We had been longing for a return trip to New England for several years. On 9/11/12 we headed out on our journey after rounding up Miss Abby who just knew something was up and it wasn't to her liking.
It was a beautiful day and we made good time in the motor home (which is now affectionately known as Baby Hughie). We made it to Randolph, New York and found out that we were in the heart of Amish country! The bad part of this overnight stay was that there was NO tv service at all. Poor Roy!
The next day we got to Corning, New York because we wanted to go through the Corning Glass Museum. What an interesting place! We watched several folks hand blowing glass into animals and pumpkins for fall. We were amazed at how old some of the glass on exhibit was and everything was so well displayed. I did manage to get a small Christmas ornament and one of the pumpkins. Neat stuff!!
Next on our agenda was wine country in the Finger Lakes Region. Guess whose idea that was??!! We stopped by Glenora Winery on beautiful Senaca Lake. It was still morning, but we enjoyed our wine tasting and agreed on several bottles to bring home. That is truly a beautiful part of the state of New York.
We headed northeast in New York state and spent a night in Herkimer, N. Y. Apparently there is or was a diamond mine there and if we had gotten there a bit earlier, we could have tried our hands at finding diamonds. But we wanted to get a decent start the next morning, so it was kind of an early night for us.
The next day we traveled through the remainder of New York and across New Hampshire. Our destination was St. Johnsbury, Vermont where we had been about 27 years ago. We found Moose River Campground in Woodall's and gave them a try. What a nice park. We were able to back up to the Moose River and with the windows open in the motor home, could hear the water flowing over the rocks all night! How relaxing. But we wanted to do several things while in the beautiful state of Vermont--one was to find some covered bridges. We managed to find three of them. There had been many of the bridges damaged in the 2011 floods. Such a shame! We also stopped by a maple sugar farm and bought some candy. The owner told us this past year was the worst ever for havesting maple syrup. The winter was just too warm there. Upon the advice of the park owners, we took a side trip to visit the "Bird Man". He whittles birds from only one piece of green cedar! What an art! Of course, we had to purchase one. While driving around, we encountered the Cabot Cheese factory. This white cheddar cheese has been our favorite for some time, mainly because it is 50% less fat than regular, but doesn't taste like it. We stopped for some samples and had to buy a supply to bring home. We just had to make it a point to have breakfast at the same restaurant in downtown St. Johnsbury that we had done 27 years ago!! Hard to believe it's still there and still busy.
Vermont was difficult to leave because the colors were beginning to change and it is such a pretty state. Our next destination was Bangor, Maine. Since we had the GPS set for no toll roads, "Millie" took us on some interesting side roads. LOTS of hills and curves!! Roy does a fantastic job of maneuvering that big box of a motor home!!
But the countryside is so much neater to see from those "off the beaten path" roads.
We arrived at Pumpkin Patch RV Park in Bangor about 4 p.m. and found it a very nice, clean park with large pull-thrus. The main reason for stopping in Bangor is because Roy was stationed at Dow Air Force Base there in the 1960's. Of course, the air force base is no longer there, but he managed to find his old barracks which is now a college dorm. Amazing that the building is still there after 50 years!
After checking out Bangor and trying to find some of those old "haunts", we decided to stay in the RV park and travel by car to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. We knew it would take up the majority of a day, but the scenery is still worth it. Bar Harbor is a place like no other. It is just so picturesque even though it has become quite commercialized. Acadia National Park is just as we remember it from years ago and we did have to drive up Cadillac Mountain just for "old times sake".
Three nights was enough in Bangor, so we headed southward down the coast. Our destination was Boothbay Harbor, which is only a short distance from Bar Harbor. We had previously stayed in Boothbay with our friends, Bob and Milissa and remember it being beautiful. We parked the motor home at Shore Hills Campground which was about seven miles from the shore. This, too, was a very nice park and from this site, we wanted to venture back to Portland, Maine. We had been there 27 years ago and found it was a neat seaport.
On the way to Portland, we decided to visit the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath. What a unique experience! This is where the schooners were built in the late 1800's and early 1900's. They were built at this location because they could be launched into the Kennebunk River which was wide enough and deep enough to accommodate them. We didn't realize just how big these vessels were and just what went into constructing them. It was indeed quite interesting. We got to tour the Herman Zwicker, a schooner built in 1942 in Nova Scotia. This schooner was used in the Grand Banks as a fishing vessel. It was neat to be able to see the menus of the fishermen, along with their sleeping facilities. The Herman Zwicker is still operational today and is sailed from Bath to a northern port in the salt water which, of course, doesn't freeze in the winter and the Kennebunk River does freeze over. We also found out that Bath, Maine is where Navy destroyers are built and one was launched just after we had been there.
Portland was quite a disappointment to us. It is no longer a quaint seaport, but a bustling tourist port. We walked around a bit, had a good lunch and headed back to Boothbay and decided it was time to leave Maine and work our way back west.
We drove a long day and ended up staying at Tall Pines Campground in Bainbridge, New York. After a good night's sleep, we were back on the highway. This time our destination was Wellsboro, Pennsylvania which is in northern Pennsylvania on Route 6. We were told by our friends, Harry and Bobbi, that this was a quaint little town that still had gas lights lining the main streets. Our park of choice had no openings, so we chose Stony Fork Creek Campground. This was an interesting last mile or so because if we had met another vehicle, not quite sure what would happen. The road was very narrow and there's no way we could back up. But the campground was adequate (no TV or cable) and the scenery was beautiful. There were beautiful mountains on either side of the park and with the leaves changing color, the views were breathtaking. We also discovered that this was the home of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, so had to check that out.
We enjoyed the area but was time to continue our trek home. We decided our last night would be in Amish country Berlin, Ohio . We just HAD to go to Lehman's Hardware one more time and was disappointed to find that most items are made in CHINA!! However, the food in Holmes County is excellent. On the morning of our departure, we splurged with apple fritters!! Wow, they were fantastic!
This ended our summer excursions. The time went by so fast. This summer we had a great trip to northern Michigan with Harry and Bobbi, rode on a 1929 Ford tri-motor airplane, had a delightful ride on Bodi's boat to see the Navy ships and some other short trips. You can honestly say, we didn't let much grass grow under our feet! Now for our next adventure! Texas here we come!
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