. . . And So It Begins!

Our flight left Albuquerque at 7:00am and I have to say that it was onegot of the worst flights I have ever been on. First, it was oversold so they were asking people to give up their seats. Second, people carry-on so much these days that it took forever to load the plane and I got knocked in the head or shoulder at least four times. Third, there were over six very small children. The entire flight was a total 'Scream & Cry Fest". The noise was present throughout the entire flight and the flight was long (3.5 hours). I was so happy when we arrived in Baltimore. Once off the plane we found the bathrooms and then found something to eat. We made our way to the gate and just read and relaxed until the flight to Manchester. I was looking forward to this part of the flight since it wasn't going to be as long as the first half. So we boarded the plane for Manchester and it went faster than the first one. We left the gate about five minutes early and arrived in Manchester 15 minutes early. Things went well for this flight - very relaxing. I think I even slept for a little bit. We got our bags and the rental car and we were set to go.

I had plugged two addresses into my Garmin for letterboxes I wanted to find in Manchester before heading up to Maine. We made our way to the first place parked and found the box pretty fast. At first I wasn't sure we had found the right box because there was no name for the box either on the box itself or in the logbook. But I read the clue and the stamp image verified that it was the right box. I stamped in and rehid the box. And that's all you get - it is a mystery box! So then we headed to Merrill Cemetery to find Stop and Smell the Flowers. This was another easy find and we loved the cemetery - it is just in a weird place - right next to a Lowe's. Anyway it was all good. Now it was time to hit the road.

We drove from Manchester on NH101 and then took I95 into Maine. We had a nice, uneventful drive. We took the exit for US1 into Yarmouth and stopped to look at the HUGE DeLorme Globe and then drove up US1 to see a very large Indian Chief. While here we found The Chief letterbox and looked for a second box but we didn't find it. Not sure what happened with that one and we did see a geocache nearby. I took The Chief back to the car to stamp in and when I was finished I rehid the box and we continued along US1 towards Freeport. By this time we were hungry so we stopped for dinner at a BBQ place. We also found a letterbox here. But we ate first - and I enjoyed the food here. Then after dinner I got the letterbox and took it back to the car to stamp in. Once the box was back in place we decided it was time to head to Brunswick and our hotel. It was starting to get dark anyway. So we are checked into the hotel and are nice and comfortable. That's it for today - tomorrow is going to be busy. Maine's Nautical Past event is tomorrow and it looks like there is going to be around 150 people there. It should be fun!