From Atlanta to the Northeast: Part 2 Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont
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Last week I wrote of our journey from Atlanta to Boston and Southern New Hampshire. This week, we will continue our journey through Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Visiting Maine
We visited the Lowell Factory in Lowell, Massachusetts the morning before we headed to Maine. It was only a four-hour drive to our campground in Sullivan, Maine, so we did not leave early that morning.
Visiting Maine at Acadia National Park
Our primary purpose for traveling to Maine was to visit Acadia National Park, and it did not disappoint. We camped at Flanders Campground in Sullivan, about 35 minutes from Acadia. It is one of the best campgrounds in the area, and it was convenient to other destinations we wanted to visit. Flanders is right on the ocean, with a backdrop of the mountains, and the views are spectacular. Sullivan is not a large town, but it is quaint and delightful.
On our way to Acadia, we ate at Chester Pike’s Galley. Chester Pike was the last fully operating sardine boat in the country, and the restaurant’s owner once owned the boat. It was awesome viewing the old photographs and genuinely understanding the commerce that once supported the area.
At the galley, we ate fried biscuits. Although southern food has been indoctrinated into my soul, the fried biscuits were delicious. I love and appreciate foods from different cultures and regions, and this is a prime example.
While visiting Maine, we made our way to the town of Bar Harbor. Bar Harbor is the home of Acadia National Park. Lucy was in 4th grade, so we were able to use her free National Park Pass to gain entrance into the park without the $25 fee per carload. Acadia is magnificent. The mix of mountains and ocean has forever left impressions on my mind.
At the park, you can visit Cadillac Mountain, which is the tallest mountain on the East Coast. There is also Sand Beach, where you can swim, and the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. The park can be explored by land or sea. There is a 27-mile automobile route. You can also take the trolley, where the driver will give you a history of the park. Acadia is one of the most magnificent national parks I have ever visited.
A Traveler’s Tip
A travel tip that we learned is to never visit a major national park on a Fourth of July weekend without researching holiday traffic in that area. We visited Fort McHenry a few years ago on the Fourth of July and it was great. However, we were visiting Acadia on July 3rd and it was completely packed. One reason this posed a problem is that we were taking a trolley tour where everyone could hop on and hop off at any time. The trolleys were so crowded, it was hard to maneuver. However, like with all traveling, you make the best of the circumstances and continue adventuring.
Visiting Maine at St. Croix Island
On the Fourth of July, we visited a lesser-known park, St. Croix Island International Historic Site. St. Croix is maintained by the National Park Service, although it actually resides in both the U.S. and Canada.
On the way to the park, our truck’s clock switched to the Atlantic Time Zone, and our cell service switched to Canada. The park was interesting because in 1604, the French, including Samuel de Champlain, attempted to colonize the island. They were not used to the severe cold during the winter months, and over half of the settlers died. The surviving settlers eventually moved and settled in current day Nova Scotia.
Visiting Maine in Lubec
While in Maine, we also visited Lubec, the most eastern point of the United States. We were able to visit the lighthouse and eat at a little fish house.
The Beautiful Campobello
Campobello is where FDR contracted polio in 1921. Although he visited the cottage every summer as a child, Roosevelt had difficulty staying at the cottage after he contracted polio because it reminded him of the disease. FDR then began visiting the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia and eventually made Warm Springs his second home.
One of my favorite parts of the trip occurred next… over the bridge from Lubec is Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada. Campobello is the summer cottage of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). Let’s use the term cottage lightly, more like a mansion cottage. The cottage looks out onto the Bay of Fundy and it is exquisite.
In 1963, Campobello was designated as an international park run by both the American and Canadian park services.
Campobello Island is also the home of the East Quoddy Lighthouse. At the lighthouse, the stairs and ladders are underwater during high tide, so make sure to go when the tide is low!
Visiting Vermont and New Hampshire
After visiting Maine, we traveled to Vermont. On the way, we pulled into a gas station, and Sean crashed the side of the camper into a pole. Thank goodness the camper did not have much structural damage although it had a nice red stripe going down the side. When we arrived at our destination, I went to Walmart, bought automotive sandpaper, and we tried our best to sand the streak and pop out the dent. This was not the worst-case scenario, but it really got us thinking about if something went majorly wrong while traveling, what is our plan?
Visiting Vermont in Perkinsville
The drive from Maine to Vermont was beautiful! We stayed in Perkinsville at Crown Point Campground. Another lesson we learned was to always call the campground we are traveling to and ask if it is ok to use navigation (GPS) or if we need directions from their website.
Navigation had told us to take a road that ended up being a dirt road on the side of a mountain, with no guardrail. Thankfully, we listened to the campground and took their advised alternate route. Later we drove the GPS route, it was a one-way road at times, and if we would have pulled the camper on this road, we would have been stuck. I am pretty sure the road was not wide enough for our camper. There would have been no way to turn the camper around or to have continued on that road…we would have been in a lot of trouble!
Visiting New Hampshire in Cornish
The campground was nestled in the Green Mountains, very close to the Vermont – New Hampshire border. We traveled to Cornish, New Hampshire to St. Gaudin’s National Historic Site. Augustus St. Gaudin’s was a famous sculptor who lived at the residence that is now a historic site. He sculpted many civil war statues and statues of Abraham Lincoln.
Visiting Vermont in Woodstock
We also traveled to the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Home in Woodstock, Vermont. The Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller home is famous for its architecture.
The area has many beautiful covered bridges. One bridge that we frequently traveled during our stay was the Cornish-Windsor Bridge. The Cornish-Windsor is the longest covered bridge still standing in the US, and it is the longest two-lane bridge in the world. I was scared when driving through the bridge because it was long and dark. Other cars were coming towards us on the bridge, and even though they say it is two-lane, it was really like 1.5 lane and our truck was huge.
On our trip, we visited the Vermont Norman Rockwell Museum. It was very neat and had a lot of Rockwell’s illustrations. There is also a Rockwell museum in Massachusetts, which we visited later on our trip that is a little bit more formal. Since I love Norman Rockwell, I didn’t want to miss either of them.
My very favorite part of Vermont was the trees. The pine trees were so tall and beautiful. They also have more of a ball of needles which are unlike the pine trees of the south. Our trip was almost halfway over, but our adventures were going strong. We were looking forward to our next destination, New York!
Click here to read about our adventures in New York!
Do you have a favorite state or national park? We would love to hear from you. Please drop us a line in the comment section below!
Interested in visiting Maine, New Hampshire, or Vermont? Check out Trip Advisor for fantastic lodging in the area!
Read all about our 33-day adventure to New England and beyond!
Check out Part 1 where we journeyed north to Virginia, DC, and Massachusetts.
In Part 3 we visited all over the great state of New York.
Part 4 details our visit to Ohio and Kentucky with Heading Home, the Amish, and the Sluggers.
