Finally we were on the road again for two weeks. We left for our trip on a Sunday, as we had a weekend schedule of wonderful family activities prior to our departure. Our first stop was with some “almost” family in Sudbury, Massachusetts. We had a lovely night enjoying the warm evening and eventually moving inside to share delicious food and more conversation with Jill and Jon.
The next day, while Steve worked, Jill took me on a tour of local history and attractions. The Longfellow’s Wayside Inn had displays inside and out showing some of the history of the building and surrounds going back to the time of the Revolution. At one point, the building was owned by Henry Ford; ironically, we are going to the Henry Ford Museum on our next trip to Michigan. There were also lovely gardens and grounds to explore. A short way down the road was an old mill, surrounded again by interesting scenery, including old millstones that were used to decorate the property. A path led to a pond where we saw a number of wild animals, including a water snake and two birds that flew into nearby trees. We didn’t get a chance to see if they were herons or cranes, but it was magnificent to watch them fly.
We even met some not so wild, wild turkeys back in our friends’ yard.
When Steve was done work, we headed North, with a planned stop for dinner at Seasons 52 in Burlington, Massachusetts with Alan, who had been the youth group director of our local BBYO, where Steve and I met. The joke when Alan started as our director, just after earning his Master’s Degree, was he looked about 13. Now, more than 40 years later, he still looks younger than us. We ate a lovely meal and caught up on a lot of years, our families, and mutual friends. We made a few pit stops on the way to the campground, doing some errands and getting some vegan ice cream at Moo’s Place in Derry, New Hampshire.
Our campground for the night was Suncook River. We never did meet our hosts. When we told them we would arrive late, they messaged us and told us they moved us to the first RV site along the river, so it would be easy to pull in. It was, and it was a lovely and well cared for place. The only issue is that they are expanding and the construction started around 6 AM. I slept through it and didn’t hear it until after I woke and went outside, but it kept Steve from a peaceful morning.
We hung out until check out and then parked in Concord, New Hampshire, so I could explore while Steve worked. I wandered around the shops, of course, checking out the record store, but only finding one item for our daughter’s business. The main street was only a few blocks long. A few stores were closed. Once I saw what I wanted to, I headed back to the van for some lunch and then explored the less interesting chain type stores near our parking spot. I accomplished a mission by buying a trash can for the van with a lid.
We headed for our Harvest Host stay for the night at Beans and Greens Farm Market in Guilford, New Hampshire. We were directed to a lovely field that we had to ourselves for the evening. We relaxed and had some dinner with leftovers from our fridge. In the morning we were able to get breakfast in the café that was part of the farm market. They had gluten free bagels for my avocado toast. Steve got their final gluten free wrap, except it was crumbly, so they made it into a breakfast bowl for him. While Steve went to work, I explored the store which didn’t have too much produce yet, so early in the season, but I was able to pick up a few veggies to add to our meals for the following days. They also had a really wide assortment of food products, many local and all interesting. One of the freezer cases had a local company’s gluten free snacks. There were coffees, condiments, treats and more. I made my selections and wandered slowly back to the van. I meet the two farm pigs on the way back and saw signs for other animals but not the animals.
After a day of little physical activity I was on the lookout for a place to take a walk as we headed toward our campground. I was looking on the All Trails app, but I forgot to adjust for being in the mountains. At home easy trails are all over. In mountainous areas most trails start at moderate. Steve suddenly said, there is a sign on the road for a trailhead, so we made a decision to try it, not knowing at all how difficult it might be. It was the Old Bridle Head Trail at Franconia Notch State Park and it wound up being perfect. Some climbing but gradual and not to strenuous and we were rewarded by a beautiful series of waterfalls. There were more trails there but we had gotten our walking in and turned around to head back to Spud after about 20 minutes.
We arrived at the Littleton / Franconia Notch KOA in Libson, New Hampshire. A nice enough place to spend two nights. The spots were a little close together but there was a lovely river with rapids we could see and hear from our spot. We had told them we were arriving after hours and asked them to leave us some firewood, which they did. We were able to cook dinner and have a relaxing evening.
Thursday was a day we were both working. We hung at the campsite for the day but decided to treat ourselves to dinner out. We explored Littleton, a nice river town, and settled in for a meal at New Jing Fong.
The next day, we decided to do a journey north at lunchtime and I searched for a place where Steve could park. When I found there was a record store with $1.00 selections about 30 minutes away, we headed to Chris’ Nostalgia Shop in Whitefield, New Hampshire. Actually the dollar records did not turn out to that interesting for Hillary’s art, but I spent a long time searching other records and tapes, as well as talking to the owner’s wife who was running the store that day. In the end I wound up with a few tapes, a number of good 45’s and a pleasant whiling away of the afternoon.
As it was the beginning of the Memorial Day Holiday weekend, Steve got to finish work early and we took our time driving toward our campground for the next stop of the trip. We stopped at a few points along the way to explore a little. First was the Pontook Reservoir and Dam, where we took a few pictures before moving on.
Then we walked a short distance on the Magalloway River Trail.
Shortly before we arrived at Cupsuptic Lake Campground we spotted a moose. At first it was so still it looked fake. By the time I got the camera out, we were passed him, but it was still a great welcome. We’ve stayed at Cupsuptic before and it’s a lovely property with friendly people and great places to sit by the lake. This trip we were there for five nights in total. It was very relaxing, but we realized if we were going to spend that long again, it would have to be in weather when there was more likelihood of getting out in the water in a canoe or kayak. It was just a bit too cold for that, even on the last warmest day.
Saturday we decided to De Tour a little South again, going to see the Farmer’s Market in Bethel, Maine. It wound up being a pretty small market but we got some fresh Fiddleheads, a Maine delicacy that we’d heard about but never tried, and a few other tasty items. We also had some lovely conversations with the vendors. The one we bought the fiddleheads from was from Northern New Jersey and we swapped some stories about our home State. As we were finishing up we asked her about places to see in the area and she told us we “must” stop at Step Falls Preserve in Newry, ME. Before we headed that way we went into the town of Bethel and did a little walking and shopping. I bought a cool upcycled bag made from old pants, from a lady selling them for a fundraiser for their church food pantry. Check out the Pant’s Project.
Once we were ready, we headed to the Falls and we weren’t disappointed. They were as lovely and walkable, with a little climb, as the women from the Farmer’s Market had said.
Finally, we headed back to Cupsuptic Lake for the evening. Almost back we passed a moose again. Was it the same one? A different one? We’ll never know but it was definitely close to where we spotted the other one. I Googled how to cook the fiddleheads, and made them with some pasta and mushrooms and they were quite good, though a bit of work.
Sunday morning was rainy, so we hung at the campsite most of the morning. As it cleared we headed into the town of Oquossoc, the closest to the campground. There is a store there called the Farmer’s Daughter that sells produce and other natural, healthy foods. Because it was early in the season, the produce was pretty limited but we picked up a few things and a few more across the street in the Oquossoc Grocery. One of the people working at Cupsuptic had recommended a visit to Smalls Falls. I had heard it and even looking at the directions reading it, had in my head Small Falls and that’s what I expected. When I saw they were not so small, Steve corrected my misinterpretation. The trail was a bit tricky, as the rocks that originally had been steps were covered with roots. Fortunately there was a railing on the steepest part. It was worth the effort as each part was more lovely than the part before This was our third Falls of the trip and definitely my favorite.
We decided on an early dinner at the Portage Tap House. We had eaten there before and they offered good gluten and dairy free pizza. Since we had skipped lunch we were hungry and Steve ordered some french fries, which wound up being a good thing. They were really tasty but while we were enjoying them, the server came back and said the chef had scoured the freezer for gluten free crusts and they seemed to be out of them. We choose some other items from the menu that worked, including a tasty haddock sandwich for me and a salad with some yummy dressing for Steve.
We decided to De Tour a bit on our way back to the campground and drove past to see if we could catch our daily moose sighting. We actually did see a moose, in the same section of the road, except a little further back munching on a tree in an orchard. The question remained, is that area heavy in moose and we saw three different ones, or did we see the same one three times. We will never know, but still thrilling and still no pictures to prove it. That would be the last moose sighting for this trip, so maybe pictures on a future adventure.
We did have some other wildlife visitors while at Cupsuptic, including this duck who wandered / sometimes flew through the campsite. We figured out that people were feeding him, so he knew to visit and even found a few pieces of pasta we spilled.
Tuesday Steve worked, while I read, puzzled, walked a bit and such. In the evening we had a fire and enjoyed our last stationary night. Wednesday, the 27th was our anniversary so Steve had taken off work so we could have the day to ourselves. If you read the title, you know that it was our 42nd anniversary and if you don’t understand the significance of 42, please research Douglas Adams. The day brought some ups and downs including a mid-day trip to an Urgent Care, but we enjoyed the day before and after. We also decided to both take a half day off work on Thursday, to make up for some lost adventuring time, but I’m getting ahead.
On our anniversary, we headed out as early as we could and snacked a light breakfast, so we could have a real brunch after some driving. We found our way to Alice’s Restaurant in Showhegan, Maine. A very friendly person, who might have been Alice, helped us make gluten / dairy free choices. She apologized for being out of gluten free bread, as the store had been when she went, but we had good eggs and potatoes. Then we took a short look around downtown Showhegan. As we headed for Bangor and Brewster, we decided we needed to make the detour to the Urgent Care. Once we were finished and back on track we went shopping at a favorite Natural Foods store, Tiller & Rye, in Brewster, giving us a chance to stock a few things, get a few needed supplements and buy some luxurious vegan ice creams to save for after an anniversary dinner.
We learned a useful travel trip. If you need to have a prescription filled while traveling, use a big chain drug store and they can transfer it from the prescribed location to one of their other stores at your request. We found a Shinbashi, an Asian Restaurant in Ellsworth and picked up some sushi and spring rolls on the way toward our Harvest Host for that night
Our host that night was Shalom Organic Winery in Franklin, Maine. We called the host and let him know we would be getting there after the winery closing time of 5 o’clock and asked if we’d be able to taste wine the next day instead. He said we could either buy some wine when we did arrive or taste the next day. Well it wound up this winery was very different, a small, mostly one man show. When we got there some time around 6, Jim, the owner called and asked us to come down to the winery. He did our tasting of his unique wines. He adds no sugar or sulfites to the apples and other fruits he grows organically on the property. This makes for a very different fruit wine. He had apple, blueberry and kiwi berry for us to taste. The blueberry, usually a favorite was too bitter to us, but we bought some of the others. We also had some interesting conversations as he told us about all the things he has done himself in construction, making wine, renovating a mini bus into a camper for him and his wife and more. He said a lot of his customers come through Harvest Host, which he has been a part of since the inception. We were parked in a lovely field overlooking “blue peak” and his orchards. We enjoyed our dinner and ice cream after a somewhat crazy day.
As I mentioned we were both supposed to work all day Thursday, but to make up for the lost time on our anniversary, we both asked to use some “sick” time for the afternoon, so we could enjoy coastal Maine, which working late would have lead us to mostly bypass. We were driving along, heading for Camden, Maine, when we saw a sign for a Farmer’s Market, that amazingly was on Thursdays in a small town of Orland, which sits on the Penobscot River. After turning around to get there and parking, we walked up a hill to find about a half dozen tents. Due to the Season again the produce was limited and what they had, had sold. We almost left empty handed until one of the market people mentioned how good the dried beans sold at one of the booths were and how many people came just for them. We picked up some of the pretty heirloom cattle beans and then walked around the small downtown. Last night (back at home) I cooked half the beans in my crockpot – and they are tasty. As I write a batch of them are now simmering into vegan baked beans.
We stopped in a slightly bigger town and walked around a bit but didn’t find anything to keep us there and headed on to Camden for lupper. My research had really good things to say about a restaurant there named Mosaic. Steve tried the scallop ceviche which seemed to be the regional specialty. He didn’t like it as much as our usual fish ceviche but said it was good, my fish tacos were excellent.
Our final campground for the night was at Wassamki Springs. It wound up being a lovely spot next to their lake and we wished we had a little more time to appreciate it. Before we left in the morning, I went to do some laundry and met a woman wearing a Cape May, NJ sweatshirt. We stopped and talked about NJ, she was originally from Northern, NJ , now residing in Vermont, but her and her husband like to take their camper to Cape May every Fall, so maybe we’ll see them there.
The campground wasn’t far from Portland, Maine, someplace I could explore for the afternoon. We headed into Portland, late morning, finding a reasonable spot (for a city parking spot) on one of the piers that had a daily rate. I spent the afternoon exploring the very walkable city, although GPS sometimes had me confused. I checked out record stores, finding one that had a lot of bargain records and tapes for Hillary. I had a lovely vegan Caesar salad at LB Kitchen and as the day was wrapping up, I stumbled onto Gorgeous Gelato that had increased vegan choices on Fridays. Since it was Friday, I had to support their effort and took some back to the van for later consumption. If you go, the chocolate whiskey flavor is really good, not sure if it has whiskey in it but very rich, dark chocolate, the way chocolate should be.
The final two nights of our trip were to be spent visiting a friend who lives on the outskirts of Boston. We arrived to enjoy a nice dinner and some catching up. In the morning, all the ideas we had were dampened by heavy rains. We finally tried to visit the art galleries at SOWA and found that really none were open except on Sundays and occasional Fridays. It’s one of my favorite Boston places but it wasn’t meant to be. We checked out a street fair moved indoors, which had a few interesting things and finally went to lunch at OTTO in Brookline, MA. Last time I was in Boston we had their gluten and dairy free pizza and it was really good. Still good and lots of choices. The rest of the visit was spent chilling, playing some games and petting the one cat that doesn’t hide from company.
Sunday we left pretty early, so we could get back at a reasonable hour. We realized it was not really out of our way to stop at a favorite all vegan and all gluten free spot, Botanika in Ridgefield, Connecticut. We ate lunch there outside, explored a little and then headed back to surprise our daughter as she was getting ready to break down from a craft event, giving her some extra hands.
Before we left Ridgefield we noticed an event being set up down the street. It wasn’t starting yet, but what attracted us was this sign. If you read my previous blog, “Connecticut is Closed”, you’ll understand the significance.
After helping our daughter break down at her event, we decided to end in vacation mode. We picked up take out from Namaste, a newer Indian restaurant in Collingswood, NJ we had been wanting to try. We were not disappointed by the food, maybe a little bit by being home. But another Spudventure is coming soon.
