When we left you in the last blog, we had entered the US in Niagara Falls. Our route led us to Baldwinsville, where we visited for a few days (mooch docking) with Billy and Emily, and their two beautiful energetic children, Addie and Clint. Emily is the daughter of our very best friends in Florida, Chuck and Mary. Charlie, their son, also lives nearby, and we were able to see him as well. These 2 kids (adults now) are the same age as our children, and we spent so much time together over the years, that we consider them part of our family.
Another connection is that Billy and Emily were introduced to each other by our daughter Brittany and her husband Karl, as Billy was in the Navy with him. The world really is small sometimes, and we enjoyed our time with them and getting to know their little ones. *We really need a reunion with the entire King and Smith families!!!
One of our goals on this leg of the trip was to spend fall in New England, so we headed towards Vermont and New Hampshire. We stopped at the NY/Vermont state line and enjoyed Fort St Frederic and His Majesty's Fort at Crown Point, which has beautiful views of the Lake Champlain Bridge. This fort was built by the British and North American Colonies to protect them from France, hence the British flag.
As usual this trip, we were a little early for the gorgeous Vermont fall colors, but we made our way east anyway. As we traveled across Vermont, we could see the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the distance. As a matter of fact, one mountain top was a little too white for us. 🥶
The next stop on our itinerary was Lubec Maine. The campground was situated right next to the water, and we enjoyed the views, day and night.
The town of Lubec is a quaint village filled with lobster boats and cedar shake sided buildings.
The main reason for visiting Lubec was to facilitate our stop at the easternmost point of the contiguous US, West Quoddy Head Lighthouse. As you know, we had already visited the westernmost and northernmost points during this trip, so we added this stop for the third.
This candy striped lighthouse sits right on the rocky coast. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate for us to see the spectacular views, but it was one more bucket list item checked off.
OK, here it is! Breaking News!! We went back into Canada.
Just for the day this time to visit Campobello Island, New Brunswick. Yes, we had to go through customs again, Canadian and US. Luckily, we had no issues. It's possible we're getting good at this, with all the practice we've had. 😩
The Roosevelt Campobello International Park is located on this island. This park is jointly managed by Canada and the US. FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt's summer home was located here and is preserved as a museum. Again, the weather did not cooperate, but we made the best of it.
We followed the coast south to our next destination, Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. The town of Bar Harbor was a little busy for our taste, but we ventured out every day and explored the entire island. We just thought we had seen a lot of boats before this stop. We were wrong!! The entire New England coast is filled with gorgeous boats. And the water is cold, but crystal clear.
We spent a day hiking in Acadia National Park and that's when fall started to awaken in Maine. The views around the park were gorgeous and the weather finally cooperated for us!
The last stop for the day was up to the top of Cadillac Mountain and this did not disappoint.
Unfortunately, a lady twisted her ankle on the rocks, so Scott assisted her husband carrying her to the parking lot. There's something to be said for wearing hiking boots. I learned a lesson that day from someone else's mistake. Oh, and Scott got his exercise for the day.
Wallaces Market in Friendship Maine was our next reservation through Boondockers Welcome. This was a fabulous stop that we enjoyed for several days. They have a great set up for guests, complete with lobster trap patio furniture.
We went sightseeing each day and toured another lighthouse, Pemaquid Point. You are allowed to venture up a winding spiral staircase to the top and experience the view. It was spectacular!
Another first for us, Maine Booch! We were in search of a brewery, thought we had found one and then quickly discovered hard (spiked) kombucha. It was ok, but probably not something we would search out in the future.
Lobster was on our minds, and we found plenty. And at $5 a pound, it was a steal compared to the local restaurant prices. We enjoyed them for dinner that night and brought some home for lobster rolls in Suwannee. 😋
Freeport was our last stop in Maine, and a trip there would not be complete without a visit to LL Bean. In addition, the fall colors were still popping.
We did spend one night in Rhode Island directly on the bay. According to our neighboring campers, we lucked out as these campsites are reserved by a lottery each year.
We rushed through the next 5 states, as we were on a mission to attend the Annapolis boat shows in Maryland with our good friends, Kevin and Donna. More about boats later... We also had dinner with camping friends we met over 7 years ago at Ft Desoto in Tierra Verde Fl, Chuck and Julie. It was great catching up!
Anapolis was beautiful and we definitely want to return to all of the New England states in the future for longer visits.
Something we had not planned was experiencing fall throughout many of the states we visited. Because we were heading south, we seemed to greet fall everywhere. This was true all the way to Florida. This was truly a blessing!
We were due in NC for Thanksgiving and we were still running ahead of schedule by a month, so we ventured west to Kentucky. The Bourbon Trail was calling our name, well maybe Scott's more than mine. However, I actually developed a taste for the stuff. 😊 We stayed in three different areas and explored the distilleries around each town. We won't say how many we visited, but we didn't miss many 🤪.
Bardstown Ky was our first stop in bourbon country. Some highlights from the area:
Buffalo Trace Distillery
James Beam Distillery
It is amazing to think of how many barrels of bourbon are housed in these buildings! And there are hundreds of these scattered around the Kentucky hillsides.
Another funny story for you!! After 40+ years of camping, we were kicked out of a campground for the first time ever. And it wasn't because of bad behavior. 😳
We had been staying at a great Ky State Park, but had to leave because of no availability on the weekends.
We found a local campground with vacancies, had read some bad reviews about the manager, so we toured the spot to make sure everything was ok. Met the manager and she seemed nice, so we booked a site online and headed there the next day around noon. When we arrived, the manager came out of her camper and told me 1:00 check-in means 1:00 and not earlier. She was not kind and that's putting it nicely. We hadn't had many issues with check-in times and had found most campgrounds polite about arrivals. We apologized and parked out of the way to wait 45 mins. She stormed out of the office and told us we could not wait on the premises, so we asked her why? She abruptly turned around and yelled "Get off my property and your reservation is cancelled!" Funny thing about the whole situation was that we never lost our cool and actually found it comical. We quickly left and returned to the state park, as the camp host had told us about a cancellation there. We booked it and stayed 6 more days in peace. So, the rumors were true about the manager at the Little Patch of Heaven Campground. Not so heavenly!! Also, probably why they have so many open campsites. 😜
We had a very interesting tour at the Makers Mark Distillery and enjoyed their beautiful grounds. Many of the processes used to make this bourbon are the same as originally used years ago. The bottling process has been modernized, but each bottle is still hand dipped in wax.
Chihuly Glass adorns the backlit ceiling of one of the hallways. If you look closely, you will see a cherub, one of four situated throughout the exhibit.
I tried my hand at bottle waxing and triumphed!
Next stop, Louisville! More distilleries, although our favorites were located around the Bardstown area. We also visited the home of the Louisville Slugger and had one engraved for our grandson, Westin.
Not sure of the story behind this, but the entire limo is covered in red beads!
No visit to Louisville would be complete without chowing down on a Hot Brown. It was delicious!
Last stop in this area was Lexington, otherwise known as "horse" country.
Throughout our distillery stops, we found the most amusing t-shirts. Just a sampling:
Also, maybe the best road name ever...
And, a road sign to "top" all others...
On our way to NC, we stayed in Tennessee at several Harvest Host locations. One was a farm/bakery and our neighbors were very nosy mules.
The Smoky Mountains were calling, but we were still early. Maybe we need to slow down a little and smell the roses. Somehow it all works for us. We stayed at a friends property for a few days and helped our son and daughter-in-law with a project, visited/dined out with friends we hadn't seen in awhile and relaxed. I'm sorry if we missed someone, but the weather forecast was calling for snow, and we were not impressed. We needed to leave the mountain, so we quickly dropped down into South Carolina.
Our final night in South Carolina was spent at Wild Hearts Equine Center, a place near and dear to us. This is the first place we went, after retirement, to volunteer our time with A Year to Volunteer. This is an awesome place that deserves more attention. If you feel the need to donate monies to charity, look them up. You won't be disappointed.
THANKSGIVING WITH FAMILY ❤️ It had been almost a year since we had left on this adventure, and we needed a family fix!! It seemed like the grandkids had grown by feet, not inches. We had a great time in the Asheville area hiking, fishing, eating and just fooling around. Scott's brother and family joined us for a few days, as well. The grands enjoyed an early Christmas from us and a good time was had by all!
The Monday after Thanksgiving, I was given another reason to be "thankful". A clean mammogram, 6 years past my cancer diagnosis and a total release (even meds) from the oncologist. It doesn't get any better!
We headed home to Southern Tides after 11 1/2 months.
So long for now...
NEXT UP: STATS, THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS ABOUT OUR ADVENTURE. AND WHAT'S NEXT FOR US?? IT MIGHT INVOLVE A BOAT!
We were due in NC for Thanksgiving, and we were still running ahead of schedule by a month, so we ventured west to Kentucky. The Bourbon Trail was calling our name, maybe Scott's name initially, but I ended up acquiring a taste as well. We stayed in three different areas and explored the distilleries around each town. We won't say how many we visited, but we didn't miss many. 🤪
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