We pulled up stakes in our amazing private driveway in Warren, Vermont with excitement in our eyes for our next stop.
As many know, we pretty much route by serendipity, and don’t make too many advanced plans. We listen to our instincts, take opportunities as they present themselves and just trust we’ll end up where we’re meant to.
It works awfully darn well for us.
Our next stop, came precisely by listening to our muse’s call – this time with one part old connections and one part technology.
This post covers our travels from August 14-16, 2016. It was also the first time either Chris or I had visited New Hampshire, and marks each of our 49th states.
Rendezvous One
We had been sharing on Instagram pictures around Vermont as we explored. Our friends Cortney & Ethan happened to be following along. We hadn’t seen them in over 8 years, friendships from Chris’ San Francisco Bay Area days before going nomadic.
A couple of exchanges on Instagram, Cortney revealed they were about to head to New Hampshire themselves, for a small reunion on property that had been in the family for centuries.
They invited us to join in the fun – and yes, there’s plenty of room for the bus!
We selected the scenic route on our way into Peterborough, New Hampshire – in the southern part. A bit off our intended track to our next stop in the White Mountains, but we figured it’ll be a long time before we’re back in California and have an opportunity to catch up with these guys.
We arrived to the property, and were presented with multiple parking options. We selected for the best view, of course. We were a wee bit concerned when we started to sink into the top soil a bit from all of the recent rains – but in the end, it proved not to be a problem.
They also happened to be hosting another nomadic duo – Christy & Aodh Og, traveling musicians of Four Shillings Short. It was fun to compare notes about life on the road with our respective approaches.
It was marvelous to spend a few days in this special location catching up with our friends, getting to know their gracious family, making new friends, swimming in their private pond and hearing tales of the property’s long history.
Thanks again guys for welcoming us in to crash your family reunion!
Rendezvous Two
Just about as soon as we landed in New Hampshire, my mom messages me saying ‘You know you have two cousins in New Hampshire?’.
I seemed to vaguely recall that, but quite honestly, I didn’t grow up with a lot of blood family around. My parents moved us from the northeast to Texas when I was very young, so most of my aunts, uncles and cousins are like people out of a story book.
When I plugged in the cities she gave me, it had to be serendipity that my cousin Heather was literally right down the road from us. A little Facebook contact, and voila – a rendezvous planned for the next morning.
Heather and her wife Kelly invited us to join them for a day on a nearby lake. We motored around for a couple hours, laughing and connecting. And they convinced Chris to give water skiing a try (something he hadn’t done in many years).
Heather and I did the math. It had been about 22 years since last time we saw each other – at our grandmother’s memorial service. And it had to have been in our mid-teens the prior time we saw each other.
I sometimes wonder what it would have been like growing up with family around.
At any rate, I hope it’s not another 20 years until we see each other again.
What’s Next?
For our occasional complaints about how social media invites in unwelcomed comments, the benefits continue to outweigh the negatives for us. That’s why we continue at sharing slices of our lives. It not only is helping others see what is possible, it’s a wonderful conduit for serendipity.
As usual, I’m behind a few stops on updating the travelogue. Upcoming, we did get to the White Mountains, and then enjoyed another driveway surf and rendezvous with friends.
We’re also behind on so many topical posts we want to share, such as a lithium battery update (we took a day to do a full balancing and drain test, now we just have to find a couple days to dedicate to writing it up), our e-bikes and other gadgets we’re using in our travels.
But, I write this from Acadia National Park on the coast of Maine, where our focus if of course – exploring. Not sitting at our desks.
This stop will be the furthest north we reach on this expedition and will mark our turn around point for starting to head back to Florida for the winter. We should be reaching Rhode Island (our 50th state) and Connecticut by mid-month.
So, the tales will continue when we can.. see ya next time!
I love reading your blog posts, I really enjoy the way you write and find your words inspirational. Its interesting what your 50th state ends up being.. Mine was North Dakota last summer and it was a very exciting moment for me to cross that state line! Hope you enjoy Rhode Island, southern Rhode Island is very pretty 🙂 Thank you both for all the wonderful insight that you share and I hope to meet you someday out there on the road
See, good karma just continues to follow you around! What great visits you had and inquiring minds in the mountains want to know how the water skiing turned out! 🙂
Enjoying following your travels in New England and all the great photos!
Some suggestions for your ride south out of Maine (all on the same stretch of road and within 30 mins of each other):
Waldoboro – ”secret” place I’ll email you about.
Round Pond Lobster in Round Pond – real-deal lobster shack, outdoor dining on working fishing dock on picturesque cove, lobster and steamers cooked in salt water, BYOB (this applies to all beverages; they don’t sell them), great prices.
Pemaquid Point Lighthouse in Bristol – the lighthouse on the Maine State Quarter, amazing geology! and the two sides of the point have completely different personalities.
Any reason you guys aren’t sticking around for fall and following the changing leaves south through New England?
Yup.. there are reasons. We’ll share when we’re ready 🙂
You are meeting up with lots of interesting people! The cousin meetup sounded very cool and perfectly serendipitous.
Hi guys,
As you know, we’ve got LiFePO4 batteries also. I did not know that balancing was required. I thought the on-board CPUs took care of that automatically.
If the tech available now was what we used, ours would. Elite made advancements based on our experience as discussed in our 3.5 year write-up. So thus, we check and rebalance annually.
Rhode Island? I don’t know if it’s big enough for your bus! 😉
Seriously, you must visit the quaint little fishing village of Wickford, and then take the bridge across to the sparsely-populated Jamestown island. After a drive around, and maybe a swim at one of the nice beaches on Jamestown, take the bridge across to Newport island where you can go inside the lavish historic mansions of the rich. There are old forts to visit on both islands as well. I grew up there, but haven’t been back in over 20 years.
I’m sure the state will find room for our bus 🙂 I already know we won’t have nearly enough time there, and our purpose for our visit will be pretty focused.
Glad you finally made it to Acadia. So much to see and do there.
Of course you will be trying the Carriage Roads on your bikes. To get away from the crowds around Eagle Lake head south, and/or westward – where fewer go. One of our favorites (though they are all great) is the road that goes just to the West of Parkman Mountain – between intersections #10 & 12. Found it easier to go North from #12 heading to stop #10. It’s a long uphill but you get GREAT views of Somes Sound from there, and then you are rewarded with a long downhill towards #10.
You should also try some of the Ladder hikes, now open since you are beyond the Falcon nesting season. They are really not strenuous as the altitude gains are fairly low, but great fun, and you get great views from them very quickly. One that we liked was the Precipice Trail (up Champlain Mt.) on the Eastern most side of the park. There is parking for it right along the Park Loop Road, but you can also park along Schooner Head Road and walk across the meadow to get to the Precipice Trail head as well. After just a little hiking you will start to get great views Eastward of the ocean looking across to Schoodic Penninsula.
If you want some fresh mountain blueberries there are a number of places accessible from the carriage roads – particularly towards the mountain tops where they get more sun – but we found a lot at the cul-de-sac end of the Day Mountain carriage Road.
You must also stop at the Jordan Pond House. It’s is very centrally located – very close to a a lot of different carriage roads. You can freshen up there, have a nice meal, but of course you have to have their fresh baked popovers while you sit outside on the lawn overlooking Jordan Pond.
The are also National Park ocean tours which are very nice as well. One we took was out to Baker Island, where the Baker family lived for several generations. It is now officially part of Acadia N.P. due to it’s very interesting history. It was amazing how rugged and adaptable people were back then. For example – the original Mrs Baker had a number of children while living there, and for most of them when she went into labor she waited for low tide – and then walked – by herself – about 1 1/2 miles across the exposed ocean floor over to Little Cranberry Island where the mid-wife lived. A few days later she would walk back carrying her new-born. People just did what they had to back then.
If you want to go swimming the few ocean beaches tend to be quite cold, but we found that going over to the Western peninsula that you can have a nice freshwater swim at Echo Lake beach.
I could go on and on but you cannot go wrong in Acadia. Mountains, ocean, cute town, great hiking and the best biking anywhere. Just hope you have decent weather to enjoy it all.
Have fun!
Thanks for the tips… we actually explored some (not nearly enough) of the main Acadia NP last week. We’re currently camped on the Schoodic Peninsula and greatly enjoying our time here.
ARGH! You’re so close, but so far away! I haven’t gotten too far from the parents this summer. They’re the priority. And I’m so grateful to have this time with them.
I love that you’re enjoying New England, though. The best place in the world to spend a summer. that’s why I return year after year.
It has definitely charmed our socks off this summer.
Cannot wait for your 5 year update. Designing my Solar (960 Watt 6×160 from AM Solar with Victron MPPT charge controller) and LiFePO4 (GBS cells from Larry at Starlight Solar) upgrades now. One question I still have is since the Elite EMS provides UV and OV signals, should I go with separate inverter and charger or the Victron Mulitplus (which we had on our boat).
Hopefully between the collective wisdom of Starlight and AMSolar, they can steer you down the right path. They’ve now done more installs than just about anyone we know.
Love your blog!