Saturday dawned bright and sunny, and we couldn’t resist the lure of a local agricultural fair. We’ve never been to this neck of the woods (though there seem to be more farms than woods here!), so it seemed to be a perfect opportunity to get a feel for the neighborhood.
So, come along as we explore the Houlton Agricultural Fair.

Before we even hit the midway with all the rides and vendors, we caught the tail end of the Lumber Jack Show.

Besides the log rolling competition, there was some fine chainsaw action, a little wood chopping fun, and a lot of corny jokes. It was a fun way to start the fair.
But the Real Beginning of the fair for us was the Fair Food -

We split the sausage sandwich, so that makes that amazing pile of homemade potato chips (called Ribbon Fries at the fair) a little less troublesome, right? Right? My, they were good!!!
From our artery clogging lunch we headed to the Exhibition Halls. It wasn’t very large, but there were jams and jellies, local art and photography, and a small section for crafts and quilts –

From the Exhibition Hall we meandered over to the Lawnmower Races.

Wasn’t quite the Tim the Tool Man idea of a souped-up mower, but those boys sure seemed to have a good time “racing” around the track!
Back to the entertainment tent where we witnessed Alexandria the Great escape out of a straight jacket while being bound with chains.

In about 3 minutes, no less. Quite impressive. You could tell she was a trained professional!
Next up was Dan Grady & His Marionettes . At first it was a little odd since he wasn’t behind a curtain or anything, but he did an amazing job with his marionettes. One of them was this flying trapeze puppet -

This is my attempt at a close-up action shot….

“E” for effort?
He had these triple synchronized clowns

that were pretty impressive until they started doing this….

Ok, still impressive, but hey, there are KIDS in the audience. It was pretty freaky!
We left the entertainment area before the Karaoke started, and headed to the livestock area. There were pigs and lambs and goats and chickens and bunnies. My favorites, though, were the alpacas -


There are a couple of alpaca farms close by, so you might see more of these guys this month!
And I couldn’t resist this shot of the bovines -

Someone needs to figure out how to have us walk down a CENTER isle so we have a slightly better view of the cows!
But apparently the BIG event of the day was the Demolition Derby.
Before -

After -

After the After -

These guys were in the “sedan class” (and had their radiators on their roofs), and are getting ready for the “consolation” round.

Really, this is fun? I confess I’m still trying to understand both the appeal of watching cars crashing into each other and the appeal of actually being the driver of one of the cars. But judging by the amount of hooting and hollering going on around us, the crowd was loving it! Everyone seemed to have their favorites – and the kids behind us were rooting for their MOM who was driving a car in the compact class. If nothing else, there was some great community spirit going on here!

We had a great day at the Houlton Fair. I managed to steer Gary away from the midway (and another order of those ribbon fries) as we walked back to the truck, and by the time we got back to our rig, we were blessed with this beautiful sunset -

Thanks for coming along! Alpacas and Demolition Derbies. Who knew?

Pssst….guess what’s coming up in a couple of weeks? The Maine Potato Blossom Festival! Maybe they’ll have those ribbon fries there too……

This past weekend there was a glorious full moon. According to moon-watcher folks, it was spectacular in that the moon was as close to the earth as it’s been in the last 18 years or so. A couple of us did our best to find just the right spot to photograph this Super Moon, and while the results weren’t nearly as spectacular as the moon itself, watching it rise was beautiful.







I’d really like to say my camera just wasn’t up to the challenge, but I believe it was more operator deficiency than camera.

I guess a tripod would have been a good idea, too!
Good thing I have another 20 years or so to hone those “shooting the Super Moon” skills!

is good.
It’s very good!

We’ve had a great week hanging out with our kids and since they have been doing that “work” thing, we’ve been left on our own during the day to nap, read, and visit with local friends. It’s been a wonderful combo! So, in no particular order, here are some highlights of our life in Lancaster.
Shoe Shopping
(You didn’t know this would be quite so exciting, did you?)
So while shoe shopping for me was a bust (Abigail managed to snag two cute pairs), we did manage to be at the outlets when the fire trucks came barrelling in on what seemed to be (judging by the 8 fire trucks that arrived on the scene in short order) a major conflagration. We saw no fire or smoke or even smelled any smoke, but just about every fire company in the area was there. And we were (literally) first on the scene.

No news at 11~
Out with friends
We love when we can connect with friends during our travels! We have a couple of SOWER friends that live in the Lancaster area, so we were blessed to be able to see Ann and her son Brad for dinner one night.

We hadn’t seen them in over two years, so it was a real treat!
Plus we were able to get together with our Alaska buddies, Jay and Naomi. We were able to combine lunch with a stop at the local “market” where we picked up some yummy stuffed pork chops for dinner and then another stop at a local produce stand where we picked up the best sweet corn I’ve had this season. It was a delightful day!
The Girls


Gia – age 1 1/2

Libby (short for Liberty) – age 7 months
and

Macho -found as a kitten where Josiah works, and named before they realized she was a girl.

Although the dogs live happily in their crates during the day while their folks are at work, we enjoyed having them down with us on occasion. And with the nice fenced in yard, it was easy to just let them out to do their business. Of course, the trick is to let them out, but keep Macho in. She got out once, made a beeline for the only hole in the fence and disappeared from view. I was able to lure her back, but the next day as I was being extra careful to close the door behind the dogs, I managed to lock myself out. Of course, Gary had just left to get the tires rotated, so I busied myself with a nice walk, some weeding and some general backyard clean-up. So while I was reasonably productive, I mostly was glad I had gotten dressed before I let the dogs out in the first place!
The pets were great – but we were reminded how glad we are that we have chosen to do our lifestyle pet free. It’s much more fun to just borrow the mayhem!
Around the House
We thought there would be a nice long list of chores for us to do while we were here, but it turns out that the house is cosmetically in pretty good shape and most the changes that the kids have in mind were of the nature that requires planning and a budget (and maybe a larger crew). Pretty much we’ve been doing little odds and ends (like the afore mentioned weeding) but mostly we’ve been collecting ideas of little projects. So last night we had a night on the town -
Lowes – (for a modest housewarming shopping spree.)

(and the tub was NOT in the budget!)
Hot Diggity Dog for dinner

A drive through downtown Lancaster


and our final stop -


What Else!?
Tonight we head out to a Barnstormers baseball game, and then tomorrow we wrap up our house chores (Josiah will be learning how to pull and re-install a toilet. A good skill for any homeowner!), enjoy a quick visit from Toby and Tammy and the other girls on their way to the shore, and then get ready for our next destination – a couple of days with my sister and hubby up in Perry County. We have a couple of light switches to change out, and a faucet to install, but I think we (and I use the term loosely) can pull it off!
Yes, tis true,

Life in Lancaster is good.
It’s very good indeed!

Today isn’t going to be counted as one of our longest travel days, but it will certainly rate right up there with one of the best! We were blessed again with beautiful weather as we continued toward Salt Lake City.


Although we had driven through SLC before, we had never approached it from the west. Sometimes I am surprised at how surprised I am by the geography around cities. I mean the Winter Olympics were here several years ago, so just why did the fact that the road looked like this after we left “downtown” seem so unexpected?

We were joined by my niece, Bethany, for the afternoon (the reason this was such a lovely day), and we took a little drive to check out nearby Rockport State Park.

And then we joined Bethany as she led worship around a campfire at a small camp near where we were parked for the night.

A very special time.
And to top it off – God gave us this on the ride home -

Ah……

The next couple of days look to be pure driving days. Well, at least that’s how it looks now. And you know what that means – more windshield shots!!!!
I’ve been told that cell and internet connectivity will reduce to zero once we get outside of SLC. So you may not hear from me for a couple of days, but beware – when I come back there will lots of shots of the (new to me) road ahead!

Last night’s sunset was lovely. I suppose I’ve seen prettier sunset skies, but the fading light made wonderful shadows and highlighted the colors of the canyon.

I’m not sure how that fellow in the bottom left corner actually made it to that rock, but he certainly did have quite the solitude view!

Looking toward the setting sun gave layers of gray – beauty in it’s own way.

And when the sun finally sank behind the horizon (and since we had to wait about 45 minutes (due to shuttle bus schedules) and it was pretty darn cold, I can really use the word “finally”), the grays turned to soft orange/red!

We welcomed the warm shuttle bus with gladness, but we were very happy (Well, I was anyway. Gary maybe not so much) that we made the trip.

This morning’s sunrise? Well, that didn’t work out so well. We were up and at the shuttle stop by 4:45 (leaving us an hour to get to an overlook by sunrise @ 5:45). However, the bus didn’t arrive until about 5:15 and the driver thankfully said that there was very little chance to get to an overlook before the sunrise. And we know, the sunrise waits for no one. We came back to the house, drank our coffee in warmth, and enjoyed a beautiful Sunday morning. Just not one overlooking the Grand Canyon!