In Maine, you get three answers to a plea for directions:

Turn Right at the Old Humpty Dumpty Popcorn building;

Turn Left where the old Elm Tree used to be;

You Cha-ent, Gea-year-te, Thya From He ya.

Paying no attention to the above warning, Tom Keene of Scooter by the Sea fame


http://scooterbythesea.blogspot.com/

and I, zoomed off on yet another adventure:  This time Goochs Beach (no apostrophe) in beautiful downtown Kennebunk: a mere 45.4 miles (via the scenic route) south.


As usual, we first fortified ourselves with some good, strong, coffee: this time at The Speckled Axe, on Congress Street, in Portland.
http://portlanddailysun.me/index.php/businessx/local-business/6788-speckled-ax-opens-quietly-with-high-end-coffee

We sat there, under the cool looking, but dim overhead lights

 sipping our brew, while Tom reviewed the route with me.

And then, over the meadow, by the reeds at the shore, we toured...

Over the meadow, where the stream runs blue....

To the land of the lobsters, we rode.

Now, there are - to my mind - certain actions that, when they occur, portend of some historic event.  With Tom, it's fueling up....

...And while I wait, patiently,

I wonder, what this fuel-stop means in the grand scheme of what life is about to send our way, because when Tom fills-up, interesting things always happen.


The answer to that question lays within Tom's version of our trip – which you must read: but the short version is that, despite having rode down here innumerable times, somehow, in some yet to be defined manner, we got lost and rode around, and around one small patch of Arundel township before we finally arrived at the sea: an arrival that Tom was Keene to point out...

The beach is fantastic.  It's a long, long, crescent of fine sand, surrounded by period homes - well maintained and each more graceful than the other,

A great place to spend a day.


Tom, with his ever-keene eye, spotted, and started to photograph, a figure at the far end of the beach, doing a dance in the surf.  Only a true Mainiac (what original Mainers are known as) could see a dance in the wild gyrations that were occurring.  Me, I could only see some person, more brave than of sound mind, reacting to the INTENSE cold that we up here call "Beach Water".  But, undaunted, Tom snapped away.

In the meanwhile, we both examined another scooter that we had parked alongside.

Paying particular attention to the upscale footwear....


As we were admiring the scooter, the owner – and his dog – showed up and proceeded to mount up and scoot away.  The dog nestled within a plastic crate strapped to the back: the owner nestled into his high-fashion footwear....

As we ourselves were getting ready to leave, the "dancing surfer" headed our way, and soon materialized into a very attractive young woman.  Tom, in his most enviable manner, started a conversation with the lady, and before you could say Kellogg's Corn Flakes, the lady is posing for Tom – who is snapping away.


Now, it's not that I'm envious, but the only conversation I can elicit from one as young and attractive as this lady was, is: "May I help you across the street, sir?", or, "Are you lost, sir?"


Be that as it may, the conversation was a perfect ending to yet another perfect day riding with Tom.


For all you out there, who haven't got her-ya yet, what are you waiting for?  Riding with Tom is an adventure you must experience.


Trust me.