The Frankenstein Shuffle

Well, it's been awhile since my last non-Fantasy Hockey posting. Lots to update.

Late Wednesday (September 23rd) me and Hudson picked up the wife in Boston at 11:30pm. This was a 3-hour drive and Hudson was grumpy with an upset stomach (due to me feeding him too much freeze-dried food that day). Not fun. Fellow Fantasy Hockey GM Gary Chekan kept me amused for an hour of the drive as we chatted draft strategy - I probably helped him kill an hour of his work day.

All went well, no issues at the airport. Drive back was equally not-fun until about 2:30am. We were near "home" on I-93 when we suddenly realized a moose was running alongside the car. Very cool!

Thursday was Fantasy Hockey draft day (see prior posting for details).

Our last Saturday in New Hampshire was perfect fall weather, sunny and mild. We drove around, first stopping for a cool 2-mile hike near Bretton Woods:



Hudson was pretty jazzed and got in some good sprints:



We then drove to Conway, a cool town. They were having a "Bark in the Park". Great, time for Hudson to socialize with other dogs. Aside from a short fight with a Collie who threw him a punch, awesome time. Hudson even took an Intelligence Test and was identified as a genius:



On the way back we got a nice pic of my favorite mountain, Mt Washington. It's my fave because it has the strongest winds on earth and I tried (unsuccessfully) to climb it back in 1998:



Sunday's weather was not nearly as nice, which figures as it was the day for my long run. I ran 13.2 miles with a 600-foot hill in a light rain that turned into a heavy rain my final mile. I made it home, ate and fell asleep for 12 hours (leaving the wife to pack up).

Monday we drove to Maine, mostly on country roads



The house here in Cutler, ME is very cool. The area, though, is VERY rural with not much to do. Good cell coverage here at the house - 5 bars on the back porch, 2 bars on the front porch, and no coverage on the main road. The below pic is from the beach below the house (on Machias Bay):



Cutler is an old naval base, where they used to communicate with the submarine fleet regardless of where the subs were:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutler_Naval_Station



Cutler is now mostly a small lobster-fishing town:



On Wednesday we made the short drive to Lubec, ME and even made a quick jaunt across the border into New Brunswick (as rural as where we are staying)



After me being detained for half an hour at customs (my Nexus card confused them, with me having chosen Canadian citizenship to be shown), we went to West Quoddy lighthouse, the most Eastern point in the US. I love lighthouses:







I got a great 4.6-mile run in from the lighthouse to US-189 while the wife (that's her with me in the 2nd photo above) walked down to the ocean to get some great pics (including the last pic above):

Saturday we drove up to "Canada's Chocolate Town", St Stephen, NB:

http://www.town.ststephen.nb.ca/

Boy, was she pissed when it wasn't a magical place with chocolate shops left and right. Even the US Customs guy laughed at the "Chocolate Town" name, guess he knew it was bogus.

Fortunately, on the way up we did see a Moose and this time were able to get pics:



We also were able to find a cool town on the way back, Eastport, ME. A great place to eat was Bank Square Pizza, with the best ever Garlic Cheese bread and all sorts of other deep-fried foods. This guy was across the street from the pizza place:



We crossed Latitude 45, which we also did out in Oregon. Not earth-shattering, but it amused us:



Sunday was notable for two things.

First, it was Hudson's 4th birthday! Here he is with his present, a bear:



The second notable event was I went on a 14-mile run in the cold rain. Thus, the title of this entry. We found a rail-trail in town (town being Machias). It was awesome, too bad we didn't find it earlier. The first 7-miles was from the car out 3.5-miles along the Bay through wetlands and then back. Very cool, plenty of birds including blue herons. Back at the car I changed socks (soaking) and hat and got some water before the next 7-miles the other way. I hit the "wall" at the turn. The final 3.5-miles back to the car was not cool. I know my first mile was a sub 9-minute mile, but mile 13 was an 11-minute mile and mile 14 probably a 12-minute mile. This last mile was "The Frankenstein Shuffle". During the week I had something fricked up, maybe a pinched nerve in my left shoulder. It was so painful that a few nights I had to sleep sitting up (but still got my 8-hour sleeps). Sunday it was magically gone, but the running did hurt somewhat. So that 14th mile my legs were dead and my shoes were drenched and I wasn't really running, I was more shuffling. And my left shoulder was sore and tired so it was not moving, just hanging. I'm sure if any local kids saw me they would have been scared and run away. Yes, running is "good for your health"...

Tomorrow we are off to my old stomping grounds (my month of glory in the AHL) of Portland, ME (actually Cape Elizabeth)