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

Of Civil War battlefields, ticks, poison ivy and pretty small towns

Since our last post from the Shenandoah Valley where we departed from the lovely home of Tim and Nancy Hulings, we  traveled to several more Civil War battlefields, stopping at Harper's Ferry in West Virginia, then Antietam, and finally at Gettysburg  It was all interesting, but we have seen enough battlefields to last us for a long while. From Gettysburg, we drove further into Pennsylvania, getting a bit lost in the Amish countryside.. and finally found our way to the outskirts of Philadelphia (Glenside), where we parked for 7 nights at the home of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RCPV's) Anne Gwynn & Mel Strieb).  Unfortunately, we damaged the roof of the RV again as we scraped the side of a tree branch while backing into Anne & Mel's driveway.  

We kept busy during our 7 days stay in Philly, doing a bit of sightseeing that included the delightful Italian market on 9th Street.  My sister, Erin, from Wilmington DE, came up to visit on Sunday, the day after we arrived and we enjoyed catching up on our respective activities.  The logistics of more visits - considering traffic, other commitments, our respective dogs, etc. precluded more visits - much to our mutual consternation.  Fortunately, we'll see each other again at Hayla's upcoming wedding.    

In the interim, Anne asked for some guidance to convert their yard to something more low maintenance and immediately 'hooked' us with yard work.  We helped select shrubs and proceeded to do several days worth of yard work in order to plant the new shrubs.  Quite the "con job" as far as we were concerned.  Truth be told:  We thoroughly enjoyed puttering in their yard and felt our 'sweat equity' allowed us to park in their driveway and enjoy the excellent meals/beverages and company provided by Anne & Mel.  Their garden, however is where I had my very first encounter with poison ivy. In the mean while, we were once again reunited with our laptop - hooray!  

After departing Philly, we drove to the town of Jim Thorpe, which was formerly known as Mauch Chunk.  According to some stories on the internet, when Jim Thorpe died his 3rd wife essentially sold his body to the two towns, who united in an effort to re-name and re-brand the former coal mining town.  We drove up to the tomb and appreciated the story placards and statutes of the legendary Native American athlete, then did a slow drive-through of the old historic part of town, which was very busy on a Sunday afternoon.  It's a weird story, especially since Jim Thorpe had never set foot in Mauch Chunk, although he did attend the Carlisle Indian School in another part of Pennsylvania.  Otherwise, the town was another in a long series of very pretty and quaint small towns we continue to see on our journey.  

From Jim Thorpe, we drove to Hyde Park, NY in order to visit the Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) and Eleanor Roosevelt (ER) historical sites.  FDR's included his Presidential Library with its museum and Springwood, the home where he was born and lived for several years after he and ER were married.  We also made a brief visit to ER's later residence at Val-Kill.  After our visit to several WWII museums and FDR's Warm Springs "Little White House", our visit here was a nice conclusion.

In the interim, we've been having yet another challenge with Tiny Tin (the RV), requiring us to use the booster from the 'house' battery to get it started.  The problem got worse, so we took a couple of hours and drove a few miles south to Poughkeepsie where we were able to get the battery replaced.  As a result, we can say we got to see downtown Poughkeepsie and eat what was purported to be its best pizza in town, conveniently located across the street from the repair shop, (it was OK - not the best pizza we've had).  

On our drive towards New Hampshire, we stopped and visited the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, which was quite nice.   We drove through Stockbridge, which was very pretty (same theme) and stayed in a RV park in Pittsfield.  

We'll spend part of Memorial Day weekend outside Bennington, Vermont before heading to friends Bunny & Dana Knight's home in Merrimack, NH.  I will be flying to Pierre, SD on 5/31 to testify at a hearing and hope to get back to NH late on 6/3, leaving Jim and the boys at the 'mercy' (i.e. great hospitality) of Bunny & Dana.  

While we were in Philly, there was a cold snap, requiring us to get our winter jackets and extra blanket out again.  The weather has now turned hot, so the extra blankets are once again off - and the a/c on.  Once again, we have to be mindful of not turning Truman & Fergus into 'hot dogs' when we make stops/visit museums, etc.  As a result, our visits to landmarks etc. are often shorter than we would like.  

We have been delighted with seeing a continuous spring as we've traveled north.  The lilacs are now in bloom here whereas the season has passed in the south.  Although we had a respite from mosquitoes, they are back amongst us, along with ticks - which scare us due to Lyme Disease.  We've found a few ticks on us and the dogs - ugh!  We anticipate a mix of weather when we venture into Canada before starting our westward journey home.  With luck, we'll miss any freak snowstorm and/or tornadoes.

And we're off on a cloud of heifer dust again.  

Tim & Nancy Hulings, Elkton, VA

 The Hulings, Jim & Lynne

Harper's Ferry, WV

Harper's Ferry, WV

Antietam, WV

Gettysburg, PA

 view of Gettysburg from battlefield

Ninth Street Italian Market - Philadelphia, PA

 

Mel, Anne, Lynne & Jim in Italian market

Elsfreth Alley, Philadelphia

 Betsy Ross House, Philadelphia

 Anne in front of her yard - 'the project'. 

 Jim Thorpe's tomb - Jim Thorpe, PA

 Flowers & a sage bundle at the tomb

the town of Jim Thorpe

Our RV park near Jim Thorpe, PA

 Statutes of Eleanor & Franklin Roosevelt, Hyde Park

 The FDR Presidential Library & Museum, Hyde Park, NY

 Springwood - birthplace of FDR

 Tomb and graves of Eleanor & Franklin Roosevelt

FDR's desk from White House

Eleanor Roosevelt's Val-Kill residence, Hyde Park

 Pond at sunrise at our Rhinebeck, NY RV park

 Norman Rockwell's studio - Stockbridge, MA

Waiting for Godot

May 10, 2016

Since our last post, Jim and I have suffered through a variety of challenges (snafu's). These have included repairs to the RV roof, water heater, repair of the satellite antenna/dish, dealing with DirecTV and Winegard (dish manufacturer) in regards to the satellite dish and ultimately (the final insult), the crash of our laptop (read: lifeline), then getting Apple to ship the repaired device to the correct address.  OMG, this has all felt as though we were waiting for Godot - and as of this date, we continue to wait. 

In the event any of you were wondering, these issues have conspired to make it difficult to update our blog.  We remain grateful that, while still a Luddite, I finally invested in an iPhone and phone plan and no longer have to worry about getting cut off in mid-sentence when the minutes ran out on my pay-as-you go cell phone as we're trying to deal with these issues.  With the iPhone, we've been able to continue to check email, find RV parks and routes, etc., however, the cell phone is not conducive to writing lengthy emails and certainly not the blog.  

A quick summary of our travels included several days in Savannah - a lovely city.  We won't regale you with how many hours of our time there were spent at Camping World, waiting for them to complete repairs vs. being in the lovely city.  

We departed Savannah and headed to Charleston, South Carolina on April 27th.  We foolishly drove Tiny Tin into the historic center of the city, along its very narrow streets.  We  managed to park the RV and made a brief stop at the Fort Sumter Visitor Center, only then realizing a ferry boat ride was needed to actually visit the historic fort.  We didn't go there.  We made it out of the city safely to a nice RV park about 8 miles outside of town and promptly arranged to rent a car in order to tour the city.   

Our four days in Charleston were again mostly spent waiting for Godot in the form of repair persons, one of whom actually appeared and repaired our water heater.  The other - DirecTV, never showed up.  We did, however, manage to twice get back into Charleston during our stay and enjoyed a horse-drawn carriage ride through part of the old center with an informative guide and visited the Old Slave Mart Museum, adding another chapter to our knowledge of that sad era.  

We left Charleston and headed to Myrtle Beach, stopping in Georgetown along the way.  Georgetown was another "discovery", thanks to a Google search for "best small towns".   It had a thriving, small downtown with beautiful old homes and a nice waterfront.  We enjoyed lunch there and meandered with the dogs around part of the historic neighborhood.  Fergus and Truman seem to enjoy leaving their respective pee-mail messages throughout this journey.  

We arrived in Myrtle Beach and found our RV park - the largest in which we have ever stayed.  We had a perfect space adjacent to the beach and enjoyed the sound of the waves and the smell of the sea.  Aside from one storm, the weather was just right - not too hot/not humid. It was a nice park and a good place to chill out after our various challenges.  We contacted Apple and was able to make an appointment for their store in Raleigh, which determined our next destination. We were, however, still trying to figure out how to get our repaired satellite system to work.  

We arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina on May 3rd and found a state park just 5 miles from the mall with the Apple store.  Long story short:  We spent two nights at this park, then moved to the State Fairgrounds.  We thought the Apple Store was great - the computer was sent off for repairs (under warranty - woohoo!) and we finally were able to get our satellite dish connected and working.  The only downside was we didn't take time to explore the city of Raleigh or much else in North Carolina. 

On our way out of Raleigh, we did stop at Hillsborough, NC, another 'best small town' - which was also quite pretty and friendly.  We had a nice lunch then headed into Virginia where we had a rendezvous in Elkton, VA with Tim and Nancy Hulings, former Peace Corps Volunteers who had befriended us during our P.C. service in Romania.  It was to their home that Apple promised to ship the repaired computer, too.  

We dawdled our way to Elkton, staying two nights near Appomatax and spent time visiting the National Historic Park of Appomatax Courthouse (the name of the town) where General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Civil War.  Another learning opportunity for us.  As we headed north, we drove a portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which was also quite scenic.  

We visited Staunton, another declared "best small town" and enjoyed lunch and a walk around its historic center.  So far, the "best small towns" search has been accurate:  Every one we have visited has been very charming.  We stayed at a nice RV park in nearby Verona, which was full of semi-feral rabbits and a waterfall along the adjacent river.  The rabbits got the full attention of Fergus and he screeched and cried every time he saw them.  He was a nervous wreck and always on the alert. Truman, who is now almost totally blind, couldn't see the rabbits, but by their scent knew they were out there.  Jim figured the rabbits were the result of a "4-H project gone wrong".  His was a better story than the truth.  

On May 9th, we finally headed to Elkton, a small town nestled in the Shenandoah Valley.  The Hulings reside in a lovely home/farm on 40 acres with gorgeous scenery of this area.  Tim has a neighbor's cattle grazing in one large pasture, along with his retired race horse and a boarded horse.  He also grows grapes that he sells to a couple of local wineries - and makes his own wine with grapes he doesn't sell.  While in the Peace Corps, we discovered Tim is a multi-talented artist and writer.  As a result of our visit, we learned he's a pretty good farmer, too.  Nancy is the director and organizer of most things and does an excellent job at both (and she's a good cook, too!).  She thinks we've started a good trend as visitors:  We brought our own house.  We did, however, take full advantage of their (non-coin operated) washer and dryer!

Unfortunately, we're back to waiting for Godot.  The computer system at the Apple store in Raleigh had a big problem the day we visited and they lost the address where they were supposed to send our laptop.  In fact, they didn't send it out for repairs as promised because they were waiting for us to respond to the email they sent to our former email address (because their computer didn't like the new/correct one we provided them in Raleigh).  Arrgh!!!  With luck and perhaps a bit of whining on my part, they will now fix the computer and ship it pronto to my sister's house in Wilmington, Delaware.  Tim & Nancy graciously let me use their laptop in in the interim, however, due to its pokey nature, we're only posting a couple of photos.  

We decided to avoid the D.C. area, fearing the major traffic and will head north tomorrow towards the outskirts of Philly, with stops at Harper's Ferry/Antietem and Gettysburg. More adventures await - and perhaps we'll even be reunited with our laptop.

Scenes from Charleston

 Georgetown, SC