East Coast Trip 2015

Monday, June 22, 2015

Bar Harbor, Maine - First days of official tour - June 16 - June 17, 2015

Bar Harbor, Maine - First days of official tour - June 16 - 17, 2015

June 16, 2015

Today was the first day of our official tour. We had our Welcome Meeting where we got all of the information regarding the trip. Then we all introduced ourselves. The meeting finished with us all getting our Bingo card signed by all of the other travelers. We will play Bingo later in the trip.

At 5:30 was time to re-gather, with dinner following at 6:00. The dinner was lobster, clams, corn, potato salad followed with blueberry pie. Yummmm.

There were leftover clams, so Karen Anderson decided making Clam Chowder later in the trip would be good, so Karen, Donna, & I shucked the clams. Fun

Duane, Marlene (Tail Gunners) & Jennie & John (Wagon Masters)

June 17, 2015

Stan & Bev at Acadia National Park

Today we get to go on a bus ride. We will be going on the Acadia National Park tour. We will also spend a couple of hours in Bar Harbor.

Stan at Acadian National Park

Heather, the bus driver, was very informative. She has lived in the Bar Harbor area for years, so had many stories to tell.

Lobster Salad in Bar Harbor

Our first stop was at Cadillac Mountain, then on to the Thunder Hole, Jordon Pond House, then a two hours stop at Bar Harbor for lunch.

Some of the interesting things that she explained about the area were

1) The reason for the rough roads. Because of the water under the roads, then they freeze and swell. In the spring when they thaw, then the roads break up. Being from Minnesota & North Dakota, we had heard that before, but it was a good reminder as we bounce over the terrible roads

2) The cycle of the forests. Fires are actually necessary in the cycle of the forest. The fires give the forest a fresh start. When the tall pine & fir trees get so tall the block out the sunlight and the lower growth dies. After a fire, hard wood trees and other plants start to grow. Finally, the pine and fir return and the cycle starts over again.

3) There are many wealthy people that own property in the Bar Harbor area. One of the most influential in the start and continuation of the Acadian National Park is the Rockefeller Family. They have bought and donated a huge number of acres.

4) Many other people own homes there i.e. Martha Stewart, Some celebrities own some of the islands in the area. There are many small private islands near Bar Harbor. John Travolta is one.

Diane, Connie & Bev at the BLOG tutorial

Bar Harbor, Maine - June 14 - June 15, 2015

June 14, 2015

Today we are heading to Bar Harbor, Maine, to meet up with our Wagon Masters for our tour to Canada. Another beautiful day, 75 degrees and sunny.

June 15, 2015

Bev decided to go for a walk and get some exercise, check out the park, and meet people. The park is very nice, by the water. She was able to meet several people – some friendly, some “not so much”. The good news is that she met the Wagon Masters for the trip. As it turns out, the park had given them our wrong site number, and they didn’t realize that we had arrived.

We met with Jon & Jenny Swanson, the Wagon Masters and with Tail Gunners, Duane Pavlish and Marlene McWilliams. All very nice people. We received all of our information for the trip that actually starts tomorrow.

As it turns out there is a couple from Cle Elum, Washington, across from us in the park. We are going to go out to have “Lobsta” with them tonight.

We went into Bar Harbor (BaHaBa) today. It is a very touristy community. We saw no less than 30 Lobster Restaurants on our trek. We wanted to save ourselves for our dinner tonight.

At the marina in Bar Harbor, Main

We are Official #19

South Hampton, New Hampshire - June 12 - June 13, 2015

June 12, 2015

Today we left Lake George, New York, heading for South Hampton, News Hampshire. We are going through Vermont and the Green Mountain range. More beautiful country.

June 13, 2015

Bev started out the morning by walking from the RV Park in New Hampshire – all the way to Massachusetts. It sounds like a big undertaking, but it isn’t. The park is actually in two different states. Can you imagine trying to make two states happy. One of the RV Park employees said that it is better than it used to be. At one point the employees had to fill out two different time cards and get two separate pay checks depending on which part of the park that they worked in. Oh my.

We decided to explore today. Most of the time we were driving around in circles. Even with the GPS, we went back and forth.

We had to try Lobster Rolls. We finally asked around and found a seafood place. We ordered only one Lobster Roll, since we didn’t know if we would even like it and they were $17.99 each. It turned out to be a hot dog bun with lobster and mayo. We aren’t sure what we expected, but it was a nice surprise.

At the park we were at, there were a kids playing and riding bikes. There was one little girl riding with an older brother and sister. However, she had training wheels. Her one training wheel got caught in the grass. She kept peddling like crazy and didn’t go anywhere. Luckily, her older sister came to her rescue.

Lake George, New York - June 10 - June 11, 2015

June 10, 2015

Today we left the Hershey RV Park, heading out to Lake George, New York. It is a bit of a drive, but we plan to stay at Lake George for two days, to give Stan a break.

We find that the New York roads are about the same as every other state. We encountered our first Toll Road. We were on it for about 100 miles. The only difference is that we got to pay $21 when we reached the other toll booth.

One thing that is cool about the New York rest stops, is that in addition to parking and restrooms, they have fast food restaurants. The one that we stopped at had a Starbucks. Stan tried a “Roy Rogers” beef sandwich. He said it was a lot like Arby’s. But it is a nice break from driving.

We had a tough time finding the RV Park. The signage was small and blended into the background. We passed it the first time and drove around through the village of Lake George and tried it again. Unfortunately, we turned to early the second time only to find that we turned into a dead end. So we had to unhook the Jeep. This time Bev took the Jeep down the road to check on the turn to the resort. Once we found it, Bev blocked traffic while Stan backed out on the road to turn around. Needless to say, nerves were a bit on edge.

"Sassy" Stewart

We got to the RV Park without further problems. We had a nice pull thru. A cocktail (or two) was in order. The neighbors were sitting outside to Stan decided to go visit. Bev finally wandered over too, since they had a dog. It turned out to be a great evening visiting with Graeme & Lori Stewart and their dog Sassy. They were a great couple from Dublin, New York, that were returning home after buying their new fifth wheel trailer. We had a lot of laughs. Also, another couple from New York stopped by on their golf cart. It turns out after we had visited for awhile, that all of us will be in the Florida Keys about the same time in the fall. We hope to see them again then.

Sassy with her ball - She & Bev played

June 11, 2015

Today was a morning of rest after a day on the road.

In the afternoon, we decided to head out to check out the area. Lake George is in the Adirondack Park and has a lot of resorts, motels and tourist attractions. It would be a great place to take kids. There are water parks, and many water attractions. The lake is beautiful. We even saw Paul Bunyan, however he is not as cute at the Bemidji Paul Bunyan. We even took a selfie with him. We had lunch at Smokey Joe’s in Lake George. Great food.

We also drove into Warrensburg - It is a town of about 3,000 people, but it must have at least a dozen big beautiful churches.

A few things that we have discovered in this part of the country

1. There are a lot of towns that end in ville, or burg,

2. There are LOTS of beautiful churches

3. There are a lot of HUGE cemeteries – I suppose they have had a lot more years to accumulate dead people.

4. The people working on the roads all work the same – one working and four or five watching.

We returned to the rig in time for happy hour with the Stewarts. Bev threw the ball for Sassy and totally wore her out – Sassy not Bev.

Hershey, Pennsylvania and surrounding area - June 4 - June 9, 2015

Hershey, Pennsylvania - June 4 - June 9, 2015

June 5, 2015

We made it to Lebanon, (near Hershey) PA today. We are staying at the Thousand Trails RV Park here for five days. Yippee – We love a few days in one spot – it feels like we have been spending a lot of time on the road with little respites with family and friends.

We plan to visit the Hershey Chocolate Company tomorrow.

June 6, 2015

Today we headed into Hershey, Pennsylvania, to visit the Hershey Museum. What a wonderful tribute to an incredible man. Milton Hershey tried and failed many times at business, but never gave up. He developed the chocolate factory from his original caramel company that he started. Unlike many in his day, he wanted to develop a community in which the workers were able to buy their property and were happy living and working in the area. Unlike, many of the towns in that time, Hershey survived the depression. Upon his death, he donated his entire estate to the Hershey Industrial School for orphaned boys.

After visiting the museum, we decided to try the trolley. Being a Saturday, we had a bit of a wait. We decided to come back one of the next couple of days. The trolley, we are told, goes by the mansion and give a lot of Hershey information.

We had lunch at Houlihan’s. A great place. Bev thinks that she remembers a Houlihan's in the northwest. More research is required.

We visited our favorite place, Costco, to stock up. Then we planned to return to the motorhome. However, we plugged in the address of the RV Park and it directed us to somewhere 151 miles away. We both decided that was not a great idea, so we tried to return home on our own. Yippee we did it without GPS.

June 7, 2015

We stayed at the motorhome and decided to recharge our batteries. The NASCAR Race was on and we figured the crowds would be greater on the weekend. So rest and relax is all we did.

June 8, 2015

The Hershey Trolley

Today we got to head back to Hershey’s Chocolate to ride the trolley. We only had a 45 minute wait. The trip was well worth the time and money. The ride was 45 minutes of pure entertainment. We had a tour through Hershey, visiting the Hershey Mansion, the Hershey Schools and heard about the history of Milton Hershey and his story. In addition to listening to the conductor, we had a “conductor in training”, Henry Hershey (Dad), Mamie Hershey (Mom), a student at the school, a local farmer, and a military guy that had returned from Germany. (All of these people were played by a very talented actor that would get off the bus, and change costume on the back of the trolley and reenter.) We also got to do some sing along songs. We would recommend this to anyone that travels to Hershey.

Wilbur the Conductor in Training

Henry (Dad) Hershey

Mamie (Mom) Hershey

Student at the Hershey School

Local Farmer

Chocolate Factory Worker

Military man returned from Germany where Hershey chocolates were sent

The Trolley "Dressing Room"

After we finished there, we decided to visit some the Amish communities. The one that caught our eye was Intercourse, PA. It has shops – both furniture and quilts, etc. – as well as buggy rides. We wandered around the town, then continued on to Ronks, PA. There we went to Zooks and bought a chicken pie and a beef pie. We are anxious to try them.

Intercourse, PA street sign

Amish buggy

Amish bicycle riders

Finally, we headed back to the motorhome. It was starting to look stormy and it turns out that there was a tornado watch in effect. They asked us to put in awnings. If it gets bad, we will also put in our slides. No sense having any extra damage. It is only 5:30 pm and it is getting VERY dark.

June 9, 2015

We drove to Gettysburg, PA, today. So much history, but we decided that we will get SO much more out of it when we are on the bus tour. We realize just how much we missed back when we were in High School and didn’t pay that much attention.

View at Gettysburg battle field

Bev went for a walk around the park. Her FitBit has not gotten much a workout these last few days.

We tried a restaurant called Hoss’s Steak & Sea Restaurant. Since it was lunch time, we had their Salad Bar. It was great.

Hagerstown, MD - June 4, 2015

June 4, 2015

We decided to drive until we got tired today. We plugged in the address for tomorrow night in Lebanon, PA. As we headed that way, we decided to go into Maryland, on our way to Pennsylvania. We encountered some beautiful lush country. There were some hills and steep grades. We can see why there is so much beautiful color in the fall. The roads have been some better today, however, once in a while we get our teeth rattled.

Yogi

We stayed at the Yogi Bear’s Jellystone RV Park. It was a great park. I am sure that kids have a great time at the park. They have waterslides, pools and all kinds of activities. I tried to talk Stan into using the waterslide, but he said he didn’t have a bathing suit along. Bummer, I forgot to pack his speedo.

Romance, WV - June 3, 2015

June 3, 2015

Happy Anniversary to us. Married nine years – where has the time gone? Just shows that time flies when you are having fun. We are having fun. However, this morning, not so much. We are on our way to an RV shop. The jacks did not retract properly so we are listening to the jack alarms as we drive down the road. It is a lot like what I expect Chinese Water Torture to be like. We are about ready to chew off our arm. This will surely test our patience with each other.

It was determined that we might have a leak in our jack system. At least we got the alarms turned off. Now we know not to put the jacks down again until we can have it looked at by a technician.

We left Indiana this morning, went through Cincinnati, Ohio, down to Lexington, Kentucky, and plan to make it to Milton, West Virginia. That make four states in one day. Sure does make a difference from travels on the West Coast.

We have encountered roads in various stages of disrepair. I guess with the number of trucks on the road it is a surprise that it isn’t worse. Illinois had the worst roads so far. North Dakota had a lot of construction going on, but easy to get through. Ohio had construction which caused long delays. Kentucky road are about the best so far. West Virginia joined the list of the worst roads in US.

We have seen many dead animals along the road. Wisconsin had the worst with at least seven deer along the road.

We have seen a lot of raccoon as well. Sad.

Swan on the Lake

Lake with swan, fountain & chapel

As it turns out, we are spending our Anniversary night in a town called Romance. How about that? We had planned to stay at the KOA in Milton, WV, but the entry was WAY too tight, so we decided to keep driving. The next RV park was the Rippling Water Church of God Campground, in Romance. It is beautiful. We are right near the pond that has many fountains and even has swan swimming around, with a chapel in the background.