July 20 St. Andrews to Alma

Shortly after leaving the St. Andrews, we were treated to dozens of vintage cars and trucks with vintage trailers in tow headed the other way. They were a group who were traveling from Labrador to British Columbia. There were so many that we simply pulled off to the side to watch them go by. Pictures of these vintage rigs? Yep, should have taken some. I plead an extended "Senior Moment".



View St. Andrews to Alma in a larger map

Our destination this day was Fundy National Park. Once we set up camp, we set off to explore. First, we headed into the small town of Alma, just outside the campground. The tide was out and that left the fleet of lobster boats sitting on the bottom of the bay. That was a sight that we just don't get to see in the marinas of the Duluth/Superior harbor!

Photos for this day are here.

Back in the park, we stopped to take the trail to Dickson Falls. The many staircases on the trail lead you to a pretty series of waterfalls reminiscent of waterfalls on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The rocks and trees along the trail were covered in lush blankets of mosses and lichens.

Pointe Wolf, at the end of the road, presented us with another long series of staircases. These stairs lead down to the beach at the head of a small cove. Nancy decided to let Fred take the stairs and bring back a picture or two.

The tide was coming in by the time we returned to Alma. That allowed the boats that had been out on the bay working to come back to the dock to unload their catch. We spent an educational few hours talking with the lobstermen and eating fried clams from the restaurant next to the dock.

Once the boats off-loaded the catch, the men began to load new bait for their traps. The bait they use is mackerel. Some of the mackerel came frozen into large cubes of fish. Some came frozen as individual frozen fish. It turned out that the individual frozen fish were food-grade mackerel that can't find a market in the restaurants and stores.

We noticed a glaring absence of gulls around the docks. That seemed odd, since there was a lot of food around. The gulls in Duluth would be swarming to fight over the pieces of fish that end up on the dock and in the water. We asked the lobstermen how they managed to keep the gulls away. Did they have a particularly effective "gull abatement/eradication" program? "Nope", they said, "The gulls get so much to eat from the tide flats at low tide that they can hardly fly. They're too full to bother coming to the docks."

July 19 - Eastport to St. Andrews, NB

Eastport, Maine, to St. Andrews, New Brunswick


View Eastport to St. Andrews in a larger map

This was a day of unexpected surprises. Is "unexpected surprises" redundant? I don't think so - but that's a discussion for another time and place.

Photos from this day are here.

We left our campsite at Easport and headed for the border crossing at Calais, Maine.

Surprise #1: the folks in Calais pronounce the name of their town "Cal-iss", not "Cal-ay". Hmmm, who knew?

Surprise #2: there are two border crossings between Calais and St. Stephen. Or, to be accurate, the main crossing point between Calais and St. Stephen, and another one between Calais and a tiny suburb named Milltown. Because we took a wrong turn out of the Walmart parking lot in Calais, we missed the main crossing point and found the other one, instead. The Canadian border guard was apparently more used to seeing local folks traveling back and forth to work than folks from Minnesota pulling a small camping trailer. After wishing us a good morning and asking for our passports his first question was "Are you folks lost?" We admitted to the wrong turn at Walmart and he, very graciously, gave us directions to where we wanted to be.

We stopped at the tourist information office in St. Stephen to load up on New Brunswick maps and information. A public library was just across the parking lot from the tourist office. We took our computers there to catch up on e-mail and to download necessary stuff for the new Sony laptop. We followed the library stop with a short stroll around downtown St. Stephen.

Surprise #3: St. Stephen is the home of the Ganong Chocolate factory. While their current factory is located in a new facility on the edge of town, the old factory is a museum. A chocolate museum! The very nominal admission fee includes a walking tour of the factory with displays about its history and the making of fine chocolates and all the chocolate you can eat!! Yes. As you walk through the displays you pass plates and baskets of various and sundry Ganong chocolates set out for your grazing pleasure. The Ganong Chocolate Factory Museum is a dangerous, dangerous place. Beware.

With great effort, we tore ourselves away from the chocolate museum and got back on the road.

Low tide at St. Stephen on the Bay of Fundy

We arrived in St. Andrews in the middle of the afternoon and the skies were threatening rain. Rather than taking a chance of needing to set up the Scamp in rain further down the road, we asked if there was an available spot at the Kiwanis Oceanfront Camping campground. There was, so we stayed. After setting the Scamp, we set out to explore St. Stephen.

Our first stop was Kingsbrae Garden. This gave Fred a much needed opportunity to take a few more flower pictures.

In town, we stopped in many of the shops and galleries. It's too bad that picture-taking in an art gallery is bad form. There were several items that we'd like to have images of since we couldn't afford them. Oh well.

More exploration of the St. Andrews waterfront preceded a fine pizza dinner at restaurant overlooking the harbor. After that, we headed back to the campground where we found...

Surprise #4: the restroom! On our many travels with the Scamp, we have come across a wide variety of restrooms in the parks and campgrounds - from a not usable men's restroom at Mill Creek Campground in Redwoods National Park to spotless restrooms and showers at Searsport Oceanfront Camping. But nothing prepared us for this. The men's restrooms and showers at Kiwanis Oceanfront Camping are tiled in marble. The counter-tops are granite. The showers are granite. The wash basins are glass and stone vessels that sit atop the granite counters. Everything was spotlessly clean. I walked in and just stood there with my jaw dropped. So awestruck, I forgot to take photos!! Nearly forgot what I went in there for, in the first place.

I went to get Nancy to ask her to check out the women's restroom and showers. She did and said "OK, so...what?" "What?", I said, "You're not impressed by all the marble and granite?"

Surprise #5: Turns out, the women's side had tile floors and Formica counter-tops with ordinary sinks and ordinary showers. Clean, to be sure, but not the luxurious appointments the men got. The women did, however, get one more sink than the men. Fair's fair...

july 18 - Seawall to Eastport

After three nights at Acadia National Park, we hitch up the Scamp and head farther east.



View Seawall to Eastport, ME in a larger map

We made it as far as Eastport, Maine.

Photos from this day's travels are here.

Cutler, Maine

Along the way, we crested a hill to find a quiet cove dotted with lobster boats and sailing craft, a small town tucked into the side of the cove, and an island at the mouth of this tranquil piece of water. Unable to help ourselves, we had to stop and take a bunch of pictures. The town is Cutler, Maine.It is quite picturesque. The photos we took do not do the place justice. You should go see it for yourself. Really.

A little farther along, we stopped at the eastern-most lighthouse in the country - West Quoddy Head Lighthouse. The first lighthouse here was built in 1808. The one standing there now was built in 1858. With bold read and white stripes on the lighthouse tower and the red-roofed white keepers cottage, it is easy to understand why this lighthouse shows up in so many pictures of the Maine coast.

Lubec, Maine

Just down the road from the lighthouse is Lubec, Maine. We stopped for a bit to explore the waterfront and the shops. We seem to be seeing more lobster boats the further east we go.

We stopped for the night at Seaview Campgrounds just outside of Eastport, Maine. Once we got registered and set up (more on this in a moment)  we took advantage of the availability of showers and laundry. That was a very good thing!

Getting registered was a tougher process than we had anticipated. It all started when I plunked down my credit card. The gal swiped the card and got the message "Contact Central" instead of the authorization confirmation. Contact central? Central what? Central who? She didn't know. I didn't know. Maybe my card was damaged, so we tried Nancy's. Same thing.

Not knowing what else to do, we thought we should call the credit care customer support line. Guess what? We're so far east that cell phone calls are handled by Canadian cell towers. Our TracFones only work with U.S. towers (and, even then, sometimes not). Our "Where's the nearest landline phone?" query resulted in "Well, there's one pay phone down by the dock in town..." Luckily, we had enough cash to pay for the campsite.

At that pay phone down by the dock, we called the credit card support number. The machine that answered the phone told us that our card was held pending resolution of a large charge made recently. We were asked to verify that the recent charge was legitimate. What recent large charge?...Our laptop purchase the day before. We verified the charge and our credit card was once again un-held. Whew!

For dinner at the cafe at the campground Nancy had the turkey dinner and Fred had the ...wait for it...Lobster Streudel!

On the morrow we head for New Brunswick!!

July 17 - Schoodic Point

Saturday, July 17 - More Acadia National Park

Schoodic Point

A section of Acadia National Park lies remote across Frenchman Bay from the main part of the park on Mount Desert Island. It is on the Schoodic peninsula. We left the Seawall campground in the morning to go explore Schoodic Point. While the point is only a few miles away by water, to get to it by car one must return to the Maine mainland and that makes getting there a day trip.

Along the way, we stopped at the Walmart in Ellsworth, ME, to buy a new laptop computer. The trusty old Toshiba laptop that has traveled with us on many long road trips was overheating so badly that it could not even complete a boot-up procedure before automatically shutting down because it was too hot. With Todd's excellent help via cell phone, we opted to buy a Sony Vaio laptop. Whew - I once again had a working computer and I could off-load pictures from the cameras! I mean, life does have its priorities.


View Schoodic Point in a larger map


We loved the Schoodic Point shore. This was the rock-bound coast of Maine that we had been hoping to see. Huge slabs and boulders of that pink granite. Some of the granite blocks had intrusions of black basalt that created striking patterns. Another plus, this part of the park is not so crowded.




Click on the above slideshow for a larger view.

July 15 - 16, Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, and environs

Thursday, July 15
(Pictures for this day are here.)
Early Thursday morning we packed a picnic breakfast of cereal and milk and parked outside the Seawall Campground contact station. We wanted to be first in line to nab a campsite as soon as one opened up. It took just a couple hours and we got campsite B15 - a prime site. Lucky us!


View Acadia National Park in a larger map

After getting the Scamp set up, we headed out to explore Acadia National Park. We headed north and landed in Bar Harbor just about lunch time. We picked Testa's Restaurant and got a table on the second floor next to a window overlooking the harbor. After lunch, we explored the harbor-front and took a short stroll on the Harbor Path. The food was good. The harbor is picturesque. The town and shops of Bar Harbor, however, are a bit too "touristy" for our tastes. Off to Cadillac Mountain...

The views from the top of Cadillac Mountain are spectacular. A walkway directs you to many viewpoints. Fog rolling in some of the harbors and bays made for scenes you won't see elsewhere. While we were marveling at the views, we began to hear several helicopters approaching. As we watched, three helicopters came in low over the top of the mountain and the viewing areas. They circled the place a couple times and then departed, following the Loop Road south along the shore. They were painted Marine green. That was when we found out that the First Family was due to arrive at Acadia National Park the next day for a short vacation.

Coming down off the mountain, we continued along the Loop Road, which is a one-way road that runs clockwise around the eastern part of the park on Mount Desert Island. On the way, we stopped at the Wild Gardens of Acadia, the Nature Center, the Abbe Museum at Sieur de Monts Spring, and several scenic spots along the shore.

If we ever get back to Acadia National Park, I'd like to either get a bicycle or take a horse drawn carriage on the carriage roads. They are closed to car traffic and there are miles and miles of them through the middle of the park. That means that there is an awful lot that we didn't get to see on this trip.

Friday, July 16
(Pictures for this day are here.)

Taking the advice of the local folk, we spent the day in and around Seawall Campground and the quaint town of Southwest Harbor, just a few miles up the road from the campground. I really like this little town.

We browsed through many of the galleries and shops. We explored the little farmer's market and had an excellent lunch at a small cafe on a quiet side street.

While driving around the back-roads we came upon the trail-head for the Flying Mountain trail. Wanting to work off some of the lunch and needing to do a bit of walking after so many days on the road, Fred took the walk up Flying Mountain. OK, it's only 284 feet high - but it IS called Flying MOUNTAIN! While at the top, I was enjoyed very nice views across Somes Sound and the town of Northeast Harbor. As an added bonus, a sailboat race was under way on the Sound.

We returned to the campground in the late afternoon. Nancy wanted some quiet,  reading time and Fred wanted to walk a bit more. He took a short (one mile) trail near the campground leads to Ship Harbor. Just a quiet little walk with more of the pink Maine granite. A really good way to wind down at the end of the day.

July 13 - 14 - Searsport to Bass Harbor, Maine

Tuesday, July 13, was a day to attend to a few chores.

First up was a trip back to Belfast to get the Odyssey washed and its oil changed. While there, we explored the shops in Belfast and had a spot of lunch at the Dockside Cafe. Nancy ordered a chowder (probably clam), the first of many on this trip. I opted for my first ever Maine lobster roll! The chowder could have used a bit more seasoning. The lobster roll was delicious.

 Our chores and explorations in Belfast completed, we headed back to the Searsport Shores campground to attend to some chores there; namely, laundry. While the laundry was being taken care of, we wandered about the campground, checked e-mail using the campground's free WiFi, walked the beach, and relaxed. Nancy bought a Tilley hat at the camp store. It is one fine hat. It will show up in a photo or two.


View Searsport, ME to Bass Harbor, ME in a larger map


Wednesday morning, we hooked up and headed for the Acadian Peninsula and the Acadia National Park. Our intention was to secure a spot at the Seawall Campground. Seawall was filled, so we had to look elsewhere. Bass Harbor Campground had room and we set up for the night there.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the shore. Pictures from the Bass Harbor Lighthouse and other typical Maine coast scenes are here. One building in Bernard, ME, displayed a collection of lobster trap floats that was particularly impressive. I think that image would make a fine jigsaw puzzle.

Pictures for this blog entry are here.

(Edited 9/23/2010 to add link to photos.)

July 12, 2010 - Umbagog to Searsport

Maine, at last! Maine, at last! It was a long, long road but Maine, at last!


View Umbagog to Searsport in a larger map

Our campsite at Umbagog Lake State Park was just a stone's throw from Maine. Literally! We could have walked to Maine from there.

Maine greeted us with a couple very nice stops in Grafton Notch State Park on Highway 26. One was Moose Cave Trail, where we walked the short trail and learned how that moose most likely got into that cave. The other was Screw Auger Falls, a quite scenic spot. Pictures of these places, as well as those from the rest of this day are here.

We enjoyed these stops for their scenery and natural history, to be sure. But, we also enjoyed the rest they provided from the rough Highway 26 along this western edge of Maine.

We stopped for lunch in Bethel, ME. We picked up a couple sandwiches at The Good Food Store. At this store, I bought my first ever bottle of ginger beer. Wow! That stuff will grow hair on your socks!!

Our first sight of the storied Maine coast was as we entered the town of Belfast. We passed through Belfast toward Searsport. We found a spot for the night at Searsport Shores Ocean Campground. After setting up the Scamp, we headed out to Bucksport, ME, to see a famous bridge.

The bridge over the Penobscot Narrows has the tallest bridge observatory in the world. An elevator to the top delivers you to three stories of glassed-in observation platform. The view is phenomenal and a long, long way down. One gutsy young woman came up on the elevator to see the sights with her boyfriend. She was terrified the whole time - would not leave the security of the cement wall by the elevator.

At the same location as the bridge, we toured the first Fort Knox. The fort is constructed of massive blocks of granite. The history of the fort is interesting, but too long to relate here. For the story, go to the Fort Knox website. If you ever visit this fort, be sure to take a flashlight. The passageways inside the walls of the fort are narrow and very dark and fun to explore.

July 11 - Alburgh, VT to Umbagog Lake State Park, NH

Today we finally stopped to smell a rose or two. Those roses looked an awfully lot like covered bridges and water falls. They didn't smell all that fine, but they were nice to look at.

Leaving the Alburgh RV Resort, we headed east still trying to state as far north as we could and still stay in the US. We did decide to keep to roads that were likely to be paved. We found the roads in Vermont to be well maintained.

The landscape was flatter than we had expected. We had thought that the mountains of southern Vermont would, of course, just continue straight up to the Canadian border. The Green Mountains bend to the east in the northern part of the range. The land between Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains is fairly flat and pastoral. The towns are small and quaint in that typical New England way.

At Enosburg Falls, we stopped at the Bridge of Flowers and Light over the Missisquoi River. The bridge is an abandoned highway bridge that has been restored and re-purposed as a pedestrian bridge and viewing platform for the river and a waterfalls. The falls are unique. They are formed by two cement walls set at a sharp angle to each other. The reason for the walls is to deliver water in the river to a penstock for a small hydro-electric plant.

Pictures of the falls and other stops along this day's drive are here.


View Alburgh to Umbagog in a larger map

The first surprise of the day was covered bridges. The first one we stumbled upon was the Longely Bridge, built in 1863. Not far down the road was the Comstock Bridge built in 1883. Finding covered bridges is fun and dragging the Scamp through one is even more fun.

At the Jay Peak Ski Resort, we stopped for a couple hours so that I could ride the tram to the top of the peak. The peak is tall enough that, had it been a clearer day, we would have been able to see Quebec City. We were now in the Green Mountains and all the roads all the way to the coast are twisty and curvy. Fun for the driver, if tiring; perhaps, not so much fun, at times, for a passenger.

Rounding a huge curve to the right on a steep downhill just after cresting Dixville Notch in New Hampshire, I happened to glance to the left and saw a castle. It sure looked like a Bavarian castle. Turns out, it was a resort - a pretty fancy resort called The Balsams. Unfortunately, I didn't stop and turn around for a closer, better look. Next time we passing by this way, we're stopping. No question.

We set up camp at Umbagog Lake State Park in eastern New Hampshire, just a stone's throw from the Maine border. The lake was quiet and scenic. The campground was kind of rustic. It had the usual amenities but whole place felt like it was stuck in the 1950's.

This night, Nancy did NOT beat Fred at the 3-13 card game. Instead, she demonstrated her superior card skills by beating Fred at the game "Hand and Foot".

July 10 - Mattawa to Alburgh

Samuel De Champlain Provincial Park near Mattawa, Ontario, to Alburgh, Vermont

Another driving day. It was hot. It was humid. Had the Odyssey's A/C on the whole day. Didn't stop for even one photograph. Not one. How lame is that?

Since I've not got a picture to share with you, I'll share a map of the route. I'll do that in two ways:
First, click on this blue text for a map of the route.
Second, I'll embed a bit HTML code that Google claims will display the same map of the route. Here goes...

View Mattawa to Alburgh in a larger map

Well, that wasn't exactly what I expected. But, if you click and drag on the inset map so that New York state and eastern Ontario show up, you'll see a couple blue balloons with with a squiggly line between. That's the route we took on this day.

The day's drive was pretty uneventful. The section of Canada Route 417 through Ottawa is a major multi-lane highway that goes pretty close to the heart of Ottawa. Lots of traffic. Lots of merging and weaving. Only a couple hairy moments.

We crossed into the US at Corwall. The bridge across the river there is privately owned! Hence, a toll. The bridge is also one of the strangest bridges I have ever driven on. And not strange in a good way. I have been able to isolate the memory of that bridge so far back in the closets of my memory that I am now unable to describe it to you. You should go check that bridge out for yourself. Or, maybe not....

We decided to keep to the roads in the US that were as close to Canada as we could get. (Our thinking: Canada is north. North is cooler. Right?) We enjoyed the quaint towns in New York along the border. Crossing the very northern tip of New York state, we skirted the top of Lake Champlain and entered Vermont.

Our day ended at the Alburgh RV Resort, near Alburgh, VT, on the shore of Lake Champlain. The resort was a pretty nice resort, if you're into that sort of thing. Most of the units there, and there are a lot of them, are set permanently in place. To our surprise, most everyone there was speaking French. It seems that this resort, which is just 55 miles from Montreal, caters to the Quebec crowd.

Once again, Nancy beat Fred at 3-13. There seems to be a pattern developing here.

July 9, 2010 - Ontario, Canada

We left Michigan and entered Ontario, Canada, at Sault St. Marie. After a very short stop for clearing Customs, we got Ontario visitor info picked up, a bit of currency exchanged, and were on our way.

This was a "driving" day. Didn't stop for scenic overlooks, tourist traps, or anything other than gas and food. Well, we did make a short detour through the tiny town of Spanish, ON, to check out a marina there. Oftentimes, a marina will have places for RVs and trailers. The marina was brand new, but unfortunately had no facilities for campers.

Late in the afternoon on this warm and humid Friday, we pulled in to North Bay, Ontario, for a fuel stop. While waiting to pay, we asked the Ontario Provincial Police officer in line in front of us if he could recommend a campground nearby. We were concerned that the hot weather and beginning of the weekend would fill the camping sites pretty quickly. He said that our best bet was to head for the Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, quite a few kilometers east of town. We expressed our concern that we'd drive all that way only to find the campground full. He said that if we'd follow him to his office (just around the corner), that he'd call his colleague who patrolled out that way to see how full the place was. So, we did. And, he did. The report was that there were plenty of spaces left in the campground and that the park was in no danger of posting their "Campgound Full" sign.

That was very good news. The service provided by the Ontario Provincial Police was exceptional, much appreciated, not to mention "above and beyond..."

We got to the park and found that it is huge. They have two campgrounds with a total of 215 campsites. We asked for one that would be in a quiet location and were assigned site number 58 in the Babawasse Campground. It was, indeed, in a location that would be quiet. It was also a site that required a 90-degree backup turn to get the Scamp onto its pad! Thankfully, we were able to accomplish the feat with the very barest minimum of cursing.

We had a quiet evening under the pines and Nancy beat Fred at the card game "Progression", or 3-13, for the second time on the trip.

July 8, 2010 - Munising, MI

Leaving Duluth, we headed east on US 2. After crossing northern Wisconsin, we entered Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Our first campsite of the trip was in the Bay Furnace Campground of the Hiawatha National Forest near Christmas, MI. Christmas is a "suburb" of Munising, Michigan. The campground is named for the remains of an iron smelting furnace on the shore of Onota Bay on Lake Superior.

Pictures of the remains of the furnace and other scenes in the area are posted at this web album.

We had a very nice dinner at the Brownstone Inn, a few miles west of Munising. The inn is on the shore of Lake Superior. Ironically, they must truck in their drinking water. If you are ever in the neighborhood, this is a recommended meal stop. Don't pass it by.

July 7, 2010 - Trip to the East Coast

Starting Out

We waited for the Fourth of July traffic to clear out a bit before starting the trip. We also hoped that the very hot temps we'd been having would moderate a bit. Alas, that wasn't happening. So, we hooked up the Scamp and headed east on US Highway 2. I'd been wanting to stop at the Big Fish to get a picture of it since it had been refurbished. The folks who did that work did a wonderful job.

Closeup of the Big Fish