July 23, 2019 Shelburne, NH to Greenville, ME

It rained most of the night and into the morning.  Yesterday, was the first day we didn't use the AC.  We could have slept with the windows open, but because of the rain, we didn't.  In fact, last night we left the fireplace on to heat the trailer while we slept.  It did such a good job that Bob got up at 3 AM to turn it off because it was too hot. 

This morning, we checked the radar for a break in the rain and when it came, we broke camp in a hurry.  The mosquitoes were out in full force, so Bob volunteered to do most of the work after he donned his Northwoods fleece pants to keep the mosquitoes away and blend in with the background.

We were done and on the road by 10:00.  We hoped the rain would continue to hold off for the rest of the day.  When we left, the temp was a cool 64 degrees.  We followed Highway 2 across the Maine border and along the Androscoggin River.

There seemed to be a lot of heavy trucking going on with trucks carrying lumber and other heavy loads.  All the trucks were sporting massive grill guards.

Highway 2 in Maine was in good condition and other than the trucks, vehicle traffic was light.  The clouds hung low in the mountains again, as we meandered our way through more small towns. 

We had to cut back on our speed to pass through those towns, but for the most part we were able to travel at a speed of 50-55 mph.  Traveling along Highway 2 took us through the town of Rumford Falls.  There was a large dam and rapids in the city.

We crossed the river there and were now in the town of Mexico.

The town of Mexico had a huge paper mill making wood chips into paper.  

Continuing to follow the river, I was on the lookout for moose, but saw 2 baby fawns standing at the water's edge. One of the fawns still had spots.  We did run into a couple of traffic slowdowns of road construction where we went from two lanes to one lane of traffic.  We even came to an area where we ran out of paved road for a short section.  

Eventually, the sky brightened up and blue sky appeared as we headed east.  At Bingham, we were halfway between the North Pole and the equator along the Kennebec River.  From Bingham, we traveled on Highway 16, which was the WORST 30 miles of roadway we've traveled on …EVER!  We had to travel at 25 mph to avoid shaking  everything in the trailer loose.  It was horrible!  The closer we got to our campground, the more serious the moose warnings got.  Now they added flashing lights!

We climbed and climbed on this highway into the Longfellow Mountains.  What a view from on top!

Then we descended into the town of Abbot where we turned north onto Highway 15/6 towards our campground. Bob was the first to spot a moose.  Ha!

The highway also crossed the Appalachian Trail in this area.

Fortunately, this road was in better condition.  It took us 4 hours to go 155 miles which wasn't bad considering some of the horrible roads we had to travel on.  When we arrived at 2:15 at the Moosehead Family Campground, the sun was shining, the skies were blue, and the temp was 73 degrees.  The campground is located just south of Greenville, which is on the south end of Moosehead Lake.  The area is noted for a variety of year-round activities, including.

We set up camp in site #20 for 5 nights.  We have a large campsite on the end of the road, so no one is on either side of us which is nice and quiet.

This is the first campground we've been to without flush toilets.  It doesn't have sewer at the sites, but it does have a dump station and a mobile sewer pump truck which will come to your site and pump out your tank for $20.  There is no cable or Wi-Fi, so we have to use our own Mi-Fi to get internet and do my blog.  

We will enjoy a break from the driving it took to get here by staying in one spot for 5 nights.  We are not quite as far north as we are planning to go…yet.  There are very few paved roads north of here.  We plan to explore Greenville, Moosehead Lake, and take a moose tour on Thursday.  I am on a Moose Mission and hopefully, we'll see some moose.  We are looking forward to sleeping with the windows open tonight.  Sweet dreams!