Very early Saturday morning:

Yesterday we did laundry.  Exciting – well, it is if you only have enough fresh clothing to last a week or so.  And if it’s hot and humid and your body is reacting to the climate, having clean, dry clothing and bed sheets is, indeed, exciting.  And after doing laundry, we put a small roast up to cook in the crockpot.  Then it was time to get to enjoy our day.

We like Acadia National Park – I mentioned that yesterday.  It is truly an amazing place.  And if we can’t stay in the park itself (usually very difficult to get a campsite unless booked a bit in advance), we can find a campground fairly close by.  And – the beauty of this is – LL Bean is spending your money to fund a bus system that provides FREE transportation all over the island.

 

The Island Explorer is SO rider-friendly, you can call in from anywhere and they’ll pick you up.  Drivers even stop for people hailing them from the side of the road.  An amazingly good use of corporate funds.  Like other national parks, reducing the amount of cars moving through the area has become an imperative on this island.  So, kudos to LL Bean (in partnership with Friends of Acadia and the National Park Service).

Anyway, having the bus available meant we could leave dinner cooking and hop on a bus to get into the park.  And since we have our passes, we can get into the park for free.  [By-the-way, when you turn 62 you become eligible for a National Park LIFETIME senior pass.  For $10 you get a card that gets you in FREE for the REST OF YOUR LIFE to ALL national parks and other federal recreation sites.  We have found it’s even honored at some state parks.  Think of it as your federal tax dollars being spent on YOU instead of something you might not enjoy.] 

Acadia National Park was conserved about 100 years ago (yep, it’s celebrating a centennial as well) from land donated by Hancock County, Maine and more lands purchased by John D. Rockefeller and others.  It was the first national park created solely from private donations.  And it has a 45-mile system of “carriage roads”.  Built first by Rockefeller for horse-and-buggy travel (because Rockefeller didn’t want those new-fangled gasoline guzzlers to ruin the pristine nature of the land), the carriage roads are now used as bike-and-hike trails.  NO HORSES ALLOWED (which is nice because you don’t worry about stepping in horse manure – only doggie-doo).

 

 

What we also like about visiting here is that MOST people usually visit Mount Desert Island to go to Bar Harbor (or as we New Englanders say “Bah Hahbah”).  And find places to eat lobster.  So, most of our visits, we find that there aren’t that many people in the park and certainly not on the hiking trails.  But – when we arrive, we realize that EVERYONE is getting in for free this week-end.  OF COURSE – it’s the 100^th anniversary of the National Park Service.  So, August 25^th-28^th everyone gets in free.  What fun – how crowded L .  But, we’re good sports and we don’t mind sharing, so off we go to get our 10,000 steps in by traversing the carriage roads.

Yep -- we're here

 

Let's walk already!

 

Carriage Road to Witch Hole Pond

A fungus among us :-)

Speaking of hot and humid, it was like Florida up here at Acadia National Park.  We were supposed to get rain, but all the moisture just stayed in the atmosphere.  Not a pleasant day for a hike.  So…after going about a mile, we turned around and headed back.  Call us wuzzes or old fogies or just plain out-of-shape seniors, we decided to catch the bus and ride around.  Which is what we did – with the idea that maybe this would be a good time to get in a swim.

Got back to the campground to find the pool FILLED with jumping pre-pubescent adolescent males having a great time showing off to each other (and maybe the couple of “I’ll feign to not care less, but some of those boys are kinda cute” teenage girls [yes, I realize that is a hetero-centric statement] their grand skills of cannon-balling .  Of course, there were also the several floaty-adorned ankle-biters kicking around besides the steps.  So…

Doomed to a hot, humid, uncomfortable early evening, we gave up the pool idea and cooked up some fresh vegetables to go with our nicely-cooked roast.  Cleaned up the dishes, took a refreshing shower, and sat down to a rousing game of cribbage.

Very boring, you say.  Not really, says us.  We DID get our 10,000 steps in by all the walking we did around the campground and the bit at Acadia.  And we had caught up with enough news through various on-line sites (CNN, New York Times, LA Times, Huffington Post, etc.) to know that it was OK that we hadn’t seen any TV since we left on Monday.  And we did look at the map to know that, even though we only have about 115 miles to go to our next stop, it was going to take us about 5 + hours because “you can’t get theh from heh” unless we travel on US 1 which takes us through all the centers of little towns with Saturday farmers’ markets and shopping etc.

So – coffee is made and in a bit, Rick will wake up.  We will have breakfast, stow everything, break camp, and off we will go to where the sun hits the U.S. first – Eastport, ME right across from Campobello Island (FDR’s retreat) in CANADA.  We’ll catch up with you from there.

 

Enjoy the journey -- Dona and Rick