The Palmer Express

Pine Hollow Campground, we’re back there, somewhere, nice and quiet but buggy in the grass areas.

Bennington Battle Memorial 302 feet high, you take an elevator up 200 feet to an observation area, there are steps but closed since they are not up to code in today standards. Took 4 years to build, they averaged 10 feet a month minus the winters.

One of the views from the observation area.

Gorgeous views, everywhere. As in New Hampshire there are plenty of hiking trails in the area. Some trailheads are marked, others are just a little pull off along the road.

Hiked Broad Brook, our hike came to an early end as the water was to high to get across the river. We could of tried scooting over a fallen tree but decided that it wasn’t the smartest thing for us to do.

Stopped at Browns Brewery, Hoopsic Falls NY. They turned an old mill into a brewery, great location, and a stunning interior.

Nice selection of beers. We did a flight and liked all of our picks.

Timberland Campground, nothing fancy but a nice park. Unfortunately due to high water we could not get down to the river. Horrible cell phone reception in this area.

Flume Cascade, a lot of waterfalls in New Hampshire, some easy to see others were quite a hike.

John riding a Devil’s Shingle down the Cog Railway. The workers would ride these down the mountain at the end of their shift. The daring ones would race down reaching speeds up to 60 mph down the 3 miles of track.

The unknown hike, somewhere in the White Mountains. We are still smiling so it must be early in the hike.

Appalachian Trail water stop. We went past this a couple times and people were busy refilling their water bottles, so we joined in.

Just when we thought we would not see a moose, we came around a bend in the road and there it was grazing on the grass.

Glen Ellis Falls, easy hike to get to it. It was one of the more amazing falls.

Bar Harbor / Oceanside KOA, once again we had to pull to the front of the pad to plugin, leaving the patio behind us, the view made up for this.

First view of sand beach in Arcadia National Park, not for swimming (at least for me), in the summer the water reaches to around 55 degrees.

Cadillac Mountain, where you can see the earliest sunrise in America. You can see Bar Harbor down by the coastline.

On top of Cadillac Mountain, fantastic views, nice walking path, you can go off the walkway and hike other trails.

Shadows of the clouds on the ocean over looking Otter Bay.

The calm, 3 hours prior to high tide at Thunder Hole. People get there early to make sure not to miss it.

Thunder Hole, 2 hours prior to high tide, they have the lower section (where you see the water) closed off. There is a cave on the right that the waves crash into making the thunder.

Molten lava pathway to the Atlantic Ocean, by Birch Harbor.

This beach was mostly rocks and pebbles that were rounded from the surf. We could have sat and listened for hours to the sound of the waves withdrawing over the pebbles.

Us out rock climbing and enjoying the sun while it was out.

Lobster dinner anyone?

Saco/Old Orchard Beach KOA, nice location, good waffles.

The L.L.Bean car, Freeport ME, this 220,000 sq ft retail store campus is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Across the road there’s a bunch of outlet stores.

Old Orchard Beach Pier, most of the Pier is inclosed with shops and restaurants on the sides and a walking aisle down the middle.

An amusement park on the other side of the pier, only the arcade open right now.

Stopped into a restaurant in Portland to try their lobster rolls and this was the daily special. It could have used a little more lobster sausage but it was very tasty.

Bailey Island these rocks reminded us of petrified wood.

Maple Park, Outpost site OP12, FHU, huge campground, lots of tall pines and cranberry bogs. 600 campsites on 600 acres, a golf cart would be highly recommended if one was to spend a lot of time here.

Our $6.00 mussel appetizers. We’re enjoying all the fresh seafood.

A display of sperm whale teeth that sailors engraved as gifts for their families. They did it as a way to pass the time. The images were often copies from pictures in books or catalogs.

Mayflower landing site and the structure built to protect Plymouth Rock.

Plymouth Rock as you see it now is only 1/3 to 1/2 of its original size. This top portion of the original rock was cut off and has been located in few different locations over the years. Its current resting place is thought to be where it was originally located. The 1620 date was actually carved into it in 1880 by the Pilgrim Society.

Cape Cod National Seashores, finally sunshine but pretty cool and windy here.

The light House they use for the Cape Cod potato chip bag. We were unable to tour the potato chip factory as they were remodeling and closed for tours until Memorial Day.

We saw a few different warnings on some of the beaches about the possibility of great whites.

I left him alone for a minute.

Melville Campground, FHU site F10, not planned out very good, hook ups in the front of the site, patio in the back, so we had to pull forward far enough to park behind our unit.

View from the bottom of 40 steps, there is a nice walkway along the cliff that takes you down to the beach, or you can just drive the 2 1/2 miles.

We found a piece of pottery, some sea glass, and a lot of Shark Eye shells in the area.

Downtown Newport, narrow streets and one ways, lots of souvenir shops and eateries.

Dwight D. Eisenhower summer White House, it is located in the Fort Adams State Park. Eisenhower saved the fort from being torn down by the navy.

There was 3 levels of cannons. The highest was on top of the walls. These cannons shot cannon balls with a chain between them so it would ripe the sails and break off the masts. The middle level would shoot multiple smaller balls that would target the crew. The lowest row shot cannon balls that would skip along the water and hit the ships hull to sink it.

Fort Adams, Newport RI, in the process of restoring. The fort was designed to withstand attacks from both the land and sea. The parade ground was so large it could fit Fort McHenry, Fort Sumter, and Fort Ticonderoga with room leftover.

1800’s ramp, how they rolled the cannons and ammo to the top of the walls.

Second Beach, another cloudy and rainy day. Some really nice beaches here.

Newport is know as The Sailing Capital of the World and they move sail boats with golf carts?

One of the many “summer cottages” in the Newport area. Driving around the bay we got to see bits of Jay Leno, Judge Judy, and Jackie O’s summer homes. Driving down Bellevue put St Paul’s Summit Avenue to shame, some of the houses on the coastline looked like castles.

Mystic KOA, FHU, site B08, little road noise.  Not many people camping yet, it’s still a tad chilly here.

Mystic Seaport Museum, 15 acre replica of the town. There is a lot to see, we spent over 5 hours there and still didn’t see everything. The employees there were very friendly and informative.

Figureheads in the Wendell Building, it was kind of creepy.

The Charles W Morgan is the last whaling ship of its kind. It was built and launched in 1841. You can board the ship and tour it on your own.

 Mayflower II is at at the Henry B duPont Preservation Shipyard for restoration, a 3 year process, and over 2 million dollars. They plan to return her to Plymouth in 2020 in time for its 400th anniversary.

Found the Foxwoods casino, the 4th largest casino in the world, tried our luck at the slots, our pockets were lighter walking out.

 

Rip Van Winkle Campgrounds, FHU, site 11.  The speed bumps getting into the park were staggered, horrendous driving over, lots of mature trees, tight maneuvering around there. They had a lot of amenities for kids and adults.

New York, if you’re caught driving while using your phone three times you lose your license. For the amount of toll roads NY has you would think their roads would be better, they are awful.

From the bottom of Kaaterskill Falls, cold and rainy day. You can walk out to the ledge behind us, some people said you could walk behind the falls, we didn’t try it.

Of course we hiked to the top, really windy and cold!  When we got to the overlook we found another parking lot there. Notice the snow below, something we’ve been trying to avoid.

This was the first flight of stairs, the hike was over a 700′ elevation and 2.5 mile hike. Another part of the trail, the rocks are supposed to be steps.

John testing out a new mode of transportation for us. 

Bethel NY, the field where Woodstock took place.  Driving out to the site it is hard to imagine over 400,000 people trying to get there let alone hang out for 3 days.

French Creek State Park, FHU, site 6. They had multiple camp areas, pool, 2 lakes, and multiple hiking trails.

Cool bridge, driving through Wilmington was not our favorite drive so far. There was a lot of traffic and it seemed like we were going through town after town. 140 miles took us over 4 hours, normally we can cover this length in under 3 hours.

One of our hikes at French Creek, it was a 3 mile loop, we somehow made it into almost 6 miles.

This tail went by the old park entrance, there were a lot of springs and we came across a lot of mud.

Our other hike was from the campgrounds down to the lake. The dam and overflow was a cool design. The water in the lake was very clear. Had it been nicer weather we could have kayaked.

Part of the hike we did lead over to Hopewell Furnace. This is a site where they produced charcoal. Very interesting information boards. They also had well preserved buildings,wagons, and tools to view. As a bonus there were 4 new lambs playing in a pen. https://www.nps.gov/hofu/index.

We were out touring and found September Farm Cheese, it was hard not to buy one (or two) of everything. We did treat ourselves to their homemade ice cream.

Our site 428 at Delaware Seashore State Park, FHU, north side. The north side has asphalt pads, south side is gravel, when the wind blew, we could watch the dust fly over there.  The coast guard was located right behind the campground and if the wind was blowing right we could hear the morning Reveille.

Rehoboth Beach boardwalk, lots of shops and restaurants still closed for the season some only open on the weekends. The benches were pretty cool, you can flip the back rest so you can check out the boardwalk or the beach. No shortage of French fries, popcorn, and Grotto pizza.

Chief Little Owl statue at Bethany Beach, nice boardwalk, more shops and restaurants open here but more expensive.

Attended a surf fishing class that was offered by the Life Guard Station ran by the State Park. It was a hour of class time, talked about the different kinds of fish you would likely catch and limits in Delaware. What I remember from the class was DON’T put your fingers in the mouth of any saltwater fish, don’t panic, and cut your line when you catch something crazy. Since it was so windy and the surf was pretty wild we only got to practice casting, usually they let you fish for a hour or two.

The surf was so big the surfers were busy hanging 10.