So I finally made the lunge… I finally got everything set up enough to feel comfortable for a year long journey. I am fully stocked with dry food and have a fridge full of perishables. I did pack a little meat for the trip but after that is gone, I will hunt and fish for my own. I packed a lot of rice, mac and cheese, cereals… basically food that will take a while to go bad. I fixed everything I could think of on The Millennium Falcon and tried to forsee any nuisances that may occur on my journey.

Here I am leaving Plymouth as I pass their over priced State Park… To stay there is around $20 a night… I know it doesn’t sound like much but if you pay $20 a night for 300 days, that’s $6000… Honestly, I have better things to spend my money on… I will stay at a couple of pay parks on my trip just to enjoy the constant water hookup, so I can take a long hot shower but other than that, I am going all free.

(Here I am crossing the Tobin Bridge… To the right is the famous Bunker Hill Monument… Bye bye Boston… I will see you again in October…)

I researched like a maniac and found a website and a couple of apps that inform you about all the free campsites in America. It took quite a bit of research and not all the parks listed still accommodate but I do have time on my side to research…

So basically I have taken all of the free parks that accommodate my 32 foot long RV and have entered them all in my GPS… in order… So when I go to one and I don’t like it, I just find the next park that is the closest and drive there. Sounds pretty simple and I can help update the source on what parks are open and which are not… Most importantly it requires no internet research while I am on the road… I just have to be able to get a GPS connection which I am sure won’t be perfect but it’s better than following a map and a bunch of old books for reference… But I do have books set aside just incase… Oh yeah folks, I came fully prepared… I know I will hit all kinds of obstacles on this trip and want to be prepared when I do.

Here’s a site you don’t see everyday. A new bridge being built right next to the old one. Very interesting…

Here they are working away… If you look hard enough you will see one of the workers looking at my vehicle wondering “Is that the Millennium Falcon?” Oh yeah it is buddy… Ready to explore the Universe!

Beautiful weather today, as the sun sets… Here I am crossing the Piscataqua River… Getting very close to Maine now.

Here’s Maine! I don’t think I have ever visited Maine now I think of it. I may have briefly when I was a kid but I think New Hampshire was the farthest north I have ever traveled. We used to go to New Hampshire when I was under 21 to buy fireworks and alcohol. Fireworks were illegal in Massachusetts and no alcohol was sold on Sundays… There’s a reason they call Massachusetts the Puritan State… I think sodomy is still illegal in Massachusetts, so you all better watch out when you visit… lol…

Now, I wanted to leave the house at 2pm but I couldn’t refuse an invitation to lunch… It may be the last restaurant meal I will have in a long time and it was a nice way of saying goodbye to the Mums… I had some clam chowder, calamari and little wontons stuffed with beef and vegetables… It was a nice last meal but I didn’t hit the road until 5pm, so it looked like I was going to be searching for my first campsite at night… Not what I had planned at all…

Luckily a toll booth attendant informed me that my left side headlight is out. Nothing I could do about it now but it explained why I was having such a hard time seeing at night… Anyone who has never been to Maine, they don’t believe in street lights. So you have to use your high beams on a lot of roads and trying to take a turn onto another street in a vehicle as large as mine at night is very challenging, especially with one headlight.

Here you can see the rustic area of Bethel, Maine as I navigate through the dark, looking for the campsite in the White Mountain National Forest… I couldn’t find the campsite in the dark so I found a little nook to park that was obviously a parking area for a vehicle if you wanted to go for a hike… No cars around… no lights… Just the beautiful nature… I would have drove around more but I was getting into residential areas… I didn’t want to bug anyone considering they are probably not used to seeing an RV driving around their area this time of year… especially around 11pm…

I parked feeling a little disappointed but determined to find my first campsite in the morning… See you in the morning!