During our sailing adventure, Stéphane and I had the pleasure of spending time with Paul Denton, fellow sailor and adventurer extraordinaire. We met Paul in the Bahamas and buddy-boated with him and a few others – island-hopping around the Exumas, sharing meals and stories on each others’ boats at night; bonding and enjoying life together in a way so very […]
“Don’t forget we have Lorry and Kevin’s barbeque next week!” says Stéphane. It was the fifth reminder in as many days; if I was perceptive or even slightly suspicious, I would have thought something was up. I was completely blown away by the kindness of these women who really don’t even know me. Onesies were bestowed, a stroller and Boppy […]
We’d been working so much lately it was like I’d won the lottery when Stéphane presented me with a gift borrowed for the weekend: a full-body climbing harness! I’d outgrown my regular climbing harness a few months back so had given up on the idea of climbing until after Baby Cub arrived. However, a full-body harness is a game changer! Definitely […]
Note to self: When going on a road trip to Michigan from Maine, knowing that the route will go through Canada, please remember to bring your passport with you next time. Because we all know that the very best part of a road trip is the beginning: the excitement of leaving home, cooler packed with spritzers and snacks for the […]
Life Flight of Maine is an IFR program. IFR stands for Instrument Flight Rules (versus VFR, Visual Flight Rules). IFR means you can fly in the clouds with zero visibility. You use only your instruments to guide you (instead of looking outside). So, instead of looking out the window and seeing that you are X number of feet in the […]
Summer has arrived: the time that we were told was so beautiful and perfect; the season that made the windy, bone-chilling, gray winters and rainy, muddy springs all worth it. It’s the time of blue skies, fresh lobster, outdoor concerts on the river, increased road traffic from tourists, ninety degree, 100% humidity days, and… … … bugs. As […]
Today marks the end of The Great White Buffalo era- a small era in the scheme of the Hefti timeline, but a pretty epic one nonetheless. The Great White Buffalo was our first land home after returning from our sailing adventure and today we send her on to her next owner with relief, a little sadness, and lots of nostalgia. […]
After Matthieu and Christelle departed for the rest of their Babymoon in Canada, it was time to prep for Sarah & Brian’s visit. The Newmans came to us with a very specific goal in mind: feed Sarah lobster at every meal and thus fulfill one of her bucket list items (eat lobster in Maine). Brian and Sarah arrive and […]
Home #2 in Maine we are calling Hurd House (because it’s on Hurd Point Road). And we are all moved in. The effort involved was about 75% cleaning to 25% moving stuff in (because the house was really dirty and, thank goodness, we are still keeping the “stuff” to a minimum so there wasn’t too much to move in). Hurd […]
Amidst packing up Potters Drive and securing a roof over our heads for the upcoming month (phew, it finally happened – I’ll tell you about it in the next post), we had the pleasure of spending a week with Stephane’s (and now mine) very good friends from Switzerland, Matthieu and Christelle. We spent our final Potters Drive days dipping our […]
It was our backup plan, our failsafe: in the scenario where we can find no decent rental before the end of the month, we’ll move in to The Ranger Inn. Because at The Ranger Inn, “You can lodge for less!” and pay by the week OR the month – a temporary solution if we need more time to find our […]
The population of Maine increases with the temperature: each day we see more and more cars on 1A (the main highway between Bangor and Acadia National Park) and our once-quiet lake community is overrun with the buzzing of pontoon boats, yapping of dogs and/or their owners down on the railroad trail, and the shrill screams of children as they take turns cannonballing […]
One thing our sailing adventure on Free Range taught me was to be comfortable living a more ad-lib lifestyle. To-do lists, routines, and type-A personalities just don’t really mesh all that well in the Hefti household. We have learned over the last few years that we operate best as a flexible, minimalist, impromptu kind of couple. So the fact […]
It’s 941 miles to Detroit, we’ve got a full tank of gas, a cooler full of spritzers, it’s dawn and we’re wearing sunglasses. Hit it! We kick off the week-long festivities with a non-eventful but full-on day of driving to St. Clair Shores for the wedding of my big brother Pete to his girlfriend (now wife!) of four years, […]
The weather in Maine has shifted and spring is here! The days shuffle between gray and calm to blue-sky-sunshine and breezy. Regardless of the wind factor, we have been treating our Cabin Fever with mega doses of granite walls, root-infested trails, and cold, clear lakes. The first few climbing days spent at Eagle’s Bluff – one of our local […]
We keep having close calls on the sale of The Great White Buffalo (and Truckee, the 2WD-diesel-wonder-mobile). Thanks to the awesomeness of our slick used RV salesman, one Dan Quigley, and the magic of Craigslist, we are definitely getting some bites. Now that spring is here we are hoping for The Big Bite. While we enjoyed our time roaming free […]
Stereotype Busted In telling people that we were moving to Maine, we often received this response, something along the lines of, “Good luck with that, everyone is mean to outsiders in Maine.” Leaves you with a big warm fuzzy, right? Well, after living here for 3+ months, we can say with confidence that nothing could be further from the truth. Everyone we have met […]
Our days as of late have taken on a steady, simple rhythm: ingest calories, burn calories, repeat. Egg, turkey sausage, and cheese breakfast sandwich (don’t forget the slice of tomato- tomato makes it); hit the trails on the bikes. Homemade vegetable soup (Stéphane makes the best vegetable soup); a session of sweaty P90-X plyometrics upstairs. Hike up Mount Megunticook for […]
Remember that time when we bought a sailboat and went for a 9-month sail? Well we are happy to report that our beloved Free Range is having a great Chapter Three of life down in Antigua with her new owners.
I remember when I was little sometimes my mom would let me keep all of the aluminum can deposit money if I rounded up all of the cans, cleaned them out, and took them to Farmer Jack’s (well, she would take me to Farmer Jack’s since I couldn’t drive). At the front of the Farmer Jack’s stood a wall of can-sucker machines – mouths the […]
Outside, rainwater drips ceaselessly off the eave of our cabin; the pine trees, which house our fat squirrel friends, shift and shiver in the wind. I sit here in a tank top sweating as a I type because Stéphane has built an outrageously hot fire. He’s out sitting in his “new” truck learning how to use all the gadgets in […]
It’s not that we live in the total backwater of Maine, but the furniture selection here sure makes it feel like we do. One’s furnishing options in Bangor range from the “unfinished” Maine log-cabin look to Great-Aunt Matilda’s frilly, floral-patterned loveseat complete with matching pillows and ottoman – not really our style. (Please note I did not say “grandma’s frilly loveseat” […]
After picking the brain of one of the locals at the sports shop downtown, we set out discover our first Maine ice, Frankfort Quarry: quarry by spring / summer / fall, but during the winter, a place for snowy hikes and icy climbs. We found the spot easily enough (“turn at Waldo Mountain Road, park on the left when you […]
One day last week I threw my camera in the front seat and took a drive. It felt like a Colorado day – blue-sky-sunshine – except a lot colder. Driving alongside the Penobscot River, where ice chunks clattered against each other as they raced towards the Atlantic, I came upon the little town of Bucksport. The drive through Bucksport’s downtown, four blocks long, […]
We’ve been in Maine for a week and a half. In that time, we have purchased a mattress, television, a set of twenty (twenty!) pyrex containers, a few loads of groceries and a cord and a half of firewood. It is amazing how quickly one can accumulate things if one has the space. And we have the space! Our 1800 […]
During our non-stop, full-on, month-long trip to Switzerland, we paused a few times to discuss (in English, a nice time-out for my brain) our potential future on the east coast in Maine. So when the Offer Of Employment from SevenBar Aviation popped into Stephane’s inbox, we already knew the answer. Although there was another potential gig on the table that […]
The Grizz (Winnebago View - active duty)
1,800 miles and counting
The Hungry hippo (Popup camper - retired)
1,200 miles
The Gruffalo (Tow behind camper - retired):
12,000 miles and counting
The Baby Bison (Tow behind toy hauler - retired):
7000+ miles
Maine > New Mexico + adventures in between
The Great White Buffalo (5th wheel camper - retired):
3,000 miles
Free Range (Slocum 37 sailboat - resting; getting overhauled in Nova Scotia):
Traveled 2,400 nautical miles from Oriental, NC > Antigua (end of the road).