7 Aug - Penobscot Narrows Observatory, Ft Knox, Castine and Dyce Head Light

7 Aug
Today we headed north and west from the campground on Route 1 and planned to see the city of Castine and a lighthouse down there.  While in route, Doreen discovered an old fort on the map, so we headed a bit further to Bucksport Maine.  Approaching the fort, we crossed Penobscot Bay and the Waldo-Hancock Bridge.  The suspention bridge was originally constructed in 1931 and during an overhaul in 2003 they found severe corrosion so it had to be replaced replaced.  The new bridge includes two 400-foot concrete towers and one of them has an elevator that takes you to the top and the three-level 360 degree observatory.  The view was incredible!

An aerial view.  The observatory is the left column.  The fort is also on the left, behind the bridge.

Quite a structure.  Each of the tubes is hollow and holds multiple strands of very strong cable.

A view from the bottom, near the entrance where you catch the elevator to the top.

Doreen at the top.  Informative displays in each direction describe what you are seeing.

Looking west and the millions of tons of rock that had to be removed for end of the bridge and the road.

Trace of a boat heading into Penobscot Bay.

Another view west and down onto the suspension members.

After the trip to the top of the bridge we headed around the corner to Fort Knox. Unlike the Kentucky Fort Knox, there is no gold reserves here! The Maine Fort Knox was established in 1844 to protect the Penobscot River valley against a possible future British naval incursion.  There was never a shot fired in anger here, but it served it's purpose.  It is very well preserved and VERY interesting.  Some of it is underground, such as where the powder magazines were.  The remainder is above ground, like the gun batteries.

This is how the fort looks today!  It is huge!

Where the cannons were mounted.  They rotated on the steel plates in the concrete.

The tunnels in the fort

More tunnels

Officer's quarters

One of the many powder magazines

One of the many cannons.  Notice the carts they used to pivot them.

A re-enactor explained many facets of the fort.

After touring the fort, we headed down to our original destination which was Castine.  There we visited the Dyce head (lighthouse), but it was privately owned and we could only view it from a distance.  

A view of the Dyce Light and keepers house from the road.

There is a trail you can follow down to the shore, so I hopped off and caught this shot.  The keepers house is a private residence now.

The oil house

Wild blueberrys on the trail.  They were delicious!!

Then we headed into Castine for lunch.  There is a maritime museum as well as the Maine Maritime Academy.  They have a training ship which happened to be in port

Lobster traps

One of the hotels

Our lunch restaurant

One of the tugs used by the academy

A ship used by the academy

Beautiful downtown area

That's it for Castine.  We took the back roads back to the RV park.  Tomorrow we go on the lighthouse cruise.

6 Aug - Telephone Museum (What??!) and Resupply

6 Aug
Only a true "comm guy" would travel all the way from Iowa to Maine to got to a telephone museum!!  Well, Doreen has her lighthouses and I have my comm gear!!  So today we headed up the road to visit the "New England Museum of Telephony".  It is located back in the woods, but they have a fantastic display of WORKING telephone equipment dating back to the beginning of telephony.  Having worked on telephone equipment for many years I found this place to be very interesting.  They have a wide variety of not only phones, but telephone switching equipment, some of which I have worked on before!  My wife kids me about that and says I should be in a museum.  Ha Ha hardy har har.

So we finally found the place and were greeted by very friendly folks.

The building does not look like much, but just step inside..!

The guy that did our tour is their association treasurer and a school teacher.  he has never worked for a telephone company but he is extremely knowledgeable and phone stuff. His passion is telephony and that is obvious.  He built a switching system out of parts, installed it in a building, and transported the building to one of the local islands so they could have phone service.  He was very passionate about his tour and I was very interested in what he had to say, but neither Doreen or I were looking for an associated degree in telephony...  Man this guy went into detail and we were there for about 1-1/2 hours.  I really appreciate anyone who has that much passion about their hobby and it was all good!!

So he took us around the building and we did a hands-on with various telephone displays.

Old corded switchboard, fully operational

Another corded switchboard, also operational

Our tour guide, the school teacher

In their new display building

The displays go on and on

Wide variety of vintage phones

More phones

That orange butt set should look familiar to our 132d Comm Flight folks.  We had the exact same one in our switch room.

The switching system he built for the island

Inside the building.

Well, I never expected to tour a telephone museum near bar Harbor but I am really glad we found this place.

On the way back to the campground we found a Walmart and restocked on groceries and other supplies.  Then we made our way back to the campground and enjoyed the rest of the day.  Doreen met the neighbor to our port side.  They are from Missouri and he is in insurance.  On the starboard side the guy is retired from USDA and volunteers for the USO.  ou never know who you are going to meet in the campground.

In the coming week we are going to take the cruises mentioned before, plus meet with an Air Force First Sergeant comrade from Iraq and another Air Force buddy from Loring who we have not seen since 1976.

More to follow!

5 Aug - Good Bye Riverbend. Hello Timberland Acres RV park

5 Aug
Time to pull chocks at Riverbend and head down to Acadia National Park and Timberland Acres RV park.  We headed up to the dump station and after a thorough flushing of the gray and black tanks and saying our goodbyes to Hammy and Lorie, about 09:32 hrs we headed on down the road.  After some of our road trips we decided to head on up to Bangor on I-95 and then south on 1A to Trenton ME and Timberland Acres RV Park.  It was a bit longer, but smooth sailing with 4-lane highways the majority of the trip.  Also no worries about low bridges and weight embargos.  At 12:39 we arrived after about  126 miles and a couple stops.

Our 18th campground on this trip

Back to stats, we have traveled 7842 miles, burned a little over 601 gallons of diesel costing $1364.38 with a per gallon average of $2.273

Like Riverbend, Timberland Acres is a commercial campground, so the cost is higher than the military campgrounds.  This place is $45.39/night compared to ~ $20/night at the military sights, but we are in a very touristy location also.  Doreen talked to a neighbor and they paid over $115/night. not far from here, so it pays to do your homework and make reservations in advance..

246 Camp sites.  We are in 209.  It is much bigger than the picture shows

So we have a nice pull-through spot that is over 100 ft long, with full hookup.

Rear view.  Old Glory and the Air Force flag flying high and proudly.

Gravel spots, nice and wide

Nice spacing between rigs

The State tree, pine trees in the background.  Our neighbors are from Missouri.

They come to your camp spot each morning and pick up your trash and recyclables.  Nice swimming pool and laundry facilities.  The campground has Wi-Fi and the signal is pretty strong, but the through-put is lousy.  I am on Verizon Hotspot right now from my iPhone to finish this post.  We will be here for 10 nights and plan to see sights up and down the coast.  Doreen has scoped out a lobster boat cruise where you get to help them harvest lobsters from the traps.  She also has reservations on a lighthouse cruise where you get to see lighthouses inaccessible from shore.

4 Aug - Rockport Road Trip, Spaghetti at Ernies

4 Aug
Today Brad and Beth departed the campground for Boston.  Their son is getting married down there in a couple weeks and then needed to get down there in preparation.  We said a fond farewell and vowed to make the next get together much sooner!

So we decided to just hit the road and see the sights today with Hammy and Lorie.  We ended up heading down to Rockport ME and visiting Lincolnville State Park in Camden.  No lighthouse right here, but a spectacular view of the ocean and Penobscot Bay.

Penobscot bay

Hambone checking out the view.

Ships in the Penobscot bay harbor

Panoramic

World War I Memorial Tower was under renovation

We stopped for lunch in Freeport and then headed back to the campgrounds.  Later that evening we drove to Ernie and Rhonda Souther's house near Livermore Fall ME.  They have a beautiful home out in the country on about 75 acres.  Ernie heats the home with a boiler in an out-building as they have an abundance of trees to feed it.  After a fantastic spaghetti dinner, we headed back to the campgrounds and started our tear-down in preparation for departing the next morning..  We finished up the evening around the campfire.