September, 1985
Storms Never Last - Lyrics by Waylon Jennings
Performed by Dr. Hook
March • April • May • June • July • August • September
Sept 3, 1985
It was still mostly cloudy. We all took a short trip to see Meb and Gary's property and went out for dinner in Bath, Maine at Kristina's.
Sept 5, 1985
We all left for Greenville, Maine. Partly sunny. We set up camp at Lily Bay State Park, nice site on Moosehead Lake (154,554 miles) We all went to the dump to see bears but none were there due to hunting season.
Sept 6, 1985
We drove to West Branch Pond and hiked part way up White Cap Mountain Trail. We had lunch at the boat ramp launch site while watching a cow moose. Michael, Beth and Meb canoed around West Branch Pond while Gary fished and saw loons close up. It was a mostly cloudy day and we couldn't see the top of White Cap
Sept 7, 1985
We all drove into Greenville to see a sea plane exhibition but didn't see anything going on. We canoed into Lazy Tom Bog and Gary caught 7 trout. We saw1 buck and two bull moose, beautiful and serene.
Sept 8, 1985
We all hiked 8 miles round trip looking for the trail head to Big Spencer Mountain but never found it. It was a beautiful clear fall day. We soaked our tired feet in Bear Brook then canoed into Lazy Tom Bog again, but no moose and only caught one fish. We enjoyed the call of the loons on Moosehead Lake each night and saw two raccoons at 3:00 am one morning eating the dog food.
Sept 9, 1985
We had trout and spuds for breakfast and lazed around camp. Changed a flat and broke camp at 2:00 pm, then headed back to Meb's on Orrs Island. It was chilly, but mostly sunny. Overcast in Brunswick. Rainy night. We played Trivial Pursuit.
Sept 10, 1985
Beth and Michael were up at 7:00 am and had a Mexican breakfast before leaving Meb's at 8:30. They drove all day and camped at Chittendon Brook Campground in the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont (154,979 miles). There was much rain and heavy fog all day.
Sept 11, 1985
Beth and Michael hiked Rattlesnake Cliff Trail. It was 3 miles round trip with good views of Dunmore Lake and Silver Lake. Then hiked a short trail to more cliffs off Long Trail at Brandon Gap on highway 73. It was mostly sunny, but chilly.
Sept 12, 1985
We broke camp and drove to Manchester, New Hampshire and stopped at the Ranger Station. We checked out the Groton Pond area but decided not to stay, the weather started looking bad too. We continued on to the Catskills in New York and camped at North Pond Campground (155,256 miles).
Sept 13, 1985
We drove to Sparta, New Jersey and stayed with Dean and Eddie Swift.
Sept 14, 1985
Dean took us on a tour of the area and we all went out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant.
Sept 15, 1985
We left Sparta and drove all day, then camped in Ohio at John Bryan State Park (155,948 miles).
Sept 16, 1985
We arrived in Independence, Missouri at 7:00 pm and went to Chi Chi's.
Sept 17, 1985
We spent the day relaxing at Pauline’s in Independence.
Sept 18, 1985
We picked Ryan up after school.
Sept 19, 1985
We took Ryan to school, then packed the car and drove to Pauline’s in Competition, Missouri.
Sept 20, 1985
We spent the next couple of days in Competition, then left at 10:30 am on the 22nd (156,854 miles) for our winter stay in Bradenton, Florida. (While we were in Maine, we had flipped a coin to determine whether to spend the winter in San Antonio, Texas or Florida. We needed someplace warm for the winter and a place where we could stay while we found jobs and an apartment. Michaels cousin Mark would have put us up or we could stay at Beths Dads Trailer in Bradenton until he returned for the winter. Our plan was to work through the winter and then travel in the spring.)
We drove all day on the 22nd, hitting a lot of curvy roads through the Mark Twain National Forest and camped in Tennessee at the Natchez Trace State Park.
Sept 23, 1985
It was raining in the morning while we took down the tent. We drove to Knoxville and stayed at the Red Roof Inn and watched Monday Night Football.
Sept 24, 1985
After a lazy morning in the room, we drove into Smoky Mountain National Park passing through the Pigeon Forge/Silver Dollar City (Dollywood) area. It was mostly overcast, but there were some good views in the park. We camped in Smokemont Campground (157,556 miles), and after a short nap, hiked the 6 mile Smokemont Loop Trail in just 2 hours.
Sept 25, 1985
It was mostly clear. We drove to Balsam Mountain Big Cove road and hiked 1 mile to Flat Creek Falls and saw a young buck. We hiked another mile to Spruce Mountain Tower, but the tower was gone and there weren't any views. We camped at Deep Creek Campground.
Sept 26, 1985
We broke camp at 9:00 am after a slight sprinkle (157,627 miles) and drove all day, arriving at Anne's in Lake Helen, Florida at 9:30 pm. We spent the night and the next day there.
Sept 28, 1985
We left for Bradenton, Florida where we met Curtis and went to the beach and had drinks at the Sandbar Restaurant on Anna Maria Island.
Beth's Dad had sent the wrong keys and we had to borrow the neighbors to get into the trailer in Sugar Creek Campground. The electricity was not on and we had to run an extension cord from the neighbors until Monday.
Sept 29, 1985
We went to the beach in the morning and cleaned the trailer in the afternoon.
Beth started a job as a pharmacy technician at Walgreen’s on the 2nd of October. On October 7th, we moved into a one bedroom apartment in Bradenton, Florida. On October 8th, we bought an '85 Chevy S-10 pickup. On October 25th, Michael started a job at a Family Mart Grocery Store. We had traveled a total of 24,423 miles between March 1st and September 28th and our expenditures (including child support) averaged $12.00 per day.
We had hoped to just work through the winter and travel some more, but found that we liked Bradenton and spent three years in that little apartment before buying a little house on 16th Avenue.
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