EVEN FURTHER NORTH TO MAINE, AND THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL

June 17, 2022

EVEN FURTHER NORTH TO MAINE, AND MOM'S COMPLETION OF THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL

We met da mommy and da daddy’s friend Sandy (Tara Monkey) a little further north in Virginia. She rode in the back seat with me and she loved me a lot. I gave her kisses and I rested my chin on her leg. She’s super awesome.

We drove to northern Virginia to where another friend lives. We had planned to stay with her for the night. But that friend was in a car accident earlier that day so she was at the hospital. I’m not sure what a hospital is, but it sounds like a sad place. I think she is okay and not hurt too bad. But it didn’t work out for us to stay at her house, so her husband took us to their church where we parked our camper outside in the parking lot. Sandy slept inside in the nursery. There was a great big room where da mommy and da daddy played ball with me. But we are not supposed to tell their friend that I was inside the church. (Shhhhh!)

I was glad to hear the next day that Mommy and Daddy’s friend who was in a car accident was okay and went back to her home.

We kept driving and driving and I got pretty tired of being in the truck. Since Sandy was in the back seat with me it made it better. We finally got to this place in Maine called “The Cabin.” There were some other dogs there that were nice. But I didn’t really play with them. One was very old, and one was very young and bouncy. But I did get to play ball with Mommy and Daddy.

Da daddy and I camped outside of The Cabin while Mommy and Sandy went hiking. Boy were they tired when we saw them at the end of each day! They said the hiking in Maine is extremely hard. I wished I could go with them to see for myself. It wouldn’t be hard for me. Well, I forget sometimes that I’m getting older. I was seven and a half years old while we were in Maine, which made me “middle-aged” or leaning toward “senior” in human years. I still played but I got tired faster than I used to.

About every 3 days we saw Mommy and Sandy again. Every time they were so tired and only wanted to eat and go to sleep. Finally we went to another hostel where there were some nice dogs I could hang out with. That was wonderful! One of them, Indie, was an old friend that we camped with in Florida last January. It was awesome to see Indie again! We played and played and ran around and bit at each other and barked at each other. Fun fun fun!! Wow, this trip, which is not what we had originally planned, is turning out to be okay!!

Da mommy and Sandy finished their hiking on September 10. Da daddy was really worried about them on their last day, because it was after dark when they finally got to the truck. They said it was even harder than the other days they hiked in Maine. They climbed a giant mountain called “Katahdin.” They were excited to be finished with this part of their Appalachian Trail hike, and I was excited too because now they wouldn’t leave me every day! I’m very proud of Mommy and Sandy. They worked very hard. I've posted some photos from their hike in Maine at the bottom of this page.

We headed to a place called Acadia National Park to see some very pretty parts of Maine, on the coast. Of course, I mostly had to stay in the truck (blah!) and I didn't even get to eat any lobstah, but I got to take lots of nice walks in the woods. I even got to go in the water on a pretty beach once, until da mommy read a sign that said, “NO DOGS ON BEACH.” Oops. Did that mean me?