Beginnings and Ends.
It is said that Cadillac Mountain at Acadia National Park is high enough and far enough east to recieve the first rays that the rising sun lays on this country every morning; and so this past sunday, I was one of the first people in America to watch the sun rise. I camped out Saturday night at the bottom of the south ridge trail, and woke up at two in the morning to scamper through the forest and above the treeline to reach the summit by twilight. I used my flashlight to navigate the trail for three hours, following rock cairns built to mark the trail where there were no trees.
I sat alone at the peak for about fifteen minutes before the crowds started to arrive in their cars. The chilly wind started to blow off the ocean as about fifty people came up behind me and the sun slowly became present.
It was downright nippy out with the wind, and so we all headed down the mountain, and I got made my way to a big stack of blueberry pancakes at a diner in Southwest Harbor.
--
My grandpa took me out to breakfast as a child on what must have been a thousand occasions - maybe twice a week for years. He always used to joke about me paying the bill, and so I made it a goal about six years ago to take my grandpa out to breakfast and slip a fast one on him by actually doing so.
I was hoping to make good on that plan this Thanksgiving, but sadly, I learned yesterday evening that my grandpa passed away on Sunday morning, as I was eating pancakes here in Maine. It was a shock, but thankfully I had been getting weekly updates on his health while I had been away, and I had been able to talk with him on the phone the week before. I just wish I'd been able to buy him breakfast - in person, at least.
My family and I are only surprised at how quickly he declined - I and my aunt and uncle are all traveling back east, on the assurances of my grandmother that she did not need us around to help with grandpa; and so my aunt and uncle are flying home from New York today, and I will be making my way from Bangor to Boston to San Jose on Tuesday.
--
I guess that also brings an abrupt end to this bout of traveling. I'm pretty much ready to leave the east anyway, and to go where the climate suits my clothes; but I was hoping to take my time getting there, bussing across Canada and hitching down the coast. However, I still might take a trip to the northwest anyway if circumstances are favorable, I'm still heading to Los Angeles for a weekend - and the bus ticket across Canada is good for a year, and so I guess I know how I'm getting back from Summer's End next August. Also - flying, though I dislike it, gives me a chance to do an art project that I have been meaning to do since the last time I flew. I will be taking off from Boston at sunset, and so I have a chance to make a flipbook of the airplane taking off during the evening, using disposable cameras. Hopefully, it will be a beautiful sunset.
I sat alone at the peak for about fifteen minutes before the crowds started to arrive in their cars. The chilly wind started to blow off the ocean as about fifty people came up behind me and the sun slowly became present.
It was downright nippy out with the wind, and so we all headed down the mountain, and I got made my way to a big stack of blueberry pancakes at a diner in Southwest Harbor.
--
My grandpa took me out to breakfast as a child on what must have been a thousand occasions - maybe twice a week for years. He always used to joke about me paying the bill, and so I made it a goal about six years ago to take my grandpa out to breakfast and slip a fast one on him by actually doing so.
I was hoping to make good on that plan this Thanksgiving, but sadly, I learned yesterday evening that my grandpa passed away on Sunday morning, as I was eating pancakes here in Maine. It was a shock, but thankfully I had been getting weekly updates on his health while I had been away, and I had been able to talk with him on the phone the week before. I just wish I'd been able to buy him breakfast - in person, at least.
My family and I are only surprised at how quickly he declined - I and my aunt and uncle are all traveling back east, on the assurances of my grandmother that she did not need us around to help with grandpa; and so my aunt and uncle are flying home from New York today, and I will be making my way from Bangor to Boston to San Jose on Tuesday.
--
I guess that also brings an abrupt end to this bout of traveling. I'm pretty much ready to leave the east anyway, and to go where the climate suits my clothes; but I was hoping to take my time getting there, bussing across Canada and hitching down the coast. However, I still might take a trip to the northwest anyway if circumstances are favorable, I'm still heading to Los Angeles for a weekend - and the bus ticket across Canada is good for a year, and so I guess I know how I'm getting back from Summer's End next August. Also - flying, though I dislike it, gives me a chance to do an art project that I have been meaning to do since the last time I flew. I will be taking off from Boston at sunset, and so I have a chance to make a flipbook of the airplane taking off during the evening, using disposable cameras. Hopefully, it will be a beautiful sunset.
posted by tank at 12:05 PM
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a road of infinite paths
beginnings and ends
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