Westbound through New England and New York

After our departure from Canada, we began our journey west and towards home.  We drove on 'blue highway's" again and enjoyed seeing several more charming small towns, all of which have beautiful, historic homes, many with unique architecture.  We skirted around Bangor, Maine and stayed in a campground outside Skowhegan.  We then headed through the skinny part of New Hampshire and enjoyed seeing the White Mountains and some of its Presidential Range.  We found a delightful little RV campground just outside St. Johnsbury, Vermont and ended up staying there 3 nights.  We were parked right alongside the Moose River and it was nice to 'do nothing' except read and do a bit of trip planning.  

We drove through St. Johnsbury on our way west and it, too, was another very pretty town.  We did stop in Montpelier,  visited the capitol building and walked around the historic downtown.  Montpelier is the smallest state capital in the USA, but we voted it #1 in terms of being cool and charming.  We postponed lunch in order to sample ice cream when we stopped at Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury, VT.  It was a short tour and we did indeed get our reward with a healthy taste of their ice cream.  We finally reached Shelburne (south of Burlington), our final spot in Vermont. 

Shelburne is the home of a wonderful museum and we spent several hours visiting it during the two days we were in town.  The Shelburne Museum contains the large art collection of its founder Electra Havemeyer Webb and a number of historical buildings, structures and other items, including the steamship "Ticonderoga" that once sailed on Lake Champlain.  This is a 'must see' museum.  There was a large exhibit of Grandma Moses' art on display during our visit, which was fun.  We learned that Grandma Moses, along with many other noted/famous artists, was quite the thief of others' drawings!

We departed Vermont June 23rd on a little ferry boat across Lake Champlain to Essex, New York.  We were afforded great views of both Vermont and the Adirondacks in New York during the crossing.  We traveled down highway 9N and although it was a circuitous drive over hill and dale, the scenery was lovely, especially as we drove along Lake Champlain and Lake George.  We stayed a night near Lake Luzerne and then headed on Highway 20 to a RV campground near Cooperstown.   Before checking into the RV park, we drove about 15 miles along Lake Otsego into Cooperstown proper.  It was - you guessed correctly, yet another very charming town.  We had no interest in seeing the Baseball Hall of Fame there and didn't bother walking around the historic downtown as it was too hot to leave the dogs in the RV.  

We left the Cooperstown area on June 25th and enjoyed seeing several more charming small towns along the way:  Richland Springs and Skaneatele were two of the most beautiful.  We stopped and visited the National Women's Rights Park in Seneca Falls before stopping for the night in Waterloo, NY.  We learned Waterloo was the town that started Memorial Day way back in 1866???.   

On Sunday, June 26th, we arrived at our RV park located about 12 miles from Niagara Falls and got settled in.  In a rented car, I drove up to Mississauga, Ontario on Monday in order to visit my second cousin, Pat Keys.  Pat, originally from Derry, Ireland,  was my mother's favorite cousin and we've stayed in touch over the years. It was a great visit and one made even more special by the presence of Linda & Helen, one of Pat's two sets of twins.  Crossing the border into Canada and back to the USA was much easier this time as I had no booze - or anything else to declare!

Today, we finally had the opportunity to see Niagara Falls - and it is still magnificent and scary with its inherent power.  It was worth the hassle of finding parking and keeping the dogs on a short leash amongst the crowds viewing the Falls.  Tomorrow, we head towards Ohio, with an overnight stop planned in Washington, PA.  

P.S. The photos are not in chronological order.  Oh well!

Women's Rights National Park - Seneca Falls, NY

Tiny Tin on the ferry across Lake Champlain from Vermont to New York

The view of the Adirondacks of New York Sta

The Round Barn at the Shelburne Museum, VT

The Ticonderoga Steamship - Shelburne Museum

Doing the tour at Ben & Jerry's - Waterbury, VT

The Flavors Graveyard at Ben & Jerry's Factory

View of covered bridge - Shelburne Museum

Quilt art exhibit -Shelburne Museum

Lighthouse - Shelburne Museum

Carousal animals - Shelburne Museum

State Capitol Building - Montpelier, VT

Downtown Montpelier, VT

taking it easy at Moose River, St. Johnsbury, VT

Tiny Tin in NH's White Mountains & the  Presidential Range

Helen, Pat, Lynne & Linda - Irish cousins

 Views of Niagara Falls

Oh Canada!

Before leaving Maine on June 8th, we stopped in Rockland - yet another charming New England town - and visited the Farnsworth Museum.  This museum is home to many paintings by Andrew and NS Wyeth.  We spent our last night in Maine at a nice RV park/campground in Searsport, along the harbor with scenic views of the area.

Our next destination was St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, but first we had to cross the border at St. Stephen.  Oh my!  We have never crossed an international border with our house & its contents along with us and they were not happy.  We didn't even think about the restriction on the amount of liquor one can bring into a foreign country (USA, CN, etc).  Fortunately, although the Canadian customs officials took virtually all of our spirits (after I blithely informed them of the contents of our liquor cabinet), we were told we could retrieve them if we crossed back at the same border within 40 days.  Jim was convinced if we left them there beyond the time limit or crossed back into the USA at another crossing, the Canadian Border Patrol would donate the booze to the homeless.  My guess was a holiday party. 

After our border gaffe, we found a great RV place in Rockwood Park in the midst of the city of St. John.  We caught the ferry from there the next morning to Digby, Nova Scotia, across the Bay of Fundy.  The crossing was smooth and we stopped and bought some infamous Digby scallops upon our arrival there.  We traveled as far as Truro that day and cooked up the scallops.  They were probably the best we've ever eaten.

Our first major destination was to Cape Breton, which we had not realized is an island, although still part of the province of Nova Scotia.  Weather had been 'iffy' much of the time, however, when we actually drove around the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, it was a beautiful clear, sunny day. The scenery was breathtaking and reminiscent of the coast of Ireland, Northern California, Oregon and Washington (and probably other places as well).  We were so glad we drove the extra miles to see this beautiful place.  

We stopped at Baddeck and visited the Alexander Graham Bell National Site and museum, which was very informative.  We also spent a night outside Baddeck and headed back towards Italy Cross where our friends, Emily & Doug Liot live.  We thought we'd take the eastern coast route in order to see some different scenery.  After driving for almost four hours on the worst road we've yet been on during this adventure, we gave up and headed back inland to one of Nova Scotia's major highways.  We did see a couple of pretty little towns, although the rainy weather and the rough roads conspired to make it a less rewarding part of our journey.

We arrived at the Liot's beautiful home on Monday, June 13th.  We met the Liot's while we were serving in the Peace Corps in Romania. Doug worked for Michelin Tires at their plant in Romania during that time and they befriended us (and several other PC volunteers).  Emily, an architect, designed their home and Doug, an engineer, built it all almost entirely by himself.  The house is located next to Crooked Lake, providing peaceful and calming views.  The Liot's dogs - Gilbert (a Corgi) and Sullivan (a big golden Lab) were very friendly.  Unfortunately, our JR Terrorists didn't want to play nice, so we had to keep them all separated.

Emily and Doug drove us around to see several coastal areas near their home, including Mahone Bay and the UNESCO town of Lunenburg.  We enjoyed Emily's excellent meals and Doug's excellent homemade wine - all of which made for a fun visit and reunion.  There was occasional rain during our stay, but overall, the weather was fine for sightseeing.  It was a very memorable visit to the Liot's and Nova Scotia.  

We were very impressed with Nova Scotia and appreciated the wild lupins that were virtually scattered throughout the province.  We learned NS is heavily forested with both evergreens and deciduous trees and the coast is beautiful, wherever one can observe it.  Our only regret was that we couldn't fit in a trip to Prince Edward Island or the 4 day music festival slated for August in Lunenburg.  We hope to return some day and see both.    

We took the ferry back to New Brunswick on June 16th - another smooth sailing - and crossed the border back into Maine on June 17th.  We were pleased to retrieve our spirits from the Canadian customs, but not so happy to lose our avocados, tomatoes, orange and the specialty lamb/pork sausage we'd bought in Philadelphia when we crossed back into the US side of the border.  At least our Canadian friends gave us back our booze!   Those darned Yanks told us they had to throw away - not donate or compost - our food.  Oh, Canada.  If they don't build a wall, we hope to return.

RV park at Searsport, Maine

Cape Breton - Nova Scotia

 Baddeck - Nova Scotia

St Johns Church - Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

 Lunenburg Harbor

Lunenburg

 Tiny Tin parked outside the Liot's home - Nova Scotia

Hirtle Beach, Nova Scotia

Lynne & Jim with Doug & Emily Liot

Rhodie in bloom on Nova Scotia

 Emily enjoying her soup

Lunenburg's fish signs - art project

Malone Bay, Nova Scotia

Emily and Jim

New England: Things that go bump in the night

We arrived in Vermont on May 27th and enjoyed driving through historic downtown Bennington, with its tall memorial to their fighters in the Revolutionary war.  We then spent two days in nearby Woodford at a lovely RV park/campground in the Green Mountains. While there, we finally ate the scrapple we had purchased while we were in Philadelphia.  Jim, a native of Philly, grew up occasionally eating scrapple, which is made from various parts of a pig - you don't really want to know the parts.  Jim's mother, Eleanor, had many years ago introduced me to scrapple and fortunately, due to the amount of herbs/spices used in its making, it wasn't bad.  Nothing like a culinary trip down memory lane.   

 We enjoyed our drive across Vermont and into New Hampshire, seeing several more quintessential small, charming New England towns.  I can't think of better adjectives to describe them, so we'll continue with 'charming'.  We arrived in Merrimack, NH on Sunday, May 29th at the home of long-time friends, Bunnie & Dana Knight.  Bunnie and I have known each other since junior high school in Sacramento and have maintained our friendship over the years.  The Knight's were amenable to letting us park in their driveway for a week while I flew to/from Pierre, South Dakota.  Bunnie even shuttled me to/from Logan Airport in Boston.  The arrangement worked out well for Jim, especially when Truman became incontinent:  Bunnie called her vet and escorted Jim and Truman to the vet for treatment.  We think it also worked out OK for Bunnie & Dana as Jim insisted on helping do some yard work.  

Before and after my trip to Pierre, Bunnie & Dana drove us to the very pretty town of Milford for lunch and on another jaunt - to Lowell, MA where we enjoyed seeing the Lowell National Historic Site that included a ride on an old trolley car and a boat ride through one of the locks on Lowell's many canals.  (Hooray again for our National Park Service!)  We learned that Lowell, an early leader in the textile manufacturing industry was also the birthplace of author Jack Kerouac.  We ended our visit at Knight's Inn with an excellent home-cooked lobster dinner.  

Oh, we should mention a couple of other RV related adventures (aka challenges/issues).  As we were departing MA, we heard a crunching noise as we were pulling in the back slide out.  Not seeing any obstruction, we finished the job only to later learn that something had gotten caught in the storage area underneath the slide out and as a result, we damaged the bed frame on which the slider mechanism sits - not to mention our mattress.  We appealed to Dana to help us out with his technical/handyman skills - and he was successful in repairing the bed.  At least this time we didn't hit the roof with any more branches!

The other RV adventure was when we awakened the morning after my return from Pierre to the CO alarm beeping.   We quickly opened windows and then tried to figure out the cause of the alarm.  Long story short - it appears the alarm was wrong.  We were able to determine this because (1) we borrowed Bunnie/Dana's CO alarm and put it inside the RV then (2) proceeded to close the windows.  (3) Without thought, we left the dogs inside and headed into town for some groceries, forgetting about the possibility of a real CO leak!   Fortunately the dogs - now known as our canaries - were just fine.  Phew!  

I should mention that while in Pierre, I was able to see friends and enjoyed dinner with Dennie & Cheryl, and Mike & Kathi.  We're looking forward to spending more time when we get back to South Dakota in July. 

On June 5th, Bunnie guided us out of NH and into Maine.  We stopped at Portsmouth, parked the RV and then rode in her car into the historic town, which in spite of the rainy weather was charming.  We followed Bunnie in our RV through the charming town of Ogunquit and to our RV park in Wells.  After getting the RV set up, Bunnie drove us to a little seafood cafe where we enjoyed lunch and then to Kennebunkport - another pretty New England town - and the George H.W, Bush compound at Walker Point.  Bunnie then drove us back towards York and the Nibble Lighthouse on Cape Neddick. Bunny bid us farewell in the late afternoon but thanks to her generosity, we enjoyed seeing these small towns without worrying about driving or parking Tiny Tin.  

After heavy rains and cold temperature last night, we awoke this morning to sunny skies and warm temps and enjoyed a day of exploring part of the town of Wells.  As we listened to the local National Public Radio (NPR) station, a routine from home we have continued on this trip, we had to laugh about how NPR's fund raising efforts has followed us on our trip across the country.  

Tomorrow we head to Searsport, ME, then we're off to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  

Our campground in Woodford, VT

The Woodford Cemetery

Milford, New Hampshire

Jim, Lynne, Dana & Bunnie in Milford, NH

Milford town, NH

Piano (art project) - downtown Pierre, SD

The beautiful Missouri River and hills near Pierre, SD

Lobster dinner at Bunnie & Dana Knight's home

 Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Kibble Lighthouse, York, Maine