The Destinators

As our wonderful month in Maine was nearing the end, we started looking at our options for routes home. Our loyal readers will of course not expect us to follow a beeline to our house, and they’d be correct. In fact, we’ve plans to make a stop in Connecticut. Oh look, Derry, New Hampshire is on the way – let’s see if we can drop in on Chris and Kim!

Our home town of Warren VT spans a section of the Mad River Valley from the Monroe Skyline on the west to the Northfield Mountains ridgeline on the east with the valley (and the Mad River, itself, of course) in between. From our house, a little less than halfway up the ridge on the west, we can see out across the valley to where our friends Meg, Rob, Wyatt, and Asa built their ski house in East Warren. When we all first met about 10 years ago, they were Bostonians skiing at Sugarbush and taking lessons there – which is how we came together. About 5 years ago, the family moved to Portland, ME. As we were planning for our Tour de Maine, we reached out to Meg and she arranged with us a visit for a mid-day walking tour of their adopted home city.

I moved to Boston on my own in 1980. I loved outdoor adventures back then and joined the Appalachian Mountain Club to meet people in my new town. On my first AMC hike, I met Cheryl who was inspiring to me as a hiker, biker, boater, skier and backpacker. She became my hiking mentor for the next few years, extending my horizon and my skills, even encouraging me to join in on my first winter backpacking trip. Eventually I met Doug and left Boston, although we joined in with AMC events over the years and still maintain friendships with a group of folks from the AMC Boston Chapter. Later, when we moved to Vermont, our activities shifted focus somewhat. At the same time, Cheryl and her late husband Glen began splitting their time between Maine in summer and Colorado in winter. So, although we’ve stayed in touch, over the last 25 years (!) Cheryl and I haven’t seen each other for more than a quick hello at a large event once or twice.

That got fixed!

My dad was the 4th oldest of 16 children, which makes for interesting stories and family dynamics. His youngest brother, my uncle Mike, is 8 years older than I am. Although that was an eternity in high school years, with the passage of a few more years we became more like peers. I’ve always felt close to Mike and his wife Ann, and in the early years of my adulthood we’d get together fairly often. Then they got busy raising 4 awesome kids, we got busy with jobs that required travel, and all of a sudden, hey, we haven’t seen Mike and Ann in 11 years. Gotta fix that!

Joy. Pure joy. That’s what you feel when you spend some time with Angus on a boat. Any boat. He’s on point the whole time, wagging his tail, barking at ducks, cormorants, seals, seagulls, buoys, anything really that catches his attention. Oh, and wagging his tail. He loves the water, he loves boats, and he loves his humans!