Roger’s Ramblings » Bar Harbor 2009

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggedy Jig…

Roger — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:39:03 +0000

So we’re home after the trip out east to Newark, Delaware and Bar Harbor, Maine…

Travel Days were:

24 May pm – Caledonia to New Stanton, Pennsylvania – abt 440 miles;
25 May am – New Stanton, PA to Newark, Delaware – abt 245 miles;
27 May all day – Newark, DE to Bar Harbor, Maine – abt 625 miles in 12 1/2 hours;
2 June am – Bar Harbor, ME to the Mount Washington Cog Railway 255 miles in abt 5 1/2 hours, then to the summit of Mt Washington and back by Cog Railway;
2 June pm Mt Washington Cog Railway to Latham, New York (very near to Albany, New York) 216 miles in about 5 1/2 hours – a very long day!!!!!!;
3 June all day – Latham, NY to Bowling Green, Ohio – abt 620 miles in 10 1/2 hours;
4 June pm – after 7 1/2 hours in the Jerome Library on genealogy research – abt 200 miles back to Caledonia in abt 3 /12 hours.

Total travelling about 2,650 miles.

We spent 26 May in Newark, and then 28 May to 1 May in Bar Harbor where we did some local travelling around to Deer Island, Schoodic Head, and Cadillac Mountain and Acadia National Park which added another 270 or so miles.

Total mileage run 2,916, which used 105 gallons of fuel, which ranged in price/gallon from $2.22 in New Jersey to $2.96 back home in Caledonia.

So the number Don is waiting for is 27.76 mpg. Best run was 445 miles from somewhere in New York state back to Caledonia – 30.1 mpg. Worst run was all the mileage run around Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park – 24.3 mpg.

A day trip to Deer Island, Maine

Roger — Sat, 30 May 2009 11:17:59 +0000

Our first day in Bar Harbor started gray and drizzly – at least it wasn’t as rainy as when we’d arrived the night before. Late morning Don suggested we go explore Deer Island, which is west of Mount Desert Island where Bar Harbor is, but requires quite a long circuitous route to get to.

So Don and Mindy, Lisa and Roger set off in the red Camaro for the day’s trip.

Looking South - the Wider View

The image above is a panorama looking south from mainland Maine (Maineland I guess??) towards Deer Island.

Deer Island is separated from the Maineland by a reach of the Atlantic Ocean, which is bridged by the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge

The Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge

This is from the south side of the bridge looking back toward the Maineland.

Once on Deer Island we proceeded down to the south and Stonington (Maine), where after a quick look up and down main street decided to eat at the Fisherman’s Friend Restaurant that is right by the harbour in Stonington. What a place – seating for about 140 people, and there were just the 4 of us there.

The Seagull

We each had a meal of some type of fish – you don’t go to Maine to have a steak!!!!! – after which it was back in the car for the return journey by some different roads.

We’d seen a sign for “Nervous Nellie’s Jams and Jellies”, so with memories of the great place in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula run by a brotherhood of monks called “The Jam Pot” we followed the signs and after initially overshooting the driveway found ourselves in a car park surrounded by some very “odd” creatures – see this separate post about the Artwork there. But the great variety of jams and jellies on sale lured us into buying 4 jars.

We followed the road out to the eastern-most end of Deer Island, in fact over a causeway to what was probably originally another separate island to a place called Sunshine, and while out there looking for the end of the road found a large granite outcrop that angled up off the road, so we had to drive up on to that.

The Camaro, the Granite and the Trees

This outcrop of granite is clearly visible on the Google map of the area. After this it was on the road back across the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge, and then a stop at the overlook on the way up Caterpillar Hill which offered a grand view to the south

Caterpillar Hill Panorama

of Deer Island and places beyond. The Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge is clearly visible.

The Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge

Interesting speculation on why the hill is named Caterpillar Hill – there were certainly quite a number of tent caterpillar nests in the bushes at the turnout!!!

After that it was back to Bar Harbor, with a detour via the Atlantic Brewing Company - Don wanted to get some ginger beer, and I wanted to just smell the Knox Road Grill in anticipation of a meal there at some stage, but alas we got there 1 minute after they had closed.

A photo gallery of the pictures from this day can be seen here

Photogallery of the Deer Island Trip

Roger — Sat, 30 May 2009 11:09:53 +0000

The following is a photo gallery of the trip to Deer Island.

You’ve got to love the E-ZPass…

Roger — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:00:53 +0000

So we’re half-way on the May trip to the East Coast – meaning we have arrived in Bar Harbor, Maine for a few days. Wednesday’s big effort was 12 hours 40 minutes driving from Newark, Delaware to Bar Harbor Maine – 625 miles, of which a bit more than half was in the rain.

Expect Delays...

For the most part the travel along I-95, the New Jersey Turnpike, I-295 etc was without much incident, but as was the case last year the crunch in the traffic to fit however many roads and lanes down to the 6 or so lanes that go over the George Washington Bridge which crosses the Hudson River in New York was a nightmare of lane changing, squeezing, crawling and inching – the delay was at least all of that indicated on the signs in the picture above.

Apart from this mess, it was just a looooooooong day for the 625 miles, but we’re here now for a few days, and it’s almost already forgotten. Luckily we don’t have to go home this way!!!!!!

But the travelling is certainly made easier by the use of the E-ZPass I got for the car a few years ago which means we don’t have to stop and fumble with money to pay the various road tolls in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maine (Ohio hasn’t yet joined the modern age and we do have to stop and hand over actual money at the Toll Booths there). Some Toll Booths require you to slow down to 15 mph, or 10 mph or even 5 mph, but the newer ones – “Express” let you just drive on through at 55 mph, and somehow their technology can read the E-ZPass transponder that is stuck to the top of the windscreen inside. It is read, and the toll deducted from our account, which is automagically replenished when it’s nearly empty. A great time and hassle saver.

A sign of a different nature took our fancy today when Lisa, Don, Mindy and I were heading out for a drive to Deer Isle down to the south west of Mount Desert Island (more on that in another posting tomorrow…)

A Septic Message

(click the image to see a larger version of it).

The Bryants departure

Roger — Sun, 24 May 2009 13:42:45 +0000

Yesterday Don and family stopped by to drop off a couple of items of luggage for us to take to Bar Harbor for them – I’d taken pity on the thought of 4 adults in a Camaro for 1200 miles, and so offered that we could take some of their luggage for them to make it slightly less crowded. Don wanted to check his tyre pressures too – trying for less rolling resistance to see if he could beat our overall mileage from last year- we’ll see. Last year over 2,530 miles we got 27.5 mpg, while Don was oh so close at 27.43 mpg.

Checking the tyre pressures

Brit and Bre were busy with the GPS unit trying to figure out just what time they’d getting there.

All Aboard...

Mindy was concerned that the car was heating up inside with the doors and windows open – all aboard…

And we're off

Don wanted to make sure the Wooster number plate was included in a shot

Wooster out....

In a few hours from now this will be us heading out the driveway – same car make, different colour and only half the number of passengers – see you in Bar Harbor!!!!!!