The Longest Ride into Maine

Maine! Neighboring state to New Hampshire, the Canadian border, and the Atlantic Ocean. LONG!

Lately, I had been spending way to much time working on letterboxing stuff. This time would end up dragging me into the early hours of the morning. And I'm talking about 2, sometimes 3am in the morning. From carving stamps to replant to working on Ultra Rare LTC's to send to people I don't even know. I was doing what I love to do. Monday, Labor Day, was when I realized it needed to stop. Letterboxing can be considered an addiction. Whether or not we are joking around about it, it is an addiction. We all need to figure out our boundaries and stick to them.

Monday, the boys and I were to head up into Maine for the Paddle In gather in Rome. I got up early, after a long night, and got the boys ready for the trip. We left and started on our way. For the first bit of the ride, I was fine, but shortly after we left, I was feeling really tired. I stopped to get something to wake me up. A little caffeine! It did the trick, for now. So we made it into Portsmouth, NH, and I had to replant a box that has gone missing. Portsmouth Alarm, if we all remember, has had it's share of issues on Pierce Island, as do most boxes there. For some reason or another, the boxes fall like flies. Something has to be done about that. But, I don't know what. So I found a much better place and painted up the box to make it harder for muggles to find, and went on my way. Now, off to Maine

BORING! This ride felt so long! Now clearly, we have driven all the way to Brewerton, NY and that was about 6 hours long, and to Elverson, PA, which was about 8 hours, but when you are really tired like I was, 3 hours seemed sooooooooooooooooo loooooooooonnnnnnnnggg. More caffeine! I brought back up! So, around noon, we made it into Rome and got to Robin's Nest's home where the gather was held. It was a small gather in which everyone except us, was from Maine. I knew Mudflinginfools and Teacup, at least talked with Sunnyside Seeker one or twice, but everyone else, I had never met. Being tired and not having met people, to me did, was a bad mix.

While at the gather, I felt that I was rude to certain people, if not everyone. There was just something about the way I was. I wouldn't let my kids do stuff, they were getting on my nerves, I didn't want to talk to anyone...... I think in all reality, I needed to just be home and sleeping. I tried to be as Team New Hampshire as possible, but I think I gave everyone the wrong impression of myself and my team. Now, I had heard otherwise from some, but I can't help but think everyone is being nice. We were at the gather for about 3-4 hours. I needed to leave. We had a long ride home and I didn't want to test myself.

On the way home, is when I realized that I needed to slow down. Letterboxing needed to take a back seat to me. I needed to get some rest and lots of it. But what about the kids! I'm not sure they had much fun today. They wanted to go out on the water but I wouldn't let them. SO, on the way home, we stopped at York Beach. We played in the water a little before it got to dark and headed home. They also had school in the morning. I think this was the rest/clearing my mind thing I needed right now. It also gave me some fresh air to wake me up for that stretch run home. It was only about 1.5 hours home from York. The air smelled awesome, the skyline was beautiful, and Levi had a starfish. We were all ready to go home now. And we did. And when we got home around 9, I went right to bed.