A Very Special Day--My 62nd Birthday!

Trenton, Maine   Narrows Too campground   High:  84   Low: 60

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Hugs to everybody who follows us and reads along now and then!

I love birthdays...I loved planning special birthdays for my daughters when they were growing up. I loved celebrating with friends when they turned special birthdays...like 30, or 40, or 50. I love celebrating my own birthday! It's like, HEY! I made it through another year. I had many rough times when I was younger, both growing up and as a single mom. Somehow, birthdays were a little ray of sunshine that brightened a dreary day, or a tough period I was going through. When I was single, I would buy myself flowers, it didn't matter to me that flowers seldom lasted very long, I was just happy looking at them...And after the kids grew up and left home, I celebrated my birthdays with friends. Have some great memories of going to the Japanese restaurant, Hana Yori for my birthday, in Mishawaka, IN, of going to Tosi's Italian restaurant in Stevensville, MI, for birthday celebrations, when I was living back in the northern Indiana area. Eating out at a nice restaurant was one of my most favorite ways to celebrate ANYBODY'S birthday! (AHA! No wonder she likes to eat out!) And now, I have Eldy to help me celebrate. And we celebrate birthdays all over the country! How serendipitous is that? (E. explains, that's my granddaughter's favorite word of the week that she learned while she was with us.) Lucky and blessed, that we are!

So, when my birthday comes along, I make sure everybody knows about it! I talk about what I'm going to do on my birthday, where I want to eat, what I'd wish for if I had some extra birthday money. Hint, hint...I throw out gift ideas just for fun, nothing really expensive, I just don't want to get something that I have no use for, or don't really want, like the time my first husband gave me a vacuum cleaner because he thought my domestic skills weren't up to snuff. (Eldy is remaining wisely silent here...) Eldy won't ever forget my birthday, because I won't let him! :-)

Up and at it early this morning, I was, because it's time to celebrate, all day!  I get a "Happy birthday and love you" text from Eldy, who went and washed our really dirty Honda, so that was sweet! Next, he tells me we are going to "Jeannie's" for breakfast, in downtown Bar Harbor. Yes, there really is a "Jeannie's" in Bar Harbor, and they have "bearylicious great Maine breakfasts"! I had my favorite...a breakfast burrito, and man, was it delicious! It had homemade salsa on it...Yum!  (I swear, she's part Hispanic, as much as she loves Mexican food! says E.)

We saw this truck outside the restaurant...Boy, have those guys come a long way! (An obscure reference to an old TV show called "Sanford and Son")...I liked that show....

We walked around town for awhile.....admired the beautiful little park in the center of town that overlooks the harbor...

We checked out the price of lobster, which is still high at this particular restaurant. That's surprising, because the lobster catch is plentiful around here, and local talk is about how to get more people to eat lobster, as the supply well exceeds the demand! There are some fantastic lobster dinner specials at the "lobster pound" local eateries spread out all over town. We've seen a soft shelled lobster dinner can be had for about 7.99 so we're going to make sure Eldy gets some lobster soon. But, for now, this restaurant is not worrying about their pricing.

Bar Harbor has some really cool restaurants and shops that are fun to go into and walk around...Sparky got a pressed penny for her collection, which she missed the first time here at Bar Harbor.

We walked down onto the docks, past this open window...It reminded me of old TV shows where kids would sneak a hot pie cooling off an open window. The Andy Griffith Show, maybe?

Two years ago, we ate at another Grumpy's, on another part of Mount Desert Island at one of the small harbors. I remember they had a fantastic breakfast served outside the little harbor. It was wonderful! We checked out the whale sightings on the whale boat tour. Sparky LOVES seeing the whales and never gets tired of going to look for them. Not one of the cheaper touristy things to do, but there might come a day where you don't see whales any more, so why not see them every chance you can!?

Later in the day, we went over to Acadia and drove around getting more information about carriage tours of the bridges, and hiking trails. Here's an entrance to one of the carriage roads.

And one of the many bridges....

We're gonna get off our duffs soon, and start hiking and biking. The carriage roads were very crowded today with cyclists, and it was the hottest day so far since we've been here, so we're gonna wait for the weather to cool down tomorrow and maybe get a hike in...Or not!  Sparky stopped off at the visitor's center at Acadia and got her lifetime "Golden Age"/ senior pass. It enables you to get in FREE to most national parks, national forests, recreation areas and monuments. It's the best deal going for seniors and NOBODY should pass this up for a one-time processing fee of 10.00.  You also get a 50% fee reduction for federal fees charged for camping, boating, swimming, and tours and other stuff. Fantastic!

sure don't feel like 62, at least not today!

For dinner tonight, Eldy took me to Jack Russell's Steakhouse and Brewert, a great little restaurant with a pub atmosphere and handcrafted ales....I had a wonderful steak dinner, served with garlic mashed potatoes, with my first clam chowder in Maine...It was terrific! And, I had my very favorite dessert, we seldom eat desserts, but if CREME BRULEE is on the  menu, I'm gonna eat it! And I did, all by myself!

Eldy really liked his steak dinner as well....What a wonderful 62nd birthday I had! But I will say that as the years go by, I'm probably not going to be looking forward to birthdays as much, but who knows? As you get lots older, birthdays are about the only thing you can celebrate--that you are still here for another year! ....Time to go home and rest up for a fun day tomorrow....some hiking and biking..(BOTH???!!!! Woman, you're going to kill me! says E.) OK, one OR the other.... Buy for now......

Corps of Engineer Parks in West Point, Georgia

Eldy did some research on approximately how far he wanted to drive today and we arrived at the conclusion that West Point Lake in Georgia would be a good stopping point for today's drive. We said goodbye to the Gaffney water tower, the "Peachoid", which looks like a giant butt cheek to Sparky!

Using the recreation.gov site, he saw that there were several Corps of Engineer parks along the West Point Lake in Georgia, at least SIX. We arrived at West Point Lake, close to I-85 on the border of Georgia and Alabama early this afternoon and chose R. Shaefer Heard Campground. For 12.00 a night with Eldy's senior pass, we have 50 amp electric and a site on the WATER, although the water level on the lake is severely depleted due to long term drought. The sites are very shady...and in our section, very level. We had site number 6. We have plenty of room, and there's even a car pad site marked out for your car right next to the rig. When we came in, Sparky asked out of curiosity, "Do you have snakes here?" And the lady answered, "Oh, some people say they've seen some around, but ah never have seen any." Uh, OK...remember that for later.....

The Corps of Engineer parks along this lake are just fabulous...sites are VERY spacious, clean, some of the campgrounds even have laundry facilities! Great playgrounds for the kids.....

Plenty of nice roadways to ride a bike for miles...We LOVE Corps of Engineer parks, especially with the "Old Fart" pass...the senior pass that you can get when you turn 62, that gets you into government run parks like national parks, corps of engineer parks, etc. for half the normal rate. Ten bucks, one time only fee, good for your lifetime. Normal rate is 24.00, we are staying for 12.00 and you can stay for up to 14 days at a corps park.

Sparky went out for a bike ride today...and saw a SNAKE, a BIG snake slither across the road...

Naturally, she just HAD to get off her bike to get a photo, WITH THE ZOOM, of course! Have no idea what kind of snake this is, but someone please tell her...Sorry, you can't see the head. Sparky was told by the couple working the front gate that if it has a diamond shaped head, that's a poisonous snake. She can't see the head, it's to the right. It looks like it might have eaten, it's so fat! But it just stayed by the side of the road and didn't move once Sparky got off her bike. Sparky took a couple of photos, maintaining some distance and then hopped back on her bike. Biking around the corner after taking the photo, Sparky ran into three boys on their bikes.

"Hey, guys, wanna see a snake?" she asks...the ever present teachable moment in her mind wherever she goes...."Sure! Where is it?" the guys asked...ages about 7, 10, and 12 or so..."Right around the corner bend," she points. The boys asked what color was it and what did it look like? Sparky described it and the oldest boy says," Sounds like a water moccasin"...Uh, those are poisonous, right? He says,"Yes, ma'am, they are poisonous. We got LOTS of snakes around where we live. We got chicken snakes, we got rattlesnakes, we got....." and he named a bunch more snakes. Uh, thanks, fellas, see you around...And Sparky went on with her bike ride....Hm-m-m-m...this might not be the best place to stay and relax. Sparky will be hyper-vigilant from here on out, watching for more snakes. We are going to stay two nights for sure, but think we'll check out a couple more of the corps parks while we are here.

Verizon mi-fi is two bars if that...AT & T cell phone signal nothing at the campsite. With Sparky's first grandbaby coming soon, could be any day, she is not real happy about no cell phone service. So we might try another campground up the road....See you tomorrow!