Well, while I'm still in Florida, my westward wandering has officially begun. I'm back in Marianna, FL where I entered the state a couple of months ago. Cousin Bobbie told me about the Florida Caverns State Park where they have tours of the only dry caves in the state. This is a big park. It was about 3 1/2 miles from the entrance to the camp site. Three nice surprises at the site; it's got full hookups not just the electric & water I expected, the electric box is new and has a built in surge protector, and best of all I'm getting a satellite feed even parked among the trees. The forecast is for near or below freezing the next couple of days so I left the water and sewer connections in. The park has several hiking trails among two main ecosystems; the most southern hardwoods and, a typical cypress-bayou-like area. There are canoe & kayak launch areas to explore the river/bayou. The cave tour was interesting and one of the larger caverns I've seen. Although not as extensive as Carlsbad, Howe, or Luray, there are many rooms and lots of pretty sights.
Continuing west along the I-10 my next stop was Biloxi. I haven't been in this area for about 30 years. In some ways the area has changed and in others it's still the same. I remember pretty beach and bay areas, small towns, lots of fishing, and unfortunately lots of poverty. Now I see huge casinos lining the gulf waters. The small towns have lost much of their charm and in place have many Good Will, Salvation Army, and other second hand stores. The casinos were originally only to be along the gulf. They seem to have either changed the law or allowed lots of waivers 'cause now they also line the bay waters. Many of the beach areas are gone as are much of the fishing areas. I guess the casinos provide some employment, but at what cost? At every highway entrance ramp I see homeless people holding signs and begging. It seems the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I guess this is progress but I liked it better 30 years ago. The cg has a trailer park feel yet is considered a local resort of sorts. They have a nice little lake with fishing, a sandy beach area, and paddle boats to rent. The beach is funny when coupled with the signs in the area reminding people to be watchful for poisonous snakes and gators. I think I'll pass on the swimming (lol)!
I stopped at the Louisiana welcome center along the I-10 and picked up a few brochures on "stuff" to see and do around the New Orleans area. The staff were very friendly and I got into a conversation about camp grounds in the area. The staff seemed very against my choice located on Chef Matuer Highway. They all said this was an area of the city that people really don't want to roam let alone camp. The cg reviews had been really bad also so I took the welcome center staff's suggestion and drove to the Pontchartrain Landing RV Resort. As I neared the cg it was far from impressive, driving down a rough road in an industrial area. Upon entering the cg all the roads are hard packed dirt with some gravel mixed in and there is lots of construction. I thought about leaving. The staff are friendly, they offered a Passport rate of $41 rather than the $60 noted on their web site and they also gave me a pull-though with a view of the harbor. It was nice to simply pull in, have all hook ups right where I need them, on a perfectly level open site, that is nicely landscaped. It had been raining for most of my ride to New Orleans. With a break in the rain, I strolled around the cg. They rent interesting house boats that are luxuriously appointed. They also have what they call the presidential RV site which is huge, comes with a thatched roof cabana, full outdoor cooking area with a large stainless steel grill and refrigerator, and even a private hot tub. The cg swimming pool is an affinity pool with a waterfall and Jacuzzi, and a bar & grill next to the pool. The cg even has a shuttle service back and forth to the French Quarter several times a day. The shuttle bus took about 10 minutes and dropped me near the riverfront in the middle of the French Quarter. I had a brochure about a WWII museum and went to check it out. This is an incredible place, it's huge! The movie they show, "Beyond all Boundaries", produced and narrated by Tom Hanks, was amazing. They call it a 4D movie because it; has the usual 3D pictures, adds three dimensional attributes like a real front part of a plane and multiple see-though screens, also snow & smoke which comes into the theater, and even has the chairs rigged to vibrate. It was a very powerful presentation. The museum also had an interactive exhibit recreating the final mission of the USS Tang, the most decorated submarine of WWII (hey, Dave Irons, pay attention to this). This museum was well worth the visit. One afternoon I cruised the Mississippi on the last authentic steam powered paddle wheeler. They had a chef on board, prepared a great shrimp creole buffet, bars on two of the three decks which served delicious Bloody Mary's, had a five piece live jazz band, and played their steam powered calliope between the band breaks. What a great afternoon! On the one cold, wet day I had in New Orleans I went to see an iMax about penguins and walk around the adjacent aquarium. The movie was soooo popular there were actually three of us in this huge theater (lol). Penguins are fun to see and on the giant 3D iMax they were definitely cute. I asked around for a good place to have a typical New Orleans brunch and had several people suggest The Court of the Two Sisters. This is absolutely the best restaurant I have ever eaten at, hands down! The waiter was perfect, the Bloody Mary couldn't have been better, the three piece jazz band were great. The restaurant offers about 80 items in their brunch buffet and will also prepare additional items at their omelet station at no added charge. If you're ever in the New Orleans area I heartily recommend trying this place. There are a lot of homeless people throughout the French Quarter. Most carry cardboard signs asking for handouts. A few just come up and ask for money. I was sitting by the riverfront enjoying the views and doing some people watching when a homeless guy points to my airborne bracelet and shows me his. He said he served with the 101st Airborne around the same time I was in Vietnam. We sat and chatted, telling stories to each other for over a half hour. He never asked for a hand out and we actually hugged when we parted. A second homeless guy was walking past me while I was waiting for the camp ground shuttle. He was obviously a little tipsy as he pointed to my hiking boots and says ".. I bet I can tell you the city and state where you got those shoes from ". We got to talking a little and he got me to shake hands agreeing to be honest when he guessed. He then said "You got those shoes on your feet in New Orleans, LA"! He got me laughing as I never saw that one coming. I had to give him a few bucks just for giving me a smile. The camp ground had a movie they showed one afternoon called "Hurricane on the Bayou". It gave a lot of information about the disappearing wetlands and how they effect the way storms hit and damage the New Orleans area. It was very informative and enjoyable to see while sitting in the bar enjoying yet another Bloody Mary. I stayed in town late one evening, walking up and down Bourbon Street. This place is a zoo and it wasn't even a Friday or Saturday night and definitely wasn't during Madri Gras. It seems that every store is either a bar or a craft/junk shop. The bars were in competition with each other for who could offer the most beer. Several bars offered two for one, a few offered three for one, and I saw one offering five for one. As expected, there were lots of people staggering along the street. I was reminded of when I lived in Greenwich Village in the mid-1960's. Back then you could find me half walking and half crawling most any Friday or Saturday night. Different times and a whole lot younger (lol).
My original plan was to drive about half way from New Orleans to Livingston and stop for a few days. However, the only cg I could find which was close to half way had horrible reviews so I opted to take my longest drive ever pulling my rig. The night before leaving I closed the rig down so I was ready to leave early. I was on the way at first light about 7 am. With several breaks every hour and a half or so I arrived seven hours later about 2 pm. The ride was longer than I'd normally like but, it wasn't that bad, that is until I arrived at the SKP park in Livingston. I had asked for an open site in order to get the sat. dish working since I was planning to stay for about a month. The first site I was sent to seemed to be the most heavily treed in the park. I left my rig in the site and walked over to ask for a different site. The park manager said they didn't have many open sites but reluctantly gave me a different one. When I got to this second site it was just as heavily treed. This went on for TWO more sites, four in total. After my seven hour drive I was now spending another hour making "U" turns and backing into four different sites while dealing with the park staff that were far from helpful. I considered leaving when they finally pointed to a clear site. I must admit I was extremely disappointed at the rudeness of the park managers. We are all members of the same RV travel club, The Escapees. This is one of the rudest treatments I'd ever experienced. The next day I walked to the other side of the campground where they have a clubhouse and activity center. I met lots of folks, all of whom were very friendly and helpful. Over the next few days I took a tour of the campground given in an old trolley and a tour of the Care Center. I got involved with a three time a week pinochle game, the genealogy club, and the twice a week movie. All the clubs and activities were on the opposite side of the campground where I was parked so I asked to move to one of the many open sites closer to the activities. The park managers said I couldn't since I had already paid for 20 days on this side. I later found out that they were in the process of learning a new computer system and didn't know how to switch the site in the system and didn't bother to ask anyone for help. The park tour included a tour of the mail center. This is an amazing facility. The town of Livingston has about 5,000 residents while the SKP mail center handles mail for close to 15,000 people! The Livingston post office couldn't handle the SKP volume so the post office assigned SKP its own zip code and delivers directly from a distribution point. The SKP facility recently acquired an optical reader that sorts the mail at an incredible speed. This isn't a little place with volunteers manual sorting our mail into little cubby holes. The tour of the care center kind of tugged at my heart. I not only gave a donation but agreed to volunteer when they asked. They seemed to have had some volunteers that changed their mind and needed some extra help for the month of February. It meant extending my stay for a little over two weeks. The care center gave me a site across the street from the center which is much nicer than the regular camp ground sites. The camp ground wouldn't refund any of my prepaid fees. I didn't expect any consideration from them. The day of my moving my rig to the care center area I did the SmartWeigh at the park. I have gotten in the habit of getting my rig weighed about once a year at CAT scales for $9. The SmartWeigh is $55 but very thorough. They weigh each wheel of each axil separately, the truck is weighed both hooked up and by itself, they check the tire ratings, RV load capacities and truck ratings. It was very informative and nice to know that I am under all weights. I wish I was personally under weight as well (lol). Over my time in the park I met lots of nice folks and enjoyed lots of activities. I managed to change my primary health care from the NJ VA to Texas and get my annual physical. The hours and work as a volunteer were fine and personally rewarding. However, the volunteers are treated like "dirt" by the head cook. I bit my tongue the first few times I heard her yell "...these dam volunteers", but eventually tried to remind her that we are volunteers. As soon as I said the word "volunteer" she literally flipped out. That's when I called it quits. I managed to stay for two weeks and really did enjoy helping the residents. However, I would never return to this SKP park as a camper or a volunteer. I've rated each and every camp ground I've ever stayed at on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being worst), hundreds of them, and this is the first one I have ever given a ZERO. It's a shame to have such great potential to help folks and have volunteers treated in such a shabby manner.
Parking in the Trees
Friday, February 14, 2014
Monday, January 6, 2014
Florida 2013
Very easy ride to Jacksonville almost entirely along the I-10. Pecan RV Park is just as I remembered it, rows of clean, full hook up, level concrete pads, and the giant flea market a short walk across the field. Stretched my legs a little walking all three, long rows of the indoor flea market. On my way back I met my neighbors, Buddy, his wife , and home schooled daughter. They're from Waycross, GA where they worked in a Walmart. For some reason they were transferred to the Jacksonville Walmart and, while they still have their house in GA, they bought a small trailer and decided to live in this RV park for about a year hoping to eventually get transferred back near their home.
The musical South Pacific at the Alhambra dinner theater was great. Maria, the single woman at my table, was born in Puerto Rico but grew up in New York City. She now works at Blue Cross here in Jacksonville. Dave & Sharon, are from the area and both recently retired. Dave retired from the Navy and Sharon from Blue Cross. She and Maria didn't immediately recognize each other but over dinner conversation found many mutual co-workers. The topic of health care was discussed. Dave, with his Navy retirement has Tricare and Sharon has coverage through Blue Cross. Maria is covered through her work. I have free VA coverage (I guess two purple hearts are good for something, lol). Sharon and Maria commented on the approximate 300,000 policies that Blue Cross of Florida had to cancel and reissue to be in conformance with the new Obamacare requirements. There are apparently 10 specific requirements, one of them is maternity care for everyone regardless of gender or age. Both Sharon and Maria are over age 60 and yet must have maternity coverage. They told Dave and I a little about the increased premiums that this and the other nine requirements are causing on all policies. I shared with them some of the discussion I had with the hourly workers who had changed my flat and those working in the tire store. All had their hours cut from 40 to 30 per week so their employers could avoid paying for the new health care. These hourly workers now not only are required to pay for health care but have also lost 25% of their pay! I'm sure there are many people who are in desperate need of health care and couldn't afford it or get coverage because of pre existing conditions, but it seems that there are now many others who are being hurt financially as a direct result of this new law. Some sort of compromise needs to be reached. At the moment, it's a sad state of affairs.
Dinner and the show with cousin Bobbie was delightful. Bobbie, you looked great with all your Halloween fixings. The play, Yankee Tavern, was definitely a little difficult to follow at times but overall, most enjoyable and the Amelia Community Theatre is a very nice venue. I would enjoy returning to it.
While at Pecan Park RV cg, I also walked the large flea market adjacent to the cg, saw the movie Captain Phillips with Tom Hanks on one cloudy day, hung out with my RV neighbor Buddy and his home schooled daughter Mandy, and finally got around to a couple of little projects in my rig. All in all, Jacksonville was a pleasant stop. On to Homosassa Springs. I was surprised at how far this ride was, well over three hours. Florida really is a big state. Homosassa is on the Gulf Coast about an hour or so north of Tampa. There are several natural springs which bubble up around here. The RV park has lots of both permanents and seasonals. As a Passport park, there are also several people, like me, just passing through for a few days. Two interesting things at the park are the signs on the ponds throughout the place and the unusual golf putting they have. The ponds are picturesque, with lots of pretty vegetation including many live oaks and water fountains. The signs brought a smirk to my face as I read "... no swimming or wadding as these waters have alligators, poisonous snakes, and other natural wildlife"!! Really, in Florida?? lol! The unusual golf putting had an enthusiastic following of several couples. When I finished setting up my rig and then parking my truck I noticed a hole in the ground with a little red flag sticking out. I assumed the flag was there as a warning to be careful not to get your tires stuck in the hole. Turns out there are 18 of these little holes with flags scattered throughout the park. People need only a golf ball and a putter as they walk around the park knocking the balls down the park roads looking for these little red flag holes. It was definitely different and seemed to provide amusement for several people.
Homosassa Springs State Park is small, but pretty. They have pontoon boat tours of the manatee habitat and three shows which rotate throughout the day; 1) manatees, 2) Hippo & alligator, and 3) reptile encounters. The park is basically a figure "8" boardwalk trail of a little over a mile which winds past the three shows and other habitats including; fox, bobcat, black bear, deer, wolves, and several aviaries with many varieties of birds. It was a pleasant stroll. After over 40 years of coming to Florida I finally made it to Weeki Wachee. What had been a small, private water park was taken over by the State of Florida. Early November is now past their high season for the water park and so there weren't many visitors, especially in the morning. It seemed like a nice place to take small children who would be comfortable at the little water park and mermaid shows. There were two mermaid shows, one an adaptation of the Disney show "The Little Mermaid" and the second one showcasing the mermaids doing their underwater ballet. The theater, while old, was interesting. The park is built around a natural underground spring that receives over 117 million gallons of clear 74 degree water every day. Deep dive exploration has gone as far as 6,700 ft into the underwater caverns, 407 ft down, and still not explored the entire system. Weeki Wachee Springs are currently believed to be the deepest and largest fresh water caverns in the United States. I just enjoyed watching the scantily clad mermaids (lol).
My drive to the LoW Citrus Rally at Sun 'n Fun RV in Sarasota was easy, that is until I arrived! I had called the park at least a half dozen times over the past two months trying to make my reservations and was still not convinced the park even knew who or what the Citrus Rally was!!! I pull up to the park gates and give my info along with the rally info to an initial women. She can't find anything on her first look at some clip board papers. She asks me a second time for the same info. She still doesn't find anything on a second clip board and asks me for the same info a third time, frustration is building :=(. A second woman appears and asks me for the info a FOURTH time. She rummages around a desk and calls someone on a two-way radio. I'm told to follow a golf cart to a holding area, walk back to get to figured out in the office. Two women at the front desk of the office ask for my info a FIFTH and SIXTH time with still no success. I'm ready to leave and say so when an office supervisor comes over. I'm escorted to a back area of the office and sit with the supervisor while she, after taking my info and the rally info a SEVENTH time goes through her computer. Still not finding anything she is able to give me what she said was a clear site so my sat. dish would work, also saying that all the park sites are full hookup. I'm escorted by the little golf cart to a site directly under a large live oak. I'm again ready to leave the park. The golf cart driver calls the office and they move me to a nearby site that has a tree only partially over it. The golf cart driver, while guiding me backing in raised his voice to me which is when I lost it! I stopped my truck, got out and in his face. Fortunately, he backed off and I regained what was left of my self control. He apologized for not seeing the truck on another site he almost backed me into. My site backed up to a ditch, the water hookup was at an adjacent site, and the sewer hookup was not near my rigs mid point where I needed it. I had to position my rig partially over the ditch in order to make the water and sewer connections. Of course now I didn't have enough leveling blocks to allow my rear stabilizers to touch the ground. I scrounged around and found some cinder blocks which worked. I go to disconnect my truck from the RV and my tail gate won't release. By this time I am totally exhausted. I try releasing the tail gate every which way I can with no success. Finally, I call Good Sam. They in turn contact a local truck repair outfit and someone shows up about 1/2 hour later. They had some heavy blocking and we were able to raise the 5th wheel higher than the tail gate which allowed me to pull out. Once I was out and the truck leveled the tail gate opened. Apparently, the RV was tilted one way on the site and the truck was tilted the opposite way. This caused the truck bed to tork and wouldn't allow the tail gate lock to release. I may finally be set up, even if a little crooked, but I know this isn't going to be easy to hook up again. This is the most expensive RV park I've stayed at in the past few years of full time RV'ing and, by far, the most difficult to deal with and one of the worst sites. Absolutely amazing!!!
The Citrus Rally was great. It was nice to see old friends, not that we're old, just that they're known from prior years (lol). It was also nice to meet new friends. The cg did a nice job with the food. We had three catered dinners of; meatloaf, roast turkey, and lasagna. We also had two nice breakfasts, one with omelets, the other with pancakes, bacon, & sausage. All were great. The music was very nice, the DJ seemed to be enjoying himself as much as we were. With lots of women dancing and very few men I didn't seem to get to sit down hardly at all (lol). I did manage to use the swimming pool, sauna, steam room, and hot tubs every morning and a few afternoons. The cg also had a fully equipped wood shop where I was able to finish cutting the wood I'd bought for the new closet space in my rig. A group of us also went on an afternoon cruise on an absolutely perfect day. I managed to spend at least an hour or two each day at the swimming pool, hot tub, sauna, and steam room. When it was time to leave I actually hooked up with no problems. All in all it was a great rally!
The drive was so long to the Escapee Rally I thought I'd have to have several rest stops. It must have taken me all of 35 minutes to go from Sarasota to Port Charlotte. The sites were clear and so wide they could easily hold three rigs. After setting up I enjoyed the afternoon in the swimming pool and hot tub. It's a tough life but someone has to do it (lol)! About nine of the LoW's from the Citrus Rally arrived the next day. I had just left them and it was already great seeing them again. Before the Escapee Rally began on Thursday afternoon we went to Fisherman's Village, strolled around and had a nice lunch. We also went to a nearby RV show where I really liked the new 5th wheel with a full side slide and I think Cheryl bought a very nice coach. I was surprised at how many of the Escapees I remembered. The few days went quick. The meals were nice and the company was great. The games on Friday evening were strange but those at my table sure were laughing hard at how funny they seemed. I learned a lot from the SkyMed presentation and finally joined. About six of us went to the FleaMasters flea market and spent the better part of the day both there and driving back and forth. I did find two out of print books I'd been looking for and even bought a bicycle bell.
The SKP park at Wauchula was an easy ride, about an hour. I'd been wondering what an SKP park would be like. This is a quiet, peaceful place. Everyone is very pleasant from Theresa, at check in, Ron helping me park, Dan stopping by just to make sure all was well, Gary hanging out by his rig, and of course Dave Irons giving me the tour. Within an hour or so of getting set up I had already gotten a tour, signed up for Thanksgiving dinner, a tour of Solomon's Castle, and a day of bowling. Rose & Dave had me over for a delicious pork chop dinner where we "forced" ourselves to kill about four bottles of wine. It was a great afternoon and evening. Dang, I'm a horrible bowler. I'm about as bad a bowler as I am a golfer (lol). Then again, at least I didn't lose any balls while bowling (lol). It was lots of fun and I'll try to go with this group again next week after Thanksgiving. We had one of those perfect evening; a light breeze, temperature in the upper 70's, and of course Dave playing guitar and singing. Along with about a dozen others from the park I took a tour of Solomon's Castle. This is quite an interesting place. Howard Solomon built this amazing place completely from recycled materials. There really is a castle which includes countless works of art as well as Howard's home. He built a ship in the middle of his property which is near the size of the Santa Maria and houses a restaurant. We stayed for lunch which was delicious. Thanksgiving dinner was very nice. The usual turkey with all the fixings, tons of side dishes, and an entire side table to hold the desserts. There was so much food we got to enjoy left overs on Friday. The park had two long tables set out for us hungry SKP'ers, about a total of 55 to 60 of us. It was two great afternoons. During the week and a half I stayed at the SKP park I enjoyed the pool and almost daily conversations with fellow RV'ers. I did a little better at bowling the second time (not much better), had dinner with Rose & Dave twice more (a beef stew and chicken) Rose is definitely a good cook and Dave is expert at opening wine (lol). This has been a very friendly stay.
The joint Gulf/Dixie/Mid-LoW Christmas get together at Winter Haven was another short ride of about 40 miles. I'd been to the Cypress RV park for this same get together two years ago. This is the only park where I'd ever seen police activity. Last time here I was told it was a drug bust of some sort. The park is a bit old and has a little of a trailer park feel. But the club house is nice and big and decorated for the holidays. Too many trees so no sat. service. Jerry, a cg worker, helped me try to get the cable hooked up. Turned out the park cable box was broken. The park called and a repair tech showed up within the hour, even though it was Sunday so I do have cable access. A 5th wheel across from me has a mid-LoW banner planted out front so I stopped by. Leo is from Birmingham, England. He spends several months RV'ing around the USA. He and I strolled over to to his buddy Dale, one of the LoW's who will be travelling with me to Alaska this Spring. Dale and Leo are avid kayakers planning to do some in the area during the down time of the get together. The rally ended up with about 40 rigs, most of whom I knew from prior get togethers. We had a rally provided chili dinner the first night, pot luck another, and a Christmas dinner Saturday evening. A few of us took a tour of Bok Tower and Gardens. I had done this two years ago but enjoyed it and so did it again. John Hubbard bought an end table that he asked me to help him assemble. It took the two of us over two hours to complete it. If you add our labor, even at minimum wage, I wonder what the total cost would have been (lol). He treated for a pleasant Chinese lunch. Except for my day at Bok Tower I managed to spend at least an hour or two in the pool each day.
All was going well as I cleaned and put things away in preparation for driving to Titusville in the morning. I had a wash load going, the a/c on, and was watching the news as I prepared dinner. I was looking forward to tilapia, rice, and broccoli. The broccoli was in a steamer pouch that you could microwave. As soon as I hit the microwave button all the power in the rig went out. No problem, I put the solar inverter on. I let the a/c continue for a moment but then thought I better cut back on the electric usage and so turned it off. Dinner was great and I figured the camp ground had lost power. Wrong! By morning all electric in my rig was out and the batteries were drained. After breakfast, where I used a percolator in place of the electric coffee pot, I checked the camp ground connection. It seemed fine with power going through the surge protector. I reset the electric box and reset all the circuit breakers. Everything seemed fine but still no power in the rig. I hooked up and headed to a camping world a few miles from my destination. While driving, as I went over what had happened, I figured the inverter had to much current with all that I had working and must have blown something. Camping World was very nice checking out my rig almost immediately even though I popped in with no appointment and their bays were jammed solid. The two mechanics who checked it out were able to bypass the inverter and get shore power to my rig but the solar system was way more than they had ever worked on. They gave me the name and number of a company in Orlando that they refer their inverter work to. I drove to the Manatee Hammock cg in Titusville, which I had prepaid for five days, and set up. Then I called Buck at South East Power Systems. He spent some time on the phone with me trying to diagnose the problem. After a while he agreed that something inside the inverter may have fried. As soon as I gave him the make and size of my inverter he immediately knew the model number. That sure raised my confidence. He said I could bring it in early in the morning. I walked to the cg office to let them know what had happened. Rob offered me a refund, which my reservation clearly stated they do not give. I thanked him and said I would call from the shop. If they were able to fix it immediately I would simply drive back. If not he and I would work something out. The GPS said the ride was an hour. Driving through the Orlando morning traffic it took 1 1/2 hours of very unpleasant towing of my rig. Buck, the manager, was friendly and expecting me. He already had his electrician Mike on standby awaiting my rig. This company, South East Power Systems of Orlando, specialize in electrical, diesel, solar, including inverter work of any kind. Mike gave me a sort of class on electrical in general and my specific system as he took it apart. He fixed the overloaded circuits, tuned and thoroughly checked my system out. Three hours later my rig was better than new. He even corrected a minor flaw in the original installation. I heartily recommend this company to anyone needing any solar, electrical or diesel work. If anyone reading this is thinking of installing a solar system on their house or rig, these are definitely the people to do it!!
The cg was mostly quiet, except during the night when the nearby train whistles gave me a headache. It was pleasant and relaxing to stroll along the shore and chat with the many people fishing. When I drove into Titusville to get a haircut and do some food shopping I happened by the Titusville Playhouse. I smiled remembering the wonderful play Barbara and I saw there last year, Driving Miss Daisy. The actor playing the role of the chauffeur was especially good. That was a very nice day. The first three barber shops I found were permanently closed, along with lots of other shops throughout the area. The down sizing of NASA has really taken a toll on this area. Enchanted Lakes cg in Malabar is my last stop before spending time with my sons over Christmas week. This is a very quiet little cg. Its mostly permanents, very well kept with a nicely heated pool that felt like a warm bath, delicious. Bob & Lorna are very easy going park managers. The owner, Anne and her daughter Gina, are particular about who they let stay here (which doesn't account for why they let me in, lol). I would definitely stay here again. Quiet, friendly, close to the beach, food shopping, a Walmart, and several restaurants.
My sons Alex and Zack are coming down for Christmas week, we'll spend it at a Marriott resort in Orlando. My friends, the Calienes', Madeline, Armando, and their sons Eric & Andrew will be staying with us for a few days as well. They are great people to be around and my sons adore them. Marvin & Marvette let me leave my rig at their place in Port Orange over Christmas week while I'm in Orlando. They, along with Marvette's husband Kevin, are such great people. It was an easy drive up I-95 to Port Orange. On Sunday morning I joined them at church which was a very interesting experience. They go to the drive-in church of Daytona Beach. It's been around for over 50 years. It's a former drive-in movie theater which was converted to a very unique church. As we drove in we were handed a program and an all in one cup of wine with a communion wafer. There were about 500 cars. We turn to a specific radio channel and listen to the pastor and choir. The church encourages people to bring their dogs and actually goes around in golf carts with biscuits for the dogs that attend. When people especially enjoy some portion of the program they all toot their horns. Definitely a different kind of service. Afterward we went to the Port Orange pier for s delicious breakfast.
I arrived a little early for my sons plane and couldn't fit the truck in the parking garage (the truck is 7 1/2 feet high to the top of the light bar and the garage has only a 7 foot clearance). The airport does have a special holding area where vehicles coming to pick up passengers can hang out. While the airport traffic was horrible, it wasn't too difficult picking up my sons. They were starving having not eaten since early morning and it was now 4pm. We were able to quickly check into the Marriott Gran Vista and then get some late lunch before actually going to our rooms. Over the next few days we spent time in the pool, Jacuzzi, and sauna every day but one. That was the day we spent at Universal. My sons love the roller coasters and seem to enjoy my dizzy I get from the upside down and inside out spinning. It was great having the Calienes' spend some time with us. These are fantastic people! We also enjoyed time in the pool, Jacuzzi, and sauna. We went to the four Disney parks in a single day, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios. We arrived late morning and wore out our shoes (and feet) by the time we left at almost 4am!! The light and fireworks show at Epcot was amazing. If you've never been to the Hollywood Studio Park, it's worth a visit especially during the Christmas season when they have over 5 million lights coordinated to holiday music, truly incredible after dark. The week with my sons and friends flew by. We had great weather every day except the last when it turned a little colder and rained. What a great way to spend the holiday.
The drive back to Marvin's was easy. Dave Irons was parked next to me and we chatted a little before I passed out for the night. Our New Years party was fantastic. There were about 38 rigs with between 45 to 50 people, counting our hosts and their friends. Kevin is a great cook. We had barbecue chicken & ribs one night, hamburgers & hot dogs another, and pulled pork on New Year's day. Each meal had all the trimmings and great desserts. A traditional Southern New Year's meal of collard greens, black-eyed peas, and cornbread was enjoyed for lunch before we headed over to the Daytona Speedway for a special tour with Marvin Panch. For those who have never been to the speedway this is one incredible place. To give you an idea of its size the engineers had to consider the curve of the earth when designing the new grandstands. On race day there are an estimated 300,000 people including spectators, drivers, crew, staff, and maintenance. To have a tour with the 1961 Daytona 500 winner and one of the top 50 drivers of all time (Marvin Panch) is a very memorable experience. We danced for over four hours on New Year's Eve and listened to the singing and watched the gyrations of an Elvis impersonator the next evening. It's sad that this is the last year of what has been a great annual event for several decades. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to enjoy New Year's at Marvin's these past three years.
My last stop before drifting west is in Jacksonville to enjoy dinner and a show with my cousin Bobbie. Back again at the Alhambre dinner theater to see Pump Boys & the Dinettes. The show was great, good music, dancing, and high energy. Dinner was nice. What was best was spending some time with my cousin.
The musical South Pacific at the Alhambra dinner theater was great. Maria, the single woman at my table, was born in Puerto Rico but grew up in New York City. She now works at Blue Cross here in Jacksonville. Dave & Sharon, are from the area and both recently retired. Dave retired from the Navy and Sharon from Blue Cross. She and Maria didn't immediately recognize each other but over dinner conversation found many mutual co-workers. The topic of health care was discussed. Dave, with his Navy retirement has Tricare and Sharon has coverage through Blue Cross. Maria is covered through her work. I have free VA coverage (I guess two purple hearts are good for something, lol). Sharon and Maria commented on the approximate 300,000 policies that Blue Cross of Florida had to cancel and reissue to be in conformance with the new Obamacare requirements. There are apparently 10 specific requirements, one of them is maternity care for everyone regardless of gender or age. Both Sharon and Maria are over age 60 and yet must have maternity coverage. They told Dave and I a little about the increased premiums that this and the other nine requirements are causing on all policies. I shared with them some of the discussion I had with the hourly workers who had changed my flat and those working in the tire store. All had their hours cut from 40 to 30 per week so their employers could avoid paying for the new health care. These hourly workers now not only are required to pay for health care but have also lost 25% of their pay! I'm sure there are many people who are in desperate need of health care and couldn't afford it or get coverage because of pre existing conditions, but it seems that there are now many others who are being hurt financially as a direct result of this new law. Some sort of compromise needs to be reached. At the moment, it's a sad state of affairs.
Dinner and the show with cousin Bobbie was delightful. Bobbie, you looked great with all your Halloween fixings. The play, Yankee Tavern, was definitely a little difficult to follow at times but overall, most enjoyable and the Amelia Community Theatre is a very nice venue. I would enjoy returning to it.
While at Pecan Park RV cg, I also walked the large flea market adjacent to the cg, saw the movie Captain Phillips with Tom Hanks on one cloudy day, hung out with my RV neighbor Buddy and his home schooled daughter Mandy, and finally got around to a couple of little projects in my rig. All in all, Jacksonville was a pleasant stop. On to Homosassa Springs. I was surprised at how far this ride was, well over three hours. Florida really is a big state. Homosassa is on the Gulf Coast about an hour or so north of Tampa. There are several natural springs which bubble up around here. The RV park has lots of both permanents and seasonals. As a Passport park, there are also several people, like me, just passing through for a few days. Two interesting things at the park are the signs on the ponds throughout the place and the unusual golf putting they have. The ponds are picturesque, with lots of pretty vegetation including many live oaks and water fountains. The signs brought a smirk to my face as I read "... no swimming or wadding as these waters have alligators, poisonous snakes, and other natural wildlife"!! Really, in Florida?? lol! The unusual golf putting had an enthusiastic following of several couples. When I finished setting up my rig and then parking my truck I noticed a hole in the ground with a little red flag sticking out. I assumed the flag was there as a warning to be careful not to get your tires stuck in the hole. Turns out there are 18 of these little holes with flags scattered throughout the park. People need only a golf ball and a putter as they walk around the park knocking the balls down the park roads looking for these little red flag holes. It was definitely different and seemed to provide amusement for several people.
Homosassa Springs State Park is small, but pretty. They have pontoon boat tours of the manatee habitat and three shows which rotate throughout the day; 1) manatees, 2) Hippo & alligator, and 3) reptile encounters. The park is basically a figure "8" boardwalk trail of a little over a mile which winds past the three shows and other habitats including; fox, bobcat, black bear, deer, wolves, and several aviaries with many varieties of birds. It was a pleasant stroll. After over 40 years of coming to Florida I finally made it to Weeki Wachee. What had been a small, private water park was taken over by the State of Florida. Early November is now past their high season for the water park and so there weren't many visitors, especially in the morning. It seemed like a nice place to take small children who would be comfortable at the little water park and mermaid shows. There were two mermaid shows, one an adaptation of the Disney show "The Little Mermaid" and the second one showcasing the mermaids doing their underwater ballet. The theater, while old, was interesting. The park is built around a natural underground spring that receives over 117 million gallons of clear 74 degree water every day. Deep dive exploration has gone as far as 6,700 ft into the underwater caverns, 407 ft down, and still not explored the entire system. Weeki Wachee Springs are currently believed to be the deepest and largest fresh water caverns in the United States. I just enjoyed watching the scantily clad mermaids (lol).
My drive to the LoW Citrus Rally at Sun 'n Fun RV in Sarasota was easy, that is until I arrived! I had called the park at least a half dozen times over the past two months trying to make my reservations and was still not convinced the park even knew who or what the Citrus Rally was!!! I pull up to the park gates and give my info along with the rally info to an initial women. She can't find anything on her first look at some clip board papers. She asks me a second time for the same info. She still doesn't find anything on a second clip board and asks me for the same info a third time, frustration is building :=(. A second woman appears and asks me for the info a FOURTH time. She rummages around a desk and calls someone on a two-way radio. I'm told to follow a golf cart to a holding area, walk back to get to figured out in the office. Two women at the front desk of the office ask for my info a FIFTH and SIXTH time with still no success. I'm ready to leave and say so when an office supervisor comes over. I'm escorted to a back area of the office and sit with the supervisor while she, after taking my info and the rally info a SEVENTH time goes through her computer. Still not finding anything she is able to give me what she said was a clear site so my sat. dish would work, also saying that all the park sites are full hookup. I'm escorted by the little golf cart to a site directly under a large live oak. I'm again ready to leave the park. The golf cart driver calls the office and they move me to a nearby site that has a tree only partially over it. The golf cart driver, while guiding me backing in raised his voice to me which is when I lost it! I stopped my truck, got out and in his face. Fortunately, he backed off and I regained what was left of my self control. He apologized for not seeing the truck on another site he almost backed me into. My site backed up to a ditch, the water hookup was at an adjacent site, and the sewer hookup was not near my rigs mid point where I needed it. I had to position my rig partially over the ditch in order to make the water and sewer connections. Of course now I didn't have enough leveling blocks to allow my rear stabilizers to touch the ground. I scrounged around and found some cinder blocks which worked. I go to disconnect my truck from the RV and my tail gate won't release. By this time I am totally exhausted. I try releasing the tail gate every which way I can with no success. Finally, I call Good Sam. They in turn contact a local truck repair outfit and someone shows up about 1/2 hour later. They had some heavy blocking and we were able to raise the 5th wheel higher than the tail gate which allowed me to pull out. Once I was out and the truck leveled the tail gate opened. Apparently, the RV was tilted one way on the site and the truck was tilted the opposite way. This caused the truck bed to tork and wouldn't allow the tail gate lock to release. I may finally be set up, even if a little crooked, but I know this isn't going to be easy to hook up again. This is the most expensive RV park I've stayed at in the past few years of full time RV'ing and, by far, the most difficult to deal with and one of the worst sites. Absolutely amazing!!!
The Citrus Rally was great. It was nice to see old friends, not that we're old, just that they're known from prior years (lol). It was also nice to meet new friends. The cg did a nice job with the food. We had three catered dinners of; meatloaf, roast turkey, and lasagna. We also had two nice breakfasts, one with omelets, the other with pancakes, bacon, & sausage. All were great. The music was very nice, the DJ seemed to be enjoying himself as much as we were. With lots of women dancing and very few men I didn't seem to get to sit down hardly at all (lol). I did manage to use the swimming pool, sauna, steam room, and hot tubs every morning and a few afternoons. The cg also had a fully equipped wood shop where I was able to finish cutting the wood I'd bought for the new closet space in my rig. A group of us also went on an afternoon cruise on an absolutely perfect day. I managed to spend at least an hour or two each day at the swimming pool, hot tub, sauna, and steam room. When it was time to leave I actually hooked up with no problems. All in all it was a great rally!
The drive was so long to the Escapee Rally I thought I'd have to have several rest stops. It must have taken me all of 35 minutes to go from Sarasota to Port Charlotte. The sites were clear and so wide they could easily hold three rigs. After setting up I enjoyed the afternoon in the swimming pool and hot tub. It's a tough life but someone has to do it (lol)! About nine of the LoW's from the Citrus Rally arrived the next day. I had just left them and it was already great seeing them again. Before the Escapee Rally began on Thursday afternoon we went to Fisherman's Village, strolled around and had a nice lunch. We also went to a nearby RV show where I really liked the new 5th wheel with a full side slide and I think Cheryl bought a very nice coach. I was surprised at how many of the Escapees I remembered. The few days went quick. The meals were nice and the company was great. The games on Friday evening were strange but those at my table sure were laughing hard at how funny they seemed. I learned a lot from the SkyMed presentation and finally joined. About six of us went to the FleaMasters flea market and spent the better part of the day both there and driving back and forth. I did find two out of print books I'd been looking for and even bought a bicycle bell.
The SKP park at Wauchula was an easy ride, about an hour. I'd been wondering what an SKP park would be like. This is a quiet, peaceful place. Everyone is very pleasant from Theresa, at check in, Ron helping me park, Dan stopping by just to make sure all was well, Gary hanging out by his rig, and of course Dave Irons giving me the tour. Within an hour or so of getting set up I had already gotten a tour, signed up for Thanksgiving dinner, a tour of Solomon's Castle, and a day of bowling. Rose & Dave had me over for a delicious pork chop dinner where we "forced" ourselves to kill about four bottles of wine. It was a great afternoon and evening. Dang, I'm a horrible bowler. I'm about as bad a bowler as I am a golfer (lol). Then again, at least I didn't lose any balls while bowling (lol). It was lots of fun and I'll try to go with this group again next week after Thanksgiving. We had one of those perfect evening; a light breeze, temperature in the upper 70's, and of course Dave playing guitar and singing. Along with about a dozen others from the park I took a tour of Solomon's Castle. This is quite an interesting place. Howard Solomon built this amazing place completely from recycled materials. There really is a castle which includes countless works of art as well as Howard's home. He built a ship in the middle of his property which is near the size of the Santa Maria and houses a restaurant. We stayed for lunch which was delicious. Thanksgiving dinner was very nice. The usual turkey with all the fixings, tons of side dishes, and an entire side table to hold the desserts. There was so much food we got to enjoy left overs on Friday. The park had two long tables set out for us hungry SKP'ers, about a total of 55 to 60 of us. It was two great afternoons. During the week and a half I stayed at the SKP park I enjoyed the pool and almost daily conversations with fellow RV'ers. I did a little better at bowling the second time (not much better), had dinner with Rose & Dave twice more (a beef stew and chicken) Rose is definitely a good cook and Dave is expert at opening wine (lol). This has been a very friendly stay.
The joint Gulf/Dixie/Mid-LoW Christmas get together at Winter Haven was another short ride of about 40 miles. I'd been to the Cypress RV park for this same get together two years ago. This is the only park where I'd ever seen police activity. Last time here I was told it was a drug bust of some sort. The park is a bit old and has a little of a trailer park feel. But the club house is nice and big and decorated for the holidays. Too many trees so no sat. service. Jerry, a cg worker, helped me try to get the cable hooked up. Turned out the park cable box was broken. The park called and a repair tech showed up within the hour, even though it was Sunday so I do have cable access. A 5th wheel across from me has a mid-LoW banner planted out front so I stopped by. Leo is from Birmingham, England. He spends several months RV'ing around the USA. He and I strolled over to to his buddy Dale, one of the LoW's who will be travelling with me to Alaska this Spring. Dale and Leo are avid kayakers planning to do some in the area during the down time of the get together. The rally ended up with about 40 rigs, most of whom I knew from prior get togethers. We had a rally provided chili dinner the first night, pot luck another, and a Christmas dinner Saturday evening. A few of us took a tour of Bok Tower and Gardens. I had done this two years ago but enjoyed it and so did it again. John Hubbard bought an end table that he asked me to help him assemble. It took the two of us over two hours to complete it. If you add our labor, even at minimum wage, I wonder what the total cost would have been (lol). He treated for a pleasant Chinese lunch. Except for my day at Bok Tower I managed to spend at least an hour or two in the pool each day.
All was going well as I cleaned and put things away in preparation for driving to Titusville in the morning. I had a wash load going, the a/c on, and was watching the news as I prepared dinner. I was looking forward to tilapia, rice, and broccoli. The broccoli was in a steamer pouch that you could microwave. As soon as I hit the microwave button all the power in the rig went out. No problem, I put the solar inverter on. I let the a/c continue for a moment but then thought I better cut back on the electric usage and so turned it off. Dinner was great and I figured the camp ground had lost power. Wrong! By morning all electric in my rig was out and the batteries were drained. After breakfast, where I used a percolator in place of the electric coffee pot, I checked the camp ground connection. It seemed fine with power going through the surge protector. I reset the electric box and reset all the circuit breakers. Everything seemed fine but still no power in the rig. I hooked up and headed to a camping world a few miles from my destination. While driving, as I went over what had happened, I figured the inverter had to much current with all that I had working and must have blown something. Camping World was very nice checking out my rig almost immediately even though I popped in with no appointment and their bays were jammed solid. The two mechanics who checked it out were able to bypass the inverter and get shore power to my rig but the solar system was way more than they had ever worked on. They gave me the name and number of a company in Orlando that they refer their inverter work to. I drove to the Manatee Hammock cg in Titusville, which I had prepaid for five days, and set up. Then I called Buck at South East Power Systems. He spent some time on the phone with me trying to diagnose the problem. After a while he agreed that something inside the inverter may have fried. As soon as I gave him the make and size of my inverter he immediately knew the model number. That sure raised my confidence. He said I could bring it in early in the morning. I walked to the cg office to let them know what had happened. Rob offered me a refund, which my reservation clearly stated they do not give. I thanked him and said I would call from the shop. If they were able to fix it immediately I would simply drive back. If not he and I would work something out. The GPS said the ride was an hour. Driving through the Orlando morning traffic it took 1 1/2 hours of very unpleasant towing of my rig. Buck, the manager, was friendly and expecting me. He already had his electrician Mike on standby awaiting my rig. This company, South East Power Systems of Orlando, specialize in electrical, diesel, solar, including inverter work of any kind. Mike gave me a sort of class on electrical in general and my specific system as he took it apart. He fixed the overloaded circuits, tuned and thoroughly checked my system out. Three hours later my rig was better than new. He even corrected a minor flaw in the original installation. I heartily recommend this company to anyone needing any solar, electrical or diesel work. If anyone reading this is thinking of installing a solar system on their house or rig, these are definitely the people to do it!!
The cg was mostly quiet, except during the night when the nearby train whistles gave me a headache. It was pleasant and relaxing to stroll along the shore and chat with the many people fishing. When I drove into Titusville to get a haircut and do some food shopping I happened by the Titusville Playhouse. I smiled remembering the wonderful play Barbara and I saw there last year, Driving Miss Daisy. The actor playing the role of the chauffeur was especially good. That was a very nice day. The first three barber shops I found were permanently closed, along with lots of other shops throughout the area. The down sizing of NASA has really taken a toll on this area. Enchanted Lakes cg in Malabar is my last stop before spending time with my sons over Christmas week. This is a very quiet little cg. Its mostly permanents, very well kept with a nicely heated pool that felt like a warm bath, delicious. Bob & Lorna are very easy going park managers. The owner, Anne and her daughter Gina, are particular about who they let stay here (which doesn't account for why they let me in, lol). I would definitely stay here again. Quiet, friendly, close to the beach, food shopping, a Walmart, and several restaurants.
My sons Alex and Zack are coming down for Christmas week, we'll spend it at a Marriott resort in Orlando. My friends, the Calienes', Madeline, Armando, and their sons Eric & Andrew will be staying with us for a few days as well. They are great people to be around and my sons adore them. Marvin & Marvette let me leave my rig at their place in Port Orange over Christmas week while I'm in Orlando. They, along with Marvette's husband Kevin, are such great people. It was an easy drive up I-95 to Port Orange. On Sunday morning I joined them at church which was a very interesting experience. They go to the drive-in church of Daytona Beach. It's been around for over 50 years. It's a former drive-in movie theater which was converted to a very unique church. As we drove in we were handed a program and an all in one cup of wine with a communion wafer. There were about 500 cars. We turn to a specific radio channel and listen to the pastor and choir. The church encourages people to bring their dogs and actually goes around in golf carts with biscuits for the dogs that attend. When people especially enjoy some portion of the program they all toot their horns. Definitely a different kind of service. Afterward we went to the Port Orange pier for s delicious breakfast.
I arrived a little early for my sons plane and couldn't fit the truck in the parking garage (the truck is 7 1/2 feet high to the top of the light bar and the garage has only a 7 foot clearance). The airport does have a special holding area where vehicles coming to pick up passengers can hang out. While the airport traffic was horrible, it wasn't too difficult picking up my sons. They were starving having not eaten since early morning and it was now 4pm. We were able to quickly check into the Marriott Gran Vista and then get some late lunch before actually going to our rooms. Over the next few days we spent time in the pool, Jacuzzi, and sauna every day but one. That was the day we spent at Universal. My sons love the roller coasters and seem to enjoy my dizzy I get from the upside down and inside out spinning. It was great having the Calienes' spend some time with us. These are fantastic people! We also enjoyed time in the pool, Jacuzzi, and sauna. We went to the four Disney parks in a single day, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios. We arrived late morning and wore out our shoes (and feet) by the time we left at almost 4am!! The light and fireworks show at Epcot was amazing. If you've never been to the Hollywood Studio Park, it's worth a visit especially during the Christmas season when they have over 5 million lights coordinated to holiday music, truly incredible after dark. The week with my sons and friends flew by. We had great weather every day except the last when it turned a little colder and rained. What a great way to spend the holiday.
The drive back to Marvin's was easy. Dave Irons was parked next to me and we chatted a little before I passed out for the night. Our New Years party was fantastic. There were about 38 rigs with between 45 to 50 people, counting our hosts and their friends. Kevin is a great cook. We had barbecue chicken & ribs one night, hamburgers & hot dogs another, and pulled pork on New Year's day. Each meal had all the trimmings and great desserts. A traditional Southern New Year's meal of collard greens, black-eyed peas, and cornbread was enjoyed for lunch before we headed over to the Daytona Speedway for a special tour with Marvin Panch. For those who have never been to the speedway this is one incredible place. To give you an idea of its size the engineers had to consider the curve of the earth when designing the new grandstands. On race day there are an estimated 300,000 people including spectators, drivers, crew, staff, and maintenance. To have a tour with the 1961 Daytona 500 winner and one of the top 50 drivers of all time (Marvin Panch) is a very memorable experience. We danced for over four hours on New Year's Eve and listened to the singing and watched the gyrations of an Elvis impersonator the next evening. It's sad that this is the last year of what has been a great annual event for several decades. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to enjoy New Year's at Marvin's these past three years.
My last stop before drifting west is in Jacksonville to enjoy dinner and a show with my cousin Bobbie. Back again at the Alhambre dinner theater to see Pump Boys & the Dinettes. The show was great, good music, dancing, and high energy. Dinner was nice. What was best was spending some time with my cousin.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Kentucky to Florida 2013
As the saying goes, we should usually avoid the topics of politics and religion. Yet these are the two topics I find most interesting. After my very active stay at River Expeditions in WV (horseback riding, class 5 rafting, & ATV'ing) I was looking forward to my Kentucky stop. Passport America had a participating campground in Ravenna, KY, with full hook ups, for only $12, at just about the right location along my route south. The cg is a Methodist Revival camp and the pastor/director actually has my same last name spelled the same way (Cohn). I was looking forward to some interesting discussion over meals and exploring a mutual family heritage with the pastor. My expectations were heightened when the cg called me back to confirm my reservation and mentioned that the pastor was also looking forward to my arrival. My problems began when the cg directions brought me up to an 11' 2" train trestle (my rig is 12' 8") and I'm not ready to turn my RV into a convertible (lol). Making a "U" turn on a two lane road pulling a fifth wheel, even with the shoulders, doesn't count as one of my most fun experiences! The round about river road I then took was so narrow it required total concentration and didn't allow me to enjoy the mountain foliage. The left turn onto the camp road from the mountain road was a very sharp turn that, while I made it, I doubt I could make the right turn upon leaving. The cg road was about as bumpy and rutted as any I'd previously been on. The actually site has a short, concrete pad which looked good. It looked good until I went to back in. Both sides of the pad were mud pits about 6" to 8" deep. The rig was backing in fine until the trucks rear wheels hit the mud. I was stuck and spinning my tires. I tried rocking back and forth but only got my self deeper in the mud and almost jack knifed the rig. Another camper came over and then got the pastor who had a winch on the front of his F150. It took a little while and three different positioning's of the winch until I was finally able to get my rig situated. It was an auspicious way to meet the pastor and most of the seven other campers.
The other campers turned out to be from a group called NOMADS. They work for mostly Methodist causes, building and repairing whatever needs to be done all over the country. I set up, chatted a bit with a few of the NOMADS, and walked up to the office to check in. The camp is just that, a camp which hosts kids in the summer and religious retreats the rest of the year. The grounds are within the Daniel Boone National Forest and on land that was once the town of Fitchburg. In the 1880's this was a thriving town of over 2,000. They operated the largest coal burning furnace in the world and one of the top 25 dry stone masonry structure in the world. When better quality coal was found elsewhere, the furnace operations went bankrupt and the town disappeared. There are lots of trails now maintained by the camp and old structures throughout the property and surrounding woods. I strolled around the camp till dinner and then joined the NOMADS and a group of pastors here on a retreat for a pulled pork meal. All the conversation was about RV's and the NOMAD organization. The camp doesn't have any meals on weekends so this was my only meal with them. The NOMADS seemed tired from their weeks work so I walked the camp trails the next few days with very little conversation. While the trails and old structures were interesting, it wasn't why I had chosen to stay here. The pastor never came by and I left early on my departure date, very disappointed.
The Tennessee cg was a very pleasant surprise. This is the former Cordell Hull Army Corp of Engineer location whom Guy & Jean Harden were able to obtain a permanent lease from. Apparently the location had fallen into disrepair and the Harden's proposed to renovate and run it. They had help obtaining the lease from Al Gore (yes, the former VP) who has a house on the lake. While Jean Harden runs the cg, her husband Guy sings and sponsors karaoke on Friday nights. He was a regular on the Ralph Emory TV show and formally toured with Alabama, Jim Reeves, and many others to numerous to list. The site I took had been vacated earlier that day by some regulars you may have heard of, Amy Grant and her husband Vince Gill. The cg is very well kept with a pretty beach & boat launch area. They even have row & paddle boats for rent. Several seasonals were already putting up elaborate Halloween displays. At $13/night (Passport rate) I heartily recommend this little jewel of a park to all you RV'ers.
The morning I left TN I broke camp in a light rain. The drive began pretty easy with nice back roads leading to I-40 towards Nashville and then I-65, south towards Birmingham, AL. The rain cleared and the day turned pretty, thankfully for what happened later. A rest stop magically appeared just about the time I was looking to take a stretch break. I-65 through Birmingham was a rough road with the typical big city congestion. I found some inexpensive gas when I was less than 30 miles from the cg. The fun began only a couple of miles after getting back on I-65. I was felling great, realizing I would arrive a little before 2pm with plenty of time to set up and go out exploring, the day was sunny and in the mid-60's, just beautiful. Suddenly, a loud "BANG" quickly took me out of my day dream. I grabbed the wheel with both hands and gently slowed, trying to figure out what happened. The truck wasn't pulling left or right, didn't feel like a tire went. I stuck my head out the window a little and quickly realized a trailer tire had blown. I was able to move onto a wide shoulder, stop and check. Sure enough, one of the two remaining original trailer tires had blown, but no other damage was apparent. I've heard of trailer tires taking out huge pieces of the RV when they blow. I was standing on the side of I-65 almost feeling lucky. This is a chance to find out just how good my Good Sam roadside assistance plan really is. They answered on the second ring, were very polite and sympathetic, and knew my exact location from the phone GPS. They both gave me the name & phone number of the company who would be responding and texted the info as well. In a little over 30 minutes a truck pulls up and the two young kids merrily jack up the 12,000 lb rig, change my tire, confirm that no damage is visible, and give me the name of a local tire store. From my initial call to Good Sam till I was on the road again was barely an hour, amazing! Good Sam has me for a lifetime customer. I got off the next exit, found the tire store, and had two new, upgraded tires put on the axle with my spare replaced and the blown tire, along with the remaining original tossed. I arrived at the cg two hours later than I originally thought, none the worse for wear.
The cg was old, with tight sites. In fact I couldn't open my slides all the way without hitting a pole, or tree, or electric box. I set up and began to walk the park, immediately meeting a couple from Oklahoma. We walked the park together, along with their two little schnauzers. The park does have a pretty little lake with a nice big deck overlooking it. The owner, William, is an interesting guy. He's in his early 60's, must weigh easily 400 lbs, and at 5' 8" is very round. He has almost shoulder length, pure white hair, but none on the front half of his head, He also has a pure white beard and a very jolly face. It's not a difficult guess how he dresses around Christmas time. He went to college for law, didn't like it, and so got his masters in theology. He didn't like full time ministering and so bought the cg, although he still preaches part time for free at a couple of the poorer local churches. Interesting guy!
Fairly easy ride to Marianna in the Florida Panhandle. The park is a little old but nice enough with a site that was perfectly level and the sat. dish got reception. As I strolled the park, checking the road to head out in a few days I met a couple plated out of Alaska. Joe and Judy live in Wasilla, are new to RV'ing, hanging out here for a month to visit their kids. Both recently retired from hospital work, Judy as a nurse and Joe from managing a lab. Joe served in Viet Nam as a recon sergeant, pretty close to my ranger activities and was there the same year as me, 1968. We hung out all afternoon chatting about Alaska, health care, Viet Nam, and life in general. Next day we also spent sitting around chatting. The time passed very quickly and pleasantly. On to Jacksonville and a couple of months with lots of get togethers.
The other campers turned out to be from a group called NOMADS. They work for mostly Methodist causes, building and repairing whatever needs to be done all over the country. I set up, chatted a bit with a few of the NOMADS, and walked up to the office to check in. The camp is just that, a camp which hosts kids in the summer and religious retreats the rest of the year. The grounds are within the Daniel Boone National Forest and on land that was once the town of Fitchburg. In the 1880's this was a thriving town of over 2,000. They operated the largest coal burning furnace in the world and one of the top 25 dry stone masonry structure in the world. When better quality coal was found elsewhere, the furnace operations went bankrupt and the town disappeared. There are lots of trails now maintained by the camp and old structures throughout the property and surrounding woods. I strolled around the camp till dinner and then joined the NOMADS and a group of pastors here on a retreat for a pulled pork meal. All the conversation was about RV's and the NOMAD organization. The camp doesn't have any meals on weekends so this was my only meal with them. The NOMADS seemed tired from their weeks work so I walked the camp trails the next few days with very little conversation. While the trails and old structures were interesting, it wasn't why I had chosen to stay here. The pastor never came by and I left early on my departure date, very disappointed.
The Tennessee cg was a very pleasant surprise. This is the former Cordell Hull Army Corp of Engineer location whom Guy & Jean Harden were able to obtain a permanent lease from. Apparently the location had fallen into disrepair and the Harden's proposed to renovate and run it. They had help obtaining the lease from Al Gore (yes, the former VP) who has a house on the lake. While Jean Harden runs the cg, her husband Guy sings and sponsors karaoke on Friday nights. He was a regular on the Ralph Emory TV show and formally toured with Alabama, Jim Reeves, and many others to numerous to list. The site I took had been vacated earlier that day by some regulars you may have heard of, Amy Grant and her husband Vince Gill. The cg is very well kept with a pretty beach & boat launch area. They even have row & paddle boats for rent. Several seasonals were already putting up elaborate Halloween displays. At $13/night (Passport rate) I heartily recommend this little jewel of a park to all you RV'ers.
The morning I left TN I broke camp in a light rain. The drive began pretty easy with nice back roads leading to I-40 towards Nashville and then I-65, south towards Birmingham, AL. The rain cleared and the day turned pretty, thankfully for what happened later. A rest stop magically appeared just about the time I was looking to take a stretch break. I-65 through Birmingham was a rough road with the typical big city congestion. I found some inexpensive gas when I was less than 30 miles from the cg. The fun began only a couple of miles after getting back on I-65. I was felling great, realizing I would arrive a little before 2pm with plenty of time to set up and go out exploring, the day was sunny and in the mid-60's, just beautiful. Suddenly, a loud "BANG" quickly took me out of my day dream. I grabbed the wheel with both hands and gently slowed, trying to figure out what happened. The truck wasn't pulling left or right, didn't feel like a tire went. I stuck my head out the window a little and quickly realized a trailer tire had blown. I was able to move onto a wide shoulder, stop and check. Sure enough, one of the two remaining original trailer tires had blown, but no other damage was apparent. I've heard of trailer tires taking out huge pieces of the RV when they blow. I was standing on the side of I-65 almost feeling lucky. This is a chance to find out just how good my Good Sam roadside assistance plan really is. They answered on the second ring, were very polite and sympathetic, and knew my exact location from the phone GPS. They both gave me the name & phone number of the company who would be responding and texted the info as well. In a little over 30 minutes a truck pulls up and the two young kids merrily jack up the 12,000 lb rig, change my tire, confirm that no damage is visible, and give me the name of a local tire store. From my initial call to Good Sam till I was on the road again was barely an hour, amazing! Good Sam has me for a lifetime customer. I got off the next exit, found the tire store, and had two new, upgraded tires put on the axle with my spare replaced and the blown tire, along with the remaining original tossed. I arrived at the cg two hours later than I originally thought, none the worse for wear.
The cg was old, with tight sites. In fact I couldn't open my slides all the way without hitting a pole, or tree, or electric box. I set up and began to walk the park, immediately meeting a couple from Oklahoma. We walked the park together, along with their two little schnauzers. The park does have a pretty little lake with a nice big deck overlooking it. The owner, William, is an interesting guy. He's in his early 60's, must weigh easily 400 lbs, and at 5' 8" is very round. He has almost shoulder length, pure white hair, but none on the front half of his head, He also has a pure white beard and a very jolly face. It's not a difficult guess how he dresses around Christmas time. He went to college for law, didn't like it, and so got his masters in theology. He didn't like full time ministering and so bought the cg, although he still preaches part time for free at a couple of the poorer local churches. Interesting guy!
Fairly easy ride to Marianna in the Florida Panhandle. The park is a little old but nice enough with a site that was perfectly level and the sat. dish got reception. As I strolled the park, checking the road to head out in a few days I met a couple plated out of Alaska. Joe and Judy live in Wasilla, are new to RV'ing, hanging out here for a month to visit their kids. Both recently retired from hospital work, Judy as a nurse and Joe from managing a lab. Joe served in Viet Nam as a recon sergeant, pretty close to my ranger activities and was there the same year as me, 1968. We hung out all afternoon chatting about Alaska, health care, Viet Nam, and life in general. Next day we also spent sitting around chatting. The time passed very quickly and pleasantly. On to Jacksonville and a couple of months with lots of get togethers.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Heading South Yet Again
The drive to Lake George was a peaceful one. No hurry's, no worries! I had registered very early at the campground, before they worked out the bugs for the Loners on Wheels negotiated rally rates. I knew they had overcharged me but wasn't concerned and figured we would work it out when I got here. They surprised me by having the appropriate credit waiting for me when I arrived. A few of to LoW campers were already here. They had apparently come early for a Good Sam rally and simply stayed on. The site was tight but it was a pull through and pretty level so it was a quick set up. After several hugs and hello's I was asked to drive to a rental place and pick up five 8' folding tables. Mo came with me to pay for the tables from the Yankee LoW funds. The guy at the rental place helped load them. When we got back to the campground there weren't any other men able to help so I unloaded them by myself, dang they were heavy (lol). The rental place let me drop them off on Sunday even though they were closed. Roger Smith came with me, helped unload them and leave them stacked behind the rental building. Over the week of the rally I: walked around town with Barbara Smith once and the SE-LoW's another time (Bobbi Harden, Linda Kendall, Daryl Spoonseller, Roger, and Martin Smith (no relation)). Wow, there were so many Smiths it could have been a family reunion. The Smiths included: Barbara, Carolyn, Marge, Martin, and Roger (I think that's all). There weren't as many attendees as we originally hoped for but with about 35 it was a nice gtg. I managed to unload lots of stuff by donating them as door prizes and/or for the Chinese auction. I'll bet I lightened the rigs load by quite a bit. Among the stuff I gave away were: an unopened 5 gal jug of anti-freeze, an unopened 5 lb box of fire starters, a set f heavy gauge jumper cables, two boxes of Christmas lights, a full box of Christmas cards, two laundry bags, an unopened set of levels, an unused 1 lb citronella pail, a hand painted glass jar I'd won on a Murder Mystery train ride, and a few more miscellaneous items I hadn't used in almost three years on the road (lol). Other than some electrical problems at the pavilion where the rally set up for our meals I think the gtg went well. The main entertainment was a guy who billed himself as the human jukebox. He was very good and even seemed to look like some of the singers he mimicked like Tony Bennett and Dean Martin. The second entertainment of line dancing didn't seem to go over as well, possibly because it had gotten a little cold. The "Human Jukebox" and I chatted a bit and before he left he gave me a free CD of his songs, very nice of him. About 20 of us took the two hour cruise on Lake George. Prior to the cruise about six of us walked around a bit and had some lunch. Since we sat at two adjoining tables they agreed to give us two checks but wouldn't give us individual checks. A bunch of us had gone out to lunch earlier in the week and sat at one large, round table. That restaurant wouldn't give anything but a single bill. It reminded me when I had munch with Barbara that third restaurant wouldn't provide separate checks either. Must be a Lake George thing (lol).
A funny thing happened late one evening on my way back to my rig. As I neared my RV a deep, gruff voice yelled at me "hey, you, get over here"! I stopped and yelled back in the dark in an annoyed voice "you talking to me"? As I responded the deep voices wife very politely and meekly said "no, no, he doesn't mean anything, could you please come over here for a minute". As I walked over to their rig I saw an older couple and the husband appeared barely able to walk. He asked if I owned the truck with the various army stickers. Turns out he was in Viet Nam the same time as me and even went through airborne school about the same time I did. He gave me a bracelet made of parachute rig cord and we chatted a while.
I took off early for my longest day's drive of almost 400 miles. It's the end of another year of RV'ing and I took my rig into the dealer in PA. I stayed at the dealer over night and spent the next week in a hotel in Edison, NJ about half way between my two sons Alex and Zack (Hi guys!). Over the week the RV was in for maintenance I: spent an afternoon with each of my sons, they also each stayed over at the hotel with me one night, I also had breakfast with my friend John and with my friend Randy. I managed to pick up my mail and even traded in my phone for a new one and a tablet. The hotel had a full breakfast each morning. They also had a pool and hot tub. It was a restful week and it was great to see and spend some time with Alex and Zack.
The RV didn't have any particular problems and it's good to know the brakes are repacked and bearings greased, the roof is sealed well and all systems checked out fine. I stayed over at the dealer one night which gave me time to reload the refrigerator and double check everything. It was a long but easy ride to western PA. I had a full hook up and was able to catch up with my laundry. While walking around the cg I met Doug & Becky out of OH in a cute little Scamp and Ray & Mary, local seasonals. Doug & Becky seemed to enjoy showing all the details of their little Scamp. I thought living full time in my 30' fifth wheel is being a minimalist but it's not even close to two people in a 13' trailer. Ray and Mary invited me to a local, family style restaurant. We spent almost two hours on the very topics most people avoid, religion and politics. It was a very pleasant evening. The drive to WV was very pretty with the Fall foliage in almost full bloom. It was also interesting with the many hills. There were two very steep hills where vehicles over 5 tons (I weigh in at 9 tons) had to get into an extreme right lane, come to a full stop, go into 1st gear while descending and not exceed 10 mph. There were also a few hills where I barely made 20 mph going up! The expedition cg has got to be the single worst cg I've stayed in so far. A narrow, winding road leading up to the entrance, a sharp turn on a steep hill that I barely made, a steep decent followed by a steep ascent to get to the actual site. The site was so sloped I was not able to level the rig even using all of my blocks plus a couple I found in the cg. All week I felt like I was going to roll out of bed. I was expecting a full hook up and there was no sewer, not even a dump station in the cg. The activities I'd booked were fun. I spent one day horseback riding through the WV hills. Really pretty foliage! Another day was spent going down 25 miles of class 5 rapids in a six person raft. The water was in the mid 50's and the air was about 60 degrees. A few people dumped into the Gauley River, but no one from my raft. I was soaked, but not really cold. It was a great day. A third day was spent ATV'ing along the Hatfield-McCoy trail. I thought I was an "experienced" ATV'er having done it once before with my friends in Maine. Wow, was this ever different! The trails were narrow with lots of steep ascents and descents. I did okay, almost lost it only once, got quite muddy, and had lots of fun. The fall foliage was great and I saw some wildlife including: turkeys, deer, a fox, and even a fair sized bobcat. While in WV I also managed to bring the truck in for its normal 5k service. Life is good. My next stop in Kentucky should be interesting but more on that when I next update this blog.
A funny thing happened late one evening on my way back to my rig. As I neared my RV a deep, gruff voice yelled at me "hey, you, get over here"! I stopped and yelled back in the dark in an annoyed voice "you talking to me"? As I responded the deep voices wife very politely and meekly said "no, no, he doesn't mean anything, could you please come over here for a minute". As I walked over to their rig I saw an older couple and the husband appeared barely able to walk. He asked if I owned the truck with the various army stickers. Turns out he was in Viet Nam the same time as me and even went through airborne school about the same time I did. He gave me a bracelet made of parachute rig cord and we chatted a while.
I took off early for my longest day's drive of almost 400 miles. It's the end of another year of RV'ing and I took my rig into the dealer in PA. I stayed at the dealer over night and spent the next week in a hotel in Edison, NJ about half way between my two sons Alex and Zack (Hi guys!). Over the week the RV was in for maintenance I: spent an afternoon with each of my sons, they also each stayed over at the hotel with me one night, I also had breakfast with my friend John and with my friend Randy. I managed to pick up my mail and even traded in my phone for a new one and a tablet. The hotel had a full breakfast each morning. They also had a pool and hot tub. It was a restful week and it was great to see and spend some time with Alex and Zack.
The RV didn't have any particular problems and it's good to know the brakes are repacked and bearings greased, the roof is sealed well and all systems checked out fine. I stayed over at the dealer one night which gave me time to reload the refrigerator and double check everything. It was a long but easy ride to western PA. I had a full hook up and was able to catch up with my laundry. While walking around the cg I met Doug & Becky out of OH in a cute little Scamp and Ray & Mary, local seasonals. Doug & Becky seemed to enjoy showing all the details of their little Scamp. I thought living full time in my 30' fifth wheel is being a minimalist but it's not even close to two people in a 13' trailer. Ray and Mary invited me to a local, family style restaurant. We spent almost two hours on the very topics most people avoid, religion and politics. It was a very pleasant evening. The drive to WV was very pretty with the Fall foliage in almost full bloom. It was also interesting with the many hills. There were two very steep hills where vehicles over 5 tons (I weigh in at 9 tons) had to get into an extreme right lane, come to a full stop, go into 1st gear while descending and not exceed 10 mph. There were also a few hills where I barely made 20 mph going up! The expedition cg has got to be the single worst cg I've stayed in so far. A narrow, winding road leading up to the entrance, a sharp turn on a steep hill that I barely made, a steep decent followed by a steep ascent to get to the actual site. The site was so sloped I was not able to level the rig even using all of my blocks plus a couple I found in the cg. All week I felt like I was going to roll out of bed. I was expecting a full hook up and there was no sewer, not even a dump station in the cg. The activities I'd booked were fun. I spent one day horseback riding through the WV hills. Really pretty foliage! Another day was spent going down 25 miles of class 5 rapids in a six person raft. The water was in the mid 50's and the air was about 60 degrees. A few people dumped into the Gauley River, but no one from my raft. I was soaked, but not really cold. It was a great day. A third day was spent ATV'ing along the Hatfield-McCoy trail. I thought I was an "experienced" ATV'er having done it once before with my friends in Maine. Wow, was this ever different! The trails were narrow with lots of steep ascents and descents. I did okay, almost lost it only once, got quite muddy, and had lots of fun. The fall foliage was great and I saw some wildlife including: turkeys, deer, a fox, and even a fair sized bobcat. While in WV I also managed to bring the truck in for its normal 5k service. Life is good. My next stop in Kentucky should be interesting but more on that when I next update this blog.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Leaving New England, heading South
Palmyra, Maine to Hancock, New Hampshire was about my longest single day ride pulling the RV, over 5 hours. I've met lots of RV'ers who regularly drive 5 to 6 hours and think nothing of it. I seem to have fallen in the habit of driving between 2 and three hours at most and then stopping for about a week to explore the new area. When I stay in a single place for over two weeks I get itchy to move on. I wonder how long I'll continue this habit?
Hancock, NH is a little town in the Monadnock Valley of Southern NH. It's a very pretty area with several quaint little towns. Over the next few days nine LoW's arrived. I knew all but two of them from prior get togethers. Marge Smith (full timing a few months longer than me) stays in this camp ground a lot and knows the area. She, I, and Anne (celebrating her 80th birthday) went to Harlows pub and listened to some sort of folk music. It's hard to characterize the town of Peterborough. It's not exactly a college town and not exactly an artsy town. It's sort of a combination of the two with some talented people and a great audience who clapped and hooted for every performer. About six or seven of us went to Sarah's Hat Box in Hancock. They had some incredible boxes in many shapes, sizes, and purposes limited by imagination only. A very colorful place. Four of us went to a play at the Peterborough Players called Laughing Stock. It was a farce on producing a play, kind of funny but way to long. Between morning coffee, happy hour, pot luck dinner, a golf round with Nancy Brown, and a couple of "outings" the days went quick. Marge and I went to a farmers market in Keane, NH, walked around a bit and had a late lunch at a most interesting place called Pickity Place in Mason, NH. They grow their own herbs, vegetables, and eatable flowers. The five course ratatouille meal was delicious including the big yellow flower. I went to another play, "Absurd Person Singular". This was a British comedy which bordered on slapstick. It too was much to long and barely funny. The Peterborough Playhouse is nice and most of the actors were pretty good. Perhaps it was their choice of plays or the direction but I'll probably skip future shows here. I found a lecture on climate change in the nearby town of Jaffrey, NH. Marge expressed interest and joined me for a most interesting evening. The lecture by Dr. James McCarthy a professor of biological oceanography at Harvard was held by the Amos Fortune Forum in the historic Jaffrey Meeting House. We arrived about a half hour early and strolled the cemetery, finding the graves of Amos Fortune and Willa Cather. Amos Fortune was a slave who bought his freedom at age 60, settled in Jaffrey and became a successful tanner. He left much of his estate to support the town and schoolhouse meeting place. Willa Cather was a Pulitzer prize winning author, born in Nebraska, lived and died in New York City, but loved this area and wanted to be buried here. While strolling the cemetery we met a couple doing the same and who were the descendants of the original founder of the church meeting house in the mid-1700's. They showed us the graves of some of their ancestries along with Amos Fortune & Willa Cather. The lecture hall was filled to overflowing with standing room only. It was very interesting and the reception afterward was delightful. My last day at Seven Maples required some choices. There were three events and no way to do all three. There was a string quartet playing in the nearby town of Temple at 3pm, a pulled pork roast at the campground at 5pm, and a music festival celebrating Thoreau just down the road in Peterborough. Marge opted for the quartet and music celebrating Thoreau. The quartet, comprised of two violins, a viola, and a cello was delightful. The program celebrating Thoreau was strange and much to long. Their choice of music was torture! They had a good pianist play a very long, discordant piece by Ives. Looking around the room about half the attendees were twitching in their seats and constantly looking at the time. I think of Thoreau as calm and peaceful, certainly not loud and brash. We should have enjoyed the pulled pork at the camp ground (lol).
My few days in Bernardston, MA were a great diversion before the larger get together in Vermont. With a full hook up I was able to catch up on laundry and rig cleaning. I took a couple of short trips; one around Brattleboro, VT and the other back to Shelbourne Falls, MA. The Bridge of Flowers is still there (lol)! About an hour to Horseshoe Acres in Andover, VT. At first they didn't want to honor the special discount always given to us Loners. The owner said their costs were constantly going up and they don't make anything at $10 per night. I certainly understand but still, the rate was quoted me when I made the reservation. I offered to help out a little and they gave me the rate for my entire three week stay. This is an okay camp ground but it is tough with absolutely no Verizon service in the area. The sat. dish is picking up and the campground has a WiFi but only near the office. I paid all my bills for next month before getting here so I can do without a secure WiFi. Still, I have to drive about 10 miles each way, once or twice a week to make any phone calls.
On Friday of the Labor Day weekend my quiet little site was suddenly surrounded by a group of nine rigs with about 20 kids, all from the same group of friends. About the time I was thinking of either moving or going to a hotel for the long weekend I said "hi" to a few of them. They were the usual friendly RV'ers with well behaved kids. I joined them for several of their "buffet style family" dinners, morning coffee, and afternoon drinks. Chatting around their huge camp fire was most enjoyable. About the time the NASCAR race started the campground power went out. Several of the guys and a couple of the kids came into my rig to watch the race. With the solar inverter on, the a/c blowing, TV on and a few chips and drinks life was good! Went to the Weston Playhouse and saw a great dramatic play, "To Kill a Mockingbird". The 12 year old girl in the lead was fantastic but every time I looked at the lead actor all I saw was Gregory Peck (who had the lead in the movie, lol). Five Loners came on Thursday. It was nice to have some folks I know to chat with. We had our usual coffee in the mornings and happy hour around 4pm. We took our usual trip to the Weston Country Store where we sort of "graze" on the chips & dips (lol). There was an exhibit of life in the 1800's going on at the museums. Very interesting demonstration of the water turbine, tin smithing, basket weaving, and a loom. We went out to dinner one night and before you knew it, they were gone. Marge and Gail stayed one extra day. A pleasant four days. One of my last days at Horseshoe Acres I drove to Bellows Falls for the "Bonnie & Clyde Train". Over the past few years I've taken a few of these themed train rides and they're always fun. As I was boarding I began talking with Cindy & Jim from Long Island, NY. We kidded each other on our New York accents and sat together on the train. Cindy is sort of an ex-biker who rode around the country with her first husband before he passed away. She also loves horses and has a couple back in Long Island. We talked a lot about places we've been on motorcycles. The train took us up to Chester, VT, laid over for about 20 minutes and then returned to Bellows Falls. During the ride a young guy and gal, who claimed to be Bonnie & Clyde, packing plastic guns, yelled at all us passengers to place our valuables in a sack they totted. Most of the passengers laughed and put the beads and play money we had been given into the bag. Cindy, Jim, and I put our beads in but held out on the cash. This caused a lengthy discussion with the robbers and Jim & I telling them they'd never make it as gunmen in NYC. As we chatted with the robbers I recognized Bonnie from a train ride I took last year. Bonnie and her mother did a murder mystery train ride I was on. Jim, Cindy, Bonnie, and Clyde couldn't believe I actually recognized someone from over a year ago who barely strolled past me and in two different costumes. Of course I can't remember what I ate for breakfast this morning (lol). Horseshoe Acres campground is mostly quiet, peaceful, and pretty on the mountain in VT. However, after three weeks with having to drive 15 miles round trip for cell service and only intermittent sat. reception I am very glad to be heading out. I guess I am a bit of a wanderer and get itchy to leave most places after a week or so.
Hancock, NH is a little town in the Monadnock Valley of Southern NH. It's a very pretty area with several quaint little towns. Over the next few days nine LoW's arrived. I knew all but two of them from prior get togethers. Marge Smith (full timing a few months longer than me) stays in this camp ground a lot and knows the area. She, I, and Anne (celebrating her 80th birthday) went to Harlows pub and listened to some sort of folk music. It's hard to characterize the town of Peterborough. It's not exactly a college town and not exactly an artsy town. It's sort of a combination of the two with some talented people and a great audience who clapped and hooted for every performer. About six or seven of us went to Sarah's Hat Box in Hancock. They had some incredible boxes in many shapes, sizes, and purposes limited by imagination only. A very colorful place. Four of us went to a play at the Peterborough Players called Laughing Stock. It was a farce on producing a play, kind of funny but way to long. Between morning coffee, happy hour, pot luck dinner, a golf round with Nancy Brown, and a couple of "outings" the days went quick. Marge and I went to a farmers market in Keane, NH, walked around a bit and had a late lunch at a most interesting place called Pickity Place in Mason, NH. They grow their own herbs, vegetables, and eatable flowers. The five course ratatouille meal was delicious including the big yellow flower. I went to another play, "Absurd Person Singular". This was a British comedy which bordered on slapstick. It too was much to long and barely funny. The Peterborough Playhouse is nice and most of the actors were pretty good. Perhaps it was their choice of plays or the direction but I'll probably skip future shows here. I found a lecture on climate change in the nearby town of Jaffrey, NH. Marge expressed interest and joined me for a most interesting evening. The lecture by Dr. James McCarthy a professor of biological oceanography at Harvard was held by the Amos Fortune Forum in the historic Jaffrey Meeting House. We arrived about a half hour early and strolled the cemetery, finding the graves of Amos Fortune and Willa Cather. Amos Fortune was a slave who bought his freedom at age 60, settled in Jaffrey and became a successful tanner. He left much of his estate to support the town and schoolhouse meeting place. Willa Cather was a Pulitzer prize winning author, born in Nebraska, lived and died in New York City, but loved this area and wanted to be buried here. While strolling the cemetery we met a couple doing the same and who were the descendants of the original founder of the church meeting house in the mid-1700's. They showed us the graves of some of their ancestries along with Amos Fortune & Willa Cather. The lecture hall was filled to overflowing with standing room only. It was very interesting and the reception afterward was delightful. My last day at Seven Maples required some choices. There were three events and no way to do all three. There was a string quartet playing in the nearby town of Temple at 3pm, a pulled pork roast at the campground at 5pm, and a music festival celebrating Thoreau just down the road in Peterborough. Marge opted for the quartet and music celebrating Thoreau. The quartet, comprised of two violins, a viola, and a cello was delightful. The program celebrating Thoreau was strange and much to long. Their choice of music was torture! They had a good pianist play a very long, discordant piece by Ives. Looking around the room about half the attendees were twitching in their seats and constantly looking at the time. I think of Thoreau as calm and peaceful, certainly not loud and brash. We should have enjoyed the pulled pork at the camp ground (lol).
My few days in Bernardston, MA were a great diversion before the larger get together in Vermont. With a full hook up I was able to catch up on laundry and rig cleaning. I took a couple of short trips; one around Brattleboro, VT and the other back to Shelbourne Falls, MA. The Bridge of Flowers is still there (lol)! About an hour to Horseshoe Acres in Andover, VT. At first they didn't want to honor the special discount always given to us Loners. The owner said their costs were constantly going up and they don't make anything at $10 per night. I certainly understand but still, the rate was quoted me when I made the reservation. I offered to help out a little and they gave me the rate for my entire three week stay. This is an okay camp ground but it is tough with absolutely no Verizon service in the area. The sat. dish is picking up and the campground has a WiFi but only near the office. I paid all my bills for next month before getting here so I can do without a secure WiFi. Still, I have to drive about 10 miles each way, once or twice a week to make any phone calls.
On Friday of the Labor Day weekend my quiet little site was suddenly surrounded by a group of nine rigs with about 20 kids, all from the same group of friends. About the time I was thinking of either moving or going to a hotel for the long weekend I said "hi" to a few of them. They were the usual friendly RV'ers with well behaved kids. I joined them for several of their "buffet style family" dinners, morning coffee, and afternoon drinks. Chatting around their huge camp fire was most enjoyable. About the time the NASCAR race started the campground power went out. Several of the guys and a couple of the kids came into my rig to watch the race. With the solar inverter on, the a/c blowing, TV on and a few chips and drinks life was good! Went to the Weston Playhouse and saw a great dramatic play, "To Kill a Mockingbird". The 12 year old girl in the lead was fantastic but every time I looked at the lead actor all I saw was Gregory Peck (who had the lead in the movie, lol). Five Loners came on Thursday. It was nice to have some folks I know to chat with. We had our usual coffee in the mornings and happy hour around 4pm. We took our usual trip to the Weston Country Store where we sort of "graze" on the chips & dips (lol). There was an exhibit of life in the 1800's going on at the museums. Very interesting demonstration of the water turbine, tin smithing, basket weaving, and a loom. We went out to dinner one night and before you knew it, they were gone. Marge and Gail stayed one extra day. A pleasant four days. One of my last days at Horseshoe Acres I drove to Bellows Falls for the "Bonnie & Clyde Train". Over the past few years I've taken a few of these themed train rides and they're always fun. As I was boarding I began talking with Cindy & Jim from Long Island, NY. We kidded each other on our New York accents and sat together on the train. Cindy is sort of an ex-biker who rode around the country with her first husband before he passed away. She also loves horses and has a couple back in Long Island. We talked a lot about places we've been on motorcycles. The train took us up to Chester, VT, laid over for about 20 minutes and then returned to Bellows Falls. During the ride a young guy and gal, who claimed to be Bonnie & Clyde, packing plastic guns, yelled at all us passengers to place our valuables in a sack they totted. Most of the passengers laughed and put the beads and play money we had been given into the bag. Cindy, Jim, and I put our beads in but held out on the cash. This caused a lengthy discussion with the robbers and Jim & I telling them they'd never make it as gunmen in NYC. As we chatted with the robbers I recognized Bonnie from a train ride I took last year. Bonnie and her mother did a murder mystery train ride I was on. Jim, Cindy, Bonnie, and Clyde couldn't believe I actually recognized someone from over a year ago who barely strolled past me and in two different costumes. Of course I can't remember what I ate for breakfast this morning (lol). Horseshoe Acres campground is mostly quiet, peaceful, and pretty on the mountain in VT. However, after three weeks with having to drive 15 miles round trip for cell service and only intermittent sat. reception I am very glad to be heading out. I guess I am a bit of a wanderer and get itchy to leave most places after a week or so.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Maine & Canada 2013
Crossing over the Piscataquis River bridge and entering Kittery Maine I could almost taste the lobster. The Indian River cg is old and a half mile down a heavily rutted dirt road. Still, it's on the river with some nice views, real quiet, and a short ride from route 95. Also, at $17.50 a night for a full hook up the price is sure right. I met Rick, Nancy, and Joe at one of my favorite restaurants, Warrens in Kittery. My first lobster of the year, yum!! Rick called in the morning. We hung out at his place for a little while. We went to a place Nancy had recommended called "When Pigs Fly". Strange name for an incredible bakery and sort of bar restaurant. The homemade breads are incredible! I only hope I have room in my freezer for all the loafs I bought. Rick and I shared a homemade pizza and a beer sampler of seven varieties. A friendly waitress helped make it a very pleasant afternoon. Nancy cooked a great chicken dish for dinner and we enjoyed chatting, watching a porcupine waddle around from the back porch. Sunday, Rick, Joe, his friend Ian, and I hung out at a driving range for a while before Rick had to head back to Rhode Island. I strolled around the Kittery Trading Post and confirmed that they do allow RV'ers to park for free. In fact, they even allow RV'ers to stay multiple nights for free which is very unusual.
The ride from Kittery to Palmyra is a very easy one, a couple of hours almost entirely on route 95. The owner, Rick (not to be confused with my cousin Rick above), had told me he wouldn't be at the cg until later in the week and I should just take any site I liked in the "B" row other than B1. Roland & Sharon are work campers who stay at B1. They live in Greenville, about 1 1/2 hours away, but stay the whole summer at this cg. Roland & Sharon had arrived earlier in the day. We remembered each other from last year and chatted awhile. Getting set up was a whole lot easier than last year. I pulled a little past the site, backed in most of the way, straighten out a bit, pulled in and dropped the rig perfectly level. Last year it had rained a lot and the grass was wet. Every time the trucks rear wheels hit the grass I sat and spun them, digging holes in the grass. It must have taken me 20 minutes to pull into a beautiful, open site. This is definitely one of the prettiest cg's I've been to in over two years. Rick, Linda, and their son Brian keep the golf course and camp ground immaculate!
With it being early in the season and not much going on in the area, I offered to help out at the cg. There had been a couple of storms over the winter so I cleaned up the debris on the 100 sites. Rick gave me a gizmo that checked the power on the 120, 30amp, and 50amp outlets which gave me yet another excuse to walk around a little. While checking the sites I noticed that many of the light detectors were broken so I got some electric tape and repaired them. Finally, I went around the cg after dark and made a list of all the site lights that were out. Rick didn't want to charge me for my site in exchange for the work. It didn't seem fair for only taking a few strolls around the pretty park and I wouldn't hear of a free site. We settled on my paying the discounted Passport America rate for a month, splitting the month into a few weeks in May and a few more weeks in July, and Rick treating me to dinner. These are very nice people and a very comfortable cg to stay at. Over the two weeks at Palmyra Golf & RV cg I: helped a little getting the park ready for their season, saw "Around the World in 80 Days" at the Penobscot Theater in Bangor, enjoyed another lobster dinner, enjoyed an evening at the Bangor Discovery Museum (more below), finally finished one of my RV projects (more below), had dinner with Rick & Linda, and even hit a bucket of golf balls. The evening at the Discovery Museum was a serendipitous event. The tickets I got to the play were apparently for supporters of the Penobscot Theater. As a supporter I was invited to a special event at the museum across the street. They had several presentations on art related topics along with lots of free food & wine, an interesting evening. As for my RV projects, I had two. One was to create storage space under my bed and the other was to attach doors to the front of the cabinet holding my washer/dryer. The bed project ended quickly when I discovered that the slide mechanism takes up almost all the space under the bed. That was an easy project. The second project sort of escalated a little on me. When I had the washer/dryer installed the mechanics took two doors off a cabinet, along with some shelving, in order to fit the washer/dryer in. Once in, the washer/dryer stuck out about an inch so the doors wouldn't close. They left the doors with me and I'd been wanting to figure out a way to put them back on. It seemed easy enough, just put some furring stripes around the edge and attach the doors to them. Well, I measured the sizes of furring, had them cut at Home Depot, sanded them a little and stained them to match. They looked great and fit fine. My first problem came when I went to take some left over screws out of the doors. They required some kind of square screw driver which I don't have. Rick laughed and shared with me that the square screw is apparently fairly common on RV's. He lent me the correct tool. My second problem came when I went to attach the doors and discovered a four inch gap between them. I realized that before the washer/dryer there must have been a center strip on the prior wardrobe cabinet. I couldn't put a center strip on since I wouldn't be able to open the wash/dryer. I went back to Home Depot and got a strip of wood I could attach to the inside of one of the cabinet doors. This way it would open with the door and not block the washer/dryer. Of course now this strip had to be stained and attached. My next problem came when my shortest screw driver wouldn't fit in the small opening between the door and the water pipes. Anyhow, after borrowing a short screw driver my project was finally completed. It really does look good.
The drive to the Bethel cg was pretty easy, straight down route #2 from Palmyra to Bethel. The rain even cooperated. I think the time of my drive was the longest stretch in a week that it didn't rain (lol)! The only problem came when my gps thought the cg was about 1/4 mile past where the entrance is and I didn't see the entrance until it was to late to stop. I got lucky with a gas station just past the cg that had enough room for me to make a "U" turn. The Bethel Outdoor Adventure & RV Park seems mostly geared to kayak'ers and canoe'ers. There are only a few sites and the cg is right on route #2 with some truck noise even during the night. The cg gave me a pretty site backing right up on the river. Unfortunately, there were a couple of trees that blocked my sat. dish. The site I switched to was a double width site and a clear view for the sat. dish. I managed to take several walks/hikes in between lots of rain. There are two pretty little walking paths each going in a different direction along the river. My stroll to and around town was about 3+ miles. Bethel is a cute little mountain town. I found a bike shop and took mine in. The bike has been bouncing around in the bed of the truck for about two years. The chain has gotten pretty rusty and the brake & gear levers are almost frozen. The shop did a nice job cleaning it up and replacing the cables & chain. Sunday was very relaxing. Walked to town and picked up a couple of newspapers, hung out in the rain reading and watching some news shows. I really am a news junkie (lol)! Two Mainely-LoW'ers showed up Monday afternoon and stayed until Wednesday morning. The rain continued the whole time but we did manage to walk a little and go out to dinner one day.
After the LoW's left I met Ernie & Mike. They're work campers who have been coming to this cg for many years. They've known each other since grade school and both served in the Navy. Ernie's wife is still in Florida, finishing up some medical issues and Mike's wife helps out in the office. We got to know each other pretty quick on Saturday night. Mike knocked on my door a few minutes before 10pm informing me that the county sheriff called to inform the cg that a stage 1 alert had been announced. He told me this means that water will be released from the upstream dam at Shelbourne around midnight. It's been raining almost steady for 8 days and they need to release some of the water behind the dam. Mike told me the last time they did this the entire cg flooded. I needed to move my truck and rig to higher ground. In the pouring rain it took me about 20 minutes to get dressed, I was in my pj's, hook up and move near the cg entrance which is about 30 feet higher. In the time it took me to move I was soaked. Being completely wet anyway I walked back to help the others. A third work camper, Cindy was alone. Her husband was off visiting friends and wouldn't be back for a couple of days. I took down her staked RV awning, helped her move all her outdoor stuff into a shelter and drove her towed car to the higher ground. I also helped Mike load and move two trailer loads of kayaks and canoes to the higher ground. I was wet and tired and slept great from about 1am to 6am. Peeking out the window, all looked fine, no flooding. I had my usual breakfast, dressed and went to help moving everything back. Since my truck was already hooked up I took the RV with me to fill up the gas tank & get my Sunday newspapers. By 10am I was back at a camp site, all hooked up with an interesting experience behind me.
The drive to Greenville and Moosehead Lake was pretty. Lots of back Maine countryside, no main roads. The site at Lily Bay SP was a little tight to back into but real pretty view right on a lake cove. Over the few days I finally saw a moose, a small female. The more exciting event was the bull moose those in the campground heard on several mornings and evenings. It rained every day but I managed to hike around the park. There was one trail 1.6 miles from my end of the cg to the other, Lots of pretty views. I tried to take a float plane ride but they wouldn't go up with only one passenger. Met Dick & Ellen, owners of a bookstore. We chatted for awhile. Later, when I was getting a haircut, the barber knew Dick & Ellen and we chatted like old friends. When I was in the local outfitter store, they also knew Dick & Ellen. Small towns sure are interesting.
The drive to Freeport seemed familiar. The first part of the drive I had taken last year when I came up north from Palmyra, albeit without the RV behind me. The second part of my drive was on I-95 & I-295. You've seen one highway you've seen them all (lol). The Desert of Maine cg was easy to get to, but then the fun started. While the ride to the cg was easy and I arrived early about 12:30, it was in the 90's, I was hot and tired. They said the person who spoke with me on the phone had given the wrong info on rates. I almost lost my cool but managed to work out an okay compromise. The fun continued when the first site electric couldn't keep my a/c going. The owner seemed apologetic and had the circuit breaker changed. That didn't help. I tried another site which also had poor electric. The owner suggested a third site which my RV wouldn't fit in, too long. The fourth site finally worked but didn't have a sewer connection. It took a little over three hours to drive here and about five hours to get settled in :=(! I was totally drenched from the heat and ready to collapse. I took a quick shower and went out for dinner. The lobster pound on the South Freeport wharf was perfect. Typical Maine, place your order, take a number, and enjoy the best lobster ever. Sitting at a picnic table overlooking the marina, light breeze, wow, great evening. Over the next week I strolled around the desert, about a mile around, took the jeep/tram tour, had a great day sailing on a schooner out of Portland harbor, saw the play "Dream Girls" at the Pickard Theater on Bowdoin University campus, hiked all 7.5 miles of Wolf's Neck Park. The town of Freeport has a website of hiking trails, "Freeportconservationtrust.org". There are over 20 miles of trails with the longest only about 5 miles. I hiked all but the Florida Lake trail, not 'cause of the gators (lol), it was just way to muddy. Lots of pretty views of Casco Bay, the town and surrounding areas. The campground let me help out with their butterfly house when they received a new shipment. It's amazing the way the breeder ships these delicate creatures. They overnight about 100 of them, two to an envelope, folded in half, carefully. I sprayed some sugar water on the plants and flowers then carefully opened the envelopes. It was enjoyable to watch as the butterfly's stretched their wings and took off.
A hobby of mine for the past 15 years or so has been genealogy research. I had a quick success in locating first cousins I didn't even know I had (hi Bobbie, Betty, and Rick). The quick success has turned into a periodic diversion. If you've ever tried genealogy research it's a lot of tedious searching and record keeping. Well, this past week I had two new finds, one on my fathers side and one on my mothers. My mother had an older sister who just disappeared around 1920. I "found" her living as a patient in a Colorado hospital in 1930. Back then people went to western hospitals for emphysema and tuberculosis. Along with my Aunt Bessie, I also found an uncle, my mother's brother, living and working in the same hospital. I had met my uncle a few times before he passed away in 1977. The family story about my Uncle Abe was him getting mixed up with a group called "Murder Incorporated" and being forced to leave Brooklyn. When he passed away he was fairly well off so it's interesting to see him working as a porter/waiter in a hospital. On my father's side I finally located the 1900 census record of my great-grandparents. I knew they had a son Samuel, my grand-father, and a daughter Annie, who there is a whole story about. I'd heard a rumor from my new cousins that there was another son, Saul. On the census record I confirmed the older son Sol (corrected spelling) and "found" two more sons, Sidney and Aaron. Armed with this new info along with their dates of birth, I have lots of new "stuff" to research. The Freeport, Maine library has a subscription to genealogy software so, with all the rain, I spent a day inside doing research.
When leaving Freeport I had my second shortest drive to the campground on the Casco Bay, only 26 miles. The shortest drive was in November 2011 when I drove from one park in Bushnell, Florida to another in the same town, about 2 miles. This drive was easy until the last 5 or 6 miles. Even the dirt roads I've driven on had less ruts and pot holes than the roads leading to the cg. I drove well below the 25 and 30 mile limits and still thought the truck and RV would have parts falling off. I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived. I didn't have high expectations for this campgrounds since both the workcamper who took my reservation and the owner who got involved were extremely rude. If I wasn't going to meet the Mainely-LoW camping group I never would have continued with my reservation. Now, upon checking in, this workcamper was very friendly. Her husband let me reach into a tank and pick my own lobster. The site was easy to get into, a full hookup, with great sat. dish reception. The lobster dinner was ready exactly when promised and really delicious, boiled lobster, baked potato, grilled corn on the cob, yum, yum!! Yet another workcamper let me pick a movie to be shown in the rec. hall this evening. I just arrived and I'm enjoying this place already. Between no hook ups at all at the State Park by Moosehead Lake and no sewer hook up for the past two weeks, I have lots of laundry loads to do. Got two loads in the first evening and a third started before I left on Saturday morning. I went to the Maine Maritime Museum only about 5 miles from the campground. It was interesting. The tour guide seemed to go on and on, repeating himself several times. It was painful to listen. He eventually shared with our group that this was his first time doing the tour on his own. Oh well! I guess if I were more into ship building the museum would have been more interesting. The lobster history exhibit was nice. I then went to the Musical Wonder House in Wiscasset, about 10 to 15 minutes from the Maritime Museum. This museum is an absolute wonder. I found it magical!! The owner and I immediately hit it off. He got no more than about three of four sentences from his mouth when I asked him what city in Brazil he came from. Paolo looked at me in amazement and asked how I knew he was from Brazil. I shared with him something of my many trips throughout Brazil before I retired. It turns out he was born in Spain, grew up in Brazil, and went to school in England. We chatted for quite a while about our various travels and the cultures around the world we've enjoyed. The tour of his music box exhibits was absolutely astounding! I highly recommend visiting this jewel of a place just off Route #1 in Wiscasset, Maine. The variety of music boxes is far beyond anything I'd ever imagined. One of the oldest boxes is from the 1600's. It has a small drum, several bells, castanets, and two dolls dancing to the wonderful music. The detail and creativity is unbelievable. I had wanted to have lunch of a lobster roll at a great place in Wiscasset. However, I spent so much time in the music box museum and it would interfere with dinner. So, on to Boothbay Harbor to stroll around and have dinner. It was about a half hour to the harbor. Finding parking in this tourist mecca was surprisingly easy. It was a nice afternoon to stroll. Boothbay Harbor is a cute village full of what I call "junk stores". While a cute town, it is totally geared for tourists. Still, it has a lovely harbor and I enjoyed a beer with some chowder on a wharf overlooking the marina.
The Mainely-LoW's should be arriving today (Monday). I walked around the cg and saw a rig from TX that looked familiar. Lo and behold, there on the dash it says Marge Smith (hi Marge). I knocked on the door, nobody home. I found Marge, Carolyn, Heidi, and two Joyce's sitting by another rig. We chatted awhile and one Joyce left. Marge and I enjoyed a lobster dinner at the cg. The other Joyce and Carolyn had some chowder. The five of us hung out, played a dice game, and chatted between the periodic rain. On Thursday I brought my truck in for a regular maintenance. Carolyn, Joyce, and Heidi left on Wednesday. Marge met me at the dealership. We strolled around the Bowdoin College campus, went to the Perry-MacMillan Arctic Museum and had a light lunch on Maine Street.
Another short ride, about an hour to Thomaston and the Saltwater Farm cg. The cg is right on the St. George River. It goes from a mud flat where people clam to about 13 feet deep in minutes. Thomaston is at the southern end of several pretty towns. I've been coming to this area for almost 40 years. An old neighbor who sold antiques in New Jersey would come to this area of Maine each summer on buying trips. I visited them several times in the early 1970's. After all these years I did discover something new and very unique, elephants! The Hope Elephant project in Hope, ME. Olga and Rossie (the 43 year old elephants) are sisters who were rescued from a circus and very well cared for. In the past couple of years over 4,000 children have come to see them and the conservation program their rescuers support. On one of the few days the forecast was for a sunny day I took the ferry to Islesboro to bike around the island. It was sunny all right, all the way into the mid-90's with barely a breeze! During my approximate 25 mile bike ride I went through the 16 ounces of water I brought plus 32 ounces more! I was drenched! Dang, it's tough being a fat, old, man! It was about an hours drive back to Bath, ME, the Pickard Theater on the Bowdoin College campus, but it was well worth the trip. Les Miserables was great, I think way better than when I saw it on Broadway. There were several strong players who did great jobs with the songs. The scenery and scene changes were incredible. Spending time in the Chamberlain Museum and doing the walking tour was very timely. I had just finished reading "The Last Full Measure", a book about the end of the Civil War. General Chamberlain was a professor from Maine who played several important roles during the Civil War. Fascinating stuff!
The Saltwater Farm cg had great views but strange sites and poor electric connections. I lost power several times. The day before I left, the power went off yet again and it wouldn't reset. I left it off and the rig on the inverter. Between the raindrops I unhooked and closed up. Good thing since the day I was leaving it came down in buckets. It rained the entire ride to Palmyra. I got lucky and was able to set up in only a light drizzle, lol. I really like the Palmyra Golf & RV Resort. The owners, Rick & Linda are simply nice people who will do whatever it takes to have their "company", us RV'ers, enjoy our stay. The campground and golf course are immaculate! It's a pretty place to stay and stroll around. July 4th was very nice. The Bangor Band played great patriotic music to a nice crowd of about 100. Most of us then strolled to the riverfront where we listened to more music and watched fireworks. From the river we could see the fireworks of the towns of Hebron, Brewer, and Bangor. At times they seemed to be having a contest with each other. The most incredible sight was when a huge bald eagle swooped over the band, right on cue to their playing America the Beautiful. The entire audience let out lots of ooohs and aaahs! Magnificent!! I hung out with a group of old vets, like me. It was a great evening. Between the rain and heat spells I still enjoyed my stay. Between the Bangor Band weekly free concerts, the Bangor library weekly free music, and the weekly farmers markets, there was plenty to do. I even got in a few dips in the pool and a few rounds of golf.
While at Bar Harbor the weather finally turned great. Clear, sunny days in the low 80's. Lots of hiking, a 4 hour sea kayak tour, strolling around the Oceanerium exhibits and marsh walk. I met a lovely family camped next to me and hung out with them for a few days. Mark is a retired NH state trooper and his wife Janice is a retired school teacher. They were camped in the largest truck camper I've seen, travelling with Mark's dad and one of their grandsons. Next to them was his son Chris, his wife, Heather and their two kids Logan and Emma, camping in a pop up. We shared coffee each morning and some dinner each evening. Nice people. While at Bar Harbor I also toured the Atlantic Brewery and even bought a few of their heavy malt brews. The Southwest Harbor is a cute town on the Arcadia peninsular that many people miss. Nearby is an interesting Auto Museum that celebrates the brass era of cars. They have several autos that are absolutely works of art. The Abbe Indian Museum in Bar Harbor was okay but seemed to have lots of plaques talking about the native Indians and few actual artifacts. The trolley tour was nice with at least a breeze flowing. My short hike around the top of Cadillac Mountain had incredible views.
Not a bad ride up the coast to my friends in Whiting, just north of Machias (hi Anne & Stephen). When they first moved from New York to northern Maine I honestly thought they were nuts! This area defines why Maine is called vacationland! They live at the end of the paved road, over three miles off route #1 and over a mile from their mailbox, across from Gardner Lake which at over 3,800 acres is huge. Over the few days I parked by their beautiful home we went out fishing and did some ATV'ing. There is no way to describe AVT'ing in the Maine woods to anyone who hasn't seen these forests. Imagine a forest almost half the size of the State of New Jersey with 1/2 of 1% of the population!!! We drove the ATV's for over 20 miles and never crossed a road or saw another person.
The next couple of weeks were spent in Canada, roaming around the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick and onto Prince Edward Island. The Bay of Fundy Provincial Park is quite large. Lots of hiking trails and beautiful views. I hiked a couple of short trails in between the rain. The change in the height of the bay from high tide to low is incredible. It goes from a mud flat to about 52 feet deep in minutes and reverses back to a mud flat when the tide goes out. This is not a place you'd want to get caught walking the beach as the tide comes in! A little past the park along the shore is the Flower Pot Park. The in and out of the tide formed these giant rock columns with trees and plants on top. They really do look like flower pots, weird!
Prince Edward Island (PEI) is an absolutely enchanting place. I hadn't been here in over 30 years. Back then I took the ferry across and poked around on my motorcycle a little. This time I drove over the bridge, about 9 miles long. You wouldn't see much driving over in a car but with the height of the truck the views from the bridge are great. During the summer months there is music most everywhere you go. Travelling around the shore there are lots of quaint little fishing villages. On the north shore there were huge sand dunes, the south shore has red sand from the heavy iron content. The Islanders claim it's the iron that gives their produce its great taste. How many of you have read the story "Anne of Green Gables"? My guess is most of the women and none of the men, lol! The story and its author, Lucy Maude Montgomery, have become part of the enchantment of PEI. The Green Gable museum was interesting but the Montgomery house & museum was fascinating. Running this little known stop was Robert Montgomery, a first cousin of Lucy Maude's. He is an absolute character!! About 6'3", long grey, disheveled hair down to his shoulders, a face with tons of "character", and gnarled hands that I doubt have ever been washed (lol). I was the only one there and his stories continued almost without end. I felt obligated to pick up a copy of the book. It's definitely a little girlie story but so sweet it brings a smile and at times a tear. If you've got a soft spot it's worth the read. I went to the famous "Dinner Feast" in Charlottetown. The play was called "Good Golly Miss Molly"! The buffet dinner was excellent and the show fantastic. One LoW camper came by for a few days from her home in Nova Scotia, Penny King. We went to two other plays together, "Anne & Gilbert", and "Anne of Green Gables". Both plays were incredible. It is amazing the talent on this island, the smallest and least populated of the ten Canadian provinces. Penny and I also took what is called a Hippo Tour. This is a combination tram and boat, which drove around Charlottetown, providing a running tour, then driving into the harbor and continuing the tour from the water. We also went to the "famous" St. Anne's Church dinner. Many of the church's sell dinners as a means of raising funds for their community. St. Anne's apparently has one of the longest running dinners. The food was good and we were stuffed. Both before Penny arrived and after she had left I explored a little of the three counties; Prince in the west, Queens in the center, and Kings in the east. PEI is a beautiful place!
Back at my friends Anne & Stephen again, and some more fishing & ATV'ing for a few days. Stephen cooked some moose burgers, my first taste of moose. They were good and reminded me of bison, pretty near zero fat. Stephen also cooked some mackerel he caught, yum, yum. A friend of Stephen's had given me some moose stew but Anne didn't want to hear about it cooked in her house so I took it with me. My last stop in Maine was back in Palmyra. While in Palmyra I went to two concerts a week in Bangor; the library and Bangor Bands. One day was spent at the Skowhegan State Fair. I watched two really exciting tractor pull events (yawn, lol). The fair had a grizzly bear show which really impressed upon me that I don't want to see a grizzly to close. The bear in the show was a cub and only 7 feet tall. They said the largest have been recorded at over 12 feet and about 2,000 lbs! These are huge animals!! Carolyn Smith from Mainly-LoW same by with her daughter. We went to dinner with Vern and his wife Linda who were camped next to me. I enjoyed my last Maine lobster of this year. I finally bought a CB radio and which I'll play with a bit. I found a guy who tuned it up to about 40 watts, ten times the standard 4 watts they come with. I'll play with my new toy as I go down the roads, "breaker, breaker" (lol). I also cooked the moose stew. It was pretty good with a strong after taste. I probably won't have any more but now I can say I have eaten moose, lol.
The ride from Kittery to Palmyra is a very easy one, a couple of hours almost entirely on route 95. The owner, Rick (not to be confused with my cousin Rick above), had told me he wouldn't be at the cg until later in the week and I should just take any site I liked in the "B" row other than B1. Roland & Sharon are work campers who stay at B1. They live in Greenville, about 1 1/2 hours away, but stay the whole summer at this cg. Roland & Sharon had arrived earlier in the day. We remembered each other from last year and chatted awhile. Getting set up was a whole lot easier than last year. I pulled a little past the site, backed in most of the way, straighten out a bit, pulled in and dropped the rig perfectly level. Last year it had rained a lot and the grass was wet. Every time the trucks rear wheels hit the grass I sat and spun them, digging holes in the grass. It must have taken me 20 minutes to pull into a beautiful, open site. This is definitely one of the prettiest cg's I've been to in over two years. Rick, Linda, and their son Brian keep the golf course and camp ground immaculate!
With it being early in the season and not much going on in the area, I offered to help out at the cg. There had been a couple of storms over the winter so I cleaned up the debris on the 100 sites. Rick gave me a gizmo that checked the power on the 120, 30amp, and 50amp outlets which gave me yet another excuse to walk around a little. While checking the sites I noticed that many of the light detectors were broken so I got some electric tape and repaired them. Finally, I went around the cg after dark and made a list of all the site lights that were out. Rick didn't want to charge me for my site in exchange for the work. It didn't seem fair for only taking a few strolls around the pretty park and I wouldn't hear of a free site. We settled on my paying the discounted Passport America rate for a month, splitting the month into a few weeks in May and a few more weeks in July, and Rick treating me to dinner. These are very nice people and a very comfortable cg to stay at. Over the two weeks at Palmyra Golf & RV cg I: helped a little getting the park ready for their season, saw "Around the World in 80 Days" at the Penobscot Theater in Bangor, enjoyed another lobster dinner, enjoyed an evening at the Bangor Discovery Museum (more below), finally finished one of my RV projects (more below), had dinner with Rick & Linda, and even hit a bucket of golf balls. The evening at the Discovery Museum was a serendipitous event. The tickets I got to the play were apparently for supporters of the Penobscot Theater. As a supporter I was invited to a special event at the museum across the street. They had several presentations on art related topics along with lots of free food & wine, an interesting evening. As for my RV projects, I had two. One was to create storage space under my bed and the other was to attach doors to the front of the cabinet holding my washer/dryer. The bed project ended quickly when I discovered that the slide mechanism takes up almost all the space under the bed. That was an easy project. The second project sort of escalated a little on me. When I had the washer/dryer installed the mechanics took two doors off a cabinet, along with some shelving, in order to fit the washer/dryer in. Once in, the washer/dryer stuck out about an inch so the doors wouldn't close. They left the doors with me and I'd been wanting to figure out a way to put them back on. It seemed easy enough, just put some furring stripes around the edge and attach the doors to them. Well, I measured the sizes of furring, had them cut at Home Depot, sanded them a little and stained them to match. They looked great and fit fine. My first problem came when I went to take some left over screws out of the doors. They required some kind of square screw driver which I don't have. Rick laughed and shared with me that the square screw is apparently fairly common on RV's. He lent me the correct tool. My second problem came when I went to attach the doors and discovered a four inch gap between them. I realized that before the washer/dryer there must have been a center strip on the prior wardrobe cabinet. I couldn't put a center strip on since I wouldn't be able to open the wash/dryer. I went back to Home Depot and got a strip of wood I could attach to the inside of one of the cabinet doors. This way it would open with the door and not block the washer/dryer. Of course now this strip had to be stained and attached. My next problem came when my shortest screw driver wouldn't fit in the small opening between the door and the water pipes. Anyhow, after borrowing a short screw driver my project was finally completed. It really does look good.
The drive to the Bethel cg was pretty easy, straight down route #2 from Palmyra to Bethel. The rain even cooperated. I think the time of my drive was the longest stretch in a week that it didn't rain (lol)! The only problem came when my gps thought the cg was about 1/4 mile past where the entrance is and I didn't see the entrance until it was to late to stop. I got lucky with a gas station just past the cg that had enough room for me to make a "U" turn. The Bethel Outdoor Adventure & RV Park seems mostly geared to kayak'ers and canoe'ers. There are only a few sites and the cg is right on route #2 with some truck noise even during the night. The cg gave me a pretty site backing right up on the river. Unfortunately, there were a couple of trees that blocked my sat. dish. The site I switched to was a double width site and a clear view for the sat. dish. I managed to take several walks/hikes in between lots of rain. There are two pretty little walking paths each going in a different direction along the river. My stroll to and around town was about 3+ miles. Bethel is a cute little mountain town. I found a bike shop and took mine in. The bike has been bouncing around in the bed of the truck for about two years. The chain has gotten pretty rusty and the brake & gear levers are almost frozen. The shop did a nice job cleaning it up and replacing the cables & chain. Sunday was very relaxing. Walked to town and picked up a couple of newspapers, hung out in the rain reading and watching some news shows. I really am a news junkie (lol)! Two Mainely-LoW'ers showed up Monday afternoon and stayed until Wednesday morning. The rain continued the whole time but we did manage to walk a little and go out to dinner one day.
After the LoW's left I met Ernie & Mike. They're work campers who have been coming to this cg for many years. They've known each other since grade school and both served in the Navy. Ernie's wife is still in Florida, finishing up some medical issues and Mike's wife helps out in the office. We got to know each other pretty quick on Saturday night. Mike knocked on my door a few minutes before 10pm informing me that the county sheriff called to inform the cg that a stage 1 alert had been announced. He told me this means that water will be released from the upstream dam at Shelbourne around midnight. It's been raining almost steady for 8 days and they need to release some of the water behind the dam. Mike told me the last time they did this the entire cg flooded. I needed to move my truck and rig to higher ground. In the pouring rain it took me about 20 minutes to get dressed, I was in my pj's, hook up and move near the cg entrance which is about 30 feet higher. In the time it took me to move I was soaked. Being completely wet anyway I walked back to help the others. A third work camper, Cindy was alone. Her husband was off visiting friends and wouldn't be back for a couple of days. I took down her staked RV awning, helped her move all her outdoor stuff into a shelter and drove her towed car to the higher ground. I also helped Mike load and move two trailer loads of kayaks and canoes to the higher ground. I was wet and tired and slept great from about 1am to 6am. Peeking out the window, all looked fine, no flooding. I had my usual breakfast, dressed and went to help moving everything back. Since my truck was already hooked up I took the RV with me to fill up the gas tank & get my Sunday newspapers. By 10am I was back at a camp site, all hooked up with an interesting experience behind me.
The drive to Greenville and Moosehead Lake was pretty. Lots of back Maine countryside, no main roads. The site at Lily Bay SP was a little tight to back into but real pretty view right on a lake cove. Over the few days I finally saw a moose, a small female. The more exciting event was the bull moose those in the campground heard on several mornings and evenings. It rained every day but I managed to hike around the park. There was one trail 1.6 miles from my end of the cg to the other, Lots of pretty views. I tried to take a float plane ride but they wouldn't go up with only one passenger. Met Dick & Ellen, owners of a bookstore. We chatted for awhile. Later, when I was getting a haircut, the barber knew Dick & Ellen and we chatted like old friends. When I was in the local outfitter store, they also knew Dick & Ellen. Small towns sure are interesting.
The drive to Freeport seemed familiar. The first part of the drive I had taken last year when I came up north from Palmyra, albeit without the RV behind me. The second part of my drive was on I-95 & I-295. You've seen one highway you've seen them all (lol). The Desert of Maine cg was easy to get to, but then the fun started. While the ride to the cg was easy and I arrived early about 12:30, it was in the 90's, I was hot and tired. They said the person who spoke with me on the phone had given the wrong info on rates. I almost lost my cool but managed to work out an okay compromise. The fun continued when the first site electric couldn't keep my a/c going. The owner seemed apologetic and had the circuit breaker changed. That didn't help. I tried another site which also had poor electric. The owner suggested a third site which my RV wouldn't fit in, too long. The fourth site finally worked but didn't have a sewer connection. It took a little over three hours to drive here and about five hours to get settled in :=(! I was totally drenched from the heat and ready to collapse. I took a quick shower and went out for dinner. The lobster pound on the South Freeport wharf was perfect. Typical Maine, place your order, take a number, and enjoy the best lobster ever. Sitting at a picnic table overlooking the marina, light breeze, wow, great evening. Over the next week I strolled around the desert, about a mile around, took the jeep/tram tour, had a great day sailing on a schooner out of Portland harbor, saw the play "Dream Girls" at the Pickard Theater on Bowdoin University campus, hiked all 7.5 miles of Wolf's Neck Park. The town of Freeport has a website of hiking trails, "Freeportconservationtrust.org". There are over 20 miles of trails with the longest only about 5 miles. I hiked all but the Florida Lake trail, not 'cause of the gators (lol), it was just way to muddy. Lots of pretty views of Casco Bay, the town and surrounding areas. The campground let me help out with their butterfly house when they received a new shipment. It's amazing the way the breeder ships these delicate creatures. They overnight about 100 of them, two to an envelope, folded in half, carefully. I sprayed some sugar water on the plants and flowers then carefully opened the envelopes. It was enjoyable to watch as the butterfly's stretched their wings and took off.
A hobby of mine for the past 15 years or so has been genealogy research. I had a quick success in locating first cousins I didn't even know I had (hi Bobbie, Betty, and Rick). The quick success has turned into a periodic diversion. If you've ever tried genealogy research it's a lot of tedious searching and record keeping. Well, this past week I had two new finds, one on my fathers side and one on my mothers. My mother had an older sister who just disappeared around 1920. I "found" her living as a patient in a Colorado hospital in 1930. Back then people went to western hospitals for emphysema and tuberculosis. Along with my Aunt Bessie, I also found an uncle, my mother's brother, living and working in the same hospital. I had met my uncle a few times before he passed away in 1977. The family story about my Uncle Abe was him getting mixed up with a group called "Murder Incorporated" and being forced to leave Brooklyn. When he passed away he was fairly well off so it's interesting to see him working as a porter/waiter in a hospital. On my father's side I finally located the 1900 census record of my great-grandparents. I knew they had a son Samuel, my grand-father, and a daughter Annie, who there is a whole story about. I'd heard a rumor from my new cousins that there was another son, Saul. On the census record I confirmed the older son Sol (corrected spelling) and "found" two more sons, Sidney and Aaron. Armed with this new info along with their dates of birth, I have lots of new "stuff" to research. The Freeport, Maine library has a subscription to genealogy software so, with all the rain, I spent a day inside doing research.
When leaving Freeport I had my second shortest drive to the campground on the Casco Bay, only 26 miles. The shortest drive was in November 2011 when I drove from one park in Bushnell, Florida to another in the same town, about 2 miles. This drive was easy until the last 5 or 6 miles. Even the dirt roads I've driven on had less ruts and pot holes than the roads leading to the cg. I drove well below the 25 and 30 mile limits and still thought the truck and RV would have parts falling off. I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived. I didn't have high expectations for this campgrounds since both the workcamper who took my reservation and the owner who got involved were extremely rude. If I wasn't going to meet the Mainely-LoW camping group I never would have continued with my reservation. Now, upon checking in, this workcamper was very friendly. Her husband let me reach into a tank and pick my own lobster. The site was easy to get into, a full hookup, with great sat. dish reception. The lobster dinner was ready exactly when promised and really delicious, boiled lobster, baked potato, grilled corn on the cob, yum, yum!! Yet another workcamper let me pick a movie to be shown in the rec. hall this evening. I just arrived and I'm enjoying this place already. Between no hook ups at all at the State Park by Moosehead Lake and no sewer hook up for the past two weeks, I have lots of laundry loads to do. Got two loads in the first evening and a third started before I left on Saturday morning. I went to the Maine Maritime Museum only about 5 miles from the campground. It was interesting. The tour guide seemed to go on and on, repeating himself several times. It was painful to listen. He eventually shared with our group that this was his first time doing the tour on his own. Oh well! I guess if I were more into ship building the museum would have been more interesting. The lobster history exhibit was nice. I then went to the Musical Wonder House in Wiscasset, about 10 to 15 minutes from the Maritime Museum. This museum is an absolute wonder. I found it magical!! The owner and I immediately hit it off. He got no more than about three of four sentences from his mouth when I asked him what city in Brazil he came from. Paolo looked at me in amazement and asked how I knew he was from Brazil. I shared with him something of my many trips throughout Brazil before I retired. It turns out he was born in Spain, grew up in Brazil, and went to school in England. We chatted for quite a while about our various travels and the cultures around the world we've enjoyed. The tour of his music box exhibits was absolutely astounding! I highly recommend visiting this jewel of a place just off Route #1 in Wiscasset, Maine. The variety of music boxes is far beyond anything I'd ever imagined. One of the oldest boxes is from the 1600's. It has a small drum, several bells, castanets, and two dolls dancing to the wonderful music. The detail and creativity is unbelievable. I had wanted to have lunch of a lobster roll at a great place in Wiscasset. However, I spent so much time in the music box museum and it would interfere with dinner. So, on to Boothbay Harbor to stroll around and have dinner. It was about a half hour to the harbor. Finding parking in this tourist mecca was surprisingly easy. It was a nice afternoon to stroll. Boothbay Harbor is a cute village full of what I call "junk stores". While a cute town, it is totally geared for tourists. Still, it has a lovely harbor and I enjoyed a beer with some chowder on a wharf overlooking the marina.
The Mainely-LoW's should be arriving today (Monday). I walked around the cg and saw a rig from TX that looked familiar. Lo and behold, there on the dash it says Marge Smith (hi Marge). I knocked on the door, nobody home. I found Marge, Carolyn, Heidi, and two Joyce's sitting by another rig. We chatted awhile and one Joyce left. Marge and I enjoyed a lobster dinner at the cg. The other Joyce and Carolyn had some chowder. The five of us hung out, played a dice game, and chatted between the periodic rain. On Thursday I brought my truck in for a regular maintenance. Carolyn, Joyce, and Heidi left on Wednesday. Marge met me at the dealership. We strolled around the Bowdoin College campus, went to the Perry-MacMillan Arctic Museum and had a light lunch on Maine Street.
Another short ride, about an hour to Thomaston and the Saltwater Farm cg. The cg is right on the St. George River. It goes from a mud flat where people clam to about 13 feet deep in minutes. Thomaston is at the southern end of several pretty towns. I've been coming to this area for almost 40 years. An old neighbor who sold antiques in New Jersey would come to this area of Maine each summer on buying trips. I visited them several times in the early 1970's. After all these years I did discover something new and very unique, elephants! The Hope Elephant project in Hope, ME. Olga and Rossie (the 43 year old elephants) are sisters who were rescued from a circus and very well cared for. In the past couple of years over 4,000 children have come to see them and the conservation program their rescuers support. On one of the few days the forecast was for a sunny day I took the ferry to Islesboro to bike around the island. It was sunny all right, all the way into the mid-90's with barely a breeze! During my approximate 25 mile bike ride I went through the 16 ounces of water I brought plus 32 ounces more! I was drenched! Dang, it's tough being a fat, old, man! It was about an hours drive back to Bath, ME, the Pickard Theater on the Bowdoin College campus, but it was well worth the trip. Les Miserables was great, I think way better than when I saw it on Broadway. There were several strong players who did great jobs with the songs. The scenery and scene changes were incredible. Spending time in the Chamberlain Museum and doing the walking tour was very timely. I had just finished reading "The Last Full Measure", a book about the end of the Civil War. General Chamberlain was a professor from Maine who played several important roles during the Civil War. Fascinating stuff!
The Saltwater Farm cg had great views but strange sites and poor electric connections. I lost power several times. The day before I left, the power went off yet again and it wouldn't reset. I left it off and the rig on the inverter. Between the raindrops I unhooked and closed up. Good thing since the day I was leaving it came down in buckets. It rained the entire ride to Palmyra. I got lucky and was able to set up in only a light drizzle, lol. I really like the Palmyra Golf & RV Resort. The owners, Rick & Linda are simply nice people who will do whatever it takes to have their "company", us RV'ers, enjoy our stay. The campground and golf course are immaculate! It's a pretty place to stay and stroll around. July 4th was very nice. The Bangor Band played great patriotic music to a nice crowd of about 100. Most of us then strolled to the riverfront where we listened to more music and watched fireworks. From the river we could see the fireworks of the towns of Hebron, Brewer, and Bangor. At times they seemed to be having a contest with each other. The most incredible sight was when a huge bald eagle swooped over the band, right on cue to their playing America the Beautiful. The entire audience let out lots of ooohs and aaahs! Magnificent!! I hung out with a group of old vets, like me. It was a great evening. Between the rain and heat spells I still enjoyed my stay. Between the Bangor Band weekly free concerts, the Bangor library weekly free music, and the weekly farmers markets, there was plenty to do. I even got in a few dips in the pool and a few rounds of golf.
While at Bar Harbor the weather finally turned great. Clear, sunny days in the low 80's. Lots of hiking, a 4 hour sea kayak tour, strolling around the Oceanerium exhibits and marsh walk. I met a lovely family camped next to me and hung out with them for a few days. Mark is a retired NH state trooper and his wife Janice is a retired school teacher. They were camped in the largest truck camper I've seen, travelling with Mark's dad and one of their grandsons. Next to them was his son Chris, his wife, Heather and their two kids Logan and Emma, camping in a pop up. We shared coffee each morning and some dinner each evening. Nice people. While at Bar Harbor I also toured the Atlantic Brewery and even bought a few of their heavy malt brews. The Southwest Harbor is a cute town on the Arcadia peninsular that many people miss. Nearby is an interesting Auto Museum that celebrates the brass era of cars. They have several autos that are absolutely works of art. The Abbe Indian Museum in Bar Harbor was okay but seemed to have lots of plaques talking about the native Indians and few actual artifacts. The trolley tour was nice with at least a breeze flowing. My short hike around the top of Cadillac Mountain had incredible views.
Not a bad ride up the coast to my friends in Whiting, just north of Machias (hi Anne & Stephen). When they first moved from New York to northern Maine I honestly thought they were nuts! This area defines why Maine is called vacationland! They live at the end of the paved road, over three miles off route #1 and over a mile from their mailbox, across from Gardner Lake which at over 3,800 acres is huge. Over the few days I parked by their beautiful home we went out fishing and did some ATV'ing. There is no way to describe AVT'ing in the Maine woods to anyone who hasn't seen these forests. Imagine a forest almost half the size of the State of New Jersey with 1/2 of 1% of the population!!! We drove the ATV's for over 20 miles and never crossed a road or saw another person.
The next couple of weeks were spent in Canada, roaming around the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick and onto Prince Edward Island. The Bay of Fundy Provincial Park is quite large. Lots of hiking trails and beautiful views. I hiked a couple of short trails in between the rain. The change in the height of the bay from high tide to low is incredible. It goes from a mud flat to about 52 feet deep in minutes and reverses back to a mud flat when the tide goes out. This is not a place you'd want to get caught walking the beach as the tide comes in! A little past the park along the shore is the Flower Pot Park. The in and out of the tide formed these giant rock columns with trees and plants on top. They really do look like flower pots, weird!
Prince Edward Island (PEI) is an absolutely enchanting place. I hadn't been here in over 30 years. Back then I took the ferry across and poked around on my motorcycle a little. This time I drove over the bridge, about 9 miles long. You wouldn't see much driving over in a car but with the height of the truck the views from the bridge are great. During the summer months there is music most everywhere you go. Travelling around the shore there are lots of quaint little fishing villages. On the north shore there were huge sand dunes, the south shore has red sand from the heavy iron content. The Islanders claim it's the iron that gives their produce its great taste. How many of you have read the story "Anne of Green Gables"? My guess is most of the women and none of the men, lol! The story and its author, Lucy Maude Montgomery, have become part of the enchantment of PEI. The Green Gable museum was interesting but the Montgomery house & museum was fascinating. Running this little known stop was Robert Montgomery, a first cousin of Lucy Maude's. He is an absolute character!! About 6'3", long grey, disheveled hair down to his shoulders, a face with tons of "character", and gnarled hands that I doubt have ever been washed (lol). I was the only one there and his stories continued almost without end. I felt obligated to pick up a copy of the book. It's definitely a little girlie story but so sweet it brings a smile and at times a tear. If you've got a soft spot it's worth the read. I went to the famous "Dinner Feast" in Charlottetown. The play was called "Good Golly Miss Molly"! The buffet dinner was excellent and the show fantastic. One LoW camper came by for a few days from her home in Nova Scotia, Penny King. We went to two other plays together, "Anne & Gilbert", and "Anne of Green Gables". Both plays were incredible. It is amazing the talent on this island, the smallest and least populated of the ten Canadian provinces. Penny and I also took what is called a Hippo Tour. This is a combination tram and boat, which drove around Charlottetown, providing a running tour, then driving into the harbor and continuing the tour from the water. We also went to the "famous" St. Anne's Church dinner. Many of the church's sell dinners as a means of raising funds for their community. St. Anne's apparently has one of the longest running dinners. The food was good and we were stuffed. Both before Penny arrived and after she had left I explored a little of the three counties; Prince in the west, Queens in the center, and Kings in the east. PEI is a beautiful place!
Back at my friends Anne & Stephen again, and some more fishing & ATV'ing for a few days. Stephen cooked some moose burgers, my first taste of moose. They were good and reminded me of bison, pretty near zero fat. Stephen also cooked some mackerel he caught, yum, yum. A friend of Stephen's had given me some moose stew but Anne didn't want to hear about it cooked in her house so I took it with me. My last stop in Maine was back in Palmyra. While in Palmyra I went to two concerts a week in Bangor; the library and Bangor Bands. One day was spent at the Skowhegan State Fair. I watched two really exciting tractor pull events (yawn, lol). The fair had a grizzly bear show which really impressed upon me that I don't want to see a grizzly to close. The bear in the show was a cub and only 7 feet tall. They said the largest have been recorded at over 12 feet and about 2,000 lbs! These are huge animals!! Carolyn Smith from Mainly-LoW same by with her daughter. We went to dinner with Vern and his wife Linda who were camped next to me. I enjoyed my last Maine lobster of this year. I finally bought a CB radio and which I'll play with a bit. I found a guy who tuned it up to about 40 watts, ten times the standard 4 watts they come with. I'll play with my new toy as I go down the roads, "breaker, breaker" (lol). I also cooked the moose stew. It was pretty good with a strong after taste. I probably won't have any more but now I can say I have eaten moose, lol.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
North into New England
It's been so comfortable at Tip Tam cg I'm almost hesitant to leave, almost! At my annual physical I must have failed some exams 'cause the VA seemed to add more than a few extra tests. I finally got a clean bill of health, but it delayed my leaving by a couple of weeks.
February and March sure aren't the best months to spend in NJ. Still, I feel like I accomplished a lot. I cleaned out my mini-storage unit and now really only have my RV and truck. Tax season started with lots of problems, some with the IRS electronic filing process and some with the software. Once the difficulties cleared up the rest of tax season went fine. I also got to see my sons, take some mini-trips with them and have some fun. We spent a couple of weekends in Jim Thorpe, PA running around paintball fields. One of the days it was barely in the teens and had snowed a few days before. This fat, old man is getting a bit old to be running around the woods from 9am till near 5pm (lol). I must admit I did have fun. We also went into NYC for a few days. Saw the play "The Jersey Boys". The story of the Four Seasons with lots of their music. Wow, did this bring back memories for me. It's a great show if you get a chance to see it. We went up the Empire State Building which I hadn't done in decades. My son kept asking where this and that was and I kept pointing out various landmarks. Next thing I knew three couples were following us around asking where things were. I had become a tour guide (lol). My son, who is in a business program at Seton Hall University, found a two hour walking tour of the Wall Street area. Other than being cold it was fun and very informative. We even went to Great Adventure for a day. I still can't believe I was talked into going on those wild, crazy roller coasters. The ten weeks sure went by fast.
It's mid-April and I'm heading up the coast of New England with stops in CT and RI while on my way to ME and the Canadian Maritimes. First stop is in central CT. I'm stopping in CT 'cause it's one of only two East Coast states I missed camping at last year and to visit a cousin I haven't seen in a few years. I drove about an hour to visit the Mystic Aquarium. The trip was a real bust. The parking lot was so full we were directed across the street to a village lot. I managed to find parking and walked back to the aquarium entrance. The line was over 90 minutes long, full of families and little kids. Definitely not for me! I walked around the very touristy village, but it was crowded also. One shop was so full people were standing on line waiting for others to leave the shop. I did stroll into a few shops but everything was geared for tourists and very overpriced. Turns out CT schools were out this week. Go figure!
Had a great visit with cousin David. He looks great (you really do David). We seemed to be chatting away non-stop. Lots to catch up with. Another day David's son Josh came by the campground. He's no longer a kid and I doubt I'd have recognized him if we passed on a street. How could he have grown so much when I'm still the same? (lol). It was great hearing that Josh and his brother Jeremy have grown into men and are doing well. From CT I had a very long drive, about an hour (lol) to a RI state park. The park had been recommended by Don & Sherry who I met at a MA state park last year. The park had a pretty lake and some hiking trails. No hookups at all. I came in with sufficient fresh water and the gray & black tanks empty. Dang, it was cold the first few nights! First night I toughed it out with the inside temperature about 50 (brrrr). The second night, I woke up to 42 degrees inside the rig! Enough is enough, the heat went on and to heck with electric or propane usage!!! Cousin Rick drove over from Providence the first evening. We chatted a bit and went out for a bite. It was great to catch up with ya Rick. On Sunday, Don & Sherry came over with their little pup Ginger. We walked around the park, caught up a bit, as they selected their site for Memorial Day weekend. Over the week spent at the RI park I: explored the historic town of Chepachet including the tavern famous for the Dorr Rebellion and several antique shops, the town of Putnam I guess famous for the K-Mart (lol), and took several rides to Providence. In Providence, my tour guide cousin Rick had lots of stuff planned including tooling around, wearing fedoras, in his 1936 Dodge, "V cool". Providence is a neat little city with a lot of history. It'll be even nicer if they ever finish all the construction (lol). Off to Maine, several LoW gtg's, and lots of lobster!
February and March sure aren't the best months to spend in NJ. Still, I feel like I accomplished a lot. I cleaned out my mini-storage unit and now really only have my RV and truck. Tax season started with lots of problems, some with the IRS electronic filing process and some with the software. Once the difficulties cleared up the rest of tax season went fine. I also got to see my sons, take some mini-trips with them and have some fun. We spent a couple of weekends in Jim Thorpe, PA running around paintball fields. One of the days it was barely in the teens and had snowed a few days before. This fat, old man is getting a bit old to be running around the woods from 9am till near 5pm (lol). I must admit I did have fun. We also went into NYC for a few days. Saw the play "The Jersey Boys". The story of the Four Seasons with lots of their music. Wow, did this bring back memories for me. It's a great show if you get a chance to see it. We went up the Empire State Building which I hadn't done in decades. My son kept asking where this and that was and I kept pointing out various landmarks. Next thing I knew three couples were following us around asking where things were. I had become a tour guide (lol). My son, who is in a business program at Seton Hall University, found a two hour walking tour of the Wall Street area. Other than being cold it was fun and very informative. We even went to Great Adventure for a day. I still can't believe I was talked into going on those wild, crazy roller coasters. The ten weeks sure went by fast.
It's mid-April and I'm heading up the coast of New England with stops in CT and RI while on my way to ME and the Canadian Maritimes. First stop is in central CT. I'm stopping in CT 'cause it's one of only two East Coast states I missed camping at last year and to visit a cousin I haven't seen in a few years. I drove about an hour to visit the Mystic Aquarium. The trip was a real bust. The parking lot was so full we were directed across the street to a village lot. I managed to find parking and walked back to the aquarium entrance. The line was over 90 minutes long, full of families and little kids. Definitely not for me! I walked around the very touristy village, but it was crowded also. One shop was so full people were standing on line waiting for others to leave the shop. I did stroll into a few shops but everything was geared for tourists and very overpriced. Turns out CT schools were out this week. Go figure!
Had a great visit with cousin David. He looks great (you really do David). We seemed to be chatting away non-stop. Lots to catch up with. Another day David's son Josh came by the campground. He's no longer a kid and I doubt I'd have recognized him if we passed on a street. How could he have grown so much when I'm still the same? (lol). It was great hearing that Josh and his brother Jeremy have grown into men and are doing well. From CT I had a very long drive, about an hour (lol) to a RI state park. The park had been recommended by Don & Sherry who I met at a MA state park last year. The park had a pretty lake and some hiking trails. No hookups at all. I came in with sufficient fresh water and the gray & black tanks empty. Dang, it was cold the first few nights! First night I toughed it out with the inside temperature about 50 (brrrr). The second night, I woke up to 42 degrees inside the rig! Enough is enough, the heat went on and to heck with electric or propane usage!!! Cousin Rick drove over from Providence the first evening. We chatted a bit and went out for a bite. It was great to catch up with ya Rick. On Sunday, Don & Sherry came over with their little pup Ginger. We walked around the park, caught up a bit, as they selected their site for Memorial Day weekend. Over the week spent at the RI park I: explored the historic town of Chepachet including the tavern famous for the Dorr Rebellion and several antique shops, the town of Putnam I guess famous for the K-Mart (lol), and took several rides to Providence. In Providence, my tour guide cousin Rick had lots of stuff planned including tooling around, wearing fedoras, in his 1936 Dodge, "V cool". Providence is a neat little city with a lot of history. It'll be even nicer if they ever finish all the construction (lol). Off to Maine, several LoW gtg's, and lots of lobster!
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