Day 18: Home

I didn't think I should leave you hanging as to our whereabouts... we arrived home yesterday around 5 pm.  Yes, that is two days earlier than originally planned.  Unexpected variables went into this decision-- the extra driving done to bring Michael's parents back early, government closures of at least 4 National Park sites we planned on visiting, a pending trip to Florida next week for my grandfather's memorial service... plus the fact that I think all of us were missing home (and friends) quite a bit! 

 

After a relatively quiet night in the West Virginia Wal-Mart parking lot (at least there were no police knocking on our door this time!!), Michael and I were up around 5 and moved the girls back to our bed so they could continue snoozing (one big bonus of travelling in an RV!!).

 

We (Michael) had over 500 miles to drive today so we needed to get the show on the road.  Five hundred miles doesn't sound like a lot but you must remember that even though you 'can' travel faster than 55 in an RV, it seems that is what your speed averages (instead of closer to 70-- or higher?!-- when you are driving a car.)  It was a pretty uneventful trip with the exception of when we almost killed a car that crossed into our lane and slammed on his brakes so that he could make the exit ramp he hadn't planned properly for.  A crazy move in ANY situation-- much less when you pull in front of a vehicle 6 times your size.  SO VERY thankful for the angels of protection around our vehicle and his!

 

One other item of interest was the toll road in West Virginia.  The toll was 40 cents.  Which really just seems like a waste of time to collect.  How many cars have to go through that booth in an hour just to cover the salary/expense of toll workers??!  In Florida, they have tolls that are 50 cents... but they are about every 5 miles so by the time you've gone a decent stretch, you've laid out a fair amount of money.  In Georgia, we have a HOV toll lane that can charge as low as pennies-- but it's collected electronically (no expense of toll booth workers).  I don't know-- it just seemed odd to even bother with a toll for that kind of rate.  The northeast, now, they know how to charge tolls!  It cost us over $23 to cross the state of New York!

 

We stopped at Red Robin outside of Charlotte for lunch (a family favorite and we had a free birthday burger for Michael so BONUS!) and made it home as I said, around 5 pm.  We unloaded the RV and then wanted to cry because of the piles of things that needed to be put away and laundry that needed to be done (okay, maybe that was just me!!).

 

We are thankful for a safe trip and all the prayers that surrounded us while we were gone.  While many things did not go the way that were originally planned, we still had an amazing time.  Our biggest regret is that Grandma & PawPaw did not get to finish the trip with us.  We are so thankful to them for the opportunity to continue on the journey.  We got to experience so many new things and see so much of our great country and God's beautiful creation. 

 

Another road trip for the Timms family is now in the books. 

Day 17: The day the glamour ends

So... you know how you have enjoyed reading about all the cool places we have travelled for the past 16 days? Maybe even wished you could come along or were a tiny bit jealous of all of our brushes with the law??  Well... today was the day that no one wants to face in a vacation...the day you head for home. :(  It was not fun, glamourous, or even a tiny bit exciting... it was a long day of driving. 

It began in New York and ended in West Virginia (which, IMHO except for coal, skiing and river rafting is really rather a dud of a state... I cannot find anything interesting to see here at all... apologies to WV, but just calling it as I see it. When your entire state's welcome center brochures only take up a 2x4 ft area, it doesn't seem you have a lot worth seeing.)

We managed a quick look at Lake Erie and had some wings for lunch ( well, Michael and the girls ate wings. I did not partake). We are boondocking tonight and should arrive home tomorrow.

This is the view from our "campsite" tonight.  Remember, you were warned that the glamour has ended!

Day 16: All the water

First of all, fair warning that this post is going to be extremely short and have significantly less pictures and probably more typos than normal. I am blogging from my phone app which means I am limited to the pictures I took on it and my one fingered phone keypad typing skillz!

We drove across NY today following parts of the Erie canal (cool!). Our ultimate destination: Niagara Falls (American side only as we are passportless!) It was amazing. The incredible power of all that water. We went to all the scenic overlooks and rode the Maid of the Mist right up into the Horseshoe Falls. I really don't have enough adjectives to describe it.

We arrived at our campground, Four Mile Creek State Park, around 4:30. It is a lovely and very clean campground on the shore of Lake Ontario (our first Great Lake!). It also had a key ammenity that we needed desperately-- laundry facilities! We started some laundry and then went off to explore the lake and take some pictures before dark (which didn't arrive until well after 7:15-- a nice change from the 6:00/6:30 dark we have had while on the coast...

Tomorrow, we begin the 800+ miles toward home. In some regards, we are all ready to be home... in others, we hate to be nearing the end of this amazing trip. We are so blessed and thankful for the amazing adventures we have had!

Day 15: All the food

We woke up to a chilly 32 degree morning in Vermont.  Michael thought a short run would be a good idea… the girls and I thought staying indoors was a better idea. I think after 3 miles, he agreed with us!!  It was a pretty overcast/foggy morning in Vermont—I was hoping the sun would come out soon and warm things up a bit.

 

Bridge from NH to VT

Our first stop of the morning was in Fairlee, Vermont at the Lake Morey Resort.  When I was a baby, my dad was a golf pro and worked at this club in the summer.  I haven’t been here since I was about 2, needless to say, I don’t really remember it!  It was right across the river from our campground last night, so we made a quick drive around and I snapped some pictures for my parents so they can see how much it has changed.

 

 

Today’s theme was a “Taste of Vermont”—not a super long day of driving, but a lot of fun stops planned to taste some of the things Vermont is famous for.  Our first stop was at King Arthur Flour.  They have a bakery, café, store and educational center where you can take baking classes (which would have been SO fun!).  We browsed through the baking store and made some selections at the bakery (scones, rolls, cookies and pastries) to take on the road.  A sweet start to the day!  After we left King Arthur, we noticed the sun was finally breaking through the clouds—hooray!!

 

On our way to the next tasty location, we happened by a covered bridge.  It became our unplanned stop #2.  It was clearly new-ish construction but still very pretty. I read later on a map that it was actually built this year to replace a bridge from 1970.  While we were taking pictures of the bridge, two hot air balloons drifted into the pictures!

 

 

Stop number three was Sugarbush Farms in Woodstock.  This is a working maple syrup farm that has been in existence since the 1700’s.  They also make a variety of cheeses. I also feel that I must mention here that Sugarbush Farms was a TINY bit off the beaten path… and our excellent driver navigated the one-lane, hilly, dirt road like a professional! The farm also has some animals out back that you can pet and feed.  The horse was hilarious—if no one was feeding him, he would nudge/gnaw on the feed box on the fence as if to say, “the food is in here people”!!  We watched a video on syrup production and saw all the equipment in their syrup house.  They were busy loading up the back of the house with piles and piles of firewood in preparation for the season.  It was interesting to see how clear and thin the sap is—it looks just about like water.  They said it takes 40 gallons of sap to cook down to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.  We got to sample a bunch of cheeses as well as 4 different grades of maple syrup and purchased some of our favorites to bring home.

Notice the chewed on feed box!

 

Cheese and syrup tasting room

Just a small portion of the wood

Stop number four was also an unplanned stop but one that was based on the recommendation of the owner of Sugarbush.  She routed us back to the interstate via Quechee Gorge—a.k.a. the “Grand Canyon of Vermont”.  It was not a big canyon by any stretch, but it was very pretty.  Glad we made this little detour.

Quechee Gorge

Stop number five was one that had been HIGHLY anticipated by the two youngest members of the family… okay, I’ll be honest—the THREE youngest members of the family! (Not that the oldest was opposed to the stop, he is just not quite the fans of the ice cream we are!!) Ben & Jerry’s factory in Waterbury was a must-do in Vermont as far as the girls in the family were concerned!  The free sample of the day was Strawberry Cheesecake.  It was okay, but we all knew we wanted to pick our own form the “Scoop Shop”.  I was able to try a new flavor called, “Candy Bar Pie” and it was delicious! Our tour guide told us that as an employee, he can bring home 3 pints of ice cream per day for free! 

We piled back into the RV for one more food stop—the Cold Hollow Cider Mill just up the road from Ben and Jerry’s.  We got to watch them making cider and had a free sample of the cold apple cider—which was delicious.  I purchased some of their ‘famous’ cider donuts for later—at this point, we were pretty much sugared out!

 

 

We saw a ton of solar panels in Vermont.



Adirondack Mountains in the distance

Our planned destination for the evening was a NY State Park campground just across Lake Champlain from Vermont.  However, knowing we had nearly 400 miles to drive the next day and because we were making good time today, Michael and I opted for us to drive a little further and just find somewhere else to camp for the night.  Which sounds completely doable—people who are not planners do this all the time, right?!  Well… factor in internet connections that are completely spotty up here (apparently AT&T must not be a major carrier up north??!) and it makes it a little more difficult.  I found a state park near Saratoga Springs that looked like a decent option (if you call basically paying for a place to park overnight a decent option?!)… but I was also REALLY wanting to find a campground that had a laundry since we haven’t been able to do laundry since staying in NYC and the bag is overfull… and some of us are running out of clothes (don’t judge if you see pictures of the same outfits on multiple days!!).  Google found another campground that looked very promising (cost was not much more than the state park and it was only 5 miles more down the road) so we switched our GPS destination for this location.

Lake Champlain

Here is how the rest of the evening went.  Get off exit for campground and follow GPS directions—which cause us to drive past campground.  Michael turns RV around on a dark country road to get back to campground.  Pull into DARK campground.  Office is closed.  No directions for late arrivals.  No campers/RV’s in sight.  Creepy.  Decide to leave.  As we are leaving, a car pulls in.  Okay, so there are people staying here—maybe we just need to drive a little further into the park.  Decide to give it a try.  Campground turns out to be SLAM FULL of permanent (or at least seasonally parked) trailers/RV’s. So people live here but clearly this is not the part for just overnighters to stay in. Drive through a very winding, tree-lined, narrow road. Original thoughts this was a creepy place confirmed.   Decide this is NOT the place for us after all.  Please, Jesus, let us just get out of here!! Don’t know where else to go.  Decide to go back to the NY state park 5 miles back from the way we just came.  Pull into state park.  They are still open. Praise Jesus!  Oh, you don’t have sites that accommodate a 35 foot RV?  Are you kidding me??!  Ranger says he will call someone more familiar with the park who might know of a site we will fit in.  Thank you!  Ok. There are several.  Thank you Lord!  Spend 20 minutes with the bored “chatty Cathy” Ranger checking in.  Drive to campsite.  In the dark woods we are all alone in.  Creepy but we don’t really care at this point.  Help Michael back the RV into a HUGE site (are you kidding me? This site could probably hold TWO of our RV’s and you tell people you don’t have spots for 35 footers? Someone needs to take a refresher class with a measuring tape!)  It is now after 8 pm and we still need dinner.  It is after 9 by the time we eat and then fall into bed (again, I know—we are the life of the party.  I know it seems funny that you are tired after just driving/mostly sitting all day but it just is what it is!)

Final thoughts on Vermont.  So cool for me to see the place my parents lived when I was a baby and have grown up hearing stories about.  The countryside of Vermont was very beautiful—but I have to be honest and say that the leaves were not as pretty as I was expecting.  I think we might have missed some of the peak season already—we saw many bare trees but then also a lot were still green… which seemed odd.  Vermont did not disappoint on its food, however—it was awesome!  Overall, another great day (except, maybe, for the last few hours!)

Day 14: All the scenery

Today was the day for scenic driving.  We were leaving Maine (sad face) and heading toward New Hampshire.  We woke up to a gloriously sunshiny day (well, actually, Michael and I were up before the sun because he wanted to get a run in before we left).  He took some lovely pictures of the town of Camden on his run:

 

 

 

Camden harbor

Before we had to turn in the rental car, we took a quick run up the Mt. Battie Auto Road (it is located in Camden Hills State Park).  It was windy and cool at the top, but we were treated to some amazing views!

Top of Mt. Battie... the girls called this "Cair Paravel" (from Narnia!)

 

Photo-bomber!!



Notice the beach in the top middle of this picture?



 

Acadia in the distance... some other time, Acadia!!

 

This is the beach from the photo above!

 

Afterwards, we packed up the RV and began the long drive across Maine.  Before leaving Maine, I would like to give some parting thoughts about this state.  First of all, there is no shortage of beauty here.  From the few short days we've spent here, I am beginning to understand why it is called "Vacationland".  The rocky coastlines, the beautiful trees, the quaint towns and harbors.  So lovely.  Additionally, they (along with really most of the northeast) have a Dunkin' Donuts on almost every corner.  I am not kidding.  I don't know if its more for the coffee because it's cold or for the donuts because you need fuel to keep warm up there or what?!  Just struck us as interesting!  And finally, in a bit of family interest, there are no shortage of punch-buggies up here!  We failed to keep a count on this trip but it is has been a LOT!!

 

We stopped by a pretty lake in Maine to have a picnic lunch (sandwiches on some awesome French bread we bought at a bakery in Camden):



 

We saw lots of these signs along the way today:

 

Lots of signs but no moose :(



That's a snowmobile crossing sign if you can't tell from my blurry photo!

Once arriving in New Hampshire, our route took us over the Kancamagus Scenic Highway and through the White Mountain National Forest.  I have no idea how to pronounce that name and I'm not about to try because I am repeatedly getting pronounciations wrong up here!!  However you say it, it was a beautiful drive.  Michael was nervous I was leading him into another "Squirrel Spur" incident when he saw the word "scenic", but the road was mostly very smooth and wide.  We saw plenty of buses and RV's.

 

So this road runs right through a National Forest but it was not closed. Hooray!  The campgrounds (which are basically dry camping) did not appear closed either.  The only sign of government shutdown was the boarded up bathroom facilities at the scenic areas.  The girls were joking that we could sell passes to our RV potty for $5 each and make some easy cash!!  Another irony of the 'shutdown' here was that the fee collection boxes were locked up.  You are supposed to buy a day pass for $3 to access the trails/scenic areas.  No one was prevented from acessing these areas but the government wasn't going to collect their normal fees either.  Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!!  Stupid government. Sigh. (End of political grumbling. Probably.)

 

Here are some pictures from our drive on the "Kanc":

 

 

Sabbaday Falls

Playing "Pooh sticks" on the waterfall!

 

 

We arrived in Orford, New Hampshire around 5 pm and found a spot at a cute family campground right on the banks of the Connecticut River (which is the border between Vermont and New Hampshire).  The girls enjoyed stretching their legs on the playground and at the fuseball table while I called my parents (first day with cell service since we arrived in Maine!).  Michael built a fire for us and we enjoyed our dessert (Abbie made apple cobbler) outside.  I wish there was a way for me to have taken a picture of the night sky.  It was amazing.  There are virtually no lights out here and we could see stars for days.  So beautiful!

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow will bring a drive through Vermont-- not a long drive but a lot of planned stops... including a long anticipated one for me and one for the girls... I'll let you guess tomorrow which was which!

 

Day 13: The Rain in Maine...

So... it would seem that my lessons in flexibility were about to be ramped up.  Overnight, the weather took a turn for the worse and we woke to an extremely soggy campground with much more rain in the forecast.  Bummer.  We had ditched Bar Harbor/Acadia from our plans due to the the government shutdown and decided to stay in the Camden area for two nights instead-- hoping to still see some pretty scenery/coastline and take a harbor tour.  Now, with the yucky weather, that was quickly looking like an impossibility as well.  We also did NOT want to be stuck inside the RV for half of our time in Maine. What to do??  We researched and called and finally settled on the idea that we would rent a car and drive south to the towns of Pemaquid Point and Booth Bay Harbor (to see the ocean, not just the bay, Heather!!). 

 

We secured a rental car for the day and were off (in the rain) to do some exploring.  Of course, I was the designated driver-- as Michael pointed out, it was only fair considering all the driving he has done!  Agreed.  We headed south to Pemaquid Point. Just to give you an idea of how remote we are up here-- we basically have no cell service or data service... and the satellite radio on the rental car would even go in and out of having a signal!  Thank goodness for free wi-fi at the campground or I would be way behind on my blogging!

 

 

 

As we were driving, the rain began to slow down and stop (yay!) and by time we reached the lighthouse park at Pemaquid, we actually saw the sun for about 5 minutes!  This lighthouse was so cute.  Not quite as impressive in size as the Portland Head, but still very cool.  And it was open for climbing!  Three out of four of us were happy about this :)  Actually, number 4 really did fine with the climb. This lighthouse is the one that appears on the back of the Maine state quarter-- so that was another cool bit of trivia. 

 

 

The light inside looks like a beehive. It had a fancy name which I forget-- the only thing I remember is the guide downstairs repeatedly telling us not to touch it!  He said it would shine for 10-12 miles out to sea.

 

 

 

A winding staircase up followed by a climb on a ladder to get into the light room

 

After we finished in the lighthouse and fisherman's museum in the keeper's house, it was time to explore the rocky coastline. 

  

I think this was the one Michael took right before the wave crashed over the rocks and splashed him!

The waves seemed really rough to us but the lighthouse guide said they were only 2-3 ft and they often get 10-12 ft-- we would NOT have been on the rocks in that case!!  The water temp was a balmy 56 degrees!

After exploring Pemaquid, we got back in the car and headed down to Booth Bay Harbor.  It is probably just a few miles to get there from Pemaquid--- via the ocean-- but 20 + by land because along the coast of Maine, the land juts out into the water like fingers so you have to go up and down each finger to get to the cool places at each tip.  As we were driving, the rain returned.  Boo.

Booth Bay Harbor

We at lunch at a little restaurant on the water and walked through a few shops in Booth Bay Harbor-- but the weather was really pretty icky.  There were some people but not many.  You can definitely tell that this is the end of their season.  Our waitress said pretty much everything closes in about 2 weeks for the entire winter.  We couldn't see much so we decided to make our way back toward Camden... We made a few stops along the way and got back into town as it was getting dark.  We walked through the cute town and down to their harbor area.  The nice couple who took our picture told us they had gone to Acadia and just walked through the barricades to get to some places in the park.  Happy to hear reports of people using the land that belongs to them (stupid government).

 

Camden harbor at dusk

 

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will leave Maine and head for the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  Maine is lovely.  The coastline is impressive and majestic.  I am sad the weather was mildly uncooperative and the government was super uncooperative-- but we still really enjoyed what we were able to see and experience.  Definitely a place we would like to visit again!!