Johns Trippin'

We pulled into Golden Hill State Park on Sunday and Lake Ontario was right there stretched out in front of us. So beautiful! We dropped the RV off and headed to Niagara falls.  All of us loved going on the Maid on the Mist boat.  The most pleasantest thing was the rainbow that formed in the midst of the beautiful sun shining in and the roar of the falls that sent off a mist that kissed our eyes with this glorious site that God Himself set up! There was a lot to be thankful for. There was a playground right in front of the RV that mimicked a lighthouse and the kids enjoyed playing there with other kids. They copied this lighthouse with the one that was right in the campground. We took a tour of it and one of the other campers, Olivia came with us. They had laundry there and we were finally able to wash our sheets and clothes, which was much needed. We ventured out on Tuesday to a 4-H fair that the kids enjoyed. They had many animals including a room full of bunnies. Spot and Th...

Abbot Farms was a Harvest Host, so we only stayed there one night. They had a farm store and a bunch of animals. There were white chickens, goats, three rabbits, two horses, and a pig named Fuji that came whenever he heard his food thing rattling. Up at the top of the hill from us there was four bumpy tube slides that we went down a lot.

I've always wanted to go to Maine. I'm not sure why. Maybe it just felt exotic because it was a state so far from where I've always lived (though certainly not the farthest). It took me almost 43 years, but I finally made it. We were there to visit Acadia National Park. I didn't know a thing about it going in, but given our goal  to visit as many as we can, it didn't matter. We were going. Acadia is broken into two sections: The main section takes up the better part of Mt. Desert Island, and the secondary section is a little farther north on the Schoodic peninsula. We were able to visit both. One of the main draws on Mt. Desert Island is Cadillac Mountain, the highest point in Maine at a whopping 1530 feet. There is a road leading to the top, and thanks to the pandemic, it was necessary to book a timed ticket to get up. We were fortunately able to grab one. (They also sell early tickets to see the sunrise, which folks told us was amazing, but we decided to pass on w...

When we started the trip, we had a few events that were fixed around which we would have to plan. The last of those dates is a convention in Las Vegas at the end of September. Mindful of our goal to hit National Parks , we worked to plan out a route that would allow us to hit as many as possible while arriving in Vegas in time for the convention. It took us a few months, but we finally have our intinerary fully booked between now and then. Here it is: I have to give credit where it's due: Asher and Julie did most of the route/date planning. Julie and I then split up the booking. As has been the case with most of this trip, dates often had to bend to site availability. Regardless, it's a relief to know we have a place to stay each night for the next two months. If we are going to be in your neck of the woods, let us know!

Harvest Hosts. I love them. I love getting local produce and eating it right away. Robb Family Farm was no different.  We traveled from Maine to Battleboro, Vermont. Along the way, I listened to my audio book, "One in a Million Boy," which was really about a 104 year old Lithuanian woman. I stopped the audio book at Intervale Pancake House/Ice-cream House to try some of New Hampshire's delicious Maple Ice Cream. I am fan! In fact, all of us liked it, (well Asher only likes Strawberry and thankfully they had that too, along with a lot of other flavors.) I started the book again until it finished and shortly after we arrived with Helen and her husband greeting us at the end of their driveway. "Oh you just missed it. We had a whole bunch of Lithuanians that came and danced and sang and they just left." This trip is a little hard on the heart when it comes to timing. There are many things that we miss or are too early for and these disappointments makes my heart sad...

When we got to Misty Acres Alpaca Farm we just saw their house. But then we noticed that there was a driveway leading down to the alpaca farm. Red (the owner) led us down to our parking spot right behind the alpaca pen. I thought it was a great place for us to park because we could just walk outside and see alpacas! I got the bunnies out. The guinea hen charged at Thumper but instead he ran into the fence. And boy was he angry! The guinea hen Red said that he had 58 alpacas, 7 of them were babies. The moment we got there we fed them some treats! Then Red left to eat dinner with his son. After he was done he opened the store for us. Mom got some socks at the store. After that we got out chairs and watched the babies play before dark. The next morning we ate breakfast gave the alpacas some treats then left.

Narrows Too was on the Mount Desert Narrows. We could look across the water and see Mount Desert Island, which contains Acadia National Park.  When we went to Acadia, we went to the visitors center, checked in, and got our junior ranger books. Then we drove up Cadillac Mountain, the highest point in Acadia at 1,530 ft. We had fun playing on the rocks there. We also had fun taking pictures like we were falling off a cliff because from farther away, the rocks looked like a cliff. Since Cadallac Mt. was the tallest point in Acadia, it had some really great veiws. We were at the gift shop and dad came over holding some wild blueberries. We went back up to where he found them to look for more blueberries and to look for a small metal stamp that marked the true summit. When we went up there, I ran and jumped up on a bolder and I was startled to find the stamp there. It was about three inches in diameter. Later dad found a different stamp on a rock that was pointing toward the first stamp...