Back behind a desk

After A LOT of hours in the car this weekend, and MANY loads of laundry last night, we're back at work today. Quick recap of the end of our trip:

Friday we just bummed. We stayed in our pajamas and watched CNN and "What Not to Wear" and drank coffee until lunchtime. Then we went to lunch at the Knox Road Grille, where we ate maybe the best barbecue in the world. It has some affiliation with the Atlantic Brewing Company and after lunch we walked over to the gift shop to see if beer and blueberry soda were less expensive there than at the grocery store. Which they weren't; they cost $1 per six-pack more.

A beer tasting was just starting, so we jumped in. I should have known I wasn't going to enjoy it when they were making fun of Coors Light. I don't like beer that's heavier than Coors Light. Apparently in Maine it's legal to brew beers with 12 percent alcohol content. There were about 12 rounds, and after the first few I thought it started feeling uncomfortably similar to Power Hour. Matt, therefore, got a double-tasting of all the heavier ones.

We went back to the cabin and mentioned the possibility of doing a short hike but I don't think either of us took it very seriously. We got back in our pajamas. I actually got about half of the Greensburg article done. That night we picked up a pizza and ate it while watching the debate and coverage of it late into the night.

Saturday I woke up earlier than I had all week to go to the town's one and only thrift store, which was open only on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. I didn't find anything, but I was glad I got to go. I squeezed in a short run before we hit the road. The morning was very foggy and chilly and drizzly, and waves were crashing against the rocky shoreline in front of our place ... it looked like I always imagined Maine would look.

We left by 11 a.m. and spent the next 14 hours in the car. Luckily we'd thought to download some podcasts before leaving this time so when we got tired of music we turned to Tim Keller (pastor of the church I went to in New York City), Stephen Davey (pastor of the church we went to in Cary) and Bill Simmons (the Sports Guy). Lots of good stuff and food for thought all around. We spent the night in Delaware.

Just before we stopped for the night, I glimpsed what I thought was a giant Jesus on the side of the road. I had heard about a giant Jesus on some interstate so I assumed that was it. Turns out "the" giant Jesus is on Interstate 75, not 95, and what we'd seen was only a much smaller Mary. In my defense, it was dark and I was delirious with too much driving.

Since we'd done most of the driving on Saturday we were home by about 6 yesterday evening even though we overslept (budget motels don't necessarily include luxuries like alarm clocks). Melissa and co. had left the house spotless, and my porch geraniums had even bloomed, probably because I repotted them in bigger pots as Lib suggested but possibly because I wasn't hovering over them all week.

I can't close without a few more Maine pictures. I tried, really tried, to get some good ones on the way home of the beginning fall foliage. I knew Granny, if no one else, would appreciate them. It's not easy to take good pictures from a speeding car. Here's one that's half-decent:
Also, I searched Flickr for pictures of the treacherous ladder trail we opted not to climb. These pictures totally reaffirmed our decision.
(See the rest of our trip pictures by clicking here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.) (Wow, that's a lot of pictures.)