Our 2018 Canadian Maritimes Trip

Today we left our overnight campground in Monson, MA ( a WalMart) and drove drove about 4 hours to the Mt. Washington, NH Cog Railway for a trip to the summit of Mt Washington. We got there 15 minutes before the departure of the last trip of the day and got on a car just as it was about to leave. Mt. Washington is an amazing place to read about, home of the highest winds ever recorded by man (235 mph). Fortunately for us, it was a rare clear and calm day, albeit cold at the almost 7,000 ft summit. The boarding platform for our Cog Railway ride Heading out The rails with cog track in center This pretty thing was already posing, so I couldn't resist From the almost 7,000 ft summit Tonight we'll overnight somewhere in the area and then off to the Canadian border. Our Mt Washington WalMart camp site.

Today we drove from Guilford, CT (our Harvest Hosts campsite) To Monson, CT where we stayed the evening at SunsetView Farm Campgrounds . Nice clean campground with all the typical amenities, but our campsite was pretty much out in the open except for one tree...the one that blocked our satellite reception. We drove up to Old Sturbridge Village hoping to walk around for a few hours but they were closed that day. We killed the few hours by driving through some of the quaint New England towns in the area. About 3pm, we drove up to Marv Moriarty's beautiful custom home in the wooda on a hilltop. We sat with Marv and his friend Gregg for a couple hours chatting, then Barb and I headed back to the motorhome to get ready to host Marv and Gregg for a campfire and dinner. We had a great meal of steaks cooked on a tripod over an open fire, baked potatoes in the fire and corn roasted in the husk on the tripod. For desert we had ice cream. Gregg brought several varieties of craft beers wh...

Last night was wet and very cool here, in the low 50's. With a couple of comforters, it was great sleeping weather, but it was still gloomy when we woke up. Mystic is about a 45 minute drive from where we spent the night and, being a holiday, we wanted to get there early so we'd get a good parking spot. We arrived as they were opening and we pretty much had the place to ourselves until about 11am, but it was quite brisk to the point we needed our jackets. Entering the shipyard The building where Mayflower II is being restored The boat that took us on a tour around the harbor and river A restored 19th century whaling ship We walked around the working ship yard and saw the Mayflower II which is under massive renovation and scheduled to be relaunched later in the Summer. We took a tour of the Mystic river and harbor and got a very nice narration about its history and the history of some of the ships there. We also spent a good deal of time in their whaling ...

It was a rainy, dreary Sunday morning when we left at about 10am. The ride to our first stop in Guilford, CT took a little over 4 hours, much of it in rain and gloomy skies. We reached our destination, Bishop's Orchards , at about 2:15pm. This place is a member of the HarvestHosts organization, a group of several hundred wineries, orchards, farms, etc who let let subscribers like me stay on their properties in their RV overnight. This particular place is very nice, consisting of a large supermarket that sells just about anything you'd find in any supermarket, but much of it with local origins. When we got here, the manager told us that we could stay as long as we like so long as we advise each day when we're going to extend. We made a decision to spend 2 nights here, one before our trip to Mystic and one after. Weather here is cold and damp with temperatures in the low 60's. It will probably get down into the 50's overnight.

Canadian Maritimes Trip Initial plan. May 1, 2018 As of now the trip itinerary consists of: 1) Mystic Seaport, CT 2) Newport RI 3) Cape Cod MA 4) Maine, possibly Portland and Bar Harbor 5) New Brunswick, CA 6) Nova Scotia, CA 7) Prince Edward Island, CA The return trip is less well-defined, but might consist of an inland route: 8) Quebec City, CA 9) Montreal, CA 10) Ontario, CA 11) Niagara Falls, NY 12) Somewhere in NY/PA 13) Home Except for some "must sees", we'll make it up as we go, hopefully using very few campgrounds. I joined a nationwide organization of vineyard owners who allow RV'ers to spend the night free in their vineyards. We have 3 weeks to do this, so we won't be staying too long at any one place.

In preparation for the upcoming season and particularly for the 3-week Canada trip Barb and I have planned in June, Larry and I took the MH out for an "Expedition of Discovery". We do this every couple years to find new destinations we want to return to with our wives. This year, we decided to venture South into Virginia and West Virginia, with some ideas of where we might end up, but nothing cast in stone. The plan was to leave from Larry's neck of the woods in Chester Co. about noon on Sunday, April 22. The last thing I had on my checklist before leaving our house was to check the tire pressures. Lo and behold, the left rear inside dually (the one you can't see) was flat and wouldn't take pressure form the compressor. After a lot of fooling around and consternation and being a Sunday when no big truck service companies were open near me,  I called Larry and told him the trip was off. After talking it over with Larry, I tried calling one of the emergency big-...