As everyone knows, Ron and I spent over a week in New England last month and I am sure you can hardly wait to get the recap of the trip so here it goes:

We took the red eye flight from PHX to BOS on June 5th.  We landed in bean town early Friday and wouldn't you know it, it was raining like a bastard outside!  Some things never change  We grabbed the shuttle to the rental car place and were given the following options for a car:  Ford Taurus, Ford Mustang, Volvo S40, hum, no, no, yes!  Hell yeah we took the Volvo over the Mustang, it rained all day and we would have been hydroplaning the entire drive to Maine!  Besides, Volvo has an outstanding safety rating and their cars have what Ron calls 'smart technology'.  Honest to God it was like the car knew me, I felt like Michael Knight with Kit!  The car tried to communicate with me!  Here is the proof:

   


We drove all the way to Maine and kept driving, and driving, and driving until we reached Island Falls.  We had somehow decided to stay at Birch Point Campground mostly because we are idiots and didn't think it would be 'that bad'. 

About 2 weeks before we left for the trip we were discussing our itinerary for the trip and I referred to Birch Point Campground as Shit Creek Lodge.  The name stuck after that so it was really kinda funny when they more than lived up to the name. 

We were assigned cottage #4, not campsite but cottage so we are inside protected from the crawly things outside.  Or not.  Now, if I am staying inside and not sleeping in a tent on the ground than why the am I seeing so many bugs near me?  Anyone?! The place was not what I would consider clean, at all.  In fact the furniture was far worst than that of a frat house at the end of the school year.  When we moved the hazardous waste land that was the couch to face the huge television so we could watch the Celtics - Lakers game I had to sweep the floor!  There was a big pile of dirt when I was done that even had the back of an earring from a previous guest in it.  I would say that the management must be aware of the bug issue as evidenced in the picture below of one of the 'amenities'.  On a scale of 1 - 10, cottage #4 rates at just barely a 4 (and that is being VERY generous and it's a County 4!). 





So even though #4 was kind of a dirty, rundown shack in the middle of nowhere I have to say that our first night there was one of the highlight of the trip.  Various members of the family stopped by and hung out, reminisced and made each other pee a little bit from laughing.  Between that nights activities, something to do with a graduation or some other such nonsense, I really don't recall and the events of the following day, also something to do with a graduation maybe, I really don't remember, I got to see all of the members of our family for the first time in 2 years!  It was cool, I just wish I could remember why we went there. 

By Tuesday we had enjoyed enough of Shit Creek Lodge so we packed up and headed south to the Granite State.  We made it all the way to Sherman before we were stopped in a road block set up by the US Border Patrol.   Yeah, they patrol the border between Aroostook and Penobscot Counties now.  We have long been aware that the population of Northern Maine has been steadily declining over the years but come on now!  The government can't actually prevent people from leaving but nice try!  Besides, we obviously didn't belong there, we were driving a car with Massachusetts plates, I would almost think we could have had a police escort out of the state for that!