Maine and NH--Resting at Jon's

We were up just before the sunrise (Steve thought it was an hour later than it actually was!) and had breakfast, packed up, and got on the road by 7:15 a.m. It was another gorgeous day, and warm, also. The GPS told us the quickest way to go, but we ignored her all day--in retrospect, probably not a really smart idea.

There is no quick or direct route to Enfield, NH from Bar Harbor, Maine. We followed US1 down the Maine Coast (it is the scenic route listed in the Harley Davidson map book) to Brunswick and then decided to listen to our GPS for awhile. She took us over to Fryebourg, Maine, and then onto the Kancamagus Highway. It is designated a National Forest Scenic Byway, and is one of only two such roads in Northern New England. There were lots of warning signs to brake for moose, and we luckily have only seen warning signs and no actual moose.

Kancamagus Highway was spectacular with fall colors, lots of curves, and Steve drove it beautifully! I sat on the back of the bike and took lots of pictures so that Steve could actually see it later. Then we made the mistake of continuing on Hwy 112 over to Interstate 91 and down to Enfield. What an awful road!



I-91 was wonderful, and we finally made it to Jon and Lori’s about 4:30 in the afternoon and gladly parked the bike for a few days especially since a new tropical storm, Kyle plans on dumping rain for the next several days. Unfortunately, Steve had to spend some time with Kyle going to the Honda dealer to get some new tires put on. He’s still a little wet!

We’re staying at Jon’s for awhile to rest up, study the route south and west, and let the rain pass. We’ll probably be on our way again on Tuesday, heading through Vermont, into New York and Pennsylvania as we wind our way down towards the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge Parkway of Virginia.

September 24--Acadia National Park/Bar Harbor

What an absolutely gorgeous day it was today in Acadia National Park! There was not a cloud in the sky, the temperatures were pleasant throughout the day, and we got started touring Acadia Park before most of the buses got on the road.

We headed to Cadillac Mountain to see the view all around Maine. And it was spectacular! Hardly any wind, lots of ocean, islands, bays, and fall colors. Cadillac Mountain is the highest point along the North Atlantic seaboard and is the first place to view sunrise in the United States from October 7 through March 6. We missed it by a few days and hours, but it was impressive, nevertheless. The 3.5 mile road to Cadillac Mountain winds around the mountain, through granite fields and spruce forests and deciduous trees turning colors now.

After stopping at the view sites, we continued on around the northern side of the island. There were lots of bicyclists out and about, and lots of great looking hiking trails. The tour buses caught up with us, so we pulled over wherever they were, to see the sites. The sea was pretty calm and sailboats were motoring around the island. There was a HUGE cruise ship in the harbor that we could see from the loop road, and we got another glimpse of it when we went into Bar Harbor later in the day for lunch and to sightsee in the shops.

Did you know that Acadia is the only national park that is made up entirely of land donated from private individuals? At Sand Beach, we met a fellow who was related to one of the original owners. His family had owned all of Sand Beach years ago, and donated it to the park. What a great gift!

The town of Bar Harbor and the historic dock area is well populated by the usual ice cream and fudge stores, souvenir shops, and restaurants, and lots and lots of people from the Holland cruise vessel that seemed to dwarf everything else in the harbor. We wandered around for a while, uploaded some blog pages, and headed back to camp for a restful late afternoon and evening. I picked some more blueberries for breakfast, and we packed up as much as we could so we could get an early start to NH and Jon’s tomorrow.

September 23--Bar Harbor

Brrrrrrr!!!!! The heater didn’t work last night, but we had our sleeping bags zipped together, and were able to cuddle up for warmth. We were actually warm during the night, but it was cold outside. We got up early, packed up, and got on the bikes and headed to breakfast. Unfortunately, the temperature was 34 degrees, and didn’t warm up for the first 100 miles or so. We found the first place that had coffee and breakfast and we stopped to warm up and add layers.

Lower NB is beautiful, and we made it through customs without event. There was no request to remove helmets like the last time we came into Canada with Kevin. And there was no request to open up the trailer and examine the contents. Cool!! Unfortunately, Steve didn’t get to see a whole lot of the scenery coming down from the border. The road had too any blind curves, rolling hills and damaged sections of pavement for him to look around.

Upper Maine was beautiful, and we found lots more trees that had turned color. We are sorry that we missed all of the most beautiful colors that are yet to come, but glad we came when we did. Many parks and campgrounds were closing just as we came through and the temperatures would have been much colder if we were coming through any later in the season.

We also found a Home Depot and got another heater, and this time we saved our receipt! Tonight we will be warm!

We got to Acadia National Park today around 2 p.m. and are camped at Bar Harbor Campgrounds. Right across from our campsite is a field of wild blueberries, so I picked some to have with my yoghurt tomorrow morning. The town of Bar Harbour is a place made to fit our friend Phyllis to a T. Lots of shops, wineries, spas, brew pubs, and bicycle trails. We talked to some folks today from Arizona who now work at the campground we are staying at. They said they came up here a few years ago and spent 3 days, then stayed another 3 days, then another, until they discovered they had spent the whole summer here. So they got themselves a summer job working at the campground, drove their class A up here, and have stayed each summer after that.

We had great ribeye steaks for dinner tonight at the local brewery and are now tucked in to our warm tent for the evening. Tomorrow we plan to tour Acadia Park! Thursday we are pointed towards Jon and Lori’s place in NH.

September 22--Fundy National Park

Well, we woke up about 7:30 nice and warm to a beautiful, sunny day, but our heater seems to be having some issues this morning. It ran all night long, but this morning, it seems to turn off after just a few minutes of heat. Steve thinks it is a the thermocouple that has to reset itself, because it does the same thing after a few minutes. Oh well, we’ll worry about that tonight.

We had coffee and breakfast, and then headed to the Visitor Center to see what we could learn about the tides at Fundy. Normally the ocean tides change 13 feet twice a day, but in Fundy because of the shape of the bay and the location of Fundy on the planet, the tides change 40-50 feet a day.

There are caution signs posted warning you to start back from the tidal beach within an hour or two off low tide because the water comes back in at about 7 feet per minute. So we exercised caution, and walked out as far as the water’s edge, and then headed back. By the time we got back, there was even more ocean bottom exposed, but we decided to head on up the coast to the lighthouse and to Hopewell Bay.


On our way to the lighthouse, we noticed a winery with a tasting room open. So we went in (of course) and discovered that they had rhubarb and blueberry wines. So we both tasted the various blueberry wines, and I tasted the rhubard wine, and we decided to buy a small bottle of the blueberry sweet dessert wine to have with Lee and Joli.

After that we stopped at the lighthouse, and took pictures of Fundy Bay and then headed to Hopewell Rock. The lighthouse is kind of off the beaten track, and very cool. Apparently the local kids maintain and operate it during the summer, and use the proceeds for the upkeep and maintenance of it.
Hopewell Rock, however, is not off the beaten path. Lots and lots of tour buses, and senior citizens. It is a beautiful walk down to the photo opportunities, and very well kept.

While taking a break from all the seafood with a couple of cheeseburgers, we decided that Utah was a pretty great state to live in, even after seeing all of the great places that we have seen so far on this trip. We are excited about heading to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, Maine tomorrow.

As always, I am happy to return stateside. It’s been great being here in Canada. I love the Canadians, they are all so friendly and open. But I do love the USA and it will be great to be a part of it again, even with the financial upheaval that seems to be going on (sometimes its a curse to have satellite radio to listen to!).

September 21--Leaving Nova Scotia

Well, today was another traveling day. We got up, had breakfast, packed up and headed out of Nova Scotia. It did take us a while to get out. We drove through the morning fog and mist into the sunlight away from the river and ocean. Western Nova Scotia is lovely with rolling hills and farms, and a few larger towns. By the time we got to Moncton outskirts, the sun had disappeared and the temperature had dropped enough for me to ask for a stop so I could get my electric clothes back on and warm up.

Ahh, heated clothes! What a wonderful thing they are! They turn a gray, chilled to the bone, focused on cold fingers attitude into happy, content, just watching the scenery pass by! We finally got to the turn off from the Canadian version of a superhighway (we actually had to pay a $4.00 toll on it) onto a decidedly unsuper Hwy 114 headed east for Fundy National Park and the town of Alma, just outside the park on the coast side.


We skipped the campground and went right to town to get a bite to eat (lobster rolls and clam plates). It is blueberry season, and we did pass the blueberry capital of Nova Scotia earlier, so I had fresh blueberry cobbler for dessert. We both have to admit we are getting seafood’ed out. We went back to the only open campsite in the park, about 4 kilometers up the hill from the town and found a lovely site. They have washer and dryers, fire wood for sale, showers, and lots of private campsites. I scrounged for wood, and got enough for last night’s fire.

We got everything set up, and then headed back to Alma to see the high tide at 5:02 p.m. By the time we got back, the boats that I’d seen at the wharf high and dry earlier in the day were floating! It was pretty amazing.

We wandered around and took pictures and then headed to camp for a fire and the first episode of MadMen.

We had finished all the Hero episodes the night before (except for a few we accidentally skipped) and decided to move to MadMen.

If you haven’t seen this series, it’s worth watching. If you are a woman, you just have to be amazed at how far women have come since the 60’s, and why we moved as fast as we could away from that era (except, maybe, Sarah Palin). Thank God we got the vote (well, we will see in November!)!!!

Tomorrow we will be sightseeing around Fundy Drive, and head for low tide at Alma which is at 11:52 a.m. We want to walk out on the ocean bottom and see what turns up!