A road trip to remember

Sorry for the long gap between posts.

I just got back from visiting friends in Boston and family in Maine and, well, I simply forgot to take the lap top with me. Left it in the kitchen to charge it before I drove to the airport.

Then again, I wound up in the deep Maine woods where cell phone and wireless signals are as feeble as Jose Canseco inside a ring. The closest land line is a 20-minute drive to Monson along a moose-infested road. So, I wouldn’t have been able to send a file unless I literally climbed a mountain (Borestone) with dozens of cans of “OFF” to protect me from pestering swarms of black flies.

Frankly, I’m surprised the Red Sox Nation didn’t hold me captive. I was witness to the one home run David Ortiz has hit this season, a towering shot into the Triangle in centerfield at Fenway Park on May 20. The place erupted for Big Papi’s big fly, the only time he has done deep in 2009 and I was there, apparently as his good luck charm.

Highlights of the trip: Living vicariously through my buddy Lee Negip who told me he walked past Tom Brady walking with his son, Jack, and wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, and without paparazzi in Boston’s Back Bay. What TMZ wouldn’t have done for that shot, eh? Eating fresh, live Maine lobster for lunch at Shaw’s Wharf. Attending a Portland Sea Dogs game at Hadlock Field. Listening to Red Sox games on the radio. Listening to Red Sox fans fret about the Red Sox on WEEI. Getting a basketball-sized whoopie pie for desert on my birthday. Playing wiffle ball with my great nephew, Josh Huston, at camp. Spending quality time with my daughter, brother and sister Donna (who makes the best peanut butter fudge) on Greenwood Pond.  Shopping at L.L. Bean. Eating Boston crème doughnuts at Dunkin’ Donuts. Ordering the homemade grapenut and black raspberry ice cream at Butterfield’s in Dover-Foxcroft. Hearing everyone talk like me with a New England accent.

But the biggest surprise of the week was finally picking up a daily newspaper after a few days and seeing that the Padres had passed the Giants in the NL West standings. How did that happen?