Mrs. Dubbatrubba and I took a rather circuitous route to the D.C. area for our goddaughter’s wedding a couple of weeks ago. We spent nearly a week in Maine – mainly because we’d always wanted to visit “Vacationland” and August seemed like a good month to do it.
Maine was as advertised: absolutely gorgeous! We didn’t spend a ton of time indoors. Quite to the contrary, we walked and hiked all over the place: Portland, Freeport, Rockland, Rockport, Camden, Belfast, Stonington, Boothbay, and two days at Acadia National Park.
Oh, and we sailed on a schooner too, as one does in Maine.
It’s hard to name a favorite, but it’ll be tough to top the hike up the Beehive Trail at Acadia. For someone like me who has become more fearful of heights as I’ve gotten older, it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. Do a quick image search and you’ll see shots like these:
I was thisclose to chickening out (you can get to the summit via a less challenging path). But I didn’t want to let Mrs. Dubbatrubba down (as I have sooo many times before).
We hit the trail right after we saw the sunrise….
… and we had the place pretty much to ourselves, which meant no waiting, and less time to think about what I was doing.
So worth it, and I’m so glad I did it.
Another highlight was a hike outside of Camden. My wife asked a local (the schooner check-in kid) if there were places we could pick blueberries nearby, and he dropped a pin on the map for a nature preserve trail that started in the forest and ended in acres of blueberry bushes. What a treat – literally and figuratively.
Of course, all that hiking makes you thirsty, so we HAD to sample the wares of the local breweries.
It was our civic duty!
We put a beautiful bow on our Maine meanderings by meeting up with my cousin Tom and his wife Alena in Portland.
(Apologies for the horrible lighting. We’ll never be influencers with shots like that.)
The fresh air, the natural beauty, the ability to relax and unwind… 10 out of 10 across the board! Actually, make that 11!
Photo dump is below – click on any image to see it full size, and use the arrows to scroll through. I know you may be thinking that we just went to an Olan Mills photography studio and changed the backdrops, but we really were in Maine!
1 response to “Maine-ly outdoors”
Kelly
The Maine trip looks awesome! How about a picture of the fabulous wedding?!☺️
Every time I take a look at my Ride Cincinnati fundraising page, I start welling up with tears.
I get teary-eyed because I’m so very grateful to the folks who have supported me. I started out with a goal of $2,000. Which I billed as “lofty” because it was. But it turns out that great friends will rally around a good cause. And I’m blessed with a lot of great friends. My Xavier homies, of course. Co-workers. Former co-workers. People I’ve met along my life’s journey who have become close enough that I feel comfortable hitting them up for a donation. (Not my strong suit.)
Actually, one of my Xavier friends, Jackie B., shared my fundraising efforts with more of the XU crew (her besties, the “PYTs” – Pretty Young Things), and they’ve contributed too! She turned my bike wheels into a flywheel.
I’ve revised my goal a couple of times. Onward and upward. Because the funds raised will support cancer research, education, and care in the Cincinnati area.
Which brings us to the other reason I start to get misty-eyed. My friend LJ. One of my Xavier homies. I met him freshman year… 43 years ago. That’s a long time to share the road. But I can’t think of a better travel companion.
LJ has benefitted from the cancer resources available in our area. One of which is Cancer Care Advisors, which offers second opinions on cancer treatment plans, and can help with care coordination, referrals, clinical trials, financial support, etc.
In LJ’s case, they told him and his family that he was doing everything right to attack his brain cancer. That reassurance helps immensely.
But his cancer isn’t usually the kind you can out-pedal.
We don’t know what’s around the bend. And that’s scary.
But the connection — knowing that there are other spokes on the wheel — provides both comfort and strength. To him. To me. To us.
Just keep pedaling. One foot, then the other. Moving forward. Living life. Which is so much richer when you have a caring crew to support you.
If you’d like to donate, and have the means (and haven’t already!), you can do so here. Thanks for keeping the big wheel rolling!
Here’s why I like to describe Cincinnati as the world’s biggest small town.
Yesterday afternoon, I posted about the Cincinnati Magazine Freekbass story, and mentioned the great photos from Devyn Glista. Yesterday evening, in a pickleball league that has 400+ participants, I was assigned to a court with four other players, one of whom was… you guessed it… Devyn Glista.
The editor of Cincinnati Magazine is John Fox, whom I know from my 97X radio days, when he was the editor of the alt-weekly Everybody’s News, and we’d feature him and other staffers on-air each week, highlighting things to do around town.
Each month’s issue of Cincinnati Magazine has a column called “Dr. Know,” penned by Jay Gilbert – I interned for his radio production company when I was at Xavier.
The cover story about great sandwiches features an ode to Izzy’s, written by J. Kevin Wolfe. Who went by “Doc Wolfe” when we worked together on Gary Burbank’s show on WLW-AM.
The other story called out on the cover is by Cedric Rose, a librarian and collector at the Mercantile Library. I met Cedric when I started hanging out at the Merc during my lunch hours (it’s such a magical place). Oh, and he lives about three blocks away from us in Mt. Washington.
The food stylist for the sandwich (photo) spreads? That’s Allison Hamilton, ex-wife of a photographer that I worked with during my Landor agency days.
I could go on, but I’ll stop right there. I didn’t grow up in Cincinnati, and the town has a rep for being rather provincial. (“Where did you go to school?” is a popular question, and it’s about high school, not college.) Yet I’ve made so many connections in my time here. You just have to be open to possibilities.
Of course, I’m no beefcake like Derek Zoolander. But my name is right next to a Chicken Parm and a Tuna Melt… that’s practically the same thing.
I’ve written a few things for Cincinnati Magazine over the past few years. But this was the first time I pitched a story idea to editor John Fox. I ran into bassist extraordinaire Chris “Freekbass” Sherman at my local Kroger, and he mentioned that he was now doing a livestream six nights a week on TikTok. I’ve known Chris since my 97X radio days, and our kids went to grade school and high school together. But I had no idea he was a bona fide TikTok superstar. I thought it’d make for a pretty cool story. John agreed.
Chris is a very sweet dude and easy to interview. And of course, I’ve been known to chat a bit about music, so it was a fun story to write.
I couldn’t make it to the photo shoot, but the shots by Devyn Glista are amazing, and really capture Chris’ sense of style and his on-stage persona.
The layout, the typography… *chef’s kiss*.
I’m thrilled with the way it all turned out.
Getting a byline on the cover and being featured in the contributors section were just icing on the cake.
Freekbass was pumped about the piece too.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kbw98WAY7WY
It’s not “my smilin’ face on the cover of the Rolling Stone“… but I can guarantee you that my face will be smiling all month long!
The internet rabbit hole is a time warp. And a mind-bender. One minute you’re reading an email about earning more travel points, the next, you’re bawling your eyes out. Or maybe that was just me.
I subscribe to Chris Hutchins‘ weekly newsletter that provides advice on “hacks” to save money and score travel deals and other savings. TBH, I don’t always read it. (So many emails, so little time…) But over the holiday weekend, I read his latest edition, which had this blurb in it:
Off we went, chasing the rabbit… Ben Carlson’s article linked above had a link to another post from Ben Carlson. And that post was decidedly less uplifting. It was about Ben’s older brother Jon. I won’t completely spoil it for you, but suffice it to say that lines like “He was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia just before heading into the 7th grade.” and “stage 4 pancreatic cancer” rarely lead to happy endings.
It’s sad. But also uplifting, because Ben’s brother provided some sage advice for his three kids:
Be happy with what you have, you don’t need as much as you think. Never leave anyone behind. Life is way better than a screen, go live it.
That advice doesn’t just apply to kids. All of us should take it to heart.
Sure, it’s a Monday after a long weekend. Getting going may be a bit of a slog. But if we’re blessed enough to have enough, to have friends, and to be on the right side of the dirt, then we’re lucky. Let’s live!
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