Epic Northeast Adventure

We have a tendency as travelers to push as far and as fast as possible on each day of our travel. It’s a great way to get far from home very fast and see a lot. But we also stress ourselves with tight time lines and unrealistic expectations. As we embark on a 16-day epic tour of the northeast, our goal was simple, slow down and enjoy it.

On our first travel day, we stuck well to our slow down and enjoy the journey mission. We planned to drive 450 miles and we had all day to do it. We took our time rolling out, even giving the dogs a nice walk before we left them with the sitter. Our destination for the first evening was just north of Columbus, OH. Taking our time allowed for a couple detours. The first was a visit to the Dayton Aviation Heritage, which has six units around Dayton. We visited The Wright Dunbar Interpretive Center and Wright Cycle Company Building. Our next stop was a self-guided tour of Ohio State University, which will become a theme of this trip with our two high schoolers starting to think about what is next. After dinner at Bibibop we headed to our Harvest Host for the evening, Hoof Hearted Brewing. After a quick set up we enjoyed a drink and a beautiful June evening in central Ohio as we concluded the first day of our journey. ​

Our next adventure and campground was Letchworth State Park in New York and our only goal was to arrive early enough to hike around a bit. So we headed out of the brewery and toward Cleveland. As we drove, we decided to explore the shore regions of Lake Erie. We followed the closest roads to Lake Erie across northeast Ohio, the northwestern coast of Pennsylvania, and into New York. We grabbed a picnic lunch at the Food Co-Op in Erie and made several stops at beaches, marinas, and overlooks. We arrived at Letchworth just after our 3pm target time. We dropped the Mantis in the 200 loop, which offered us a beautiful, shaded site near the bathhouse, camp store, and playground, before heading to view the lower, middle, and upper falls. Letchworth, the Grand Canyon of the east, is amazing. The shear walls, rushing water, and stark contrast between the green of the forest and the pale rocks combine for an stunning hiking experience. Arriving late in the afternoon, we still had hours of daylight but the crowds were thinning out quickly. We easily parked at a couple locations and knocked out several miles and several dozen flights of stairs. We finished with enough daylight to bike the campground loops and make an attempt at Blackstone pizzas to end the day. ​

Vermont, our family’s 42nd state, was our day three destination, specifically North Beach Campground on Lake Champlain, just north of downtown Burlington. We took a brief detour on the way to visit Syracuse University’s beautiful campus and grab a coffee at Salt City Coffee before heading into the Green Mountain state. There didn’t seem to be a direct route to Burlington, so we had a long winding and scenic drive. Just a few miles from Burlington we made a shopping stop at Vermont Flannel Company before landing at North Beach Campground, our home for the next couple days. We hopped onto the Island Line and biked to the causeway, a thin strip of land going across Lake Champlain, which was a 14 mile round trip. We could have riden a few more miles to the bike ferry, but we were short on time. We later biked into town for a great dinner at the Skinny Pancake and visited with a family friend. That evening we used a splurge in our tiny home to set up a projector and we streamed Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse. Movies and devices have usually been frowned upon in our Mantis and at the campground, but we started doing a family movie night on occasion and think it is a great way to spend a relaxing evening together. ​

Being from the Midwest, we have a travel rule: south in the winter and north in the summer. As we woke up to another cool summer morning, we snuggled up with coffee and our new flannels appreciating this rule. We started our day with a biking tour of University of Vermont, which may be a contender for a top spot on the college visit circuit. After, we biked to Winooski. Winooski is down the steep hill and across the river from UVM, which makes a fun ride there, all the while knowing it would be dreadful coming back up that steep hill. Winooski is filled with great coffee, dining, and shopping. We enjoyed coffee at Scout & Co., found fun purchases at Golden Hour, and enjoyed burgers at Four Quarters Brewery. Heading back into Burlington, we found a route around the steepest portion of the hill, but it was still a good ride. We spent the afternoon again finding great coffee (Kru Coffee Collective), unique shopping (Vermont Flannel Store and Outdoor Gear Exchange) and delicious food (Black Cap Coffee and Bakery, City Market Co-Op, The Farmhouse Tap and Grill). We took a sunset bike ride back to the campground and settled in for a relaxing evening as we prepared to visit state number 43 the following day. ​

We left Burlington in-route to Twin Mountains, New Hampshire. Once again, we took a leisurely cruise traveling the short distance. We started in Waterbury, where we walked downtown and found coffee and breakfast at Black Cap in the depot. Then we hit the flagship Ben and Jerry’s location for a little breakfast ice cream. After getting the scoop and paying respect to the flavors that didn’t make it, RIP Wavy Gravy, we rolled on. Our final Vermont stop was the capital district of Montpelier. This was an unexpectedly great stop. We wandered through the shops and could have easily found a perfect lunch stop. (As we are writing this, they are currently experiencing record flooding and we are sad to see this happening!) We briefly toured the capital building before heading into New Hampshire. We had a spot at Twin Mountains Holiday KOA, which is a nice campground. There are three sections of the property: a lower section near the road that is big rig friendly, a middle section for smaller campers and tents, and a section on top of the hill for big rigs and cabins. Our spot in the middle section was perfect. A quick setup and we were on to the thrill ride of the day; a drive up the auto tour of Mt Washington. We debated our strategy for Mt Washington: we could skip it (kind of popular in the car), take the cog railway (expensive and requires advance planning), take a van tour (expensive and requires advance planning), hike it (that is a long way!), run up the hill (probably not, but once a year there is a race and someone beat the cog rail car on foot in 2022), or drive up ourselves. This last option is what we did and the drive was worth it. The scenery is breathtaking, the drive somewhat white-knuckled, and the experience at the summit is enjoyable. The summit was clouded over during our visit, so the views were better 500-1000 feet down the mountain, but we were still glad we made the trek. Similar to Pikes Peak or other mountain-top drives, the best part of these summit adventures is the journey up and down and less so the time at the summit. To be fair, all of the buildings were closed when we got there, so our time at the top may have been longer had those things been available. But, we were pleased with our late tour as there were fewer cars that we had to pass on the narrow road!  

We spent the second day in the White Mountains exploring the trails, towns, and scenic byways. We headed toward Franconia Notch State Park and showed up without a plan. We came across the trailhead for The Basin Cascade and tried it out. This trail was stunning. The trail was followed the river to the basin, which is a bowl of water churning under the falls. It was spectacular despite that description! The trail continued and followed the river up to Kinsman Falls, another perfect New Hampshire river and waterfall. Leaving The Basin area, we came across The Flume Gorge and the park visitors’ center. We hadn’t planned to buy tickets for The Flume Gorge, paying to take a two mile hike ($18 in advance, $21 at the gate) didn’t sound like something we needed to do. But we got there, heard that it is amazing, and learned the tip that you can buy tickets online from the parking lot to avoid the line, so we did. The hike is stunning. The path meanders over a hill and past a covered bridge before descending into the gorge. The gorge is 70-90 feet deep and 12-20 feet wide. There is a lot of steps and some wet boardwalks, but the hike is completely worth the time, energy, and money. Our final hike in Franconia Notch State Park was Artist Bluff which climbs to an overlook of Echo Lake. We followed the signs to park in the Artist Bluff trailhead lot and took the trail to the bluffs going counterclockwise. The view was great and the climb to the top was fun and somewhat challenging. Somehow we lost the red trail markers at the top. After debating and becoming frustrated that we didn’t renew AllTrails to download the map, we decided to backtrack. Before heading onto the Kancamagus Highway, we stopped for lunch in Lincoln at Black Mountain Burger Co. where we all devoured massive burgers. With full bellies, we fueled up on caffeine at Encore Thrift and Coffee Shop. The Kancamagus Highway runs 34 miles from Lincoln to Conway and has been designated a Scenic Byway. We enjoyed views of the Swift River and White Mountains along the route. We stop to explore sights, including Sabbaday Falls, Rocky Gorge, Lower Falls, a covered bridge, and many scenic overlooks and picnic areas with wonderful views. The tour ends in Conway. We headed up to North Conway which has tons of shops, restaurants, and a lot to see. We would have loved to explore but the day had been long and it was getting late, so we grabbed Chipotle and made the long trek back to Twin Mountains. ​

The journey from Twin Mountains toward Durham, NH started as a great retrace of our drive through the Franconia Notch the day before. We stopped in Concord to see the state capitol and briefly walk downtown. We grabbed breakfast and coffee at The Works Cafe. Although our visit to Concord was brief, we all agreed with was worth a return visit. Next we visited another campus, this time University of New Hampshire located in Durham. It is a nice small town with a beautiful and walkable campus. We met friendly people and overall, UNH seems like a great place to go. Since we were close, we went across the water into Maine just for lunch at New England Fishmongers in Kitterly, where we had great, locally caught seafood. From here, our plans for the day kind of went off track. We planned to stop for a few hours in Salem, but parking with the Mantis in tow wasn’t possible. Traffic from Portsmouth to Mystic was very slow going and Mitchell wasn’t feeling well, and we were second guessing our planned campground. We shifted to the Mystic KOA Holiday, about 15 minutes from downtown Mystic and we were pleased with our last minute change. The KOA is large with a lot of activities and amenities and a few years ago, would be have been a huge hit with the kids. They would have loved the cool triple-slide, pool, and guided activities, but now that they are older, they want Wi-Fi, a clean bathroom, and maybe a couple hammock trees. Once we finally arrived and got settled in, we made a brief visit to Mystic and carried out pizza from Mystic Pizza for dinner - yes we did watch the movie before the trip: "What the hell do you think Leona really puts in that pizza?"

We woke up to rain on the day we'd planned to spend in Newport. We packed rain gear and decided to stick with our plan as we really didn’t have a rainy day back up plan. So we headed into town and walked the Cliff Walk. The Cliff Walk is a 3.5 mile trail (7 miles out and back) going around the point in Newport and past more than sixty massive mansions. We walked about half of this great walk and thoroughly enjoyed the ocean and the magnificent homes. Afterwards, we were all ready for a healthier meal and discovered Root in Newport and had great bowls loaded veggies and good things. After spending some time walking the shops and neighborhoods of Newport, we decided to head back to Mystic. We made a brief detour for coffee at Dave’s Coffee, which was attached to a boutique. The sun had finally come out so we enjoyed walking around Mystic and drying off. Maybe our highlight was seeing the cantilever bridge over the Mystic River in action. Another stop in Mystic was indulgent treats and a chocolatey old fashioned at ATY Bar and Bonbons. Being a family that knows what we like, we headed back to Mystic Pizza II, which is only five minutes from the campground, for a repeat dinner of the prior night. We also took some time to reload on groceries and get ready for another travel day - taking the long way back into Massachusetts for a stay at a top rated campground. ​

We had several extra hours to make our move from Mystic to Foxborough for our next stay at an epic campground. On the way - well sort of - was New Haven and Yale. Since we’ve made stops at several campuses, we thought seeing Yale would be great. Yale is beautiful and the community seems to surround it in a great way. We walked up to Broadway and shopped in LL Bean and grabbed drinks at Pedals before continuing on our journey. We have been fortunate to visit some of the top campgrounds in the US, including Carolina Pines (now Sun Outdoors Myrtle Beach), The Fort, Little Arrow, and we think Normandy Farms Campground deserves to be very high on that list. The facilities are top notch and so well maintained. The campsites are spotless. The place is huge, but well laid out. The amenities - we just talked about our kids not caring for amenities any more at KOA - but we all loved the amenities at NFC. The list of amenities is massive - pools, hot tubs, playgrounds, basketball, tennis, softball, bags, horseshoes, arcade, bike park, r/c park, disc golf, bocce, shuffleboard, rec hall, adults only area, full agenda of activities, and certainly more. We enjoyed the pools, bike park, and a gorgeous hill to play frisbee. We'd planned just the afternoon to enjoy all the campground had to offer and quickly regretted not giving ourselves more downtime in the campground. 

We had a day planned to explore Boston via the Freedom Trail. We started at Boston Common, founded in 1634 and America's oldest park, and found easy parking under the park. The Freedom Trail is a great way to experience the history of Boston in a  relatively short walk of 2.5 miles. We experienced so much amazing revolutionary-era history in a morning, including Boston Common, the Massachusetts State House, Old State House, Boston Massacre site, Paul Revere’s house, Old North Church, Bunker Hill Memorial, the USS Constitution, and so much more. The Freedom Trail is clearly marked with a red brick path guiding us to the sites. We bought a map at the visitors’ center to provide insight of the sites and it was very helpful to understand the significance of the locations. The trail also offered access to shopping and food along the way. We resisted the fried seafood and beer, and instead found great options for lunch at Boston Public Market where we had great pho and rice bowls from Bon Me, sweet treats from Jennifer Lee’s, and great coffee from George Howell Coffee - all of which were a great find. Another fun highlight of the day was getting to meet our favorite vloggers in the market, Adventures of A+K! At the visitor's center, we were told that a ferry could take your from the USS Constitution to near Boston Common. We decided, much to the disdain of the kids, to walk back and take different routes back to the park. After a long day of sightseeing, we were happy to enjoy the great amenities of Normandy Farms - tossing the frisbee, a dip in the pool, and a soak in the hot tub. On the drive back, we hit a Whole Foods to grab dinners to make at the campground for the next couple nights. Cooking on the blackstone is an easy option when we don’t want to get out in the evening. We enjoyed burgers, tacos, fajitas, pizza, sausage and peppers, and egg tacos as campground meals that we could easily cook outside and clean up after a busy day. ​

Our second full day near Boston was tough to plan. There were so many things we would have liked to explore. We started with a visit to Lexington and Concord, via Minute Man National Historic Park, which paired well with the prior days' Freedom Trail. As we headed toward the sites, we found a podcast, Key Battles of the Revolutionary War, that added great color to the battles at Lexington and Concord. The self-guided walking tour of Lexington, the bridge in Concord, and the sites between were all very interesting. The downtowns of both communities are beautiful and vibrant. We grabbed lunch at Debra’s Natural Gourmet before heading on to Salem. Without the Mantis in tow and visiting on a weekday, Salem was far easier to visit. We downloaded an app with a walking tour and experienced the sad history of the witch trials. Once again, we were eager to get back to the campground and spend time at the campground playing Frisbee, getting a run in, biking, checking out the adult lounge, and relaxing. ​

We had a long travel day from Foxborough, MA to Cape May, NJ. We allowed the whole day, although traffic wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We arrived mid-afternoon at Sun Retreats Seashore for our final multiple day stop and to visit states 47 and 48. This campground has a lot of seasonal sites plus campers. They offer a swimming pool, swimming lake with slides, fitness room, game room, activities room, tennis, basketball, playgrounds plus a lot of activities each day. There was a lot to do, but we didn’t have the energy nor time to take advantage of these things. ​

We started our day early with reservations to take our bikes on the Cape May Lewes Ferry. The ferry connects Cape May to Lewes, Delaware and has the capacity to transport up to 100 vehicles and 800 passengers per trip across the Delaware Bay. We biked just over four miles to the terminal to catch the first ferry of the day. After a pleasant ferry ride over, we set out on a 17-mile bike ride from Lewes to Rehoboth Beach, on the Breakwater-Junction Trail. We rode the loop counterclockwise for two reason: first to complete to longest section earlier in the day, and to save the more interesting section for the afternoon when we were likely to be dragging. We biked through Lewes, neighborhoods, corn fields, and forests before rolling into Rehoboth Beach in late morning and got a big bucket of Thrashers Fries first thing. Thrashers is a staple of the Rehoboth boardwalk and we spotted three locations all within a few hundred feet of each other. Thrashers makes their fries to order and the secret is to douse them in salt and apple cider vinegar, creating a salt and vinegar fry - it is delicious! We also grabbed a coffee at The Coffee Mill, bubble tea at Dreamer, and a fantastic lunch at Green Man Juice Bar and Bistro. We hit a few shops and refreshed our feet at the beach before getting back on the bikes. The route back was primarily in Cape Henlopen State Park and we rode around Gordon Pond across a boardwalk and toward the bay. Cape Henlopen is a great spot for World War II history as you can see Fort Miles, bunkers, and climb a 75 foot watchtower - all of which was placed to protect Delaware Bay. We had a late ferry return booked, but we were concerned about it getting dark on our ride back. Since we were on bike, we could take any ferry, except the last of the day, back to Cape May. So we headed back on an earlier ferry than we’d previously planned. Both of the ferry terminals had good food options and we read that they are proud of a public-private partnership that brought in good local food. We'd planned to eat at Grain on the Rocks in Lewes but didn’t have time. We did get appetizers at Cafe 64 when we got back to Cape May, which were good. Lillian had a Zoom meeting, which we were able to stay in the terminal until she finished. We rode 27 miles that day, which is a long ride for us!

We spent our final day exploring Cape May. Back on two wheels, we biked to Sunset Beach where we saw the remains of the concrete ship and watched the ferry heading to Delaware. We grabbed snacks at the Sunset Beach Gift Shop and rode on to Cape May State Park to check out the lighthouse and the beach. On the way to downtown Cape May, we stopped for lunch at Good Earth. This was an amazing find. We loved the pesto pasta, smoked flounder, and black bean burger - everything was great. Our next stop was Washington Street Mall and the Promenade. We stopped in a few shops and found good stuff at Cape May Peanut Butter, Cape May Running Co., Swede Things, Out There Coffee (Try the spicy Americano!), and grabbed ingredients to make dinner from El Paso Mexican Grocery. We also stopped into the produce stand just outside the campground, which was really nice and had good produce and local products. We were blown away how full the campground had gotten on Friday and, although everyone was having fun and not being disruptive, it was time for us to roll. ​

We headed west early the next day. Not completely ready to call the vacation over we had a couple stops planned. We ordered pizza from Pies and Pints, a favorite anytime we are in West Virginia, and then took a brief walking tour of University of West Virginia. Then we headed north to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. Fallingwater is amazing.
It is just an outstanding property that seamlessly blends nature and architecture perfectly. We had a Harvest Host booked to wrap up the trip, but a heat wave was hitting the region. We need shore power for a/c, so we canceled and were lucky to find a spot on the Saturday before fourth of July at the Huntington / Fox Fire KOA Holiday. We arrived late and left early, but the KOA did the job. ​

We covered so much of the northeast during this 16-day adventure. We camped in all types of campgrounds, experienced mountains and lakes, canyons and oceans, big cities and small towns, plus so much good coffee and food. We all have different favorites of the trip and have a few places we want to see more of. We are so thankful for the time and opportunity to get to explore so much together.

After so many days, we continue to be amazed how well the Mantis fits our needs. We were all comfortable still after more than two weeks. For many of the nights, Lillian was able to secure a hammock from the Mantis to a tree. Our bed, although upgraded from the factory bed, is awesome. After our early roof repairs, we stayed dry and safe during stormy nights and had no water issues driving through heavy storms. We do have a bit of work to do. After having our axle replaced last year, we are having our tires replaced. We noticed five rivets that failed during our travels and maybe seven screws that worked themselves loose, although both of these issues may have to do with a rougher ride due to our worn tires. Finally, we are still without a refrigerator and made due with coolers. We think our compressor failed on the refrigerator and are still considering our options. The dog crate fits perfectly where the refrigerator goes, so when we travel with the dogs, it is nice to have that space available. Overall, we still love our Mantis and it is our favorite way to travel.