During our initial rough planning for this year’s circuit, Up State New York, like Maine, is one of the regions for which we allocated more than the anticipated six to seven day per state average stay.  Though we lingered in Maine longer than even we anticipated, we made up a bit of time in Vermont, so felt comfortable taking a, for us, leisurely route through The Empire State.  Excelsior!

We started with the Adirondacks, the extreme north-east region of the state adjacent to Vermont.  Via mostly back roads, we swung north around the top of Lake Camplain just a few miles from the Canadian border and crossed into NY, turning south just a few miles to our first NY stop: Twin Ells Campground.  We had picked this stop based on the strong recommendation from our temporary neighbors in Vermont, who also lean towards Passport-America participating parks.   At $15 a night for full hook ups, its pretty hard to beat!

Larger than most places we stay, and formally arranged in parallel streets, our site was plenty large and included a couple of big trees.  The campground was in excellent condition with a large pool and the usual assortment of RV resort type activities and amenities.  It has a heavy percentage of longer term and seasonal residents, with a big increase in kid population on the weekends as relatives come to stay.  For us, it was mainly a place to relax and regain connectivity after seven days largely cut off from phone and internet service in New Hampshire and Vermont.  Their multiple antennas provided solid internet connectivity for the majority of our three day stay.

This was also the first RV park we experienced that had total metered electricity, even for short termers, at 20 cents per kilowatt hour.  It was interesting to compare the cost of shore power electricity to our estimates of generator usage.  During our stay we used the air conditioners sporadically (only one of the days was particularly hot) and ended up paying $8 total for the three day stay.

We didn’t do much in the area as our discussions with the management and locals resulted only in recommendations that all cost money, and we are still cracking down.  Regardless, Twin Ells is well maintained and a great value for any short termers passing through the region.

We departed and headed south then west, bound for the opposite end of the Adirondacks Mountain region.  It was a beautiful drive, but I was glad to be done with the twisting, turning, occasionally high gradient and bumpy roads.  We had picked another PA participating park with good reviews and an interesting seeming property, Adirondack Gateway Campground.  This was more our style of place, smaller, a higher percentage of shorter term campers spread out on the sprawling property.  We had a choice of wide open or moderately treed lots, selecting the latter as we always do.  This would be our last stop before picking up niece Kalynn, so we intended to luxuriate in the peace and quite of this laid back park.

It did not disappoint.  The owners were extremely gracious, allowing us to hang out on their porch most of one afternoon to use the available wifi.  The park boasts a nice rec room, a golf driving range, tree house, hiking trails, ponds, and deep woods primitive campsites accessible by four wheel drive vehicle, which we explored.  They were setting up for their annual Christmas in July event, and also conducted a hay ride one evening, taking us through the neighboring farm, complete with working maple syrup orchard.

At $16 a night, all in, for our full hook up site, Adirondack Gateway Campground is another excellent value, just don’t confuse it with the other, similarly named park at the other end of the Adirondacks.  The owner reported that they have had several confusing episodes from this similarly named place, even having people actually show up having made reservations at the other one.

That the end of our quiet times, we have a tween niece joining us for the next few stops as we explore the Finger Lakes and Niagara regions.

Having lingered in Maine longer than planned, we needed to pick up the pace a bit if we want to hit all of the places on our very rough planning list.  We didn’t make up any time in New Hampshire what with our five day stay, so we chose to keep Vermont down to a couple of days, three max.  Unlike in New Hampshire, where all the recommendations pointed us to the White Mountains, we had received no specific or consistent “must see” areas for Vermont.  So we made reservations at a full service park and Passport-America participant that had solid reviews in the usual places.

Groton Forest Road RV met our criteria, providing a power and water site for less than $20 a night.  Nestled on nine acres, the rectangular lay out is bordered on three sides by a tree line or horse pasture.  Located about 20 minutes from Montpelier, it is owned by a couple of apparently very handy men that do their own maintenance and repairs, resulting in an unusually high standard.  It is pretty common to go to RV parks, even higher end resorts, and find plenty of shaky issues, be it old plumbing, poor ventilation, slipshod carpentry, etc.  At Groton Forest Road we found very little if any of that.  The facilities were in excellent shape; everything looked new and clean.

The park seems to have settled into a three zone method of assigning sites.  The full season people are at the top of the rolling hill, the horse campers and their trailers are in the middle, and us short termers at the bottom.  We had a wide open site in a well manicured grass area with one big tree providing a little cover.   We enjoyed the relaxation, immaculate pool, and luxury of having power and water after our five days of drycamping in New Hampshire.

The only down side is the lack of connectivity.  We had no connection to the vaunted Verizon network at all, and though the park has free WiFi, I found it pretty unusable, even by RV park standards.  I had trouble connecting to the server, and only occasionally was able to use it for basic functions.  Our neighbor reported the same situation, but to be fair Rosemarie had much better luck on her Macbook.

The location, however, turned out to be excellent.  We had the relaxation inducing country location, but within easy striking distance of Montpelier and surrounding areas.  We spent one of our days making a run to several of Vermont’s well known industries, starting with Green Mountain Coffee’s visitor center, sampling some of their latest flavors and options.  Then we headed up the road to the Cabot Cheese Center, where they had free samples of someting like thirty of their cheeses and spreads.  We stepped next door to Lake Champlain Chocolates before heading up the road to Ben & Jerry’s factory.  We chose not to do the half hour tour due to the one hour wait, but did enjoy seeing the facility and taking a few pictures.  We capped off the day by swinging into the Cold Hollow Cider Mill for a very refreshing sample of their fresh pressed best.

We ended up only staying two days in Vermont, but would gladly return to explore more of this beautiful state.  Alas, we were now up to one week without any connectivity, and chose to move on and catch up.  Next time we are in New England we hope to give The Green Mountain State more of our time.

After departing Bar Harbor we made a one night stop at Walmart again before continuing west into New Hampshire.  Our research, along with every recommendation provided by those familiar with the state, lead us to the Kancamagus Scenic Highway, which cuts through the White Mountain National Forest generally along an east west line.  Of the more than twenty national forest service campgrounds in the range, six are along the Kancamagus.  We researched the easternmost four, which seemed to offer mostly the same experience: first come, first serve drycamping in the woods near the clear running Swift River.

At $22 a night they are a bit steep for drycamping, but hardly the most expensive we have paid.  (MacKerricher State Park in CA was $36).  It would be nice to have readily available free boondocking sites in beautiful and accessible areas, such as what we experienced at Lake Mead in NV, but here in the BLM-free east that’s a tough proposition. Even so, the $8 per night we paid at the Amistad National Recreation Area in Texas seems more appropriate for publicly funded federal areas.  Ah well, we are moving west for the rest of the summer so perhaps we will find some of those more affordable or even free sites.

Sight unseen I suspected we would like the easternmost Covered Bridge Campground best, but due to a height restriction we would need to approach it from a different route, and if it was full we would need to back track the same way before reconnecting with the Kancamagus to continue onto the next campgrounds.  Since we would arrive on a Saturday, and having heard that they can fill up on weekends, we thought it best to skip Covered Bridge and go straight to Blackberry Crossing Campground, which required neither an alternate route nor backtracking to get to the next campground should it have no open sites.

Blackberry is the smallest of the four we eventually checked out, containing around 20 sites.  There were a handful still available when we arrived, and we selected the largest easily accessible one that did not have neighbors on both sides.  Even if the campground had been full, the spots are so big and tree covered that any one of them would have provided reasonable privacy.  Thinking we might still move to one of the other campgrounds after we had a chance to check them out, we only paid for two nights.

Though we had made the drive in clear weather, by the time we arrived a drizzle had set in which would continue through the night and sporadically the next day.  During the clear parts we explored the area, including the nearby very quaint town of Conway, at which we resupplied, washed clothes at the laundromat, made phone calls, and scouted out the library for future WiFi use.  The one downside to camping in the White Mountains was a complete lack of connectivity.  We didn’t expect a drycamping facility to have WiFi, but none of the campgrounds had cell service either, requiring a drive nearly the full way back to town to get a couple of bars.

During both of our trips to Conway we tried in vain to find the mythical Moose Lodge that the Ellsworth Lodge from Maine assured us was here since they helped to establish it.  Unfortunately they are not fully up and running yet, operating out of one of the member’s homes while their building is being renovated.  It took us extensive research just to find this out since we could find no associated phone number, finally getting the scoop from the local American Legion Outpost that has conducted a joint event with the nascent Conway Moose Lodge.  Ah well, maybe next trip to New Hampshire.

One of us took a swim in one of the larger sections of the Swift River, and we explored the other three nearby forest campgrounds.  Covered Bridge, right across the street from Blackberry Crossing, is significantly larger but did not seem to offer anything significantly different.  Ditto for Jigger Johnson (yes, Jigger Johnson,) six miles deeper into the mountains.  The only thing of note was the existence of pay showers there, but at the outrageous price of $2.50 a shower (the few private campgrounds that still use pay showers usually charge 25 cents for 7-9 minutes) we didn’t see it as an actual useful amenity.

We met one of the camp hosts while exploring Jigger Johnson, and upon hearing that we were hoping for something with more direct river access she pointed us two miles further up to road to Pasaconaway Campground.  There we would find three sites that backed up directly onto the Swift River, if they were not already taken.  Check them out we did, finding the better two of the three empty.  Though I was reasonably confident that they would remain open, the next morning I took Loki up there bright an early to secure one of these three coveted spots for a three day stay.

Man what an ideal campground for us!  The same heavily wooded and very spacious sites that all of the Kancamagus campgrounds offer, but backing directly onto the water.  We would step over the log defining the end of the site and stroll 30 feet down to the edge.  From there we could explore either direction, finding a sandy beach and four foot deep crystal clear swimming hole just downstream.  We spent the majority of our days lounging by the river, just as we had the Salmon River in Idaho.

Even the cat seemed to like the river beach, what with warm sand to rest on and clear water to drink, other than when she misjudged the jump across a side brook and ended up tummy deep in the cold water.  Pad Kee Meow also appreciated the abundant and insanely overconfident small animal life in the region.  She would have had a red ground squirrel that foolishly hung out on top of our cooler had I not spotted the impending mayhem and jerked her leash back at the last second.  Even with my pull it was inches that separated the rodent from tooth and claw.

We completed our five day stay and reluctantly left behind the beautiful Pasaconaway Campground, assuaging our regret with the knowledge that Vermont will offer a wonderful experience as well.  Should you get to New Hampshire, we strongly recommend the White Mounts, the Kancamagus, and the Pasaconaway Campground, particularly the three spots just beyond the camp host’s.

A set of five posts from us about one state should be a pretty strong indicator of how much we love it.  Maine, at least in the summer, is fantastic, and we just couldn’t tear ourselves away once our three days at Mt Desert Narrows Resort were up.  The problem was that the impending July 4th weekend had a lot of places at full capacity, and those with openings were charging at peak season, holiday weekend rates.  Mt Desert Narrows had one spot open up based on cancellation, but it was one of the premium waterfront sites, and even with the 15% discount they offered it would end up being abut $85 a night!  No way were were going to spring for it, so what to do?

Cross referencing the options on All Stays with the information on RV Park Reviews I ran across an interesting bit of information about a local campground: they operate entirely on a first come first serve basis, no reservations accepted.  It was located just a couple of miles up the road and their rates, considering the timing, were decent: $40 a night for power and water.  So during one of our excursions we swung into Bar Harbor Campground to scope it out and get a feel for the availability come Friday, July 1st. The park is exactly the style of private campground we enjoy most: lots greenery, water access, and space between neighbors.  The front desk staff made no promises, but suggested that if we arrived early in the day we should be able to secure a drycamping spot, and maybe a partial hook up one if we were lucky.

So Friday morning saw me up and driving the tracker around their 300+ site, maze-like park shortly after they opened.  I dropped off a couple of our big plastic bins in one of the nicer available drycamping spots (which make up about 40% of the park) to claim it per their process, before continuing to scout the rest of the campground to see if one of the hook up sites opened up.  Every one either had an RV  or a “taken” sign on it until I got to the final “T” loop and stumbled onto the very last available power and water site.  I left the tracker there to claim it, walked back to the office to make payment for four days (cash or check only), retrieved the bins from the now unneeded dry spot and drove back to Mt Desert Narrows to finish breaking camp and move Serenity to our new campground.

With four more days in Bar Harbor, we were able to enjoy more of Acadia National Park, this time in clear weather.   We made the drive up to Cadillac Mountain, the highest peak in the park.  At 1,530 feet it’s not exactly challenging Everest, but it gave fantastic views in every direction.

We also had the time to find the local Moose Lodge, #2698 in nearby Ellsworth.  Turns out we had driven by the nondescript building twice without realizing it was the lodge; even the moose statue out front struck me as just New England decoration since it seems like 10% of businesses around here incorporate a moose into either the name or decor.  The existence of the Flying Moose Lodge, “a wilderness camp for boys” in the area had given us fits while trying to google the address and phone number of the (non-flying) Moose Lodge.

We made our first stop in on Sunday for the “meat raffle” which is pretty much what it sounds like: you purchase a number for $20 which gets you into 24 separate drawings for various cuts of meat.  Aside from nickle/dime/quarter poker with family, we don’t do much gambling, but this sounded fun, so we sprung for the entry fee.  We ended up winning two of the drawings, taking home more than five pounds of chicken breasts and six pounds of various pork chop cuts!  Our grocery bills for the next few weeks should be a bit lighter.

While the meat raffle was a great event, what really stood out about this lodge was the incredibly warm reception we received from the members.  We’ve been nicely welcomed in most of the 19 lodges we have visited, but this was a level beyond; it was like we were out of town family rather than strangers passing through.  Everyone was open, gregarious, and ready with advice on how to best enjoy Maine, particularly the food.  We got particularly good advice on lobster (best way to make your own lobster rolls) and clams (go for the cherry stones, the best.)   And local member, current Jr Governor and former Governor Jack invited us to his big 4th of July bash the next day.

What a great party!  There must have been a hundred lobster, mounds of clams, trays of shish kabobs, and plenty of side dishes.  I got some hands on assistance in improving my lobster opening technique, sampled some local beer that had as of yet evaded my palate, and purchased 5 pounds of cherry stone clams from Scott per our previous arrangement at the moose.  Though more than stuffed from the party food, on advice we steamed the lot that night before putting them back in the fridge for the next nights dinner.

Given that they were already cooked and seeing my obvious enthusiasm, the crew sent me off with a bag of three soft shelled, pound and half lobsters.  During the next two days I put to use my recently gained knowledge on how to properly prepare a Maine lobster roll, supplementing the spaghetti and clams we prepped from our cherry stones.

Jack also gave us a tour of his house and property containing a truly unique collection of his own welding art.  His house is one of the easiest to find: just look for the  big metal dragon and other oddities out front.  So we want to give a big thanks to Jack, Larry, Christy, Krissy, Scott, and everyone else that made or coastal Maine trip so fantastic.  The Fourth of July party was like a big Moose Lodge anniversary gift for our 12th year. Rest assured, we have one of your fancy bar chips and metal moose car tags to take back to our home lodge in Venice to show them how it’s done.

Though we had only paid for four nights at the Bar Harbor Campground, we kept in mind the option of extending to a full week should we be having too much fun to leave, particularly since they offer the seventh day free.  So Tuesday morning I scouted out the ocean front sites to see if anyone had departed following the big weekend.  Sure enough, I found site K-10, with a nearly unobstructed view of the bay, recently unoccupied.  Out came the plastic bins to secure the site before I stopped into the front office to pay for the additional time.  We moved Serenity down to the new spot, leveling as best we could on the somewhat steep grade.

Our neighbors included a child of 8, Catherine, that gave us a whole new perspective on how to properly walk a cat.  We still laugh remembering the commanding way in which she manhandled Pad Kee Meow, basically lifting her front half off the ground by the leash and harness when the cat thought it was time to stop, resulting in a half waddle forward on her back two legs while being constantly reprimanded.  Though kitty was less than pleased, it taught us that we had perhaps been a bit too indulgent with the cat’s frequent reluctance to walk in the direction we intend.

We spent our last three days on the East Coast relaxing.  One final trip to the Moose, a bit of wild blueberry picking right from our campground, a drive through Acadia, and beer tasting at Atlantic Brewing Company finished off our month in Maine.

We stayed in the state more than twice as long as planned, but have no regrets.  Whatever short shrift this means for the rest of the states on this year’s route can be made up for during future trips.  So long Maine, the rest of New England awaits us.

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Hard to believe that a state so enraptured us that we have stayed for more than three weeks, but such is the effect of Maine, at least in the summer!

The Distance: 578 miles, three quarters of which occurred in the first week of the month as we followed a circuitous and backtracking route from Newport to Cape Cod and back to Connecticut before pushing north to Maine.  Once there we only moved about about 165 miles between our various campgrounds.  This month saw a significant reduction in our mileage from May, but we expect next month to be a bit more aggressive.  Our 2016 total is 3631 miles.

The Places:  Seven stops in June, mostly in Maine.  Upon leaving Newport we sprinted east to Cape Cod, stopping at Campers Haven in Dennisport for three days.  We then backtracked west to Chamberlain Lake Campground in Woodstock Connecticut, picking up Maria and KayKay from NYC to take north with us.  We arrived in Poland Spring, Maine for Junior and Kaytarra’s wedding and all of the associated family gatherings, staying for ten days.  We followed that with our first ever Walmart parking lot overnighter before moving closer to the coast and Blueberry Pond Campground in Powland.  Rosie flew back to Florida while I stayed at Meadowbrook Camping Area in Phippsburg, close to Bath.  Finally we headed north to Mt Desert Narrows Resort near Acadia National Park for the last three days of the month.

We had full or partial hook ups for 29 day, and dry camped/parking lot camped for one.  We stayed the entire month in private RV campgrounds except for the single night at Walmart.  Contrast that with last month when we didn’t spend a single night in a private park.  We do try to vary things up.

The Budget:   We totally busted the budget this month, ending up a whopping 31% over. Four new tires and a battery for Loki accounted for nearly 2/3 of that, but when you get together with family, especially for a wedding and birthday celebration, there tends to be a bit more extravagant spending.  Though we tried to crack down in the latter half of the month, it simply was not enough to overcome the first two weeks.  My consumption of $60 worth of lobstah certainly didn’t help!

Though we took advantage of Passport-America discounts for 20 of the nights and a weekly partial discount for 7, we still ended up with an average nightly cost of nearly $26.  We had but a single free night drycamping; we may have to try a few more big box parking lots next month.  For the year we are roughly 3% over budget.  Let the crack down begin in earnest!

The Drama:  Loki gave us some problems coming back from NYC, developing a significant vibration which turned out to be the rapidly deteriorating tires, probably due to age and over inflation.

The Improvements:  We have now replaced seven of the ten tires between Serenity and Loki, and the other three on the motorhome need it sooner rather than later.  We also have a new starter battery for Loki, the old one finally giving up the ghost during the trip from Connecticut to Maine, no longer able to hold a charge after we nursed it along for a month.

All of our monthly reports, as well as our first full year report, 2015 in Review, are linked below.

2016 Reports:

• January Report
• February Report
• March Report
• April Report
• May Report

2015 in Review

• January Report
• February Report
• March Report
• April Report
• May Report
• June Report
• July Report
• August Report
• September Report
• October Report
• November Report
• December Report

We have had three significantly discounted campgrounds in a row: Poland Spring on a weekly rate and then three additional nights at 50% off with Passport-America, followed by three and six nights at at Blueberry Pond and Meadowbrook, respectively, both also on PA.  For our last stop in June, we wanted to continue the streak of campground fee savings, but were starting to run up against one of the common PA restrictions for coastal Maine: many participating places exclude the peak summer months, just as south and coastal Florida parks tend to exclude the peak winter season.

This meant that if we wanted to see Acadia National Park, and do so affordably from one of the private campgrounds with hook ups rather than the drycamping options within the park itself, we could allow no further delays.  Fortunately, the last three days of June happened to be during the week rather than the frequently excluded weekends, and we locked in a reservation for a power and water site at Mt Desert Narrows Camping Resort.  We left Meadowbrook late Tuesday morning to make the circuitous three hour trip north.

We arrived in Ellsworth, the closest town just off of the Mt Desert Island, just as serious lunchtime hunger was setting in.  We made the spur of the moment decision to pull into JJ’s Ice Cream Academy and World Class Lobster Rolls, for the obvious reason of lobster rolls and ice cream, but also because they had a large empty hard packed lot beside them that allowed me to pull in and through easily without having to disconnect the tracker.  In addition to a great lobster roll for me, they had a terrific crab roll for Rosemarie, and delicious, rich ice cream in Maine oriented flavors.  We sampled both the wild blueberry and maple walnut.  A fantastic and highly recommend place.

We continued on to the island proper, and  after a few miles pulled into our campground. Mt Desert Narrows is a probably the ritziest place we have stayed since leaving South Florida.  It has relatively spacious sites on a rolling property overlooking the bay, with beautiful views from nearly any point.  We were able to walk less than a hundred yards right down to the water’s edge for a quick dip in the cold but tolerable clear water.  The property is well manicured with plenty of resort style amenities and a helpful front staff.  It is, in short, the type of place we probably would not splurge for if we had to pay the full price, but on Passport-America it was fantastic.

We got quite lucky on our site draw, getting one of the largest “value” spots, a long pull through, at the top of a rise, and with no significantly sized RV beside us we had nearly unobstructed views of the water.  We relished every minute there.  This is the type of place we could see ourselves coming to for an entire month or longer some future summer.

But this location was not supposed to be about relaxing in the RV park, but rather exploring Acadia National Park.  So on our second day we drove to the Hull Cove Visitor Center (there is a free shuttle bus but we wanted to have a bit of independence and control over our timing) to collect the standard maps and brochures and watch the traditional short park movie.   Afterwards we hopped on the #4 Orange route shuttle for a 90 minute tour of the park.

It was beautiful, particularly for the first half hour when the weather was clear.  We hopped off at Sand Beach, a rare “pocket beach” with extensive sandy stretches rather than rocks, but that would be our last exploration on foot for the day since a cold drizzle and heavy fog set.  We decided to make this our scouting trip, returning during better weather for some day hiking and related exploration.

As we headed back to our campground, we stopped at a handful of lobster pounds along the way to compare prices to the ones we had seen in Ellsworth, and were pleasantly surprised to find a few affordable options, so when dinner time rolled around, I had a 1.6 pound soft shelled lobster, which unlike the hard shelled version do not requiring any tools to eat, and are considered sweeter but contain less meat than the hard shelled.  I took it as take out from the place a mile up the road, Rose Eden Lobster, and got it freshly steamed for less than $13 all in. Our budget is blown, but thankfully Rosemarie doesn’t care for this particular crustacean, otherwise it would be that much worse.

Our last day at Mount Desert Narrows we examined our options for staying longer, if not in this park then at least in someplace near by.  While the resort had one cancellation leaving bay front site open, the cost was prohibitive, even with the 15% discount they offered me we still would have been paying over $85 a night, and everything else on the island itself was booked up for the Fourth of July long weekend.  We dug a little deeper and found an affordable option to stay, details in a future post.

So, Rosemarie’s sisters planned to converge on Coral Springs, FL from their respective homes in California and New York.  Dolores would be staying a full month while Melissa would be flying in for two short stays during that period.  Since her sisters had gathered together from afar, of course Rosemarie would attend, the only question was timing.  That was answered during our last couple days in Poland Spring when Melissa finalized her first trip itinerary, resulting in an evening of travel agent adventure for yours truly as I worked through our wide array of frequent flyer plans looking for the best option to get Rosemarie from Maine to Fort Lauderdale.  Southwest Airlines provided the most point efficient option, a one stop set of flights from Portland through Baltimore-Washington.

Since by that time we would have maxed out the Passport-America rate option at Blueberry Pond,  we needed a cheap stayover option for me while she was gone.  Our usual exploration through AllStays, RV Park Reviews, and the PA website resulted in the selection of Meadowbrook Camping Area, an affordable place 20 miles further east on a coastal peninsula just south of the Bath shipyard.

This would be ideal: a power and water hook up site for $20 a night all in, including reasonable resort amenities and without the very common Passport-America three day maximum and weekend restrictions.  The catch?   No reservations for the PA discount, walk ins only, and cash only upon arrival.  Five days in advance the front desk was moderately confident that a spot would be available for the dates I needed, but no promises, so call the morning of arrival.  We did so, and they still had a few openings.

Upon arrival, things were a bit more complicated.  The friendly and enthusiastic people manning the desk are seasonal work campers, i.e., RVers exchanging part time labor for a campsite, much like Rosemarie and I did at Cape Disappointment State Park in Washington state last year.  This meant that they were not experts on the complicated reservation system, and lacked certain program override authority to make our check in a smooth process.  It took nearly an hour just to get everything sorted out, and we ended up having to spend one night in an overflow spot with power and water for the expected $20, but then had to move to a full hook up (power, water, sewage) spot since none of the less expensive power and water only sites were available for a rig our size.  This increased the rate to about $24.50 for the remaining five nights.  That is still a good deal, and moving after the first night was not a great burden since we did not do a full campsite set up.

Meadowbrook Camping Area is a touch less “nature oriented” than our previous two places; it’s closer to a traditional RV resort, boasting ameniteis beyond a pool and WiFi.  They had a recreation room and two restaurants on premises.  The property is a large rolling grass field bounded on three sides by woods, with the majority of the RV sites, especially for big rigs, in the open field without much cover, or backed up against the tree lines.  It does have a one mile nature trail and an extensive beaver pond, but generally lacks the sense of being in the Maine forest that Poland Spring and Blueberry Pond provided.  So what does it offer that our previous two places did not?  In short, lobsters and paint ball.

Meadowbrook maintains a “lobster pound” which, for the non-New Englanders, is not a temporary home for wayward crustaceans awaiting adoption or return to their miscreant owners.  It’s a term for a big tank of live lobsters and the cooking facilities to turn them into delicious meals.  For $7.99 a pound you can select your dinner, with options ranging from single pounders to monsters approaching three.  They will cook them for you, providing implements of shell destruction free of charge, with melted butter and corn on the cob or baked potato side dishes extra.  Steamed clams by the pound also served daily.

Let me tell you, this is a good deal.  I had focused on lobster rolls for our first two weeks in Maine, but during our later days here I have had the opportunity to compare prices of traditional lobster meals at over a dozen places (no, I didn’t eat at them all, just checked their prices.)  What you find is that at many a lobstah (proper Maine spelling) pound, they want to sell you a package deal, usually a 1 1/4 pound lobster with a couple of side dishes at about $19 to $26, or for just an à la carte lobster-by-the-pound meal they may charge a modest prep/cooking fee.  Meadowbrook did neither of those, and their pound rate was quite competitive.  I was strong for four days, but on evening five, I hit that.  A 1.75 pound hard shelled bit of deliciousness and a baked potato side for less than $17 after taxes, having brought my own sour cream and melted butter to save a few bucks.

As for the paint ball: Meadowbrook has a large battle ground in the deep woods.  Junior and Nazir visited me on my last full day there, and we took a hike along the nature path near it.  I expected an eyesore, i.e., ugly and haphazard plywood structures and barricades covered in old paint.  Instead I found nearly an acre of natural woods defined and encircled by a 15′ tall mesh net wall, which relied primarily on tree and ground elevation cover and concealment for the players.  I did not have the opportunity to play, but it looked like a great area.

One final activity: During our check in Rosemarie spotted a flyer on the front door of the campground office advertising a veterans’ appreciation lunch sponsored by the local American Legion post.  Eager to find activities to keep me out of trouble, she had me call and make arrangements to attend.  Thus Saturday found me at the Phippsburg Sportsmen’s Association, which provides space to the Legion, attending a brief ceremony and follow on hamburger and hot dog meal.  Many thanks to American Legion Post 216 for their warm welcome of an out-of-towner vet.

I picked up Rosemarie from the Portland airport on Monday afternoon. Since we had not been to a Moose Lodge in over a month (not since five states ago in Delaware) we decided to take advantage of our proximity to the only Maine Moose Lodge we had found in our google searches.  We stopped in for a drink and received a warm welcome; we find that most of the lodges are eager to hear from out of towners about what brought them in.  We also learned that the only other lodge in the state is in Ellsworth, not far from our next stop near Acadia.

There you have it, our third RV campground in Maine, and we couldn’t be happier with our three choices.  Looking at RV options in central coastal Maine?  Consider this:

• Do you want a beautiful wooded site on a freshwater lake chain complete with eagles and loons, but still possessing RV resort amenities such as a pool and fully functional WiFi?  Try Poland Spring Campground.
• Perhaps you need something with a bit more personal touch, including campground owner hosted meals and nightly bonfires, but still in a beautiful natural setting yet only ten minutes from Freeport?  I unreservedly recommend Blueberry Pond Campground.
• Or maybe you must spend your days in close simulated mortal combat with friends, strangers, or whomever will enter the fray, and your evenings gorging on fresh boiled Maine lobstah and clams without having to leave the premises?  Then Meadowbrook Camping Area is for you.

As I have mentioned or at least implied a couple of times in previous posts this has been a very expensive month for us, what with family gatherings, a wedding, a birthday, paying for half the new tire on serenity and four new tires on the tracker.  Accordingly, after we finished our ten day stay at Poland Spring, we looked at our options for cutting the costs back for the rest of the month.  This meant parking lot camping or Passport America rates all the way, and to kick things off we headed straight for the Auburn Walmart 13 miles away.

Though we have “parking lot camped,” usually under stealth conditions, several times while we nursed The Big Kahuna along in 2015, this was our very first Walmart overnight experience.   A number of big chain stores allow overnight RV campers: Sams, Costco, Home Depot, Cabelas, and most casinos included.  With Walmart, it varies by store: usually the supercenters allow it and the neighborhood versions don’t, but it’s best to call and check.  We needed to stock up on food and supplies anyway, so we pulled in, spotted two big rig semis and one small RV, parked in their vicinity, and then called for overnight permission.  They must get asked quite often because the main switchboard person knew the answer to this esoteric question without having to consult with a manager: yes, just park in the far corner.

So there we were, Saturday night and parked in the shared lot between a Lowes and a Walmart.  I know to the non-RVer this sounds not merely unglamourous, but hideous.  Not at all!  Keep in mind, we have every convenience of home in our rig.  We leveled Serenity with our hydraulic system, put out the most unobtrusive of our three slides, restocked our groceries at the conveniently located discount store nearby, set up the Honda generator for basic electrical needs, cooked dinner on our stove top, and settled in for the evening.

We noticed that we were at the very edge of the free Walmart and Lowes WiFi signal, and as night approached and the crowds thinned out, I did a bit of experimenting in the parking lot, enough to realize that the normally “so crowded it is unusable” connections from both stores had become rapidly more functional, if only we were a little closer.  Though neither store had closed yet the lots were nearly empty, so I took a chance, pulled in the levels and slide, and crept Serenity closer, a lot closer, to the big stores.  We were still positioned out of the prime parking real estate, sort of at the far right edge of one and left edge of the other, but it was close enough that we could get a solid WiFi signal from either antenna inside the RV.  One more home convenience that also allowed us to save on our ever strained Verizon data plan.

The next morning we moved back out to the parking hinterlands before making full preparations to get underway, lingering long enough that our very short drive to our next destination would put us there around check in time.  Blueberry Pond Campground in Pownal was only 18 miles southeast.  They were one of the top reviewed Passport-America parks in the region, though they only allowed the discount rate Sunday through Thursday and for a maximum of three days, two of the more common PA restrictions.

But what a fantastic campground!   Similar in some ways to Poland Spring, it is located in the woods with extensive greenery all around and spacious, tree-covered sites.  It also has very similar amenities, including a pool and free WiFi.  The energetic camp owner and his fiance try to make for a sense of community among the temporary residents, running a themed dinner event for all every two weeks and providing frequent bonfires near in the common seating area.

We loved this place and the serenity it provided.  Our first night fell on Father’s Day (now you know exactly how far behind we are on this blog,) so I drove out to a local general store to grab a few local craft brews.  Baxter Brewing Company produces a fine assortment, I particularly liked the Throwaway IPA and the Pamola Session Ale, whereas Rosemarie preferred the Summer Swelter Ale.  Regardless, they made made for delicious drinking at the first night’s bonfire.

During our far too brief three days there we attended every campfire event, swam in the pool, got slightly lost on their nature trail, and just reveled in the clean Maine woods air.

Our last full day we dove the 4.5 miles into Freeport to visit the L.L. Bean outlet, and spent money we shouldn’t have on admittedly phenomenal deals.  We also sampled all the options at Maine Distilling Company’s  free tasting room downstairs from the outlet. They produce a range or spirits, including vodkas, gins, rums, whiskeys and a few difficult to categorize options.  Returning home to promptly pull out a few more items on our “ready to sell” list so I could prep Craigslist and eBay ads in the coming days to compensate for these latest expenses.

The last night while at the campfire one of the other RVers mentioned the great pizza they had eaten at the nearby North Pownal General Store.  Not feeling up to cooking, I called in an order 30 minutes before they closed and headed the ten minute drive to pick it up.  As I was the last customer of the evening, the gave me another pizza, the one in the warmer for individual slices, free.  And while this was a bit thicker crusted than Rosemarie’s New York style preference, it was big, delicious, and piled with toppings.  A big thanks to the generous and outgoing owners, who provided not only that night’s dinner, but about half a dozen additional meals for me while Rosemarie flew down to Florida two days later.

Both of our Maine campgrounds have been fantastic.  We really feel fortunate that our research sources pointed us to such great places.  Comparing them: Poland Spring is much larger and has the wonderful chain of lakes and boating opportunities.  Blueberry Pond has a much greater sense of the personal involvement of the owners with the campers.  Both had beautiful sites and properties with the right balance between nature and amenities.  We shall see how the remaining stops in Maine play out, but if we ever get back to this state, I  suspect we will be staying at both properties again.

We have arrived in Maine, one of our major destinations on this year’s route plan, and one of only a handful of stops that had an actual “no later than” date of arrival requirement.  We are here to celebrate a wedding, and to take advantage of the gathering of family and friends to throw a 50th birthday party for Rosemarie.

With Maria and KayKay getting their first taste of riding in the motorhome, the four of us departed Connecticut and passed through the Massachusetts before cutting across the southeast corner of New Hampshire, where we stopped to take advantage of the lower cost and untaxed liquor at one of the state run stores.  It’s a bit ironic that the Live Free Or Die state mandates that all spirits and liquor have to be sold by the state government!  It was a good midway stopping point allowing all of us to stretch our legs as well.

Back on the road, we finally arrived in Maine, and continued north about 45 minutes beyond Portland, getting to our destination in the late afternoon.  You have heard of the town, Poland Spring, from the bottled water company that originated and still operates here.  After research, we selected the Poland Spring campground as the best bang for the buck campground we could find in the vicinity of Lewiston-Auburn (LA), the location for the wedding.  We were not disappointed.

Our first Maine campground, though a privately resort, had the feel of a state park in terms of natural setting, spaciousness, and greenery.  It is heavily treed, with large sites well separated from your neighbors, the greenery adding to that sense of privacy.  Unlike many public parks, though, it had plenty of amenities as well.  In addition to the power and water connections, we had two included WiFi passes to the fully functional resort network, and access to a pool, playground, boat dock and lake swimming area.

For us the clear highlight of the campground was the potential for significant animal sightings, particularly birds that nested or hunted along the lake chain. Lots of loons and other water fowl, of course, but the star attraction were the nesting pair of eagles and two chick in the 700 pound nest on the island just off shore.  On our first day we were able to observe one of the adults standing watch and the two chick poking their heads up occasionally.

Though the park is a Passport-America participant, they have the unusual restriction of only providing that rate for walk up campers; you can’t make a reservation on the PA rate.  Not willing to take the chance, we had originally reserved five days on an electric and water only site, saving a few bucks by not electing for a full hook up spot with sewage.  Shortly before our arrival, feeling a bit tired from the faster than planned pace of travel, we added two days to our reservation and received a modest discount for the weekly rate, coming out to about $29, all in.

Titi Maria and KayKay stayed with us the first night before moving over to Junior’s house, enough for them to get to enjoy the natural setting, swim in the lake, and see the eagles.  After that the week turned into the expected whirlwind of wedding preparations, continual family get togethers and, of course, Rosemarie’s party!  We held it at the lake cabin Jason and Linda had rented for themselves, Rosemarie’s mom, Gloria, and her cousin Christopher and his family.  We had the expected fantastic, loud, and drink filled time.

After that, it was all about the wedding.   Junior and Kaytarra had rented the Elks Lodge in Lewiston, and had arranged for all of the guests to bring the food in pot lock style.  We spent the early afternoon preparing 80 wings, and then helped transport people and supplies to the wedding hall.  Junior himself had prepared two pernils which we took in Loki, the smell driving me a bit crazy; After having tried several versions of this Puerto Rican pork dish, and Rosemarie having had decades of them, we both agree that Junior makes the best, and have resolved to alter our technique to match his.

Rosemarie helped decorate the wedding arch once the groomsmen delivered it.  About 100 guests having arrived, while not exactly on time, not nearly as late as we are used to in Miami, the event kicked off with a great ceremony, immediate reception, and quite a lot of dancing.  Yes, me included.

The next two days continued with family gatherings before each group departed, which also allowed me the opportunity for a couple more fantastic Maine lobster rolls.  Hey, you gotta eat something when at a seafood shack, right?  We got pretty much the entire remaining out of town contingent plus local cousin Junior and son Nazir together for one last seafood extravaganza; thanks to The Lost Gull in nearby Oxford for a fantastic lunch.

Cousin Christopher, his wife Amy and their children Elijah and Jude, stayed with us for two nights at the Poland Spring campground before making the drive back to Virginia.  We spent the days exploring the camp and the nights beside the fire, all of us slowly working out way through the vast array of leftovers from the wedding.

Finally the week of activity came to a close, and used to our relative isolation on the road, we collapsed, not at all ready to continue on to another campground quite yet.  Plus, our budget was pretty much devastated from tires, repairs, parties, and the usual wedding guest expenditures.

Accordingly, I talked with the front office and negotiated a three day stay, but on the Passport-America rate since we were not making a future reservation.  We had to move sites, but had three days at this beautiful park just to ourselves and at only $20 a night, sewage included at the new spot .  We settled in, relaxed, recuperated, and reassessed our plans for the rest of the month, focusing on cranking down on our expenditures to make up for the first two weeks.  During this time we feasted on the extensive leftovers that I had quite literally been forced to take home by the family clean up crew at the wedding, and spent almost nothing except for the very much worth it two hour boat and trolling motor rental.

We spent our last day at Poland Spring cruising the Lower Range Pond, most of it under power until the battery gave out, after which we enjoyed the sunset as we paddled back to the dock.  We could not have asked for a better ending to our first Maine stop.

As mentioned in a previous post, we are doing these New England states “out of order,” i.e., not along the most time or distance efficient route, in order to best position ourselves to pick up relatives in NYC and take them with us to Maine.  Having visited Newport, RI and Cape Cod, MA, we now had three days before our planned rendezvous.  After going through a number of options, we decided to position Serenity about half way between NYC and Portland, ME, stay there for three nights, use our Geo Tracker for the round trip to the city, and have Titi Maria and KayKay stay with us in the RV one night before continuing on to ME the next day.

Looking at our route options, northern Connecticut was our preferred staging area, and after research via AllStays, Passport-America, and RV Park Reviews, we selected Chamberlain Lake Campground in Woodstock, CT.  We secured four nights, three of them at the 50% discounted PA rate, though the first night was full price since it fell on the weekend, an excluded day by there policy.  This placement would give us a 140 mile car trip to NYC in each direction and then roughly 190 miles in Serenity the next day to get to our Maine campground.

Chamberlain Lake Campground turned out to be quite nice, in appearance closer to what we expect from a state park: heavily wooded with spacious sites on a nice lake, complete with docks and natural swimming areas.  We were on the power and water only rate, but the usual on site dump station was easily accessible on our departure day.  The park also offered a cable TV option for a couple of bucks each day, which we selected as well.  Though there was no park wide WiFi, we were provided with the access code for the office/recreation room connection, which worked fine in that vicinity, particularly since we never saw anyone else using it during our stay.

With what would no doubt be a whirlwind of impending activity in Maine, including parties, family gatherings, dining out, trips to the airport, wedding preparations and the like, we took advantage of this calm before the storm to do, basically, nothing.  Once hooked up we didn’t leave the park for two days, venturing out on the third solely to restock groceries. We took the time to appreciate the beautiful local surroundings, particularly after the bulk of the campers left at the end of the weekend.

On our fourth day we headed south to NYC, braving not only the toll roads and bridges, but also the downtown Manhattan traffic, venturing all the way to the South Street Seaport in order to have lunch with Rosemarie’s sister, Melissa.  Though the drive was a bit stressful, it was the parking that nearly did me in. Fortunately we stumbled across a very short pay spot after circling several blocks, and we reaped the advantage of having a car less than 12′ in length.  With Rosemarie providing exterior guidance, we were able to parallel park with only four or five back and forth moves.

Melissa took us to her favorite pizzaria in the area, which was the primary thing we wanted in the city.  We had an hour or two of catching up with her before we needed to head out and pick up Maria and KayKay.  The short drive took us an hour due to the usual Manhattan traffic, but we scooped them up and fled across the Triborough Bridge just as rush hour was hitting.  It took us over three hours to get back to the campground, partially due to my having to slow Loki down to about 50 mph the last hour of the drive due to a progressively worsening vibration which I suspected was the result of a deteriorating tire.

We arrived before dark with plenty of time to show Titi and KayKay the park, especially the lovely lake.  That evening, with adult beverages flowing as fast as the stories, along with a viciously competitive  game of Uno, I am pretty sure we were, for once, the loudest site in the campground.   Despite this, or perhaps because of it, we provided such a positive RV experience for Maria and KayKay that we ended up keeping them an extra night with us once we arrived in Maine, rather than drop them off at Junior’s right away.

The next morning I headed off to the nearest town in search of a tire shop.  The first place wouldn’t even look at the problem until I secured an appointment, which they might be able to provide late that afternoon.  Thank goodness for Kelly’s Tire in Putnam, the second place I checked out.  I would later learn that this family owned business has been around since the 1930’s and in the same location since the 40’s.  They also have the interesting distinction of running a full service gas station at the same price per gallon as the area’s competing self serve places.  Very old school, with the energetic attendant not only pumping the gas, but cleaning the windows, providing dog treats, and checking tire pressure and adding air if requested.  The locals clearly appreciate it; they were running pretty much nonstop while I was there.

After describing my symptoms to the manager he immediately came out to inspect the rubber, having me pull forward slowly to see all sides of each tire.  He spotted the problem right away: two of the tires exhibited an almost serpentine wave to the tread along with some bulging, a sure sign of major tire deterioration and impending failure.  Since I was already running on a very old spare after having run a screw through a sidewall while in Florida, and because all of the originals were nearing at the end of their tread life, I elected to replace four tires instead of two.  Our June budget included paying for one new tire on Serenity already, so now it looks like our July plan to buy a luxury item with our flex money has been overtaken by events.  Ah well.  Kelly’s had me on my way in about an hour.

After returning to camp I found that Rosemarie and crew had the interior of Serenity ready for the road, so after disconnecting services, dumping tanks, and connecting Loki we were on our way towards Maine.  Thanks for a great RV experience, Connecticut, hope to do it again sometime.