9. Skipping ahead...Camping in a harbor parking lot, SALEM Mass.!

Time has been running way from us really fast, so I'm a little behind in writing about what we've been up to. SOooo, I'll catch up by telling about our present circumstances, which are pretty unique! I plan to finish up our Acadia adventure reporting later...it was so cool we don't want to forget any of it.

After an unforgettable 1-week stay in Maine's Acadia National Park, we headed south for a campsite Lynn reserved in Salem, Mass. at Salem Harbor, right in the middle of town, in a little place called Winter Island. Leaving Acadia was hard, but it was cooooold, about 46 degrees during the day, so no tears. Oh, we made  slight detour a dump our holding tanks at a different camp ground. It ended badly, very gross, the less said about the experience the better. 

Unbelievably, on our drive a few hundred miles south to Salem, the temperature got up as high as 83 degrees!!! An unseasonable hot spell has descended in mid-October, go figure. We drove through such beautiful scenery to get here, including some national and state forests, with lovely orange, red, yellow, gold and green colors blazing. Photos don't do it justice, so we just sat and stared out the window to enjoy the ride. Accidentally, we stayed just long enough in Maine to hit their perfect leaf-season!

Upon arriving at Salem, we found out that yes, our campsite would indeed be on a huge asphalt parking lot, behind an old dilapidated Coast Guard seaplane hanger. ..with constant abundant wind!

The upside was that our site backs up to the Salem harbor, so we see all the boats and city lights from the picture window in our Casita. Just around the parking lot from us is a view of the Salem inlet, the outlying barrier islands, and a short lighthouse (without an actual "house") for guiding ships into the harbor around the abundant rocks. We were told to be sure to see sunrise over the lighthouse, which we did the next a.m.

A gypsy-type caravan camper is parked next to us in our campsite, wielded by a lady with three hairless terrier dogs. She is an interesting person, teaching herself to play harmonica while pulling her gypsy wagon around camping. This is probably the first time we were NOT the smallest camper in a campsite!

We met Mike the Harbormaster, because he wanted to talk about my wood kayak. Nice guy, fun conversation, AND we got some recommendations for good places that LOCALS liker to eat. Good thing, too, as we were hungry. so we headed out to his first recommendation, Howling Wolf Mexican Restaurant. What a delight: great food, good wine & local beer, coolest logo a place could have, and within easy walking distance of our campground. 

Next day, as recommended, we got up at 6:15a.m. and caught the 6:51 sunrise over the lighthouse. Wow, so beautiful and exactly on the predicted time! We took a bunch of pics, and got a series showing the sun at each stage coming up...interesting to no one but us probably...see what you think! 

After sunrise, we wandered around the ruins of an ancient fort right by the light: Fort Pickering. It was established about 1643, to guard Salem Harbor, and was in use for one reason or another for the Civil War, War of 1812, the World Wars, and goodness knows what else until the 1950's or so. The ruins aren't very spectacular: a moat, some underground fortifications, and some concrete ammunition bunkers. They are situated perfectly to guard this harbor, though.

We decided to ride the Salem sightseeing trolley to get a feel for the city, and picked it up right by our camper. All day ride ticket, to get on and off as we wanted at various sites. The commentator guy taught us how Salem was one of the richest towns in the world back in colonial days, had a busier harbor than New York, Boston, or anywhere else in the New World, etc. etc.  



We also learned more than I wanted to about the witch trials and executions back in the 1600's. Oddly enough, Salem trades heavily on this sordid part of its past: OCTOBER is wholly dedicated to celebrating witches and Halloween, with about 250,000 tourists flooding into the town wearing costumes and acting weird. To be honest, we tired of these folks pretty quickly, so found other stuff to be interested in with this town. 

There is LOTS of interesting history laying around this place. For instance, Dead Horse Beach is where they buried dead horses until a huge fire in 1914, after which they cut that out! Here, the commemorative sign has a famous local seagull,GUS, sitting on top. 

One thing we really liked, for awhile, was the Peabody Essex Museum, which was devoted in large part to Asian interests. The centerpiece of their exhibits was a 200 year old house from a small town in China, disassembled and brought from China in pieces around 2004, then carefully reassembled in its original form as part of the Museum, all overseen by surviving members of the family & Ancestors who had lived for 200 years. This was an amazing exhibit, especially as we have enjoyed Chinese movies set in the old dynasty-times, often taking place in houses just like this one. Great way to bring art to life! 

There were some other Chinese exhibits, about how one became an Empress, and how life was lived in the Chinese Court. We absorbed as much as we could before we fled the museum!

Supper was at another of Harbormaster Mike's suggestions: Fibber Magee's, in nearby Beverley, Mass.    PERFECT specialty hamburgers, and we were there on 1/2 price night! The place had the ambience of the old bar in the Cheers TV show, and we seemed to fit right in. 

After our fine dinner, we got in the truck to go home, and found the battery was dead, truck wouldn't start, and we seemed stranded. Eventually we got it running, then found an auto parts store to replace the defective battery. The manager was so helpful, signed me up for a discount, and installed the new battery right there in the parking lot, while I (sort of) helped. He was also a motor-head, so we traded info about Datsun 240Z's, Cobra's, pickup truck conversions, Toyota MR2, etc. What a guy! 

That's our Salem adventures so far. We may boogie out of here tomorrow for new adventures down the coast, and will let ya know. Thanks for reading. 

Here are more photos if you're interested:
Trip Photo Album