After enjoying our, nearly, monthlong stay in Wisconsin we made a mad dash across the 'flyover states' [so called because planes fly over these states to get somewhere else] to stay for a time with our nephew, Jeff and his dog Dusky. Jeff is a marine biologist living on Cape Cod. Luckily, Kasha and Dusky got along quite well and were buddies for the week. Kelly was scheduled to fly out of Boston to attend the wedding of another nephew, Chase, who is getting married back in Colorado. Best of luck to the new couple. The trip from Wisconsin to Massachusetts was a bit of a blur with long travel days and short evenings. After a long day ending in Schenectady, NY we tried to set up camp at a casino where, we had heard, you could camp for free. The casino ended up being in downtown Schenectady and we were coming in during rush hour. Poor planning on our part. After white-knuckling the truck and trailer through downtown traffic, where many Schenectadyans were kind enough to point us in the proper direction with their middle fingers, we finally found the casino only to find a tight and very crowded parking lot with no sign of RV camping in sight. We made as quick an exit as we could and finally found a camp spot at a very nice campground along the Mohawk River. The rest of the drive was long but pretty pleasant driving. The leaves are already changing color in western Mass. and [avoiding highways] we travelled through many scenic little towns, all with the required big white church and cozy general store. It was really quite pleasant.
While Kelly was off to the wedding in CO I spent the week in Jeff's driveway [in the trailer] and caught up on work and chores. Jeff spends a lot of his summer on the ocean and has access to a constant supply of fresh fish. We enjoyed some of the best seafood you will get anywhere, all cooked to perfection on his backyard grill. I got to get a good ride of about 20 miles on the Cape Cod Rail Trail, another very nice Rails-to-Trails project. I would have liked to explore the entire trail which goes almost all the way to the tip of the Cape but time did not allow. I'm getting spoiled by all these rail trails which don't have much in the way of hills. When I get back to CO I'm going to need an e-bike to keep up.
After Kelly's return we took a few days to explore the White Mountains in New Hampshire. We stayed at a classic New England inn called the Wayside Inn in Bethlehem, NH. The weather continued to be perfect indian summer with clear warm days and cool nights. We spent the few days we had checking out the local small towns. The leaves were just starting to change color and the local mountains were beautiful. I hadn't been to this part of NH in many years and Kelly had never been here. We just loved touring through these picture-perfect towns and mountain scenes.
Returning to our trailer on the Cape we enjoyed a weekend with some family who were gathering at Jeff's place. His newly engaged sister, Rynn, and her intended, Alex, came out from Colorado. Jeff's folks drove up from NJ and Jeff's cousins from Florida were also there. I hadn't seen them since they were young kids. A good friend of Rynn's was able to drive up with the NJ folks and surprise Rynn as well. It was all pretty coincidental that we were all in the same place and time and it was great to catch up with all. Kelly and I also took a day to check out Provincetown which sits at the very tip of Cape Cod. Although being very touristy, P-town, as it is known, has a certain rough-edged charm to it with some very funky-looking bars we would have loved to investigate if we didn't have a longish ride back. Just outside of town, on Hwy 6, Kelly noticed a sign saying something about Bishop, CA where she grew up. We flipped a U to check it out and found that the sign noted the end to Hwy 6 which starts in Bishop. Very cool! We wanted to check out the beach on the way back and give Kasha some exercise so we stopped off on a public beach on the Atlantic side of the cape where Kasha was able to chase some sticks in the surf. She also took off swimming after some 800 lb gray seals who were floating by...a bad idea on many levels as these waters are frequented by great white sharks as well as the huge seals. Bad Dog!
Working our way up the coast, our next stop was in the town of Wells, Maine. It was the first time in Maine for both Kelly and I. Although I spent my first 30 years on the east coast my travels had never gotten me this far north before. Wells is a small coastal town a bit south of Portland and, like the rest of the Maine coast as we were to discover, is very scenic and has a nice laid-back feel to it. We spent our days playing ball with Kasha on the fairly empty beaches and taking in some sun. The weather continued its run of perfect days in the 70's and cool nights.
Wanting to see some of the other sea towns nearby we took time to do some exploring. A bit south of Wells lies the town of Ogunquit so we headed down for the day to see what there was to see. I had read about a walk along the coast called the Marginal Way. The name had me intrigued. Should we expect 'marginal' conditions? Was the trail incomplete? I had to know. Coming into town, traffic was challenging with angled 4-way intersections offering no guidance on right-of-way or stopping...kind of a free-for-all. Forget about parking. I am, at my very core, opposed to paying to park my car but there was not a free parking spot to be had within 5-miles. Believe me, I checked. Finally, throwing down a twenty to leave my car for a few hours we hiked down to the start of the Marginal Way only to find that they don't allow dogs, leashed or not. Back to the truck we went and exiled Kasha to the back seat while we explored the trail. Well, we found the trail not to be marginal at all. It was quite beautiful actually, winding it's way along the sea cliff with waves crashing on the rocks below. Classic Maine coast! The town itself was charming, of course, but we have found that we are not fond of the tourist towns, They tend to be, invariably, overcrowded and full of stores that sell stuff. Can you imagine! That would be fine except we can't afford the stuff they have and have nowhere to put it if we could. These towns also happen to be full of tourists. We get enough of that at home.
While in the area we had to stop by Kennebunkport where the [George] Bush's have their summer home. This was a mistake. While charming to look at, it was another tourist spot full of snooty people, too much traffic and no parking. I can't help wondering what these places are like in the height of tourist season. Yikes! After getting evicted from a restaurant because Kasha greeted one of the workers a tad enthusiastically, we made our exit from town and moved up the coast a bit. This led us to the town of Orchard Beach, They were pretty much shut down for the year but you could tell it must be pretty hopping during the summer proper. There was a nice beach and boardwalk where we were able to get a burger and beer on an outside deck overlooking the ocean. Dogs were welcome and it was very chill. Our kind of place.
Heading north up the coast our next stop was Camden, ME [where the forest meets the sea], another lovely coastal town which we enjoyed very much. I was able to get out for some very pleasant road riding on my bike along rolling hills with great scenery and little traffic. Very nice. Our campground was situated right next to the water and there was a great little picnic area right on the water where you could see a lovely sunrise...if you were up early enough.
Our next stop will be near Acadia National Park which should be one of the high points of our trip so until next time...
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