Locals Are a Wealth of Information

As we go to a new location, we try to ask as many locals as we can about favorite places and things to do.  Just by researching the internet including Trip Advisor and others, we would miss many of the local’s gems.  People all have different opinions, so it is great to obtain a good cross section of folk’s ideas.

We find people to ask at the church that we attend while in the community.  Most friendly churches will have a greeting time either as you enter the building, just before the service, or possibly after the service.  We have met many great people this way and always ask about the area.

In our current Bar Harbor location, this Sunday we attended the Trenton Baptist Church that is a whole mile away.  We found it to be a tiny, but friendly congregation.  The 10 am service had seven people including the pastor and his wife.  A good sermon from a retired air force veteran who is having a second career!

Another possibility are the local Elks and Moose lodges.  There is no local Moose lodge, but we have stopped at the Ellsworth Elks a couple of times.  They are located about eight miles north from here in Ellsworth Maine.  There is always someone there willing to provide advice.

We have found the Ellsworth town to be the go to place for any shopping as they have a real grocery store and a Walmart.  The town is not the touristy type that we find on Mt Desert Island (MDI).  They even have a very nice downtown area with Friday night concerts.

Even at the Walmart checkout one time, we have had some people ask if we were visiting (not sure how they knew?), and provided all kinds of favorite local information.

Most of the fellow RVers at the campgrounds are not from the area, but we have found that many keep coming back, so they actually know the area well.  Also, many campgrounds have “seasonal” campers who stay at the park from the entire summer season.  We have chatted with them and they are sometimes better informed than the locals for restaurants and such.

So next on our list is to venture out about 2 hours to Stonington, Maine, since we have had two different people recommend this day trip.  A lady from church and another from our RV park both recommended this small town.  It is supposed to be the “authentic coastal Maine.” We will see.

Trish is a natural at the conversions with strangers.  After retiring from accounting, I have also enjoyed now meeting and chatting with people from all over the place.  It was not as natural for me though.  🙂

I remember back in our hometown in Virginia of making weekend trips to Lowes or Walmart and it was my objective to get in and back out without running into people I knew.  Hard to do in a small town.  Just did not want the distraction or delay as I was focused on getting some task done.

The next few days have chances of rain and storms and the temperatures are more like a scorching tropical environment.  Not sure what’s up with that.  We came this far north to see the beautiful Maine coast and to also have temps in the 70’s. Today, they are calling for 90 degrees and humid.  🙁

Yesterday, we took the four mile Acadia Ocean Path Trail for a second time and then stopped at a local brewery in Town Hill for a great lunch.  The Atlantic Brewing Company is a small-scale beer production in a country setting.  They have a large porch area with many covered tables and provide some great local BBQ.

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Take care and God Bless.