The Destinators

Near Portland

I’ve been taking drum lessons from Drumeo, an online music education program, since 2018. Students share videos with each other providing encouragement, trading tips and generally enjoying the camaraderie of the community. Dave has been a member since 2013. During the past winter, he posted a video of himself drumming with a band, and I saw ‘Maine Academy of Modern Music’ on a banner in the background. Hmmm… Me: Hey Dave, are you from Maine? Dave: I live near Portland. New England states aren’t very large. On a global scale, we’re next-door neighbors…

As we were planning this trip, I sent him my usual email. Me: We’re going to be in Maine and we’ll be near Portland, wanna jam? Dave: Yes. (I’m paraphrasing, here.)

The Beaches

We had one more free day to explore on our own in Maine. And we were less than an hour from 2 of the most often recommended places for us to visit while in southern Maine. Both places are state parks on the ocean – Reid State Park and Popham Beach. Let’s go!

Maine Maritime Museum

The weather forecast was calling for 90% chance of rain, so it seemed like a good day for an indoor tourist thing. We headed over to the Maine Maritime Museum, on the original site of the Percy & Smalls Shipyard in Bath. Uh oh. A big part of this museum is outdoors or inside the preserved original buildings connected by footpaths across the 20-acre site. But as luck would have it, the forecast was mostly wrong. The sky cleared up nicely after a 10-minute downpour, and stayed that way for the rest of our day at the museum.

Round Pond

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!

Alfred, ME

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!

Newagen

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!

Bradbury Mountain State Park

Having just spent a fair amount of our touring and visiting time within sight of the ocean, or at least the sound of the waves, for our next bit of exploration we looked around for a place to visit that would take us away from the coast a bit to see a different part of Maine, if possible staying away from larger towns because that’s our M.O. We didn’t want to get too far inland, though, since most of the rest of our visits are also along the coast. Well, what’s that green splotch there on the map? That’s Bradbury Mountain State Park. Set a course…

Penobscot Bay

We had plans to meet up with friends in Rockland and Islesboro, leaving us with a little free time to explore this bit of Maine on our own. I had never been to the Penobscot Bay area, and Doug hadn’t visited since his college days at Bates (in Lewiston, Maine). Researching places to hike, we found that the Camden/Rockland area on Penobscot Bay featured the kinds of hikes we most like – moderate climbs to higher elevation places with great views. We identified 3 hikes to do and found a nice, small campground convenient to all of them. And Penobscot Bay was quite convenient for meeting up with our friends.

Islesboro

We met Susan and Dick almost 25 years ago. They were some of the first people we met and skied with when we arrived at Sugarbush. They still spend winters in Vermont and we still get to ski and hang with them. About 4 years ago, they purchased Susan’s family home and they now spend their summers in Islesboro, ME.

Chicky Stoltz & the Charlie Nobles*

Chicky Stoltz is a friend and neighbor, a talented musician and multi-instrumentalist, and my first drum teacher. He grew up in Camden, ME and moved with his young family to the Mad River Valley about 15 years ago. In addition to playing with numerous bands and ensembles in Vermont, he remains active with his Maine bandmates, getting together a few times each year, including an annual residence on a sailing cruise that kicks off with an evening show (on shore) the night before departure. Chicky Stoltz & the Charlie Nobles were scheduled to play at Ada’s Kitchen in Rockland, about 20 minutes from our friends Dick and Susan’s home, and the timing was good. Color us there!