Freeport, Maine

1. Now this is a boot
2. View from our campsite


September 2, Tuesday: Took our time checking out as we did not have far to travel today. Drove to Freeport by way of Hwy 1. Slow moving driving right up the coastline part of the way. Several seaport towns not sure these roads were build with 40ft RVs in mind. Turned off the hwy headed north on 205 towards the campground. These are the worst roads we have been on. Bob and Dorene, I really understand what you went through in Alaska. We saw a sign that said... Slow Frost Heaves...Oh My Gosh, they felt like the rig was shaking apart. We were barely moving. Then we ran out of pavement onto a dirt road. Did I forget to mention there was not a sign telling us about the end of pavement. Oh, fun, fun, fun. I was starting to think of California again. We still had 1 1/2 miles to the campground but it seemed like an eternity. This road had the washboard effect and let me tell you we felt every bump. Thank goodness when we reached our campground it was a blessing. It was tucked amongst tall trees with large sites. After Labor Day it really slows down so not very many people. Our site is all by itself. Very woodsy. Nice view when we sit out and feed the mosquitoes. Our host says this is the worst year they have had with mosquitoes. Too much rain this year and when it warmed up the mosquitoes came out with a vengeance. The weather station says we are 10 degrees above normal. It has been in the low 80s since we have been in Maine. Good for us and apparently really good for the mosquitoes.



Put on lots of mosquito repellent and sat outside. Getting pretty good at this relaxing stuff.



Good Night!







September 3, Wednesday: The reason we made a stop in Freeport was to go thru the LL Bean Store. We have always like the quality of their clothing and have ordered several things from them. Fun to finally see the store. Guess what? again we found some good quality clothes. Larry only went thru the check line 4 times. I thought I was done shopping then I found a couple of other things for Christmas. You know how that goes. Even if you don't buy anything, it is an amazing store to walk around. Walked around town seems all the major brands have an outlet here. Not being the best shoppers, we didn't leave very much money.



It had warmed up to 84 degrees so headed back on our washboard road to check on dogs. We usually leave the air conditioner on but it was cooler when we left. The inside of the rig was only 73 degrees because of all the trees I guess.



We thought about going out to dinner but the thought of going over that road was not worth it.



Besides time to load up and head out tomorrow for Bar Harbor.



Good Night!

Kennebunkport, Maine

1. Bush compound
2. The Funky Pub
3. We ate where the Bushs ate! They didn't ask us to sign the wall.
4. Cape Porpoise harbor




August 31, Sunday: OK, decided to brave the crowds and head into Kennebunkport. We drove through here about 10 years ago with the Emrichs. Loved it then and love it now. Drove out by the Peninsula to have a look at the Senior Bush compound. Lots of people off the side of the road. If you have never seen it it is really a great looking place to live. After we drove down the road, we headed back into Kennebunkport to walk around and have lunch. Larry was able to get a haircut even though it was Sunday. Found out George Sr. and George W. Bush have had haircuts there. At least that is what "they" say. Larry felt very priviledged. While talking to a local, she suggested driving up to Cape Porpoise to a local's joint for a late lunch. Nice drive and a fun place. Cape Porpoise is a small fishing village so we walked along the pier before heading into the funky pub to eat. Larry had a lobster roll which is advertised everywhere and I had fish & chips. This pub is under the main restaurant. It is decorated with all kinds of baseball memorabilia. When we walked in there were only 4 people when we left around 5pm it was full of locals who had been out on the water. Just our kind of fun place. I do believe we may have been the only tourist.







September 1, Monday: Happy Labor Day! For me this is a sorta sad day because I am not ready for summer to start coming to a close. Apparently Mother Nature agrees; it is beautiful today. Several of the cabins here are having block parties. Took the dogs for a long walk and discovered there is a Community College just down the road from us. Two ponds that have signs saying ice skate at your own risk. Don't plan on being here when the ponds ice over! Small campus but quietly elegant.



Tomorrow going to LL Bean Country!



Good Night!

Maine and Lobster!

August 29, Friday: Several warning signs about moose crossings. As we traveled through New Hampshire we were unable to see too much as the trees are very close to the road. Had a few tow roads because we wanted to get to Maine. Larry decided to stop reading the the cost because anyway he figured it out the toll taker figured more money. Total of all was $12.00. We did make it to Maine in 2 1/2 hours. We have decided these short trips are very nice. The "resort" we booked was $61.00 a night except for holidays then it is $71.00 a night. yep, it is Labor Day Week-end. But it is nice and close to Kennebunkport where we would like to spend some time exploring. Unfortunately, I am not sure the site is good for Larry. There is a 2009 Prevost in the site behind us. Larry has not stopped drooling since he set up.

We sat outside to relax again. Larry kept saying our pace would slow down once we arrived in Maine.

He caught up on our expense sheet:

States visited 18

Campgrounds 39

Diesel tanks 15

Gas tanks 10

MPG in RV 8.3 better now since no big mountains/major HWYS

Miles traveled 6421

Average expenses per day 159.51 (Larry still hoping to hit 150.00) (Good luck!)

Average eating out per day 21.45 (Don't eat out everyday)

I think we should head out for dinner. NOT had hors d ourves with a glass of wine.

Good Night!



August 30, Saturday: Decided with all the traffic in town we would hang out at the campground ground. Very nice place to hang out. Good news Wi-fi and satelite work. Hopefully get caught up on blog. This "resort" has several cabins which you can buy. The starting price is $75.00 with options added. This does not sound too bad except you can only use them from mid-May until mid-October. Many of the owners we talked to come from the Boston area.

Larry didn't lie... we sat outside a relaxed!

Good Night!

Marsh,Billings,,Rockefeller Mansion

1. Marsh, Billings, Rockefeller Mansion

2. Pond at entrance of Quechee Campground



August 27, Wednesday: Drove 6 miles into the town of Woodstock. I know you get tired of me saying ...how adorable these towns are but that is true they are so quaint. Great buildings! We went through Woodstock to find the Marsh, Billings, Rockefeller Mansion. We checked in at the Billings Farm & Museum to buy tickets for the farm and mansion. They are across the street from each other. Of course to get to the Mansion you have to walk up hill......now I am not complaining.........ok a little. Our first view was spectacular! The entire estate was given to the National Park Forestry Department, all 550 acres, in 1992. It was opened to the public in 1998. It was fascinating to us because the Rockefeller just walked out. Leaving it as though they would be back soon. The original owner was Charles Marsh, Sr. who gave it to his son, Charles, Jr. Marsh was one of the earliest people to manage natural resources. The next family was the Billings family. Frederick Billings grew up in the Woodstock area but went to the California Gold Rush and made his fortune as an attorney. Upon returning he bought the Mansion and made many changes to the structure. He also expanded the dairy farm hiring a Scotsman named Aiden. This allowed Billings to concentrate on forest development. Laurence Rockefeller married Billings' granddaughter Mary. Hence the Rockefeller part of the house. Lots of painting from this period. There are several hiking paths but we were unable to use them.




Walked around the dairy farm and saw a Jersey calf that was just two hours old. The 1890 house that the manager and his family lived in. It is a working non-profit organization. Very nice farm.




Now it is lunch time. Off to the Woodstock Inn to eat in the Red Rooster restaurant. Larry had lobster in a lite garlic tomato sauce and I had smoked cheddar, chicken, and roasted red pepper salad. Good! Good!




Found Bev's office to get our syrup. She had talked to her husband, Ted, who was nice enough to invite us out to see his operation of maple syrup. So went back fed and walked the dogs. Then back to follow Bev home. She lives 10 miles out of Woodstock and what a beautiful commute. I can only imagine what the hills look like doing the colors. What a production! It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. In a normal season they go through 65-70 chords of wood to cook the sap down. Can only guess at the total man hours. They have tubes tapped into the trees which then connect to tubing that goes into holding tanks. A much bigger operation than the pictures we have seen in the past where you hang a bucket under a hole in a tree. Larry and Ted talked about a lot more than I have put here.




We left their place about 8:30pm. Ted and Bev cannot thank you enough for the personalized tour. Hope to meet up again on the road with your fifth-wheel.




A very busy day!




Good Night!









August 28, Thursday: Quiet day. Doing everyday stuff and trying to recoup from yesterday.




Beautiful weather today for sitting outside and walking.




Moving on towards Maine tomorrow.




Good Night!

Woodstock, Vermont

1. They sold ice cream from this truck when they started.
2. There we are!
3. Ice cream graveyard. flavors that did not survive
4. Campground pond. See the trees reflected in the water? Great photographer? or lucky?




August 26, Tuesday: On our way to Woodstock which is in Eastern Central Vermont, we made a slight detour to Waterbury. Now this is a very important historical site. It is where the Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory resides. Or should I say one of them. We took a 30 minute tour which included a history of the way they started the business. They sold the business in 2001 to a firm out of London. At this facility they make 2 dozen different flavors. We sampled one of the flavors which was meaning made today, Cake Batter. GOOD! The building was brightly decorated with cartoon cows and things. We only bought 3 pints. Not Bad! We walked the dogs up the hill to see the Ice Cream Cemetary. Very sad all of the flavors they have buried. Trivia Question: What state consumes the most ice cream per capita?


After our little break we headed on down Hwy 89. New sign.......Moose Crossing. Larry is pretty sure he would not like to hit a moose going 65mph which is what the speed limit is posted. The wildflowers are all over the sides of the hills. We saw more trees turning today. Locals are saying the fall will come early this year. Who knows the weather has been soooooo crazy this year.


Our campground is just outside of Woodstock called Quechee. Loved that GPS because this one would have been hard to find. Nice woody area with a pond out front. Big pull-throughs. No satelite but we have Wi-Fi and cable. Hopefully, will get a couple more days on the blog.


Set up and off to explore while walking the dogs. Nice place to walk the dogs. The only problem Sobaka and Lottie wanting to go swimming in the pond. Vermont is our favorite state as far as beauty. They do have too many mosquitoes and biting flies. Guess everything can't be perfect. Ran over to New Hampshire for dinner. Of course, we just went 5 miles down the freeway. We found a Mexican restaurant.(found by Henrietta, car GPS) They had sign on the door that said 50% off from 3pm to 6pm if you sat at the bar. Sat at the bar and had good Carnita's. The bartender hit the wrong button and we received a free margarita, too. Life is good!


While we were sitting back at the RV a woman in a car stopped in the space next to us. She and her husband just bought a 5th wheel and were coming to this campground in a few weeks to test it out. Bev left about 2 hours later. She had lots of questions. It was fun. Larry was talking to her about going to a Maple syrup farm. Come to find out her husband, Ted, makes maple syrup. She invited us to come by her work and she would bring us a tin. Can't pass that up.


Trivia Answer: ALASKA


Tomorrow to the Marsh, Billings, Rockefeller National Park and the Billings Farm and Museum.


Good Night!

Shelburne Museum

1. One of the restore caroursel animals
2. Everything in this circus was made by a railroad worker as toys for his kids.
3. Ticonderoga steamship
4. The 3 story round barn




August 24 & 25, Sunday: The main reason we came to Shelburne was to visit the Shelburne Museum. In the AAA book it is a gem item. Also many of the people we have talk to have recommended it to us. This is some museum. It sits on 45 acres. Needless to say we walked all of it but it took us two days. You start at entrance of a huge 3 story red round barn. This building was dismantled and moved to this location by Mrs. Electra Webb. Well, not her personally but she made it possible. After buying your ticket you start by viewing restored carousel animals. They are displayed as works of art and not on the actual carousel. The original pieces are from the 19th century where several carousels used lions, tigers, camels, goats, and etc. to ride on. However, they began to notice the children preferred the horses so they started only making the horses for modern carousels. The next building was built in the shape of a horseshoe. It contains a 500ft long circus parade. All of the pieces are handcrafted from wood. Very impressive! On the opposite wall were many old time circus posters.


We then walked down a path to see the Beach Lodge. I am just going to take a minute to say that most of these buildings were dismantled and rebuilt here on site. Each building is great to look at in itself but each houses different art collections. Let me tell you there are lots of buildings, pathways, and gardens. Now you see why it is on 45 acres. OK back to the Beach Lodge......... this building depicts a hunting lodge so yep...stuffed animals plus furniture from that 1920 period. Then off to the train station with its own locomotive and passage car. By now it is lunch time. Where else to have lunch but at the old farmhouse. Shared a chicken/pecan salad with ice tea.


After lunch we went to the old Ticonderoga steamship. That was very interesting to see the movie on how they brought it from Lake Champlain to its finally resting place. It was only two miles but you can only imagine the work it took. Just to let you know the size, it is 220 ft long, 58 ft wide, and weighs892 tons. It has been completely restored and it is beautiful. Oh yeah, Larry wanted to say, it runs by a single piston---9ft stroke and 53 inch bore. Now I hope that makes sense to some of you but me????????????


The buildings ranged from a simple one room Stone Cottage to Larry's favorite of the day, a townhouse which had a tavern attached. It also had rooms for rent w/meals and at one time used to hold court in one of the back rooms. After talking to the lady here she said the family just changed with what ever was happening at the time. Very entrepreneur!!!!


Well, not too bad AAA said allow 4 hours...........we are leaving after 6 hours and returning tomorrow.





Monday: Off to finish the museum. We think we are about half finished. We started at a "green house" built in the 60s out of shipping containers. Roll-up doors that open both sides to the area outdoors. Very odd! On down the lane to walk through the covered bridge to the 1840 one-room school. Over to the original farmhouse which was on the 45 acres when Electra Webb started this museum. It houses glassware, pewter, trivets, etc. downstairs with a porcelain doll and autorata collection upstairs. Larry's favorite of the day building, was a horseshoe shaped barn. Now one of the interesting facts about this building...........the farmer would not sell it to Electra so she sent "her people" out to copy it exactly like it was built. This building houses the largest collection of horse drawn sleighs. His favorite sleigh was a school bus with a small wood stove to keep the kids warm on their way to school.


The 1871 lighthouse came from Colchester Reef on Lake Champlain. We couldn't imagine raising four kids on this small area. You had to get all your supplies yourself by row boat. This included going across during the winter. Scary!!!!!!!!! We also toured the 1950 house. Fun! Fun! Fun! that is until Larry and I realized that our childhood home was in a museum.


I could go on forever.......oh that's right I have.........Still more buildings we didn't talk about. All we can say is... if you are ever in the area of Shelburne, Vermont...it is well worth seeing.


Also a very huge THANK YOU to Electra Havemeyer Webb for her generosity and foresight.


My favorite...............the Mary Cassatt & other Impressionist exhibit. Mary Cassatt was friends with Electra's mother. I was very pleased to see they had several areas for kids to play outside and also some areas to work on crafts. Nice relieve from looking at other stuff.


Home to walk the dogs .............like we haven't walked enough.


Good Night!

Moving Day Again

1. Figure the first Morgan bred
2. Working two horses at once
3. Foals
4. Original Barn

August 23, Saturday: Took off north on Hwy 30 to the town Weybridge where we stopped at The University of Vermont Morgan Horse Farm. It looks very much like it did when it was built in the 1830. The barn and farmhouse are the original ones. They have about 80 horses which includes studs, mares, and babies. Even though they are affiliated with UV, they are self sustaining. Besides giving tours they sell anywhere from 16 -20 foals each year. Since they do all the training on the grounds and have great bloodlines thru their own stallions and mares, the foals can sell from $3000.00 to $25,000 each. The Morgan Horse is the first American bred horse. Justin Morgan was the gentleman who introduced the breed which is why they are called Morgans. They are one of the most versatile. It was fun to see them. Larry and I feel as though this is turning out to be our horse tour.

Traveling today to the Northwestern part of Vermont was through many rolling hills in a very large valley. Several dairy farms making Larry very happy looking at all the beautiful red barns. Thank goodness he stayed on the road. I was driving the CRV with Lottie. We were having a girl day! Listening to the XM as loud as we wanted except when Larry called on the walkie-talkie to interrupt with something he wanted to point out. When we arrived at our campground it has a 50s style motel in front. Larry said it reminded him of the motels from our childhood. We have Wi-Fi so got caught up a little on the blog and phone calls. Direct-TV does not work because have a beautiful tree right next to us. Ok campground!

We filled up the car and RV today. Gas was $3.79/Diesel was $4.49 cheapest yet!!!!! Very short trip only about 65 miles.

Good Night!