Aug 25 2013

Day 26 – 2nd long day of driving

Ah another long day of driving, poor Jacob. I haven’t drove once this entire trip, I’ve got it so good! 😉
This morning we moved out of the Walmart parking lot and headed toward Four Mile Creek State Park, NY just down the road from Niagara Falls.
The drive was about 8 hrs. but it was nice and scenic. We discovered, in a book at Camping World, that we are actually traveling a portion of the Oregon Trail. Maybe we will be able to do the entire trail, it goes from east coast to west coast. In the book, we didn’t buy it, they map out the historical and best things to venture off the trail to see. It looked like fun to me.

We passed a few covered bridges. This one looks like the one in Beetle Juice, don’t say it 3 times!
While we were in Camping World we bought a book to tell us the roads that a passible with a camper. Nobody wants to drive up to a bridge like this and have to take a chance that you may or may not fit. We’ve already run into that problem once.

There were a few tolls plazas we had to pass through, gotta love New York…they really know how to “stick it to ya!”

When you get on a Through Way you collect one of these tickets and it tells you how much you will own at the various exits along the way.

HEY! That’s what our camper’s backside used to look like 😦 Maybe we should warn them of what could happen.

As soon as we get on the road, this is what Roux looks like until we stop. It’s like we drug him! It’s so funny that he can sleep the entire time.

This is a rest stop. I will give New York 2 thumbs up on this. These stops are amazing….Clean bathroom, multiple food options, gas/diesel, great big-rig parking, and free WiFi! You really can ask for anything more.

As we drove from Vermont we could tell the land was changing. The rock outcrops, visible rocks on the side of the road, changed metamorphic to sedimentary to eventually flat plains like the picture above.

Aug 25 2013

Day 25 – 1st long day of driving

We did not want to leave Acadia National Park, we both cried a little (on the inside). We woke up late and left around 10am for 6.5 hrs. of driving to a Walmart parking lot, in Montpellier VT, for the night.
It’s kind of hard to take pictures on the road. You have to be ready for a shot at all times because there are so many beautiful sites. You want to get a shot of everything but at the same time so many things happen to mess it up for you….dirty windows ( nasty dog nose juice, gross!), crazy driver, camera not on, lens cap still on, butterfingers (hasn’t been a problem with the window down, thank God!), not quick enough with my trigger finger, and, the most common one, I’m not paying attention.
Anyway, here are some that came out ok.

We used to have one of these in Metairie, a hurricane killed it last year.

A butt!

It wasn’t bad though, we were able to do groceries for the week and run the generator for shower, lights, and tv. It was nicer than the campground/parking lot we paid $80/night for in NJ because there was no fear of vandalism or loud partiers.
There were 3 other campers there too.
After we arrived and did the Wally World dance in the parking lot, we shopped for our essentials…bread, beer, milk, eggs, bacon, trail mix and windshield wipers (Dad, they like did nothing in the rain…are you trying to kill us?) This Walmart is actually inside of a mall. You know how malls have the big stores on the ends like Macy’s and Dillard’s well this mall had JCPenny’s on one end and Walmart on the other….hilarious, maybe that’s just me!

Tomorrow is another long day of driving, the longest of this entire trip. Yay 😦
Peace out!

Aug 25 2013

Day 24 – Acadia National Park

We have only one full day to explore as much as Acadia National as we can. Our plan is to start the day with a drive around the coast, hike the Acadia Mt. Trail, picnic at Echo Lake Beach, visit the towns of Northeast harbor and South Harbor, and finish the day at the summit of Cadillac Mt. for sunset. There are so many things to see and do on this island, Mount Desert Island, that you could spend at least 2 weeks here doing something new everyday. We are already planning to come back. It’s only 28 hrs. away 😦

I love how the ground is covered by green velvety moss. Jacob thought the edges of the forest were well manicured, “they must pay someone to cut the grass here, it looks great!” he thought it was grass until I pointed out that it was moss.
This is harbor nation, every town in supported by its harbor. Seafood is the main form of income, and tourism, the lobster and clams are as fresh as the can be. The wood boats in the harbors are beautiful, and make for great pictures!
The pebbles line the beaches and stream. There is sand on the beaches but it is different than what we are used to along the Gulf Coast Beaches. While the Gulf Coast is lined with white powdery sand primarily composed of Quartz, from the Appalachian Mts. weathering over millions of years, and pulverized shells, the sand around Desert Island is course, kitty litter texture, composed of a variety of minerals from the surrounding mts. including; pink of Feldspar, black of Hornblende, and white/clear of Quartz.
I hope you can see in the picture that the rocks are pink. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take any home with you.
The drive around the Island was so breath taking.
When we arrived at the trail head of course I had to stop at the out house, it was a long drive and coffee doesn’t help.
On to the Acadia Mt. Trail, which was recommended to us by the park ranger. He said that it was an easy hike that should only take an hour. So we wore regular tennis shoes. This looks pretty easy!

Still not so bad….then we come around a corner…
and this is what most of the trail consisted of…it what way is this considered “easy to moderate”? There were people with small children and babies who had to carry them most of the way. Bad call on not wearing hiking boots!
The views were awesome at the top!

Big Foot?
After this 2.5 hr. hike, we hopped in the car to go to Echo Lake Beach. Jacob wanted to go swimming after working up a good sweat, but I knew there was no way I was getting in the water, it’s just too cold for this gal! Instead of swimming we had lunch and basked in the sun. It was super windy the people who got in quickly got out. Looked like torture in my book. It was a gorgeous day to lounge in the sun and we took full advantage of it.
I guess the settings on the camera got messed up because all of our pictures at Echo Lake are like this….I guess we’ll just have to go back!
Before sunset at 7:25pm, we had to head back to the camper to shower and walk Roux. On our way there we ran into my Aunt and Uncle again, too funny! The reason we showered before sunset is because we have to use the generator to power the water heater and water pump, our battery is not able to power both, and generators can only be used between 8am and 7pm.
Off to Cadillac Mt…..WOW! The views up here are amazing and you can drive all the way to the top. It looked like half the town was there with us. I’m so glad we didn’t miss this site. Maybe next time we come to this area we can catch the sun rise too.