As we said a few weeks back, we had by then spent perhaps one half of our nights on the road in RV parks and one half in homes of friends or relatives. Now, two months later and 12,000 miles of travel, nights in homes of friends/relatives has become about 2/3 and in our rolling home, 1/3. Much of this is due to being in New England where friends and relatives abound. (More on RV parks later on.)
After a Barker (Happy's) family wedding in Wareham, MA, we and our son, Jay, and his family spent the next week on Monhegan Island, 12 miles off the downeast coast of Maine. It’s another beautiful, small island with 50 winter residents that grows to maybe 300 in summer. Still small, Monhegan is larger than Hull Island yet equal in rusticity, being without electricity and cars. The center is thick, lush woods; huge rocky headlands face the Atlantic, and a small village collects the human inhabitants. The main dock is the center of island life. Sadly we never took any pictures on Hull Island, but those adorning these pages are all Monhegan.
Now I write this from Maine's mainland, where we were first visiting our dear old friend, Shirlee Mitchell who spends summers here, seeming to run a boarding house for her vast family and their friends.....Another wonderfully rustic, sprawling retreat in the woods, very near the gorgeous rocky Maine coastline. Shirlee and her then-husband might have been the first people Happy and I told we were engaged in winter 1963; they had sniffed something in the air and put a bottle of champagne in their home's fridge an hour or two before we were due. They could finally raise a glass to us, having hoped for this a long time!
And now our next Maine stopover with friends Louise and Loring Conant in coastal Georgetown. They basically live in Cambridge, MA but have created this marvelous summer home, and then there is their California house in Greenbrae to which they travel a few times a year to be with their son and family in San Anselmo and near our former home in Sausalito. We enjoy them a lot when they are there...and now here!
(New date: July 1). Since the above section, from Maine, we headed to Lake Sunapee NH to other old friends, David and Anna Clark; and as with several others on this voyage, not seen for perhaps 30 years. David was a friend and classmate of mine at Deerfield, last seen at our 25th reunion there. Two more classmates, Mike Mayor and Eric Esselstyn and their wives, joined us for a meal with nonstop unfolding of our past lives . The reunion was wonderful, as was the beauty of the embracing lake and mountains.
The next coach stop was the western-Mass hilltop home of dear friends, Karen and Werner Gundersheimer. They look west to the Berkshires and east to Mount Greylock, highest point in Mass. Spreading at their feet is Williams College. We took all this in with a trip to the top of Greylock, saw our first movie in a year (Ida, a superb Polish film), a day of "vegging" and catching up on paperwork, and reading the WHOLE NYTimes on Sunday....first time holding one in about 6 months! And finally a visit to the just reopened (after a three year renovation) Sterling and Francine Clark Museum of Art that is one of the more stunning museums in our country.
Heading back to the home of our son, Jay, and family in Newbury, MA, we stopped for lunch at the incredible lodge-y lakeside summer home of friends Paul and Delight Dodyk, Monterey, MA. Though but ten years old, it emanates a perfect feel of the 19thC. Adirondack architecture style in structure, furniture, beams, hardware, all blended with many kinds of wood, new and old. It was difficult to leave this work of art (and also its creators.)
Now, before I close off, I want to turn to a Herman Melville technique of "side trips" within yet apart from the narrative that amplify readers' knowledge of context history or nomenclature (see Moby Dick) My digression is about RV parks.
I distinguish these from campsites, the ones that accommodate mostly tenting campers; these would be for backpacking hikers or bikers who carry all their food and equipment on their backs. Others are "car-campers,” perhaps less sturdy and challenged who carry all that equipment in their autos. As a family, we have been car-campers for the 50 years we've been at it. Later our kids did a good bit of backpacking.
RV parks we have visited this trip present predictable amenities like water, electricity, and cable TV lines, or what is called "full hookup" that includes black and gray water "septic drop." There are usually a picnic table, an outdoor cooker, and a firepit. They all have a restroom building or buildings that, at least for the ones we have encountered, provide toilets, wash basins, and showers, sometimes laundry machines. Some newer ones are immaculate, up-to-date, even offering complete private bathrooms with all of the above utilities offered in each one. They are heated, and lights are on all night.
Some large RV parks present up to 400 separate sites, many with trees and bushes separating you from your neighbor. Most are smaller. Many have fenced playgrounds for children, others for dogs. Many have pools. Many have 7-11-sized mini grocery/supply stores, usually built into the registration area. Naturally, the smaller the park, the fewer are these extras. We like small!
It is critical that the surface for settling your RV is absolutely flat. We have, as I assume all RVs have, two level gauges inside, one for side-to-side, other for front to back. Particularly if one's site is grass, it often takes a lot of backing and forthing to establish the perfect flat. All that because if not flat, the fridge will not operate. BTW, when we are driving, the fridge is on DC and cooled by the RVs engine; when settled in an RV park, the power is AC coming from the land-line hook-up; and if we are without a landline, deep in the woods for instance, the fridge can be powered by propane. Thus, there are three sources for fridge power. Not bad!
When we have stayed at RV parks for one or three nights, we always have breakfast in our cozy space: juice, cereal, and delicious coffee perked in our reliable built-in percolator. Lunches may be constructed by us, picnic style, in or out of the RV. Mostly all evening meals are at nearby restaurants.
We have searched and found most of the parks themselves by easy googling, or out of the KOA (Kampgrounds of America) directory for the country. We pick a territory, search, go to and explore usually excellent websites, much like we all do with hotels, motels, B&Bs, etc. All but once have we made reservations ahead and all have ranged from satisfactory to excellent. Of course we have, until now, been traveling in low season, but now in the high family travel season, reservations are critical. We got the last available site at a Bar Harbor park in March for a four-night stay coming up late in July. KOA sites are usually excellent as they establish and keep high standards. All overnight prices have ranged from $15 to $40, higher priced ones usually have good privacy, and water or mountain views. Surprisingly, we have yet to stay at a state or national park (except at the Grand Canyon where we stayed in a cabin for a couple of nights) mostly because these parks and their amenities and on winter months close-down. And worth noting is that all the RV parks we have frequented have been at most 1/4 full, so we are spoiled with unusual service, very clean bathrooms, no waits, top picks for attractive sites, and no end of helping hands for any question or need. We had been told ahead of the middle-American warmth and outreach of everyone connected with the RV world. True it is.
We are usually the smallest RV around; we are 20' long. That size and the fact that our basic chassis is a Ford Econoline truck with our living cabin on top (assembled by "Pleasure Way" in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) designates us as "group B." Some of the behemoths you see on American highways might take up 50 or 60 linear feet. We got to see one's interior, boasting 2 carpeted staterooms, each with full bath, LR, DR, kitchen, and (outrageously) 4 flat-screen TVs. Their costs are upwards of 400-500,000 dollars. Such owners have usually sold their terra firma homes, chosen to be mobile, often parking for warm months at a scenic southern US park, and heading north for the cooler latitudes in summer months. I don't know the financial arrangements, but some have guaranteed themselves reserved spaces, so they can leave their picket fences and perennial planting, garden sculpture, and sign reading "Hi There...we are Sylvia and Fred Johnson from Wichitaw Falls. Come on in!" in place until they return at the next season change.
Finally a word-glimpse of some of our favorite sites so far. MARINA DUNES, California, is just north of Monterey: terraced sites, made private by additional shrubbery, all full hook-ups, beautifully maintained, small, shielded from blowing sands by flexible snow fences, but for proper open trails going through the dunes to the waiting beach. (We shall return once we have resettled back in CA.). ANZA BORREGA STATE PARK, southern CA desert. Flat, desert-arid, desert plants, cactuses, attractive, at base of high mountains with hiking trails, nearby village of Borrega Springs with several good Mexican restaurants, authentically inspired from nearby border. SANTA FE SKIES RV PARK, New Mexico. Beautifully laid out on hilltop overlooking the city of Santa Fe with surrounding desert communities and distant mountain ranges on virtually all horizons; amazing clear skies day and night when we saw more stars than ever in our lives; over-the-top amenities including an outdoor museum of old farm machinery, some manual some early mechanized, all is remarkable condition. The morning we departed, a light night snow had carpeted the world and we happily drove off with flakes still dropping.....but soon making the roads easily passable as we steered toward the Grand Canyon. ASHEVILLE/SWANNANOA KOA PARK, North Carolina. Well-treed site; bubbling river running though it; lots of green grass on which many ducks waddled when not in the river; many fishermen, -women, -children catching many fish along the river; Smokey Mountain foothills in distance. STAUNTON, VIRGINIA KOA PARK, along the beautiful route where the Blue Ridge Highway meets the Skyline Drive. Midsize park in rolling valley with stream and two lakes; we were one of maybe 10 active RVs there; beautiful sunset and then sunrise with countless ducks and geese silently cruising the lake surfaces but honking at the beautiful evening or morning sun drama. INDIAN LAKE CAMPGROUND, Adirondacks, NY: all the beauty we expected with the real distinction of our being the only RV and no accompanying people there. Imagine the attention we received from the owner. Far from any other civilization and accoutrements, so we opened a can of corned beef hash for dinner, with only birds for company. THOUSAND ISLANDS KOA PARK, Henderson Park, NY is a large island near the shore of Lake Ontario, once the executive retreat center for General Electric, now a large RV park. A vivid beginning as we were barely on the causeway approach included a great flurry of wings in front of us when a huge male bald eagle rose from the brush, perhaps 10' in front of us, carrying a large fish in his mouth. He stared down at us with eyes showing fury at being disturbed! The vast lake was broken by a few islands, the sunset was beautiful, yet the campsite's grounds were dotted with the usual droppings that signal the hundreds of snow geese with whom we shared space. We walked carefully, reluctantly tearing our eyes from the beautiful views!
And so, as with Moby Dick, we will get back to the center lane of the storied trip soon again, maybe in three weeks. We are in and around the northeast for July and August, off to Turkey for September, and then in early October, we slowly begin our westward trek. We are told our new home at Spring Lake Village, CA will be ready for our occupancy November 10. Thanks for reading. P&H
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| Son Jay, our blog technician, with his and Susan's two daughters, Athalia (fishing) and Char |
