Our first night in Maine was amazingly warm, with temperatures in the high 80’sF.  We thought Maine was supposed to be cool!  We have not had this camper long enough  to really know how long we can run the air conditioner on the batteries, though we have successfully run it for several hours.  So, rather than a Walmart, we picked the Twin River Campground at Skowhegan, Maine, where we knew we could get shore power. We were offered a waterside site, with the caveat that there was a pot luck dinner and pig roast taking place and it might be a little noisy for a while. We agreed that we could live with that and headed to our site which had cars parked on it!  Once that was all organized we sat outside to enjoy the view and enjoy a glass of wine.  Our solitude was brief as all the neighbors came over to say “hello” and those holding the pig roast immediately invited us to join their dinner.  This massive spread, fresh off the grills, looked much better than our leftovers so we accepted with great pleasure and enjoyed a social evening meeting charming people who spend the summer season at this campsite enjoying the boating and the outdoors. While we learned about the concept of seasonal RV camping, they lined up for tours of the XPCamper, noting that it is not at all like the usual RV.

The next morning we were thinking about coffee and breakfast when a knock sounded on our door.  Our new friends wanted us to know that a snapping turtle was laying eggs in front of our camper so of course we went out to look. 

It took Mrs. Snapping Turtle at least an hour to complete her task and then she returned to the lake! 

Fortunately we were not ready to leave before she had finished.

We headed off to Acadia National Forest, where we had Seawall Campground reservations.  (https://www.recreation.gov/camping/seawall-campground/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=94719) The weather on our first day was rather threatening so we headed off in the 917 to the main Visitor Center to watch the movie and gather information.  We are unfortunately too tall to complete the Park Loop, due to a number of low bridges, though we were able to do a section of it. We enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Upper Deck in Southwest Harbor; Denise ate her first lobster roll and thoroughly enjoyed it. (http://www.globeater.com/view-restaurant/?restaurant_name=The%20Upper%20Deck%20-%20Southwest%20Harbor,%20ME&id=1610) After returning to the campsite, the weather had improved so we had a walk in the surrounding forest, offering ourselves as a sacrifice to the myriad Maine mosquitos and miscellaneous flies.

Highlights of the stay were two bike rides, one to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse at the point about 2.5 miles from our campground and one on one of the carriage roads in the National Park.  Both days were beautiful and it felt wonderful to be back on the bike again.  After watching the chaos in the tiny lighthouse parking lot we were most happy to be on our bicycles and not in the 917!  In the afternoon we walked over to the Seawall Picnic Area and enjoyed watching the waves breaking on the rocky shore. 

We also spotted Mrs. Duck with at least six ducklings swimming along in the surf.  We did not know that ducks ever swam in the sea!  Some of the ducklings had a hard time in the surf, but they all paddled furiously back to mum.

John D. Rockefeller had covered Mount Desert Island with a network of gravel carriage roads, all joined with beautiful stone bridges. We chose to ride on one of the carriage roads from the Visitor Center around Witches Hole Pond, a lovely ride of about 5 miles, with beaver lodges and lots of turtle nests. (https://visitmaine.com/quarterly/acadia/rockefeller) 

We enjoyed the beautiful views before heading out to Bar Harbor and a schooner ride on the Margaret Todd. (https://downeastwindjammer.com) It was such a beautiful afternoon it was wonderful to be out on the water. 

Unfortunately, Fred’s ball cap blew off in the wind so we had to buy him a new one on our return to Bar Harbor!