Southport Maine August 2016

It seems that Maine is a very popular state. It turns out that Holly's cousin Carol lives in Delaware and their Aunt Lorrie, who lives in Washington, thought that Carol and Holly should get together after 50 plus years.  Well after a few phone calls and texts it all came together. That is Carol and Holly on the right and Rick and Carol below. We took them out to Pemaquid Point to the light house and the prison store in Thomaston (remember I warned everyone if you visit, those are two places we guarantee you will see). We all had a great time.

We  went on a whale watching cruise. The weather was sunny and warm but very windy and  rough on the way out. We went out about 12 miles and started to see water spouts all around us. You can see the water spouts in the pictures and the backs of a couple whales. That's all you really see just before they dive back down to feed. It was great to see that many whales. We have been on whale watching trips before and have never seen this many at one time. After about an hour we headed back in. The trip in was much smoother because we were going with the wind and tide.

After getting back into shore we all went out to dinner and had some great clam chowder and filet of whale burgers. No not really, the chowder wasn't that great!

It was also the weekend for the Lobster Festival  in Rockland which is about an hour from Boothbay Harbor. We had rain storms all the way up but it let up when we got there. The rain chased a lot of people away so the crowds were way down. We walked around and visited the many vendor tents then went down to the food tent. Holly, Carol and Rick went for the lobster and I went for the scallops.

It decided to produce another downpour while we were having dinner but stopped about the time we were finished. Then Mother Nature provided us with a beautiful rainbow to help end our day. It was great to meet Carol and Rick. We all had a great time and I think Holly and Carol had a great time talking about family and what they have been up to all these years.

Holly and I went to the Owls Head Transportation Museum. Talk about trains, planes and automobiles...they have them all. Plus trucks and motorcycles. It was a very nice museum and they were getting ready for a car auction the upcoming weekend.  This is a 1908 Stanley K. What a great two-seater convertible.

This is one of the many motorbikes on display. They had several from very early to the newer style bikes.

This is a diorama with a steam engine and a cut away of a caboose. They did a very nice job and all the details were great.

This is another Stanley and I just love the details on it from all of the brass accents and pin striping. Just don't make them like that anymore.

This is a 1930 Bentley Speed Six. What a car, I think the hood is as long as the rest of the car.

This is one of the original travel trailers. It had kerosene lights, a water bucket and even a wood burning stove. Boy, talk about luxury.

This is a popcorn wagon.If we had this we could make some money in our travels.That is if Holly didn't eat all the profits.

Here is Holly trying to see if she would like driving a 1925 Ford Beach Wagon. What could be better then going to the beach in one of these.

The tide here at the park runs between 9 and 12 feet from low to high and it takes around 6 hours  to go from high tide to low and another 6 to go from low to high. These two pictures are of the pier and float here at the park

These pictures are of the point here.  The first is high tide and the second is a shot farther from the point showing how much the water level changes in 6 hours.

Well that's all for this month. This is my wine bottle holder. I refer to him as Captain Wine. I found him a pottery shop in the area. As soon as I saw him he spoke to me. He said "hey swabby,  take me home and we will have a drink or two together". So between Captain Wine and Captain Morgan I'll sit back watch the tide run in and out and enjoy Maine and the good life with my best friend (that's Holly not the captains). Stop back next month and see who also showed up here in Maine to visit. I suppose I can let you all know where we are headed for the winter. We are headed to Distant Drum RV Park in Camp Verde Arizona. Now don't get crazy, I know we say we don't go back to the same place twice but that's the key. It's the same state but a whole different area. We will be up around Sedona which is an area we wanted to get to but didn't get the chance while we were there last winter. That's it. The Captain is calling so I need to go. See ya'll next month.

Southport, Maine July 2016

OOHHHHHH, AHHHHHHHH. Well it is the July post so I thought I'd start out with a bang. We went into Boothbay Harbor for fireworks on the 4th and they put on a nice show (yes, they shot more then one off). We had a good July, it started to warm up as the month went on and got a little more humid.

This is Fort Baldwin. It was built in 1912. Hard to believe that it is over a hundred years old and still in very nice condition This is one of the firing positions. It's built in three sections going up a large hill. There were about three or four gun mounts at each position with powder and shell storage in these buildings. At the top of the hill was the fire control tower which is the picture below. You have to remember that all of the trees you see weren't there when the fort was in use. We were able to climb up the tower for a birds eye view. Brutus and Ruby even went up.

Our daughter Krista came out for a visit and we showed her some of Maine. Here we are showing her a campfire. It took a while to get it going. I'm a little out of practice but it finally took off.

We all went on the schooner West Wind and cruised around the bay. It was a beautiful day for a cruise. The sun and the wind blowing our hair back. There was a family of three and us on the morning cruise so it was almost like a private tour.  I've seen them go out with 20 to 25 people on board so this was great.

They asked for volunteers to help raise the main so Holly, being from a seafaring family, turned to and heaved and hoed. She did a fantastic job as you can tell by the picture below. Have you ever seen a better main sail?

You can see that we had some wind; we heeled over nicely and enjoyed the sail. A schooner cruise is so nice, no motor noise, just the sound of the wind in the sails and the water sliding by the hull and hanging on for dear life so you don't slide off the boat. Yup, it was a great time had by all. I even was able to get a shot of the Burnt Island Lighthouse. 

Just a little heads up, if you come to visit we will take you to Pemequid Point Lighthouse (Holly's most favorite spot) and the Prison Store. The Maine State Prison has a very nice woodshop (so I'm told) and the residents there that have woodshop privileges make items and there's a store north of us where they sell the items. They do great work from cutting boards to ship models and furniture .

We sell fresh lobster or as they call them here, lobstah, and cook them for you. Holly and Krista wanted to try a whole fresh lobster so here they are, piping hot out of the pot. I don't eat lobster or crab so I just watched and gave them a hand when needed.

I'm not an expert but it seemed like a lot of work for the little bit of meat that came out of there. But you can see that they enjoyed the experience.

They have boat trips where you can go out on a working lobster boat and see how it's done. You can even help pull traps and take the lobster out and rebait the traps. Seems like a win win for the boat owner....people pay to go out on your boat and then help do the work, great idea.

We have a family of ducks in the pond behind us and they make the rounds of the park every day. Our place is the last stop on the way home and they clean up all the bird food that the birds knock on the ground. We've enjoyed watching them grow.

We also visited Fort Knox State Park. This fort was built between 1844 and 1869, It was the first fort in Maine built from granite blocks. It was built to protect the Penobscot River which was the route to Bangor. The history lesson is done. I thought it was the one with all the gold and was hoping they gave out samples after the tour. Duhhh, I was wrong. This is a very beautiful fort built high on the river banks and very well preserved. It had two cannon batteries outside the fort and several cannons inside.

This is a Rodman cannon inside the fort; very large and very powerful and I'll bet very noisy. Even though it was hot and humid we spent a lot of time wandering around outside and inside the fort. It's been interesting to see the number of old forts just in our area and the great condition they are in. It's also been interesting that hardly any of them saw any action in any of the wars they were built for.

This is the entrance for the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory. The bridge was opened in 2006. The one tower has an observation tower at the top and is the tallest public bridge observatory in the world. That's right, the world (it says so on the internet so it's gotta be true) at 420 feet. The elevator to the top is said to be the fastest and tallest one in Maine.The trip to the top is fast and the view is fantastic. I even enjoyed it although I have this thing about heights. I just stay back from the windows so I don't have to look down. I climb light houses too. Didn't ever say I enjoyed the climb but the views are unbelievable.

This is the view from the top looking towards the other tower. Like I said I don't enjoy heights but the views are worth the trip. 

That's it for this month. We've enjoyed showing friends and family around and we've had more visitors here than at any of the other places we've stayed. Seems like everyone wants to visit Maine. Can't blame them...that's why we are here. See you all next month and boy do we have a whale of a tail for you....hint hint!

Southport Maine June 2016

All right, this makes two in a row...I'm rolling now. Last month I said I would have some pics of the park and here they are. As I have said, we are on Southport Island by the town of Southport and about six miles from Booth Bay Harbor. Being on a island it only makes sense that we have camping on the water and we do as you can see by the picture below. We have six sites down by the water and they are always full. People are already making reservations for them for next year.

We have several more RV sites up in the trees and also some tent sites.  This is a small park and it does present some challenges when parking some of the bigger rigs but it's very doable. 

This is my office, no not really.. this is the bath house. Not nearly as nice as the office that Holly works in. The picture above is one of the RV sites and the one below is an area where we have two of the tent sites. Now that schools are out and the weather is turning nice we are pretty much full every night. There is only one other RV park in the area and that is about 6 miles north of Booth Bay Harbor which is the big draw in the area.

This is our site, we are away from the main camp ground and I think that's to keep me from scaring the little kids. Holly has her bird feeders and flowers out and I have my rocking chair. What more could a guy ask for.

This is Holly's office...not very big. If you get three people in there all at once you have to get permission to turn around so everyone can prepare for it in advance. The smaller building on the left is where we keep the supplies for cooking lobsters (I guess I should say lobstah like they do here)  so I guess you could say that is my office. I'm getting the hang of the cooking thing.  I had 19 to do last week Thursday and everyone said I did a good job and that they tasted great.

This is the pier down by the beach with a ramp that goes down to a floating dock. This picture was taken about half way between low and high tide. Below is the entrance to the upper camp ground. I think the old salt sitting there is a Walmart greeter on his days off. Every once in a while Brutus tries to attack him...not sure what sets him off when he does, but it makes us smile.

We drove to the town of Belfast (no, not Ireland). Turns out the river walk goes right thru a boat yard and as you can see, they work on some pretty big and fancy yachts. The picture below is of a big tug boat. I know it's big because that is a full size Ford pickup parked under it.

I said last month I would find out what is going on in Portland with a stretch of fence covered with locks. Here is a closer picture of this. These are "love locks". You and the love of your life take a lock, write something on it to profess your unending love, lock it on the fence and throw the key in the water and you two shall never part. Unless it is a combination lock, that might be a little problem. Isn't that sweet? I haven't found a lock big enough to profess my love for Holly, but I'm looking!

This is the lighthouse at the head of the bay to Portland Maine. Very nice grounds and it's in a park right on the ocean. As normal for us, we arrived after it was closed so we will be going back to this one. I took a picture standing at the base of the light tower because I could and I thought it turned out nice. It gives you an idea of how tall some of these are.

Our friends Bill and Penny, who we worked with in Texas,  just  showed up one day ( we knew they were coming) and stayed for a visit. They had been touring in the New England area and we were able to spend some time together and show them around some.

We drove up to ______________________ (read the sign on the left, saves me typing it all out) and took the scenic drive thru the park twice. Wanted to be sure we didn't miss anything. Turns out it was a little farther then we first thought. My GPS said 87 miles, turns out it was 120 miles one way. Add the 27 miles for the loop thru the park (remember we did it twice) and it was a long day. The dogs loved it, the driver not so much. It's a beautiful area though, so it really was well worth it.

This is Bill, Penny and Bear going down to see the "thunder hole" shown below. When the tide is coming in and the waves are just right it will sound like thunder rolling in. Pay attention to the two words above "just right".  That day things were not "just right".

We all went up to Pemiquid Point and toured the lighthouse and watched the waves rolling in. The light tower was open so we were able to climb up there and look out over the ocean.

We had a great visit and it was nice to show them a little bit of Maine. Here they are getting ready to go and continue their travels. Like you, they are back home wishing they could spend some more time in Maine but don't worry, stop back next month and you can go with us as we explore some more of this beautiful state. See you then.