Go with the flow... let it all go... you cannot control people, places, situations, and things.
The weekend was all set - our ride was planned for 6am Saturday on August 19th, 2017. On Friday afternoon, Dave came home early from work, we packed our bags, and hit the road. No matter how many times we travel the great state of Maine, there always seems to be two seasons; winter and road construction. Our trek to Lewiston Maine, about an hour and half long, began innocently enough. Then about 15 minutes after hitting the road, the road construction started hitting back. The first part of our journey on Route 17 west wasn't too bad as by mid afternoon, it had been raining in earnest for about an hour. No construction crews were to be seen. Despite the grooved pavement, we drove easily the first 35 miles or so to Route 126 in Chelsea. We cruised through Gardner and Litchfield, until we hit more construction. Again, no road crews, but they left us a wonderful puddle-ridden, crater-filled one lane road that lasted for about 3/4's of a mile too long. Undaunted, we continued on past many a picturesque farm.
We stopped in a local Hannaford supermarket to pick up dinner that we would eat later once we arrived at our hotel. Even though we were hoping for a room with a king bed, we instead took the larger double-queen room that had a huge bathroom with a grand-sized tub. This was one of the big reasons why my husband Dave booked this particular hotel, as I was looking forward to a royal tub soak. After our dinner, I thoroughly enjoyed my lavender bubble bath.
Despite my comfortable surroundings, I never sleep as well in strange places like I do at home and awoke at 3am the following morning. I stayed in bed and rested until the alarm went off at 4:15am. Dave and I showered, dressed, downed two cups of coffee, left the hotel, and promptly got lost using our vehicle's outdated GPS system. Apparently, the city renumbered the dwellings in many parts of the city. We stopped at a local Denny's and got directions from an old timer and managed to get off track again. We then stopped at a Citgo gas station, and while the convenience store attendant couldn't help us with directions, he at least told us what street we were on. Since Dave was now looking on a map via his Smart phone, he knew where we were and where we had to go.
We arrived about five minutes late to our meeting place destination for our hot air balloon excursion. There's was plenty of coffee and donuts, but we only had more coffee. We were excited enough about our adventure, the last thing we needed was sugar-filled junk. We waited... and waited. Six o'clock came and went and then seven o'clock did the same. The person in charge of all the balloon launches informed everyone that the flight would be delayed and we would all attempt to launch at 9am. Back to the hotel Dave and I went to finally have a decent breakfast. Afterwards, we tidied up our room, checked out, and headed back to the same meeting place. We were 15 minutes early this time...
The magic hour of 9am came and once again, the person in charge of the flights had to cancel everything due to a cloud ceiling being too low. FAA regulations state that the ceiling must be at least 1000 feet and we never saw anything above 800 feet. Hopeful excitement to complete disappointment in less than one minute. We stood in line to start the process of getting our money refunded as all the other flights we could reschedule for were already booked. I felt overwhelmed and and began to shed small and silent tears. I waited an entire year to do this. It seemed even Mother Nature was against us.
As the morning wore on, I was worse than a five year old in my disappointment - overtired, hot, and grumpy. Dave and I watched the parade that was part of the festival, but it was mediocre at best. When all the vehicles towing the hot air balloons came slowly down the street, I quietly cried some more. Afterwards, Dave and I went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants in the neighboring city of Auburn. I asked our waitress "what there was to do for fun in Lewiston and/or Auburn"? She asked a number of coworkers and they pretty much said they all go to Portland which was approximately 30 minutes to the south. Since I wasn't in the mood for Portland, (I've been there over a dozen times in the past year), Dave and Googled "fun things to do" in the area we were in. A few things popped up, but nothing piqued our interest.
We ended up driving the extremely-longer-way home route, saw some cool sights, my husband took a bunch of photographs, and we enjoyed each others company. Once we finally arrived home, we just chilled out for the rest of the evening. In the end, I have to go with the flow. When situations do not work out the way I would have wanted them to, I have to let things go. We're going next year and possibly changing our plans to an evening flight instead. Here's hoping... Up, up, and away!
Until next time, I'll just be chilling... to the best of my ability.
Jill
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