A week into our trip and what an experience so far! Adjusting to living on the road has been
pretty painless. Driving and navigating, quick set-up and break-down of camp and route planning to our next destination has required good teamwork. Yes, there HAVE been moments of frustration but it’s safe to say we are in the groove now. Today, as we leave the state of Massachusetts and head west towards Pennsylvania, we reflect back on our week and the lessons learned so far.
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| Route 1 Maine, USA |
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| Route 1 Maine, USA |
1.Using a navigation system - Don’t set your route preferences to short!!!!!! Use easy instead!
When we first started our journey Steve was hell bent on travelling Route 1, the scenic route, through the New England states. I have to admit this highway was quite pretty, taking us along the coast of Maine where there were many opportunities to pull off and take in the scenery. This winding two lane road took us through the back country, through little nooks and crannies, past country towns and what seemed to be an endless amount of antique shops. We set up camp at Lemoine State Park and travelled to Bar Harbour on motorcycle for a day.
Everything was going great until we keyed in our route to Massachusetts! What seemed to be a typical 4 hour driving day was all of a sudden turning out to be two Newfies, in their 24 foot motorhome towing a trailer, meandering through a series of left and right turns through every little side road that existed! Can you picture the cockpit of our trailer?! Needless to say, when we checked the navigation system it truly was taking us on the “shortest” route NOT the “easiest”!
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| Lemoine State Park, Maine Just back from a run to Bar Harbour! |
2. Remember that old saying….The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry? It’s true!!! The old folks were right!! One thing we have learned is to just go with the flow and think on our feet. We have researched as much as you can for this trip and have organized everything to the hilt! I can also say that we use that same philosophy when planning our new destinations and routes to getting there. Before embarking on a new road trip we have gotten into the habit of spending a few hours each night planning where we will go, what park we will visit and how long we will stay. Using the reserveamerica.com site to pre-book campsites has been wonderful and makes getting to our next destination a little less stressful. So when we decided to leave Maine and go to the Boston area, we did just that! We booked a 4 day stay at
Wompatuck State Park in Norwell, Ma., just outside Boston, set our route on the navigation system, and hit the road at 7:30 am on Friday morning. Everything was going great as we cruised along the Interstate highway! As the time ticked towards mid afternoon and as we inched closer and closer to the checkered flag on the navigation system, the Boston skyline came into view.
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| Over 70 miles of paved and mountain bike trails at Wompatuck State Park! Trying to exercise everyday! Massachusetts, USA |
“Oh, yes!”, Steve said, “I’m sure the route we are on will take us on the outskirts of Boston!”
Before we knew it, we were in four lanes of bumper to bumper traffic in the middle of Boston city. Can you picture the cockpit of our trailer now?! Yes! This was a tense time to say the least when all of a sudden a text comes in from the local Boston area weather office to advise us that there would be an extreme heat advisory in our area for the next three days. Our dreams of mountain biking through Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket and trekking the Freedom Trail through the city of Boston were suddenly dashed! A new plan was hatched!
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| Just had to escape the heat! Went for a run to Plymouth and Cape Cod on bike. Check out the temperature! |
3. People ARE nice! As we have travelled from the east coast of Canada down the New England states through Massachusetts and beyond we have met some incredibly friendly and wonderful people. Our licence plate and trailer sparks great discussion about where we come from AND where they come from as well. A big shoutout to Dealia from Maine whom we met at a roadside stop and taught us about her fellow American, John James Audobon, and his many 18th century trips to Labrador to draw seabirds; Jeff from New York state who has visited Central Newfoundland to go moose hunting; and Carolynn, the lovely laundromat lady from the Wash and Shop Laundromat whose grandmother is from Prince Edward Island. Steve really enjoyed the political chat as we waited for our clothes to wash and dry. There truly is six degrees of separation! Until the next time….
So awesome to read! Keep adventuring on! Last year when I was down to the state John Audubon followed us everywhere. He has a house in Key West that was now a museum because he studied birds there and he lived in New Orleans which was most interesting because he originally owned and sold slaves but when the market turned bad he started to sell his art sketches of birds and then went into their taxonomy and full scientific study. He was a business man, artist by hobby and self taught biologist. They have the insectarium and butterfly museum in New Orleans named after him now!!
ReplyDeleteYes, we have read some of Audubon's works online since learning about him particularly his trips to the Labrador. We are hoping to be in the Southern States, including New Orleans and Florida, sometime in the new year! We will be sure to look him up when we get there! Thanks for letting us know about these sites! Thanks for following along!
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