17.07.2012 – 17.07.2012  19 °C

Last night was punctuated by thunder storms, so this morning we awoke to an overcast sky and light drizzle. After brekky we jumped in the car and headed straight southward out of Quebec. Our drive today was punctuated by continuing drizzle (sometimes tending towards rain), and oodles of trees. Actually, the Quebec side of the drive was more farmland than trees but once we got closer to the border the farms were left well behind and it was just forest after forest!

The disappointing thing was the maple tree farms. We were told that we would have no trouble finding a “sugar shack” in Quebec and that we had to go in to see how maple syrup is made. Obviously, we took the wrong roads in Quebec ‘cause do you think we could find ourselves a maple farm anywhere?? Apparently the farms are also in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont so maybe we’ll have a chance to see them there…

With the rain coming down, temp dropping and disappointed campers (because we couldn’t find a maple farm) we hit the US border and left the worries of French speaking far behind! We stopped for morning tea in the first town we found after the border. As soon as we got out of the car we all donned rain jackets and jeans and huddled around this small picnic table.. What a change in temp! Yesterday we were hot and sweaty wandering around Quebec City and today we’re back in full battle gear waiting for it to snow! Ok, so I’m exaggerating slightly, but the temp has radically dropped from probably a temp of 32 yesterday to a top of about 19 today!

Our morning tea reminds me of the break we had over in California the day we drove thru the Redwood NP.. It was raining that day, wind was blowing but the temp was probably closer to about 7 or 8 that day…. Just goes to show that once you get used to a temp (in our case hot) it has a big impact on you when it suddenly changes.

Our plans started to change as the day went along. Originally, we had planned to stop somewhere in upstate Maine and drive down to the coast the following day. We soon discovered that there isn’t much in upstate Maine except great tracks of forests. Its actually quite lovely to see so many trees and lakes.. very reminiscent of Finland/ Norway last year but it isn’t so great when its raining.. So we decided to just keep on driving and go to the coast today.

Mid afternoon, we stopped in the town of Bangor, Maine, to find out about accommodation and tourist options at the visitor centre. The lady inside the centre recommended that we continue down to Bar Harbour (the place that we were going to visit the following day) and stay down near Acadia NP. So we jumped back in the car and drove the last hour to the coast.

The town of Bar Harbour is on the island called Mount Desert. Most of the island is home to Acadia NP. It’s a small NP of which the land was once owned by the Rockefeller family. The land was bequeathed to the US park service by the Rockefeller family. Amazingly, the family created over 20 separate NPs here in the US!! That is a lot of real estate to just choose to give to the nation…

We drove into the town and just started doing our usual motel shopping (stopping and checking on price and facilities). We finally found a cheapish motel (100 dollars for the night) that had a free cabin. We went and checked it out and were surprised to discover it could sleep 6 people (1 double bed for each of us)!! It was a Nanna special (nothing like my Nanna but a stereotypical Nanna special).. To elaborate further, it’s the kind of house you walk into that your 90 yr old Grandma owned, she has now passed away and you’re left with a furnished house still stuck in the 50s that you now need to sell.. Lacy curtains, very old green carpet on the floor, floral bed spreads, moth ball smell, lino on the kitchen floor.. you get the drift! Anyway it felt very homey (although dated) and because it was a whole house we took the cabin for two nights.. It’ll be nice to spread out a bit for a couple of days!

After we got ourselves settled, we headed downtown to have a look at the NP and also to find ourselves a supermarket. The park is actually a big forest that is crisscrossed by a few roads and carriage paths (that are now walking trails and cycle ways). We drove a part of the way thru the park before our hunger won out and we headed into town for that supermarket. We grabbed ourselves the ingredients for me to cook us up a stir fry and then headed home to devour my concoction (it was average tonight—pretty hard to make a great one without plenty of condiments!) and get our laundry completed. After a really long day driving we were all happy to fall into bed and spend tomorrow exploring this small but busy island.

Song of the Day– Creedence Clearwater Revival, Have you ever seen the rain?