Cruisin’ to Nicky’s

Today was another very restful day.

I spent some time on the phone with American Coach concerning some upgrades to our coach I’m thinking about.

Going outside I was surprised to see another American Eagle like ours parked next door.  Don’t know what year it is, but it’s newer than ours, since it has two slideouts. We’ll try to get to know the owners soon.

Then we headed out for a late lunch at Nicky’s Cruisin’ Diner,  a 50’s style place with jukebox controls at every booth, and 50’s memorabilia on the walls.  Food was good too.

After lunch, Jan wanted to drive around Bangor and its suburbs, so we spent an hour or so cruisin’ around. 

After stopping off at Sam’s for some new wiper blades for the coach, we stopped back by Nicky’s for some of their soft serve ice cream.  Uniquely, Nicky’s has 26 flavors of soft serve, where most places just have vanilla, and maybe chocolate, too.

Returning to the rig, we were again surprised to find ANOTHER American Eagle on the other side of the one from this morning.  It’s unusual to find one other Eagle in a park, much less two.

We’re supposed to have rain tonight and tomorrow.

We’ll see…

Oriental Jade…

After sleeping in this morning, we drove over to Bangor to a Chinese restaurant, Oriental Jade, that we’d seen yesterday on our way to Pepina’s.

It turned out to be really good, especially the Hot & Sour Soup.  We’ll try to go back.

Leaving the restaurant, we drove down the street to Sam’s Club and then on to a brand-new Walmart down the road a piece.  This may have been the biggest Walmart we’ve ever been in, and the layout is completely different from any we’ve ever been in.  Except for the checkouts being in the front, nothing was where it was supposed to be. 

I think it took us twice as long to shop as it normally would.

Getting back to the rig, we let Mister play outside for a bit while we enjoyed the nice weather.

Don’t know how long that will last though.  I can’t believe we’re almost in Nova Scotia and we have to worry about dodging a hurricane! 

We’ll see how the weather goes.

More tomorrow…

Good Mexican food in Maine?

We headed out from our overnight at Walmart about 10 am, heading toward Bangor, ME, about 150 miles away.

As we were passing though beautiful downtown Gorham, NH,  we remembered what we’d heard about the great breakfast at Welch’s Restaurant, so we decided to stop.

Luckily there was a spot on the next block where we could safely and easily park the rig and toad.

The meal was really good.  Jan said her Blueberry Pancakes were the best she’d had since Whitehorse, BC last year, and from her that is a lot.  And my Meatlovers Breakfast Sandwich really hit the spot.

After our meal we again headed east on US 2… into a maze of road work, one after the other.

Apparently they’re in the process of four-laning US 2, so long stretches of it were down to one lane with flag people, or even traffic lights, governing land direction flow.  Several times we sat for as long as 10 minutes.

But finally we pulled into Pumpkin Patch RV Resort in Hermon, ME,  just west of Bangor, about 3 pm, and got set up.

After checking with the office for recommendations, we headed out to Pepina’s Mexican Cafe for what turned out to be some excellent Mexican food.

Coming back home, Jan sat outside with Mister while I finished aligning the satellite dish.

Tomorrow we don’t have much on the agenda,  probably just rest up,  slept late, and make a Walmart / Sam’s run.

Later…

Climbing Mt. Washington and here a moose, there a moose…

We left Moose River Campground about 11 am and headed up US 2  toward Gorham, NH.

The road wasn’t too bad, a bit curvy, but OK,  and we pulled into the Walmart about 12:30 pm and set up house.

Gorham Walmart

Actually, when we Wally-dock,  there’s nothing to setup.  We don’t lower the jacks, or put out the slide.  The only thing we do is just unhook the truck so we can drive around.

We decided to try a place called Crabby Jack’s Mexican Cafe for lunch,  since we were hungry for Mexican.

Big Mistake!   The service was bad and food wasn’t any better.

After our so-called lunch,  we headed down to Gorham’s Visitor’s Information booth to check out the sign that got Jan all giddy.

It said “Moose Tours”

After signing up for the 6:30 pm tour that evening,  I noticed a brochure on Mt. Washington.  I knew it was in New Hampshire,  but I didn’t know it was close by.

Turns out that it’s right down the road.  It’s about 8 miles to the base of the mountain,  and then about 8 miles to the summit,  all 6288 feet of it.

We decided we had plenty of time to do the mountain before our moose tour,  so we headed out.

And it is a heck of a climb.  During the 8 miles, you climb over 5000 ft.  And it seems like it’s straight up at times.

Mt Washington 1

But, although it was a little hazy,  the view was spectacular.

Mt Washington 2

The Mt. Washington Auto Road gave birth to the oldest man-made tourist attraction in the US.  When it was built in the 1861  (Yes, 1861),  it was called the Mt. Washington Carriage Road.  And stagecoaches took visitors to the top.

It’s still the same road, and not much improved, it seems.

And then in 1869 they built the Cog Train.  It runs on a train track with a cog track in the center that lets the train climb the steep grades like a roller coaster does…clack, clack, clack.

Cog Train 1

That little yellow dot is the train coming up the mountain.  It takes about an hour to come up and an hour to go back down.

It only takes about 20 min in your car.

Cog Train 2

“I think I can, I think I can…”

Cog Train 3

This gift shop building dates from 1878.  Note that it is chained down!

Mt Washington Gift Shop

And here’s why!

Mt Washington Sign

231 MPH !!!

I think they need more chains.

The new buildings are built to withstand 300 MPH winds.

And, of course, we got our official bumpersticker for our trip up.

bumperstickerWEB

I’ve seen these on cars before, and now I know how they got them.

About 6:30 pm we board our tour bus for our “moose tour”.

And we actually saw moose,  4 of them, to be exact.  2 sets of cows and calves.  No bulls, unfortuately.

These pictures were taken about 9:30 pm at night, lighted by spotlight.

Moose 1

Moose 2

Moose 3

Moose 4

Moose 5

These moose were about 30 yards away at the time.

We also saw an osprey, 2 foxes,  a deer,  and 2 loons.

And some pretty scenery earlier in the evening.

Dam

Tomorrow morning we head out to Bangor, ME for a few days before we trek further north to Canada.

More then…

On the road again…

Well, we did a 20 mile test drive and it looks like we’re good to go!

As soon as I can find another filter, I’m going to buy one as a spare so I’ll always have one on hand.  I probably wouldn’t be able to install it on the road because I would have to hang over the very hot muffler to install it.

So I would have to wait a few hours for things to cool down.

The park we’ve been at for the last several days here in St. Johnsbury, VT is called…

Moose River

Unfortunately for Jan, the only moose we saw there was this cutout at the entrance.

Moose Cutout

It’s a very pretty park with very friendly owners. 

Moose River Entrance

Moose River Stream

The only problem with our parking spot is that there is no shade, but then the satellite reception is great!

Moose River Parking

Now that the coach is ready to go, today is our last day here at Moose River.

Tomorrow we’ll drive about 50 miles over to Gorham, NH.  Since I couldn’t find a decent RV park in the area,  we’ll Wally-dock for the night.

More tomorrow…

Fuel Filter changed – Test Drive tomorrow!

Well, replacing the fuel filter was a real pain in the rear, but I got it done.

I won’t know it if works or not until tomorrow.  It was too late to do a test drive today so we’ll do one tomorrow.

I’ll let you know.

Hawaiian Shirts and a Roast Pig…

After doing some research on the Internet, I decided to try and track down a fuel filter for our rig.

St. Johnsburg, VT is a small town, but I was surprised to find that a local auto parts store  had on in stock.  So I got the filter, and a strap wrench and drain pan to help change the filter.

Tomorrow I will get under the coach and see what it’s going to take to get the filter changed.  After that I will take the coach on a test trip down the road, and fill up with diesel while out.

I have to do a test drive because the problem only shows up under heavy load, like hill climbing.

I didn’t try to change it today because it’s Hawaiian Day here at the park and they had a pig roast and potluck this afternoon.

And the pig and potluck were delicious.

So tomorrow, we’ll see how it goes.

Just a note, we don’t have cell service here in at this park.  We have it at the top of the hill and down the road in town, but not here down at the bottom of the hill.

Moose River Campground…but no moose!

We headed out from Normandy Farms Campground in Foxboro, MA about 11:30 am, on our way to Moose River Campground in St. Johnsbury, VT.

We thought the 200 mile trip would take us about 4 hours, but two things intervened to make it a 6 hour trip.

First we hit a lot of traffic on the Interstates.  We’ve run into this problem ever since we left NY and headed up into New England.  There seems to be just too much traffic for too few lanes.

And, unlike Texas, where they will built a tollroad specifically to BE a tollroad, up here it seems like they just take an Interstate,  give it a name like ‘Mass Turnpike’,  and Shazam!,  it’s now a tollroad.  What’s up with that?

But more importantly, the thing that really slowed us down is that we have an engine problem. About 100 miles into our trip, the engine started losing power on the hills and giving a “Check Engine” light.  My computer engine interface says that this is caused by a “Fuel Delivery Pressure” problem.

I’m showing no other problems.  It’s been a couple of weeks since I filled up with diesel so I don’t think it’s bad fuel.

Everything I can find online says the first thing I should do is to change the fuel filter(s) which may be clogged.  So that’s what I’ll try tomorrow.

America’s Hometown…

Today was our day to tour Plymouth, which calls itself  “America’s Hometown”, which I guess is true since it was America’s first town.

After making the 40 mile trip,  we first decided to have breakfast at the All American Diner in downtown Plymouth, and it was excellent!

Leaving the diner we drove down and parked along the waterfront. 

Plymouth Harbor

The first thing we came upon was the Plymouth Rock monument.

Plymouth Rock Sign

Plymouth Rock Building

Plymouth Rock

It’s amazing to stand over the Rock and imagine almost 400 years ago the Pilgrims landing here.

Next we walked a few blocks away to the where the Mayflower II is docked.  Built in England in 1956 from the original plans, it made the voyage to America in 1957 and was given to the Plimouth Plantation group for display here.

Mayflower II

And then of course we had to hit the gift shops.  Here’s Jan modeling the latest in holiday attire.

Turkey Hat

Heading home we stopped off at Target for more ‘stuff’ and then made the drive home.

The park we’re staying in is really nice, probably the nicest one we’ve ever stayed in.

Normandy 1

Normandy 2

Normandy 3

And the landscaping and flowers are really something.

Flower 1

Flower 2

Flower 3

Today is our last full day in Massachusetts.  Tomorrow we head north to Saint Johnsburg, VT for a few days at Moose River Lodge.

As it stands now we should be in Nova Scotia within the next two weeks.  We’ll see.

More tomorrow from Vermont…

Au Bon Pain and no Duck…

Today was our day to do the Boston tourist thing, so we headed out about 9:30 am for the 30 mile drive to Boston.  But first, we stopped off at McDonald’s for a Chicken Biscuit for breakfast.

It was very overcast when we got there, in fact the tallest buildings were disappearing into the low-hanging clouds.

We found a parking garage near where we were going to catch the Old Town Trolley tour.

One more city and we’ll have the complete set.  We’ve ridden the Old Town Trolley in Key West,  St. Augustine,  Savannah,  and Washington, DC,  and now Boston.

All we lack is the one in San Diego,  which we’ll do next year when we go thru there again.  We were in San Diego in February 2008 and really enjoyed the city.  It’s a beautiful place and we look forward to going back..

I had already bought our Trolley tickets online so we just walked the several blocks to the #1 Trolley stop and boarded our ride.

Our 1 hour and 45 min tour took us past just about all of Boston’s famous spots.

Paul Revere’s house

Old North Church – “One if by Land,  Two if by Sea”

U.S.S. Constitution – “Old Ironsides”

Bunker Hill Monument

Boston Massacre site

Cheers – TV bar

Fenway Park – Home of the Boston Red Sox

Harvard/MIT/Cambridge

Boston Tea Party site

After completing our tour we got off near the Museum of Science because we wanted to take the Boston Duck Tour, which originated from there.

On the way there we stopped for lunch at Au Bon Pain (The Good Bread),  a soup and sandwich place that I had heard of before.  The Italian Wedding Soup that I had was delicious!

After lunch, and looking at the map, we decided to take taxi the rest of the way to the Museum.  And it was all for naught.

We got there about 2:15 pm, and when I went to get the tickets, I found the first time we could get a duck tour was 4:30 pm.  After thinking it over we decided that after the hour and a half tour, we would be trying to leave downtown Boston during going-home traffic, and this is something we didn’t want to do.

So calling it a day, we took a taxi back to the garage.  But before we left, we walked across the street to Starbucks for a coffee, and then down the street a ways to hit some gift shops.

Leaving the parking garage, I was surprised to find that it costs $36 to park for less than 5 hours in Boston.

Ouch!

We made the drive home and then sat outside the rig watching Mister roam about.

All in all,  a nice day.