September 22, 2009 – Bar Harbor

My first impressions of Bar Harbor are a bit hurried. We got through customs without too much hassle. It probably would have been better had we reconnected the two vehicles, but I chose not to. Consequently, the customs agent was a bit confused until I could make him understand that my wife was in the second vehicle. After that, all was good.

We met with Carol’s college friend Karen right in the parking lot outside of customs. After the initial “hellos”, she was off to Rosalie’s to order pizza for all of us, while we were off to the campground, three miles the opposite direction. By now, it is dark and becoming more so. With Carol in trail, I found the campground, right off the highway and not nestled down some gravel road. We checked in and asked, “do you take Visa?” We don’t take any plastic came the response. Alrighty then, how much cash do we have. We had enough for one night and found enough for two. The interior of the campground has no lights. For those of you who might be hearing impaired let me repeat - NO LIGHTS! Carol led us to the site, stopping numerous times to turn on the truck’s interior light to read the campground map and flashing her brights to see if she could find any lane markings. With patience, she found it. The site was a nice pull through with about an eight degree slope front to rear and four degrees right to left. We didn't try to set-up, not time. I just left the coach and booked into town. In the meantime, Karen had called to say that downtown was very busy with a lot of “leaf peepers” as tourists this time of year are identified. She suggested some alternate parking if we could not find any on the street. By now, I’m tired, hungry, upset about the campsite and suddenly confronted with the possibility of having to search out parking because of tourists (yes, I’m one also, but I know a local). I think that Carol would like to have been in a separate vehicle.

We found Rosalie’s with very little effort and voila, practically right across the street is a parking spot. Having dropped Carol off, I parked then caught up with her inside the restaurant. Verily I say to you, the most beautiful pizza I have ever seen, sat beckoning on the table. Karen and her son, Hamish, were well into their pizzas when we showed up. I bought a round of Smithwick’s Ale and attacked the pizza. Two slices and a pint later, I became human again. We had a wonderful dinner with K and H and hated having it end, but there would be tomorrow.

Carol and I have gotten pretty good at setting up the coach in minimal time. But tonight was not one of those times. First of all, it was an ugly site to begin with. On top of that, it was pitch black and our communications were not always clear. Carol brought the Dakota around to shine some headlight then retrieved our leveling blocks and stacked them four high. Finally, with the rear hydraulic levelers fully extended we were only a bubble width and a half from level and we called it a night; at least we would roll out of bed.