Pat and Dave’s Eastern Escapade – PART 1

Dear readers: It’s time for another in our series of travel blogs. As some may remember, I’ve documented two winter trips to the southwestern US through multiple blog posts, each covering roughly a two-week period. The blog posts were great fun for me and also provided records of the trips for posterity. As with most things Saari, having done this a couple of times means that it now must be done every time we go travelling. Doing something twice makes it an absolute requirement for all future Saari activities of a similar nature.

This time, we will be travelling to the Acadia National Park on the coast of Maine, which is something we had wanted to do back in 2019 but put off due to an annoying medical issue. When we started looking into possible dates for the trip back in July, we were thinking of going in late September or early October. We quickly learned that the demand for RV camping spots at Acadia is very high. They take reservations up to 6 months in advance, but were nearly fully booked for that entire window. We did find one site available from September 5^th through 8^th and decided to reserve it before it, too, was gone.

So here we go with our next big RV trip: Pat and Dave’s Eastern Escapade!

August 25 (Wednesday): I played the last match of the 2021 Senior Golf League at Gunflint Hills in Grand Marais on Tuesday and then immediately took off to join Pat at our condo in Minneapolis (she had already gone down a few days earlier). We spent an hour on Wednesday morning loading up the Tesla with stuff for the trip, which wouldn’t have been that big a deal except that the elevator in the condo had died, thus requiring half a dozen trips up and down the five flights of stairs between the condo and the parking garage. Totally soaked with sweat and feeling very much like a rickety 71-year-old, I was almost ready to cancel the trip before we even started. But I couldn’t bear to disappoint my lovely bride, so I screwed up my courage and soldiered on. I did make her drive the Tesla, which was overflowing with stuff and carrying our bikes on the bike rack, to Lakeville, where we grabbed the RV from the Airlake Self Storage facility and headed to Whitewater State Park in Altura, MN, for our first night’s stay. The park was not very full, and we did some exploring on our bikes before transferring the rack to the RV and stowing away the stuff we had brought along for the trip. We charged up the Tesla overnight at our campsite (the RV uses a 30 amp outlet, leaving the 50 amp outlet available for charging at those campsites that include one) so we were ready to head off again in the morning.

Aug 26 (Thursday): On Thursday morning, we took off for the Mill Bluff State Park in Wisconsin. As always, I drove the RV and Pat drove the Tesla. The park was sparsely occupied, with no other campers in our vicinity, perhaps because it’s a no-frills campground, with pit toilets and no showers, and only 30 amp and 15 amp outlets. The 15 amp outlet can only charge the Tesla at a rate of 5 miles per hour of charging, so we plugged it in right away and left it on all afternoon and all night to add enough miles for the next day’s travel.

Aug 27 (Friday): On Friday morning, we left Mill Bluff and headed for the SS Badger Ferry terminal in Manitowoc, WI. It had been sprinkling on and off since Thursday afternoon, and the rain intensified to a steady drizzle as we drove eastward. Before boarding the ferry, we stopped at a small lakeside park in Manitowoc for lunch in the RV, at which time a downpour ensued. It continued to rain as we drove to the terminal and left the RV and the Tesla in designated parking spots for the crew to load on the ferry. By the time we had boarded, we were quite wet, and the rain persisted (though more lightly) for almost the entire 4-hour trip across Lake Michigan. Thankfully, it stopped before we arrived at the Ludington terminal in Michigan and held off as we drove 6 miles to the Ludington State Park. We managed to find our campsite and get settled in, though it was dark by the time I had plugged in the RV and the Tesla (again only a 15 amp outlet was available). We could tell that our site was quite nice, though it was hard to fully appreciate it in the dark. And then it began to pour again, coming down in buckets for several hours, during which time the 15 amp circuit breaker tripped. As a result, we only managed to add 20 miles to the Tesla, clearly not enough to get to our next stop. This was the first time we had any problem charging the car at a campsite, but it proved to be only a minor glitch in our plans.

Aug 28 (Saturday): In the morning, we drove to a Tesla Supercharger located about 10 miles from the Ludington State Park, charging up the Tesla at a high-speed, high-voltage DC charger in about a half hour before heading off for the Groveland Oaks County Park in Holly, MI. We encountered only intermittent sprinkles along the way, but the park roads had some very large puddles from the previous night’s downpour. The park was very spacious, with large sites, and our neighbors were having a family outing with about five tentfuls of exuberant campers. It was so hot that we ran the RV air conditioner for the first time in ages, and that drowned out the noise. Meanwhile, the Tesla was happily charging at 30 miles per hour from the 50 amp circuit, and we were ready to go again in the morning.

Aug 29 (Sunday): We took off in the morning for the Geneva State Park in Geneva, OH. Though the Tesla had enough charge to get there, we stopped along the way at another Supercharger in Sheffield, OH, to top up because our site at Geneva again only offered a 15 amp circuit for the car. The Geneva park was located next to Lake Erie, and I took a nice walk to a place on the shore where a funky looking creek entered the big lake. We got a good night’s sleep while charging the car with the slow circuit and were once again ready to go in the morning.

Aug 30 (Monday): We left in the morning for the Darien Lakes State Park in Darien Center, NY. This was an out-of-the-way park established on former dairy farm back in the 1960s. We again had only a 15 amp circuit available, but I was rather annoyed when I realized that the campsite right next to ours had a 50 amp circuit – I had not understood the legend of the on-line map when I made the reservation for this site. At any rate, we charged the car with the slow outlet and were ready to go in the morning.

Aug 31 (Tuesday): On Tuesday morning we departed for the Villages RV Park at Turning Stone in Verona, NY. Due to my faulty reservation skills at Darien Lakes, we once again stopped at a Supercharger, this time in Victor, NY, to make sure we had enough juice. (Hopefully, this is the last time we’ll need to do that at least until we leave Acadia.) The RV Park is operated by a local casino and was quite nice, with a scenic pond winding among the RV sites. It also had the best showers we’ve seen so far on the trip. Our site even had cable TV so Pat could watch the US Open Tennis. We handily charged up the Tesla with the 50 amp outlet and once again were ready to go in the morning.

Sep 1 (Wednesday): On Wednesday morning, we drove to the Kampfires RV Campground in Dummerston, VT. This turned out to be a relatively small campground nestled among towering pine trees, but it had a nice laundry which we (the Royal we, that is) used to wash a week’s worth of stinky clothes. It also had cable for Pat’s tennis and a 50 amp circuit for car charging. Big surprise, we got more rain, and in the morning the vehicles were covered in pine needles, necessitating a bit of cleanup.

Sep 2 (Thursday): Next, we drove to the Wassamki Springs Campground in Scarborough, ME. This turned out to be an enormous place with hundreds of RV sites located around a man-made lake. It was a bit incongruous, in that the roads were very crummy – rutted and dotted with puddles – yet there were dozens of very fancy, permanent RV sites with all sorts of decorations and attached buildings. More cable TV for Pat, a 50 amp circuit for the Tesla, and even a store for me to buy some unneeded but delicious chips. Pretty nice!

Sep 3 (Thursday): Next up was the Pumpkin Patch RV Resort in Hermon, ME. We had originally planned to spend two nights there, since it is close to Acadia and we thought it would be good to rest up a bit after our mad dash across half the country. However, they were so busy with the Labor Day weekend coming that they could only offer us one night. Oh well, what’s one more one-night stand at this point? Our site was in a grassy area at the very back of the property, probably used for short term reservations. But that left us very close to the restroom, so we had no complaints. No cable here, and the wi-fi was off more than it was on, but all in all it was OK. Since it was such a short drive from Wassamki Springs, we didn’t need to do any car charging.

Sep 4 (Friday): On Friday morning, we drove to the Forest Ridge Campground in Ellsworth, ME, for our final night prior to reaching Acadia. Again, no cable TV, but the wi-fi is excellent, which prompted me to write up this blog post. We also got to listen to a nice concert by a local pop/rock band that played 60s and 70s hits. We went into the town of Ellsworth to have an excellent dinner at the Union River Lobster Pot – Pat had lobster pie and I had clam chowder and crab cakes, both accompanied by a Maine wine called Buoy. Now we’re back at the campground. A bit of a top-up for the Tesla and we’ll be ready to go in the morning.

So that’s the story so far. Here’s a map of the Escapade to this point:

All is well. Stay tuned as the Eastern Escapade continues.