Entering Bucket List Territory

For decades, Maine and the Maritime Provinces have been on our bucket list, and we’re finally gonna get there! But first, we needed a little break and a taste of New Hampshire.

July 26-28: New Hampshire

From the Cape we headed to Deerfield, New Hampshire. Why, you ask? Primarily because we found a nice-looking, reasonably-priced Airbnb, and we both had plenty of computer work and video meetings and whatnot to make holing up in another AirBnB a good idea. And that’s pretty much what we did. Not too much to report during this time, other than we found this sweet little farm/brewery to visit.

July 29-31: The Ledges at Leeds!

Crossing into Maine we find ourselves in an interesting place. We picked this one on HipCamp because it promoted a community area and nice showers. It was quite a bit off the beaten path (near Leeds, which is a little north of Lewiston), and when we arrived it was raining. We couldn’t find anyone to meet us, so we parked our camper right by the shared common space. Later we were met by someone, and when we asked where we should properly park the camper, she shrugged, and so we stayed right there.

As we walked around the grounds, it became clear that this area was designed as some sort of music/event venue. The common area had a loft-lounge, and was wired for sound. There was another area with a kind of amphitheater and stage, as well. Later exploring would reveal, within a short walk, a lakeside beach area with a tiki-themed shelter, and a shed full of windsurfers. A walk up a trail system along the mountain in the other direction (the “Ledges”) opened to a great vista and a half-finished deck.

We learned over the course of our stay that all this was the vision of Tim. He and his siblings had grown up here, and now retired, he was building a kind of playground for musicians and travelers. Tragically, he died of a heart attack, while working on his dream, just two months prior to our arrival. His family was clearly still in shock, but making a go of keeping the place viable. This would be such a fun space to bring a bunch of musicians to camp and hang out for a week.

We spent a couple fun days exploring the small towns nearby, and had a glorious afternoon borrowing paddleboards and floating on Androscoggin Lake.

August 1-8: Acadia National Park

We head to a place on Kayla’s Bucket List. Like all National Parks, this one is busy. As we roll into town on Saturday afternoon, we are backed up in traffic behind a stoplight, and make the mistake of turning into the heart of Bar Harbor with our trailer in tow. It is solid traffic, tight turns, and people crossing the street any which-way. It took some time to navigate four blocks and get back on our way. We resolve to visit this place on a quieter day.

Smugglers Den campground is on the “quiet” side of Acadia NP, and is just lovely. Because it is Maine, the campground office has a live lobster tank and will let you borrow a steamer to cook ’em. We are set in the trees, but bordering the playground, which allows us endless hours of observing kid dynamics.

This is still a period where we both have some hefty work obligations, plus there are a couple days of heavy rain while we’re here, but we make the best of it, and make sure to have at least one or two adventures a day.

National Parks are busy (did we mention that?). Many of the popular places in the park have long lines of cars parked along the road, and long lines of people, some weary, some exuberant, moving through the scenery. Plus plenty of 20-somethings more focused on getting their Insta just right than becoming One With Nature. Still, if one explores the edges of even these busy places, there is solace. It also helps to come to these places outside of regular visiting hours. We take in a few popular views and bike trails during the early evening hours when everyone is waiting in line for a table at some seafood place, and enjoy spaces mostly to ourselves.

One of the big features of Acadia NP are the Carriage Roads. The Rockefeller family owned this land, and apparently they weren’t fans of automobiles. So, they had roads built all over the place specifically for horse-drawn carriages. Now these Carriage Roads are exclusively for bicyclists and walkers. They are very well maintained, and we enjoyed many hours of biking along side-by-side.

We had been admonished by friends that we must have a lobster roll while we are here. Matthew thought that these rolls were something like an egg roll filled with meat, or like a lobster salad (you know, heavy on the mayo, light on the meat) … neither of which was super-appealing. You see roadside shacks (called “Lobster Pounds”) advertising these things everywhere. We ate lobster in other ways, but held off on the roll for a long time. We gradually come to understand that it’s really much more lobster than anything else, accented with lemon and/or butter and perhaps SOME mayo. And so, on our last day as we were heading to the ferry that would take us to Nova Scotia (spoiler alert), we did indeed have a lobster roll. And it was, in fact, delicious. And whoo-boy expensive! And yes, we’ll have at least one more during our maritime travels.

In the next installment, we head to Canada just in time for a Trade War!