hospitality coming out of their ears. After the Patriots ran over yet another team, we played a rousing game of TriBond. My proudest moment came when I found the connection between the following three words: Danke, Tank, Grazie. Take a minute to see if you can figure it out. Maybe you are really quick, but it took us a minute. The trick is to not pronounce them in English as they are all ways to say "Thank you" in foreign languages.


In general, life here has been great. Work is going well. Having a roommate has been phenomenal. We get along great and have a lot of common interests. In addition, he likes to bake and cook. He has made me really jealous though by telling me about he past jobs. He did the ACMNP ministry 4 years in Yellowstone and spent the past summer working just north of Yellowstone for the National Forest Service maintaining trails and collecting wildlife/plant data. He has some awesome pictures and stories. He started traveling this week though for work, so now it will be like I'm still living alone with a visitor who keeps stuff here. I've been getting to hang out with other friends a lot more as well. I've really been blessed with some amazing friends out here which made returning from my Minnesota trip a lot easier. The bus ride home from the airport had me really questioning my decision to move. I am comforted though, that God wanted me out here. I can see the difference people here are making in my life, and I believe I am fulfilling a need in their lives as well. I'm glad I followed my heart out here rather than staying in Minnesota for the higher pay.


Will I stay in Maine? I'm still not planning on this being very long term, but I can't say when I'll leave or if I'll return to Minnesota when I do. I am actually feeling a strong pull to the west and to the mountains. There is so much out there left for me to explore. Huge beautiful vistas that God has created for us to enjoy. I'd hate to not appreciate as many of them as I can. I imagine someday I'll be back in Minnesota. My family is still there and some of my best and truest friends.


God bless!