Maine Trip Epilog

Whew. Not only was our trip to New York and Maine earlier this month a long one, 12 days (only 11 planned) away from home, but it's taken me a full week beyond that to catch up my backlog of blogs.

A few of the blogs I posted out of order. Stitching them back together here:

• The trip was going well up through our visit to the L. L. Bean giant boot last Monday (previous blog). Then we went to the airport and trouble started.
• Everything looked fine with our flight at first but then we were hit with hours of rolling delays. Our flight was delayed multiple times, we had to rebook our connection— to a flight two days later and pay for the hotel on our own dime— then our flight was canceled.
• The best alternative the airline could offer us was to drive— again at our own expense— to Boston and fly home Tuesday morning. We did this, spending $350 for a rental car and sitting at BOS through the wee hours of the morning.
• We arrived home Tuesday morning, 12 hours later than planned. Well, I arrived home. Hawk went straight from the airport to her office and began her workday!

12 Days on the Road, Only 9 Days Home!

Not long after wrapping up our 12-day trip to the east coast— after just 9 days, in fact— we'll be heading out again on our next trip! And with the 7 day backlog of travel blogs I just cleared this morning it's now only a little over 48 hours until we leave home again. 😅 This Thursday afternoon we're leaving for Spokane for 4 days over the Independence Day weekend.

Yes, this is our revenge trip to Spokane. We had a trip planned several weeks ago but canceled it at the last moment, indeed less than an hour before I'd've had to leave for the airport, due to a badly delayed flight that would have wrecked our plans. "I SHALL RETURN," I wrote after that. Come Thursday I shall!

Spokane Trip Canceled - AGAIN!

Less than an hour after I mentioned in a blog this afternoon that we'd be traveling to Spokane & the Inland Northwest this weekend we canceled the trip. This is the second time now that we've canceled this trip. Last month we canceled the trip because a flight delay threw our carefully orchestrated travel plan into chaos. Today we canceled it because of weather.

Weather? you ask. Yes, weather. In case you haven't seen or read any US news in the past week or so there is a record-shattering heat wave gripping the northwest right now. Temperatures in Portland, Oregon, for example, set an all-time record on Saturday at 108°, broke it again on Sunday at 112°, and smashed both of those Monday with 116°. Example news coverage: KGW8 TV article (29 June 2021). For those outside the US, 116F is almost 47° C.

Portland's not where we're going; it's just a convenient example that's been reported in national news because it's a major city. It's actually worse in Clarkston, WA, where we'd be spending 4 nights. Clarkston reached a whopping 118° F today. Roads are buckling from the heat and utilities are warning rolling blackouts. Although temperatures are supposed to cool down a bit by Friday they're still forecasted to break 100 each day through the weekend.

Are we being wusses cancelling out of hiking because of weather? Let me tell you: we have hiked in 100+ degree heat before. We have, and we know it's really tough. And dangerous. And we'd rather not being trying to travel when things are buckling, breaking, blacking out, and shutting down because of extreme heat.

Will we do this trip some other time? Yes! WE SHALL RETURN ...when it's not scorching hot.