2012 Big Truck Across the Northeast, Day 5

Day 5 started a bit later, but it's tough to sleep in with Ice Cream Truck Creeper just a few hundred yards away.  Our agenda for the day included a trip up to Mt. Battie, some lunch & exploration of the harbor towns, and maybe a mountain biking sneak away for me.

We started out heading up to the playground for a rendezvous with Viola and Eloise (which Kim pointed out yesterday, with those names they could be anywhere from 4 to 75 years old).  Luckily they were there, otherwise Jordan would have gone Exorcist-level freakout, as she had been talking all night about what activities she and her new friends were going to cover.  Here they are solving the European economic crisis.

After the playing was over, it was time to drive up the mountain.  Granted, it's only about 1,000' of elevation, but the view from the top is tough to put into words.  Here is our intrepid explorer mentally preparing to jump on every rock in sight.

I'll go a bit pic-heavy here to give a flavor for the view.  The sort of hazy islands in the distance had a bit of 'Hound of the Baskervilles' feel to them (I'm sure I lost some of you there - don't judge me, I read it when I was 8 and the imagery stuck).  Watching the ships come in & out of the harbor pretty much made time feel irrelevant.

Once we checked out the views, next up was the cool WWI-era tower/turret at the top. Here are shots from inside & out.

On her way down from the top, Jordan gave her best Blue Steel, which definitely has me worried for her (and my) future.

From there it was on down to the harbor below to grab some lunch and wander around the town.  Camden is a pretty cool place, very walkable, and lots of foot traffic.  The locals are very friendly, even if you can't understand a word.  Here's the view from our table.  Hard not to make tons of Goonies references when the tall ships were leaving...



On our way out, we took the scenic backroads to Rockport.  Our friend Aaron (thanks Aaron) had given us tons of inside info on places to see up here, and this tip proved to be a great one.  It's hard to describe the scenery on these roads - think Northern Michigan on HGH.  Tall, wooded canopies over the roads, with occasional glimpses of the bay and boats everywhere. 

As we pulled into Rockport, we stumbled on this gem, a 1971 Jeepster Commando.  I'm quite sure I'll never seen another one like this in my lifetime, so even though the 2 females in our Jeep were not impressed with me drooling all over this thing, I grabbed a few pics.  Whoever did this meticulous restoration, thank you for bringing it back.

All that activity wore us out, so when we got back to the Big Truck there wasn't a lot of conversation, everyone just found a spot and relaxed.  After an hour or so, I got the itch to go explore the mountain bike trails here at the State Park.  There is a pretty extensive network of hiking trails here, as well as a few mixed use trails set aside for biking.  Since the campground is at the base of the hill, I wasn't looking forward to just a straight climb, but the reviews said the top was worth it.

The best way I can describe what came next is with this picture.

Behind me is the trail I just came down.  As you can see, it looks like I either just did a few lines of bath salts or am totally wired on adrenaline.  I'm pretty sure it was the latter.  The trail dropped roughly 200' in about 1/4 mile, and the entire descent is over boulders, rocks, roots, and moss.  It's like nothing I have ever seen in Michigan.  I had biked/hiked up it first, and on the way up all I could picture was this happening.

Instead, I made it just fine and was still completely jacked up when I found Kim & Jordan holding court at the playground just before sunset.  It was here that we later discovered the kids had found a pupa, the larvae stage of a butterfly.  This was incredibly difficult to decipher when Jordan was describing the pee-poop she and her friends had been playing with earlier.

All in all a pretty good day.  Tomorrow we do a few hikes to some of the local lookout points, and then work our way over toward Bar Harbor.  Having never been to Maine, we had heard stories of how beautiful it is, and can now confirm those to be true.

One very bright note - after returning from our lunch, we noted that Ice Cream Truck Creeper has vacated the premises.  Tonight's sleep will be at least 10% more comfortable.

2012 Big Truck Across the Northeast, Day 4

If you've been reading this blog at all, you know that the days generally start with some sort of playground visit and some day planning.  Today wasn't much different, except as we are learning with the new setup, there is a bit more of a pre-flight checklist. 

While I was trying to make sure we didn't leave our Jeep behind us on the highway, a dude with a fairly thick Philly accent came up and asked if he could take a picture of our setup.  I found it a bit ironic, because we had ogled some other dude's setup (wait - that came out all wrong) at Traverse City State Park 2 years ago.  That day was the origin of our plan, and this guy had the same idea.  He took a few pics, said thanks, and was on his way. See what positives come from dudes ogling other dudes setups?  Time to move on...

Since we had a great day in Newport, and had a lot of things to see in Maine, we decided our visit to Boston was going to follow the Clark W. Griswold model of seeing famous landmarks.

After a harrowing drive through downtown Boston (construction in tunnels + arrogant Masshole drivers * a lumbering RV = BP of 270 over 180), we got to the Tobin bridge (see below)

...without a glimpse of these guys, or even a mention of Southies, Yawkey Way, the SAWX, or duck boats.

A couple of hours north of Boston, as you spend about 9 minutes in New Hampshire on the way to Maine, there is a brewery of some significance called Red Hook.  They've been around since '81 (yes, I was already about 30 then) in Washington state, and this one was built in '96.  We stopped for lunch, and any place that is cool enough to incorporate Groundskeeper Willie into their decor is good by me.

Soon we were on our way, but as we got closer to Freeport, ME, we decided we would check out the world headquarters of L.L. Bean.  Now, as we found out, neither of us are very big fans of their products.  I have a ton of respect for the work that Leon L Bean did for the outdoor sporting community, but I cannot see a catalog or walk through a store without thinking of the ridiculous product descriptions from the J. Peterman collection.



After killing a few hours in Freeport, we got back on the road and ran squarely into this.  Who would have thought that at 5pm on a Friday night heading into a state whose motto is "Vacationland", that the traffic would be this bad?



Once we got to the state park, it was a welcome relief (albeit a bit of a shock) to see a pretty small, gravel site in the middle of the woods.  We set up shop pretty quickly, then wandered over to the 'playground', which was actually 2 swingsets.  No matter, as Jordan found the greatest thing for a 4 year old ever.  Other kids.  Here she is discussing the finer points of universal health care with her new pals, Viola and Eloise.

2 final notes before I call it a night.  Our park ranger couldn't have been nicer, but that does not change the fact that my ears told me I was listening to the female Ted Kennedy.  The Maine accent is, er-ah, different.



OK  - the final topic has me a bit creeped out.  2 sites down from us is a far-too-old gentleman with a fairly non-descript tent campsite, until you realize that he is driving AN ICE CREAM TRUCK!!!!  There are many reasons I can think of that a dude driving an ice cream truck would be forced to run his truck out of a state park campground, and none of them are "He seems like a fine member of our community whom I would trust interacting with small children."  He might as well be Sweet Tooth (who, by the way, is the only character worth choosing in the original Twisted Metal).



Enough digression, tomorrow begins our full scale assault on the Maine tourist hotspots.  We may even get some hiking in.  Stay tuned.

2012 Big Truck Across the Northeast, Day 3

Day 3 - started off in a fairly predictable fashion, although today was quite laid back, more of a family day than a destination. Jordan got us kicked off by strategically planning her 'choices'.  She informed us that today was to contain 'pool, then playground, then Jeep stuff.'  Unfortunately we miscalculated and got her ready for the pool a full hour before it actually opened. 4 year olds do really well with that explanation.

Here she is plotting out the day.

Instead of the pool (won't comment on a pool at a campground, this is our last RV park of the trip, might as well take advantage...), we started out at the playground.  This place does not skimp, their playground is more like the set of Ninja Warrior.  Jordan ultimately dominated the entire thing, but not without coercion. Here she is conquering the final obstacle.


After this, the pool.  If you've ever been in a campground with a pool, you know the drill.  If it opens at 10, at about 9:55 a zombie-like progression starts taking hold of the park.  Everyone is meandering toward the pool, trying not to tip other campers off to their ultimate destination, like the 14 towels, swimmies, and neon foam noodles aren't a dead giveaway.  Once everyone gets there, the gloves are off.  All for the privilege of jumping in a pool that was about 61 degrees.  You've all seen the Chevy Chase footage from Vacation, that was definitely me.



After dipping in 3 different pools in a 15 minute span, we started getting ready for a drive down to Newport, RI.  One quick aside, it is one thing to hear grown adults with a thick Boston accent, but it is something else hearing kids on a playground sounding like a bad Ben Affleck character, especially when they are mouthing off to their equally accented parents.  You ahhh, no you ahhhh!!!

On the way to Newport, the scenery was beautiful. Inside the Jeep, we had half the top down & Jordan was rocking her Jeep hat (can only be worn in the Jeep, and must be worn when the top is down).  We decided to snap a pic, not realizing that the truck from Maximum Overdrive was imminently bearing down on her in the background.


Once we reached Newport, we realized that this is a case study in the haves vs the have nots.  The entire town's tourism is built around "come see our filthy rich people, and get a $2 souvenier to commemorate it".  The setting is unreal, with rock outcroppings like Scotland or Ireland, sailboats everywhere, and rolling shorelines dotted with the ultimate in one-upsmanship mansions.  Here are a few, undoubtedly inhabited by the Pewterschmidts.

The coastline is ridiculous.  We stopped at Brenton Point State Park to watch some waves come in and snag a few weathered rocks for our travel collection back home.  Here's an amateur photographer getting 3rd degree sunburn trying to capture the moment.

Of course Jordan's playground spider-sense kicked in, and we found ourselves at one of the most picturesque prefab jungle gyms ever. I'm guessing the Newport chamber of commerce paid a little extra just to make sure poor people were chosen to build this.

(Actually a bit of Kim's research while on the drive home showed that Newport's per capita income is right around the $40k mark, considered below the national median & helping bring Rhode Island down to 17th nationally).  Extra $100s will be used to stoke the fire at the Breakers Mansion tonight to rectify this situation.

We did snag a seat at the wharf and polish off an excellent seafood lunch, with this as our view, and no - that isn't Guy Fieri as first mate.

After all of this, we decided to take a little detour on the way out and stop in Jamestown, just west across a pair of bays from Newport.  We reflected on the day and took in the view for a while.  There are worse places to be.

As we worked our way home, we realized that our campground home base is literally 5 minutes from Gillette Stadium, home of the Patriots and the oh-so-dreamy Tom Brady.  We swung by to get a glimpse of the stadium, and on the way there the oncoming lane looked like a scene out of American Graffiti.  Nothing but classic cars, musclecars, bikes, etc.  As we got close, we discovered that we had hit 'Cruise Night', and it took up about half of the main parking lot.  Thousands of cars, bikes, and all the gearheads to go with it.  If our daughter hadn't been running on fumes, I'd probably still be there. One of my all time favorite cars was front & center.  This beast.



That's enough for tonight, tomorrow is a big travel day, hopefully ending up at Camden State Park in Maine, with a few stops along the way.  More to follow.

2012 Big Truck Across the Northeast, Day 2

Day 2 started bright and early, just as we expected. With her previous night's scouting mission complete, Jordan made a beeline for the playground as soon as she got out of the Big Truck.

After a good half hour or so of frantic playing, it was back into the rig and back on the road by just before 10am.  Our agenda was again fairly loose, work our way across New York and end up somewhere near Boston.  A couple of things transpired along the way to make our trip a bit more eventful.

First, the NY Tollway, US90.  We discovered yesterday that flat-towing a vehicle unlocks new and exciting ways for Big Gubment to get their hands in our pocket.  The multiplier of the common man's toll that is used for us?  3.8.  Yup - because our MH is over 7' high, and we count as 4 axles, we get hit for almost 4x the normal tolls, because of course we are causing 3.8x as much wear on the highway with this setup. We experienced this firsthand as we forked over $59.65 upon exiting NY state.  At least Eliot Spitzer could have bought us dinner first.

We did, however, get to see setups like this.  When you have money and you don't know exactly how to consume it, you do things like this.  "Honey, what's the quickest and least practical way to burn $1.1M?"  "How about a 40' Mercedes motorcoach, with a freshly shrinkwrapped Victory Vision bagger mounted on the back?"  Yes, this happened.

The next phase of our trip came a bit out left field.  We had been telling people we were heading to the Northeast & asked for recommendations.  One of our good friends (Thanks Ed!) let us know that his old college roommates had started a brewery straight out of college, and it was doing very well.  Since we were going to be within 45 minutes of it, and had no real timeline (no matter what Kim says, we rarely do), we decided to go check it out.

This is the first time either of us have driven in the Boston area, and the best way I can describe the roads on the way to the brewery is that they must have been derived using the formula from Good Will Hunting,



...then the postal service switched the construction blueprints with the instruction manual to Rollercoaster Tycoons 3.  This is the exact route we drove to from Worcester to Wachusett.

Enough of the backstory.  Everyone has a few college roommates that say "We should start a brewery!!!!" and then have 7 more beers and pass out.  Our friend's roommates actually followed through with a business plan and are now seeing their beer being sold all across the Northeast region, as well as inside Fenway Park, with this stroke of marketing genius.

We stopped in to Wachusett Brewing Company to see what it was all about and grab a growler to bring back home.  They couldn't have been more inviting and informative, even if they sounded like direct relatives of Linda Richman.

It was pretty cool to see that 3 engineering nerds from a school called Worcester Polytechnic Institute could parlay math, science, and chemistry classes into a thriving microbrewing business that is slowing taking over the Northeast US.  See kids, engineers are useful, and not just the embarrassingly socially awkward beings that buy all the ComicCon tickets.

After grabbing a couple of growlers & some cool mancave souviniers, we stopped outside for a photo op.  What self-respecting microbrewery doesn't have its own fire truck?  Here's Jordan and I with our newfound WBC swag.

On to our accomodations for the next 2 nights.  I would love to wax poetic about my love for RV-specific parks with multiple pools, a clubhouse with dancing for the adults and $5.50 bundles of firewood consisting of 3 wet poplar logs, but if I go any further, the inside of our RV will look like this, and I will not be the cat.

Tomorrow, we hobnob with the 1%ers by driving down to Newport & the Cape.  If I get asked to valet park something, someone's getting throatpunched.

More to follow...

2012 Big Truck Across the Northeast, Day 1

Welcome back, this is the 2012 installment of what is becoming an annual family truckster trip across the US (this year, with bonus Canadian footage!).  Last year we made it to the Pacific and the US/Mexico border, so this year we decided to wander up across the Northeastern US with an ultimate destination of Acadia National Park in mind.

Just like last year, the principals are unchanged - save for one more year of wisdom, good looks, and Disney princess movies.  You may recognize a couple of returning characters, Walter and Giraffe.  They also made the trip, and you can see the excitement written on Jordan's face.

One other addition to this year's trip - our secondary mode of transportation.  Instead of having a different destination every night for 2 weeks, this year we've decided to have 5-6 home bases for multiple days, and day trip from there with the Jeep.  Since this is the first time we've flat towed anything, it has been an interesting experience.  With so much riding on dragging our daily driver across the US after putting 4 months' worth of work into the Jeep, I turned to the one person you could trust the most - a random stranger with a Craigslist posting.  We purchased the towbar and braking system used, and then pieced together the rest of the setup with some good old fashioned internet forum advice.  Here's the full setup just prior to leaving Tuesday morning.

Today's trip was intended to be fairly uneventful.  Get across Michigan, through Canada (plenty of Canadian jokes coming, it lived up to everything I had remembered and then some), get a quick taste of Niagara Falls (total cluster, more on that later), then hunker down for the night somewhere in upstate NY.

Part 1 - we made it to Canada pretty much unscathed, just a few unnerving clunks here and there over big bumps, but all in all the tow rig setup is flawless.  We have the rear camera display in the mirror wired with a full time view of the towbar in case things get out of hand, but no issues.  Watching 5,000lbs worth of Jeep back there brings with it a bit of pucker factor, especially when some wayward Canadians' thoughts start drifting toward a 50% off sale on stonewashed denim at the local Canadian Tire.

Here is pretty much what we saw for 3 hours in Canada.

Since most of the roads in Ontario are 2 lanes with a speed limit of 20 dodecahedrons, all of the traffic is forced onto the 401, or the 402, or the 403.  The only thing to distract you from the truck traffic is the fascinating local radio scene.  If you are not famaliar, the Canadian government has taken a particular interest in promoting and preserving its own pop culture, hence the Canadian Content Requirement.

If you don't want to read through it, the gist of it is this - the music is so bad, without the government mandating stations to play at least 35% of Canadian material, most of it would not see the light of day.  Although there is a certain talent in making new releases sound as though they were recorded in 1987 with a backup singer on lead vocals. While looking like this...



The DJ was also imploring us to 'throw an ear' at upcoming Canadian band Snotch, which he assured the listeners would rock the house.  The audience inside our motorhome differed with his assertion.

We also passed a sign advertising the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, which I have to assume is just the house Tim Raines lived in when he played for the Expos.



After driving through Hamilton (beautiful view of Lake Ontario) and St. Catharines, we worked our way to the Canadian side of Niagara.  Hijinks ensued.  We got an incredible view of Horseshoe Falls, the rapids, and about 1 billion foreign tourists while we were looking for a place to park.  About 2 miles past the falls, we finally found a place advertising public parking.  After pulling in, we were informed by a very polite 10 year old kid that "You can't park that thing here."  He then told us about a place "2 driveways down" that specialized in RV parking with a free shuttle to the falls.  We should have know something was up when they made us give a name & license plate # for the privilege of turning around in their lot.  I hope they were pleased with the visit of Admiral Akbar.

2 driveways down turned into 2 miles away, and the gates looked like Walleyworld.  No one there, all lanes closed.  No parking, no shuttle.  45 minutes into the Niagara experience, we decided to get back to America.  Crossing the bridge took 25 minutes, but it goes fast when you're looking at this.

We wandered for a bit, but the whole American side was under construction, with a pedestrian re-route that looked like an intern came up with it after a full night out at the bar.  We stayed just long enough for Jordan and Kimberly to get their first up close look at the falls, and for this picture.  Pay no attention to the amorous viewfinder trying to get in on the action.



All told it was a pretty good first day. We ended up outside of Batavia, NY at an RV campground called Southwoods.  Jordan took us on a moonlight recon mission to the playground for a preview of tomorrow morning's activity, and she was tough to drag out of there.  From there it's off to the Boston area for a couple of days, so looking forward to a big day 2.