Re-fighting old battles

     Whenever we get to spend some time in this neck of the woods, I try to connect with some of the folks that worked with me as we struggled to develop the communication, navigation and identification antennas for the F-22 back in the 90's.  At the head of that list is Leslie Jelalian, who was then a junior engineer with Sanders and is now a senior executive with BAE Systems.  I took the camera when we went to their (with Bob Banks, her husband's) house for pizza.  Who wouldn't take the camera when she had a 14 week old Samoyed?

                                                                     This is Max. 

     It has been twenty years or so since Leslie and I fought those battles together, but you wouldn't know it from the picture below.

     The RV lifestyle makes visiting old friends very easy.

Visit with sister, Marian

     On Tuesday Cindy and I made a short trip down to Royalston, MA to visit my sister, Marian Taylor.  She and husband Eldy have been building their dream home for retirement out of twelve inch logs.  It has been under construction for several years.  Although they are living in it, it will be several more before it is done.  Eldy is still working with a two hour commute, so progress is slow.  There aren't many Massachusetts homesites with hundred mile views.  See below.

     The view of the "cabin" is just as impressive as the view from it.

    
      You can get a sense of scale from my Jeep in the lower right corner.  They have black bears, coyotes, fisher cats and a porcupine that will take bread from Eldy's fingers.  Deer and turkeys are plentiful.  I did not climb the hill to the stable, but Cindy went along with Marian to "help" feed her two miniature horses.  Many of the inside features are notable as well. Check the medicine cabinets in one of the bathrooms.

    On the way back we stopped at Lickity-Splitz for some ice cream.

     A sign proclaimed that all of their ice cream was homemade on their premisses (sic.).

The Grover Reunion

     A century ago three siblings grew up in Athol, Massachusetts: Bob, Ruth and George Grover.  This past weekend ALL of their seven children, spouses and several of the grandchildren assembled in North Norwich, NY.  It was no small achievement.  They came from California, Georgia, South Carolina and New England.  For some it was the first meeting….EVER.  It was hosted at the lovely, upstate New York home and grounds of Harry and Diane Gardner.  Below is a shot of the view “down the valley”.

                             

     There were no get acquainted games, no musicians, no entertainment…there was nothing but food, multiple animated conversations, food, sentimental reminiscences, and food.  Did I mention “food”?

                             

     Marty Grover and I brewed up a couple of pots of Frogmore Stew: a low-country boil of potatoes, sausage, corn, and shrimp that is flavored with onions, lemon, assorted Zatarain spices, Old Bay seasoning and a “touch” of cayenne.  It was consumed, as you can see, most informally.  The weekend, except for Saturday’s breakfast at Bill’s Diner, was totally agendaless.  There were great collections of old photographs and videos.

     There were dozens of hour-long conversations amongst cousins who had previously met rarely if ever.  Although it was a first time event, it may not be the last.

     Above are the seven cousins.  The two brother-sister pairs are Mart and Durelle Grover and Greg and Pam Grover.  The other three boys are (L to R) Harry, Rob and George Gardner.  Next is a nice picture of Durelle and her brother.

     It was an easy, one day (285 mile) trip from Brookline, NH. The bus worked fine for four days without hookups except for a 20A electrical connection through more than 150 feet of large gauge extension cords. Unfortunately, I plowed a few grooves in Harry's freshly mowed sod.

   

       It was a great weekend which was made all the more convenient by our Tiffin motorhome.

Eagle

     OK, not that eagle...this Eagle.  This Eagle is the 295 foot, 78 year old training ship of the Coast Guard Academy.

     Today the Eagle sailed (motored?) into the Rockland Harbor to help the city celebrate their lobster festival this weekend.  I tagged along with the Pecks to watch it come into the harbor past the breakwater and lighthouse.  George spent a couple of summers aboard the Eagle back in the late fifties and has spent a lot of time along those yardarms furling the topsails.  It was disappointing that they saw fit not to raise a stitch of canvas for us folks looking for a great photo-op.
     We later wandered over to the Rockport harbor for lunch.  The harbor contains an interesting mix of pleasure craft and working boats.

          Since this was Friday, we had our campground wide Happy Hour.  It was even more convivial than usual, if possible.  We met some new folks and invited them to our follow-on Happy Hour which lasted until nearly eight.  Tomorrow five couples are going out to supper together to a place none of us have been before.  The spirit of adventure is alive and well.

Why We Do This

     Over the past 550 or so posts there have been some very nice shots of Mother Nature in action: geysers in Yellowstone, the Badlands in the Dakotas, Crater Lake, the Oregon coast, redwoods in California, bald eagles in SC and hummingbirds in Maine.  There have been some impressive works of man: Mount Rushmore, the Ravenel bridge in Charleston, the Mackinac Strait bridge, the Soo Locks, and F-22s over Tyndall AFB.  There have been a thousand (?) pictures of assorted foods.  Usually there was a good story to accompany each of them.  None of them are the reason we do this.

     This is the reason we do this: small groups of friends...old, new, close, casual, that share the wonderful camaraderie of the world of motorhoming.  Here in Maine it manifests itself in the daily associations that come together every day at five that we call "Happy Hour".  Occasionally we get rained out or the group or individual day trips may take precedence, but our attendance record is pretty good.  One of the great mysteries is how we generate two hours of conversation every day.
     Also common to the fraternity is the ease and frequency where we help each other out.  It may vary from an email problem to a leaky roof, but someone is ready to help.
     Of course, it doesn't hurt if you can look up from your martini and see a scene like this.

Old Traditions...New Friends

     Today was another of our wonderful lobster feeds.  They are pretty simple, really: a 1 1/2 to 2 pound lobster per person, corn on the cob, melted butter for both, some chips, and blueberry pie and ice cream for dessert.  Try to find that supper for $14.00 per person!  Of course the supper was preceded and followed by a circle of lawn chairs where the problems of the world were solved.  We were joined tonight by a couple of ladies who jumped right into the routine.  Myrt was a bit aghast at the completeness with which Dick Roth devours a lobster. They are in an Allegro Bus in our old site from last year.  Welcome, Deb and Myrt.  That's their rig in the background.

     The lobster boils and the attendant happy hours are the height of informality and simplicity.  The picture shows the perfection of the weather and the blueness of Penobscot Bay.

     Yesterday was a different sort of celebration.  There is a pair of good friends who have a cottage on a small lake about two hours inland from here. Sally and we shared some high school bleacher seats back in 1980 as we watched our sons compete on the Nashua High School wrestling team.  Both boys went to military academies...our son, Mark, at USAFA and Jeff at USMA.  We, Don and Sally Sillars and us, had a nice lunch at an outside table at the Dockside overlooking the Belfast harbor.  Below is shot of the four of us with the bay in the background.

Rainy Day in Belfast

     The past couple of days have been relentless, stay inside and do puzzles rain.  There have been enough breaks in the weather to walk the dog, but everything is well soaked.  When old friends who spend part of every summer in Southwest Harbor offered to drive over to Belfast (an hour and a half) for a little shopping and lunch, we jumped at the idea.  We've known Jurgen and Susan Gobien for about forty years when Jurgen and I were thrown together in a contentious Air Force program.  I was the Program Manager at Hanscom AFB while he was my chief technical expert from the Rome Air Development Center in Rome, NY.  Figuratively speaking we formed up back to back and fought our way out of several programmatic bar fights.  The bullets were virtual, but the resulting camaraderie was real.  
     We visited a pottery shop and another Maine gift shop until the men's endurance failed and we went to lunch at Darby's, a well known restaurant on the main drag of Belfast.  I didn't bring my camera, so I am indebted to Susan for the two pictures below.  Jurgen's request was for a place where we could visit comfortably for an hour or so.  It worked.

     The assorted vittles seen in the second picture include a couple of bowls of clam chowder, a crab sandwich and a crab cake, fried clams and my bowl of Pad Thai.  'Twas a good meal, and it was a little late so we weren't very hungry for supper.  I made a BLT sandwich on sourdough bread which we split at about 8:30.  Not bad for a rainy day!