Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine

Monday, 29 July

With the rain last evening, and some during the night, being in a campground at Silver Ridge RV Village and Campground was like boondocking in the middle of a forest.  Very peaceful and quiet.

After breakfast, we called the nearby 18-hole golf course for a tee time.  We could not get them on the phone yesterday - we figure they closed early for the rain.  We got a tee time and headed back to St. Johnsbury to play golf at St Johnsbury Country Club.

Their website banner claimed “Impeccable Course Conditions.” And went on to state “St. Johnsbury has earned a reputation for flawless greens, lush fairways and well-carpeted tees.”  Do not believe it.  While not the worst we have played, it certainly was nowhere near “impeccable” or “flawless”.

We warmed up on the range, and got off before our scheduled tee time.  We knew there were four-somes in front of us, so we took our time and reconnoitered the holes as it was a hilly course and we wanted to play well.  Despite taking extra time, we bumped into the group in front of us by the 4th hole.  

We stayed close, with the lead going back and forth several times.  At the turn, we were tied.  On the back, it was close until Kris chipped in for a birdie on the 13th hole, and made par on three of the last five holes to take the day.  

It was a hot (for Vermont), muggy day, so an iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts became a priority.  While at Dunkin Donuts, we took advantage of their WiFi (we have had spotty cell signal in the mountains) to figure out which route to take to where.  When we left the campsite this morning, we only had a plan for golf, and no real plan for where to spend the night.  As it was hot, and Darrell was enjoying the air conditioning in Sprinty, and with few golf choices in this region of Vermont, we decided to continue east for a couple more hours.

We passed through New Hampshire, and stopped in Mexico.  Mexico, Maine that is, to check out a nine-hole course to play for tomorrow.  The price was right, and a couple of golfers finishing up said this course had the best greens in the area.  So we decided to see if we could stay at a nearby campground, Mountain View Campground in Dixfield, ME.  They had sites available, and we elected a water-electric site since we did not need sewer.  In addition to saving $2, it was also in the lower field, and mostly in the shade.  With it being 86 degrees in the shade, we put Sprinty’s new quiet air conditioner to work, and enjoyed a pleasant evening in cooler temperatures and less humidity.

We selected Mountain View Campground as our first place to check for availability based on reviews on the AllStays app which said it had nice shower and clean bathrooms.  It also had free internet (last night at Silver Ridge RV Village and Campground they wanted $7/day for WiFi).  Being in the lower field, we were too far from the WiFi access points to connect directly with our iPhones and iPads, but Sprinty’s WiFi booster connected just fine.  The WiFi was not as fast as at home, in part because the access point was still pretty far away, but we were able to post two blog posts, and stream a few YouTube videos.

Tuesday, 30 July

Golf today was at Oakdale Country Club located on Country Club Drive in Mexico.  The entrance road certainly did not live up to the image of country club.  Well, maybe it does in Mexico (the country).  It was a rough, narrow road that crossed two active fairways.  So you had to watch for golfers on the left and right to get to the parking lot.

We decided to arrive just after 8am to try and go out behind the morning group.  After checking in, we got in line to tee off.  Darrell hit his first tee shot into the creek, which was a preview of his day.  Kris got off to a good start, took the lead on the first hole, and never faltered.  Darrell managed to lose three balls on the first five holes, and tried to lose several more.  His 3-wood went into time-out (his driver is still in time-out), and his good old 5-wood salvaged most of the day.  Afterwards, he kicked himself for playing the white tees when just about every other golfer out today was playing the gold tees.

It was a slow round of golf as it seemed everyone was trying to get their golf in before it got hot.  The overall condition of the course was quite good, and as the fellow said yesterday, the greens were nice.  It was 93 degrees when we finished up, and there were only a few golfers still out on the course.  Another observation - play when it is hot and you have the course to yourself.

After golf, we headed for a Dunkin Donuts for Kris to buy frozen coffee.  We continued east, and set an intermediate stop as the Palmyra Golf Course and Campground in Palmyra, ME.  Both the campground and the golf course had high reviews, and initially we were just going to check it out.  We were still thinking of going on in to Bangor, another 30 miles, for the night.  Then Sprinty started making an intermittent metallic rattling noise from somewhere in the engine or exhaust area.  While it was intermittent, it added to the stress of the day.  As the Palmyra Golf Course was an 18-hole course with a driving range (rare in these parts), at a pretty decent price, we decided to just spend the night and try and play a round of golf before the forecasted rain arrives tomorrow.  The campground was as nice as the reviews said, and they had WiFi.  Useful as Darrell spent a good part of the rest of the afternoon doing internet research on possible causes for the metallic rattle.  No luck, but he did locate a Sprinty Urgent Care Center in Bangor, which might be necessary.  And it is the only Sprinty Urgent Care in Maine.

With it being 95 degrees, Sprinty was promptly plugged in so he could put his new quiet air conditioner to use.  The new air conditioner continues to cool better with significantly less noise than the original one.  And the coils don’t ice up.

Wednesday, 31 July

We decided last night to make it an early start as thunderstorms were forecast for noon.  Although we set an alarm for 6:30am, we were both up before the alarm.

After a quick breakfast, we made our way the 300 yards or so from the campsite to the Palmyra Golf Course parking lot.  After hitting a few balls on the range, we were off.  Kris opened up with a 176 yard drive in the fairway, while Darrell explored the trees on the left.  Kris made par on the first hole, the first of 4 pars in the first nine holes.  She led all day, making then turn 6 strokes up, and extending her lead on the back nine.  We finished in under three hours.

The course was pretty nice for this region.  A couple of the holes had very narrow fairways, leaving little margin for less than perfect shots.  Of course, on the narrowest fairway of the course, Kris hit her drive 187 yards in the center of the fairway, while Darrell contributed his ball to the collection in the woods on the left.  Most of the greens were pretty nice, but several looked to be in the early stages of being redone.  The greens being redone were fuzzy and at least half as fast as the regular greens.  The inconsistency made for some frustration with putting.

When we were done, we put in the Mercedes dealer in Bangor in Google Maps expecting that was where we were going to spend the rest of the afternoon.  As we traveled the 30 miles or so to Bangor, Darrell tried to get the metallic rattle to reoccur.  Unsuccessfully.  So we were faced with a dilemma - take it to the dealer for a noise that we can’t recreate, or hope that it was a one-time occurrence due to the heat yesterday.  We decided on the hope approach.

When we got to Bangor unable to have the noise reoccur, Sprinty headed instead for Starbucks for Kris to treat.  We then did some chores in preparation for the caravan trip that starts Friday.  We did laundry at one of the nicest laundromats we have ever used.  Four different size washers, all working, and as clean as we have ever seen.  Dryers all worked, were clean, and half of them took credit cards.  In and out in about an hour.  Then grocery shopping, filling Sprinty up with diesel, and unsuccessfully looking for a car wash big enough for Sprinty.

We decided to stay at the same campground we stayed at last September on our way to Bar Harbor, Pleasant Hill Campground in Hermon, ME.  With more golf options to choose from around Bangor, we decided to stay here two nights as check-in for the caravan is not until Friday afternoon.  We got a short pull-through site with full-hookups.  

And one WiFi code.  The RV park provides one WiFi code per site - which allows one device to connect.  Additional codes are $2/day.  Another time the WiFi booster comes in handy.  The RV park WiFi system sees the booster as one device and does not know that we have four or five devices on the booster.  

Thursday, 1 August 

We picked Hermon Meadows Golf Club in Hermon, ME to play today.  It is an 18-hole course located about 6 minutes from Pleasant Hill Campground (and even closer to Paul Bunyan Campground) and they had very nice senior and veterans rates before 11am.  We called yesterday afternoon to make a tee time and they said they did not take tee times.  We knew from the web site that there was a league playing today, so we expected it to be busy.  It was.  

We arrived just after 8am, and already there were lots of people out on the course.  We warmed up on the range, then got in line to tee off.  As we expected it was slow.

We both started with good drives in the fairway, with Darrell hitting his 252 yards as his driver came out of time-out.  We stayed close, with Darrell making the turn 2 strokes up.  Kris got serious on the back, which had Darrell get serious too.  Darrell made two birdies which helped mitigate the wayward balls on two other holes, and took honors for the day.

Next we tried to get Sprinty washed at a car wash recommended by the owner of Pleasant Hill Campground, only to find it had a height limit of 9’-6” - Sprinty stands 9’-10” tall.  We then headed to Starbucks for Darrell to buy today, for the first time in several outings.  He was tickled to have to buy and made sure to savor it slowly.

We had seen a sign for an LL Bean store nearby and decided to check it out.  Turned out it was an LL Bean Outlet store.  So the question is, does visiting a LL Bean Outlet store satisfy the state of Marine requirement to visit LL Bean when in Maine?  Feedback encouraged.

Back at the campground, we worked in getting Sprinty ready for the caravan tomorrow.  Filled the water tank, and rinsed and dumped black and gray tanks.  Darrell then washed Sprinty using a spray bottle of water and microfiber clothes.  For the record, less than 1 quart of water was used to wash Sprinty.  He then applied Wash-Wax All, a waterless wash and polymer solution used for RVs and aircraft.  In the meantime, Kris cleaned the inside.  The refrigerator got defrosted.  Sprinty is all ready to show off at the caravan rendezvous tomorrow.

Since we were mostly golfing for the last several days, we don’t have any adventuring pictures to include.  But someone on Facebook posted a picture of the camp sign they just bought - and it it cute enough to be included in the blog.