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THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE HAS APPEARED IN THE RECORD August 21, 2002

The art of a fun but cheap
RV holiday in Maine


Like thousands of others vacationers we recently returned from our annual trek to the surf, sea and sandy beaches of Southern Maine. Only this year our trip to the charming coastal villages of Pine Point, Old Orchard, Ocean Park and Kennebunkport was a totally new experience and not just because of the unusually warm ocean water.

Instead of staying in crowded and expensive RV parks we discovered the true meaning of boon docking. Despite our depressed Looney we enjoyed our cheapest week on the road thanks to our first self- contained, motor home. Believe it or not, above and beyond the $61. US we paid for the fuel to cover our 460- mile junket and side trips, our other basic expenses amounted to only $75 US for the entire week.

Welcome to the world of free adult "RV Parks" where space and reservations are never a problem. Forget about too-close-for comfort campfires, excited children running through your sites or the threat of domestic arguments on how best to back into difficult RV sites. At the risk of being scorned by the Maine RV Park and tourist industries, I'll explain to you how we broke our record but first, here is what it can cost to stay in Old Orchard at this time of the year. Comfortable B&Bs with ocean views charge from $100.US per day; motel rooms and two-bedroom cottages directly on the ocean start at close to $130. US; a three bedroom house rents by week from $1400. US. RV sites with utilities range from $30 to $45 US a day.

Could be costly

Except for RVers, by the time you tack on your restaurant meals and entertainment, an ocean week in Southern Maine for two can easily cost $1500. US plus. How about our lodging expenses? On our way to Maine and back we spent a night in North Conway, N.H. and "camped" out in the " luxurious" Wal- Mart parking lot. While in Maine, except for one night in a campground close to Kennebunkport (mainly to dump our gray and black water) at night, we always boon docked at the Scarborough Wal- Mart. Why always at the world's number one retailer? Because their progressive marketing policy aimed at the middle class allows for overnight RV and 18-Wheeler truck parking. Any savvy RV traveler can determine via the Internet, exactly where each store is located, which ones are the exception and finally, which municipalities prohibit overnight boon docking on private property.

Now see if you can picture this peaceful scene: in the dark of the night, 6 to 10 RVs all clustered together for security reasons in the peaceful setting of a lit up asphalt parking lot, armed with video cameras. Except for the occasional idling of an 18- Wheeler diesel engine and nearby traffic, it can be surprisingly quiet. If that isn't enough to get you hooked, every night until 11 P.M. you have easy access to the 100,000 items stocked in their outlets. TOTAL CAMPGROUND COSTS: $23.US.

Free parking

How about the parking costs at the ocean? Except for one day we always parked for free. As early risers we invariably arrived at the clean Pine Point Beach parking lot at 7 A.M. and therefore long before there was even an attendant on duty. Why in Pine Point? It had a well-maintained parking lot directly located on a beautiful and quiet stretch of the 7-mile Old Orchard sandy beach and only 10 minutes from our "RV site" in Scarborough. As a bonus it was equipped with outdoor showers and a snack bar. Last but not least the beach had soft white sand, dunes, and dune grasses. The only time we had to pay the parking fee was when we returned one day from Kennebunkport at 2.p.m. TOTAL PARKING COSTS: $5.US

I didn't calculate our meals- except for a fabulous fish meal in a Camp Ellis restaurant we always bought our food in grocery stores and ate our meals in our RV. TOTAL RESTAURANT COSTS: 25$ US Aside having a cheap holiday, what else did we do? There was hardly a morning when we didn't take a 10-mile bike trip along the ocean coast. We would stop, browse, take a swim and continue our route. For the second time in as many years, just as we reached former US President Bush's magnificent estate in Kennebunkport, we saw him leave in his speedboat, surrounded by family and secret police .On our last morning we even took a bike ride at low tide on the hard-packed sandy beach, all the way from Pine Point to Ocean Park.

Hidden treasures

Since we spent most of our afternoons on the beach in Pine Point - we did a lot of walking, especially during low tide, swimming, reading and talking to fellow vacationers. One day we even tried our luck with my metal detector and came up with a few bottle tops and an empty can of beer.

As usual, our trip to Maine included a visit to the Maine Mall, as well as a stroll through downtown "bilingual" Old Orchard and its popular pier. We made sure not to miss the nearby 4- acre amusement park with its water slides, roller coasters, video arcade, bumper cars, tattoo parlors, fortune tellers and palm readers. If you are anything like us, people watching can be extremely entertaining... as well as being free. TOTAL COSTS INCLUDING TRANSPORTATION: $114.US

In case I gave you the impression that we pushed the art of being cheap to extremes, we spent a few hundred dollars on clothing, a portable CD player and the usual tourist trinkets. I don't usually plug local events but this one deserves your attention. The extensive renovations on the 141 year-old Heath house at 68 Victoria in Knowlton are almost complete and the public is invited to an open house, this Friday & Saturday, from 2-5 p.m. This is the same house that was to be demolished due its dilapidated state and which was given an 11th- hour retrieve thanks to the sweat and money of Dick Wisdom and Joe Singerman together with the help of an angry public and media. Had the TBL resolution been carried through, John Heath, who was not well, would not only have lost his house, he would have been stuck with a $25,000 TBL bill for legal costs and another $25,000 for the demolishing expenses. After the sale of the land he would have been lucky to net $15,000. Instead he received close to $57,000 after TBL agreed to reduce the legal costs to $10,0000. It shouldn't be difficult to find the historical house now that the symbolic Happy Face is once again hanging from the exterior wall and reminding us all that when it comes to municipal politics, a little dose of humanity can go a long way.