A Very Special Day--My 62nd Birthday!

Trenton, Maine   Narrows Too campground   High:  84   Low: 60

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Hugs to everybody who follows us and reads along now and then!

I love birthdays...I loved planning special birthdays for my daughters when they were growing up. I loved celebrating with friends when they turned special birthdays...like 30, or 40, or 50. I love celebrating my own birthday! It's like, HEY! I made it through another year. I had many rough times when I was younger, both growing up and as a single mom. Somehow, birthdays were a little ray of sunshine that brightened a dreary day, or a tough period I was going through. When I was single, I would buy myself flowers, it didn't matter to me that flowers seldom lasted very long, I was just happy looking at them...And after the kids grew up and left home, I celebrated my birthdays with friends. Have some great memories of going to the Japanese restaurant, Hana Yori for my birthday, in Mishawaka, IN, of going to Tosi's Italian restaurant in Stevensville, MI, for birthday celebrations, when I was living back in the northern Indiana area. Eating out at a nice restaurant was one of my most favorite ways to celebrate ANYBODY'S birthday! (AHA! No wonder she likes to eat out!) And now, I have Eldy to help me celebrate. And we celebrate birthdays all over the country! How serendipitous is that? (E. explains, that's my granddaughter's favorite word of the week that she learned while she was with us.) Lucky and blessed, that we are!

So, when my birthday comes along, I make sure everybody knows about it! I talk about what I'm going to do on my birthday, where I want to eat, what I'd wish for if I had some extra birthday money. Hint, hint...I throw out gift ideas just for fun, nothing really expensive, I just don't want to get something that I have no use for, or don't really want, like the time my first husband gave me a vacuum cleaner because he thought my domestic skills weren't up to snuff. (Eldy is remaining wisely silent here...) Eldy won't ever forget my birthday, because I won't let him! :-)

Up and at it early this morning, I was, because it's time to celebrate, all day!  I get a "Happy birthday and love you" text from Eldy, who went and washed our really dirty Honda, so that was sweet! Next, he tells me we are going to "Jeannie's" for breakfast, in downtown Bar Harbor. Yes, there really is a "Jeannie's" in Bar Harbor, and they have "bearylicious great Maine breakfasts"! I had my favorite...a breakfast burrito, and man, was it delicious! It had homemade salsa on it...Yum!  (I swear, she's part Hispanic, as much as she loves Mexican food! says E.)

We saw this truck outside the restaurant...Boy, have those guys come a long way! (An obscure reference to an old TV show called "Sanford and Son")...I liked that show....

We walked around town for awhile.....admired the beautiful little park in the center of town that overlooks the harbor...

We checked out the price of lobster, which is still high at this particular restaurant. That's surprising, because the lobster catch is plentiful around here, and local talk is about how to get more people to eat lobster, as the supply well exceeds the demand! There are some fantastic lobster dinner specials at the "lobster pound" local eateries spread out all over town. We've seen a soft shelled lobster dinner can be had for about 7.99 so we're going to make sure Eldy gets some lobster soon. But, for now, this restaurant is not worrying about their pricing.

Bar Harbor has some really cool restaurants and shops that are fun to go into and walk around...Sparky got a pressed penny for her collection, which she missed the first time here at Bar Harbor.

We walked down onto the docks, past this open window...It reminded me of old TV shows where kids would sneak a hot pie cooling off an open window. The Andy Griffith Show, maybe?

Two years ago, we ate at another Grumpy's, on another part of Mount Desert Island at one of the small harbors. I remember they had a fantastic breakfast served outside the little harbor. It was wonderful! We checked out the whale sightings on the whale boat tour. Sparky LOVES seeing the whales and never gets tired of going to look for them. Not one of the cheaper touristy things to do, but there might come a day where you don't see whales any more, so why not see them every chance you can!?

Later in the day, we went over to Acadia and drove around getting more information about carriage tours of the bridges, and hiking trails. Here's an entrance to one of the carriage roads.

And one of the many bridges....

We're gonna get off our duffs soon, and start hiking and biking. The carriage roads were very crowded today with cyclists, and it was the hottest day so far since we've been here, so we're gonna wait for the weather to cool down tomorrow and maybe get a hike in...Or not!  Sparky stopped off at the visitor's center at Acadia and got her lifetime "Golden Age"/ senior pass. It enables you to get in FREE to most national parks, national forests, recreation areas and monuments. It's the best deal going for seniors and NOBODY should pass this up for a one-time processing fee of 10.00.  You also get a 50% fee reduction for federal fees charged for camping, boating, swimming, and tours and other stuff. Fantastic!

sure don't feel like 62, at least not today!

For dinner tonight, Eldy took me to Jack Russell's Steakhouse and Brewert, a great little restaurant with a pub atmosphere and handcrafted ales....I had a wonderful steak dinner, served with garlic mashed potatoes, with my first clam chowder in Maine...It was terrific! And, I had my very favorite dessert, we seldom eat desserts, but if CREME BRULEE is on the  menu, I'm gonna eat it! And I did, all by myself!

Eldy really liked his steak dinner as well....What a wonderful 62nd birthday I had! But I will say that as the years go by, I'm probably not going to be looking forward to birthdays as much, but who knows? As you get lots older, birthdays are about the only thing you can celebrate--that you are still here for another year! ....Time to go home and rest up for a fun day tomorrow....some hiking and biking..(BOTH???!!!! Woman, you're going to kill me! says E.) OK, one OR the other.... Buy for now......

Acadia National Park Day I

Trenton, Maine  Narrows Too RV Park   High: 69  Low: 62

It's a foggy day, we love foggy days on the ocean! We went driving in the car today on the Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park. Every once in awhile, we got out to check out the view. WOW!

No real hiking today...We just got to our RV park yesterday, so we just wanted to drive through Acadia, get some information at the visitor's center, and plan our stay here....

The geological formations in the cliffs are amazing....the fissures, the regular, almost geometrical incisions crisscrossing each other in the rocks....This type of formation is called Ellsworth Schist. It's the oldest rock exposed on Mount Desert Island.

We clambered all over the rocks....And sat and admired the view....

And watched the gulls fly and land.....

And admired the pretty wildflowers growing in the cliffs.....

And checked out the wonderful sculptures on the College of the Atlantic campus on the way back home......Aren't these cool? Sparky just happened to look out the window and see the first one. A student stopped to tell her there were two more up the road into the college campus, so here they are, they look like they are made out of rusted rebar and other rods?....

And that was our day! Tomorrow is Sparky's very special 62nd birthday....Celebrate, celebrate, dance to the music!

At Last, Acadia!

Trenton, Maine   High: 73  Low: 64

Two years ago, we came to Bar Harbor, our first destination after leaving Indiana, starting full timing in June, 2010. We headed straight for Maine, then worked our way across the northern states and headed out west. We spent almost a week at Smuggler's Den in the Bar Harbor area to explore Acadia National Park. The cost this year at Smuggler's Den is anywhere from 45.00 on up. Prices for a big rig in the Bar Harbor area average 50.00 a night and up. We liked the campground, but looked for something cheaper this time around. And actually, we went and looked at Smuggler's Den again today, and it's not as easy for a big rig to get into and around in there, even though we did it two years ago in a 38 foot Damon Challenger. Tight turns, narrow lots, lots of tree roots. The pool is really tiny.

So-o-o-...we're taking advantage of two Encore park specials in the Bar Harbor area that we saw in Trailblazer magazine that are available to Thousand Trails members. The first one is for 199.00 for one week plus a 3.00 a day resort fee, plus taxes to stay at Narrows Too, in Trenton, Maine, just across the river from Mt. Desert Island where Acadia National Park is located. The second week in the area we will be spending at Mt. Desert Narrows Campground which is just on the other side of the bridge ON Mt. Desert Island and the price for that week is 99.00. Woo-hoo! Now THAT is a great deal! We'll tell you more about our parks as we go through our days in them.

Typical site at Narrows Too

We are at Narrows Too campground in Trenton, ME this week. We have 50 amp, full hookup, and great cable. Wi-fi is extra. Since we came in on a special, we don't have a choice of site, they put you in the least expensive, least pretty view of the campground, as a rule. We started out being placed on a site facing the busy two lane highway, highway 3 East. We really didn't want to be right out there by the road, so Sparky sweet talked her way a little further into the campground. It helped that one of the park's workers, at the front desk, was a gal we met at a South Carolina campground one night and we chatted away about full timing and the fact that they were heading to Bar Harbor, ME for the summer. And here she was, working the front desk! So she kindly moved us away from the street. The gravel sites are level, there is ample room between them in some of the sections, in others it's a little more crowded, like where we are.

There's a lower level with sites that have some wonderful views of the ocean, and there's a small pool for swimming. There's very little shade in the park, so it's a good thing temperatures are coming down the two weeks we are in the area.

primo site--ocean view at Narrows Too-100.00 a nite!

We are in what I would call the "secondary section" of the campground, a little area where there are mostly seasonals. The view isn't so hot, it has a "rally round the campfire" feel to it, like a wagon train circle. All our noses of our rigs point towards each other. It's kind of isolated from the rest of the park by a ring of bushes and trees, obscuring any possible view of the ocean. We are surrounded by seasonals and hardly any live bodies are in this section except us, but that's ok. We're going to be out and about exploring Acadia, checking out the restaurants in Bar Harbor that we remember from last time, and going on some hikes. Eldy has to earn some points for all the cooking I did with the grandkids, initiating and supervising the blog they wrote, entertaining them with activities, and refereeing sibling squabbles for two weeks. He's off to a great start, having brought me to one of my favorite national parks, Acadia for my 62nd birthday, July 18th. And we'll see you there tomorrow!

An Alarming Morning

Scarborough, ME  High: 80  Low: 64

We are going to spend at LEAST several weeks in Maine, at least that's Sparky's secret plan. (HA! Not  a secret any more, exclaims Eldo.) Right! He likes Maine, too...and we have till the middle of September before we have to be in Michigan. We're gonna moose hunt...we're gonna eat CHOWDAH! We're gonna whale watch....(Again?! sighs E.) Sparky never gets tired of whale watching. This is gonna be GREAT! Temperatures are better, the scenery is fantastic....it's just gonna be a terrific July and August, with temperatures cooler than the rest of the country, we hope!

This morning, we got up after boondocking the night at Cabelas, and all of a sudden, the carbon monoxide/propane detector went off with that piercing, piercing shrieking beep! We scurried around opening windows and checking the stove. Last time the darn thing went off, the stove knob had been bumped, allowing a tiny bit of gas to permeate the living room and setting the alarm off. We don't do the drastic, turn off the propane outside solution until we've hurried up to open windows first. If the alarm goes off, then we problem solve to see if we can find a logical explanation in the house for the alarm before shutting down the propane entirely. Now, we are a little confused. We thought it was just a propane detector monitor on the floor by the kitchen sink, it's not. It's a dual detector, carbon monoxide and propane, but we're not sure how you know which gas is setting it off. We'll have to look at the manual to see the difference. In the meantime, we opened up the windows and the alarm stayed off. Whew!

A few minutes later, it started up again...what the heck?!!!!! There's a semi right next to us. He's been running his generator all night. We started wondering if his exhaust fumes are seeping through into our rig. Sparky read a scary story a few months ago, about some people dying from carbon monoxide fumes in a motorhome from having fumes from a very close neighbor get sucked into their vent system, which had been modified somehow to be more esthetically pleasing. They had changed the design of the exhaust system and done something to the pipe. Can't remember exactly what they did. During the night, the pipe sucked in the gases from their next door neighbor, and in the morning, they were dead. Sparky didn't sleep well last night worrying about that. And she did wake up this morning with a slight headache. We had all our windows closed last night, and no fans going, but this  morning, the bathroom window was opened for awhile, which is right across from the semi which is about eight feet from us.

After the alarm went off twice, Eldy remembered that the bathroom window was open. We closed it, and the alarm never went off again. Wow....it's a great thing to have that little detector, even if it is annoying and alarming to hear it go off!  Guess we had our own little monthly unplanned monitor test this morning! Sparky got down on the floor to try and read the monitor lights and tiny print that tells what the lights mean, but couldn't see it with the slides in and not enough light. She did see that "red/red, green/green" means "end of life during alarm--move to fresh air, call 911". Not sure what red/red, green/green  means when there are only two light indicators. Homework later today! CHECK YOUR DETECTORS, DO A TEST, PLEASE!  We know the smoke/fire detector works because whenever Eldy makes popcorn, it goes off, just because of the heat output. :-)

We left at 8:30 AM this morning for Bar Harbor, about 169 miles to drive...we'll see you there!

P.S. Does anybody know how to reset a Verizon Mi-fi card with a new password and new network name? Various directions on the internet say to type in "192.168.1.1" and you should get to your admin  page for your device, but I've tried it with the http:// in front and without in the browser address line, and I get a "you are not authorized to view this page" type of message. I'm stuck! And don't really want  to spend hours on the Verizon support line trying to get the right department and a person who speaks clear English to figure it out. Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you.

A Hitch in Our "Itch"

East Stroudsburg, PA  High: 84   Low: 69

The last night the kids were here, I was looking around for my special effects flame coloring sticks for the campfire, opening all the bays, looking for places and things we have moved around in several different organization attempts. The last bay I looked in was the battery bay...wrong place to look, but it turned out to be a blessing that I did. As I opened the door, the heavy battery tray rolled out slowly. I went to push it in, it rolled out slowly again. HUNH? When you push the tray firmly, it is supposed to LATCH and stay securely in all the way. The darn tray just kept rolling back out.

"Uh, Eldy? C'mere....I can't get the battery tray to stay in." He came around, looked at it, couldn't get it to stay shut either. Something was wrong. Brian, Eldy's son, took a look at it, and together, they figured out that a weld had broken, the one that holds the latching mechanism. That tray was destined to keep rolling back and forth on the highway with every pitch and roll of the rig, banging against the bay door. As heavy as the tray is, holding six house batteries, the only thing holding these babies back is the bay door. We cannot be driving down the road without that tray secure! Eldy had visions of the battery tray banging against the door repeatedly and eventually knocking it open.

So the guys worked and worked to try and figure out a way to contain the battery tray until we can get somewhere to have the bracket welded again. They took wood shims and jammed several different sized pieces into the tray rollout slides with a hammer. It's gonna be a BEAR to get the tray out when it comes time to fix it, but at least we don't have to worry about the tray breaking loose out of the motorhome! But now, we can't check the battery levels, either! So that's going to have to be a repair done soon.

For some reason, today was full of little glitches and just not as smooth sailing as normal departures are. Full timers know how that goes. Sometimes you forget little things that you ALWAYS do before you leave, like put in the little front door awning before pulling out of the campground. (Ask Sparky why she picked that particular example! says E.) No, ask Eldo! :-) Or you forget to make sure your Fantastic Fans are down and the vents closed, or you pull into a gas station for fuel and it's just one problem after another. Like today....We hooked up the car, but realized shortly after leaving, that the only way to really leave Timothy Lake to get back to the main interstate heading north, was going through the little burg of Milford, with the 209 north detour. It's a really small town with construction going on, and Eldy remembered a tight turn. We decided to unhook the car and head through separately, then join back up at a Walmart parking lot just before getting on the interstate. That worked out ok, but took time. (Sparky just HAD to stop in Walmart to get a couple of things, or WE'D HAVE BEEN OUT ON THE ROAD SOONER! says a slightly aggravated E.)

We pulled into the Valero truck stop/gas station at exit 1 in Massaschusetts and we had a dickens of a time trying to get the Indian guy to understand that we wanted our big fuel bill split into two separate transactions on two different cards. He spoke very little English. At that particular truck stop, the attendants have to pump the truck fuel side. He started to fuel the tank on one side of the rig, then went over to the OTHER side of the rig to start a second fuel pump. Ah, NOPE, buddy! That's not what we want to do.... We don't have two fuel tanks and we didn't think it was a good idea to run diesel through both sides of the rig at the SAME time into ONE tank. We finally got out of there. It was a bad exit, tough to get in and out with construction going on in the area. Back on the road we went. ome of the roads were really rough today....I-84 wasn't so bad...I-495 around Boston, I-495 was BAD..We rattled so badly and things moved around so much, we are sure something is broken, somewhere...At one point, we were 54 miles out from Boston. HEY, RICH!--A shout out to my brother, Rich! He lives in Lexington, but no time to stop today...we're on a deadline to get to Bar Harbor, Maine by Tuesday evening. It's not easy going through New England towns with a 40 foot motorhome and tow behind. From I-495, on to I-95 north. We traveled through and under some cool bridges...

We saw some terrific scenery....just heading into New York, we went through Hartford, CT and saw some amazing insurance buildings from the highway....Aren't they the "insurance capital" of the U.S.?

And we stopped at a terrific welcome center in Kittery, Maine so Sparky could stock up on her brochures for the state of Maine. There was a TON of information there, and Sparky came out with a bag FULL of stuff. (It's like Christmas to her, picking out all the cool brochures, maps, and things to do in the area, don'tcha know? explains E. It's a good thing we recycle wherever we can!)

Don't be doin' no barrel pickin' now in Maine, ya hear?

Construction, stupid drivers coming off entrance lanes to the highway crawling along into our lane, forcing us to hit the brakes, drivers zipping across lanes at toll booths to cut suddenly in front of us, narrow toll booths...geesh!  It was tough driving today--for Eldo!  We had tolls since we were on I-95 today, one at the Hamilton Fish Bridge for 10 bucks (!) , another one in Massachusetts for 3.15, one for 5.00 in New Hampshire, one for 7.00 in Maine, and THREE  at the SAME toll booth at 3.50 in Maine. We pulled off the toll road the first time through to check a campground we thought honored the Passport America rate. Their P.A. rate would have been 25.00 which is high, but under our budget for campgrounds. But they don't honor the rate during June, July, and August, and we had practically arrived there before we were able to find that out. Back on the toll road we went AGAIN. We had given up trying to find a decently priced campground along I-95, when we saw a Cabelas along the way. We missed the exit to Cabelas the first time, so back on the toll road we came trying to find a way to Cabelas. Of course we had to pay to come through the toll booth again. We missed the exit a second time, had to get off the toll road, re-enter and come through the toll booth again. Three times we paid the SAME guy because it was the widest lane we could get through. "Hi, it's us again...." The toll booth guy smiles a big smile, having collected three times, sucka!....sigh!

Sparky wanted to plead our case to the toll booth attendant about getting lost (she's good at explaining THAT, E. says) but Eldy insisted that the toll guy wouldn't cut us a break. Well, heck, Sparky is pretty good at getting refunds and getting people's sympathy, but Eldy was very frustrated and wanting to get off the road, so Sparky bit her tongue. The guy smiled sympathetically at Eldy's explanation, but we still had to pay. Phooey!

So here we are, eight hours later, about 370 miles later (a few extra we didn't need), at Cabelas, boondocking with a bunch of truckers...Very few RV's, mostly trucks. Cabelas has NO hookups, but they do have water for your tank and a dump, which is nice if you need it. You don't put your slides out, or your jacks down, that's a no-no when dry camping or "boondocking" in a public place nice enough to let you spend the night.

WE SET A RECORD, (for us) for the MOST number of states traveled in one day in our motorhome--7 states--Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine and for the most number of tolls, again, two too many. Arrrrrggggghhh! BUT--Sparky saw her first moose sign--"WATCH FOR MOOSE IN THE ROADWAY"...She's excited!

(Sparky, time to quit writing. You've had enough root beer to keep you up all night! warns Eldo.) There's a Portland Pie Company restaurant/pub/brewery in the same shopping complex as Cabelas (exit 42 off I-95 on the Maine Turnpike)  Pie, as in pizza pie, it was a great finish to a long and tiring day. Eldo had beer, Sparky had LOTS of root beer. Enough said. We're beat, so we're going to go to SLEEP! Nitey nite!

Bye-Bye Timothy Lake South, PA

East Stroudsburg, PA  High: 85  Low: 70  Yes, my birthday has come and gone. Thanks for the birthday wishes! We've been doing so much the blog is about five days behind where we REALLY are. I took the weather widget out so that the actual weather and temps will be inside the blog and reflect the temps we experienced while we were there.

We really going to miss Timothy Lake South Campground in East Stroudsburg, PA. Sparky is going to put in a plug one more time for this great spot..kind of a hidden gem, because they aren't one of the more busy campgrounds in the area. This was one of the prettiest, forested campgrounds we have stayed in. We are Thousand Trails members, but anybody can stay here if they wanted to--travel travelers, fifth wheels...It's also a Passport America park so that helps non-Thousand Trails members, too.

site #66, most have grills, too!

It's a natural setting..a little off the beaten path, but the campground is clean, well taken care of, nice size pool, a little camp store, laundry, nice, friendly staff...fire pits and picnic tables at each site. Plenty of room for big rigs, and plenty of room between neighbors...

typical site

You could be out in the open on the perimeter of the grounds, or in the middle where the shade was...the atmosphere was just really really nice....This place is a wonderful place for families--great playground and pool deck with shade and with the free water park up at the north Timothy Lake Campground, it's just an added bonus. We had 50 amp hookups, no wi-fi provided by the campground, but our Verizon mi-fi worked decently with one to two bars, and cable, we really had everything we needed. The streets throughout the campground are paved, which made for some nice early morning and dusk campground rides.

another site in the middle of the campground

There's lots to see in the area as far as nature, with the Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area nearby...whitewater rafting is available on the Upper Delaware, you can canoe and kayak on the Delware River, there's plenty of hiking in the recreational area...not much in the way of shopping, but hey, it's the Poconos! Nearest grocery store is about seven miles from the campground. There are some neat little towns in the Poconos to explore while you are staying in the area.

Papa and Cate exploring......

And the highlight was seeing the deer at dusk.....We'll definitely come back to stay here again....

Waiting for Mom and Dad.....

East Stroudsburg, PA  High: 85  Low: 68

The kids got up, ate breakfast which was Grandma Sparky's specialty--homemade Egg Muffin sandwiches--Bay's English muffins, sliced cheese, Canadian bacon, and and beaten egg cooked in a little gadget that makes the egg fit perfectly on a round English muffin. Got it at Camping World. You could do the same thing in a custard dish, I suppose, but Sparky likes gadgets that make cooking a little more fun. (Now if she would just use HALF the gadgets she's gotten, we'd save a TON on eating out! There's that slicer and dicer we picked up at the Monday morning flea market in Webster, Fl., there's the---) Ah, yes, Sparky is not fond of cooking....But every once in awhile, she comes through with a nice meal. We actually have been eating at home more out of necessity, because everybody knows, eating out is a budget killer! Unless you work to find specials, share a meal, etc., which we do. But with the grandkids here, Sparky rose to the challenge and cooked a BUNCH!

Trevor and his Friendly's Vol-cono sundae

The kids worked on their blog, then waited anxiously for word when their mom and dad were going to arrive. Their parents were going to spend the night in Ohio, and had a TERRIBLE experience. They ended up having to leave their motel and drove all night. The kids have talked about Friendly's so much, the parents are interested in eating out there! Maybe another trip is in order this evening. A family of four can eat at Friendly's and have an entire meal, drinks and a nice dessert for under 30.00. The grandkids love Friendy's because of the ice cream. The food is decent, too.

Sparky and the kids have been walking the campgrounds every evening around dusk, watching for the deer. More campers have come in, and some noisy ones at that, so the deer are not as visible the last two days. But Sparky was out riding her bike last night, about twenty minutes before sunset, and came upon a doe, nursing her TWO fawns at the same time. Sparky almost missed it, but heard the slurping sounds of the young ones noisily feeding, looked over to her left and there they were right by the side of the road! The only camera she had was her iphone so the photo is fuzzy. But it was a special sight, and Sparky is glad she got to see it.

another sighting on another evening

We waited, and waited....Brian, Eldy's son, would text and tell us how far they were....Finally, here they were!

Cate and her dad

Tried to get a photo of Trevor hugging on his mom but everything all happened so fast! Trevor said, "Mommy, I am never letting go of you ever again!" And he clung to her like a monkey wrapped around a pole! The kids were wired...lots of catching up to do...

We headed over to the waterslide for one more family fun outing,

Brian--Eldy's son, and Eldy a.k.a. "Eldo"

then to Friendly's for one last favorite meal of burgers, ice cream and special drinks.

We did our last deer watching for the grandkids, and Trevor got very up close and personal with a doe! Some residents here put out corn for the deer...not supposed to, but they do. This particular campground has NO signs about not feeding the wildlife, so people think it's ok. One of the does lets you get within touching distance of her. Her skittish fawn wisely kept away....That was surprising to see that when the mother allowed human contact, the baby still stayed away...

"Papa, is this what they mean about 'deer in the headlights' look?" wonders Trevor....

We decided to have a campfire for everybody...Sparky hasn't had one in months! (FINALLY! We've been carrying wood around in the car and in the rig bay for a LONG time!) Sparky LOVES campfires and got out the rainbow sticks to add some color. These are cylinder tubes with chemicals that react with heat to make pretty colors. You can do the same thing with a piece of copper tubing placed inside a short cut up section of RUBBER hose and let the hose piece burn in the fire. The copper tubing is re-usable over and over. Cate and Trevor thought that was cool.

At 10:00 PM, it was time to call it a night...we said our goodbyes and the kids piled into the car to head back to their motel, they leave tomorrow morning for Indiana. It was great having the grandkids, but it was EXHAUSTING!  Tomorrow is a quiet day, a REALLY QUIET day..we'll get our laundry done, clean house, and plan our trip towards Bar Harbor, Maine, where Sparky is going to spend her 62nd birthday July 18th! IF--there's availability at the Encore park at Mt. Desert Narrows in Bar Harbor, so we'll see! Encore parks offer some good discounts to Thousand Trails members. We are going to stay at one Encore park for 99.00 a week, and the other one for 199.00 a week. More about that later....