Ending our New England Trip

We’re ending our journey with a visit to our daughter and son-in-law in the Chapel Hill area.


We are keeping our rig at a great campground, Spring Hill RV, in Chapel Hill.


Our daughter has been dealing with our bills and mail and has done a great job making sure that we aren’t evicted, have water and electric etc, when we get home (they get funny when you don’t pay the bills)


8/31/2010


We’re now back home and our trip has lasted nearly 80 days.


One of our followers asked us to “post the stats” of our trip…some of you may find this of interest


Trip Stats


We stayed in 11 states


We drove through 13 states


We put 3193 miles on the coach


And 2848 miles on the “toad”


For a total of 6041 miles


We stayed in 18 campgrounds


We took 8544 pictures (yes we were snap happy..aren’t you glad we didn’t post them all)


The Trip


During the trip we were fortunate enough to have visited many friends and family and had a wonderful time.


We visited many places and have been asked what was our favorite….


We have not been able to come up with a single city or place…but here are some of our favorites:


Ride in a glider/sailplane…was the first time and a superb experience.


Ride in an open cockpit Bi-Plane; always wanted to do it, and finally had a chance


The “basin” a natural series of pools in crystal clear waters of Mt. Washington, NH


Luray Caverns; as beautiful as we remembered them from 40 years ago


Bar Harbor, Acadia “loop road”; every turn in the road produced a great vista


Blue Ridge Parkway;without question on of the most beautiful roads we’ve driven on….just spectacular.


Mt. Battie, near Camden, ME; a 360 degree view of the beautiful Maine coast


Delaware Valley Gap; Surprisingly beautiful area near some major urban areas in NY and NJ


Kennebunkport, the Porpoise Point, Ramp Bar; an unexpected stop at a bar and restaurant with a great view, great food and we met a fantastic couple


Ft. Ticonderoga, NY; a great fort, made even better by a surprise, hundreds of people reenactment


But most of all we enjoyed the people we met and the family and friends we got to spend time with .




Who would have believed that this couple from 1969 would be semi-responsible citizens, driving around in a bus….wait a minute in 1969 everyone wanted to be driving a VW bus painted with Psychedelic colors…we just have a bigger bus and more subdued colors.


 


Thanks to all of you who have followed our trip and for the kind comments you have made.


Next trip….out West……


Paul and Maryellen

New York and PA

We visited Mohonk house in upstate NY…what an amazing place that looks just like it must have looked at the turn of the century. The estate is massive and from the gate to the hotel is more than a mile.


We didn’t get a chance to hike, but we understand the hiking there is great.

We then went to Bucks County, PA to visit our friends Randy and Debbie. We parked the “beast” in their driveway and stayed in their newly remodeled guest room that was like a 5 star hotel….they are lucky that we didn’t stay longer.

They are terrific hosts and took us to a bar and restaurant that they knew we would love…and they were right. Next day they took us on a tour of the area which is rural and beautiful. We saw 7 covered bridges, lots of farm animals and pretty countryside. We also saw the amazing Mercer Museum and Moravian Tile works. This building is made up entirely of cement!

 A great trip!
(More pix in the latest pictures area)

We're in Fancy Gap VA, on the Blue Ridge Parkway...but the weather is not cooperating...rain and fog. So we're heading to Chapel Hill, NC tomorrow to visit our daughter and son-in-law and then head home next week.

We've been gone approaching 3 months and Maryellen says she's out of underwear so we have to go home.

Paul and Maryellen

Taking the sloooow Trek back home

We've not posted in a while as we've been spending time with friends and family in the town where we grew up in Massachusetts.
It was great catching up and spending time with everyone.

We've started going south, and will stop along the way in PA to visit some friends, then a few more stops along the way, to the Raleigh area, then on home in a couple of weeks.

We have a new camera to replace the pocket sized one we had that was ruined when someone went swimming with it in his swimsuit pocket. The new camera has built in GPS, which captures where we are and links to Google earth. It also has a panorama feature that we are going to try out soon.

The first pictures I took were from a plane at 35000 feet flying over the West (I had a short trip to LA last week) The pictures are good, considering the distance and atmospheric distortion, but not fantastic. However, if you click on them, it will bring you to another page which shows a Google map of where it was taken....cool stuff.

More postings to follow...

Best
Paul and Maryellen

Ending our Maine Trip

We’ve been a little slack in our posting as we’ve had marginal internet and we’ve been busy sightseeing and going around from early to late.


In Camden we went to the top of Mount Battie, which has a 360 degree view of Camden, Camden Harbor and views all the way to Cadillac mountain in Bar Harbor, which is many miles away


On Sunday we found this neat little restaurant, right on the water with excellent food. We sat outside in some Adirondack chairs, right on the dock, and met a nice couple from Ipswich Mass. Spent the afternoon in the sun, sipping some adult beverages and then having seafood for dinner.
Today we spent time in Ogunquit walking along the "Marginal Way"....it's a 1.5 walk right along the water with cliffs and crashing waves.


 
We posted some additional pictures in the “Latest Pictures” album.


We're heading out tomorrow morning after a great trip to quite a few places in Maine. We have spent the last 4 days in the Kennebunkport/Ogunquit area and we had nearly perfect weather and saw even more beautiful Maine scenery. It is such a beautiful state.

We're heading to Massachusetts to visit family and friends and then resuming our trip south sometime toward the latter part of August

Kennebunkport

Location:Pier Rd,Kennebunkport,United States

Leaving Bar Harbor

Today we left the Bar Harbor area after 8 fantastic days.

The last couple of days we roamed around Acadia on the “loop road” and the scenery was amazing on nearly the entire route. It reminds us of the Blue Ridge Parkway in some ways as it winds its way through small mountains…but with the addition of ocean vistas, with rocky beaches and cliffs.

Yesterday we went on a lobster boat tour, in a 44’ lobster boat, saw some seals, dolphin and more amazing scenery. It was a fun time. After the trip we met a nice couple from Canada and we spent the night being with them. An added bonus was that Woody played guitar quite well and entertained us.


We have arrived at another nice area, Searsport Maine, and we’re very happy with the campsite we have, very near to the water with bay views.

This might surprise you....we have been seeing so many things, we've taken more than 2500 pictures....we need a bigger disk.

Paul and Maryellen

Searsport, ME

Campground in Searsport, ME

Location:Banks Terrace,Searsport,United States

Bar Harbor Fun

We've been really enjoying ourselves in Bar Harbor. It is truly a beautiful place with lots to do.

Our RV site is right on the water and we have a great view of a bay, other islands and lots of wildlife.

Maryellen's brother Kevin, visited us for a day and overnight, and we had a fun time going to Bar Harbor and all of the small towns the area. Kevin worked in Bar Harbor for 7 years so he was a great tour guide.We went to the top of Cadillac Mountain, which is beautiful.

While riding around, we saw two beaver building a dam...they let us get very close and seemed not to be bothered by us being there.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) there is a brewery about a mile away from where we're staying and we had to sample what they had. We also brought some back with us to sample further, but for some reason there are none left. We had fun.

Yesterday, we decided to go for a scenic plane ride around Bar Harbor and ended up going up in a glider and soaring around BH!

It was unbelievably cool! We were towed up one mile and then the tethering rope was disengaged and we were off gliding like a bird.

It was a clear day and we could see 100’s of islands. We enjoyed it so much that 3 hours later we went up in a biplane! The biplane was great but the glider was awesome!

This is the towplane just getting ready to release us....

 

The Bi-plane..we sat in the front...open cockpit.

View from the Bi-plane

Lastly, I made some changes to the blog and have a new section called "Latest Pictures" so you don't have to scroll through too many to see the newest additions.

We're here in Bar Harbor until Tuesday, but we're not sure where we're going next...yet.

Best,

Paul and Maryellen

Heaven in Maine

We just arrived in Bar Harbor after a FANTASTIC weekend with our good friends John and Mardy, who invited us to spend time with them at their lake camp in Maine. We had a great time on the water, swimming, kayaking, boating and  meeting their grandchildren. This is one of the nicest families you could hope to spend time with. They have done a great job bringing up their kids, who in turn have done a great job bringing up their children.
They live in an idyllic area with hills and mountains and many lakes...just beautiful.
We also enjoyed catching up on each others' lives since we were last together in Maine about 18 months ago.
What a great trip!

Leaving NH

We’re packing up today (Friday, July 16th) to leave the White Mountain area of NH.




We’ve really enjoyed being here despite the nearly-South-Carolina-like temperatures. This is a pretty part of the country with lakes and streams and mountains around nearly every corner.



We found lots of fresh fruits and vegetables as many crops are just beginning to be ready….about 2+ months behind South Carolina. We found some great little restaurants and places with the help of our new best traveling friends…Yelp, Trip Advisor and Where. We have found these iphone tools indispensible in helping us find out of the way and special places. The great thing about them is that they consist of reviews from everyday people who describe what they like and don’t like.



Of course we took LOTS of pictures. Between the 2 SLR’s, our pocket camera, video camera and two iphones we are almost paparazzi….



This morning we’re headed out to Maine, initially to visit some great old friends and then early next week over to Bah HaahBa Maine.



We’re looking forward to being on the water and visiting places like Acadia and Cadillac mountain.

Mount Washington 2

Continuing...

Mount Washington Hotel...amazing.....

Maryellen at the top (if you look closely, she's giving me the finger)

The cog trainA mountain lake

We decided to have the moose we hit, stuffed... It didn't quite fit in the motorhome, so we donated it to a store.

That's all for now...the poor internet service is giving me fits...

All the best

Paul and Maryellen

Mount Washington

We have been in the Mount Washington area for nearly a week, but we've had limited phone and email.....so a big update tonight.

What a beautiful area! Vistas around every corner. We love the many rocky streams with COLD water passing barely over rocks rounded by many years of exposure to the constant flow of water. They are also very SLIPPERY and it's easy to suddenly drop into the water unexpectedly.

To the left is a photo of the longest covered bridge in NH. It's very neat, but amazingly still in daily use.
We have uploaded a few more shots in the "Slideshow" at the top of the blog. By the way, it may be easier to view pix by clicking on the symbol in the lower right hand corner which will bring you to Picasa and you can move around, skip and such much quicker. Please let me know if things are running too slowly for you...I may have to make some changes.





Have you ever seen the movie Jeepers Creepers? If not, you won't recognize this truck...if you have....we ran across this old truck in the middle of the woods...too much like the one the crazy guy had in the movie....
We took the cog railway up to the top of Mount Washington, the highest peak on the East Coast at 6288 feet. The cog railway is pretty unique in that it uses a cog/chainlike system to pull you up and bring you down the very steep slope of the mountain. A fun and enjoyable trip.

Having trouble with this update so will continue in another...

Stout

Some fresh brewed stout....some of the best I've had.

Location:School St,Littleton,United States

Covered bridge

Cog railway

Shot of the Cog Railway in Mount Washington, NH. Fun ride....

Location:Base Station Rd,Thompson and Meserves,United States

Mw

Location:Mt Washington Auto Rd,Sargents,United States

Mt. Washington

Top of mt wash

Ascutney, Vermont

We made an unplanned stop in Ascutney, VT on Wednesday evening. It turned out we had plenty to do and had a very nice visit. Last evening we ate at a local restaurant that was in a beautifully refurbished mill. The supporting beams were huge squares e.g. 16-18" of Chestnut and Ash.
Today (Thursday) we took a drive to near the top of Mount Ascutney, and then on a whim decided to take a hike to the top (3168'). The hike was challenging, but beautiful, and the temperature at that altitude was about 75...much better than the 95 degree heat we've been having in VT alll week. The top of the mountain was encased in fog and mist, so we never saw the view, but we remember it as beautiful when we were there 40 years ago....yes 1970....we had a lot of fun remembering.

Today (Thursday) we took a drive to near the top of Mount Ascutney, and then on a whim decided to take a hike to the top (3168'). The hike was challenging, but beautiful, and the temperature at that altitude was about 75...much better than the 95 degree heat we've been having in VT alll week. The top of the mountain was encased in fog and mist, so we never saw the view, but we remember it as beautiful when we were there 40 years ago....yes 1970....we had a lot of fun remembering.


After the hike, we decided we needed some food and refreshments so we decided to visit the Long Trail Brewery, who make some great beers and some great chili.

On the way there we saw a great old covered bridge and there is a video posted of when we went through it.

Following that, we went to Woodstock, VT, a cute little town that had some of the best ice cream we've had in a long while. It was all made on site, in small batches, and in true Vermont style, all organic.

Lastly, we followed the recommendations of a family we met while hiking to visit a butcher shop near where we're staying. This unassuming looking place had some great meats at very inexpensive prices. According to the family we met, the "marinated steak tips alone are worth the trip" and they are from Southern, MA.

We'll let you know how they are.



Tomorrow we break camp and head for the White Mountains....we think....
Bye for now.

Long trail Brewery

We stocked up for the weekend

Location:U.S. 4,Bridgewater,United States

FW: [Motorhome Journey] Great time on Lake Champlain

Hello all,

We’ve been having too much fun to post much…there’s a new post and more pictures in the slide show.

 

Enjoy.

 

Paul and Maryellen

 

www.Motorhomejourney.com

 

We've been at Lake Champlain since last Tuesday and are having a great time in the area. The campground where we are staying is right on the lake and we have a great view. More important, though, is that it's filled with the friendliest people we have encountered thus far on our trips. There are about a dozen seasonal folks here who all seem to want to make everyone welcome and go out of their way to offer help and assistance.

In the "what are the odds of that" category, 3 sites down from us are a couple we know from Beaufort, SC...out of the hundreds of campgrounds in the area, and thousands in the country, they just happened to be here at the same time as us.....it is a small world.

The Lake Champlain and Burlington area are some of the prettiest areas we've seen. Every road has farms, and hills and mountains....just one vista after another.
The city of Burlington is unique. It's kind of a throwback to the sixties, with a touch of the 70's and 80's. There are 60+ year old people who appear to be original "hippies" and there are more tattoo's per person than just about anywhere we've been.
Bike riding is a passion and there are many bike paths and riders are treated with care and given safe places to ride. It's a great place to have a bike and we've really enjoyed having them with us. (Maryellen keeps making noises about getting an electric bike, but I'm not listening....)

Since our site faces West, the sunsets each night are spectacular.

Yesterday (Saturday the third of July) was a great day. A nice couple from the area, who stay at the campground for the season, invited us out to breakfast at a great diner....and we had a BIG breakfast...so big that we skipped lunch and had a light dinner since we were not even hungry. We followed that with a visit to a local farmer's market where we got some FRESH vegetables and bread. We were surprised how good fresh potatoes were and we don't think we ever had any that had just been harvested before....they were delicious and needed nothing on them to taste great.
We came back to the campground and Paul was in heaven as Phred, one of the campers was a great guitarist and we played outdoors for hours until our fingers couldn't take anymore.
After that a big group get together at the water to watch the sunset, then fireworks.
To cap off the day, we met an amateur astronomer (and bass guitar player) who knew a tremendous amount about planets, constellations and stars. We had a great time just looking at the stars. Coincidentally, he knew John Hunter, the bass player in our old band (T.H. Rhode) from 30 years ago...

A truly great day. We may stay here a little longer.......

Paul and Maryellen

--
Posted By paulb4333 to Motorhome Journey at 7/04/2010 07:17:00 AM

Great time on Lake Champlain

We've been at Lake Champlain since last Tuesday and are having a great time in the area. The campground where we are staying is right on the lake and we have a great view. More important, though, is that it's filled with the friendliest people we have encountered thus far on our trips. There are about a dozen seasonal folks here who all seem to want to make everyone welcome and go out of their way to offer help and assistance.

In the "what are the odds of that" category, 3 sites down from us are a couple we know from Beaufort, SC...out of the hundreds of campgrounds in the area, and thousands in the country, they just happened to be here at the same time as us.....it is a small world.

The Lake Champlain and Burlington area are some of the prettiest areas we've seen. Every road has farms, and hills and mountains....just one vista after another.
The city of Burlington is unique. It's kind of a throwback to the sixties, with a touch of the 70's and 80's. There are 60+ year old people who appear to be original "hippies" and there are more tattoo's per person than just about anywhere we've been.
Bike riding is a passion and there are many bike paths and riders are treated with care and given safe places to ride. It's a great place to have a bike and we've really enjoyed having them with us. (Maryellen keeps making noises about getting an electric bike, but I'm not listening....)

Since our site faces West, the sunsets each night are spectacular.

Yesterday (Saturday the third of July) was a great day. A nice couple from the area, who stay at the campground for the season, invited us out to breakfast at a great diner....and we had a BIG breakfast...so big that we skipped lunch and had a light dinner since we were not even hungry. We followed that with a visit to a local farmer's market where we got some FRESH vegetables and bread. We were surprised how good fresh potatoes were and we don't think we ever had any that had just been harvested before....they were delicious and needed nothing on them to taste great.
We came back to the campground and Paul was in heaven as Phred, one of the campers was a great guitarist and we played outdoors for hours until our fingers couldn't take anymore.
After that a big group got together at the water to watch the sunset, then fireworks.
To cap off the day, we met an amateur astronomer (and bass guitar player) who knew a tremendous amount about planets, constellations and stars. We had a great time just looking at the stars. Coincidentally, he knew John Hunter, the bass player in our old band (T.H. Rhode) from 30 years ago...

A truly great day. We may stay here a little longer.......

Paul and Maryellen