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Maine Bound!

posford said:
Not much anymore. Harbor Fright, Batteries+Bulbs, and the KTP gun transfer office is the only things I use. Other than that its hipster douches, an empty mall, and low tide
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Don't forget bars, restaurants and other entertainment for all those hipster douches. :laughing:

If your accumulated household trash is going to get swept out the window by the wind Portland is probably the second best place after NYC for that to happen.
 
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posford said:
Not much anymore. Harbor Fright, Batteries+Bulbs, and the KTP gun transfer office is the only things I use. Other than that its hipster douches, an empty mall, and low tide
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I recall that Strawberry Park place being sort of neat. Want to take my kid there.
 
woods said:
Oh, we're talking stopping somewhere on the way? Or in the future when he arrives.

Haven't taken the drive to Portsmouth in a few years. Forget what's down there.

Ah. Well. Scrap NH then. :homer:
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You all seem to be talking en route. I was thinking more like august or September.
 
92 Green YJ said:
You all seem to be talking en route. I was thinking more like august or September.
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ok, that's what I was thinking first.

was going to say, even hitting up Conway once a year for some tax free shopping, but holy shit that's a 3h drive one way. not even remotely worth it.
 
woods said:
ok, that's what I was thinking first.

was going to say, even hitting up Conway once a year for some tax free shopping, but holy shit that's a 3h drive one way. not even remotely worth it.
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IIRC he's going to be out towards Ellsworth. It took me close to 3 hours to get to Ellsworth a couple summers ago, and I'm close to Bethel, still 45 minutes to an hour shy of Conway.
 
woods said:
I recall that Strawberry Park place being sort of neat. Want to take my kid there.
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Strawberry Banke, haven't been since I was a kid.

OP you're far enough up, ya gotta make a trip to NH really worth it. Plenty of cool stuff up Maine
 
Well, my 2 cents. Kittery trading post is a fucking maze. They do have a good selection. LL flagship store has changed a lot (first time shopping there was 1990 for me) but is still an experience. My wife does like to go to Conway.
The Mardens in Ellsworth is ok, and has a Tractor Supply right next to it. The Renys in Ellsworth is always worth a stop as well. The Mardens in Brewer has a fantastic selection on clothing. Way more than Ellsworth ! The Dick's in the Bangor mall isn't bad either.
Hope you have a pleasant trip.
 
ilten said:
Well, my 2 cents. Kittery trading post is a fucking maze. They do have a good selection. LL flagship store has changed a lot (first time shopping there was 1990 for me) but is still an experience. My wife does like to go to Conway.
The Mardens in Ellsworth is ok, and has a Tractor Supply right next to it. The Renys in Ellsworth is always worth a stop as well. The Mardens in Brewer has a fantastic selection on clothing. Way more than Ellsworth ! The Dick's in the Bangor mall isn't bad either.
Hope you have a pleasant trip.
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Dicks in Bangor.....
 
ilten said:
Well, my 2 cents. Kittery trading post is a fucking maze. They do have a good selection. LL flagship store has changed a lot (first time shopping there was 1990 for me) but is still an experience. My wife does like to go to Conway.
The Mardens in Ellsworth is ok, and has a Tractor Supply right next to it. The Renys in Ellsworth is always worth a stop as well. The Mardens in Brewer has a fantastic selection on clothing. Way more than Ellsworth ! The Dick's in the Bangor mall isn't bad either.
Hope you have a pleasant trip.
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That reminds me, the DMV in the Bangor mall is the best DMV you will ever go to. Nice people. Short wait times. Basically the kind of service you never get at a DMV.
 
Day 2 on the road recap.

Up early I dumped the tanks and we pulled out of Circle Pines KOA around 7:40 AM. last night the wife got to looking at the maps and route and decided looking at the giant hole in the ground that is the Grand Canyon wasn’t worth a full 2 and a half or so hour detour. So instead we hopped right back on I40. Got off about 20 miles down the road in Flagstaff for a Cracker Barrel breakfast. After breakfast we hopped back onto I40 and sat in construction traffic for a bit thru Flagstaff. Pretty uneventful next couple hundred miles. Stopped for fuel somewhere in east bumblefuck AZ. I don’t even think there was an actual town there. It was literally a Shell gas station in the middle of nowhere.

Hit some rain on and off thru AZ but nothing too bad. Crossed into New Mexico and we hit the most construction delays from here. About every 20 or 40 miles or so they had the left lane shut down for three miles. At least three of these we hit a dead stop. Made one pit stop to piss, one more for fuel. Got my best MPG of 6.887 today in the RV. Surprising considering how many grades we had to climb today.

Made it thru Albuquerque with no trouble, but to be fair we didn’t actually stop there. Kind of regret the Vegas KOA choice. Didn’t look that far out of the way on the map. All well. Only 50 miles back down to 40 on 84 in the morning.

biggest issue we had today was after arriving at the KOA. My mom and her husband had unloaded their stuff from the bed of my truck into their cabin when I guess my Mom needed the bathroom. The cabins here don’t have them so they had to go to the main building. Mac hopped into the truck to drive her over but left the tailgate down. Tongue jack handle mangled it pretty good and it now won’t open.
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I actually really enjoy the I40 drive Throughout my life I have done it many times.(not truck driver many:flipoff2:) but your kids will never forget it. I promise.

sorry about the tailgaate...That blows.


Lets hope that is the worst.
 
I did a road trip on I40 from CA to TX and back with my two boys when they were little. They were big fans of the movie "Cars" and loved the scenery of eastern AZ and NM, they kept comparing the different views to ones from the movie.
 
Lilyota said:
I actually really enjoy the I40 drive Throughout my life I have done it many times.(not truck driver many:flipoff2:) but your kids will never forget it. I promise.

sorry about the tailgaate...That blows.


Lets hope that is the worst.
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I’ve been enjoying it for the most part as well. Some sections have been quite gorgeous scenery wise. Those rainbow colored mesas were breathtaking. I also enjoyed the contrast thru one area of New Mexico where it was wide open green plains to the right and more of those red layered mesas to the left.

Kids have been having fun, though keeping the 2 year old under control has proven challenging. he likes to come up front into the cab but refuses to sit down. He keeps reaching for various controls and such. Usually winds up sitting in Moms lap watching the scenery roll on by.

yeah all I could really do with the tailgate was grin and bear it. It was an accident. It can be replaced.
 
Most people don't knowtest that you are going down hill when traveling west to east on I-40.
Do I read this correctly you got off I-40 and drove all the way to the Las Vegas (Actually it's Romeroville) KOA instead of driving on to Tucumcari?

 
Roc Doc said:
92 Green YJ said:
Day 2 on the road recap.

Up early I dumped the tanks and we pulled out of Circle Pines KOA around 7:40 AM. last night the wife got to looking at the maps and route and decided looking at the giant hole in the ground that is the Grand Canyon wasn’t worth a full 2 and a half or so hour detour. So instead we hopped right back on I40. Got off about 20 miles down the road in Flagstaff for a Cracker Barrel breakfast. After breakfast we hopped back onto I40 and sat in construction traffic for a bit thru Flagstaff. Pretty uneventful next couple hundred miles. Stopped for fuel somewhere in east bumblefuck AZ. I don’t even think there was an actual town there. It was literally a Shell gas station in the middle of nowhere.

Hit some rain on and off thru AZ but nothing too bad. Crossed into New Mexico and we hit the most construction delays from here. About every 20 or 40 miles or so they had the left lane shut down for three miles. At least three of these we hit a dead stop. Made one pit stop to piss, one more for fuel. Got my best MPG of 6.887 today in the RV. Surprising considering how many grades we had to climb today.

Made it thru Albuquerque with no trouble, but to be fair we didn’t actually stop there. Kind of regret the Vegas KOA choice. Didn’t look that far out of the way on the map. All well. Only 50 miles back down to 40 on 84 in the morning.

biggest issue we had today was after arriving at the KOA. My mom and her husband had unloaded their stuff from the bed of my truck into their cabin when I guess my Mom needed the bathroom. The cabins here don’t have them so they had to go to the main building. Mac hopped into the truck to drive her over but left the tailgate down. Tongue jack handle mangled it pretty good and it now won’t open.
16707431-BECE-4332-9EC7-77898A1700B6.jpeg
CDCB08DA-3197-4EAF-8716-C74AE1F06C4E.jpeg
D4069F1E-0743-4735-8ADA-6EC13361FC2F.jpeg
3A08E775-448E-4993-9A9A-A39BDD79104C.jpeg
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To bad about the tail gate. Cracker Barrel :shaking: Looks like a great adventure, thanks for the updates.
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2.5 hours and you skipped the Grand Canyon? :confused: 2.5 hours ain't crap compared to the whole trip. You missed out.

Glad it's going fairly well. If all that happens is the tailgate incident be glad.
 
Drive Day 3 recap.

the longest drive day of the whole trip. 591 miles thru 3 states.

Had a very nice breakfast at the Las Vegas New Mexico KOA. Eggs, sausage, some killer hash with green chilies in it and some coffee. Pulled out and hit the road about 8:15 am local time. Nice scenic drive down 84 back to 40 East. Hopped back on 40 and burned thru the rest of New Mexico. Stopped at a Phillips 66 near the Texas border for fuel, some drinks, and to check out the little auto museum they have attached to it.

back on the road we entered Texas. Nice flat straight drive all the way thru. Checked out the Cadillac ranch as we drove by, hit a touch of traffic thru Amarillo and kept right on going. Somewhere maybe an hour past Amarillo I got the call on the CB to pull off. Right front tire of the truck sounded funny. Turned out to just be the inner fender well had come loose somehow and was rubbing the tire. Fixed it and carried on. I think we hit Oklahoma around 2 pm but I wasn’t really paying attention.

So far Oklahoma has the nicest and smoothest highway. The winds here however are a bear. I haven’t driven this much with both hands on the steering wheel in years. It wasn’t white knuckle driving, but it sure was interesting trying to keep the rig in one lane. I feel like I drove thru almost the whole state with the steering wheel turned 45* to the right. Stopped at a Loves in Elk Cout for fuel stop #2. So far the ONLY pump that hasn’t cut me off at some arbitrary dollar amount and forced me to swipe again. 98* it was getting hot in the house so I had to kick on the genset and run the house AC. Hit some major traffic in OKC which slowed us down a bit.

After we cleared the Jam in OKC it was throttle down and burn the miles to Chechotah. We were about 50 miles out when I decided to do one more fuel stop at a Valero off the freeway. This one cut me off at $50. And I had to thread the needle to get out of the pump aisle when I was done. Finally arrived at the gorgeous Chechotah/Euflea Lake KOA around 7:15 pm local time. Got checked in and set up and walked down the wooded trail to check out the lake. Of course both kids immediately waded right in and were covered in mud. Luckily I hadn’t hooked up the city water yet so I hosed them both off before letting them back in the RV. Pics to follow.
 
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