Where Have We Been? Part II

 5/9 to 5/17/2022 - Ronks, PA to Kutztown, PA, 52 miles, stayed 7 nights at Pine Hill RV Park, $372

5/17 to 5/20/2022 - Kutztown, PA to Mt. Pocono, PA, 64 miles, stayed 3 nights at Mt Pocono Campground, $200

5/20 to 5/23/2022 - Mt Pocono, PA to Catskill, NY, 138 miles, stayed 3 nights at Brookside Campground, $190

5/23 to 5/26/2022 - Catskill, NY to Lake George, NY, 97 miles, stayed 3 nights at Whippoorwill Motel and Campground, $310

5/26 to 6/3/2022 - Lake George, NY to Peru, NY, 95 miles, stayed 8 nights at Iroquois Campground and RV Park, $301

6/3 to 6/10/2022 - Peru, NY to South Hero, VT, 66 miles, stayed 7 nights at Apple Island Resort, $305.10

6/10 to 6/14/2022 - South Hero, VT to St. Johnsbury, VT, 93 miles, stayed 4 nights at Moose River Campground for $225

6/14 to 6/18/2022 - St. Johnsbury to North Hampton, NH, 151 miles, stayed 4 nights at Sea Coast Campground and RV Park, $165

6/18 to 6/21/2022 - North Hampton, NH to Freeport, ME, 53 miles, stayed 3 nights at Cedar Haven Family Campground, $237.40

6/21 to 6/29/2022 - Freeport, ME to Hermon, ME, 108 miles, stayed 7 nights at Pumpkin Patch RV Resort, $294

6/29/2022 to 7/3/2022 - Hermon, ME to Calais, ME, 105 miles, stayed 4 nights at Calais Motor Inn, $25/night 

SO. MUCH. GREEN!

Vermont has been on my bucket list forever.  It is SO green, in so many shades of green.  There are ferries to cross Lake Champlain, but we drove north and crossed a bridge, then came down the middle through some islands. We stayed at South Hero, VT, a short distance from Burlington and met some lovely people who took us out on their boat. It was the beginning of June, and still too cool for me to wear shorts.

 

We were lucky to explore Burlington during their Jazz Festival. There was live music everywhere, arts and craft vendors around the square, and a great pedestrian mall through the middle of town. We also took a day trip out to Stowe, VT.  This is the quintessential village you think of when you think of fall foliage. It was still lovely in June. We explored Smuggler’s Notch, where legend says traders stowed their goods in caves to  continue trading with Canada during an embargo against France and England during the Napoleonic Wars. We drove up to the Trapp Family Lodge, where the Von Trapps from Sound of Music fame immigrated and settled.  Their family cemetery is on site.  Their views of the Green Mountains looks like Austria, complete with highland cattle. We chose not to stop at Ben and Jerry’s factory since they don’t give tours anymore.  Instead, we had a creamy maple (huge vanilla soft serve cone with a hint of maple.) We even visited a sugar house and learned about the process of tapping trees and making syrup, and bought a pint of liquid gold.

 

 

 

 

 

After Vermont, we got back to the coast in North Hampton, New Hampshire ( a little nod to the village we lived in in England.). It’s a great beach town with a sand sculpture contest, a bandstand for live music, shops, and a old fashioned arcade, called Funarama. We met the best man from our wedding there almost exactly 34 years after our wedding day. He and his spouse introduced me to “fluffy clam chowder” with lumps of lobster in the soup. They also told us we must visit historic Portsmouth, NH.  Strawberry Banke is the oldest neighborhood in New Hampshire settled by Europeans, and the earliest example remaining today (gorgeous colonial homes!).  Their church had notable members and visitors, and their port was lively - a great place to eat and people watch.

 

 

 

 

We made our way up the Maine coast, staying in Freeport, the home of LLBean. We found the oldest tombstone in the oldest cemetery dated 1776, and others marked as soldiers of the American Revolution and War of 1812. We finally rested in Hermon, ME for a week, reconnecting with friends from Idaho.  Penny and I went on a bog boardwalk, a mile-long raised walk through peat and moss, trees and pitcher plants - with LOTS of mosquitoes!  We enjoyed browsing antique shops which, I think, are just as good as museums for telling the local history of an area. For our anniversary, we explored Bar Harbor and the rocky coast of Acadia National park before stopping at a lobster pound for a lobster dinner!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our last US stop was in Calais, ME.  We stayed in the parking lot of a Motor Inn with full hook-ups while we collected our documentation and prepared to cross the border.  We downloaded the app called ArriveCAN, scanned our passports and COVID vaccine cards and waited until within 72 hours of crossing. Since we are hauling our house with us, we had to be sure to follow all the regulations for bringing food into Canada - absolutely no eggs or chicken of any kind, no seeds, most fruits and vegetables, grains, seeds, and dirt. So I boxed up my small treasures from the last three years - driftwood from the Mississippi River, seashells, small pretty stones from the Oregon coast, pine cones, moss, and my few succulents and air plants, and mailed them to Brendan in Michigan. Hopefully they’ll arrive safely and survive. 

Really, we probably overdid it a little. they say getting into Canada is not as hard as coming back to the US, so this was good practice. We cleaned out our fridge and got wonderful new produce when we crossed.  We crossed on a Sunday, so there was very little traffic, and we sailed through in about five minutes. Even so, the guard asked twice about firearms, because we have Texas plates. I even had to give away my pepper spray in Maine. And it could have just been luck of the draw that they didn’t inspect us closer.  There was one other motorhome ahead of us, already parked to the side. The owners were sitting under a tree while two agents were putting on gloves to begin inspection.  ugh!