Well, I was right. Neil dragged us all out of a nice warm bed at 0430 and we had some coffee to wake up then headed off at around 0530 for the first photo op of the day. We got down into the park and up to the peak of Cadillac Mountain about 20 minutes before sunrise at 0624 and got some really nice photos of the sun coming up over the horizon. I gotta tell you though…it was pretty cold and windy up there, notice the shot of Connie posting her view of the day and you can see how she’s pretty bundled up. The one with the Neil’s tripod in the corner was taken by Connie obviously.

After that it was back home for some work before heading out for the rest of the day. Connie put in a couple of hours on her college laptop while Neil did laundry, plotted out out our route for tomorrow to Franconia, NH, stowed all the outside stuff away, and pumped up the tires in BAT and the trailer. The PressurePro system was telling him that all of the tires were about 5 psi low; most likely due to the changes in overnight low temps the past few days. So he had to take off the sensor, pump up the tires, and reattach the sensor after he was done. All of the tires are pretty easy except the inside dually tires on BAT. For those; you have to reach one hand through a hole in the rim of the outer tire and unscrew the sensor then stick your other hand through between the tires to actually get it out. Getting the inflation nozzle in is just about as hard then you have to get the sensor reattached…that’s the hard part because you can only hold it with your fingertips unless you’ve got 8 year old sized hands. Trying to balance it on your fingertips and get it correctly started onto the inflation stem threads takes a bit of doing although he is starting to get the knack of it. Somebody told him that a piece of rubber hose for an installation tool would make things a lot easier; he’s got to stop by a parts place and get a piece the right size to try.

The second part of the day was spent wandering around Bar Harbor and eating dinner. Connie dressed up for a change and Neil stuffed along her heels and a couple of sweatshirts in a backpack. They parked near the wharf in Bar Harbor about 1530 and spent a couple of hours wandering in and out of many, many, many, many stores looking for christmas presents and whatever else caught Connie’s fancy. Finally emerging from this marathon of looking mostly at junk they did manage to pick out a couple of items that were hand made heah in Maine and they headed off for beer o’clock. It was the Irish pub again for Guinness and some lobster/crab/cheese dip for afternoon snack. 

From there; they headed up to Poor Boy’s for dinner since Connie found out from a local that they had excellent lobstah and linguini; arriving at the restaurant around 1800. For the first time in a long time; they skipped making a reservation since the cruise ship had already left for the day and most of the tourists were gone. Alas; I guess the other locals knew that it was pretty good (it smelled divine as they waited to speak to the hostess) since we were told that without a reservation they could seat us about 2030. Since they were hungry by now we skipped it and went back to the Irish pub for dinner. Connie had fried fish and Neil a grilled pork chop with cherry glaze and some hash. All of that was pretty good (as evidenced by the leftover pork sandwich for lunch while traveling yesterday) but since they were really ready for that lobstah and linguini it was somewhat disappointing. We came home, had a couple of fresh baked cookies and went to bed.

Yesterday we had a long travel day (250 miles) ahead so we were up and done with breakfast by about 0745. Got hitched up and on the road about 0945 after a stop at the gas station for Connie and the WalMart for Neil to pick up a few groceries we needed. Here’s a shot of Kara and me in our travel supervisor position; I had to get on her after this was taken since she wasn’t tucked under the shoulder strap…gotta stay safe you know. Neil didn’t share any of those Cheetoh’s with us either.

The first 125 miles or so were pretty easy going on the freeway but then we got off onto the 2 lane highways for the last 125 miles. Things started out on a really bumpy, often-repaired road and finally we turned onto High Street. This was pretty much the same for about 5 of the 23 miles we were supposed to be on it and then abruptly turned into a dirt road. At first we wondered why the truck GPS would think this was a good route for a 58 foot 27,000 pound combination and then we got to about a mile of under construction dirt road with bulldozers, flag persons, and all that jazz. We never did figure out what the deal was other than guessing that maybe the road had gotten washed out or was just beyond repair and they were rebuilding it. After the under construction part we had another couple miles of dirt road and finally got back onto the bad pavement (hey, at least it was paved) and then finally got back onto a decent road for the last 30 miles or so into the campground. With a sigh of relief we figured out troubles for the day were over.

Unfortunately, we figured wrong. Pulling into Cannon Mountain RV Park (7 spaces total) we were at first seriously impressed by the view but then noticed that all of the campsites were occupied. It turned out that site 4 (ours) and site 5 next door were both reserved but these two Canadian couples had erased our names off of the reserved board, parked, and paid their money. Neil asked a guy standing around who owned these two trailers and he said he didn’t know and also had little English so couldn’t have a conversation about it. We got in touch with the park and shortly Greg showed up to interrogate them. He figured out the real story pretty quick since he was the person who put the names on the reserved board earlier in the morning. So he gave them the old heave ho and to get out of Dodge since the sites were reserved. I guess they just figured whoever had actually reserved the spots would go someplace else…sheesh, the nerve of some people. 

After they left we backed into our spot (easy peasy today) and got setup. Site 5 to the left of us was the other squatter; the folks who reserved that one came in about 2230. I’m glad we got things straightened out early or else they would have been really unhappy when they arrived…a young couple with 5 kids under 12 (including 3 under 6) in a maybe 22 foot travel trailer would have really been unhappy if their site was taken when they arrived. Here’s a picture of the campsite after setup and while we were unloading the vehicles after traveling. Doesn’t that view look wonderful. It sure does out of our back window.

Neil went for a run around Eagle Lake (will get a shot of that and include in my next post) then they had a WalMart 3 meat pizza (pretty good after you fix them up with a bit of Italian Seasoning and some additional Parmigiana Regianno on top)…this was a thick crust version so we kept about ¼ of it for lunch another day. Then it was sit around the house until time for bed.

One note; we have essentially no internet service here at the campground so I’m going to have to find a library or McDonalds while we’re out and about today to actually post this so don’t fret if you don’t see another post  before we leave on Sunday for the Apple Island RV Resort over at Lake Champlain. I’ll go ahead and draft posts but they may not get posted reliably until Sunday night unless we can find an internet hotspot on our daily travels.

Cyas.