The Ray Adventures: Niagara Falls, Watertown, N.Y. Shelburn Vt. Littletown NH & Bar Harbor Me.

220 foot Ticonderoga

Our tour guide at Ben and Jerry's

Who is Ben and who is Jerry?

The second ice cream mobile, the first one burned, they traveled around selling ice cream in this in the early years

The flavor graveyard

Covered bridge in Littletown NH

Gary's decadent lobster mac and cheese bake

Fort Knox from restaurant

Penobscot Observatory Bridge from restaurant

A very busy week for us, we didn't spend much time in Vermont or New Hampshire, will have to come back someday. The weather has been pretty hot and humid except for an occasional rainy day.

Thursday, July 9, Woke up to rain on the roof, it was forecast to rain all day. I worked on our itinerary and blog while Gary and Luci went in search of parts to replace the scorched wires. It stopped raining about 2:00, it was warm and muggy the rest of the day. We packed up our outside stuff for our departure in the morning. We had a nice visit with our neighbors Chang and Jim from Vancouver, Wa., they are on the same trek as us except they plan to winter in Florida.

Friday, July 10 We left 4 Mile Creek CG about 10 for our 215 mile drive to Watertown NY Wal-Mart, arriving about 3. We fueled up before parking then settled in for the night. I went to a strip mall close by to get a pedicure, it always feels so good, picked up a few groceries before hitting the sack.   When we went to bed there were about 5 other RV's, when we got up and looked out, you'd think we were in a used RV and boat sales lot, there must have been 15 rigs.

Saturday, July 11 We left for Vermont about 9 for our 185 mile drive to Shelburn, Vermont. We drove along secondary roads, lots of pretty countryside but the roads were rough and curvy, up into the Adirondack Mountains. Our timing was perfect, we arrived in Lake Placid Olympic Jumping Complex, a year round training facility, fifteen minutes before the "show" was set to start. During the summer athletes launch off ski jumps into a 750,000 gallon aerated pool, the bubbles make the landing softer. For about a half hour we watched kids from about 8 & up to Olympic athletes train. The little ones were fun to watch, I'd be nervous if it was one of mine flying down the ramp twisting and turning then landing in the pool. The grand finale was ten jumpers at once, staggered to avoid injury. After the aerial show we watched Olympic athletes come down 90-120 meter ski jumps. We rode the ski lift up to the top to watch them whiz by just before they leat into the air on plastic matting used to simulate snow. We felt we had to hurry to Essex, NY to catch the ferry across Lake Champlain to Charlotte, Vt., we weren't too sure what time the last one left, it would have been a long drive around the lake or drive up north to catch another ferry that cost $95.00. We didn't make many friends in Essex, (1) the street to the ferry didn't quite look right, I got out of the coach to ask if they could take a rig our size, back up #1;(2) The cost to cross the lake is $44.25 for a rig our size, we seldom carry much cash, choosing to use debit cards, we were short $1.25, it was either cash or a local check. I had to go clear in the back to our piggy bank to round up they money, cars were stacking up behind us back up #2;(3) We were directed on the ferry right next to the wheel house, told to get as close to the car in front of us as possible, one of the cars in the next lane was parked right on the line, we had to get him to move over, we had about 2 inches on both sides. Again cars and other RV's were waiting for us.   Whew, we finally made it to Charlotte, about a 30 minute ride. Back up #3. We finally made it to Shelburn at 4:45. We squeezed into our space and had a much needed adult beverage. The temperatures were in the 80's with high humidity. I'm beginning to think New England is too "small" for a rig our size.

Sunday, July 12 On our way to the campground from the ferry we went past Shelburn Museum. 45 acres consisting of several galleries, 25 historic structures moved there, a 220 ft. sidwheeler steam boat, a lighthouse, a 2 lane covered bridge, locomotive, private railcar and a carousel, plus much, much more. To bring the Ticonderoga to the museum grounds they moved it 2 miles from the lake in the dead of winter, because the ground had to be frozen hard to accomplish the feat. Elektra Havemayer, a wealthy collector, started the museum in 1947.

Monday, July 13 We left about 9:30 for our 100 mile drive to Littletown, NH Wal-Mart. We stopped in Waterbury, VT at Ben and Jerry's factory for the tour. A short movie gave us the history of how Ben and Jerry started their homemade ice cream business, a look at their production line then the best part, a sample. I forgot the name of the ice cream we sampled but it was delish! Caramel and chocolate. We stopped at the New Hampshire welcome center about noon"ish" then off to Wal-Mart. It was a lovely drive through the countryside, although it would have been more fun in a sports car.

Tuesday, July 14 We got an early start (8:00) for our trip to Bar Harbor, Maine, a long day, 240 miles, again through curvy secondary roads, arriving at Hadley's Point Campground about 2:45. Our space is nice and roomy on a grass field.    Pretty much crashed for the night.

Wednesday, July 15 We woke up to a heavy mist with showers forecast, almost a relief after the past few days of high humidity and temps. We heard on the news about a tall ship visiting the historic town of Castine, about 40 miles from here.  The frigate ship Hermoine was tied up in their harbor for a few days for tours. Since it was the last day we decided to brave the weather to see her. We took Luci along for the ride, we had to park about a mile away since Luci wasn't allowed on the shuttle, we hiked over the hill to the harbor, luckily the rain showers held off. The first settlement at Castine was in 1613 under the French, becoming American in 1783. It is the home of the Marine Academy, preparing students for careers in nautical and ocean sciences and many 18th and 19th century historic homes beautifully restored. In spite of the rain most of Maine crowded into the harbor to view and tour the tall ship. The original Hermoine was built in less than a year in 1779, the replica took 17 years to complete. We weren't able to tour the frigate, we got there about noon, the first available tour was at 5:00 so we bagged that idea and drove to Bucksport, another 20 miles to see what the Penobscot Narrows Bridge Observatory was. It's the most unusual looking bridge I've ever seen, 2,120 feet long over the Narrows, with a north and south obelisk. We entered the south tower at rivers edge, boarding the elevator for a 50 second ride to the 3 story glass-walled observation area. The view was amazing, Fort Knox, Bucksport, the Penobscot River and Narrows and bay. The view, to me, was what typical New England should look like, trees, hills and white steeples. Right next door to the bridge is Fort Knox, built in the 1840's. The fort was dog friendly (most aren't) so Luci got to go. Built between 1844 & 1869 made out of granite. Fort Knox has 2 batteries facing the river each equipped with a furnace to heat cannonballs hot enough to set wooden ships on fire. We drove back across the bridge to Bucksport for "linner" overlooking the bay, fort and bridge. Gary had decadent baked mac and cheese with lobster and I had grilled haddock and coleslaw. Yum, yum yum. On the way back to the coach we drove through the harbor front and downtown Bar Harbor. Wall to wall tourists, we couldn't have found a parking space if we'd wanted.

Thursday, July 16 We loaded Luci into the car for our visit to Acadia National Park, a pet friendly national park is very unusual. The park includes more than 54 square miles of Mount Desert Island, the largest rock-based island on the Atlantic Ocean. The elevations run from sea level up to 1,530 atop Cadillac Mountain. L.L. Bean sponsors shuttle buses, a hop on hop off type of tour all around the island, but we had Luci so we drove. We took the Park Loop Road, the highlight was the view from the top of Cadillac Mountain. Even with all the shuttle buses it was hard to find parking spaces, we headed down to Seal Harbor for lunch and called it a day. There was much more to see but we grew weary of the crowds and traffic. We took a little breather then headed to Bar Harbor's Adventure Golf. Quite a competitive game, I did win by 2 strokes. After my last game of mini golf when I was playing like Tiger Woods, this time more like Jordan Spechts (sp).

That's it for this week, enjoy the pic's. Sorry everything is scrambled, the laptop is having some technical difficulties. Not me this time

TTFN

Gary and Pam