Friday, May 21, 2021

MASSACHUSETTS TO MAINE: HOT TO COOL, BIRDS TO COWS, AND SOME LIQUOR.

Day 2 – Later yesterday afternoon after we finished with the blog, we relaxed with our beer & wine. It was 84 degrees inside the RV & we had all the fans on. Around 6 p.m. it started cooling down a little, but not before Gracie passed out from the heat in a chair.

We had dinner that we’d made in NY & packaged up for the trip – Anchovy Casserole with Rob’s homemade Garlic Bread. We can hear many of you going, YUK YUK YUK, anchovies? Well, there’s something you may not know: other than being very good for you, when you caramelize vidalia onions, shallots, and garlic with some anchovies, an explosion of flavor occurs that doesn’t taste the least bit like anchovies. Add some dry white wine or sherry, cook until it thickens a little, and you have the base for wonderful dishes, including spaghetti sauce, soups, and this casserole. It’s a Swedish dish called “Jensen’s Temptation” and it is made with thinly sliced potatoes & other ingredients to bake together for a rich side dish, or perfect served with broiled scallops. If you think you can handle anchovies, let us know & we will send you the recipe.

Our night was relaxing, we all slept well, and it cooled off nicely. We have reviewed this campground several times before in the blog, so I won’t do it again, but here’s the basics: Traveler’s Woods of New England, Inc., 152 River Street, P.O. Box 88, Bernardston, MA 01337, (413) 648-9105, www.travelerswoods.com, travelerswoodsnewengland@gmail.com. Campsites are available with no hook-ups, water and electric hook-ups, and full hook-ups. There is a dump station. For water & electric the cost was $30 per night. With a Passport America discount on weekdays, you pay 50% less (www.passportamerica.com).

Before we left this morning we took a short walk around the main loop of the campground to dump our trash in the bins. It was beautiful out, sunny and clear, and many birds were chirping. It’s springtime! Two beautifully-colored birds were flitting about, flying from tree to tree. Baltimore Orioles. So pretty and we’d not seen them in awhile. We just went for a short walk & didn’t bring the phone or cameras – oh well, reminder to selves – never leave the house without something to take pictures with! Another thing to mention, NOT A BUG IN SIGHT! Before leaving NY, we’d been overwhelmed with the bugs. It was that time of year after all, but between the gnats, biting black flies, the mosquitoes, and the incredible amount of ticks everywhere, it was getting a little hard to handle & we were quite ready to leave for points north. But we were happy to see that there was not a bug problem at this campground. Also, we wanted to post something we found last week hanging around our front porch in NY: a baby snake! Anyone have a definitive idea what kind of snake this is? Northern Copperhead? Click on any picture below to see a slideshow.

Okay, back to travel: we departed Traveler’s Woods at 9:50 a.m. 67 degrees and sunny. Packing up was a breeze; as it was only a one-night stopover, the bare minimum was used. As we were leaving Bernardston, which has many old, historic homes, we snapped a picture of one of our favorites, a 1776 farmhouse, just beautifully restored.

The route was the campground to Route 2 east (scenic Massachusetts road, very pretty) to I-495 north to I-95 north to I-295 to Freeport, Maine and another favorite campground – Wolfe’s Neck Oceanfront Camping (for those who follow our blog, the organic farm with a campground which we visit yearly). We arrived at 2:40 p.m. with stops for lunch and a kitty break at a rest stop in New Hampshire and a visit to the NH State Liquor Store – no taxes & cheaper prices.

We checked in quickly and went to Site #106, one of our favorite campsites here, unpacked, and here we are as the cows are called home from the field. We usually get pictures of the “event”, along with most of the campers who are here. The human kids LOVE it; the cats are not impressed! But today we watch them from inside the RV as they are released into the field for the evening. We will be here a couple more days and will certainly be out there for another crossing. It’s a wonderfully cool and sunny, 62 degrees. Bye bugs (for a little while) and bye heat. We are Happy Campers.