2022 Recap, Part B

 Wedding over, time to get back to Maine:-)  Stopped at a neat park right on Lake Ontario.

Where Jan made a delicious beef noodle soup.

Then we needed to stop in Indian Lake, NY, a very special place for Jan's family and parents.  We said another goodbye to Vern and Viv, it felt like a piece of them was there.

Stopped at Crown Point, an old fort on Lake Champlain, then headed to VT.

Then absolutely terrified ourselves getting into our site in Randolph, VT, actually thought the motorhome was going to roll over, thankfully we made it, one of those deals where you certainly can't go back so you've just got to press on:-)

Doesn't look too bad in this pic, but believe me it was bad!

All in and safe

Jan also made on the way, a simple light grilled scallop and shrimp dinner, followed by an awesome shiitake mushroom and bok choy stir fry.

Then back into Maine and a wonderful visit with Doug and Nancy, and (Wicket) and a gourmet lunch to boot!  Great seeing you guys, and thank you.

Complete with strawberry pie!

Then we went to visit Houlton and Presque Isle way, way north and east, went by Mt Kahtadin, the highest point in ME, 5269', and the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.

Found where all the Maine potatoes are grown:-)  Acres and acres and acres!

And we took great advantage of the fresh veg, the tomatoes and the corn were spectacular!

And while in Houlton we drove over to Shin Pond, a place we had intended to stay and on the way found a terrific hole-in-the-wall place called Craig's Clam Shop in Patten, ME.  We enjoyed the scallops, clams, and rings so much we even went back one more time:-)

Then over to Moosehead Lake.

And all along the way Jan made even more Asian dishes, sticky chili shrimp noodle salad, chicken pho, and Thai beef salad.

Then back to Eastport and Lubec right along the Canadian border.

Whenever we had opportunity to buy lobsters at a good price we did, remember when I said homemade lobster rolls are really the best.  You can get the required items almost anywhere in Maine, genuine New England hot dog rolls with the flat sides to be able to spread with a little butter and grill the sides, a tiny bit of mayo on the inside, pile of lobster, then drizzled with melted butter, aaaaahhhhhhhhh!

And not only lobsters and fresh veg, but also freshly picked Maine blueberries!

Then it was time to turn around and work our way back along the coast, so back to Trenton, near Acadia and another hike around Jordan Pond.

And while there we wanted to try another little shack we'd heard about, Tracy's and it delivered!  Excellent haddock bites and whole belly clams!

We had an opportunity to meet up with an old friend, actually a part of the family as far as we're concerned, Diane, and to meet Don for the first time.  I apologize for the poor picture, but we were having so much fun catching up, our minds were not on pics.

Don and Diane working their incredible booth in Machias

Then further back down the coast to Wiscasset and New Harbor.

We wanted to try yet another restaurant that Doug and Nancy recommended, The Angler, which if you remember when I said Helen's haddock chowder was the best in our opinion, followed closely by The Angler in Newport, and Billy's in Well's, well here is an example of the Angler's chowder!

Oh my!

This is New Harbor, a cute, tiny, very busy, mostly commercial harbor with a great restaurant, Shaw's, are you tired of this yet?  I hope not, because as you can see it consumes us:-)  So not only do you sit outside, enjoy the weather, observe an pretty and interesting harbor, watch the hustle and bustle of a small ferry you get to enjoy awesome lobster stew, haddock chowder, fried haddock, and great rings!

With excellent company

Jan even had gathered a garden she used for her Asian dishes that we actually carried around with us, it was worth it.

Then when we went back to Boothbay, we had a wonderful visit by Jason, Joanne, and Jax!  They spent a week with us, we did stuff together and apart and got together every evening.  We went on a schooner sail.

Some of us ate lobster rolls:-)

The weather cooperated so we spent many enjoyable evenings together.

Then the finale was a lobster cookout.  Jax even got to help choose the lobster, help it into the pot, but alas didn't eat any.  We ended up having a seafood table and a meat table:-)

We hated to say goodbye but school was starting very soon for Jax, and some of us still have to work you know.

Before we left Boothbay we had a couple more things to accomplish, can't be food can it, oh yeah.  First Jan made a light shrimp noodle salad, a fresh piece of swordfish on the grill, then we had found a cool little place, Trevett Country Store for haddock and scallops.

Then we moved back down to Scarborough where we started our Maine adventure, we got settled into Bayley's and spent over 3 more weeks, with several site changes.

So, of course it happened to be a Wednesday, dollar oyster day at Billy's, so we HAD to go obviously!

Went to Portland light on a blustery day.

Had to run down to Kennebunkport for Clam Shack's lobster rolls.

Just so you don't think it was all fun and games, our basement doors on the passenger side started breaking their welds.  It had to be addressed or else the skin on the doors could just fall off.  The first attempt at a fix with JB Weld failed miserably, but our silicone solution is still working months later.

Broken

Failure

Success?

Jan was still outdoing herself with wonderful meal after wonderful meal.  Salt and Pepper pork with spicy scallion sauce with fresh veg, Hoisin beef noodles, shrimp and green bean fried rice, and Beef pho, our first attempt, I actually help prepare some of these.

Our entry step continued to give us trouble, so the diesel mechanic and I worked on it some more thinking we'd fixed it, we hadn't.

We did a lot of running around while there, up to LL Bean, walked the beach in Scarborough and Wells, did many errands and went out for a lot of lunches, walked the waterfront area in Portland, even ran down to a great Asian market in Portsmouth, NH.  And we could feel the clock running out.  We tried to extend, but the last few days the campground was open was over a weekend that had been booked long ago, so we tried to cram in all that we could, knowing that once we left, we would leave the amazing seafood behind.  We visited a great little Thai restaurant that Karen and Tom had found.

Superb wonton soup

Shrimp and pork shumai

Tom Kha Kai

Crispy chicken wings

Of course went back to Billy's for oysters and to walk Wells Beach, one of our favorites.

Went downtown Portland to a nice second story restaurant, Luke's Lobster, overlooking the harbor for calamari, haddock, and steamers.

We even drove back up to Boothbay for a last lunch at Trevett Country store for haddock and clams.  Also went to a wonderful market there and bought incredible beef, swordfish, and some lobsters.

Just a few more things to do while the clock was running out.  Back to the Thai place for one more meal.

Jan ordered 10 pounds of cod, 3 pounds of swordfish and 3 pounds of scallops that we could freeze.  We vacuum packed that and put it away.

We wanted to go to an Asian restaurant in Portland that we went to several years ago, Empire, but when we came through in the spring they were still closed due to the pandemic, so when we got back in the fall, they had reopened, but only for takeout.  We waffled whether to do that or not and finally said yes, and man were we glad we did.  Fantastic!  We picked up our dumplings and buns and had a picnic above the Portland harbor.

Down to our last evening:-(

Goodbye Maine!  Remember those lobsters I mentioned picking up in Boothbay?  What do you think we had for lunch on the road?

Down through MA, NY, PA, MD, and into VA.  We did sightsee a bit and took the time to wash the roof and motorhome with the idea of painting the roof, something we still haven't been able to do because of the weather.

Happy 49th Anniversary to us!

Then down to NC, the leaves weren't quite there yet.

And Jan kept hitting it out of the park!  Mongolian beef, crispy chicken fried rice, and Taiwanese beef noodle soup.

Hiked around Lake Junaluska on a gorgeous day.

Then we moved to Franklin, NC to a very unique park, Deer Springs.  Only a few large sites, well spaced out, with gazebos, refrigerators, Solo fire pits, free firewood, quiet, dark, welcoming, and private, awesome!

We moved farther south to a favorite park, Peachtree Cove in Murphy, NC.

And finally, finally, finally Jan got some fishing in:-)

And since we were near Blairsville, GA and one of our favorite Cuban restaurants, Nani's, we had to go.

We moved farther south to Blue Ridge, GA and made that our base of operation.  We ended up making 6 separate trips to Atlanta, all but one, dental.  Jan got her implant finished at long last, and the mold for her crown, we both got cleanings, and found I had a broken filling needing repair, it was quite the time, oh yeah did I mention it is 78 miles each way!!  But we got it all done:-)

Our entry step really did get truly fixed when we replaced the motor and assembly.

Our generator circuit breaker broke and I replaced that after another over 75 mile trip to get the part.

And two more dishes from Jan:-)  Spicy short ribs and Chinese pepper chicken.

Stopped by John and Diane's lake house again, where John and I "tried" to solve the world's problems.

Then after a night at a service center to get an oil service, we were welcomed back to Florida by Karen and Tom, and Harold and Debbie.

A pretty sunset, and even our good friend, Harvey stopped in to say hello.

We had a nice surprise meeting Jason and Joanne in Marco Island for lunch before they left on their honeymoon cruise.

Then sitting out on one of our many happy hour get togethers, we find we have water pouring out of our AquaHot, yes the same one we had repaired before.  Then later, after replacing the washers, it leaked again, and I finally fixed it once and for all with braided stainless steel faucet connections.  Only a 4 step fix:-)

Jan and I ran out for a sushi fix.

Then our epic trip with a rental trailer to move our storage unit stuff up to Buffalo, 1350 miles each way with only one stop each way.  But we had a nice visit, a ton of help, a wonderful early Christmas dinner, got to see Joanne's parents, and are so grateful that we could make this happen.  Thank you guys!!

Then back to our Florida digs to enjoy a quiet fire, and relax after our whirlwind trip.

That's it folks, thanks for following along.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!