~Wednesday, September 29, 2021~
Day 472 (Travel Day)
Wow, we are soooo impressed with Maine. So thrilled that we planned it right by giving Maine a month of our time. There were definitely some things we missed, but all the more reason to come back someday. The people, the coast, the food, the beer, the campgrounds, the sites…..there’s just so much to see. And though we had a mix of weather, it was still great. Thanks Sandy Pines for being such a great campground too!
Today we head northwest to the White Mountains of New Hampshire (the Green Mountains are in Vermont). Looking forward to our new stay at Dry River Campground in Crawford Notch State Park and crossing our fingers that we’ll have quite a show with the Fall display.
Stopped at the Market Basket on our way out of Maine for some last minute groceries since we don’t really know what or if there will be grocery stores where we’ll be. Then to Wal-Mart for RV toilet paper. Whew...we lucked out there since there were only 6 left. Are we back to that again people? Rationing toilet paper?
New Hampshire, as you can imagine, is simply gorgeous where we definitely saw more color the further north we went. There is a chill in the air for sure at 1,120 foot elevation, and the air is so crisp and clean. Taking in a lot of deep breaths! With only about a 2 hour drive today, our GPS, for some reason, decided to miscalculate the location of our campsite as she said, “You’ve arrived!” . Not unless you want to drive into a tree!
Without a cell signal to research where the heck we were, we tried looking at our backup Atlas and decided that we just needed to keep driving up a little bit further….6 miles further. Thank goodness, we guessed right, as there were NOT a lot of turn around options. As we were sort of lost, we couldn’t help but be distracted by the stunning scenery around us. The White Mountains just shoot up in gorgeous 3-dimensional layers densely covered in trees of green with pockets of orange, red and yellow. We can only imagine what this will look like even a week from now. Anyway, a very nice gentleman, the Ranger, checked us in and laid out the campground’s amenities. I don’t think I heard everything past “laundry facilities''. Shocking that they would even have them for such a small campground….only 25 sites. Evidently they have not 1 but 4 washers and 4 dryers. And I have trouble sometimes finding even two at a 120-site campground. We’d trade electric/water hookups any day for a beautiful setting. And the sites are deep and spaced far apart with so many trees between, you can barely see your neighbors.
But, our site has one added bonus. Though none of the sites have hookups, there is a water spigot at the front of the entrance to our campsite. We knew the campground had water where we had plans to just fill our 5-gallon collapsible water bottles and transfer it to the trailer. But with the spigot nearby, maybe our hose will reach our fresh water tank? Bingo!! and with 1 foot to spare. That saved us about an hour’s worth of work. Whenever we fill the fresh water tank, we always use our filter in the process. Plus we have our Brita filter in the trailer. The water quality has really varied on the trip, though most have been favorable. If we’re connected to city water, we also connect a filter there too, which is pretty common place for most RVer’s. Tonight was the first time we’ve fired up the trailer’s heater in months, crossing our fingers that it would work (remember when we had issues with the blower?). We’re grateful for that working since we have no other heat source while boondocking, unless we run the generator. They’re pretty lenient here with generator use as long as it’s after 9:00 a.m. and before 9:00 p.m.
Over our leftover homemade chili dinner, we had a long talk, evaluating our current RV lifestyle. Everything is great, and we’ve accepted the fact that this nomadic lifestyle is just a way of life that I happen to be documenting, rather than just a series of excursions. We just happen to be taking in an enormous amount that would normally take a lifetime to see. What I’ve enjoyed the MOST so far, aside from hitting so many amazing landmarks, are the people we’ve met, what we’ve learned, and living life with less. Living simply really suits Jeff and I and a mentality which I hope will carry over to our next abode. What I’ve liked the LEAST is being away from family and not doing the other things I love….playing piano, gardening and home projects (I really do like tweaking and improving on things). So I guess what I’m getting at is that it’s all about balance. That’s why we know for us, full-timing down the road is not the perfect scenario. We would need both the home base and the travel. It’s funny. Many of the people we follow and the people we’ve met on the road have said that once you move into a home, that you’ll be itching to get back out in no-time. I guess it can be addicting. I was telling Jeff tonight that every time we move, when we’re breaking things down and we’ve already been in a city for 7-10 days, that I’m excited for the next “backyard”, still void of dread (at least 15 months in). We reflect back each month, where we were a year ago, where some of it seems like yesterday, and some of it seems like an eternity ago. This time last year, we were at the Markagunt Plateau in Utah camping at 10,000+ feet at the tail end of the Fall display. It’s still one of the most fond memories I have of the trip. And the funny thing was, there wasn’t a whole lot to do there (other than the gorgeous Cedar Breaks National Monument). We were just enjoying “being”, disconnected from EVERYTHING, except each other.
If you ever want to see our old posts, simply go to the “Menu” bar at the top of our website, click on “More”, then the “Month”. The Margugunt Plateau as I just mentioned (where we saw a herd of sheep go right through our campsite), was Month Four-Post 104. Enjoy!