We celebrated Father’s Day on Saturday this year so I could get a jump start on a week up at camp. I packed a day early and showed up for lunch, loaded down with a bag of office work and a few new books for late-night reading. Father’s Day gifts from the girls were an 1899 first edition of “Fly Fishing,” a book by the noted English statesman and fisherman Edward Grey, Viscount of Fallodon. I also received some jams for my morning toast with coffee down at the dock, in addition to some miniature stone duck statuary to adorn our waterside garden at camp. My Father’s Day gifts used to be Polo T’s and swim trunks. Now, the girls seek out the kinds of things related to Maine and my outdoor pursuits there. I await the boarding call for my flight to Maine as I write this.
Greg has been after me to camp at Nesowadnehunk Lake now that we have the Defender to take us into the backwoods. Patti and the girls are concerned about us being in an area without cell service, though I doubt there is any place in Maine these days without it. Used to be that when I was on the water, I would leave my cell phone on. Now, I turn it off to maintain the silence of the open waters. I still call camp “wilderness,” but it is not the kind of quiet it was only a few years ago. Now, with Starlink for internet service, we can watch sports online, or the kids can Zoom as I do occasionally. Perhaps a trip with Greg would be good for the soul this Father’s Day week, deep into real wilderness. Delta is boarding now. I do not want to miss takeoff.