the rain falls mainly in maine

Ahh, winter weather. On my drive up to Maine Wednesday, the temperature ranged between 60 and 70 degrees, cooling off the further north I drove. It was beautiful, and there was that palpable spring feeling in the air, something you don't get in California as the seasons really don't change all that much.

I knew it couldn't last tho. The next morning I awoke to rain. I drove out to Freeport; my cousin Kim, with whom I was staying, recommended I try to visit Wolfe's Neck Woods Park near there. (Originally, I wanted to visit Acadia National Park but the park is largely closed for the season; plus it was a longer drive than I anticipated.) The rain was torrential by this time. I drove through Freeport then out to the park only to find that it too was closed today. I drove up and down a couple of the finger-width peninsulas, hoping to find beach access some place. No such luck.

Tho I may have drawn the attention of Freeport's Finest. I was at the end of a road, near a private drive. I turned the car around, then got out to get my camera out of the back to keep ready. Someone was pulling out of a nearby driveway and stopped to suss me out, I guess. A few minutes later I was driving up the road and a cop car passed in the opposite direction. Then I turned a corner and a police SUV went down the same road. A minute later a third patrol car drove past me in the same direction as the other two cars. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I wonder if there was a connection between my presence and theirs. There was nothing going on on this road, so I can't imagine why else they'd show up. Maybe it was to welcome me.

Anyway, afterwards, I shopped at Freeport, including the LL Bean headquarters (kinda like a preppy version of REI), a small Patagonia outlet, then Ben and Jerry's for a waffle cone of Oatmeal Cookie Chunk. I'll be a very sad panda if they ever pull the plug on that flavor.