What a Ride!

Off to the carriage roads today.....A beautiful day....High of about 68 and sunny. Sparky rode 25 miles today, and experienced the gamut of joy at seeing some of her favorite bridges, happiness at meeting a 91 years young spry lady cyclist and fear at coming upon a bike accident right after it just happened.

First the good stuff....Sparky wanted to see some more of the amazing Rockefeller bridges. This time she had a map! Last time she lost the map early on, and a kind high school teacher on a trip with his students airdropped a map of the carriage roads as we stood right next to each other! The marvel of technology, especially since cell service is slim to non-existent on the carriage roads! By the way, the route markers for the carriage roads are every 1.7 miles. Great planning by the park staff! So if you are lost, have faith that a signpost will show up shortly and hopefully get you back on track. Then again, if you are Sparky, they may or may not be helpful to you, haha. (Ask her how she knows that, laughs Eldo.)

OK, first bridge for today, they are not necessarily in order......The Jordan Pond Bridge 1920

The Chasm Brook Bridge 1926, (below) the seventh of 17 bridges...One of the most remote bridges in the system. It's 50 feet long, and there is a small light flowing gorge underneath it during the summer. Nearby are the "Seven Bridges" section of the carriage roads, you want to traverse those going DOWNHILL, not uphill like Sparky ended up doing unintentionally. Those are a series of little wooden bridges where the carriage road zig zags back and forth over the brook.

Chasm Brook Bridge

Cliffside Bridge

The Cliffside Bridge 1932...It's 250 feet tall, it has a 50 ft. segmented arch, parapet walls and looks like the side wall of a castle. It does not cross a stream or a road, but helps complete the carriage road by hugging the steep cliffs of Penobscot Mountain. It has a couple of viewing platforms on it which make for spectacular views!

Sparky's favorite bridge, the Amphitheater Bridge 1931..it is one of the longest bridges at 245 feet and has a single arch that spans Little Harbor Brook. The beauty of these bridges can sometimes only be seen if you look for stone steppers or a well worn overgrown path alongside one of the ends of the bridges. If you are riding over them, it would be easy to miss their spectacular facades below the carriage roads.

The West Branch Bridge 1931...115 feet in length, and just a single arch.

After riding for a bit, Sparky came to the Eagle Lake junction of the carriage roads, and met up with this spunky senior. This is Lindy, and she is 91 (!!!) years old. When she  was in her seventies, she biked cross country from one coast to the other! Sparky says to her, "You are AMAZING!"  She instantly replied, "I AM!" and grinned. We chatted a bit. She offered to help Sparky get redirected as to what direction and which carriage road to take next. Her bike is a Trek bike and had about a thousand dollars worth of retrofitting to make it extremely light for her. (Hmmmmm, I sense there might be a bike shop visit in the near future, says Eldo.) Sparky's Trek is a heavy 32 pound bike, a little too heavy for gravelly elevated trails, but yet a great workout. Lindy was terrific to chat with, and an inspiration, as she bikes EVERY day! She and her family were out on the trails today, soaking up the beautiful weather. She IS amazing, that's for sure!

As the afternoon came, Sparky was headed back to Hull's Cove after 20 some miles of riding, and came upon a group of people stopped, one elderly gentleman had just lost control of his bike and crashed into the rocky side of the road. He was bleeding badly from his face. They had a few first aid supplies. Sparky was the first one on the scene. She asked if they needed help, and they said, yes, they needed a paramedic. No decent cell signal and they couldn't get a call to go through with 9-1-1. Sparky offered to go get help on her bike and back she pedaled like a bat out of hell, back to Jordan's Pond House about a mile back, where she could make a call. On the way back, a family on E-bikes was heading uphill in the opposite direction towards the accident. Sparky asked for their help as they could get back to a decent cell signal faster than she could on her traditional bike. Off they went. Sparky headed back to the accident site. In the meantime, one of the people in the party was able to get a temporary signal and the emergency services got a ping on their GPS location. Help was on the way. This made Sparky aware of perhaps taking a few first aid supplies on the next long bike ride out. You never know when you might need something like that, even for yourself! Hope things worked out ok for the gentleman.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, except for the fantastic views as you bike along marshes and ponds...What beautiful views! Sparky went for another kind of ride yesterday....A kayak ride in Frenchman's Bay. Lots and lots of water, no really interesting views. She rented a kayak from the Narrows Too campground. Ten dollars an hour for the first hour, then five dollars an hour after that. What she didn't know was that, there were only two kayaks for the entire campground, and they were SEA kayaks (read longer than the usual shorty kayaks most places rent, AND they were each a HEAVY tandem kayak. No worries, Sparky's got this, she's an experienced kayaker, so out she went with a little help getting the big heavy kayak off the stand and  down to the water's edge.

Right after she got out on the water, the only interesting feature besides a whole bunch of seagulls roosting, was a little itty bitty crab swimming in the water.

Ooh, ooh, ooh! She's got to get a picture, right? Picture this: she passes by the little swimming crab only to realize, gee, he's really cute so she needs a photo. How to quickly stop a 16 foot heavy sea kayak? You don't! Sparky shoots past him and puts on the brakes with her paddle. (Insert screaming car brakes here, cartoon style). It takes a mighty effort of backpedaling on one side with the paddle end and heaving a great big pull through on the other side with the other paddle end to start to swing the nose of the kayak around. In the meantime, the little crab swims underneath the boat. Sparky is down moving away from the little crab. A brisk breeze is also blowing her sideways.  She's gonna try AGAIN!  Pull hard, back paddle, swing that darn boat around, she glides right past him again while fiddling with her iPhone, which is NOT tethered to anything. (Don't worry, she didn't drop the phone. Whew! Couldn't find the lanyard for it this morning). Third time is the charm. Here is that elusive, cute little guy....Sparky will have sore arms later, that's for sure!

The only other cool thing Sparky saw while out in the bay was a squabble of seagulls. Yep, that's what a whole bunch of them are called, at least one of the more interesting names besides a flock. They sure make a lot of noise like they are squabbling. Maybe that's where the name came from!

Door Mountain Trail

We have one more week to go here at Narrows Too... We hope to hike a couple of trails at Acadia. Sparky tried to get to Gorham Mountain Trail today, and our big dually truck couldn't find a parking spot. They are now letting people park on portions of the national park Park Road in the right lane on one way only portions of the roadway, but Sparky was worried about her mirrors on the truck getting hit or the truck getting sideswiped because it's so big, so she went to the "quieter" side of Mount Desert Island and hiked the Door Mountain Trail for a couple of miles....It's VERY rocky after a beautiful portion through a heavily wooded forest and a good heart workout of a climb to the summit. The Door Trail has good cairns (stone slabs marking direction of the trail) on the way up, keeping you on trail. 

So many great hikes on the island, so little time! But we'll keep trying to find good times to avoid the crowds as the trail parking lot are starting to fill early and traffic congestion in the Bar Harbor/Acadia area is getting worse. 

We did manage to visit Schoodic Point, a "quieter" side of Acadia National Park. Schoodic Point is the far tip of the island south of Winter Harbor, on the Schoodic Peninsula. The ocean crashes against the rock cliffs, and you can clamber all around the rock formations and look for cool marine life in the tidal pools when the tide is out.

It is one of the more spectacular parts of Acadia, and not to be missed.

Well, that about sums up our first 8 days here. The weather continues to be absolutely gorgeous, highs in the sixties and high seventies interspersed with rain showers and gusty winds coming off from the ocean. We are sorry to see family and friends struggling with extreme heat temperatures just about everywhere else. Take care...stay hydrated, don't walk your pets on hot sidewalks, Eldy read where temperatures on cement were over 140 degrees (!) and thanks for reading...We will see you soon down the road again.....

BaHaBa

Narrows Too RV Resort   Site: 819.  Highs: 60's-70's, Lows: low 50's

On the carriage roads in Acadia

Bahaba is New England speak for Bar Harbor, lol....(Sparky saw that on a license plate years ago).

We are at an Encore Park in Trenton, Maine, called Narrows Too. There's another Narrows Park right down the road a few miles away. We like either one but Narrows Too is our favorite due to the more wide open spaces and quite a few pull through sites. 

Encore parks are "free" with our membership. Our monthly Thousand Trails membership cost has paid for stays such as these over and over within very short periods of time. It is well worth it and makes full time RVing affordable. If you were to stay at this park without the membership, it would cost you a lot per night to be able to stay about 10 miles from the Acadia National Park Visitor Center. We couldn't find out from the RV office because the price is based on "dynamic pricing". It depends on what day of the week it is, what time of year it is, and what kind of site you want. They have waterfront sites here, too. So we can stay for two weeks with our membership, then we have to be out of the park for a week before coming back in. We love that we are so close to Acadia! 

We happened to be assigned one of the best spots and the biggest in the park. It was just a lucky break. We have a pull through that is really ample, and has a view, although a little bit farther away, of Frenchman's Bay, so we can see the ocean from our living room window.

Sites are gravel and very level. They actually take care of grading and keeping them level! Decent laundry, nice pool, but not open yet as the season isn't fully underway up here just yet and they are waiting on a pool liner which they have no idea when it's going to come in. We have discovered that this is a great time to visit Acadia, as the crowds haven't descended upon the park just yet. A ranger said the end of June is when everything starts jamming up.

Sparky went for a ride one day on the carriage roads in Acadia. For newbies to Acadia NP and this blog, the carriage roads are of great historical significance, as John D. Rockefeller, Jr.'s construction efforts from 1913 to 1940 resulted in 45 miles of crushed gravel, 16 foot wide carriage roads that weave in and around the national park. The roads were built to preserve the hillsides, save trees, and take advantage of the views. Even the drainage ditches and run off areas are built of stone that appear to be a part of the natural landscape.

The roads have quite a domed effect to allow for drainage. Along the sides of the roads are granite coping stones nicknamed "Rockefeller's teeth". 

As you ride, you can experience many of the beautiful stone bridges in Acadia and see horses still traveling the roads as well, whether they be individual riders or horse drawn carriage tours. This lady had the entire coordinated purple outfit going on. She looked very chic! She even had a Go-Pro camera attached to her purple helmet.

Watch out for horse poop! As a side note, only class 1 E-bikes are permitted on the carriage roads.

The carriage roads are a GREAT workout. There is no steep elevation except in just a few places, but steady ups and downs. The ups might last a half to a mile before you think you are going to have a heart attack, then the downs go down for about the same amount of distance. Just kidding, but riding the carriage roads will definitely get your heart rate up. It is NOT an easy ride if you put in some miles, that's for sure. Even Eagle Lake which is supposed to be more level, has elevation changes, but it's a very popular section of the carriage roads that are not quite as challenging as some of the other loops.

We did a bridge tour several years ago, that was called "Rockefeller's Bridges" and it was amazing! There are sixteen of them and Sparky's favorite is the "Amphitheater Bridge", built in 1931. Pictures of that one coming later on the second bridge bike tour later this week.

If you would like to know more, there are great guides to the bridges and some are easily found online. Sparky hopes to visit all 16 bridges in the park by the end of our two week stay. Here are a few from her first 20 mile ride on the carriage roads.....

Duck Brook Bridge, 1929

Eagle Lake Bridge 1928

Bubble Pond Bridge 1928

Deer Brook Bridge 1925

Along the ride today, Sparky stopped by the famous Jordan Pond House. She did not have popovers which they are famous for, but instead opted for the beautiful view outside and the Grab and Go little takeout area for the most delicious homemade lemonade. They also have some quick sandwiches which sure beats waiting for a table for long periods of time at the Jordan House when summer is in full swing. You can eat your popovers out on the lawn with the view of the Bubbles Mountains in the background--(legend says they are named for someone's ample busty girlfriend.)

Sparky then stopped by a pond and saw all these dead trees. She wondered if they had been felled by disease. Nope...From information from a fellow bike rider riding by, who just happened to be a biologist, she learned that beavers had dammed up the pond, killing all the trees by water logging their roots. The trees falls, the beavers eat all the bark to their heart's content, then they pack up and leave. He said it is about a 30-50 year process for the pond to recover. In the meantime, the beavers have moved on. It was striking to see the stark white tree trunks at all sorts of odd angles in the pond. As you traverse the carriage roads, you might come across one of the two gatehouses that herald the entrance to the carriage roads. They are beautiful, too!

If the bike trails on the carriage roads are too crowded, then there are other trails outside the national park in the area.

There is a Rails to Trails bike trail that runs for 87 miles called the Down East Sunrise Trail. It is the longest trail section connecting eastern Maine with the East Coast Greenway. The easternmost trailhead is in Ayers Junction, Pembroke. Sparky rode a part of the trail for 26.3 miles out and back the other day. It's not a very good trail heading northeast out of Ellsworth. She kept riding hoping it would get better but it didn't for almost 13 miles. It's for motorized and non motorized vehicles but seemed more for ATV's judging by how many passed by Sparky on her ride. The ruts and potholes from the machines were plentiful. Not an enjoyable ride at all with having to stop for ATV's flying by you unless you consider there is some beautiful scenery of streams and ponds along the way. 

Although there are forests along the way, the trail is mostly sunny and the biting flies were awful the first week of June. Wear bug spray!

With all that, and a couple of nice meals out at local eateries (We loved the Chart House by the way....) our first week passed by rapidly. We are not lobster fans, so all the lobster pounds and lobster roll offerings in the area will just have to be sampled by the next visitors to the area, but they look great and we are sure they serve delicious lobster!

We have one more week to go...more bike rides planned to more bridges in Acadia...There are many many things to do in the Bar Harbor area besides nature and bike rides, but we have done quite a few of those things years ago our first foray out as full time RVers-- a lobster boat tour years ago was wonderful, we've braved the Bar Harbor crowds to shop downtown at the wonderful cute shops there, we did a whale watch tour as well, but this time we are holding onto our tourist dollars for fuel costs instead! Hope we don't bore you with all the nature stuff, but if we do do some other things, we will let you know! Thanks for stopping by to see what we have been doing....Bye for now.....

Sparky Takes a Side Trip

 Wells. Maine.  Highs: 60-70's.   Lows: 40's-50's. Site: 308 level gravel, T-Mobile mifi very good, ATT hot spot, not so much

When we are in Wells, ME (Moody Beach Thousand Trails RV park), we are about an hour and a half drive from Sparky's middle brother, Rich, who lives in Bedford, MA. Sparky was super excited to find out that you can take the Amtrak Downeaster from Wells, Maine to a suburb near her brother, (Woburn) and the train station is about 15 minutes from his house. Not only that, but you can take your bike on the train! She decided to book a trip and spend a couple of days with him. Rich planned a great bike ride for us.

Now Amtrak has a terrible reputation for being late--A LOT! But Sparky decided to take a chance anyway. For about $17-18, one way, that covers the fare AND the fare for the bike, which is the senior rate. The train station (Wells Transportation Center) is about 7 miles from the RV park. There were no ticket agents on duty, but there were senior volunteers who help you with the ticket kiosk if you need it. So off Sparky went.....And what a ride it was! It was on time one way and about 15 minutes late the other way. The conductor said that the average speed depends upon the condition of the tracks and repairs. Average speed this trip was around 50 mph. The train is rated for 79 mph. He said if they are cleared for top speed, they go 79! 

Sparky was so excited to ride the train! It's been so many years since she has ridden one, she kept looking for seat belts, as the track was rough when the railroad crossings were encountered. There was a cafe car with quite a few things to choose from. Sparky had a cheeseburger. Something about traveling always makes her hungry! (Yep, we gotta have a "snack box" in the truck on travel day, explains Eldo.)

You get on the train with your bike and you most likely will have to remove the front wheel in order for it to be stored upright in a bike rack. On the way there, there were almost no people on the train, so the conductor let Sparky have her bike with her beside her seat in the regular train section where the bike rack was located. 

On the way back, the conductor insisted the wheel be taken off. No problem, but Sparky should have practiced it first before taking it off on a moving train! The conductor placed the bike in the rack for safe keeping this time.

The train ride passes through beautiful heavily forested areas in Maine. Don't try to watch the scenery or you might get sick. (Ask her how she knows, laughs Eldo.) No, she didn't get sick, but she almost did until she stopped looking out the window. There was a train yard along the way...Of course Sparky had to get some more train graffiti....

Rich met Sparky at the other end, stashed Sparky's bike in the back of his Tesla, and off we went!

It was a great, fast paced weekend. The very next day, we went on a 25.7 mile bike ride through very hilly and beautiful areas surrounding his town. We passed through a wildlife refuge area/nature preserve.....

We rode the Bruce Freeman Rails to Trails for a few miles. It was a welcome relief from all those hills around Concord! Very level and a wide trail which passes by numerous ponds/lakes. At one point Rich stopped to rescue a turtle in the middle of the road which was about to get hit by a car. Yay, Rich! Tommy or Tina Turtle thanks you!

After almost completing the trip, Sparky asked if there were any "perks" along the trail, you know, like a sandwich shop or ice cream? Rich says, "Well, there is a Dunkin Donuts." HOT DOG! I'M IN! says Sparky. So naturally we stop for a couple of donuts and Sparky's Coke. After we had ridden the trail and got back on the country side hilly roads again, we passed by TWO lemonade stands. And because the little girls were so cute, Sparky and Rich made a purchase each time.  One of the stands had the girls doing cheer routines to get people to stop for a lemonade. Gotta love and support budding entrepreneurship!

That night we had an amazing dinner at Acitron, a really great Mexican restaurant in Arlington, MA. It was fantastic, best guacamole ever! Along a short walk to the restaurant, Sparky saw this memorial tombstone in town. "Near this spot, Samuel Whitmore, then 80 years old, killed 3 British soldiers, April 19, 1776. He was bayonetted, beaten, and left for dead but he recovered and lived to be 98 years of age." !!!! So much history in these New England towns and so little time to explore it. 

Sunday, it was breakfast out at a cafe at a small aircraft flying field, Nancy's Air Field Cafe in Stow, MA. Watch small aircraft take off and land while you eat breakfast. Fun! Rich use to fly small aircraft so he was very knowledgable and shared how the pilots have to work with the wind direction and steering the rudder pedals in order to get lift to take off. The food was fantastic! (The chef trained in Switzerland!). Then back to the train station, and back "home" to our rig. It was a wonderful weekend. We will see each other again in August, when Sparky and Eldo  take in a Red Sox ball game at Fenway Park with Rich and his wife, Lisa, and take the train in again! 

Time to move on once again....Since we can only stay three weeks in a membership park, (this time we chose two in order to get in a visit to another membership park close to Bar Harbor) we are headed to Trenton, Maine where we will be 7.5 miles from one of our favorite destinations, Acadia National Park. We will be here for two weeks. Woo hoo! Biking the carriage roads, here we come! See you down the road...

All is Well in Wells, Maine

Well, here we are in Wells, Maine. Rugosa roses are blooming everywhere! Even in the sand!

Moody Beach Thousand Trails RV park  Highs: 60's, lows- 50's

Site: 308, back in, front section of the park. ATT--inconsistent, T-Mobile very good signal

We are settled in Wells...The Thousand Trails Moody Beach RV park is a very nice park. The front section closest to the road has two newer parts, they have the best and most level gravel sites to choose from, but there is no shade. That being said, the first site we tried, had a deceptive severe slope that was not easily visible and the gravel hid it well. We were not able to get level and have all four tires on the ground on the RV so we had to hook back up and move and unhook once again at the next site over. 

Wooded sites

If you want to be brave and head for the woods and nice shade, smaller travel trailers and RVs can fit just fine in between the trees. It's a lot tougher for a rig bigger than 40 foot like us to fit in the wooded section. We have done it, but it's no fun backing in. The interior roads/lanes between the sites in the woods are very poor, with potholes and random big rocks jutting out. C'mon Thousand Trails, please fix your interior campground roads! At least grade them and fill in the potholes till the next rainstorm.

The park has a very nice pool and decent laundry facilities, with a couple of really nice playgrounds and a nice basketball court for the kids. Unfortunately, people sometimes use the basketball court for a doggie meet and greet/dog park, because the park doesn't have one. Separate from the RV park, out front, is a big miniature golf course with go carts. It's super popular. Highway 1 is the main highway leading past the park that passes thru several small tourist towns (Ogunquit for one), and it is a nightmare to try and get out on it much of the day to go anywhere. Even on a bike, there is only a narrow shoulder for bikes to ride on on one side of the road. Lots and lots of restaurants to choose from. The Maine Diner, Hobbs Harborside, the Omelet Factory, and the Egg and I, are some that we have tried and liked. Right next to the Hobbs is a cool dock and pier. 

Murals and sailor knots tying practice are there, along with a cool buoy tree!

There is a nice bike trail which is a little drive, in Kennebunk, right behind Kennebunk Elementary School. It's called the Eastern Greenway. It eventually will go all the way from South Portland, Maine, to Key West, FL. The trailhead behind the school is about an 11 mile drive from the RV park. Take a left on the trail behind the school to start out on a shady trail. If you take a right, you hit on road riding almost right away. However, you can only go about 5 miles on the shady trail before having to cross a major highway at a light to pick the trail up again on the other side of the highway in Saco. Then there is more on road riding through a very nice neighborhood for a bit, then Sparky lost the trail. Eventually, you can ride to Bug Light Lighthouse in South Portland if you don't mind portions of on road riding. Sparky has not tried it because of all the on road riding. She'd like to go to the lighthouse at some point, because she loves lighthouses, but she needs better navigation tools at this point. Bug Light is modeled on an ancient Greek monument.  It was dubbed "Bug Light" due to its small size. There is also a lighthouse tour out of Portland that might interest some.

Back to the beach! Walking to Moody Beach is probably the easiest way to get there from the Thousand Trails RV park, as parking is limited and only along certain stretches of the public beach lands. You walk along a street (Bourne) to get to the beach, along a narrow shoulder. Cars appear to be respectful of all the beach goers. Along the way, you pass through the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge on both sides of the roadway. During certain times of the day, when the tide is in, you can rent a paddle board and paddle through the marshes.

Once you get to the beach, Moody Beach, the walk is wonderful. The entry way onto the beach is so beautiful with the rugosa roses starting to bloom and the blue sand mat just makes the colors pop.

The beach mansions along the shoreline are huge, the beach expansive. Sparky's favorite house has the only weather/wind vane on the beach. She calls it "The Lady of the Sea."

The beach is not usually crowded except for the holiday weekends. The water at the beach is currently very cold so few swimmers were in the water this past Memorial Day weekend. It was 50 degrees! When you look up the temperature, it says, Moody Beach Temperature and Wetsuit Guide, haha. That's a big clue! Here is the rest of the house...Isn't it a beauty!?

The cold water doesn't seem to deter the piping plovers, which are currently in a protected nesting season at the beach. They were out feeding the day Sparky went walking. Nesting season is April 1-August 31, similar to turtle season in Florida. Fences and signs are put up to protect the grassy nesting areas. They move so fast along the beach it's hard to get a photo!

We will be here another week, then off to Bar Harbor! Sparky is looking forward to visiting her brother in Bedford, MA this coming weekend. If the weather holds, we are going to bike ride some beautiful areas where he is and get some serious biking miles in.We will see you on the road, down the road.....

Eldo's a Travelin' Man--again!

We took off from Indiana and headed to Kenisee Lake in Ohio (Thousand Trails membership park) for the weekend. The trip was uneventful EXCEPT--that our Garmin RV GPS said to take a left turn when we got close to the campground...That sweet lady says "turn left on Mill Creek Road"....NO! DO NOT TURN LEFT ON MILL CREEK ROAD if you are coming off SR 45 after coming off interstate 90 eastbound. DO NOT PASS GO. DO NOT COLLECT 200.00. You MIGHT collect a towing fee because you will drive down a little country road right straight into the path of a VERY LOW BRIDGE which is 10 ft. 8 in. in the center and there is NO PLACE to turn around safely without barging in a resident's driveway to explain why a honkin' big rig failed to know that there was a low bridge and why that said honkin' big rig is now sitting in your driveway. 

To be fair, there is a small sign on the right at the left turn, but it's easy to miss and more than one person has failed to see it. More than one person has traveled down the road and then had to BACK UP all the way back to the main road OR tried to turn around in somebody's driveway. Judging by the number of cones and barriers people have placed at the end of their driveways on that lane, we think the wrong turn happens quite often. And we are sure people have actually tried to go under the bridge, letting air out of their tires, or just chancing it if the measurements are close. 

But not us....whew! Eldo, being the great researcher that he is, checked the campground website and on there, they caution you about the bridge. But here's the thing, the Garmin RV GPS is supposed to be RV and trucker friendly, taking into account how tall your rig is (We are 13 ft., 4 in.) because that data is entered into the GPS ahead of time, and that we are towing. The GPS should never lead any big rig down that road. So Sparky is going to try and report it to Garmin.

So we get to Kenissee Lake, a very nice but small Thousand Trails campground. There are only about 113 sites and many of them are seasonal. There are only a handful of pull thru sites ( or 10?), so those are hard to get. They have a laundry, a nice pool and lots of geese along a small lake that you can fish in. Kenissee Lake is beautiful, tons of green space. 

We wish they would expand and add more sites, they have that much room! It's in the little town of Jefferson, Ohio. Not much there, but there is a terrific covered bridge tour, which Sparky has covered in a previous blog and the Western Reserve Greenway Rails to Trails bike trail. 

The Western Reserve trail is about 47 miles long, and you can get a wonderful ride on a trail that is heavily forested if you head south for much of the way. Sparky saw deer several times while riding. A trailhead is within 2 miles of the park. So hop on, and ride to your heart's content. There are some nice benches on this trail......And, the trail is in excellent condition....level and paved...NICE! Also, this county is home to the great Underground Railroad and there are many placards along the trail that detail the history of this historical journey. Sparky really enjoyed reading and learning new things about this area and its importance in history to the abolitionist movement in the midwest. 

Site 147

After taking a little break, it was time to move on again, and head towards Pennsylvania, to another Thousand Trails membership park at Timothy Lake South. This campground is in the Pocono Mountains and the road leading up to the turn for the campground once you get to East Stroudsburg, is a hilly one. Watch out for deer, the area is thick with them. There is even a sign on highway 209, warning of the danger of wildlife collisions along that corridor. This area is home to the Delaware Water Gap and Bushkill Falls so lots to do with tubing and kayaking if you like.

Sparky loves Bushkill Falls. Yes, you have to pay admission (14.00 for a senior during the week) but it is well worth it. There are beautiful hiking trails in the privately owned park so Sparky hiked one of the days while we were there. There are EIGHT waterfalls scattered throughout the park and a bazillion stairs. If you want to get a good workout, any one of the trails will give you that because there are stairs, and more stairs, some VERY steep climbs up and down. Also, be cautioned that the color of the wooden stairs makes it very difficult with senior eyes to see that there are steps down, making an elevation change. They all look the same to these old eyes and just look like they all blend in together. Sparky saw an older gentleman miss one of those steps down and he took a hard fall and cut himself. They really need to mark where the steps drop down in a few areas as you walk around so that you are more aware of stepping down. Just paint a strip at the edge of the board where it drops to the next level, for Pete's sake! Sparky made that suggestion after seeing the man get hurt, but they just said they'd take it under consideration.

One of the falls at Bushkill

We love Timothy Lake South because the deer wander through the campground. We found a site at the back of the park that borders a meadow where the deer travel back and forth from the campground to the meadow. Sure enough, the first night we were there, a big doe came grazing through the area, right past Eldo! 

The second night, again, another doe came loping right past Sparky! She's heading right this way!

Timothy Lake South is an older campground. Lots of seasonal/annual campers sprinkled in the back in sites. It's heavily wooded in a lot of the park, so pulling in or backing in requires keeping a good eye out for low overhanging branches or sideswipers (low bushes). Nice pool, decent laundry room but not much shopping available in the area. The Pocono area--E. Stroudsburg, is definitely on the downswing. It used to be THE honeymoon destination many years ago. Buildings are looking tired and run down and former tourist attractions have shuttered their doors. But the greenery--the beautiful trees, the wildflowers this spring, it's gorgeous!

There is a bike trail in the area, called the McDade Recreational Trail. It is a rough gravel trail in many parts, with some steep elevation changes. Check it out on the All Trails app. Sparky didn't ride it this time, as we were only there for two nights.

Two days passed quickly by, and it was time to move on again, this time for a distance of about 335 miles, which is a six hour drive with fuel stops and many construction projects along the route. Diesel was running about 6.39 or more per gallon along the way--ouch! But it was available, and no signs of a shortage. Whew! And here we are, in Wells, Maine, a 30 minute walk to the ocean, and a beautiful area with another bike trail!  We will be here two weeks before moving on to two weeks in Bar Harbor, Maine, then back to Wells.

See you in a few days after we get settled.....bye for now.....