Late last year, Steven and I attended the dedication of 140 acres that neighbor Bruce  Probert gave to a public land trust for the sole purpose of outdoor recreation.  It’s a beautiful track of land, kitty corner from the campground, threaded with trails and streams.  We spent this weekend exploring and breaking new cross country ski paths…it was perfect.

The Probert Family Preserve is gently sloped and will offer anyone who’s looking to explore the Maine woods a chance to mountain bike or hike miles of trails just minutes from us.  While we were skiing, we saw evidence of deer, moose, bear, beaver, rabbits, owls and no other humans.  The only sounds around us were the chickadees and the scrunching snow under our skis.  It’s been an unusually snowy winter here.  Until this morning we had at least 2 feet of snow on the ground but we’re forecasted to suffer from warmer weather and rain for the next few days so I’m glad we got our skis on this weekend.  I would have loved to show you pictures of our ski trip but unfortunately I must have left my camera/computer cord in Sarasota so when we go to Bangor on Wednesday I’ll try to get another one and we’ll play photo catch up…welcome to my real world.

Of course, any strenuous outdoor activity necessitates good food so I left a big pot of pea soup simmering on the stove all weekend.  We’re still eating carrots, celery, potatoes and onions from Steve’s garden stash…When we got back home we celebrated physical fitness with big bowls of chunky soup and hunks of bread from Chase’s Daily…life just doesn’t get better than that!

Reservations have started coming in quickly over the past week.  If things continue as usual, we’ll have a flurry for the next two weeks, then interest will slow down until parts of the Southeast begin to see signs of Spring…and then the phone will start to ring and we’ll gear up for summer.  This year we were finally able to get Verizon cell phone service in the local area (before it was always roaming service) so I’m looking forward to being able to call forward from the campground phone to the cell phone and stay in better touch while I work outside on the grounds.  Given our love/hate relationship with Verizon, I’m not getting my hopes up too quickly.  Luckily for me, our park seems to have a different relationship with guests than many other properties.  When I attend campground meetings, I often hear laments from owners that if they miss a call, they miss a reservation because campers just call the next place on their list.  That happens to us once in awhile but for the most part, the people that call here want to stay here and they give me some time to get back to them…believe me, I’m well aware of how fortunate that is because I can’t imagine needing to sit by the phone all the time and I’m too particular about how are guests are treated to want to forward calls to a central service like many of the larger properties do…nope, in my world you’ll usually get me or Steven trying to find you the perfect spot…long live small businesses and personal consideration!