UPDATE: Back in civilization

I'm fully aware how long into the trip we've gone without a single update. That happens when you're stuck in Maine.

The stories are intense and intriguing. To do any one of them justice would take much more time than I have right now. So here are the highlights.

* One of my favorite sayings (and Blake's favorite saying for that matter) is "so-and-so needs to get their shit together." Well, the theme of the first day of URT2 was "our shit is all over the place." Basically, everything we could screw up, we did screw up.

* In literally three minutes at the roulette table at a Niagara Falls casino, I completely reversed the bad fortunes from last year's trip to Vegas. Blake, however, did not.

* Blake was issued a federal warning by the U.S. Government border control for lack of proof that he was a U.S. citizen. Classic.

* DETOUR #1: to Cooperstown, New York on July 4th, site of the Baseball Hall of Fame. I recommend baseball fans of any interest level get there sometime. It's a beautiful, quaint town on a huge lake with lots of boating, restaurants and immortality.

* Camping in Vermont is wild.

* Blake snores horrendously. New policy instituted after Vermont night: I am allotted five opportunities a night to beat Blake with an orange stick to stop him from snoring.

* Great Uncle Stanley is my newest favorite person. His place was amazing and led to unbelievably good times.

* I ran a 5K along the Atlantic Ocean Sunday morning on 45 minutes sleep. Did it in 20 minutes, 36 seconds, beating Blake by a good 3-and-a-half minutes. So best. Considering this is pretty much the only thing I can beat Blake in, I'm rubbing it in for a good year.

* Acadia National Park is gorgeous. Bar Harbor, Maine is awesome. Great seafood, easy camping.

* Bigelow Mtn, Maine is EXTREME in every sense of the word. Our camp site was literally (no exaggeration at all) down a 10-mile dirt road that took 28 minutes to drive. No driveways, no houses, NOTHING. The Appalachian Trail is INTENSE.

* Driving in Boston sucks. Period.

* Detour #2 could be coming tomorrow... maybe hitting up Cape Cod. Hell, we're only up here once, right?

Much more stories to come. For now, I'm being booted off the computer.

Cheers,
-Tony