GEORGETOWN, Maine — Sitting by the ocean, with a cool drink and steamers in the pot, Lynne and Glenn Benson say they love RV camping.
“We’re hooked, having a ball," the couple said.
Their campsite at the Sagadahoc Bay Campground in Georgetown looks over a beach and tidal cove, with another beach and the wider bay just a few hundred feet away. The campground has 74 sites, including five cabins and a number of tent sites.
Owners Eric and Pat Kosalka say lots of people are planning for the holiday weekend.
“We are full, all the sites are taken,” Pat Kosalka said.
When asked if that was good, she laughed.
“That’s wicked good!”
The couple has had the campground for 24 years, and say there are a number of campers who are regulars for the Fourth of July weekend. It’s the same at many, if not most, of Maine’s nearly 200 private campgrounds. Pat Kosalka says those businesses are generally having a good season so far.
“Everyone [is] doing well, even with the price of gas. Someone will cancel, and someone closer by will call and we move them right in."
Four years ago, the NBC TODAY show with Al Roker visited Sagadahoc Bay for a morning telecast. In Laconia, New Hampshire, Ray Poulin was watching. Poulin says he brought his RV to the campground as a result and has come back for every Fourth of July since.
The relaxation factor, he says, is key.
“I don’t have any chores to do. If I’m home I’m always doing something. If I’m camping, I don’t have to do a thing. I just kick back and take it all in,” Poulin said.
That kind of relaxation, he says, is “good for the soul."
Benson agrees.
“Look at this,” Benson said, waving to the big RV and the cooking gear set up nearby.
“To be parked alongside the ocean in a 40-foot motor home, eat[ing] clams, smok[ing] food, how could it be better?”
“Oh, we have a good time,” Eric Kosalka said. “I bought a whole bunch of fireworks, and I’ll set them off at the beach.”
The full campground will likely gather to watch, celebrating their country’s independence, and their own, at least temporary, freedom from work and worry as they sit back and relax.