All I Need

We live comfortably in an old beach cottage that might seem like 'roughing it' to many and our soon-to-be-built, small, rustic cabin in the country will be quite basic. The spot we've chosen is already a glorious campsite and we intend to keep it that way - complete with campfire, outdoor shower and harvesting rainwater.

I love to camp and get away from TV, ringing telephones. . . . and people - so our recent trip to Maine was a dream. Except the flying part. There's just nothing natural about flying. Of course, it was great to leave Pensacola in the morning and be camping in Acadia National Park that night - but I had to keep reminding myself we were in Maine. It's hard for my mind to adjust to that much distance in so short a time and I hated not experiencing everything on the ground in between. And flying has become a mind-numbing ordeal instead of the incredible experience it should be. We were lucky, though, and the flights went about as good as they can these days. But flying is essentially about time, after all, and my hope is to arrange my life so I won't need to fly anymore.

Our timing was impeccable. We had the weather we'd hoped for and, since we were tent camping in a rental car, took advantage of several incredible campgrounds there - which we had mostly to ourselves! The picture above was taken at our campsite overlooking the waters of Cobscook Bay. I didn't realize it at the time, but the population of Maine is less than a third of Alabama's. . . . . and nearly everyone was somewhere else! Acadia National Park, Cobscook Bay State Park, Baxter State Park and Peaks-Kenny State Park were all gloriously empty (but Baxter got quite noisy on Friday night and Saturday morning when the weekenders piled in - so, if there is a next time, we'll plan to be somewhere else on Friday night).

A couple of days before we left, the hard drive on my notebook started crashing. I managed to get everything backed up and went without my computer (I'd envisioned some early morning blogging in Maine). I purchased this notebook two years earlier when my first laptop died right before a long trip to Colorado. I'd needed one for work on that trip, so I spent an incredible amount of time trying to save it - ultimately having to give up and start over with a new one. Since returning from Maine, I've now spent many days replacing another hard drive and tediously restoring settings, programs and data. Time that could have been better spent, I'm sure - but I still need it for work and am now hopelessly addicted to the internet.

In the future, I may abandon many modern conveniences - including my cell phone, TV, and flush toilet - but I'm staying connected to the world wide web, no matter what!