New England

The New England states are world famous for the spectacular colours of the trees in the autumn. The Americans, in their perverse way with the English language, call it the fall.

We set off from Brunswick, Maine on 30 September and headed for the White Mountains in New Hampshire. A young man in an information center suggested the Kancamagus Highway as being the most scenic drive through the very scenic mountains. Even getting there was a visual treat.

 Not all the colour was in the leaves.

A selection of fallen leaves.

 Maple leaves don't change colour evenly over the whole leaf.

And remember that our best information was that the colours would be even better a week later.

There's wildlife in the White Mountains, too. We saw moose on two occasions.

In Vermont we walked a trail dedicated to Robert Frost, an American poet. There are information boards along the way with excerpts from his work.

This squirrel allowed us to approach quite closely.

The autumn/fall colours in Vermont are much the same as in the White Mountains. We didn't get tired of seeing them.

We found a large parking area at the Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area. Free parking for up to 72 hours if you are engaged in a permitted activity, such as bird watching or wildlife photography. We watched many skeins of geese heading South, but didn't get any worthwhile photographs.

In New York State we drove down the West shore of Lake George. It was named after an English king and for some reason didn't get renamed after independence.

In Ashfield, Massachusetts we stopped for lunch at a rest area provided by the town. A dog barked at Bill as he went outside to turn on the gas. The owner hurried up. “She won't hurt you.” And that's how we met Dick Seebeck. We had a very pleasant chat and he invited us to visit his home and meet his wife. Which we did, and thus met Margaret Seebeck. They are a charming couple and we still exchange occasional emails.

Margaret and Dick Seebeck. The sun was in a most unsuitable position for the photo. Sorry.

By the time we got to Rhode Island we were getting a bit grumpy with each other. Eve found the solution – take a break. So we had two nights in the Burlinghame State Park campground.

Nothing like a camp fire for inducing a good feeling.

For our non-travelling day we not entirely idle. We visited the Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge, which was all of 5 minutes along the road. It is the site of a WWII airfield, so there is no climbing involved in following the trails.

Not much in the way of leaf colours, but plenty of autumn flowers …

… and berries.

This bumblebee was working late in the year.

A rabbit that hopped out of the undergrowth and posed in camera range.

After our day's rest we became concerned with getting to see New York city (see the post of 30 October), and did not do Connecticut justice. We drove across it, avoiding the major cities, but there are no photographs from that journey.

Bullocks' Bistro

This story is from early July in Yellowknife, the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories.

As we were travelling towards Yellowknife two folk we encountered along the highway recommended that we eat at Bullocks' Bistro in Yellowknife's Old Town. The advice was the same in both cases, “It's expensive but it's worth it.”

So we made our way to the Old Town, which turned out to be an easier drive than to the visitor centre, and found a parking space by the Bush Pilots Monument. From there we admired the view and took photographs.

The monument

A view of houseboats on the Great Slave Lake.

We fell into conversation with another couple. They were John and Karen Dollar from Windsor, Ontario. They, too, were intending to dine at Bullocks' so we went down the hill together and requested a table for 4 so that we could continue chatting.

The bistro's specialty is fish, and the diner may choose between several species, and select either deep fried, pan fried or grilled. The prices were indeed very high. This better be good, even though our informants had also commented on the very large size of the portions.

A variation on straight fish is what the bistro calls “Slurp 'N Burp” - its interpretation of surf 'n' turf. This is a buffalo (i.e. bison) or reindeer steak with your choice of fish. The waitress added that these were enough food for two to share. The reindeer was unavailable that day, so we settled for a buffalo steak and pickerel meal to share. John and Karen also decided to divide a Slurp 'N Burp.

The servings were HUGE. The steak separated into two decent sized chunks of meat, and there were two generous pieces of fish, which made sharing easy.

When extravagance has already been committed, it was easy to add a drink to the bill. John Dollar even had a second beer.

Not only was there a lot of food, it was every bit as tasty as its reputation. Good food and good company. A great evening. John excused himself. The second beer obliged him to visit the washroom.

When he came back he announced that the bill had been taken care of. For all of us. This generosity was as lavish and sneaky as it was unexpected. Even sharing a plate at Bullocks' is not a cheap meal. And what can you say but “Thank you”.

Karen and John Dollar.

We swapped addresses with them. We determined that we would visit Windsor and reciprocate in some way.

But, alas, we didn't. The closest we got was Niagara. The weather was hot, humid and enervating. Windsor looked a long way away – almost to Detroit – and we were not enjoying driving on Ontario's busy main highways. And when we went to at least telephone, we had lost their address. An Internet search of the White Pages drew a blank. 

Karen and John have one of our traveling cards, but they have not sent an email. Our invitation to them to visit us in New Zealand stands, of course. But in the meantime, if anyone can magically locate a telephone number or an email address so that we may contact them, we will be very grateful.

Maine

This started out to be a post about all our travels in New England, but it was quite long enough for a single post before we got out of Maine. Do not worry that there will be a post for each state. This is being typed near Charleston, South Carolina, which is the 21^ststate we have been in. And that doesn't count the District of Columbia, where Washington is located. It will not require 22 posts to describe our adventures. Probably.

We entered the USA via Maine, with the following immediate objectives:

• Obtain SIM cards for our phone and tablet, so that we stay connected with the world. Verizon or AT&T were recommended telcos;
• Open a US bank account, if possible;
• Visit friends Deb and Kermit in Brunswick, Maine; and
• See Acadia National Park on the way.

Since Acadia NP is on the coast, we stayed close to the sea. Along the way we found several places to stop and educate ourselves.

We saw, from a distance, Fort Knox. Not the famous one that guards America's gold – that's in Kentucky, but an 1844 stone structure built to protect the Penobscot River region from possible British attacks. The bridge over the river is quite a spectacle. We are enquiring of the family engineer what style it is.

A historical site, whose name we have forgotten, had a story that was similar to several in Canada. The first Europeans to arrive were French. They built their settlement (in this case on an island), nearly starved, were aided by the natives and then were pushed out by British settlers.

The very island where the French nearly froze and starved.

There was a particularly nice nature trail in the Cobscook Bay State Park.

The ranger was as pleased as we were when we found a moth resting on the outside wall of her kiosk.

And then we found another one!

The start of the nature trail.

A few plant portraits:

There were many examples of colourful fungi:

As you can see, it was a grey, moist day. The Schoodic Peninsula had been recommended as a scenic destination, but we couldn't find anywhere to stay in Winter Harbour so we gave up on Schoodic.

On the way to Bar Harbour and the Acadia NP we found a visitor information center where we learned several important things.

1. Our vehicle was forbidden to drive the best bit of Acadia NP, and even the permitted roads would not have been easy for a motor home;
2. Tours from Bar Harbour would show us everything;
3. There was another info center nearer Bar Harbour where we could park and catch a free shuttle into the town;
4. There was an AT&T shop not far in the other direction that could fix us up with connectivity; and
5. It is essential to know the height of Gregory, our vehicle. This last was a tip from an Australian couple who dropped in to the info center at the same time. They said that they had encountered several bridges that were too low for their own RV.

We acted on #5 straight away. With the aid of Eve's sewing tape measure, the ladder at the back of the motor home and eyeballing the highest point (the air conditioning unit) we determined “12-and-a-bit feet”. So we will be OK if bridges are at least 13 feet high. That shouldn't be a problem in the 21^stcentury, should it? Except that the Aussies' vehicle didn't look much taller. In our first 5 weeks in the USA we had to turn round or divert our course five times for low bridges. Yes, it is a significant problem.

We had time to visit AT&T in Ellsworth before going into Bar Harbour. It was conveniently next to a Walmart and a bank. We entered the Camden National Bank first and asked about opening an account. It was time-consuming but very easy. They often open accounts for seasonal workers from Jamaica and other Caribbean countries. Amazing. We have given up on opening an account in the UK because, even though we are both UK nationals, it is so difficult for non-residents.

We obtained information on AT&T's prepaid deals that seemed to be just right for us from a very pleasant young lady, then had to hurry back to Bar Harbour.

The free parking and free shuttle were exactly as advertised. Great. We had booked a tour online, and arrived at the bus in good time. We were all set to see our first national park.

The first stop was the highest point in the park, Mt. Cadillac. It is named after a person, not a car, but the car is named after the same person. RVs are forbidden, but tour buses are OK. Mind you, it wasn't an easy drive for even a small bus.

This part of the Maine coast has scores of islands and is a popular stopping point for cruise ships.

It is a rocky shore, and the waves were throwing a bit of spray around.

This channel is called Thunder Hole or some such nonsense. Mind you, if the sea were really rough it might make some noise.

Can you see the “face” in the rocks? We can, but we were told what to look for.

There is a small but charming botanical garden of native plants in the Park.

The AT&T shop stayed open late enough to achieve our telecommunications objective that day. The transaction was completed by a helpful young man. That evening we were strong supporters of AT&T. Since then we have found that coverage is uncertain, even in quite built-up areas. The data plan for the tablet is OK, but the telephone plan is a rip-off. We get charged for incoming calls, as well as outbound ones, and we get charged for calling toll-free numbers. These details were not explained before we signed up. So we mainly use Skype instead.

The Walmart next door allowed us to stay overnight and in the morning we were set. Off we went to Brunswick to see Debs and Kermit Smyth. We met them when we hosted them in New Zealand via the Affordable Travel Club. We got on well and we were keen to see them again.

We had two nights of friendship and good conversation with them. In between they recommended a nearby botanical garden as worthy of a visit. It is a recent development, but already has a wide range of plants and a small butterfly house.

Caterpillar of …

… this Mourning Cloak butterfly.

Attractive red flowers. We didn't photograph the label and we have forgotten their name.

Mauve Asters.

Snow Flurry Heath Aster.

Different mauve flowers.

Autumn crocus.

A small frog amongst the fallen leaves.

Children are invited to build fairy houses in the woods.

It was late September and the New England forests are famous for their colours in the autumn or, if you prefer, the fall. We wanted to see some of this spectacle. Kermit found a web site with news of leaf colours, which suggested that we were a week or so early for the very best show, but the maples were definitely clothed in red. It was time to move on. He also gave us several maps of the New England area, since we had not then obtained a road atlas of the whole country. Thank you, Kermit.

Our hosts in Brunswick

A chipmunk foraging in their garden. The birds sometimes drop seeds from the feeder and the squirrels and chipmunks clean up.