This was a Long and Hard RV trip

May/June 2023 Northeast United States and Nova Scotia

We left Oklahoma City on May 10th and returned home on June 10th. We logged about 5700 miles on the RV and an additional 1500 on the Jeep. Our pups are now officially our full-time travel companions when in the RV. Unfortunately, they are still not allowed on a cruise ship! They did wonderful and they sleep A LOT. For the most part we didn’t have any mechanical problems until the last week when the slideout on the RV decided that only half of it wanted to slide OUT. You can read about that below. We didn’t get to add any new countries to our list since we’ve both been to Canada, but I have now officially been to ALL 50 United States and a couple of U.S. territories.

The highlight of the trip for me was getting to see the Puffins in Nova Scotia and Jeff agrees. We saw a lot of beautiful parts of the northeast United States and we encountered a lot of traffic close to the major metropolitan areas we went through (although we did go AROUND New York City). Jeff and I were both amazed at the beauty of the northeast. Upstate New York, New Hampshire and Vermont were gorgeous. I can see why people head that direction in the fall to get to see the changing tree colors. The coast line in Maine and Nova Scotia was stunning and much different from the beaches that we tend to visit. Although we did find a sandy beach in Nova Scotia, with a water temp in the 50s, well, it was definitely not tropical.

This was definitely a “learning trip” for RV travel for us. Besides it being the first time with the pups, this was a long trip, meant to check off the NE states from my bucket list. As a result it was a LOT of miles, both in the RV and in the Jeep. It didn’t take long to get tired of driving all day, parking the RV, then getting up in the morning and heading out in the Jeep for sightseeing. We’ve decided that future trips will be drive to a destination and then stay for a week or so. It is kind of hard to get far enough away from the “flyover” states to someplace we want to visit, so we’ll have to put some drive time in at the beginning and end before we park.

This won’t be my typical blog post. You know the kind … from a cruise ship, foreign ports, exotic locations! This is just someplace to park my pictures and memories, detail our campgrounds in case we want to return, and allow you to travel along if you’d like. Hope you enjoy!

May 10, 2023

Oklahoma City to Sullivan MO, 309 miles. Stayed at RV self park.

May 11, 2023

Left Sullivan MO at 8:20, arrived Richmond IN at 4:30. Stayed at Deer Ridge Camping Resort. 386 miles. Nice pull through with wooden deck.

May 12, 2023

Left Richmond IN at 9:15, arrived Ashtabula OH at 4:10. Stayed at Hide A Way Lakes Campground. 303 miles. Nice pull through. Mostly permanent campers. Drove to Lake Erie

Lake Erie. You wouldn’t believe how far we had to drive to get access to the lake! I swear there is water out there and not just sky!

May 13-14, 2023

Left Ashtabula OH at 11:50, arrived Grand Island NY at 3:30. Stayed at Branches of Niagara Campground. 156 miles

We had a back in spot next to shower/laundry. Most everyone left Sunday morning. Visited Niagara Falls, US side on 13^th with the pups. On the 14^th went to Canadian side and then drove up to Niagara on the Lake and drove the river road back to the Rainbow Bridge. Stopped at Whirlpool area on the river.

These pictures are from the American side. The park on this side, 30 years ago (last time I was here) was just a parking lot. Today it is very nicely landscaped and has close parking, restaurants and bathrooms and a LOT of tourists.

The following pictures were taken from the Canadian side.

Jeff bought me a ticket to go “behind” the falls.

May 15-16

Grand Island NY 9:45 to Cold Brook NY 4:12. Adirondack Gateway Campground. 272 miles. Very nice grassy spot, well spaced. Used this campground as a starting point to drive through lower Adirondack.

OK, I have to confess that even though I did a ton of research preparing for this trip, I thought that the Adirondack’s was a national or state park. Everything I had read about talked about how gorgeous the area is … and it’s huge! It is neither a national or state park. What it is, is a national historic landmark and the largest (6 million acres) of publicly protected area in the U.S. The state owns 3.4 million acres of forest, agriculture and open spaces and New York owns 2.6 million acres. There are many trails though out the park, but there are also towns and commerce and homesteads. It was on the brink of mass deforestation when the Preserve was established and is now constitutionally protected.

May 17-18

Cold Brook NY 10:44 to Brasher NY Jellybeans Riverside Campground. 152 miles. Space was right across from office and backed up to the River (pic below). From here we traveled though the northern parts of Adirondack’s including Lake Placid

This is Ft. Blunder (Ft. Montgomery), so named because it was built on Lake Champlain as a defense post against possible 2nd invasion by British Canada following the War of 1812. A survey was done before it was completed and it was determined that it was actually being built on the Canadian side … so it was abandoned.

This and following pictures are taken in the Adirondack’s on our way to the Lake Placid area.

Really nice spot that backed up to the Brasher River in New York.

May 19

Brasher NY 9:00 to Franconia NH 4:30. Fransted Family Campground. 252 miles. Very wooded spot. Had campfire. Discovered beach.

The world’s tallest filing cabinet located in Burlington Vermont. It is 38 drawer high and represents the number of years that the artist accumulated paperwork while working on a local street project – definitely government bureaucracy at its best.

This and following are tombstones at Ben and Jerry’s graveyard for retired flavors.

We had a lovely wooded camping spot in Franconia New Hampshire. The weather was actually warm … so we had a campfire and cooked hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner.

We found a lovely stream at the campground.

May 20-22

Franconia NH 10:55 to Wells ME 3:00. Sun Outdoors Wells Beach. 143 miles. Rows and rows of RV’s in the middle of town! US Route 1 was busy! Ate clams! Went to lighthouse and traveled up and down the coast. Cliff walk – no dogs not allowed!

New Hampshire isn’t known for much … it WAS known for the “Old Man of the Mountain”, which is depicted on the back of the state quarter. However, he met his demise sometime in the middle of the night in 2003. Since they don’t have any other touristy things, they created a photo op, shown in later photos, so you can see what it used to look like!

Seen checking into our campsite in Maine.

Wells Beach, Maine. Water temp 51 degrees … no thanks!

In my research I found a dog friendly cliff walk south of where we were staying. Except when we got there the sign said no dogs allowed. I left the pups with Jeff and only ventured around the bend to check out the gorgeous scenery. I’m sure the property owners, and their million dollar properties, don’t take too kindly to people literally walking through their backyards.

May 23-24

Wells ME 9:40 to Trenton ME 2:00. Wild Acadia Camping Resort. 169 miles. Very nice, wispy trees between spots and fairly empty since their season was just opening up. Shower and Laundry facility like brand new but had to pay for showers. They have only been open for a year. One of the few places we stayed that actually had a dog park … and they went wild off leash! Went to Acadia National Park and Cadillac Mountain from here. Cadillac Mountain had timed entrance that you had to sign up for online beforehand.

This is how we corral the boys while we are getting the RV sat up.

Stephen King’s home in Bangor Maine. Would you expect anything less?

When the tide is low, there is a land bridge from Bar Harbor to this small, uninhabited island.

This is the first place in the United States that sees the sunrise. Lots of people make the trek to do just that. Not us, it was windy, cold and staying in a warm bed sounded like a much better option.

One of the many original carriage roads that crisscross the park roads in Acadia National Park.

May 25-26

Trenton ME to CAT Ferry at Bar Harbor. 10 miles.

The ferry ride took 3 hours to get to Yarmouth NS. We left Bar Harbor at 3pm but didn’t arrive at Campers Haven until 10:20pm (21 miles away) because of the incredibly long lines at customs. This was the first time we have set up the RV in the DARK … it was so dark we couldn’t even tell if we had the RV off the road in the campground! Grassy sight, not level. Setting up in the dark was not fun.

We disconnected the Jeep from the RV. Jeff drove the Jeep on to the ferry. I was the next to last RV to load. ALL vehicles had to be BACKED on to the ferry. I backed it all the way from where the RV is sitting next to the guard shack on to the ferry. When I got to the ferry I could hear Jeff on an upper deck cheering me on!

The ferry felt like we were on a cruise ship!

I took a tour of the bridge with the Ferry Captain.

It was 6 pm when we got to Yarmouth and took 3-1/2 hours to get through this customs line. In all fairness, we were the first ferry of the season to arrive in Yarmouth.

Fin whale skeleton by the lighthouse in Yarmouth.

The balancing rock – Nova Scotia. It took us 2-1/2 hour car ride (one way) plus a ferry ride and a 1.7km hike (one way) to get to this jewel. It also involved 9 flights of stairs (one way!) to get to the platform to take this picture. First time for the dogs on stairs. They were apprehensive at first but quickly figured it out.

After we returned to the parking lot I found the porta potties were locked!! What’s a girl to do???

May 27-28, 2023

Yarmouth NS 9:15 to Murphy’s Cove 2:20. Murphy’s Camping on the Ocean. 241 miles

We traveled from Yarmouth, through Halifax and up the east coast of Nova Scotia to get here to Murphy’s Cove.

May 29-31

Murphy’s Cove 8:45 to North Sydney NS 1:52. Cabot Trail KOA. 195 miles

This is Seal Island Bridge on the TransCanadian Highway in northern Nova Scotia as seen from our campsite on the side of a moutain.

And then the evacuation orders started! Nova Scotia was on fire! There was a fire east of Yarmouth where we had spent the previous two nights and a large fire in a Halifax suburb that we had driven through the previous day.

A very short ferry ride that saved us about 3 hours driving time on our way to the Cabot Trail.

The beginning of the Cabot Trail. We choose to do counterclockwise so the water would always be on our side of the road.

The one hike that we did, to a waterfall. The government shut down all hiking because of the wildfires so we’re lucky we got to do this one.

FALSE ADVERTISING!! These Moose signs were everywhere … did we see a Moose? Nope!

Cabot trail … headed back to our camping site.

This was the side of the mountain where we were camped.

The highlight of the trip for me! This was our vehicle to go see PUFFINS!

Puffins! They are shy and don’t like their picture taken. As soon as we would get anywhere close, they were either flying off or going underwater.

June 1-2

North Sydney NS 8:20 to Amherst NS 1:40. Loch Lomand RV park. 240 miles

Another long sightseeing day. Park the RV, get in the Jeep and travel. This time to the Bay of Fundy.

Bay of Fundy at low tide. This bay is known for having extremely high tides – the highest in the world. The tides rise 240cm per hour continuously for 6 hours. There is a spot where people actually “ride” the tide in and another spot where a river actually reverses direction when the tide comes in. 160 BILLION tons of water flows every tide.

Hopewell Rocks at low tide, Bay of Fundy. Did we venture down? Nope! Wet, muddy dogs didn’t sound very appealing.

The 11 mile bridge from Nova Scotia to Prince Edward Island. It was cold, overcast, threatening rain. There is no toll going to PEI, but it costs $30 to get back to Nova Scotia!

June 3

Amherst NS 8:45 to Ellsworth ME 1:40. Forest Ridge Campground. 299 miles

June 4

Ellsworth ME 9:30 to Mansfield MA. 288 miles. Starting the long trek home. Headed to Baltimore to see Jeff’s daughter and then home.

June 5

Mansfield MA 11:10 to Quakertown PA. 306 miles

The RV had been doing so well. Not one issue. Setting up camp in Pennsylvania, when putting out the slide out, the back motor worked, the front one didn’t.

Of course, it was after hours on a Monday when this happened. We do have theater seating in the RV so we were able to sleep in the recliners coming home. This night, I had enough room to squeeze into the bed and lay sideways across the bed. From here til home, it’s the recliners for sleeping (much better than the floor!).

June 6

Quakertown PA to Baltimore MD. 143 miles

We opted to stay in a hotel tonight and luckily found one right down the road from Lisa’s that took dogs (with an enhanced, nonrefundable deposit!), but it was good to sleep in a bed. There was a construction job on the property and when we went to leave in the morning the workers had blocked the RV/Jeep in so we had to unhook, move and then hookup again. Some people are just d!ck$.

June 7

Baltimore 8:17 to Columbus (Alton) OH 4:20. 432 miles

June 8

Alton OH 7:25 to Sullivan MO 4:16

We saw at least 6 huge backups like this one during our trip. Miles and miles and miles and miles of trucks and cars at a complete standstill on the highways.

June 9

Sullivan MO 7:10 to OKC 2:00 440 miles

This was a Long and Hard RV trip

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