Survival Skills

Locals have learned certain tourist survival skills and pay the consequences when they do not abide by them. One of them is to never shop on a Sunday morning in the local supermarket which I made the mistake of doing. Actually anytime during the summer is a challenge but Sundays are the worst. Weekly renters usually arrive either late Saturday or early Sunday and all flock to the supermarket to start their week off.

Our market is small and meets the the locals' needs barely in winter though you will run into quite a few of us in the bigger stores 25 miles away on weekends. But in the summer it becomes impossible to move down the crowded aisles as people wander aimlessly trying to find items they need and probably don't exist in our store.

Shopping becomes a family experience and so you now have all these kids running around adding to the confusion. Cell phones abound as people loudly carry on their conversations or talk to others in their parties mere aisles away.

I had my first traffic jam just trying to get into the store- just like the tourists who stop and talk in the middle of the street to their friends on the sidewalk, this woman was talking to her son trying to coordinate what they were going to do after shopping. She had to do this just inside the doorway and could not move a few feet in so others could get by her.

Being 4 deep in the waiting line, I remarked that people should go around her and I got a look like I was oh so rude. This also happens in the lines at the Farmers Market- but that story is for another day.

So I became totally un-Maine like and shouted- hey move in so others can get by- the woman just looked at me and the long line of people waiting to get in and continued talking. She then moved her cart about a foot so we could squeeze by.

Imagine standing at turnstyle in the subway in NY or Boston just as you are starting to go through and begin a conversation with the person behind you and not go through until your conversation is finished. You might get away with your life intact! It continues to amaze me how people leave their common sense behind while on vacation.

Tourist Crossing

Well summer weather has finally arrived after a very wet season and Bar Harbor is overflowing with the tourists who have arrived in droves. Now I guess people must think because they drove so far to get here that they have reached the end of the world and all laws and conventions don't exist in this mythical town of Bar Harbor. After all we used to be called Eden so why have rules in Paradise?

For the times one has to drive downtown, it can be perilous. There are crosswalks aplenty but people seem determined to create their own. What constantly amazes me is that the tourists are a few feet away from a crosswalk but still insist on crossing wherever they feel like. Without realizing it, they are putting themselves and the mental health of locals at peril.

Some of the ways that they try to defy the natural law of stepping out in front of a moving vehicle are many. The one I cringe at the most is the stroller approach- this is where some mother thinks if she pushes a stroller out between parked cars that moving vehicles will stop out of concern for the child- which the mother obviously has none ( concern or brains). What they seem to be oblivious to is the fact that the stroller is so low to to the ground that we do not see this until our wheels are almost upon them!

The ways they cross are many and driving becomes a game of skill to make sure you can dodge them all without any injury! Of course all the locals say tourists are fair game when not in crosswalks. There are the ones who cross diagonally in front of you, those who just run out, those who start across then stop halfway- undecided if they really want to go in that direction and then turn around and head back. There are families who cross in droves- teaching their kids that you do not have to obey traffic laws and there are those who just stop in the middle and talk to their friends still on the sidewalk trying to decide where they want to go.

Of course there are those motorists who encourage these bad habits by stopping every 2 feet to let the stampede go by and back up traffic. I prefer the scare tactics myself- if tourists are not in the crosswalk I keep driving- hoping they will speed up their crossing and their heart rates by the time I get close!

You have to keep an ever watchful eye but someday I fear that I will become a victim of a tourist crossing as I carefully slow down for all the crosswalks and am ever vigilant for the errant tourist.

Let's be careful out there!

For old fans of Hill Street Blues, you know this was an admonition to be careful out on the tough city streets. Well the same can be said for vacationing here as well. People often come to Acadia National Park unprepared for hiking our mountains and trails and go about climbing them like they would a stroll through a city park. Now we don't have mountains like they do out West but you do need to take precautions when hiking. In addition to proper hiking shoes, maps and water, make sure you pack your common sense. We know people tend to leave this behind on vacation.

What tourists don't hear alot about is the number of people injured or killed each year while vacationing here. And I don't mean to make light of this because it can be tragic. When I hear the sound of the Life Flight helicopter landing at the ball fields, I know if it is daytime or early evening it is most likely a fall in the Park or if late at night usually a traffic accident. The helicopter is there to take seriously injured people to the hospital in Bangor. We all look at each other when we hear this and say a prayer and know we will read about it in the Islander's next edition.

Sometimes accidents just happen but most other times it is due to not paying attention to the trails, not being in the proper physical shape or sometimes to just being foolish. I hold my breath when I see kids running around slippery rocks or people hiking in flip flops!

People have been swept away by rogue waves as they stand too close to water's edge on the rocky outcroppings or have been lost due to not having trail maps.

So come enjoy the rugged mountains of the Maine coast and soak up the beauty of the harbors and coves, but please make sure you pack your common sense along with your ounce of prevention to make it a memory you will relish.