Month: July 2023

Saturday, July 15, 2023

After completing our lighthouse road trip yesterday, we arrived at Hadley’s Point RV park in Bar Harbor Maine.  Great, family-oriented campground with friendly, helpful staff.  This is our third RV park of the trip.  We plan to stay here until Tuesday, visiting Acadia National Park and the surrounding area and doing some laundry since they have some nice new machines.

After a good night of rest in this quiet campground, we elected to use the Island Explorer bus system for our first day of visiting Acadia.  The bus system is entirely free and you can visit everything in the park and go into Bar Harbor just by changing buses depending on what you want to see.  We began as we usually do by visiting the National Park Visitor Center.  You do have to have a park pass to enter the park but our lifetime geezer pass took care of that for us.  The visitor center is very nice and we remembered to get our NP passport stamped while we were there.  Then we changed to the park loop bus and headed into the park.  It was a foggy morning and more so in the park.  We exited the bus at Sand Beach and the trail head for Great Head Loop Trail.  We were surprised after seeing all the cliffs and rocks at the lighthouses yesterday that there was sand at the beach.  It was a very different and more course sand than the beautiful white Alabama gulf coast beaches.  The trail had many look out points and we stopped at most of them.  The trail had lots of roots and rocks, sort of like the Smokey Mountains and a lot of Alabama.  It also had big beautiful ferns and flowers. As the day progressed the fog burned off and we had a little sunshine.  At the end of the trail we had to do a little rock scrambling but overall it was a very nice trail to begin our exploration of Acadia.

From there we hiked Ocean Path Trail to Thunder Hole, about ¾ mile.  There was another gift shop at Thunder Hole so we were able to get another NP stamp for our book.  Thunder Hole is a natural rock inlet where waves crash with a loud boom and high-flying water and foam.  It was a fun little stop and then we boarded another bus for a trip to Bar Harbor.

Bar Harbor was a busy place today.  People crowded the streets, shopping in all the little shops.  It was very touristy and reminded us of Gatlinburg.  We did have a good lunch of fish and chips at one of the local restaurants and enjoyed wondering around the harbor and admiring some beautiful boats/yachts.  Of course we also tried some delicious local wild blueberry soft serve ice cream. Another bus returned us to our campground just in time for the rain to begin.  It didn’t last long though and then we and some more sunshine.  It was another wonderful day.  Hope you are having a great weekend.  Shine your light!

Friday, July 14, 2023

The Maine thing we did today was visit lighthouses.  After another walk around Freeport, a very walkable town, and a quick visit to a bakery, we headed north.  Our first stop was Doubling Point Light which was established in 1899.  It is currently on private property but is open to the public 9-5 daily.  It is down a one lane, gravel road, that has 3 parking places when you arrive at the light.  You walk a path out to the water and out a wooden pier to the light.  The Friends of Doubling Light do a great job maintaining the lighthouse and ask for donations from those who enjoy and appreciate it.  This may have been Anne’s favorite for the day because we were the only visitors there.  It was so quiet and peaceful and was a great choice for our first Maine lighthouse.  It is still in use today to assist in navigation on the Kennebec River.

Next was the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse.  Located in Bristol, Maine it was built in 1827.  At this site you can view the light house, the keepers house, a museum, and art gallery.  You can climb to the top of the light for a great view of the coastline and beach.  The line for climbing the lighthouse was fairly long and there were a lot of people enjoying this location today. The tower’s original Fresnel lens is still in use in the active lighthouse.

The final lighthouse for the day was Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse.  As the name implies, the lighthouse is located in Rockland, Maine and is at the end of a one-mile granite breakwater.  At high tide, the water is close to the top of the breakwater, and we think you might get a little wet if the water is rough.  We were there at low tide, so it was not a problem.  The breakwater was completed in 1900 and the lighthouse completed in 1902.  This also is still an active lighthouse and was switched to solar power in 2000.  While there were a good number of people at this lighthouse, it didn’t seem crowded, and we enjoyed our 2-mile round trip walk.

After our immersion in lighthouses today, and our recent emphasis on “Light” at church, we have to leave you with the reminder that Jesus is the light of the world. John 8:12.  You are the light of the world, Mathew 5:14.  Jesus expects us to let His light shine through us to all we meet. Hope you have a shining weekend.

Thursday, July 13, 2023

As planned, today we took the 8:30 Cog Wheel Train to the summit of Mount Washington.  Wow!  We were blessed with a sunny start to the day.  You get to choose the bio-diesel or the steam engine for the trip.  We chose the coal fired steam engine.  The trip to the summit is a little over 3 miles and takes about an hour in the steam engine.  It is a little less time in the Bio-deisel.  If you aren’t familiar with a cog wheel train follow this link.  You can feel/hear the cogs attaching and releasing as you go up the mountain.  The Mount Washington Cog is the first mountain climbing railway in the world.  With an average grade of 25% and some as high as 38% it’s also the second steepest in the world.  You also need to remember the horribly harsh conditions at the Summit (6,288 feet) for much of the year.  It is said that Mt Washington has the world’s worst weather.  The highest temperature ever recorded was 72 and the lowest -47.  The average temperature is 26.

It was an interesting trip up.  In about an hour you go through 3 climate zones to arrive at the top of New England.  It reminds us of the frozen tundra in Manitoba or Alaska.  When we reached the top the temperature was down to 52 with a 30 mph wind.  So thankful we read the instructions and dressed warmly.  Yes, there were people at the summit in shorts!  The wind was pretty brutal.  We spent about an hour on the summit – some out in the cold exploring and the rest inside at the museum.  The trip back down was just as interesting although slightly faster.  The brakeman really had to work to keep the train under control on the way down.  Very glad we decided to take the Cog to the summit.  We definitely recommend it.

After fixing some lunch, we left base camp and enjoyed a beautiful drive to Freeport, Maine – our fourth new state.  We spent the afternoon wandering around Freeport, visiting some of the many shops including several of the L.L.Bean Shops.  It was another great day.

2003 Summer Road Trip Day 8

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Last night we were at our second campground of the trip – Crazy Horse RV Park.  It’s locally owned by a very sweet couple.  The landscaping was very nice – lots of flowers blooming and the grass all mowed.  We were very grateful they found us a spot as we were escaping the Vermont floods.  We got our walk in this morning and then headed to a very small town, Sugar Hill.  It’s the home of Polly’s Pancake Parlor.  What a great place!  It’s family owned and was opened originally during the depression as a tearoom serving pancakes as a way to market the family’s maple products.  It’s now into the fourth generation of pancake makers.  They stone grind their own flours, except for white flour which is King Arthur flour.  Interestingly, your server cooks your pancakes and delivers them to your table while the cooks in the kitchen handle the eggs/bacon/omelets etc.  It’s been that way from the beginning.  It takes someone special to be able to be a server at Polly’s.  You can actually go to a counter and watch your server make your pancakes.  We had buckwheat and plain pancakes, both flavors with blueberries.  They were wonderful along with the bacon and excellent maple syrup.

From Polly’s we drove northeast to Mt Washington.  At 6,288 feet it is the highest peak in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the highest peak in the northeastern US.  The ears did some popping today and we are still at the base camp.  Today we toured the museum and tomorrow will be the Cog Wheel train trip to the top.