4001 – Alfred, ME
Half of our round trip from SC to ME and back was completed. Alfred was our first stop heading south again. There would be some interesting stops along the way back to SC.
While our trip to Walnut Grove CG at Alfred, ME was only 200 miles it took us 6 hours of rubbernecking back down US-1 to get there. The highway was extra busy because it was during the 4th of July holidays. RV Parks/CGs along the US-1 corridor did not have vacancies. However, knowing where to look for nice family CGs gave me an advantage. Walnut Grove CG at Alfred is quite secluded from busy highways and local traffic. Alfred is a small town but it's the York County seat and the court house is the largest building in town.
Out of state tourists come to stay on or near the beaches and other attractions. A lot of the regular Maine residents do their camping on weekends. However, during popular holiday weekends they like to gather at someone’s farm and have fresh turkey/chicken, corn on the cob, Maine potatoes and all kinds of home cooked pies. Everyone brings some fireworks and as the sun sets the sky is lit-up with roman candle smoke trails before they let loose their burst of colors. I called and had no problem getting a nice grassy FHU (50 AMP) site. The CG is 30 miles from Portland, 20 miles from Old Orchard Beach and less than 5 miles to downtown Sanford, ME where I was once a high school freshman. We stayed 10 days and made trips to all the aforementioned cities/towns. On the short drive to Sanford there is a super Wal-Mart.
The CG has an old barn they converted into a dance hall and place to play beano (bingo) on the weekends. It also housed the laundry room and a game room. There was a book swapping area and free newspapers were given out there every day. Politics is going to be a topic of conversation with just about every adult Mainer, so bone-up for it if you’re going to spend much time at the evening CG fire ring.
At Portland we ate lobster stew with about 4 dozen steamers and fresh corn on the cob at DeMello's floating restaurant. It was expensive but delightful.
At Old Orchard Beach we played some boardwalk games and walked along the beach.
At Sanford we had doughnuts and coffee, lunch at the city park on the water and went bowling in the evenings. Barbara and Tommy had never seen candlepin bowling and enjoyed the small balls.
On the day of our scheduled departure, I found the right rear outside tire on the dually had a huge blister in the sidewall. I must have clipped a curb hunting for parking at the beach. It took a half day to change it and find a spare and the CG manager had no problem letting us stay another day.
