Last Moving Day - Home Sweet Home
With our donuts safely stashed in the fridge, we set out for our final destination heading north, Trenton, ME. Our final moving day was 175 miles, which for us is about four hours, if you include a rest area stop for our packed lunch. Again, with the majority of the driving being on I-95, there was not much stress except for the rain we encountered. Shortly after lunch we arrived at Narrows Too Camping Resort in Trenton, ME. When we left Venture Out RV Resort on Cudjoe Key, FL on March 6th, Trenton, ME seemed like the other end of the world. And as we approached Trenton, I can confirm it is!
When we arrived at Narrows Too Camping Resort, we drove by our site on the way to the office to check in. After looking at this campground on Google Maps many times, it seemed like I had driven this road before. As we checked in at the office, Betsy and I looked at each other as they wrote a departure date of 10/22 on our car tag. That seemed like many, many months away. Well, that’s because it is, 5 months to be exact! This will definitely be our longest stay in one spot since our full time life began last year. Site 116 would be our home. So, we’ve been in back-in sites and we’ve been in pull-thru sites with Charlie and the Big Tow’er, but our site at Narrows Too is, wait for it, a PULL-IN SITE. That’s right, the utilities (water, sewer, electric) are on the left side as you pull into the site. Now this works great for a Class A or Class C motorhome, but it is not really convenient for a towable RV. Fortunately the site was long enough to pull in forward, unhitch, pull the truck forward and still have room to park the Pilot behind Charlie. A little unusual, but it worked. As we went through our normal set up process, I found that I placed the jack pads and utilities with a little more care, knowing they would be in the same place for the next five months. As we were getting ourselves settled in, our good friends from Florida, Jay and Karen, who arrived a week ago, stopped as they drove by our site. They will also be spending the summer with us in Trenton, ME, as well as working at the same employer as we are, Coastal Kayaking and Acadia Bike. We chatted with them for a couple of minutes and then completed setting things up. As we sat in our recliners on Monday evening, we both commented on how it will be strange to be stationary for the next five months, but we were both looking forward to exploring Acadia National Park and the surrounding area, as well as working for our new employer.
Tuesday was a chance to get some things done as we acclimated to our new area. One thing I wanted to do was get the Big Tow’er out of our site and fill him with diesel fuel. That would normally be a simple task that only required finding the closest gas station that sold diesel fuel. But with the layout of our site, getting the truck out required an extra moment of thought. When Betsy ran out to the grocery store, I took the opportunity to get Jay’s assistance to head out for fuel. Because of the location of the Big Tow’er in our site, having the use of an empty site next to us should have made the task a little easier. I should have mentioned that the back of our site (which seemed like the front since that’s where the truck was located) was really wet, you might even say swampy. The area had received quite a bit of rain over the last couple of weeks and this happened to be a low spot where water collected. Our plan seemed to be a sound one. It involved backing up the truck, driving from our site to the empty site next door, and exiting out to the road. After backing up, things started to go bad as I drove between the sites. Apparently the ground was softer than either of us had anticipated, as the right rear wheels sunk into the ground. Yes, to the point that the Big Tow’er was not going anywhere. Approximately 90 minutes later, with the assistance of a campground worker and his tractor, and some creative engineering, the Big Tow’er was finally free. Dirty, but free! Needless to say, with two full fuel tanks, and a fresh addition of about 1,300 pounds of fuel, we did not feel it was prudent to return to the site after fueling up. The Big Tow’er now resides in an overflow parking area of the campground until things dry out a bit.
Wednesday was the scheduled arrival day of my sister, Annette, and her husband, Mike. Mike and Annette were also joining us for the summer as our neighbors and also working at Coastal Kayaking and Acadia Bike. They settled into site 117, and our row was now officially filled. We spent the evening doing some work and catching up with Annette and Mike, sharing travel stories as we had both recently traversed the entire east coast from Florida to Maine.
Thursday we went on a little field trip with Mike and Annette as we headed into Bar Harbor to check in with our employer and get our first glimpse of Mount Desert Island, which includes Acadia National Park. Our first impression was as advertised. The scenery is impressive, stunning at times. The ocean meeting the mountains with a rocky coast is not something we’ve encountered, but we like what we’ve seen so far. The weather has not cooperated in our first week with unseasonably cool temps, about 10 degrees below normal. Add in the rain and overcast skies, and we are longing for the sun and blue skies that we hope are on the way. We are looking forward to detailing our work experience, our stay in the area, and all of the things we plan to explore. Coastal Maine seems to have a lot to show us and we are eager to observe.
