We had expected rain on friday and woke to cloudy skies, but no real rain. As we headed off to the bathhouse to brush our teeth, we ran into Austin, who said that he’d decided to stay an extra night and was looking to bike the Park Road that day. He wanted to know if Tom wanted to come along. I urged Tom to go and looked forward to another day around camp.  Austin had to move camps before they could go and he had to wait for someone else to leave first, so Tom and I both tinkered around camp for a bit. He was excited to move to a cheaper campsite where he didn’t have to pay for the electric he really couldn’t use considering he only had a pup tent and a bike.

I  took the time to do a camp pedicure- well, I painted my toenails and put lotion on my feet. It felt pretty good after days of walking on rocky beaches and dirty paths in sandals. I also did more blog and photo work. It was becoming pretty clear that the problems I had with my camera card were related to  the card itself and not the card reader so much. My eye-fi card had cracks in the plastic and wouldn’t read on any reader or device I had. I finally got it to mount on my iPad and was able to get the pictures off of it and uploaded directly to Flickr. I had another SD card, but it was smaller and I knew I’d need to head back to Radio Shack in Bar Harbor and get a new card before we left MDI (Mount Desert Island).

I was amazed by how quiet things are at camp in the middle of the day. There is a flurry of activity at this campground in the morning. People are getting ready to head off for their bike/hike/kayak/explore adventure days and others are pulling up camps and shoving them back into packed cars. Each morning there was a surprise of different people leaving (oh, look, the hip campers are gone!). By midday, everyone was out and about and almost no one was at camp besides the workers straightening up sites prepping them for the fresh batch. By 7pm the place would be full and lively again, but it was nice to have this quiet time and dappled sunshine coming down through the trees to enjoy.

Tom texted me from the top of Cadillac Mountain where they had ridden. I wasn’t surprised he could send a text from there since it’s the one good spot of connectivity around here. But I was surprised to actually get the message. Being connected here is an effort and a surprise and not a given- which is nice. The churches here have signs that say things like “God has unlimited minutes” and

After Tom got back, he got cleaned up and we had some lunch. He said that Austin tells him that he doesn’t bother to bathe when he tours because it’s pointless- you just get a shower and 80 miles later are drenched in sweat again. I can’t see Tom doing that. He doesn’t mind getting stinky running or biking, but I pity the man who tries to keep him from showering afterward.

We decided to get in another short hike and headed over to a little path that went between Fernald Cove and another Cove where there is a cliff. It was a nice hike, even if Tenzin fussed a bit and had to be carried back. Tom lied and told me there was nothing at the end of the hike- that it was just about enjoying the journey. And then we came out at a nice little rocky beach with a sailboat and a really high cliff. Tom explained that he’d read that Man-o-War ships liked this cove because they could come into the deep cove and refill their water barrels from the water coming off the cliff without ever having to get off the boat.

We wanted Mexican food when we got done with the hike, but we didn’t want to drive back into Bar Harbor. So we decided to do the next best thing- we bought stuff to make nachos and we made them over the fire. We’re learning to be very creative about cooking our camp food and an aluminum pizza plate and the little grill over the fire go a long way.

Austin came back to hang out and talk around the fire that night. We talked about books and Austin told us about a book he was reading and one that he wanted to read. While he told us about it, I bought and downloaded the book on my iPad. He was really jealous that I already had a copy of a book that he’d have to look to find and probably wouldn’t have by the time he finished the book he was reading.

He said he had sat by the pool and read all afternoon.  He’s a lobbyist for renewable energy and Tom and I were surprised at the sort of “techno retro” attitude he had. His whole vacation was about leaving his email behind, but he also seemed to not have a lot of tech savvy beyond that. It was an interesting and different attitude for us to consider. Someone younger than us who wrote letters and read physical books and didn’t care about connectivity other than a cell phone to make a couple of calls.

There are many loons here at Somes Sound. You can hear them in the evening calling to each other at dusk and just after. There are also owls who call out in the night. It’s very peaceful.

Pics for today can be found here- http://bit.ly/dCh8Dn