Boothbay Harbor

The inn was great. After checking out we drove to the Boothbay harbor area. We had reservations at the Shore Hill campground, in Boothbay. This is the site.

We're staying here 2 days.

The second day we went into the village itself. We stopped at a restaurant on the water for a drink and ended up staying for dinner. Becky finally got her lobster.

Southwest Harbor

We have reservations at Southwest Harbor at the Cafe' Drydock & Inn. On the way, we decided to take a tour of Northeast Harbor. We stopped and had a couple of great tuna sandwiches. It's a really small place and only a few places to stop at.

The inn is great! It's a bit funky and also kind of Victorian. Really comfortable.

We had dinner downstairs and listened to what Becky is calling an "Amazing one-man band." I don't think so.

Both of us had Walker's Wellington--a filet with a crabmeat topping wrapped in pastry dough. It was excellent. I could barely get into mine.

Here's the Inn:

Destination?

We made it to the Bass Harbor Campground early afternoon on Monday. It's a great site.



Becky caught me blogging.




We stayed here 2 nights. Went to Bar Harbor, and drove to the Seawall.

Our New Campsite

Here's a shot of Becky setting up the tent.

Oops, well we ended up staying in a very nice motel, Admiral's Inn on Rt 1 outside of Belfast. Great people that run it too. It was refreshing.

Blacklisted!

It's a long story. We tried to find an opening from Rockland to Camden, but they had none. We continued north to Belfast and tried another one. Finally, we found an opening. Searsport Shores had room.

Giving my name at check-in, I was asked if I'd ever stayed here before. I don't know why the red flags didn't start waving then. To top it off, she said "I thought I recognized you."

I recognized her too. Becky, Megan and I had camped here 5 years before for a family reunion. There was a bit of a problem. We had paid for 2 sites, had even asked if we could put 2 tents on one site. Our site flooded and we moved our tent to our daughter's site. That caused a problem. The manager and I ended up shouting at each other. I couldn't seem to communicate why our site was unusable.

Back to the present. She searched for our name and could only find Becky's. She was able to pull that up. She had already found us a nice site (and it is a very nice campground). Finally, she says, "Uh, there's a note. It says "There was a disturbance on you last visit."

I explained what happened, even though I knew it was her involved. She asked, "Will there be any disturbance tonite?" I told here, "Not unless we have 5 inches of water in our tent." She said "It might rain tonite."

Then she said "The note says I can't rent to you."

I put my credit card away and left without a word.



This is it. I wouldn't stay here.

Rain

We got started around 5. Stayed at a campground south of Portland. It rained hard all night. The tent held up pretty well.

The stove got soaked, so decided to just have lunch in Portland. Here's where we ended up:

Really good pub food. Go there.

Us

We should own up to who we are. Here's Becky:





And I got caught too:

We Start

We gathered everything around the car. This is going in this car??

Well it did.

Bracelets

For fun we had these bracelets made.


They say "2 For the Road" and "miatainmaine.blogspot.com". We'll be giving them out on our trip, especially to anyone that's helpful. If you see us, ask us for one. Only catch is you should leave a comment.

Hopefully we leave a little later today.

Lighting

We usually take along a propane Colman light, but this time we'll be using a candle lantern.

The Car

Before we go on, just a little background on the car. It's a 1999 Miata, with 60,000 miles when we bought it in Oct. The former owner put in this turbocharger.



It moves like a bat out out of hell.

We bought it at Seacoast Mazda in Portsmouth, NH. Service there is great. Thanks to Ken, Rob ,Dennis and the rest of you guys.

Coolers

We normally travel with this cooler. It holds a lot and will keep food cold for 5 days.




This time we'll be using this collapsible cooler. It may hold food for a few hours.

Tents

So we needed a 2 man tent. We tried the pop-up below. It went up fine, but was totally impossible to collapse.





We gave up and ordered a 2-man Eureka. It finally came today.




It's very nice, more ventilated, and easy to set up and take down. Plus it has some more room.

Grills for the Miata

Heres's what our usual camping grill looks like:



And here's what we'll be using in Maine:



A propane burner and a wire frame to grill over coals.

Solution #1

The first solution arrived--a trunk rack! Since even the new 2 man tent won't fit in the trunk, this was required. It should give us a little more wiggle room. We had a 1977 MGB that had one permenently mounted and we went camping for a week in that.

Problem

But there is a problem...Normally this is the way the 2 of us go camping. A 7 man tent and a good sized Weber.

The Start of 2 For the Road

This is how it begins. A turbo-charged Miata that just cries to be taken camping.