Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts

Saturday, 7 September

The rain we expected last night stayed away from Sebago Lake State Park, although other parts of New Hampshire and Maine got rain.  We made a tee time for 11am based on the weather forecast indicating the rain would be done by 10am.

Today’s adventuring was going to be adventuring a golf course.  Golf today was at Province Lake Golf Course in Parsonsfield, ME, about an hour from the campground.  An hour on back roads through Maine, including sections of “broken pavement”.  We arrived just as the misty rain was ending.  After hitting a bucket of balls on the range, we got to go,off a little earlier than our tee time.  Not that it made a difference as we spent most of the day waiting on the groups,in front of us.

We both started okay, and Darrell took a one shot lead on the first hole with a par.  Kris evened it up two holes later, and continued her consistent play to Darrell’s erratic play.  Kris was four stroke sup at the turn.

Kris continued to play well including some super drives, one over 190 yards.  She had honors on the day.  Again.  Fortunately, Sprinty had pre-researched where Starbucks were located so Kris could pay up.  And we were off to Rochester, NH for Kris to buy.  On similar back roads as this morning.

Our destination for the evening was Bear Brook State Park Campground in Allenstown, NH.  We made the reservation only two days ago for a Saturday night.  We were surprised to be able to get a site on the weekend, perhaps because it had a 24 foot length limitation.  And a water-electric site at that.  The site was a whole lot bigger than 24 feet, but the turn-in from the road would have been quite a challenge for a longer rig, or a long travel trailer.  Sprinty tucked in with ease.

Shortly after we got Sprinty settled, a lady walked up and asked to see Sprinty.  She has a Carado Banff, which was a no-frills Class B camper van built by Erwin Hymer North America, the parent of Roadtrek until they went bankrupt.  Built on the Dodge Ram Promaster chassis, it has all the basics of a camper van without the bells and whistles of Sprinty.  Kris gave her the tour of Sprinty.

She invited us over to see her rig and meet her partner, Mike.  After showers and dinner, we went over to visit.  They had dozens and dozens of questions from cellular boosters to rallies to air conditioners to how we find campsites.

Sunday, 8 September 

Today we decided to adventure at a golf course, this one in Concord, NH.  We made a tee time on-line and got the first one available on the day at 10:06.  Turns out, they had a golf outing this morning that filled all the earlier tee times.  Beaver Meadow Golf Course was established in 1896 and is New Hampshire’s Oldest Golf Course. 

The course looked fairly flat and we saw a lot of golfers walking the course.  So we decided to walk as well.  We arrived in plenty of time to hit a bucket of balls on the range, practice putting, then sit around until we could go off.  The Pro Shop was very nice and accommodationist to get us off.  Kris started well placing her drive in the middle of the fairway.  Darrell got to scramble, and Kris was one stroke up after the first hole.  We stayed close throughout the front nine, and Kris made the turn up by one stroke.  On the back, Darrell started hitting better, and slowly started picking up strokes to take the day by two strokes.  He skipped for joy at the prospect of having to buy today as we took the clubs back to Sprinty.

By walking the course, we got a 6.3 mile hike in and it made the slow weekend play more tolerable by enjoying a nice walk in a beautiful setting.  We noted the first hint of fall colors in the leaves - not quite as much hint as we saw in the White Mountain National Forest.

Concord, NH has several Starbucks, so it was pretty easy for Sprinty to take Darrell to pay up.  After golf, we made our way to Massachusetts to Pearl Hill State Park for the night.  We made a reservation last night for one of the only two sites that were long enough for Sprinty at 24 feet.  So we were a bit surprised to see an almost vacant campground when we arrived.  Looking closer, the site length limits were due to the trees that made getting into the sites a challenge.  Sprinty had no issues.  It is an older campground with tired facilities.  

Monday, 9 September

An early start for the birthday girl as her birthday wish was to play golf on her birthday, and we wanted to be in Foxborough, MA before 4pm.  Building in golf and our checkin time was a key factor in selecting where we stayed last night.

The campground was very quiet, and we almost felt bad having to start up Sprinty to leave.  Golf today was at Westminster Golf & Country Club in Westminster, MA, about 30 minutes away.  We had booked a 9am tee time via their web site.

When we arrived, there was a five-some teeing off on the first tee.  After getting organized, we headed to the first tee - mo warm up on the range (they did not have a range) and no practice putting or chipping.  We both hit good tee shots and both made par.  Darrell started picking up shots, and after about 6 holes, Kris made some remark about Darrell having to buy.  To which Darrell replied, he was just having to build a cushion because Kris usually comes on strong on the back nine.  We made the turn with Darrell being three strokes up.

On the back nine, it was Darrell who came on string, with eight pars to finish with a 77 one the day, and honors.

The golf course/contra club also had a promotion going on.  The normal senior rate as $41 with a cart, but the promotion was $42 with a cart and lunch.  As we bumped into the five-some on the second hole, they let us through on the next hole, and we got to play at our pace with no waiting.  So we finished in under 2-1/2 hours, just after the restaurant opened for lunch.  The lunch was great, and the portions were enough that we saved half for dinner.  Just one of the many advantages of traveling with your house which has a refrigerator.

After lunch, Sprinty made a bee-line for Worcester to a Starbucks for Darrell to treat.

After enjoying our treat, we headed for Foxborough, MA to Normandy Farms Campground for a Roadtrek Rally.  Fifty Roadtrek (80 people) have gathered for the annual Roadtrek International Chapter Rally hosted by Region 2.  

Normandy Farms Campground is a luxury RV park - within just a few minutes on the property, we assessed it as one of the nicest campgrounds we have stayed at.  

• From their website:  “Nestled deep in the woods between Boston & Cape Cod, Normandy Farms is a luxury camping destination that has been a family tradition since 1971 and widely recognized as one of the premier resorts in the world.   It has been named the top RV Park in America four times.”

The property has been in the family for nine generations.  A link to their history page:  https://www.normandyfarms.com/home/history/