Greenville, ME

Saturday, September 16, 2023

Andi and I have been watching the trajectory of Hurricane Lee closely & making adjustments to our travel plans accordingly. The good news is, Hurricane Lee has been downgraded to a tropical storm. It already made landfall along Maine’s eastern coast today, bringing high winds and soaking rains. The eye of the storm is now heading northeast toward the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, Canada which is where we had planned to travel after Quebec. After discussing it, Andi and I decided New Brunswick isn’t in the cards for us on this trip. Instead, we decided to drive south from Quebec City to Moosehead Lake in Central Maine. From there, we’ll see how damaged Maine’s eastern coast is after the storm passes and decide whether it’s safe to visit the coast or if we should head toward New Hampshire.

This morning at the Quebec City KOA campground, Andi did a quick load of laundry while Tory and Aden played with the chickens in the kids playground area. We also filled up the RV with propane. The owner of the campground was so friendly about doing this for us. We’re not usually big fans of KOA Kampgrounds, but this one in Levis, Quebec was great.

I felt a bit sad about leaving Quebec City. I really liked it there. We could have easily spent a week in the area visiting all the charming towns along the St. Lawrence River. We’ve got to keep moving though… there’s still a lot more to see in the Northeast USA.

As we made the two-hour drive to the US/Canada border crossing, we stopped at two different Napa Auto Parts stores attempting to return our old RV batteries. Both stores were closed even though their advertised hours online said they were open today. It doesn’t seem like much is open in smaller Canadian towns on the weekends.

At the border crossing, I warned Tory and Aden that a border control agent may enter the RV to check our cabinets or refrigerator for prohibited foods and beverages. I’d read that crossing back into the United States is often more strict than going into Canada. We fed the fruits and vegetables in our fridge to the chickens this morning at the KOA, and only had frozen meats that originated from the US in the freezer, so Andi and I felt confident in being able to cross. We didn’t have anything in the RV that we shouldn’t have had.

There was a bit of a line getting to the station, but once we got there, talking to the agent went fairly quickly. He asked us where we were heading to in Maine, and talked to us about the tropical storm. Really, that was it! Easy, peasy. Welcome back to the USA.

Once we crossed into Maine, we drove another hour to the town of Greenville, Maine. Along the way, we stopped at our 3rd NAPA store of the day and dropped off the old battery. Are there always so many NAPA Auto Parts stores around? It seems like every town has one. Maybe they’re like skateparks … always there, but you never really notice? Anyway, NAPA Auto Parts will take your old battery and dispose of it properly which is why it was important to us to return it. We also got a $30 refund on our battery purchase when returning the old one.

Most of our drive followed the Moosehead Lake Scenic Byway along the western side of the lake. The scenery was filled with beautiful pines and views of the water. Moosehead Lake is Maine’s largest lake, and the second biggest lake in all of New England.

We ended our drive in Greenville, Maine on the southern edge of Moosehead Lake. It was pouring rain with 25 mph winds when we arrived (thanks Tropical Storm Lee!) as we were right on the edge of the storm. We parked our RV in town and hurried into a restaurant called The Stress-Free Moose for lunch.

The restaurant was packed with customers on a Saturday afternoon. We found a table in the restaurant’s upstairs loft and ordered a pretzel and cheese to start. The pretzel was warm and salty which really hit the spot on this rainy afternoon.

Andi ordered steak tips for his meal which he said were really delicious. I had a cheeseburger and fries, Tory had buttered noodles, and Aden ordered his usual chicken tenders.

It was still raining when we finished our meals, so we ran back to the RV and figured we’d better work on finding a place to camp for the night. Andi read great reviews about Lily Bay State Park, so we headed there first. The state park is about 15 minutes outside the town of Greenville.

Lily Bay State Park was a beautiful park, but it was very wooded. With the strong winds blowing today and the saturated ground, Andi and I were worried about a tree falling down onto our vehicles. The trees were really swaying in the park. Besides, there wasn’t a strong cell signal there, nor a north-facing view, so our Starlink satellite internet wouldn’t have worked. We decided to check into a privately-run campground in town called Moose Creek RV Resort with a camping lot that was more wide open.

Moose Creek has a ton of amenities. It was definitely more of a “RV resort” than a campground. We parked the RV in our designated campsite while the rain continued to pour. Andi set up the Starlink satellite for internet and then we left the kids in the RV while he and I ran to the grocery store.

Andi loved the grocery store in Greenville. It had a hardware store attached, so he could have spent hours wandering around in there. We bought a few food items and snacks for the RV and returned to the kids about an hour later.

Moose Creek has a nice clubhouse for RV guests, so Andi and I went there for a drink when we returned to camp. It seemed to be the place everyone was hanging out while the rain continued to come down.

Tory and I wanted to watch the Nebraska football game at 7:00pm, so we put the game on the TV in the RV. Andi went to the campground shower and proclaimed it as one of the best he’s ever used. We watched the game until 10pm before calling it a night. We didn’t stay up for the end of the game, but Nebraska won! A great night had by all.