Sep 20, 2012 - New Hampshire to Maine

The Roadtrek rally is over and we're on the road by 8:40 am. We headed to Lawrence, MA, to get the Roadtrek serviced at the local Chevrolet deler. We drove on I-495 N into New Hampshire. Changed to I-95. It is a beautiful day for traveling. A few trees are showing color, but it's still early in the fall season. We entered Maine and took Hwy. 9 to Kennebunkport. This is a cute, tourist-y little town and the main street was being worked on. There seems to be road work everywhere we go! We rode through the small town and some neighborhoods. We...

Sep 19, 2012 - Birthday Waterworks

We left Dainn’s house after our wonderful full course breakfast and headed to the Poland Spring (bottled water) Museum. This is a long standing resort area known in the 1800’s for it’s pure water and huge hotel, golf and tennis etc. It was another playground of the rich. It still is a resort and two buildings of note were open. The Maine State building is the actual building built for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago totally from Maine products. It was moved to Poland Spring by the founder of the resort. This is a beautiful and...

Sep 7, 2012 - Tale of the "Possessed Ford Escape"

Friday (9/7): Today we headed off to Freeport, Maine. The trip was fairly easy and only about 3 hours. We had reservations at the Freeport/Durham KOA, which reported easy access to Freeport shopping ... so our plan was to setup, take showers, feed the dog, and head into town for the evening to shop and have dinner. The first hitch in our plan was that the campground was located in the middle of nowhere:-( We found ourselves on back roads where Penny played dodge-em with what seemed like 3 foot deep potholes ... that went on forever. Upon...

Aug 25, 2012 - Honey wine, Silly's Restaurant & LL Beam

One more place we wanted to visit today in Portland was Maine Meade Works. Meade wine is made from honey. I thought sure it would be sicky sweet. But pleasantly surprised, very good and dry. During the tour at the bottling cart, there were several unlabeled bottles of wine setting on the bottom of the table. They either had 2 corks, too full or not full enough. Jokingly, I said, so are those "seconds", can we get one for 1/2 price? Well he reached down and handed one to me and said you can just have one. Well all the sudden everyone on the...

Aug 24, 2012 - Running water again!

Well, LL Bean has great backpacks, and we found good ones for Matt, Becca and Eden. We checked out the bike racks and decided to stick with the inexpensive one we bought at Walmart. We’ll wait to install it until we stop at a real campground for a night or two. We also found an excellent road atlas!! This was a much-needed addition to our supply of travel information – a GPS screen is so limited! A very long detour to an RV servicing outfit left us with a generator that still doesn’t work – turns out it likely needs new brushes…which is a...

Aug 6, 2012 - More Highway 1, on to Bar Harbor, Maine ***Bar Harbor Campground, Bar Harbor, Maine

We keep thinking that the farther north we go the fewer people there will be. Not so far! I didn't realize that this area around Bar Harbor first became summer homes for the rich in the 1880's. Highway 1 is a scenic drive; not spectacular like the Washington/Oregon coast. There are occasional views of the harbors/ocean; several one-two-or three street wide quaint coastal towns. All of the towns are revitalized with all kinds of shops and food shops and markets and lobster pounds. There was no visible parking places for large rigs! We are...

Aug 5, 2012 - L.L. Bean ***Cedar Haven Campground, Freeport, Maine

It was another short travel day, and the traffic was much better. We have gotten away from the "big cities". We are parked under the tall pines in Cedar Haven Campground. The tall trees prevent satellite coverage, there is no cable service, and the air antenna finds no channels. It has been a whole day without tv. But, we have survived. There is always a tivo-ed show. Shortly after arriving at the rv park we drove the few miles to Main Street and its many stores. The largest store, of course, is L.L.Bean. I feel sure you have seen their...

Jul 18, 2012 - Day 14 Oromocto Canada to Freeport ME

Not a lot to report today. We are going to stay on the main motorway to get back to Freeport ME quickly. Again, uneventful reentering the states. Motored down I-95 with a stop in Bangor ME for a moment of silence. Got to the Desert of Maine Campground early, set up camp and had a relaxing evening around the campfire. Hotels are easy when you get in late but nothing beats the camping experience.

Jul 13, 2012 - Day 9 St. Johnsbury VT to Freeport ME

Woke up not wanting to leave this motel, could have stayed a few more days to view the town but had to hit the road again. Drove through White Mountain National Forest, could have stayed here for weeks, trails, kayaking, horseback riding, mountain biking, shops. Once out of the forest, found an Eastern Mountain Sports store (EMS) an outdoorsman candy store. Updated some of our camping equipment and on the road again. Ended the day by arriving at Desert Dunes of Maine Campground, who is owned by friends that went to the First Baptist Church...

Oct 22, 2011 - Last 2 days in Maine

Thursday It rained nearly all day so decided not to go far, spent quite a few hours researching places to see, where to stop next and looking for campgrounds which is taking a lot longer than normal as so many have shut down for the season. In the evening we went to an Antiques Auction wanted to see what they were like compared with back home, it was good fun bought a couple of bits. Friday Off to Bath about 20 miles away- Bath Maine- City of Ships home to the best ship building in the world. Bath Iron Works where a destroyer or a navy...

Oct 19, 2011 - Days near Portland Maine

Extra costs while travelling this trip, lots of tolls on major interstates cost $16 on 3 different toll roads to get where we are now & last night had $1 tolls on another 2 different roads. Tuesday off to Portland to walk around the Downtown and the Wharfs, a couple with lovely old wooden shack buildings, but did they stink as this was fishermen’s wharf, smelled of sardines, fish scales all over the place piled high in places, also lobsters been kept alive in big tanks. The place had real character and some buildings painted bright colours....

Oct 18, 2011 - 28th State-Maine

Monday we travelled 196 miles to Durham near Freeport in Maine, lovely beaches to explore, loads of lighthouses to see & Portland the largest city in Maine to visit. We are here for at least 3 nights maybe longer if the weather stays good, loads to see in the surrounding areas as well, would like to go further north in Maine but better not risk it in case the snow comes, we have already seen gigantic snow ploughs on the back of huge lorries heading north, piles of salt in massive barns ready to spread. At least they keep the freeways clear...