A trip long dreamed about was finally here. We set up the tent, organized our gear, then settled down for a night in the Acadia 'wilderness'. We were pumped! We read all the brochures, planned our days events, and were ready to take on the world! Pica was restless.. She ended up finding comfort with us on our bed. First time ever! She was very good through the night though, as she only growled at one person walking to the restroom. Then our bed was losing air. By morning, we were sleeping on the rocky ground. Oh well, we'll try bed #2! For now, we had to go.. A 4am appointment on Cadillac Mountain for the sunrise came quickly! We packed up some warm clothes and set out for the mountain. Once there we knew there wouldn't be a visible sunrise. We were in a cloud. We could see nothing, and the wind and moisture made us very glad we brought warmer clothing. Well, since we weren't going to see the sunrise, we may as well walk the trail! It was beautiful! Rocky, unique structure, and we imagined the view we would normally have! The next day, we drove to the mountain again and saw the beautiful views just after sunrise. During the rest of the trip, we hiked a few small trails, road our bike on the carriage roads, saw Thunder Hole and Bar Harbor, went on a Boat Tour, ate lunch at Jordan Pond House, and Mark even capped it off with a hike on the famous Beehive Trail. We also took a trip to the west side of the island and visited Bass Harbor Lighthouse. The weather was near perfect! Highs in the 70's, and lows near 60 and no rain! The campground itself was beautiful, but honestly I don't know how tenters do this on a regular basis. We enjoyed our 3 nights, but with people yelling nearby, kids screaming, and a radio?? What are people thinking! We prefer the solitude, peacefulness and safety of dispersed camping in our rig, so we'll leave tenting to the younger folk. :-) By the way.. Night #2, our airbed #2 deflated too. For night #3 we set up our last bed option. A nice airbed we borrowed from Ruth & Darrell. It was definitely a quality airbed, because it worked flawlessly! All in all, the park is absolutely beautiful! If you love to hike and bike, you will LOVE Acadia! Stay Details: Blackwoods Campground; Acadia National Park ME - Site B-16 Notes: The campground is mostly for tenters and small RVs. It has modern toilets in all loops, but the shower house is outside the park nearby and is pay per use. The sites have a good amount of space, but none are totally private because of the taller trees. Sound travels very well. If you are going to Acadia, we recommend this campground. There are also a few other campgrounds in the area that seem nice.
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Up near the top of the U.S., we took the higher route to Maine so we didn't have to go straight through the mountains. This allowed us more time to see things we've never seen before. Robert Moses State Park was full of beauty. From the beach, the marina, and the locks.. Nice biking trails allowed us to get to all the places around the island, but most of all, it was really cool to see the locks so close. The videos below, two of a time-lapse of a ship going through the locks. The other was what we think was a drunk skunk (on mushrooms maybe?) going through our campsite. Stay Details: Robert Moses State Park; Maseena NY - Site 241 Notes: Nice campground near a beach and most sites have lake access, but it's a small walk away from the campsites. The dum station is in the other campground loop. The bath houses were nice and upgraded, and each of the sites have decent room. The island has great bike riding areas, and nice access to 2 dams and power centers. If we were to stay in the area again, we would recommend the Long Sault Loop on sites 187-192, which are water front sites with views of the ships going through the locks.
Took a day trip to Mackinaw City, and around the upper west part of Michigan, including the Tunnel of Trees. It was a beautiful day, but the haze from the Canadian Fires reduced the view across the water. Because of construction on the island, we decided not to visit this island this year, so we rode around Mackinaw City, walked the shops and had dinner. Pica was thoroughly loving her ride. :-)
Interlochen State Park is one of our favorite locations to return to. It's next to a music school which we can hear from the campgrounds, and the entire Traverse City area is full of things to do and places to see.
This visit, we rode the Boardman Lake Trail in Traverse City while our truck was getting worked on. Gorgeous and short, this trail provided us a bonus viewing spot of the youngsters' sailing school. It was really neat to watch those 7-yr olds navigate the mini sailboats. The next day was a longer, more challenging ride on the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail. Smooth, and 22 miles long, the northern side is mostly gradual slopes, where the southern side will give you 11% grade challenges, and the reward of speed on the other end. Having a picnic lunch at the dunes was definitely a bonus. Stay details: Interlochen State Park; Interlochen MI * This park is large and beautiful, and offers many opportunities for family fun near the lake. The sites come in all different sizes, but only has electric, so water fill-up is a must before parking. The park has a day use area for swimming, boating and BBQs, as well as nearby trails. The nearby music school is a nice ambience when enjoying your evening fire. We were on site 95, but the next one over was facing us with his party and campfire, so it was rather intrusive. There are a LOT of large sites here, and a lot of family fun things to do. Recommended sites: 369, 371, 64, 414 & 193. After a beautiful (and rainy) 3-week stay in Davison, we are ready to move on to our next travel adventures. The last few details of the month that I did not previously mention:
1) Had 4 doctors visits. We are good until next year! 2) Had a wonderful visit with church friends, Gerald & Priscilla. They fed us a delicious meal, and we played Mexican Train Dominos after dinner. 3) Maria made me another sticker for the camper! This time I put it on the main door. :-) 4) Pica thought she was hiding.. Ha! 5) We upgraded our coffee maker to a complete coffee bar. Now I can make my favored latte's! 6) Taking bike trips is amongst our favorite things to do. This time it was a 20-mile Flint River trail to Stepping Stone Falls. An absolute beautiful ride with awesome scenery. Stay Details: Outdoor Adventures; Davison MI * This is our home resort affiliated with our campground membership. It is getting very busy these days, but we love this resort because it has a lot of ammenities. We also love our new favorite site, #98, that sits in the corner near the exit. From FL to Myrtle Beach, had to find an overnight stay. After almost 7 hours of driving, we stopped at this precious little gem. MUCH better than a truck stop, don't you think?? :-) Before leaving in the morning, we walked 3 miles on the trails (listed below), then rode our bikes about 12 miles on the other trails. We saw over 20 alligators, numerous birds (herons and Anhingas), a lot of frogs and unfortunately, numerous deer flies that drove us nuts. However, surprisingly we did not encounter many mosquitos here during this visit. Stay Details: Santee Coastal Reserve, McClellanville, SC * This is a small FREE campground in a beautiful reserve which lies inside the Francis Marion National Forest. The campground is total dry camping, meaning there is no bathrooms, water or garbage for people. You have to be totally self-contained. There are about 8 sites that are First Come, First Serve, and there were 3 left when we arrived. There were several beautiful trails in the area, a boardwalk over the marsh, and the possibility of seeing quite a few different animals. We walked the Marshland Trail, the rode our bikes on the Cape Trail and Eldorado Trail. * The Eldorado Trail leads to the ruins of the Eldorado Plantation which was build in 1797, was hit with a canon ball during the Civil War, then ended up burning to the ground years later. It was a very interesting piece of history.
Our final stay at Bee's Resort this year was with our friends Bill & Marilou.. After being together since California, we have met up several times during our travels, and will now be parting ways for a while. It was a bittersweet stay, as we really enjoyed spending time with them, but we also had to say our "See Ya Later's". A visit to Silver Springs did not disappoint. It is the world's largest fresh water springs, and several movies were shot here, including the original "Tarzan" movie series and "I Spy" just to name a few. We would highly recommend a visit here. They have glass bottom boat tours, kayak rentals, and many trails you can bike and hike. We finished the visit with a surprise view of the Starlink launch which was 90 miles away! Stay Details: Bee's Resort; Clermont, FL * This time, they allowed us to stay in a regular campsite which was very pretty and across from our friends. Bee's is a nice resort, with a swimming pool that was open (and warm), a walking trail and shuffleboard.
During our stay at Long Pine Key, we met up with Maria, Steve & the kids. It was great to see them after a year of traveling! After resting and working on her camper for a day, we visited Wooten's Airboat tours. We bought the package which included the airboat ride, swamp buggy ride andgator park. The airboat ride was phenomenal!! Buggy ride.. Not so much. It was still fun being all together though. The next day we all went to Key West. Visited John Pennekamp State Park and took a kayak tour and small hike. Mark had to work on his class halfway to Key West, so we found good cell signal, and the kids went on their way. They went shopping in downtown, then we met up again to get our pictures taken at the Southernmost Buoy. We visited the beach, the kids swam in the ocean, and we found a spectacular sunset! After that we satisfied our hunger at a Mexican Restaurant. Stay Details: Long Pine Key Campground; Homestead, FL: * This is a beautiful campground nestled inside the Everglades State Park. The sites are dry camping only (no hookups), and are spaced pretty far apart. The kids parked oposite of us, and we were close enough to comfortably share the picnic table and refrigerator. We were also right next to the bath-house, so it was convenient for everyone. * We walked the Anhinga Trail in the morning, and we saw a large alligator, and many Anhinga's along the way. It was a nice short trail for the kids. * The only problem we had was some other campers were screaming at eat other until 2am, but the rangers were quick to take care of the problem in the morning.
We left our previous location early so we could tour the area and park closer to the beach. Most of Florida State Parks are full this time of year, so we used a new resource called "WanderingLabs" which search campgrounds for openings due to cancelations. So, I put in my request for 3 different campgrounds around the Panama City area, and within an hour we had an opening at this park! I had 15 minutes to reserve it, and we were in! During our stay here, we rode our bikes on the trails, visited the beach, and enjoyed the beautiful outdoors. This is a definitely a park that you should put on your ToDo list if you are in the area. It is absolutely gorgeous and well kept! Stay Details: Topsail Hill Preserve Campground - Santa Rosa Beach, FL Site #35. Our site had a broken cement pad, so it was difficult to get the camper up there without hurting any tires. We did a great job as a team once again, and we were situated in no time! Before heading out on the bikes, Mark worked on some class work. Before long, he was ready to relax and ride the trails. Before dinner, we left Pica in the rig and went to the beach. We arrived shortly before sunset, and were able to get some awesome photos! There are NO bad sites at this park from what we can see, and this park is very well maintained and clean. We highly recommend this campground if you are in the area. The walk to the beach was .9 miles, and the pool was closed due to Covid. We found another stellar bike ride! The historic railroad trail near the Hoover Dam. Really awesome! Then a side track to Red Rock Canyon (thank you Kathy! Then a drive back through the Las Vegas strip. Pray for Pica, she has a grooming Appt tomorrow and because of her nasty nature when groomed, I really don’t think it will go well. Here’s hoping she can at least get a bath! Blessings to all!
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