September 2017 – Fun and Fall in the Northeast

Last year, we spent Labor Day at Niagara Falls and had such a great time, we decided to do it again this year, except this time, we brought our passports and some good RV friends! Can you believe that crossing the border to view the Falls from Canada was our first “international” trip? We chose to walk the bridge to Canada which ended up being quite the adventure since it was an extremely windy day. Seeing the Falls from the Canadian side was quite impressive and well worth the walk.  Once back on the American side, we took the iconic boat trip on the Maid of the Mist (think Pam and Jim’s wedding on The Office). Again, because it was such a windy day, we were absolutely soaked by the Falls, even with our ponchos on. The view from the bottom of the Falls was breathtaking. Rainbows were everywhere in the mist and the force of water coming down was undeniable. Eric is always drawn to waterfalls, and this one is by far his favorite.

From New York, we traveled south to Hershey, Pennsylvania, for our last show of the year – the Hershey RV Show. This was our second year to do this as well, and it was a great show. We actually sold out of everything on the end of the 4th day which was an awesome blessing! We would have had to carry any remaining inventory with us the rest of the year or pay to ship it back to the warehouse in Alabama had we not. We have actually never sold out of every single thing at a show before this. With only a year or so of attending these under our belt, we were very proud of the accomplishment.

After Hershey, we started the trip to Maine. We spent a week near Philadelphia to attend (and recover from) a Sammy Hagar concert which was so much better than I expected. The campground where we stayed was quiet and relaxing, except for the stink bugs. Apparently there is a “stink bug season” in Pennsylvania, and we were smack dab in the middle of it!  Did you know stink bugs can fly?  Yeah, I learned that the first night we were there when one came nosediving at me while I was laying on the couch.  Needless to say that started a war and one I was going to win. I can’t tell you the number of stink bugs I’ve “eliminated” the past week or so. Our disposal method? We use a strip of duct tape to catch them (they are very slow if they aren’t flying) and then we fold it over on them and seal them in their duct tape coffin to die!  Cruel maybe, but absolutely necessary for my sanity.

As I write this, we are on the road to Maine (with stowaway stink bugs on board too, I’m sure).  We entered the state a few miles back, and it’s been a beautiful area so far. We are seeing larger bodies of water again, and we are pumped! We miss eating fresh seafood while we are on the road, and we look forward to any place that is on water and has great food. Lobster will be on the menu a lot these upcoming weeks I’m predicting. This is also the time for beautiful fall colors in Maine – something we don’t get to see a lot of in Alabama.  The weather is wonderful with highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s.  Add some Bama football this weekend, and I think we have perfection in the making.

Speaking of Alabama, Mike and Angie (Eric’s brother and sister-in-law) are flying up from Mobile to meet us in Bar Harbor so we are thrilled. We love it when family comes to visit us on the road! We are staying at a campground right on the water that has cabins on site as well.  This trip to Maine will most likely end our 2017 National Park Tour when we visit Acadia National Park.  That makes 17 this year we’ve visited, and 19 since we’ve started RVing.  We’ve officially been to 3 corners of the United States this year. We started the year off in California, made it to Washington State around June, and now Maine. To round out the trip, we will be visiting Florida later this year for some more beach side R&R.

At this time, we’ve visited a total of 39 states in the RV, which means Lincoln has visited 39 states too!  He loves the travel life and everything it offers him – like being no more than 5 feet from us at all times.  In his old age, he’s lost his sight and most of his hearing, but he feels pretty safe in his tiny home on wheels.  We think traveling full-time ended up being just what he needed in his “senior” years.  He loves being with us nonstop, and I even think he likes to check out the new places when we pull into a new campground.  He loves his walks in his wagon and sunbathing on warm days, but most of the time, he loves to just sleep the day away inside.  He will be 13 in February, and we are looking forward to helping him check off the remaining 10 continental states off his doggy bucket list!

-Tami

Click here to see our September Photo Album

  3 comments for “September 2017 – Fun and Fall in the Northeast

  1. Warren Bruen
    October 2, 2017 at 12:54 am

    We had the stink bug expierence at Thousand Trails Hershey a few years ago. Same time of year, Sept thru Oct. it took almost a year to get rid of them. They get under the edge of the rubber seals when you bring in your slides they are automatically inside. We found a good hand vac like a cheap DustBuster vac is the best thing to use you can get them easy and safely while in transit and your wife will not get bored. Just don’t smash them the oder lingers around. When your in Maine check out the moorings oceanfront campground in Belfast also the town of Camden

    • October 8, 2017 at 5:04 pm

      A year?!? I will be out of my mind by then. 🙂 We sprayed Bengal near entries and in cracks and about 20 ended up dead the next morning. We’ve been in cold weather, and I hear they don’t like that, but I’m fearing when we get back south, they will reappear.

      • November 1, 2017 at 8:05 pm

        My wife and I visited Gettysberg a few years ago and also experienced the stink bug invasion of our coach. We live in Wisconsin so we drove back with about a dozen or two of the stowaway critters. But I was very surprised the following spring when those bugs emerged again – very alive and well. Apparently, a Wisconsin winter isn’t cold enough to do them away!

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