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.