Well, our week in Maine has finally come to an end. We were very fortunate to have warm breezes and no rain during our stay. We had both busy and relaxing days. Since we have enjoyed visiting Mount Desert Island many times before, we had the luxury of revisiting favorite places and choosing some new adventures to experience this trip. We have created many new memories, which is really special. In addition to this blog, Pamela is creating a digital photo book of our "80 Days Around the USA" RV trip, so we will remember all of our adventures.
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| Margaret Todd Coming Into Port |
During our last two days on the island, we did a bit more exploration of the "Quiet Side" in Southwest Harbor, and Bass Harbor. We also returned to Bar Harbor for two more awesome meals and in general enjoyed our l
ast days of summer. Here are some images from Wednesday & Thursday.
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| We Did Not Try the Lobster Ice Cream, But There Was Some! |
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Lobster English-Style Lunch at the Bar Harbor Inn
We enjoyed an amazing lunch on the waterfront watching the Margaret Todd arrive and the Crystal Harmony, a medium-sized cruise ship depart in late afternoon for points south. Pamela calls this an English style salad, due to the haricots (green beans), new red potatoes and marinated artichokes under the lobster and field greens. She remembers eating several variations of this in the U.K. The autumn season of New England cruising has begun and will last through mid-October. We hope to take one of these autumn color trips next fall from Montreal to Boston for our 35 anniversary.
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| Downtown Southwest Harbor |
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| Even the Quiet Side Has Culture--Good Food and Drink |
We picked up some wine and whiskey cheese for picnics down the road and left MDI on Thursday driving south to Old Orchard Beach, Maine. We have heard a lot about the history of this area, the seven miles of sandy beach and the historic pier. So, after setting up camp, we drove three miles into Old Orchard Beach and discovered that most of the pier area was dirty and run down. Almost everything was closed, from the Amusement Park to pier restaurants, probably because it was after Labor Day, but we did not see anything that encouraged us enough to consider returning.
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| Old Orchard Beach Pier |
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Seven Miles of Beach at Old Orchard
We returned to camp to enjoy leftovers in the RV, including last lobster meal for Neil and chowder for Pamela. Finished editing our photos from the wonderful week on the island before bed.
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| Campground at Old Orchard Beach, Maine |
We traveled just two hours into in Massachusetts (there is a good reason they call it Mass or MA, especially on road signs) near Concord and Lexington, more about that later. Along the way we came upon this road sign that we have never seen before.
A big thanks to Sandy Rust for the heads up about toll roads in the eastern USA. In the last two days we have spent almost forty dollars on freeway tolls, just to travel less than 300 miles!
Thanks for tuning in,
Neil and Pamela
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Inquiring minds want to know (minds that know nothing about toll roads). Why was it $40 for 300 miles. Is that the going rate? Higher charges for your motorhome and toad since they are long? You didn't know the secret roads? They have higher rates for Oregonians? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of states, including PA, NY, IL and others that have tolls on their interstates and turnpikes. They mostly charge by the axle, so we pay for the RV and Toad every time. We actually diverted our trip up into Canada to avoid the tolls in IL and NY. We went up to the Upper Peninsula of MI and into Ontario all the way to NH. That route did not have any tolls. Thanks for reading. /s/ Neil
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