Maine

Mount Agamenticus is only 692 feet in elevation but is high enough to see the forested hills to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east.

​

In 2016, I traveled to the New England states by myself. I previously had never visited Maine.

​

I wanted to make it all the way to Acadia National Park but did not have enough time.

​

I remember sitting on a picnic table alone while eating lunch on top of the mountain. I watched people go by. Everyone was with someone. They had somebody. Six people could have sat at the picnic table, but I was just one, wasting space.

​

I prefer to travel alone. Usually, I do not get lonely. However, when passersby stare at me when I am eating by myself it gives me a deep, cutting sense of aloneness.

​

I am comfortable being alone, I really am. But I know that questioning glare when I see it. Seen it many times.

​

A slight breeze pushed the cool, dry air against my face. It felt good to breath in. It reminded me that I needed to get going. Some human interaction was planned for later that day as I traveled to Newburyport, Massachusetts, to visit a distant cousin whom I had never met.