Farewell to Maine

Monson, MA - Events of Thursday, August 29, 2013

We headed out on Thursday morning for our next stop in Monson, MA.  We left Maine with wonderful memories of our first visit to the Pine Tree State and with anticipation for a return visit. Every place we have visited has had its quirks. Although not necessarily singularly unique to Maine, there were a number of things that stood out to us because of their abundance.

So what were some of our observations about Margery's new favorite state?

• Mainers love their signs...the carved and painted kind with gold-leaf lettering, and not just large businesses, but even small, roadside businesses invest in these beautiful works of art.

• There are more Dunkin' Donut shops in Maine than McDonald's...it seemed that every town, no matter how small, had a Dunkin' Donut.
• More people drive with their windows down...even on hot days. Mainers don't seem to need air conditioning like those of us in the lower states.
• We haven't seen so many convertibles with their tops down since we were kids...mostly driven by older adults.
• There are a lot of bicyclists...young, old and in between...even on narrow, two-lane country roads.
• Road shoulders are used as another lane. No need to slow down for someone turning left. Maintain your speed and pass on the shoulder.
• We don't know the ratio of Maine residents to ice cream stands/shops, but it must be pretty low for all the ones we passed.  No DQ's, but lots of stands like this one in Boothbay Harbor.
  

We didn't get much chance to explore the interior of Maine because all our stops were near the coast. But that's okay because we really loved the rugged, rocky coast and the way things looked so different at different times of the day and at different levels of the tide.

We spend winters in Florida, and although we don't stay on the coast, we do occasionally go to Tampa, Sarasota or Tarpon Springs. The difference between high and low tide in Florida is only about 2½ or 3 feet while the difference in Maine is 10 or 11 feet, which makes almost any waterfront scene look completely different at high tide than it does at low.

Balance Rock in Bar Harbor near low tide

Balance Rock in Bar Harbor near high tide

As we left Maine, we had an uneventful 4-hour drive and arrived at Sunsetview Farm Camping Area in Monson, MA. Sunsetview Farm has about 150 sites, most of which are full hookup. There is no Wi-Fi, but we had a strong Verizon 4G signal, which was surprising since Monson is a pretty small town, and we were on the outskirts.

At least two thirds of the sites at Sunsetview are seasonals. The transient sites have 30/50-amp electric, but there is an extra charge of $6 a night for 50 amps. Since it was relatively cool when we were there, we made do with 30 amps. Our rate with 30-amp electric was about $40 a night.

The roads at Sunsetview Farm are dusty gravel and the pads and patios in the transient sites are fairly fresh gravel. The sites are generously sized, and many have shrubs between for added privacy.

Our site at Sunsetview Farm

View up the road past our site

Since Sunsetview Farm is kind  of remote, it is relatively quiet except for the weekend when it was full of other campers. Since most of them are seasonals, just about everyone knows everyone else, so there are the usual loud conversations, kids yelling and dogs barking. Add to that the planned activities of the Labor Day holiday weekend (kids running around the campground on Friday evening for a scavenger hunt, live entertainment at the pavilion on Saturday evening and a Chinese auction at the pavilion on Sunday evening), and it got even noisier, especially since our site was close to the pavilion. Fortunately, it really quiets down shortly after 10:00 p.m., although the live band did play until almost 10:30 on Saturday. This is a great destination campground with activities for all ages...not just a couple each day, but morning, afternoon, and evening. The schedule for the Labor Day weekend was actually three pages long. The owners obviously put a lot of love and effort into their campground.

Our primary reason for stopping in Monson was to visit nearby Old Sturbridge Village. We'll tell you about it in our next post.