Our RV Adventures

Since it’s been hot as He . . . eh, Hades recently, I thought I’d repost our visit to the Bar Harbor, Maine area 10 years ago this month. Where today the high was 72°.

August 24th, 2009

Today we made the 50 mile trip down to the Bar Harbor area to see some of Maine’s Atlantic coast.   The drive was pretty uneventful, except for a 25 minute wait right outside of Ellsworth for road work.  Luckily, by the time we came home they were finished for the day.

Right after we got into the Bar Harbor area,  we stopped for lunch at a small seafood place called Gateway Diner and had lobster rolls and sweet potato fries, and then split a pumpkin crumb pie with ice cream.  Great food, but unfortunately for me, the place also had a gift shop with a lot of moose stuff.

Mucho $$$$ later,  we stopped at the Bar Harbor Visitor’s Center right down the street to check out a tip that the lady at the diner mentioned about a loop road through Acadia National Park.

Getting directions, we headed out around the loop.

The first place we stopped was a scenic viewpoint overlooking Frenchman Bay, and this was just the start of a lot of beautiful scenery.

The dock area on the right side of the picture is Bar Harbor.

The next stop was Sand Beach.

Although the beach was closed today, apparently people really swim here, even though the water temp usually doesn’t get much out of the 50’s.

And some of the other views in the area are amazing.

Leaving the Sand Beach area,  we drove down to a spot that unfortunately has been in the news lately.

The area is called Thunder Hole because of the noise of the waves when the right conditions makes the sounds reverberate and sound like thunder.

The area is also popular because you can go out on a rock that juts out into the Atlantic ocean and stand where the waves come in over your feet when the tide is right.

This point is where about 20 people were smashed by a 25 foot wave caused by a combination of high tide and Hurricane Bill.  11 people were hospitalized with broken bones,  and 3 people,  a 7 year old girl,  her father, and an unrelated 12 year old girl,  were swept out to sea in the 55 degree water.

The 12 year old girl and the father were pulled from the water by the Coast Guard, but his 7 year old daughter was later found dead.

When we were there, the area was still closed off, but a ranger said the waves have to get over the top of the handrail before it’s closed off.

Leaving the area,  we drove further around the loop to more fantastic scenery.

Toward the end of the 27 miles loop we passed the Jordan Pond Inn,  a restaurant we had been told about and thought we would later have dinner there.

Leaving the loop,  we headed over to Bar Harbor to look around.  The first thing Jan found,  wouldn’t you know it,  was a couple of moose-stuff gift shops.

She really wanted this one, but we couldn’t figure out how to get it in the rig.

So she settled for trying on the latest in moose wear.

Walking down the hill we were able to look out over Bar Harbor itself.

And of course the many flower beds everywhere.

One of the ships I noticed in the harbor was a beautiful 4 masted schooner called the “Margaret Todd”.

And rather than being an old ship, she’s only about 10 years. She was launched in 1998 and built to give Windjammer cruises to the tourists.

Here’s what she looks like under full sail.

Before heading back over to Jordan Pond Inn for dinner,  we drove down to the end of Bridge St. to take a look.

When it’s low tide,  a sandbar is revealed that extends over to Bar Island in the distance,  allowing people to walk over to the island.  Unfortunately,  at high tide it just looks like a boat launch ramp.  Timing is everything!

Our dinner at Jordan Pond Inn was fantastic and we had a great meal.  The restaurant was really something,

and the scenery was something else.

The view from the outside dining are is of an island called “The Bubbles”

Of course, the locals call it by another ‘B’ word,  but I’ll leave it as an exercise  for the reader to figure out what the word is.

After a really great day, we finally headed home about 7 pm.  Luckily, the morning’s road work was over, so we were home in about an hour.

Today is our last day here in Bangor.  Tomorrow we head about 130 miles northeast to Houlton, ME,  which is about 2 miles from the Canadian border.

We’ll stay there for three or four days,  cleaning up some loose ends before we head over the border.

Thought for the Day: 

“A man’s rights rest in three boxes: the ballot box, the jury box, and the cartridge box.” – Frederick Douglass

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After a nice quiet morning I drove over to the NTB tire store (not Discount Tires) to get my rounded-off lug nut off. I got there about 12:20  for my 12:30 appointment and found them really busy. After finding a place to park, I went inside to check in.

When I said I had a 12:30 appointment to get some lug nuts off, the clerk said he couldn’t find my appointment, and since they were really busy, I’d have to come back at another time.

I told him to check using my phone number.

“Nope. Nothing here. You’ll have to come back later.”

“So you’re saying I don’t have an appointment.”

“No, there’s nothing in the system about it.”

“Then why is my name and appointment time scheduled on the monitor right over your head?”

Turning and looking up at the monitor, he grinned sheepishly and said, “Oh, here it is. Pull up to Bay 2.”

Since he had a lobby full of ‘real’ customers, I guess he didn’t want to fool with me.

About five minutes a tech came out with a special socket and a big hammer. When I pointed out the bad lug, he hammered the socket on the lug, and used his impact driver to remove the lug.

Or tried to.

It even took him several tries to break it loose with his driver, but finally it came free.

Now I don’t feel so bad.

Then I ask him to break loose the lugs on the driver’s side rear just in case. As he was doing that, he said what must have happened was the wrong impact driver was used. Some of them are set up to mount heavy truck tires and shouldn’t be used on regular vehicles.

He left the bad lug nut off and handed it to me, saying that the wheel would be OK with just five.

This reminded me of a favorite story of mine.

While driving out in the countryside, a man found himself with a flat tire. As he removed each lug nut he placed it in the hubcap for safe keeping. Mounting the new tire on the hub, he accidentally stepped on the edge of the hubcap, flipping 4 of the 5 lug nuts into the water-filled ditch next to the car.

As he was trying to figure out what to do, he hears a voice behind him. Turning, he saw a high chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. And a small sign on the fence that said, “Meadowbrook Insane Asylum”.

The voice belonged to a man standing behind the fence, who said,”You wanna know what to do?”

“Sure. What?”

“Take one lug nut off the other three wheels, and that, with the one you have left, will give you four lugs on all the wheels, fine to get you to the next town.”

“That’s brilliant, but why are you . . .?”

“Why am I in here? I’m in here because I’m crazy, not because I’m stupid.”

Moral: Don’t Be Stupid. Be Crazy.

About 4pm Jan and I headed over to the Denny’s to have our usual Sunday afternoon breakfast for dinner. Always good.

Thought for the Day: 

The Federal Government says that 4,153,237 people got married last year. Maybe it’s just me, but shouldn’t that be an even number?

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