Hey ya’ll!

So, Something Big happened around here last week.
 In all honesty, Justin’s dreams came true.

From they day we found out that we were moving to Maine, Justin has been bugging everyone we meet about where and when he could see a moose. Local waitresses, librarians, co-workers and friends have all been subject to Justin’s moose questioning. The most common answer (said with a look of judgy amusement) happened to be “on the side of the road!”. Everyone assured Justin that he would just speed past a moose one of these days, probably very close to our house. With all that helpful advice in mind, he literally slows down every time we pass a low lying watery area or field surrounded by a patch of trees.

Did we ever spot a moose?
Of course not.

So, when Justin’s parents were in town, we all piled into the car and headed North to the Old Canada Road and Jackman, Maine. Some locals refer to that strip of Northern Wilderness as Moose Alley.
(Thankfully, that area also happens to be one of the best scenic drives to view Maine’s many lakes and changing leaves, so I figured if we struck out in the moose department at least Justin’s parents would get to see a really spectacular slice of real estate.)

We saw many signs like this, but honestly, we have the exact same signs on the side of the highway just minutes from our house, so we didn’t get too excited.

Everyone was to man their own widow and keep their eyes peeled for….what? I had no idea what a moose really looked like and how we would spot one barreling down the highway but….
after maybe 4 hours of driving on a deserted stretch of road, Justin’s parents spotted this little lady way off in a clearing!

Thank goodness we had Bert and Mary’s paparazzi lens, my iPhone wouldn’t have cut it out there.

Blogger and Blogger Husband in action.

After our first sighting (which almost caused us to crash with another car), we pushed forward and north. The last mile marker we saw let us know that we were 6 miles from the Canadian border.

We made it to Jackman, Maine after maybe 6 hours in the car. We stopped at a local liquor store/gift shop/pizzeria/hunting check in and weigh station to use their facilities and buy souvenirs.

I have to say that at that point, being in the car was starting to wear on me. But I hadn’t given up hope that I was going to spot a moose all on my own. I literally had a headache and was nauseous from looking so hard into the trees as we blew past them at 60 miles an hour.

Of course, my competitiveness paid off, and a few miles later, I spotted this gal literally right on the side of the road. We could have touched her!

Um, side note: moose are huge animals.
I genuinely can’t believe that there is a possibility I could spot one of these in our itty bitty downtown back yard.

So, at the end of the day, I think we were in the car for maybe 8 hours, drove a million miles, saw our first snow flakes of the season, spotted two moose, spent quality time with Justin’s parents and made Justin’s moose dreams a reality.

Not too shabby.

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