I had some hospital appointments in Portland at the end of June. Since it was just before the 4th of July, I was afraid we would end up parked at Cabela's. I was so happy to see that they still had three nights open at Wild Duck, in Scarborough, Maine. That is where we stayed at the beginning of June, and we really liked the peacefulness there, so we reserved a campsite for all three nights. The last time, we were in #27, and it was a really nice site, but this time, we had #28, and it was even larger better! We were also right across from some friends we had made there on our previous trip.
We had our friends over for shish kabob on the first night. I had originally planned on three different kinds of shish kabobs. One with lemon and shrimp, another with shrimp, kielbasa, veggies and cajun marinade, and a third with veggies and lemon. As I was par boiling the potatoes, I decided that it would be more fun to have a shish kabob buffet, and let everyone customize their own. I put the shrimp into one bowl, chunked up the kielbasa into another one, and cut up potatoes, summer squash, zucchini, mushrooms and vidalia onions, and put all of these into their own bowls. Then I made up the marinades in separate bowls. The shish kabobs were great, and we had so much fun talking and cooking! You can't see the grill in this photo, because it was behind the picnic table.
The next day was the day of my appointments, and it was rainy, so we decided to go to a local fishing co-op, and have dinner there after we got back from Portland.
On the third day, we were planning on sauteeing up the leftovers from the first night. I was going to grill some chicken to go with it, but our friends came over and said they had lots of leftovers too, so we did a leftover buffet with them instead. I had put all the leftover veggies and things into a bowl along with the marinades, after we ate on the first night, so I fried up some bacon and added all the leftovers to that and sauteed them up in my outside kitchen. (There are two skillets, because one of them doesn't eat meat). Then we brought them over to our friend's camper, and stuck them on the warming shelf inside their smoker/grill while their leftovers were cooking. There was a nice smokey taste to everything, and we had another great meal!
The worst part about camping, is having to leave. I have always been envious whenever we stopped anywhere and saw a camper on the back of a vehicle, so when we stopped for gas on our way home, I had to get out and take a picture of my Sonic behind my Sierra! Yeah, those are dents on the side of my Sierra. We went for years without ever getting a scratch on our vehicles, but Portland Maine parking lots, including the one at the hospital are like meat grinders. Someone is always running into your vehicle while it's parked, and not leaving a note. I think next time, my husband will listen to me about taking Uber. This happened to us twice.
We were storing our camper at the dealership, two hours away. I hated not being able to go in and do things in there when we were at home, and it was a pain to have to drive al the way to Glenburn, Maine, and make an appointment to pick her up every time we wanted to use her. We finally found a spot in Stonington, right across the street from were my mother and I have our gift shops. I sure wish we had hookups, because it would be a beautiful camping spot! I love being able to go into it whenever I want.
On the various camper groups I belong to, people who don't have covers for their slides are always asking if it's worth it. I would definitely say it is. When you are packing up in the rain, you don't have to get up there with a ladder and sweep it off. All I have to do is to stand on the tailgate of the truck, and look to make sure there isn't anything big or sharp up there. Just open your slide when you get home to dry the cover off. It's also great when the trees above you are "raining" down seed pods and things. Remember, anything on top of your slide is going to fall down into your camper on the way home, if you don't have a cover. The angle of this photo makes the cover look a little weird, but it doesn't look that way in person.
This is the view out the door where we are storing our camper.
This is the view out the kitchen window. You can see part of the old clam factory where we have our shops, as well as some of the beach and cove.
