Oli & Lulu's USA Road Trip: Days 49-55

Thought I’d give you all a quick recap on what we’ve been up to since Boston (day 48) up until day 55 – be prepared for a long one!! After Boston we unexpectedly spent the following day in Salem - I studied Auther Miller’s The Crucible at college so I knew that Salem was the town where a mass witch hysteria had broken out in 1692 and people were hanged!

Salem very much remembers the history and the town and is awash with “Witch” museums, shops, the taxis have a witch silhouette on them and other spooky things – they even have a “Dairy Witch” instead of a Dairy Queen fast food joint! Although Salem has all this “tacky” stuff the museums have all been built in keeping with the theme and the actual town is really pretty. Unlike Roswell, Salem has the right balance of fun tourist attractions but also has a nice community full of history, pretty houses and shops.

We took a trolley bus hop on/hop off tour which picked us up at our RV park Winter Island and then into town (the tour guide told us that where we had parked was the site of the last public hanging in Salem!). We hopped off at various points such as the witch dungeon where we watched a live reconstruction of a witch trial and learnt the history of the town.

We also saw the gravestones with the hanged people’s last words on them (most proclaimed their innocence including a mother accused by her 7 year old daughter!). Although Salem is known as “The Witch Town” the tour guide told us that no one believes there were any witches and it was just innocent people who got hanged (anyone who confessed to being a witch was spared the hanging). The town takes it all with a pinch of salt but it’s a real fascinating place to visit.

After Salem we started making our way to Maine, thanks to the waitress in Boston we now had a destination - Camden! We spent three nights in Maine but could have spent longer as there are lush green mountains and then beaches and lakes. Maine is known for its seafood so first on the list of things to try was lobster rolls - a guy at the first campsite we stayed in said there was only one place we must get them from and that was “Red’s Eats”.

Red’s was not what we were expecting - we pictured a restaurant with cute red checked table cloths but as we drove nearer it became obvious that Reds was a shack by the side of a road with the longest queue beside it! Well at least it was near a lake so a nice spot for lunch! We must have queued for about 45 minutes and my mouth was watering watching everyone enjoying their food, luckily we made friends in the queue and chatted away till we got to the front. This cute shack is world famous and has a massive list of quotes from where it’s been mention in magazines and on TV!

We ordered the original Lobster roll, a pound and half of pure lobster meat in what looks like a hotdog bun (and of course two large root beers). Bill and Anne Marie, the American couple we met in the queue, had saved seats at their table for us. We had a great lunch with them swapping travel stories, they may be visiting London soon and if so I’ll save them a space at our table in a London restaurantJ

After lunch and our farewells we made our way to Camden (I kept picturing Camden in London), the town is situated around a harbour with a real relaxed vibe to it – people sit outside cafes just watching the world go by. It was about 6pm by now so we headed to a campsite in a state park that had been recommended to us. During our trip we have stayed in both campsites and state parks, state parks are more basic than campsites and don’t have things like swimming pools or Wi-Fi but have prettier views and therefore I’d rather stay in state parks.

This state park, Camden Hills, was very picturesque with its forest of trees and many paths for nature walks. We decided to go to the local shops to buy marshmallows and hotdogs to have around the campfire. The people in the local shop were really friendly and suggested we have “S’mores” (which we were told are Graham Crackers with a Hershey bar in them and toasted marshmallows – an American campfire tradition!) We bought the supplies and while at the checkout a woman in front of us said “oh S’mores I love them” – think we made a good choice! On leaving the shop the sky had turned black and the heavens had opened – no way was this rain going to clear up so we’d better wait ‘til another night to have the S’mores!

The next day the sun was shining so we headed off to see more of Camden. First we went on a trail to a high point where you can see spectacular views of the harbour. We then did a little hike up to Battie Tower for more picturesque views of this stunning Maine landscape.

We drove to the harbour popping in to the little shops selling arts and crafts and souvenirs. For lunch we sat in a seafood restaurant overlooking the harbour and ordered crab cakes and a massive whole lobster to share.

When it arrived Oli showed no mercy and made me be the first to crack it – I don’t even like shelling a prawn but I had to give this scary creature a go! Totally worth the mess as it was the most delicious lobster we’ve had on this whole trip so far…but I suspect there may more to come!

After a long lazy lunch we sadly had to leave Maine and start heading towards Canada. Oli’s twin sister Suzie lives there with her husband Joe and we couldn’t come all this way and not pop in and see them!

The drive to Canada through Maine to New Hampshire and then the tip of Vermont I think has been my favourite stretch of drive so far. Yes the Blue Ridge Parkway was impressive but this was just as pretty but felt more hidden. We hardly passed any cars during the 6 hours so it felt like we had this lush hilly road to ourselves.

It was strange nearing the end of that scenic drive, knowing that soon we’d be out of America and crossing the border to Canada. At the customs stop sign we were told not to leave the vehicle as we handed over our passports to the immaculate looking officer. Oli was panicking slightly and stated to fidget like we had done something wrong but I was in a chatty mood and couldn’t stop talking to the officer when he returned.

He asked us questions like, why we were here (to visit Oli’s sister I said), will we be here long (hope not I slipped up) and had we got any gifts worth over $60 (crap that reminded me I forgot to get Suzie a present)! My face turned to panic when I said “oh crap I forgot to get his sister a present, how bad am I?!”. Oli mumbled “stop talking” and the officer looked sternly at me before his face creased into a smile and he replied shockingly “ma’am you are fabulous!!!! That lightened the mood - we all laughed, he handed our passports back stamped for Canada and we were offJ

It took about two days to drive to where Oli’s sister Suzie lives in Canada, a place called Dundas about an hour from Toronto. The days passed really quickly and now seem a blur but the things I remember were that Canada seemed pretty and green with flat fields (the closest I’d seen to an English countryside). We stopped at two different campsites for the two nights before getting to Suzie, and Oli and I tried to be like real campers. We built camp fires and finally got to toast marshmallows and make S’mores. The Hershey’s tasted a bit bitter (or like poo as I kept saying) so we adapted the S’mores to have Nutella instead and they were totally yummy!

One night I cooked a pizza (this was the first time I’d used the oven) and it burnt – not my fault, defo the stupid oven, so we had hotdogs round the fire and toasted more marshmallows. We sat round the campfire and chatted into the dark nights, one night while we were sitting out I heard a rustling in the bushes behind us from which appeared a porcupine – I resisted the temptation to scream and we just sat and watched it in the dark until it disappeared. We have seen a lot of wildlife on this trip (the wild bear in the Blue Ridge Parkway was a sight I’ll never forget) but seeing chipmunks for the first time was a real treat! My experience of chipmunks is Alvin, Simon and Theodore from the cartoon so when this tiny little striped fluffy thing ran past us I squealed in delight – I love staying in these campsites ‘cos you just don’t know what you’re going to see!

We finally got to Suzie on 16^th July and it was really nice but strange to see familiar faces after 7 weeks. Suzie and Joe took us out for dinner that night where we enjoyed cocktails, good food and had a right old catch upJ The next day we went to brunch at Cora. The menu had soooo much yummy choice that it took us ages to order but we were in no rush.

Afterwards we drove about an hour to go cherry picking, we were just in time as we were told today was the last day of the season – phew I was wearing my “cherry picking “ outfit complete with fruit flip-flops and a headscarf, what a waste that would have been! We started our cherry picking adventure by boarding a tractor which took us into the orchards. As soon as we were in Suzie was up a tree picking away – she had clearly done this before!!

We enjoyed our couple of hours there, I for one had red/purple lips by the time we finished (Suzie told me to try them as we picked!). We had a fab time picking/eating cherries, I broke a strap on my flip-flop but that was the only casualty of the afternoon. We got back around 7pm with time for a shower and change before all heading out to dinner. Joe had booked us into the the CN Tower restaurant in Toronto but due to Oli and I having problems at our campsite with the electricity supply we were late.

Once in Joe’s nifty convertible he said he’d be able to get us there just a little later than expected – then we hit massive amounts of traffic and no matter which diversion Joe took we ended up back in traffic! Time for plan B as it was getting late and we were all hungry, we pulled off the freeway and went into a Milestones restaurant instead. The food was yet again yummy with even yummier cocktails! The only downer for that night was when we got back to the RV park the owner was waiting up for us (they didn’t have a card machine and we didn’t have cash so told them we’d get money out while at dinner, and we did). We told him we were worried the electric still wouldn’t work and he insisted that his voltage was fine and it was “us” – I assure you it wasn’t “us” but the voltage was wrong, we haven’t had any trouble at any other campsite then or since!

Anyway cut a long story short his wife popped her head out of the window and said “I’m calling the police” – why because we were worried/complaining about the voltage?? They were without doubt the rudest people I have ever met, it may have been 1am but there was noooo way we were going to be treated like “trailer trash” and pay them money for the privilege! We drove out and within 10 minutes we found a beautiful quite alcove to park in for the nightJ

The next day we headed to Hamilton Beach. The sandy shore is situated along lake Ontario, another of the great lakes. We walked along the beach and had lunch overlooking it. More strolling along for a couple of hours and an ice cream later at around 5:30pm we soon had to say goodbye to Suzie and Joe. It was great to catch up with them both, the day after we left they were actually flying to the UK for two weeks, we look forward to catching up again with them when they are back in the

for ChristmasJ