The First Week in Maine

We've been having a great time, and yes, a lot of it hinges on seafood.  We find we really like this campground, it is quiet, dark at night without the hundreds of screaming golf carts and electric things roaring around the campground like at Bayley's, admittedly they are a destination park geared to families.  This Sun Outdoors has some activities, a pool, but not too much else, and yes there are a lot of families, I think they just keep a tighter control on it, oh, and they don't rent golf carts.  It is high season and it is expensive, but the site is huge, enormous patio and fire pit, but it's the quiet and dark that win it for us.

So lobsters were definitely on the list after our initial dinner of grilled swordfish.  We went and picked up 3 smaller ones at a very good price, $9.99/lb any size, and they are all soft shell right now, so very easy to pick, although a bit less meat.

It was delish!  We woke the next morning to 45 degrees, at the end of July!  Amazing, but nice, actually turned on the heat for a bit, and got a chance to use our fire pit.

We drove up to Freeport to have a delicious lunch at Harraseeket Lunch, then went over to LL Bean, lunch was wonderful, great seafood chowder and we split a delicious haddock sandwich, but LL Bean was a zoo!  They have had the flagship store under construction for what seems like 5 years.  They have a huge tent up for some departments, and walking through the other stores is impossible, and still there are tons and tons of people.  Luckily we went for one certain thing, a new raincoat for me, so we found it, bought it, and got out:-)

That brought us to Wednesday, and if you've been following me at all, that means buck-a-shuck day at Billy's Chowder House, and this year with our abbreviated time frame we only get to go once, so 20 oysters for me, 9 for Jan, each a bowl of lobster stew, maybe the best anywhere, and an order of amazing onion rings.

We wanted to walk the beach at Wells after lunch, but the tide was against us, it was too high.  Then around to an Asian market we like in Portsmouth, NH, we haven't found one in Atlanta yet, and a stop at a farm stand we have been going to for over 40 years! 

Then to yet another favorite restaurant, Lord's Clam Box in inland Sanford, ME a fantastic place, fresh seafood, an enormous selection, affordable, no tipping allowed, and friendly, highly recommended.  Got only one picture a superb haddock sandwich, we were too busy eating our whole belly clams, haddock nuggets, and scallops to get any more:-)  We actually ended up there twice!

 

On the way back we took a ride up the coast through Kennebunkport, we unfortunately missed going to W's 80th birthday:-)

Jan has filled our freezer now with fish, swordfish, haddock, cod, halibut, and chowder trimmings, including several packages for Karen and Tom.

A small sampling

Then back for more lobsters for another dinner and enough for lobster rolls for our travel day up to Searsport.  

This guy threw himself on his back to beg for mercy, it didn't work.

Then the aftermath of the feast.

Up to Searsport tomorrow for several days, lots of stuff to do there.  Oh and still not much on the house front, some discussion, some choices, and a lot of waiting.....

On The Road Again!

We pulled the plug and went initially to Talona Ridge, an absolute favorite and also where Karen and Tom are staying so we could visit with them before we launched on our escape to Maine.  We had an added bonus, our friends, Larry and Teresa were there as well.  Our time was short, but we did manage to visit with them for awhile.  We stopped to see them later but our schedules didn't mesh.  We Happy Houred and dined together and caught up with Karen and Tom, then we launched, had a non eventful drive to Fort Chiswell, VA, had a quick overnight, the rain held off until after dinner, but was still raining when we left.  

We made it one mile to the on-ramp for 81 when the tire monitor squawked and boom, a flat tag tire!  Once I got it safely off the road I ran out with the pressure gauge, but as it turned out I didn't really need it:-)

On the good side we were in a safe place, lots of room, and the only traffic going by us was on the beginning of the on ramp, so not going very fast, on the bad side it was pouring rain, and we had no idea what to do.  We could see a Speedco right across the interstate, not that we could drive there, I started with them and they told me they had no mobile service.  We were right next to a truck stop with a shop connected, and after they were told it was a motorhome, they flat out told me they wouldn't even look at it, I impressed upon them it was a tire, who cares what it on, but they didn't relent.  The Speedco people recommended a shop about a mile away so I drove there and although they were very nice, he couldn't send a guy out as he was short on people that day, and he was very busy.  We found another truck service place about a mile the other way, I called them and they said they could accommodate us, but they didn't have our tire size, 295 80R 22.5, but if I could find the tire they'd come out.  Well that started our quest for a tire, not good, no one, and I mean no one within 150 miles had that size tire!  Evidently it is an almost exclusive RV size.  On the other hand almost everyone had 295 75R 22.5's since that is what the truckers use.  What to do?  Finally the one shop, Complete Truck who said they'd come out found a 295 80R 22.5, a Michelin for..............$1300!  For one tire!  Since the tag tires are the oldest tires on our coach the tread difference even between two tires of the same size would be too large in our opinion, not to mention we swore off Michelin tires at least 10 years ago.  Again, what to do?  It would be days before I could get two new tires of the correct size, and with the motorhome not moveable, we sure didn't want to be sitting on the side of the road for days, even if we could.  

I thought about sticking a used tire on temporarily until I could find the correct ones, but no one would install a used tire because of liability.  So right or wrong I decided to buy two new tires in the smaller truck size, they are about an inch smaller in diameter.  I figured since it was the tag and those tires are not connected with an axle, they basically float on their own, it would be all right.  So that's what we did, Complete Truck came out at about noon, 5 hours after we had the failure, and did the replacement in about 30 minutes.

That's the culprit, a piece of steel that punctured all the way through

So a little before one pm, we set off for Pine Grove, PA, 390 miles away, it handled fine, I could not detect any difference in feel or ride, but it turned out our troubles weren't over yet.  We pulled into our site, and Jan went back to get the Dishy that she put in the truck, and it wouldn't unlock, in fact it was deader than dead.  Amazing how on these newer electronic laden vehicles how everything relies on the battery.  We got the door opened with an emergency key built in to the fob, but nothing else worked, including, we found out, the tail lights when towing.  Again, now what to do?

First, after a very, very long day we had a drink and dinner and decided to just act fat, dumb, and happy and leave in the morning for another 375 mile day as if we never went near the truck.  We got fuel first thing and as I was pumping I thought maybe we could get a new battery along the way.  So Jan started looking for an auto parts store along our route with a large or accessible parking area, and sure enough she found an Autozone in Hazelton, PA that looked good, not too far off the interstate with a huge parking lot.  To be sure I called to first be sure they had the battery, and to confirm the parking, and all sounded good.  Sure enough we pulled in, and in about 20 minutes we had a new battery installed in the truck.

We thought it would be prudent to run the truck for awhile with the new battery so we disconnected it and Jan drove about 20 miles or so to the next rest area where we hooked it back up and went on our way.  The electronics in these newer vehicles are so touchy that the check engine light stayed on for the next 2 days, and our nav screen did all kinds of weird things as well, all seems good now 4 days later.

We spent a couple days in Brattleboro, VT and made our way to the Woodstock Farmers Market where we always try to buy local pork chops that come from a nearby farm that we have enjoyed for several years, in fact, we have even bought them out a couple times:-)

Then on a beautiful day we made our way to Maine with many plans for the day.  First we had to get fuel, pretty expensive right now, $5.30, then we planned to stop at the Fox Run Mall in Newington, NH, disconnect the truck and go over to Bob's Clam Hut for our first seafood meal.  We made the turn in and found the entire mall area was fenced off and inaccessible as they were tearing it down, but the Walmart next door solved the crisis.  We unhooked and enjoyed a delicious lunch, fried whole belly clams with delectable onion rings!!

After we hooked back up and headed to a new to us campground, Sun Outdoors in Saco, ME.  It is great, large sites, enormous concrete patio with a very nice fire pit, but best of all it is quiet and dark, excellent!  Let the seafood devastation begin, in fact after we parked we went to a favorite seafood market and bought delicious swordfish for dinner!

 

Now to settle in and enjoy our time here in Maine, lots to do, and imagine it was 45 degrees this morning!