Adventure Shorts: Lunch in Acadia

 The other week I was in Acadia National Park. I had done some hiking in the morning, up to the summit of Cadillac Mountain via the South Ridge summit trail. I had come off the mountain, and was driving around in search of a place to stop and have lunch. 

There is a one-way loop road that circumscribes the park. Once in this loop there is a gate, where you are required to pay or show a pass to enter. I had a pass, but the line at the gate was all I needed to turn off at this point.

I turned left, and immediately in front of me was a lookout over the inlet, across which one could see Schoodic point, which was where my wife was taking a nature journaling conference. I decided it was a nice spot to eat and pulled up. I backed the car into the spot, popped the trunk, and made lunch. 

I don't need much when I'm exploring on my own. I enjoy good food and all, but if I'm not trying to impress anyone, I can get by with some basics. 

I had stocked up on provisions the night before, but I had forgot a bag, and I could only carry bread and peanut butter. So I had a Matt's peanut butter sandwich. There are two ingredients in a Matt's peanut butter sandwich: Peanut butter, and bread. That's it. It's highly advisable to have a beverage nearby while consuming this delicacy, but I won't tell you how to live your life.

As I was smacking my lips away, in the spot next to me pulled up a group of older women. They were obviously on an epic adventure of their own. They, like me, had decided this was an excellent spot for their lunch, and, like me, had backed their vehicle up to the view so they could sit on their tailgate. 

One of the women got a text from a friend, whom she had let stay at her house while she was gone. The friend had said something like, "Thanks for the escape." The woman asked her friends, "Escape from what?" Like she couldn't figure it out. 

At this point, I hadn't spoken to the ladies yet. I was just there, near by. 

I said to myself, in my head, definitely not out loud, "Escape from Alcatraz." Obviously. Where else could you escape from? (Askaban, that space prison in Guardian's of the Galaxy; there are other places, but none of them obvious to me just then.) 

Not 5 seconds after I had said this to myself in my head, one of the other women said, out loud, "Escape from Alcatraz!" 

I had to look around to make sure this wasn't some sort of set up. If it was, I don't know what their end game was because it was never made obvious to me. After being flamboozled by this for a full 45 seconds or so, I went back to my lip-smacking sandwich. 

A few minutes later one of the women, with absolutely no provocation on my part, walked over and handed me some of the grapes they were eating because apparently she felt bad that I was eating a Matt's peanut butter sandwich. 

This was a few weeks ago. I've had some time to think on it now, and I'm not quite sure those two events weren't entirely unrelated.