Trip to Maine: Day Two

It snowed all night long.  The power went off in the hotel at some point because the alarm clock in the room was flashing.  We woke up at about 7, and pulled the curtains aside to see this.  As it turns out, Maine got hit, but not near as hard as Central MA, Connecticut and New Jersey did.  

Bright red foliage and snow

A good samaritan let my squeeze borrow his snow brush/scraper to clean off the car, because all we had to use was one of the room towels.

The plows were out in full force.

On the way to Waterville, along I-295.  I'd never been any farther north than Lewiston before.  (Or as it's known in the area: "Sewerston").  

Getting closer.  Oh, and the state capitol, Augusta, is also known locally as "Disgusta".  Do you see a trend here?

I-95 North.

We arrived in Waterville at about 10:30 and his niece's restaurant was serving till 1:00, since it was Parent's Weekend at Colby College, so they were trying to eek as much business as they could out of that crowd before closing for good. So to kill time, and since we couldn't check into the hotel yet, my squeeze introduced me to the wonder that is Marden's.  Oh. My. God.  We were only going to get some work gloves, but we scored Field & Stream winter coats for $18.00 each!!!!!!  He got 2 other jackets and a killer tool bag that was only $3.00.  I wish I had gotten one of the bags too, for toting my crafts around!!!  In fact, on their website, it even says, "I should have bought it when I saw it!!!"  lol

We went back to the restaurant to wait for the UHaul to arrive so that we could start disassembling the kitchen.  The snow was already starting to melt and although it was still cold, we warmed to the work pretty quickly.  

Part of the moving krew.  I should have taken a group photo after we filled the truck but the camera was in my car and by that point, all I wanted to do was collapse with exhaustion and a bottle of Advil.  As you can see, my sweetie grew his beard back for the winter (at my request).

We followed the UHaul up to where his niece was going to store her stuff.  Passed over this river on the way.

By the time we got up there, the icy wind was screaming across these fields.  Fortunately it took WAY less time to unload the truck than it did to load it.  We hobbled back to the hotel, freezing, exhausted and barely able to move.  

Don't die of shock, but these are all the photos I shot on this trip.  There wasn't anything to see on the highways, and we were just too busy with the move on Sunday for me to take photos of us working.  We still had the following day in Waterville and didn't know if we would be able to continue to help with the move.  We ain't 20 no mo' and are badly out of shape.  So we kicked around recuperating the next day, maybe do some light sightseeing in the area....go to Marden's again....

Then it happened.  His phone rang at 11:30 p.m. and let's face it, calls that come in at that hour never bring good news.  His best friend's father died suddenly late that afternoon.  He was very close to this family, her parents are like his second parents.  He was devastated.  Now we were leaning towards cutting the trip short and just coming home the next day.  We got up in the morning and I called my mom, who has still been sick.  I asked mom if she wanted me to come back early and she said yes.  So that pretty much decided it for us.  It was a gorgeous, sunny and clear day and the temps were warming up, but we couldn't stay and so I was unable to take anymore photos.  We arrived home at about 2:30 on Halloween afternoon, so I spent the rest of the day doing laundry, and the squeeze gave out candy to the whopping 4 people that showed up.  Of course our outside light was off and we had no decorations so it's not like our house screamed "STOP HERE!"

The trip was kind of jinxed from the start, but I was so happy to get to spend time with Michelle & John, and meet his niece.  And of course you can't beat the deals at Marden's.  We'll get back up there plenty more times,  in warmer weather and to sightsee more and I promise: Next time there will be more photos!