As it's July that means it's time for the Summer family camping trip! This year we returned to Medway, Maine and Pine Grove Campground and Cottages, however, this year we stayed four nights instead of three. Also instead of renting Mt. Kineo cabin we rented and RV. It was much better suited for us as it had a full size bed at the front and 4 non traditional bunk beds in the back.
We stayed from Monday July 13th to Friday the 17th, for Kate and I vacation started back on Friday July 10th. It is the first time that I have taken a full week off from work and gotten the benefit of having both weekends before and after off as well giving me nine days off!
On Saturday the 11th Canaan and I attended the 40th Anniversary screening of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back at Pride's Corner Drive In! No surprise it was excellent! First time seeing it on the big screen for both of us!
Monday morning Canaan, Wesley, & I got our haircut at Dom's. We had the first appointments of the day, we can't check into the campground until 3 pm so we had time to kill this morning before heading out. We got home and packed up the van and headed North for and exciting few days.
Of course, we stopped at Chick-Fil-A on the ride up for lunch. I must say, through this whole Covid pandemic issue Chick-Fil-A has done a bang up job staying in business and serving customers. We ate outside one of the picnic tables and of course it was excellent.
We got to the campground about 3pm and our RV was ready. We got the van unpacked, the E-Z Up, up and everything set up when I realized that I forgot to bring my flannel shirt of zip up hooded sweatshirt. Canaan jumped in the van with me and I headed to Millinocket to look for a warm shirt. Long and the short of it, I couldn't find one anywhere. I finally found a crew neck Maine sweatshirt for $10 at Lennie's Superette. Where they also have an old school Slush Puppy machine!
Canaan and I got back to camp just in time for the rain to start. This is one of the reasons why we rent an RV to make sure that we have a dry place to be in case it rains and we have room to spread out. Kate cooked dinner inside and the kids and I played UNO. Addison brought the card game along, I hadn't played it in years but it was a lot of fun. We played two games.
After dinner the rain let up enough and Kate got a fire going. The kids and I went fishing down in the river, only Canaan and I lasted and it paid off for him.
It was relaxing sitting by the fire each night with Kate and I going to bed at the same time three of the nights, and getting some reading in through-out the vacation. I read Die Softly by Christopher Pike and three X-Files trades; 30 Days of Nights, Revival, & Origins. Kate also did some reading as did Canaan and Addison.
Kate and I got up a out 5 am each morning and enjoyed a nice chilly morning fire. We burned a whole lotta wood in our time there. Kate made french toast two mornings with sausage one morning and bacon the next. The other two mornings the kids has cereal or donuts.
Tuesday the weather was supposed to be the worst of the weeks with highs in the upper 60's and rain showers through-out the day so we decided to make Tuesday our day trip day. We cannot go to Canada because of Covid and the border being shut down to non-essential traffic so I planned something in Aroostook county.
Exiting in Houlton we took Route 1 North turning off in Littleton making our way to Watson Settlement Bridge. The bridge was built in 1911, it is the northern most and youngest of the remaining covered bridges standing in Maine. It spans 150 feet over the Meduxnekeag River. This is the first time the kids have visited this covered bridge, Kate and I stopped here in 2013 on our honeymoon.
We decided to recreate the picture that we took that day in 2013 and I made a collage of the two posting it Facebook where we got lots of likes and comments.
We continued north to Presque Isle stopping several times along the way at the World's Largest Scale Model of the Solar System. It starts at the University of Maine in Presque Isle with the Sun and ends in Houlton with Pluto. Some of the planets are very easy to see and others not so much, but they are all along Route 1.
We saw them all and only Wesley got out of the vehicle at each of them. The sun is kind of lame as it's in Folsom Hall at UMPI and the building is locked, but we could see a portion of it from outside looking through the door.
In Presque Isle we also stopped at the Double Eagle II monument that commemorates the first successful Trans-Atlantic balloon flight. You can read all about it on the Wikipedia entry.
Everyone was hungry and we wanted to get lunch but didn't want to eat in a restaurant or a standard drive thru. We found a food truck and decided it was perfect for us, turns out though it's the Ye Olde Fish and Chips from Richmond! The same people we buy our Christmas tree from each year. As there is no fair circuit they are traveling around and setting up shop at various places for a few days at a time, making their own circuit. Canaan and Kate had the fish and chips, Wesley chicken fingers, and Addison poutine.
My mom had given the kids $20 each to get what they wanted, Canaan asked if we could stop and get him a fishing pole and that is what we did. We stopped at the Wal-Mart in Presque Isle where Canaan got a cork handled rod and a Zebco reel and I got him a rapala lure.
We drive straight through to Houlton and got an ice cream at the famous Houlton Farms Dairy ice cream stand. I must admit that it was very good, but I like Deb's better. Their chocolate milk is second to none though and I did get the kids and myself each a pint to take back to camp.
After hot dogs on the fire for dinner, Canaan and I went fishing and he caught himself a nice small mouth bass that we threw back. I was
shocked that he caught something, I didn't think we'd get anything at
all.
Wednesday Addison declared that she wanted a new book with Mimi's money. That morning we all went for a drive to Millinocket as Kate wanted to
see some properties they had just done an evaluation on and to check out
Little Italy. Little Italy is now just a cemetery and old houses, so
it's pretty unimpressive. We also stopped a couple places looking for
books for Addison, and there was none.
When
asking locals about where they buy books or clothes they responded
Amazon, or the Wal-Mart in Lincoln. Or they go to Houlton or Bangor.
Both Millinocket and East Millinocket have libraries so at least you can
obtain books to borrow.
That evening she and I went to River's Edge to pick up our Pizza, we get one there every year, and checked the local stores. Much like me looking for a shirt, there were no books to be found.
While we were gone Canaan took his new rod and reel fishing and got himself a nice largemouth bass! He was so excited and Kate and I were both proud. Mark, the campground host, gutted it for us. I was pretty sure I could do it, I haven't in a long time, but he seemed really excited to. Apparently has a child his family owned a lodge and he would gut the fish at ten cents each, he made $50 one day, she he's gutted a fish or two in his time.
Kate cooked it up on the campfire wrapped in foil with salt, pepper, & butter. I tried a piece, not for me, Canaan tired three bites, not for him either. Kate loved it! Even touted what a great cook she was It did look great and fell right off the bone.
Wednesday night Kate went to bed early, I wasn't tired yet so Canaan and
I went over to the TV lounge to watch AEW Dynamite. Normally we don't
do internet or watch TV but I do love me some pro wrestling and there
were matches that I really wanted to watch. Thursday night was hot dogs
over the fire for dinner, which the kids always love doing.
Wednesday and Thursday afternoon looked a lot a like. We hung out at the campground, did some fishing, played catch with the baseball and football. We went to the public beach both days down the road. The river was quite cold and at times unenjoyable, but Wesley LOVED it! He had been asking since we got there to go fishing and he stayed in the water for two hours both days.
We had borrowed a life jacket from Aunt Carolynn and Wesley was so brave in the water wearing it swimming all around. I enjoyed reading while sitting on the beach. On Thursday we took Wesley to the public playground for a bit before going to the beach.
Friday Kate and I slept in until almost 6 am! We burned up the last of the firewood and started getting things together to head home. Kate and I went and cast a line for a half hour or so with no luck. We packed up the van and headed towards home. We stopped in Bangor and I took Addison to Books A Million where I added a few dollars so she could get two books. We had some lunch at Chick-Fil-A and booked it home.
Once again we had an awesome vacation, I really think that the kids had a lot of fun. Maybe four days was too much for them, but we are going to go for four days again next year. They all stated that they want to go back!
Until Next Time!
