2016 New England, Bar Harbor Maine

New England 2016, Bar Harbor, ME

       Still playing catch up with the blog on July 28 we drove from Old Orchard Beach campground to The Bar Harbor campground. This is the closest campground to Bar Harbor and does not take reservations. So you need to get there early to obtain a site. We were lucky to obtain a nice back in site with water and electric.

 GLOOSCAP sculpture at campground

Bar Harbor campground 

 We stayed here for four nights and enjoyed our return to Mt Dessert Island. We drove the car to Bar Harbor and traffic was terrible as we expected. We drove to our favorite spots and reacquainted ourselves to the area. We then went to the Acadia National park visitor center. Sherry bought hat pins, 100^th year Tee shirt celebrating National Parks, and a souvenir book.  We then went to Hannaford Grocery to stock up a few items before returning to the campsite. We had hoped they would have some of the large green grapes we had gotten before, but they must be harvested later. 

ACADIA National Park visitor center

The next morning we went early to Bar Harbor and found a parking spot right away along the main shopping area. Sherry shopped until I dropped and picked up a few more items. We then went to the ABBE Museum and looked in the gift shop and lobby. We didn’t take the tour again as we supposed it to be the same as we last saw it. 

Lots of shopping opportunities at Bar Harbor

We were back to the RV by noon and had a quick lunch then headed to the Park loop road and took in the fantastic views of the craggy shoreline and Cadillac Mountain.

We stopped at Jordan Pond to get a famous popover dessert but couldn’t find a parking spot so we then went on to the mountain and walked around the top and took lots of pictures.

It was a very comfortable 67 degrees on the mountain and there was no fog. We have been on top when a fog bank rolled in and it was difficult to walk back and find the vehicle. 

 Cadillac Mountain

  Cadillac Mountain

 Sherry at  Cadillac Mountain

 Cadillac Mountain

Back at the RV at 4Pm we had BBQ ribs and beer for supper.  Saturday July 30^th we had breakfast at the RV and since the both of us thought it had been two weeks since we had beef we headed to Ellsworth Maine in search of a steak house.

 We shopped at the LL. Bean outlet store Sherry purchased a new blue raincoat. We then went to WalMart and then to Wendy’s for a burger.  

When we returned to the campground we then traveled back toward Bar Harbor where Sherry had seen a Maine Craft Guild advertisement. WOW she hit the jackpot, Lots of weavers here and their work was excellent. They made rugs, clothing, bags, shawls, Sherry spent the afternoon talking to them about projects and looms, each had a great story. Sherry was in weaver’s heaven, they also had pottery, glass, baskets, and woodworker’s furniture.

Sunday July 31^st we had reservations to take a carriage ride on the carriage roads of Acadia. We took a bike ride around our campground and then left for the carriage ride. We were running really close on time as traffic was holding us up around the park loop road. We took a short cut through woods just past Jordan pond. Whew we made it with minutes to spare. Our horses were named Charlie and Charmed and were great draft horses. Our tour guide was very informative and entertaining, as he made his way along the five mile trip. This is a private company that bids on providing carriage rides.

We then returned to Jordan Pond but still couldn’t find parking so we returned and had supper at the Chart Room.  They had great clam chowder and seafood linguine really good food.

 We then motored to Bar Harbor and watched the sunset along the boat wharf. This was our last night here in Bar Harbor and we enjoyed our revisit. However we both agree we won’t return in July as we have enjoyed September and October much more in this area. The fall colors are amazing and the traffic is much improved.        

 Along Park Loop Road

 Bar Harbor Inn

 Sunset at Bar Harbor

Good Bye Bar Harbor

      

2016 New England, Harrisville NH-Kennebunkport ME

2016 New England, Harrisville NH-Kennebunkport ME

July 26.     Packed up and on the road by 8 am. Took detour through Rhode Island to let Daisy experience the roads here. We then traveled north through Massachusetts and onto Harrisville, New Hampshire. This town was not RV friendly but we found parking at a closed road next to Harrisville Looms where Sherry wanted to visit. This is an abandoned water mill weaving factory that has been converted to a woodworking manufacturing and outlet for yarns and fiber related materials. 

We spent a couple of hours here and then had to figure out how to turn the RV around. I should have just unhooked the tow vehicle and did a three point turn at the intersection but instead drove about ten miles up the road and made a loop through a church parking area. There was a wedding or funeral just leaving out and I had to wait until traffic allowed me to complete the turn around.

     

We then journeyed to Old Orchard Beach ME where we stayed at Wagon Wheel RV resort our second Passport America Park and stayed for two nights. Old Orchard Beach is a tourist area (trap) with a permanent carnival, and lots of shops in the downtown area. There is a trolley that picks up at the RV Park and takes the awaiting tourists to the downtown area. The first night we drove the car downtown and put up with all the traffic, both vehicles and pedestrians quite the area. Supposed to be the closest beach to Quebec Canada, and lots of French could be heard between trapped tourists. We took the trolley ride the next day and then walked around the downtown area. We saw some beach and ocean but this place didn’t fit our current lifestyle.

July 27. We drove to Kennebunkport which was 18 miles up the road and enjoyed revisiting. There are lots of neat homes here as well as places to pull off the road and take pictures of the ocean views.  We took pictures of the Bush compound and then I dropped Sherry downtown to find a hat pin souvenir. Traffic was terrible, all the parking places were taken and I made about 6 loops before driving about a mile away and parked in a lot that was for guests only and waited until Sherry said she was ready to be picked up. We had lunch at Mabel’s restaurant, sat outside and enjoyed the lobster roll and deep fried oysters. Mabel’s is famous for entertaining the Bush’s, but we didn’t see anyone we recognized. 

2016 New England , Mark Twain to Mystic Seaport

      July 24.   We traveled from Thompson CT to Hartford and toured the Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) Home. 

Back of the house Servant quarters on right

Mark Twain Lego Statue

We really enjoyed the tour of the home and the visitor’s center. The home was really beautiful on the inside but very dark. The gas lights that are original have been converted to electric but are kept to the same output as the gas originals. This house is where he wrote many of his books. He wrote upstairs on the third floor where he had a pool table and lots of windows and porch to step out on.  The guide told the story that when Sam was writing he wanted to keep his concentration on the story and if interrupted it would take some time to get back into the theme.

Entry porch

Porch above Sherry is writing studio.

 He asked his wife to tell anyone who came calling that he was out. She didn’t like lying to the guest and expressed this to Sam. Sam then told her she wouldn’t be lying as he would hear the doorbell and then would get up and step out to the upper balcony porch. His writing desk faced a paneled wall with no window so he wasn’t distracted. Sam was an active pool player and if his desk faced the pool area he would interrupt the book to play a game. This caused him problems which was solved when he faced the wall.

     His three girls had him tell a story every night with the items on the fireplace mantel. Though the items remained the same the story told each evening was different as no one could spin a yarn like Mark Twain.

      Leaving Hartford we drove onto Old Mystic CT and checked into Seaport RV resort. This was our first Passport America Park. We joined Passport America because the savings is 50% when available. So our second night is essentially free. We have been to Mystic Seaport before several years ago and enjoyed our stay. 

The last time here it was September and cooler with much less traffic and crowds. We found parking at the middle entrance to the Museum and walked across the street to the book store and art store. We looked into obtaining tickets, but decided to delay or forget the museum because of the time of day and also we have toured here before. We drove downtown to the drawbridge and looked around but traffic was intense and parking was not to be found.  The next day Monday we returned downtown and parking was much better.  Sherry located the yarn store she wanted to visit only to find they were closed on Monday and Tuesday, she was disappointed. We shopped and mostly browsed in a few stores and went to Mystic Pizza for lunch. The shop was made famous by the Julia Roberts movie made here in the 80’s about three waitresses. 

Great Pizza and service was fun to be sitting in the booth.  Really enjoyed visiting Mystic Seaport again the RV park was quiet and friendly staff. Only negative was the stone drive and pad as there was no rain here for several weeks and the dust was bad. We did laundry here and the machines were almost new and worked like you would expect.