Date: 2004-07-12
From: Caratunk, Maine

To: Lake Shore House, Monson Maine
Miles today: 0.0

Lake Shore HouseMonson, MaineI woke up in the back of my truck this morning. July 12 is my least favorite day of the year. My wife passed away on this day in 2001. I was going to stay put and not do much today, but it was too hard thinking about Pamela that much. I do much better when I think about her for shorter periods of time. Sometimes I feel like I'm wandering around in limbo, not having any direction in my life. It helps to keep moving though. I made a couple of cups of coffee and sat there in the woods and drank them.I decided to go up to Jackman, Maine and I'm glad I did. I ended up enjoying the day even though Pamela was on my mind all day. Jackman is right next to Canada and is pretty remote. I like that area. I ended up seeing 4 moose today. Two were bulls and two were cow moosies. I also saw a fox and lots of beautiful country. I ate breakfast while I was there and drove around alot of the back roads.I headed for Greenville where Lew and Frogcaller live. I took my time, enjoying the scenic ride there. When I got to town it was past lunch, so I stopped at Flatlander's Restaurant. They have some of the best chicken near the trail. It is broasted which means that it is steamed under pressure until almost done and then fried under pressure to make it crisp. It's delicious. I ate there last year with Dr. Dolittle. I called Lew and he was home this time and said to come on up. He had been out fishing this morning when I called. Frogcaller is on the trail doing a week of trail maintenance. Lew and I talked for about an hour and a half. After I left I headed into Monson and went to The Lake Shore House. I have stayed at Shaw's a few times and I've stayed at the Pie Ladie's twice, so I wanted to see what this was like. I'm glad I did because it is very nice. It costs just a little more, but is well worth it. I have total use of this huge house including a restaurant style kitchen.I feel very unorganized right now. That may be because I've been on the road for about two weeks to get from Florida to Maine. The weather here is very nice and supposed to be in the 50s overnight to the 70s during the day for a while. I can handle that.I ran into Rambler at the po when I got here. He said he hasn't seen many thru hikers in a while. He'll be done on the 20th.   I tried to get things ready and then just lost interest, so maybe I'll finish that it the morning. I decided to walk up to the store to get something to snack on, but they closed at 7pm and it was 7:10pm. I walked over to the local restaurant, but they were closed too. I walked on down the street looking at the huge buildings and thinking about how much work it would take to restore one when I came to the Pie Ladie's house. I Knocked on the door just to say hi. I stayed there last year and enjoyed it...and her pies. I even packed one out when I left her place last year. I was surprized to see 5 pies sitting there that late. I made arrangements to have her take me up to the trailhead tomorrow. I hope I can get ready by then. I was talking to her and I started thinking about how good it would be to eat a pie for dinner and found a blueberry pie that looked really good. When I got it back to my room, I found out that it tasted really good too...the whole thing!! It's fun to eat a pie right out of the pie pan without slicing it. That's all today.