My Nine Day Bus Trip To Coastal Maine

Well I did it. I stepped way out of my comfort zone and took a nine day bus trip to Maine.  

I thought it was a trip for older retired people and it kind of was. The only trouble is that retired people or nearly retired people are sixty years old or younger. I was at least fifteen years older than a lot of people on the trip. As it turned out, we had a very lively bus with a lot of laughing and teasing. Stepping this far out of my comfort zone did not come easily for me, but this group was fun. I saw tons of interesting things I would never have seen. I knew my son-in-law’s parents and met another single woman, so I wasn't totally alone. Linda, the other single is a newly retired fifty eight year old who had tons of energy. She was flitting around taking in the whole experience. It was wonderful to watch, and even though I am not like that I am happy she was. I sat alone because of assigned seats, and I walked to and entered an assigned hotel room by myself which was a little creepy. I didn't mind rooming alone but I immediately locked myself in and didn't leave. Most conversations were pretty superficial and a little awkward at first. You only begin to know people when it was time to go home. I am very grateful to Beth, Wayne and Linda for having someone to eat with and have in my sights. I know the group leaders make sure everyone is accounted for, but it was nice to have someone else to keep track. A lot of people already knew each other and spent that time together which was a lot of fun for them and made the time pass quickly, but more than twenty hours of sitting on a bus is way too long for me. We stopped every two hours but it was at crowded truck stops and waysides. It was like a herd of cattle going out of the bus and back in. 

If you have the opportunity to either drive to Maine in the fall or go on a bus trip with a few friends, do it. It's fun to discuss the things in real time, so traveling alone isn't the best. Needless to say, I probably will not be doing this type of travel again. There were funny things that happened, sad things and everything in between. I started coughing on the 7th day. It was just a small cough. I thought it was from dehydration because even though we stopped often, I didn't drink enough. I was so afraid I had gotten Covid even though I had the two original covid shots and three boosters plus a flu shot. I felt like every time I coughed, people were cringing. When we returned to our starting point, I bolted off the bus and got to my car quickly. I didn't properly say goodbye to anyone. When I got home I tested myself.....Negative thank goodness. 

Now for the good part. We saw a lot of new things. I can't even begin to write about all of them, but here are some highlights. This may be a longer blog so beware.

The first and last days were spent traveling. It is a long long trip to Coastal Maine. It is more than 1200 miles. We stayed in Ohio for the first and the last night. The second day we stopped at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center in Erie PA. It had environmental exhibits and a view of Lake Erie. So far there is very little fall color. This was the only stop on day 2 except for food and facilities. We spent the night in Auburn, NY.

Day 3 we made it to South Portland, Maine where we stayed for four days.  We saw a 5000 acre farm called Pineland Farms. My first reaction was why would they take a bunch of Wisconsin people, many of them farmers, to a farm, but it was pretty interesting. They had beautiful gardens. I had never seen an artichoke plant in bloom.

 They had National award winning Morgan horses. We gathered in an arena for a demonstration of these beautiful animals. 

From here we went on to the Boothbay Railway Village. It was a typical old village where they had some authentic buildings and a short rail ride. It was the kind of village you see in a lot of areas of the country. I didn't have to travel to Maine for this, but I did get to pretend drive an old firetruck.

Later that afternoon we went to Boothbay Harbor. It was a pretty little harbor town. Many of the shops were closed for the season, but the view was nice. We finally saw a little color in the trees.

It was a busy day, but it wasn't over.  From Boothbay we loaded on the bus and went to dinner. It was a traditional lobster dinner. I chose not to get the whole lobster. Since I'm not that fond of lobster I chose Lazy Lobster where they took the meat out of the shell and served it in a dish of butter. We were on a tour so we only had a limited choices. We saw a person order a Lobster Roll off the menu. It was about two feet long and cost $159. It was unbelievable. Several people asked this poor fellow if they could take a photo of his dinner, but I found this photo on the Taste of Maine home page.

After a good nights sleep more or less, it was time to board the bus for Kennebunkport Maine. At this point we had a tour guide get on the bus for a tour of Kennebunkport. Although it was hard to see at times and I really wasn't interested in their town government or who tried to sell his land to the school,  it was fun to see the Bush family estate on Walker's Point and where Barbara Bush used to walk her dog. This is George Bush’s house but other family members also have homes on this point.

We stopped at a Franciscan monastery for a walking tour. They still have services in the outdoor chapel. It did have a beautiful view from one of the trails and an interesting Caster Bean plant.

The tour ended in downtown Kennebunkport where we had lunch at one of the local restaurants. No lobster for me, but I did have delicious haddock. It's a very different menu from what we have here in Wisconsin. It was a pretty little town.

 

 

On the way back for dinner we briefly stopped at the Seashore Trolley Museum. It was a short ride on a authentically restored streetcar. There was a conductor who portrayed what it would have been like riding this trolley in the early days.

From here we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and back to the hotel.  

The next morning the bus departed for downtown Portland Maine. Portland Maine is the largest city in Maine. It's population is under 70,000 which is smaller that many Wisconsin towns. The surrounding area does increase that number quite a bit. The first stop was an old mansion called Victoria Mansion. It was the only stop on the trip that required masks. That was a bit surprising to me. Covid is still a reality and was always at the back of my mind. The mansion was built before the Civil War and was gorgeous. It had beautiful woodwork and ornate ceilings. Most of the furnishings were as it was when the house was built.  The house even had a bathroom inside the house which was very unusual.

After we saw the mansion, we picked up another tour guide. The bus tour around the city was good.  Portland, Maine is a very welcoming city.  The tour ended with a trip to Fort William Park to see the Head Lighthouse. I really enjoyed this part of the trip. We hiked to the Atlantic Ocean to test the temperature of the water and look at rocks. I even saw a Loon in the ocean which surprised me.

Since we had time and didn't want to arrive too early for dinner, we went to Freeport, Maine. This is where the L.L. Bean flagship store is located. This store never closes. They are open 24 hours a day all year long. Freeport had some other nice stores including a Lindt chocolate store and a Patagonia outlet store. 

This day ended with a "dinner party" with eight tour groups.  There were a lot of people and it was very loud but the restaurant handled the buffet very efficiently.  The food was very good. There was a little dancing. Our group were the lively ones. The DJ said he never had such participation in the years he has been doing this. Day 7 in the books. It was time to begin our long journey home but not before my favorite part of the trip. We went to Niagara Falls and rode the Maid of the Mist.  The Maid of the Mist is a sightseeing boat that travels into the mist of the huge waterfall into Canada for a bit and returns to the dock. 

I really didn't know what I was up against. I just listened to the guide who suggested going to the front of the boat for a complete experience. It was a very windy day. The falls was gorgeous. The boat began moving forward and the waves got higher. The wind was blowing so hard our pink ponchos started to look like balloons. I should have moved back but by the time I decided to do it, I couldn't move. The wind and water were so powerful that I just needed to hang on for dear life. I didn't take my glasses off and was fortunate they didn't blow off. I got completely soaked with ice cold water, but I loved every minute of it.  Even a rainbow appeared as we were coming out of the mist.

We were lucky because next year the only way to access the falls will be from the Canada side.  They are going to close down the American side of falls to do some erosion control and upkeep.  The park will have a new Welcome Center next year as well.  It looks like a big casino on the Canada side.

It was a lot for only nine days. It wasn't what I expected. I thought it would be more country churches and beautiful fall colors. Looking back I am glad I experienced the coastal Maine. It will be last time I will have this opportunity. I was not sure if I would be comfortable out of my comfort zone, but I am sure some good memories will resurface often. My tiny cough turned into a full blown cough, cold or flu. I have tested negative for covid a few times so I don't think it's that. I will never know where I got it. It was either from exposure to this virus, stress or getting soaked to the skin at Niagara. It was short lived so I am grateful. As I have learned later, some people on the trip did test positive for covid.  I hope no one got very sick. It's a chance you take when traveling with that many people.

Pumpkin Bread

It is now officially Fall. The calendar says it's fall, but long before September 22, 2022. the pumpkin spice products roll out. There is pumpkin spice everything. Most of them I don't like but I really like pumpkin cake, bread and pie. So this weekend I baked. First I tried a recipe I saw on Tic Tok. It involves using only two ingredients. It calls for one cake mix (preferably spice cake) and a can of pumpkin. That was easy enough. I didn't have a spice cake mix so I used a yellow cake mix, pumpkin pie spice and the pumpkin. You just mix it up and put it in a greased loaf pan. The loaf bakes at 350 degrees for a long time.  It took 70 minutes.  Test at 60 minutes just to see if a skewer comes out clean. You could put this batter into muffin tins and muffins will bake for less time.

This tasted good but for obvious reasons the texture was more like cake. I like a more bread-like texture so I made a second loaf to compare. I used this recipe. https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/spiced-pumpkin-bread.html There are many pumpkin bread recipes online, and they are all basically the same. This one was good, although I didn't use the individual spices. I used pumpkin pie spice.  Click the link for details but here is the recipe.

Pumpkin Bread

2 Cups of all purpose flour

1/2 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. baking powder

1 t. ground cloves

1 t. ground cinnamon

1 t. ground nutmeg

(I substituted pumpkin pie spice for these three spices)

1 1/2 sticks butter

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 15 oz can of pure pumpkin 

Combine all the dry ingredients and set aside

Mix together the butter and sugar, add the eggs until fluffy and then add in the pumpkin.

Put in a greased or sprayed loaf pan.  I should have used two pans as the recipe states.  I put it in one pan and it's huge.  It took a long time to bake. The recipe says 325 degrees for 65-75 minutes.  

This bread freezes beautifully, so you can make it now for Thankgiving.

 I would have shown a photo of the slices, but I forgot to take a picture. I ate the whole loaf in less than a week. I want to make another, but I don't dare. I could make one for the freezer, but I have been know to slice off frozen bakery if I am desperate. I should wait until it's closer to the holidays.

The File System in my Head Needs Organizing

I heard on television this morning that we have a lot of memories floating around in our brain and when we die they are all gone unless we write some of them down. I don't journal as a lot of people do, but I do have this silly blog. As I was thinking about this, I realized the most vivid memories are those which were extremely hard or very happy. The hard things are usually out of our control and we can learn from them.  The happy events usually have to be created. I realize everyday can't be a party, but it doesn't have to be a big deal. Even the little things can make a memory. The sad part of this is that most people remember a harsh word or a deed before they remember the person who left a bucket of tomatoes on your doorstep. Granted, this is a lot of tomatoes to take care of, but still extremely kind. I will remember the summer of 2022 where I made more tomato sauce than I did when I had a husband and a growing family.

Thinking back to every experience you have ever had, it is so strange the parts you remember. Some people remember so many things. I don't know if families talked more or if I was so awkward I blocked a lot of stuff. Maybe that is why I remember individual situations and not the big picture. I have no idea who my kindergarten teacher was. It was only a half day but I remember wetting my pants so I could go home. Obviously I needed some socialization. I learned phonics in 1st grade and climbing the phonics ladder with A, E, I, O and U long and short vowel sounds. 2nd Grade we moved in the middle of the year. This is me with Miss Ott on my last day before we moved.

I don't remember my teacher for the rest of that year, I remember my teacher's name in third grade but nothing else. The beginning of 4th grade only has two memories. One is getting a new navy and pink wool coat with a matching scarf and we exchanged names in school for Christmas. That would never happen in today's world. I got a pair of turquoise socks. I moved to Stoughton in the middle of 4th grade. It was a very difficult time to start a new school. I thought everyone in class were life long friends, and I had no connection. It wasn't exactly true, but it seemed that everyone in my class were related. I remember very little of that time except Stoughton was way ahead in learning multiplication, we danced for Syttende Mai which I had no idea about and I brought a musty smelling book to show to the teacher. I knew it smelled like a wet basement so I sprinkled bath powder in the pages. The teacher saw the powder and I acted surprised. She said someone was probably trying to repel silverfish. I had to look that one up. In a dictionary of course, there would be no Google for almost 40 years. The interesting part is after I was married and had my first daughter, my 4th grade teacher moved across the street. I always called her by her teacher name Miss Olson.  In 5th grade I remember the  "Let's Sing" radio program and still remember some of the songs. We learned the Tonette, I learned how to spell ENCYCLOPEDIA from Jiminy Cricket and CONSTANTINOPLE just because I wanted to. I could go on and on for my entire life. Junior high has more memories than high school. I blocked almost all of that experience. I had experiences like dressing up in a new dress to go to a school dance and sitting all night by myself watching people have fun. That was a character builder for sure. I have written about some of these things over the years, but it's time to focus on the positive. 

Here is one of the blogs. http://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/09/my-throw-back-thursday-family-vacation.html I have a friend who has written down everything anyone ever said in her life. She has all of her parents and grandparents stories with photos. I wish I would have done that. My grandson asked me this past weekend about the decades. He started with the 1990's, then 1980's and 1970's. I didn't have much to say. I remember events of the 1960's but with only radio and limited television coverage, I mostly remember what I have learned since. He could hardly believe it. This generation of adults and kids are constantly plugged in. I will try to recreate some of the stories from my family, but I am afraid most of them are already gone. I am happy my dad started talking about his World War II experiences in his 80's. He was able to contribute to a book about his crew and did an interview about it. On the other hand, I guess a few little anecdotes are good enough. It's amazing what pops into our heads every now and again. I just have to write them down when that happens. Who knows when or if that thought will surface again. The future generations are more interested in where they are going than where their ancestors have been. It's history they can't even identify with, but I would be delighted to see a story written a hundred years ago by one of my ancestors.

Making Grape Jelly For The Birds (and Me)

As with many people in my area of Wisconsin, I stockpile jars of grape jelly throughout the winter season. I do this to prepare for the Baltimore Orioles which arrive around May 1. Without fail, they return within a day or two of May 1. Along with them, I will see Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks and Hummingbirds.  It is the unofficial start to Spring and Summer.

This summer getting grape jelly to feed them was a struggle. Everybody was sold out. It was probably from the disruption in the supply chain started by the COVID epidemic. A lot of grocery shelves were missing some very basic items. What did appear on the shelves were quickly purchased by other people also feeding the Baltimore Orioles. I had about twenty five jars in my pantry, but that is not enough for an entire season of feeding the birds. I went through all of it rather quickly. I resorted to asking family members for any homemade jelly they could spare. I also made jelly out of purchased grape juice. When I did find a few jars, the price was up at least sixty cents a jar. I bought it anyway. My birds had to eat. Well, maybe they wouldn't have starved, but I enjoy seeing them come to the feeders. The availability of food allows them to nest in the area. They know getting food won't be a problem. Then this spring, I heard via the "grapevine" that some stores were getting supplies. I rushed out and bought a case of 12.  It was a start. 

My mission for the winter was to buy another 12 jars when I went grocery shopping, if I saw them.  So imagine how happy I was last week when my daughter sent me pictures of their grapes. It was a bumper crop. 

They asked if I wanted to have some to make jelly. Of course I said YES. To make the offer even sweeter, they offered to juice them for me so I didn't have the hassle of extracting the juice. 

I mentioned in previous posts how they simplify the juicing process. Many years ago I bought them a steamer/juicer. You basically put whatever you want to juice in the top of this special steam pan. Just rinse the fruit and put in stems and all in the top section and water in the bottom.  The water is heated to form steam which rises through perforated holes. The steam softens the fruit releasing the juice into a center pan connected to a tube.  The finished juice is collected through a tube.  Many home wine makers use a pan such as this.  I found a blog describing the process better than I can. https://blog.homebrewing.org/how-does-a-steam-juicer-work/

Once the clamp is released on the tube, the juice collected is perfect for making jelly (or wine if that's what you want).  

The container they brought me contained twenty cups of juice. I divided it into four batches to make it more manageable. Each batch was five cups of juice, one box of pectin and seven cups of sugar.Yes, you read it right....7 cups. That is an eye opener because each tablespoon of jelly you put on your toast has more than one tablespoon of sugar. Good thing the Baltimore Orioles don't count calories because some days they eat an entire jar.  

Each of my batches made four pints of jelly plus a little bit. In the end I had seventeen jars of jelly. They ended up costing $.87 per pint (32 ounces). The store bought jelly averages 28 ounces and costs between $2.29 and $2.99 for the store brand. Welchs is more expensive. As usual making it myself saved a lot of money especially since I got the grapes free. Pure organic undiluted grape jelly.  Hopefully there will be more grapes in my future. If not, this is a great start. If the grape crop across the country is this successful, there should be plenty available for birds and for people.