Wednesday
May 25, 2016
Today was our first day off even though we’ve only been here a few days. Weather permitting, each Wednesday, we’ll get a ride with Ethan back to Popham Beach where our truck is parked. When he picks us up, he also drops off a group of volunteers from F.O.S.I.L.S. (nick named the Wednesday Warriors) to take our place and to work on projects that we are not able to do either because they require more man power than the two of us, special expertise, or some other reason. So, our first week before our day off was short but we had a list of things we needed for ourselves and also for Seguin.
At 7am sharp, we were at the cove with three empty water jugs (6-8 gallons each), our camping backpacks (one full of dirty clothes, one empty), some bins and some miscellaneous stuff we needed to carry over for F.O.S.I.L.S. The tide was rising towards a midafternoon high tide, so Ethan (and his dog Pepper) pulled in as far as the mooring buoys which are maybe a hundred feet from the cove beach. Michael and Cyndy had walked down with us and Michael helped us to load the dinghy and get me pushed off with a full load of stuff but no passengers. I rowed to Ethan’s boat and unloaded our gear and then climbed aboard. Rick, one of the volunteers, took my place in the dingy and rowed back and forth two or three times to ferry in their materials (including a door among other things) and the other volunteers and bringing Patty and the rest of our stuff out to the boat.
We went ashore without a plan but knew what we needed to get done and had a list of what we needed to buy. Once we got to the truck, we decided the first stop should be the laundromat where we could get our wash going. I think each Wednesday will be a variation on the schedule we kept today as follows:
7:00 Ethan Arrives
7:15 Leave for Popham
7:45 Arrive Popham
8:00 Arrive at Cyndy’s House (get water, mail, and drop off some supplies from Seguin, and change into dry clothes)
8:15 Leave Cyndy’s
8:30 Wash started at laundromat, leave to go to hardware store for island supplies
9:20 Back at laundromat, dryer started. Leave to go to bank and natural foods store downtown
9:55 Dropped Patty and Shaw’s grocery store
10:00 I am back at laundromat, moved clothes to dryer. Patty has started grocery shopping.
10:25 I am back at Shaw’s and meet Patty (who is past of the produce section!)
11:00 Arrive at Plant’s seafood for to get fresh fish.
11:30 At Starlight Café in downtown Bath for lunch.
12:15 Stop at Winnegance General Store on the way from Bath to Phippsburg. Just wanted to check it out for future Wednesday’s.
12:30 Stop at North Creek Farm Stand/Store to check it out. Patty got some Chipotle pepper sauce.
1:00 Back at Percy’s store/restaurant next door to where we park our truck and a couple of hundred yards from the dock. Bought three cold beers!
1:15 Grocery’s, clean clothes, and our other stuff is down at the dock where Ethan will meet us, beers are cold and good!
2:00 Back at Seguin
3:15 Everything (except the water jugs) are up at the house, unpacked, and put away.
While we were off-island, the Wednesday Warrior crew put up all of the outdoor markers and signs that had still been in storage and started work on a new (to us) screen door for the gift shop. They also finished getting the museum setup (we are really looking forward to taking some time to read and look at all of the displays), put up the gift shop sign and left several more bins of merchandise for the gift shop so Patty and I worked on getting the new stock organized and displayed. While we were doing that, Michael raised the new American Flag that we got at the hardware store. There’s a flag pole right in front of the house and one of our responsibilities is to raise and lower the flag each day. Michael was a caretaker here at one time and he would invite visitors to participate in lowering and folding the flag each day at sunset. Patty and I think that’s a really neat idea and we think we’re going to copycat him and do the same thing.
When we wrapped up the work day, we sat down for a dinner and then went outside to watch sunset. Following sunset, Patty and I lowered and folded the flag for the first time here. I probably hadn’t folded a flag since my (brief) boy scout days way back when however I think the two of us did a respectable job of it.
It was a really nice day J
