Sept. '01 - The Beginning

In September, 2001, I started going up to Sumner, Maine with two of my three boy's and some friends to ride dirt bikes. Peter's Father in-law has a Camp up there. Up there...
Up there in God's country.
It's called a "Camp" but it's a four bedroom Salt Box that was once a really nice vacation home. Erin's family all vacationed in the Camp while they were growing up. I've seen the old photo albums and it looked like a lot of fun. It was pretty run down by the time my boys and I started going up there. In fact, the very first night, I slept in the bike trailer! (Wuss) There was mouse crap everywhere and it was Peter that called it the Mouse House. It got cleaned up a bit the second day, but the name stuck. I made sure of that. The joint has a lot of character but a place like this really needs a good name. "The Mouse House" tag was adopted. We've been going up a couple, few times a season since that first year and several guys have pitched in and helped fix it up. I've some how only been able to go on half the "Work Weekends" but all of the "Riding Weekends" ( Me and Wile E. Coyote! Super Genius )


The second year, Joe bought a year round Dome Home and on Memorial Day Weekend the three family's went up and did some riding.
Lyn and Erin both had Quads back then and we had a ball. So the tradition's kind of unfold without much push or guidance from anyone. Events get repeated and the lore grows and at some point, out of all the stories, legends are born. This is the kind of stuff kids remember forever and the adults too for that matter. Hopefully I'll be old-(er) and gray-(er) one day, and I may not remember where I live, but I bet I'll still be able to remember the riding in Maine. Rocks will roll down stream, become little tiny pebbles and fall off the mountain and the legends will still be told. It's just that good in Maine!

So as it's gone for a while now, the entire family goes up on Memorial Day Weekend and the Guys go up at the end of the summer for Labor Day Weekend. Joe's Dome Home has all the workings of an actual year round house. 'Ya know, stuff like base board heating, dish washing machine, with actual running water, in-door flushing toilets. (Wuss)


"The Mouse House" on the other hand has none of these creature comforts. The Out-House has the preverbal Crescent Moon carved in the door. Running water takes the form of one of the kids, 'running' in from the Well with a bucket of water. There's a very cool story about, 'That Well.' It was once part of either The Pony Express route through the area, or it was one of the stops for a Stage Coach Company that ran down to Boston. Either way, the story deserves to be researched, but for now it's just another piece of the local lore.

In the Spring of '06, Peter's planning on putting in a septic system and sinking a new well. That will mean running water in the sink, a flushing toilet, ( right in-side the house ) and before too long... I can see it coming... curtains in all the windows!
(( Aw My-Gawd, will 'Ya take the boots off A'fore 'Ya come in?! Yer' trackin' mud all over the carpet! ))
Well... we all got four years of "The Mouse House" being a kind of "Man Town"
for dirt bike riding in the wilds of Maine. Once the septic goes in it'll be all over for that though. Erin, her sister Kelly and Lyn will be going up to the Camp to "decorate". Frills and flowers, a dish washer and showers. Oh boy!

I'll attempt to make this a picture site for the most part, with some stories as we go.
Legends, I like to call 'em. So smile Damn-it! We're makin' memories here!

And hey! Merry Christmas. I've got two sick with a 24 hour bug so I'm killin' some time on the laptop and finally putting this idea on a web site.
-Sul