I am very late posting this trip report due to technical difficulties with the lap top. We are done on the east coast and have already been back through Ohio and headed west as I type this! First stop, Colorado. We have no definite plans in this state yet, as we’ve been here many times before but never with our four wheel camper (we’ve come in the past with our Four Runner and have done some two-tracking and slept out of that). We are looking forward to the snowcapped mountains and some good quality boon docking! Any suggestions on cool places are always greatly appreciated. We hope while we are out west here, we may even get a chance to meet some other four wheel adventure enthusiasts! We’re also looking forward to taking a visit to the four wheel factory in CA.
Without further ado… starting June 21.
I am going to try to make this a positive post; it will be my last post about Maine. This state has so much beauty and history to offer and I feel we hardly even touched the tip. There were many pros and cons while
traversing through weekend after weekend. As I stated in the last post, there
are many parks, campgrounds, and trails that are not dog-friendly. We also
noticed, especially the weekend of the 22nd, that the locals there
weren’t the most helpful or knowledgeable about their surroundings. As Pete’s sister-in-law said, “They don’t really know much past their own counter”.
With that said, we all had fun traveling around the few
weeks that we had together, but we were all ready to move on from Maine.
Pete’s sister-in-law and I started off driving south along
the Penobscot River on June 21, Friday afternoon while the guys were still at
the job site working. Our destination was Fort Knox State Park. We stopped in Bucksport at a small café to have a quick lunch and a glass of liquid courage (wine) before ascending up 420 ft. to a look-out tower on the bridge leading to the park.
That weekend we decided to all travel to Nahmakanta Public Reserved Land, where we discovered that there was a day fee per person, per day of $12.00. So entering on a Saturday and exiting on the next day, Sunday would make that $24.00 per person, times four people, makes that $96.00 to disperse camp. You're basically paying to cross private property to actually get to the land. So that plan was nixed.
We were told we could travel down the "Golden Road" to get to an inexpensive site south of Baxter State Park. After much traveling and then stopping to question some employees at a camp shop, we gathered no more information on such a place. This was quite surprising seeing that this shop was located in in midst of many campgrounds and was a frequent stop off for many AT hikers before summiting Mt. Katahdin.
We kept on then found a nice looking campground (definitely was not our remote dispersed camping we had set out for) that would do. We were told our site was $24.00 for the night. After taking a peek at it and deciding we liked it, we went back to pay and the price was now $48.00. At this point we were pretty baffled by Maine! The gentleman that was working behind the counter ensured us we were getting a deal, that this site was normally $90.00 per night. Shaking our heads in disgust (internally) we payed up and went to set up camp.
It was chilly and a little rainy but we still had a great time.
We had purchased a camp Dutch oven from Cabela's and made some amazing fajitas that evening.
Ahhh rain!
Beer always helps...
Pete's brother and his Guatalupe Mary candle.
Wearing a newly purchased "Buff" in her own fashion to keep rain and bugs off.
My view from inside the camper while cooking the rice.
The apparition....
....made them all a bit cooky.
Too much fun with the laser pointer.
After another week of work, the guys were done and we all headed south along the shoreline to soak up some sun.
Stopping at an Irish pub in Portland, Maine.
Ice cream after a day at the beach in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Breakfast downtown Portsmouth.
Spotted this cool Bronco.
Downtown Portsmouth.
We stopped in Salem, Massachusetts to tour a witch house.
Then went to visit the Maritime near an old Port.
Author of The Scarlet Letter
Last stop, Provincetown, MA on Cape Cod. We stayed in a private campground that was tight but worked and was close to the national shoreline and town. I've never been to Key West, but the other three said Provincetown was very similar. One park ranger that had given us directions described it to us as "alternative living". It was the best people watching you could get. Walking down the streets after dinner, drag queens were trying to incise us into their show, while two blocks down an independent foreign film festival was taking place. It was a fun time.
Below are just beach pictures and a few of a foggy monument walking back from dinner through town. We saw many huge seals swimming near the beach. We were told stay out of the water when they're near due to great whites possibly preying on the seals. It was still very neat to see them.
Pete's brother in his new cap near a Guatalupe Mary. He always finds her.
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