R and J in the USA

July 9, 2024

Connie and Red run an Alpaca farm in Sidney, Maine, where we stayed one night as we made our way from Augusta to Acadia National Park.

People who open up their properties to van lifers and RVers via Harvest Host tend to be on the nicer side of the scale. Connie and Red are at the far end of that scale. With their Maine accents and Maine hospitality in full force, they were as welcoming as could be.

They started the Alpaca farm after Red retired from the three companies he owned and ran. (One was an excavating business.) He told us he worked 16-hour days seven days a week and was never home. One day, when he was 58, he said, “I think I’m done next Thursday.” And that was that. Despite the 16-hour days, he says he misses his former work.

In addition to running the farm and the farm store with Connie, Red makes bowls and baseball bats in his woodshop.

It would have been a pleasure to stay on their hilly riverside property even if we had not encountered anyone. The stay was made even better by interacting with Connie and Red. Getting a chance to meet such great people is quickly becoming a highlight of our trip.