MAINE

Half of our time in Maine had passed by just relaxing with the grandparents and NOT traveling.   Cooler weather was embraced, and we focused on family and food.  :) 

Mechanic Man was eager to try the local food again … LOBSTER.  He’s had it before, of course, but Maine’s fresh lobster is raved as the best.  We purchased some freshly caught (and still alive) and took it home for cooking.

This was food for the boys only … the girls around here weren’t interested.  We enjoyed a delicious salad instead!

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Well, the time arrived when we were eager to see some of the sights of Maine.  We visited downtown Bangor (the 3^rd largest city in Maine) first to take an educational field trip to the local  science museum .  We weren’t sure what to expect, thinking it might be tailored mostly for the younger kids (and some parts were); but the boys enjoyed checking out the displays and hands-on exhibits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I discovered a local juice/plant-based restaurant that is now my favorite place to eat in Bangor!

 

 

The boys found one that had their favorite food …

 

 

 

Another day, we explored the Orono Bog Walk.   After walking through and enjoying the local flora of the Bangor City Forest for a while in search of the bog walk, we finally found a map that directed us to what we wanted to explore … the boardwalk itself.  

We enjoyed it so much that we plan on visiting it again!  Not only was it an amazing sight to behold, trekking from the wooded biome and crossing over into a peat biome, but we also left one city and entered another!  (Remember our excitement at the Four Corners?!    These invisible yet printed borders are a simple type of joy for me.  LOL!)

 

Our vacation time is approaching its end ... but we will squeeze in a few more things to do before heading home and focusing on preparing for schooling again.  Stay tuned!  :)

Northbound ... to Maine!

For most of the trip, we were blessed with pleasant weather.  We had to endure “Bill” while waiting in Texas but no other rain or disappointing temperatures.  On the other hand, heading north was nothing BUT rain!   We were expecting the cooler temperatures, and the rain stuck with us all the way to Maine (along with some traffic).

 

 

 

As we crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge, we loved imagining George Washington crossing the Delaware River that Christmas in 1776.

 

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Only in New York have we seen this sign as we drove the northbound highway:

 

 

 

We stopped halfway to Maine to not only break up the long trip, but to visit our home town in New York.  We were able to briefly visit most of our family in the Catskill Mountains and even had a chance to visit my grandparents in the cemetery.   Driving down familiar roads from our childhood years and passing by the house where my grandparents lived was truly a trip down memory lane.  Even in all the rain, it was great to see the beautiful country where we lived.

  
 

Even in the rain, the Catskill Mountains are beautiful to behold!

 

One of the many creeks that flow in the mountains

 

The old wooden bridges are still around from our childhood days.

I *was* a tad nervous riding over them! ;-)

(Excuse the drops on the pictures ... it rained the entire trip!)

 

 

 

Eight hours later, we crossed the Maine border!    Symbolic of Maine (at the rest stop):

 

 

 

What a great place to spend summer!   Oh!  Grandparents had this for kids the first day!

 

 

 

Let the fun begin!

Last Day Eastward

Our last eastward part of the journey ended in South Carolina, and from there we headed north!  Hurray!  

The trip from Georgia to South Carolina was short and pleasant traveling.  The only "excitement" was a taxi driver texting while driving and causing a cluster of tractor trailers on the highway.  They all managed to pass the taxi; and we did, too, which is how I noticed that she was texting.  I took the liberty of reporting that driver to her company for her own safety and the safety of others on the road. 

TEXTING AND DRIVING DON'T MIX!

 

 

We made a stop at a local Walmart in South Carolina and found ourselves in an awkward driving position.  The entry ways in the parking lot were not wide enough for a long vehicle to enter.  I had to hop out and direct Mechanic Man as he backed out.  (Remember lesson learned the other day about backing up? LOL!)  Thank God he has the commercial-driver training under his belt and that he notices all the details of hauling a long trailer behind the truck.    I have no interest in this driving ... I would have caused all kinds of havoc if I drove!  LOL!

 

Our home is now in the familiar turf of North Carolina.  :)

 

 



 The Carolinian heat invited the kids to the pool as soon as we set up camp for the night before heading north again!

 



On-the-Road Adventure Continues

At this point, we were halfway to the eastern part of the U.S.  We weren't really stopping to see anything else in these states on the way back because we are eager to head north!  However, there were several things we passed in the southern stateson our eastward route:

Statue of Liberty

and

the track that is "too tough to tame."

That was all cool to see before lunch.  After lunch, things livened up some!

Since we now have to  visit the diesel pumps at gas stations, our choices of where to fuel up are limited.  We are using "truck stops" to do our fueling since we can safely fit our tractor-trailer-sized combo under the overhangs and have plenty of space to turn around.  This lucky day we were able to pull in behind a tractor trailer that was all done pumping fuel instead of just starting.  Mechanic Man carefully pulled through to the tank, but when he stepped out to start fueling, he realized that he had pulled a bit too far forward.  So he hopped in and backed up (aware of the tractor trailer behind us).  Suddenly, we are bumping forward!  Yes!  We hit the tractor trailer!  Thanks be to God, there was no damage!  When Mechanic Man told the driver that we hit his truck, the driver didn't even notice or care!  Whew!   He probably knew that he was WAAAY too close to us because Mechanic Man didn't move us that far backwards!   Another lesson learned!

As if that wasn't stressing enough, we ended up traipsing through Atlanta traffic after work hours due to the time change as we entered the next time zone and were unable to find a campground anywhere!   We kept on truckin' because we had to get out of the city traffic and finally found a quaint campground called Country Boys' Campground.  Just what we needed after the high-anxiety day of city traveling!