Sunday At The Lake

Life doesn't always allow one to jump on the scooter and zoom away on another adventure – especially with one's beautiful redhead, so when warm weather and no REALLY pressing chores all came together, it was a mad rush to the clothing rack and the donning of riding gear.

The question of "Ah, but where shall we go?" was quickly answered.  Let's drive up to a lake and look around.  After all, we live by the ocean.  Let's see what living by a lake might feel.

So we hopped aboard and set our sights on Highland Lake, just a bit shy of eleven miles north.

One of the, to me, annoying things about living in a city, is that you first need to drive in the city before  you can get to the "country" roads.  I think this stems from my growing up in New York City, where - especially on a holiday weekend, it could take you 2 or more hours of driving just to get out of the city and out of the surrounding suburbs, onto a "country" road.  Of course, it's not anywhere that bad in Portland and, if you choose wisely, getting out of town can be a pleasant experience.

So we putt-puttered around Back Bay (which is always a delight), and headed north on Washington Avenue (which is also not too shabby) then peeled off at Blackstrap Road.  Ah, the country!

Just Follow the dots.

From Blackstrap Road on, it was fun country road riding.  At times it's hard to believe that I live in a state wherein its largest city is maybe, just maybe, a 20-minute ride to the countryside.  In fact, the folks who live around Highland Lake (for me, in the middle of nowhere) could be at their desk in Portland, about 30 minutes after they started the car.  Cool.

Now, if you look carefully at the above map you will see, at the bottom of the lake, where it narrows, a little black symbol - right on the water.  This signifies a boat launching ramp.  If you're really paying attention, you will note that the old "you can't get there from here" curse is at work.  There's no road going TO the ramp.  So, we're wondering, how do you launch your boat if you can't get your boat to the water's edge?  One way to find out..... go there.

We know it's there.....

Somewhere...

Eventually, thanks to perseverance and a thick skull, we found a dirt, well, okay, a mud road, that had a little wooden sign attached to a tree that read "Boat ramp", and we headed down it.  Now this was a real backwoods road: muddy, potholed - except where there were big rocks sticking out of the mud, and relatively steep.  We persevered however, and came to.... the water.  No ramp, no firm ground upon which to drive (that is if you still had a vehicle AND a boat at the end of this road) - just..... the water.

Water - and an ice fishing shed, pulled ashore and left till winter returns.

Nevertheless, it was a pretty spot to spend a few moments relaxing in the warm sun.

So, even though we didn't find THE boat ramp, we at least found a boat, okay, let's call it a canoe ramp.  But then, with the sun warm, the lake stretching away, what more could you ask for?

It's interesting as to just how lazy you can get when your winter-chilled bones begin receiving some warm sunlight.  We lazed away almost two hours, doing nothing, and were it not for the pangs of hunger that began rearing its head, we might still be there, soaking in the rays and reveling in the warmth.

But hungry we were getting and so, we wizzed into the pretty town of Westbrook and went to....

Ahhh!  Little beats a "foot-long", stuffed with all sorts of delicious things.

And, Ahhhhhh!  What a great ending to a great day.  Life on Highland Lake is A-Okay.