A RELAXING WEEKEND AWAY FROM IT ALL!

Palmyra Golf Course and Campground was the perfect weekend getaway that we were looking for. We don't usually stay in privately owned parks because they are more often than not expensive. That's not the case here, the pricing is right in line with what we have been paying in the New England State Parks for the last two months.

Rick is the owner/operator/constructor of this pleasant park. It took him 8 years to personally construct his 18-hole golf course complete with clubhouse and another 3 years to construct the 85-site campground. In the summer he runs the campground operations, like the office duties, mowing the wide open areas around the pool and playground, daily trash pickup right at your site and I'm sure others that I didn't witness him performing.

We wouldn't hesitate to stay here again!

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THURSDAY

TRAVEL DAY YEAR #2 - STOP #40

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This weekend is all about nothing! Tricia's work is done, the blog is all caught up, plus there isn't much to see where we are, so it's time to relax and enjoy some down time.

We do have a few of the usual errands to run, groceries, gas and laundry, but we have all weekend to get it done. With electric and water on our site for the first time in three weeks we may even turn on the A/C this weekend because the daytime temperatures are in the low 80s.

One other point of interest about our stay here is this is the northernmost campground we will be staying in this year. After we leave here everything will be south and west of this location.

Our heavily wooded and private back yard view for the weekend.

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EASTERNMOST POINT IN THE USA

Cobscook Bay State Park was the perfect base camp for exploring the Eastermost Point in the United States and for getting our first look inside Canada.

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MONDAY

TRAVEL DAY YEAR #2 - STOP #39

After backing THE POD into it's new home we took off to do some sightseeing and find some lunch, with a good portion of the day left we drove into the nearby town of Lubec, ME.

West Quoddy Head Light in Lubec,ME

Lubec is the easternmost town in the contiguous United States and is home to Quoddy Head State Park. Located inside the park is West Quoddy Head Light, a lighthouse built in 1858 to guide ships through the Quoddy Narrows.

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Easternmost Point in the contiguous United States

We started this journey in May of 2018 with a visit to the Southernmost Point in the contiguous United States located in Key West, FL and now, in July of 2019, we have visited the Easternmost Point in the contiguous United States, here at the West Quoddy Head Light, ME.

Here we are at the Easternmost Point

If you're counting, because we are, that's two corners of the United States down, and two to go!

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Dining on the rear patio deck at Frank's this was our first view of Canada

Another point of interest today was where we ate lunch, not so much which restaurant we were at, but actually where we were at. On the back patio of Frank's Dockside Restaurant in the town of Lubec, overlooking the Quoddy Narrows, we were just a few hundred yards from Canada.

That's the Canadian Border Patrol Station on the left side of the FDR Bridge

If we would have went straight at the last intersection while driving here, instead of turning left to go to the restaurant, we would have gone over the F.D.R. Bridge into Canada. With our passports still back at THE POD that could have been a big problem.

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TUESDAY - Today needs to be a work day for Tricia because she has deadlines to meet. Fortunately we don't need to drive into town to find a library to work from, like we did at Acadia National Park for the last two weeks. Even though here at Cobscook State Park we find ourselves without water or electricity on our campsite, we do have the two ingredients that make it possible to work from THE POD, sun and cell phone signal. True, we don't need the sun to create our own electricity, we could always run our Honda generator and burn up some propane.

The solar panels are just so more efficient and noiseless. We even pulled out our 200-watt portable panels from the back seat of ROVER and set them up in the bright daylight area of our campsite, first time we've done that in a while. The cell phone signal isn't terribly strong here (2 bars of 3G) so we got out our cell phone booster and made it totally usable for work.

If we get our work done today we might just go into Canada tomorrow for lunch and some more sightseeing on Campobello Island.

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WEDNESDAY - Today we're going to find out if our brand new Passport Cards actually work! Neither Tricia or I had ever possessed a passport before, so instead of getting full blown Passport Books, which allow international travel pretty much anywhere in the world, we opted for Passport Cards which allow U.S. residents to drive, bike, or walk, into Canada and Mexico. If you want to fly in you'll need the Passport Book.

We have a few sights planned to visit today, but the first is very time sensitive. We plan on visiting the Head Harbour Lightstation on the northern tip of Campobello Island in New Brunswick. The reason this visit is so time sensitive is because you can only visit there during low tide.

You see the lightstation is on an island, and at low tide you can walk out to it on the dry ocean floor. It just sounded too cool to pass up! This is possible because here, at the bottom of the Bay of Fundy, there is a 10-11 foot difference between low and high tide. You only have a four hour window to visit the lightstation before the ocean floor once again has 10 feet of water over it.

FYI - At the northern end of the Bay of Fundy the tides change a record 53 feet, the largest tidal change anywhere in the world.

Here are a few photos of our visit!

Here is our view while waiting for the tide to recede just a little bit farther.

See the stairs on the right? That's the first of four we will have to climb upon.

Finally at the bottom on the dry ocean floor.

The stairs on the right lead up to the middle island.

A bridge that crosses a narrow channel between two islands.

Halfway there now!

One more look of where the ocean used to be before we climb up to the lightstation.

The Head Harbour Lightstation

As a bonus we saw a few Minke Whales just offshore from the lighthouse.

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After our visit to the lightstation we headed out to find lunch with a view! We asked all three of the people working at the lightstation where was the best place to eat on the island and they all said the same thing, go to The Pier Waterfront Restaurant. We knew they couldn't all be wrong and they weren't!

Patio view during our lunch on Campobello Island

We both had their delicious Baked Seafood Casserole, with green beans, sweet potato fries and a bread roll. The only thing better than the food was the view of the calm bay waters from the outdoor dining deck.

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With lunch taken care of we still had more to see before heading back to The States. When we were eating at Frank's Dockside a few days ago we could see a small lighthouse across the water inside Canada. We just had to get a closeup look from this side before we left.

Mulholland Point Light

Mulholland Point Light is currently being repaired and then will once again be accessible to the public. There is a small museum and information booth operated by volunteers and a pleasant little walking path around the base of the lighthouse.

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One more stop! The southern quarter of Campobello Island is one large park, Roosevelt Campobello International Park. At the southern tip of the park is Liberty Point and from that vantage point we were able to zoom in with our camera and get a shot of West Quoddy Head Light from the Canadian shoreline.

West Quoddy Head Light as seen from Canada

Well for a total of 5 hours 27 minutes today we were in Canada! I must say the Canadian Border Agent was very pleasant and asked us the normal questions about whether we were transporting any guns, alcohol, fruits, vegatables or cannabus products. With all those answers being NO we were asked where we were from and how long we planned to visit, then we were good to go.

Coming back into The States we were asked basically the same questions, but this time the agent took a look into ROVER's back seat and wanted to know what all the bins were filled with. Before I could answer he asked if we were camping and I replied YES. He walked around to the back of the truck and peered into the rear window and then slowly returned to my side window before asking where we were camping locally. I told him Cobscook Bay State Park and he then waved me through.

While he was looking in the rear window I had visions that I was going to have to empty the entire truck and submit to a search. There would be nothing to find, but it sure would be a lot of work. In the end all of the fears were for nothing and so ends our first visit to Canada!

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• • • 100 MILE • • • HIKING CHALLENGE 20.25 MILES UNDER OUR BOOTS

A total two mile hike at the two lighthouses
brings our annual total up to 20.25 miles.

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BLACKWOODS CAMPGROUND - WEEK 2 (ME)

Blackwoods Campground has been our home for two weeks now and although we didn't spend a whole lot of time on the campsite it has still been a great place to stay. It's centrally located near all the park's main attractions and has clean bathrooms with a local business provides a place to get a hot shower for $2 right outside the gate.

One other big advantage is the is a Park Bus depot right in the campground. The park buss routes can take you to just about anywhere in the park with the exception of the summit of Cadillac Mountain. The buses are propane powered and just don't have the horsepower to climb the steep roadway.

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MONDAY

SIGHTSEEING DAY 139 MILES DRIVEN TODAY

Today's sightseeing trip is going to be a visit to the easternmost part of Acadia National Park known as the Scoodic Peninsula, it is located just outside of the city of Winter Harbor, ME. One of the three National Park campgrounds is located here and we just had to go see what we were missing.

The Scoodic Woods Campground is the only Acadia National Park campground with water and electric hookups. It also has more privacy between sites and was less crowded than ours, due mostly to the fact that all the major attractions of the park are an hour on more drive away. If we ever come back this way we will probably plan a stay here instead of Blackwoods Campground.

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TUESDAY

WORK DAY @ THE LIBRARY 15 MILES DRIVEN TODAY

Thank You Northeast Harbor Library in Northeast Harbor, ME

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WEDNESDAY

WORK DAY @ THE LIBRARY 17 MILES DRIVEN TODAY

Thank You Northeast Harbor Library in Northeast Harbor, ME

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THURSDAY

SIGHTSEEING DAY 12 MILES DRIVEN TODAY

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Today we got up early and drove the short distance to the town of Bar Harbor, ME. The town has a nonstop schedule of events planned for the holiday and we wanted to experience it all.

By 7:30AM we had found a safe place to park ROVER for the next 14-15 hours. It was in a city owned parking lot at the end of one of the downtown streets. It was there to service a small park with a wonderful water view and a great place to enjoy a typical summer day. But today is not typical, it's a holiday, and the forty or so parking spaces were filling up fast.

We were all prepared to spend $28-$30 for the parking fee which is normally $2 per hour. As we were approaching the parking meter to swipe our credit card we got a big surprise. Today the price to park was not $2 an hour, it was FREE! The meter simply read HAPPY HOLIDAYS - FREE PARKING, what a nice way to treat the tourists and the town people on this special day.

While driving through town to locate a parking space we notice the streets were lined with empty chairs all along the parade route. We decided to join the long line of chairs by placing ours in a prime spot, right next to the judges station. With our chairs in place we walked four short blocks down to the YMCA athletic field where the local Rotary Club were holding a fund raising event by serving up blueberry pancakes, sausage and egg sandwiches on a croissant. I had to make sure I got one of each, after all the money was going to a good cause.

For hours they were pumping out pancakes as fast as they could!

After breakfast we walked across the street to the craft fair going on and checked out a couple dozen vendors booths. There were lots of beautiful handmade items, artwork, pottery and jewelry. But we don't have space for anything like that, what we do have space for is honey!

We came upon a booth manned by a guy who blends his own honey flavors. We of course got a jar of blueberry honey, but also some garlic honey for glazing BBQ chicken breasts and pork tenderloin. We can't wait to try that flavor!

He also makes creamy honey flavors and spent several minutes explaining the labor intensive process it takes to create them. He told us he is recently retired and took his part-time hobby, and passion, for making honey and turned it into quite a sizable enterprise. We purchased two flavors of his creamy honey, chocolate and cinnamon. Of course all of this was after a free taste test of each product.

Every parade starts with a police escort right?

We then went back downtown the four blocks to check on our chairs. We left unattended on the side of the road and yep they were still there right where we left them. We purchased some cold drinks and waited for the 10:00AM parade to start. After the parade we took our chairs and made our way down to the marina and waterfront area.

This afternoon there will be local musicians performing at the waterfront pier in front of a large grassy hill that is also another public park. This will also be the viewing area for the big fireworks show after sunset. There were already hundreds of chairs and blankets reserving space for the afternoon and evening entertainment, so once again we added ours to the collection and started making our way to the National Park Tour Bus.

Our vantage point for the music and fireworks!

We have two o'clock reservations on a Ranger led bus tour to three of the park's main attractions, two of which we have avoided visiting thus far so we could see them first with the tour. The first was a drive up to the summit of Cadillac Mountain, we have been there three times already since arriving, the second stop was the Wild Gardens of the Sieur de Monts Nature Center and lastly was Thunder Hole along the coastline of Otter Point.

Thunder Hole is a large cave when at mid-high tide the waves push up inside of it and make a thunderous sound when the air inside gets compressed by the sea water. Unfortunately our timing was way off for that experience today and the seas have been extremely calm ever since our arrival here 12 days ago, so no thunder for us, just another beautiful spot to enjoy the scenery.

A sunset sail. I hope they're back in time for the fireworks!

After the tour was over it was back to our chairs to listen to live music and to wait for sunset and the fireworks to begin. After the 30-minute long fireworks show it was time to wait in all the traffic exiting the city and when we finally arrived home it was well after 11:00PM. What a long and memorable Fourth of July!

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FRIDAY

RELAXATION DAY 44 MILES DRIVEN TODAY

Today started out as a work day but quickly turned into a relaxation day after our busy and long day in Bar Harbor yesterday.

We did make a drive over to the Northeast Harbor Library to check email and such, but our main reason for traveling over here was to pick up some mail we had forwarded to the Post Office via Priority Mail.

Felt uneasy following behind this guy, there are 8 bicycles hanging off the back of this SUV.

Before we started on our RV travels we had saved several thousand dollars worth of gasoline gift cards that we purchased when Publix ran their special "$50 gas card for $40 when purchasing $50 in groceries". Sometimes we purchased as many as three each week. For years while we were both still working we took advantage of this offer and put them away for our planned travels. That's a 20% savings, much better than putting the money into an investment account and the cards have absolutely no risk!

After 14 months on the road and paying for gasoline only when we couldn't find a nearby station for one of the cards we had left, we are down to our last $300 worth of cards. Gasoline is our third largest expense on the road, right after food and camping fees, so it's important we save as much as possible.

I spoke earlier about an app called Get Upside, which gets you cents off per gallon at participating stations, problem is there are very few participating stations outside of the larger cities, which is what we usually try to avoid. But we'll continue to use it when offered.

Two of our credit cards offer 5% off gasoline, but that only lasts for three months at a time and then the category changes to something else. I needed a better solution so I started to look around for a credit card that gets us 5% off all year long. I finally found one that does exactly that and that's what we're here to pick up at the Post Office today, our shiny new credit cards! No more paying full price for gasoline, ever!

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SATURDAY

WORK DAY @ THE LIBRARY 13 MILES DRIVEN TODAY

Thank You Northeast Harbor Library in Northeast Harbor, ME

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SUNDAY

SIGHTSEEING DAY xx MILES DRIVEN TODAY

After running a few errands like gassing up ROVER and refilling a couple of our propane tanks at the Tractor Supply Store in town, we thought with this being our last day here at Acadia National Park, it would be a good idea to revisit several of the wonderful locations we have seen over the last two weeks.

Our favorite by far is Cadillac Mountain, so we made the 3.5 mile drive up the Summit Road one more time. We bought a couple of Old Soaker Root Beers in the gift shop and found an empty scenic pullout on the side of the road to just relax and enjoy the view. Tricia pulled out her cell phone and was playing her favorite game, glancing up every once in a while to take in her surroundings. I pulled out a chair from the back seat of ROVER, went about ten yards down to a flat spot on the mountain and listened to my favorite playlist of songs on my phone.

After about an hour we moved on to our next location, Sand Beach. That's right, there is a sandy beach along this jagged coastline of Maine. It's only about 100 yards long but it reminded us of the beaches back in Florida, except the water temperature was somewhere in the 50's instead of the 80's. Tricia got her toes wet but I declined to follow her into the water!

Next up was nearby Thunder Hole. It was totally the wrong time to be there to here the thunder, so for about ten minutes we had the place all to ourselves. Then about a half dozen people from Iowa came down the stairs to join us and said they had just seen a porcupine on the upper sidewalk. We went up to see for ourselves but couldn't locate him. There was a Park Ranger there in her vehicle and confirmed the sighting up didn't know where it might be now.

We checked the time and saw we could just make it over to Jordan Pond House before they closed so off we went around the rest of the Park Loop Road. We were seated about 15 minutes before closing and each ordered a pair off their Famous Popovers, just like we did on our first day here. They weren't as good as the first time we had them, probably had something to do with the fact they were closing very shortly. We still enjoyed them, along with the view of the mountains and the pond out the huge dining room windows.

By the time we got back to THE POD it was after 9:00PM and we need to get to bed because tomorrow we get up early, pack up all of stuff and head out to our next campsite.

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ATTENTION EVERYONE!

After extensive and grueling research for the last three weeks
a determination has finally been rendered.

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When it comes to Blueberry Soda here in Maine there are three major contenders all competing for you hard earned dollar. Since we arrived in Maine I have been drinking blueberry soda almost exclusively, my only deviation has been water when outside, at the library or taking my meds at night.

All three use cane sugar (no high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners) and are caffeine free. Both Capt'n Eli's and Old Soaker list grape juice on the ingredients label and it really comes out in the flavor. Maine root brand soda does not and it's the one that tastes the most like blueberry. Isn't that the reason for drinking it in the first place?

So without any further ado here are my results:

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Who will be the first to correctly guess our next location? • • • PLEASE USE THE COMMENT SECTION BELOW TO MAKE YOUR GUESS! • • •

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