Saturday July 16. Long day of driving. Google maps said 4 hr 20 min. but we managed to take all day. Finally arrived at this park around 5:00 PM but that’s Atlantic time, one hour ahead of eastern time. Ate lunch at a TripAdvisor recommended spot, Debi’s Diner in Patton, Me. Known for regional food such as red hot dogs, Maine beans, clams and fish chowder. The latter two were good, but red hot dogs are hot dogs apparently with red food coloring. Oh, and whoopee pie, a Maine regional dessert.
We drove by Mount Katahdin and across New Brunswick which is essentially Maine with even fewer people. Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world. Rapids literally run up stream during high tide. There is a naturally occurring whirlpool and some of the rivers have a tidal bore. That’s a standing wave that runs up river. Hope to see at least some of that but walking on the ocean floor at low tide should be a “can’t miss” experience.
We left Dry River CG in Crawford Notch SP this AM. We liked the privacy of the sites, each separated from the next by 30 – 40 feet of forest. Restrooms and showers were clean, no hook ups but we don’t need them. No cell phone signal, and far from town, but again not a big deal. We had time for one more hike before hitting the road and we chose Big Sawyer lake trail. It’s 1.5 miles and ends at a campground worth remembering. There are 8 sites, some with lean to’s, some with flat wooden platforms for pitching a tent on. Here are two pictures from one of the campsites, lean to visible on the picture side…
Finished the hike at about 1:30 then we hit the road for Maine. I’ve been looking forward to a fresh lobster roll for a long time. We chose this place in Belfast, Me. Packed with people, cars from California, Florida, Virginia, etc. Maine license plates were on about half the cars. Peggy had haddock. We left Sammy in the car but should have taken him to the outdoor dining area. We saw two English setters there, quite unusual to see that breed. Usually you see some kind of doodle. Lobster pound is a common name for a seafood place in Maine, not sure why. Here’s the place…
Finally we are staying tonight at a Harvest Host site, Stone Tree Farm and Cidery. Peggy, super taster that she is, rejected every cider on the flight except the margarita, we bought a growler of that.
I’m always interested in how people make a living. Two guys bought this vineyard two years ago and make wine from their own grapes, cider from apples they purchase. The Harvest Host program really helps them out. We are one of three HH guests tonight. You are expected to make a purchase in exchange for parking on their spot, which in this case is the front yard. The tasting room and outdoor picnic tables are around back, opposite a walkout basement.
We go on to New Brunswick tomorrow, staying at a Canadian National Park, Nova Scotia Sunday or Monday. Don’t know where we’ll stay after Sunday.
One more picture. In case you ever wonder what Sammy does while we drive, this picture says it all.
I wasn’t planning to blog the first two days, after all they are just driving days. But Pleasant Valley Farm is worth a mention. Jim, the owner, who loves to water ski, bought it in 1994. Although there was no body of water on it, he had a vision. Here are some pictures of Pleasant Valley today…..
That’s the house and lake in the middle pic, our campsite at the base of the dam on the right. He created the lake. Here’s another picture….
Remember there was no body of water on the farm when he bought it in ’94. That’s a slalom course in the picture above, and a ski jump on the right. I estimate the lake is no more than 500 yards long. Jim is 76 years old and still water ski’s. He rents 8 campsites (the blue bus in the background is on site 1) and rents his barn for events.
Saturday, July 9 In keeping with the Dr Seuss theme we found an unusual place to eat on our way to Wellsville, Mike’s Place in Kent Ohio. Here’s Peggy outside…
Notice the X wing replica on the left. Apparently Mike is a big fan of Star Wars. The food was good but the extensive, pun and joke filled menu and the overall quirkiness of the place is what makes it. Here’s the menu…
8 pages, over 200 items. We ate supper at Beef Haus in Wellsville with Chris.
Sunday July 10 70th Emo reunion. About 60 people, Aunt Betty Ann Fox, nee Emo, seemed to enjoy being the family matriarch. We stayed both Saturday and Sunday adjacent to Island Park, and next to the softball fields two night.
Monday 7/12 we had breakfast with Chris then hit the road. Stayed this night at Shaftsbury Alpacas, just outside Bennington Vt.
The owner told me everything about alpacas, and her personal life, sheesh. TMI
Tuesday – From the alpaca farm we went to Four Aces in Bradford, Vt., another roadfood.com find. It was good, avocado toast a big hit with Peggy. Then to Holiday Inn Express. Time for a hotel shower. Ate at the Sunset Grill in Campton, NH. Very good.
Wednesday drove around, exploring the area. Did the Coppermine trail to Bridal Veil Falls (how many Bridal Veil Falls can there be?). The hike up there and back was much more difficult than we expected, took much longer.
Camped at Dry River CG, in Crawford Notch State Park. Bugs were kind of bad but Peggy had them beat…
notice the vinyl gloves
Thursday July 14 Did the hike up to Mt Willard. Here’s the view…
And one more, they call these gaps notches, as in Crawford’s Notch. That’s this one.
The only life bird possible for me here is Bicknel’s Thrush. It stays high up on the mountain tops, where the vegetation is 3 to 6 feet high, just below the tree line. Mt Williard isn’t high enough. Looks like I will miss this bird.
We head to Maine tomorrow.
PS lots of trouble blogging, first with the .heic extension that Apple now uses for all photos (who knew), then a “glitch” with the blogging software, could type and upload pictures but couldn’t publish. Restart fixed it but had to redo everything.
Got to Ochlockonee State Park yesterday 1/29 late, after dark and the gate was locked! Who knew they locked the gates to State Parks with campgrounds. We went back to the nearest town where I met a guy wearing hunter camouflage pacing back and forth beside his truck, which had two large dog boxes in the bed. He knew the park closed its gate at sundown and the campers inside were given a code to come and go. He told me one Walker dog was in the dog box in the truck but he lost the other two and was waiting for a friend to come help him find them. Seems Walker dogs are coon hounds converted to chase/hunt deer. I showed Sammy to him at which point he said “Breed a bird dog to a Walker dog, It’d make a cracker jack deer dog”. He explained the smarts of a bird dog together with the night hunting ability of a Walker dog is known to be a first rate combo for deer. I think he was propositioning Sammy. No word yet on those offspring with the brains of a Walker dog and the night hunting drive of a bird dog.
We found an emergency number on the parks website, got the code and found our spot.
Today, Sunday, we struck out on the Red-cockaded woodpecker and the Bachman’s sparrow but success on the American Flamingo, a bright coral pink bird unmistakable even at 300 yards. Will try again tomorrow AM then on to Indian River SP in Georgia.
Our annual four weeks at Estero Beach and Tennis on Ft Myers beach went by fast.
First week was figuring out the new routines for Sammy and integrating him to them. Boarded him at Country Pet Ranch part of the week, slept in the van with him at a Harvest Host site (a church) and at Walmart 2 nights. We eventually settled on leaving him in his kennel in the van. He seemed to like that just fine. Fortunately it was never hot outside. He was never in our condo.
Second week Kevin was with us part of 5 days, in condo 2002, Sammy allowed in there. Third week highlight was being with Mike and Vicki, Myakka river tour, two nice restaurants and best farmer’s market ever. Here’s a collage of pictures Vicki put together….
It was a good day for alligators. That’s an Orange Trumpet vine on the lower right
We were able to spend time with Jeff and Billie and the new addition to their home, Kingston. Even got to see his basketball game and see Jeff expertly handle an irate parent. Here they are at the dog park in their community
Kingston feels most comfortable with a basketball in his hands
And we enjoyed the company of our Ft Myers friends from Michigan who vacation there the same weeks as us…..
at our lunch place in Santini plaza, Skye’s Sammy is a little hard to see between Peggy and me.
Only played golf once with Stewart, his brother David and Steve Wilson, at Spanish Wells. Two new life birds on this trip, Tricolored Munia and Tropical Kingbird. Had to drive to Lake Okechobee to get them.
Lots of tennis and beach walks, as usual. Mostly the same restaurants, Little Italy still our favorite for Italian, Dixie Seafood Co. and Fish House for seafood, Whole Foods for a healthy meal, Skye’s for lunch and then there’s always Subway. One new restaurant – Fernandez the Bull, excellent Cuban food, reasonable priced.
Wellsville is quintessential small town America. On the Genesee river, with a population of roughly 8,000 and very rural, the downtown somehow survives. Chris lives in a group home 21/2 blocks from Main street. Here is a picture of her and Peggy on the corner of her street and Main street with her favorite stopping spot, Texas Hot in the background…..
Texas Hot is a diner, Creative Arts is a coffee house that has a variety of local art for sale. They also have open mike night once a week, trivia once a month and live music on the weekends. It’s been my hanging out spot, along with the excellent library diagonally across the street. There is an Edgar Allen Poe re-enactor in the library’s auditorium tonight. I hope to go. A bluegrass band is at the library next week. They have a halloween themed movie on the lawn several nights a week this month. These and other things help keep the town alive and relevant.
There are several state forests in this county*, some with camping sites. The one we used Tuesday night was taken when we arrived late last night so we used a much inferior one nearby. Plan to just park in the lot of a closed up K-mart tonight (Thursday 10/14), close to the library, it will be a good spot to arrive late to. *we stayed in Vandermark SF, 2,000 acres. I did a rough addition of the public acres in this county and it’s over 40,000. Most don’t have campsites and those that do are usually not one you can drive to and park beside.
From Bloomington to Oakwood on Sunday, 10/10. Got to see Noel play soccer then we made the drive to Oakwood where we found Don, Anne and the kids at the Oakwood fall festival. Met Max there, a ragamuffin dog, soft, furry and friendly. Here he is:
Max at 8 weeks., with Anne and Margaret.
It was great to see them even if the visit was brief. We stayed at Pymatuning State Park Ohio side on Monday night, 10/11. Far different from Spring Mill, very few halloween decorations and no children (not fall break in Ohio I’m sure). You can see the extent of halloween decorations in the background, one plastic pumpkin. Of course we have none.
Mud nearly unavoidable in spite of the well placed rug. Reserved it sight unseen.
Showers were good, that was pretty much the reason for staying there.
Tuesday we made it to Wellsville on 10/12 a little after 1:00
First a note to those I don’t know who have signed up to follow this sporadic, somewhat pointless blog…..you’re welcome to if you want but it’s mostly for me to remember where we went and what we did. It’s also for friends and family to see the same, should they be interested. I keep it public to make things simple.
Spring Mill is a beautiful park, maybe Indiana’s best. We arrived late in the afternoon of the 7th. Will made pork chops Thursday evening, delicious. The crowd of campers grew Friday and Saturday commensurate with the Halloween decorations. Halloween is big with the camping crowd. Friday we hiked to Donaldson Cave, Noel, AK, Will and I climbed up the short cliff wall to enter and explore. Eagle eyed Anne Kash found a cave salamander. Here’s a picture of us emerging from a window into the cave above the stream that flows out of it:
We walked the trail along the stream to the road, near the nature center. Colleen and AK drove. We ate at the lodge then went back to camp. Saturday the campground was nearly full, halloween decorations everywhere. Nature center in the AM, pioneer village in the afternoon. Built in 1817 and operated until the early 20th century, it was purchased by Portland-Lehigh cement for the water coming from the cave. The cement company donated it to the state in the 1920’s but kept the water rights. The state renovated the buildings with help from the CCC and WPA in the ’30’s. It’s been a jewel of the Indiana state park system ever since.
No Thursday night was at this state park, Burr Oak must have been Wednesday, Hotel Indigo was Monday and Tuesday.
Door county for all its fame is still largely agricultural and rural. The tourist spots are the towns on Green Bay, the two state parks and certain fruit farms, cherry this time of year, apple later. Here’s Al Johnson’s Swedish restaurant, the “goats on the roof” gimmick really works, it was by far the most popular place in Sister’s Bay (well ok, the food was really good):
The water didn’t seem much colder than I remember it being in South Haven, MI despite being significantly farther north. You can see people were out swimming.
Here is a picture of another Green Bay beach, the one in Peninsula State Park:
This pic doesn’t do the beach justice. There’s a bath house with shower, a concession stand and a food truck in the parking lot, paddle boards and kayaks for rent. It’s easy walking distance from the campground. Another nice thing about this park is the extensive network of bike trails through the woods. Finally there is a play 6 nights a week at the amphitheater. We really enjoyed “The Fisherman’s Daughters”, a musical commissioned for this park. Written by a folk musician from northern Wisconsin, Katie Dahl, it was great. Maybe I don’t know what’s good, but to me there is no comparison between the music and lyrics of this obscure play and what passes as “popular culture”. I recently read a paean of praise to the genius of Kanye West, a world renown multimillionaire celebrity. Meanwhile folks like Katie Dahl get by playing house concerts. ???
This park by the way must be the redstart capital of America. It provided me a chance to learn their song by hearing it over and over. Still not sure I got it down though.
We left late Friday for Rushton Meadery. Bought a bottle of mead there then hit the road for home Saturday AM. The night was marred by nearby fireworks and the generator of another RV’er but we managed. Saturday night spent in Mattoon Il Cracker Barrel parking lot (impressed by Mattoon, typical small town America) then home Sunday.
Tuesday and Wednesday stayed at the Hotel Indigo on IHG points but had to pay the pet fee, worth it. Had a great room, meaning it was right by the elevator which went straight down to the parking garage and street. Rochester is clean and safe, flower beds on every block. Incredible, Sammy found rabbits in several of them. Turns out cities aren’t the best place to walk him, Pigeons and sparrows, yikes. Found places to eat on the website bringfido.com. Here’s one:
Huge selection of craft beers
Peggy was happy with the second opinions she got at Mayo. Nothing important, minor stuff. On to Wisconsin.
Thursday night was spent at another winery, Burr Oak. This is way more wine than we normally drink. Had another dry white, all have been surprisingly good.
Roses 1.0 Van Life 