Sunday, August 30, 2015
We have a gorgeous day again today, and before the temps rise this week, we thought we'd go to Rhode Island and do a hike at the Sprague Homestead.  We are finding many homesteaders wanted their land preserved, so they put it in the Glocester Land Management and they made a preserve out of it.  They didn't want homes and businesses being built on their land, but instead have hiking trails in there.  We hiked 5.4 miles today and found 9 caches within the homestead.  These people in RI really put us to the test.  They hid some really difficult caches there.  We found a lot of the stone walls around the property, and they used them as fences to pasture their cattle. They claim to have over 5 miles of stone walls on the property, and 240,000 miles in all of New England.  We also found the remnants of the homes they built, with the stone foundations.  We didn't see any sign of a fireplace, which we thought was odd.  They had a cemetery for the Sprague Family in one corner of the property, and it was interesting to read the dates on the tombstones.  We got our Rhode Island souvenir for caching in that state and the first one we got there put us at 2400 caches that we have found.  I think we're addicted!  It does take us to some very interesting places, and we weren't let down today.

                                     This was the largest tombstone in the Sprague Cemetery. 

This is what is left of the foundation of one of the buildings on the Sprague Homestead.  We assumed it was the house.

This is an example of the stone fences that we saw on the property, and we see a lot of it throughout New England.  This is pretty crude, where a lot of them are precisely positioned and are quite attractive.

Saturday, August 29, 2015
Our first full day in northeastern Connecticut, and we found a bike path about 40 minutes away from us, west of Willimantic, CT.  It was wonderful and groomed very nicely.  We have only been on one better and that was in Illinois with our friends.  We met so many friendly people along the path today, and they were either walking, running, biking and we even saw two horseback riders.  We met one lady that used to live in Madison (Fitchburg), so she knew Waunakee very well.  Small world!  We found 20 caches today and they were all pretty easy, but we had one DNF.  It's humbling when you can't find one!  We just figure they do things differently out here, but it was rated a # 5 for difficulty, the highest degree of toughness to find.  From there we went to Coventry, and toured the Nathan Hale Family Homestead.  It was well preserved, and very interesting.  Nathan Hale was a school teacher, turned soldier and when Pres. Washington called for volunteers to spy on the British, he stepped up to the cause.  He was only 21 years old, when he went off to New York City, and as it was told to us, he wasn't a good spy.  He was found out the first night, and was hung the next day.  We had a well rounded day today, and we look forward to tomorrow.

We biked on the Hop River Bike Trail, which is part of the East Coast Green Way Trail.  It will eventually go from Maine to Florida.  There are a lot of bike trails out here and this was a beauty.

  This is the Nathan Hale Family Homestead.  It's common to see the stone fences around the properties.

This statue of Nathan Hale stands in the Veteran's Memorial Park in Coventry, CT.  As you all remember, he is well known for his famous quote, before he was hanged.  'My only regret I have, but one life to lose for my country.'

Friday, August 28, 2015
We left Jamaica, VT this morning and drove south to our new site for the next six days.  It was a beautiful day again, and we're seeing the trees making slight changes in color, so fall is on its way.  The Sumac are showing a light orange shade, and they are usually the first to show signs of Autumn.  As we drove south of Brattleboro, I SAW A MOOSE! Yes, it was just down the embankment in a swampy area, not far off the road.  We went by it too quickly to get a picture, but I'm satisfied now, that I got to see one here.  This area is just across the Connecticut River from where we biked two days ago, so we could have seen a moose there, too.  We were in the valley today, and seeing a lot of farming.  We wondered where they were, as they are in competition with WI and their cheese production.  We stopped at "The Farm" yesterday and bought a small piece of Gouda, that they make there.  It weighed 0.53 pound and cost $9.01!  Yikes, it was $18.00 a pound!  Wisconsin cheese is a bargain, and we like it better. Once we got on the I-90 toll way heading toward Boston, the traffic got very heavy.  They were 3 abreast coming out of Boston.  We are going to check into a charter going into Boston when we are either in this area, or after we leave here, we may do a day trip into that city.  We have a lot to check out here and several nice bikes trails (rails to trails) with geo-caches again.  They are old railroad beds, turned bike/hike paths and many times they are along rivers.
 

I had to take a picture of Jim crossing the bridge in our last park.  It was a tight squeeze, but he did great!

This is our new place of residence for six days.  It's the West Lake Thompson Corps of Engineer Park and only has 11 premier sites (water and electric), 11 regular sites (suitable for RV's but it's dry camping, so no water and electric), and 2 Adirondack sites, that is a shelter for tent sites.  How did we ever get so lucky to get a spot in here?  We booked ahead, I guess that's why.  They have several hiking trails within this park, so we'll, for sure check that out.  We also have tv by antenna!  And our WIFI works!  That's a big step up from our last place.  Jim was going to put the satellite dish up here, but it's very wooded yet, so as long as we can get the evening news, we're happy.  I have a feeling, that we are going to be so busy that we won't have time to watch tv.   We are in the northeastern corner of CT, and border Rhode Island and Massachusetts.  We're not far from the ocean again, so we have many options for entertainment! 

Thursday, August 27, 2015

We said good-bye to our new friends that were parked next to us this week, and then we went to Chester, VT.  It's an old Victorian village and the homes there were well preserved and beautiful.  We did a little geo-caching, but mainly checked out the town.  We leave tomorrow for Connecticut and will stay at another corps of engineer park.  We look forward to moving, and feel we had a great stay here.  We noticed the trees are telling us that fall is coming, and to our surprise, a local told us that their busy season here is skiing season!  Summer is short here, and they all hope for a long Autumn.  Winter is also LONG!  We didn't see any moose here, so I guess we won't. 

This is Don and Rosie Jorgenson, whom we met this week, as they were parked next to us.  They were great neighbors and we know they will be making a visit to Wisconsin sometime to stay with us. 

This is an old grist mill that we noticed alongside the road.  It has a barn quilt on the side, so of course that caught my eye!

We arrived at the old depot in Chester to find a geo-cache on an old railroad car.  They are always so hard to find, as there are so many cubby holes.  We had the help of a fellow, that was working on some picnic tables for the upcoming railroad scenic train rides in the fall, leaving from Chester.  We had a good chat with him.  This is a well preserved depot.

We saw this 'continuous homestead' in Chester, where the farm buildings were connected to the house.  This house happened to be very Victorian, and that surprised us a bit. 

Wednesday, August 26, 2015
We had a nice, sunny afternoon yesterday after the rains that we had in the morning, but it was too wet to do anything.  We invited our neighbors over as they just started their life on the road as 'full-timers'.  I guess they wanted to pick our brain.  They are from CT, and we seemed to click it off right away.  This morning, we struck off for Brattleboro, VT, crossed the Connecticut River into New Hampshire and found the rails to trails bike and hiking path over there.  We unloaded our bikes and started out on a somewhat gnarly trail.  The weeds were very overgrown and we wondered if this was a good idea, but we did it anyway.  We also loaded a lot of geo-caches on this trail and there is nothing better than biking and caching.  We were out there all alone, and the trail followed the river all the way down.  The trail got better after we had finished the upper part to the old railroad bridge, so we were much happier about it. We looked for 26 caches and found 26, so we had a good average for today.  It was getting late and we had only done half of the trail, but we knew we couldn't do it all today, so we headed back to the truck.  We got some good, fresh air and exercise. I can't seem to upload any pictures tonight, due to the lack of good internet service, so I'll do that some other time.

This shows the gnarly bike (rails to trails) path that we did in New Hampshire.  This wasn't even the worst of it!  We were happy to see the majority of it was fairly well maintained, but it is the worst bike path we have been on.  We were alone, and along the river, so it was nice, in that respect.

We biked up to the old railroad bridge and isn't it a beauty?  A geo-cache was hidden on the track, but not on the bridge.  These are the fun ones to find.

We biked the rails to trails path along the Connecticut River, which runs the whole length between New Hampshire and Vermont.  These sort of things are more pleasing to us than any busy city!

Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Happy birthday to our grandson, Sam!  
We had a great day yesterday, by traveling north on the Scenic Byway 100 to Calvin Coolidge's boyhood home and the Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth Notch.  This was so interesting that we spent 5 hours there!  It is classified as the most complete and original of all presidential childhood homes.  I don't know that much about Pres. Coolidge, but when we have better internet, I'll do more reading about him. He was a humble, but intelligent person, and a very hard worker.  He was much influenced by his father, who taught him to be self-reliant and he told his son, to 'make do, or do without'.  His mother passed away when he was 12 years old.  He was active in government in Massachusetts and was later pegged to be Pres. Harding's Vice President.  It was August 3, 1923, that word arrived in Plymouth Notch that Pres. Harding had passed away suddenly, and at 2:47 a.m., the elder Coolidge administered the presidential oath to his son.  Some years later, an inquisitive visitor asked Colonel Coolidge how he knew that he could perform such an act, and he replied with, 'I didn't know that I couldn't'!  He was a notary public and felt obligated to install the new president immediately.

This is the house where Calvin Coolidge was born, and it was attached to the general store, that his father owned and operated. He was born on July 4, 1872, and they lived here until 1875, when they moved across the street to what is now called the Coolidge Homestead.

The Coolidge Homestead was built in the typical New England architecture, whereas the house and farm buildings were all attached.  The Coolidge's kept their horses and pigs in the barn portion, the hay and seeds were stored in the loft, and the warmth from the animals helped to heat the buildings.

In the wintertime, they put their wagons away, and would pack the snow down with a huge roller type machinery, and they would use sleighs for traversing about on the thickly packed roads.

This is a photo that I took of a photo.  When Pres. Coolidge spent the summer of 1924 in Vermont, he used Coolidge Hall for his Summer White House Retreat.  This large vaulted room was above the general store that was owned by his father.  Otherwise this room was used for weekly dances and family reunions.  The hall has its original furnishings including tables made especially for the President and the instruments of the 'Plymouth Old-Time Dance Orchestra'.  We learned on this tour that President Coolidge positioned his Summer White House in Wisconsin in 1928 on the Brule River in northern Wisconsin. He wanted some place where he could spend some leisure time fishing.  You can bet that we will see if that lodge/resort is still in operation and make a visit!

This is the Summer White House in Plymouth Notch above the general store.  It is very much the same today as it was in 1924.

President Coolidge died suddenly on January 5, 1933 and was buried in the Plymouth Cemetery.  The serenity of the village and surrounding mountains is appropriately reflected in the simple granite headstone that marks the President's grave.  His is the second one from the right. Visitors are surprised that a president should be buried in such plain surroundings, but when Coolidge left the White House, he said, "We draw our Presidents from the people.....I came from them.  I wish to be one of them again."

We were so impressed with how complete the furnishing, clothing, and the buildings were. They have a new visitor center that plays a video of his life and has the First Lady's clothing on exhibit.  They even had a 'Tumbling Blocks' quilt that Calvin Coolidge hand pieced by himself when we was 10 years old.  It was still on his bed. I took a picture of it, but it was through a plexiglass and it didn't turn out.  This was a day well spent.

Monday, August 24, 2015
I'm up early this morning, and thought I'd try the internet, and it seems to be working, but it's very slow.  Maybe I can crank something out on the blog, anyway, to update you a bit.  We have been going to the campground office for our hotspot, for the internet, so we can send and receive e-mails.  Our phones don't work here and we had to go 10 miles to find service for that.  We can get a call in but we get cut off most of the time.  We don't mind being in such a secluded area, as it has given us time to relax a bit.  We did take the bikes on the rails to trails path out of our campground yesterday and it is about 5.5 miles along the river, so it was very pleasant.  We will try to do that every day for some exercise, unless we strike off some place.  There isn't much here for sight-seeing, as southern VT is very rural and you can't travel too fast on their roads, as they are crooked and hilly.  We had quite the experience getting into our park.  When we checked in, she asked how heavy we are, and Jim told her that we are heavy, as we're full-timers, and then she asked how good of a driver he is.  She instructed us to go with our truck to check out our site and see if we can safely make it over the bridge!  When we came back and told her that we were leery about our weight, then she said, 'we have had bigger rigs back there than yours'.  So, with that vote of confidence, we came across.  I'll post a picture later of Jim driving back over, as I didn't think of it when we went in.  They have electric and water on the other side of the river, and if we had stayed on the office side, we would be dry camping.  Our sites are very large here, and it's a well maintained park, which is typical of any corps park that we have stayed in.  It looks like rain tomorrow, so we'll venture out today and see what we can find, or we'll go to Brattleboro and ride the bike path.  Jim can ride the bike fine, but his back is still bothering him, so there's no strenuous hiking that we are doing.  There is a lot of hiking in NH and VT.  The parking lot trail heads are always full.

Saturday, August 22, 2015
We arrived at our corps of engineer park yesterday and we're in the Green Mts. National Forest.  We have no internet or phone service, so my blogs will be short for a week, unless we can figure something else out.  It's beautiful here, the moose population is supposed to be heavy here, but it's very rural and very laid back!  Maybe we need that.  Jim did see a mom moose and her calf coming from New Hampshire yesterday, but I had my nose in some brochures we picked up at the visitor center and I missed them.  It was a beautiful drive, all in the mountains, and we did run into a rain storm, but it cleared by the time we got here.  All looks good for a few days.  We did find a bike path (rails to trails) in Brattleboro, actually, it's across the Connecticut River that divides the two states, so we might do that one day.  The back has to still come around a bit.  We're doing fine, and glad to be situated here for a while, at a slower pace.

Thursday, August 20, 2015
We are so glad we switched our days to do things, as today involved a little hiking and we appreciated the lower temps.  We did an easy rails to trails hike in Lincoln Woods, and it was along the river, so it was beautiful.  From there we went north of North Woodstock to Franconia Notch and hiked The Flume.  It is definitely a highly marketed scenic thing to do, and it cost us $16.00 each.  We didn't think it was any nicer than Watkin's Glen in NY, that we had done earlier for free!  We are still glad we did it, and we also got a few caches on our two hikes. We met a lot of very friendly people along The Flume Trail. We leave for Vermont tomorrow morning, and we are ready to go. We've exhausted all that we care to do here, and we did fall in love with New Hampshire!  The White Mountains are just wonderful. I can't imagine how gorgeous it is here when the trees turn color.

The suspension bridge over a very rocky river to get us to the Lincoln Woods Trail.  It definitely had a sway.

This sign explains what the Flume is better than I can.  It was another gorge and hiking trail that we enjoyed.

                                                     One part of the high falls at the Flume. 

We watched the video at the visitor center and they had a segment on the Man on the Mountain.  It was glacier rock that formed the face of an old man, and had great prominence in the state.  They even had a postage stamp with the Man on the Mountain. The 'structure' was 40 feet tall and 25 feet wide.  In 2003, the rock fell away from erosion and it no longer looks like a man's face.  People were so saddened by losing this old man, and many got sentimental about it.  I'm amazed that my picture turned out so well, as I took it from the video.

I hope you can read this plaque okay, but we thought it was interesting in that they were the first people to ever admit that they had an encounter with aliens.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015
It pays to be flexible in this lifestyle!  With a 'still somewhat sore back' and the temps being near 90 today, we opted to drive north to Mt. Washington area.  They say it never gets over 72 degrees there, so it was a no brainer on what to do today.  The cold front is supposed to come through tonight, so we'll do our hiking tomorrow.  We decided to take our chances on going to Bretton Woods, and then drive 6 miles to the Cog Wheel Train Station.  Rather than driving up 6, 288 feet, we decided it would be fun to take the cog wheel train.  We had taken one in Switzerland in 1985 to Rigi Kulm and it was wonderful. They had plenty of openings for riding the train today, and this didn't disappoint us, either. We found out that the one to Mt. Washington was the first ever invented in the world, and it made its first trip in 1869.  We arrived at the top, and had an hour to walk around and see all there was there to see.  We boarded our train back down and felt we did the right thing today.  From there, we went to the Mount Washington Hotel and Resort.  Guess what?  A geo-cache took us there!  We had to find the Gold Room and get some information there on a cache, but to also walk the veranda and take pictures of Mt. Washington.  It did remind us of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. We found the cache, and headed back to N. Conway.  The drive was beautiful and we could really feel how straight up the mountains were here.  We traversed this little path of a highway between the mountains, and they hovered above us for most of the way.  The roads were in excellent condition, and we are glad to know that, as we will be leaving with the motor home this way.  We stopped at Delaney's for a sandwich on our way back to the campground, and it reminded us of the Delaney's in Madison, WI.  We made good choices today.

This is the cog wheel train that we took to the summit today.  In the first 40 years of service, they were wood-fired boilers, and in 1910 coal was introduced, and in 2008, they started using the biodiesel locomotives.  They still run a coal fired steam engine once a day, for nostalgic reasons. 

We passed the water tank, about halfway up the mountain, that is used to fill the steam engine boiler.

This is a view of the tracks going up Mt. Washington.  It took us close to an hour to make the trip one way, and it's only 3.5 miles. It is one of the steepest tracks in the world, climbing a 37% grade at some points.

The Eagles have landed again!  We are atop Mt. Washington, which is the highest peak in the northeastern United States.  It has the reputation of having the worst weather of any mountain in the world.  They have a weather station on top, and it clocked a wind velocity of 230 mph in April of 1934.

We stopped at the Mount Washington Hotel and Resort after our trip up the mountain, and it is a magnificent building!  We walked through the lobby to the back veranda to see Mount Washington from there.  What a regal setting!  The building is of Spanish Renaissance style, and was built by 250 skilled craftsmen from Italy.  It opened in 1902, and entertained distinguished guests, including Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison, Babe Ruth and three presidents.....and us!  It was a banner day!

Tuesday, August 18, 2015
We had unfinished business today, so we headed west on 'The Kanc' again this morning.  We had some geo-caches and sites to see on this scenic byway, which took us to Lincoln and North Woodstock, NH.  These two towns run together and seem like one, and are situated in a very big ski area.  It has Mega huge hotels with the names of Nordic, Alpine, and they are building more!  This is prime skiing area in the winter time.  We had our heart set on having dinner at the Woodstock Inn in N. Woodstock, as it is also a craft brewery. Another goal of ours today, was to get a Puzzle Geo-cache to fulfill our requirements, for the 15 Souvenir Geo-caching Mission.  We started at the Soldier's Park in N. Woodstock to gather our information and figure out the co-ordinates to take us to the final.  We found the final, so now that pressure is off of us!  The Soldier's Park is a memorial honoring all service people, and especially honors those who gave the most....their lives.  It reminds us to be grateful for living in this country, and those we need to thank for keeping us safe and free. We are glad we solved this particular puzzle, as it has many meanings for us.  For our dinner, we asked to eat on the patio at the Woodstock Inn, because it was loaded with flowers!  In fact, it took me quite a while to just get inside the inn, as it was fully landscaped with so many flowers all over.  I don't know how they can grow them so huge and beautiful in such a short growing season. 

This is the gazebo in the center of Soldier's Park, and the etched monuments are all around the park.  They are designated for each war. 

Isn't this an inviting place for dinner?  The entire patio was covered with flowers.  The food and beer was good, also!

These are the flowers leading up to the entrance of the Woodstock Inn and our dining table was just on this side of the picket fence. 

              Even this bumble bee wanted to dine at the Woodstock Inn on this fancy Giant Dahlia.

Oh, so many flowers....I just had to do one more!  These flowers are for all my friends who love flowers, or whom I know have their own beautiful flower gardens!

Monday, August 17, 2015
We're getting back on track, as Jim is feeling much better, but not 100% yet.  Today was a very enjoyable day, as we traveled on the Kancamagus Highway.  The locals call it the Kanc Highway, for logical reasons. The Kanc was dedicated as the first of the National Scenic Byways in the northeastern United States.  It offers many recreational opportunities, as well as cultural and historic venues. There are a lot of geo-caches on this stretch of highway between Conway, and Lincoln, so of course, we did some of that today, also.  You probably think that's all we do, is geo-cache. We found some very interesting sites today, and even another covered bridge that was a total surprise.  We wouldn't have seen it, if it weren't for the geo-caching.  We found 19 traditional caches and 2 earthcaches, and we have about that many to do tomorrow.  We only made it half way across The Kanc today, so we'll do the rest tomorrow, and end up in North Woodstock for late afternoon lunch, or early dinner. It is only about 34 miles from Conway to Lincoln, but all of these side attractions take time!  We are enjoying the journey.  The highlights of today were, the Albany Covered Bridge, we toured the Russell Colbath House and homestead, that was built in the early 1800's, we hiked to the Rocky Gorge Scenic Area and, also did a hike to the Sabbaday Falls.  I guess I can say that the "gorges are gorgeous". 

This is the Albany Covered Bridge and we actually drove our truck through this bridge.  Many of them aren't stable enough for vehicles, but this one is pretty solid.  It was built in 1858.

            This is the Rocky Gorge Scenic Area.  Pictures don't do justice to how beautiful this was.

This is the Sabbaday Falls, and a lot of water was rushing over the rocks, and through the gorge below.  They had stairs and a walkway by the falls, so people could get good views of them. 

This is the kitchen in the Russell Colbath home site.  A lot of furnishings were original and some pieces were from local people. It was actually, a very nice house for the early 1800's.

Sunday, August 16, 2015
We had quite the downpour yesterday, so not much to write about, and it didn't hurt to get another lazy day under our belt.  Jim's back is still on the 'fritz' but we're making progress.  We decided to take a short hike today, and do a little geo-caching along the trail, and we found a couple of pretty difficult caches.  We took the bypass road around N. Conway to the west and found out that it's very busy along the Saco River, also.  There are so many people all along the river, mostly tubing.  Our campground slimmed down today, so we think it's a sign that the kids will be returning to school out here soon.  We did find a couple of covered bridges, and they are so nostalgic.  They were in very good shape for their age. One even housed a gift shop, which was quite nice.  We found a flag for our motor home, when we aren't flying the Wisconsin Badger or Green Bay Packer flags.  It's a 'landing eagle'.  We ended up at the Moat Mountain Smoke House and Brewing Co. for a sandwich and a beer.  I'm hooked on the wheat beer out here, and Jim likes the brown ale, and we both thought the beer of our choice was good.  The food was very good,  so no cooking at home tonight.  We are to have a nice day again tomorrow, but the rain will move in again on Tuesday.

This is one of many signs we saw along the road, as we traveled through Maine and New Hampshire. Some signs even said, 'watch for moose on the road'! 

                   This is the Swift River Covered Bridge west of N. Conway.  It was built in 1869.

The Bartlett Covered Bridge was built in 1851, although the town of Bartlett was incorporated in 1790.  It made a very quaint gift shop, and didn't deter from the authenticity of the bridge.  It also had a geo-cache hidden on it some place. 

     A geo-cache brought us to this very scenic overlook of the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

This was a different way to inform customers,coming to the Moat Mt. Smoke House and Brewing Co. that they didn't allow smoking on the premises. 

Friday, August 14, 2015
We have another beautiful day in New Hampshire, before the rain hits this weekend.  We ventured out to the visitor center/chamber of commerce to get information on the things we like to do in this area.  Main Street is bumper to bumper and not our style at all, and we found a wonderful lady in the visitor center that showed us the bypass to get around all that traffic.  She was a godsend!  We also got maps of the scenic highway from Conway to Lincoln and we'll do that Monday.  It looks like rain this weekend, but they need it here, badly, and Jim can rest up his back.  We did a 3 mile easy hiking trail along the Saco River this afternoon, and found 5 caches along it, all of which were very difficult to find.  We ran into a woman, who lives nearby and she was quite interesting.  She came from Germany at the age of 19 and she seemed our age. She walks this trail every day, and sometimes twice a day.  In the winter, she snowshoes!  We introduced her to geo-caching and she was fascinated with it.  We also met a fellow geo-cacher before we started hiking the trail and she said she looked for the five caches on the trail and she didn't find any!  We felt pretty good that we did find all five and got our souvenir for New Hampshire.  Jim describes this campground as a beehive or an anthill.  Can you relate?  It is SO busy! We think things will slow down once the children go back to school, and it should also curtail all the traffic. We see the Midwest has heat and humidity, as does the southwest, and we are experiencing 77 degrees and not much humidity to speak of.  They do say it is going to get humid by next week.  The mountains are lovely here, and we can't wait to get out in them. 

Thursday, August 13, 2015
Wow, it's Thursday already!  We had a good R & R time in western Maine for three days, and it was beneficial for Jim.  His back still isn't good, but it's somewhat better.  It didn't bother him driving at all today, but once he got out to unhook, it reminded him that it is still there!  We are perched on the Saco River in N. Conway, NH and it's a busy campground.  I think it's the last hurrah for all the kids before they get ready for school.  Our campsite is just across the road from the walkway to the river, and we're seeing kids and adults coming up with water tubes, kayaks, and anything that floats.   We are in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and we'll have to scout out things to do here.  The weather is just gorgeous at 77 degrees and no humidity to speak of.  I keep forgetting to tell you what we're paying for diesel, and we filled this morning in Newport, ME and paid $2.49.9 a gallon!  That is the lowest we've paid, and we hear the gas prices in the Midwest just went up 50 cents, due to a refinery problem in Indiana. We should put our Packer flag out tonight, as they play the Patriots, and Jim has found them on a local station.  One vehicle stopped us before we got to our site and told us that they are Packer fans and 'maybe they need company watching the game'! They saw our WI license plate, and I'm sure we are a minority here.  We didn't see any moose while in the northern part of Maine, but we saw plenty of signs that indicated they are out there.  We look forward to our new territory to explore.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Jim's back is still not 100%, and it does look like rain coming in shortly, so we are laying low today.  It gives me a chance to clean house, which needs it!  If the rain moves out tomorrow morning, we might venture out a bit to check the area out, providing the back improves.  If not, the R & R is good for both of us.  We needed a breather, anyway, to get caught up on things, including our welfare.  There are no pictures to post, unless a moose comes strolling through our campground!  Wouldn't that be exciting?

Monday, August 10, 2015
We planned our exit from Bar Harbor/Acadia perfectly, as everyone seems to be coming in on Sunday!  We didn't go far today, as we are staying at a golf and campground 'complex', and it's very nice.  We had planned to bike the Rails to Trails path in Newport, not far from here, but Jim's back has a different plan!  He took a muscle relaxer, laid on the ice, and took it easy the rest of the day, and I caught up on our laundry, so the day was not lost.  It's important for my chauffeur to be in good shape when we leave on Thursday.  We're to get some rain coming in tomorrow and Wednesday, so we'll just relax after our very busy 10 days on Mount Desert Island.  If the back comes around by morning, we will look at the possibility of doing something. 

Sunday, August 9, 2015
This was our last full day in Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park, so we biked the Carriage Roads in Acadia NP.  They were built by the Rockefeller's to ride their horse-drawn carriages to Jordan's Pond for lunch or elsewhere on the island to enjoy the beauty here.  The parks service has maintained the Carriage Roads as they were when the Rockefeller's were here, so we had to experience that.  We rode our bikes around Eagle Lake, and it was a befitting thing to do on our last day here!  It was about 9 miles long around the lake and we had some elevation, but we also took the advice of a young family we met yesterday, to go clockwise!  We are glad we did.  We didn't have to push our bikes uphill at all, but if we had gone the other way, I'm sure we would have.  We had some elevation, but we managed it.  It was quite fun to do this 'with many other people out riding today', and to imagine what it was for the Rockefeller's in their day.  Later in the day, we decided to go out to Thunder Hole again, and see if it spewed more water prior to high tide.  We were amazed at the parents that let their children stand on the rocks and let the waves come in and hit them.  They don't realize what force that water has.  We did stop at a fresh seafood place and bought some seafood to take along with us.  We have room in our freezers, so we stocked up on some things.  We haven't been disappointed in our visit here on Mount Desert Island, and we have learned so much about the area, and have seen a beautiful part of our country!  We especially enjoyed our son and his family, when they joined us for part of our time here.  We move on to Palmyra, ME and relax!  We have three days there, before we hit the White Mountains in New Hampshire.  We will bike on a Rails to Trails in Newport, ME this week, and we'll be as far north in Maine as we will go on this trip, so we may see some moose.  We're ready for our next adventure!

This is Eagle Lake, and it furnishes the tap water for Bar Harbor.  It doesn't need to be filtered but it does have to be treated, as it's so pure.  You can kayak or canoe on the lake, but no swimming, or paddle boarding is allowed.  We noticed that they don't keep the sea gulls off of it, though!

Jim is waiting on the Rockefeller Carriage Road Trail, for me to take YET another photo.  The Carriage Roads are about 16' wide, so it can accommodate many bikers, or hikers.

One of many stone bridges that were built by the Rockefeller's, and this was at the end of our bike ride.

This picture was taken about 3 hours before high tide, and you can see the people standing out on the rocks.

Saturday, August 8, 2015
We needed to whittle our list down today, as to things we wanted to do, so we did a rocky hike on the shore, that took us to 'the ovens'.  They are caves that are made from the waves coming in and bashing against the rocks.  We found out about them through geo-caching.  What else?  We had to hike to them in low tide, as they are filled with water when the tide comes in. Then we went downtown Bar Harbor and walked around the old part of town, the wharf and the shopping area, and decided to eat at the Eagle's Nest, so we had yet another bowl of clam chowder!  It's a lovely place right on the water and the people were very friendly.  We had enough daylight yet, so we drove out to Sand Beach in Acadia National Park and did a hike up to the top of the cliffs, for yet, one more geo-cache.  We had to find a plaque and send in the name of the person on that plaque.  They stressed being careful up there, as this person was swept out to sea at the young age of 19.  Tragic. We have one more day here, and if the weather holds, we'll bike some of the carriage roads that were built by the Rockefeller's.

             We were entering an opening in the rocks, caused by the high tide, on our way to the ovens.

                                                   Jim inside one of the larger ovens.

                                            A very ornate gazebo in the park near the wharf.

                                        This is a typical home in the old district of Bar Harbor.