Portland to Bar Harbor/Acadia NP

Another 178 miles, another 6 hours. The roads here make it almost impossible to make any time. There are towns every 10 miles, the speed limit is usually 45, then you come into a town with the limit dropping to 35, then 25, then a couple of stoplights through town, them back to 45, etc. The interstate of course is much quicker and we may be using it a bit more to get back to Plattsburgh to have the brakes done.

The bike has also sprung an oil leak. It was actually diagnosed way back in Louisiana when I picked up the trailer and had the fluids changed but it was so slow the mechanic told me to wait. It is not that tough a job except it is about 3 hours to remove parts to get access. However, the leak is getting worse so I will have to do something about it while in Plattsburgh. Mark is a good mechanic and has the tools to do it so we may do it there. Have to talk to him about it.

This area is again just plain beautiful. We have had really crappy internet for a while so no pics uploaded yet but we are taking lots and will get caught up soon as possible. Acadia is a huge park with many cliffs that drop off to the ocean. I was surprised to realize that we are actually south of Salem, Or. My awareness of geography is sorely lacking but this trip is making things clearer to me.

Today is cool and cloudy but no rains so far. I am at an internet cafe that wants too much money to use there service so I am on the aircard and it is way slow. I need to come back tomorrow to make a telephone call and I may pay them to upload some photos then, maybe now.

The call is to a dealer for the trailer who will be at the Americade show the first week in June. We are thinking pretty seriously about trading this one for one that has a built in tent. This would allow us to use most RV parks which are turning out to be much more viable than campgrounds but they won’t allow tents where they will allow pop-up campers which I think this trailer would qualify as at most places, especially KOA. KOA won’t allow dogs in the tent sites they provide and it is becoming more problematic for us to be able to do much sightseeing with the little guy. Also I think we would use motels much less frequently. Last night was the first night we have camped in nearly two weeks, thanks mostly to Mark allowing us to use his RV.

Robert asked how Bent is doing, and he is doing well. He doesn’t fight getting in the kennel at all but of course he really likes it when we stop which we do at least every 100 miles and usually much before that.