RE: Boarding dog in Bar Harbor Area
Mpula: What I forgot to say in the above post is that a potential down side of Bear Brook is that it is 40-60 minutes from Bar Harbor per se (depending on summer traffic). I believe they have a web site that you can check out. Again, good luck. MaineDon
RE: Boarding dog in Bar Harbor Area
Mpula: We lived year-round in Maine for 36 years and still maintain a summer cottage near Bar Harbor. We have not been impressed with dog-boarding services on Mount Desert Island or even in nearby Ellsworth. We have started to use, and have had good experiences with, Bear Brook Kennel, which is in Brewer. Bear Brook is just off of Highway 1-a, which is the major route down to MDI and Bar Harbor from Interstate #95. They offer various types of boarding. Miss Daisy, our Welsh Terrier, is easily excited and basically afraid of many other dogs. So we have been housing her in one of Bear Brook's wall-sided kennels (I believe they call these the "Presidential Suites"....lol!), with glass windows looking out to the front and back. These "suites" are in a quieter area of the boarding facility, which I think makes for a calmer overall experience. Each "suite" also has its own private exercise area. Overall, all parts of the Bear Brook Kennels that we've seen are clean and well cared for, even the traditional side-by-side wire cages We found the staff to be friendly and willing to meet your dogs special needs. Good luck. We've had bad experiences with kennels in Ellsworth and in Surry.
Aqua-Shed vs. Tyvek
Since our 5'er now spends 8 months each winter sitting in the Arizona sun, we've decided to buy it a cover. Camping World is advertising two types: Tyvek versus Aqua-Shed. Has anybody had experience with either (or both) of these brands? If so, what are the problems/merits of each? My CW catalog has essentially no description of either type of fabric.
RE: Hubcaps: A Mystery?
Well Mike and Puddles, I agree with you. PA has about the worst Interstate Highways in the country (OK is a close second); but we've driven PA roads nearly every year on our cross-country "commute." Chris, you may be right. What I noticed on the one hubcap I have left is that the tongue/flange (don't know what it's called) that slips under the rim was bent back...and as I think about it...one way to bend it back would be to just jam the cap into place and tighten the screw. And...our really good RV guy in Maine had two new assistants working for him this summer. I am not really sure who did the work checking/greasing the bearings. I bet this is what's happened. The flange side is not engaged, works loose in rotation/travel, and eventually loosens the screw holding the cap in place. My mystery may be solved.
Hubcaps: A Mystery?
We are just back in Arizona for the winter, having driven across the country from our summer cottage in Maine. We have a 2009 Rockwood fifth wheel, with the special aluminum rims and hub caps. This was our 5th time pulling the 5'er on the ME/AZ commute, and for the first time we lost not one, but THREE hubcaps, on various days of travel. Not only did we lose the outer hubcap, but we also lost two of the inner caps that hold the bearings and grease in place. We can't figure out why this happened, since we've never had this problem before. Our RV guy in Maine repacked the bearings with grease before we left; and the road service guy we hired in Nashville to check the bearings affirmed that they all had plenty of grease. After the first cap came off crossing PA, we made sure that the screw that holds the outer cap in place was as tight as we could make it.... but they still came off during travel. Thank God for duct tape, which we eventually used on each rim to keep the inner caps in place (not pretty, but it worked). Any ideas on what is causing this?
RE: Campers coming thru site
Cutting through the campsites of others is rude and inexcusable behavior. And your camping neighbor is certainly out of line in suggesting that this is the norm. Sadly, some people are just thoughtless clods, with no manners and no concern for anyone but themselves. We've had this happen to us and have learned that too much proximity to the bathhouse often sets you up for this activity. Several years ago on the Outer Banks, we had someone walking across our outdoor carpet (i.e., outside our front door) complain to us because our Welsh Terrier (on a 6-foot leash) tried to jump up on her. Her position was that we should keep our dog in the 5'er so she could save 10 steps on her way to the bath house. Like I say, some people are thoughtless clods....
RE: East coast (say StJohn NB-across to Wash.State
bbt...check on-line. You should be able to find the exact NY Parkway fees, Albany to Buffalo, on their Webpage. I don't remember a toll on the Buffalo to Erie, PA link. Interstate #80 across Ohio is a very good highway......but there are a few tolls there (although far less than in NY).
RE: East coast (say StJohn NB-across to Wash.State
Living in Maine with a winter home in AZ, we've driven the NY Thruway a number of times. From one end of NY to the other, I think it's about $50 total (but others may correct me here). The good thing about the NY Thruway is that it is a controlled access interstate, so you don't continually have throngs of traffic merging onto the highway in front of (or beside) you. We last drove it a year ago in June and found it to be in good/okay condition all the way across NY. Coming from St. John, cross at Calais and take the Airline (Highway #9) to Brewer/Bangor. Follow signs to Interstate #395 across the Penobscot and then head south on Interstate #95. About 25 miles south of Bangor, you need to make a decision: Vermont vs. Mass. If you want to see interior Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont (and the colors should be spectacular at the end of the month and into October), then pick up Highway #2 in Newport and follow it all the way through ME, NH, and VT, to Burlington....where your ferry across Lake Champlain (not a big deal, easy to do) and pick up Interstate #87 south to Albany and on to the NY Turnpike. If you haven't done it, this is very scenic country, especially in the fall. Your other choice at Newport is to continue south on Interstate #95 to Mass, where you should pick up Interstate 495 around Boston and on down to the Mass Turnpike (which will lead you onto the NY Thruway). You need to do some planning on this route, however, for as we were advised several years ago, during the week you NEVER-EVER want to be on Interstate #495 or the Mass Turnpike after 3:00 p.m. I can attest to the accuracy of this advice after an ill-fated trip to Cape Cod on 495 in the late afternoon. Not good! In closing, we just drove the Trans Canada home to Maine, from SK thru Ontario. We found the highway to be terrible in places.....so bad that we had a blowout, two crushed wheel barings, lost the license plate and the radio aerial, all crossing Ontario. Alberta was equally bad. The Trans Canada in New Brunswick (which we have driven many times) is nothing like what we encountered to the west in Canada. Good luck and have a safe trip.
RE: YOU drove??? ;^)
My wife and I have always taken turns driving in two-hour shifts, originally with our old TT and now with our 5'er in tow. I don't think driving is a sex-based skill.
RE: Easy Walk Harness
We have gone through 4 harnesses (of ever increasing $$$) for Miss Daisy (our Welsh Terrier) and NONE of them have worked for her. She has learned to "put on the brakes" and slip right out of them. Then she is off into the wild-blue-yonder. Last June, half of the campers in Custer State Park, SD, were chasing her following her most recent "harness-escape", and she was having a great time mixing things up! Ah, terriers.....
RE: Certificate of Veterinary Inspection?
We have traveled in all of the lower 48 states and have never been asked for vaccination records for our dog. Going into Canada is another matter and we have been asked (more than once) for VR's crossing into New Brunswick and into Quebec.
RE: Burr Warning
This thread has provided a good reminder to us. On her first major cross-country RV trip last fall, Miss Daisy (our new Welsh Terrier) spent 30 minutes on her extended-leash chasing her favorite retrieve toy. We were at a very nice COE park south of Dallas/Ft. Worth and noticed she started to limp...then wouldn't go after her toy. When we got her inside, of course, her paws were covered with burrs, which she HATED having removed. A year later, those d*** things are still coming to the service in our RV scatter rugs ! We head west again in about a week and will cross Texas once more. Maybe there are some advantages to the Walmart Parking lot in certain areas of the country!
RE: Overnight on I-84
We drive this road twice a year on our Maine-Arizona travels. There is not much from which to choose. We use Promise Land State Park, which is not too far off I-84 between Scranton and Point Jervis. Nice park, not too $$$, and allows dogs. Another option is the newly re-opened park at Dingman's Ferry; again, cheap, W-E, and allows dogs. Some years, we cut out ( going west) at Point Jervis and go through the Delaware Water Gap to East Stroudsberg, where we pick up I-80 and then back to I-84. Dingman's Ferry is about a quarter of the way down this route. The Water Gap is kind of pretty and it is only about 25 miles on a good secondary road. Good luck.
RE: Sewer dump on wrong side?
We experienced something like this in a campground outside of Ottawa. We paid for a full-service site (W-E-S), but as we were leaving the office, the owner informed us that the sewer at our site was for "gray water only"......BUT...there was a dump station for black water. Upon leaving the next morning we soon realized that there was NO way to get to the dump station without exiting the park; driving up a terrible gravel road to the highway; finding a place to turn around; and returning to the park. Even if I'd gone the wrong way on the interior park road, the station would have been on the wrong side of the RV. As someone else suggested earlier in this thread, I think they didn't want people to use their dump station.
RE: Traveling to Acadia and Cape Cod with dog?
Our summer home is near Acadia and we've camped all over New England. We always leave Miss Daisy (our Welsh Terrier) in the 5'er while we are out to dinner, doing short walks, etc. We leave the A/C running and the Weather Channel on for "company". She is not a barker and I think she just sleeps on the couch while we are gone.
RE: Towmax vs. Maxxis tire comparison data
I bought into the Maxxis mystique in June, buying four of them for our 5'er. Had my first blowout ever, about 500 miles into our trip home. I have reevaluated the "mystique".
RE: parking on sloped drive
It could be. We had a problem like this when camping on the Maine coast a couple of years ago. Found a great back-in site, right on the water, etc. But after backing down into it, the truck bed was at such an angle and height that we couldn't unhitch. Our Pullrite would not release, which was probably a good thing because we may not have been able to hitch back up again. We chose another site.
