Red Moon

     The moon is a few days past being a full moon, but last night it was coming up roses.  The picture was almost impossible because it was so dark.  I tried a flash to light up the foreground, but nothing seemed to work.  When I looked more closely, I could see in the picture all the familiar features of the moon's surface that can be seen with the naked eye.  See what you think.  Except for cropping, it has not been edited.  It really was that red.

     The interesting part of the story is that I was in the bus and would have missed it completely except for an earlier exchange with the campers in front of us.  There was a sudden knock on the door, and one of the two said to Durelle, "Tell Frank the moon is red and to bring his camera."  Since she was an attractive, young blonde woman that Durelle had never met, she was initially puzzled, but she quickly spotted the red moon, and I grabbed my camera.
     At this point I need to shift back to the day before when a pair of such folks arrived in the spot in front of us at a waterfront site with a "Scamp".  A Scamp, if you haven't seen one, is one of the very smallest of camping trailers.  I could have pulled it with my 1960 Valiant (R.I.P.).  I doubt that an adult could stand up inside.   It was a brightly colored trailer in apparently very nice shape.  When the two ladies decided to park the trailer crosswise in the spot (an eminently reasonable decision), it became necessary to maneuver it in by hand.  I recall doing the same thing with our Apache pop up almost fifty years ago.  I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures out the window.

     Later, when I saw them outside, sitting around a campfire, I went over, introduced myself, and offered to email them some of the pictures.  Lo, and behold!, when properly introduced, whatever first impressions I had formed were substantially revised.  One of the two sisters is retired from the Air Force as is her husband, a B-52 pilot from the Vietnam days.  I suppose, as I approach 75, the definition of "young" takes on a broader perspective.  
     At any rate we had a great visit.  Today they are bicycling over the famous carriage roads in Acadia National Park.  Thus, it was reinforced again after nearly a half century of RVing, that in few other lifestyles do you meet so many pleasant and interesting people.