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

Back In Maine!

My last idyllic picture of our campsite on my last post didn't portray the absolute fear and trepidation we experienced getting into that site.  We were truly terrified.  I hold no blame for this event with the campground, Lake Champagne in Randolph Center, VT.  For many of their pull through sites you drive down and across a wide open grassy field to pull in your site.  It has always made me quiver a bit previously, but we had never had a site as far down the row as we had this time.  And we hadn't unhooked the truck.  I noticed as we drew nearer our site there was quite an incline on the transition from the sort of road or path into our site, turned out it was way worse than we even thought.  I should have unhooked, backed out, and gone back around to back into our site instead, but...................I didn't, and scared ourselves silly.  We honestly thought there was a good chance we were going to roll over!

 

Perhaps in the picture it doesn't look all that bad, but inside for me listening to the creaking and cracking, and Jan outside just waiting for it to roll over, it wasn't pretty, and it was something we will NEVER do again.

Once in, the site was wonderful.

We had several road trips planned out of there.  One to Woodstock, VT and another to Manchester to go to the Orvis Outlet.  The weather was great, and we found an absolutely wonderful farmer's market in Woodstock, beautiful produce, locally grown meats, and fresh wonderful fish, what a find!

The product of our first visit to the market.

We had a wonderful ride and also took care of a few errands.  The next day we took off for Manchester and Orvis, had a lackluster lunch out and then to Orvis where Jan was able to find success in her quest.  Meanwhile I took a walk through the field separating the main Orvis store from the outlet, what a gorgeous day!

The main Orvis store

And the outlet

Then using the truck's GPS to get back and talking away and ignoring the GPS other than following it, until Jan noticed the mileage was increasing!!!  Turned out for some reason it had taken us way out of the way, but looking for a silver lining we noticed the way back now was back through Woodstock, and who knew, we could stop back at the farmer's market:-)  And we did!

Then we stopped in a new to us campground in St Johnsbury, VT for a couple nights, Moose River.  A beautiful, friendly place with wonderful owners that have been there for over 25 years and have done a fantastic job with the park.  It sits right on the Moose River, fairly small place, with incredibly long pull throughs that are so long you park offset from your neighbor which gives you an enormous site, awesome!

Then yesterday we made our way back to Maine!  We are staying at a KOA very near to friends' Doug and Nancy near Skowhegan.  We went over to their house and had a wonderful visit and an amazing lunch!  It was so nice to see them.

Our hosts

The lucky ones

We even got to see "Wicket":-)

So now we are off to Houlton, ME, way over on the eastern border of Maine with Canada, from there we will work our way back along the seacoast for another couple months.

Eastward Bound

I left you on Lake Ontario on our eastward trek.  We left the next morning on our leg to Indian Lake, NY in some unsettled weather which made an interesting view over the lake.

But as we proceeded the weather started improving.

We stopped for lunch along the way and stumbled over a very interesting spot of history, we couldn't figure out what we were looking at as we entered the rest stop, and found out it was part of a canal system back in 1855 until it finally met its demise in 1926.  What we saw was a series of 4 locks.

The small campground there, Thornbush Acres had installed a few more larger sites since we had been there before, and we eased into ours, it was very nice.

Indian Lake is a special place to my wife Jan's family.  Her parents had a bunch of different properties there over the years and the family spent a lot of enjoyable time there.  Jan and I even lived in one of the homes for a short period when I first was hired by DAL.  We did some reminiscing and remembered a lot of good times.  It's sad that the town looks like it might be slowing down.  

We even managed a very nice hike while there into Sprague's Pond, it was a beautiful walk through the woods to a very pretty pond on a gorgeous day.

Next on the agenda was to stay in a campground that sounded really good, and even with its good points, it turned out way too tight, we hit numerous tree limbs and bushes that needed to be trimmed and put up with almost nonexistent internet and ended up leaving a day early.  With a smaller rig or a better area of the park it would have been far better, so I am not saying, don't go there, just consider size and where in the park you end up.  Other than that Barber Homestead was fine and interesting, been in the family since 1785!  Major Barber cleared the land and even built a lighthouse there on Lake Champlain.

The original burial plot is still there on the property.

Jan even went down the 65 steps to the lake.

Oh yes, have to get some food in here:-)  We had a delicious shrimp and scallop dinner one night, and an oh so wonderful Chinese Chili Chicken stir fry!

Yummy!

We took a ride around the end of the lake and found Crown Point, the site of several forts on Lake Champlain, the first was Fort St Frederic built by the French in 1731, then during the French-Indian War as the British were advancing, the French destroyed it and retreated.  Later the British came in and built a very large fort, the largest earthen fort in the colonies at that time, Fort Crown Point in 1759.  It encompassed over 7 acres inside.  The Americans took the fort in 1775 and it was retaken by the British in 1777.  

Standing on the earthworks, and a good view of the "ditch" to the right to repel the enemy

The remains of the officer barracks on the left and soldiers to the right

After our shortened stay we were off to Vermont, Randolph Center and into a very nice campground, Lake Champagne.  We are planning a few sorties from here before we make our way farther east.

What a site!

Now Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming:-)

I left you last when we were leaving Maine.  We went over to White River Junction, VT, actually stayed at the Quechee KOA.  We passed Mt. Washington on the way and had a good view of the hotel there.

Mt Washington Hotel built in 1900

It turned out the Quechee KOA was perhaps the nicest KOA we have ever been to.  Absolutely pristine grounds, beautiful sites, large and private, amazing staff.  We highly recommend it.  We actually had 2 sites there, a back in for the first night and a pull through with a fantastic patio the next two nights.

And you knew there had to be food pics.  I told you we went to a seafood market in Scarborough, ME and among other items we bought crabmeat and flounder fillets, so we made stuffed flounder for dinner:-)

While in Quechee we took several rides and went up on Mount Okemo for a picnic lunch, the view was great, but we couldn't eat outside as the flies would just not let us alone, they were insane!

Eating in the truck

Then farther west into New York to a casino campground, Villages RV Park at Turning Stone, a very nice huge park, all paved, lots of walking paths, nice place.

Some of our neighbors

Then we made chicken pho for dinner, our first foray into making our own.  It turned out very good.

Then, of course, over to Buffalo for the big event.

So after a whirlwind 5 days, we are now making our way back to Maine, first stop in Henderson, NY to a Sun Resort park, Association Island, directly on a little island in Lake Ontario.  Quite the place, obviously packed for the 4th of July weekend, stunning views.

Out the causeway to the island.
Probably 300-400 sites!

We'll be back in Maine in a couple of weeks, hope to see some friends along the way, and get back to our goal of decimating the lobster population:-)