Pennsylvania

20/21^st Sep

 We had difficulty getting a phone line but managed to go onto Facebook to see the photo of the new Grandson who was born to Rachel and Darren on Thursday morning.

We then set off to Binghamton for an overnight stay, dry camping in Walmart car-park.  They allow campers to stay for a night or two no charge.  In the morning we drove down to stay with Nancy near Montrose in Pennsylvania.

Catskill, New York State

17 – 20 Sep

Monday we travelled through Vermont into New York State; a journey of almost 7 hours.  Each state is divided into counties and we are staying in Ulster county, south-east of the Catskill Forest.

As we drove around we noted signs saying “Sunny Ulster”.  We smiled – especially as, on Tuesday, it rained ALL day!  A storm came thorough this region over a 24hr period; it brought down trees, blocked roads and created power outages.  We camped within a few feet of a small stream at this camp ground and during the day we watched it turn into a proper River.  We were told how the whole site had flooded last year, and they had to renew all the electric hook-ups, so we kept an eye on the waters as they crept up the sides of the river bank.

After the storm we have lovely sunny skies and went off for the day to visit the historic home of President F D Roosevelt, at Hyde Park, on the Hudson River.  This was the main family home as opposed to the summer holiday cottage we saw at Campobello Island.  Because of the electricity not working the Park Service were not charging any entry fees.  We also had a free tour of Eleanor Roosevelt’s home retreat, 2 miles down the road.  She had her own house which she used when FDR was away, as the main house was still owned, and lived in, by FDR’s mother.  Eleanor lived in the main house when her husband was there.

Full Circle - Back to Deering, NH

13 – 16 Sep

We have spent the last 4 days back at Deering, NH which is where we started when we first arrived at the beginning of August.  We have picked up our mail from Paul’s cousin and got some ‘pet therapy’ from their two lovely Poodles. 

An element of the mail was our new registration plates for the RV – for all our hashing friends!

Please also note the T-shirt which friends presented us with when we left UK.  It says "Alison and Paul's Big Adventure 2012".
We are now well into our “Big Adventure”.  We have already done around 2200 miles and seen lots of places and that’s just in Maine and New Hampshire – now we head south – On On!

White Mountains New Hampshire

9-12 Sept

Sunday we travelled down the I95 from Millinocket, ME to Albany, NH on the edge of the White Mountains National Forest.  It took 6 hours including a stop for lunch and two stops to refuel the RV – thirsty machine. 

Monday we explored the area of Conway and also drove up Rte 16 to see Glen Ellis Falls.

Tuesday we drove through the White Mountains – up Bear Notch Road; Crawford Notch; Franconia Notch; and then Kancamagus highway.  They are called “Notches” and are ‘cuts’ or valleys made in the rock from the ice age. We visited several water falls on the way; Lower Falls, Rocky Gorge Falls; Silver Cascade; Sabbaday Falls. 

 

 

 

 We also visit Mt Washington.  This is the highest mountain in NH and is part of the Presidential Range of mountains and is part of the Appalachian Trail.  There is a Cog railway which goes up to the top of the mountain and was the first one in the world, built in 1869.  It was here in April 1934 that the highest wind speed (231mpg) was recorded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also visited one of the American icons. The covered bridge, this one was first built in 1858 and was renovated in 1970.

 

 

On Wednesday Paul went fishing in Iona Lake at the campground. Look what we had for dinner!

One rainbow trout 17" long and approximately 4lb in weight. Made a great fresh meal for two and cost nothing. Beats paying for Lobster's.  

Millinocket

7 Sep

Wake up surprised we can actually move after yesterday’s climb!   Sat outside the RV watching a squirrel climb over the picnic table – then ran up to Alison, stood on her foot and sniffed her trousers – no food there – so ran off again – cheeky!  Other than that we had a quiet day.

8 Sep

Woke up to cloudy skies which then turned into rain so decided to have another domestic day as we will be on the move again and will start our way south.

Went shopping in Millinocket, bearing in mind it was a Saturday morning it took us about 10 minutes to walk up both sides. Most of the shops were closed!

 

Baxter State Park. Maine

4^th Sept

Today we moved again. We are now in a camp site near Millinocket at the southern end of Baxter State Park.  BSP is slightly different from other State Parks in that is was ‘set-up’ by a private individual with its own funding to maintain it.  This is the week after the public holiday and this is the quietest camp site yet; there are approximately enough spaces here for twenty plus Motor homes and about fifty plus tents and we are the only ones here. We have the place to ourselves!

Every so often when you are travelling you get to meet people who you know from the first time you meet that you will be friends. In our last RV park (Hill Top, Robbinston) we met two such people. Maggie and Grant fell straight into that category. They normally live in Florida but spend most of the summer each year in Maine. So we’ll have some visiting to do when we get to Florida.

5^Th Sept

Last night was a bit different. We had eaten our meal about 7pm and then we sat round our camp fire toasting marsh-mallows, in the middle of the woods completely on our own. Some would say rather romantic.  You could hear every single movement.

Once we got to bed it started to rain and continued all night.

This morning we got up just before 10am and had our breakfast. Had a lazy morning.

 

 

 

In the afternoon we drove up a road called Golden Road which is privately owned and used by logging trucks – so you can imagine the road surface – and it stretches all the way to Canada.  We kept an eye out to see if there were any Moose about and had a look at all the rapids along the Penobscot River. 

 

 

 

 

6^th Sept.

No lay-in this morning; up at 5.30 am, travelled to the bottom of Katahdin Mountain and started the climb at 7.30; got to the top (5,268ft) at 12.00.  This has to be the most difficult mountain we have ever climbed. The photos don’t really show the true scale of the difficulty, some of the boulders (too big to be classed as rocks) would have been easier if we had ropes.  Of the entire 6 mile trail up, about 200 meters is flat! 

 

 

The views from the top were terrific as it had to be about the most perfect weather for being on top of a mountain.  There were many people at the top too; most having come up different (and even more difficult) trails.  The ‘peak’ marks the start/end of the Appalachian Trail (which stretches down to Georgia).

We thought going up was difficult but the way down was even worse. That took us 5½ hrs.

We eventually got back home about 6.30; had a shower, cooked our evening meal and we were asleep by 9.00pm!

 

 

Robbinston, ME

31 Aug to 3 Sep

On Friday we drove up to a Robbinston, close to Calais on the border with New Brunswick, Canada.  Saturday we down to Eastport where they were having a Salmon Festival.  We didn’t see any Salmon but came across two fishermen on the pier catching mackerel.   With every cast they would real in 3 or 4 fish, continuously.    In the evening the camp site had a disco which we went up and joined in – before you knew it we were sat around a camp fire chatting until midnight – great evening.

Sunday we drove over this bridge onto Campobello Island and the holiday home of Franklin D Roosevelt where he spent his summers as a child.  The Island is part of Canada so we had to present our passports.  The site is an International Park as it is a joint venture for Canada and USA.  It is a very picturesque “cottage” and we learnt a bit about FDR. 

 

 

 

On our journey back into USA we spotted some seals in Lubec harbour and watched them and the cormorants and seagulls fishing.  It was terrific to see so much activity so close to the shore.  We then went on to see Quoddy Lighthouse which is the furthest most Easterly point in USA.  From the cliff top we spotted whales (possibly Minke).  We spent the evening again down by the camp fire and then were treated to guitar music and singing by a couple of the campers – a terrific day.

 

Monday is the Labour Day holiday.  Many of the campers were going home after the weekend.  We had a domestic day chilling out and getting ready to move out again tomorrow.