More time in Maine

It was hard to leave Owls Head as it had finally cleared up and it would have been nice to spend more time with Susan and Carlisle, but I felt the need to move on.  

Gorgeous home!!!

This and the next are from the bottom of the road.

After leaving Owls Head on a beautiful day, I headed towards Rangely, ME, per a recommendation from Susan.  I was thinking I'd go to Acadia, but due to the potential gov't shutdown, I had the Rangely idea in my head.  As I was driving there, I was 2nd guessing myself - "should I be going to Acadia???"  I continued on and once I arrived in Rangely and stopped at the first scenic overlook, I was blown away by the beauty and the peak foliage and thrilled with my decision to come here.  (Keep in mind that the photos don't come even close to the beauty my eyes see!!!)

This was the first time since starting out 3 weeks ago that I didn't have a plan for where I was going to sleep.  I've been using HH, BW, and staying with friends/family until this time.  I ended up staying 2 nights in a campground since it was on a lake.  

Yesterday, I hiked Bald Mountain and was totally WOW'd by the views.  360 degrees from the fire tower.  Colors of the leaves, lakes, and sky were just incredible.  I felt such joy being up there and seeing those views.  What I'm seeing here is so much better than what I've seen in VT and NY.  I'm not sure why - maybe it's that my senses are more sensitive right now with the newness of everything, but I'm not sure.  The colors here have been almost fluorescent at times and the lakes are big.  Maybe I don't go high enough in NY and VT, but here it feels like I can see so much in the foreground that I don't usually see in NY.  .  Sometimes I really dislike taking photos.  I feel that it distracts me from experiencing the thing that I feel such a need to capture with a camera.  I just can't help it.  I think some of it has to do with social media - feeling like I have to share these moments with my friends.  It is hard to not want to capture these sights for revitalizing the memories in the future.  

Tonight, I am staying in a "wild camping" site where it's legal to stay, but not an established camping spot.  And what a location it is.  I am at the top of a hill that has 360 degree views.  I got to see the sunset and can't wait for sunrise.  I'm not usually a sunrise person, but I plan to leave my window coverings open on the East side so that I am woken up.  I was going to stay at another spot found on iOverlander which is a scenic overlook, but this seemed even better, so I decided to stay here.  I wouldn't have considered it, but for the van there that had solar panels out and a chair.  She said it was fine to stay.  I learned a lot from her and may even be hitting a meetup in NH with a bunch of vanlife women.  As I write this, I think I'd be crazy not to go and learn from these women and make some friends/acquaintances /travel buddies.  Again, this is what I love about this life - the unexpected turns that will happen.  Yesterday/today I was thinking that I didn't know what to do/where to go.  I booked a BW location for tomorrow night, but now I might change direction and hang with this woman I met today on Quill Hill.  

And the sunrise photos (taken through the windows...):

I'm feeling pretty blessed with this place and this life today.  I will be moving to another spot to hang with my new friend Mary at a spot on a lake.  She also invited me to a women vanlife gathering in NH this weekends, so I'm super psyched to go to that and soak up all the info and learn how people cook and such.  

Last night was quiet all night once the stragglers left and other than one car around sunrise for a bit, I had the place to myself until around 9:30 or so.  At first when cars started arriving, Zoe would bark, but now she's fine.  I slept great until sunrise and once seeing those views, I had to get up.  It was super warm in the van last night.  I thought it would be cold up here with the wind and low 50s, possibly colder, but I almost wonder if it was warmer here than down by the lake.  

And then some more as we took a walk this morning:

This is all super exciting for me.  I do go between "WTF am I doing'? and "OMG, this is amazing."  I suspect it's pretty normal (I'm realizing that the crazy thoughts that I might have and don't want to share with others, for whatever reason, are quite common!).  Right now, I'm very excited for all of this and definitely on the OMG, this is amazing trend!  Tomorrow might be a different story...  😜