What's next?

6:36 am - Thursday - August 23rd - Southwest Harbor, ME - 59º F, 97% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the west......clear skies with a forecast high today of 70º F.

We woke up Wednesday morning to rain, which we were expecting, and it continued raining on and off into the afternoon.  We knew it would be rainy so we had called a 'rain day' in advance.  We spent the morning reading, listening to the rain on the roof, and watching the fog roll in and out.

It has occurred to me, based on several recent comments, that I never really wrote about our decision not to take the job we had been offered at a local campground.  There were several factors which informed our decision: 1) The weather forecast was for more warm, humid weather....neither of us could come to grips with working one more day in that kind of weather.  Just prior to quitting  SDC we had been through three such weeks of the same weather, and we were just worn down by it. 2) There remains a lot of sightseeing and hiking yet to do here in Acadia National Park.  Why not just compress that into 3, or 4 weeks and finish it.  Then we would be free to spend the next 4, or 5 weeks visiting New Hampshire, Vermont, Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey before our next destination.

Wait, what?  Next destination?  Where is that, you might wonder?  Some time ago we applied for a peak season job at Amazon in Campbellsville, KY and were accepted.  We worked there during peak season 2012 (October 8th to December 22nd) and had a very good experience.  Based on that experience we worked for Amazon again in 2014 in Fernley, NV.  At any rate, here we are on the east coast, and why not do that one more time before we take almost a year off from workamping jobs.  Our original start date was going to be November 8th, but since we quit SDC we have moved our start date up to October 22nd.  We will leave Southwest Harbor on, or about September 15th and begin our 5 week trek to Amazon in Kentucky.  Over those five weeks we will be able to visit each of the 6 states on the east coast we have yet to see.  We did pass through New Hampshire briefly on our way to Maine, but that doesn't really count.....does it?

So, there you have it!  After Amazon we will be heading south to Florida again to visit friends and family, and then we will begin the slow journey westward once again.  We will stop in Louisiana to visit with our friends Cindy and Forest with whom we will be traveling to Alaska next summer.  No doubt there will be a lot of planning during our stay there.  There will be a stop in Flagstaff, AZ for a couple of weeks where I will have some minor surgery completed, which had to be delayed due to my stroke last December, and then we will be back in SoCal visiting with the kids for at least a month before we begin our trek to the Northwest where we will get ready to head to Alaska.

The one constant in our lifestyle is the ever present Mr. Jello.  We always say our plans are subject to his unpredictable whims, and this trip to the east coast has become a textbook case of just that.  As others who are much smarter than I have opined.......we make plans, and then life happens.  

Now, back to Wednesday.....late afternoon we watched a movie on Netflix titled 'A Walk in the Woods' (2015) starring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.  It was not a movie I would have gone to see in the theater, but it was perfect for a rainy afternoon in northeast Maine.  This is an autobiographical story written by Bill Bryson, a noted travel author, about his attempt to hike the 2200 mile Appalachian Trail beginning in Georgia, and ending here in Maine at the summit of Mt. Katahdin.  IMDB gives it 3 stars, and we would agree.

Later in the evening we watched another documentary, this time on Amazon Prime, about the Beatles entitled 'How the Beatles changed the world'.  It runs just under 2 hours, and was very interesting.  This documentary spends much of its time focused on the cultural changes brought about by the Beatles and their music, but not a lot of time on the actual music.  I'm not sure I agree with every premise in the movie, but a lot of it rings true.....very thought provoking, indeed.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defer the costs of producing this blog each day.