#25 Coveys Great Adventure - June 2016 – Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and … Utah

June 2016 – Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and … Utah            

After touring Falling Waters it was time to head to New Hampshire and rejoin Charlie and Mollie. The direct route from Morgantown, PA to Campton, NH leads through New York City, an area that I had no interest in driving through in the coach. Instead, we chose a more scenic route through northeastern Pennsylvania, skirting NYC, into western Massachusetts, across southern Vermont and into north central New Hampshire. While we could have made the drive in a couple of days, we spent three nights near Scranton to explore the Pocono’s region, and three more in Bennington, Vermont.

Promised Land State Park is in Greentown, PA, about 20 miles east of Scranton. It is a large park with a few different campgrounds. We made a reservation for a site on the lake but getting into it would have been a real challenge. The site was quite narrow, the road was tight and the trees were going to be hard to miss. I’ve put enough scratches on Ripley, so we went back to the park office and found a larger site in another campground.

We spent a couple of days exploring the area around Mt Pocono, PA, the heart of the Pocono Mountains, one of the major vacation destinations for people living between New York and Washington, DC. The area is certainly beautiful, covered in trees and the roads constantly move up and down, from one small valley to the next. We kept looking for the “mountains”, though, and finally concluded that people named this area before they had seen the West. I’m sorry, but 1500’ high isn’t a mountain, it’s not even worth an elevation sign! I guess “Pocono Hills” doesn’t have the same ring. 

Judy Powell had stayed at one of the large resorts in the area, the Wolf Creek Lodge, so when we saw signs for it we drove over to take a look. Clearly oriented toward families, it appeared to have every attraction and distraction covered. It wore me out just thinking about all that activity.

There is a certain vibe in Bennington

Bennington, Vermont is a very interesting town. It is in a beautiful setting, the foothills of the White  Mountains in southeastern Vermont. It is home to Bennington College and Southern Vermont College, giving the town a distinct panache that overlays some serious historical roots. A significant series of Revolutionary War military actions were fought near Bennington. It’s strategic location and rich resources made it a popular place for early American luminaries like George Washington to visit. Robert Frost lived in Bennington and is buried here.

Humble scribe

Whole neighborhoods of houses built in the 1700’s and early 1800’s have been maintained or restored. Much of the surrounding land has also been incorporated into state forests, preserving a lovely backdrop for the whole area. The Bennington College campus is worth touring.

The mountains between Bennington and the New Hampshire line might not be as high as the ones out West, but they make up for it by being very steep. We had many long, slow ascents followed by steep, slow (hopefully) descents. It might not be many miles from Bennington to Campton, New Hampshire, but we worked hard for some of them.  An early start proved to be valuable when we ran into bridge construction that required a long detour to avoid. We were too tall to fit under the temporary bridge. Kayeanne’s navigation skills once more saved the day and we weren’t delayed too much.

Casa Kendrick's camp hosts

Casa Kendrick is a couple of acres of heaven along a small river in Campton NH. Charlie and Mollie bought the land several years ago and have been adding improvements and amenities every year. It now has spacious sites for two RV’s, with full utilities including well water, power, sewer and cable TV. A large shed provides storage and workshop space, and a large firepit sees use almost every night. After the first fire Charlie and I decided that the fire pit needed some upgrades, so we built a 7x12’ patio with concrete pavers. That sounds pretty straightforward when you say it quickly, but considering that the combined age of the workforce was 150 years it took several days to get done.

Old guys can still get it done

We were immediately comfortable in Campton and in Plymouth, the “big” town next door where most of the shopping and services are. The Campton Cupboard didn’t look like much on the outside, but inside was the quintessential local market. Great produce, a butcher that makes his own sausage and a deli that makes most everything it sells made it a standout for us. There is also a quite decent Chinese restaurant called Fugaky in Plymouth.

We needed a break from patio building, so one day we headed over to the coast, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s only seaport. Despite being raised in Massachusetts and living in NH for several years, I had never been to Portsmouth. It’s a really interesting town, full of good restaurants, shops, historical buildings and, of course, the harbor. We had lunch overlooking the water, walked around the downtown area and generally had a good time. A number of older buildings have had their upper floors turned into condos and I can see why they are popular. Portsmouth is a city I’d like to return to someday for a longer visit.

The main reason that Charlie and Mollie built Casa Kendrick is that their kids and grandkids all live in the area. One day, their daughter Holly and her husband Mike invited the family and us for a boat ride. I hadn’t seen Holly since the mid-80’s and had never met Mike. They own a lovely trawler yacht that they keep in Elliot, Maine, just up the Piscataqua River across from Portsmouth. We spent a very nice day motoring up the river, anchoring out and then returning for a great barbeque at the yacht club. Holly and Mike were generous and gracious hosts. I hope it isn’t 30 years until we see them again.

Between building the patio, working on a couple of persistent coach problems and playing tourist, time quickly passed and we started preparations to visit Canada. Mollie’s roots are on Prince Edward Island and they have made many trips to PEI and Nova Scotia. We have been looking forward to joining them for quite awhile.

This trip would also add another checkmark to our RV resume: staying overnight in a Walmart parking lot. Many Walmart stores allow RV’s (and big trucks, we discovered) to park overnight in their lots. Several other store chains like Cabella’s and Cracker Barrel also permit overnighting when local regulations allow it. We had been reluctant to try it, but the Kendicks are long-time Walmart campers, so we decided to spend the first night on our way to PEI at the Walmart in Bangor, Maine.

Well, we’ve stayed in worse campgrounds and had to pay for it. There were four other RVs and three or four big trucks parked in the far corners of a very large lot. There was lots of grass for the dogs to run around on, even a small pond tucked away in one corner with a couple of picnic tables for the employees to use. The store closed about 10 PM and the area was quite peaceful. If this is what camping at Wally World is all about, sign us up!

Ah, sunset over Dysart's truck shop. Beautiful!

When Charlie started his coach Sunday morning, he knew he had a problem: he couldn’t get full air pressure. Our coaches ride on big airbags rather than springs for the suspension. Their coach was clearly not going far without attention. Charlie discovered that Dysart’s Truck Service in Herman, about 8 miles away, had a good reputation and was open. Moving slowly, he managed to nurse the coach to Dysart’s where the problem was immediately discovered: one of the 15 year old airbags that hold up the coach had ruptured. We weren’t going anywhere until that was replaced.

Breakdowns are no fun. We’ve spent a few nights in repair facilities and even the best of them aren’t very appealing. Dysart’s is a big, busy operation running 7 AM to midnight, six and a half days a week. It is noisy and quite dusty, and trucks are moving around almost all night. While they do work on RV’s, they have no utility hookups nor a dedicated area for them, so you have to hang out in the parking lot with the big rigs.

While the diagnosis was easy, the system choked trying to get parts. Dysart’s thought they had parts available from one of their suppliers but that didn’t pan out. Unfortunately, that wasn’t apparent for two days. Charlie finally took charge, located the parts and had them shipped in. We got to Dysart’s on Sunday the 26^th, but they didn’t leave until Thursday. Not any fun and expensive, a bad combination.

Meanwhile, over at our coach, we got a call from Liesa. Her relationship with Luis appeared to have hit the rocks and she needed help. The upshot of all of this was that the four of us decided  on Tuesday morning that this wasn’t the year that we would be visiting PEI. In fact, we had to leave Charlie and Mollie to wait for their parts and head back to Campton to retrieve our car and head west about 2,800 miles to St. George, Utah. At noon we pulled in the slides, walked the dogs and hit the road.

It was hard to leave Casa Kendrick

On Wednesday morning we did a quick load of laundry, hooked on the dolly, loaded the car and pulled out of Casa Kendrick, certainly the best place we have ever stayed. The camp hosts are really special. 

We made it as far as the Walmart in Herkimer, NY that night. Thursday night found us in Wauseon, Ohio at another Walmart. Then on to a very nice RV park called Griff’s Valley View in Altoona, IA, followed by another Walmart in North Platte, NE (ugh).

We decided to make the next long day into two shorter ones and on the spur of the moment called our good friends Chet and Cheryl Baffa, who live near Denver. Luckily they were home and we got together for pizza at their house in Broomfield. It was a real pleasure to see them again and a welcome break from the road.

The local Cracker Barrel let us park overnight in their lot, right next to a nice greenbelt that the dogs enjoyed. We decided to push a little the next day and made it to Green River State Park, just over the border in eastern Utah. On Tuesday afternoon we pulled into Temple View RV Resort in St. George, UT where we will be for the next several weeks.

Through the windshield on US 70 in Utah

Viewing the country through a windshield leaves lots of impressions. We passed signs for places I didn’t know I wanted to see. I hope we make it back this way at a slower pace. We were constantly impressed with the beauty of the eastern and northeastern states. The late Spring and early Summer gives a vibrancy to the eastern parts of the country that we don’t see in the southwest. 

We were surprised at how much we liked Iowa. It was nothing like what we had pictured. It was a verdant green and gently rolling terrain from one end to the other. I expected one big cornfield. There sure was a lot of corn growing, but there were also rivers and woods and small farms everywhere that were quite attractive.

I don’t know where the “West” officially begins, but I think it is in western Nebraska. The land begins to rise, the air becomes dryer and a little hotter and the trees start to become smaller and further apart. By the time you hit eastern Colorado it is clear that you have left the east far behind. Maybe this is the mid-west? Dunno.

Plans are just that, and often need to be changed. We will certainly return to Casa Kendrick and make that trip to PEI. There is that and so much more to see and we’ll get back to it soon.