Acadia Trip and Trailer Troubles

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...... This has a whole new meaning to me now.

 I was invited by some friends to go to Acadia back in the beginning of the year. I had a lot going on at the time and just could not commit to it because reservations need to be made ahead of time. One of my friends ended up not being able to go a week before the trip and offered me the stall she had reserved. I was able to go and jumped at the chance. I invited Cierra to go. She called to see if  there were any available stalls. They had one for the first 3 nights, though she's have to move stalls the 3rd night but had nothing for the 4th night. She also had her 18th birthday party planned for Sunday so couldn't stay a 4th night anyway. I decided I would come home one day early so she could go. I've been wanting to take her there for as long as I've known her.

Wednesday July 29th 2015
We were getting an early start today. We were meeting Nancy and Joanie at Exit 43 at 9:00 am and traveling together. Cierra arrived at my house by 6:30 am. I'd packed most of our stuff into the trailer last night. Tack, grain and my personal items. And I didn't skimp when packing this time since I was using my trailer to camp in and had plenty of room for as much stuff as I wanted to bring. I had the hay ready to go in hay bags in the barn. Cierra fed and I helped her clean and get things set up for Fred and her mom to take care of Marie while we were gone. We packed in her things and the hay and arrived at Exit 43 right at 9:00 am. Nancy and Joanie arrived soon after and we were off. I had just had my trailer serviced recently as I thought I was going to be taking my truck to Illinois in June and checked again a month ago to have the plug replaced in the truck and to double check my breaks as they didn't feel right. Service guy said he looked at them, all was well, I just had the break box adjusted to high. I didn't agree but the trailer did feel better after the 2nd check so I was feeling confident in a smooth trip to Acadia, and the trip was indeed uneventful.

We pulled into the parking lot of Wildwood Stable and as I went to pull around Joanie's trailer, I heard a loud scraping noise coming from my trailer from the drivers side wheel area. ?? I got out and the breaks on the trailer smelled hot and both drivers side wheels were too hot to touch and the bearing grease was  melted and all over the tire rims. NOT good. We went up and registered at the office, got our stall assignments and went back down to set up our stalls. As I pulled around close to the barn to unload our stuff, the trailer kept making a bad noise. I parked and we unloaded and set up our stalls and got Lily and Tinkerbell all settled in. We were all in the same barn with stalls together which was nice. Tinkerbell was next to Franny and Tink fell immediately in love with her. Goody was next and Lily was on the end. There were some driving horses in the barn across the aisle. Lily was a bit snorty as I led her though the barn to her stall. She wasn't sure she liked the looks of it all but didn't make any fuss.

 Once we had the horses and Lily all settled in, setting up camp was next. I asked everyone to watch my trailer as I drove a loop around the parking lot to see if they could spot anything before I parked it in a campsite. At first it made no noise but before I made the full circle, it stated again and Cierra said she could see the front drivers side wheel wobbling. I pulled back into the parking spot, loosened the lug nuts, with the aid of another campers larger 4 way tire iron as my puny one was not up to the task. We backed it up on the Trailer Aid and the tire in question was super loose and wobbly. It appeared that the bearings were shot. ACK! There is pretty much no cell phone service around Wildwood Stable so we went up to the office to make some calls. Joanie helped me by paging thought the yellow pages looking up places that might repair my trailer. After making numerous calls, on the office phone that I could NOT figure out how to use (they must have thought I was an idiot.... I felt like one...) I talked to someone at Ellsworth Collision center who said they could repair it. They didn't typically do trailers but said wheel bearing should be no problem. They gave me the number of a towing company to call to haul the trailer to them. I called Dave's towing and they said they would send someone right out to get my trailer. Joanie and I headed down to our campsite to help set things up but Nancy and Cierra already had most everything done. Now our problem was where were we going to sleep? Cierra and I had planned to camp in my trailer. Nancy and Joanie said they would make room in their tent for us. We all went down and everyone pitched in to get everything out of my trailer that Cierra and I would need for the next 4 days. We piled our luggage into my single cab truck. Put our horse things in Joanie's trailer. Room was made in the tent for my cot and we grabbed cushions out of my trailer for Cierra who ended up in a small spot at the bottom of the tent. It would be tight but it was going to work.

The hauler came with a flatbed and looked the situation over. He paced off the size of my trailer, did some heavy thinking, and then I saw him taking the slim side rails off his flatbed. All I could think was that if the trailer would not fit on WITH the side rails, it was not going to fit without them safely. And how do you pull a gooseneck trailer onto a flatbed that has a jack and no wheel under the gooseneck? Well, apparently it can be done. The hauler put a skid under the jack and he did indeed get my trailer onto the flatbed in one piece and it JUST fit with NO room to spare on each side. It was agonizing for me to watch. Then, off he went with it. There was no more I could do about the trailer so it was time to just enjoy some riding.

I had been nervous about bringing Lily to Acadia and almost chickened out in favor of bringing Marie. Marie has been here many times and with her I knew it would be a relaxing time. Lily is still and unknown. Acadia is what we call equine boot camp. There are over 50 miles of maintained carriage roads and while no motorized vehicles are allowed on the roads, it is an extremely popular tourist destination. At this time of year there is always tons of biker, hikers, back packers, bikers with backpacks, joggers, dog walker, strollers as well as private and commercial horse drawn carriages from large to small. So much for the horses/mules to take in. Lily is just so new to being ridden and I don't know her that well yet so I didn't know how she would handle all of it. I decided I had to bring her as it would be a great training opportunity and experience for her and how else would I get to know her. She was being good in her stall, relaxed and demanding food right away. My trailer had been picked up in time for us to get in a short ride before dark so we saddled up. Lily was a good girl and didn't fuss when Joanie and Nancy led their horses out to Joanie's trailer where their tack was.

Lily was a bit excited as we started out. We took the lead and she was a little snorty about the big rocks and gates and such but she went. Then we all took turns leading during the ride. It was late enough that the roads were pretty quiet and we chose roads we knew would be the least active. We eventually met a couple bikes parked along the road and Lily looked at them but didn't seem to be worried. On the way back, we came though the Jordan Pond House gate. It can be busy there. It is a stone arch gate. Lily was a bit concerned about walking under the arch and all her attention was on that. As soon as we got though, a bike was right there coming at us. Lily was quite startled by the bike but all she did was a half turn and dance out of the way. She stopped as soon as I asked her to. We had a few more bikes come by us from from the front and she was more curious than concerned. We didn't have any pass us from the behind. It was a great ride and I was very pleased with Lily. It was also really nice as our four girls were all getting along so nicely making it very relaxing not having to worry about who was near who. When we got back to the stable, we took care of the horses and Lily and that was when I realized the one thing I'd forgotten to get out of my trailer before it was hauled off ...... Lily and Tink's grain! So, Joanie and Nancy gave Cierra and I a portion of their horses grain to give Tink and Lily. After taking care of  the horses and Lily, Joanie and Nancy prepared supper. There was a fantastic chicken salad and a potato salad as well some other wonderful things and home made cookies! They are the best camp cooks ever!!!

Thursday, July 30th 2015
I slept fairly well though I was having trouble staying comfortable on my cot, so I rolled around a lot. My cot was squeaky and I'm sure the others in the tent wanted to club me every time I rolled over. Nancy woke me up at one point as she had noticed my truck's interior light was on and she couldn't figure out how to turn it off. So I had to crawl over Joanie to get out but managed not to cause any injuries. We had a visit from a raccoon that night also but we'd put everything away knowing we might have such a visit so he.. or she was quite disappointed. We didn't rush this morning, enjoying a leisurely breakfast. I called Ellsworth Collision to verify my trailer had arrived in one piece. They said it had but needed to order the bearing. I was told they would have the trailer ready sometime on Friday. We got ready to ride and headed out at 10:30 am. Today we decided to do the Seal Harbor, Long pond ride. We would have quite a few miles where bikes were not allowed so a quieter ride for Lily. It was a wonderful ride. On the road to the boathouse, we had a jogger come up behind us. Lily turn to look at him but was not scared. After that, she didn't worry about any more jogger other than watching them with curiosity. There were 3 or 4 painters with easels set up on the path going by the harbor right at the end of Long Pond. That made all 3 horses and Lily pass with extreme caution. Not far past that, we came across some trail maintenance and the road grader. None of them were too worried about that and passed it quietly. We encountered quite a few bikes later in the ride. All of them passed us from the front. Lily was fine with them all.

When we got back, we hosed off the horses and Lily. I was waiting for my turn to use the wash station and was walking Lily around in the parking area when a couple private carriages came in from a drive. Both were four hitch teams. Lily was absolutely fascinated by them. They would go by and she would try to go over and look at them. When I wouldn't let her get too close, she would start bucking in excitement. I had one woman approach me to tell me that I needed to keep my mule away from the driving horses because they can be scared of mules. I did not argue with the woman but could only think what they would do if we met up out on the roads. I never saw any of the horses react to my mule while we were there. After we had hosed the horses and Lily off, we hand grazed them for a while, then settled them in their stalls. We headed to our campsite to have lunch and relax. Joanie and Nancy decided to head into Otter Creek to the public showers. Cierra and I decided to go hiking instead. Cierra and I stopped at the barn before heading out to top off all the water buckets. We had a great hike. We hiked 3 miles and went up over the hills by the stable which has some great views of the stable and out across Seal Harbor. We found tons of ripe blueberries along the way that we couldn't resist picking.

Joanie and Nancy were back by the time Cierra and I returned from our hike. They were all nice and clean while Cierra and I were hotter and sweatier then ever. Nancy and Joanie prepared yet another fabulous meal for supper. Vegetable and beef kabobs with young fresh potatoes from Nancy's garden cooked on the grill. This was followed by a fun game of double solitaire. Cierra had never played it before but she caught on pretty quick. There was a brief shower while we were playing that passed as quick as we could get stuff under cover. We did one last night check on the horses and Lily. Cierra and I did the best we could to clean up in the bathroom so Joanie and Nancy wouldn't throw us out of their tent because we smelled bad. Again, though I slept ok, I did a lot of tossing and turning on my squeaky cot. It did rain during the night but the tent didn't fail us and kept us dry.

Friday July 31st 2015
Morning was clear and beautiful. We got up early as we planned to do a longer ride today as well as a moonlight ride in the evening so needed to get an early start. We took care of the horses and Lily, had breakfast then I went up to the office to call Ellsworth Collision to check in with them on the status of my trailer. The service manager said the parts came in and the trailer would be ready by the afternoon. I told him I'd be there at 4:00 pm to pick the trailer up. We headed out at 8:45 am. Today we did the Landslide, Bubble pond route. A busier route but Lily has been doing so well that I decided to not worry about where we rode. Lily did not disappoint me. She was not bothered by bikes that passed us from the rear. Unless she was last in line and then she would just clamp her tail and butt muscles a bit. The only time she spooked at a couple bikes was on the Bubble Pond trail that is narrower than the others. The bikes coming at us were close enough when they passed I think she thought they were going to hit us. She didn't lose it though, only a bit of a dance when they passed. We had another great ride.

 When we got back, we again hosed the horses and Lily off and hand grazed them for a bit. Cierra had to move Tinkerbell out of the stall she was in as it had previously been reserved. We were laughing as the reservation was Susie's.  All the stable had for Tink that night was a stall in their own barns with the carriage horses. Cierra cleaned out Tink's stall and moved her hay bag and water bucket up to Tink's new stall. I was just getting ready to follow her up with a bag of shavings when Mary Ann and Barbara arrived. After happy greetings, I explained why I was lugging around a bag of shavings. Mary Ann said they had a stall reserved in our barn that was not being used as one of their friend hadn't been able to come. So, Tinkerbell was able to stay in our barn after all, she just had to move down a few stalls. Susie and David arrived just as were settling Tink into her new stall. After more happy greetings, Cierra, Nancy, Joanie and I went back to camp to have lunch and relax for a while. I decided to head to Ellsworth early in hopes that my trailer would be ready when I got there. Cierra came with me and I took the scenic route through Bar Harbor for Cierra. We got to Ellsworth Collision Center at around 3:00 pm and the trailer was ready to go. The hauler that had dropped the trailer off had not blocked up the jack so they had to jack the trailer up to get it high enough for me to back under. I was happy to have my trailer back! I played around with the break controller a bit as we left as it felt like the breaks were engaging a bit too much. On the way back, I accidentally took the wrong direction on Route 3 and ended up going into Bar Harbor again. Not a fun town to drive a horse trailer though. So crowded with people and a tight squeeze with all the parked cars. I've done it before though and knew I could make it so didn't bother to turn around. We got though to the turn and made it around the corner and were creeping our way along and doing fine. I was watching my wheel wells like a hawk in my rear view mirrors to make sure I was clearing everything. We were almost though the worst of it when in one of my glances into my rear view mirrors I see the front drivers side wheel coming off the trailer! By some miracle, right there in town, was a parking space along the side of the road large enough for my truck and trailer and I pulled right in. I got out, and with a bit of quick dodging of heavy traffic, managed to look at my wheels. Both drivers side wheels were too hot to touch and the front one was leaning out at a sharp angle. I called Ellsworth Collision Center. They couldn't imagine what might be wrong for that to happen again. Said they most likely could not do much more for me. They did say they know of an RV repair shop that was mobile and did on the road repairs. They could not remember the name of the RV repair shop but heard they were very good and gave me the name of a campground to call saying the RV repair shop went there a lot so felt sure someone at the campground could give me some information. I called two campgrounds, both did recommend the shop that did on the road repairs and I got the contact information. It was River Road RV Repair in Orrington. By the time I called them it was 4:45 pm. The woman that answered the phone was very sympathetic but told me there was nothing they could really do as they were closing in 5 min and would not be back to the shop until Monday. It was at this point I lost it, and like a big baby started crying and saying I really needed help and didn't know what to do. The woman told me to hold on and she would let me talk to someone else there. The man I talked to was so nice and said that he could not work on my trailer until Monday but gave me the name of a hauler to get the trailer to his shop. The woman even called back a bit later to make sure I was ok. I appreciated that. I called the hauler and he said he would come out. Cierra and I settled in to wait. We knew it would be a while as the hauler and RV shop were at least an hour drive away.

It just so happened we were sitting in front of an ice cream shop so we got a couple milk shakes to drown our sorrows in. I was glad Cierra was with me, she was good company in a tough spot. While we waited, I called my friend Amy to see if she might be able to come to my rescue me and pick up Lily and Tinkerbell in the morning. She said she could and decided to come early enough to go for a ride too. She has a 4 horse trailer so could bring her own horse and mule and still have room to haul Tink and Lily. I could not call any of my friends at Wildwood to let them know where Cierra and I were because of there being no cell signal in camp. I tried calling the camp office but they were closed and I was only getting the answering machine. So I could not send a message that way. I felt bad but there was nothing I could do about it. A little over 2 hrs. later, the hauler showed up. He eyeballed my trailer and was not sure it would fit on his flatbed. There was an apartment building with a large parking lot just down from where we were and across the street. He told me to go ahead and pull the trailer in there. I did and he backed his flatbed up to my trailer but after more measuring, we knew it was not going to fit. He said if I just took the tire off, I could drive it back to Wildwood Stable on 3 tires safely. So, I backed the trailer onto the Trailer Aid and my tire literally fell off. The hub had completely busted. New bearing were shot, break shoes shot, spindle shot. And the lug nuts were all loose. I tossed the tire into my trailer and hauled the trailer with 3 tires back to Wildwood. The hauler followed me as he knew I didn't feel comfortable doing this. I was worried there was also damage to the other wheel on that side as it had gotten very hot also. And I had to unplug the trailer as the breaks on that side were locking so I was hauling with 3 tires and no breaks or lights on the trailer. I did get back to the stable safely.

 Once back at the stable the hauler told me that it really would be safe for me to haul the trailer on 3 wheels to the RV repair shop without any animals on it. I didn't like the idea but after talking to a few others, decided this would be the best plan. Now that I had a plan in place, I was feeling a bit calmer. Joanie and Nancy had kept our supper warm but the stress had left me not feeling too hungry. I did eat two ears of corn but could not eat the chicken they had cooked for me. I had decided I didn't really want to go on the moonlight ride either. If Lily was bothered by anything, I didn't feel I could deal with it right then. I did, in the end, decide to go and I'm so glad I did. Lily was a perfect angel! Pam had come to spend the night just to visit. She rode a horse that belonged to another camper they all knew. David and Susie headed out before us and we passed each other out on the roads. It was an absolutely perfect night for a moonlight ride. Clear and warm. This was a first for Cierra and I was happy to be with her on her first moonlight ride to the top of Day Mountain in Acadia. There were places along the roads where would would come out from under the trees and the moon was so bright we would have to shade our eyes. As we were going up the mountain, in may places we could see out over the ocean and even see the waves on the water, the islands and all the lights. It was just so beautiful. At the top we had a celebratory shot of Frangelica. The ride back was lovely too. Once back, we took care of the horses and Lily. Cierra and I did our best to clean up in the bathroom and then were happy to have my trailer to sleep in for at least this one night. I'm sure Nancy and Joanie were also happy to not have to listen to my squeaky cot for another night. I slept well!

Saturday, August 1st 2015
I was up early and fed Lily and Tink. They were happy to have their normal ration of grain. They had not gone without thanks to Joanie and Nancy sharing what they had brought but they know it was not their usual fare. Once Tink and Lily were taken care of, we went over to camp for breakfast and though the usual and wonderfl breakfast fare was offered, I decided to have a chicken sandwich made with the chicken breast Joanie had cooked for me for supper last night that I had not been able to eat. It was delicious! Amy arrived early and Carole was with her. Amy brought her mule Annabelle and her gelding Washburn for Carole to ride.  Cierra and I cleared out my trailer of anything we might need and had the fun of getting all our stuff into Amy's truck. Our plan was, after riding, Amy would follow me to the RV repair shop in Orrington, luckily pretty much on the way to her house. We would then go to her house, and because she had something to do that afternoon, She would unload her horses and I would leave my truck there and take her truck and trailer home with Tink and Lily. Then I would bring her truck and trailer back the next morning and pick up my truck.

 After getting all our stuff packed we saddled up and headed out. Our plan was to do the Hadlock Pond loop. This was the first time Amy has had her mule Annabelle to Acadia. Annabelle did great with all the things we encountered on the trail. She is a really nice mule. At the Jordan Pond Gate House, we encountered 3 of the big carriages that give rides in the park. They are big 4 hitch draft horse teams and very large wagons. Lily went by them just fine. The hard part was keeping her from getting too close as she continued to be fascinated by the carriages and wanted very much to check them out. It is a bit of a ride to get out the the Hadlock loop and once we were there, we decided we didn't have time to do the 4 mile loop and then the return ride back to camp. So we skipped that and still had a wonderful ride and went a little over 9 miles. There was one spot where we could play around a little on the rocks. Annabelle was the first to come down over a bit of ledge and it was so cool the way she carefully lowered herself daintly down. Cierra went down next with Tink who did it without a second though, though not quite so carefully or gracefully as Annabelle. Then I did it with Lily and she too did it in fine, careful mule fashion. Lily usually walks fast and ends up out front but she was tired today and brought up the rear most of the ride. I could tell she had some sore chest muscles this morning. She didn't complain though and was wonderful on our ride.

 Once back, Cierra and I got our stalls cleaned out as quick as we could, stashed the last of our things in Amy's truck and loaded Tink and Lily in Amy's trailer first. Good girls that they are they went in with no fuss. Then Annabelle and Washburn were loaded and we headed out. I had to stop at the first gas station we came to as I had forgotten to stop yesterday with all that was going on trying to deal with my trailer. Then we stopped just outside of Ellsworth at an Ice Cream shop to get ice cream of course, but I had to google the address of the RV Repair shop as I didn't know where it was. We found it and got the trailer dropped off and that was a huge relief. Then on to Amy's. She quickly unloaded Annabelle and Washburn. Cierra and I did have to go say hello to little Meneely. Amy's little mule foal. Then we headed home. I'm not sure what time we pulled into my yard but it was before dark so I was happy.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times