August in Maine

As July turned into August, an emergency with the grandkids caused us to make an unplanned trip to Rochester, NY.  Our daughter has had a few emergencies since we’ve been on the road and this was the first time we could easily respond in person as we knew the RV would be safe and sound in Becky’s yard.  Both grandkids had a bout of RSV, the older being hospitalized as a result.  We got tons of quality time with 7 month old Willa as both parents stayed with Leo.  This quality time included contracting the RSV virus and putting us both under the weather.  It was a small price to pay help our daughter through a rough time.

Upon our return to home (home is wherever the RV is parked), Dan’s brother, John, and his family had arrived at Becky’s.  We had a nice final week in Becky’s yard, visiting with more family.  On Saturday, August 14, we drove over to Skowhegan so that Amy could attend her 40th high school reunion.  The Guilford class of 1981 had a pretty decent turn out and the rain did not dampen the festivities too much.

After over seven weeks in Becky’s yard, the time had come to move on.  Getting out of the yard turned out to be more a challenge than getting in.  Leading up to our arrival in late June, Maine had been in drought conditions.  We have a knack for bringing wetter than normal conditions to the places we visit and our stay in Maine was no exception.  The month of July was the wettest July on record and, as a result, the lawn got a little soft behind the rig.  After making a bit of a mess with the lawn, we did safely extract ourselves and headed down east for more family time with Amy’s sisters.

We stayed at Timberland Acres RV Park, about 20 minutes from Acadia National Park.  The original plan was to have Amy’s two sisters join us there.  We had made our reservations in January and by the time they tried to make reservations, the park was full.  They did manage to find spots in a different RV park less than 10 miles away.  Amy’s sister Barb lives in the area and only needed to move their travel trailer about 20 miles to setup camp.  Karen, the oldest of the three, lives in Colorado and was planning to bring their 5th wheel to Maine.  Unfortunately, on their first day out they lost a wheel and the RV was damaged and they could not bring it anywhere.  After a few days of thinking the planned reunion was a bust, Karen decided to fly into Bangor and not let the opportunity for rare quality time with her sisters slip away.

Karen and her husband, Fergy, spent the week with us in our RV.   We got together with Barb and her husband, Gleason, several times and had lots of fun.  We were also able to spend some time with Barb’s kids and grandkids. On Wednesday, we went over to Barb and Gleason’s trailer for a big lobster feed.  Gleason is friends with some lobstermen and was able to trade firewood for over 2 dozen lobsters.  Living near the coast of Maine has its benefits!  After everyone had their fill of lobster, Gleason sent the leftover lobster meat (more than 2 pounds) home with us. We made a big batch of a lobster chowder to share back with others and still had plenty for a couple rounds of lobster rolls for us.

Our second week on the coast included more trips into the park for hiking, biking and walking/running. We did a long day of biking the carriage roads and another long day of hiking that we kicked off by climbing the Precipice Trail. If you visit Acadia and the Precipice Trail is open (usually closed until late August due to nesting falcons), you should definitely check it out. If you are afraid of heights, you should definitely NOT check it out.

We moved from our large pull through site in an open field in coastal Maine to a nice wooded site in a small campground on the edge of Maine’s Baxter State Park and the new Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. The campground was very nice and backing the rig into our site was easier than we had feared. A bonus to this stay was the fabulous Penobscot River Trails just a short drive up the road from the campground. If you are ever in the area and enjoy biking on pristine trails of crushed gravel or are looking for a place to enjoy the outdoors, you have to check this place out. We visited it a total of three times while we were in the area.

Besides frequenting the Penobscot River Trails, we took a nice hike up Trout Mountain to a new observation tower. Amy took one look at it and decided she was not going to climb it. Dan did and took a few pictures of the mountain (that’s what Mt. Katahdin is called around here). We had the opportunity to visit several of Dan’s cousins and had a great time catching up. Becky and Joe came to spend our final weekend in Maine with us because over seven weeks in their yard wasn’t enough.

We broke up the drive out of Maine with a short stay in Saco at the KOA on Route 1. We had stayed at the KOA before and knew what activities were available. One repeat activity was a 32 mile bike ride from the campground to Bug Light lighthouse along The Eastern Trail. After we returned to the RV and showered, we drove the Freeport to visit The Maine Beer Company, one of southern Maine’s more famous micro breweries.

We don’t often visit those tourist attractions like the world’s largest this or that but when a life size chocolate moose is just down the road, one must check it out. We bought some chocolates and a couple souvenirs before heading back and getting ready to end our summer in Maine the following morning.

It was a great summer! We saw lots of family and had all our kids together with us for the first time since we retired. Dan and his two siblings were together for the first time in five years and Amy spent quality time with her two sisters for the first time in who knows how long. Summer of 2021 is certainly one for the memory banks.