Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine

We finally broken Internet and cell phone silence this week! The RV park we stayed in near Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park didn’t have Internet access, and our Verizon phones (and the Sea2C router) couldn’t get a reliable signal, so we didn’t have cell phone service either. Luckily it is only the third time on the trip (the others were Fishing Bridge campground in Yellowstone Park, and Ontario, Canada). It is amazing how much we rely on the Internet – researching campgrounds, communicating with friends, keeping up on world and local news. We are glad to be connected to the world again!

The campground we stayed in near Bar Harbor operates on a first come, first serve basis -- they don’t accept reservations! The good news is they let you drive around and pick out your own site. After selecting a pull through site at the top of the hill with a partial view of the Ocean, we cooked dinner and plotted our strategy for the next day in the park. The weather gods were finally cooperating, as it looked like the following day would be dry for a change.

The morning dawned bright and sunny as predicted, a welcome change from all the rain we experienced in New Hampshire and the drive across Maine. The kids worked on homework for a couple of hours, and then Brian drove us into Bar Harbor in search of clam chowder. The town was buzzing with two cruise ships anchored in the harbor. We found a place to park and did some window shopping along main street. Teressa asked one of the shop keepers for a recommendation on the best clam chowder in town, and we ended up at the Thirsty Whale. The “chowdah” was excellent, with a thick cream base and a hint of garlic!

After lunch we drove to the visitor center at the entrance to Acadia National Park. The kids got their passport stickers and stamps, and we watched a short movie about the park. Acadia is the only national park where the land was given to the government by private citizens. That accounts for some of the odd shaped boundaries between public and private lands. We spent the next four hours circumnavigating the park. One of the highlights was Sand Beach, the only sand beach in the park, made up mostly of crushed animal shells. Laura accurately described its feel as that of sawdust. We stopped at Jordan Pond and did a short hike down to the lake along the carriage trails. For a finale, we drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain (1600 feet) as the sun was setting and enjoyed a 360 degree view of the park. As they pointed out in the movie at the visitor center, Acadia doesn’t have any “must see” signature attractions like many of the other national parks, but the overall package is impressive!

We ended the day back in Bar Harbor at a local pizza parlor. There we met a group of retired folks on a tour from Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia. They were interested in our trip and gave us more suggestions on things to see and do around DC. There are no shortage of opportunities!

Sugar Hill, White Mountains, New Hampshire

Teressa and the kids slept in on Saturday morning – Rocky roused me out of bed at the normal 6:30 AM “walk” time. Brian and Laura did a little homework and then we hit the road at 1:00, traveling north along the Connecticut River which divides Vermont and New Hampshire. The leaves are moving rapidly towards peak fall color, which according to the locals is early this year. We aren’t complaining. As we entered the White Mountains in New Hampshire the forests were ablaze with reds and yellows for as far as the eye could see. Unfortunately the cloud cover prohibited us from seeing any of the mountain peaks, but the views were spectacular none the less.

About 5 miles before our RV park in the small town of Twin Mountain, a black bear and her two cubs sprinted across the road in front of our car. The owner of the RV park indicated we were lucky to see them, since bear season started September 1st. She said they had a huge black bear eating out of their dumpster most of the summer. Nothing they tried to secure the dumpster's lid worked, but when September 1st rolled around, the bear mysteriously went into hiding. I’m guessing he found a copy of the hunting season regulations in the dumpster!

After setting up camp we headed for Sugar Hill to visit a maple syrup and candy store. We arrived a few minutes before it closed, and the kids bought postcards while Teressa and I loaded up on maple products and smoked cheese. Theoretically these are intended as holiday gifts, but I doubt most will last the week! From the store we drove through Franconia to Robert Frost’s house. It is located in a secluded wooded setting part way up a hill. With the stunning fall colors, the kids convinced themselves even they could create beautiful poetry here. It was another one of those magical evenings where we were the only ones there and the light and clouds created an almost mystical atmosphere.

We left the Frost house and took back roads to Bethlehem, where we found a nice restaurant for dinner. Brian was especially happy as he got another couple of hours driving in a new state. At Laura’s request we watched two episodes of Seinfeld when we returned to the RV.

While the rains subsided for most of the drive up from Dartmouth and the trip to Sugar Hill, they returned Saturday night and lasted for the entirety of our stay. In spite of the weather, we decided to spend an extra day here, as the forecast for Bar Harbor was for 2 inches of rain accompanied by 35 – 50 mph winds. They were catching the brunt of hurricane Kyle moving up the east coast, but the White Mountains just caught the edge.

It rained off and on the entire second day. We did laundry at the campground in the morning, and then drove to Polly’s Pancake Parlor in Sugar Hill for a late lunch. The restaurant is written up in Teressa’s “1000 Places to See Before You Die” book, so we had to give it a try. They offer five different types of pancakes – plain, cornmeal, oatmeal, buckwheat, and whole wheat. You also have the option to add “extras” to any pancake such as walnuts, Maine blueberries, chocolate chips, etc. And of course everything has the potential of being smothered with maple syrup! My favorites were the cornmeal and oatmeal (with chocolate chips)! It was a little expensive for breakfast food, but a fun experience.

From the restaurant we headed south towards Franconia Notch State Park. The clouds continued to cover the peaks of the White Mountains, but we enjoyed the vibrant fall colors (see the picture of the kids above, taken in the park). We went on a walk to view “The Old Man on the Mountain”, a rock outcropping similar to the sleeping giant in Montana. He too was obscured by the clouds, and we got caught in sudden downpour. The kids thought it was fun to play in the rain, and as you can see from the picture, they got soaked. They were nice though to hike back to the car and get umbrellas for Teressa and me! We found out later last night that the “Old Man” came crashing down from the mountain in 2003, so even if the clouds had parted, we still wouldn’t have seen him!

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

The falls rains have finally descended on New England, and don’t appear to be ending anytime soon. We have been extremely fortunate on the trip so far – the only rainy days we encountered in three months were hurricane Hannah in Connecticut, a rainy morning in Chicago, and a few nighttime thunderstorms in Helena. It appears we are poised to double that total in the next week.

We left our campground in Burlington at 9:30 yesterday morning. Our first stop was the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury, Vermont. The facility offers tours and ice cream tasting. It was fun to hear the story of two high school buddies who dropped out of college and created one of the best known brands in America. The presentation and tour spawned interesting discussions with the kids about product differentiation, branding and community involvement of corporations. We were able to sample a new flavor that won’t be released until next year – triple caramel chunk. Yum.

From Waterbury we traveled east past the capital city of Montpelier, and then southeast to our campground in East Thetford, Vermont, just north of Hanover, NH. The fall colors are really starting to kick in, and we continue to be impressed by the vastness of the forests in the northeast. After dropping the trailer at the RV park and filling the truck with diesel, we drove to Hanover and met Sandy and Jane Fitchet at Dartmouth college. Jane worked for Click for a couple of years doing sales on the east coast, and her husband Sandy is a Dartmouth alumni and runs his own small software company. Their daughter, Margaret, graduated valedictorian from Dartmouth last year and is currently taking a year off teaching English in Japan before she starts medical school.

It was pouring when we arrived at the Hanover Inn next to the college, so we bought a few umbrellas and toured the campus with Jane and Sandy. An Ivy League School, Dartmouth’s 4000 students enjoy a beautiful campus nestled in the mountains by the Connecticut River. The college is located in the town of Hanover, which has a population of around 15,000. If money were no object, this would be high on my list of places to attend college. Apparently when president Eisenhower visited Dartmouth and stepped off the bus almost exactly where we parked the truck, he remarked “this is what a college is supposed to look like!” It was fun to have such knowledgeable tour guides. Sandy’s father also attended Dartmouth, and a portion of the library is dedicated to him. He worked for RR Donnelly in Chicago, and was also an avid collector of books and old maps.

After touring the hockey rink with Sandy, we followed him to their house for dinner. Their home sits on 20 acres in the forest above Hanover. It was built by his father in the 70s and contains some amazing antiques. They have several old maps dating back 400 years, a flint lock rifle from the American revolution, and a letter signed by George Washington. For dinner Jane fixed fresh Maine lobsters, corn on the cob, and homemade apple pie. It was outstanding!

We finished the evening with a movie – Animal House! Apparently the writer attended Dartmouth and did a piece for National Lampoon on fraternity life at Dartmouth. It was so successful they created a movie, but used a fictitious college named Faber. While the movie was filmed at the University of Oregon, the content for the story came from Dartmouth. It has been 30 years since Teressa and I watched the movie – it is a college classic. Sandy provided color commentary during the movie, as he knows almost every line and all the stories behind the story! It was an incredible evening.

Burlington, Vermont

We enjoyed a quiet day in Burlington today. The kids worked on homework all morning and part of the afternoon. It was a beautiful Indian summer day with sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s. At 3:00 we put on our swim suits and headed down to the beach connected to the campground on Lake Champlain. Apparently the Adirondacks are one of the oldest mountain ranges around – 500 million to a billion years old. All those years of erosion have produced some great sand beaches on Lake Champlain. As you can see from the picture, the beach is very shallow and even 200 feet offshore the water was only waist deep. Although the swim was brisk, it felt great on a warm end of summer afternoon.

We rinsed off and headed into Burlington to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate and do some people watching. With three colleges in town and a vibrant “downtown” area, things were hopping. The kids bought postcards for their collections before we made our way back to the campground to barbecue chicken. Teressa and I went for a half hour bike ride before dinner along the lake. Burlington has over 15 miles of dedicated bike paths along the shore of Lake Champlain, making for a very relaxing ride. Given the nice weather, there were all kinds of people running and biking.

Our campground neighbors from New Hampshire provided us a four page list of things to do along the east coast before they checked out yesterday. They tend to like the same types of places we do, so it will be very helpful. We also ran into another motor home with Montana plates, this time from Helena. I went over to talk with them, but they are actually from Colorado. Everywhere we go there are motor homes registered in Missoula or Helena. Apparently someone has a business that legally allows out of state people to register their vehicles in Montana. It must save money, which seems ironic since my uncle always used to register his RV outside Montana because the state taxes were so high. My how the world changes!

Lake Placid, New York

Everyone was up by 7:00 so we could get the trailer to the RV dealer for repairs. We arrived at Pete’s RV in South Burlington slightly before 8 AM. The main issue with the trailer has been tires, but we also wanted them to look at the slide and a few minor things. Luckily the slide stuck in the out position when the service manager tested it (the odds of that happening were about 1 in 20 based upon past experiences!).

We left the dealership, filled the truck with diesel, and headed for a fast food restaurant for breakfast. Against my better judgment, we selected Burger King. Even though there were lights on inside, no cars were parked outside, so we weren’t sure it was open. When we walked inside the four employees were chatting at a table. They prepared our food and then returned to gossiping. The food wasn’t great – the hash browns tasted like the oil hadn’t been changed for weeks. On the plus side, Teressa impressed us with her mastery of the English language when she sprang the word “slovenly” on us to describe the appearance of the employees. We weren’t sure it was even a word, but it fit perfectly, and Teressa verified it was legitimate when we got home. The kids learned an important lesson today – even if a restaurant is open, if there aren’t any cars in the parking lot, that should tell you something about the quality of the food!

After breakfast we headed northwest across several islands on Lake Champlain to catch one of the ferries to New York. It was the first car ferry experience for the kids, and although it was just 15 minutes across the lake, we all enjoyed it. Back on land again, we made our way into the Adirondacks headed for Lake Placid. The leaves are really starting to change colors now, especially at the higher elevations. The challenging part is that the Adirondacks are almost completely forested, so you don’t get many opportunities for wide open vistas. Our neighbors in the campground indicated that the White Mountains in New Hampshire and the mountains in Maine have more rock outcroppings and meadows, and that folks from "out west" will enjoy the views!

We arrived in Lake Placid around noon and checked out the Olympic Training Center (see picture above). We also went by the ski jumping competition site (those people are certifiably insane!) and then up to Whiteface Mountain where all the ski events were held. Unfortunately the gondola wasn’t running yesterday, but we had the opportunity to look around the facility. We were surprised with the lack of infrastructure at an Olympic venue – the parking lots were small (and gravel), there were no lodging accommodations at the ski area, and there aren’t any sizable towns for miles around. As our neighbor mentioned last night, there is no way they would be able to hold an Olympics there now!

We drove down the hill to the small town of Wilmington before finding a restaurant for lunch – Mel’s diner. The food was good and the waitress friendly – you have to love small towns! We ate and navigated to another ferry terminal on Lake Champlain. This was an hour ferry ride, but delivered us directly to Burlington. We drove to the RV dealer and picked up the trailer. They replaced the two rear tires and slide motor. We are back in business!

Fort Ticonderoga, New York

The kids did homework till 10:30 while I dumped the RV and prepared for travel. We left the campsite just after 11, making a stop for lunch and shopping in Lake George at the factory outlets. We were back on the road by 2:00 headed for Fort Ticonderoga.

The fort sits at a strategic point on Lake Champlain, providing a control point for shipping to and from Montreal, Canada. It was the scene of one of the deadliest battles (percentage wise) in North American history (Antietam later became the worst), when the British attacked the French in 1758. The French repelled a superior force, thanks to some quick thinking and advanced strategies. The British took the fort a year later without firing a shot, but not before the French blew up the ammunition's depot and most of the fort.

In 1775, just three weeks after the battles of Lexington and Concord, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold led a raid on the fort and successfully captured cannons which helped George Washington end the British siege on Boston (we heard the other half of the story last week on our Boston tour). The fort is now owned by the historical society, and has been restored to specifications of the original French and English forts.

Upon leaving Fort Ticonderoga we crossed the bridge into Vermont and drove to our campground in Burlington. The campground is owned by the city of Burlington, and sits on the shore of Lake Champlain as a city park. It's not fancy, but the views are impressive.

Lake George, Adirondacks, New York

From Boston we headed northwest to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. Traffic was heavy on the Mass Pike leaving Massachusetts, but thinned out as we headed north from Albany. We arrived at our campground near Lake George just before 5:00 on Sunday afternoon.

The kids spent Monday morning working on homework from 9 to noon. Teressa and I took Rocky for a long walk around the campground. There are two ponds on site – one for kayaking which is closed for the winter, and one for fishing. Paved bike paths connect both ponds with the main campground. Rocky enjoyed chasing chipmunks, but they get the last laugh as they “chirp” at him incessantly from six feet up the tree. He continues to practice his tree climbing skills, but only has “pitch paws” to show for it! ;-)

In the afternoon we ventured out to explore Lake George. I found discount coupons on-line for a 2 and ½ hour boat ride on a three deck ship called the Mohican (the book The Last of the Mohican's was written about an incident that happened nearby). It was a beautiful fall day with temperatures in the low 60s when we arrived at the dock at 2:15. Thomas Jefferson called Lake George the Queen of American Lakes, and it is easy to see why. It lies in a beautiful valley on the edge of the Adirondack mountains. Primarily spring fed, the lake is crystal clear and supports a number of fish species including lake trout, bass, pike, freshwater salmon and pan fish. The lower half of the lake (about 17 miles) is completely surrounded by homes and hotels. The most prestigious is The Sagamore, which has a rich history dating back over 100 years (see the photo above). Offering a stark contrast, the upper half of the lake is surrounded by state parks and has no homes. Dotted with a multitude of small islands, it offers picnicking and camping in a setting that looks as close to Hungry Horse (one of our favorite spots in Montana) as I think we will find on the east coast. Overall it was a great way to spend the afternoon and learn a little bit about the history of the area.

When we got back to the campground we took Rocky for another walk, and then all four of us went swimming in the heated indoor pool. Brian and Laura spent a little time in the video arcade, where Brian managed to win a Nintendo DS (value over $100) while spending less than $5 in quarters! I’m afraid he thinks this special “talent” will carry over when we visit in Las Vegas this winter! ;-0