WE’RE BACK………… TRIP #3!

Hello everyone; we hope you’ve all had a great summer. We have just begun Trip #3 and we’re getting the blog up & running again. We last wrote at the beginning of Trip #2 when we left home for Maine in June. We’d decided not to write a public blog while in Maine – after all, how boring would it be to read about days spent camping on Casco Bay at a farm, or about spending a week in Belfast right on Penobscot Bay? And then there were 4 nights spent on the Schoodic Peninsula section of Acadia National Park.

View from site 812, Recompence Shore Campground, Freeport, ME

Harbor, Corea, ME

Bar Harbor from Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, ME

Must have been a big wind

Pixie

Porcupine at Old Spruce Tentsite, Cliff Haven, ME

Ruby Throated Hummingbird, Cliff Haven, ME

Racoon, Cliff Haven, ME

Java

Gracie

The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

View of new Bluff Campsite from Cliff Tentsite

Beautiful full moon from Moorings Oceanfront Campground, Belfast, ME

Luna

Seriously though, we were gone 7-1/2 weeks & spent most of that time fighting mosquitoes & preparing our land for work to be done on it, after a long wait for the bureaucratic red tape process to end & approval of our building permit. That said, we ended Trip #2 in August after spending time on the heavenly Bold Coast of far downeast Washington County Maine, visiting friends and having a new RV pad put on our land, closer to the cliff’s edge for better views of the harbor water below. We were able to spend 2 quick nights there on the new gravel pad before having to leave for home & can’t wait to return next year.

Immediately after we got home in August, we unpacked the RV and drove her to the RV dealership in CT. (The first day when we arrived at our land in Maine, we damaged the awning and bent one of the support struts when a tree at the head of the driveway dared to get in our way. Don’t you just hate when that happens? In addition to a large tree which had come down across the lower section of the driveway during the winter, Rob had to play Paul Bunyan and cut down the offending trees.)

So before starting Trip #3 we wanted to get the awning fixed & dropped off the RV (a 2-1/2 hour drive one way). After getting an insurance quote, we were told the parts would be ordered, they would fix her, and she’d be ready for us to pick up in 1 to 2 weeks. During that timeframe we hurriedly worked on catching up at home with everything from the mail, fixing & cleaning things, annual physicals for us & the cats, dental appointments, renewing driver’s licenses plus car & RV registrations, etc., etc. Two weeks passed without a call from the dealership; when we called them to get the status, we were told it would be another 2 weeks, one of the parts was on back order. We started all the shopping necessary before a long trip & packed things for the trip in boxes to carry out to the RV to pack up when we got her home again. We also had a little time to visit with some friends; before we knew it another 2 weeks had passed without a call from the dealership. We again called for an update only to find they’d received notice that it would be at least another 2 weeks before the backordered part would arrive. Sick of waiting to leave, we drove to CT the next morning & picked up the RV without the new awning. We can get it fixed another time……

Packing up for an 8 month trip

Packing up for an 8 month trip

We spent 1-1/2 days packing up and finally departed for Trip #3, exhausted but very happy to be on the road again. Our plan is not to have a plan. This is difficult for me, a born planner, but what a great experiment it will be.

We will be driving across the U.S.A. as quickly as we can (without driving ourselves crazy from days too long driving), staying one night (occasionally two) at whatever campground is in the vicinity. We’ll take Interstate 80 beginning in Pennsylvania, continuing west until Nevada. The goal is to reach the West Coast, probably in Southern Oregon, then head South along the California coastline, taking months to explore before reaching below San Diego in January.  We’ll visit relatives & friends along the way. If we like someplace a lot, we might stay there for a couple of weeks. Who knows…..

You are invited to follow along with us as you did during Trip #1.

AT THAT TIME, SOME OF YOU SIGNED UP TO FOLLOW THE BLOG WITH  E-MAIL UPDATES. (THE ADVANTAGE OF THIS FOR YOU IS THAT YOU WILL GET AN E-MAIL WITH A LINK EVERY TIME WE PUBLISH A NEW POST, THEREFORE YOU WON’T HAVE TO CONTINUALLY RETURN TO CHECK FOR NEW CONTENT.) IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN DOING THIS, PLEASE FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS:

On any blog post or page, click on the 3 dots on the lower right corner. You should be offered the choice to follow the blog. If you’re unable to find the 3 dots and follow the blog that way, just send us your e-mail address and we’ll try to sign you up.