Counting Crows

2, there are 2 crows that peck on the basement window directly below our bedroom almost every morning starting at 4:30. Please stop morons. I have free time and I will shoot you both, DEAD.

We have lucked out as Ben has had a couple of Fridays off since I got here and 3 day weekends are pretty sweet. Last weekend we drove up to the Northern Appalachians, walked through a tractor show and then spent the rest of the weekend hiking. The views were awesome but we earned them, dang it takes alot out of ya climbing a couple thousand feet.

Here we are on a couple of peaks, above that's me looking a little awkward on Mt. Blue 3192 ft. up and below is Ben on Tumbledown Mtn, very much concerned at the 700 ft. drop on 3 sides of him.
We have made progress in becoming legal Maine residents. We now have our Maine drivers license, we have changed our mailing addresses and have taken care of most of things one must do when moving far away. Some things were very easy but others just don't make a whole lot of sense to Minnesotans like us. What in the world is excise tax? Why do you have to check a new car for emissions? And why doesn't anyone here use their blinkers or have teeth?

Acadia is Awesome

We spent Sunday hiking in Acadia National Park, it was a beautiful day. For those of you who have never been to Acadia, come check it out, it is pretty breathtaking. Acadia is full of tourists and old people but we found if you go up high enough you don't see too many people. We did run into a kid from Richfield, he recognized the state outline on my t-shirt and said hello. Ben also made friends with a seagull, way to fit right in man.

I have been getting by the last week or so getting together all the things one needs for a functioning household. I run to and from Target, the Home Depot, Hannafords the grocery store and the post office. I am sick of it, entirely. Today was the first weekday I did not go to Target, what a relief. Plus I got my work computer and Internet set up so I will start working a few hours a day from home. It will be good to be busy again.

I knew that my accent was going to be a problem here however I didn't anticipate that I would have to repeat myself ALL the time. For every sentence I speak I get at least one "Huh" or a funny look. I went through a drive thru for the first time today to get an iced coffee (btw they have iced coffee everywhere here which is awesome). Unfortunately I can't go through drive-thrus because nobody can understand me through the crappy fast food microphone. The girl running the window at Dunkin Donuts was the most unenthusiastic employee ever and after I placed my order she yelled in half ebonics, half Boston accent

"Coffee, you want coffee?!?!"

"Yes, an iced coffee."

"Jeez, pull ahead to the window I can't understand you. "

I pulled around and the cashier just looked at me and said nothing.

"Medium iced coffee please!" I stated.

"Milk and sugar?" she replied and then it came full circle, she had no teeth. What! You are dissing me because of my accent and you have no teeth. Check out my sweet white chompers and then talk smack, I dare ya!

1495 miles, 29 hours, and 47 gallons of gas later...

I was wiped, totally wiped out. I made it to our new home south of Bangor at 1 am on Tuesday after 17 hours in the car. It was not pretty, I was not pretty. Poor Ben couldn't even get me to crack a smile, all I wanted to do was shower and go to bed.

The journey was long, I don't think I would drive that route again, at least not alone. It rained the whole time through Canada which made the mountain passes and logging trucks especially exciting. One tailgating dude found himself on the roof of his SUV, across both eastbound interstate lanes, after a little show of erratic turning and crazy passing. I was one of the first on the scene and called 911, in French. Wow my French is horrible, all I could manage to say was accident and ambulance. Those were the only words I knew, luckily another woman who also stopped took over the call because I had no idea where I was, just that I was somewhere east of Montreal on Hwy 10.

I crossed the US border about 10 pm on Tuesday, thinking I had less than 2 hours to go. It took me closer to 3 and a half hours, 3 very very long hours. And to add excitement to my misery I about took the midsection off a giant female moose just before Sugarloaf ski resort. Luckily I was able to slam on my brakes and the moose gave me a "what the heck are you doing here" look and crossed right in front of my hood. Not exactly how I pictured my first moose sighting here in Maine but no harm done, I just wished I had been able to snap a photo.