Day 28 – Saturday Sept 28,2013 – Camping on the Cape!

I like the statement - "Camping on the Cod" better!

Barb says don’t say that! She tells me they simply call it the Cape!

I like saying we are out on the Cod!

What do you think sounds better? Ha ha.

But before we talk about today a quick rundown on yesterday is in order.

FRIDAY:

We toured around where we were camped at Camden, Maine.

A few little towns but I think our favourite was Camden itself. 

We originally meant to stay at Bar Harbour north of Camden but it was a Zoo when we arrived there. They had 3 cruise ships in port and I think there were about 9000 tourists wandering around town along with the usual tourists that come here!

As we entered the town there were signs for RV Parking which took us right through the middle of the zoo! Maybe an inch or two on each side of the rig and pedestrians that of course all know they have the right away.

Once we got to the RV parking there were only a few stalls and they were all taken with the last one taken up by a road grader. We parked in a parking lot for a few minutes and decided we needed to move on, so Camden became the place of choice.

Main Street in Camden

One of the Schooners in Port

Another Schooner

Camden from above, this beautiful town is to the right of the bay & marina.

In Camden we stayed at a nice State Park called Camden Hills. It even had free WiFi! I have never seen that in a state park! Later on I read that the prisoners in the nearby state prison chopped all the firewood, which they had for sale. The proceeds from that pays for the Wi-Fi.  So we stayed two nights and last night we had a nice fire in the pit outside the motorhome.

Our camp ground at Camden Hills State Park

Traffic & Tourists in Camden

Camden is a delight to visit. For the Ladies there a lots of little shops. For the guys there are quite a few restaurants. What was really good were all the sights for photographs, very scenic!

In the harbour right downtown by everything else there was lots to see. A nice grassy park with benches to enjoy the day. The marina was full of birds and  boats of every description. The one’s we really enjoyed were the Schooners. There were four of them in dock and they were restored dating back from the 1800’s to the early 1900’s.

The park over Camden Harbour.

These were used to take everything from tours of the harbours, inlets and area to trips lasting several days in length. After I learned about this I recalled that a few years ago Barb had found these same ones on the Internet and wanted to take a cruise on one of them. Again a small world.

Will we ever get to it? Someday, perhaps?

FRANCE!

We ran into an interesting couple while in Camden. They were from France and have been touring North America. Some of you may recall similar stories we have had in the past as we have seen this before from Europe. We chatted for some time and they told us about their travels. They even got out to Banff and where we live back home. They had shipped their Mercedes Sprinter motorhome over from France and will be shipping it back home from Baltimore in a few more weeks before the snow flies.

Els & Hans from France in their Mercedes which they shipped over.
Touring Canada and the USA!

A nice couple and very interesting to talk to. They had done similar trips in their motorhome in Turkey, Syria and Jordan!  Some people thought we were adventurous!

SATURDAY:

This morning I was up early and followed my usual routine of making coffee and sitting outside on the patio to enjoy it. After a while we loaded up and were ready to pull out. We planned for an early departure as we had a bit of a drive to get to our next destination. 

As per usual we hit the road at about 11am after draining the tanks at the dump station – my favourite task!

Must be a good restaurant - they were lined up around the corner to get in!

SATURDAY MORNING RAGE!

We headed south and went through a few small Maine towns and villages.

Just a few minutes south of town we noticed the traffic on our side (2 lane road) pulling over the right shoulder. There were two vehicles stopped on the far left shoulder for the oncoming traffic. Everyone was slowing down.

I pulled over and came to a stop while looking to see what was happening with the two stopped vehicles on the other side. They were beating on each other! Two men with fists flying! As I saw one driver stopped in front of me run over to their side I was preparing to also attend to help.

It was just at the point I noticed he had a small digital camera and started just taking pictures. He was right up to their faces as they were fighting and without getting hit himself managed to get a few good photos in I am sure.

After a few punches and a lot of screaming both drivers returned to their cars and left. There we were… still stopped on the side of the road. Ladies and gentlemen that was road rage!

I couldn’t decide if I was more surprised by the fighting or the guy running up to take the pictures of them beating on each other. I guess someone will have it posted on Face Book sometime later today?

Finally after that episode we got onto the real highway and then the Maine Turnpike and you know what that means – Mo Money!

Of the 3 tolls we went through today the cheapest was $4.00 and the most expensive one was just before leaving the state of Maine.

One last grab on their part for a hefty $10.50!

Toll Booth in Boston
We barley fit with an inch on either side of the mirrors!

TOO MANY TREES!

Finally we got to Boston MA.

No, do not ask me to spell the state. I won’t and I can’t! So we simply say MA!

View from the river bridge in Boston

The sad part is that today there were just too many trees. Although the colours are just getting more beautiful by the day it makes it hard to see the sights.

Unlike Chicago where we had a good view of the city from miles out, Boston didn’t allow for much of that.  The views were mostly of trees, which I shouldn’t complain about. However it would have been nice to see more of the city because like Chicago we went right through it!

The traffic in Boston was unreal. You could certainly tell it was Saturday and I don’t think anyone was at work! They were all in their cars driving on the same roads we were! Man was it packed! 

Nothing like driving a 53-foot monster in the big busy city! We did quite well though. We didn’t miss any turns and with one exception in the middle of town the traffic flowed pretty well, all considering.

Light traffic on a Saturday in Boston - It got much worse!

We went through one engineering marvel. An underground tunnel that I am guessing took us underneath the downtown core. The neat part was they had off ramps and they were all underground! It was just like an off ramp on a freeway but it was all below ground. Very cool!

As we finally made it out of Boston I had hoped to stop and see Plymouth and perhaps Plymouth Rock where the Pilgrims landed on the Mayflower. To be honest there was so much traffic and I was getting tired so we scrapped the idea. I will Google it instead.

Probably an hour south of Boston we hit Cape Cod. I wasn’t prepared for this. First of all the Cod is very big. Not what we had imagined. Second of all it too has too many trees! We couldn’t see any sights and we didn’t even get to see the ocean!

Entering Cape Cod!

History abounds.

We likely drove another hour before we found our campground, which is called Nickerson State Park. 

We got in just before nightfall (which is early around here) and got set up by about 7pm. The location seems to be very good and the campsites are very secluded from one another. Oh yes, Lots of trees!

One thing, if you are looking for a campground with services, there are no hookups here. Its dry camping with no amenities the good old-fashioned way. We are good with that. 

We are booked in here for two nights to rest and see the sights. If we need to we can fire up the generator, which is built right into our rig. Other than that we have propane, which runs the fridge, stove and furnace along with batteries and a converter to run everything else including my laptop that I’m typing on right now. 

All the conveniences of home!

Wi-Fi

Barb put the call in for our mobile Internet (Jet Pack from Millenicom in Oregon) to get started. We love this system. So we should have Internet on the go within the hour. We will have this while we are in the USA for the rest of the winter.

It became apparent within minutes that the people from around here are very nice. Shortly after parking the rig in our campsite I got to talking with both of our neighbours. Both of them are very friendly and helpful. They both come here on a regular basis, I can see why.

At first the accents are a little hard to understand and likely due to the hearing loss I have suffered over the years. But after a few minutes I was able to understand them much easier.

Tomorrow we will tour the Cape and get some photo’s for our album. Who knows maybe we will get to eat some great Lobster again or maybe a little Cod!

Good night!