Back to Massachusetts

Sept 29th

Freeport, Maine is the home of L.L.Bean, and we have been told by several people that we should visit the store if we are in the area. After some morning school work for Mia, we drove into town. The store, or stores, are amazing. Its like mixing an REI and a Cabelas, then injecting it with steroids. There are three different stores, all next to each other. The bike and boat store, the home store, and the main store. The main store is three levels, with apparel, hunting and fishing equipment, camping equipment, animal exhibits, large aquariums with trout and salmon, a restaurant, coffee shop and movie theater. We wandered around for a couple of hours and then Mia and Kathy played a game of chess in the kids section. Unbelievably, we got out of there without spending any money. Next, we drove to Portland, to visit a camera store, because I needed a cleaning kit for my camera sensor. Back at the campground, we walked on the hiking trail around the point. There are small islands everywhere, and most of them have houses on them. More schooling, and then off to bed.

Sept 30th

We have booked a Harvest Host for the night. This one is an alpaca farm in New Hampshire. We left Maine and crossed into New Hampshire, then 10 minutes later crossed into Massachusetts. Three states in less than a half hour. We later turned north and entered New Hampshire again. Our Harvest Host was not what we expected. We drove through a wealthy neighborhood in the woods, then came out into a clearing and there was the alpaca farm. The clearing, was for the massive high voltage lines. And that, is where our host told us to park, right next to one of the towers. Not an ideal view. Not to mention I’m not a big fan of sleeping near big electromagnetic fields. For one night we will have to deal with it. The host was nice, and talked a lot. We purchased socks and yarn made form alpaca wool. Its expensive stuff. We weren’t offered a tour of the farm, and even though the host said the alpacas were tame and people friendly, he didn’t offer to let Mia touch one. Then later this evening, two guys showed up and dropped off a back hoe next to our trailer. The host came out with a cart, on which lies a dead alpaca. It was apparently very old, and had died the night before. He then proceeds to bury it about ten yards behind our trailer. I know when you run a ranch of any kind, you have to deal with dead animals, but you think you would shield it from guests or customers. Overall, this was one of our worst Harvest Host experiences.

Oct 1st

We are going to visit with Bridget one more time before we head south, so we booked an RV park in Mansfield, Massachusetts. It had a three-star rating, and after we arrived, we could see why. It is kind of run down, but its relatively cheap for Massachusetts (which means it is still not cheap), and they had room for us for the next few nights. We had a zoom meeting with Mia’s teacher this afternoon and she is happy with Mia’s work. We met another California family at the playground. They have four children, and Mia had a blast playing with them. They are heading south soon too, and might be joining us in the Florida Keys. This campground filled up this evening, and it took me a while to figure out why. Gillette stadium, where the Patriots play, is only 5 miles from here, and on Sunday, Tom Brady will be returning to face his old team for the first time. I think half of the campers are going to the game Sunday night.

Oct 2nd

A visit to Salem, MA is on the agenda today, and Bridget is coming with us. We picked Bridget up at the Westin in Boston at 10am and headed to Salem. She regaled us with stories form her first month in college. We arrived in Salem to find it packed with people. Salem is the home of Halloween, and they celebrate for almost two months. Today being a Saturday, and the first weekend in October probably didn’t help. We drove around town looking for a spot to park, but you need a special permit showing you are a resident, to park on the streets. We came across a small city parking lot, that was offering affordable parking, and we begrudgingly paid. Salem has set up a historical walk, like Boston, with many historical sites on the route. We walked around and saw some of the sites. Downtown, there is a section that is open to pedestrians only, and all of the shops deal in the macabre. It is like a Halloween theme park. People are dressed in costumes, and there are even parades. Today was the zombie parade. The restaurants are all full, so we put are names on a wait list, even though it would be and hour and a half. While we waited, we walked around, even finding the National Parks visitors center, where Mia got stamps for her National Parks Passport. We finally sat and ate a good lunch surrounded by witches and zombies. After lunch we found the second oldest graveyard in the United States. Records show the first burial in 1637, but researchers are finding that there are graves from before those records. Some of the Mayflower passengers, and several judges form the Salem witch trials are buried there. Next to the grave yard is a memorial for all of the “witches” killed in 1692, because no one knows where they were buried. From there we walked some more of the town, and the harbor. We were reluctant to take Bridget back, but she had tickets to the hockey game on campus tonight. We had all walked over six miles through Salem and we were exhausted. After some horrible traffic, we dropped her off and headed back to our campsite.

Oct 3rd

Still exhausted form yesterday, we decided to have a relaxing day off. By day off, I mean, we did chores: repairing the trailer, grocery shopping, laundry, and general clean up. Mia has been asking for a pumpkin for weeks, so in the afternoon we found a pumpkin patch with a corn maze nearby. The maze was fun, because they had a bonus scavenger hunt added in, if you desired. They gave you a sheet of paper with questions on it, and the answers were scattered throughout the maze. Even though we found our way through the maze fairly quickly, you had to explore the entire maze to get the answers. We found ourselves going over the same paths multiple times. Eventually, we had the idea of marking the ground near the paths we had taken, and that helped tremendously. We found all of the answers, but it took us almost an hour and a half, and we walked over 2.5 miles doing it. Mia picked out a couple of pumpkins, and then we went home. We will start our slow journey south tomorrow.