Hallelujah!

Why hallelujah?  Because we got to wash the motorhome today.  Doesn't sound so exciting probably, but we have encountered more rain this trip than any other in our memory, and we haven't been able to wash it since we left Florida in March, so to say it was dirty is the understatement of the year.  We expect our fuel mileage will increase at least a couple of mpg for the reduction in weight and decreased drag:-)

So we left Skowhegan with huge smiles on our faces after our amazing visit and meal with Doug and Nancy and proceeded to Houlton, ME.  It is just a few miles from the Canadian border and as far north as we have ever driven in Maine.  Many, many years ago when I first got hired by Delta, I flew into Presque Isle, the next town north a few times before they dropped the city.  I didn't remember anything specific as we never laid over there, but I do remember seeing the northern lights there and also in Calgary and Edmonton, all in the dead of winter though, so we want to check it out.

We got a glimpse of Mount Katahdin on the way, at 5,269', the highest point in Maine and the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. 

We were very pleased with our campground there, the Houlton KOA, large sites, all grass with paved roads, very nicely kept, quiet and dark, although very few 50 amp sites. 

We didn't have too much planned there except for taking a few drives, one up through Presque Isle and Caribou, and we also wanted to drive over to Shin Pond and see the place we had cancelled because of rain and mud earlier this year.  We picked Shin Pond first and looking at Tripadvisor we found a little clam shack along the way in Patten, ME that sounded pretty good, yeah I know, food again:-)

Shin Pond turned out very nice, a gorgeous place and most likely we would have had no issues going there, but it is a long way from nowhere, and since we could do all we wanted from Houlton we thought we made the right decision, on the way back we stopped at the tiny little Craig's Clam Shop, and wow, were we glad we did.  It was so good we even drove the 40 miles back to go again on our last day.  Looking back on it, it turned out to be perhaps the best take out seafood that we have had this trip, and that is saying something!  The first day we had scallops, whole belly clams, and onion rings, to die for.

We got another view of Katahdin on our ride.

We also came back along the border with Canada that goes through the middle of Grand Lake and the St Croix river, beautiful view.

Jan had to run over to the grocery store, and what does she find, live lobsters on sale for $7.99/pound, and they will cook them for free.  What could we do?  Why obviously lobster rolls, in fact we did it twice, got them again on our last morning and had a second lunch on our way back south:-)

Oh so yummy!

We drove up through Presque Isle and Caribou to say we did it.  It was a gorgeous day. We found out this area of Maine is potato central, acres and acres of potato fields and it seemed like every farm we went by had a little building out front selling new potatoes, white, red, or Yukon Gold.  We stopped and bought some and they were wonderful.

Then as promised we made our way back to Criag's Clam Shop for another lunch, this time, scallops, haddock nuggets, and onion rings.  Amazing!

We were so inspired that Jan made a sensational Sticky Honey Shrimp Noodle salad by Marion Grasby that was sensational, spicy, crisp, and delicious:-)

Then we moved down to a campground in Abbot, ME, near Moosehead Lake.  It has been rebranded and had decent reviews although their price was high, we decided to go there.  What a mistake!!  It was terrible, narrow, curving narrow roads, trees not trimmed, sites were a mish mosh, felt just like a state park with bustling activity, campfires everywhere, kids running around, all for $100/night.  We felt raped.  We do NOT recommend Spacious Skies Balsam Woods campground, it is truly a ripoff.

But we did have a nice lunch in Greenville and took a ride all the way up to the Rogue River, a bit overcast, but what we could see of the huge lake was beautiful.

We then moved down to where we are now in Hermon a small town to the west of Bangor, and a very nice campground called Pumpkin Patch RV.  Large sites, nice grounds, pleasant people, great place which we DO recommend.  In fact we just extended here a couple days to get some more errands taken care of, and of course, the washing that I started the post with:-)

Our site at Pumpkin Patch