Growing up, your backyard seemed so big, and vast. If you were like me, exploring it everyday and always finding something new, and interesting to do. It seems as you grow older to shrink down, to a less meaningful size. As a teenager, you start to explore the surrounding towns, maybe venture into the city. Then as an adult traveling to new states, or vacationing in another country. Seeming to be getting further and further away, from where we began. We the limitless options of destinations to explore, I feel we sometimes forget there are so many places just right out our front door, that we haven’t even thought of going.
Growing up in rural Central Maine meant camping, hunting, fishing, hiking , and anything else that was outside, inexspensive, or free, and kept you exploring, learning, and having fun. From camping up on the Canadian boarder in Jackman, to crab hunting at Lands End, in Harpswell. My family always seemed to have this sense of adventure, which my parents seemed to instill into all three of us as children. I will forever be great full for that!
(That is my mother, Margaret, doing a ropes course, giving me a run for my money)
As a child, I remember searching for snakes, frogs, salamanders, any type of critter I could get my hands on. Shimmying up trees, paddling down the Androscggin river, or getting stuck in the mud, in the creak out back. It was all just in a days adventure.
As I got older, those backyard adventures, expanded into adventures to the coast, or cliff jumping with friends, at Coos Canyon. There was always a new place just waiting to be explored. Only a car ride away.
When I first hit my twenties, it was all about getting out of the state to explore. Whether it be to go to a concert in Boston, road tripping to Myrtel Beach, up Mount Washington, or flying to Jamaica for my sister’s wedding.
As I was traveling and meeting new people from different states, and countries, I began to hear something in common; The love they all had, for where they came from. We all had stories to tell of back home. But it was seeing them light up when they got speaking about their homes. That made me realize, as much as I have explored Maine, there is still so much that I have yet to see!
So this summer I have made it my mission, on my few days off, to explore my home state. There is so much to see and do here, and I’ve always been in a hurry to jump anywhere else, I never took the time to find out just how much beauty there was, I had never seen.
A few back I took a trip to place I didn’t even know existed in Maine. A town called Sunshine. A little just a little Island ocean town off Deer Isle. Not a lot there and didn’t plan an actual destination. I just punched the town into my GPS and was off on a roadtrip, just Charles and I. Charles is my pup, for those of you that don’t know. This “pup” being almost 60 lbs and a lab pit mix.
It was nice to cruise and just enjoy the scenery, that it feels as though we never stop to enjoy most of the time. We are so used to where we live, it becomes almost mundane, and we seem to just blank it out as we drive, as if on autopilot. Driving to Sunshine took me over three hours each way. I was not upset about it, not one bit. Not only did I find the best cold brew coffee at 44 North Coffee, but It helped to reaffirm the thought that, I really haven’t explored enough of Maine, and inbetween my outward travels, I will be focusing on discovering more new places close to home.
Adventure Wide Open 