Friday 30th June – 27,000 miles, state no 47 and returning to where it all began

On the way home last night I had tentatively mapped our next booking - a state park in Vermont. Maybe we still haven’t learned enough about the size of this country even after 9 months?! The Satnav corroborated my fears this morning, informing us that we had in excess of a 6-hour drive to do.

Paul Bunyan, the iconic lumberjack....

I looked at alternatives, then we took a very brief detour to take in the largest Paul Bunyan statue in the land (had to be done, right) and discuss our options.  In the end, we opted to do the mileage today leaving less for tomorrow whilst also making time to stop at Campers Inn (CI), Merrimack, where we bought the RV to give them a heads up about our plans.  As we neared the end of our tour I was become more nervous about the process of selling the RV.  What if Campers Inn have changed their minds and won’t sell it on our behalf so we have to look at selling it privately?  How long would that take?  How would I be able to break it to Tash and David that we’d need to park a 30ft RV on their driveway with a ‘for sale’ sign in the window??!  Endless questions that would hopefully be answered when we got to see Joe at Campers Inn this afternoon.

After a quick lunch stop, I drove a solid two hours into New Hampshire to reach CI for 420pm.  We both felt quite emotional returning to where we'd been united with our beloved RV.  And deciding to pop in for a quick chat today turned out to be amazing good luck for us.  Joe, who sold us the RV, has been off work for months recovering from open heart surgery and the Manager was going on vacation the very next day until 15^th July – after we’ve left the country!! I dread to think what would have happened if we’d turned up on another day.  The receptionist seemed doubtful they’d be able to help and got us to write our contact details on a piece of paper but luckily the Manager, David Hirsch, made time for us today.  He said they don’t usually do consignments but as we had been promised, and with Joe off, he agreed to help – phew! He took a brief look at the RV seeming happy with its condition despite us not having prepared it for sale yet.  He agreed that they will sort the damage to the ladder out and the other minor cosmetic issues.  He was happy that there was still plenty of rubber on the tyres - I can’t believe we have done so many miles without having to replace a single one!

We went back inside to his office and began the haggling process.  We had done some research on line to compare what other similar-aged RVs were on sale for so we knew we were going to have to take a hit due to the high mileage. His initial offer was low but we managed to come to an agreement on what we felt was a reasonable offer – $43000 for us and they keep any profit over that.  Privately, I wouldn’t have expected us to have achieved more than 46k at best.  They may be able to reach 50k but to leave the hassle of the sale with them combined with not having to worry about paying for repairs etc – I’m happy.  It will have cost 15k to buy and sell the RV rather than the 45k it would have cost to hire an RV for 9 months at 5k a month!  So, we have completed the trip at a third of the cost and I for one wouldn’t swap our experience for anything.

We hadn’t wanted to take up too much of David’s time but he must have been in the holiday mood.  We couldn’t get out of his office until we had chatted about travel and politics and basically put the world to rights until it was 6pm!  

For once, we managed to capture the moment we had driven 27,000 miles in the RV

The excuse for this poor Vermont State image is the rain conditions...

The skies had become dark and it started to thunder as we left, still with 2 hours and 20 mins to go! The rain hammered down giving us very poor visibility (see video below) and we only stopped very briefly to top up on gas and swap over.

We reached Winhall Brook camping area in Vermont past 9pm, just as it was getting dark.  It was still raining a little and we were exhausted.  We made instant mash to go with our microwave dinner and beans and watched a terrible film about two guys lost in the desert whilst I made blog notes.

Thursday 29th June – Acadia National Park

With only one full day to enjoy the Park I got us moving in the morning to catch the 1014am bus.  The journey made us incredibly relieved that we had left the RV behind – there were roadworks most of the way towards the Visitor Centre meaning a very slim single lane on the equivalent of unmade roads.  The bus we were in sounded like it wasn’t going to make it!

But thankfully it did and we reached the VC and changed onto the number 4 ‘Loop Road’ bus around the eastern part of the island. It was a very hot, sunny day.  We’d made some decisions about where we wanted to get off and investigate - first stop, Thunder Hole but we’d timed it completely wrong. 

This is what it was meant to look like:

But this is what it looks like on a calm day when the tide is out.....

 
This is a rocky inlet famous for the sounds produced when the waves crash into the gap in the rocks.  The best sounds are at high tide.  We managed to visit at low tide and so it was underwhelming to say the least. But the views were nice.

We queued and got back on what was now a very busy bus to Jordan Pond, which was more lake-sized if you ask me.

Above and below - Jordan pond with 'the bubbles' at the far end.  Glad to see they didn't go for the more obvious name...

 

After a brief wander around we changed bus routes which took us to north east harbour (right).  As an unexpected bonus there was an exhibition of Antique cars by the quay.  It made the small town look like something out of the wacky races!

There were much fewer tourists around here so we took the opportunity to re-fuel at a lovely restaurant overlooking the marina.  What started out as stopping for a quick lunch-time snack ended up with us tackling the largest plate of nachos you have ever seen! 

View from the restaurant

The steep, rocky trail up Cadillac Mountain

I had been keen to do a hike (no surprises there then) but it was now after 3pm as we headed back across the island past Jordan pond.  The most prestigious hike would be to climb the tallest mountain on the island – Cadillac Mountain.  The bumph informed us that the north ridge would be the easiest of the four routes up the mountain apparently, so off we went. It took us 1.5 hours to reach the summit. The annoying thing was the amount of people who had cheated by driving up – where’s the sense of achievement in that?! Simon was not impressed.  But driving wasn’t an option for us with no car and the buses don’t go up to the peak!   We stopped for a drink and an energy bar to take in the 360° views before heading back down again.

Proof we made it.... and below:

Most importantly we had to get down to a bus stop before the last bus left for the village green at Bar Harbor! We chose to take the trail down the west side of the mountain.  Yes, it was shorter, but also much steeper and rockier (below).  It probably took just as long as the other way would’ve but at about 1 mile shorter it was exciting and surely it was better to see a fresh route?! Si was not convinced….

In a race against time, we needed to get back down to Bubble pond below us.... lucky it was steep then.

Bubble pond

When we finally reached the bottom of what felt like a cliff-face we took some photos of bubble pond before running to catch the number 5 bus into village green for a well-deserved dinner.

The Lobster roll photo

It was time for US sandwich number 9 - the lobster roll. I had been looking forward to this for a long time.  A chance to have a seafood sandwich rather than another meat-based one.  I gave it 7.5 out of 10, so, it didn’t set my world alight!  It was tasty but the flavour of the lobster was not as strong as I was hoping for.  Simon tucked into a pizza and we both enjoyed a local brew.  The plan had been to explore the vibrant town some more after dinner but we were both feeling too stiff to be able to move very far after our earlier exertions!

 


It had been a very full and energetic day (as evidenced by my Fitbit, right), so we jumped on the 830pm bus back to the site and walked down to the RV just in time for sunset.

Wednesday 28th June – The most Easterly point in the United States

One of our new-found friends left us a gift of a bundle of wood outside this morning before they left.  How sweet.  We looked forward to another non-stressful driving day exploring the north-east coast.  Heading towards the easternmost point in the USA, West (bizarrely) Quoddy Head, we reviewed the other extremities we have reached during this trip. Accepting that we weren’t going to get to Hawaii and Alaska, of the 48 land-locked states we definitely got as far south-east as possible on the mainland at the tip of Florida, San Diego was as near as we wanted to get to Mexico in the south-west and our first foray across the border into Canada was at the most north-westerly point possible.  So, in essence, today we were striving to achieve the ‘four corners’ of the United States.  

Crossing the foggy causeway to West Quoddy Head

Fog looked as though it was trying to thwart us by blocking our view as we crossed the causeway towards Quoddy Head (above), but once we’d arrived and visited the small museum inside West Quoddy lighthouse, the sun gradually burnt off the mist:

West Quoddy lighthouse overlooking the Atlantic Ocean

There was a short trail up to the highest point on the headland to get better views of the Atlantic Ocean and the mist rolling away from the trees and rocks added a sense of drama to the occasion. I managed to spot a couple of sealions in the water as an extra treat and Simon and I both braved it out onto the rocks to improve our view.

We stuck to route 1 as much as possible as we continued down the east coast of Maine towards Acadia National Park – a location I have had circled on our atlas since way back as a ‘must-stop’ location for wildlife and scenery.  When I discovered on Monday that all of the park’s three campsites are fully booked until August I was relieved to secure a booking at another PA site, not inside the park but still on the same island – Mount Desert Island – and at a reduced rate.  Here is where all of the history we have been learning about for the last few days came full circle!  Mount Desert Island was first mapped and named by Pierre Dugua, who we learnt yesterday was the leader at St Croix Island and who we also saw commemorated in statue form in Quebec on Saturday (below) – what a guy! (a Red Dwarf-based reference for you there…. )

The Pierre Dugua memorial at the Citadel in Quebec City

What's that at the end of the rainbow?  A Walmart, of course, a literal pot of gold!

Having driven through some heavy rainstorms and dark skies (above) we arrived just after 5pm and set up on a cracking hill-top pitch with splendid views over the trees and water.  Our timing is also great as they started running the free seasonal bus routes all around the island only five days ago.  So, it looks like tomorrow we can leave the RV set up and be driven around the national park to our hearts’ content.

Spot the Harvey lookalike... a popular RV make.

I went for my usual recce, finding the swimming pool a misty brown colour complete with floating detritus…. A swim being out of the question, I opted for a walk instead and found myself completely alone by the water’s edge as the tide receded.  I sat on some rocks, transfixed, watching the seagulls and sea life in the mud that emerged all around me.  This video should hopefully show the shellfish squirting water at low tide...

Trying out a panoramic pic for a change....

I tore myself away to head back to the RV and persuaded Simon to head back out with me to enjoy the views during sunset.

That day's arrived then.... we'll live on Ocean Drive