Berlin Center, Ohio

On the road again...

As we left Steve's parents, it was a bit sobering to realize how many miles lie ahead!  We drove to Berlin Center, Ohio to stay at a COE park on Berlin Lake.  It's been a while since we stayed at a COE park, but I was reminded how nice they can be!  There's always more space between sites, and they usually have a playground.  This one was no exception....there were awesome playgrounds.  The only bummer was that we were only here one night, and we arrived about 30 minutes before a big storm with pea-sized hail hit, and the rain began again the next morning before we even left.

Jake wants his snacks in the bed of his truck.  Hubachers, does this truck look familiar??  Jake LOVES it!!

Seeing Steve's parents one more time before we head west

Even though we'd stayed with Steve's family for three weeks already before heading to Maine, he really wanted to come back through one more time and take his brother Jon to Philadelphia Eagles training camp. He convinced the big girls to go, too, and although I don't think they exactly enjoyed it, they did enjoy going out to lunch for pizza and getting to meet some of the players at the autograph session that they were randomly chosen for.

Shady McCoy looks bigger in person.

Brian Dawkins is my favorite player of Eagles past

The girls read the whole time.  We had to stand up to see well due to people standing at the fence in front of us.

There is QB Michael Vick waiting for the next drill.

WR Deshawn Jackson, one of their star players.

Jon and LB Demeco Ryans

The girls thought the autograph session was the best part.

Since Steve's dad has a dealer's licence, he also wanted to go with his dad to a car auction to see if he could get a second vehicle for us at a great price.  He did go, but auctions are crazy, and he ended up not coming home with anything.  And that was okay...one less vehicle to drive another couple thousand miles west.

Other than that, the kids watched the Olympics, and we gathered a few more books from the great library that Steve's mom has. ;)  I think they soaked up about as much grandkid time as they possibly could manage....probably a good thing since we're moving so far away.

Steve's mom treated us to lunch after church at Perkasie Pizza and Pasta!  Yummy!

Cheesesteaks are on the way!

I know I am biased, but I think that food in the Northeast is the best in the whole country.   I don't mean healthy, I mean best tasting!

The girls finally got their cheese steak!

Shanan saves her biggest smiles for cheesesteak.

After lunch, we saw this covered bridge, which was moved to this park in the 50s in one piece.  All the covered bridges we passed nearby in Vermont were damaged from Hurricane Irene.  

Our unintentional 7 state travel day

We left Bar Harbor, Maine and headed south.  After leaving Bar Harbor, Steve was looking for a convenient place to pull over for another lobster roll and maybe blueberry pie.  We did find a place for lobster and crab rolls (okay but not as good as the first one we had) and some super yummy haddock chowdah...and in the parking lot, Steve negotiated the terms of the offer for Salt Lake City and accepted!  Momentous day...now we know for sure our "final destination" for this adventure.  Somehow we missed getting a picture of the joint where all this went down.  We must be getting lax!

We continued south to Biddeford, Maine to overnight at a Walmart there.  By the way, this is a totally awesome Walmart to overnight at---sooo friendly to RVers that there was a picnic table on the outskirts of the parking lot, and we were told it was okay to stay a few days if needed.  Needless to say, we leveled and slid out here, definitely makes Walmart stays not just tolerable but comfortable!

We left Maine expecting to drive to Sturbridge, Massachussetts, stay at a Thousand Trails park there for a night or two, then drive the remainder of the way back to Pennsylvania to stay with Steve's family again.  It sounded like a reasonable option.  There were some warnings that it might not be a grand plan, however.  Margie McCloskey & Kimberly Travaglino did their best to dissuade Steve from staying there, but it was soooo conveniently located along our path, that he just didn't think it could be that bad.  They were right...he was wrong.  Sites packed in like sardines, crowded (only 4 sites open & 1 of those was handicapped and we weren't allowed to use it), smelly everywhere, and staff.that wasn't very helpful (tried to tell us to park next to the power poles which isn't an option considering our double slides in the back).  Sooo...we discussed what to do and decided to leave and press on.....

I don't think I was expecting him to drive the whole way to his parent's house...driving through 7 states...I was kind of thinking we'd overnight at a Walmart and then arrive in the morning, refreshed.  Hehe...not so much.  We skated in just before sunset, and Steve was exhausted from the drive.  He attempted to back the rig and get it parked, so we wouldn't block their driveway....but in the dark, all he managed to accomplish was being unable to move forwards...or backwards.  Quite a dilemma, really, and one that he's not been in before, thus far!  And somewhere in the middle of all that, his parents' power went out.  Sooo....we went to bed, and decided to worry about it in the morning.  Fortunately, in the light of day, we were able to see well enough to remove a few more items from in front of the truck, enough that he could unhitch, then change his approach and rehitch from a different angle.  Success!!!  Whew!!  That was a better option than having to work on stump removal. ;)  His parking woes weren't exactly over at this point, but he did eventually get the job done such that we could slide.  Sooo...success was achieved eventually. :)  Thank goodness not every parking job is so complicated!!

Good times hanging with other fulltime families in Maine

When we arrived, this floating dock was resting on the beach.  Of course, we stayed long enough for it to float!

We learned that other full-timers were still hanging out in Bar Harbor during the time we were there, so of course we had to get together and have some fun!  Kimberly Travaglino (Fulltime Families) is so awesome for reaching out to and connecting with other families.  She organized a beach day at Seal Beach, where we (Travaglinos, McCloskeys, Bradshaws) sat around, snacked, and visited while the kids swam and played.  Of course, Margie did her best to win Jake over, but even chips didn't bring her success. ;)

When we left the beach, we decided to go into Bar Harbor with Kimberly and Margie and crew for some yummy blueberry softserve.  Upon parking, Steve got a phone call from Salt Lake City with a job offer!  Big day...and a chance to share it with friends!  We ended up heading out for pizza and finishing up with CJ's blueberry softserve....wow, soooo good!

We discovered we were all still going to be in the area another night, so Kimberly invited us over for potluck...and kickball!  We had a crazy good time, and Kimberly's team (my team) won, of course, aided by all the little people. ;)

We had so much fun that we forgot to take pictures, except this one of Margie and Jake "bonding"

Knowing that a job offer is on the table made this time together especially bittersweet.  Although Steve hasn't accepted the offer yet, we know that our time on the road is truly coming to a close.  And...the community that has taken us most of our time on the road to have finally built is special, so it is sad to say good-bye to that.  Guess we'll have to lure some of them out to visit us. ;)

Hiking in Acadia - The Precipice Trail

Yes, this is the Precipice Trail, straight ahead.

(By Steve) Since we were at one of the best places for hiking in the Eastern US, I had to take a solo hiking day to tackle the difficult trails of Acadia.   The trail that we saw the ambulances at on the previous Saturday was  the Precipice Trail.   We found out that a 22 year old female college student had fallen 60 feet and died there that day.  From what we heard, she fell from the part of the trail before the ladders, which is just a series of switchbacks.  I found out most of this information after I had completed the trail, but I would have not been deterred as long as the trail was still open.

Looking down on the rock pile section of the trail.

I took the free shuttle from our campsite to the trail head.  It took about 30 minutes to get there, including a bus change.  The trail is only about a mile, but it is almost straight up.  It begins with climbing a giant rock pile.  I'm sure I'm not the only one to miss the path on the rocks; I had to backtrack a bit to find the way up.  

They don't call this a hiking trail; they label it a non-technical climb on the sign.

The path itself begins with switchbacks up the rock.  It even goes down and over some before heading back up again.   The switchbacks take you about halfway up the cliff.   At this point, there are a series of iron ladders that take you the rest of the way.  Although the iron ladders are not hard to climb, I can see that they could be very slippery when wet.   This part of the trail was really fun; it was like a playground for grown-ups.   

It's a jungle gym for grown ups.

At the top of the trail, there are a few options to get down.  Since I didn't have to worry about getting back to the truck, I chose to walk the trail along the top of the ridge heading south and then head down on the Beehive Trail.   From the top, the views were magnificent.   You can see Bar Harbor, Sand Beach, and all the way down to Otter Point.   The weather was absolutely perfect, and I took my time enjoying the view.   

The view looking South from 3/4 of the way up.

The view looking North from 3/4 of the way up.

The path down the Beehive Trail is also challenging, but relatively easy compared to the Precipice Trail.   The hike itself was awesome, the view was incredible, and the weather was magnificent!  I didn't particularly enjoy riding the free shuttle all the way around the island from the Sand Beach stop to the Visitor Center as it seemed to take forever, but it was nice to not have to worry about hiking out & back to get back my vehicle.  I convinced Linda to come rescue me from the Visitor Center, so we wouldn't miss the junior ranger program that the kids needed to attend to get their badges.   

These were the biggest ones I found while I hiked along the ridge.\

The trail goes past this peaceful lake.

This is the top of the Beehive trail, which is how I got down.

This cannot be over emphasized given what happened two days before the day I hiked it.

Acadia National Park

It was important to make it to Acadia before our annual National Park Pass expired at the end of the month. We chose Hadley's Point Campground, just 4 miles from the entrance, as our home base.  Not a great campground....we were parked in the middle of a field with water/electric hook-ups, but we did have great neighbors.  Of course, the backed up, flooded pay showers weren't impressive, but it turns out they were having septic issues.  The pool had a diving board and was "heated," according to the advertising, but it certainly wasn't heated according to Texas standards; in short, it was pretty darn icy!  Nonetheless, we still swam most days we were here, except the cold (60s), rainy day....but wouldn't you know, the pool was still plenty busy with other brave souls no matter how miserable the weather was!!  My only regret was not getting a picture of Genna jumping off the diving board.  She was so stinkin' cute up there, closing her eyes and jumping with reckless abandon, over and over and over again!!

Thunder Hole

We love amazing rocks!

Our first full day, we drove the loop road, stopping at Sand Beach (including dropping our new camera in the water--not naming any names!), Thunder Hole and hiking the Gorham Mountaiin Trail. Even though we weren't at Thunder Hole during its recommended peak viewing time, we still got a pretty nice show and heard plenty of "thunder."  The kids really enjoyed it.  We also really enjoyed the Gorham Mountain Trail, especially the blueberries along the trail!  We found a really loaded patch, so we all stopped to pick and eat.  Jake was adorable.  He has an extreme fondness for most berries, and these were no exception.  He got right into the thick of the bushes, searching for and picking his own berries!

Blueberries!

Even Jake got into the act.

View of Otter Point to the South

View of Sand Beach to the North

On our second full day, we were a little bummed that the weather was so cold and rainy, but we got out anyway!  Our stop at Cadillac Mountain was altogether unimpressive, except in cold, blusteriness, due to the lack of view from the rain.  Afterwards, we decided to check out the walk around Jordan Pond.  It was still raining, but everyone put on raincoats and off we went.  Steve had told everyone to wear flipflops since it was going to be wet and rainy and we wouldn't be hiking, so we were not necessarily wearing great footwear.  Even if we had worn tennis shoes, they would have been completely drenched as there were large puddles covering the trail.  After a time, Genna started to get blisters from the shoes she'd opted to wear, so I decided to let her go barefoot.  Initially appalled, Steve acquiesced, and everyone except him traversed the remainder of the trail barefoot.  Everyone's moods improved because they were delighted to be doing something that is normally taboo.  The first section of the trail was pretty easy, followed by lots of rocks to traverse over, followed by endless wooden boardwalks that were quite slick with the rain and even rotten in places.  All in all, we moved slow as turtles, and our rain jackets were supersaturated by the end, but we made some awesome memories on this trail!  And Genna walked the whole way minus about 10 minutes at the end.  Not too bad!

Lots of fun to be had lounging on the rocks

Who knew a puddle could be so fun.

More amazing rocks

Thanks Shanan for taking this great shot of us.

Otter Point with the tide coming in.

Beautiful Kids!

Getting the last Junior Badge on this trip from Ranger Emily.

Lobster in Maine

We forgot to take a photo so we stole this one from wikipedia.  Ours was even bigger that this one.

I'm not really sure why, but eating lobster in Maine was something on my bucket list.  I think I can blame Martha Stewart.  I remember looking through one of her Living magazines once upon a time, and there was a huge section on Maine, particularly Maine lobster.  It seemed like if I went to Maine, I should try it!  We heard there was a glut of lobster this year, so we were told it would be cheaper.  Not sure that I can say it was cheap, but then again, I can't say that I know what the regular going rate for lobster is.  Steve found a place to pull over along the road on the way to Bar Harbor and ordered a lobster roll for us all to share.  It was huge!  And...although it had to grow on me just a bit, it was really yummy!  Definitely tender and buttery, and the kids liked it, too.  Guess I can cross that off my bucket list.