The flight after mine to Dulles was canceled so they stuffed all the people
from that flight on to my plane. Even after that my flight was less than
half full. I got the center section of a 777 to myself for the 5 hour flight
to Washington. Then there were 20 people on the 50 passenger flight to
Portland ME.

I arrived in Portland in the pouring rain. I was driven to the Motel 6 in
the cab. The Motel 6, as you can imagine, is in an undesirable part of town.
It was off of a highway with no houses around it. There were semi trucks in
the parking lot. I dashed across the street to a supermarket and got a
chicken.

The next morning I was hot to visit LL Bean's in Freeport. One would think
that since the most famous store in America is in Freeport and that Freeport
has turned in to a discount mall for Maine that there would be a bus, but
there isn't. I called the same cab from the night before and he took me to
LL Bean's at 7:30 in the morning. The Store is amazing. I could of, should
of just showed up without any luggage and just my credit card. I did buy a
new pair of sunglasses because I had left my pair in Santa Rosa.

I hurried and got a cab to Brunswick ME where I could catch the bus to
Camden. The cab let me out at a Citgo gas station next to the highway. Just
as the cab pulled away, I called the bus company and was told that there
wasn't a morning bus in the winter. I guess they changed the schedule on
September 9th and didn't tell anyone. So I was stuck in Brunswick ME for 4
1/2 hours with nothing to do. I grabbed a sandwich at the local sub Shoppe
and went back and sat on a bench to read my book. I finally got sick of this
and hoisted my pack and tried to hitch hike. But after 20 minutes and not
being picked up, I went back to my bench. The lady at the gas station
finally told me to leave my pack in her office and walk in to town. So I did
that. I found the local art cinema, talked to the owner a bit. I bought some
postcards and mailed them from the Brunswick post office. The one to Ky took
8 days to arrive in California. I went for a second lunch and had a lobster
roll. Finally the bus came. It is a beautiful drive north of Brunswick.

The bus was tre lux. They had TVs with a movie going. They distributed
snacks consisting of pretzels and water. The bus dropped us off a mile out
of town in Camden. The bus seems to operate from a network of gas stations.
Three of us got off in Camden and stared at each other. So I said I am going
on a schooner and they said they were going as well. I said that I was going
on the Lewis R. French and they said they were going on the Mary Day. The
Mary Day would figure in a lot during my week. So we set off to hike the
mile in to town where the schooners were.

I arrived at 5 and found that we were on the wrong side of the harbor. Then
we hiked over to the boats. The Mary Day and the Lewis R. French berth side
by side. There were plenty of people on the Mary Day but nobody on the Lewis
R. French. The mate on the Mary Day told me to go ahead on board and drop my
stuff. I then went the liquor store and bought a case of beer and a case of
bottled water. About that time my mother, Don and Don's cousin Beth showed
up. There was some confusion about my berth because the single they showed
me would have been too small. When Captain Dan showed up he explained that
they had moved me to a double so that was OK. Mother, Don, Beth and I went
to a nice restaurant to have dinner and then back to the boat. We met most
of the other passengers. We finally made our ways to bed. Captain Dan told
us that there were no secrets aboard the boat as the walls between the
cabins were so thin. I could hear the couple in the next cabin discussing
each of the other passengers. It was like they were playing a game so they
could remember who we were. I thought it was funny when they got to Mother,
Don and me. They couldn't believe that I was her son or that Don was her
husband. They had introduced themselves that way so as to cut down on the
confusion.

The next morning we had Coffee and muffins at 6 AM before going in to town
one last time. We shoved off about 10 AM. We motored out of the harbor using
the yawl boat as that is the only boat that has an engine. We hoisted sails,
it took about 10 of us to hoist the main, and we were off sailing. The crew
consisted of Captain Dan, his mate Garth who comes from Dennis on Cape Cod
where I spent my summers. The cook's name is Scott, he is also 39 years old
and spends his summers in Maine and winters in Tucson. The cooks mate was a
22 year old girl named Beth from Vermont who is going to Telluride right
after sailing. On one long reach we sailed so close to the Mary Day that
their mate placed a bikini top on our boom.

My father couldn't believe that we paid for this cruise and then worked the
boat, although he does the same thing on Cape Cod only with day trips. I was
hoisting the sails, furling the sails, and helping to do the dishes. My
cabin was so small, think of a double mattress under my desk and you would
have a accurate description of the dimensions.

Lunch was served and was chowder and salad. We sailed up the Penobscot bay
and we got a call on the radio from Mil 113 to the Lewis R. French. They
were requesting our location. We told them where we were and they said they
would be with us in 5 minutes. 5 Minutes go by and out of a cloud comes a
Huey UH1 helicopter. He circles the boat and the captain explains that the
pilot had been a passenger last week and had promised a fly-by. So that
wasn't in the brochure.

We anchored off a wildlife preserve. I went for a 45 second swim. Everybody
thought I was nuts, but I had to jump off of the Boat. That night we had
lasagna and corn bread.

The next day we sailed gown the Eggamoggan Reach and set anchor at a
deserted island for our lobster bake. I ate 2 1/2 lobsters. At one point the
little row boat floated off of the beach in the rising tide. The cooks mate
Beth went in after it because she had Tevas on. She got in up to her crotch
and refused to go further. So I gallantly stripped off and swam after the
boat. Everybody applauded, Beth was embarrassed. Yes it was cold and yes
there was shrinkage.

The next day we had to visit an historic town in Maine. We went to
Stonington, I wanted to sail but the town visit is in the brochure. So we
spent the morning in the village and went sailing in the afternoon. We had
to tack all afternoon and it was fun. That night we anchored off of Kirsti
Ally and Parker Stevenson's house and had a turkey dinner. That night we
also executed a pumpkin using our small cannon on board.

The final day we sailed in to Camden and got off of the boat. As we sailed
in to Camden, our mate took off his sweatshirt and he was wearing that
bikini top that the Mary Day had placed on our boom. The Mary Day erupted in
cheers. It's a fun group that sails the schooner fleet in Maine. They are
always up to some sort of shinagans or another.

I met up with the Mayor of Belfast ME, Mike Hurley, who is also the owner of
the Colonial Theatre. This is also the fellow who runs the BigScreenBiz.com website. We took a we tour of Maine and I spent the night at
his house. I toured his theatre and took him and his wife to dinner. The
theatre is very cute if a bit basic. They have two mono houses and one
stereo house that was done by Boston Light and Sound. They will be doing
stereo in the other two houses soon. I pointed up some stuff to do to make
the other two houses sound a bit better. One house had a ring that took 10
seconds to decay. They also keep their theatre and booth very clean. I was
impressed with the quality and cleanliness of their Brenkerts and Speco
platters. The paint wasn't even scratched.


I took the morning bus to Portland. I got a cab to give me the nickels tour
of Portland. I flew to Washington where I was picked up by my father Woody
and we had dinner at a Turkish restaurant. Woody didn't understand when I
told him that I had a humorous incident with a kebab.

The next day I went to the Air and Space museum. The mall was all but
deserted. Woody said that Washington is a one industry town and that
industry is tourism. The tourist were all but gone. So I had a good time at
the Air and Space museum because it was empty. I saw two Imax films with 20
other people and then I went to Union Station for lunch. I know that we have
the projectionist of the Imax at the Air and Space museum on the forum but I
couldn't remember his name. I also couldn't reach Brad to ask him. The
presentation was very good. I saw the Blue Angel movie and the Wild
California film.

I went to have a drink with my cousin Aimee downtown. She works for the
University of California as a public advocate for the environment with
military base closings. She has been to Cape Cod and the Viaques in Puerto
Rico a few times. My father pointed out that when he was in the Navy, he
shelled the Viaques. In a lot of ways the Navy shelling the Viaques has
saved it from turning in to another Cancun.

My step mother put herself out by producing a couple of gourmet dishes. She
is weird because she cooks in rubber gloves and only uses paper towels
because she believes sponges harbor germs. Her kitchen floor is covered in
cardboard because she doesn't want to scrub the grout. I told her to just
let the grout go black and not to worry about it.

The next day I visited the Library of Congress and those are some
spectacular rooms. Woody, Aimee and I had lunch at the One Sixteen club.
They don't present a menu and they don't present a check at the end of
lunch. We all had the crab and crab which is a Washington favorite. The One
Sixteen club is a lobbyist hangout. Woody and I went to National Arboretum
for the afternoon.

I flew out of Dulles yesterday and couldn't keep my eyes open all day. I
must say that the plane was very full. I think the public's hesitation to
fly after the attacks may be waning. I was surprised that my ID wasn't
checked at the security station of Dulles. They said it took too long. So I
could have handed my ticket off to anybody else before going through
security. I went to be early last night and am looking to do the same
tonight. I always need a vacation after my vacation. It was good to sleep in
my bed last night.

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Ian, your story is great..... maybe I should relay my "experience" with the Wilson County Board of Zoning Appeals last Friday. Needless to say, my drive-in will not open in April as scheduled.