As I moved further north and east from Bar Harbor ME to the Seaview Motel, Cabins & Campground in Eastport ME on Tuesday, August 14, 2012, the landscape became markedly more remote and less affected by the footprint of mankind. There were pockets of civilization, but the duration and frequency of stretches of uninterrupted, tree-lined highway increased. The villages and towns still heralded an occasional art or antique store as a beacon to passersby; but hardware stores, pharmacies, banks and grocers emerged from the hidden lairs they occupied in Bar Harbor to become the norm along US 1. The trip from Boston or New York City became less and less attractive for weekenders the further I drove. Eastport actually is quite a little diamond in the rough. The historic city core boasts of 29 buildings on ... read more

When I initially planned my advance north along the Maine coastline, the distance between stops made the Camden/Rockland area a logical stopover point. I learned that my cousin’s wife grew up in nearby Union ME and that they usually visited sometime during July and/or August. I penciled in my dates but, when I learned Rockland would be hosting “The 65th Maine Lobster Festival” during my “tentative” visit, the dates became etched in ink! It turned out the arrival of a new grandchild in Alabama altered their Maine visitation plans for 2012, but who needs to have your cousin watching as a seafarin’ neophyte learns how to disassemble a whole lobster anyway! It also turned out that the campground I selected was very close to Union and was one they knew well. The spot I was given ... read more

Exeter NH is what I oftentimes have imagined when I visualized a small New England city – colonial homes close enough to the tree-lined street to clutch one side of the sidewalk, classic churches with steeples that command at least a glance against a brilliant blue sky, ornate public buildings that taunt us in melody, “If you knew what I know,” and streets that radiate from the core like spokes on the wheel of a horse-drawn carriage. My drive from Salem MA to The Green Gate Campground in Exeter NH on Tuesday, July 10, 2012 was uneventful, and I was pleased to find that I had only a short 1-1/2 mile drive from the campground to town. Several area towns hosted attractions which made my “to do” list, but my main reason for selecting Exeter as ... read more

My relocation from Sandwich MA to Plymouth MA on June 19, 2012 held a brand new curve ball. I knew the trip would be one of the shortest campground to campground journeys of my “professional tourist” career, but was dumbfounded when MapQuest calculated the route from Peters Pond RV Resort (Sandwich) to Indianhead Resort (Plymouth) at only 12.39 miles. Scratching my head in bewilderment, MapQuest rescued me from the threshold of a rubber room. To reach downtown Plymouth from Indianhead Resort, I would have to travel an additional 13.94 miles! It literally took longer on each end of the trip to make ready my travel trailer than it did to traverse the route. After set-up, my Pilgrim (the brand of my travel trailer) felt right at home in Plymouth. Wednesday found me venturing back toward the ... read more

The weather was great on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, and the drive from Newport RI to Wellfleet MA was pleasant and uneventful. I had chosen Wellfleet as my base of Outer Cape Cod operations because of its central location. Many of the attractions I wanted to visit were in Provincetown, out at the tip of the Cape Cod peninsula; but some were located closer to the mainland from Wellfleet. If for no other reason than geography, Wellfleet was a good choice; and Maurice's Campground was a good choice for the solitude after a busy day. In spite of the inaccessibility of some of the attractions during the “off season,” one advantage of visiting then is the serenity of the sparsely populated campgrounds at the end of a busy day. Wednesday morning I headed for Province Lands ... read more