where would you go?

[Toni McGee Causey]

I so want to get the hell out of Dodge. Turn in this book, go somewhere gorgeous, where there are plenty of drinks and people to cart them to me. My wish list is long (Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, Italy). Where have you been that you'd recommend? Or where would you want to go, if you could just take off right now?

[Toni McGee Causey]

I think you'd need more than one.

[M.G. Tarquini]

Portugal.

[Tribe]

Portugal, schmortugal.

[M.G. Tarquini]

What do you know?

[Tribe]

I know that Detroit is hella cool in the summer, missy.

[M.G. Tarquini]

But I'll bet its b*yaches can't compare.

[Karen from AustCrime]

Sweden


But it's stinking hot and a drought here and I'm craving cold, very cold. Colder the better.


New Zealand is magnificent incidentally.

[Steve Allan]

Yeah, vacationland...you don't even live near the coast! I grew up on Route 1 on the way to Bar Harbor - and I couldn't take a left in the summer because of all the traffic- it was absolutely impossible to go left, where do all of these people come from? We don't want any more goddamn tourists. Don't come to Maine - the coast sucks, it isn't beautiful at all. Oh, and don't buy any vacation property here either - the property taxes on my camp are high enough already. And lobster is bad for you - it causes hemmroids or scabbies or something. And the green stuff on the tail isn't a delicacy, it's poop! (That's actually true. A lot of people eat it and love it, but it is indeed poop.)

Oh, I lie. It's beautiful here. And lobster is so cheap (if you know someone) that you can have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Shhh...don't tell anyone, we get too many people as it is.

[Toni McGee Causey]

(cracking up)... and you didn't even include all of the nudie flyers they hand you every step of the way.

[Jude Hardin]

Gaw dern it, Matthew. Everything we need is right here in Dodge. We got the general store, the livery, cold beer over at The Long Branch... I hear Doc's buyin'. By the way, you been over to see Miss Kitty lately?

[bluerosekiller]

Patrick, got a neighboring cabin for me?
Certainly hope so, 'cause I'm on my way up there! LOL
Seriously though, you're living my dream. I absolutely LOVE it where you are & have visited often enough over the years to be an "honorary Mainer" ( yeah, I know that I could never be an actual one, nor my kids for that matter, the first ones eligible would be my grandchildren, correct? Or perhaps my GREAT-grandchildren? LOL ).

Good Lord, I can't believe you're coming to us here from MADISON!
How, do you have internet access?
The last I knew everyone up that far had to make due to radio-telephones. But then, I suppose that gives you a good idea how long it's been since I've been up there. Which is, unfortunately, a decade. A situation that I simply MUST remedy soon!

Back to your area though, the first time I was lucky enough to make it that far up north ( I'd been visiting Maine regularly since I was 18 in 1980 ... ) was when my ex-significant other Donna & I stayed at Spencer Pond Camps in October of '91, shortly after we found out that she was pregnant with our daughter Ashley Lyn. It was probably our best week together ever.
Everything went perfect except for one small glitch when I backed up the truck I'd borrowed for the trip over a boulder while visiting Lily Bay. It washung up there pretty good for a couple of minutes, but I managed to get it off with no major damage.
I LOVED Kokadjo. What little there was of it.
Speaking of which, were you aware that the titular town of DARK HOLLOW in John Connolly's second "Charlie Parker" novel was based loosely on Kokadjo? Obviously, that added to it's appeal to me in making it one of my personal top five fav novels.

During that stay at Spencer Pond I did try to get Donna & I up around the edge of the lake to North East Carry, just to see what was there, but about three quarters of the way there the road just sort of disappeared into a massive muddy chasm that I wasn't brave enough to try to traverse in order to get to where the road reappeared about twenty yards away. So, I turned around ( a major accomplishment in itself as I'm sure you're well aware ... ) & went back to the camp.

Two years later Donna & I ( & Ashley too ) stayed at a place a bit closer to you called Frost Pond Camps which were also very nice. After which, I believe we passed through Madison on our way to East Millinocket. Where we stayed for a couple of days to visit Baxter State Park & Katahdin.

God, just writing about these places is making me seriously "Jones" for another visit to your "neck of the woodws". Like I said, it's been WAY too long.
Damn, it's difficult to believe that Ashley Lyn being the oldest at 14, almost 15 now, is actually the only one of my three that's been to Maine. Nigel Benn & Autumn Myst have yet to visit.
Actually, Nigel almost became a resident back when he was just a baby because Donna & I came VERY close to making the move up there in 1999. Something that we had always planned on doing, but then right around the time that we were supposed to be moving, we split up, I met my eventual wife Vicki & thus, I remain here in Buffalo.

Though I still dream of Maine ...

[Steve Allan]

Ah, Patrick isn't a real Mainer anyway, he's lived too many years away. My family has been in Maine since, well, for thousands of years actually. Now that's a real Mainer.