Trenton, ME - Sidney, ME - Twin Mountain, NH

 May 31 - June 7, 2025

Saturday and Sunday, May 31 & June 1 were rainy so we stayed at home.  On Monday the Lord gave us a beautiful day and we went to Acadia National Park Schoodic Peninsula.  It wasn't crowded at all and I think it was almost prettier than than Mt. Desert Island.

The tide was coming in and it was cool to watch the waves hit the shore.

Beautiful!

We found a nice pullout to have our picnic lunch.  One of the prettiest views of lunch from the truck.

Lobster fishing villages are all over this area.  The harbor with all the boats is so pretty.

On Tuesday we went to Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory.

Driving across the bridge.   We're going up to the top of this tower where you see the windows.

View from the parking lot.

There was another bridge built in 1931. During an inspection they found that the bridge was rusting and couldn't be repaired.  So they built the current bridge, which is 420' high, 42 stories tall (higher than the Statue of Liberty), has a 2,120' bridge span, an elevator speed of 500' per minute, and a 360 degree view from the top. It's one of only four observation bridges in the world.  The other three are in China, Slovakia, and Thailand, and of those only one is now open.

Penobscot River looking south.

Looking west.

Looking north.

Looking east.

It was a lot of fun to do this.  The views from the top are amazing.

The compass rose design in the observatory floor is based on a 1613 map by Samuel de Champlain, who sailed past this site to Bangor in September 1604.

The observatory tower and Fort Knox are in the same area, and once you pay ($6 each senior for the tower and the fort) you can go anywhere in that area.  So our next stop was the fort.

Fort from the observatory tower.

From the war of 1812 they realized that they needed a fort in this area on the Pensobscot River.  It took them a few decades to get started, but construction on the fort began in May 1844.  They first built gun batteries nearest the river. Then they started excavating the main fort site by about 1853.  Work began on the granite foundations and walls of the large central fort building.  There were troops here during the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, but no enemy ships ever appeared on the Penobscot or threatened its towns during those wars.  Nearly 1 million dollars was spent to build the fort.  Congressional appropriations were sporadic, and construction continued for 25 years.  When work finally stopped in 1869, the fort was still not finished.

Fort Knox was the first and largest granite fort built in Maine.  The granite was quarried from nearby Mt. Waldo, about five miles upriver from the fort.

Main Gate

The fort was named after Major General Henry Knox.  Fort Knox in Kentucky was also named after him.

The fort's two levels and four batteries contain mounts for 135 cannons, although no more than abut 74 were brought to the site.

View from one of the casements.

10-inch Rodman cannon.

Inside of fort and parade ground.  It was all interesting and a good day trip.

On Wednesday Michael, JoAnn, and Jack came up and met us at the campground.  JoAnn and I went walking on one of the carriage trails in Acadia.

One of the bridges on John D. Rockefeller, Jr's carriage road.  In 1910 Rockefeller bought a house in Seal Harbor.  At this time some of the area was a national monument, and he realized that traffic would ruin the beauty of the area.  So he started buying up land and designed 57 miles of wooded roads that would be free of motor vehicles.  Each one of the 16 bridges is different.  So today you can walk, ride a bicycle or horse, but you cannot take a car on the carriage roads.

JoAnn and I took the Witch Hole Pond Carriage Road for about 1/2 mile in and then 1/2 mile back.  It was beautiful!  Then we went into Bar Harbor and did some shopping!  I know John was thankful he didn't have to do that with me.

Michael, Jack, and John did part of the Beehive Trail, which the Acadia website says is for experienced hikers.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) they missed the turn because there was no sign and no one else around.  So they went all the way to the top, and would have been going down the ladders area instead of up, which they couldn't do because that trail was one way. So they turned around and went back the way they came.

Happy hikers!  They had a good time and that's all that counts.

Thursday was our last day and I had one more thing I wanted to do - the Bar Island trail that you can only do at low tide.  If you get over to the island and the tide comes back in you will either have to stay there until the next low tide, or call for a water taxi which will cost you $50.

We made it to the bar.  It was windy and quite cool.  As soon as we got away from the water's edge it warmed up again.

The bar at low tide.  There were a lot of people doing the same thing.

View looking back to Bar Harbor.

On Friday, June 6, after 10 nights in Bar Harbor, we drove to Sidney, ME to a Harvest Host - Bacon Farm Maple Products - for one night.  They make syrup and other maple products right there, and of course I had to buy some!

This is where we parked.

The sugar house and store.

On Saturday, June 7 drove through the rain again into New Hampshire.

We're at Twin Mountain Motor Court and RV Park in Twin Mountain for four nights.  It's $45 per night with military discount, and we have 30 amp full hookups.

The owner was really nice and gave us this great site!  He said the cottages in the front closer to the street are from the 1930s, and the then owners then added a RV park in the back in the 1990s.  It's quiet and we're looking forward to exploring the area.

So it will be a few days before we'll be...

Roving on...

"You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,

And the heavens are the work of Your hands.

1

They will perish, but You remain;

And they will all grow old like a garment;

 

Like a cloak You will fold them up,

And they will be changed.

But You are the same,

And Your years will not fail.”

Ephesians 1:10-12

Hampton Falls, NH - Richmond, ME - Trenton, ME

 May 15 - 30, 2025

On Friday, May 16 we drove to Wakeda Campground in Hampton Falls, NH for 6 nights.

We had a full hookup, back in site that was very nice with a wooded area out our back window.  It was $64 per night.  It rained quite a bit and there wasn't much to do in the area.  We forgot to take a picture.

We did take a drive along the shore.

We also went to Fort McClary.

The land has been used as a defensive position since 1689, and was deactivated in 1918.  If you're interested here's a good website to learn about the fort - https://northamericanforts.com/East/Maine/Fort_McClary/history.html

There was a pretty lighthouse and keeper's house on an island.

On Thursday, May 22, we drove to Augusta/Gardiner KOA Journey in Richmond, ME for 5 nights.

It was a pull through with full hookups for $75.01 per night.  Again, it rained a lot and there wasn't a whole lot to do around there.

We did go to Freeport and took a tour of Wilbur Candies.  It was an interesting tour ($6 each) and we got some samples of the candy as well as bought some.  It was good but not the best chocolate I've ever had.

Then we went to L. L. Bean and went through most of the stores.  They have so much merchandise there that they have four different buildings, plus the outlet store.  John bought a pair of much needed slippers at the outlet but I didn't buy anything.  It was fun just to see everything.

On Tuesday, May 27 we went to Trenton, ME, just north of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.  We're at the Timberland Acres RV Park for 10 nights.

It's a pull through with full hookups for $65.40 per night.  We were going to leave earlier, but Michael, JoAnn and Jack are coming up next week so we extended our stay.

On Wednesday we took the Lulu Lobster Boat Tour.  It was outstanding!  Our captain was a licensed lobster fisherman, and our guide, Galen, was very knowledgeable.  They were able to show us how they bring up the traps and how they decided if the lobsters are keepers or not.  They have to be between a certain length - too small or too big and they go back into the ocean.  If they have eggs or a notch on their tails they are females and they go back in.  The notches are put on when a lobsterman catches a lobster with eggs.  Then anyone else that catches that lobster knows it's a female and can't be kept.  FYI - we took the 9:00 tour on a weekday and there were only a dozen other people on the boat so we could move around and get up close to and touch the lobsters.  The 11:30 boat after ours looked much more crowded.

Each trap has a 'kitchen', where a bait bag (usually rotten herring) is, and a 'parlor', which is another opening in the trap where the lobsters can go.  You can see the little rectangle on the front of the trap that will allow smaller lobsters to get out.

Fortunately for this guy he was too small and went back overboard.

This lobster was doing some fishing of his own.

This is the gauge they use to measure the lobsters.  I was reading the book "The Secret Life of Lobsters" since I knew we were coming here and that made it so much more interesting.

We also went out and around Egg Rock.  All the lighthouses these days are automated so no lightkeepers are needed.  They still blow the foghorns though.

The coast and islands around here are very rugged.  There were seals and their pups but they were too far away and I didn't get a good picture.

After our tour we went to Bar Harbor Inn and had a lobster roll for lunch.  I can't remember having lobster before, and John only had it in Hawaii decades ago.  The texture was different than I thought it would be, even though I should have known it would be similar to shrimp.  We've had our Maine lobster and we're good.

The view from our table.

After lunch we went into Acadia National Park and did the loop road.  Even though it was a Wednesday it was still busy at the trailheads and sights.

Along the loop road.

One of the Rockefeller bridges.  They're all different along the carriage road, and all the ones we saw are very pretty.

A panorama at one of the overlooks.

This bridge was curved.

Yes, we're still in Dunkin Donuts country.  It seems like there's one everywhere!

On Friday we went around the "quiet side" of the island, west of Somes Sound.  We have the GuideAlong guides that directed us along the route as to things to see and do.  We get a lot more out of the drive than if we just drove.  This was a natural seawall that developed in the storms.  The smaller rocks are called cobble, and that's where the baby lobsters hide offshore until they get bigger.

We stopped at the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.

The fog was just burning off and we could hear a foghorn buoy but couldn't see it.

View from the path to the lighthouse.

We then went back to Bar Harbor and took the guide tour on the area west of the loop road and east of Somes Sound.  There are some very pretty lobster fishing villages, but I didn't get a pictures because the truck is big and there aren't many places to pull over.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow so we'll stay in.

In a few days we'll be...

Roving on...

For this is what the LORD says, He who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and not create if as a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited): "I am the LORD, and there is no one else."  Isaiah 45:1