Bill and Cathy McArthur Summer/Fall 2004: 11

   The Fall weather was punctuated by visits by the remnants of hurricanes Ivan and Jeanne. Our friend Howie Bell from Connecticut visited for some Fall birding and brought some glorious Fall weather with him. We took our RV for our third annual Fall trip to Maine during September 30 to October 8. On Thursday we began with breakfast at Avalon Coffee and Bagels in Rio Grande. We had intended to drive as far as Sturbridge, Massachusetts, but we decided to push on to Wells, Maine where we pulled into a campsite at Riverside Campground at about 8:00 PM. We had picked up hoagies on our way through Wells. The campground was kind of run-down, but we enjoyed the ability to watch the first presidential debate at 9:00 PM due to the campsite's cable TV connection. On Friday, we parked in the pay lot at Ogunquit Beach; the woman attendant said that they normally don't accept RVs, but she would let us in because they didn't expect much of a crowd that day. She was very nice and we tipped her $5 for her friendliness. We walked over to Perkins Cove and ate lobster rolls at Barnacle Billies in the outside eating area. After lunch, we walked along Shore Drive to Cape Neddick. It was a beautiful day and a very pleasant walk of about 10 total miles. After the walk, we sat in the RV for a while, looked at the ocean, and ran our furnace for a half hour in order to burn the paint off of the parts. After we returned to the campground, we walked out to Route 1 to eat at one of the nearby restaurants. On Saturday, we took a bike ride over to the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge and walked on the Nature Trail and enjoyed the salt marsh environs. Then we rode to Kennebunk before turning around and riding back to the Wells shopping center to return a DVD and to browse at the Lighthouse Depot and a weathervane shop. We ate lunch in the RV and then took a walk down Route 1. We ate dinner at the campsite. On Sunday morning, we left the campground early and ate a good breakfast at the Maine Diner just outside the campground gate. We drove to Auburn to visit and eat lunch with Bill's brother Bob and niece Julie. We left in early afternoon and drove to the Narrows Campground near Bar Harbor. This is a clean, well-landscaped campground which we enjoyed very much the short amount of time we were actually in the campground. We had discovered in Wells that it was very convenient to drive the RV anywhere we wanted to during the day and return to the campground sometime in the evening. We spent all of our days on Mt. Desert Island in that mode. After settling into our campsite, we drove to Bar Harbor, parked, and walked to a very ordinary restaurant for dinner. After breakfast on Monday, we drove into Acadia National Park and parked at Sand Beach. Bill hiked a mile down the road and climbed the Precipice Trail to the top of Mount Champlain in the fog. Bill continued down via the Beehive Trail. Meanwhile, Cathy hiked the Ocean and Great Head trails and arrived back at the RV just before Bill did. We ate lunch in the RV at Sand Beach and then drove to Jordan Pond to walk the perimeter trail. We used our grill to cook dinner back at the campsite, where the temperature dropped to 30 degrees Fahrenheit overnight. On Tuesday, we did some shopping at the supermarket in Bar Harbor and then hiked the Ladder Trail up Dorr Mountain. It was sunny, but chilly, so we kept taking off and putting on layers of clothing during different parts of the hike. We came down the mountain on the South Ridge and Cannonbrook trails. We drove over to Seal Cove and ate lunch with a beautiful view of the harbor. We returned to Jordan Pond to browse the gift shop and then drove to Bar Harbor. We stopped in at the Opera House Coffee Shop for beverages and Internet access. We did some browsing in the stores in town and then walked up Cottage Street to eat a great meal at the Bluefish Cafe. On Wednesday, we packed a lunch and hiked up Cadillac Mountain on the South Ridge Trail. We found a rock to block the wind at the summit and enjoyed a picnic with a great view. After lunch we enjoyed hot drinks in the snack bar before heading down the trail again. The views were spectacular on this very clear day. We drove to Bar Harbor and parked with a view of the water. Cathy read and rested while Bill took a shower. Then Bill took a couple of mile walk along the harbor's edge. As the sun went down, we walked to a wonderful vegetarian restaurant, Eden. We had excellent, flavorful meals. We arrived back at the campsite in time to watch the Vice-Presidential debate on TV. On Thursday morning, we filled our fresh water tank and dumped our waste tanks and put the bikes on the back. We got on the road by 7:30 PM and stopped at a good breakfast restaurant just off of the island. The day was beautiful for driving and traffic was light as we headed south. We ate lunch in a rest area near Kittery, Maine. We finally called it a day at the last service area of the NY Thruway I87. We pulled up along a fence in a row of trucks and settled in. We cooked dinner with the aid of the generator to run the convection oven and microwave. Then Bill took a hot shower. We read for a while and then turned in by 10:00 PM. There was a lot of truck noise, but we slept well enough overnight and the price was right ($0.00). On Friday morning we stopped for breakfast on NY 17 and then headed south with a lot of NYC commuter traffic. We decided to head West on I80 to escape from the heavy traffic and ultimately got onto US 202. Since we were going to pass within a couple of blocks of Katie and Tom's house, we decided to stop by and leave our solar frog on their front porch as a "hello." We drove on to Alex and Phil's house after a stop at a Starbucks on US 309. We arrived in time for lunch. We had a nice visit with everyone at the Stoops household and Katie and Tom stopped over on Saturday night. We headed home on Sunday morning.

        Bill and Cathy