2018 in Review - Part 2 - Southwest Harbor

In our 2018 in Review - Part 1 we covered our one month journey to Southwest Harbor, ME.  in Part 2 we will cover (pictorially) our time in Southwest Harbor from May 12th to September 15th.....here we go!

We arrived in Southwest Harbor May 12th after covering some 3,389 miles over 4 weeks.  We thoroughly enjoyed the journey to Southwest Harbor, ME, but now it was time to enjoy the great state of Maine, and more specifically Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, and environs.....

.......Smuggler's Den is a very nice, family owned and run campground located in Southwest Harbor, which is about 15 miles from Bar Harbor, and smack dab in the middle of Acadia National Park.  As you drive, or walk around Smuggler's Den you can see the attention to detail the family gives to this campground.  There is no deferred maintenance, which is rare for most RV parks we have visited over the years.  Smuggler's Den has a very loyal customer base with many families into the 2nd, or 3rd generation of coming back summer after summer.  They keep their restrooms as clean as any RV park restrooms I have ever used, or seen, and they go out of their way to make their customers feel like family......

Pano of our site for the summer

.....on our first morning in Southwest Harbor we took a walk into town to get a feel for the place, and to visit the local supermarket......

.....on our second day we took a driving tour of the area around Southwest Harbor including Bass Harbor and Tremont.  Of course we had to visit the local Bass Harbor Lighthouse.....

The famous 'Seawall' area of Acadia National Park

.....on our third day we drove into Bar Harbor for the day to check it out and have lunch.....

Bar Harbor, ME

 We ate lunch at Finback Alehouse....pricey, but very good food and brews!

Downtown Bar Harbor

Bought a couple of Adirondack chairs for the patio

Near Northeast Harbor

A lot of good brews were consumed

......we arrived in Southwest Harbor on May 12th (a Saturday), and began our summer of 40 hour work weeks on May 16th.....

....we settled into our temporary home at Smuggler's Den in Southwest Harbor, and enjoyed our jobs at first, but by the end of the first week in August we, along with 5 other employees, quit our jobs due to the poor treatment we received from the owners.  We had planned to be there until October 22nd....the end of the season.....but decided being happy, and lower blood pressure readings were more important.  To be fair, the owners take wonderful care of Smuggler's Den, and we both appreciated their attention to detail, but their constant nit picking, and the making of 'mountains of molehills' wore us down.  When my daily blood pressure readings began to rise it was time to make a change.  That is why, after all, we have wheels on our home.  One of our fellow workers, Tony who also quit that day, lived nearby and offered his property to us to stay the rest of the summer.....we took him up on his offer and stayed with he and his family (Janet and Jack) for 5 weeks, departing Southwest Harbor around September 15.......

My work uniform

Smuggler's Den office....TLE on duty

Live lobster is ubiquitous in Maine.....this lobster tank was eventually full of live lobsters for sale to our customers

At Thurston's Lobster Pound enjoying the scenery and weather

We enjoyed many early evening fires....the mosquitoes were not too bad

We did a lot of hiking

At the top of Cadillac Mountain

A Lobster BLT.....one of my favorite ways to eat lobster!

Our Southwest Harbor friends - left to right: Moi, Janet, Tony, Steven, Lois and TLE

Spent a lot of time working on the campground pool!

Over the course of our stay we rode 30-40 miles of Carriage Roads

Our reward after riding the Carriage Roads.....Atlantic Brewing Company

My summer firewood hoard....it got about 3 feet taller before we left

Hiking the Ship Harbor trail

Dinner with my sister and her family at the Bar Harbor Inn Terrace Grill

....during the course of the 4 months we spent in Southwest Harbor we were visited by my sister, Hilary, her husband (Bob) and one of her daughters (Stephanie), as well as Elaine's sister, Laureen, and her husband Glenn, and then good friends Charles and Bobbie.....

We visited Jordan Pond numerous times

We rode various sections of the Carriage Roads totaling close to 45 miles

Eagle Lake

Watching soccer outdoors on a day off work

Hiking

The large grassy area at Smuggler's Den where I learned how to operate a Zero Turn John Deere mower

This has become my favorite Belgian White.....Allagash White, brewed in Portland, ME

Popovers and coffee at the Asticou Inn

One of many Lobster Rolls consumed...this one at Beale's Lobster Pound

The ubiquitous granite stair cases at the begining of most hikes

Beech Mountain Fire tower (not in use)

Looking towards Southwest Harbor from Acadia Mountain

.....in early August, as I mentioned earlier, we quit our jobs at Smuggler's Den, and moved a couple of miles over to the property of our good friends Tony and Janet.  They provided water and 30 amp electric, a nice gravel pad, and a wonderful wood deck......

My meager collection of lobster trap buoys....I donated them along with our Adirondack chairs to Tony and Janet when we left

 The wonderful wooden deck....night and day

......over the course of the summer we hiked about 45 miles of local trails, all of which began with a granite staircase......

 The beautiful Somes Sound from the summit of Acadia Mountain 

The Schoodic Peninsula (part of Acadia National Park)

The view of Southwest Harbor from the fire tower on Beech Mountain

Jordan Pond

Bubble Rock....a scary hike

Good friends Charles and Bobbie also visited us

More popovers and coffee at the Asticou Inn....one our favorite places!

Elaine's sister, Laureen, and her husband Glenn came to visit us!

Watching sun rise from the Cadillac Mountain summit is a must

Just breathtaking

.....by the 2nd week in September we had check off most of the items on our list of things to do in Acadia National Park leaving just one 'must do' thing......watch the sun rise from the summit of Cadillac Mountain.  We checked off that item about 3 days before we departed Southwest Harbor, and are we ever glad we did.....it was amazing....pure and simple.......

Rainy day at Tony and Janet's home

......in spite of our disappointing tenure at Smuggler's Den we thoroughly enjoyed our 4 months in Southwest Harbor, and Acadia National Park.  We would return for another summer in a heartbeat.....who knows what the future has in store for us!

Next up is Part 3 - Southwest Harbor, ME to Campbellsville, KY!

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# 53.........

7:47 am - Monday - February 4th - Winslow, AZ - 43º F, 73% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the southeast......heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 56º F.

Our time here in Winslow is drawing to an end, so I began to put away some things in the trailer Sunday morning in preparation for our departure.  I have another doctor appointment in Flagstaff Tuesday (supposed to be snowing there Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, which reaffirms our decision to commute from Winslow), and we will be rolling our wheels on Thursday morning towards Southern Arizona 53.

Due to the high winds (25-35 mph) most of the day we remained inside Sunday watching three successive English Premier Soccer matches, which eventually morphed into watching the Super Bowl 53 pregame show, and then Super Bowl.  

Quite like Super Bowl 50, #53 (Rams vs. Patriots) was also a defensive struggle from beginning to end.  At the end of the first half it was 3-0 (sounds like a baseball score) in favor of the New England Patriots, and at the beginning of the 4th quarter it was just 3-3.  With 9 minutes to go in the 4th quarter it was still tied 3-3 (remarkably like a baseball score).  The game, frankly, could have gone either way, but New England's experience of having been in 10 Super Bowls in the last 18 years, and 5 victories over that span was evident, and they ultimately prevailed 13-3 to win their 6th Super Bowl in the last 18 years.  Jared Goff, the Ram quarterback, came within a whisker of completing two touchdown passes in the second half, but in the end the Patriot defense made every single play.  The Rams did not run one play from within the 'Red Zone' (the Red Zone is between the goal line and the 20 yard line) the entire game.  Conversely, the Patriots ran only 1 Red Zone play the entire game and that resulted in a rushing touchdown to give them a 10-3 lead.  Was it an exciting game to watch? No, not really.  Was it an intensely interesting game?  You bet it was!  I appreciated the brilliance of the coaching on both sides of the ball, and the execution by the players of their individual game plans.  The Patriots just completed a few more plays than the Rams, and won the game.

That was the sum total of our day Sunday beginning to end....total vegetation in front of our TV.....there, I've said it....I admit it....Sunday was a total 'Veg' day.

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Petrified.......

7:31 am - Sunday - February 3rd - Winslow, AZ - 46º F, 70% humidity, wind 19 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy today with winds in the 25-35 mph range later, and a forecast high of 58º F.....Super Bowl 53 is today!

Before I get into Saturday's adventures I would like to note that on February 1st of this year we completed 7 years living on the road in our 1982 Newell Classic.  It feels like the years are rolling by at a rapid rate, but when we think back on everywhere we have been, and all that we have done 7 years does not seem long enough to contain all that we have done, experienced, and seen.  The adventure continues with no apparent end in sight.  We love our life, and are grateful you have chosen to share it with us!  Now, onto regularly scheduled programming!

We postponed our trip back in time to the Petrified Forest until Saturday.  We were seeing forecasts of possible rain, and high winds for Saturday, but as it turned out it was a beautiful, blustery day with amazing cloud formations being swept across the expansive horizon.  It was about a 45 minute drive back to the north entrance to the Petrified Forest National Park (includes a big portion of the Painted Desert which we were able to see the first time we were there about 8 days prior)......

......using our National Parks Golden Age pass we entered the park cost free, and made our way northward inititally through the Painted Desert portion of the park......

 Painted Desert

......there are number of informational signs which I will post before we get into the pictures of the rest of the park.....

 Painted Desert informational sign

.....the Painted Desert covers over 1700 square miles (120 miles long by 60 miles wide), and a large chunk of it is with the boundaries of the Petrified Forest NP......

 Painted Desert Inn.....a Fred Harvey operation....served their last meal in 1963

 
.......from the Painted Desert Inn we continued along the park road eventually turning south, and crossing over I-40 to the Petrified Forest portion of the park.....

.....at first the samples of petrified wood are few and far in between, but as you progress southward you begin to find more and more.......

 Crystal Forest

.....eventually we stopped at the 'Crystal Forest' part of the park where petrified wood, and logs are found in abundance......the loop trail here is about .75 long and well worth the time.....this is probably the greatest concentration of petrified logs we found on this day......a very interesting walk......

.......there were several areas where we were able to view numerous petroglyphs........the loop trail is about .5 miles long, and a very easy walk.....

 Petroglyphs

Newspaper Rock

 
.....another stop we made was at 'Blue Mesa' which provided a 1 mile (loop) walking path.  We were able to view the stratification of the area.......

 Blue Mesa

 Some hoodoos

......we thoroughly enjoyed this 1 mile loop trail, which took us about 45 minutes to traverse (we stopped often to take pictures), and highly recommend this walk.....

 A little perspective on how large this tree was

......the park road which takes you from north to south (or south to north if you wish to enter at the South Entrance) is about 28 miles in length.  We finally reached the South Entrance around 2:30 pm and took time to visit the park store, as well as the museum.....it was here we found the largest example of a petrified tree (above)......

 Agate Bridge

This was a long one!

......by 3 pm we were on our way back to Winslow after a delightful day of sightseeing.  We have passed by this National Park numerous times over the years, and I am embarrassed to say it took us this long to visit it formally.  The wonderful, windblown cloud formations added enormously to our experience.  We spent about 4 hours in the park, but I could see spending 8 hours, or more there with perfect weather conditions.  The wind lowered the 'feel' of the temperature (high of 59º F Saturday) to about 45º F, so we remained bundled up most of our visit (gloves, watch caps, long pants, gloves).

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Another round trip.....

7:54 am - Saturday - February 2nd - Winslow, AZ - 34º F, 87% humidity, wind 9 mph out of the east by southeast......cloudy today with a forecast high of 59º F.

We slept in until after 8 am Friday.....I do not do that often, but when I do it makes me happy.  We had three tasks on our calendar for Friday......1) Buy some filtered water from the Glacier Water filling station at the local Safeway.  When we have no city water, and no sewer we do not use our RO (reverse osmosis) water filtration system as it puts a lot of waste water into our gray tank.  Since we, as a practice, do not drink the water out of our fresh water tank, so we need another source of water.  The most cost effective source are these bulk filling stations found outside many supermarkets in the southwest.  We have a 5 gallon container we use, as well as several 1 gallon jugs.  It costs about 30¢ a gallon; 2) Deliver the Beetle to Findlay VW in Flagstaff for some repairs, and an oil change; 3) Have lunch with TLE's sister, Phyllis, who was visiting her daughter in Flagstaff.  

This is the third time we have made the 110 mile round trip drive to Flagstaff.  Frankly, neither of us mind the drive as the scenery is so beautiful, and the long, big views are amazing.  Every time it looks different!

We arrived at Findlay VW around 11:45 am (we had a 12:30 pm appointment), dropped off the keys to the VW and then rode with Phyllis over to The Lumberyard Brewing Company for lunch.  The last time we saw Phyllis was here in Flagstaff just over a year ago when we were working at the Grand Canyon, so there was a lot of  'catching up' for about 2 hours.  We lingered over our food and brews (TLE and Phyllis had their Rueben, and I there 'Mess of Ribs'....all over the top delicious!) talking and laughing.  Around 2 pm we began the drive back over to Findlay VW, and lucky for us, received a call on the way from Findlay that our car was ready.  

One of the things Findlay was checking for us was the airbag light on our dashboard which appeared a few months ago.  I have a code checker and had determined a while back that the drivers side seatbelt buckle was defective and needed to be replaced.  That is a $150 item.  They had to order that in advance of our appointment.  Unfortunately a new code had appeared in the interim showing that the 'airbag module' was also defective.....that is a $900 item, and has to be ordered.  Of course, we want our airbag system to work, so we must have it fixed....that will take place next Tuesday when we are back in Flagstaff for another doctor appointment.

We had a lovely scenic drive home (we picked up our 9 gallons of filtered water on the way home) arriving just before our 5 pm Happy Hour.....thanks for stopping by!

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The sum total......

8:23 am - Friday - February 1st - Winslow, AZ - 33º F, 74% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the northeast......sunny today with a forecast high of 60º F.

The sum total of our Thursday activities was dumping our gray and black tanks.  As you know we are at the Elks Lodge in Winslow which only provides electrical hookups, so what do we do with our accumulated effluent?  This is the first time in quite a long time we have had to move from our campsite to dump our tanks, only to return to our site.  Usually when we dump we are moving onto somewhere else.  The last time this occurred was in 2013 when we were visiting Washington D.C. and staying at Greenbelt National Park.  There we had NO hookups.  There was a dump station on site, however, but it was on the other side of the park from where we were camped. 

I had done some research and determined that the local Flying 'J' Truck Stop had a dump station, but they had no water with which to flush our black tank.  There was a potable water hose bib about 30 feet away, but that would necessitate us running that amount of hose across three fuel lanes.....not feasible.  On our way home from Flagstaff Wednesday we discovered that the local Maverick Truck Stop also had a dump station, and a non-potable water hose bib right there, however, it did not appear they had potable water source.  We needed to take on fresh water so here was our plan.....drive first to the Flying 'J' (1.6 miles away), fill up our fresh water tank, then drive back 1.6 miles on I-40 to the next exit where the Maverick station is and dump our tanks.....fool proof right?  Not so much.

By 9:20 am we were rolling our wheels (sans the trailer and VW) over to Flying 'J' where we added 90 gallons of potable water to our 160 gallon fresh water tank.  Easy-peasy so far.  We then drove 1.6 miles back to the Maverick station to dump our tanks arriving there just a few minutes later.  I quickly hooked up our Rhino Flex sewer hose to the sewer connection, and then connected to the non-potable water hose bib.  I pulled the valve handle to dump the black tank, then went to turn on the water, but got NO water.....wait, what?  I sent TLE in to inquire about the malfunctioning hose bib at which time we were advised it was 'broken'.  Hmmmm....what to do....we need to flush the black tank, but the only water source I have is the 160 gallons of potable water in my fresh water tank.  If I used that we would have to drive back to the Flying 'J' to fill the tank all over again, however, TLE found out the Maverick station did have a potable water source right there at the station, so problem solved.  I used the water I had just added to the fresh water tank and flushed the tank two times.  We then moved about 50 feet over to the potable water source (located on one of the truck fuel islands) and refilled our fresh water tank for the second time Thursday.

From the Maverick it was just a 1.2 mile jaunt straight south, on the same street where the Maverick is located, to the Elks Lodge down on Route 66.  By the time we got home, and reconnected to the electrical it was after 11 am, and I was ready for a nap!  We had planned to head directly out to retrace our 'steps' to Petrified Forest National Park since the Federal government has reopened, but by the time I was finished napping it was well after 12 pm, so we decided to postpone our return the Petrified Forest until Saturday (Friday we have an appointment to have some work done on the Beetle).

TLE whipped up some amazing quesadillas for dinner to cap off a great day of relaxation, and that my friends was the sum total of our day.....thanks for stopping by!

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