Days 11-12: Owls Head to Saco to E-ville

Day 11:  Owls Head to Saco

Quote of the day:

Every time I think about
back home
It's cool and breezy
I wish that I could be there
right now
Just passing time.

Weather:    Fog, rain (hard at times), clearing late in the afternoon, then warm

Pics:     Owls Head fresh leaf fall, Salty Dog Tavern and Grill, wedding in Portland, the last pic of a pretty tree

Up way too early, coffee and toast, then a walk and meet-up with R (he’s running, then walking). THB leaves first and is almost immediately caught in a hard downpour. Figure R will be smart enough not to start, so don’t bother returning to let him know. 20 minutes later, here comes R, also drenched. Agree it makes us the craziest motha-fuckahs in all of Owls Head (at least on this Saturday). JC shows better grasp of the local conditions and opts not to join in. For C, S and DB: it was never on, they keep their wits about them given the amount of rain and fog on hand.

Lots of slow motion hanging around in the morning (gosh, wonder if the food and drink at Primo’s had much to do with that). Part ways a little before noon and THB and DB head south. Our first stop is at the Salty Dog for fried fish and chips (though DB tried to order hers blackened) and a shared extremely local brew (made on premises), $26.

From lunch, we do a drop-in at the LL Bean Catalog store in Freeport where THB swears he started to break out with a strong allergic reaction as soon as he got within a few miles of downtown Freeport. DB takes note and thus we do a fast walk-thru and a short stroll before continuing south to Portland where we stroll what might be generously called the downtown art district and most would call skid row.

Another short jaunt and we’ve arrived at the Hampton Inn in Saco (about 1 hour 45 minutes from Logan airport) for the night. Unfortunately, THB did not notice the fine print and somehow along with ending up in a huge king / suite, we are in the smoking wing of the hotel.

So much for booking through some generic “list all the hotels” site; when we check in the front desk tells as that a) they are full for the night; b) they get 4-5 people a day complaining about ending up a smoking room (the site reserves the right to put you in a room not quite with the requested requirements); and c) on January 1^st they will convert to all non-smoking.

So: a) we’re screwed, THB has pre-paid and THB’s eyesight is fading, he can no long ready fine print; b) THB wonders how a hotel in Saco on a Saturday night can be full (even the hotel staff is surprised at 100% occupancy; and c) we’re only 70 days or so too early.

Dinner in Biddleford (near Saco) at Thai ME: fish in ginger sauce, pad thai with tofu, wine, local beer (Portland), $50. It is in the low 60s and clear, another amazing turn of the weather.

Day 12:  Saco to E-ville

Quote of the day:

Everybody seems to wonder
What it's like down here
I gotta get away
from this day-to-day
running around,
Everybody knows
this is nowhere.

Weather:   Clear and cool, perfect for flying except there is a headwind going west

Book Review, audio category:    Waging Heavy Peace, Neal Young (read by Keith Carradine). Hey, hey, my, my, rock and roll can never die, there’s more to the picture than meets the eye. THB thinks Neal thought that he was getting paid by the word, rather than the image created, of his life story. And, no need to tell it in a straight line, better to keep looping and looping and retelling some parts over and over. And, somehow, Neal’s personality comes through and you hang with him through the 10 hours. Not all that much juicy gossip, and it does seem that if you are rocker that survived this long, you are gonna get a biography out there. :

Book Review: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben Fountain (novel). An American infantry squad is being honored with a glory tour of America after a battle in Iraq made them heroes (and a few of them died). Today’s big event: appearing at halftime of the Thanksgiving football game between the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears, in Dallas. Told through the soldier (Billy Lynn) who has won medals for the battle and is struggling with the juxtaposition of new found fame and what for him is now all pretty complex for a 19 year old to take in and make sense of: loyalty to family, to his squad, to his commitment to the army, making out with a Dallas cheerleader, and wisdom passed on by his sergeant and dead comrade. Recommended.

The flight home from Boston takes 6.5 hours; must be one of the all-time longest continental flights ever. At least this time United has the sense to leave THB and DB in the economy plus seats as originally booked. Phew!