Tuesday was “my” day, and I started the day by myself. I went to Augusta to run along the paved Rail Trail, a trail that runs next to a railroad track from Augusta to Gardiner for about 6.5 miles. I ran out-and-back, for a 12.7-mile run. It was a tough run – very humid, and the trail actually had some fair grades along the way, especially out from Hallowell. I was pretty beat by the time I finished, and I was pretty close to throwing up for a few minutes (probably from dehydration, even though I ran with water).

I went back home and showered and got ready, and then with Mer, we headed back, once again, to Augusta. I wanted to tour the State House. We just beat a quick-moving but intense storm, and got inside the State House just before the rain started. We had to wait about twenty minutes for the last tour of the day to start (I was rather lucky with that timing). It was a good-sized group of about fifteen people. Our guide was a native Mainer who grew up in Lewiston. He was very friendly, had a good sense of humor, and he knew a lot about the State House. It was interesting. Some things I learned:
– We have a citizen legislature, meaning all the lawmakers have other jobs or are retired.
– The legislature is elected every two years, both houses.
– In a two-year term, the legislature meets from January to June, and then January to April.
– The State House was expanded to about twice the original size around 1911.
Since the legislature was not in session, we got to go in both houses. We also got to go out on the magnificent porch on the third floor, overlooking Capitol Park.

After the State House tour, I drove us to a bowling alley, only to discover it was not candlepin bowling, the Maine version of bowling where you use smaller balls and pins. I had never been in an alley in Maine that did not have any candlepin, and it had never even occurred to me to call ahead and ask. We turned around and left.

By now, I was hungry, so we drove to next door Hallowell to find a place to eat. We found a great little brewery called The Liberal Cup. The food was excellent, and the atmosphere was nice – lots of nooks, lots of wood, and pretty quiet.

To show Mer a little of the trail I had run, we went back to Augusta’s Rail Trail and walked out about half a mile. We found a little path in the woods that ran to an overlook on the Kennebec river, which was pretty. We did not stay too long on the main trail since it was fairly hot, but we did get a good look around.

On the way home, I swung by Tubby’s ice cream stand in Wayne. We got ice cream, and then ate it in the car as it rained a little. By the time we finished, so had the rain, so we wandered around the Wayne dam swimming hole, which is where Shannon and I used to swim in high school and college. It had changed some because of some severe flooding about ten years ago, and the dam had to be partly rebuilt, but it is still more or less the same and still a great swimming hole. Since I had seen Mer’s swimming hole the week before, it only seemed fair to show her mine, especially since mine was now next to an ice cream stand.

Between the dam and home, I stopped at a farm stand and picked up some corn. Maine corn is really sweet and good, so I wanted to have some at least once before I left. We ate it for supper along with some very good pizza Dad picked up.

After supper, I played Mer at the word game Snatch It. I was competitive, but not too surprisingly, I lost by the score of 33-25 or something like that.