2023 June, July - summer in Mid Atlantic, NorthEast, Acadia

 Visit to Tanya and Maria in DC area and installing the trailer roof rack to make it easier to load the kayaks. Still pretty high but it is very doable. Shout Out to my son Doug who recommended to use a ladder rack like commercial vans use, did the trick! Taking care of some maintenance on the house for I had not been here for several years and there were a few things waiting for me. :(

My brother's granddaughter got married!!!! They are in State College, PA a few hours away and Tanya and I went up for the weekend to visit them. Her husband Jake has enlisted into the US Air Force! Another family member fulfilling their duty to our country! We are very proud of both of them!

They were so considerate to show us around their home, their town (very proud of it they are) and there was even time to take a 2.5-mile hike in a nearby lake front, then later a few hours kayaking. This young couple have allot going for them and we look forward to more visits even when they get their permanent posting. 

One dinner we had, Jessica's sister and their grandmother joined us, wow, what a great time, if we could have stayed all night it would not have been enough time to chat about everything! Seems grandmother Jan raised the granddaughter's, and it is very obvious she did a great job.

Back home, I cleaned the kayaks up for they had not been used in quite a few years. And today went kayaking for 2 miles. Whoa, I am not in shape for this like I used to be! It is wonderful to be back on the water, I have always felt that anything to do with water is my happy place. I feel calm and relaxed, content to paddle along the shore and enjoy nature. Boy I am glad that I have access to the kayaks again.

A week of rain is upon us and I chose to travel the eastern shore of MD and Delaware to visit old friends who had retired and moved there. 

Jess and Lise were glad to see me and chat about their travels and mine. Tour of the home shows how they have had the time to fix up things that never got done when they were working. They are planning a camping trip to Florida but it will be too soon for me to join them.

Kris and Jim in DE have not been able to travel much for Kris Mom now lives with them. 101 years young, wow Mom is in such great shape physically and mentally! Eating, chatting and laughing we all had a good time.

Chris and Leslie in DE have finished setting up a new house. Last time I saw them they had just moved there and had just began to unpack. Damn it has been 4 years since I have been this way. Chris and I worked at the same hospital and had allot of catching up to do. 

Wow, those memories are precious, this is one of the reasons I had started journaling and later placed it on a blog. In the future I can look back and remember visiting all these friends and catching up.

4th of July weekend Tanya and I are going to Philadelphia to meet up with WINs RV group and see Philadelphia. WINs is Wandering Individuals Network, a travel club for solo RV'rs. We had met them 2 years ago when near Acadia, ME and they had so much fun. We thought now that Tanya cannot travel with me that this group would be allot of fun for me to travel with. It definitely is more fun to travel with others rather than solo. Sharing experiences with others makes it more enjoyable and memorable.

Friend Pat Rose joined us in Philly and it was a great reunion, we have met her each spring at the Rialta Rally in Florida and Alabama and kept in touch. 

Spending the weekend of 4 July in Philly seeing the historic places everyone goes to and attempted to go to the Chinese Festival but alas it was too late and traffic heavy for us this time.

OY, is what Tanya says quite often! The sign was actually on the other side for Rocky's "YO" but to us it means something different!

From left is Pat, Tom, Tanya.

The Northern Lights are supposed to show this week and I looked around for a location that would be a Dark Sky area, far enough north to possibly see them. I head out from Maryland headed for the Adirondacks Tuppen Lake Observatory. 

Passing through PA I am taking my time and enjoying the travel, weather is good too so 200 mile the first day was just right. The next day only made 125 miles for I came across a cool little museum in Homer, NY. This place is an absolute Gem! Several different types of displays all done with 1 permanent employee and many volunteers. 

A local man had allot of military equipment, clothes. A local lady had over 1000 old time cameras and set up a display. Farm tractors, trucks from Brockway that were manufactured in this town right next door - Cortland, NY it is no longer operating but quite a few of their trucks were manufactured. 

Wow, there was so much more to see and they change it up every year during the winter. Definitely a place to stop at when nearby!

Continuing my route, I arrive at Tuppen Lake Observatory and what a disappointment, or more accurately not what I expected. I had envisioned atop a mountain with no trees to block the view. This place had small seating area encircled by trees so you cannot see the horizon at all!

I tried to go to a Fire Tower, but they all said daytime use only and were quite a hike in. I don't relish trying to hike back out in the dark. 

Now I learned that NOAA has updated the prediction that the lower 48 would not see the Northern Lights this time around. So even though I tried hard to find a place to view NL it was not meant to be this time around. I will keep it in mind as I travel and perhaps be able to find a place in the North East US to view them someday.

Time to go to Maine and hang out before joining the WINs in the Canadian Maritimes. I plan on doing some fishing in Maine and have been researching places to go. Arriving in Augusta, ME expecting to get a free disabled veterans fishing license I learn what was not on the website that it is only for reciprocal states that list Maine as also reciprocal. Bummer, always looking for a deal I was a little disappointed. Purchased a fishing license anyway for I really do want to fish here!

Staying at a Lodge in Augusta for the weekend waiting for the rainstorms to pass through I visited Bath, ME to see the Maine Maritime Museum. 3 shipyards were located here constructing wooden ships during the days of sailing ships. they are now a museum and have many small boats, displays of construction of wooden ships, the largest is "Wyoming" 

A 3 stage steam engine was interesting.

A boat designed to move logs in the river 

Lobstering information 

Pound Lobster explained

Cooking lobster for canning

Moosehead Lake region for fishing was my goal this week. Unfortunately, every 2- or 3-days torrential rainstorms have saturated the northeast. All the lakes were full and rivers running very high. So much so that I did not feel safe to wade and creeks or rivers and fish. I had researched online some of the better rivers to fish and it is a disappointment not to be able to fish hardly any of the waters. Not really equipped to fish lakes and deeper water with flyfishing gear either.

One day while doing laundry I met a couple from South Carolina, we hit it off talking fishing and they gave me their address, later in the week I did stop by and chat with them, Dennis is a fly fisherman also and even shared spots to go and some fly's that work for this time of year. Alas my bad luck remained and no fish :(

Riding the motorcycle around the area searching for smaller waters that may not have been flooded out was unsuccessful as well. Interesting the gravel roads here are very well maintained. I can ride my street bike down these gravel roads quite well. It does take allot of attention to dodge rocks and potholes but very doable here. Definitely makes you much more tired than driving roadways. I drove most of a 20 mile gravel road to seek out streams that were not fed by lakes and hopefully were not flooded but they were flooded as well.

I spent most of a week camped lakeside with beautiful views, listening to the Loons sing out each night. Each day as I chat with Tanya I sit outside the RV looking around me and feeling so lucky to be able to live this lifestyle!  The last 2 days here at Moosehead Lake a group of early teenagers camped nearby, fortunately they were quite well behaved and were not up late talking.

I thought to go over to the coast for a while until time to meet the WIN's then after going to Canadian Maritimes I would try fishing again.

ACADIA National Park

This is not my first time here yet there is always enjoyable things to do here. 20 years ago, I was here with my Mom and we together hiked to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse a short hike but a rocky cliffside. Mom did great, so I this time I sent her a picture reminding her of our previous journey here.

I didn't know before that on the other side of the lighthouse is handicap access. 

Old 1850's homestead, granite mason made the cellar and foundation, wood lath for the walls. Tough life back then with very long winters.

Glad I did not check Alltrails for this hike until afterwards or I would not have gone. The view of the coastline was awesome! The 371 foot elevation gain in 1/2 mile kicked my butt! The other half of the trail was closed or it would have been 1.2 miles 351" elevation gain!

On the road coming into the island a store also had a car collection.

Maine Lobster Pound - many of these all around. 

Taking this afternoon off the shower, relax in the AC. More stories tomorrow :)

Rialta friend Pat showed up nearby and we connected. Toured Schoodic point.

We had Lobster Rolls here right off the boat!

Pat is getting her fix, Yummy!

I took a scooter ride to the aquarium near Bar Harbour. Rare Lobster - Tangerine, Blue lobster.

This Blue Lobster was quite skittish, I snuck up on him got this pic and he scooted back into his hole.

The other building in the aquarium had displays and the guide was the college professor that coached his students in how to preserve marine specimens.

Life Cycle of Lobsters, the pictures above are larvae floating in the water.

Shark jaw, notice the layers of teeth, when they lose one the next one moves up to replace it. Sure, wish my teeth did that!

A series of processes to color fish bones so that you can see or study fish skeletons.

I also learned how to position my bicycle onto the motorcycle so that I can go to other places and ride the bike. Acadia has allot of carriage trails - well groomed trails making it a pleasure to ride a bike.

While staying here at the lodge, I met a great couple from Florida who are also members of the WIN's and are going to Canadian Maritime too! We really hit it off, had dinner together, Karen made chicken pasta dish, I made crab dip. I will be keeping in touch with these friends for we really enjoy each others company.