The day began with rain, brightened a bit and ended with an accident.
It started to rain as we finished hooking up at Deer Farm Campground. We planned a route that connected with about half of the National Geographic Rangeley Lakes Scenic Byway (Pg. 20-21). Clouds hung low over the mountains and it rained most of the day. Fall scenes were subdued.
The 125 mile trip followed ME-142 west to Phillips, ME-4 west to Rangeley, ME-16 west to New Hampshire, NH-16 west to Gorham and US-2 east to Shelburne. The roads were narrow, rough and heavily travelled by timber trucks most of the way.
The town of Rangeley and Rangeley Lake brightened a somber day. Rangeley has lots of tourism and some neat history (e.g. the unsinkable Rangeley Boat).
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| Rangeley Lake |
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| Rangeley Inn |
This was not a good day for sightseeing.
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| Along the way |
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| Ominous greeting as we pass through Gorham toward Shelburne |
We stopped at Timberland Campground with intentions of touring the White Mountains tomorrow. The touring didn’t happen … here’s why.
We started set-up at site #20. It was raining. Side-to-side leveling was done and all hitch components but one were disconnected. Dick had trouble disconnecting the trailer coupling from the hitch ball. He moved the car back and forth a little to help release the ball and left the car in neutral to allow an easier release. This was a BIG MISTAKE … he didn’t notice or remember that the car was on a downhill incline. He raised the trailer coupling off the ball. The car started to roll when the ball dropped. He chased the car, got the door open on the 2nd try, reached in, grabbed the bottom of the steering wheel and lost his footing. He was dragged down the hill (legs and hips hanging outside the car) until it crashed to a stop. The pictures and outcome confirm our belief in Divine Intervention. The car passed between a tree and a trailer, damaging the trailer awning. It crashed into a picnic table, tore out a phone connection box and came to a stop with the front wheels hanging over a cliff edge.
The park owner took Dick and Carol to the hospital (about 20 miles away) and came back to get them after 1 ½ hours of emergency room services on Dick. He got a tetanus shot, a few stitches and the worst “rug burn” of his life.
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| It was a long ride down. How did we miss the big stuff? |
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| The trailer awning didn't fare well |
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| The picnic table provided the stopping power |
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| This slope drops off to a railroad track |
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| The ride provided some very sore legs |
We’ll deal with the details tomorrow.
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