KOA Hill City/Rushmore

It is 9:30 am, the sky is absolutely blue, the temperature is 81 degrees, there is a nice breeze blowing, and the campground wifi is working. Yeah! So I have more time to write about our doings. The trip from Marquette to Rapid City was a little grueling. We did it in two days so that was a lot of driving. It really was not very interesting. Once again we noticed differences between the regions and the states. Going such a long distance in a short time makes it more noticeable. Finding a place to stay on Friday night was a challenge. We had decided that we did not want to pay to stay in a campground just to sleep. But the rest areas do not allow overnight parking in Minnesota and we got off the interstate so we were on a two lane highway with no rest areas. Bob assumed that we would be able to see a WalMart from the road. We drove and drove and didn't see one. It was also boring and I was getting irritable as was Bob. We had no more CDs to listen to. Yuck. We finally stopped for dinner. It was okay. We then continued driving. At about 8 pm (it was still full light) we stopped for gas and I took the amazing step of asking if there was a WalMart around. There was and we found it easily. We bought some stuff there (including a CD) and spent a fine night in the parking lot.

The drive on Saturday was easier because we had a shorter distance and we had a CD to listen to. The info center when we entered South Dakota was full of info, but the guy who gave it to me spoke so quickly and by rote. He had done this too many times. There were so many touristy spots along the road. It was all aimed at tourists. We had not seen so many RVs since Florida - I guess it is time for summer vacationers. The info guy told me that we might have a hard time finding a campground without reservations so we sat in the parking lot and I started making calls. It only took three calls and we got a spot at this very nice KOA, We didn't want to pay $40 to get here at 8 pm and just sleep so we decided to try another WalMart. First we stopped at a Flying J. They were fine with us sleeping there, but there were so many big semis (a lot of noise and movement) and it was gravel. So we found the WalMart. This one already had about a dozen RVs in the lot. One had even disconnected the trailer and the car was gone (a real no-no). It was warmer that night and the rv that parked next to us ran his generator and his air conditioner most of the evening so it was really noisy - how rude. But we slept well and were ready to go.

We had a 45 mile drive on Sunday so we got here real early. The place is just huge. It is a full mile from our site to the front desk. The scooters are coming in really handy. The quieter pool is by the front desk and not by us (did I say the scooters are handy?). There are so many kids here. It is a kids paradise. There is always a background noise of kids having fun. It is like music. It is remote enough that many parents allow the older kids to just go where they want. The temperature is nicely warm, very hot by 5 pm, but cools down nicely in the evening. This is a nice destination campground if you have kids (or grandkids). Maybe we will come back with the grandson. It is even nice without kids by the way. Just a relaxing comfortable place.

One thing that I found interesting is why they decided to carve the Rushmore monument. It really was as a tourist destination. They wanted to bring folks to western South Dakota. They did. It was quite a spectacle and an amazing feat of engineering. By the time we left it was really crowded. People pushing and being rude. When I was in the gift shop I started to pick up an item, but the man standing next to me decided he wanted that item and grabbed it, almost from my hand. The elevation was over 5000 feet so Bob was having a hard time breathing. He mostly sat while I ran around taking pictures. at one point he was looking for a seat, someone stood up and he started toward the seat and a couple of teenagers ran over and sat in it before he could. RUDE! Too many people. Time to do other things - which we did. The drive around here is intersting and stark. We noticed that there were not many deserted buildings as we had seen in other areas. We decided that things were too hard to get here to abandon buildings. There was not much water. What there was was dammed up and made into resort areas - for more tourists. I wonder what the state would be like if they did not have the tourism.

Yesterday after we left Deadwood Bob said that he was done with touristing. I agree. It may be just that we are getting close to home, but I am getting anxious to be home. Today we are going to just stay in the campground. I want to spend some time cleaning Honey. We can go to the pool or just ride around on our scooters or bikes. Campfire tonight probably, then pack her up again. We will leave tomorrow morning and take the back roads and head for Oregon. It will probably take us about three days or maybe four. Yeah.

Geting close to home

We are camping at a beautiful resort in South Dakota, but we have no cell phone access and the wifi is iffy. So Bob and I are in a bar, drinking beer, eating nachos, and I am blogging. I never included the pictures of Marquette, so some of the ones above are from Marquette. Minnesota was interesting. It reminded me a little of Tuscany, except they were growing corn instead of grapes and olives. We stayed two nights in a WalMart parking lot. Not bad.

The resort is absolutely wonderful. It is huge. Two large heated pools, two hot tubs, a jumping pillow and many playgrounds and activities for the kids, a water slide, nightly movies and entertainment, wine tasting, whew!! When we checked in they said that many people come and never leave.

Mt. Rushmore was gorgeous, but it is clearly a tourist attraction and was intended to be such. The idea was to draw folks to South Dakota. The whole area is a trouist attraction. You cannot believe how many from houses of mystery to wild west towns.

We spent today in Deadwood. A lot of history. We gambled and walked and had a good day. (We didn't go to Crazy Horse becuase they wanted $10 per person just to drive in. We looked at it from afar.)

I want to eat more nachos and drink more beer so I will sign off.

We are in the central time zone

We spent one night in St. Ignace at the Tiki campground. The owners told us that it used to be called the Old Indian Burial Ground Campground. It was a nice evening and our friends from the UP got there late and we had a lovely campfire. The next morning it started to pour. (Sometimes it seems like the rain follows us.) So it did not make sense to take the ferry ride to Mackinac Island. We waited until the rain let up a little and then packed it up. We headed for Marquette. We were going to stop on the way so that I could get a look at the Mackinac bridge. But it was still too foggy to see anything. So I have not seen the bridge. Disappointing. (I had heard so much about it when it was first built.) We headed along the shores of Lake Michigan. There is a local dish called a pastie (pronounced pass-tee), We went to lunch and tried it. It tasted a lot like a shepherd's pie without the potatoes.

The drive to Marquette was more interesting than I thought it would be. You would think that we would get tired of seeing scenery, but we don't. As we were driving along I asked Bob if we had seen any scenery like this along the way. He agreed with me that he had not. The trees were really stunted and the land was very flat. We drove through the Hiawatha National Forest. (I didn't know that Hiawatha was in Michigan. Apoparently Gitchee Gumee is Lake Superior.) One of the things I noticed in Michigan is that they do not have convenience stores - they have party stores. We stopped for gas along the way at a place with a party store and went in. First we saw rows of animal skins hanging form the ceiling. Then there were rows and rows of soda and chips. Very much a party store.

Marquette is a delightful small town that reminds me of Burlington Vermont. The college is very dominant in the town. There is a wonderful biking path and they have worked to make the Lake Shore a beautiful and inviting place. Our friends took us on a wonderful little tour. (There is a little park called Presque Isle that overlooks the beautiful painted rocks. It seems to me that there are a lot of places called Presque Isle. I will have to look up the origin of that name.) We are far enough north and west in the eastern time zone- and it is the longest day of the year - so that it was light until very late. Bob and I went to the trailer after 10 pm and it was still light for a very long time.

We had some great restaurant food and Bob made his pasta putanesca again. Yummy! We dry camped for two nights in the parking lot of the YMCA. Interesting.

Today we got up early and it has been a long day of driving. Bob decided that he wanted to cover lots of ground and he did not want to pay to stay in a campground. We drove through the rest of the UP. It felt very isolated and abandoned. There were parts that were pretty but for the most part it felt like Michigan had forgotten about it.

We drove through the upper part of Wisconsin and into Minnesota. We are now on central time and getting closer to home. The roads in Minnesota leave a little bit to be desired. They are as bad as the ones in New York. It was some hard driving. Bob decided that he wanted to try staying in a WalMart parking lot. He thought that we would see one from the highway. We did not. I finally convinced him that we should ask when we got to a moderate sized town. We did and found the place. They were very nice. We will see how I feel about this in the morning.

One thing that Bob and I have noticed is that you can really tell the difference as you go from one state to another. Wisconsin felt a lot more prosperous that the UP. There were more towns and more doing. Minnesota feels pretty basic. There are lots of lakes and lots of signs welcoming the fishermen.

The further south we have gone, the more agriculture we have seen. The corn fields are not only planted but the corn is about two feet high. (The last corn that we saw was in lower Michigan and it was about two inches high.)

I have gone now for nine months letting my hair grow and I have decided that I will get it cut as soon as I get home. I do not like long hair and the bother of it. I think that I look better in short hair. OK for the experiment.

Too foggy to see the bridge

It rained last night, but not hard. We drove up along the eastern coast of Michigan. Once again we could not see the Lake because of all of the private homes along the shore. Some were very small and some were huge, but they all had long yards and many trees so that they could have privacy. An interesting cultural item was that most folks had a sign at the end of the drive with something identifying them. It might be the name of their home ("Serenity Acres") or it might be their name with an appropriate picture (the Brewers with a picture of a coffe pot). These signs were not small signs. They were very big - like 3 or 4 feet square (some even more). They would be hanging at the end of the drive. so as you drove along you were completely distracted by the signs. Wonder how that culture started?

The scenery was pretty. There were some nice rolling hills and lots of trees. When we did see the water of Lake Huron it was very blue. Nice after the brown of Lake Erie. The trees were mostly evergreens and pretty small by west coast standards, but there were lots of them.

At one point there was a large lake on one side of us (I think it was called Long Lake) and Lake Huron on the other. During that part of the ride the trees were very scrawny - very short and spindly.

As we got closer to the top of the lower peninsula of Michigan there were a number of state parks and roadside parks so that you could see and enjoy the lake. It became more touristy with lots of cottages and motels - not many restaurants. Two of the three we tried today would not even take credit cards.

As we got closer to the Makinac bridge it started getting really foggy. So when we got on the bridge we could not see even the bridge much less the water and the coasts. The bridge is five miles long so it was a long way in the fog. I understand that there is a place on the other side of the bridge where you can get a good view. If the weather is nice tomorrow (it is not predicted to be) I will try to get a view.

Our campground is one block off the main drag through town (St. Ignace). I went for a short walk and there is a beautiful view as I was coming down the pretty steep hill of that one block. (I forgot the camera but will try to remember one later).

We are spending some time now trying to figure out where to go after Michigan. there is really not a lot to see in the middle. We will probably do Mt. Rushmore, the badlands, and Glacier Nat'l Park, then home. Wow.

An interesting day

Neither of us slept well last night. As I tried to sleep I tried all of the tricks that I could think of. One was to go through in my mind the entire trip. I could remember most of the places, particularly the ones that we had stayed at for longer periods. But there were some where i could remember that we had stayed, but could not remember exactly where it was and how long we stayed. I am very glad that we have kept track of where we stayed each night on our calendar.

We slept late this morning and got a late start. We wanted to do some driving around the area, but we had some chores to do. The sway bar that we wrecked yesterday had to be replaced. We drove to the RV parts house in town and they wanted $170 for a part that we had paid less than $50 for. So we left and drove to the Camping World store that was about 60 miles away. In order to get there we had to drive through West Branch Michigan. We had lived in that town 40 years ago when I got pregnant with my daughter. We lived right on the main street in town. So when we drove through we looked to see if the house was still there. It was! It had been seriously remodeled and looked much better than I remembered, but it was there. It brought back a lot of memories and Bob and I spent quite a bit of time talking about life then and the changes that we have both experienced. How interesting.

We did get the part for $42 at Camping World, which made the trip very worthwhile. By the time we got back and filled the gas tank and did grocery shopping, it was almost 4 pm. We spent about an hour at the lovely heated pool, then sat and enjoyed the serenity of the spot. Nice night.

Away frm the humidity

The humidity was awful and only got worse. We had a hard evening and a hard morning. Bob felt like the breath was gone. It did hit him a lot harder than it did me. By 5 pm Bob could hardly get around. We were done for the night. Wow. I am so glad that I do not live in this kind of humidity.

We got up early and left early. We got bitten up by mosquitoes while we were dumping our tanks. Then somehow we seriously bent the sway bar on our way out. Wow. How did we do that? No idea. But the Maumee Bay park is a very nice park.

The drive through Toledo and Michigan on the freeway was boring. It looks like every interstate everywhere. There was nothing to see and it was so flat that there was nothing interesting. We finally left the freeway after Bay City and drove right along the coast of Lake Huron. What was interesting was that we were only a few hundred feet from the lake and could not see it. There were houses all along. When there weren't houses there were resorts. There was one public park, but for the most part the shore and the lake were very commercialized.

We got about half way up the coast and found a lovely campground. It is cooler and the humidity is much lower. We will drive along the Au Sable River tomorrow and enjoy the trees and the birds. (I did not remember how awful the humidity can be. I could never live here.)

Be careful what you wish for

The storm last night was pretty fierce. The wind was really strong but there was not much rain. Just strong wind and humidity. We had the air conditioning on in the trailer so I went outside for a walk (I hate air conditioning.) I saw fields full of fireflies. I remember them from my childhood and have not seen them at all since I moved west. It was like a visual symphony in the fields. I just stood there and took it in for a while and loved the moment.

We kept the air on until the temp outside got down to the high 70's then we turned it off. It was still hot and uncomfortable during the night. Bob got up ahead of me and turned the air on immediately. When I got up at 7 am the humidity was 97%. Let me say that again, the humidity was 97%. (We know that because we got this really cool indoor outdoor thermometer that also gives us the humidity.) It was so humid it just drained the strength out of me. We sat for a while in the cool trailer and finally got moving. Neither of us had any energy to do anything in the humidity so we just went to the beach. Nice beach. Nice day at the beach.

Looking forward to Michigan. It will be sunny but not so warm and less humidity. I am really spoiled living in Oregon - when we have warm temps it is not so bad because the humidity is really low. Bob and I noticed that the humidity does not seem to bother our fellow campers as much as it does us. They must be used to it. But this was a nice day and a nice campground.

A found jewel

So the last time that I blogged we were stopped for the night at a rest stop. One of the great things about traveling with Honey is that Honey is home wherever we take her. The night at the rest stop was very comfortable because we were home. What an interesting concept. Anyway, we got up early, ate breakfast, did the dishes, cleaned up (just like every day except no showers) and were on the road by 7 am. It was still raining. It had been pouring off and on during the night. We had not unhooked Honey so taking off was easy - we just started the engine.

We went through New York. This is a road that we had been on before. It is still amazing that it looks different going in the other direction. But it was not as interesting as before, so we put in a CD and started listening to a novel. As we started thinking about lunch and the timing for lunch I commented that we would be at a certain point at a certain time unless we had to stop for gas. (Have you figured out what happens next?) Bob looks at the gauge and says that we have to get gas very soon because we are almost out. We pull off at the next exit which the signs say have a Mobil Oil - but the gas station is closed. Back on the Interstate. The next exit has a Citgo and Bob says that he would rather run out of gas than buy Citgo, so we pass that one. (We may have to eat our words.) The next exit has a sign for a Mobil. We pull off and it is closed also. (What is going on?) The next exit has a sign for a Sunoco and Mobil. Both of them are closed. By now the gas gauge is almost on empty and we are really nervous. If this continues we will be in serious trouble. We go into a convenience store and ask for the nearest gas station. It is a few feet down the road in the other direction and some off brand - which Bob usually refuses to buy - but we filled. what a relief!

We continued through New York and then through the very upper part of Pennsylvania. Then into Ohio. We realized that if we stopped we would get to Cleveland during rush hour. So we pushed ahead and got through Cleveland pretty easily. (It was strange to see how much it had grown in the last years. The boonies were full fledged cities.)

We still had no particular plan about where we would stop. We kept driving. We were getting tired and just a little irritated with each other. We got off the interstate and started pulling into every place that had camping. They were awful. Very narrow sites. Nothing to see or do. They actually looked dirty. The people camped there did not look like anyone I wanted as a neighbor for even a night. We thought about another rest area, but neither Ohio nor Michigan allow overnights in rest areas. There was a state park down the road. I called and they said that they had two sites available, nonreserveable, available on a first come first serve basis. They thought it might still be available when we got there in about 45 minutes. So we headed for the campground. It was the Maumee Bay State Park in Oregon, Ohio. (They pronounce Oregon funny and laughed at how we pronounce it.) We did get here when there was still a site available. This place is a real jewel. It is right on Lake Erie. (It was built many years after I left Ohio which explains why I had no idea that it was here.) It has very nice size sites - as large as any we have seen. There are bike paths, walking paths, a beautiful beach and several swimming areas. There is also a lodge with a restaurant.

We spent the day doing laundry, then taking a long bike ride, then a couple hours on the beach. We went to dinner at the lodge and had a great dinner. The temperature was in the high 90's and the humidity was about the same. It was really hot and uncomfortable. We actually turned on the air conditioning in Honey while we were out for dinner - Honey holds the heat very well which is really nice when it is cold, but we wanted to be able to sleep tonight.

We have decided to stay here until Sunday morning - it is just a really pleasant spot and very inexpensive. In fact, some of the best camping that we have had on the trek have been in state campgrounds. The exception is New York - the state campgrounds in New York are not very well taken care of, they are very expensive, and most of them are closed this year for budget reasons. But Ohio has a jewel in this place.

I am sitting outside now and there is a lovely breeze. Unfortunately the hosts just came by and said that there is a terrible storm at the Ohio/Indiana border and it is expected here in about an hour. So I will proofread this and sign off for the night. (One day of sun and then a day of rain.)

A day of sun and then a day of RAIN

Yesterday was a lovely day. The sun was out and it was delightful. I have been able to do a good 3 mile morning walk for the last three days and that feels nice. I walk on the bike path and listen to NPR. (The picture with the picnic table is from the bike path.) Later, Bob and I took our bikes into Burlington and went to a restaurant right on the water. We had a great lunch. For dessert I got hot cheesecake. Whoever heard of hot cheesecake. It was cheesecake covered with a meringue topping. It was interesting, but I will hold out for regular cheesecake. We wandered around a bit and then spent the rest of the day in the sun. It was warm enough that we were able to have a campfire in the evening. (No mosquitoes here. I have no idea why, but it was sure nice.)

This morning we headed out. We decided not to go to Niagara Falls. The tours were too expensive ($150 per person). We figured we could look without a tour, but the campgrounds were twice the usual price. So we decided to go along the St. Lawrence Seaway and just find a camping spot along the way and then hightail it for Michigan. The first part of the trip was lovely. We had backtracked over some of the area we had already seen. It was different seeing it from the other direction. (I will never understand how that happens.) We drove through a Mohawk Reservation. It looked pretty much like any city but the election posters were for folks to be elected Chief and Subchief. There was a sign that proclaimed that this was Mohawk land and not NYSP land. I wonder what that was about. But there were sushi restaurants and nail salons and otherwise it looked pretty Americanized.

Both Bob and I noticed many large houses with huge wraparound porches. Almost every one of them was simply a storage area. They were stuffed with stuff. Such a shame. I love sitting on the porch and watching the world go by. There were some very large gorgeous homes sitting right next to the worst shacks that I have ever seen. Hmmm. The cutaways on the highway showed some very interesting rock formations. (I have become very aware of that after having driven through so much of the country and seeing how different they are.) Here they are made of many layers of granite and that long and flat. We noticed that many people used those long flat rocks to make really pretty rock walls around their homes.

The St. Lawrence Seaway is a huge waterway. Just huge and wide. I could not help but compare it to the other waterway that forms a border between the US and its neighbor. The Rio Grande is a tiny river, despite its name. I had no idea that there were so many islands in the middle of the St. Lawrence. It makes for a very picturesque scene. The other picture is of the St. Lawrence from one of the rest areas overlooking the Seaway.

Then it started to rain. It was raining hard enough that we could not see anything. So we left the scenic route and headed for the interstate and started through NY. Unfortunately we got to Syracuse right at rush hour. Bob always hates driving the trailer through a city during rush hour. But to make it worse, the rain got worse. It was a driving rain with fog. We could not see more 30 feet and that was straining very hard. Bob could hardly keep it on the road. Although I was not driving I could not take my eyes of the road so that I could help him. (Does it really help? Can't tell.) You have not experienced anything until you have experienced driving a trailer through a major city during rush hour in a blinding rain storm.

South of Syracuse the rain stopped, but we were exhausted. So we have stopped in a rest area and will spend the night here. Good night!

SUN for a day

I haven't blogged much for the last few days. It has been raining. We drove around the white mountains, but with all the rain it was hard to see anything. And everything costs money. You couldn't even walk up to the falls or drive to the top of a mountain or park a car without it costing. We didn't want to pay with all of the clouds. Yesterday it was a little clearer so we took a ride that we had taken on a prior day. There was more to see the the mountains are nice. But it was still cloudy and rainy.

And to make matters worse, I got a terrible migraine. We were in a nice campground, but it was muggy and damp and the mosquitoes were voracious. We couldn't sit out more than five minutes or even take a walk without covering ourselves in 100% DEET. With the migraine, I couldn't enjoy much. It is hard to get out and do stuff when your head feel like it is going to come apart. (But I am much better now.)

There were some interesting things in New Hampshire. The area was covered with what they called Shelburne Birches. Apparently they were planted by the state and were on both sides of the highway for miles. There were some very interesting homes built of rock. Not very sturdy in earthquake country, but I bet they hold in the heat. There were signs about moose everywhere. "Break for moose. It could save your life. Thousands of collisions." We didn't see a single moose, although we almost ran into two deer. I was sorry that we did not have the opportunity to walk a little on the Appalacian Trail. Maybe another trip.

This morning as we were leaving, the cloud cover was much higher. We could actually see the tops of the mountains. It was a very different view without the cloud cover, but I wasn't going to stay around waiting to see if the sun actually came out. Mt. Washington is nice enough, but no snow at the top - like I am used to seeing. There were some gorgeous views driving along the valley. One interesting thing is there were a lot of amusements aimed at children and many of them had a western motif, such as cowboys and indians or a small western town that needs to catch the bad guys. (Why western in northern New Hampshire?)

We crossed into Vermont and it immediately felt different. Less touristy and more real. I felt more comfortable. It was interesting how fast that happened. We did stop to buy some Vermont maple syrup. I loved the little store. When you walked in there was a little sign that saide "If you are in a hurry, you are in the wrong place. In fact, are in the wrong state." what a nice sentiment. The scenery in Vermont really reminded me a lot of the areas around Portland.

We got to Burlington and the sun was out. We put up Honey and then walked down to the beach and we spent about an hour in the sun. Yeah. Yeah. We grilled steaks and are sitting outside. We will be here for a few days and I hope the weather stays this nice.

Another rainy day in paradise.

Yes, more rain and a little cold - got down to 45 degrees last night. We are in a really nice campground and I really like the people-to-tree ratio. I also like the managers/owners and the layout. It feels good. (The owner just spent half an hour telling me about how they bought the place and their philosophy, inclulding the use of solar power.) However, they are having some water problems in the campground. They had to take out the stairs that lead to the office in order to get to the water pipes. We had to go through the basement and the shop in order to get to the office. Today they had to pull out the water pipes. A big truck came and was parked in the middle of the only access in and out of the campground. The owners warned us last night. So this morning we moved our pickup outside of the gate so that we could come and go. What a mess for them. Only a slight inconvenience for us.

But it rained all day. We decided to drive around the entire area. The clouds were hanging really low so even when it was not raining we could not see much of the mountains. At one point we drove right into the clouds. On the east side of the mountains it is very touristy. Many hotels, motels, B&Bs, restaurants, family fun, etc. The west side has very little and looks to be almost hard scrabble. Makes you wonder how that happens?

The mountains are very developed. There are lots of trails and "fun activities." But everything costs money. They charge over $30 just to let you drive to the top of Mt. Washington. (We did not even think about doing that today because it was so cloudy and rainy. Maybe tomorrow.) The little historic railroad is more than $60 per person. If you want to park in any of the scenic areas you better make sure that you have paid the daily use fee (unless you have the senior federal pass). All of the roads that do not lead to campgrounds or picnic areas were closed with signs that said "foot traffic is welcome." There were lots of campgrounds (I think we pased seven or eight of them) but they had no water or electricity to the sites. There were hiking trails every half miles or so. There was even a scenic area in which they explained how they manage the area and that it is not really as wild and scenic as they thought.

We took the very scenic road (the Kancamagas Hwy) to go around part of the mountain. As we were driving, it reminded me of the drive along the Clackamas. We are so spoiled in Oregon. we take all of it for granted. Here it is a really big deal. Everyone told us to make sure that we went along this drive, but to us it was nothing special. (Part of that may have been because we could not see any of the mountains because of the clouds, but even so, I have seen the gorgeous mountains as we drive along in Oregon.)

We have decided to stay here for a few more days. The weather prediction is for nice weather. I would like to walk along the Appalacian trail, maybe take the drive to the top of Mt. Washington, and maybe (with any luck) even sit out in the sun around the pool. We will see. But it feels nice here.

white mountains

Although we really liked Bar Harbor and Acadia, it was time to move on. We decided to head east through Maine. Route 2 goes across, more or less straight. What we didn't know is that there was a lot of construction on the road. Lots of construction. Many areas of one lane and many areas of no pavement. But we were not in a hurry and there were not many cars. (I like not having a specific plan. It allows us to be relaxed and not upset by stuff.) The bumpiness did cause some of the cupboards to open and food fell out, but thank goodness nothing broke. I try to keep that in mind as I pack up and put the plastic bottles in the front.

There are major difference between coastal Maine and inland Maine. On coastal Maine it is all about the tourist - B&Bs and antique shops everywhere. Inland there were a few motels, but this was more how the people live. It looked to me like the folks were independent like their reputation. Lots of businesses in the home, from decorating, to construction, to lawyers, to wood carvers. You name it and people were doing it out of their home. I don't know why there are so many people making and selling weather vanes here, but there were a lot of them. There was a beautiful wild flower along the road which I think is called lupine. I had never heard of it before, but it made the drive very pretty.

There were lots of closed businesses and abandoned businesses and houses. Some of the houses were huge and looked like they were really something when taken care of. But they are now empty. The places need paint and nails. The yards need mowing and weeding. Many of the restaurants that we saw were now closed. (I hope it is just because it is still early in the season here, but it will take some work to open them if that is the case.) Almost every one of the restaurants that we saw, except for those in the downtown area of one larger city, were fast food and cheap. This is not an area with a lot of money.

Still lots of water, but instead of coves and inlets it is rivers and lakes. Some of the lakes were so brown after the rain that they looked like chocolate. Others were a beautiful blue.

We crossed into New Hampshire and are staying in the town of Shelburne, right outside of Gorham. We are less than a mile from the parking area for the Appalachia Trail. We are in an area that is very woodsy. We are just a few miles from Mount Washington and the White Mountains. (I had never heard of them before, but this looks to be a beautiful area.) The campgound is still almost empty. School gets out next week and the season starts. The weather is still damp and drizzly, but the weather predictions are that it is getting warmer and dryer (I keep hoping. How many times have I said that on this trip?)

Right now Bob is not feeling very well. I drove the the nearest store and got him some Pepto and we will see if it helps him feel better. He is sleeping and I am in the office building lounge area so that I can stay out of his hair. (The wifi doesn't work at our site so this works out ok for a couple of reasons.) Actually, we have been pretty lucky during this trip on our health. I hope that we stay healthy and that Bob's whatever recovers.

An accessible mountain

After a really horrendous rainstorm last night, the day today started out pretty cloudy. I didn't think it was going to be a nice day. We spent some time trying to decide whether to try biking, because the weather looked too iffy. So we decided to go back to the park in the pickup and headed for Cadillac Mountain. This is the highest mountain on the east coast. It is only 1500 feet. However, unlike the ones that we are used to in Oregon, there are not any smaller mountains around it. It rises right up from the seashore.

When you get to the top there are all kinds of signs to stay on the paths and to leave only footprints. The paths are all wheelchair accessible. I kept feeling like this was an accessible mountain - unlike the ones that I am used to. There are also some well marked trails going off in every direction. There were several folks who biked up to the top - and who seemed to get there without even being out of breath. The rocks and the breaks in the rocks were also interesting. We tried to imagine what kinds of forces it would take to create rock formations like that.

It was windy at the top, but the view was spectacular. I took many pictures and once again I realized that I can't tell one from the other. But it was beautiful. I was also really proud of Bob because he walked more than he usually does. He must have enjoyed the panorama also.

We then left there and drove to Bar Harbor and spent some time in the Indian museum here. There was an historical timeline and this was the first time that I realized that the Indians did not have the right to vote until the 1950's. There was an exhibit about the Native American struggle for freedoms and what it took to get the right to cross the border into Canada, or to retain their fishing rights. There was also quite a bit of stuff on how they lived. Apparently many artifacts were just scooped up initially and the context in which they were found was lost. They are working harder to do a better job of locating and dating the artifacts so we have a better idea of how they lived. I left wondering why Oregon does not do a better job of chronicling the Native Americans. (Maybe they do in the High Desert Museum. Now I have to go see that one.)

We wandered around downtwon Bar Harbor and did some shopping. Cute stores. I got some blueberry pie. Yum. I have got to get back onto my diet, but I do like blueberries. (Sunshine, you have to come here. Everything is about blueberries.)

We have decided to move on. It is going to rain for the next few days and we would rather be moving than sitting in the trailer waiting for the rain to stop. But I have finally convinced Bob that we should just go without a particular destination or reservation. He has also promised that if I say that I want to turn around to stop and see something that he will let me do that and not get so upset. We have decided not to go into Canada with Honey. We have heard too many stories about what happens at the border in terms of the agents tearing things apart. If we go we will leave Honey at a campground and just go for a night or two and stay in a motel or with friends.

Rain, rain, go away

While we were driving here yesterday we passed a sign for a Logging Show. The sign said that it was closed for the season and under it was another sign that said "Rain, Rain, Go Away." That's been the story of the last few days for us.

We are currently camped outside of Bar Harbor, Maine. It rained all day yesterday while we drove here. The ride was beautiful. Maine has a lot more water than anywhere on the west coast. They have so many different names for the bodies of water. Do we have any ponds in Oregon? I don't think so. The seashore has a lot of tourist cabins and touristy shops. Obviously this is where the rest of New England comes to vacation. There was a tourist town about every 10 miles. (We took the scenic route rather than the freeway.)

We found a campground that is not very expensive, but the full hookups (meaning electric, water, and sewer) did not have any wifi or cell phone accessibility. So we are in a spot that is only water and electric - no sewer. That is ordinarily just fine because I would prefer to use their bathrooms and shower. However, in the rain and on a grassy field I get wet and muddy going to and fro. So it was nice when the rain stopped for a while so we could get set up.

I am also becoming an expert on how important it is to our experience when the campground manager is nice. We have had a couple of times when we camped somewhere just because of the attitude of the person who welcomed us. In some cases the welcome was overwhelming. That was the case in this campground. I had asked the woman what sights we should see. Usually the response takes about 5 minutes and covers the highlights. She started cutting out coupons for us and spent at least 30 minutes covering everything to do, to see and to eat - including those places to stay away from. Wow.

The manager here recommended a place for dinner that was about 15 miles away. Nice ride. The food was fine and inexpensive but not great. It might have been better if I had been brave enough to try lobster again. But it seems more effort than I want to get the food. I had fried clams and they were very good.

For some reason both Bob and I were very tired so it was early to bed and a very good night's sleep - listening to the pouring rain and the thunder. (I started to say listening to the lightning but of course you can't hear lightning.) When I awoke the ground was very wet, so the walk to the showers was pretty yukky. And these showers were pay showers-although they were hot and roomy.

Our existence on the road is truly very basic. You can probably tell that from the amount of time that I talk about bathing, eating, and sleeping. We spend a lot of time on basic stuff like showering and meal preparation and cleanup. (I want to interrupt to say that it is truly pouring right now. The windows are fogged up because Bob is cooking chili and all I can see is rain.) Anyway, there is a peacefulness in having things be so uncomplicated. Get up, make breakfast, clean up, shower, and by then it is mid morning and time to be a tourist for the rest of the day. We do a lot of reading, crossword puzzles, and play games when we are not tourists.

So this morning it was still raining. We decided to visit Acadia by car. We first stopped in the visitor center and got to see a 10 minute film on the park. The ranger spent about an equal amount of time with us going through the map and giving us suggestions of what to do and see. Since it was still pouring the best idea was to take the loop around the place by car. It was gorgeous. It stopped raining often enough so that we could get out and take some pictures. The difference between this and the Pacific coast was subtle. There were times when I felt the same as I do at home and almost felt at home. Other times I would be amazed at how different. For example, the rocks here are not volcanic. They are granite and were pushed up by the ice age. Another difference is that there is a lot of private property in the park. People do donate their property after the years go by so there are some amazing huge private homes.

In the middle of the park is a pond with a beautiful house that has been turned into a restaurant. It is apparently famous for its tea and popovers. We had already had lunch (we packed it and ate it at one of the scenic overlooks), but we stopped for tea and popovers. I had blueberry tea - had never had it before. Yummy!@! The popovers were delicious with butter and jam. What a nice break. We stopped and bought some blueberry tea to bring back with us.

Then a nice one mile Nature Hike around part of the pond. This really felt a lot like Oregon except that the path was nicely graveled and there was a sign every quarter mile so we would not get lost. Because this park is so old and because there are so few parks in the east, this is a highly developed park with lots of hiking trails and biking trails. We were lucky that it did not rain while we were on the nature hike - that might have been about the only half hour that it did not rain today.

We decided to call it a day and headed home, going through the city of Bar Harbor on the way. The city looks nice enough that we might want to spend a day or two there. The weather looks bad enough everywhere. It is supposed to rain all day and night here and then be nicer tomorrow for a day or two. So we have decided to stay here a few more days and enjoy the nice weather - if it really comes. If it does not rain tomorrow we will pack up the bikes and try one of the biking loops in the park. (One advantage of being a senior is that you can get those national park passes and all federal parks are free so we can go back as often as we want.) The way that it is pouring I only hope that we don't sink into the mud before tomorrow. So sitting here in the rain, blogging, reading, and waiting for Bob to make his wonderful black bean chili.

Rethinking the plan

OK, so no pictures. Yesterday I forgot my camera and today my camera would not work. Yuck.

Four months is a long time to be on the road. It is even longer if the weather is not so great. Yesterday it was pouring all day. We drove to the LLBean flagship store(s) (there are about four of them on one campus) Big and expensive. No deals and nothing really to see. I did buy a few small things and the cashier couldn't get the scanner to work for one of the items and said that she was not allowed to just put in the price. After standing there watching her try to scan the item in for 15 minutes, guess what I decided? I decided that I did not need that item at all.

We left and drove into downtown Portland Maine. It is much smaller than the one in Oregon. (I knew that on an intellectual level - it is always different to actually see it.) The good news about a rainy day is that no one else wants to park in the tourist areas. We found a spot and parked and just walked up and down the Old Harbor area. The down side is that most of the shops were closed and the tourist buses and boats were not going out. We walked around for two hours and then headed back to the car.

When I went online last night I realized that today was going to be a sunny day. But Saturday is going to rain again. We had been planning to leave here this morning and travel to Bar Harbor. That would have meant that we were traveling on the good day and camping on the rainy days. We decided to stay here another day just because the weather was going to be nice and we could even just sit in the campground and enjoy the nice weather.

As we were talking about our plans both Bob and I admitted to each other that we are getting tired of bad weather and that going to Nova Scotia will mean more bad weather for a longer period of time. The 10 day projections for there are mostly rain - only 3 days of even partial sun in the next 10 days. This is not what either of us want to do. We decided to think about it more later.

Today started out cloudy but soon became a beautiful sunny day. We drove to Old Orchard Beach, paid for parking and spent the entire afternoon sitting in beach chairs on the beach. We then went into the restaurant right behind us and ordered hamburgers. I haven't had a hamburger in months. I took about three bites and started to feel strange. Then I broke out in a cold sweat and had to lie down. It felt as if my blood pressure was going really low again. Maybe there is so little stress in my life that I have to decrease my blood pressure meds even more. I don't have my blood pressure cuff with me to measure so I don't know for sure what is happening. I won't take the meds tomorrow. Now I am feeling better.

We have decided what to do tomorrow, but I don't know what we will do after that. I have really gotten on Bob's case for making me do all of the planning and then complaining about what I planned (we had a small incident on the drive along the Portland coast where he was tired and blamed me for not realizing how much traffic there would be. I pointed out that I had no more way of knowing than he and I had asked him what he wanted to do and he had agreed that this was a good plan. He backed off.) Neither of us really have any idea of what will happen next on the trek. We even talked about just going home. We are going to make lists and try to decide what it is that we want to do. We have complete flexibility and can do whatever we want. We are not tied to any plan. We both want some sun and some warmth. I don't know beyond that. We will see. It is likely at this point that we will skip Nova Scotia - may just go into Canada enough to see my friend in Montreal. Whatever happens Bob is going to do more of the planning from now on.

Portland to Portland

Yes we are here in Maine, about 15 miles south of Portland (that seems so strange to say). Our last two days in the Cape were very restful. We drove around to view as much as we could. It was too windy to take the scooters and we wanted to see more than we could on the bicycles. We drove along the national seashore. It was late in the afternoon and we did not actually get on the beach, but just looked. As you can see, the beach is lovely. There was a pretty good size cliff right next to the beach and apparently the stairs had been demolished last winter. But they have been rebuilt. The waves on this side of the cape were beautiful to behold. I wish we had had time to go into the water. Alas.

We drove along most of the rest of the cape. It was apparent to me that we were staying in the low rent area of the cape (fine with me). The high rent areas had really HUGE homes with gorgeous landscaping. There were lots of high end shops and restaurants and lots of touristy stuff. I came away with the thought - quaint. The accommodations were not of the usual hotel/motel type. There were lots of bed and breakfasts in some of those huge houses. There were lots of cabins. Even those places that obviously were newer were built with that kind of style - quaint.

Our last night there we went to a very nice restaurant in Truro. It was in an old huge house. The food was scrumptious and we both overate. I had blackened swordfish and Bob had prime rib. I haven't had such good fish since Bob and I were in Barbados. Then we really splurged and had mud pie for dessert. It was also good. Both Bob and I remembered the first time that we had mud pie. It was in a small restaurant in Grants Pass Oregon. We both agreed that the Grants Pass mud pie is still the best mud pie we have ever had, but the one in Truro was not bad.

We took our time getting started this morning. We drove north again, skirted our way around Boston (hit a Cracker Barrel for lunch) and then 16 miles in New Hampshire and then into Maine. We stayed off the Turnpike as we left Massachusetts. At first there was a lot of traffic. (I think we were going through "the Hamptons." I always thought that the Hamptons were mountains. But there were three towns with Hampton in the name. So I think this was it.) There was lots of traffic, lots of stores and lots of very large houses. As we drove, the traffic eased up which made Bob very happy.

Along this part of the coast of Maine there are some really gorgeous beaches. We passed Ogunquit and Kennebunk (I love the names here.) The towns themselves are very typical coastal towns. We did not have reservations anywhere to stay the night. Everything I found was very expensive and the reviews were not great. We checked out several places and have finally winded up in a KOA just outside of Old Orchard Beach. It is a little too dark for pictures now, so I will save that for tomorrow. But this is fairly woodsy and well kept.

After we got set up, we drove to Old Orchard Beach. That is actually the name of a town, not just the beach. The town reminds me a lot of Seaside, Oregon, with tourist shops and restaurants lining both sides of the main street right along the beach. There is no parking except in paid lots. We drove up next to the beach and it looks like a nice beach, but it is chilly and windy today so we just drove around.

Tomorrow rain is predicted so we will go into Portland.