It is Monday, June 11th, and I am up in Bar Harbor waiting to see if my nature cruise is going to go at 4 pm. I had a fine lunch up in Northeast Harbor and then a rigorous bike ride around Eagle Lake.
I have almost recovered from last night debacle. I came back at about 11 from the Side Street Café where I worked on a poem and had coffee and dessert and almost immediately, I could tell that something was wrong with the room: it had an odd smell and it made me uncomfortable. I tried opening the window and then putting on the air conditioner but the smell was still there. I called the front desk and the guy there came over and couldn’t smell anything but I was sure it was in the sheets and the pillowcases. I called him later and he told me he could switch me but the other room has a smell though slightly less. I told him I was checking out and that I would sleep in my truck. When I got set up in the truck, I still smelled the smell so I thought that I was wrong, that it was a residual smell from the lotion that the fellow who gave me a massage for my troubled neck used. I called the front desk again and apologized to him, got dressed, picked up my key and went back to 224 where I showered and put all the old clothes in a plastic bag. I was ready for sleep but it was quickly apparent that it was indeed the room and the linen. I called the front desk again and told the fellow my latest news and he said the manager would take care of it in the morning. I slept for an hour or so but the smell woke me up and I had to drive off. Fortunately, a gas station was open and I got coffee and some pie and headed off to look at Acadia at dawn. It was lovely and after driving and walking some at Thunder Hole, I finally took a long nap at a picnic area.
The New York part of my trip was fine but carrying around my bags and sleeping on lousy beds caused my neck to really hurt. Still, I got to see Gabe, Francesca and Julian, my aunt Marie, cousin Tina and Herb and Susan. I walked through Chinatown and Little Italy, rented a bike and rode through Central Park, spent a half hour watching the crowd at Times Square, and went to the World Trade Center.
I left from Gyorgyi’s at noon on Saturday and I got up to a Motel 6 in New Hampshire after stopping to ride my bike and to play nine holes of golf near Sturbridge. I watched the Celtic/Heat game (with the Heat winning) at a TGIF.
The next day I stopped at Ogunquit and walked most of Marginal Way and that was very lovely.