<– Day 29 – Fri. June 1: Acadia National Park | Trip Overview | Day 31 – Mon. June 3rd: Through Russia With Love –>

Upon stepping foot onto the last of the lower 49 states I hadn’t visited, I gave the welcome sign a hug. Truth be told, the grass was too wet for me to venture into it.

On Monday we drove from Bangor, Maine, to Burlington, Vermont.

Monday’s drive took us from Bangor, Maine, to Burlington, Vermont.

We started out the day with Ann sneezing. It ended with her sneezing. In the middle, there was lots of sneezing. Either she has a cold or she’s got some terrible allergies (the grass pollen is particularly high she says). Poor thing!

In between the sneezes we navigated down I-95 from Bangor, Maine, to Hollis Center, Maine, where Brendan, the operator of This-Old-Jeep, lives. He and I have exchanged many emails over the past few years. Because we both run websites using WordPress about old jeeps, we have plenty to talk about. So, it was great to finally meet him in person. We also met his wife Melissa and their two boys, Walter and Bryon. Water even drew me a picture of a jeep, which is downstairs in our jeep, so posting that will have to wait.

Brendan and Melissa fixed us a nice lunch, which included Brendan’s freshly made bread. We both throughly enjoyed the home cooked meal and greatly appreciated it!

After lunch we headed out to check out Brendan’s CJ-3B project. As we were discussing his recently disassembled transmission, Byron decided to distract my camera person: He’s a bit of a ham 🙂  Many thanks to the entire family for making our visit enjoyable!

Not too long after we left Brendan’s place, we crossed into New Hampshire. Soon, we stumbled upon the cute town of Conway. As we entered town, a Bavarian Chocolate Shop cast a spell over us,  forcing us to pull over and enter into the shop. We had no choice. Twenty dollars and two pairs of chocolatey hands later, the spell finally lifted.

The dark chocolate hazelnuts were awesome!

As we drove away from Conway, all hell broke loose.

An enormous gust of wind blew past the jeep. Branches began falling, rain was pouring, and cats and dogs were dropping from the sky. There was thunder. There was lightening. We began to wonder if we’d committed some sin for giving into our chocolate lust . . .

But, no, we later learned the storm was a left over ripple from a storm that hit Oklahoma. Given the enormity of the ripple, I’d hated to have been in the middle of the central splash! Speaking of Oklahoma, Karson’s on his way there with FEMA to help coordinate the relief effort.

After the storm hit in Conway, we drove under and ran over multiple downed power lines. The power was out through the remainder of our drive through New Hampshire and into Vermont. Trees were down, branches covered the road, and rain continued to fall.

This was along the road. The tree fell onto a building, narrowly missing the house. In other locations, people were cleaning up the mess as we drove by. Unfortunately, most of our pictures of the storm came out blurry.

This tree landed on this shack.

More debris.

Speaking of Vermont, passing into it meant I’ve visited all of the ‘lower’ US states. All that’s left is Alaska (ed. note: which I later checked off in 2017).

Once the storm passed, the lack of electricity from New Hampshire through a good chunk of Vermont meant that there wasn’t much to photograph, as there were few places to stop. Fortunately, by the time we reached the capital of Vermont, Montpelier, the clouds had mostly vanished, the sun reappeared, and the electricity returned.

We were pleasantly surprised by Vermont’s quaint Capital. The town’s capital building was welcoming.

Montpelier hummed with activity as families and individuals toured its streets. We eventually made our way to the local Hungry Mountain Coop, which was a first class treat. Lots of great breads and interesting foods!

PHOTO CREDIT: Hungry Mountain Coop

After Montpelier, we made our way to Burlington, which was another beautiful city. We plan to explore some before we leave on Monday for Oswego. Here’s a view from our hotel (another great Priceline find at $51).

That’s the view looking west over Lake Champlain.

On Monday we head to New York State.

<– Day 29 – Fri. June 1: Acadia National Park | Trip Overview | Day 31 – Mon. June 3rd: Through Russia With Love –>

<– Day 27 – Thur. May 30th: A Submarine, A Lighthouse, and Lobsters | Trip Overview | Day 29 – Sat. June 1st: Acadia National Park –>

Glenn driving his DJ-3A with Ann riding shotgun.

On Friday May 31st Ann and I would drive to Smithfield, Maine, then on to Acadia National Park.

On Friday we drove from Portland, Maine, to Acadia National Park via Smithfield.

We arrived at Glenn Byron’s house to find Smithfield’s ‘Breakfast Club’ waiting for us. They are a group of vintage car lovers from Maine who join each other for breakfast once a week.

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<– Day 28 – Fri. May 31st: The Breakfast Club and Vintage Wiring  | Trip Overview | Day 30 – Sun. June 2nd: State #49 Was Exciting! –>

Who knew lobsters were such ice cream fans!

Yesterday, Friday May 31st, Ann and I planned to stop by the Acadia National Park Visitors Center before setting up camp for our two night stay in the Park.

Acadia National Park covers about half of Mount Desert Island. As we drove over the bridge and onto the island, I told Ann that I was having difficulty locating the Visitor Center online. But, it wasn’t something I was too worried about, since there are always signs in National Parks to help guide visitors.

However, not this time. In fact, we quickly found ourselves lost. We didn’t know where we were, we lost all cell reception, and our Atlas didn’t help.

We nearly had to resort to asking for directions when a sliver of bandwidth sneaked onto our phone, which allowed us locate the Blackwoods Campground. So, at least we found home. But, where was the visitor center or at least an entrance station? That remained a mystery …

Upon our arrival, we found a sparsely populated campground. We were thankful for that, because the area has more than 300 camping spots! On the downside, there was no cell reception, so my hotspot wouldn’t work to manage eWillys.

Camp setup complete.

As we relaxed at our camp, we met a couple who was camping near us. Jake and his wife (whose name I cannot recall) were from Maine. When I explained what I did and why we were so far from home, Jake told me his Uncle had a couple of old Willys jeeps in Montana that they’d refurbished. Seems there are Willys everywhere I go!

By the time we finished talking, it was dusk. So, we climbed into our tent and quickly fells asleep.

Saturday June 1st:

When I awoke in the morning, I put on my gray hoodie. In the pocket I discovered a present left by my wife. It was wrapped in tissue and was the shape of two AA batteries side-by-side. I thought, “Oh, what could it be?”

It was pretty light, so I figured it was fragile. I carefully unrolled it from the tissue, but still couldn’t determine what it was. So, I attempted to separate the battery-sized objects. That’s when it dawned on me. It was a pair of tampons. So, it wasn’t a gift for me after all . . .

Minutes later, Ann discovered the cooler had been leaking and the back seat area was damp.  So, we threw most of our stuff into our tent and unzipped all the windows. Thank goodness the weather would be warm and sunny (We’ll be buying a new cooler very soon).

Soon after breakfast, we hit the road for an early morning visit to Bar Harbor.

Here we are at a downtown park.

This was taken near the harbor. We enjoyed the seaside town and it’s relaxed flavor.

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