There is a world of difference between driving to a vacation and an actual road trip. If you’ve been following our posts you know that we have lived all over this country. We’ve traveled back and forth, up and down, and all around for the last 20 years. However, it was only recently that we got to experience our first road trip!
Don’t Call It A Comeback:
At the risk of angering Marky Mark, 😉 we’ve noticed road trips have been making a comeback in popularity throughout social media. While there may be many factors contributing to this, two factors that stand out to us in recent years:
- Social distancing during COVID forced many people looking to travel away from airplanes and to their own vehicles.
- The rise of remote jobs affords people the opportunity to travel while still being able to earn an income.
Van-life, skoolie livin’ and even modifying your own car to create a living space have all become popular trends. These trends especially have grown major traction since the pandemic hit a few years ago. No matter what vessel you start your travels in, road trips are more about the journey and less about the final destination!
Road Trip Lessons Learned:
Our first road trip happened by accident on our way to our first work camping job after buying our RV. We started our journey from SC and had nearly 3 weeks weeks to get to our job in central Maine. I should start by saying our RV is a 1989 model so slow and steady was our motto. We didn’t want to push it too hard and we took plenty of breaks.
The first half of our journey was pretty typical of how we have always dealt with driving on trips. We basically tried to get as much distance covered between point A and point B before looking for a place to sleep at night. In the first 10 days of our journey we only spent 2 nights at a campground and boon-docked the rest of the nights. Whether it was rest stops along the highway, truck stops, or Cracker Barrel Parking lots we chose to not hook up and just spend one night before hitting the road early the next morning.
Slow It Down
Once we got into Massachusetts we realized we needed to ease up a bit. We still had 8 days before starting our job and we didn’t have that many more miles to cover. Another issue we were facing is that in New England (and especially Maine) a lot of campgrounds are not open year round due to the cold weather. With this knowledge we needed to figure out how we were going to plan the rest of the journey and we were getting real tired of the long stretches of boon-docking. Thus began our first road trip!
The most important lesson we learned from this experience is how wonderful it was to take the time to experience different aspects of the locations we visited. Before this trip, we really only stopped at gas stations or fast-food restaurants just to refuel before heading out again. Seeing the country from the highway is really no way to see it. Bypassing the interstates allowed us to pass though some adorable towns. We were able to stop in at some markets or just to see quaint neighborhoods with tons of history.
We also didn’t plan too much ahead of our next destination. This allowed us to be flexible in our itinerary in case we wanted to add in something else or choose to stay somewhere longer. We had a general idea of where we wanted to go, but we always had the option of changing it up if we chose to do so. It was a very comforting feeling knowing we did not need to be so rigid on this leg of our journey.
Our Road Trip Favorites:
I’ve listed some of our favorite details of the trip below. For those interested in hearing about the road trip in greater detail, check out our podcast. We devoted an entire episode discussing our experience.
Places To Stay
- Beach Rose RV Park – Salisbury, MA: Great RV park only a mile from the beach. This allowed easy access for walking or biking to the beach if you didn’t want to bother with parking down on along the water. Besides the location, the owners were super friendly so we would definitely like to go back!
- Boon-docking – Wells Harbor, ME: This may seem a bit odd but we really enjoyed boon-docking along the estuary. It was teaming with life and sounded amazing at night.
- Bangor/Holden KOA – Bangor, ME: A great location just outside of Bangor. Our favorite part was all the hiking trails located right in the campground’s property.
Places To Eat
- David’s Fish Market – Salisbury, MA: Great seafood market with a nice selection and friendly informative staff. We talked about getting fresh seafood when we arrived to the coast since before we got on the road. David’s did not disappoint!
- Highroller Lobster Co. – Portland, ME: Cassandra’s first experience trying lobster rolls. We ordered two different types to compare but both were delicious!
- Pho Hoa Grill – Bangor, ME: We are big fans of Pho so we had to try this place out. It comes in 2 sizes but its so good we highly recommend the large!
Highlights Of Our Trip
- Drake’s Island Beach- Wells, ME: Cassandra’s first beach experience in Maine, and my first on this road trip was at Drake’s Island. We were there in the off-season on a day when storms were moving in so the beach was empty. The highlight of our visit was walking out on the stone jetty. At nearly a quarter of a mile long, walking out with the waves crashing on it was intense. We could feel the chilly water spraying us as we neared the end. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate so we cut our visit short.
- Portland Head Light– Cape Elizabeth, ME: We love to look at lighthouses. We knew that we wanted to make this part of our trip along the coast in Maine. The Portland Head Light was the first lighthouse on the coast of Maine. Construction was ordered by George Washington and finished in 1791. Today it stands 80 feet high and lies in Fort Williams Park. We enjoyed exploring the trails in the park and were quite impressed with the power of the waves crashing against the rocky shores.
- Stephen King Tour- Bangor, ME: As our favorite author we both have read many of his books throughout our lives. We stopped in Bangor specifically to see his inspiration for the town of Derry. Many sights in and around Bangor provided King with ideas for his famous novels. We really enjoyed walking/driving around the city looking for these landmarks. We saved the best for last though, walking up to see his house!
Tour Options:
Self-guided tour- We used the info off of the Oddities and Curiosities Travel website so we could choose the sites we most wanted to see. This also allowed us to do it at our own pace which we enjoyed.
Guided tour- We did not use this company but SK Tours is a King approved tour guide company if you are looking to get more in-depth info on your tour.
Final Thoughts:
As I stated earlier, road trips really were a new thing for us even with all the driving we have done in this country. It really was nice to break up our last part of the journey from SC and not focus on our final stop. We also would love to check out some of the little towns we passed through along the way. We will make it a point to add these types of trips into more of our adventures. Whether in a car, or an RV, we feel this is a great way to see the country at your own pace!
If you’ve taken any road trips to places we should know about let us know in the comments. We’d love to hear your stories and are always eager to visit new places. As always, thank you so much for visiting our website and we wish you safe and happy travels!
