HILTON HEAD, SC —Getting to Maine this summer is shaping up to be a real tussle.  Our move, two years ago, to Hilton Head, SC means our return to Wiscasset is 1,200 miles. Hardly a day trip.  Matter of fact, we’re thinking of turning it into a three-day trip so we can cut each travel day’s driving to seven hours.  Our last trip, two 11-hour days driving, sorely tested marriage vows.

One issue is, in these days of The Virus, where will we stay those two nights on the road?  The idea of a Marriott or Hilton is unsettling.  Who was sleeping in that bed last night? Did they sanitize on the way out?  And, did I mention there are three of us?  Donna, me, and Luc, our hundred pound, year-old Briard - and the reason we can’t fly to Portland and drive to Wiscasset.  He’s too big.

We could take another tack and route ourselves toward friends who have often invited us to drop by on our summertime treks north.  But that seems a bit too much to ask in this time when many of us are hunkering down and avoiding visitors.

Another idea is to finesse the problem: rent a camper or small RV.  That has the same unsettling questions about safety and health that we have with commercial lodging.  ’Tis a quandry.

We’re not giving up on the idea of having some summer in Maine, if only NOT to have to contend with storms here in South Carolina in September.

Of course, it looks like summer is going to be pretty quiet in the mid-coast.  Seeing cancellation announcements of Damariscotta’s Pumpkinfest, Boothbay’s Windjammer Days, Rockland’s Lobster Festival and Bath Days breaks our heart.  Never mind the postponement to next year of the Windsor, Fryberg, Union, and Topsham fairs.  Now that we are seeing so many summer activities cut, it only makes us want to be in Maine more. 

Got advice for me? Email mail@barnako.com