Travels with Gunther and Kara

Today was a rainy, yucky day so we went up to the Sugar Hill Fall Market which is a craft and goodie show nearby. Connie got a couple of Christmas presents, we bought some New Hampshire maple syrup and Pinoche fudge (sort of a mapley caramelly combination with pecans in it) and a couple jars of home made jam…spiced pumpkin butter and wild blueberry jam.

After that we went on a sort of roundabout tour driving through a bunch of small towns, along the  Wild Ammonoosuc River, and just generally took in the sites.

We saw the oldest general store in the United States

The covered bridge in Bath, NH

The 1849 Swiftwater covered bridge and it’s accompanying falls

and serious amounts of really nice fall foliage…albeit with lots of gloomy, rainy atmosphere. Hopefully we’ll get some shots with sunshine in the next couple of weeks before we head South.

and had some Pigs Ear Brown Ale at the Woodstock Brewery at beer o’clock

and stopped by Profile lake where we watched the lake and some fly fishermen plying their trade

and finally stopped by the Old Man of the Mountain Memorial. He’s not there anymore; but if you look at the right side of the peak in the first photo just above the cloud line is where he used to be before he fell down go boom back in 2003. The state has built some simulations of the Old Man, the second photo gives as close a view as is possible to the way it used to be. The actual location is just above and to the left of where the fly fishermen are in the shot immediately above and just about even with the right side of photo two above.

then headed home. Went to Mass and stopped by the Chamber of Commerce again to post this and then came home to eat a suppah of pork with biscuits and some of that yummy jam we bought today.

Tomorrow we’re headed off for Apple Island RV Resort in South Hero, VT.

Cyas.

Today was another hike day. Based on the weather which was supposed to be 10% chance of rain until 1200 and 30% after that we ate some oatmeal for breakfast and headed out pretty early…figuring we would get the hike in before the rain started and Connie would work in the afternoon. Alas…our plans were foiled.

Our destination was a small pool about 5 miles away in the park named the Basin. We stopped by and headed out into a cloudy but not rainy day. Here is a small falls right above the pool and another of the Basin itself; which is a small pool about 30 feet in diameter and 15 feet deep.

We then headed up the Basin/Cascades Trail which follow the creek up the mountain side. The first major fall is Kinsman Falls, a very nice 30 or so foot single drop. Here is a straight photo and a couple of HDR versions that Neil got after climbing out to about the center of the stream on the rocks.

We also stopped for a snack after taking these shots as we were getting hungry. Continuing on up the trail it started drizzling and over the next hour or so it got worse and worse until by the time we got to Rock Grotto Falls it was raining pretty steadily. There were also literally dozens of falls, cascades, and rapids most of which don’t have a name so we just snapped some photos and then continued to the next.

Finally we arrived at the other major named fall on the hike; Rock Grotto Falls. This one was particularly nice view even though by this time it was pretty much raining steadily and we were getting wetter and wetter.

Neil took a short video of the Rock Grotto Falls as well.

I added the above video later; Neil couldn’t remember which google account he needed to upload it with.

After Rock Grotto we continued on up another ¼ mile or so and turned onto the Whitewater Bridge Trail. At that point we had 1-¾ miles left on the Whitewater Bridge and Pimm Trails back to our parking lot and it continued to rain harder and harder. We had to cross and recross the Pemigewasset River several times on the way back…lost the trail once where we didn’t think it could possibly go across the river but eventually figured it out…Connie slipped into a mud bog up to her knees…and eventually got back to the car in what by the end was all the way to a real rainstorm. Neil wanted a picture of her climbing out of the mud hole but it was raining too hard to get the Nikon DSLR out and he forgot to being the waterproof point and shoot camera this morni

Other than the rain this was a really nice hike. Almost 4 miles total and about 600 feet elevation gain up to where we headed back down the Whitewater Bridge trail. Unfortunately about ⅔ of the hike was more of the rock climbing/goat scampering variety rather than being a nice easy to walk on trail. We’ve found most of the trails up here in the Northeast are like that.

Connie went in for a shower and started work. Neil went up and filled BAT with fuel for the journey on Sunday and also filled our almost empty propane tank. We’ve had to run the furnaces the past 4 or 5 notes as it’s been getting down into the 40’s and while we’re pretty snug in the bed with our down comforter one eventually has to get up. In the morning the temp inside has been down to about 60 but it warms up pretty quickly with the furnace and electric fireplace going. This was the first propane fill we’ve needed since picking up the rig in June. The bottle has a 9 gallon capacity and indicated a little less than ¼ remaining which would have been about 2 gallons. Neil only needed 5.4 gallons to fill it instead of the expected 7 so it looks like the gauge reads a little lower than actual level…good to know for future reference.

Tomorrow we’re off to the festival and then on a drive to a couple of gorges and other sites to see what we can see…then over to Franconia for Mass followed by a Sunday morning departure for out next stop at the Apple Island RV Resort in Lake Champlain, Vermont.

Cyas.

Today Connie did a bit of work in the morning then we had leftover pizza for lunch. After that we left to locate a place to get our almost empty propane tank filled and found one up in Littleton which we’ll be visiting on Saturday. Our next destination was a hike on the Falling Waters trail near the Franconia Notch State Park visitors center. This 3.2 mile total out and back hike took us up along side a creek here in the park with about a 600 foot elevation gain over the uphill leg. The highlights of the hike were the 3 large waterfalls we passed, numerous lesser falls, and the gorgeous fall foliage. Connie took this photo of autumn leaves laying on the trail.

Shortly after leaving the visitors center we passed this little 3 foot high fall named Walker Cascade along the first creek. We thought that was the main creek but after about ⅓ mile or so crossed a ridge and met up with a larger stream which we then followed the rest of the hike.

Connie took a little break while Neil was taking the above shot.

We saw some beautiful foliage

We came to the 20 foot Stairs Falls, the first of three waterfalls we expected to see on the trail

At the lower end of Swiftwater Falls; which is a large single drop at the top and then a series of cascades totaling 60 feet total Neil took a series of shots and produced this HDR (high dynamic range) version. HDR photos mimic the actual color spectrum and brightness spectrum that the human eye can see so you get something that looks much closer to what it actually looked like in the woods.

Getting to the upper section of Swiftwater Falls here is a straight shot of the fall and an HDR from the same location so you can see the difference between HDR and non HDR photos.

Finally we arrived at the 80 foot cascade Cloudland Falls after a really steep climb the last ⅓ mile or so.

Neil forgot to get the raw data for an HDR of Cloudland Falls. This normally requires taking several versions at different exposures but can be approximated by duplicating a single and varying the exposure in Aperture 3 (which we use for photo management and enhancement). We show photos in RAW mode rather than JPEG which means we have sufficient data to vary the exposure. As you can see the HDR process gives you a final image that much better evokes the lighting and coloration that you saw with your eyes while in the woods. 

After Cloudland Falls we continued upward about another ¼ mile to see if there were any additional falls. There was actually one very nice unnamed falls (probably because it wasn’t steep enough to really rate being a falls instead of just steep rapids that was a series of 5-6 foot cascades with about 20 total drops. Unfortunately the trail had gotten a little away from the stream by the time we could see it and Neil couldn’t find a way down to the stream bank to take a photo. From the trail there were too many trees to really see anything and despite his best efforts to locate a place to get down he couldn’t find one that he could then get back up once he was done taking the photos. Since not getting back up out of the stream bed was not on his list of daily activities for today we had to skip this photo.

At this point it was starting to get towards sundown so we headed home. We grabbed Neil’s laptop and ran back into the town of Franconia to take advantage of the free wifi they have at the Chamber of Commerce/LIbrary building. You can sit in the parking lot and get internet connectivity…that’s something that is almost impossible here at the RV park. We also found a church to attend Mass at on Saturday, conveniently located right next door to the Chamber of Commerce/Library. Once we were done we came home, had a shower, had some chicken stir fry and rice for dinner and watched TV until time for bed.

Connie is still working on the plan for tomorrow so you’ll just have to wait until then to see what it is.

Cyas.

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.

Today we went on a hike up to the summit of Gorham Mountain. Neil really wanted to hike up the Beehive Trail instead but Connie was scairt to go up there so we had to skip it. There are a couple of places where the Park Service has installed ladder rungs and wire rope railings to keep climbers from falling off the cliffside. It didn’t look to bad to Neil but with Connie’s balance issues due to her faulty Eustacian Tubes and her lack of depth perception she just didn’t feel comfortable going up there.

Here’s a picture of the Beehive we took from about halfway up Gorham Mountain. On the far right just below the uppermost white cloud you can see (if you look real close) a couple of ledges one above the other. This is one of the places where the railings above are installed with a couple hundred feet vertical drop immediately next to the 4 or 5 foot wide path.

You can’t see it but there’s a guy in a white shirt towards the right side of this picture just above the bright green trees in the center of the frame. Here’s a much cropped version where you can see the hiker.

Anyway; after stopping to get the above couple ofd shots we continued on up to the summit of Gorham Mountain. Here’s a picture of Connie up at the summit and a couple of shots of the view. The first view is of the Sand Beach I talked about the other day; the second is about 90 degrees to the right from the Sand Beach and is just a nice view.

After having a snack at the summit we continued along the ridge top. From the second view above we turned 90 degrees right and continued essentially straight down the ridge until we got to the coastline a bit out of the frame above to the right. From there we turned left and returned to the parking lot (about a mile and a half) near Sand Beach where we had parked the car and headed home. As we passed back through Bar Harbor we looked out in the harbor and saw that the Queen Mary 2 was in port…this means that there were about 2500 additional tourists wandering around downtown Bar Harbor. Once we figured that out we decided it was a good idea we had passed on going into town for a beer as it was already almost 6PM when we took the picture of the QM2.

We headed on home and Neil made some cheesy creamy chicken soup out of the leftovers from a grocery store rotisserie chicken we had a couple weeks ago while at the FamCamp outside Boston. Soup, some hot garlicky bread, and a wine cooler and all was good.

Tomorrow we’re getting up at the crack o’ dawn to go and watch the sunrise from the top of Cadillac Mountain (highest peak in the park). Sunrise is at 0630 and it’s about a 45 minute drive to get there so we have to get up really, really early. After that we’ll come home and Connie will work a bit while Neil does a couple loads of laundry and checks tire pressures and oil levels for our travel day on Wednesday. We’re going to go down and wander around Bar Harbor playing tourist a bit in the afternoon and eat dinner down there somewhere.

Cyas.

Wednesday the 19th was a rainy day so Connie worked all day and Neil did laundry and went to WalMart for groceries. They did go out to eat dinner…a place named Cleonice which turned out to be not all that great. It was a Mediterranean bistro…Neil was bummed because he was ready for lobstah and there was none on the menu. The Chicken Marsala was ok but it wasn’t what he was really looking for.

Thursday we went on a ride on the carriage roads that were built by Rockerfeller in Acadia National Park. We drove into the Jordan Pond House area and parked and did a 10 miler that went around Bubble Pond and Jordan Pond. Here’s a picture of Connie struggling up one of the hills although she actually was able to ride most of them.

The roads are crushed gravel and pretty firm so riding was easy even on Neil’s road bike tires.  We stopped for lunch on the shore of Bubble Pond

and were amazed by how clear the water was

Here’s a shot of one of the carriage road stone bridges and a view of Jordan Pond from up on the ridge.

Finally arriving back at Jordan Pond House we rewarded ourselves with fresh, hot popovers…fresh strawberry jam…and a pot of tea. Quite yummy after our ride and picnic lunch.

Friday Connie got her nails done while Neil did some computer updating then we went on a 4 mile hike on the carriage roads around Witch Hole Pond. This was originally supposed to be a bike ride but Connie got her toenails done as well and decided not to tear them up on the bike so we hiked instead. We had a nice walk around the pond

and saw the largest wasp nest we have ever seen

then headed home for dinner.

Saturday was a driving tour day since we decided there would be way too many people on the hiking trails given it being the weekend. It pretty much rained off and on all day but we went anyway and toured the western side of Mount Desert Island seeing a flock of ducks

and some neat red berries

as well as foggy scenes along the rocky coast.

Headed home shortly after this last shot was taken as it was getting dark…had dinner and watched TV for the evening.

Sunday was another driving day but fortunately by the time we went to Mass and had breakfast the overnight rain had departed and it turned out to be a beautiful day. Today’s tour was over to the Schoodic Peninsula which is where Winter Harbor is located. As we headed out we stopped by a today falls nearby; this is a rapid/waterfall that runs both ways depending on whether the tide is coming in or going out. On our first stop the tide was still going out and is running  left to right in this picture.

We stopped and got a picnic lunch  which we ate at Fishers Point overlook in the eastern district of the park then continued around the coast road through the park. We spotted this Great Blue Heron right off of the road.

Stopping by Schoodic Head we spent about an hour just sitting on the rocks taking pictures of the surf crashing into the rocks. Neil took probably 200 pictures to get the couple decent ones shown here.

On the way back home we stopped by the tidal falls again as the tide was now almost full and still coming in. In this picture taken from almost the same vantage point as the one above the but in this one the current was running right to left at probably 8 or 10 knots. It was really ripping through there.

Getting home; Neil went on a bike ride then we had some leftover steak and mashed potatoes for dinner then sat down to watch the football game for the evening. 

Tomorrow is another hike day then on Tuesday we’re getting up early to see the sunrise from Cadillac Mountain followed by wandering around Bar Harbor on our last day with a nice dinner downtown someplace.

Cyas.

Today we went to Jeannie’s Great Maine Breakfast in Bar Harbor…Blueberry Pancakes for Neil and Buttermilk Pancakes for Connie. Pretty good and filling so we never really got around to lunch.

Following that we did the Park Loop Road. Along the way we visited Thunder Hole which is a small cove that the waves crash into and make a noise like thunder. It’s one of those famous things in Acadia but frankly we couldn’t really see the point. The coast line near Thunder Hole was actually a much better view.

Continuing around the park road we stopped by Beaver Pond and saw this lodge across it. No dam was visible but we were pretty sure it was beyond the lodge in the picture.

Continuing our trek around the loop road we visited and crossed the Otter Cove Causeway; this is one of 17 stone arch bridges in the park and is the only one that’s across open water than spanning a road or creek.

We also saw this lobsterman retrieving traps just south of Thunder Hole and about 25 yards from the cliff. He got 3 lobsters from this trap and tossed a couple of crab back over the side.

Finally we got to the Bubble Peak parking lot for our hike. Bubble Peak consists of a pair of ridges overlooking a valley. Our hike took us up to South Bubble where the view was really nice.

After that we descended about 500 feet or so in maybe a third of a mile to get down to the bank of Jordan Pond. Quite a gnarly hike…we actually had to hop from boulder to boulder all the way down. Here’s the view looking back up from about ¾ of the way down the bluff.

We were actually looking back up at about a 45 degree angle and the blue trail blaze in the center of the trail is about 4 inches high and 2 inches wide so you can get a sense of the size of the rocks. We knew it was going to be steep but it turned out to be even more of a mountain goat trail than yesterday’s hike out to Great Head.

Finally we got to Jordan Pond which is the municipal water supply for Bar Harbor. It’s called a pond but is really a lake probably a mile and a half long. Bordering it is Eagle Lake which is maybe 1/5 as large as Jordan Pond…go figure on the naming system.

By this time it had clouded over and the breeze picked up so we made tracks back around the pond, back up another 300 feet or so to the parking lot and headed home. We felt like fresh fish for dinner but couldn’t find any so settled for some fresh crab. Neil made a crab au gratin casserole with garlic, cream, cheese, and wine along with a bit of potato and bacon and they ate it with garlic bread and wine coolers. Yum (I know that sounds redundant but although Neil’s cooking is almost always good they both thought this one was outstanding).

Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain all day so we’re probably going to just stay home and do laundry; Neil will go to the WalMart and buy groceries and Connie will work as she’s got some student related paperwork building up.

Cyas.

Today was a pretty good day. Beautiful weather, clear and cool. Connie started off with a couple of hours of work and then we headed off on fun stuff. First stop was the Acadia National Park visitor center to get some maps and figure out our next destination. After quickly reviewing the brochures we decided on a drive up to the top of Cadillac Mountain which is the highest peak not only on the park but on the eastern seaboard. Beautiful views of Bar Harbor, the cruise ship anchored out in the port, and vistas over Mount Desert Island (which contains the national park. We also got a nice panorama of Goat Head Lake.

Following that we headed over to Great Head which is a little peninsula looking over the Atlantic just south of Bar Harbor. Looking at the map it looked like an easy 2 mile or so hike in a loop around the headland. In actuality; the hike out was pretty nice but on the way back it turned into your basic goat path climb over the rocks for a mile back. Quite a workout and Connie really wasn’t too happy about some of the rocks she had to climb down. The lack of depth perception and her ongoing inner ear/balance problems made her pretty scairt about going down in several places. Luckily Neil was along to go down first and guide her down and eventually we got back.

Along the way we saw a lobstah field. This is an area in the ocean where there are lots of lobstah buoys which mark the location of traps…we got a close up view of the Catman harvesting some of the catch while sitting on the point.

On the way back we climbed up, down, up, down, up down, up down, and so on and so forth until finally getting back to the car. On the way back we passed Sand Beach…which while it looks like a perfectly normal beach is actually the only sandy beach on the Maine coast. Here’s a shot of what the trail looked like as well…it was like this for about a mile on the way back to the car. We also saw some wild turkeys but none of those photos turned out well enough to post…we couldn’t get close enough originally and by the time we could drive a little closer a car came up behind us and scared them off.

After that we dropped by the Irish Pub for a Guinness and a quick walk around downtown Bar Harbor

before heading back to the rig and a pork and sweet potato hash dinner along with a wine cooler. Yum. Tomorrow it’s the Park Loop Road; a 27 mile one way loop around the major highlights of the park. We’ll post some more pics of the great views later.

Cyas.

Today we got underway about 1030 for our 150 mile trip from Phippsburg Maine to Trenton Maine. It was a pretty easy day…most of the trip was on freeways so we just rolled along about 62 mph and let the idiots race by. We pulled into Timberland Acres RV Park here in Trenton and were assigned to site 192.

I thought I would give you a how-to on getting set up in your campsite on arrival along with some before and after photos. In a day or so I’ll add a post that details the break camp procedure.

First; a little about RV sites. They come in both pull through and back in depending on how you get into the site. Pull throughs are easier; you pull in forwards on arrival and continue forwards when you leave. No backing means it’s easy in and easy out. The drawback is that sometimes pull throughs have no view where as a back typically has the rear window of the rig facing the woods, a creek, the beach or some other view-worthy aspect of your campsite. Back in sites obviously require that you back in. This is a lot harder than getting into a pull through site and back in sites are typically more constricted so you’re also having to back in between trees or rocks or what have you. 

Sites are further divided by the utilities available. For non-boondocking (camping without any utility hookups) you get either 50 amp or 30 amp electric. If it’s hot and you want to run the A/C; you need 50 amp although you can get by with a single A/C on 30 amp if you make sure the water heater is off and don’t start the microwave while you’re using the A/C. On 50 amp hookups power draw is pretty much not an issue. Water is provided at most camp sites. We like to get what is known as FHU or full hookup sites; these include electric, water, and sewer. If you don’t have FHU then typically you have electric and water and have to use a dump station on the way out of the campground to dump your waste tanks. If this is the case; then you take showers up at the bath house instead of in the rig. In this situation we can make it a week pretty easily and have made it 2 full weeks without dumping tanks by being careful.

Anyway; let’s talk about today’s arrival and setup at our site. We were assigned site 192 which is a FHU 50 amp pull through site. The first thing we always do is drive down in the car (leaving the rig at the office) to physically look at our site…checking for low branches or tight turns on the way in, the location of our utility pole, how we want to enter, and where we want to be in the site. Here’s a picture of our site from the entry end and then from the exit end along with a picture of the utility pole.

As you can see the utility pole is on the left side of the site (the rig utility connections are on the left or street side). The gray box contains 50 and 30 amp breakers and separate plugs for each circuit. The faucet is the water connection and the black cover on the ground is the sewer dump connection.

After taking a look at the site we went back up and drove the rig in and with Neil driving and Connie observing and talking to Neil via walkie talkie we got positioned in the site in the desired place. Where you park in the site depends on trees (so you have southern sky visibility for DirectTV), whether you want to be able to get the awning out (you do), where you want to park the car and BAT, and other specifics for your site.

Once parked in the correct location; the next order of business is unhitching and getting utilities attached. First up; Neil lets the air out of the air hitch to drop the hitch to it’s lowest position while Connie puts chocks ahead and behind the trailer wheels and 2×10 jack pads under the hydraulic lifting jacks that level the rig. At this point we also verify the polarity and ground on the power connection, connect the power cable, and close the breaker so we have electric power. Once these are complete, the front jacks are lowered to take the front end weight of the trailer; Neil typically picks up the hitch pin relative to the hitch about an inch. Once this is done; the lever on the hitch is tripped to disengage the hitch, trailer electrical and camera cables are disconnected, and BAT is pulled forward clear of the front of the trailer. Next hit the auto level switch on the BigFoot leveling system and after a couple of minutes the rig ends up level…we typically then raise both front and rear jacks another couple of inches to keep the steps off the ground.

Next up…Neil sprays bug spray around the jack pads to keep creepy crawlies from coning up into the coach. At this point we extend the slides for living room, galley, and bedroom…connect the water hose and adjust pressure…and connect the stinky slinky which is a flexible hose going from our sewer connection to the dump pipe near the power pole.

Next…we split up. Connie starts unstopping the inside, putting stuff back on countertops and generally getting the inside ready for living in. Neil finishes up the outside items…putting up the flagpole and light, putting out the awning and awning tiedowns, parking BAT, covering the hitch, stowing the trailer electrical connection cables, getting stuff out of the car and BAT that was there for the travel (me and Kara, lunch remnants, empty coke bottles, and the like.

Total time from arrival at the site (assuming no clearance issues that require multiple attempts to get backed into and properly positioned in the site) to all finished and setup is about 90 minutes. We’ve got this pretty much down to a science by now…things are always done in the same order so we don’t forget anything and each of us has our parts to handle. The shot below is our final setup here in Site 192 after getting everything done.

After this; Neil went on a 16 mile bike ride around the area while Connie worked some on our entertainment plans for the next couple of days.

I hope this brief description of our setup process gives you a little insight into what we have to do to get from travel mode into setup and ready to live mode.

Cyas.

Friday afternoon we drove the 5 miles to Bath and visited the Maine Maritime Museum. Built on the grounds of 3 former shipyards building wooden sailing vessels…it comprises the property formerly occupied by the Percy and Small Shipyard, the Donnell Shipyard and I can’t remember the name of the third one; all three were adjacent to each other on the Kennebec River.

First up was a tour through the museum where there were all sorts of maritime exhibits. We really liked this ship weather vane

and this model of the Snow Squall, which was the last clipper built in Maine in 1851. She had a worldwide shipping career but was abandoned in the Falkland Islands in 1864 after being stranded and heavily damaged on the rocks near the Strait of Magellan at the southern tip of South America.

The yard was also the builder of the 6 masted schooner  Wyoming

We then prowled the grounds of the museum where there are numerous dories, canoes, lobstah boats and various other small boats. The museum is also the summer home of the Sherman Zwicker, a Grand Banks Schooner which was built in 1942 and fished for cod on the Grand Banks until 1965 before becoming a museum ship. The ship is still seaworthy and sails to Bar Harbor for the winter since the Kennebec freezes over. Cod fishing was via long lines which were deployed by 12 dories from the schooner…once the cod were onboard they were filleted and salted to preserve them then stored in the hold until return to port.

We also saw a woodchuck on the grounds but his picture came out kinda of blurry…but I’ll put it in anyway since it’s the first wildlife we’ve really seen up here in Maine.

All in all a pretty decent afternoon. A beautiful, sunny day in the life of an RVer. For dinner we had some Four Cheese Ravioli with chicken and a garlic/lemon/wine sauce. Yummy.

This morning Neil went on a run and we planned out our route to Trenton, Maine to visit Acadia National Park. The GPS originally wanted to take us straight up US-1 about 120 miles total but a lot of it is on a twisty two lane road. Neil thought the 145 mile route up I-95 through Bangor looked better and after making sure that the GPS was in truck mode it agreed with him…so we’re going that way as freeway driving is so much less stressful than twisty two lane roads. There’s still about 20 miles or so from Bangor down to Trenton but there’s no way around that.

In the afternoon we took a drive down to Bailey Island. This was the beautiful view over Mackerel Cove as we drove down the center of the island.

Next was Lands End including the Maine Lobsterman Memorial, the wood-like bedrock coastline and several more beautiful views over Merriconeag Sound off the western and southern coast of the island.

Tomorrow we head off to Trenton for 10 days at Timberland Acres RV Park and Acadia National Park. Looking forward to being there…lots of great hikes and views to see and hopefully moose as well.

Cyas.