I have a confession: I recently took some money out of the Maine economy.

I spent $6 at the Subway shop in New Hampshire and paid $3 to the federal government for the right to climb Mt. Chocorua in the White Mountain National Forest. No staycation for me this July 5.

In my defense, I have spent plenty of money in Maine buying a dish of ice cream or a steak as an indulgence after a hike in Evans Notch or Baxter State Park. And the New Hampshire hike did get me to thinking.

There is a certain clarity of mind that comes from paying close attention to where you put your hiking boots, step after step, mile after mile, until you reach the high granite.

Mostly stay thoughts, including this: There's a lot of power in a single word like "staycation." It gets people to smile and think there's something important going on. If there's a term, there must be a trend.

It's the kind of thing that attracts media attention.

Now, when I was a kid, we had less-kind words for people who hung around all summer: couch potato, closed-minded, dull. Today, during these days of sky-high gasoline prices, it's clearly hip to stay close to home.

I'm inundated with "staycation" promotions. The Maine Office of Tourism is pushing it through a website. Businesses such as the White Cedar Inn in Freeport and the Senator Inn & Spa in Augusta have come up with packages. People are throwing the s-word around in conversation, as if it's always been part of their vocabulary.

Just today, I received information about a kids video documentary contest, "Summer in My Town," from a New York organization, MeetMeAtTheCorner.org, that is promoting "virtual educational and informational 'tours' of various landmarks from a child's point of view" to homeschoolers.

There's only one problem for Maine in all this: Everybody else is trying to get their folks to stay home too and potential Maine tourists also are talking about hanging around the recliner this summer. Retailers are even promoting the sale of goods that people might need for their at-home vacation.

Let's just hope that the good people of Maine enjoy staying here more than the folks from Lawrence, Mass., or Trenton, N.J.

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