Days 1,2,and 3

July 31—Aug 2

The day finally arrived and we were healthy, so off we go.  Today, July 31, we began our trip for Acadia, ME.  We had our little “Conastoga” wagon ready and off we went for the first day. 

Traffic was really heavy for most of the day, but our little vehicle performed like a champ.  To be so small(24”) there is a lot of power in the little Mercedes engine.  Actually, the power pulling our CRV is better than any RV we have owned. 

Our goal today is a little town in northern Virginia, Edinburg.

  I dare say that most people have never heard of it.  It sits on leisurely  flowing creek.  The architectural design of the town is really quaint.  The main street was hugged by the city business.  Sadly most were shutdown but this must have been bustling town its day.  Our campground was on the bank of the creek and one that I would like to return to someday.  In fact we backed so close to the bank overlooking the creek Jan was a little nervous.

The next morning we walked down the road adjacent to the stream.  Beautiful and so peaceful.

On Tuesday, Aug. 1, we began driving up the Shenandoh Valley, how beautiful.  The road was mostly rolling and the traffic was fairly light, making for an easy trip.  We planned on being in Catskill, NY at the end of the day.  Driving up the Hudson Valley on the west side of the river allowed us to see territory we had never seen.  On arrival at our campground we knew that this was going to be an adventure for the night.  The campground was closed for the day when we arrived at 4:30(not good).  Jan was able to get someone to get us registered.  This might have been a sign that we shoud have moved on, but no, we found our site for the night.  This was no easy task being that the sites were not marked and the one they told us to go to was a non existent one.  NO HOOK UPS at all.  But adjoining it was a questionable site. 

I found the water, a broken electric box and sewer “stump”.  As I hooked up the smell of sewage was heavy in the air.  Jan wasn’t happy since the smell permeated the RV too.  We, not expecting to have problems with the campground system thought this might be our problem.  What I should have paid attention too was that everything that was associated with the campground had problems.  The water hookup looked like a Christmas tree of water pipes, all leaking. 

The next morning while emptying our tanks, the smell came back.  Really strong this time.  Still had no idea what was going on.  Then as I began to walk around the RV for something, I noticed dark water all over the ground in front of the RV. 

Their system had a bad leak.  When I found the source, the grass was greener and the bushes were growing well.

What else could go wrong.  As we started the process of preparing for departure, I went back to the car and found that we had forgotten to turn of the key the night before.  Thus dead battery.  Since this wasn’t the first time in the last 10 years, I come prepared with battery cables.  A short delay and we had the car going.  Ready for a day on the road. 

Today Wednesday, Aug 2, we have hopes of driving to Freeport, ME.  Our “trustworthy” GPS took us back roads for the first hour.  It was actually very enjoyable, then we began spending money on tolls the rest of the day.  There was first the bridge across the Hudson $5, then a few miles in New York $$$, across Massachusetts on I-90 there were cameras set up to record our license and they will send us a bill later.  Every time we turned around there was another toll booth.  All told, before we get the bill from MA. there were tolls totally more than $40.

Traffic wasn’t as bad as the day before but it was consistently heavy.  Just north of Portland, ME we ran into a little fog.  This was a little unusual for us at 2:00 pm.  We arrived finally at our campground in Freeport.  These folks and the campground were really nice, so accommodating.  A quick drive into Freeport was a defiant trip for us. 

We actually drove out one of the peninsulas to the ocean.  When we got there we were greeted by a bank of fog.  Even standing on rocks at the shoreline, we couldn’t see the ocean.  But driving there was the treat.  The homes up here are beautiful.  Nearly all the homes we saw were spectacular.
There was a McDonalds