The Nomadic Life

We thoroughly enjoyed Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor Campground and the friends we had made here and would have loved to have stayed a few more days.  However, the leaves are beginning to turn and we plan to be in New Hampshire when the colors are at their peak, so it was time to move on.

We’re near Bangor, Maine, now, at a Walmart parking lot with no less than ten other RVs here too.

What’s Paul Bunyan doing here?  Apparently Bangor claims to be the birthplace of the logging industry and so that means the birthplace of Paul Bunyan too.  This one is “Reputed to be the largest statue of Paul Bunyan in the world.”  It’s 31′ or 37′ tall depending on whether or not you include the pedestal he stands on.  Hmm, I wonder what Minnesota has to say about this.

Paul Bunyan

Stephen King lives here.  We stopped by to say hello but he didn’t answer the door.  I guess he wasn’t home.

Stephen King’s House

Bangor is smaller than I thought.  The population is only around 33,000.

Bangor, Maine

So much for the ocean view.  It rained during the night and now this morning  it was very foggy.

Morning View

We drove to Bar Harbor anyway, hoping the sun would come out.

Fog

It wasn’t long and suddenly it appeared!  The sun! yay! We could see there was a cruise ship in the harbor.

Finally the Sun Comes Out

It looked like it was going to be another beautiful day after all.  So, we decided to take a trolley tour of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.  The tour included a trip to Mt. Cadillac.  We were excited to see some spectacular views from up there.  As we were going up I could catch glimpses of amazing scenery.  And when I stepped off the trolley I could see the fog was rolling in.  It arrived so quickly, by the time I walked down the sidewalk to the viewing area it was completely gone!  Just that fast!  And then an apologetic rainbow appeared.

Mountain View?

Back at the bottom the fog was gone (go figure).

Nice

Acadia is a beautiful park.  We set out today to begin exploring it.  Unfortunately we will only be here a few days as we want to head to New Hampshire to catch the fall colors over there and it’s getting near that time.  There is so much to see and so many trails to hike we could easily spend a week here.

Sand Beach

In one of the parking lots we ran across these old cars.  That was unexpected treat.  They had been to a car show earlier in the day.

Old Cars

One of our stops was called Thunder Hole.  There is a little cave down by the water that when a wave enters it splashes back and makes a good “whoof” sound.

At Thunder Hole

Acadia National Park

There was a group of about a dozen rock climbers doing their thing.  We watched them for a while.

Rock Climbers

After walking along the shoreline for we moved inland.  In addition to the 130 miles of hiking trails there are about 45 miles of carriage roads in the park.  These were constructed by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and family.  He wanted to see the park via horse and carriage with no motor-cars allowed.  Now the trails are mainly used by bicyclists and hikers and some horses.  There are still carriage rides available, but we didn’t see any.  You can bring your own horse here, there is a boarding stable for you. We didn’t see any horses either.

Carriage Road

When we returned home it rained for a while and then a double rainbow appeared in front of us.  Nice 🙂

Double Rainbow

We left Camden Hills State Park this morning for Bar Harbor Campground near Acadia National Park, landing a sweet spot with an ocean view.

Bar Harbor Campground

Cruise ships dock in Bar Harbor, but there were none scheduled for today so we went to see the city.  It’s another nice little tourist town with all the gift shops and restaurants and when the cruise ships come to these places they get crowded.

Bernie and a Whale

There is a pathway that runs about a mile along the ocean’s edge (named the Shore Path) that has been there for 100 years.  The weather was perfect and we enjoyed some great views while we walked it.

The Path

Bar Harbor

Ice Cream Anyone?

I had to take a picture of this Route 66 Seafood Restaurant.  I don’t think Route 66 ran through Main.  I’m sure it was interesting, but we did not go inside.

A Route 66 Seafood Restaurant

We ate at a place called the Lazy Lobster and shared a lobster, lobster bisque, and blueberry pie.

Lobster on a Paper Plate

Of course we just had to purchase blueberry beer.

Blueberry Beers

There was a colorful sunset tonight.  Even though the sun set in the west, this was the view to the east.

Colors at Sunset

The campground neighbors we had last night at Camden Woods are our neighbors again here at Bar Harbor.  They had a load of pallet wood for burning and we spent the evening sitting around the fire with them.

Fire

The rain stopped late this morning so we decided to go back to Camden and explore it some more.  It’s a small town, only about 5,000+ but it’s a big tourist town.  We found this lobster sculpture in Rockland, the sign says it’s the world’s largest lobster.

World’s Largest Lobster

A river runs through it.  It’s the Megunticoot River, and the town is literally built on it.

A Shop On The River

The Megunticook River in Camden

This little footbridge goes over the river and leads to the Camden Riverhouse Hotel.

Camden Riverhouse Hotel Footbridge

And then the river goes underneath a shop on Main Street, under the street, and under a shop on the other side where they have a little deck that overlooks the water as it exits and runs down into the harbor.  This is not specifically the town’s claim to fame, but we just thought it was interesting.

Downtown Camden, Maine

Moxie is a cola, similar to Coke, but not as sweet and slightly bitter.  Honestly, it’s not all that good in my opinion.  It is one of the first mass-produced soft drinks in the country and it’s Maine’s official soft drink. The town of Lisbon Falls has a Moxie Festival every year in July. Too bad we missed that.

Moxie

You may have noticed I’ve changed the name of the blog.  The previous name was really boring and I thought it was time for a new one.

Rain is in the forecast for tonight so we set out early this morning for a hike to Mount Megunticook, the highest mainland mountain on the Atlantic coast (elevation 1385′).  They rank their hiking trails as easy, moderate, or strenuous and the one mile long trail we hiked was designated as moderate, and should take one hour to hike it.  It took us more like 1.5 hours to do it and it wasn’t easy for us old people, but it was worth it.

Mountain Stream

The view from the top was spectacular. Too bad the leaves haven’t changed to their fall colors yet.

View from Top of Mount Megunticook

More View from Top of Mount Megunticook

After returning home and resting for a bit we drove the car to the town of Camden to have a look around.  We walked down by the harbor and saw lots of different kinds of boats, lots of sailboats.  You can take a two-hour cruise on a 57-foot windjammer for $38 if you like.  It was tempting, but we knew the rain would be here soon.

Camden Harbor

Blueberry “Pop”, not soda!  How about that.  And I thought “pop” was a Minnesota thing.

Blueberry “Pop”

Camden is another restored old town with some great local gift shops and restaurants.  After walking around for a while we arrived home just in time for the rain to begin.  It’s supposed to rain all night and get windy.  Hopefully it won’t be all that bad. We paid for one more day, so we’ll be here until Thursday morning.

We had spent the last two nights in a Walmart parking lot, but we’re ready for a break from that, so we have moved further up the coast, stopping for a propane fill along the way. This is not a big expense, it was only $3.50 per gallon and our bill was $34.80, but then our gas expense was $100.  ($3.94/gallon).

It’s a beautiful sunny day, a good day for a drive.  It was about a one hour drive up to Camden Hills State Park.  The total fee there for us for two nights comes to $53.50.  These charges can add up, so we try to stay in Walmart lots as often as we can.  Although, we do end up spending money there so either way we pay.

Our Home For The Next Two Nights

Once we got settled in we went for a drive and a hike. Not far from our camp is a walk down to the water which took us to some great views.

Hiking Trail

The Ocean. Actually its Penobscot Bay but I call it the Ocean.

Then we drove to the top of Mount Battie.  Elevation is only 780′ but who cares, the view was amazing.  Too bad the camera just doesn’t do it justice. This is just a fraction of what we could see. No fall colors yet.

View from the top of Mount Battie

There is a tower we climbed up for an even better view.  This was built in 1921 as a memorial to the service rendered by the men & women of Camden in World War I.

Memorial Tower

Camden Hills State Park does have free wi-fi for its customers but they did warn that it was just for email and web browsing.  I got connected up to it but after placing only two pictures onto this blog I was booted out for excessive use of bandwidth.  pfffft

This part of Main has more craggy peninsulas and offshore islands than it does wide sandy beaches.  It does make for some beautiful views.  There are a few roads into the peninsulas where you can find some vacation homes and residential areas.

Bailey Island Bridge, Harpswell, Maine

The plaque near the bridge reads:

“This 1150 ft. bridge is an exceptional engineering solution to meet unusual conditions and is the only one of its type in the world.  Open split Maine granite cribwork permits free flow of swift tidal currents, boat traffic, withstands saltwater exposure and ice floes. Completed in 1928.  Engineer L. N. Edwards.”

Here’s a closeup:

Granite Cribwork Bridge

Lobster Pound

These kinds of places are scattered all around the Maine seashore, they call them Lobster Pounds.  You can buy live lobster here fresh off the boat for the lowest prices.  This place will steam it for you if you want.

We left Falmouth early this morning and went about 10 miles up to Freeport.  The first thing we saw was free RV parking!  OMG! (but not overnight).  In fact I think this whole town is free parking everywhere, including a 500+ parking garage.  How nice to see that after the parking struggles of the last few days.  Since we got there early we had no trouble parking our rig :).

Free RV Parking by LLBean

This is where the L.L.Bean Flagship Store is, plus more than that. They have a whole campus here with several L.L.Bean stores, (a bike store, a camping hunting & fishing store, and a home furnishings store) and restaurants.  L.L.Bean never closes, they don’t even have locks on the doors.  Today they were having an outdoor arts & crafts festival with live music on their campus.

L L Bean

L L Bean, Inc.

Across the street from the L.L.Bean campus is the Freeport Village Station.  This is a two level shopping experience filled with upscale outlet stores, other shops, and restaurants, as well as an L.L.Bean outlet store.

Just down the street is a unique McDonald’s restaurant.  The zoning restrictions in Freeport would not allow them to build their traditional restaurant so they put it in an old Victorian style house.

McDonald’s

Inside McDonald’s

We stopped at When Pigs Fly bread bakery.  mmmm they had around 25 different flavors of old-world artisan breads.  Some free samples too!  We picked out a loaf of Blueberry & Raspberry w/Lemonade bread and a loaf of Baby Spinach, Onion & Garlic Ciabatta and took them home.  We immediately sliced the blueberry loaf and ate some.  It was so good, we went back to the store and bought another one! Good thing I had room in my freezer.  Click here to check out their web site:  www.sendbread.com

When Pigs Fly

I had another (mini) whoopie pie today.  mmmmm, yeah, what can I say… I’m a fan.  I am keeping an eye out for a pumpkin one, can’t wait.

For lunch we ate at Linda Bean’s Maine Kitchen, where I had the lobster stew.  I had never had lobster stew before and this was amazing.  I liked it better than lobster bisque which I have always liked.

Honestly, I don’t know how I am going to get out of Maine without gaining some weight.

Our first stop today was at Fort Allen Park.  We were here before, but came for another look.  There are great views of Portland and the harbor here.  This is where we took the pictures of the cruise ship and the sailboat school the other day.  There is a memorial to the USS Portland, one of the most decorated ships of World War II.  Here is the top of the mast, the bridge sheet and the bell from that ship from when it was decommissioned.  There are other memorials here too, including a 9/11 memorial.

Fort Allen Park

We walked along part of a beautiful paved walk that goes all along the seashore and by that park and down past all the wharves.  It also takes you past the narrow gauge train that you can take for another scenic ride.

The Promenade Walk

Today we decided to take the trolley tour to see the town.  It’s a 90 minute narrated tour for $21 each.  Portland is not as big a city as I thought it was.  It reminds me more of Duluth, Minnesota.  There was no “hop on and hop off” on this tour like we have had on trolley tours in other cities but it did provide us with a feel for the town.  There was only one stop, at Portland Head Lighthouse, where we have already been.  The tour was fun as our driver had a great sense of humor and some good/bad jokes, but the tour itself was mostly big old homes and some old buildings.

Trolley Tour

Another View From The Portland Head Lighthouse Area

It’s hard NOT to eat lobster when you are here.  It’s everywhere.  And you can, if you want to, go down to where the wharf where the lobstermen bring in their catch and buy directly from them.  You can buy a live lobster for $2 or $3 that way.  But I am not going to do that.  We did, however, eat at one of the many restaurants that do serve lobster. (More do than don’t).  This lobster roll was $13.  It was definitely fresh, I could tell when I ate it.

Lobster Roll

You can get lobster bisque, lobster stew, lobster mac&cheese, lobster rolls, steamed lobster, lobster quesedillas, lobster bake, deep-fried lobster, and lobster salad.  That’s just what I’ve seen, but I’m betting there are more creative lobster dishes in some of the restaurants here.

We left Old Orchard Beach this morning and drove up to a Walmart in Falmouth, a suburb of Portland.  One of the first things we saw was a city bus that goes to downtown Portland, so we hopped on and took it to the seaport area.  The visitor information center was easy to find and provided us with ideas of what to see and do.

There are several options for tours and day cruises.  One of the options was to ride along on the mailboat run that goes out to some of the many islands in Casco Bay. It stopped at some of the bigger islands but we had to stay on the boat.  The captain did point out some landmarks along a three hour tour, a three hour tour. We did not see Gilligan.

Mailboat Run

Offloading Freight

Sailboat

A Van Boat?

When we were walking back to the bus stop I saw this sign..I found it amusing, not sure why.

Elderly Pedestrians Crossing

And then we saw this at Walmart…

HERE COMES CHRISTMAS!

This is where we are now, in an RV park that has two names:  Wild Acres Resort and Virginia Park Resort.  Two resorts that merged last year.  It’s a very wooded resort/park and includes park models, RV sites, and tent sites.  We were able to stay here for half price using our Passport America membership discount, but they limit that price for one night only.  We’ll decide tomorrow if we will stay another day or not.

Wild Acres Resort and Virginia Park Resort

Old Orchard Beach is very close to where we are, so we went to have a look.  It is “Maine’s Premier Family Resort”, a community with an amusement park and the usual gift shops and restaurants, an arcade, and including “The Pier” that extends over 500 feet over the Atlantic Ocean.  The Pier has shops, games, eateries, and a bar at the end of it.

The Pier

The crowds are gone and many of the restaurants and the amusement park have shut down until the tourists return in the spring.  Very little traffic.  There are now only a handful of senior citizens walking around and a few families with pre-school aged children.

View of the Amusement Park from the Pier

We walked along the beach for a while and then Peter and a friend joined us for dinner in one of the restaurants there.

39 degrees this morning!  A bit chilly for us, so we ran the furnace for the first time this fall.  It worked fine, thank goodness.  But then the sun came out and things warmed up to around 70 something.

When we were in Portsmouth a lady passing by gave us sample size jars of Maine Blueberry Jam and coupons for Stonewall Kitchen.  It is in York, which was not far from where we are so we went to see it.  This is the Stonewall Kitchen Home Offices, Production Facility, Company Store & Cafe and Cooking school.  We enjoyed samples of many flavors of jams and jellies, sauces and dips, all excellent! But the blueberry was the very best.  Wild blueberries are Maine’s official fruit and many towns here claim to be the blueberry capital, and there are several blueberry festivals.

Marginal Way Walkway

The Marginal Way Scenic Walk in Ogunquit, Maine, is a 1.25 beautiful paved walk along the ocean.  Here are some pictures from our walk:

Marginal Way

Marginal Way

Marginal Way

It was definitely a beautiful walk, nice paved trail, 30 benches to sit on all along the way.  It was well worth seeing.  The only problem is this little town of Ogunquit has very limited parking.  I think there are only 12 free parking spaces in the whole town and our friend, Peter, knew where they were!  We found one! Thanks Peter!  Otherwise, it’s $10 to park.

Pedestrian Only Drawbridge

At the end of the walkway is Perkins Cove, where you can find restaurants, shops, boutiques, candy stores, etc. as well as this pedestrian only drawbridge.

Buoys or Gulls Bathroom Sign

The other end of the walkway is a footbridge to the beach.

Footbridge to the Beach

We met up with Peter at Nubble Lighthouse and watched him work for a while.

Watching Peter Work

We did a little exploring this morning and came across this dock filled with lobster traps.  There was a restaurant right there too, but it was too early and they weren’t open.

Lobster Traps

Restaurant Decor. Notice the boat on the roof.

Whoopie Pie

I’ve been seeing these chocolate sandwich things in stores and restaurants all over the New England area.  They are Whoopie Pies.   They are more like chocolate cake than a cookie, and filled with white fluffy frosting.  This one was delicious!  Very chocolaty.  They are Maine’s official state treat, not to be confused with Maine’s official state dessert, which is Blueberry Pie.  I’ll have to look into that soon.

School Bus Demolition Derby!

I would LOVE to go see a school bus demolition derby!  But this is back in New Hampshire, not the direction we planned to go.  We’ll have to see where we are on Friday and then decide.  It would make for some awesome pictures!

Ocean Park Beach

We found our friend, Peter, who lives in Ocean Park, Maine, and the three of us walked the few blocks from his house to the beach.  Last week this beach was packed with thousands of people.  Peter said this was the best time to visit this area as this is a big tourist hot spot and the summer tourists are gone now and the “leaf people” are not here yet.  However there are some “white panthers” who stay year round.  Then Peter showed us around town to see some “lobsters and mobsters”.

Clambake Seafood Restaurant

We stopped for lunch at the Clambake Seafood Restaurant.  This is a very large restaurant, and set up to efficiently feed hundreds of people.  It was nearly empty when we got there, a lull in business between the summer people and the leaf people.  Good food.

Rocky Shore

Peter is a professional photographer and he took us to some of the places he likes to shoot.  I like how the rocks in this picture look like petrified wood.

Ft. Williams Portland Head Light

Portland Breakwater Light

Celebrity Cruise Ship

We were enjoying watching the little sailboats running around in circles in sailing school when this big cruise ship left port and headed out.

It rained overnight but it was nothing compared to what we’ve been hearing about in the rest of the country.  No tornadoes or high winds  for us (knock on wood).  We left Portsmouth and drove up the coast about an hour to Kennebunkport, Maine.

Downtown Kennebunkport

It’s a small town, only about 6,000 population, but there are several other small towns very close to each other around here.  We walked around downtown and saw some great gift shops and eateries.  This is an old ship building community and there are many big beautiful old captain’s houses in the area.  It’s absolutely beautiful here.

A 45 minute narrated trolley tour took us around town, by some big homes and hotels, and along the seashore to see the sights.

Dark Shadows House

The tour guide said that this house was used in the opening scenes from the old Dark Shadows TV series from the 1960’s.

George H W Bush’s House

Pretty

Another Pretty