We started out the day driving to Manchester, NH, to pick up my favorite sister at the airport who was arriving after a red-eye from Los Angeles to Newark to Manchester. As usual, when we were a bit tardy picking her up, she was grinning away standing in front of the airport where I could easily spot her. We trundled her small bag into Charlotte’s back seat and zipped back up the road to Contoocook. We dropped her luggage at the Invader and continued on to Elkins where even more relatives had materialized for a big dinner at the house Barb and her hubby Riley had set up camp across the road from the main party site. I don’t know the folks who own the house where we went but it was a good ‘un.
Barbara and Riley had us all over to their ample place for Texas barbecue along with a wide selection of other great eats coupled with enough good alcohol for all. It was a tip-top get together without lacking any of the good stuff that makes for great parties. The house is located quite a ways up a steep road and offers a superb view of the lake below. It is my understanding that most of the remainder of the festivities will take place at the lakeshore house which is also a big joint with more bedrooms than I ever needed, two kitchens, a great boat, a handsome and very friendly Doberman named Zach, great shade trees and some very tenacious bugs of a type I could not identify but who found me to be quite tasty. Not surprisingly, the party hosts (and there were a bunch of them) had the foresight to provided an ample supply of bug repellants for common use but the bugs in this area are very tough little buggers and could probably be quite happy dining in a gas chamber.
We got back to Sandy Beach at about 1:00 AM and soon found our way into bed after only a couple more drinks.

Today we gathered up our stuff and left Maine, albeit with some regret. Our journey today took us out of Maine going west into New Hampshire. New Hampshire is another state we have never seen before and the drive there took us through some more really scenic country to our next destination, Sandy Beach Resort in Contoocook. We have no idea who or what a “Contoocook” might be other than a funny-sounding word.
On our way to the campground from I-89, we noticed some very healthy looking wild turkeys lurking in a hayfield of a place called Breakwind Farm. No kidding. Our Garmin then directed us a little bit further up the road and instructed us to turn right over a listing, closed covered wooden bridge with a maximum overhead clearance of 9′-9″, substantially less than required for our 12′-10″ high Barbarian Invader by Forest River. Phone service with our lousy Sprint provider was not available according to the number of bars on the display but we were able to contact the campground with it anyway and given a detour which promptly got us to our destination. We pulled into Sandy Beach, which really does not have much of a sandy beach, and found we had been assigned a campsite which was graded in such a way that setting up our Invader level would have been almost impossible. Peg hopped out and walked back to the office where they stated that we could take any available site we wanted so we moved into G-16 and set up for a 5 day stay. Despite our initial difficulties, we found the campground to be quite pleasant with full hook-ups, nice interior roads, cable TV but crummy wi-fi. Campsites are located quite a ways apart from each other in a large stand of mixed conifer and hardwood mature timber.
We very possibly would not have come to this place at all if it had not been for my aunt’s 90th birthday celebration scheduled by her relatives for July 11 in Elkins, NH, about 25 miles up the road from our campground. Her birthday is actually September 13 but nobody seemed to notice. I think they chose this weekend because all possible participants could arrange to be here in the summer more easily than in September after the kids go back to school. We got the Barbarian Invader all squared away and re-boarded Charlotte to head to Elkins. I have only seen my aunt and one (or maybe more) of her offspring once previously – Elly the aunt (and maybe some others who my defective memory has disregarded) in San Diego in about 1985 and Kathy my cousin in San Francisco in about 1983.
There were a bunch of relatives either already here or soon to arrive. In addition to Elly, all four of her kids (Kathy, Barbara, Walt and Amy) were at the party venue along with their spouses, children, children of children and assorted other cronies. These folks, much to our delight, love to party. They serve excellent food of many varieties and they attach no stigma to drinking. What a great crowd. Were we ever glad we were fortunate enough to be invited to this four day event which provides not only great food and drink but also ample opportunity to hob-nob with folks we wish we had been introduced to much sooner in life.

Today we went exploring in Portland, ME. Portland is a city with gorgeous architecture, a beautiful waterfront, great views to the Atlantic, a good Trader Joe’s and probably the most lucky pedestrians in the world. Folks here do a lot of walking in the streets, maybe because the downtown area is quite small and getting around does not require much strolling. However, they are very bold when stepping out into the road, assuming the drivers of the cars will follow Maine laws and stop for them. They would all certainly be dead in minutes in California where disregard for pedestrians is rampant. Maine laws allow pedestrians all the crossing rights of royalty and boldly wandering out in front of cars, some with dullards at the wheel, seems to be the norm.
All this wandering about by pedestrians creates almost gridlock-like conditions on the streets, particularly on the waterfront where an entire vacation could be spent traversing six blocks of their narrow, potholed streets where parking in the left turn lane and median seems to be de rigeur. We only made one pass through town because two passes would have prevented us from departing Maine on schedule.
The buildings in Portland are primarily beautiful old brick structures with fanciful architectural highlights and we found them to be quite stunning. There is some kind of big block-like building in the middle of the bay in Portland that we did not explore, maybe because we could not get there by driving within our lifetime.
All the folks in the waterfront area seemed to be having a great time wandering around and blocking efficient traffic flow and, if we had more time and been able to find some of the non-existent parking, we might have joined them in their endeavors. There are a bunch of craft breweries right down on the waterfront and I spotted at least one distillery which makes me believe there is not the same stigma attached to drinking here that one might find in, say, California where drinking is stupidly considered to be unnatural, illegal and quite possibly expensive. California is a remarkable environment for laws that are inconsistent with reality. From my ignorant observations of humanity I have found that almost all people, except those in strange Muslim countries and backward Utah, like to occasionally have a drink without the threat of being incarcerated, beat up by the police and booty-raped by large inmates. It would seem that Maine has transcended idiotic drinking laws like one would find elsewhere. Fireworks are also legal here. I like this state.

We hooked Charlotte to the Barbarian Invader and departed Mt. Desert Island headed west across Maine. It is the first time we have gone mostly west since we started this leg of our trip back on December 28, 2014. We have gone as far north and east as we will go on this particular leg of our journeys through the U.S.A. so I guess we can look at the next few months as a return to our residence in San Diego, CA. I am not real sure that makes me happy because I have found I like the exploring lifestyle although when I get back to San Diego I will get to see my kids which will be great.
We took the Maine Turnpike all the way back to the area around Portland where we exited the freeway and wandered down a short series of roads to our camping spot at a place called Wassamki Springs. There are not a lot of RV parks in Maine and they are substantially more expensive than those in other states and this park was no exception. The park has full hookups, crummy wi-fi and adequate cable TV, a big artificial pond, fair roads and ample suckers filling the available spaces while parting with their hard-earned dollars. It was about a four-and-a-half or five hour drive to get here so we spent the afternoon resting up and loafing.
Fortunately, we had an ample supply of beer which we attempted to reduce somewhat.

Most of the folks who have come to Mt. Acadia for the 4th of July weekend are bundling up all their stuff and their remaining fireworks and departing the area. It is tragic for us, yuk yuk yuk. We loaded our ancient bodies into Charlotte and took off on what would be our last day of sightseeing in this magnificent place.
We used our handy-dandy Federal access pass for the fourth time in as many days and entered Mt. Acadia NP to drive again to the top of Cadillac Mountain to survey the 360 degree view of the Maine coast. The weather was very cooperative and the views were almost endless. Our subsequent route was pretty chaotic with some of the drive on the coastline of Mt. Desert Island and the remainder crisscrossing the interior.
If I have my way, every time I get close to this portion of the U.S. I will visit this extraordinarily scenic and beautiful venue. The scenery changes dynamically as the light changes, clouds pass over and we find new pathways around the island, much to our delight.
Regrettably, we were obliged to spend the rest of the day prepping for our departure tomorrow but we were able to take a short break during which we popped over to the local lobster joint for a farewell trip to the trough for shellfish that were dumb enough to stumble into some lobsterman’s trap. Too bad for the lobsters. They were very tasty.

Happy 4th of July.
Today we elected to go somewhere other than Bar Harbor because we noted as we left our campground that there was a steady stream of traffic on the highway headed in that direction. We are sure Bar Harbor has nice fireworks but we are also not fans of seething, squished masses of tourists awed by chemistry while crowded into small spaces.
We chose instead to explore the Schoodic Peninsula which is a portion of Mt. Acadia NP that exists on the mainland of Maine, pun unintended. This portion of Acadia is primeval and surprisingly uncrowded so we were able to drive there almost without seeing oncoming traffic. It was a cloudy day during our visit and the thick forest cover on the peninsula created dark, mysterious conditions that were delightful. The ground is covered with ferns, moss and lichens such that the soil is not visible. Large outcroppings of granite and basalt dot the landscapes and, since the place is a peninsula, the ocean is the view on the other side of the road. There are lots of birds, including an eagle we spotted on the rocky shoreline that was being harassed by seagulls who apparently found the eagle’s presence uncomfortable.
At the end of the peninsula are a series of small parking areas and pull-outs so folks can get out of their cars and explore the shoreline. The views are stunning. Mount Desert Island, the home of Mt. Acadia NP, is plainly visible across the strait and provides a spectacular backdrop to the turbulent ocean in the foreground.
We believe we made the correct destination choice today and we were fortunate not to have to spend the day with masses of the easily impressed. Schoodic Peninsula is truly magnificent but only very few folks seem to be aware that Mt. Acadia NP includes this beautiful area. It is not really shown on the official Mt. Acadia NP maps other than as a small detail inset that does not give any clue as to the location of this don’t-miss venue. I wonder if this omission was intentional because nobody seems to go to this place. We recommend a drive through this part of the world to our readers but ask that they don’t tell anybody else about it. This seems like the kind of place easily ruined by overuse.

We got a little earlier start today but it probably made no difference because we basically followed yesterday morning’s course through Mt. Acadia NP except we were bright enough to omit the utterly mind-numbing foray into the vehicle-trapping one-way grid through downtown Bar Harbor. We kept to the loop road followed yesterday along with some side-trips down roads we were not too sure we should follow. Every one of them turned out okay, though. We made another trip to the top of Cadillac Mountain where the weather was again very cooperative by being absolutely clear with the exception of some tiny puffy clouds directly above us. We took another spin through Otter Cove where there is a very sturdy-looking stone bridge passing over stone culverts with a vigorous tidal flow from the upper lagoon to the sea. We stopped in a visitor center for the park that did not have two thousand people rummaging through the merchandise where Peg picked up some artwork postcards of a type we have been able to get in other national parks.
This place is great to visit with amazing views around each bend in the road. You should get used to the idea that you will not be able to maintain a speed much over about 20 miles per hour because there is just too much to see and keeping your eyes on the road is difficult when the surrounding views are so stunning. Our return leg to the campground took only roads we had not traversed the day before and we ultimately ended up back at our new favorite lobster joint at the Trenton Bridge. This time we just ordered lobster and one ear of corn-on-the-cob and the price for the two monsters was less than $40. We pigged out. It was disgusting and we loved every minute of it. We bow our heads to the unfortunate but very tasty brave lobsters who gave their lives for us. We salute them….particularly their meat.

We slept pretty well last night after our wimp-tiring long drive here. We woke up late, took showers, made a big breakfast and then popped into Charlotte for our first Mt. Acadia foray. We got started down Hwy 3 towards Bar Harbor, which is pronounced “BahHAHbuh” by the locals. The road is a nice drive through some wooded areas with little quaint motels alongside the highway. There are several lobster places in case you ever get hungry passing along this stretch of road. The entrance to Mt. Acadia NP is in Hull’s Cove, right before you get into Bar Harbor. We took the Mt. Acadia turn and arrived initially at a visitor center parking lot where every parking space seemed to be filled with cars pointing in all directions. We bravely chickened out and went directly for the loop road.
Despite our initial, ultimately correct selection of the loop road as our route, we stupidly decided on an alternate plan that would allow us to drive into Bar Harbor to drop off an envelope at the post office so the letter could be postmarked as originating in BahHAHbuh and arriving at Peg’s sister’s house with the spiffy postmark. We were idiots. Straying from an original, perfectly sound plan to engage in a whim is not the recipe for success.
We arrived on the very first street in town and were immediately trapped within a one-way grid that has streets entering some blocks as two-way and emerging on the other end as one-way. The roads are very narrow and there are places where you go in but don’t come out. Alongside the substandard sized streets are myriad businesses which sell cleverly-packaged Chinese-made official Maine and Mt. Desert Island curios and souvenirs to the tourists who are not busy clogging the miserable streets with mindless, almost zombie-like meanderings within the traffic non-flow. Even the U.S. Post Office Building downtown has a drive-up U.S. Mail drop box that can only be approached by official USPS vehicles maybe due to the very-real concern that ISIS might blow up a lobster house or post office.
After some spirited discussions about whose fault it was that we were trapped in Hell, we found a road that exited town and we returned to the Mt. Acadia NP loop road vowing never to return to Bar Harbor, at least in the summer. Once back on the loop road, we ascended to the top of Cadillac Mountain, the highest point in Mt. Acadia and maybe all of Maine. This place has absolutely magnificent views 360 degrees around and the surrounding vistas of islands, forests, rocky shorelines, the sea and inland lakes is stunning. Parking, however, is not too available because of the volume of visitors so we ended up parking in a lot about 300 yards from the top where we ate fruit and nuts and marveled at the views. Weather was very cooperative.
Descending Cadillac Mountain, we again picked up the loop road around the east half of the island except where we strayed onto roads that would allow us to skirt the coastline. There are some short sections of sandy beach but I think the most spectacular sections of this place’s coastline is those parts where the multi-colored granite cliffs drop directly into the sea. There are gorgeous stone arch bridges you pass over and under strewn about the roads and most of the roads out here were either one-way loop or uninhabited two-lane blacktop routes to nifty little communities, coves and hidden harbors. There must be a big boating crowd because there are a shitload of boats tied to buoys around the entire island, most of them in little coves with less than 50 boats. Most of the pleasure boats appear to be made of wood and quite pretty. Lots of lobster fishermen are tied up at the spaces in between the nice tourist cruisers. Not a lot of big, ostentatious mega-yachts were noted; mostly just well-made (and I imagine very tough) wood pleasure boats 30 feet or less.
We tried a different lobster joint today called Lunt’s Lobster Pound where Peg got a lobster roll and I went with fried clams and a haddock sandwich. The bill was a bit smaller than the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound but it should have been. The food was certainly nominal but we liked the other joint better.
Just a little travel tidbit here – we started our trip in Charlotte Taylor Wilson, our truck, towing the Barbarian Invader, our fifth wheel trailer, 53 weeks ago. We seem to enjoy it more every day and hope to continue until we can’t do it anymore. We had no idea whether or not we would like this lifestyle when we started this back in June, 2014. Strangely, both Peg and I have found this form of retirement very relaxing and great fun. It is not too expensive if you can keep the camping costs down and we have both seen bucket list grade stuff almost to the point where it is overwhelming. We have been fortunate enough to enjoy the different treasures in 25 states and the District of Columbia in the last year. If we continue according to our extremely hazy projections for the next 5 months, we will visit 14 more states before we return to our home in San Diego for some RV maintenance. This has been great fun so far and we don’t foresee a downturn unless one of us gets real sick or craps out. I hope we get quite a bit more of this because it is terrific.

We pulled stakes at Portsmouth, NH, and bit the bullet and drove up the toll road into Maine. It is I-95 from the NH border to Bangor where we turned off on a secondary road for the last hour before arriving at Mount Desert Island, home to Acadia National Park. It was a long drive for us wimps since we have not had to travel more than about 2 hours from one campsite to another and today’s drive was about 5 hours. Our timing was impeccable because we packed up in the rain, drove all the way here in the rain and arrived at Mount Desert Narrows RV park close to Bar Harbor, ME, in the rain.
Even though this an Encore park and supposedly affiliated with TT, the rates here are high compared with what we have recently paid, mostly because of our TT & RPI memberships. We have recently been paying $0 per night to stay in TT parks and $20 a night for RPI parks, all allegedly part of the TT system. Encore, however, charges $86 per night to normal folks and gives us a discount where we get in for about $49 per night. The good news is that the park is quite nice and we have a drive-through campsite with full hookups and CATV for the price.
The little bit of Mount Desert that we saw on the way in today was gorgeous. Mount Desert is an island with a two-lane causeway back to the mainland about 3 miles from our campsite. Sharp-eyed spouse and crony, Peggy, spotted a lobster joint on our way in and we returned there (Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound) for a couple of lobsters for din-din. This is the joint – lobster is served by the pound, selected live, thrown onto a scale to check his/her weight, inserted into a mesh sack and popped into one of about 6 or 8 big cauldrons full of vigorously boiling water before being retrieved and handed over for dismemberment and consumption. Cooked lobster is $9.95 per pound and we killed a bit under 4 pounds before waddling away happily. The price seemed okay and the lobster was great. I suggest you forgo biscuits but the corn on the cob was tasty. Drinks, both leaded and unleaded, are pricey here so just go with the lobster. BYOB.

This morning we woke up and decided to go on an aimless tour of the surrounding NH countryside. We left the maps at home and took off, initially going west. We ended up driving through some absolutely gorgeous rural areas with spectacular New England-style architecture. After a while, we turned north, mostly, and wandered about an hour that direction before heading east towards Portsmouth.
Before we made it to the Portsmouth area we found a terrific rural meat market where we stocked up on steaks, sausage, sliced honey maple turkey, local porter (of course) and some produce before continuing. Delightfully, Peg detected the presence of a Trader Joe’s market on the internet phone and we made another stop there before heading home. Thank God for Trader Joe’s. They have great food at fair prices and, since we are going into the wilds for the next week, we were able to fully stock our larders before going to the land of difficult shopping.