The Latest...

It's funny how quickly time flies when summer rolls around.

Jess and I have been doing pretty well. We're finally managing to get some riding in, and we've also done a bit of camping as well. Over the July 4th weekend, we took a drive up to Maine (state motto: Sorry about the traffic ticket, but we're really broke) for some camping. This ended up not being the best choice, because it was 12 hrs up and 14 hrs back. A lot of driving for one day of camping!

In order to bypass the heavy traffic areas of Baltimore, Philly, NYC, and Boston, we avoided I-95 and instead went up through Harrisburg PA to I-81, then across I-84 to Connecticut. It was a nice drive, until we got to CT, where I had to bump the cruise control up around 10mph to avoid becoming a hood ornament on another car. It seems that CT is full of ex race car drivers or something. Average speed of CT drivers: 83mph.

The rest of the drive was calm, until we got to Maine. Many years ago, I had to take a drive across Ohio on I-70 (talk about boring! The road was so straight, if you had a coronary behind the wheel, you wouldn't crash until you got to Indianapolis, assuming your alignment was good) and I never thought I would see that many speed traps per mile again anywhere else in the world.

Well, Ohio ain't got nuthin on Maine! While there weren't quite as many speed traps as Ohio, the intensity of them was much higher. We're talking several cops per trap, and boy were they adamant. There were cops dressed as construction workers, cops in plain white vans, cops on overpasses, and cops in SUVs on the wrong side of the road. It was mayhem, but we managed to get through the state (in both directions) without getting nabbed, despite Jessica's lead paw.

The camping was fun. It rained, of course. It always rains when I go camping. But the tent held up pretty well. I took Jess to the top of Cadillac Mountain (named after the same guy the car was named after) and we got plenty of cool pics. We ate a lot of food (too much food in fact) and we both tried Lobster for the first time (yes, after all these years I'd never had lobster!). It was fun having lobster the proper way - in Maine, on the water.

Other than the Maine trip, we've basically been hanging around the house, watching the Tour de France, and counting the days until we leave for England to see U2. We have tickets to Wembley, and also to Glasgow. Should be a blast.

I'll end with a couple of Maine pics. It's a nice place to visit, even if I only make it back every 20 years.