Bloody, but unbowed....
Tuesday, October 3, 2006In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud:
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed. – William Ernest Henley
We really didn’t want to leave New Hampshire. Really, really, really didn’t want to leave. Our campsite in Crawford Notch, in the heart of the White Mountains, was an outrageous blaze of fall color. Already extending our stay a couple of days in order to attend the Fryeburg Fair, we hoped to get in some short day hikes, but the weather had been poor. Travel Day (Tuesday) we woke up to a clear sky and a wonderful, crisp feel in the air.
So why leave now? Our next destination was Acadia National Park on the Maine coast. From our research, a lot of what we hoped to do and see (other than the park itself) closes up on Columbus Day (Oct 9). With that date rapidly approaching, we needed to pack it up and move along. So we reluctantly hooked up and pulled out.
The Moose is Loose, at least here in the northeast. You can’t drive for 10 mins down any highway without a warning sign of a Moose Crossing. Although we all would love to view a moose in its natural habitat, Denise has been fretting we’d be creating filet of Moose with the front end of the truck at 60 mph. Little did she know……the real danger was silently sneaking up from behind.
Yep, the little old man in the big white pickup truck.
Sparing our readers the gory details of the accident, we wound up with the camper equivalent of a busted lip. In short, we slowed down for some traffic, he didn’t.
At least we didn’t have to argue about whose fault it was. The cause of the traffic slowdown was a Maine State Trooper with his lights on. He saw us get rear-ended and called it into the local police.
A quick inspection revealed that while ugly, the damage to the camper (bent bumper, broken taillight cover, slight damage to the back corner) wasn’t going to stop us from continuing to use it -
Whew!!!.
After swapping insurance info, waiting for the police, etc, we pulled out and continued ‘downeast’ towards lobster country. If not exactly happy, we were rather lighthearted that no one was hurt and the trip wasn’t coming to a rather abrupt end. This happy state of mind was promptly rattled a little bit by several drivers in a row passing us across a solid line, but hey, don’t worry, be happy, until – WHACK!
How’d that hole in the windshield just get there?? If you’ve ever been the victim of random flying rock that ends up putting a crack in your windshield…..you know how unsettling this can be…particularly after being rear ended just a few minutes before ;-(
As the logging truck receded in the rearview window, we contemplated how we were about to generate our second call to the insurance company inside of an hour. I have to pay Vance a quarter every time I utter a bad word, and I burned up a couple of dollars worth of fines in short order.
At this point we’re highly defensive road warriors and everyone whizzing by us are like bats out of hell – we didn’t know Maine had bats, but that’s what they seemed like! Seriously, more than a few drivers could have cared less that they had neither right of way in passing lanes or sufficient distance to do so. Vance decided that the ‘Mainers’ just didn’t want us North Carolinians around! Finally, we bade US Hwy 2 a not so fond farewell, and headed towards Bangor on I-95. I’ve never been so glad to get onto an Interstate in my life. We were beginning to get spooked that we just didn’t belong in Maine and were headed into a perfect storm! Fortunately, once we arrived at the campground on Mt. Desert Island, it was a nice, wide, easy campsite to get into.…..right on the water. Maybe it's time to buy a boat instead!
Vance: This day was like the Devil laid a rain of terror on us. This was a travel day of trauma. We left the campground about 1:00 P.M for the next campground, near Acadia in Maine. It was peaceful at first, then things got worse. I could tell this would not be a good day.
First we were traveling, I was playing my Nintendo DS, when a sudden bang hit us from behind. We found out an older gentlemen had accidentally hit us and bent our bumper. Next we had a rock from a lumber truck come out and bounce off and break our windshield. When we got to the campground we were finally relieved. But the new threat was next door. Some people let their dog loose and it pooped all over our campsite.
WE'RE GONNA GET RID OF YOU NORTH CAROLINANS, CAUSE WE’RE THE MAINERS, WE’LL WRECK INTO YOU AND GIVE YOUR RV A BOO BOO, AND SEND A ROCK FLYING IN YOUR WINDSHIELD!
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