Driving through, or rather under Boston last Saturday morning...
Stonington Maine is home to a fleet of more than 300 lobster boats (it's the largest 'lobstering' port in the state) and just about the cutest little seaport town you'll ever visit. Though the bridge to the island elicits a bit of a 'pucker'...
...the drive along SR15 was beautiful.
If you look at the home page for Greenlaw's RV Park & Campground, you'll read, in paragraph one that, "Wi-Fi is available and we have have good cell service". More on that in a minute...
GRVP&C was a charming little campground. Pretty obviously built several decades ago and although not ideally suited for big rigs such as ours, it is wonderfully secluded and very conveniently located just a couple miles from picturesque 'downtown' Stonington and the harbor. As we rolled up their long, windy gravel driveway, coming around a bend we spotted the owner, a woman in her 70s and a friend waiting for us by her car. I guess the arrival of a 43' coach isn't an everyday occurrence at this little campground and warrants a special greeting. I unhooked from the Traverse - into which Suzanne hopped and followed me as I followed the two women, in their car, to our site - raking a low hanging branch along the length of the roof along the way. 😕 A subsequent roof inspection revealed no damage. Just a bit of foliage in the TV antenna.
Up to this point, no money had changed hands. They don't accept credit cards at GRVP&C so we were advised to take our time getting set up then stop by the office on our way into town later on to settle up. Before leveling and deploying the slides, I though it wise, given our remote location, to perform a signal strength check on our cell phones. As I've mentioned in previous blogs, Suzanne works remote and needs a good cell signal for her conference calls. Also, as RV park wi-fi is, more often than not, pretty sketchy, we usually end up using our hot-spot for internet connectivity, an absolute necessity in her line of work.
Our signal test showed two bars of 1X - which is roughly equivalent to sending smoke signals. Even when placed next to our new wiz-bang Weboost antenna, there was no significant improvement in the signal. And there was no wi-fi.
"Wi-Fi is available and we have have good cell service"??... Umm, no.
I jumped in the car and drove to the office. Sharing the disappointing news with the proprietor and pointing out the misleading information on their website, I decided to pay for one night (we had planned to spend the week) and try to make other arrangements.
Returning to the coach to retrieve Suzanne, Travis & Winnie, we struck out in the car, heading back toward civilization, and hopefully a Verizon tower. Our abysmal signal was such that we couldn't make a phone call or do any sort of online search for another RV park. We had to get to a location where we could communicate with the outside world. Thirty-five miles later, it happened. We got a signal.
Patten Pond RV Resort is a very nice, albeit pricey, campground in Ellsworth, Maine.
It's located on the mainland and only 18 miles from Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park by way of routes 1 & 3. The pond (which looks more like a large lake to me) is beautiful, the sites spacious, but most importantly, we have 4 bars of 4G LTE!!! It's where we've been since last Sunday.
Oh, I forgot to mention that, before striking out from Stonington in search of a cell signal, we drove down into the village for lobster rolls and ice cream. We have priorities.
Also, before departing GRVP&C Sunday morning, I got up bright and early and washed the coach. Many RV parks have rules prohibiting RV washing. I was pretty sure Patten Pond would have such a rule but there was nothing in the GRVP&C literature stating their policy either way ... and the owner lived off premises... and it was early on a Sunday morning.
What off-premises-living-RV-park-owner is gonna come poking around my campsite early on a Sunday morning? Ya follah?
My roof, in particular, was filthy - not having been cleaned since we left Indian Wells RV Resort in SoCal in February. It had to be done.
So, what else has been going on...
The weather has been idyllic - except for today. It's been raining heavily all morning.
I've been running with Travis the last couple of days. He's not much of a jogger. His pace improves when he realizes we're headed back home. But constantly having to encourage him not to lag behind me makes the task of completing three miles in less than 30 minutes just a little more difficult. He may be staying home during my next outing. The other annoying thing about jogging in these parts is the horse flies or deer flies or whatever the hell they are. They're tenacious little bastards - and their bite hurts!
I grilled scallops and zucchini Tuesday night...
When in Maine
I've done a few minor repairs on the coach over the past couple of days. There was a rusty access panel on the 10,000 watt Onan diesel generator cover that needed sanding and paint, a couple of woodwork screws whose holes had stripped, wheels that needed cleaning, cargo bays in need of reorganization, a shower drain in need of snaking. Stuff like that.
Yesterday morning Travis cut the under-side of his tongue pretty badly on a marrow bone. I didn't notice it until after licking himself for several minutes, all four paws, legs and his belly and chest were a bloody mess! I realized pretty quickly what had happened and sat with him on the floor, keeping him settled until the bleeding stopped - which took quite a while.
We are scheduled to leave here Sunday morning and relocate to Bar Harbor Campground where we will remain until Saturday, July 7th. BHC is a little unusual in that they don't take reservations. The owner assured me, however, when I spoke with him Monday morning, that he would have a spot for me and that I should arrive as close to opening time (8am) as possible.
This morning, as an afterthought, I logged onto the Passport America website to see if there were any participating RV parks in the area. To my surprise, we are in one! When we checked into GRVP&C last Sunday I made it known that I was both a Good Sam and a Passport America member. I'm not sure if the woman didn't hear me or if she was new and unaware of the campgrounds PA affiliation. At any rate, I donned my rain gear and headed for the office where I received a $100 refund to my Amex account. That's always a good thing.
I guess that's about it.
Thanks for checking out the blog!
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