Bicycling on Acadia's Carriage Roads

Day 78 of Trip, Tuesday, August 26, 2014

We tried to get an early start this morning to beat the heat (ha! I bet you Texans are laughing at me calling 79 degrees "heat!" But we ended up lingering so we could say goodbye to some neighbors here in the campground, and help them with their trailer hitch problems. With our bikes loaded onto the truck, we headed for the Hull Harbor Visitor Center in Acadia National Park. Just as we were getting ready to start out on the carriage road, we met a group of three men who were just coming off it. They made us a little nervous with their stories of long, steep twisty hills "murder to bike up and terrifying to come down"). But we decided to go for it. We figured we'd just bike as far as we wanted to, and as long as we were having fun. We knew we could turn around anytime we wanted. So we asked one of the guys to take our "Before" picture, since it didn't sound like we would be alive "After."

This describes a bit about the Carriage Roads in the Park:

And here's the beginning of the road. It doesn't look so bad, does it?

And that's where the biking photos end. I didn't have a way to take my iPad with me on the bike and record all these terrifying hills. But actually, they weren't nearly as bad as we were led to believe. I had to walk my bike up one short section of a hill (Curt, of course, bicycled the whole thing!), and we found the downhills to be more exhilarating than terrifying. (Though I admit, I was squeezing my brakes pretty hard the whole way down!). All in all, we had so much fun that we plan to go again tomorrow! When we were younger, we used to bicycle a lot...including a 2-week bicycle/camping trip in Vancouver and Gulf Islands of Canada. Though we're not in the shape now that we were then (or, to be more precise, I'm not), bicycling still brings a lot of enjoyment and great memories.

But even though I couldn't photograph the bike ride, you will be delighted to know that I was able to photograph our next big event:

You guessed it...Lobster and clams for lunch! (Well, after all, biking makes you hungry, and this place just happened to be right at the turnoff into the campground. You wouldn't expect us to just drive by, would you?)

We met a couple from Ohio who were doing the same thing, so that kept us from feeling quite so decadent!

Joshua, the fisherman and chef, told us a lot about lobster that we didn't know, as he fixed our meal.

What a lunch after a hard morning of bicycling!

After lunch I noticed a loaded apple tree across the driveway from Joshua's lobster business and asked him if I could pick up a few apples off the ground. 

He was happy to share, so I brought back to camp enough to make a small pie. Tonight I made my first apple pie in an electric frying pan. Not bad at all!

The afternoon passed much like yesterday. Some power-lounging, swimming in the pool, and I started drawing in a nature journal that I bought yesterday. And we made reservations for the next leg of the trip.

One drawback to being on the road for so long is that you lose track of dates. Until this afternoon, Curt and I totally forgot that this weekend is Labor Day weekend. Since we're leaving day after tomorrow, we figured we'd better scramble! The first 12 campgrounds Curt tried, online and by phone, were totally booked. But #13 was lucky! They had room, but required us to stay 3 days. At that point, that wasn't a problem! We whipped out our credit card, snatched that campsite up quickly and breathed a sigh of relief.

So tomorrow is our last full day here, and then we'll start packing up to move on down the road. From here we'll head west into New Hampshire. Can't wait to see what adventures await us down the road!

Oh, speaking of traveling, I just remembered this. Last week when we were driving between Lubec and Bar Harbor, we came across this conglomeration of towers. It was on Rt. 191 between East Machias and Cutler, Maine. Does anybody have any idea what this might be? Some kind of secret National security site? Or just a bunch of cell towers in the same place? (By the way, this isn't all of the towers...the lens wasn't wide enough to take them all in).

Enjoying Bar Harbor, Maine

Days 76 and 77 of trip, Sunday and Monday, August 24 and 25, 2014

We've had beautiful weather for several weeks now. The days are in the mid 70's, and the nights are cool. We just love being in the north in the summer. It's been 6 years since we had this experience (since we moved from Idaho to Texas in 2008), so this has been just delightful for us!

Yesterday, Sunday, started with a worship service right here in the campground. The current owners of Hadley Point Campground are the 3rd generation of owners here, and they've always had a family tradition of offering a Christian worship service on Sundays. Apparently the first owner, the grandfather of Allison, the current owner, led the service himself for many years. Now that he has retired, the Associate Pastor and the Worship Leader from the nearby Calvary Chapel come out to the campground on Sundays for the service. And that's what we were treated to yesterday.

A small group of campers gathered (about 12-15 of us). On the right is Ross, the Associate Pastor, and his wife. Below is John, the worship leader and his "helper", daughter Natalie. It blessed me to see Natalie singing along with every song her dad led. 

We really enjoyed John's worship music, and then Ross delivered a wonderful sermon. He gave us so much to think about that we found ourselves discussing it on and off throughout the day.

In the afternoon we returned to the shuttles to take us back into Bar Harbor for lunch and a little more browsing around. This time I was able to catch a photo of one of the shuttles pulling a trailer designed especially to shuttle bicyclists around. This really is an amazing public service they have here!

Here's another one loaded with bikes, ready to be removed:

Another lovely place that we didn't see on our previous trip to Bar Harbor:

Today, Monday, we got in our truck for the first time in 4 days! We headed into Acadia Park...

....and up Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the east coast. This is the first place that the sun hits in the U.S. every morning. (We weren't up there quite that early!) The views are spectacular here when things aren't fogged in, and we hit it on a beautiful, almost totally clear day.

Some of the islands in Acadia National Park:

Down on the coast there you can see the town of Bar Harbor. If you look closely, you can even see some of the boats in the water that I photographed on Friday.

We hiked around and found the benchmark that the US Geological Service places on significant mountain peaks throughout the country. Here it is imbedded into the pink granite of the mountain:

And on that benchmark we made a new friend, Steve Huson from Chicago:

Steve and Curt are standing on the VERY highest point on the East Coast.

We also met another great family that we enjoyed visiting with: Zaire, Mustafa, and Karen from Philadelphia.

They kindly took a photo of us as well:

 

One last look at an amazing view.

We spent a fair amount of time at the Acadia Visitors Center, getting information for tomorrow's adventure. There are many carriage roads throughout the Park, which were built and later donated to the park by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. So armed with our maps of the Carriage Roads, we plan to take our bicycles out tomorrow and join the other adventurers out there. 

Love these birch trees that we find all over the Northeast:

After returning to camp from our Cadillac Mountain expedition today, we spent the afternoon in the pool. Ahhhhh, how refreshing! Early to bed tonight, so we can get our bicycling in before it gets too hot. Good night, all!

Northeast Harbor, Maine...and back to the Popovers!

Day 75 of Trip, Saturday, 8-23-14

We got a late start on our adventuring this morning. It was nice just hanging around camp a bit and cooking a late breakfast. By the time we caught the shuttle out of the campground, it was just after noon. It was a beautiful morning, sunny, cool and breezy, and there's just a tiny hint if fall in the air. 

We rode the shuttle into Bar Harbor and got there just in time to catch another shuttle out to Northeast Harbor. This town had a totally different feel than Bar Harbor. Much smaller, far less crowded, but still very picturesque...and still in a much higher socioeconomic strata than many of the little fishing villages we've frequented lately. Instead of docks full of fishing boats, as we headed down the road to the harbor, we found these beauties:

We enjoyed walking along the little Main Street, with various interesting shops.

Then back to the shuttle to take us, once again, to Jordan Pond. These shuttles are amazing. They're sponsored by LL Bean to reduce congestion in this beautiful part of the country. They pretty well run every half hour in the most popular areas, and they'll pick you up or drop you off anywhere along the way, not just at the scheduled stops. Each bus has bicycle racks on the front, so you can put your bike there, and get off and ride anytime you want, then pick up the next shuttle that comes along, and load your bike back onto that one. What a boon for travelers and residents alike...and it's all free! They even provide transportation to and from the airport. I'd love to see this arrangement in more towns!

We had to try Jordan Pond again, since the shuttle was going right by there. This time we had a meal, rather than just chowing down on their famous popovers...though I must admit, we did have a popover for dessert! Here's the beautiful chicken salad I ordered:

And this poster explains the popover story. 

For those of you in our family, or for friends who have been to our house for breakfast and had our family favorite breakfast of "Dutch Babies," a popover is just a baby Dutch Baby!

I also got to take a few more shots of the lovely flowers and foliage at Jordan Pond:

We had a long shuttle ride back to the campground, with several transfers. You have to take the bad with the good...although the shuttles are a great way to avoid driving and parking in lots of traffic, sometimes it's a pretty convoluted route to get where you're going. I realized that today, in order to spend 2 1/2 hours seeing the sights, we spent 4 hours either riding or waiting for shuttles. But still...it's a great service!

Tonight we spent some time making plans for where we go from here. We spread out the maps and calendars, spent some time on the Internet, and generally tried to figure out what comes next. We don't have it all determined yet, but we're making progress!

Tomorrow the campground we're staying in, Hadley Point, is holding a worship service right here on the big lawn in front of our camper. We haven't been in a place that has offered that before, so we're really looking forward to that!

Goodbye, Lubec, Hello, Bar Harbor and Acadia!

Days 70-74 of Trip, Monday-Friday, August 18-22, 2014

We have finally dragged ourselves away from Lubec. We felt that if we stayed any longer, we might as well buy a little cottage and live there for the rest of the summer. Actually, we really did consider that, and we even looked at a few cottages. But in the end we reminded ourselves that this year was intended to be our big adventure, to see some places we'd never seen. So we figured we'd better move along and see them!

The last few days in Lubec we did some of our favorite activities over again, and we just enjoyed some relaxing time as well. The campground where we stayed had a wonderful view of Johnson Bay, just inside the Bay of Fundy, and we just couldn't get enough of it!

I didn't want to snap the beans inside, even though the wind was whistling by...the view was just too beautiful!

While we were camped there, on two different days we met two really delightful and unique single women, each of whom were traveling alone. I think that takes a really special spirit of adventure.

LeAnn hailed from Valdosta, Georgia originally (and we discovered that she knew someone who I also knew 45 years ago when I was a student  at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia!)

More recently, she and her physician husband took contract physician positions all over the world...Australia, New Zealand, Alaska, etc. When he died suddenly a few years ago, she decided that the adventure must go on. So she bought herself a small self-contained motor home, and she has criss-crossed the U.S. several times in the past few years.

The next day we met Pish when we asked her about the little Casita RV she was pulling with a truck almost identical to ours. She graciously gave us the full tour of her little home on wheels. This is the only home she has, and everything she owns is stowed in the truck or the trailer.

Pish is an avid dancer...she travels around and finds places to do contra dancing and English dancing. She's recently from Austin, Texas, but is greatly enjoying the freedom and adventure of life on the road with her three small dogs for company. I really admired both these women for their courage and free-spiritedness!

 

We attended our last concert of the SummerKeys series in Lubec. This one featured an amazing flautist accompanied by a wonderful pianist in the first half. After intermission we were treated to a duet of a Celtic harpist and a woman who played viola da gamba. I'd never seen one before. It had such a rich, mellow tone. The concert was beautiful! (Much better than this photo of it. When I was editing my pictures, I accidentally deleted the really good one, which left me with this clinker!) But I wanted you to see some of the viola da gamba. This one has 7 strings, is tuned somewhat like a guitar, held kind of like a cello, and bowed with an underhand grip. Very interesting instrument!

THE LAST LUBEC LOBSTER.

On our last night in Lubec, we had to close things out with one more lobster! Curt made arrangements with Michelle, who owns Becky's Seafood Stand (it's named after Michelle's dog Becky!) to have a fresh lobster from that day's catch. We ate it at the picnic table, overlooking the bay, with some of Michelle's incomparable onion rings (she slices the onion right there when you order...none of this frozen, pre-battered stuff for her!)

Here's the big guy on his way to the pot...

And here he is ready to be enjoyed!

This was a fun scene. As we left Becky's Seafood stand, we saw the waiting line for food to be prepared. I'd say they look fairly relaxed, wouldn't you?

Yesterday was "moving day." Once we got the camper all packed up, we headed to the local IGA grocery store for a block of ice for the cooler. (Lubec is the only place on this trip we've been able to find block ice. We're sure going to miss that!) and wonder of wonders, to Curt's absolute delight, his favorite lunch place, Down East Dogs, was open. At 10:00 in the morning! So...breakfast was served! I came along to take the photo, and once I saw Curt's hot dog smothered with sautéed onions and Texas chili,  I couldn't resist. I have to admit, it was delicious!

Jim and Eileen have become good friends (how could they not, when Curt frequented their stand almost every day that they were open??). As a going away gift, Eileen brought out a pop can "spinner" that Jim made. That thing can really twirl in the slightest breeze!

Today was our first full day in the Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park area of Maine. We're in a lovely campsite and have already met some interesting people. We'll be here for a week, so we're looking forward to making friends and enjoying their company. 

Since the traffic and parking can be pretty challenging in this area, there is a whole line of free shuttles to take people into Bar Harbor, into Acadia National Park, and even to,some of the farther-reaching areas like Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor. Curt is thrilled at not having to drive. He can sit and enjoy the scenery just as much as I can now! The shuttles run every half hour, so it's very convenient.

Today we headed into Bar Harbor. This is very different than the little fishing villages we've been visiting. A totally different economic situation here, which made for some lovely picturesque views:

Cute circle of girls enjoying one of the last summer days before school starts:

One wonderful thing about being here is that we're "connected" again. Our cell phones now work (hurrah!), after almost two months of not being able to use them! I was having trouble getting my cellular data to work on my iPad, so last night I found a wi-fi spot and googled to see if there was an Apple store in Bar Harbor. We were surprised and delighted to find one listed! So that was one of the first stops we planned to make today. While I got distracted by this sign (how can you lose with a combination like that?)...

...Curt went to the next block to find the Apple store. He looked and looked, and couldn't find anything that remotely resembled the sleek, sophisticated look of the Apple stores we've been in. Then he spotted the small hand-lettered sign on the side of the old wooden building at 64 Cottage Street: Apple Convenience Mart. We had a great laugh at that!

We did get help, however. We walked into Radio Shack across the street and explained our dilemma. Kendall, the nice young man behind the counter, was able to get things working again for me.

When I told him I was going to put him on the blog, he said, "Take a picture of my car outside. I'm trying to get lots of "likes" on Facebook." So, Kendall, here's to you. Thank you for your help today!

Back onto the shuttle, and into Acadia National Park. We saw some lovely scenery and sweeping ocean views. 

We enjoyed Thunder Hole, where the water rushes into a hole in the rocks and shoots out with an explosive, thunder-like sound:

As the wave is going in:

And now booming out:

And then our unexpected treat of the day: Curt's sister, Patty, told us that we really needed to go to Jordan Pond in Acadia and experience afternoon tea and popovers on the lawn overlooking the pond (which we thought was more like a large lake than a pond). We found that a shuttle would take us right there, so we hopped on.

What a fun experience! Here's a shot at Jordan Pond from above:

And the view from our table...

And the view AT our table...Yum! This outing definitely needs to be repeated!

Who knows what tomorrow will bring? We're in new territory now, so there must be new adventures around the bend. Meanwhile, we're back in cell phone range again, so feel free to call or email if you get a hankering to touch base!