I left mount desert island heading for Bangor, Maine. I had a couple of people tell me to go there and I still am not sure why. Either way I am glad went there. While in route there I stopped to restock on groceries and while there I met a pretty cool VW dude. He said he started the Pine State Vw club, I’m pretty sure that’s what it was called. He hung out with me in the bus for way longer than I expected and even bought me lunch. Sometimes it’s nice to get out of the usual routine of inquiry; what year is it? From Florida huh? Drove that all the way here? Good luck! That’s generally how it goes. Well he took off and I went and did my shopping.
I went to a memorial for the USS Maine then to the Paul Bunyan statue. On the way to the Walmart I stopped at a bike shop that hooked me up with some hardware to put my board together.
The next morning I went by Stephen Kings house for a quick picture then drove around the city until I spotted a neat helicopter outside a aviation museum. It was a great little museum. It turns out I have a couple of cousins in Bangor so I went there and got to know them a little.
When I left Bangor I drove for a while stopping off at a few interesting places and sculptures, I don’t remember what town the skatepark was in though, maybe Rockport…
On the way I saw a car show and stopped off for a while.
Ill add words to this post later, tomorrow I’m going to see the bar harbor side of Mount Desert Island and do some more hiking and stuff. I will say I ended up with an extra free lobster and a fried fish sandwich for lunch. And I bought a lobster roll. I think it’s more worth it just to get a lobster roll, there’s more lobster, it seems like it anyway. I had a lot of fun today driving around.
It’s been a great trip coming down the coast, there’s something about seeing the ocean that just feels right. I didn’t realize how much you can miss the coast until you get another chance to experience it. It was about mid day when I came to mount desert island, I drove straight to bar harbor to the Y there. I learned something new about New England Ys, you still have to pay if you are a member in another state. It caught me off guard and I payed, now that I think recall the situation, it was worth it at the time. It had been over a week since the last shower. You may read this and think ill of me but I assure you that week was mostly cold, rainy and low activity was had on my part. I’ve learned a lot about hygiene on the road in the past month. This last month was different than the rest of the trip, there just aren’t any easy places in the sparsely populated areas in Maine to get a shower, I admit I don’t try as hard as I could. I’m sure if I went out on a limb at the right hotel, the right church, found a shelter, or a college gym I could get one to allow me to take a shower. It’s just not something I have deemed necessary yet. Anyway I came into bar harbor and got an awesome shower. Then I hung out at the laundromat and went back to the Walmart out of town to sleep, I realized I have not mastered the stealth camping yet. Mount desert island is a tough boonedocking town. Any place with a lot of tourism does not like you to sleep in a camper in a random parking lot. They make it quite clear with a ton of signs.
The next morning I spent some time at the AT&T store uploading all the videos I had racked up. I really don’t know what it is but I like hanging out at the AT&T stores, there are usually three or four people working there and I start it off with the usual. “Hey would it be cool if I hung out and uploaded some stuff? I’m on a roadtrip.” Then they want to know where I’m from and where I’m going. If they are into it I’ll give them the blog info and then I just sit there for a few hours depending on what I’ve racked up. After the introduction that’s pretty much the end of communication, I stay out of the way and observe the interactions with the customers who come in. It’s almost always the same with every customer. They are there because they are unhappy with something usually it being their bill, or they want a new phone or they are unhappy with their current provider and they want to switch to AT&T. The employees alternate as each new customer comes in. The customs also wants what ever is the cheapest. Anyway I like to observe at the AT&T stores. I think I may write a book over the winter filling in the boring parts of this journey.
I left the AT&T headed for nowhere, I just wanted to drive around the island and check it out. I ended up at a lighthouse where I met some nice people then went and ate some lobster. Lots of lobster and some fish too. I got a free lobster and fried fish sandwich. Woohoo! There is so much I could write to fill this all in, there was a lot that went on at the lobster place. Impatient people and small events which occurred. Again I think I will be writing a book.
I left the lobster place and ended up doing some hiking at vally cove. I hiked to the first place and still had plenty of time so I went to the next and then the next. By this time I was hooked on the hiking thing and planned on a bunch if this hiking thing for the next day. The first group of photos are the valley cove hike. Oh! After the lobster I forgot my solar panel but it stayed on the top of the bus the whole way to the hiking spot!
The last three photos are from the next morning in Bar Harbor.
All of the next photos are going to be from hiking for two days. I stayed in the national park at otter point to watch the moon coming up and then the sunrise the next morning. Then I drove up to Cadillac mountain for the sunset on the last day. I went back to the Walmart for the last night.
From the sunrise at otter point I went to Jordan Pond to hike the north and south bubble as well as all the other peaks there. I was doing alright until I missed the turn for the North Bubble, I hadent gone too far but I decided just to skip it and head for sergent mt. That was intense, it took a while just to get there and I happened to go up the steep side, this area of Acadia I should have sprung for the hiking map, there were more trails than were on my map and after mt sergent I was tired enough to decide to head back to the bus for a nap, I hadn’t slept at all the night before, just a random sleepless night. Well I took another wrong turn and ended up going the very long extended way back to the bus. I had a great time, really it was funny for me to do so bad with my direction, I’m usually on point with that kind of thing. I embraced my mistakes, I wasn’t truly lost anyway.
The last sunset was on Cadillac mountain, the only one I could bring the yeti to the top of. Met a real nice guy there. I also met quite a few really nice people hiking. It was an awesome time at Acadia National Park.
The Yeti Adventure 