What I Did on My Summer Vacation.....Part Two

This is my Part Two of my Summer Vacation Travelogue.  Catch up by reading Part One HERE first.

Besides being a cheaper alternative to lodging, an RV stay also gives you the frugal option of cooking your own meals when you want.  This keeps food costs lower.

Here's what we hauled with us to Maine, from the stockpile, to eat at the campground..... it's the better part of 6 meals.  Cost of food pictured was under $10 with sales/coupons(not including Hubs instant coffee).  Buying it at retail in the grocery store while on vacation would have been close to $30.  Cost of those 6 meals in restaurants, at least $90 not including tips.

Unfortunately, we hauled most of this food home.  The siren song of fresh local seafood was too much to bear so we ate out more than anticipated.
And I don't feel a wit guilty over that!lol

The one thing I don't enjoy paying to eat at restaurants is lobster. A whole lobster dinner even at an inexpensive dining joint will run you upwards of $20 for a small 1.5 lb chick....unless you know where the lobster shacks are that the locals frequent.

I'd rather buy and cook my own whole lobsters.

Why pay $20 or more plus tips for something you can get fresh for $4lb. or less and prepare yourself in 20 minutes?  So I drag my big lobster pot with me every time and we eat like kings on a pauper's budget.
Unfortunately this trip, my lobster pot saw NO action.  We only had whole lobsters once, on our last day in Maine, and I didn't cook them.  We didn't always eat 3 meals a day and the timing never quite worked out(being hungry before the lobster pound closed for the day, being 'home' for meal times at the RV, etc.), so I didn't get to decimate the lobster population as I had wished.

 I remembered from our last trip 2 years ago that our campsite had an old apple tree on site and apples littered the ground.  The owners had cut down that tree since our last visit but I found these 2 other apple trees 2 campsites over....

*Apple trees at the campground.*

I meant to ask the owner what kind of apple trees they were before we left.
It was such a shame to see all those apples rotting on the ground.  And if we had been heading home the day we left there, I would have been tempted to pick as many apples as I could carry home.  But leaving ripe apples in a boiling hot van for days on end was not a good option this trip.

The hot place to eat in Bangor Maine is a Truck Stop.
Dysart's Truck Stop.
They are famous for their homemade corned beef hash(it's VERY good!).
The pancakes are as wide as the plate they are served on and if you eat them often enough, you'll be that wide too.
For a true Maine breakfast experience, whatever you order, you have to order some beans as well.  A traditional lumberjack breakfast in the North Woods of Maine starts with baked yellow eye beans.

If you go to Dysart's on the weekend, you need to get there early unless you want a long wait to get a table.

It's that popular....

Wouldn't you know it, the weekend we arrived in Bangor was the week the State Fair started!  Now I know McVal will be utterly disappointed in me but no, we didn't go to the fair.  I didn't go to Maine to eat deep fried twinkies and other "bad-for-you" fair food and walk for miles and miles in the heat.
And contrary to popular belief, it does get hot in Maine.....but only very briefly, usually in August.
Trust me, I know....


So we spent the rest of Saturday hitting some shopping places I wanted to peruse--the grocery store, the discount store & the local Dollar Store for some supplies(matches, reading material).  We also went searching for some firewood that was cheaper than what the campground store was charging.  We drove up the road and found the nice folks who own Treworgy Orchards in nearby Levant Maine.  They were laying in their own firewood for winter when we drove up and graciously let us buy some bundles off of them, though they don't sell firewood to the public.  This farm is a true family operation and has been around since 1983.  They were having the grand opening of their cool corn maze that weekend.....here it is from waaaaay up in the air.....

*Not my photo.  It's from their website.*

I'm so sad we won't be around for the apple and pumpkin picking in the fall.  It looks like a great place to be and the folks running it couldn't be nicer.
If you find yourself in the Bangor Maine area, be sure and check the Treworgy Orchards Farm out!

On Saturday afternoon, we had neighbors move into the trailer next door.  A family with 2 pre-teen boys.  They arrived in a midsized-sedan car with a "neighboring state's" plates and piled into the trailer immediately after exiting the car.
Either a family member or friend arrived later with another couple of kids.  They were local and were just visiting.  One of the kids kept coming out of the trailer screaming that they couldn't get on their facebook page.

The dad dumped a load of firewood into their fire ring about 30 minutes after they arrived(in the middle of the day mind you) and set it ablaze using about a half a can of lighter fluid.
He and the kids stood and oohed and aahed for about 10 minutes over the blaze.  A bit of primal male bonding no doubt....

Did I mention that this guy had parked their car right next to the fire ring???
EEK! 
I had visions of us all being immolated in a great fiery ball of flame.

Then they all packed into the trailer for some more facebook cruising(I am assuming)and left the roaring fire unattended outside.
Ah, the joy of having urban halfwits with no concept of fire safety for neighbors......

To Be Continued....

Sluggy