It's Bill, 6/28/26: Cosmic Collision

Working seven days a week, it’s not unusual that I don’t know what day it is. To help me with this, I do have a calendar and a computer. I did know the Bay of Fundy International Marathon (BFIM) is on Sunday, June 21. We’re fully reserved here, with some of the 690 runners staying as far as 50 miles away. All good—we like the runners and the Marathon.

For the past few years, Patricia and I have celebrated the Summer Solstice. A wonderful Druid celebration for us, complete with champagne, being at the Easternmost Point where the sun first rises on the longest day of the year. The Solstice this year is also on Sunday, June 21. The calendar was flying us into a cosmic collision.

Please note, both the Marathon and the Solstice sunrise start at the same location at daybreak on June 21. Mission impossible. Only runners are allowed at the lighthouse, not Druids. Cosmic collision.

A Solstice Celebration

A plan was developed. We would celebrate the Solstice elsewhere on June 19 and 20. We chose a dinner of the best haddock fillets from Bud Northrup, a salad, and dessert. We started with fine pink bubbly before dinner and took it from there—chatting, reading, and holding a short business meeting Saturday night. Sunday, we planned to go to the finish line on Water Street, just like last year when we sponsored the West Quoddy Station finish-line banner.

We decided to make our dessert on Friday, June 19: rhubarb pie from the West Quoddy Station rhubarb planted in the 1980s by the women at the Quoddy Marine Research Center. I was chagrined when I arrived at Patricia’s Friday afternoon with only about two cups of rhubarb. Crop failure.

Patricia was well prepared for this, producing a wonderful recipe for rhubarb cookie crumble along with all the ingredients. We set the timer for half an hour, read a little, napped, and slept right through it. Our stars were with us. It baked perfectly.

About then, I figured out June 19 was Juneteenth. I finally knew what day it was. Three-day weekend.

Marathon Morning

Around 10:30 Sunday morning, we drove toward town. We chatted with newly elected Washington County Sheriff Crabtree, who was directing a Marathon detour at the end of South Lubec Road.

Parking about a half mile from the finish line on Water Street, we walked in, enjoying the festive crowd. About 100 yards from the finish, we met an Anatolian Shepherd—an unexpected treat.

An unexpected treat on Marathon morning—a gentle Anatolian Shepherd greeting spectators along the route.

We found our West Quoddy Station banner at the finish line, with Patricia taking wonderful photos of the finishers. I worked my way through the crowd to the banner. Good spirits and excitement were everywhere. Photo opportunity.

Returning to Patricia, West Quoddy Station's staff photographer, I was called out by Julia Brady, President of the Lubec Woman’s Club.

“Don’t go by without saying hello!”

Bill stops by the West Quoddy Station finish-line banner to celebrate another successful Bay of Fundy International Marathon in Lubec.

The Long Way Home

Walking back to our truck, instead of staying on Water and Washington Streets, we left through the library parking lot, taking the long way home on Lubec’s back streets—only adding an hour and a half.

Next week’s blog is "Long Way Home."

Wonderful fun.

Crossing the finish line on Water Street, where months of training met the cheers of the Lubec community.