A meh day in Maine

Vanlog, Camden, ME

So I set the alarm for 4:15 AM and quietly left camp headed to see the sunrise from Cadillac Mountain. I drove about 45 min to the summit and then Jessica joined me and about 200 others on the granite rocks overlooking Frenchman Bay. It was a very cloudy morning and the sunrise was not really much to look at. But since we were up, we pulled off the road on the way down from Cadillac Mountain and had a fantastic view out the sliding door while we ate our breakfast. 

We drove the park loop to Sand Beach and decided on the 1.5-mi round-trip hike to Great Head. This hike was a little steep at first, and very rocky, but the views of the rugged coastline were amazing. But Jessica slipped on some sandy rocks and hurt her knee, so all in all the hike was just meh.

After our hike, we completed the park loop and drove to the lesser traveled half of Mount Desert Island. There, we sat on the beach at Echo Lake watching the very young kids go in the very cold water. Too cold for us to go swimming or get that natural bath that we needed after three days on the road. 

The best photo stop of the day in Acadia was at Bass Harbor light house, where we had lunch and got another lucky parking spot for the van.

Despite being up since 4:15 AM, we drove another 2 hrs to Camden, ME. Here, on Main Street, a black pickup and I collided our elephant ears with a loud clunk. Luckily, no damage to either vehicle as the mirrors are designed to fold in when this happens. But it was a bit of a scare. We parked in town and walked down to the lovely harbor and got some ice cream. Then we drove a little outside of town to a remote trailhead for a popular hiking spot, cooked some chicken breasts up for dinner, and camped (boondocked) overnight in the parking lot there. 

After today, I think Jessica is tired of #vanlife and ready for #yachtlife.

Acadia National Park

Vanlog, Blackwoods Campground, Acadia National Park, Maine

We woke this morning by 6 AM and had breakfast, made up the beds, did the dishes, washed up and were on the road by 6:45 AM. We still had three hours of driving ahead of us to make it to Acadia National Park in Maine. We arrived at the very full Hull's Cove Visitor Center around 10 AM. Monday is the day that the cruise ships are in port, so the park was especially crowded. After getting our maps and stampy stamp, we drove to a pull-off overlooking Eagle Lake, opened the sliding door, and had an early lunch with this amazing view.

One of my favorite parts of #vanlife is just sitting in the van parked at a spot with a great view like this, so that is exactly what we did for a while. Next, it was on to Jordan Pond, where we got very lucky and another Promaster saw us looking for a place to park and gave us his space as he was leaving. We hiked the entire perimeter of Jordan Lake, about 4.5 miles total. I was especially excited to hear a loon and then to see the mama loon and her two babies on the lake. Seeing a loon in real life was one of the things on my bucket list and one of my hopes for this trip. I've never seen one before that I can recall. 

After our hike, around 2 PM, we waited for a table outside at the Jordan Pond House and had an artisan cheese plate and their famous popovers. They are a thin, flaky pastry with an egg flavor to them that taste fantastic with butter and fresh strawberry jam. 

From here, we drove to Seal Harbor and then to our campsite in the Blackwoods Campground. We set up our tent (for show) and then drove out of the park to Bar Harbor to our favorite lobster pound, the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound, where we each had a 1.5-lb lobster for dinner. The meals were definitely the highlight of our day today. 

On our way back to the campsite, we stopped in Northeast Harbor at the marina just before sunset and then had a brief campfire with s'mores in the campground. All in all, a quality day! 5 stars!

On the road again

Vanlog, Portland, ME

Only a few weeks removed from my cross country trip and the itch to get back on the road again has struck. Only this time I have a copilot! Jessica and I hit the open road this morning at 8:15 AM and drove 480 miles to Portland, Maine on our way to Acadia National Park tomorrow. Since today was only a driving day, there are not many photos to share--mainly some skyline pictures of Manhattan as we drove past Newark, NJ and the Welcome to Maine sign: The Way Life Should Be. Low tire pressure light did come on again, so we stopped near Portsmouth, NH to get gas, use the restroom, and pump up the tires. A guy at the pumps backed into us because his rental doesn't have a backup camera like his regular car does. Ever hear of a mirror, dude? Fortunately, no damage or scratches done to either car or van. We were back on the road again in no time at all. This was the first trip where we are using the bench/bed that my dad and his brother built in bed mode. Jessica crawled in the back for a two-hour nap while I was driving (shh! don't tell the Massachusetts Highway Patrol!) and she loved the spaciousness and comfort of it. After 9 1/2 hours on the road, we stopped for dinner at a Cracker Barrel in Portland, ME, where we are boondocking it overnight. Cracker Barrel has the greatest policy with regards to allowing RVers to stay overnight int heir parking lots. It's a corporate wide policy, not a franchise, so it holds at every Cracker Barrel across the country. Always a good cheap meal, bathroom open til 10 PM, and upscale neighborhood for urban boondocking. And there's usually always at least one other RVer in the parking lot too for security. Welcome to Maine, the way life should be....

Home, sweet home

Vanlog, Lancaster, PA

This will be my last blog for this vacation because...spoiler alert, I made it home. The last blog post was from the Badlands, where I recently learned that only a week before my visit there, they had a terrible thunderstorm with 70 mph winds. Apparently, there was a camper that was blown off one of the bluffs and into the canyon. Luckily, there was no one inside at the time. The wind had blown out one of the camper windows and while the guy went outside to see what had happened, that is when the camper tipped over the canyon ledge. I must say that I have been very lucky on this trip. I honestly believe that God has been watching over me, and I thank those of you who have been praying for my safe return. In 23 days on the road, with the exception of my last day back in PA, I never had more than 10 min of rain on any given day. The weather was absolutely beautiful, sunny and cool on most days. This was critical not only for my enjoyment, but also for good photography and for recharging my lithium battery using the solar panels every day. In fact, my battery level never went below 50% and always recharged to close to 100% by day's end. 

So to pick up where I left off. On Monday morning, I was still in Mitchell, SD. I woke at 7 and went to see the famous Mitchell Corn Palace by 7:30. The corn palace is basically city hall where they have decorated the facades of the building with different colored ears of corn in an elaborate design. This year's theme was the armed forces. 

Then I was on the road for about 8 hours, stopping only for a quick photo stop at Sioux Falls in Falls Park and for gas, until I reached my friend Liana's house in Madison, WI, a distance of about 580 miles. 

On Tuesday morning, I left Madison at 7:38 AM and drove non-stop to Lancaster. I had three quick breaks for gas, no more than 4 min per break, but otherwise I was on the road continuously, eating snacks as I drove. The hardest part about living out of a van wasn't the small space, being off-gtrid, or the lack of the comforts of home--it was missing my family. From the first day when I passed the Turkey Hill at the end of Strasburg Pike (the street where I live), I already missed them and I just prayed that I would be able to return safely and that everything would go well. It did. I had a fabulous time seeing this great country of ours. Vanna lived up to her expectations, performing well on the highway, getting 20 mpg on average, and all of her interior systems (solar, water, refigerator, etc,) also functioned exactly as planned. But I was lonely. So when I plugged "Go Home" into the GPS in Madison, and it told me an estimated time of arrival in Lancaster would be 9:47 PM, I said to myself, I can do this. Thirteen and a half hours of continual driving and 866 miles later, I pulled into my driveway at 10:07 PM and my long journey came to an end. Now, it will be back to the many household chores, yard work, cleaning up the van, working on my textbook, and getting ready for the start of school in another month. But for the past 23 days, I didn't have to think about all of that. i could unplug and get away from it all, and that was indeed a blessing. 

Here are some brief statistics from the trip:

23 days

7,212 miles

13 states

13 national park system units

5 hot showers

Less than $100 spent on lodging

0 days of rain

South Dakota

Vanlog, Mitchell, SD

I was up at 6 AM and drove to Jewel Cave national Monument by 7 AM so I could be fourth in line when the ticket kiosk opened at 7:45 AM. I got my ticket for the 8:30 Scenic Cave Tour and puttered around in the visitor's center until the tour began. It was an hour and a half tour through the third largest cave in the world, with over 200 miles of mapped passages.

After readjusting my eyes to the daylight, I got gas, bought some groceries, and drove to Badlands National Park. 

I then drove a little east on Rt 90 to the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, arriving at 4:30 PM to learn that it closed at 4 PM. Back on the road, Jessica encouraged me to stop in Chamberlain to find the Dignity statue, a huge statue of a Lakota woman overlooking the Missouri River at a rest area. I am so glad she did because this was really an amazing statue and an inspiration to feminists everywhere. Then it was another hour on the road, arriving at 8:30 PM at the Cabela's parking lot in Mitchell, SD, where I made myself some spaghetti for dinner. 

Little Bighorn and Mt Rushmore

Vanlog, Black Hills National Forest, SD

This morning, I awoke early as usual and drove a little over an hour to Little Bighorn National Monument in Montana. Here, after watching the film and listening ot a ranger talk, I walked up the Last Stand Hill, where Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer lost five companies of the 7^th Cavalry and his own life to the Lakota and Cheyenne Indians who refused to settle on a Reservation with government subsidies for food. They preferred their old ways of life, hunting and gathering and free to roam the land that was theirs before gold was discovered in the Black Hills and the Euro-Americans began to encroach on their land. Ironically, it was Custer who was sent in a peace effort a year earlier to protect the Indians from the Euro-American expansion. After the U.S. government unsuccessfully tried to purchase the Black Hills from the Northern Plains Indian tribes, President Grant changed his tune and ordered the Army to round them all up on reservations. Custer was among those in charge of enforcing this order. The plan was a three-fold attack on the Indian encampment, with Gen. George Crook coming from the south, Gen. John Gibbon from the west and Gen. Alfred Terry from the east tightening the noose so there could be no escape. However, the attack was uncoordinated and over long distances. Crook’s troops were repulsed by the Lakota and Cheyenne a few miles south in the Battle of Rosebud on June 17, 2876 and were essentially removed from the forthcoming Battle at Little Bighorn. Gen. Terry ordered Custer and his 7^th Cavalry to attack from the south while he and Gen. Gibbon approached from the north. Seeing a cloud of dust and fearing that the Indians might prematurely escape, Custer attacked the camp on June 25, 1876 and was completely outnumbered. Furthermore, he had divided his 600 men into three companies. Reno and Benteen were forced to retreat, leaving Custer and his small company of soldiers alone to fight the battle. Outnumbered, they hunkered down on the high ground now known as Last Stand Hill. Here, they were massacred by the combined Indian forces. The site where Custer fell is marked by a black gravestone.

I sensed a spiritual presence when I was standing on Last Stand Hill.  The wrought iron outline of three Indians on horseback at the more recent Indian Memorial just across the street from the 7^th Cavalry Memorial on last Stand Hill had the almost eerie feeling that their spirits were still present, silhouetted against the peaceful blue sky. A bird alighted softly atop the 7^th Cavalry Memorial and a pack of wild horses crossed the road in front of me as I drove along the battlefield lines.

I left Little Bighorn and traveled about 6 hrs east along Routes 90 and 16 to Mt Rushmore National Monument, arriving around 4:30 PM. I am always a little disappointed by Mt Rushmore and how commercialized it has become. Even with your national park pass, you have to pay $10 per car to park in this modern parking garage. There are now multiple layers of granite columns that mark the entrance to the plaza overlooking the mountain. It is always crowded with people taking selfies and idiots like me who want to have their face replacing one of the Presidents enshrined on the monument. But, if you ask the national park service, there is a quiet trail away from the crowds that takes you part way up the mountain for a closer view. After the obligatory photo stop here, I camped nearby in the Black Hills National Forest for the night.

Yellowstone National Park, Day 2

Vanlog, West Billings, MT

Yet again, against my own volition but just because of my biological clock, I awoke at 6 AM, had breakfast, did the dishes, washed my hair and shaved at the sink, and was on the road by 6:30 AM. Driving north back into the main part of the Yellowstone National Park, I was impressed by the magnitude and beauty of Lewis Canyon, something I had never really noticed on any of my previous trips. I headed immediately for the Upper Geyser Basin and checked the anticipated times for all the predictable geysers. Grand Geyser was about ot go off int he next ten minutes, so I hoofed it over the boardwalk and waited. Sure enough, it erupted right on schedule. Grand Geyser is one of the more powerful eruptions in the park and way more impressive than the piddly Old Faithful, which I saw erupt about 40 minutes later.

Great Fountain Geyser

Old Faithful

Having satisfied my thirst for geysers, I moved on to Firehole Canyon. Next stop was in the Norris Geyser Basin, where I read that the Steamboat Geyser, the largest in the world with eruptions up to 300 ft in the air had a rare eruption only yesterday (of course I missed it!). Still there were several cool hot springs and other geothermal features to see in this area. 

Firehole Falls

Emerald Pool

Echinus Geyser

At Madison Junction, I drove east to canyon and then north through Dunraven Pass to Tower, where I saw a black bear. 

Flowers at Dunraven Pass

Tower Falls

Black bear

I was disappointed, in general, not to have seen more wildlife in the park. Only one grizzly (at a distance) two days ago, a few scattered bison, and now this black bear. On the drive out to the northeast entrance, however, in the Lamar Valley, I came across herd after herd of bison. I stopped at one herd, climbed a large boulder with some other people and watched the herd grazing. A lone pronghorn was also there, as was a coyote who was stalking something in the brush. The pronghorn said--oh, no you don't, and ran a short distance away. More bison herd awaited me as I continued to drive out the road and then all I saw was lots of fisherman at the very northeastern entrance. 

Bison herd

Pronghorn antelope

More bison

After leaving the park, I encountered hundreds of bikers in Red Lodge, MT. The Sturgis motorcycle festival is in two weeks in nearby South Dakota, so I guess some of them are making a road trip out of it. The next part of my journey was the scariest driving I have ever had to do, as I continued east on Rt 212 it kept ascending. up and up it went even when I thought I most surely had reached its peak. Two of my biggest fears are heights and speed. I knew that what goes up must also come down and this was a very windy road on a very windy day with no shoulders and steep dropoffs. My brake light came on several times on the long descent even though I was only going 20-25 mph in 3rd gear most of the time. Finally, I made it and drove another hour or so to Billing, MT, where I had a real dinner at Cracker Barrel for a mere $8 and then boondocked with four other RVs int heir parking lot. For urban camping, Cracker Barrel is the way to go!

Views from Rt 212 west of Billing, MT