2 Miles and 4 Feet from Home: Bar Harbor Bound!

Well it rained all night last night. We had read the weather forecast and had packed up all of our stuff the night before so all we had left was our tent. I had never packed up our tent in the flat out rain so this was a first. Lyn got everything packed up inside and then I took everything to the car and then took down the tent. When I rolled it up it was soaking wet. I shoved it in the bag and threw it in the car. One way or another we were off to Bar Harbor Maine. The plan was to stop along the way as it was about 8.5 hours away. After about 45 minutes we made it to Confederation Bridge and decided to stop for breakfast at Tim Hortons. It is a super popular chain up here and is actually pretty good. It is somewhat of a cross between Starbucks and McDonalds if that is possible. As we drove the rain kept coming down but it was really easy driving and for the most part there was very little traffic. Sometimes we would see a railroad track that would come right through the middle of the highway. Not sure how this worked when you were flying along but we never saw an actual train cross the highway. We drove and drove and could not seem to get out of the rain so we kept on driving and finally we hit the US border. We waited in line for about 10 minutes and then it was our turn. The guy that talked to us was a cross between serious and funny. He asked all the usual questions and then asked how I knew Lyn and then asked how long we have been married and when her birthday was. Luckily I passed! We had one thing in the car that concerned me. Lyn’s friend had given us a big bag of dried Taro leaves so that she could use them to make my new favorite dish La-ing. There was nothing illegal about bringing them across the border but they did look suspicious. But luckily all of us in the car all passed inspection even with a big batch of dried leaves in an unmarked plastic bag. There is something to say for the feeling of coming back into your home country. It is kind of that same feeling you get on the 4^th of July. We felt proud to be back. However Canada was full of friends and family and I can honestly say that it is one of the friendliest places we have ever been. We are so thankful to all of our friends, families and even complete strangers that made our trip the special trip that it was. We will be back for sure. If you have ever thought about going you should be making your plans right now!

Once we passed the border we had less than three hours to make it to Bar Harbor so we decided to go for it. Besides it was still raining and I did not want to set up camp in the rain. Bar Harbor is also the home of Acadia National Park. We are hoping to camp there but without reservations you have to get there early in the morning just to have a chance at a site. We went to the visitor center and bought our park pass for $25. It is good for 7 days. They told us the campgrounds were full so we headed out of the park to find a commercial campground. We had seen three on the way in. One thing I love about camping in a National Park is that you usually have more room on your site and between sites. You also are usually more surrounded by trees. KOA’s are convenient but usually you are on a small piece of grass with no trees between you and your neighbor. Anyway we stopped at a place called Bar Harbor Campground. I went in the office and as soon as I walked in my phone started to beep with messages. Ahhhh good wifi that is surely a plus as we do not have data on our phones even here in the states. The owner told us to take the map and go pick our own campsite and then comeback and tell him which one. Lyn and I drove around and loved everything we saw about this campground. The lots were big and heavily wooded. It reminded me of camping when I was little. We picked a site and left a cooler there to claim it. When I went back to register he told me that they did not do credit cards or debit cards so I wrote him a check and we were on our way. The rain had stopped and the sun came out so we set up camp and let the tent dry out a bit. It was still only 4 in the afternoon so we went into town to get some groceries and headed back to camp for dinner. As Lyn cooked dinner lots of kids were out playing and several introduced themselves and asked to pet Jasper. After dinner I built a fire and we enjoyed sitting around and just relaxing. The temperature was going to get down to 59 tonight. In other words about perfect! Tomorrow we will explore the town of Bar Harbor and see what it has to offer.