Just a little walk...

Whew, yesterday was a hard day. Chuck had a route planned for us to park, ride our bikes on a carriage road to a Cadillac Mountain trailhead, hike to the summit, and then back down to our bikes. Apparently we missed the original trailhead, but we didn't know that until later. We found one that said Cadillac Mountain Summit - 2.3 mi, so we parked the bikes next to a tree and locked them. The trail started out not too bad but then turned wicked steep and rocky. Luckily it was marked with blue blazes, because it was hard to follow in spots and we had to backtrack at least once. It makes you wonder who decided, "oh, the trail should go this way" in some of those places.

That's the trail!

We came to a little marsh/meadow which was pretty. And to a spot where other trails came in. Did some map consulting where it was a tad less windy. Enjoyed some spectacular views.

We got to the top and then saw a sign that said the summit was still .5 mi. The boys decided they didn't need to go all the way to the top since we drove there on Monday. Of course Chuck & I had to keep going, so we told the boys to stay put. Chuck & I had decided we should take the other way back down because it was shorter. Then we would have to walk back up to the carriage road to our bikes. The boys wanted to go back the way we came, but we overruled. So anyway, we left them at the fork to the other trail.

We met another couple who pointed out these two geologic markers in rocks and said they thought that was the summit, so we had them take our picture and we went on to the little store we knew was there (from Monday's trip). We bought a refreshing, cold Coke to share and sent the boys a pic to rub it in. Of course there was no cell service so they didn't get the pic until hours later.

We met back up with the boys and headed down. This trail was just as steep and rocky, if not more so.  My quads and knees really started hurting from the constant use. Who knew going down could be harder than going up?

That's the trail.

Also the trail.

Really? Yes, that's the trail, and the pics don't even show how steep it really is.

We made it back down to the carriage road and then had a good walk back to the bikes.

Ben waiting for the bikes to be unlocked. 

Then we rode the almost 4 miles back to the car. I got a blister on my pinky from my walking stick and one on my pinky toe from my shoes, and Ben cut his leg on a rock, but otherwise we made it down fine. 

According to my tracking devices, we rode almost 8 miles on the bikes and walked for 5.69 miles.  I think we went up on Canon Brook Trail to Cadillac South Ridge Trail, then we went down the Cadillac West Ridge Trail.  We were worn out (some of us more than others) but it was a good day. 

Uber? We don't need no stinkin' Uber.

Yesterday Chuck went out in the late morning to ride the Carriage Roads by himself. I had a trip to Wal-Mart planned for when he returned. We had decided we'd go check out the town of Bar Harbor in the afternoon. You'll recall we drove through it the other day and it was super crowded, so we decided to take the free shuttle. Well, I got back, put the groceries away, and Zack was pushing us out the door to make the 3:05 shuttle pickup. The shuttle ride took 50 minutes! We decided that was too long, so Chuck spent part of the ride downloading the Uber app and setting it up. When we got there, the boys said they didn't mind the long ride and would rather take the shuttle back. Okay.

We did a little shopping and then remembered the Bar Island Path that a ranger had told us about on Monday.  There is a sandbar from town over to an island, but it's only a sandbar for a few hours a day, during low tide. We walked over to it and there were hordes of people there.

We weren't sure what time the tides were, but when we got across, there was an Acadia sign with tide times for the month, as well as a phone number for a water taxi in case you got stranded. Luckily we were there around low tide so we had plenty of time. There is an easy, one mile hike to the highest point on the island with a nice view from the top. And so many people, it was impossible for this short person to get a picture without getting someone in it.

We found a restaurant and had a nice, though incredibly slow dinner. After dinner we did a little more shopping (found a sports store with bike stuff and finally got a pair of padded shorts since I forgot to pack any) and then went and sat in a nice park for a few minutes. 

We headed back to the Village Green to catch a shuttle. There was one sitting there waiting. After talking to someone there offering help, we determined it was the one we needed and got on. Chuck checked the Uber app and found there were no cars available. The shuttle ride back only took about 40 minutes, and we made it back in time for a nice sunset. 

What in blue blazes?!

Yesterday morning we had a plan to get up early and do a bike ride on the carriage roads. Chuck picked out the route and the parking area. We had heard parking is tough everywhere here - that's why we wanted to get out earlier. Of course we didn't.  It wasn't too late when we headed out though. When we got to the parking, there was already a long line parked along the side of the road, so I pulled in at the end. Chuck got out to go see if that's where we wanted to go before we unloaded all the bikes, and I looked over and saw him waving furiously. The parking lot had like 10 spots and he had found one open, so I drove over and got it.

The ride he had planned was a loop that was supposed to take about an hour. The carriage roads are gravel and for bikers, walkers, and horses. It's a very nice system, but some of them are private and bikes are prohibited. The map says that, but unfortunately, it's not really clear on the map which ones are. So we were a little perturbed when we got to the bottom of a long downhill section and found several large signs marking it private from there. They couldn't have mentioned that at the top of the hill? But I digress...we got to the fork of our original loop in like 15 min., so we decided to keep going.  I think we ended up riding about 2 hours, but I'm not sure because I kept forgetting to stop my watch when we stopped.

We stumbled onto Jordan Pond again on the ride. We saw signs for a Jordan Pond house. I kept thinking it was going to be some kind of historical home, but all we could see was a modern looking building. We walked up to it and it appears to be maybe a hotel with a restaurant. They had some amazing views of the "pond".

After the ride we came back and had lunch and a good rest.  Around 4pm, we set out to do the Sand Beach/Great Head hike.  The road to that parking area is one way, but you can park in the right lane. I found it best to just drive in the left the whole time (which goes against everything!) because you never knew when you'd come up to a random parked car. When we got near the parking area, there was a huge line of cars parked in the right lane. The parking lot had a sign that said "full", but we figured that late in the day there would be an opening. Sure enough, there were tons of open spots. 

Sand Beach is pretty self-explanatory. We walked across it to get to the Great Head trailhead. Definitely not like the beaches we are used to. The sand is very coarse. The water was pretty cold as well.  

The hike was pretty easy if you are good at scrambling up rocks. The scenery was spectacular.  The boys decided to take a lower, rockier route. See them in the bottom pic? I stayed on the actual cliff trail, following the blue blazes. And yes, every time I saw one I said to myself, "what in blue blazes?"

On the way home we had a classic family argument with Chuck taking a ridiculous position and the rest of us arguing against it. In this case it was Charlotte is in the middle of nowhere and Acadia is not. I'll let you, dear reader, figure out who was on which side.

Then dinner, sunset, showers, campfire. No SpikeBall.

It's so cool here, we aren't even running AC!

Well, we have had a busy couple of days here. Yesterday we left Scarborough just a little later than planned. The drive was a little boring and we finished our audiobook. We got off the interstate at Bangor and took a smaller road to Bar Harbor. There was a section of road, probably 1/2 mile long where they had torn up the pavement and it was just bumpy gravel. I was not so sure about it (memories of the Great Utah GPS Debacle of 2014) but then I saw some RVs coming the opposite way, so I figured we would make it.  Chuck had reserved a rental car at the Bar Harbor airport so we stopped there on our way to the campground.  It is a pretty tiny airport, and we just pulled into the empty taxi parking line to park.

We got to the campground around 1:00, set up, and had lunch. We have some pretty good views from our campsite. That is an empty site between us & the water, so the good views may not last. It was super windy. Maybe not Great Sand Dunes windy, but very close.

We decided to drive to one of the Acadia welcome centers and check it out.

We bought a park pass and some souvenirs and then went on the Park Loop. I had purchased a little book with points of interest on the Park Loop. Well, we got to #5, I think, and Chuck saw Cadillac Mountain (I think it was #18) and turned there. We drove up (don't worry - we will hike it later) and parked at the top and walked around. It was really, really windy up there, but beautiful.

After we left the parking lot we thought we would get back on the Park Loop but discovered we had missed the rest of the loop tour.  We stumbled onto Jordan Pond, so we pulled in there to check it out. The (non) wind was so calm there, the water was almost glassy. We did some exploring, found some frogs just hanging out, the usual.

After leaving the park, we ended up driving down Main St. through Bar Harbor. Holy cow, there were a lot of people and cars there! Parallel parking on both sides of the street, and not a lot of room left in between for two-way traffic. We decided we will take a shuttle to there when we go.

After supper at the camper, we played some SpikeBall, with a time-out for the sunset.

And now I'm so exhausted from today's activities that I will have to write about them tomorrow. Spoiler alert: there was no SpikeBall today!

Are you going to Scarborough Fair? (Ok, probably not the same one.)

Well, we did not make our 7am departure time the other day, but we did get out by 7:30, which has to be a new record. Our RV specific GPS (see earlier posts) continues to frustrate. It told us to turn right out of the campground, so we did. Then it said "recalculating" and sent us in a circle to go back the other way. We did buy a new atlas before leaving home that has RV safe routes highlighted (I highly recommend this for you other RVers out there), so we are consulting that as well.

We had a long day of driving with several traffic jams along the way. We arrived at the campground in Scarborough, ME, about 5pm. After setting up and grilling some burgers, we started a campfire (well, Chuck did) and played some SpikeBall. Lots of curiosity about it again. Side note: the campground rules state no ring toss allowed after 8pm. Ring toss makes me think of the carnival game. Is that a thing people do while camping up here or is it something different? After SpikeBall and s'mores, we called it a night. The bugs are pretty bad here.

This morning Chuck was all, let's go exploring, but then he had to watch the Tour de France. So around noon we finally made it out on our bikes. We did not bring our Jeep along this time. This campground is like 1/2 mile from the beach, so we rode out that way.

Only stayed a few minutes, then we rode down a street paralleling the beach through a cute coastal town. I looked up at one point and saw a big ferris wheel. We had stumbled upon an honest-to-goodness boardwalk amusement park. Turns out it was Palace Playland and we were in Old Orchard Beach.

We didn't ride anything, but the suckers boys played several games. Ben actually won a basketball, so then we had to buy a tote bag to carry it back on our bikes.

After we got back, Chuck went and checked out the Eastern Trail. I decided to sit and read. :-) Ben took his new basketball to the campground court. Chuck saw him on the way back in and came back & got Zack and the 3 of them played. Chuck apparently was fouled by Zack and ended up on the ground. He was bleeding in several spots and keeps complaining about how sore his hip is tonight. Not gonna lie, glad the injured party is not me for once.  

The rest of the day was more reading and relaxing, walking Ellie, after dinner SpikeBall and s'mores.

The weather here has been amazing. We did have a pretty good amount of rain very early this morning, but we had put everything under the awning last night. 

Tomorrow morning we are heading up to Bar Harbor, ME. 

Chocolate everywhere!

Yesterday we headed out of Virginia at about 8:30 in the morning for Hershey, PA. I know, some of you are having a hard time believing the time, but it's true. We had a pretty uneventful trip. We briefly drove through WV & MD and both were pretty windy. About 5 miles from Hershey there was an "incident" ahead of us that added a little time, but it wasn't too bad.

We got to the campground sometime in the afternoon. The Hershey Park Camping Resort doesn't appear to have that many full hook-up sites, and those are crammed together. We were in a water/electric site that was pretty roomy on the end of a row. Getting in was a little tricky, but some nice campers from NJ across from us moved their trucks and helped back Chuck in to the spot. They seemed pretty good at directing him (and he actually listened to them), and one of their wives told me they back trucks for a living.

After setting up and eating an early dinner, we took a shuttle bus over to Chocolate World.

There are some different things to do there that require tickets to each, but everything was sold out. There is a no-ticket-required tour of how chocolate is made but when we got to it, it was temporarily not operating.  What to do while we wait...well, there's a big store there - I guess we'll have to shop. Too many dollars spent later, we got on the tour ride, got our free Hershey bar at the end, and then headed back to the campground.

Once back and with Ellie taken care of, we settled in for the final 2 hours of History Channel's "Alone". (We do have cable here.) We had just gotten addicted to it and binge watched the other episodes the week before. It didn't disappoint.

This morning Ben & I headed out early for Hershey Park (amusement park). Chuck & Zack took a hard pass on going. I took Bonine in case I got up the nerve to ride something with Ben. 12 hours later and I still feel drugged.

We had a good day. Ben only rode 2 roller coasters because he said it was boring by himself. But we did some other rides together. Hershey has a walk-up food stand that is dedicated allergy free!

I wish all amusement parks would do this. I got some gluten free chicken tenders and some gluten free pretzel bites. Ben helped me eat them. I don't think he was impressed with the chicken tenders but he said the pretzel bites were legit.

Oh, there is also a zoo attached to the park and we ended up going through it twice. Ben said it was more relaxing, and I have to agree.

It is really hot here. We only have 30 amp electric, which we found out 2 years ago in Lake Powell isn't really enough to run 2 ACs.  Luckily this site is way more shaded than that one was, so it hasn't really been a problem.

Tomorrow we are leaving at 7am (we will see if it actually happens) for a long day of driving to Portland, ME.

Back by Popular Demand!

Hey y'all! We are embarking on another (shorter) road trip, with a final destination of Bar Harbor, Maine. And since all my readers were clamoring for more blog posts, I decided to give them what they want! Okay, it was really just my mom asking if I was going to do it.

Anyhoo, we set out about noon today and had a stopover planned in Natural Bridge, VA. About an hour into our trip, a rock flew off from a tractor trailer and chipped our windshield, leaving a little starburst pattern in the glass. Now if you're keeping track at home, you'll know this is our 3rd windshield crack on the motorhome. The last one required a whole new windshield. Everyone we called about this one said it will have to be replaced as well since it's bigger than a quarter. :-( For the record, my car is on its 3rd or 4th windshield and just got another small crack last month. I guess we have bad luck with windshields.

About an hour from the campground, we ran into a big thunderstorm with lots of cloud-to-ground lightning all around.  Luckily we just missed it at the campground. Last time we drove in rain we had a leak somewhere underneath and lots of water came in, soaking the carpet in spots. Chuck hoped he had fixed it, but this was the first real test. Good news - it worked!

After supper we set up our new favorite game, Spikeball.  Chuck & Ben won the first game, and Zack & I were able to pull off the win in the 2nd one. No, we didn't play best out of 3. It's kinda hilly here, and let's just say there were some close calls while chasing the ball. Surprisingly, none of them were me.

Chuck & I took Ellie on a walk around the campground and then on a nature trail. Didn't see any bears or mountain lions, thank goodness.

Tomorrow - on to Hershey, PA!

PS - we actually have good wifi here.
PPS - jinxed myself! As soon as I typed that and hit Publish, I discovered the wifi was not working.