Our much anticipated yearly trip to Acadia had arrived. This is just a pleasure trip with friends. I left my truck and trailer home this time since "Old Blue" needs work....again.... and it's a long haul to Acadia. So, Bonnie was taking Linda and her horse Mac, I was going with Halla
I was on vacation the week before we left. Fred and I have been fixing the horse barn. The sill down the middle of the barn rotted and had to be replaced. Because we had the barn torn apart, Bonnie and I were keeping our horses over at Carol Lenna's. She has a nice run-in shed and pasture that she isn't using. Bonnie was taking care of the horses. My garden also needed to be harvested that same week so I was going crazy trying to work on the barn and get my canning and pickling done. I canned 31 pints of pickled beets, 24 quarts of green beans and 12 pints of carrots. I didn't start packing for Acadia until Friday night. Much of what I needed was in my horse trailer which was over at Carol's. we planned to leave by 8:00 AM so I got over to Carol's at 6:30 AM so I would have time to pack what I needed from my trailer. Bonnie was already there when I arrived. She headed right over to Linda's to get her stuff so we could see if everything was going to fit in her truck. I fed the horses while Bonnie was gone. Bonnie has a taunno cover on her truck so is limited on how high she can stack things. My trunk with my saddle and all my horse gear was just a little too tall to go in. Nor could we get in any of the hay. We had to pile all that stiff into my truck to take to Halla's and she would have to haul it up. The hay was all in bags so she could put it in her trailer's dressing room. It was 8:30 AM by the time we got everything ready to go to Halla's. We loaded the horses and headed to Halla's. When we arrived there she said she had started to think we had forgotten about the trip! Somehow the plug on Bonnie's truck came unplugged and dragged on the road on the way to Halla's. It had worn the casing off the bottom but the contacts were still ok. We had to duct tape the plug into the receptacle and then tie it on to make sure it didn't come off. Bonnie was not very pleased about this. Tony helped Halla and me get the hay and my trunk packed into Halla's trailer. We unloaded Marie and put her in Halla's pasture while we were loading my stuff into Halla's trailer. Marie had a fit about being separated from Bonnie's horse Lady Bug. She ran and hollered something awful. We were going to meet Bonnie and Linda at the Quick Mart Right by the on ramp to the highway. When Halla and I got there, Bonnie and Linda were waiting for us. We went in to get coffee and ran into Al Penney. He is my farrier. I owed him for my horses last shoeing so I was able to pay him and save myself a stamp. Then in walks Dennis and Barbara, my brother and his wife. They were heading up to my other brother, Kevin's camp for the weekend. My parents were already at the camp.
We stopped at Dysart's on the way up. we had a great meal there as usual. There was a music festival going on in Bangor that weekend and the traffic was backed up on I-95. We got directions from someone to get around that and get onto I-395 past the traffic. That turned out great! We got to Acadia with no problems. We got checked in quickly. They have put in all new barns that are very nice. Everything is very convenient. We got the horses settled in and unpacked what we would need at the barn. There were only two other horses in the barn. There are three barns for people bringing their how horses to ride. Each barn has twelve stalls. The other two barns were empty. We were very surprised, we thought the place would be packed. We were told at the office that August is usually a slow month for stable, but that they were very booked up for September and October. We had two stalls on each side of the barn. We put Marie and Slick next to each other. Lady was put right across the aisle from Marie with Mac next to her. Once we got the horses settled in, we parked the trailers in the campsite. Halla brought her 'dining tarp' and we had quite a time setting that up. It's really quite simple but if anyone was watching us, they got a good laugh I'm sure. We finally managed to our satisfaction and dragged the picnic table under it. Bonnie and Linda cleaned out Bonnie's trailer and set up their cots in there. I was sleeping in Halla's trailer. She has a gooseneck like mine. I was teasing her on how privileged I felt being allowed to sleep in her palace! Halla introduced herself to the two men who owned the horses that were in our barn. One of the horses was a big Percheron/Standardbred cross gelding named Wallace. The other was an older polo pony named Tucker owned by a man named Jay. Jay is from Manchester, England but is now living in NH. After we got camp set up, we went out for a ride. We rode the Day Mountain loop. Linda was a little anxious about how Mac would react to the carriages. He has a history of being scared of them. We came across three or four of them and all the horses were good about it. They gawked a bit but that was about all. Marie seemed a bit out of sorts. She was a little excited and crabby with the other horses. She has been a bit out of sorts actually since being moved to Carol's place. She's never been away from home that long and I think it is confusing her. We had a good ride. The only problem was the dust on the trails. It hasn't rained in a while and it was very dusty.
We fed the horses when we got back from our ride then headed out to find a place to eat. We were all in Bonnie's truck since her truck has an extended cab with a back seat. Every time we would see a restaurant, Bonnie would slow down and ask if we wanted to try it. Halla kept telling her to keep going. Bonnie would grumble and keep going. Eventually we ended up in Bar Harbor. It was around 8:00 PM by then. We had gone through to the far side of town before Halla was content to let Bonnie find somewhere to park so we could walk around and find somewhere to eat. Finding a parking spot was not easy but Bonnie found a spot on a corner she was able to pull into. We stopped at the first restaurant we came to and agreed to give it a try. This was the West Street Cafe. There was a waiting line but we figured it would be the same everywhere. We didn't have long to wait. The place was quite nice and we all enjoyed our food. When we got back to camp, we checked on the horses, topped off their water and gave them plenty of hay before we headed to bed. Halla had brought a bunch of "smut" magazine to read such at the Enquirer, etc. We read them for quite a while getting a good laugh from them. Right after we'd settled into bed, we started hearing ka-band, ka-bang, ka-band and it was LOUD like someone was pounding nails over at the barns. But, it was way to late for someone to be doing any work over there. After a while Halla says to me, "Cindy, is that Marie?". I replied, "I don't think so, she's never kicked in a stall before." Ka-bang, ka-bang, ka-bang....... Suddenly Halla burst out, "That bastard! Slick has been doing this in his stall since early spring!" Ka-bang, ka-bang, ka-bang......"That bastard" Halla would mutter and roll over and try to sleep. Ka-bang, ka-bang, ka-bang..... "That bastard" she muttered and rolled over again. I don't know if Slick stopped banging or not or I just fell asleep. In any case, I wasn't awake for very long. I woke up several times during the night and it had started raining. When Halla and I woke up, it was still raining. Bonnie and Linda were already up and had fed the horses. Halla and I laid around until we smelled the coffee Linda was making. It was fresh perked and very good. We were glad we had set up Halla's tarp. We hung out under the tarp drinking coffee for a while then decided to go over to the Jordan Pond House for something to eat. The Jordan Pond House is quite the tourist spot and quite expensive. But, it is also quite a nice place to eat. The restaurant wasn't open when we got the gift shop was open so we browsed around in there waiting for the restaurant to open. I bought a stainless steel camp mug and a bucket hat. Bonnie picked up a rain coat and a stainless steel travel cup. Linda bought a pair of hiking boots, a bucket hat and a fleece pullover. Halla got a bucket hat and some stuffed toys. One was tit mouse and the others were little birds that make bird sounds when you squeeze them. Halla also purchased a balsa scented door stop which she later laid out between our beds in the trailer. I was kind of wondering if it was a hint that I smelled bad or something. Halla and I immediately donned our bucket hats for the rest of the weekend and referred to each other as bucket heads. We were seated in the restaurant right away as soon as they opened. It was 11:30 AM and the rain had finally stopped. I had curried chicken salad which was served with grapes, mandarin orange slices and crackers. It was absolutely delicious though outrageously priced. We all had Oregon Chi to drink. This is a spiced tea sweetened with cream and spiced with pumpkin. It was delicious! By the time we left the restaurant, the sun had come out and it was beautiful. As soon as we got back to camp, we headed out for a ride. The rain was actually good as it laid the dust down on the roads and the riding was much better then yesterday. John and Jay were just heading out when we got to the barn. Halla took a few pictures of them. They were camping in a tent and said they'd gotten a bit wet last night. Halla offered to let them sleep in the back of her horse trailer if it rained again tonight! AGH! They seemed nice but they WERE strangers! And they had their own horse trailer they could sleep in! They invited us to join them that evening at their campfire.
We rode down to Seal Harbor and rode the roads down by Long Pond where they don't allow bicycles. Then we went up by Jordan Pond and the rock slide. We were out for nearly four hours. Mac had been very excited when we started. He looked very impressive with his tail up in the air, his neck arched and prancing down the roads. I'm not sure that Linda was all that impressed but the rest of us enjoyed the sight. Marie was still being a bit crabby with the geldings. Lady Bug was an angel. Slick was jigging a bit when we were walking which was irritating Halla. After the ride, we decided that Mac got the "most impressive looking horse of the day" award and Lady Bug got the "best horse of the day" award. We got someone to take a picture of us all on one of the bridges. Bonnie and Linda got ahead of Halla and me at one point and Marie almost tied with Mac for "most impressive horse of the day". Marie doesn't like getting separated from Lady Bug. When we got back to camp, we lounged around snacking on all the goodies everyone had brought. I didn't bring much but everyone else brought too much so it all worked out. We decided we were too full to eat supper but thought we could still manage some desert. So, we went back to the Jordan Pond House. We had the sweetest little waitress that was from Mobil, Alabama. Halla just had to buy some more of the stuffed toy birds at the gift shop. Linda, Bonnie and I had blueberry cobbler and Chai. Halla just had Chi.
The nigth was very clear and it was going to be a full moon. I told Bonnie I wanted to do a moonlight ride. Bonnie seemed interested, Halla didn't. Linda never made any comment on it. When we got back, we checked the horses. Bonnie and Linda went to bed. Halla and I joined John and Jay at their campfire. We had a nice time chatting with them. By 10:30 PM the moon was coming up and it was very nice out. I once again tried to get Halla to go for a moonlight ride but she still wasn't interested. She tried to talk one of the guys into going with me and I wanted to slap her silly! I was NOT going on a moonlight ride with two men I did not know. Thankfully, they decided they were too drunk to do any riding. So, I woke Bonnie up and talked her into going with me. It was such a wonderful ride. We rode to the top of Day Mountain. It was a bit dark on the way up as the moon was still rising but it was gorgeous at the top of the mountain and perfect on the way back. We had such a good time and Marie and Lady Bug were wonderful. Halla had left a light on in the trailer for me. What a sweetie! She was still awake when I crawled into bed. We chatted a bit them settled in to sleep. Ka-bang, ka-bang, ka-bang, "That bastard!" and so it went for the second night.
I was the last one to get up Monday morning. Halla was up early trying to get Slick to stop banging the stall wall. I never heard her get up. She said I'd talked to her but I don't' remember it. Linda had coffee ready again. I'm taking her camping with me all the time from now on! We had enough snack food that we didn't bother going out for breakfast. The first thing Linda said to me when I came out of the trailer was, "I hear I missed a great ride last night." I guess she had wanted to go but since she hadn't said anything when I'd originally mentioned it, Bonnie and I had assumed she wasn't interested. Bonnie and I felt bad that we hadn't tried to wake her up. We checked in with the office to see if we had to have our horses out of their stalls by 10:00 AM which is the normal check out time. If so, we'd have to pack up before riding. It turned out there was no one coming in for those stalls so we could take our time so we decided to go riding first. We rode up to Eagle Lake. Then I took a wrong turn and ended up going by Aunt Betty Pond and up towards the Witch Hold Pond loop. Horses aren't allowed there so we had to back track by Aunt Betty Pond and head down to Jordan Pond. At one point, Slick went right up to a woman on a bicycle, reached into her fanny packed and carefully plucked a water bottle out of it by the cap. It as the funniest thing! Thankfully, the woman used to own horses so was not scared by Slick. She just calmly removed the bottle from between his teeth and put it back in her pack. Slick also stuck his nose into several bicycle carts and "smoozed" with the children. So, Slick got the "biggest smoozer of the day" award. Lady Bug was now in heat and glued herself to Slick. She kept nickering to him and gazing at him all moon eyed. Marie was quite jealous and kept giving Slick dirty looks. Marie got quite excited by Lady Bug being in heat and kept sticking her nose under Lady Bug's tail. Mac seemed to think they were all a bunch of pigs and wanted nothing to do with any of them. Mac definitely got the "best horse of the day" award today. We were almost back to camp when we again came upon the woman whose water bottle had been stolen by Slick. She had some apple cores and gave them to Slick. His smoozing had paid off. The horses really got along very well together. We kept switching places taking turns leading and it was great.
Once we got back to camp Bonnie and Linda were on a mission to get packed and head out. Halla would have liked to relax a while longer but Bonnie didn't want to drive home in the dark. It didn't take long to pack and head out. Halla and I stopped at Dysart's on the way home. Bonnie and Linda had gone straight home. It was a great trip.
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