Plymouth

After stopping by Salem we decided we'd hit one more historic landmark in Massachusetts. We spent the first half of the day exploring the Plymouth water front. Next year marks 400 years since the landing of the Mayflower. Several things were off exhibit in anticipation of their celebration but it was still fun to see.

The original Plymouth rock has been cut down in size multiple times over the years, and there is of course doubt that it actually had anything to do with the landing. But it is an interesting symbol none the less.

A super intense structure was built to house the rock as part of the 300 year celebration.

It was also nice to see that there was some acknowledgement of the impact that this landing had on native populations that had been living in the "New World."

Overall, interesting stop. Not really a must see though. Maybe that will be different next year as they amp up for the celebration.

Salem

We were passing close to Salem and decided we wanted to drop in, hoping to find a small-ish monument to the witch trials. What we did find was so much more.

Everywhere we have been so far has been either "shoulder season" or off season. Things have been either closed, or closing with in a few days. While this means that we haven't been able to get in places, it has also been nice. We haven't had to fight the crowds that are often found in some of the parks that we visited, and several places have even had cheaper "shoulder" rates.

The one exception so far has been Salem. October is definitively peak season. It was both fun to see the city in its tourist prime, and a little disturbing.

Next to the city's old cemetery there is a memorial dedicated to the 14 women and 5 men who were executed in 1692 after being accused of being witches.

   

Today, however, Salem seems to attract the occult. There are places all over town heavily advertising that they are "witch owned and operated" as they sell fortune tellings and potion ingredients. They also have an annual Haunted Happenings running the whole month of October, full of live music, plays and special tours. There was a line around the block for the Witches Museum.

 
  

We still haven't decided how we feel about the whole spectacle. Kathleen likes witches as much as the next person, and we have no problem with Halloween fun. However we couldn't quite shake the feeling that capitalizing on the murder of innocent people was a little insensitive. 

Acadia National Park

We spent the last few days at Acadia National Park and the surrounding Mount Desert Island. We started our adventures at the visitor center, where we learned that Aiden would be allowed on leash throughout the park with the exceptions of some hikes where she really shouldn't go anyway. (Note: dogs are not allowed on the beach and Echo Lake during peak season).

We started on a walk around Jordan Pond. After getting to the far side, Andreas went on a hike with Aiden up to Sargent Mountains, then along the ridge southward to Penobscot Mountain before heading back down. They ended up not being able to come down the ridge the most direct way because there was a part that was too steep down rocks for Aiden to take. The peaks yielded magnificent views of the Maine landscape, broken up lakes, inlets, bays and islands.

Jordan Pond

South facing view from Penobscot Mountain

Too steep for Aiden

In the evening, we grabbed a lobster grilled cheese sandwich from Charlotte's Legendary Lobster Pound and drove to the Bass Harbor Light House. We had to park the RV up the road so we just missed sunset, but still had some beautiful views of the orange-red sky and the lighthouse on the rocks above. The lobster sandwich was amazing, and we saved the bisque that came with it for a "Lobster Alfredo" spaghetti the next day!

Kathleen eating dinner at sunset

Andreas snapping pictures of the sunset

After a short night rest at our basecamp at Walmart in Ellsworth, we woke up early to catch the sunrise! We went back into the park and drove along the one-way road on the West side of the Island. Had we been up on Cadillac Mountain, we would have been among the very first people in the U.S. to see the sun that day. Unfortunately RVs are not allowed up to drive the peak, presumably because of narrow winding roads and limited parking at the top. But it was still lovely along the park loop road, and it was more secluded.

Sunrise at Acadia National Park

After sunrise, we visited a few other points of interest: one of very few cold water, shell rich, and sandy beaches in the U.S. and thunder hole, a place where, when the conditions are right, the waves come crashing into the rock with a loud thundering noise because of a cave that echos the noise.

Sand Beach

Thunder Hole

Our last bit of tourism on the island was a visit to Bar Harbor and a walk across a sand bar to Bar Island. The town of Bar Harbor is a tourist town that entertains cruise ships in the summer and had everything that went along with such a town: touristy shops, local ice cream, fancy restaurants and bars, and lots tour companies offering trips into the national park. The sand bar we crossed onto bar island is only accessible at low tide. On the island we went on a short hike to the top, which had another great view of Bar Harbor and the rest of the island.

Full crab carapace found on the sand bar. This fella outgrew his old shell

View of Bar Harbor from Bar Island

All in all Acadia was a beautiful place to visit. The seasonal reds, oranges, yellows and greens are a brilliant mix of color that we're not used to seeing in the Pacific Northwest. 

Travel Update 6

After leaving DC we knew we wanted to head out to Assateague Island, as well as visit one of Kathleen's friends in Baltimore, then we had major decisions to make.

We were planning to go to Acadia first but we started to second guess ourselves. It is already getting cold in the Northeast and we were worried that we might have missed a lot of the fall foliage. Also, we want to see Quebec and Nova Scotia as well as the Canadian side of Niagara and Kathleen had to renew her passport. We also considered doing a loop back to parks in Michigan or heading straight south.

We eventually settled on our original plan of heading north first and we are glad we did. Even though we were a little late for the leaves in a few places:

Some were still perfect:

Our main misfortune on this section came when we crossed a bridge into New Jersey and went to put the sticker on our map. We realized that we had left the stickers on the bike rack after putting Pennsylvania on at our campsite. 

We thought about turning around but the bridge was tolled in the other direction and it would take us about an hour and a half to go around and back to the campsite. We decided to simply re-purchase the map from Amazon when we got internet, only to find that the map has been discontinued. We ended up buying a new map that we might place over the original. The idea of getting rid of the first one makes us sad so for the moment we have the new one in the window. We'll stop by our campsite on the way back down to see if we can find the stickers, but the odds aren't good. :/ 

 

Other adventures include a bridge with a "9 foot" clearance that we thought we wouldn't make it under. Only to find out that New York has a different way of measuring than we do... 

We also knew that we had to stop by Williamstown, MA where Aleah, Kathleen's best friend growing up, lived before moving to Eugene. Kathleen had heard many stories of Lickity Split Ice Cream, but unfortunately it was closed for the season. We did however get to walk around the campus of William's College and see Aleah's old house. 

Free campsites have been a little hard to find in the Northeast but the ones we have found have been lovely. 

Fuel pump and M.A.G. towing

After visiting Assateague Island, our plan was to go to Salisbury for the night. We'd sent our first Amazon purchase while on the road to a locker there for pickup. That plan changed when the gas pedal all of the sudden stopped working. So, we did what we always do: call Goodsam. They wanted to send out a mobile mechanic. A state trooper stopped by while they were looking to make sure everything was okay. Goodsam failed to find a mobile mechanic and eventually failed to find a place that would tow us. Since we indicated that we were safe, they asked if we could spend the night where we were. I probably should have said no, because at 10 PM another trooper came by and told us we needed to call a tow company. Apparently after checking with dispatch, he changed his mind and we spent the night on the side of the road. Not the best sleep ever. 

The RV, at night, on the side of the road on MD 367.

In the morning we finally got our mechanic. He was pretty sure we needed a new fuel pump which would involve a tow to the shop. After calling GoodSam again to get towing covered, we were prepared to be spending a few days at their shop in Roxana, DE. 

 

Roxana is a tiny, tiny place. We’re not even sure that there is really a town there. We looked to see if we could find motels in the area and couldn’t find anything. Although our biggest worry was how would we catch the Oregon Ducks game. Given that there wasn’t a sports bar in the area either… 

 

Joe, the tow truck driver and mechanic worked his butt off for us to make sure we wouldn’t have to worry. He worked hard and made sure we were comfortable. He got a new fuel pump rush delivered, installed it, and epoxied a tiny crack in our fuel tank by 7 PM that same night. 

While he worked, we spent the day in the backyard of the house on the same property as the shop. They had a “bar” room that had a bathroom with its own shower they said we could use. When he was done, Joe offered that we spend the night in the lot since it was dark. We took him up on the offer as we felt comfortable there. Now we're sitting in the Wicomico County library in Salisbury thinking about how lucky we've been with the friendly people who have helped us.

Assateague

Many of our friends in the Northeast suggested that we go to visit Assateague Island National Seashore. Given that Kathleen remembered reading and loving the book Misty of Chincoteague as a kid we didn't need to be told twice. The drive out to park from Baltimore was pretty with lots of small towns and farms along the way.

Assateague island is 37 miles long and never more than a mile wide. The northern two thirds are in Maryland, while the southern third is in Virginia. There is no road down the whole island but you can access the island at either the very northern tip or the very southern tip. We went to the northern side because Virginia doesn't allow animals in the park, even in the car. Which is a problem for us.

The island is largely known for the wild horses. These horses are believed to have descended from horses that were put out to pasture on the island about 300 years ago in order to avoid paying grazing fees. Now there are two distinct herds, one in each state. The Virginia herd is rounded up every year by the Chincoteague fire department and foals are auctioned off. The Maryland herd is managed as wildlife by the National Park Service as part of the National Seashore.

In order to keep the population from getting out of hand, the Maryland horses are administered birth control through a dart riffle and only allowed to have one foal per mare. This ultimately leads to the mares having longer, healthier lives as well.

Although the horses are wild animals, they are about as tame as most city squirrels. They show little to no fear of approaching people, and often hang out on or around the roads. Not that there are many other places for them to be. We saw two horses as soon as we arrived on the island hanging out to the side of the road. While the original two were gone later, there was whole band hanging out in the road.

 

 

In addition to looking at the horses, there are nice beaches that are probably quite crowded in peak season. They were a little cold and windy this time of year.

  

We did one short "dune" hike. This hike included large sections of the road that was built down the island in 1950 during a period in which people were planning on developing the island. The great nor'easter of 1962 quickly convinced people that this wasn't a good idea. All that remains of that plan is a very dilapidated road.

 

It also seemed like a great place to kayak and take bikes out in a different season. Even though we weren't there during the peak of possibilities, we were very glad that we stopped in.

DC

Our end point for the mad dash across the country was Washington, DC. Not because we wanted to see DC, but because we got the chance to celebrate two of our friends getting married. During our time in DC we stayed in the parking lot of our other friends’ apartment building. We spent most of our time there catching up with friends and relaxing, but we did do one day of heading downtown to look at museums on Monday. 

All of the Smithsonian Museums along the mall are free. We started with the Air and Space Museum. Half of the museum was closed for renovations but there was still a lot to see. We spent two hours there looking at life-sized spacecrafts and learning about navigation. We were going to check out the other Air and Space Museum by Dulles on our way out of town but were deterred by the $15 parking. What can I say, we're cheap. 

After getting lunch from a food truck on the mall we moved on to the Natural History Museum. Kathleen's highlight was seeing the outbreaks exhibit opened last year for the centennial of the 1918 Flu Epidemic. It was interesting, but as Andreas pointed out in Air and Space: exhibits can be less interesting when you already have a degree or two in them. We knew we weren't going to learn much. But it was fun to see how the information was presented. 

 

Next we briefly looked at the geology area, followed by the mammals, before the museum closed and we had to leave. The second time we've closed down a museum! There was still a lot we wanted to see, but oh well. 

Lots of people recommended the portrait gallery to us, so even though we aren't big art people we ended the day there. It was interesting and we appreciated the amount of information they had about each of the artists but we were starting to get museum-ed out. 

Overall, we barely scratched the surface of DC. We could have spent another day or two looking around but leaving the kids in the RV all day wasn't a great option, and we were getting tired of living in a parking lot. We were ready to get back into slightly more remote areas.