George, Ed and Greg - Loring Air Force Base, mid-70's
Today we drove through Van Buren to Hamlin Maine to have lunch with Greg and Dianne Noskowiak and our Air Force buddy from New York, George Lechner. When in Maine what could be better than a lobster feed, and Dianne planned a dandy. George was there when we arrived and we quickly started a journey down memory lane involving our time at Loring.
As mentioned previously, George's barracks room was right next to mine, and Greg was just down the hall. When I went home in March 1974, married Doreen and "dragged" her back up to Maine, we moved into an apartment but I worked with Greg every day and were in touch socially with George and his then girlfriend Ann-Marie usually every week. So there was a lot of reminiscing today and a ton of laughing! Except for a couple days ago, the three of us had not been together in about 50 years!
Dianne made us all Bloody Mary's and in true Wisconsin style, served then with a beer chaser. You can see this in the picture above with a couple Moose Head's and a Molson! Dianne had some wine and Doreen sipped on a margarita.
We all laughed and carried on while Dianne was busy at work preparing the lobsters and that is plural with all caps!
Dianne helped us out by splitting the tails and claws!
A little extra height helps with leverage!
I think I counted eight lobsters here!!
Soon we gathered at the table and the feast was on! Dianne covered all the details including bibs for us all! Doreen is not a lobster eater so she had a burger.
The boyz ready to enjoy a feast!
So awesome!!!
A bowl in the middle of the table for the shells!
We had an absolutely awesome time and a meal that was second to none! We cannot begin to thank Greg and Dianne enough for their hospitality! But there are more surprises in store! Monday they have invited us over to enjoy lunch including a Maine favorite - Fiddleheads! Dianne is also preparing some Ployes for us too! This is the mix they use to make the Ployes!
We said our goodbyes to George and he needed to be on the road southbound. We will see him again in a few weeks in New York!
After lunch Greg and I retired to their beautiful sunroom and continued our conversations. I cannot begin to describe how great it is to reconnect with our great friends and hear them describe their lives, their kids, their grandkids, their projects, etc.
It was time for us to head north to the campground so we said our goodbyes to Greg and Dianne and thanked them again for the outstanding lunch! Dianne provided us a goody bag full of lobster meat so that we could have a lobster roll or two back at the camper!
As we drove through Van Buren Doreen took note of the fuel prices as we will have to fuel up on Monday as we plan for our departure Tuesday morning. Definitely not the highest prices we have paid on this trip, nor the lowest!
We made a stop on the way home at the Ouellette Trading Post in Van Buren. This place is amazing! It is like stepping back in time. They have literally everything in there!
Rows and rows of everything you can think of!
They also have a quite a menu at their cafe.
Doreen scored a ceramic liquor bottle shaped like the Portland Breakwater Lighthouse which was built in 1875. It's nickname is "Bug Light". The good news is it is filled with Allen's Coffee Flavored Brandy which is a staple up here, and very tasty I might add!
Tomorrow we first plan to visit Presque Isle where we had base housing; Caribou where we lived in two different apartments; lunch at the Rendezvous Restaurant which used to be right outside the east gate at Loring and is now in Caribou; the location of the Transmitter Site that I used to work at; Dodo's Market where we bought more beer. Moxie, etc than we care to discuss; Loring Air Force Base which brought us to this area; and Limestone Maine, the small town home of Loring! Needless to say Liberty will be accompanying us as this is going to take a few hours!
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