A Mere Four Hours South: Lewiston, ME

Our trip south through Maine ended in Lewiston, Maine’s 2nd. largest city. Though the day temps never made it much above the freezing mark, we enjoyed a great blue sky with lots of sunshine.          Blueberry field in Maine After around 4hrs. driving we reached Auburn and Lewiston. As mentioned previously, we explored a nature preserve called THORNCRAG. The tall mature forest was impressive. The TV-Program showed an old Batman movie and I don’t know whether it was the ridiculous movie or the drive south but we both fell asleep early. Morning came and I got excited about picking up Dixie. But yet it was still too early. Shortly after 7am we left the motel to do a little sightseeing before breakfast. Lewiston is an old French city and we had already seen a multitude of churches. The most famous one is the Basilica of the Saints Peter and Paul and since Bea was born close to the German city of Cologne with its famous Cathedral, we wanted to see this great church in Lewiston. The Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland. While the building is not very old, it was finsihed in 1936, it bears the architecture of historic European Cathedrals, its colorful church windows could easily stem from the 17th century.                  One of the most amazing parts of the services held at the Basilica, are the different languages. Mass is held in latin, french, spanish and english. Lewiston’s history is connected to textil industry. But the start was the Androscoggin Falls, which offered plenty of energy for starting a lumber mill. Driving through Lewiston on an early Sunday morning is a good idea as traffic is still very sparse. The city is neighbour to the city of Auburn, just across the river and both cities have lots of historic buildings to show. For us it was time to have breakfast so we went back to the same Denny’s Restaurant as the evening before.  These guys were just hanging out in a shrub at Denny’s On the way over to Casco we stopped by a scenic lake. Most of the shoreline was occupied by private buildings though, some of them scraggy old cabins, others looking pretty expensive, all of them being vacation properties. My previous posting describes our ride back home. A NIGHT ON THE COUCH Having a puppy means you gotta be close when you new companion needs to his/her business, cause you don’t want that to happen in the house. So, obviously, you need to be in the same room as your puppy at night. For me, that meant to spend the night on the couch. After Bea had gone upstairs, Dixie started to give a free concert. The modulation of her singing was downright impressive. From the highests scream to the darkest angry growl everyting was present. I turned off the light, but it didn’t help. I turned it back on and she was still performing. I got up and started playing with her. My hopes that she would get tired paid off. After she went back in the crate and a few more high-pitched sighs, she fell silent. Suddenly she slept, and so did I. 2 hours went by and the whole thing repeated itself. But now I put her on the leash and led her outside to do a pee, which she promptly did. Back inside, I gave her an old baseball caps to play with. She eagerly grabbed it and carried it into her crate. Then, all-of-a-sudden, she slept. back to the couch I went. 2 hrs. went by and we did it all again. The rythm was set. At 6:15am I got up for the last time, meeting Bea coming down, in the kitchen. It was time to call it a night. Soon, I had coffee ready and a fire in the stove.