Road Trip #9 – WV, PA, NJ, CT, MA, RI, ME, NH, VT, NY, OH, VA

Posted 2 years ago by Kram

The first leg of this road trip began at the New River Gorge National Park, one of the newest national parks. With family roots in northern WV, we have driven through this area numerous times but never really stopped to check it out. We based the Cougar at New River Campground, located in Gauley Bridge WV. The campground is very “quaint” and located on the New River. We had site 36 and had a great view of the river and as a bonus, it came with a large family of geese intermingled with a few mallards. The campground provided full hook ups and was very reasonably priced. As a bonus, Cathedral Falls was across the road and down a little bit  from the campground.

The next day we headed to the Canyon Rim Visitor Center. If the New River is ever a category on Jeopardy, we are ready. We watched the movie and read all of the exhibits about the river,  its history, and of course the bridge and its construction. With our never ending pursuit of fine pizza dining, we happened upon Pies & Pints in Fayetteville WV and had some excellent pizza.

The New River begins in Blowing Rock NC and ends at Gauley Bridge, where it meets up with the Gauley River and forms the Kanawha River. The National Park pretty much covers the river from Hawks Nest State Park south to the historic town of Hinton below I-64. Between the New River and the Gauley River National Recreation Area, white water rafting is the main attraction. 

The next leg of the road trip was a 3 day stay at Blackwater Falls State Park in Davis West Virginia. And a very cold and rainy three days it was. We sharpened our Yahtzee and Boggle skills and ate well. You can tell from the pictures of the falls that there has been a substantial amount of rain. But rain is good and was only going to slow us down a little bit, and not stop us. We even completed a 5 mile walk in not so nice weather. 

Some beautiful spring weather for this leg of the trip to Harpers Ferry WV and Antietam in Sharpsburg MD. We landed the Cougar at the Harpers Ferry KOA, which is perfectly located for easy access to the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park visitor center. You can grab a shuttle to downtown Harpers Ferry every 15 minutes. We spent a day exploring Harpers Ferry and it is a pretty neat place. 

The following day we explored the Antietam civil war site in Sharpsburg MD, about a twenty minute drive from Harpers Ferry. The bloodiest day in American History took place here in 1862. During a 12 hour battle, 23,000 Americans were killed, wounded, or missing. If only we would learn from history the cost of partisanship and being a divided country. We all just need to get along and meet in the middle.

Hello Notloc and Ekul, 

Any idea what type of bird this is that we spotted in Blackwater Falls SP, WV ???

We continued our road trip with the next stop at Promised Land State Park near Greentown, Pennsylvania. This is a very nice state park that borders the Delaware State Forest. There are plenty of hiking trails and a nice lake if you fish. Our camping spot was in the Beechwood area and we had electric. Water is available at a couple of spots throughout the campground along with a dump station. It rained heavily off and on throughout our stay. Great use was made of Boggle and Yahtzee. We did manage a trip out to the Promised Land Inn for some wings. Very nice place.

From the Promised Land State Park we headed to Stokes State Forest in New Jersey for a one night boondocking adventure. We didn’t see any bears, but we heard air horns throughout the night where other campers were trying to get them to move along. Of course Nerak heard bears all night, and she let me know whenever she did.

We spent a couple of days in Mystic, Connecticut on this leg of our road trip. We are in a constant search for the best pizza in the US, and what better place to try than Mystic Pizza. The pizza was very good and the service was excellent. We did not see Julia Roberts. But we did see a Dunkin Donuts on just about every corner of Connecticut. The Cougar was parked at the Mystic KOA which was a really convenient location for exploring the area. Downtown Mystic, with the drawbridge separating the two sides of the downtown was what I visualize a New England town to be. Another hit downtown was the Sift Bake Shop, where I had the perfect peanut butter cookie. Two cookies with a smoothly whipped peanut butter layer between the two. Love simple pleasures. We also made a visit to the Mystic Seaport Museum, which was one of the better, most interesting museums we have visited so far in our travels.

 

Our next leg was a very short trip of 90 miles from Mystic CT to the Boston/Cape Cod KOA located in Middleborough, Massachusetts. We spent three days here in Massachusetts. For our first day we drove out to see Plymouth Rock, and then we took a long drive out to the end of Cape Cod and back. On our second day we took the train to Boston to walk the Freedom Trail. Boston was very crowded due to excellent weather. Our favorite part of the Freedom Trail was the Charlestown Navy Yard and the USS Constitution.

A very nice three relaxing days in Rhode Island. A little bit on the cool side, but sunny and nice. RI is a compact little 48 x 37 mile state. We stayed at Fisherman’s Memorial State Park, located on the southern coast of Rhode Island. We didn’t do much, went to the beach, and did a little bit of cooking.

Ten days in Maine is not enough. We will have to come back in the future to check out Northern Maine. We stayed five days in Scarborough and five days in Sullivan. While in Scarborough we explored Old Orchard Beach, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, and Portland. The Maine coast and beaches are definitely unique and dotted with many fishing villages and quaint little towns. The  city of Portland was a bustling port with several piers and seafood processing plants. The downtown area provided numerous restaurants, bars, and shops.

 

We stayed five days at Acadia Seashore Campground in Sullivan. It was perfectly located between the main Acadia National Park and the Schoodic Area of Acadia. The campground was probably the best campground we have stayed in so far in our travels. It was spotless, the spaces were large, and it was on the water with beautiful views of Cadillac Mountain across Flanders and Frenchman bays. 

 

 

On our first day in Acadia we did the Loop Road around the park and hit all of the sights. In the afternoon we bicycled the Carriage Roads around Jordan Pond and then we squeezed in a tour of the town of Bar Harbor.  For the second day we explored the Schoodic Peninsula which is much less crowded. With lobster rolls costing a bazillion dollars, we did manage to eliminate the middleman and have a somewhat affordable lobster roll lunch right on a wharf in the lobster fishing village of Corea.  On our third day in the park we toured the western side and drove down to the Bass Harbor Lighthouse. We made our 11 AM reservation for Cadillac Mountain, and then spent the afternoon bicycling the Carriage Roads around Eagle Lake. Of the 45 miles of Carriage Roads, we were able to complete 25 miles of them (we do cheat and use e-bikes).

 

 

Without a doubt, Maine is a beautiful state and makes for a great trip. In the future we would like to spend more time and explore Northern Maine up to the Canadian border.

Continuing our road trip, we spent three days in the White Mountain region of New Hampshire. Our campground was located near Littleton. We didn’t really know what to expect in New Hampshire but it is an absolutely beautiful part of our country. Stunningly beautiful! There are plenty of covered bridges and waterfalls throughout the area to stumble upon. One could easily spend more than three days here. We had no plans and were open minded on what to do with our limited time. We decided on visiting the Flume Gorge in Franconia Notch State Park. The gorge is a two mile easy hike and is amazing. It is a good example of what water can do over millions of years. Flume Gorge is well worth the visit. To think it was discovered in 1808 by a 93 year old “Aunt” Jess Guernsey who was out looking for a place to fish!

 

 

We are starting the slow turn from the North to the South for the journey back home. After the amazing visit to the stunning White Mountains of New Hampshire, we headed over to Vermont. This next stop was originally planned for two days at Brighton State Park, but we cut it to one day due to rain and unbelievable swarming mosquitoes. I am not talking about one or two, I am talking about millions. Not the brightest mosquitoes either, they actually swarmed and attacked the Ram. So we awoke early and fled Vermont. 

The next stop was Cumberland Bay State Park located in Plattsburgh NY, up near the Canadian border. The state park is right on Lake Champlain and was very nice, a little windy and cool, but very picturesque. We had a very nice visit with a friend of mine from my Air Force days. Dan lives in Plattsburgh and was stationed with me at March AFB in California during the early 80’s and was then stationed at Ramstein in Germany while I was stationed at Spangdahlem. We did a lot of European touring and attended a lot of concert festivals in those bygone days. With Dan’s local knowledge of the trails, we did some great hiking around Lake Champlain. The cool weather was perfect for a dish of Chili Bucatini, a dinner for kings, whipped up by Kram.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then pushed further south west and had a one night stopover before heading to the Lewiston NY area for a visit to Niagara Falls. The visit to the falls was something to check off the list, very impressive, but the American side of the falls is pretty rundown and in need of sprucing up, and as Forest says (yes we watched the movie one night), “That’s all I have to say about that.”

 

 

 

Our trek home continued with the drive across NY, across Northwest PA, and into Ohio. We stayed a couple of days at the Streetsboro Ohio KOA for a visit to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. What a gem of a National Park if you like to ride bikes. 20 miles of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath trail cut through the park. We had a great day of riding on the RAD’s. My butt still hurts a little.

 

We jumped on I-77 south for the rest of the ride home. We stopped for a night in Wytheville VA before pushing on to home in NC. 

Road Trip # 9 was a big loop through New England. We camped in 11 states and knocked out a big chunk of our goal of camping in 49 states. In the future, I would like to make another visit to Maine, but for now, we need to focus on the Midwest and Western US. Sure things may be a little tougher out there, but the sky is not falling. 

 

11 thoughts on “Road Trip #9 – WV, PA, NJ, CT, MA, RI, ME, NH, VT, NY, OH, VA”

  3. CPJ(you know who i am) says:

    A very puffy cardinal, and also Ekul is not looking at your website so you can take his name off.

  4. Terri Cowell says:

    Love hearing about yours and nerak’s adventures and the pictures. Thanks for letting us go along for the ride.

    • Kram says:

      We really enjoyed your old stomping grounds. Cuyahoga Valley National Park was great for riding our bikes. I wish we would have stopped at the Football Hall of Fame when we were heading home and passing through Canton. I will have to add that to the list of things to do.

  5. Twicsy says:

    Your style is very unique in comparison to
    other folks I’ve read stuff from. Many thanks
    for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess I will just
    book mark this blog.

  6. John Spencer says:

    You’re taking an incredible journey! Seeing our entire country is not only impressive but rarely done by most Americans. Love your journal of the trek.

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