Moving day (Old Orchard Beach, Maine to Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine)

Location: Bar Harbor KOA; Bar Harbor, Maine
(click pics to enlarge)

I moved about 185 miles north to the Bar Harbor, Maine area. I'm in a KOA on the island where the Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor are located. The trip was a little dicey at times due to some strong cross-winds that made Liberty fishtail a few times. They were the strongest cross-winds I've dealt with on this trip. But after a few rest stops we made it here around 2:00 pm. I got checked in

and they showed me to my site. It's a good site on the end of a row. I can step out my door and see the water and the mountains. I've scheduled a boat tour of several lighthouse for in the morning. The boat leaves at 9:30 which means

I may have to set an alarm to get up in time. I haven't used an alarm clock since I retired and I have been sleeping in to about 7 each morning.

From the campground

After I got set up I bought a lobster dinner from an old man that sells them here at the campground. Everyone was raving how great they are. I won't

buy anymore. They are just bland. Oh well, I had to try one while I was in Maine. After eating I explored part of the island. One of the places I wanted to see was Cadillac Mountain. Seemed like a good time to go, so up I went. Wow, the views were stunning. I took close to 200 pictures. The sky was great and changed colors the whole time. I got back to the campground in time to catch a little sunset from just outside of Liberty. 

It was a long day. I think I'll just post a lot of pictures now.

Ya'll take care of each other. Cya down the road. 

Found the Ocean and Semi-empty campground

Location: Wild Acres Campground; Old Orchard Beach, Maine
(click pics to enlarge)

The campground emptied out pretty good by noon yesterday. I have vacant sites all around me. I have seen this before at other campgrounds as

weekenders invade the campgrounds then leave in mass by Sunday or early Monday. The campgrounds are left with only the seasonal

the one on the right stole something and ran

campers who general work during the weekdays and vagrant travelers like me. The pictures show the vacant sites and if you compare to yesterdays post you can see the big difference. The advantages of vacant sites next door are no loud people. When I got here there

This ones looks like he is a beaver eating the tree

was a guy in the site next to me that had one of those loud voices that just carries very far. I'm glad he moved out. I also got a few good pictures of the squirrels that had made so much noise when they were running on the roof of Liberty.

As I was walking around, I also found the "bench" picture. It seems like I see benches everywhere now.

I also found the ocean. As I said in the last post, this town is a big tourist trap with young adults walking around the downtown and beach strip area. It is very similar to Virginia Beach and Galveston except this town lacks the easy access to the beach area. I figured the locals had to have access to the beach somewhere so I consulted with Google earth to find it. Sure enough, about 6 or 7 miles away in a residential area was a beach

Path from parking to the ocean

access point with free parking. While I was driving around to see what I could see, I found my way to that beach access. Sure enough, plenty of free parking and an easy walk to the beach. I was surprised how many cars were parked there on a weekday (Monday) and with the temperature only in the

mid-70's. The sky was clear though and the sun was bright. I walked to the beach and as I got to the beginning of the beach area I saw people laying and sitting everywhere. One of the things I noticed was that most were groups of women. I quickly checked to make sure I hadn't

accidentally stumbled onto a nudist beach. Just in case the first few were clothed by choice, I had to verify by checking several more. Once I was sure, I walked to the water's edge and looked up and down the beach. The people were congregated within about 1/2 mile of the access point. Most were sunbathing, visiting, reading or sleeping. I reached

for my cell phone camera and suddenly felt out of place. If I started taking pictures of the beach area, I would look like a pervert taking pictures of women laying around in bikinis. I took a few of the waves then said to myself, oh well, let them call the cops. I think I'll be out of the area by the time they show up. I wandered back through the beach people and was very thankful I had

remembered to wear my sunglasses because they hid my eyes protected my eyes from the harmful rays of the sun. I left the beach and headed back to town.

I stopped at a grocery store and picked up a steak for supper. It was a nice and relaxing afternoon and evening.

Tomorrow is moving day. I'm heading farther north to the Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park area. It is suppose to be a very nice campground with some pretty views. We will see.

Ya'll take care of each other and I'll Cya down the road.
 

Driver's Test and Moving day (Brattleboro, VT to Old Orchard Beach, ME)

Location: Wild Acres Campground; Old Orchard Beach, Maine
(click pics to enlarge)

Well, I made it to Maine. It's been one of my goals since I left Louisiana more than 9 weeks ago. It hasn't been a straight line here, but the general direction has always pointed here. There isn't anything special that I'm looking forward to seeing like it was in many of the other places I stopped. I just wanted to go to Maine. Specifically, I wanted to go to Bangor, Maine, just to know that I had been there. I have heard the name Bangor, Maine in songs all my life and it has always been sort of a mystery to me. The two older songs that mentioned Bangor were "King of the Road" by Roger Miller and "Roll on Big Mama" by Joe Stampley. The newer ones are "How about them Cowgirls" and "Brothers on the Highway", both by George Strait. I'll be in Bangor some time next week.

Yesterday was a moving day. I drove from Vermont, across New Hampshire and into southern Maine. The weather was great with the temperature in the low 70's and a bright blue sky with just a few scattered cumulus clouds. The trip was about 180 miles, which is about 4 1/2 hours of towing so I had picked out about 3 to 4 places to stop along the way. The stops can be nothing more than a pull-off on the side of the road. Google earth usually locates these places for me. With Liberty behind me, I can't just turn into any place along the road to use the restroom or get something to eat. Everything was going fine until somewhere around the middle of New Hampshire. I topped a mountain and rounded a curve and there was a State Trooper with his car blocking the highway. He was directing traffic down a smaller intersecting side road. I pulled up to him and asked if the detour was OK with my RV. He looked at Liberty, then back at me, and said "Yeah, if you're a good driver". I wasn't expecting an answer like that at all. What the heck did that mean? I looked at the detour road and the lanes didn't have edge striping so that usually means they are less than 11 feet wide. There wasn't any shoulder to speak of and what was there was rutted pretty bad. If I hooked a wheel in those ruts, I could rip up a tire or worse, throw me off the road and down the mountain. I had seen worse roads and towed Liberty on short stretches of them but this one was unknown to me and I had no idea how far the detour was going to be. I looked back at the trooper and told him I was trying to get to the interstate just up the road. His answer, which again was not reassuring, was "go to either the first or second town and make a hard left onto 202 and that will take you back to 9". I was on highway 9 now, so that part made sense. I started to ask him what was the reason for the detour and how long would I have to wait if I parked here, but he waved me on with a strong wave and with a mean look on his face, said "Move on". So I did. I quickly grabbed the phone and turned Elise (gps) back on. In her sweet little voice she told me to "turn around". That wasn't possible now so I kept going and was hoping for a place to pull over to look at the paper roadmap and the map that Elise uses. Elise finally comes to her senses and realizes that I'm not going to turn around and tells me to take the next left. I'm hoping this is the left that the Trooper was mentioned. I got to the turn and wouldn't you know it, there are two lefts, one about 90 degrees and the other a sharper turn. I figured, I must be in the right place and this is that "hard left" the trooper mentioned, so with very little clearance on one side I took the sharper turn which went up a little hill. I breathed a sigh of relief just as Elise said, "turn around". Crap!! (the word "crap" was mine, Elise doesn't use such words). There wasn't much traffic on this street so I pulled over as far as I could and stopped. I started looking at Elise's map and luckily this street did go to highway 202 which the trooper mentioned. Looking ahead I could see the road narrowing more and more with cars and trucks parked on the edges. Since it was such a pretty day after so much rain, I had an audience in just about every yard looking at the fool trying to tow an RV down their street. I started waving at the people as I slowly drove between their parked cars. Some waved back, others just stared. Finally, Elise gave me good news; "In 0.5 miles turn left on highway 202". Bingo. Highway 202 is a very good road with 12 foot lanes and wide shoulders. I relaxed and turned Freedom loose and headed north looking for highway 9. About 5 miles later, I turned onto highway 9 and was back on my planned route. One good thing about Elise is that she hasn't learned the word, "dumba$$" yet.

I made it to the interstate and needed to travel on it for about 15 miles before turning on another state highway. One of my planned stops was a rest area along this stretch of interstate. My luck hadn't changed yet and the rest area was under construction. There is a big sign though that says it is open during construction. I pulled in and of course there isn't any 18 wheeler/RV parking. Wow, the rest area was packed with cars. Since I couldn't park, I drove on through and that's when I noticed the reason for all the cars. There is an Official New Hampshire liquor store located in the rest area. People were going in and out of it like they were giving free stuff away. Darnest thing I had ever seen. Of course right in front of the liquor store is the official state sign saying "DUI's are strictly enforced" so I guess they think that makes it OK. As I left the useless rest area, I remembered I had a bathroom in Liberty and pulled over on the shoulder of the on-ramp. A few minutes later I was on my way again.

I made it to the campground around 2:30 and checked in. The woman at the office had very pretty eyes, almost like a Catahoula Cur. I came close to telling her she had dog eyes, but stopped in time and just told her she had pretty eyes. She assigned me to one of the 500 campsites at this campground. Yep, that's not a typo, five hundred campsites. A lot are tent sites, which are smaller and a lot are seasonal sites where people have their RV parked all the time, but still 500 sites is a lot. A guy on a golf cart led me to the site and mentioned that several people had started using it as a pull-thru instead of a back-in like it was intended. I stopped and looked at the little hill I would have to climb and decided to go for it. Freedom and Liberty didn't have any problem pulling in that way and I think they were ready to stop for a while too. The campsite is a full-hookup site, meaning it has water, electricity (50 amps) and sewer. I think it also has cable but haven't checked since I rarely watch TV anymore. The campground is a Passport America location so I'm getting 50% off for 2 of the 3 days I'll be staying here. Good deal, Lucille. 

I drove around the town while looking for a place to eat. I was hoping to see the ocean and maybe walk on the beach for a while. Nope. I found the street that runs in front of the beaches, but they are blocked by private residences, restaurants and hotels. There was a place or two where you could walk to the beach, but there wasn't any parking. I decided to get something to eat and solve the beach problem later. I found a restaurant and ordered a Lobster Roll to celebrate being in Maine. I had never had one but had heard they are great. They aren't. It wasn't anything special but I ate it all because I was hungry. I won't order another one.

Brochures from the Maine Welcome Center

Parts of the Campground while walking

My part of the campground

Freedom and Liberty with neighbors

I'll leave here on Wednesday and head to a campground at Bar Harbor on the edge of Acadia National Park.

It's about noon, so I'll publish this post and head on to a place that Google earth says I can get to the beach with available parking. We will see. I'll also look for another restaurant with a local flare or maybe a Taco Bell.

Ya'll take care of each other. Cya down the road. 

Random Thoughts and Things

Location: KOA North Brattleboro; Brattleboro, Vermont
(Click pics to enlarge)

Today was a slow day. The rain finally stopped by mid-morning and the afternoon turned into a very pretty day with the temperature topping out at 70 degrees. I used to the day to prepare for moving day tomorrow. I have reservations at a campground in Maine near the ocean. I'm not sure how the park is going to be since it used to be owned by NASCAR and now is owned by Sun Resorts. It is a Passport America park so I'll get 50% off the daily rate for 2 of the 3 days I will be camped there.

1) Someone asked me how I find campgrounds. I use several sources and none seems to be the best. Passport America and Good Sam's have a pretty good listing of campgrounds. The campground I'm in now is a KOA and I am a member of their organization. I will recoup my membership fee at the next KOA campground. I also use the web site RVParkReviews to see what others may have said about a campground. State parks are a hit and miss depending on the state. New York had great state parks and lots of them. I have been told that Michigan and Wisconsin also has a great state park system. There are other places I check like the Forest River RV Forums and Facebook RV Dreams. Before I make the reservation, I'll always check out Google Earth to see what it looks like from the air. I nearly made reservations at a campground where everything sounded good until Google Earth showed me the back half of the campground was a junkyard. I stayed somewhere else.

2) Iraq is about to fall to the bad guys. They will then have a country with lots of oil to be used to finance their terrorist schemes around the world. Afghanistan will do the same thing next year. Iran will have an atomic bomb very soon. Syria is about to become a part of new Iraq. And yes, it is all the fault of the Obama administration. They think that simply by the US being so strong, militarily and economically, that makes us a bad country. They don't realize that if you're the biggest, baddest SOB on the block, you can either take care of people by making sure the bad people don't cause trouble, or you can be the leader of the bad people. Over the 200+ years the US has been around, we have done a few bad things but for every bad thing we've done, we have done 100 good things. Overall, the US has been the steadying factor around the world since WW II. You can pat George W. Bush on the back for being an honorable person by not talking trash about Obama's screw-ups. You can bet your last dollar that if the roles were reversed, Obama would not be as honorable. He tried blaming everything on Bush from day one, which to me was a sign of immaturity.
 
 3) There is a reason why we never negotiated with bad people in the past. It was because it only encouraged the bad people to do the same thing again and again. Rewarding bad behavior only increases the amount of bad behavior. Don't you reckon the Taliban is looking to kidnap someone now so they can trade for more of their leaders.

4) The downtown part of the towns up here in the northeast are very vibrant and full of people. There are little shops and small cafe's everywhere. People are walking on the sidewalks going from store to store or eating at tables in front of cafe's. It is a world of difference from the south. I don't know the reason yet, but it is impressive.

5) Every little town has a couple of pizza places up here. Not the chain stores, but just small mom and pops places. I got a pizza in New York from a gas station that was great. Not frozen, freshly made right in front of you. Oh, and each town has a couple small ice cream places.

6) Gas dropped about 15 cents a gallon up just in the last 2 days. I thought it was suppose to go up but now it went the other way. I filled up today in preparation for tomorrow's move and paid 3.70 a gallon. Thursday, at the same station, it was 3.85 a gallon.

7) The campground filled up with kids today. They are running, screaming and biking all over the place. I think some of the parents just lets them run wild and tells them to just stay in the park. The kids go everywhere while the parents sit around a campfire drinking beer. Not all of the parents are that way, but definitely some.

8) I'm anxious to see the coast tomorrow. I've seen the Atlantic before, a lot, but never this far north.

9) I'm thinking about taking a whale watching trip when I get up to Bar Harbor area next week. That should be interesting. What do ya'll think? good or bad idea.

10) I had a hankering for some bacon, fried eggs, grits and toast the other day. I went into a fancy grocery store, similar to Whole Foods, and found everything but grits. I didn't ask anyone, but where else would they be at except with the oatmeal and stuff like that. I looked in the flour and corn meal section too, no luck. Well, the other stuff was good even without the grits.

Sorry no pictures today, but maybe some from the coast tomorrow if I get there soon enough. If not, then definitely the next day.

Ya'll take care of each other and I'll cya down the road.

Norman Rockwell Musuem and Driving the backroads

Location: KOA North Brattleboro, Brattleboro, Vermont
(click pics to enlarge)

Yesterday, I rested and listened to the rain on the roof. Today, it was still raining but I decided to hit the road and see what I could find. I had heard of the Norman Rockwell Museum from one of the other campers here. The museum is located about 60 miles away near the town of Rutland, Vermont. I decided to take the long way by going on 2 lane back roads. With the rain still coming down, sometimes hard, this may not have been the best decision but since there wasn't any problem and only a couple little "ut-oh's", all's well that end's well.

The museum is one of at least two in the northeast devoted to Norman Rockwell. He is one of my favorite artists. He was only 22 years of age when he started producing magazine covers for the Saturday Evening Post. His career lasted about 60 years and he painted things from the time of World War I through the moon landing and beyond. I won't go in depth about his work and maybe the pictures will prompt some curiosity. If you do decide to do some research, look up Rockwell's Four Freedoms. They were "of Speech", "of Worship", "from Want" and "from Fear". I couldn't get any really good pictures of his work in the museum since they were covered with glass. I had to take the picture from an angle to avoid the mirror effect which didn't solve that problem every time.

Vermont is a pretty state with surprises around most of the curves. Pictures, pictures, pictures.

Typical Roadway

I crossed this covered bridge on the way. It was a surprise, I rounded a curve and bam there it was. Note the clearance sign of 11'-0". If I had Liberty with me, I would have been over height by 1 1/2 feet. It worries me now about taking Liberty on some of these 2 lane roads without knowing for sure about such things like this bridge or a low bridge or tunnel. I'll have to re-think some of my routes.

I was concerned about fog coming in for awhile

The obligatory bench picture. It's Echo Lake.
Another one of those surprises around a curve.

A lot of the route followed the river on one side

 



 



 

Two road signs not seen in the south. Remember, click the pic to enlarge.

The museum is small. The official one is in Massachusetts but this one was closer.

 

Rockwell everywhere

 

Remember, Rockwell was the Art Editor
for Boy's Life when he was 19 years old

Aprils Fool painting. I find new stuff
each time I look at it.

 

from the 1920's

to NASA and moon landings

 

 

 

West Virginia?

A day in the life of a boy and girl

 

Freedom and Liberty in KOA Brattleboro

 

It was a tiring and wet day. It's still raining now, but is suppose to clear tomorrow afternoon.

 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.