Maine to New Hampshire=Revised

  We left the Acadia National Park area on August 2 and drove down the coast to Wells, ME and Moody Beach Campground. Wells and many other towns along US Route 1 are summer beach towns with mostly motels and lodgings catering to the beach goers. We got in on a Saturday and pickings were slim for a site. Most of the sites are parallel and a tight fit.

 

Of course I wasn't going to get a satellite signal with so many trees so I didn't even set it up to try. Cable was $16 a week so I had to shell out money for that in addition to my DISH bill that I paid for the month.

We didn't do a whole lot at Moody Beach. I hung by the pool which was nice and quiet most of the stay. We took a ride to Kittery to the outlet stores and to Portsmouth for cat food. We did get some local seafood at Jake's.

 

Jake's is a typical lobster pound so ubiquitous in Maine. You place your order at the window, either inside or outside, and pick it up when they call your number. Some places sell beer or it is BYOB. I had the fried seafood platter. The clam strips were great but they really stay with you.  

Our last few days in Maine were spent checking out some lighthouses. Maine is famous for lighthouses and we drove to see two of them. Our first one was Cape Neddick in York down US 1. Its official name is Cape Neddick but the local nomenclature and signage refer to it as Nubble Light, which is the name of the island where it stands.

    The light is on its own island and visitor parking is on the cape. There is a picnic area and a gift shop of course as well as a an ice cream parlor nearby. From the shore of the cape you can catch a glimpse of the ocean front estates:

 

Cape Neddick was activated in 1879.

 

We left Cape Neddick and headed to Portland. We took I-95 up to Portland because traffic on US1 is crazy going through Ogunquit. Ogunquit is a busy little town, and between the pedestrian and vehicle traffic the north bound side can get backed up for several miles. The interstate is faster anyway.

  Portland Head Light is located in a city park called Fort Williams Park. This light is one of the most photographed of all the Maine lighthouse and is the oldest in Maine. The construction of the lighthouse was ordered by George Washington.

 

This one you can actually walk right up to. The lighthouse is located on Cape Elizabeth protecting the main port approach to Portland.

 

The building in the foreground is the light keepers house and the short brick structure in the rear is the fog horn building. The lighthouse's accessibility  to be photographed from many different angles is what makes it one of the most photographed lighthouses in Maine.

 

 

 The rocky coastline has claimed some casualties in spite of the light. The Annie C.Maguire hit the rocks in 1886. No one knows why:

 

Farther out in the bay is the ruins of Halfway Rock Light:

 

Halfway Rock was built in 1871 on a small rock that is about 10 feet above the water line at high tide.

The park also has the ruins of Fort Williams; a coastal defense fort erected in the 1890's.

 

You can climb and explore the gun batteries or picnic on the beach near buy:

 

 

 

We left Maine August 15 for New Hampshire. Since we used our membership at Moody we had to spend money for a week between stops. We ended up at Tuxbury Pond on the New Hampshire/ Mass. border.

 

The campground was nice and secluded but still only less than 10 miles to shopping or provisions. Once again we didn't do much. I think after three months of vigorous sight seeing we are getting less enamored with feeling like we have to be out seeing everything.

 I did talk to a fellow who stopped at the site when he saw my inoperable Tailgater Satellite antenna sitting there. He stated that he too had one but returned it to Camping World and got a different model because it did not work in New England. I said that I didn't have much luck with it either. After much discussion we came to the conclusion that the western arc satellites that the Tailgater uses were to close to the horizon and the slightest obstruction rising more than a few feet off the ground would block the signal. I took his lead and drove to a Camping World in Chichester, NH to return my Tailgater. I anticipated a hard time returning it but there was no problem. I picked up the Winegard Pathway X2. Of course it is $80 more.

 

 

The Pathway X2 has the capability of picking up the western arc satellite as well as the eastern arc satellites unlike the Tailgater which can only pick up the western arc. This is something the retailer or manufacturer should inform the consumer of.

I got mine back to the trailer and tested it immediately. My first attempt using the western arc failed so I tried the eastern arc. This was a partial failure only picking up one bird. I relocated the X2 to another spot and I was in business; I had all three birds. I was glad I made the switch to the X2.

  The same day we got the X2 we went to Concord since it was only a few miles from Camping World. We found ample parking on Main St. and went for a walk to the capitol building.

 

A local parking enforcement officer was friendly enough to take our picture and tell us how to get to the accessible entrance:

 

Some famous New Hampshireites are Alan Sheppard, Christa McCauliffe,  Daniel Webster,

 

and no one's favorite president, Franklin Pierce, the 14'th chief executive who can be seen behind us in the photo above the Memorial Arch. We took a self guided tour of the capitol building. Strangely New Hampshire has the most state representatives, 3,400 citizens per rep, of any state and the fourth fewest state senators.

 

I love these quaint state capitals. They are nothing like Harrisburg, PA.

 

This is an add on if you read this already. I forgot some stuff. Our last day in New Hampshire we went out for more seafood. According to on-line reviews the place to go is either Brown's Lobster Pound or Markey"s Lobster Pool. We settled on Brown's which seemed to have stellar reviews.

 

The set up is a little confusing- you order all fried food at the window out side, steamers inside, and boiled lobster in a different area. Since I had lobster roll and whole lobster already in our travels I opted for the fried lobster and Doreen went with the fish and chips; fried haddock and French fries. I have to say I don't know how the place got all those good reviews. Frying lobster is just a sin, it comes out too tough. The haddock would have been good if they seasoned it. The cole slaw and tartar sauce had  no flavor. None of the food is seasoned and if you can't make a simple thing like tartar sauce with some zing you might as well chuck it. Disappointing to say the least.

Afterwards we took a ride down the strip of US 1 but there is really nothing along there but residential areas. The beach looked nice but there is no where to park. Unless you are renting a house or live there it is difficult to park near the beach.

 

Here is the town harbor of Seabrook:

 

 

 

New Hampshire was probably the most economical of the New England states to date. No sales tax is levied and they do not charge a stupid bottle deposit on beverages like Vermont and Maine. A thirty pack of Busch Light for only $15.97! Oh also, they have liquor stores at their interstate rest areas for the thirsty traveler.

 

 

 

Miles this leg: 247

 

Total miles: 5733.3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Acadia National Park

  After an initial recon visit to Acadia on our own we decided to venture out using the Island Explorer, the free shuttle bus service provided by L.L. Bean. The company sponsors the program along with state and federal money. There are seven routes that allow you to get to most places on the island. Line #4 is the campground shuttle that stops at several campgrounds. The bus pulls right into the parking lot and off you go. From that line we got dropped off at the Bubble Pond stop and debussed for a hike.

 

Acadia National Park was the first national park established east of the Rocky Mountains in 1914. Prior to that the area was a getaway for the well to do crowd including John Rockefeller who was instrumental in the creation of carriage roads throughout the island. The carriage roads were intended for horse carriage/ sleigh travel and are used by bikers, hikers, and horses. The roads are wide and flat making them ideal for wheelchair or scooter travel.

 

Our first stop along the trail was Bubble Pond:

 

 

The scenery is so stunning that every step is a virtual photo-op:

 

We walked the entire carriage road to Jordan Pond a total of 4.2 miles. I was really hoofing it and Doreen had the scooter cranked up full speed.

Jordan Pond is a popular and crowded attraction. There is a restaurant and gift shop and easy hiking trails can be picked up here. The great feature of Acadia is all the hiking trails are mapped and categorized as easy, moderate, and difficult and their distances. We took the easy trail around Jordan Pond, about another 1.2 miles.

 

 

 

 

 

We went as far as the trail was even for the scooter then turned back to the shuttle stop. You can in the pic below to my left is the trail that turned into a rocky causeway to the other side of the pond.

 

At this point Doreen was becoming cantankerous due to her Hansel and Gretel syndrome. (she doesn't like the dark woods)

 

We hopped onto the shuttle back to the visitors center to transfer to a shuttle going to the campground. As Karanzas luck would have it the wheelchair lift was malfunctioning and took about 15 minutes for the driver to figure out how to crank it down.

 

  For our last excursion on the island we decided to drive to the western side where the shuttle doesn't run. We took a drive on Sargent Drive, a scenic residential road that hugs the shoreline of Echo Lake:

 

 

Another area of the park is further down the road where we stopped for a restroom break:

 

 

 

 

 

We then took a truck road into the back country:

 

 

I think the lake was Long Lake or pond but it was secluded save for some wind surfers and kayakers:

 

Next it was off to see one of the many lighthouses in Maine and another amazing photo-op:

 

There are 57 operating lighthouses in Maine. Only a few are reachable by auto. Bass Harbor Head is perched on a cliff and this side is the main side and the other side seen above is accessible by a long string of steps going down to the rocks.

 

 

We drove around the southern tip of the island through Southwest Harbor and back up to the park

 

  Our last day in Acadia we saved the best for last. Most people start their trip in Acadia with Cadillac Mountain but we waited to the end. No particular reason, just the way it worked out. Cadillac Mountain is the highest coastal point in the east north of Brazil at 1530 feet. The road snakes up the side of the mountain to an ample parking area and shop and restrooms. The views are stunning but unfortunately due to pollutants in the air from the industrialized cities south of Maine the air current brings them up the coast obscuring the amazing views. Here you can see a haze in the air about three quarters up the mountain:

 

We were pleasantly surprised to see a wheelchair ramp going to the summit of the mountain:

 

I walked further out to the edge of the rocks and the town of Bar Harbor can be seen (with the help of a powerful zoom):

 

 

A view back up to the summit from the rocks:

 

This shot gives you some perspective of the view with the tourists in the foreground:

 

 

 

I took so many pictures that I have to go through them in stages to first delete any bad ones or duplicates from the camera itself and then again when I look at them on the laptop. These are just a sampling and I wish I could put more up but it is time consuming doing the blog. I could be poolside today but here I sit so I will leave you here with a few more and then call it quits for this post.

 

 

 

America the beautiful!