Surprise! And Count Your Blessings!

Hopewell Rocks at low tide

Do you like surprises? If you do we can cure you of that. We've been travelling for a week with our camper on what is supposed to be an extended trip to Canada and back. And it has been a series of unpleasant surprises. The first was opening the camper and finding the refrigerator door open and a bottle of beer that popped open when it feel out onto the floor. I suppose we can consider our camper baptized in beer. And it didn't make the surprise more agreeable that it was my fault since I didn't check the latch on the door.

Our second surprise at our next stop was a tipped over quart jar of honey that dripped down into the cupboard and onto the floor. I was as agitated by the loss of our precious honey as I was by the mess. We will be cleaning up honey forever I think. I keep finding more places covered with the sticky stuff. So far no ants thank God, but I expect to find that surprise sooner or later.

Prospect Harbor and a Lobster Boat

We took a drive down to check out Prospect Harbor. What fun! Lots of Lobster boats anchored there and one unloading and sorting the lobsters. A fun peak at Maine's lobster trade. While we road the tourist bus around we talked to one local gentleman who rides the bus almost every day to talk to the driver and the tourists. He was a wealth of information about the lobstermen. The trade is much more controlled now because of over trapping. Each lobsterman is limited to 800 traps max and they can't trap for two months when the lobsters are shedding. I think the months were July and August. Every trap has to be registered and have a tag showing its registration number. Folks with vacation homes can get a license for five traps, but the lobstermen don't like it and the man said often the buoys that mark the traps will be cut loose. I hope he was exaggerating and that's a rare occurrence.

lobster boats in the harbor

Biking the Schoodic Peninsula

 Acadia really is glorious. Yesterday we biked the Schoodic Peninsula and then drove to Schoodic Point after dinner to watch the sun set. The weather here has been beautiful -- sunny but cool with a pleasant ocean breeze that is sometimes pretty blustery.

Our collapsible bikes are easy to take in the back of the car and even with the smaller wheel base, work very
 well for us.

We met some tourists from Virginia at one of the auto pull offs. I love to chat with people when we are out and about and always pray for them and everyone else whose lives we touch. Sometimes people share their challenges and what a gift to be able to pray for them when we stop to say our rosary.

Acadia's Thunder Hole

Winter Harbor Maine and Acadia National Park

We arrived at Schoodic Woods Campground in Winter Harbor on Saturday and set up camp. This morning had us setting off for the 11 a.m. Mass at St. Joseph's in Ellsworth about 40 minutes away. It wasn't the gong show but it was depressing: almost all elderly with a handful of children, a wandering priest walking up and down the aisle during the homily who wore no chasuble and changed words in both the proper and common of the Mass. The church has an organ but mostly the "organist" played the piano and a keyboard and, oh the insipid music. Why, O Lord?  The Mass wasn't exactly irreverent -- just -- what can I say -- as dismal as the rainy day. Ah well, I prayed for the priest throughout the service. A parish with few children is a dying parish. I always pray we will find wonderful vibrant churches when we travel, and I can't say this is isn't one from a single visit, but it was a depressing start to our day. Jesus deserves better.

Our Latest Travel Adventure: O Canada, Here We Come

Last year we had plans to take a camping vacation to Nova Scotia, but it was a bad years for our bees and we ended up staying home to feed them so they would have a chance of getting through the winter. Both our hives made it and we were blessed with a great season this year that let us expand to four hives. And so...our delayed trip was back on the calendar and we left yesterday on the first leg driving from Woodstock to Stafford Springs, CT which is close to...get ready...Woodstock. Today we spent the late morning and afternoon exploring.