Exiting New Hampshire, on to Maine

Saturday June 29 and Sunday June 30, 2013
Site 60, Camden Hills State Park
Camden, Maine

 

Saturday June 29

We’ve started a new exercise rotation that is working out much better.  Rather than my running and David walking on the same day, we are alternating.  Today was his walking day so I got to have the coach to myself so I could do an hour of yoga.  Very nice!  Tomorrow I’ll run and do some weight lifting.  While I’m gone he’ll do a half hour of stretching exercises and a little weight lifting.  

 

 

 

We’ve done both things I wanted to do while here at Exeter Elms-visit the Wildlife Refuge and kayak the river- and we leave tomorrow so today is errands day.  Since New Hampshire has no state tax I take advantage and buy two bottles of Baileys at their liquor store.  We also hit the grocery, the pharmacy for prescription refills and got some hardware including some hose switching replacements for those being left on faucets at campgrounds for the next lucky RVer.

 

At about 7pm this evening the campground has a DJ Party in the open air pavilion.  The music is loud and goes on until 10:00 when they finally turn it down a bit since that’s the beginning of quiet hours.  But of course quiet hours doesn’t seem to affect the voices of those walking down Hollywood and Vine carrying on loud conversations.  Or the cars going in and out until nearly 1am.   At one point, just out of curiosity David walks by the pavilion to see who is dancing.  Perhaps we’ll go over in self defense.  He reports that it appears to be girls from about 11 to 14 with adults sitting around the edges drinking beer.  A pre-teen dance party.  In any case, it is later than I like by a large margin by the time it gets quiet enough for me to sleep even with the windows closed and ear plugs. 

I’m sure there are many other much nicer places to visit in New Hampshire and I hope we’ll get to do that on another trip or perhaps on our way back south which hasn’t been planned at all at this point.  So if you have suggestions please pass them along.  Especially if you have campground suggestions.  I didn’t do so well with this one.  Although it’s clear it is very popular with a lot of folks.

 

 

Sunday June 30

As you can imagine we are up and on our way out o’ here as early as we can manage it.  We drive back up through all the tolls on I-95 and I-295.  Today they total $16.50 for Winnona and Ruby. 

 

 

 

It’s a 155 mile trip split about 50/50 between I-95 and Route 1 to Camden Maine and our site at the Camden Hills State Park Campground.  This is another site I had to reserve on line site unseen.  It is a beautiful HUGE site.  The largest we’ve ever been in and there is a little gurgling stream running along one edge.  It all looks wonderful. 

 

 

 

 

The stream is fairly covered over with vegetation but you can hear it unless…………. there are cars going by on Route 1.

This site’s only drawback is that it is closest to the front of the park and thus to all the traffic on Route 1 which is a very busy road through the cute tourist town of Camden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see from the pictures here and above, we haven’t even begun to use 1/4 of the space in this site.  We hoped by positioning ourselves as close to the stream as possible we might be able to hear it when the traffic isn’t there and we can.  But the traffic isn’t absent very often.

Of course the other factor with affecting the set up is that it is raining, raining, raining.  So even though we have both the picnic table and our chairs tucked up under the awning, it isn’t very fabulous to sit outside in the damp and listen to the traffic.  Still it is a huge, very private site and that’s terrific.

 

Why don’t we switch sites you are wondering.  We looked into that and found that the park only has about 8 sites that are large enough for Winnona and which also have “services”, meaning water and electric.  About 90% of the campground has no services and is wonderful for tenting especially the upper most loop where the traffic noise is muted.  But all of the sites with services are on the lower loop and the noise is only slightly less on the farthest site from the road.   The map has an excellent key for you to see which sites are reservable and have services.

If we were not headed to Acadia and two weeks of boondocking right after this I would move into no services but 3 weeks of having to use the generator to keep our batteries alive is stretching it a bit.  We have a small solar system for toping off the batteries but the woods  and total cloud cover make that an iffy possibility. 

 

 

Ruby is standing guard at this long entrance to the site.  It’s at the end of the road above.  There is no site number sign at the end of the other sites so the road seems to go on into the woods and folks are curious.  I would be.  But Ruby thinks she’s enough car for this site.

 

 

The park is in the hills of mid coast Maine so everything is either up or down depending on where you are.  Our site is at the bottom next to the road.  Everything is up from here.  But then I prefer to hike up first and come down at the end so it works for me.

Here are some shots of the campground and other sites for those interested.

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

And look who else is here.   One of Winnona’s Cousins again!  Maybe she won’t leave before we can meet her like the last cousin at Winhall did.  Her people were never around when we went by and then early one morning she was driving out the road.   I guess that’s what happens with distant family.

 

 

The Duckies, & Pooh Carrie reminds me, have a great view.  They mostly stay inside where they can hardly hear the traffic. 

 

We will enjoy the beauty of the site and try to ignore the sounds.   So far, I’m finding quiet kind of  hard to come by in New England.