On top of old Smokey...er, Wildcat

Today we went exploring in the car...first the town of North Conway...the Saco Campground sits in the middle of a beautifully shaded area of town, and somehow, a series of outlet malls has sprouted up all around the campground. When you are in the campground, you feel like you are a million miles away from civilization, except there are a lot of families here. There are many, many amenities to use and enjoy--floating down the Saco River, shopping, hiking, riding an old cog railway up Mt. Washington, driving the Auto Road up Mt. Washington, a disc golf course on the side of Wildcat Mountain (we're going to go play it tomorrow, I have my discs on board!) and so many more things to do, I'll be listing them in the next few days. we went north on White Mountain Highway up to Wildcat Mountain, a ski resort in the winter. In the summer, because of the unpredictable winters New Hampshire is now having, and warm ones at that, they are trying to pull summer tourism to the area. We saw that there were gondola rides up the side of the mountain, and a Zipline ride as well. Eldy, being the adventursome type, says, "Hey, wanna try it?" Me, being equally as adventurous except when it comes to roller coasters (no way, no how) said, "SURE!" Well, neither one of us has had much experience on a ski lift. I was on one once or twice in my teens, many many years ago...so we hop on and start up the mountain. I said that this was the scary part, there was nothing to hold us in...what if the lift lurched or something? We could just fall out. Eldy says, don't look at the ground. I say, OK, but grab onto the side pole, and as we get 3/4 of the way to the top, we see a sign that says, "raise the bar and get ready to exit"..BAR???? WHAT BAR???? Oh, the one above our heads that nobody told us to bring down in front of our laps so we would be more securely strapped in? Ahhhh, ok...we quickly bring the bar down at our waist, just as we come to the end of the ride..we felt very foolish not knowing about the bar. Then we hike around a bend on a steep hill and come out to the zipline ride. They harness you in, and they made me put my camera in the zipped back of the chair. Rats! Can't get the perfect photo...but did get some photos of the view at the top of the zipline towards the mountains and the parking lot, and the chairs we sat in, and the workers before we took off. $20.00 a person, one minute ride, and it was FAST, about 35 miles an hour down the mountainside and a big thrill of a rush of adrenaline. The only bad part was there was a severe jolt at the end of the ride, and just before you stop, you look like you are going to ram the end of the line where the electrical towers are located. The look of terror on my face to the workers calmly sitting by the side waiting for the lift to lurch to a stop, must have been quite the source of entertainment as we came in for the jolting landing! If you have neck problems or back problems, this might not be quite the right activity for you. It was a heckuva ride for a fantastic view. Trouble was, panic set in the first five seconds as they open the gate, but then after that, I tucked my feet under me to make myself go faster and whoo--eeee, what a ride!

Eldo's a travelin' man

We spent most of today on the road from Greeville, ME to North Conway, NH...no photos today, we were in the RV all day. I'm not sad to leave Greenville...it was a typical sportsman camp type town..a haven for fishermen...lots of moose, but they sure kept themselves hidden. Just a few restaurants and motels/bed and breakfast, some great places to eat, but a sleepy town...you really had to drive a ways on logging roads and snowmobile trails to get to hiking in the area. If you have your own kayaks or canoes, there were many, many places to put in and enjoy the fantastic waterways around Moosehead Lake and ponds. The trip out of Greenville was on very rough roads, south on 15 then snaking our way through small towns to get to a major highway, 95, then smooth sailing pretty much the rest of the way to North Conway. Today we used an atlas with our GPS on our phones. It seems that darn GPS more times than not will take us through winding, circuitous, back road routes when there really are more direct ways to get somewhere! We do have to worry about low bridges on the back roads. We are sitting at 12'6" high, and some of the bridges on the smaller highways are not lableled as to how high they are. We nervously watched for large trucks and semis coming in the opposite direction so we knew that if they were navigating through these areas, we were probably ok. The GPS told us we were at our destination when we were sitting in the middle of the street in front of an LL Bean store. Not a bad place to be, but it wasn't the Saco Family Campground which was up the street about a half mile. One of the more useful apps we use on our phone is "State Line". I may have mentioned it before, but it tells you regulations for each state as you pass through, whether you need a supplementary brake system on your tow vehicle or not, highway speed limits, and many other useful tidbits of information that you might need to know when you are traveling all over the country.

We have a great site at the campground, 30 amp service for 38.00 a night with water, electric, cable and sewer. Eldy has not had cable for about two weeks, so he's thrilled to have some TV time, especially since it's raining cats and dogs today. We are trying to keep campground costs to 30.00 and under, but as we are just starting out full timing, we'll gradually dial it down and get used to a little more rustic campgrounds and settings. (Moosehead Family Campground had pit toilets, does that count? lol)

There are great discounts out there for full time RVers and campers--to name a few-- Good Sam's, Escapees, Family Motor Coach, Passport of America (50% off regular rate for some campgrounds) and a senior lifetime pass for national parks, Bureau of Land Management places, (which was 10.00 for lifetime pass) etc. We are watching to see which ones will be used the most whether or not we will renew them after a year. Eldy reads several RV blogs and that's how he found out about these discounts.

Looking forward to exploring North Conway...there are many many physical activities here that we plan to participate in...hiking, disc golf, regular golf, and more. Eldy says there's a zip line here...that's a relatively new (?) exercise craze, I believe...you get hooked up to a harness and a pulleys, and you follow the line across something, what, I don't know! Usually, it's a gorge, like in S. America, but the craze has hit the states, and places are getting on board to offer this activity for families. Not sure if I will do that or not! I'd be more inclined to try rock climbing! (0ooooh, that was a bad pun, sorry!)

Got moxie?

I think moxie means in a loose sense, got nerve? A couple of guys we don't know, had the nerve to work their way across Moxie Falls this morning. Young guys with no sense...crossing slippery rocks in front of the falls to see what's on the other side. How to get there? Drive 19 miles on an old snowmobile trail road pocked with craters, large rocks, ruts, and loose gravel, driving no faster than about 5-15 miles an hour to get there. Definitely, the back roads of Maine are for the four wheel drive vehicles and trucks. Took a photo of Maine's version of "Wally World", a small family house and grounds carved out of the wilderness in the middle of nowhere. After we survived the rugged, bouncy drive careening left and right to avoid the large rocks and potholes, we finally made it to the parking lot, an hour and 15 min. later. We then hiked about .6 of a mile on an easy trail to Moxie Falls, one of Maine's prettiest and largest. Got a video of it for you today....hope you can see it! My laptop with a 64 bit system and windows 7 was not able to display it, but Eldy had no trouble with his Mac viewing it.

Here, moosie moosie

We got up at 4:45 AM this morning to get a quick breakfast, then hopped on a van to be transported 45 min. away to a beautiful, very large pond by 6:00 AM for some canoeing and hopefully some glimpse of morning moose. Unfortunately, the temperature climbed very quickly and the moose were nowhere to be seen. If you don't see one on this outfitter's trip, you are guaranteed another chance to go out again free of charge. We will try again on Tuesday evening. Our guide was Ashley, from Northwoods Outfitters in Greenville, who had a very gung-ho personality, and was extremely knowledgable about wildlife and moose habitats and the whereabouts of them. Apparently, we were getting out too late in the day to see moose. It was too hot for them. They had already been out. She said if you could get out even earlier, like 4:30 AM, we would have seen a lot of them...She showed us footprints in the bog/shallow pond (see photo) where a big moose had stepped 30 min. before we were out in the water in the canoes. We did see a large female loon sitting on her nest and she let us get very close to her to take a photo. The pond/lake was beautiful and there weren't any bugs or mosquitoes pestering us...nice....

In search of the elusive moose

Well, you wouldn't think it would be so hard to see one. After all, according to the locals, moose outnumber the residents in Greenville and the Moosehead Lake area 3:1. So today we decided to go looking for one. No problem seeing them on signs everywhere..the locals tell you to go to several places along highway 15 to the south and north of Greenville and we did. South of town, no luck...we and about six other vehicles parked along a roadside bog and woods at dusk today hoping to catch sight of one, but all for naught. North of town, about 18 miles was reported to be another hot spot for spotting the moose. We drove past Lily Pond State Park and continued north thru a small dying town called Kokadjo. Finally, the road appeared to end into sportsmen camps and possibly Baxter State Park. Eldy decided to keep going down a gravel road that branched off the main road..we saw signs for various sporting/hunting camps and the road was rather rough. Just when I thought we should turn around (worrier that I am, we're going to puncture a tire, we'll be stranded in the middle of nowhere, some gun crazed hunting hermit is going to be accusing us of trespassing) when Eldy turns his head in the direction of a side road that looked to be the entrance to a logging operation, now defunct. The sign said, "No trespassing", but that didn't deter a female moose with her calf! When I first saw them after Eldy did, I thought that looks like one of those cardboard or wood cutouts that you see posted at the local souvenir stands in northern Michigan. I looked again, and HOLY COW! Moose are HUGE! Their legs are TALL! I swear it looked like you could walk under them and not have to stoop! We saw them at about 50 yds. from us. I actually was dumb enough to get out of the car. After all, they are only supposed to be able to see about 25 yds., their eyesight is terrible, they say. I got a good photo in, I was looking at them, they were both looking at me, and it was if the mother said, "Oh, you want a photo? You have to pay for those, c'mon, kiddo, time to go"...and off they trotted. It was a thrill to say the least. Tomorrow morning we are getting up at 4:30 AM to go on a canoe trip for a couple of hours into more moose country. Eldy is used to getting up at 2:00 AM to go to work for 43 yrs., but now that he is retired, he has to set an alarm to get up that early!Me, too! Hope the bugs and flies don't eat us up! PS. if you click on the photo, it will enlarge

Toilet Troubles

Don't worry, not too much information here. We've been battlling a leak for a week that was getting worse. We got the name of a great guy in Ellsworth, a town nearby Southwest Harbor. He drove quite a ways out (18-20 miles)from Ellsworth to Southwest Harbor where our campground, Smuggler's Den is located, to troubleshoot our problem, and together, we decided we were going to have to replace the whole toilet and fittings. Ellsworth RV--repair and sales..great guy, he didn't charge us for the intial drive out to check the problem. He would order us one, and we could get it installed today.He offered to come back out or we could come to his place on our way out of town. This morning, we packed up and off we went to Ellsworth to get the toilet fixed first before leaving for Greenville. 30 min. later, we were done! Great guy, did top notch work and used top notch parts, better than what we had before.

Unh! oof! oooh! crash! "What was that????" that was the sound of the RV hitting potholes, mini potholes and construction zone after construction zone as things rolled around inside and a few things crashed on the floor while we were driving on highway 15 out of Bangor, ME, heading north. Eldy, the masterful driver he is, negotiated cone after cone after cone, and didn't take a single one out! There aren't any other good choices to get to Greenville, ME that we know of, so highway 15 it was. There are always a few things we forget to secure and some things that don't normally slide off the counter DO on a rough road. Nothing broke, and we are settled in at our campsite at Moosehead Family Campground about a mile from Moosehead Lake, which is 80 miles long. We saw several "ATTENTION: MOOSE" signs and in particular, one said, "ATTENTION: high risk area for moose crashes next 6 miles"... One difference we noticed immediately upon arriving is, it's HOT and the flies are out, a lot of them! I think I'm going to miss Smuggler's Den and Acadia a LOT. The campground was great, well run, and clean AND the staff at the office was wonderful. We'll let you know how Moosehead Family campground is in the next few days..we plan to stay here at least through the weekend and probably longer..Wanted to leave everybody with a couple last photos from Acadia and one from today...thanks for reading!

These feet ain't made for walkin'

Our first hike today...I guess we've been so busy enjoying the carriage roads that we've put off the hiking part. Since it's our last day here, we decided to tackle a hike route called the Flying Mountain hike. It was listed as a "moderate" hike and for once, we agree with that. We were rewarded with fantastic views of the Somes Sound, which is the only fijord on the east coast in North America, I'm told. I came home and had to soak my feet in cold water after clambering around the rocks and roots. That's why I said my feet aren't made for walking. Even with good hiking shoes, I have arthritis in my toes and they were a-hurtin' at the end of the hike! It was about a two mile hike depending on what off shoots of trails you choose to follow, and where you start. These trails are marked very very well. They use blue paint swatches on the rocks and trees and makes it easy to follow the trail. We each also carried hiking poles which worked really well for us helping us with our balance and anchoring ourselves as we came down rocky ledges and slippery slopes. We got them from REI outfitters. There are cheaper ones out there, but these are for serious hiking which we plan to keep doing! We polished off the day with a wonderful meal at Galynn's Restaurant, right downtown in Bar Harbor.