Explore the World with Us
Our First Trip- Maine 2024
Our first trip was to the Maine coast at Bar Harbor.
While we will not be following a 3-3-3 travel plan, the plan is to limit the daily travel to 4 to 5 hours, which means we must check out by 10 or 11 AM. We left Union City around 1 PM on Thursday, the 12th of September, with our first stop at Love's Gas & Travel Plaza (Madison, Ohio), a drive of 4 hours and around 257 miles from Union City, MI. Love's Travel stop #863 is just off Interstate 90 and an exciting stop. Many Love’s Travel Gas Plazas have water & electric hook-ups with bathrooms and pay showers in the plaza. We stayed one night and paid 40$-- much cheaper than the hotel and found a great little place to eat in Madison, OH.
For the second leg, we wanted to be somewhere near Binghamton, NY– making it a long day of driving, some 400 miles and over 5 hours. Kathy attempted to find a Hilton but could not find anything cheaper than 200+ dollars, so the decision was made to camp at KOA, Cooperstown (Richfield Springs, NY), which was out in “no man's” land. Our GPS often took us the “long way” to the campground as we arrived to set up – it became the very first time we set up in the dark. After leveling and attaching sewer, water, and electric power, we didn't disconnect the truck but fixed dinner and piled into bed. The following day, we were off to Concord, NH.
The third stop to Concord, NH (actually, the KOA was in Strafford / Lake Winnipesaukee South) was to be a day off the road–it was needed. Leaving Cooperstown, NY, we followed Hwy 20 to Albany and connected with NH 9 to Concord. The very hilly drive through Vermont was a beautiful red, orange, and yellow as the leaves changed. The HWY mainly was two lanes going through all sorts of little towns at 55 and 35 MPH. The trip was about 338 miles (6 hours), leaving Maine’s Bar Harbor only another 4 to 5 hours and 268 miles away.
After a day off in Rochester (great restaurant)/ Strafford, we shot down to Portsmouth and picked up I-95 to I295 around Portland. At Augusta, we took ME #3 right to KOA Bar Harbor Oceanside, only 268 miles, in another 6 hours.
South on I-69 to I-80/90 East toward Toledo/Cleveland and Erie, Pa. Exit to I-86 toward Elmira/ Binghamton, NY. At Binghamton, NY, pick up I-88 and take it to Albany, NY. This is where it gets interesting as we head off on Hwy 7/9 to Brattleboro, NH/ Keene and Concord, NH. KOA in Stafford, NH, is about 20 miles NE from Concord. Through Portsmouth/Kittery and I-95 and Augusta, we traveled East on Hwy 3/ Hwy 1 to Bar Harbor and the KOA Bar Harbor/ Oceanside (136 County Rd., Bar Harbor, ME 04609). The campground is located on the west side of Mount Desert Island, with outstanding views and easy access (if needed, to Western Bay) and excellent proximity to Acadia National Park and local restaurants and shops. We had asked for full service; however, we did not receive sewer as the back-in was too close to the bay, and regulations did not allow sewer- we had to dump our waste before leaving and took our showers at the nearby restrooms/showers. The showers were nice but not nearly as nice as one's camper. If we go back, we will remember to make sure we book full service farther away from the bay.
Kathy loves seafood, and Maine was the ideal place for her appetite: she loved crab, lobster, and scallops. I also like Maine's seafood, especially lobster rolls served cold and with lemon.
One of the places we loved was Acadia National Park, which protects the natural beauty of the highest rocky headlands along the Atlantic coastline of the United States and has an abundance of habitats with a rich cultural heritage. Acadia is one of the top 10 most-visited national parks in the United States and has 27 miles of historic motor roads, 158 miles of hiking trails, and 45 miles of carriage roads, which we used our e-bikes to ride many miles. The riding of the carriage roads was a bit dusty as the roads were all gravel. However, er, it was easy to ride especially pulling Chaplin in a bugger.
Chaplin Goes South 2025
Winter 2025 with Chaplin
