Maine Part Three

Wednesday, the only thing we had on our agenda was to drive up to Bangor to visit my best friend in the hospital.  She had finally been moved out of ICU and we were excited to go see her.

While eating breakfast and getting ready we discussed the logistics of getting my mothers ashes home.  We knew that we didn’t have the proper documentation to get her on the JetBlue flight with us so we had looked into mailing her back when we were still in Cali and it seemed the only viable option.  We looked up the info again and it appeared to be a bit more complicated than I remembered.  We decided that since only one person could visit Kimmy at a time that I would go first and he would run to the post office and talk to a real person to find out just what we needed to do.

We packed up mom on the off chance that they would be able to ship her out that day or us and headed up to Bangor.

We got there a little early for visiting hours so we decided to just go to the post office then since it was nearby.  As fate would have it, they could in fact, ship mom out right then and there so we had her put into a box and shipped off to Rob’s dad’s house back in California.  We had originally planned to spread some of her ashes over her grandparents grave here in Maine, but the convenience of getting her on the move as easily as possible won out.

I couldn’t believe the comfort that I felt once she was packaged up and ready to head home.  I didn’t realize how much anxiety I was carrying with me over it until it was taken care of and then it was like a giant sigh of relief.

With her safely on her way to Salinas (she was delivered 10/8/21 so she made it!), we headed out to the car and got a message from Kim that she was going in for a procedure so wouldn’t be available for visiting yet.

With nothing else to do, we mapped the Hollywood casino and found it was just up the street so we tooled on over and killed about an hour. They ID you at the door and there was an elderly gentleman in front of us.  The guy manning the door was joking with him, telling him he was supposed to ID anyone that looked younger than 30 so he needed to see his drivers license.  We all had a laugh and then when it was my turn, I gave him my ID.  He looked at it and said: “I didn’t expect that!” before running it through a machine to make sure it was real (probably because it was an out of state ID).  He then told me that he had ID’d me for real because he didn’t think I looked over 30.  Now, granted I had a face mask on, but I’ll take a compliment where I can get it.  When he told me to have a nice day, I said: “I will now!”  🤣🤣

We decided to head to the car after losing $40 dollars.  We still hadn’t heard from Kimmy but we knew we would lose more money if we stayed so we sat in the car and watched an episode of Bob’s Burgers on Rob’s Ipad.  Just as it ended we got the word that Kimmy was back in her room so we mosied on over.

We had brought Red Barn with us for lunch and while it was cold, it was still pretty yummy.  I brought it up and Kimmy and I ate while Rob serenaded us on the guitar via Facetime.

We got back to the hotel around eight or so and didn’t do much else.  We ate some more cold leftover Red Barn and went to bed.

DAY FIVE:

On Thursday Rob let me sleep in a bit while he went down and got some breakfast from the lobby.  The rest of the trip was mostly about visiting with Kim so we didn’t much else on the agenda.  We picked up Big G’s sandwiches in Winslow and then it was up to Clinton to get Kim’s daughter Emily and then back on the road to Bangor.

It’s hard to tell but this sandwich is bigger than my head.

We got there just as they were trying to put in her picc line (unsuccessfully) so there was a bit of a wait but then Emily and I were able to visit with her.  Rob had been able to at least peek in and say hi right before they started the picc line.

We dropped Em off and were back to the hotel by seven I think.  We ate leftover Big G’s for dinner and hit the hay.

DAY SIX:

I think Friday morning was the first morning we left the hotel before nine the whole trip.

My cousin Tammy typically runs in to visit us right before we leave on the last day of our trip.  However, this time we had plans for the last full day so we had to make other arrangements.  She knew of this place in Vassalboro that makes fresh donuts so she got us some apple cider sugared ones from there and we all met at her house for coffee and donuts.

It was a really good visit.  I hadn’t seen her husband in at least 20 years I think, so it was good to sit down and have a nice chat with them both.  So much so that we ended up staying later than intended.  Thankfully though, she saved us a trip to a store by letting us have an old box she had down in the basement so we could pack up the artwork and pictures that my brother had given us of Mom’s and get them shipped back to California.

So then it was back to the hotel to get the pictures and stuff packed up and Rob getting it squared away with a UPS label and pick up.  By that time it was getting pretty late and though Kim had been told she was going home that day, she was still in the hospital awaiting another try at the picc line before she could be released.  We decided that the long drive to Bangor was a bit too much for us, especially not knowing if we would have to turn around and come back in case she got discharged while we were on our way.  We messaged Kimmy about it and decided we would scrap our plans for the next day and go visit her then instead.

We were a little bummed about having to nix our plans for Saturday because they were literally the very first thing we had planned for the trip.  We were going to go get a one weekend only special at my mom’s favorite ice cream place (we were still going to be able to do that part) and then we were going to go to a “Bean Suppah” and follow that up with a trip to LL Bean.

So a little background on the bean supper.  They are a long standing Maine tradition.  It is usually put on in church basements or some sort of American Legion hall.  It consists of a bunch of different meals and sides put together (obviously beans are the focus) and the money they charge usually goes to the church or a charity/non profit.  You get a bunch of food, usually desert and you sit around and all eat cafeteria style like around a bunch of long tables.

When Rob and I first came back to Maine to visit after getting married, he said he wanted to do the most authentic Maine thing I could think of.  I immediately thought of a bean supper but there weren’t any going on nearby at the time of that visit.  Every single visit after that he asked about a bean supper and we were never able to find one going on during our visit that wasn’t at least a two hour drive.

He began to tell me he thought I was lying and there was no such thing as a bean supper.  He thought it was Maine folklore or that I was just making it up.  So I was very excited when I found one about 40 minutes south of our hotel happening in Durham that Saturday.  And since it was only about 15 minutes away from Freeport and he had never been to LL Bean, we decided to take a side trip over there and get our picture taken with the big boot.

However, this trip was much more prioritized to seeing Kimmy than it was about touristy things so we both agreed that scrapping it going back up to the hospital and see Kim was a better idea than to not see her one more time that trip so that we could eat beans and see a giant boot.  That didn’t mean we weren’t sad about missing it though.

That night we made a quick trip to the grocery store and were tucked into bed early.  Kimmy sent us a message that evening that she had gotten her line in and they were going to send her home the next morning.

This was great news, because not only would Kim be out of that horrible hospital, but because she would be closer than Bangor and because we didn’t have to work around the late visiting hours, we could go spend time with her at her house and possibly still keep our other plans for that evening.

Of course, we knew how this hospital liked to dick around with her schedule and wait til the last possible moment to do anything, we weren’t holding our breath that she would get out at a decent hour.