Maine Lobster Festival - Belfast, ME (7/30-8/10/2023)

Rain continued to plague us overnight before our drive to Belfast, Maine.  After Mike cleaned Ruth's roof of buckets of rain that had pooled overnight and the remaining acorns, we headed out towards Belfast, ME.  This stop was targeted specifically to attend the annual Lobster Festival held in Rockland, ME each year.  

This drive was made a little more difficult as Mike had been experiencing some back pain that was making for sleepless nights. Dealing with medical issues on the road can be challenging, but luckily we can find urgent care and emergency services within our insurance plan.  

The Moorings campground was located right on the water and we settled in for a couple of days of rest and recuperation. We were able to ride our bikes into Belfast via a purpose built footbridge.  This was our first real glimpse at one of those picturesque Maine harbor towns you might see on a post card.  We would see many more.  Belfast had a lovely walking/bike path along its waterfront towards town and a 2.5 mile gravel path along the water away from town.  

View from front window of Ruth

Mike had a few rough days at the start of this trip until the Prednisone kicked in.  That allowed us to attend the Lobster Festival on Thursday 8/3.  The festival itself was smaller than I expected.  There were a couple of music stages, an art display and a gitchy pirate ship tour and of course lobster.

We sampled a lobster dinner and lobster mac and cheese.  It was fresh and tasty.  We enjoyed some acoustic guitar at one of the music venues then walked the town of Rockland before heading home.  While this was an anchor event for this trip, we both agreed that this was the only day we would likely attend. 

Mike was still struggling to get back to normal and feel good enough to drive to our next stop in Eastport, ME.  We were able to rearrange our reservations to stay a few more days in Belfast and just shorten our stay in Eastport.  Both campgrounds were very accommodating and we had a revised schedule.  

We enjoyed our extra days in Belfast be going to Young's Lobster Pound on the pier and attending an outdoor evening concert presented by Camden Summer Sounds at the SnowBowl Ski Resort.  It was a lovely evening of Cuban music by Primo Cubano.

 

Strafford South KOA and Kennebunkport, ME (7/19-7/29/2023)

On our drive from Brandon, VT on Hwy 4 through Killington in the Green Mountains and past Woodstock, VT we saw firsthand the damage caused by the flooding.  We were very luck to be able to exit the area on these main arteries that had already been temporarily repaired to restore commercial traffic through Vermont.

We had booked a little KOA on our way to our longer stop at Hemlock Grove near Kennebunkport, ME. The park was rustic and site was extremely unlevel but we got settled in.  We found some good pickleball one day and explored Portsmouth, NH on a lovely day.  Had some more rain, but nothing torrential. 

On July 24th, we headed to Maine.  As we had a short drive, I drove the Jeep separately.  Mike fueled Ruth on the way in and we nestled into our spot at Hemlock Grove Campground.  This spot was centrally located between Kennebunk and Portland. We were finally in lobster country. 

The weather had been improving over the last few days, but we did have a couple of rainy days on this stop.  Our site was nestled under a high tree canopy which brings rain drops even after the rain actually stops and in this case also brings the sounds of dropping acorns on top of the RV roof which has a distinctive "BOOM" than timpani sound as it rolls down the roof.  Sounded a bit like we were living inside a pinball machine, needless to say we had a few sleepless nights.

We were not deterred however, from our first "official" lobster roll experience.  We explored Kennebunkport on a beautiful sunny day along with hoards of tourists.  The shops and restaurants were plentiful... welcoming a long stroll around the waterfront ending with a meandering drive along the coastline.  We passed the Walker's Point Estate (Bush family compound) and finally turned inland at Goose Rock's Beach. 

You can literally get lobster everywhere and anywhere.  After our lobster roll experience, we opted to have a couple of lobsters steamed for us that we could eat at home.  After watching a couple youtube videos on the proper way to crack open a lobster, Mike went at it like a pro and we had lobster at home.  We learned all about soft shell vs. hard shell and also watched a video of a lobster molting its shell.  We went way down the lobster rabbit hole, but we learned a lot of useless knowledge.

Our official entry into Maine included many lighthouses, more than one slice (or whole) of the local wild blueberry pie and coastal drives.  

We explored Portland, Maine via a walking tour of the city with our guide Dugan.  It was a nice, but warm day and we saw much of the city on foot.  We continued on to visit LL Bean's flagship store in Freeport, Maine.  It was an interesting visit. We did not buy anything. 

We played some pickleball one evening in Kennebunk and rounded out our visit with a Beach House History Tour.  We walked along the coast and discussed the age and architecture styles of the various beach side homes, some over 100 years old.  Nice way to round out our visit. 

 

 

Here comes the flood - Brandon, VT (7/8-7/19/2023)

After a very long, curvy, narrow difficult drive from our Alexandria Bay, NY we arrived the small rustic campground of Smoke Rise.  Thankfully our driving day was dry.  We were extremely excited about this stop as we had a planned meet up with some good friends who had rented an Airbnb to join us in exploring this part of Vermont.  We had a full schedule of events from a cooking class, to interesting restaurant reservations, hikes and of course as many hands of Canasta that we could fit in around all of that.  

The forecast for the week was for rain, but not in the volume or duration that we experienced.  Over the next few days the entire state of Vermont experienced biblical rains that caused devastating floods.  The capital of Montpelier was completely washed away by this onslaught.  We were lucky enough to not be located near any river or stream tributaries or Ruth would have needed pontoons. 

When we woke up the first morning and saw the disaster area that was Vermont, we were faced with the reality that some main and many secondary roads leading to our planned activities were either flooded or covered in earth from landslides.  Our cooking class that was located in nearby Killington was cancelled, they informed us that they were flooded from both sides and there was no way in or out.

The rain kept on coming and the water flowed downhill as it will, swelling picturesque Vermont streams into torrents that continued to creep onto roadways, into towns and fields that became temporary ponds.  The news continued to be bad for Vermont and parts of New Hampshire, our planned next stop. 

Luckily for us, our friend's Airbnb was spacious and only minutes away from our campground.  We got together that first day and regrouped.  Although our travel radius had become quite limited, we sought out some more "secondary" activities that were accessible. 

No visit to Vermont would be complete without a visit to a maple syrup museum.  It was small and a little hokey but we sampled maple ice cream enjoyed their display of history and artifacts.  We explored the waterfront town of Burlington and visited the Shelbourne Museum when there was a break in the rain.

On a misty afternoon, we toured the Morgan Horse farm and the Wilson Castle.  The Wilson Castle was very creepy upon approach.  There was not a car in the grown over grass parking lot.  We thought for sure that it was closed.  We approached the front entry and were greeted by a very enthusiastic docent for the place.  Technically, the building is considered a castle, but it had a long way to go to restore it to its former glory.  The castle had an extremely interesting history and is considered to be very haunted.  The visit turned out to be worth it at then end of the tour.  

On our last evening with our friends, we had dinner reservations at a little French bistro in Brandon, VT, within walking distance of their place.  No risk of flooding impacting this night out.  The skies were darkening as we headed out.  We had just sat down at the near empty restaurant on a Thursday night.  Before our cocktails arrived, all of our phones were alarming that there was a tornado warning in our area.  Oh, and did I mention the power was flickering on and off in the restaurant?  We were all looking for an interior stairwell to dive into. It was a quick storm and after significant wind, rain and darkness, it passed and we were able to enjoy a lovely meal. 

This stop also brought with it some concern over Ruth's performance and and down the hills.  Mike was on top of it as always and we were able to get it checked out while were here in Vermont.  Ruth is just heavy and slow,  I can relate. 

We had fun with our friends despite the weather, played a lot more Canasta and watched a lot more of Wimbledon than expected.  But the continuing rain made our planned next stop in the Twin Mountain, NH not very practical.  We cancelled that reservation and stayed in Brandon, VT for a couple extra days then booked spot in southern NH that had been out of the rain bands on our way to our first stop in Maine, Kennebunkport.