THE GANG
It has been a wonderful week, one that has made our hearts overflow with special thanks for good friends, beautiful scenery, wonderful food and the rare blessing of being permitted to share time with good friends.

Friday, July 29th, we rendezvoused with our friends, Bob and Kitty Van Horn at the new Tyler Lake home (near Goshen Connecticut) of mutual friends, Bob and Marvis Gersten.
We met the Gerstens and Van Horns on a Cruise from Barcelona Spain to Lisbon Portugal in 2000. We bonded in adventure, curiosity and interests in a willingness to explore strange places, sights and countries. From that trip, we have managed to coordinate a visit or trip together almost annually. These brief sojourns are always too short but as always, most enjoyable. The Gerstens just returned from a month long trip to China. Their trip included a week long side trip with local enterprising Chinese business men in which they were given a rare insight into the Chinese business model, their way of life and culture.

Kitty and Bob purchased a 40 foot RV in 2004 and shortly thereafter, Bob was diagnosed with cancer and is currently undergoing chemo therapy and radiation treatment. While he is on the medication related to his treatment, he is unable to drive a car or the rig and Kitty has become the “master” chauffeur of both the car and rig. She vows that she would rather drive the RV (with its “towed”) than their Chrysler minivan. As a “chicken” in the rig and a “turkey” on the road – I am impressed with her adept handling of the rig, awed by her courage and her spunk. She’s a keeper!!!

On Monday, we had a scenic drive through Connecticut into Massachusetts. We stopped in Boston for dinner at the “Commons” and a “walk about” downtown before “crashing” for the night at Walmart (our faithful overnight spot). On Tuesday we drove into Cape Ann and immediately struck out on a sight seeing trip to Gloucester where we enjoyed lunch and a whale watching trip.
Back at shore, we drove to Rockport, had dinner at Ellens on the wharf and did a drive around the charming bayside community of Rockport.

On Wednesday, we drove to Essex to attend the ships museum but it was closed. We then drove to Ipswich for lunch at the Clam Box, a recommendation of a friend and indeed, the clams, scallops and fish were “out of this world”.
We returned to Glocester for a visit to the Hammond Castle Museum, a replica of a Medieval Castle built by America’s second greatest inventor., Dr. Hammond. Dr Hammond and his wife lived in the “castle” until their deaths. Neither the decor or castle design appealed to my sense of taste but to each their own. After our “castle” visit, we drove through Long Beach to Pigeon Cove and then back to Rockport for Ken’s “lobster” fix. We both ordered one lobster but I ate only a small portion of mine and Ken was happily blessed with 1 ½ lobster. We capped our day off with a visit to Wingaersheek Beach, a beautiful white sand beach reminiscent of the beach at Siesta Key in Sarasota.

Thursday morning we “packed up camp” and took to the road through New Hampshire and into Old Orchard Beach just outside Portland Maine. Friday we did a drive to Kennebunk and Kennebunk Port, saw the Bush compound from afar and drove downtown Portland. After reviewing the mail boat schedule in anticipation of a trip to the islands, we took advantage of a few photo opportunities and had a nice visit with a couple transplanted from New York City. The couple briefed us on the Maine psyche and explained that they could never be true Mainelanders because they were not born here. They suggested places to visit, things to see and we enjoyed our brief exchange with them and their candid assessment of Maine life. Ken asked, “How do you like the winters?” The lady responded, “you don’t like winter, you do winter!”. She went on to say that the winters provide the people of Maine a common bond of survival. They retired to Maine after spending their summers here during their working career with the New York Public Schools. Their devotion, loyalty and pride in their adopted State was an inspirational tribute to the “spirit” of the State, the likes of Olympia Snow excepted. We were advised that the residents of Northern Maine look upon the Southern part of the State as “fureigners”. The East Coast psyche is truly an interesting study.

Saturday noon, our friends the Gerstens arrived from Connecticut to share our Portland weekend. They drove six hours and through four States to share the weekend with us and that, in our opinion, is friendship above and beyond Webster’s definition. They no more than arrived at the coach until we were in our car and en route down town for the “island” mail boat trip.
We had lunch at a local “wharf” restaurant with lots of character and salty charm before boarding the mail boat for a trip through the island chain and five stops to deliver people, mail, food and freight including a sofa set, some appliances and several dogs and two cats. It was a kick. We visited the Portland Headlight, one of the most photographed spots in Maine, according to our Maine informant at large and our day concluded with a lobster dinner all around.

Sunday morning we had breakfast with the Gerstens at Mims across from the wharf and spent the morning shopping in downtown Portland. We capped our short day off with a visit to the Public Market and bade the Gerstens goodbye with our sincere thanks for their company and friendship.









The Gerstems (lighthouse) The Van Horns (RV)

Tomorrow we are off to Bar Harbor and into Canada for a trek along the Saint Lawrence to Lake Ontario and back into the US at Sault Ste Marie.