It’s been a long winter, however the end (or beginning) is in sight. Clare has spent countless hours up-grading so many parts of the camper and truck (in fact, Retro-fitting may become it’s own page in the future). April break we headed south, just not far enough, to NH and MA.

This trip was to “see” what worked and “see” what did not! The good news is that there was only one small problem- a leak at the water pump (because, of course, he had to install an expansion tank!)- easy fix!

Our Energy Supply System is AWESOME- two solar panels feed two lithium batteries and thus we have all the power we need, even on rainy days! And, we have a generator for back up, too. Put the slideout in and out, jacks up and down, brewed coffee, ran electronics, played music, ran heater, water pump, fans, lights, etc. All in cloudy, rainy weather! YAY!!

We visited my old hometown, Gloucester, MA and swung through Ipswich and Newburyport, places I lived for a short time way back.

And now- the other news- Linda’s house closes on Thursday, Clare’s house is under contract and will close the end of June. Life is exciting, however hectic and stressful as we try to wrap up and close every last little loose end.

Things to remember about reading our blog- Click on the title- Our Home- to get these blog posts. Use the sidebar or tabs at the top to access other pages.  Emails you receive only have a small part of the additions- go to the webpage, preferably on a device bigger than a phone!

Oh, wait, no we have not forgotten about Rhylee, our bellwether, check his page for his canine, geriatric view.

 

November 10-13

It is a sad time for the three of us, we are starting to put “Our Home” to bed for the winter. We spent this past weekend at Blackwoods Campground in Acadia. Amazingly to us, there were lots of tent campers, including a Boy Scout Jamboree, and many RVs, as well.

This trip did test us for cold nights. The camper furnace does the job easily. The new generator works like a charm! But, we have a condensation issue. We tried an air mattress that we could deflate during the day to allow more air circulation, but air conducts cold, so wherever the mattress touched an outside wall the mattress was really cold! And so, this winter research will continue as we now have some actual experiences to work from.

Hiking this time of year in Acadia is really nice- no traffic- vehicular or human- every place! Check out these pics and more in the Photo tab.

Thanks for reading our Blog and we hope you follow us next year!

Until spring,

Clare, Linda and Rhylee

In the email notice you get with each blog post, you only get the write-up. If you go to the blog website by using a link at the bottom of the email, or the bookmark we hope you made of our blog, you will get ALL the updates including Dear Diary- Rhylee’s adventures, the Photo Library and the photos embedded in each post, the map of our travels, etc.

So, if you are interested in what we are doing, where we are going, and the places we are visiting, please go to the full website. You can also post comments for us and others to read.

Thanks,  Clare, Linda and Rhylee

October 30, 2016

What the heck? We were hoping to try out the rig in some colder weather, and that we did. As well as 6” of heavy wet snow! We headed up to Jo-Mary land for peace, quiet and cold…and got SNOW too!

Check out these pics of us climbing in elevation as we went into Jo-Mary Land up to Johnston Pond- about 1380 ft.

 

 

The furnace runs twice per hour or less; we are comfy cozy! However condensation is a bit of an issue, which will not be once the generator and solar panels are up and running- more electricity will let us run the dehumidifier and fans more when we are boondocking/off grid.

Temps have ranged from 32 to a high of 42. A good test for us and the rig. And we are really happy about how it all played out.

More pics of this trip are in the Photo tab.

 

 

Columbus Day Weekend

Our camper is truly home! We are at Mt. Blue State Park – we headed to Rangeley however this beckoned and the fall foliage is spectacular.

Hardly anyone staying here, so it is very quiet and peaceful. Leaves gently falling all around us. Rainy Sunday, empty campground, a long walk around the park.

Sept. 30-Oct 1

This trip’s experiment is to see how we fare three nights in parking lots. The hope being that we can save lots of money traveling next year with 2-3 nights in a parking lot and 1-2 (or more if the place is awesome) in a state park campground.

First night- Cooks Corner Walmart so we can hit LL Bean and Corning in the morning. Not bad, but kind of street noisy. Second night- Cabelas in Scarborough-

Sweet- just buy something in their store and dump for free! There are 80+ Cabelas across North America, although Bass Pro Shops just bought them out. Drawback- truckers like Cabelas too and a reefer truck parked two spaces over…

 

Third night- Walmart in Auburn; fairly quiet. Other advantages- groceries and supplies right there, high speed internet for free, and usually nearby places to walk.

Floor Side note- see pic:

To get the floor repaired Lee’s RV coerced a small female member of the office staff to slide into that little tiny opening and replace the dozen or so screws that had fallen out of the floor support. Yes, this was a warranty issue! And yes, Clare brought her flowers!

 

 

 

 

Labor Day Weekend- Sept. 2-5

Update- Our Eagle Cap is now resting on a 2012 Ford F350 Diesel Truck- see pic above!

After one night at the Bangor Sam’s Club (that was after Security kicked us off the Mall property J, we headed to the North Maine Woods and specifically Jo Mary checkpoint, with some, but not enough, information on camping in this area. The staff at the checkpoint were great! Detailed information, maps, pictures of campsites, advice, and a great campsite on Upper Jo Mary Lake.

Most of the campsites on this entire massive amount of land are single campsites, sometimes 2-3 grouped together. However, for years there has been a campground at Upper Jo Mary Lake, which closed this past year. This summer they opened 10 out of about 60 sites, and we stayed at one- right on the lake with a beautiful view, Mt. Katahdin at the top of the lake. Pristine, quiet and beautiful.

IF you want to know more about how this land is managed for public use, go to http://northmainewoods.org and check it out. There are day use and camping fees, however the upside is no ATVs, very few people, and secluded campsites.

 

OMG! We had to come back to Warren and Hope…so sad, but we will get to see all of you soon!

Our apologies for so many posts all at once…although we had internet service in Canada, not all of Canada has gotten that message, in many places we could not connect.

August 17

We are learning…way too slowly though. Private campgrounds have not been as advertised- BIG RVs packed in like sardines. We moved today to a Beach Campground; we reserved a site overlooking the beach and ocean on the west coast. Well, the site was supposedly suited for ANY size camper- we would have needed at least 2 ft of blocks on one end just to start to level up. We moved to an unserviced site closer to the shore for one night and left- time to find another Provincial Park.

Whycocomagh Provincial Park is a treasure- small, with water and electric, the sites spread out, very quiet. In fact, it is a self-registration park. Two nights of peace and quiet here, then heading south towards Maine.

August 19 at a huge shopping Mall in Dieppe, NB, next to Moncton. We saw about a dozen RVs side by side near the Walmart, so we headed to the other side of the mall.

Close to the river, no other RVs, quiet, but VERY bright at night- we have pretty good blinds in the camper though. We were on the bee-line for folks walking to and from the Mall, and could hear their admiring comments of our travelling home!

We walked a lovely foot path along the river- it was low tide, so no Tidal Bore, yet still interesting.

Stopped at Hopewell Rocks on the way south to walk along the “Flower Pots” at low tide. Rhylee re-injured his leg- see his page for details.

Back in Maine on the 21^st– Cobscook State Park then the drive back to our other world.

August 14, 2016

St. Pierre Beach was lovely, except for the rain showers, overcast skies and jellyfish all over the beach. So we cleaned house- that took forever…20 minutes inside and out J Then we did laundry, which meant sitting on a lovely deck with a view of the bay, while the machines did the work. Rhylee made friends, of course, with everyone coming by.

We moved south and east, to Mira River Provincial Park, but on the way down a smallish road we saw a sign that said “Ferry Ahead”. OMG, really? Another 5 minute cable ferry across Little Narrows, fortunately Grand Narrows had a bridge.

Damp, cloudy, restful. Today we went to the Miners’ Museum in Glace Bay. A retired miner took us down into the mine- much of it less than 5ft in height, some of it about 4ft. He told great stories of the mines and the 200+ history of coal mining on Cape Breton. The last mines were closed in 1984. At that time they were mining 6 miles off shore and 2700ft below the ocean bottom! It took the miners one and a half hours to ride the “rakes” down to where they would mine for the day. The mines closed due to the prohibitive cost of moving fresh air down and out that far, as well as moving the miners and coal.

Fortress Lousibourg- Amazing reconstruction of a French Fortress, era 1450’s; about one quarter has been rebuilt of the fortress and buildings within- about 50 buildings in all. Many with “animators” within playing the role of those that would have worked or lived in the building. We spent two days here, including dining in a local inn, as the merchant class might have back then.