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Sometimes life is all about rules and sometimes they just don’t make sense.

Our little road-riding trio experienced that last summer while travelling in Vermont. Luckily, we got away with it.

We were riding one day heading back to New Hampshire. We’d been on the road for awhile on a route we hadn’t travelled before and it was time for a break. All three of us needed a good stretch, a drink of water and Jake probably needed something else as well. We always try to stop every hour and a half to two hours to make sure our RoadDog stays comfortable.

Steve was riding in front of me when we pulled into a pretty little town on a lake with a fairly decent sized picnic park along the water to our right. It looked like a great place to stop for a break and was just about deserted besides. I can’t recall if we chatted on the radios about stopping or if we both just knew we’d pull in there, but stop we did.

We parked the bikes and I helped Jake get out of his carrier. He scampered around on the grass and got a little disgusted with me when I wouldn’t let him wade into the water. I didn’t want a wet dog for a whole day on the road, but he wasn’t buying it so he was a little upset with me.

I walked him most of the length of the park and then came back to where the bikes were parked only to glance to my left not far from the bikes where a sign declared “No dogs allowed.” Well!

It was clearly too late since we’d been there for about 20 minutes. At first I felt kind of bad and then I realized Jake really hadn’t done any harm. I’m sure there are good reasons behind the rule, but I rode away feeling kind of bad for the dogs who live in that little town. That beautiful park is right there to enjoy, but they aren’t allowed to enjoy it.

But Jake did.

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Two of Jake’s favourite things to explore are large expanses of green grass and anything he thinks resembles a path.

He also likes to scramble over rocks. Put that all together and our visit to Fort Knox, the preserved fortification in Maine, was a pretty big hit last summer.

Fort Knox is a state park and a designated national historic landmark which was built in the mid 1800s on the bank of the Penobscot River. It was the first fort in Maine constructed entirely of granite and was originally built to protect Bangor from capture by the British during the Maine-New Brunswick dispute over their border.

It’s very beautiful and very historic. But for Jake it was just a whole lot of fun.

We rambled over the two batteries and the parade ground. We peeked into soldiers’ quarters and explored passages. All that, of course, with Jake leading the way. He even insisted on climbing up into various nooks and crannies in the fortress walls, although he did occasionally need a boost to get there. (Big dog, short legs.)

It was a warm day and we all got hot and tired, but we had a blast.

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Jake is much braver than I am.

While our beloved RoadDog is a pretty scrappy little guy, it’s no secret to a lot of people who know me that I’m not a big fan of heights nor of bridges, the latter because of the former. It’s not that I’m frightened enough to avoid them … let’s just say they make me uncomfortable.

So I had to ask myself as I stood staring more than 400 feet up in the air where I was about to go last August, just what the heck I was doing.

Not far from Belfast, Maine — which I blogged about last week — is a state park, Fort Knox and the Penobscot Narrows Observatory. Fort Knox is one of the best preserved fortifications on the New England seacoast and I’ll tell you more about that next week. First, the observatory and the Penobscot Narrows Bridge.

Now we had been across that bridge a few years ago on an earlier trip to New England. I was on the back of Steve’s bike then and I remember clearly travelling south, rounding a bit of a bend in the road and looking up at that bridge. Steve said he could feel me tense up and, honestly, if I’d had a choice I think I would have pulled over to psych myself up for the crossing. Instead, I closed my eyes and willed it to be over quickly.

So when we were looking at attractions to visit around Belfast last summer, you can imagine I was less than thrilled when I saw that bridge in a brochure and realized I was going to have to ride across it on my own a few days later. I believe I had sort of forced that from my mind, since we’d taken an inland route south.

I was more excited though when I read about the fort and observatory, so I convinced Steve that we should go. There was just one small glitch in the whole plan — Jake was welcome everywhere but inside the observatory, hence I found myself looking 400 feet in the air trying to convince myself to go up there on my own to see what there was to see. Steve insisted I go first so I wouldn’t psych myself out. Good call.

Oh and did I mention that I’m not a huge fan of elevators either, and guess how you get to the top.

But it was so worth it. The cable-stay bridge spans more than 2,100 feet across the Penobscot River. It’s the only bridge with an observatory in the western hemisphere and one of three in the world. The observatory sits 42 stories above the river and the views of the coast and the nearest town are simply amazing. I even enjoyed watching traffic go across the bridge as long as I didn’t think about having to ride across it myself the next day.

But I did it. And it was fun.

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It might have been the weekend snow, I’m not certain, but something got me thinking about green grass, blue water and warm riding weather.

That made me think about last summer’s trip to New England, which made me think about a wonderful little place we like to visit in Maine.

Belfast is a seaport with a population of maybe 7,000 or so that boasts amazing architecture and a beautiful harbour on Penobscot Bay. Consequently, it’s pretty popular with tourists, including us. We spent a few days there a few years ago when we went that direction and were keen to return on our latest visit. It kind of reminds me of Mahone Bay or Lunenburg in some ways, only larger.

We always stay in this wonderful motel just outside town. It’s Jake-friendly and has a huge back lawn where we can play ball with our boy and a fantastic water view beyond that.

This time around we had more time so we really got to explore the town and surrounding area more than in the past. We found a great little deli for lunch and spent a wonderful afternoon visiting Belfast shops and walking along the waterfront. We even found a little park where Jake cooled off some by rolling in the grass and then scrambled around on some decorative rocks.

It was a nice afternoon and now it’s a nice memory. We may have to go back there again someday.

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Happy New Year to you all from RoadDog and his humans.

It’s hard to believe another year has gone by. Our Jake celebrated his fifth Christmas and New Year’s with us. Isn’t that amazing?

The hairy four-legged member of our little family had a great holiday season. Well, at least until today when we boxed up Christmas, including his stocking, and put it all away. He was all over that, his nose in every box. I’m not sure if he was inspecting to make sure we were doing it right or making sure we weren’t packing away anything of his, but he wasn’t looking very happy during the process I can tell you.

Steve took him outside to play in the snow for awhile. That helped. Our boy does enjoy playing in the snow — rubbing his face in it, chasing his favourite red ball in it, or chasing snowballs or chunks of ice. Then he comes in and lays by the wood stove to warm up again.

Jake was still looking pretty sad though, so Steve made a Tim’s run. The Timbit seemed to cheer him up. Our boy is all about his belly.

Oh well, happy January. It’s time to start thinking about future road trips. It’s just a few months until spring.
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