Sunday, August 1
We bid farewell to Peggy's Cove and head west.
We stopped for the night at Sebasticook Lake Campground in Newport, ME. This is a pleasant campground whose host, whom we rousted from her dinner, was quite gracious.
Monday, August 2
We stopped at My Cousin's Place in Norridgewock, ME, for breakfast. This small cafe by the side of the highway served up a huge and tasty breakfast. From there we headed across New Hampshire and into Vermont.
Our route took us through Waterbury, VT. Since both Green Mountain Coffee and Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream are located there, we stopped to have a look. Each was a bit of a disappointment. Green Mountain Coffee was really nothing more than a storefront - at least, that's what the public gets to see. Ben and Jerry's held more promise, but the crowds of people were off-putting. The factory tour would have been fun, but the hour-plus wait for a ticket was more than we were prepared to endure. Some of their famous ice cream would have been fun, but the half-hour long line to the serving window was, also, more that we wanted to take on. We did, however, enjoy the walk through the "Flavor Graveyard".
Bank on the road, we continued on US 2 north on Grand Isle in the middle of Lake Champlain. On Grand Isle we had to pull over and stop to wait out a ferocious rainstorm. It was a deluge, a downpour, a toad-strangler of the first order. We had to wait for a half-hour for the rain to let up so that the wipers could clear sufficient enough for us to see the road.
Our camp for the night was at Coles Creek State Park in New York on the St. Lawrence Seaway. This is a lovely campground. Nicely spaced sites and very, very clean facilities. Plus, if you're lucky - as we were, you can grab a site with a great view of the shipping traffic on the seaway. We recommend this state park.
Tuesday, August 3
We crossed the border at Ogdenberg, NY, into Ontario, Canada.
We stopped for the night at Chutes Provencial Park near Massey, Ontario. This is a nice park and has some trails that we would have liked to explore. But, it was just too danged HOT!
Wednesday, August 4
Finishing our trek across Ontario, we crossed back in to the US at Sault St. Marie. This time we spent only one hour and twenty minutes on the bridge from Canada to the US. This time we had the foresight to gas up and make a potty stop before getting on the bridge.
Our stop for this night was at Van Riper State Park in Michigan. This is another very nice park. The sites with hook-up were pretty full and we decided to park in the "rustic" area. A nice site and quiet. We'd like to stay at this park again and explore the part of the park to the north of the highway. There looks to be some scenic trails there.
Thursday, August 5
We return to our condo in Duluth. We collected seven thousand miles, hundreds of photos, and many, many memories of people and places.
That ends the tale of our trip to the East Coast.
