May 25, 2008 by Tim Enright.

On the trip from Bar Harbor to our next destination, Baxter State Park, we decided to head up to Eastport, Maine. Eastport is the furthest city east in the United States.  More impressive than Eastport was a small restaurant called Helen’s. This is the place where you will find Helen’s pies. These are the BEST homemade blueberry pies in America. They are made with small juicy wild Maine blueberries. The slogan at Helen’s is “Pies you will remember for the rest of your life” and we will vouch for that.

That evening we arrived at Hidden Springs Campground in Millinocket, Maine, near Baxter State Park. The people at the office were awaiting our arrival. We checked into our site and were given more than enough information to aid in our adventure to seek and photograph a real live Maine moose. The next two days we spent exploring the north Maine woods. Along with the moose we saw a black bear, a bald eagle, deer and of course a ton of black flies.

We encountered a woman from the area who was nicknamed the “Moose Whisperer”. Her name was Vicki Nolan. She is a local guide who was very knowledgeable about all things to do with moose. She said that she spends a lot of time with the moose. We learned quite a bit about them from her.

Hidden Springs Campground is a nice campground. It has plenty of shade trees, a pool, shower and bath house. The sites are water and electric. We found it to be a nice place to stay while exploring the state park.

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May 22, 2008 by Tim Enright.

We arrived in Bar Harbor, Maine on Thursday only to discover that the place we had chosen to stay at was not open yet. The Bar Harbor Campground was to open on Friday. We saw a couple of employees working on the sign at the road. I ran over to talk to them and they were kind enough to allow us to come in a day early.

Bar Harbor Campground is run on a first come, first choice basis. Because we were allowed into the park early, we got our choice of spots. We backed into a spot directly on the ocean that had full hookups. It was very nice.

The park offers both full hookup and water/electric only sites. It has both wooded and an open areas in the park. There is also an area designated for tents on the ocean. It has a heated pool, laundry, showers and bath houses. They advertise Wi-Fi, but it only works at the entrance to the park where the office is located. This is a huge inconvenience.

As soon as we unhooked from the 5^th-wheel we headed for Acadia National Park. This park encompasses most of Mt. Desert Island. It has miles of carriage roads and hiking trails. It also is the home of Mt. Cadillac, which is the largest mountain on the east coast. You can drive to the summit of this mountain and see a breathtaking view of the entire area.

One of my personal favorites of the entire trip was spent climbing the trail to bubble rock. This is a rock perched on the edge of a mountain which looks as if it could fall at any time. The trail leading to bubble rock has a semi gradual incline and is heavily wooded. You do not realize how high up you are until the trees clear when you reach the summit. I made this climb with my wife. I am not fond of heights and was very proud of my accomplishment.

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May 21, 2008 by Tim Enright.

Upon entering Maine our first stop was at the Harraseeket Lunch & Lobster Company. This place is famous for its spectacular lobster roll. If you don’t know where this place is it can been a hard place to find. You can forget about getting there with a trailer. We had to park on the side of the street about a half mile away on a very steep hill. And wouldn’t you know it, when we got there we forgot the camera and I had to hike back to get it.

Next on the trip and also in the town of Freeport was L. L. Bean. We spent quite some time shopping there. This place was enormous and had everything.

We finally arrived at our destination for the night, Camdin Hills State Park. This park is located at the base of Mt. Battie which offers a view of Camden, Penobscot Bay, and the surrounding islands.

The park is one of the few in Maine that offers electric as well as water. On the downside the sites are extremely unlevel. They are some of the worst we have ever experienced. It can also be difficult to maneuver around the many trees in the park. The park also offers WiFi, but they did not know how to get it to work. The Wi-Fi will work on a trial basis for about 30 minutes and then password they provide will not work.

On top of everything else this was a very bad day for the notorious Maine black flies. You could only setup camp with one arm. You needed the other one to constantly swat at flies. Anyone was has experienced this knows that this is no exaggeration. This was not one of our better stays.

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May 19, 2008 by Tim Enright.

Minuteman campground is located in Massachusetts just outside of Boston. It is a very nice campground with lots of trees. That would normally be a plus unless a storm was heading towards you and branches kept falling out of the trees all around you. Luckily we escaped any direct hits.

The sites are large and offer full hookups including cable. They also have a very good Wi-Fi signal throughout the park. The bathrooms were clean and had a large dressing area. We highly recommend staying at this park if you are in the area. This will be one of our favorites.

The next morning my wife and I caught a train into Boston. In town we had a beer at Cheers. Afterwards we sat down for a steak at Ruth’s Chris Steak House located in the Old City Hall. This is one of the best steaks I have ever eaten. We then went by Denny Crane’s office to see if he would come out on his balcony for a cigar and scotch. We must have just missed him.

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May 17, 2008 by Tim Enright.

We made it to our first campground after two days of traveling. We stayed at Timberlane Campground located in Clarksboro, New Jersey. We chose this park for its location between Philadelphia and Atlantic City.

The campground is clean and offers sites with full hookups including cable. There were seasonal RV sites, but they were well kept. The people were extremely nice. They helped us plan our trips to both Atlantic City and Philadelphia.

The night we arrived we dropped the RV and headed to Atlantic City. When we arrived, we parked near the Hilton. We walked down the boardwalk to the Trump Plaza. We both put 5 bucks into the slot machines and both came out ahead. My wife won $8.50 while I was the winner of the largest jackpot I had ever won, $30.00 dollars! Even smarter, we both quit while we were ahead. Sorry Trump, this time you lose.

The next day we went to Philadelphia. In Philly, we did the tourist thing and saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and Ben’s house. At Ben’s house (Ben Franklin to those of you not from the area) we got to see his privy (or toilet for those of you not from the time period). It really was nothing but a hole in the ground. Things have come a long way since then.

By this time it had started to rain pretty hard. But no matter how bad the weather, I was bound and determined to get my Philly Cheese Steak before we left. The people at the campground had told us about “Rick’s Philly Steaks”. This place has one of Philadelphia’s favorite Cheese Steaks if not the very best. Rick is a descendent of the creator of the Philly Cheese Steak. Rick’s is located in the Reading Terminal Market building. This building houses several businesses like you would find in an open air market.

Back at the campground we decided to go out for pizza. We found a small pizza place called Heavenly Pizza. This was my first New York style pizza. Sure wish I could find this back in the Midwest.

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May 16, 2008 by Tim Enright.

It is finally here! This is what we have been waiting for all winter. In fact, this is what we have been waiting for since we got our RV. We are on our first real road trip. We have planned for this trip for some time and the time has come to see it come true.

Today is the beginning of a 17 day well deserved vacation. We left as soon as we got out of work and made it into Ohio. We are staying at a rest area on the I-80 Ohio Turnpike. This particular rest stop has an area designed for RV’s to use that is located away from the noise of the big trucks. There is also fresh water and a dump station. The sites are paved parking spots that are wide enough for us to put our slide out. They also provide you with electrical hookups. The cost was quite reasonable and stopping here was convenient for someone traveling through.

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May 2, 2008 by Tim Enright.

Lakeport State Park, located just north of Port Huron in Michigan, is one of the nicest State Parks we have ever had the pleasure of visiting. We arrived at the park late on Friday in the off-season and were surprised to see someone there to meet us. They were very friendly and helped us to find a site.

The site we chose was directly on the shores of Lake Huron. It was one of the largest state park sites we have been in. All of the sites offer electric. There is water and a dump station in the campground. Two of the three shower houses were new. All of them were clean and very well taken care of. There is also a small general store within the park.

We enjoyed our stay here even though it rained the entire time we were here. We hope to return soon.

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April 18, 2008 by Tim Enright.

The Chippewa Indian Campground is owned and operated by the same tribe that runs the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.  Unlike most casino RV parks, this campground is not at the casino, it is a few miles down the road. There is, however, a shuttle bus that can transport you to the casino.

The campground is nothing special. The sites have water and electric. They also tend to be quite unlevel. There is a pool which looks as if it hadn’t been used in quite some time. Local residents zip through the campground on golf carts and ATVs. The place has potential and for the price is an OK value.

Check out Mr. Tree……

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April 5, 2008 by Tim Enright.

The long cold winter has gone and it is once again time to go camping. This is our first trip of the year, so we do not like to go too far from home. This was a wise decision since when we got to our site at the Valley Plaza RV Resort we noticed that we had forgotten to load the TV. We had just purchased a new Samsung LCD TV and a LG home theater-in-a-box.  I was anxious to try them out, so I had to return home to get the TV. By the way, it is awesome!

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November 19, 2007 by Tim Enright.

Following Deer Camp this year we stopped at Outdoor Adventures- Saginaw Bay Resort. Since we needed to clean out our tanks and winterize the trailer anyway, we decided that we would squeeze in one more week of camping. This is Thanksgiving week so my wife will only be working 3 days. I on the other only get the holiday off of work. We will both be driving to work from the park. It is not that much further than normal and mostly expressway.

The park is now setup for winter camping. There is no on-site water, but the bath houses are open. The general store is open a couple days a week. There are also security people around if you need help with anything.  This came in handy when we ran out of propane one day. Heat is not something you want to be without on nights when it gets down to 10 degrees outside.

For an extra fee you can leave your trailer right on a site and store it for the winter. This is handy if you want a place to go and get away for the weekend. We did not leave our trailer at the park this year but we thought about it. There were a lot of trailers on sites, however not many of them were occupied.  I figured there were only about ½ dozen people in the entire park. I am sure more visit on the weekends.

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