Happy “Holidaze” Everyone! Dazed & Confused, that would be us. We last wrote on November 12 that we were shutting down the blog & heading home from a cold & windy Maine. And that we’d do a recap once we were home & all settled in. HA!
We got home but never settled in. But first, before getting into all that, a summary of Trip 4 follows: We left home in NY, May 28, 2018 & headed to Maine, taking four days to reach our land in Trescott, near Lubec & New Brunswick, Canada. We dropped off some heavy equipment & camped at our land for 8 days before taking off on our tour of northern Maine.
We stopped first at Cobscook Bay State Park. We hadn’t stayed there since our land-hunting trip in 2004. We loved it then and we loved it still, staying at Cobscook for a month until the official opening of the summer camping season when stays are limited. We had a waterfront campsite and the weather was wonderful.
From Cobscook we went straight north near the Canadian border to Aroostook State Park. Loved it up there with the rolling hills, farmlands, and POTATOES. We were there for 5 days when we got word that Rob needed to go to CA to visit family, so we rushed home to NY and put this trip on hold.
Started the trip up again on July 29, and headed up to the northeastern corner of New Hampshire, a different way to get back to northern Maine. We stayed 9 days at Coleman State Park, a lovely small Park near Diamond Pond, went kayaking on the Pond several times and out on the wild & beautiful Androscoggin & Magallaway Rivers, and spent lots of time looking for Moose. The perfect way to wind down and destress!
The next 6 weeks were spent at some wonderful parks in Maine – Rangeley Lakes State Park in Rangeley, Peaks-Kinney State Park in Dover-Foxcroft, Lily Bay State Park in Greenville, Aroostook State Park in Presque Isle, and Cobscook Bay State Park in Edmunds Township. Plenty of kayaking and plenty of driving the Honda (tow car) on rough, dirt roads in the wilds of northern Maine, such incredibly beautiful country.
We ended up back at our land for an extended stay of almost 2 months until the weather kicked us out. Rob worked very hard doing what he loves to do on the land and it brought many years of clearing pathways and putting in trailer pads, a driveway, a septic system, a well, and bringing in electricity to fruition and creating our own little paradise. We still have a little work he wants to do (if indeed he will ever slow down) in bringing a pathway to the water so we can launch the kayaks from our land.
Click on any picture below to see a slideshow.
Logs ready for continuing the trail down to the water next year!
We drove 3,271 miles in the RV on this trip including the unplanned trip home and back north again, and used the generator for almost 100 hours total. We were gone a total of 5 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days. Everything went well (not much broke, LOL) and we had a great time reconnecting with old friends & making new friends, eating the wonderful foods that the land & sea of Maine can offer, and just enjoying the beauty of nature and the changing of seasons. Incredible whale watching trips, kayaking, hiking, road trips, What more could you want? Maybe to never leave?
At home in New York again: We got home Tuesday, November 13. Shortly after arriving home a fairly big snow storm hit our area. It was LOVELY out. Quiet & pristene. Lots of deer in the yard, beautiful red cardinals flitting about. It felt good to be home. Briefly!
The snow blower wouldn’t start. Our neighbor came over and plowed us out. A mouse had made a nest in the engine & Rob had to buy a new carbuerator. The bathroom shower would only run cold water and wouldn’t drain. Rob replaced the mixing valve & cleaned the drain. The outside garage floodlight was broken; Rob replaced it. The master bath shower floor was cracked and we put in a new wooden-slat floor. The water filter under the kitchen sink leaked destroying the floor of the cabinet, leaking downstairs into Rob’s work shop & collapsing the dropped ceiling in the basement. Rob fixed it all. The Honda needed a major maintenance including adjusting the valves & replacing the brakes. Rob fixed it. The RV needed to have the suspension lubricated and all the wheels pulled off to inspect the brakes. The car, the RV, and the generator needed an oil change. The roof gutters of the house needed to be cleaned out. The lawn needed to be mowed and the leaves raked. Rob did it all. The thermostat on the wood pellet stove broke. And this was not nearly as bad as some of the problems encountered during previous trips home!
Meanwhile, we had to unpack the RV, clean it, do mountains of laundry, order food & supplies for restocking the RV for the next trip, get Rob’s passport renewed, get the Honda its yearly inspection, get haircuts, order Christmas presents, do Christmas cards, get all in the mail, and catch up with our yearly doctor appointments, dental appointments, etc., that had not been completed last May when we were home. Repack the RV, catch up with friends and relatives, do our banking & bills – these are all the standard things (and more) that we used to do all year long. But we have found that with this lifestyle, all our chores are crammed into short time periods when we are home and it just hasn’t been working for us. It’s just too much to do in such a short period of time. We talked about it, we could stay home longer & travel less – naw, we really don’t want to do that, LOL, so the solution would be to change our attitude instead. This is the way it will be; get used to it. It is our choice, after all!
Soon after we got home, Rob made a trip to CA to see his mom, and spent Thanksgiving with his family. He was gone almost a week & had a good visit. The cats & I stayed home and did laundry, visited friends, and spent tons of money ordering food & supplies. After one grocery trip, I was carrying in heavy bags & I tripped and fell in the garage, smashing my face into one of Rob’s tool kits & breaking my glasses (while tomatoes, onions, and lettuce rolled all around the garage). I was bleeding & bruised and came incredibly close to injuring my right eye when my glasses broke. I was lucky.
When Rob went to the dentist for his cleaning, they looked at a tooth that had been bothering him, ground it down, and ordered a crown. I had to get new glasses. Several things like this caused us to be home longer than planned. Rob had been having pain for awhile that radiated from his hips down the outside of his legs, in addition to shoulder & neck pain, and tendon pain in his forearms. (Could it be all the heavy lifting he did in Maine??? Uh, yeah.) He also wasn’t feeling well the first two weeks he was home with flu-like symptoms. He went to the doctor, had an X-ray of his back, and subsequent Physical Therapy. They gave him exercises he could do daily while on the road.
The cats unexpectedly did not adjust quickly to being home. It took longer than usual for sure. Maybe it was all the running around & upset that was going on around them from us. We were concerned how well they’d adjust to being on the road again. Maybe this lifestyle was a problem for them, too.
Stay tuned for Trip #5 as we finally get it all together and hit the road again. To those of you who’ve mentioned they missed the blog, thank you so much! Although we do this mostly for us so we have a log of our journeys, it’s also become a wonderful way to stay in touch. We really appreciate your reading and your comments. Happy Holidays to all!
Oh my. Sounds like Rob works harder in retirement.
Sorry to hear about your fall, Vicki. Glad it was not more serious.
Hope you had lovely birthdays.
Where did you find your Christmas card? So appropriate!!
Merry Christmas!