October 13, 2013 Lorraine’s report
Hello once again, we've moved several times and we are now parked in Hershey, PA.-Thousand Trails. We came into this park and it was pouring cats & dogs. Since there are a lot of people here who came for the extended 3 day weekend, we felt lucky we found a 50 amp, with water & sewer. I think the park is pretty full of last minute vacationers who want to be out and about.
We found a place, only 30 amp, parked the car in a spot and Chuck took off looking for the 50 amp. He came back a few minutes later and had found one space (50 amp) left-the rest were all taken.
Of course, when we got out to back up into the place, the skies had opened up and it poured on us. We were both WET, shoes soaked and rain up our pant legs, It was miserable!
We set up and we spent the evening in, but by then it was after 6:30 pm, a long day for us, especially since we usually only travel just under 4 hours, when we travel.
But, when we were on the road, the GPS said we would be into our park by 3:55 pm. It was well after that when we pulled into our park. There had been flooding, a lot of this county had between 6 to 10 inches of rain in the past several days. It was miserable here! And the traffic was crazy, way too many people out and on the roads, trying to get where ever they were going. Today, all the creeks and streams are just muddy with all the rain, and the day was moderate here.
So last Sunday, we moved; this time into the last stop on our way East, Bar Harbor, Maine. We got in, set up the rig and since it was a nice day, we took a tour of the area.
We went on down to see the lighthouse at the end of the island. But since the government closed the park we had come to see, we didn't get to go up into the park. So the next best thing was to tour where and when we could. It was a beautiful day in the afternoon. But as I said, the Acadia Park was closed. We drove until it was getting dark before we came home. This sure is a pretty area.
Monday was a cold, wet, windy day; it was quite bitter out. We needed to restock some of our things, so we went to a WM, then Chuck took me into town. We went into Bar Harbor and I shopped/looked, it was fun.
All and all, we enjoyed our last stop here in the East. I know we loved coming to the Northeast to see all the trees, and I know I took way to many pictures of this area. It was well worth the trip to head East here.
Now we started home, Chuck took us out of Bar Harbor, ME and we headed south. We back tracked to Saco, ME and spent the night. The next day we went on into Boston, MA.
Our destination was Brian and Sue's home. Chuck met Brian on line somehow, and they invited us spend some time in their back yard. It was better than being in a park. and some of the places that they put RV parks in and so much quieter than many!
The have a bunch of land and raise cows, you know the ones that are black and white, with the middle part being white, and both ends of the cows being black. They are called Belted Galloways.
We enjoyed meeting some new friends and really enjoyed our time with them, they are such nice people! Sue invited us into dinner that first evening. It was a joy to spend time with these nice folks, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them. And for Sue to have her Mom there to visit with us was such a nice thing too. Many thanks to Brian and Sue, we loved being with you...
Brian told Chuck that it would take at least 2 hours for us to go the 35 miles from their place into Boston. So Chuck and I decided not to go into Boston this trip. It was a hard choice, but maybe next time we'll go and see Boston.
Instead, we chose to go on into Bellingham, MA. with us living in Bellingham, WA for 37 years. We drove around Bellingham, MA and saw the downtown, the schools, and some of the homes. It was a nice drive.
Before we knew it, we were headed on into Providence, R I. That area was very nice and we liked it, too.
From there we headed home and had invited Brian and Sue to go to dinner with us. Once again we spent a very nice evening with them.
Since we went into the Northeast, I have loved the lobster, it was wonderful. And I love the clam chowder, each restaurant has its own recipe and they are all wonderful!!!
Friday found us on the move again, coming on into Hershey, PA. The rain was not fun driving in, but we made it. We had come to see Richard and Patsy, who were about 30 miles away, attending an FMCA rally. Sunday was the last day for it.
We didn't call Richard and Patsy until Saturday. We then went over to see them and catch up with all the stuff they have going on in this life. We enjoyed the time with them; going to the FMCA rally, then to eat. All too soon the time came for us to get back and take care of Misty. We hope to see them on down the road.
Sure hope everyone had a great week. Take care...
Hugs,
Lorraine
10/13/13 Chuck’s report
Yes, we have left the great Northeast part of our nation. We were planning on going through the midsection to my family’s reunion in Minnesota back in June. Our daughter and grand daughter, Susy and Katie, flew up to go to the reunion with us too. We were unsure of our plans from there but Lorraine looked at the maps and suggested we may as well try to see the colors of the leaf changes in the Northeast as we were “close”, at least closer than if we were in the West.
So that’s what we ended up doing and had a great time too. A short recap here, we left California in June and since have been in 19 states. Even though we been full timing for the past 6 years, it was our first time in 9 of those states. We have now been in 48 of our states with the motor home, we haven’t been in North Dakota yet and for sure we won’t have the coach in Hawaii.
I count our trip to the NE as a huge success, we got here to see the colors in peak season in most of the places we stopped, or at least within a day’s drive. We didn’t get to see/do nearly everything we wanted to but we know we want to return again, next time for more than the colors. I guess that means we have to plan a summer trip here and that won’t happen for at least three years, oh well, just something to look forward to and do some long range planning.
Let’s see, last week we wrote our blog on Saturday because we were moving on Sunday, heading to Bar Harbor. And yes, the local folks do say “BA HA BA”, at least that’s what our ears heard. We knew the government shutdown was in effect and we may not be able to see Acadia National Park but the rest of the area was still there for us to see/visit. We decided to get off the main highway and travel more of the backroads, sometimes they can be better for scenery and they go through all those smaller towns which are usually interesting in their own right.
This proved to be a good idea, we had a good trip to Bar Harbor, a town on Mount Desert Island where Acadia Park is located too. The park fills a large portion of the island but the main roads go through the park, the entrances gates to the park itself were all closed and blocked. But we were able to drive around the island and see everything except the park, lots of bays, harbors and of course, the town of Bar Harbor.
After we got set up on our spot at a very nice campground, Narrows Too, we headed out for a car tour through the town and most of the island. I didn’t realize how long it would take and it was well after dark when we got back to the coach. But that ended up being a good thing because that night we got heavy rains and winds, the remains of the storm that left so much snow in South Dakota. The next day was still overcast, gray and rainy, sort of like it can be back in Washington this time of the year.
Monday morning we didn’t want to make another long car tour due to the weather so we did a short car tour, stopped by Wal-Mart then headed into Bar Harbor for a better visit than just driving through like we had done the day before. Boy are there lots of “tourist” shops here, Lorraine found a couple of things she wanted and really liked having a day to do the touristy thing.
Because of the heavy storm that went through the area, a lot of the tree leafs were blown off and the “leaf peeping” wasn’t as good. I had been in touch with a couple who live in Massachusetts and they had offered us a spot to park our rig at their farm. Because it was along our planned route, close to where we wanted to stop anyway and because we like meeting/visiting with new folks, we took them up on their kind offer.
We could have made the trip from Bar Harbor to Brain and Sue’s place in one day but we decided to make an overnight stop along the way and break it into two shorter day trips. So on Tuesday we backtracked and spent the night back in the same campground we had stayed in Saco, Maine. Only two days in Bar Harbor aren’t enough but like I said, we will probably make a return trip and maybe the National Park will be open then.
Wednesday morning we headed out to Brian and Sue’s farm. They are hosts via the Harvest Host Program and own a Tiffin motorhome like ours. In fact, that’s how we got in contact, Tiffin owners have a forum and he saw one of my posts there, contacted us and made the offer for us to visit them. So with the directions they gave us, we felt we would have no problem finding their farm and that turned out to be the case.
We got there but they were gone but we had directions on where to park and told to make ourselves at home and they would be home later. We got set up and it wasn’t too long until they both got home and we met them. They really offered more than a place to park, they opened their lives to us and really made us feel welcome. Brian took me on a short tour of the farm, showing me parts of his haying and firewood businesses too. When we came back to our coach, Sue and her mother were inside visiting with Lorraine. They invited us to dinner with them too. We had a great time with these find folks and really appreciated their hospitality.
Thursday morning I was outside walking our dog and met with Brian as he was out doing chores and getting ready for his “work day”. Once again we had a great time visiting and getting to know each other a bit better. Their place is only about 35 miles from Boston but you would never know it, it is out in the country, very quite and peaceful. But Brian informed us the traffic was bad, it could take over 2 hours to drive into Boston and parking was horrible too. We decided to postpone our visit to Boston until our next trip to the area and drove to Bellingham, MA instead. We lived in Bellingham, Washington for 40 years and figured it would be neat to see another Bellingham. We found the town, the post office and the high school, I’ll probably add pictures later.
As we drove around the area, we soon found ourselves in Rhode Island, or should I say we were surprised to find ourselves in Rhode Island, we didn’t know we had crossed the state line. So we decided to check out a Wal-Mart in the area to see if we could stop overnight with the motor home, they gave us the ok and told us where to park. We then took off to see park of the state, we headed towards Providence, less than an hour’s drive away. We liked what we saw of this town, a real nice downtown, again, someplace we will need to explore further on our next trip to the area.
Lorraine had made a call to Brian while we were driving around, inviting Sue and him to dinner with us after we got back. So after we got back, we visited with them then they drove us to a nice restaurant where we once again had a nice visit and dinner. Lorraine once again ordered a lobster roll, she’s trying to get her fill of it while we are in the area. Like I said earlier, we had a real good visit with these fine folks and this was just another chapter in that visit.
Our good friends from Texas, Richard and Patsy, are on a tour and we knew they would be in Pennsylvania this week and we wanted to adjust our schedule so we could meet with them. So on Friday we packed up and got ready for at travel day. We, of course, met with Brian and Sue and thanked them for our visit before we left. We had gotten good travel suggestions from them, in fact, they printed out the route they take when they head South and we followed it.
We drove through Massachusetts and through Connecticut. We were thinking about stopping or the night somewhere in Conn. but it was only around noon time so we decided to push on to our next planned stop here at Hershey Penn. 1000 trials, unlike our overnight trip from Bar Harbor to Brian/Sue’s place a couple day ago. Plus we knew Richard and Patsy were at a FMCA rally not too far from our campground and thought we might visit them and the rally on Saturday.
We drove through a small portion of New York before we got to Pennsylvania but didn’t hit too much traffic, just a few places where the construction slowed us down. The weather forecast back in Mass. was for a mostly cloudy day but no rain so we figured we would have a good weather day. But as we got into Penn. we ran into more clouds, it looked like a storm was in the area. Sure enough, we started getting some rain maybe 100 miles outside Lebanon, getting worse the closer we got. We had the wipers on for a lot of that portion, not on intermittent either.
And if the weather wasn’t enough, the traffic started getting heavy too. About 10 miles before our turn off the highway, we got into heavy, stop and no go traffic. It took us over an hour to travel about 5 miles, really upsetting our plans to get here and get set up before dark. We were listening to the radio and CB to figure out how much further the traffic jam continued and a possible cause. We heard causes from a Penn. State football game, the weather, floods in the area and even a bad wreck on the highway (no wreck we found out).
But whatever the cause, it was bad and really slowed us down. But just as all good things must come to an end, the traffic jam eventually came to an end too and we got to our exit. We drove the rest of the way on the back roads and could see where all the creeks were flooded out of their banks and there was running water over the roadway in a number of places too.
We got to the campground office and they had some issues getting us checked in, finally told us to just pick out a spot and check back with them in the morning and check in then. We have been to this park before but it was just a couple of days after a tornado had hit them and a large portion of the park was closed so didn’t know our way around plus it was almost dark by now.
But we found a site, it was only 30 amp but everything else looked like it would work for us. With Lorraine outside in the rain guiding me, we backed the rig into the site and I hooked up power. I then got in the car and drove around, checking out other areas of the park to see if there might be a better site for us. I happened to find what might have been the last, level, 50 amp site available with a possible Southern exposure for satellite TV. I left the car in that site and walked back to the coach, unhooked the power then drove over to this site.
Once again, Lorraine was in the rain as we backed in and positioned our coach in the site. By now, both of us were pretty well soaked from the rain, the first site had water running almost 4” deep in some ruts so we were wet up to our knees. But this was ok for us, I just had to return to the ranger station and ask them to unlock the 50 amp power receptacle, they charge for 50 amp use and it must be paid before usage. Because we were not officially checked in, they didn’t want to unlock the power but I promised I would return in the morning and check in and pay the $3/day for power.
While I was hooking up and handling the office/power issue, Lorraine got everything set up inside the coach. I had to call our TV service provider, Direct TV, to get service for the local channels. I was on the phone for over an 1 1/2 hours, they kept transferring me to different folks. Twice they made matters worse, we lost all info on our online TV guide, a few times we lost all signal for a short while too. Finally I gave up when we got back our regular service but didn’t have access to local channels and told them that was close enough, basically right where we were before I called them in the first place. This is just one of the fun things to do while traveling by the way.
So after a late dinner, we watched a bit of TV, got caught up on our email and such and called it day, a long day but we were now snug and in place.
Yesterday morning, Saturday, I called Richard and told them we were in the area and made arrangement to drive over to see them at the rally. We got there just after noon, met with them at their coach then drove a short distance to Chili's for lunch. Later we returned to their place, walked through the vendors at the rally and toured a few of the new coaches a dealer had there for viewing. Later we went by their place once again before we had to leave, a good visit with good friends once again.
This morning I’ve been working on this blog and I just got a call from Richard. The rally is over today and they are in route to their next stop, a campground not too far from us. We will probably meet with them and drive through the Amish farmland area later today.
The weather lately has sort of reminded me of back home, with the gray, cloudy, rainy day we had in Bar Harbor and the storm we had Friday although back home we very seldom get the really heavy rains we experienced here. The ranger told us the area has gotten over 10” of rain, the storm is the remains of the tropical storm Karen that hit the US a few days ago. I guess this much rain from the remains of tropical storm are unusual in this part of the country, therefore all the flooding and such.
But we’ve had some good weather days this week too. Our time in Saco, Maine was during some warmer than normal weather, while we were at Brian/Sue’s place we had good weather too. And today looks to be turning out fairly nice, cloudy with a little wind but the sun is peaking out and I see some blue skies. The forecast is for warmer than normal temps for the next few day too, so we are anticipating good weather.
Our plans have us staying here until we leave on Wednesday morning, headed for the Great Smoky Mountain area. We are planning on heading to Red Bay, Alabama where the factory service center is for our motor home. We will travel through parts of the Great Smoky Mountains to get there but don’t plan on stopping except for overnight because we want to arrive in Red Bay on Saturday to increase our chance of getting a parking site with full hookups at the service center.
So that was our week, a busy but very nice week. We sure hope to see Brian and Sue along the road in the future, hope your plans for fulltiming come through like you plan. I’ll go through the pictures now, pick out and add the ones here and get this posted.
Pictures from our Sunday drive in Massachusetts.
One of the suspension bridges we drove over in route to Bar Harbor, ME.
Down town in Bar Harbor. One of the two cruise ships in town.
A horse drawn buggy tour through town. One of the many whale watching boats in the harbor.
Driving around the island.
As the sign says, Arcadia National Park is closed but we walked down to see the lighthouse anyway.
On the right is the lobster roll Lorraine had for dinner in town.
Our drive from Bar Harbor back to Saco, ME.
We sure don’t like the toll roads back here, some were almost $1.00/mile for a motor home with a tow car and the roads aren’t that good.
A couple of Welcome signs, Maine on the left, Massachusetts on the right.
New Hampshire Welcome sign.
Our rig and car at Brian and Sue’s place and some of the Belted Galloways they raise with the distinctive white belt.
Brian and Sue when we were at dinner and another lobster roll for Lorraine.
We lived in Bellingham, WA for 40 plus years, here is Bellingham, Mass.
Bellingham Post Office and High School.
On our drive thru Rhode Island.
More state Welcome signs, Rhode Island on the left, Massachusetts on the right.
Our first time in Connecticut too.
Slater road was the exit to our last house back in Washington too.
We drove by Newton and Sandy Hook, the town where the school shootings took place.
Back in New York for a short while again.
They were painting the bridge on the left and it was all covered with a tent. Another toll booth.
And back in Pennsylvania, it’s been since 2010.
A cute painting on a truck that passed us.
The river is flooded with lots of debris floating.
That’s Richard and Patsy while we were out to lunch.
Ok, is that enough pictures of the trees and hills in color yet?? Lorraine took lots of pictures of the buildings and houses we’ve seen these past three weeks, it was my idea to focus on the scenery in the pictures on the posts. But we have been in this area before and the trees aren’t changing too much here yet so maybe next week there will be more than just trees and such. But who knows what the Great Smoky Mountains have in store, guess we’ll just wait and see.
Thanks Chuck
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