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