Daily Archives: August 24, 2020
Marco . . . Laur . . . eh, Polo
As it stands right now, we probably won’t get much in the way of wind/rain from Marco/Laura. But things can change, of course.
Apparently there is a petition circulating to rename Tropical Storm Laura to Tropical Storm Polo. Sounds good to me.
In 2009, on our way to Newfoundland, we took a day trip from Bangor, ME to the Bar Harbor area, as well as the Acadia National Park.
August 24, 2009
Bar Harbor and Bubbles…
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 her, 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 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 old. 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.
On our way through Tennessee and on to Sikeston, MO.
August 24, 2012
Eureka!
We pulled out of Tom Sawyer RV Park a little after 9am this morning for a short 134 mile trip north on I-55 to Sikeston, MO.
And once again we had a repeat performance of the hard-starting and stalling that has occurred the previous two mornings. And once again, when we got moving we had no more problems.
And after a smooth, uneventful trip, we pulled into the Hinton RV Park in Sikeston, MO about noon. Normally we would have stayed at the Passport America park up the road, but the reviews in RV Park Reviews said Hinton RV Park was really good, and the Passport America park was really, really bad. So here we are.
One thing I noticed coming into Sikeston was. being at the conjunction of two Interstates, (I-55 and I-57) there were a lot of truck dealerships in town, so once we got parked, I made some phone calls and found there was a local Cummins dealer and they had a generator fuel filter in stock.
So as soon as we got settled in, I headed down the road to the Cummins dealer to pick up the filter, and while I was there I also got a new engine fuel filter as well.
Getting back to the rig we decided to eat before I tackled the generator fuel filter changeout. And of course, where else to eat in Sikeston, MO, but Lambert’s Throwed Rolls.
After having our usual great meal of Fried Chicken, veggies, hot ‘throwed rolls’, and of course, the great ‘pass-arounds’, we came back to the rig. I then decided to take a nap and let the temps cool off before I tackled the generator.
Finally, about 6pm I headed outside to crawl under the rig and have at it. And as usual in these things, it took longer to get to the filter than it did to actually change it out. To make matters worse, you can’t get to the filter access door with the generator extended, but when you have the generator retracted, it’s hard to get under the rig to get the filter out.
And to make things worse, the filter is not a standard spin-on type, but a rectangular metal box with flare fittings making the fuel connections.
And of course, they couldn’t allow enough slack to make it easier to disconnect the lines.
But finally, after about an hour, I had the filter installed and everything buttoned back up. Now for the ‘smoke test’.
Well, actually, I hope it doesn’t smoke. First I primed the generator for about a minute, per the manual, and then hit the start button. After cranking it over twice for about 5 seconds, the third time was the charm, and the generator fired up and ran smoothly. I let it run for about 20 minutes, and had no problems.
At this point I shut it down and considered it a job well done. And we’ll have AC on the road tomorrow. Jan says “YEA!”
I still think this problem, and my engine problem was caused by the Diesel Kleen cleaning out the build-up in my fuel lines. Although it could have possibly been a tank of bad fuel that we took on in Whitsett when I also added the Diesel Kleen, it seems to me that if it were bad diesel it would have continue to clog the engine filter until the rig engine no longer ran either.
So now I’ll change out the engine filter while we’re at Celina, and for a while I’ll use less Diesel Kleen when I fill up.
An Update On This: This problem was not caused by the use of Diesel Kleen, but was ultimately found to be a clogged fuel tank vent hose. Apparently while we were parked at the Gate Guard Services lot in Whitsett after we left our gate, but before we headed north, a wasp or dirt dauber built a nest in the fuel tank vent hose. This caused a vacuum in the fuel system which crushed the generator fuel filter insides, and ultimately actually partially collapsed our 150 gallon diesel fuel tank, reducing its capacity to about 105 gallons.
Tomorrow we’ll travel about 185 miles to Vernon, IL to visit Jan’s sister and her family before heading on to Celina on Sunday.
Thought for the Day:
Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. — Mark Twain
On our new Gate in East Texas.
August 24, 2016
Last Date . . .
Looks like that after we get settled in, I going to have to set up my Wilson Cell Phone Booster.
When we were parked down on the pad, we had one bar of 4G, that cycled back and forth through 1X and 3G as well. But I was hoping that when we moved up to the top of the hill things would improve.
And they did. I now had 3 bars of solid 4G. But unfortunately my internet performance didn’t improve.
I haven’t had to use my booster for several years since we’ve usually been in an area with a good signal. But it looks like it’s time to pull it back out of storage.
Our Hawkwood Company Man came by this morning, a little before I got up, so Jan got to talk to him, and got a lot of good information
But first off, he wanted us to move our truck onto the pad. We had parked on the grass right across the road from us, but he said that was really on the landowner’s side, so he made a spot for us at the end of one of the trailers right inside the gate.
He also said they hoped to spud in on Friday, so we’ll start logging then I guess. And even better, he had no problem with us taking off today to head over to Bryan/College Station this afternoon.
So we headed out about 1pm, having to thread our way out between the incoming big trucks. Our first stop was about a 1/4 mile down the road at the combination convenience store/Blue Moon BBQ, our gate’s namesake.
We wanted to get gas for the truck, and also a menu from Blue Moon. The menu part went fine, but the gas part didn’t. The pumps, such as they were, were the old type with the analog rotating dials. And they obviously didn’t work.
So we headed on toward B/CS stopping at the Exxon station about 8 miles for our gas and also another menu, this time as a photo.
We’ll probably try them out soon.
Our first stop in B/CS was the Saltgrass Steakhouse for what may be our last meal out for 3 months or so. And it was its usual really good.
Jan got their regular salad, while I went with my favorite, their Wedge Salad.
Jan got her favorite Sirloin Strip, while I got my usual Ribeye with Steak Fries.
We had a nice leisurely lunch, really enjoying our temporary freedom.
Our next stop was a carwash to get the dirt and grime off, at least for a while, and then it was on to Wal-Mart to stock up for the week or so, before I have to make the trip back over here.
We got back to the rig about 5:30, and while we were unloading, the landowner, Tony, came by in his ATV. He and his daughter Addison were going to feed their horses and stopped by to say Hi and introduce himself. Seems like a real nice guy.
They still haven’t gotten the derrick up yet but they’re getting close. In fact they were still working at about 8pm tonight.
Tomorrow I’m going to try to finish getting our canopy up and get us ready to go on Friday.
Thought for the Day:
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
