August 7 – August 17, 2016

We left Boothbay Harbor at 9:15 and arrived at Timberland Acres RV Park  around noon.  It was 96 miles and took almost 3 hours.  Hwy 1 all the way, single lane road.  We even got flipped the finger once when there was enough room for this guy to pass us.  Oh well, he needs to slow down and smell the roses like us. A guy in Boothbay told us it would be slow and travel would be bad through Camden, ME because it is called the “Prettiest Town in Maine”.Well, Camden sure is Pretty.  They have a Sea Dog Brewing Company, which I think is a cute name.The Camden Library is Pretty.Pretty houses.Pretty views.Pretty Harbor.  The traffic was not bad, but slow enough for me to take some photos.Coming into Bucksport, you see this.  The Tallest Bridge Observatory in the World.  Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory & Historic Fort Knox. We really should have come back to see this.  The Observatory is 420 feet tall and is 42 stories.  It is the only observatory bridge in the Western Hemisphere and the tallest in the world.  Fort Knox is Maine’s largest historic fort and Maine’s first granite fort.  Constructed between 1844 and 1864, it was never completed and never saw combat.Beautiful view of the Penobscot Narrows.Cool Bridge.

Arrived in Trenton, ME (the other side of the bridge from Mt.Desert Island)

Timberland Acres RV Park. This is a great park.  The staff plan lots of outings for the guests. We only attended one, but this is a very nice place to camp.Thanks to Ron and Linda Prater, we got a reservation here for 10 days.  Site #216, 50 amp, water, sewer, no cable, but very good Verizon signal.  Our Winegard Rayzar antenna picked up 6 channels, so no Olympic games for me.  It usually does better than that, but not today.So here we are, all set up.  Very long sites and pretty good room between each other.  We look across the street…..and what do we see, it’s a Twin.  Chuck and Debra from Texas.  This gets even better, they bought their Tradition from RVs For Less in Knoxville.  Same place we bought our SunnyBrook (our first 5th wheel).They have had the same problem with their slide. And their front cap was getting foggy too. They have already been to DRV and got the front cap repainted. You can see the difference between their front and ours at the top. We are getting an appointment to get that repaired next spring.Chuck has the little black strips to keep the slide rubber seals in the correct position. We need those. Other than the outside, not much is the same.  We don’t have the same microwave, light scones, wallcovering, bathroom vanity top and light switches.  You would think that the Twins would be the same, built in the same year and are the exact same model number, but no.  We had a great time getting to know Chuck and Debra.

Monday August 8, 2016 – Bah HabaYou do not pronounce the Rs in Maine. There is a large island called Mt. Desert Island and Bar Harbor is just one small village on the island.  I never really paid that much attention to where Bar Harbor actually is located.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KAdoxo-DU7hixzNjaOQVGj2NpVE&usp=sharing  This is supposed to be a map of the island, but I don’t think I did it correctly.  Let me know if you see the map. Thanks.

Mt. Desert Island has this awesome trolley system, Island Explorer. It takes you all over the island, so you don’t have to drive.  Traffic is terrible and the roads are very narrow.  And it is FREE. There are 7 different routes.  It was very easy to use.We always seem to arrive a low tide.They give you a neat book when you check in at the campground called “Acadia Weekly”. It is published every Sunday.  It gives you the sunrise and sunset times, the high and low tide times for each day. It listed the Cruise Ship arrivals times, so you don’t get caught up in a very crowded day.  There are articles about the area, maps, trolley schedules and a list of things to do and see.  It is very handy, but we still seem to only make it at low tide.Beautiful flowers everywhere.They also have carriage rides. I wish we had time to do that too.Whale watching is big here.Nice hotel with great views.The large yacht on the left is paying about $1,000.00 a day to park there.We made reservations on the Oli’s Trolley for the Acadia National Park tour.  It is a 2.5 hour tour of the park.  It follows the Park Loop Road.Idle was our tour guide.  She is from southern Georgia and she drives trolleys in Yellowstone National Park too.  She was very knowledgeable about the area. The roads are very narrow and there is a lot of traffic.  She did a great job.Beautiful sites on our way to Cadillac Mountain.Down below is Bar Harbor and Bar IslandAt low tide you can walk across the sand bar to Bar Island.  I wish we had time for that tooWe started off at Hulls Cove Visitor Center, took the Island Explorer trolley to Bar Harbor. This is a great map of the area. In a couple of days, we are going to drive over to Schoodic Peninsula.There were people everywhere.  The Oli’s Trolley only allows you 15 minutes at each stop, so you don’t get to enjoy a whole lot.The views from the top of Cadillac Mountain were awesome.We made it to Cadillac Mountain, not for the sunrise, but we made it.The meadow.The cliffs.  There are hiking trails up there.This is Thunder Hole.  When the tide is coming in, it is supposed to sound like thunder.  Bad timing again, no thunder.Nice views though.It was very nice.Bar Harbor Fire Department.

Tuesday August 9, 2016 – Bass HarborBass Harbor is a very small, less crowded village.The path to the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.Beautiful views along the pathThe steps down to the viewing area.The lighthouse is in the right corner of the photo.  This lighthouse is still in operation, so this is as close as you can get.  I was not comfortable walking out on those rocks to get a better photo. Sorry.Tour boats along the coast line.Sail boats.It was very pretty here.  I am so glad we came.Drove to the Natural Seawall. Low tide again, but this time it was a good thing.Looking left.looking right.The flowers are so pretty in Maine.The houses are too.Lunch at the Seafood Ketch in Bass Harbor, ME.  Nice view for lunch. It was a beautiful day. I had the escargot and it was fantastic.  Some of the best I have ever had. Cliff had the Seafood Bisque.The least expensive firewood yet.  $2.50 a bundle.  Some places have been $7.00, but most average about $4.00-5.00 a bundle and you have to buy it locally because of the deadly beetles.We received a wonderful gift from Heike and Chris.  It is the Table 7 sign.  It refers to the group of people who met as strangers in Sevierville, TN at the RV Dreams Rally.  By the end of the week, we had become lifetime friends.  We have already met up with 4 of them on this journey.  Hoping to met up with 2 more in Virginia.

Thursday August 11, 2016Our neighbor and Twin was changing his anode in his hot water heater and so we decided we needed to do that too.  We headed to Bangor to River Road RV Repair.  Chuck got his aluminum anode there.  Road construction in Maine means something a little different than in Tennessee.  They remove the whole road, down to the dirt.Then we drove over to Tidal Falls.  It is really just rapids that reverse direction depending on if the tide is coming in or going out.And guess what, we arrived at low tide.  No rapids, just a lot of rocks.The water is very clear and you see all kinds of clam shells.They have this cool Tide Clock.  So I am going to jump ahead here to August 16, 2016.We went back to Tidal Falls an hour before high tide.In the picture above where Cliff is standing on the rocks, they are now under water.The tide is coming in.There was a little seal playing around. He would come up and float for a while, then go back under and come back up again.  It was cute. Now back to August 11, 2016.Late lunch at Ruth & Wimpy’s.Cliff had Lobster Stew.

Friday August 12, 2016

We were going to get up at 4:00 AM to watch the meteor shower, but it was too cloudy to see anything.Once we did get up, we decided to drive over to Schoodic Peninsula. This is the only section of Acadia National Park that is on the mainland. Before you get to the park, there is a small town of Winter Harbor. This street ends right at the water.It was beautiful at the end of the road.  And here we are at low tide.Granite stones everywhere.We see a lot of these configurations.  Not sure what they mean.  Maybe it is just people being creative.Beautiful summer cottages along this road that ends at the water.Pretty churchThe sailing club.Post Office in Winter Harbor, MEAcadia National Park visitor center.First stop is Frazer Point. At this point the road becomes one way around the peninsula.More rock formations. It is 1:00 in the afternoon and the fog is so thick you can’t see much.This is Schoodic Point.Google Photos made a panoramic view for me.  It looks better on the computer.Miles of granite.The fog is starting to lift.Thought I was back in Florida for a second.Drove right along the shore line.Got to Prospect Harbor and it is still foggy.Big lobsterman.Decided on an early dinner at Union River Lobster Pot.  The most expensive meal so far and not that impressed.New friends, Chuck and Debra are the 2 on the right.Rick and Diane are from MarylandThis family from Mass. Ben is the field spaniel.  They did everything they could while they were here with their son Brian. Great family.

Bar Harbor Part 2 coming up next.