It occurs to me.....

.... that I might have gotten the cart before the horse in this blog of mine. Some of you may not know what a "5th Wheel Trailer" (i.e. RV) is all about. Becky and I are living full time in a 37 foot, 16,500 pound "5er". It takes a 1 ton pickup to tow it. Here's a picture of the entry side of the RV, parked in a very relaxing park on Chesapeake Bay. It is equipped with dual air conditioners (one with a heat pump), a propane fired forced hot air furnace, 50 amp AC electric service and really, all the necessities (and then some) for "full time living".

Here is a picture of our kitchen. It is fully equipped including a four door refrigerator / freezer, Convection / Microwave oven and an Island with pantry storage underneath. Becky has adapted very well to the galley kitchen and cooks up just as big a storm as she did in our "stick'n'bricks" house. In back of the sink area we have a high efficiency clothes washer and dryer hidden in the vertical cabinetry. The dining room table is out of picture to the right. The king bedroom is up the stairs in the background and the full private bathroom is to the right just before going into the bedroom (the bathroom door is open in this picture).

And here is a picture of our "living room". When the TV is not on, it disappears into the cabinetry. The electric fireplace looks as real as any fire you have seen. It can be "lit" with or without the 1500 watt heater turned on. We are finding here in Maine at this time of year that the heater does a great job taking the chill out of the air. The couch conceals a standard size air ma tress bed.

Under the living area, and accessed from outside are three storage areas commonly referred to as "the basement". We had to let go of nearly all our possessions but were able to hold onto a considerable amount of personal items. Naturally it took some amount of adjustment moving from a house into the confines of RV living - what really makes it work is the great relationship Becky and I have.

Peek-a-Boo.....

Here's Becky peeking from behind The Caretaker's Shed at the Pemaquid (not Permaquid as I scribed in my last post) Lighthouse Park in New Harbor, Maine.











The shed from the inside looking out. The Town of Bristol maintains the park. The park occupies about 60 acres with expansive views of the Altantic Ocean.









There are a dozen picnic tables along the shoreline dispersed among Sea Pines, boulders and very well maintained grassy areas. Serene yes, gorgeous views yes, steeped with history yes, inspiring yes, but I warn you..... no matter what month, day or time you choose to visit the park - WEAR A JACKET!


I cannot imagine feeling "warm" in this park without a few layers of clothing. That constant breeze (WIND) coming off the Atlantic will raise some bumps - goosebumps!

It is an incredible place to spend an afteroon, to review your awe of nature, or to find it for the first time.





Although the lighthouse is no longer occupied by a keeper, there is a one bedroom apartment which can be rented in that building. One other building in the park is a Fisherman's Museum. These tools look as though they would be better used by Vincent Price in a movie called Toture of the Undead.














Ohh by the way, there is a working lighthouse which flashes its white light every six seconds. Image that! A Lighthouse Park with a working Lighthouse.


Go Figure!

My Favorite Niece & Brocolli Rabe

Just when I thought I had eaten my entire stash of Brocolli Rabe, my wonderful wife produced another package (as I found out later) from the deep recesses of our freezer. Lynn... my all time, bar none, favorite Niece, while dropping her Daughter off at summer camp less than 2 months ago, brought me what should have been a 6 month supply. When I opened our picnic lunch at the Permaquid Lighthouse Park and saw that Kaiser Roll piled high with the Rabe, I could have sworn I had died and gone to Heaven......


Brocolli Rabe (rob) is a very bitter leafy green Italian vegetable. Most commonly it is blanched in salted water to relieve some of the bitterness, and then sauteed in EVO, garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.

The Permaquid Lighthouse Park is in New Harbor, Maine, at the point of one of those hundreds of points of land in the mid coastal region - I'll describe it later. THIS blog is strictly about my most "favoritest" Niece and Brocolli Rabe!

Glen Cove... or Clam Cove....

I leave it to you.... this is a "rest area" along side Route 1 (Atlantic Highway) in Rockland. Becky and I have had numerous picnic lunches here.




But I leave it to you... your GPS will recognize this part of Penobscot Bay as "Glen Cove" and the locals recognize it as "Clam Cove". So if you were picnicking here, which would you call it.
Becky and I prefer CLAM COVE - the name is more Maine, more serene, more romantic?

Our favorite picnic lunch is to pick up a package of Smoked Pepper / Garlic Trout, a fresh baguette of bread, Parmigiana Regianno cheese and a couple soft drinks. Well... typically a bottle of wine but we miss-fired on that this day.

By the way... the temperature today was 58 degrees!

Have You Ever......

Have you ever picked a ripe apple from the tree, "shined it up" and taken a big ole bite right there in the orchard? That's what Becky and I did today. And as you can see, the weather was perfect for the picking.

The orchards are just now opening up and the trees are ripe for the picking. Literally, you could pick a peck of apples from one limb without taking a step. And even at that you would only be picking 10% of the fruit on that single limb. Absolutely studded with apples. It's hard to imagine how the trees could be strong enough to support all those apples!

We took a 1 hour ride up and to the West of Agusta, the states capital, to Lakeside Orchards. You could pick your own from three different types of apples... Macs, Cortlands and Sarah Reds. The Reds and Cortlands are snappy, juicy, and have just a bit of a tart taste. The skins are pure red and the meat is as white as an angels wings. Being a salt-aholic, I enjoy salt on apples. So after taking the first bite, I put my salt shaker to work and ate four Corlands and two Reds before leaving the orchard. Becky will be making a few pies (need I say APPLE) tomorrow and our neighbors will benefit from our "labors" today.

Maine.... what a state!

Mahogany Clams.....

Mahongany clams are harvested from the deep waters off Kittery, Maine. Once harvested, they are "transplanted" into more shallow waters which causes the clams to purge themselves. This results in very clean clams. They can be compared to Little Neck clams and are prepared in all the same ways. Their taste is a bit more "clammy" (in a good way) and the salinity content is higher than its cousin the Littleneck. Why their cost is about one half of the Littleneck is beyond me!

Try this recipe

Steamed Mahogany Clams

Ingredients:

2 Pounds Mahogany clams (OK.. or Littlenecks, Steamers, Mussels) cleaned

2 T butter

1/2 C white wine

1/4 C chopped green onions

1/4 C chopped red bell peppers (really any color) (reserve a T for garnish at the end)

4 Cloves slivered garlic

1/4 C chopped parsley (reserve a T for garnish at the end)

Preparation:

Melt the butter and sautee the garlic in a sautee pan over medium heat until tender. Add the wine, peppers, onions

Add the clams and cover the pan, steam for 5 minutes

Add the parsley and shake it into the broth

Cover and cook another minute.

Pour all into a large shallow bowl and add reserved parsley and red pepper to garnish.

Serve with good Italian bread to sop up the broth

Enjoy!

In our not to distant history, Camden and boat building was like peanut butter and jelly. In the 1800's Camden's boatbuilding industry boasted six shipyards, floating 10 vessels per year. As it is with many industries in our past, shipping goods by sea became less important and the needs fell. In the 1930's many owners began offering their windjammers for hire providing trips in Penobscot Bay. The Harbor Master had a busy Labor Day weekend birthing some 20 Windjammers. Not shown in the picture are some 150 boats moored in the Harbor. This was as perfect a day in Maine as there ever was.

South of Southport, Maine

Once in Southport, should you keep the needle of your compass pointing to "South", and drive until your front wheels get wet with saltwater, you will have found Newagen (or Cape Newagen) Maine.

Here's Becky at the end of Town Landing Road with the Cuckold Lighthouse in the distant background.



"This oddly named lighthouse is one of the last to be built on the Maine coast. The name Cuckolds, given to a pair of treacherous ledges at the entrance to Boothbay Harbor, is apparently after a point of land on the Thames River in England that was granted to a London man to assuage his anger after King John had an affair with his wife. The Cuckolds in Maine may have been named by a transplanted Londoner. Perhaps the loveliest time to observe The Cuckolds is at sunset from a boat close by to the eastward. The white light against a glowing red and golden sky... the dark outline of the trees on Cape Newagen, and tired seagulls winging their way eastward . . . produce a scene and a sense never to be forgotten."
-- Malcolm F. Willoughby, Boothbay Register, 1962.

I am guessing that Newagen is a township, perhaps a village? To get to the Southernmost end of the road you will drive through the center of Newagen and I suspect you will miss it, just as Becky and I did. There is no apparent industry, there are no traffic signals, no stop signs (wait - there was one, no no, that was a yield sign) no shops, no lobster pounds, no gas stations, no McDonalds - just a sleepy little collection of a homes with a house here and a house there. I could spend about a month sitting on the town pier.

Sea Pines Shore

Boothbay Harbor is relatively commercial. It's a busy place and very popular with tourists. Many waterfront restaurants, curio shops, fine art galleries, antique stores, fishing charters, canoe, kayak rentals... all the typically attractions and scenery. The harbor itself is stunning with all manner of boats moored.

To its East, and South is East Boothbay. This is one of those coastal communities where visitors begin to fall in love with Maine. We did! Actually we fell in love with Maine a month ago but this day trip was icing on the cake. The picture is just one snap of a ruggedly beautiful coast line. East Boothbay is far less "touristy" and the kind of place we love discovering. So if you ever visit Maine and Boothbay....

GO EAST YOUNG MAN... GO EAST!

This is why......

We arrived in Rockport, Maine on July 15, 2009. And I am pointing to one of the "maine" reasons we decided to begin our full time travels here. Our first lobster boil including corn on the cob, potatoes, clams, mussels, and oh yeah.... lobsters!

This time of year the lobsters are shedding their shells. Their new shells are very soft and harden over time. There is a bit less meat in a "shedder" but the meat is sweeter and more juicy. In the nearly two months we have been here, the price of live lobsters has remained constant at $3.25 / pound. I can promise you this.... I have eaten my share. My lobster pot has been with us for decades and has seen little use until our arrival in Maine. We will make up for the lack of use over the years.