Day 7: Salem, Massachusetts

We got up early on Tuesday to head to Massachusetts. We had to drive up through Bangor and drop off the rental car. Then we were heading down to Salem to check out some of the Hocus Pocus filming locations. I married a big Hocus Pocus fan and then apparently raised more Hocus Pocus fans, so we had to stop in Salem. Allyson drove the rental and I had the motorhome with everyone sleeping in it, at least at the start. For background, our campsite in Bar Harbor did not have a sewer connection. So we had to be extra careful not to fill up our tanks because I wouldn’t have a place to dump them at the campsite. The campground has a dump station, but to use it in the middle of your stay you’d have to pack up and drive your RV over to it and that’s a massive pain. The campsite also has a service to come “pump out” your tanks but that was only offered on Wednesdays and Saturdays. To avoid any complications we made a point to be very conscious about the water we used since it’s the gray tanks that typically fill up. This meant showering at the bath house and using plastic silverware. Everyone did great and the tanks did not fill up.

When we left early in the morning I didn’t want to dump the tanks at the campground and risk waking everyone. So the plan was to make it to the next campground and dump the tanks there. This decision would be a bad one. Apparently the black tanks, or to be clear the toilet tanks were pretty full. The level sensors on these tanks are notoriously inaccurate. Once we got on the road there was a very noticeable odor from those tanks. Then suddenly the gas alarm went off in the motorhome. There is a sensor which sounds when it detects either CO or combustible gases. While it makes sense that the odor from the tank could set off this alarm it has never happened before. The alarm is super loud and if it goes off while driving basically all hell breaks loose. With no other adult with me I had to scramble to find a spot to pull over and silence the alarm. After 30 seconds of the alarm going off everyone was up! We silenced the alarm but it would go off a couple more times in 15 min intervals. We made it to the rental car spot and picked up Allyson. Caroline explained the situation which was obvious to Allyson after stepping into the motorhome. Now we had to scramble to find somewhere to dump the tanks because there was no way we were going to make it the rest of the way like this. Fortunately Allyson found a truck service station with a dump station about 10 minutes away so we pulled in, dumped the tanks, and quickly everything in side the motorhome was back to normal.

The drive from Bangor to Salem was about 3.5 hours. We made it about 2-2.5 hours before deciding we needed to stop get Nolan out of his seat. We decided to stop in Kennebunkport, Maine which is a really nice spot along the way. This would prove to be a bad idea. Kennebunkport is a seaside tourist spot. It’s got a bunch of little shops in a walkable town area, and then several spots to access the beach. What it does not have is anywhere to park a 35 foot motorhome home. We looked and looked but weren’t going to be able to stop because there really was nowhere to park. This was a bummer because we had driven a bit off the highway to get here. Allyson was able to find a playground in a neighboring town and we got out for a little bit to let the kids move around. Tuesday was supposed to be a hot day all along the coast and it was already almost 90, so we didn’t stay long. We got back in and headed off for Salem.

Pulling into Salem was interesting. I always assumed it was some tiny town that was famous for the witch trials hundreds of years ago. Well it’s not tiny. It’s in the Greater Boston area so even if it was statistically tiny it is still crowded. So you had a lot of people and traffic for tourism, and for the regular livelihoods of those in the area. Driving around Salem was not fun, particularly in the motorhome. Salem is nearly 400 years old. Apparently when they laid out the streets they weren’t thinking about me and my RV in 2025. The streets are all narrow and many are not laid out in a grid. This means that many intersections are the convergence of anywhere from 3 to 7 streets. No one from out of town knows what the hell is going on and traffic moves at a crawl. Finding parking was very tough so eventually I pulled into a funeral home near a couple Hocus Pocus stops so Allyson and the girls could get out.

As we pulled into Salem I was treated with my second alarm of the day which was a low tire pressure alarm. The motorhome home has a Tire Monitoring System where each of the six tires has a sensor on the valve stem. This alarm was telling me that one of the back tires was essentially flat. Seeing the alarm is, well alarming, for several reasons. First, depending on which tire it is you may not be able to drive much. Second, tires aren’t cheap. And third, you’ve got to get the motorhome somewhere to get it fixed and that location needs to be able to service truck tires. The tire sensors give you both pressure and temperature and when I saw that the temperature reading was -40F I knew it was most likely an issue with the sensor and not the tire. I checked the pressure manually in the parking lot and confirmed we were ok.

I pulled out of the lot and meandered around for a bit before finding some parking meters where there were a few open. I pulled over here and paid for two spots worth of parking. I got Nolan out (he was not happy at this point) and checked out a few blocks of Salem before finding the girls. Once we met up we decided to walk around to some of the nearby Hocus Pocus stops. The temperature was really up there today so it was not a fun walk. The high was 99 in Salem on Tuesday and it was sure feeling that way. We walked across the main part of town and over to one of the key Hocus Pocus stops and it was under construction! What a bummer.

After two more stops on foot we needed to get moving before we had a breakdown from our children. Caroline is normally the first to freak out in these situations and you could see her starting to crack. Downtown Salem is an interesting place. No one is shying away from the witch stuff. It’s everywhere you look. Town statues, tourist stops, and a witch-themed store everywhere you look. It was kinda fun but would surely get old quickly. We had two more Hocus Pocus stops to make that were a short drive away so we made those and then headed for our campground south of Boston.

The drive from Salem to our campground was awful. First we had to get out of Salem and that meant driving through residential areas that certainly were not laid out for large vehicles. After winding our way through those we hit bumper to bumper traffic alllll the way down to our campground in Middleboro which is south of Boston. It was pretty intense trying to merge and change lanes in the tunnels during rush hour traffic. The whole time we were concerned that if a major accident (and there were accidents everywhere) brought traffic to a halt we wouldn’t make it to Hertz in time to pick up our vehicle. Needless to say it was a stressful drive.

We made it to Hertz and got the rental, a 2024 Kia Sorento. It was probably the nicest Kia I’ve had as a rental. Allyson drove the Kia and I drove Sassy the last 15 min to the campground. It was right around dinner time so we ordered pizza and Allyson brought it to the campground. The high temp hit 99 degrees on Tuesday so once we were at the campground there was only one thing to do after dinner and that was to hit the pool.

After the pool we got everyone showered and then I brought out a pack of USA themed tattoos I had bought. We all had fun putting on these cheap, cheesey tattoos. Even Nolan got one, although he did not appear to like it. Allyson and I were trying to figure out what to do on Wednesday. We were pretty scarred from the traffic through Boston so we opted to spend the day out at Cape Cod. So that’s the plan for tomorrow.