Mamoth Caves NationalPark

The Entry to the longest cave system in the world 360 known miles.


Notice that Michelle is in the picture this time!


A part of the cave called "Fat Man's Misery".

First Stop - Columbus Zoo

After driving 600 miles from our home in Simsbury, we reached our first stop - the Columbus Zoo just outside of Columbus Ohio. While the hot weather suited many of the animals at the zoo, we certainly felt the heat.




After several hours of seeing interesting animals, we loaded back into the RV and headed south.

Keegan feeding the birds

One of the highlights of the zoo was the ability to buy nector and feed beautiful birds in their cage with them sitting on your arm. We all had a try. although Sara's bird thought she tasted better than the nector!

Sara in the petting zoo

Heading South

Our time in Maine has ended and after a final dinner at a "fancy" restaurant, we hit the road once more - pulling in to Franklin at 5:00 am to drop off the Gallo's and Simsbury by noon.

We picked up Patrick from his mission trip to San Francisco, repacked the RV and off we went for the next leg of our adventure.

Rock Heaven

So many round smooth rocks that Michelle thought she died and went to heaven!

On the beach

We did get to swim at the beach - cold but refreshing.

The Maine Coast

Our next day of hiking took us to the rocky coast of the island.

On top of Mt Cadillac

Once you climb to the top there is only one thing left to do...




Jump off of course!

Actually, after much discussion, we took another trail down (since the bus did not come up the mountain much to our dismay). The shorter steeper western trail was selected. Only later did we find out it was not a good idea to go down it, only up it!

Hiking the Mountain

Our major hike for the trip was up and then down Mt Cadillac, the highest mountain on the east coast. The bus let us off at the trail head and up we went.

Looking for a campgroud

After an early start on the highway and several more hours on the road, we made it to Arcadia National Park. Our first job was to find a suitable campsite for our group. The Mom Squad set out to check out each of the seemingly 431 campgrounds in the area.

We finally found Bar Harbor Campground, a great family run place to park only a few miles from the Park. After changing sites several times (reminded me of looking for campgrounds, we settled in and was ready to do some hiking.

By the way, we highly recommend Bar Harbor campground to anyone who is camping in the area. It was clean, well run, inexpensive and on the bus line so we never had to drive anywhere. Unfortunately, they don't take reservations, but it worth a shot if in the area.