Back in Maine

We are back in Maine after our weekend long reunion in Athol, MA. I guess we had about 75 people. There were no halls, dinner dances or entertainment. It was a three day pool party with grilled food, coolers of wine, a keg, tables of memorabilia and lots of conversation. We had several tents, and we needed them. Short-lived but intense showers paraded through the area all weekend. The weather was probably associated with hurricane Bill which caused so much havoc on the New England coast including a fatality to a wave watching tourist at Acadia National Park. There is an old school, soon to be converted into housing, immediately adjacent to the hostess's property. We dry camped there from Thursday until Monday morning.

Monday we left Athol and drove to Hudson, MA to pick up another rescue golden retriever, an eight year old male stray with the currently attached name of "Bleu". Blue might be a coonhound, but not a golden. We'll work on that. He had an ear infection that was being treated and they didn't succeed in reaching us beforehand to delay our previously scheduled appointment. We did have a good get acquainted visit that also included Belle. They will call us when he is well enough to be released.

The rescue league could not accommodate the bus so we proceeded a few hundred yards down the road to Hudson High School to park and walk back. The entrance was between two closely spaced field stone columns. We entered OK, but when we were leaving the decorative concrete cap on the top of the column scraped the top of the passenger-side side wall. The scrape is about a foot long, and there was some damage to the canopy structure. To repair it here would involve a motel because of the body shop work required. Therefore, with USAA's concurrence, we are going to wait to do the repairs after we return to SC. It just means that we spend the rest of the summer without the use of the canopy.