We had a week’s stop in Palmyra, ME, staying at the Palmyra Golf & RV Resort. It is kinda out in the middle of nowhere, about 20-30 minutes from Bangor. There’s not a lot of sightseeing to do from there, but we did manage to get over to Rockland and check out the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse. You have to walk along the breakwater for almost a mile to get to the lighthouse, but the scenery is enjoyable. Looking out on the water you can see the lobster trap buoys everywhere.
The week was a little rough. We had a couple days of run-down, not feeling too well, so we just chilled at the bus. We burned a couple of days doing chores, particularly bathed Whole Lotta Rosie (the bus), and washed/waxed the Jeep. A couple more days of shopping for groceries & supplies and it was time to head over to Bar Harbor.
Home in the Bar Harbor area was Timberlands RV Park, actually in the town of Ellsworth just north of Bar Harbor. There we met up with our fellow Texan friends Bud & Meredith Bradley. Our first order of business was LOBSTAH!!! They have what they call “lobster pounds” all over the place. We went into the Down East Lobster Pound and picked out dinner. What they will do here is you pick your live lobster from the tank (that is jammed full of the little critters, both Bud and I chose a couple of 2 1/2 pounders), they set it aside and you can give them a time you will return to pick them up. They will cook it up and have it hot & ready for you. We picked ours up and returned to the park, Q’ed up some corn, and had a little cole slaw to top the meal off. WOW!
The next day we planned on driving the Schoodic Point Loop and visiting Bar Harbor. Before we left, I had an appointment with P.E. O’Halloran Mobile RV Repair to work on a small leak in my hydraulic system. The repairman arrived and got right to work. After showing him the area, he quickly found the culprit, a corroded tiny little O-ring. Swapped out a new one and bing-bam-boom we were on the road to Bar Harbor. The Schoodic Point Loop was a scenic drive and a bit busy, being this was Labor Day Weekend.
We wandered into Bar Harbor and got lucky to find parking. Town was busy with the holiday weekend, but to add further numbers to the masses this is a regular port stop for cruise ships and there happened to be one currently anchored off shore. There were all manner of boats out on the bay. We saw a massive yacht that actually had it’s own personal sailboat stored on deck! We walked around downtown and ended our stay with chow at the Thirsty Whale.
Acadia National Park has a scenic loop drive that leads to many overlooks, geographical features, and hiking trails. We fought the masses and took the loop, much of it in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Thunder Hole is a cool little slot in the rocks where, on a “good” day (meaning waves & wind) it earns it’s name. Our luck holding true (our luck = bad luck), we couldn’t have picked a calmer day on the ocean. So for us, Thunder Hole was not feeling so thunderous. We lucked out when we got to the top of Cadillac Mountain and found parking (still bumper-to-bumper traffic), then packed our picnic lunches out to dine on the rocks and ogle the ocean panoramic views. Something went seriously wrong with our luck streak, we did manage to have a bit of good luck and the weather was beautiful for this day of sightseeing. And to top off the day we returned to camp for a feast of local steamers (clams). Mmmmmmm!
Cadillac Mountain boasts of having some magnificent sunrises, so we braved the alarm clock and went back at zero-dark-thirty on the Labor Day Sunday. Murphy laughed at us, yet again. Pea soup fog, frigid windy weather, and still bumper-to-bumper traffic to get up to the top was our entertainment for the day. 0558 hrs. rolled around, the advertised official time of sunrise, and visibility was non-existent. We got to see dark gray morph into lighter gray, and we got to freeze our tails off for an extra added bonus! It was not until we drove down the mountain where we caught some mild rays under the fog ceiling. After a short catch-up nap we went shopping with Bud and Meredith at the L.L. Bean outlet, then just HAD to have a final lobster feast on our final night there.
We said our “Happy Trails” and hit the road. A big thank you to Bud and Meredith for the tour guidance-ship, a good time was had by all. With Irma possibly working her way to Florida and maybe north up the coast, our timing to head west seemed to be perfect. That’s all for now, until next post…