Our kids make us so proud!

There they are! All three of them completed their first 1/2 marathon. Logan, Maureen and Brian have been training hard for weeks for this and, on Saturday, September 26th, they ran the "Wicked 1/2 Marathon" in Boston, MA. It was a fantastic achievement and Ellyn and I are both very proud of them. Our boys have not looked better since they were just little tykes. Maureen has been Logan's inspiration for more then 7 years now for his slim-down and Brian has been playing Ultimate Frizbee for several years but recently started on Weight Watchers and training for this run and has lost most of another person. They are all inspirations to Ellyn and I, we love them very much, and I hope I have not embrassed them too badly.

Cut-up, Wine, and Exit South

(Note: Ellyn and I did not confer and both wrote on the same subject. Hers is below. There is some duplication, but mine has pictures)

After Yosemite, we were back to Pacifica for 6 more days to Rosh Hashanah and to look after Ellyn’s sister Laura, who is recovering from surgery. Ellyn made us all a New Year’s meal which could not be beat and her Father and Liz also joined us. First, they stopped by the RV for a look see and to enjoy some hors d'oeuvres, and then to their house for the main course. Ellyn and attended services on Shabbat Evening (Erev Rosh Hashanah) at B’nai Israel Judea in San Francisco. We were attracted there because Ellyn found out that a friend of hers from her camp days is the Cantor there. The Friday evening service was really nice and we enjoyed it a lot. We also went to the Saturday morning Rosh Hashanah service there and, although it was also nice, it was very long (3 1/2+ hours!). We had to tear out of there and get some food right after it was over. Too bad but we were glad we hung around Friday night to schmooze a bit. One surprise was that when we arrived Friday evening, a gentleman at the door overheard us say we were from Alabama and he said “Not Dothan, Alabama?” and we said “Yes!”. It turns out he knows one of the most prominent families in that congregation. We only caught his first name, “Zef”. 

After Pacifica, we headed up to wine country, Napa Valley. We had reservations for two days at the Napa Valley Expo Fairgrounds at the RV Park on the grounds. It was very nice, not at all like other fairgrounds we have stayed at, but paved slabs to park on and nice grass and other landscaping touches. We were supposed to meet our friends Brian and Nina, who were going to show us around and be able to talk “wine” lingo with our friends up there who are in the wine business. However, the day we traveled up there, Nina had an accident at her workplace and had broken her nose and dislocated her shoulder. Ouch! Travel the next day was out of the question, but we still had a nice time visiting Joel and Jenlea, who own property with grape vines on it, which they hire someone to tend to and harvest, and Tom and Beverly Porter, who own the  Porter Family Vineyards, which was featured on an episode of “Dirty Jobs” when they had a wine cave dug on their property. We got a nice tour of the winery and cave and got to sample some of their wines. We also toured around the area and saw some very beautiful grape-growing country. It was a fun day!

Now we are on our way Southward. Yesterday we were in Capitola, CA north of Monterey at the New Brighton Beach State Park and then today we drove into Monterey to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They had some nice displays featuring Sea Horses, Jellyfish, and Kelp. We also enjoyed watching them feed their Sea Otters. We even saw some wild ones frolicking and feeding in the bay as we ate our lunch. Afterward, we went to the end of a pier near where we parked the RV and saw about 1000 seal (sea lions?) sunning themselves on the rocks of the breakwater.

Then we took a leisurely 3 hour drive down California Route 1 to Morro Bay where we are parked for the night. Tomorrow we head into L.A. to visit with friends there and attend Yom Kippur services.

Lotsa California

Yikes! We've fallen behind on the blog, again. Here's a quick summary of the weeks since Yosemite.

We returned to Pacifica - just South of San Francisco, where Ellyn's sister and husband live. Ellyn had lots of fun hanging out with Laura while Laura recovered from surgery. We went to Rosh Hashona services at B'nai Israel - Judea in San Francisco where Ellyn's Camp Swig friend, David Morgenstern, is now the cantorial soloist. The services were great and David's voice was a joy. It was also great to see David's sister, brother and father. We had Rosh Hashonah dinner at Laura's and Jay's with Ellyn's father and his wife also joining us.

While in the Bay Area - we had fun seeing: Lorna, Brian & Nina, Wendy as well as Ellyn's family.

Our next destination was Napa where we visited the incredible "dream home" of Joel and Jenlea as well as the Porter Family Vineyard owned by Geoff's former IBM boss, Tom and his wife, Beverly. Their son gave us the winery tour and we had a delightful wine tasting in their wine cave that had been featured on "Dirty Jobs." It was a nice reunion with old IBM friends and a beautiful day in the Napa Valley.

Yesterday, we headed toward Monterey and were pleasantly surprised by the beautiful New Brighton Beach State Park. The beach was great to walk on and we were suprised to see dolphins just offshore. We had a great campfire using our newpurchased enviro-logs. Ellyn found these at Home Depot and they solved several of the drawbacks we had with using regular wood - smoke getting in our eyes, restrictions on carrying a supply of wood due to insect risks, and concern about the "carbon footprint" of smokey fires. The enviro-logs burned very wood-like and are the same cost as a bundle of wood. Now we have a box of them in the car ready to use whenever we get the urge to have a campfire.

It's time for bed now - I'll finish about Monterey and the thrilling ride down the coast of CA in my next post sometime soon.

Yosemite National Park

Ellyn and I have arrived back where it all started. We spent our honeymoon here in a Curry Village cabin. We took a look today and it may be #220. Sadly, due to some rockslides, it is now roped off and all of the cabins may be demolished.

We got here on Thursday afternoon and pulled into what we thought was our parking site because of the way I read the list at the gate. However, we found out the next morning we had to move. Fortunately, we did not have to pull up many stakes because there are no services here. Just keep stuff from falling all over and pull in the slides. In addition to no services, we have very tenuous cell phone voice coverage and no data. Plus too many trees to get a satellite signal. So, a lot of hobby work and reading.

Today we did finally find one of the free internet signals in the valley and I was able to upload some pictures to Flickr. We also saw some climbers on El Capitan and water coming over Bridal Veil Falls. We have done some bike riding around the valley and toured by car a bit today. We are trying to decide if we will go to the high country tomorrow or not. It is getting late here and we should get back to the RV. More later…

Well, we confirmed, based on a picture that I took of Ellyn from a window, and trees and a rock, that this is the cabin we stayed in on our honeymoon in 1978. It looks like they eliminated the problem we had with the kerosene heater by installing natural gas.

This was one of our longest times with no electrical power other than our generator and batteries. Unlike in Charlotte earlier, we were more reluctant to run the generator here. However, the 6V golf cart batteries worked wonderfully and kept their power very well, even when running the inverter for our laptops. When we did run the generator, the new charger performed flawlessly and the exhaust up-stack we bought before we went to Charlotte helped keep the noise and exhaust out of our neighbor’s campsite. As I was pulling out of the campsite, one of our neighbors stopped me and asked about the stack and where he could get one. He said it really made the generator quieter, although I think it really just helps with the exhaust, as the generator is pretty well sound insulated under the coach.

I loved taking pictures in the valley. There is not a bad picture you can take. I was able to concentrate on working on composition and lighting because the subjects are perfect. I have also had a little fun in post-processing, using the IBM Perfect Photo program, and doing some experimenting with dodging and contrast.

Summer 2009 Trip Map

Here is a map of our trip across the US from Bethel , CT to Pacifica, CA in the summer of 2009. I have tried to get pictures at each place we camp but sometimes that does not happen. So I have included other pictures taken in the area of friends or scenery.

Place the mouse pointer over any picture on the map to see the name of the location, and click to see a larger version of the picture or a link to information about the location.

From Sea to Shining Sea

Yay! We made it to the campground just south of San Francisco in Pacifica, CA and our site overlooks the Pacific Ocean. We've now made it across the whole country from sea-to-sea having left Danbury at the end of July. California has a special place in our hearts. Ellyn lived here from '57 to '60, '65 to '69 and '73 to '78. Geoff was stationed in California while he was in the Navy and then sent by IBM to here for one year in '77 to '78 when the two of us met and married. We'll be seeing lots of family and friends, here, as well as lots of beautiful places.

Despite Pacifica being known for its fog and overcast, it's a beautiful sunny day, today. We're resting a bit this afternoon before we meet Ellyn's sister, Laura and husband, Jay, for dinner.

We'll post photos of Pacifica and our visit to the Bay Area in a later post. First, here's some from ofur first stop in CA which was Truckee where we stayed in Granite Flat Campground right on the Truckee River which was only about 10miles from incredibly beautiful Lake Tahoe. We spent two days there and had fun biking in a couple locations and taking short hikes. We had our first sighting of the huge California trees.

Here's some photos:

This is a huge tree...you have to look very closely to see markings on the photo pointing to 5ft 3in. ellyn standing next to it....not sure how many times larger the tree is but no doubt that it's tall.



The two of us at an overlook of Lake Tahoe.



Our RV backed onto the beautiful Truckee River which is the only outlet from Lake Tahoe.



Photos of each of us as we walked around the various Lake Tahoe paths.

Make Mine 14 AWG

Although the Great Wall of China can not really be seen from space, there is a man-made object in Northern Utah which can. It is the Kennecott Copper Mine near Herriman, UT. As we approached from the east, I commented on the hills we could see as being the “largest landfill project” I had ever seen. I did not realize they were tailing piles from the mine until Ellyn said they were from the copper mine. I was astonished. (I would have been less so if I had studied up on where we were going but I like to be surprised)

So 20 miles or so later, we arrived at the entry gate and paid our $5.00 entry fee and the drove the 8 miles and 873 ft. up to the visitor center. We looked around at the exhibits in the center to learn as much as we could about mining, refining, and smelting copper. An amazing by-product of the process is a large enough quantity of gold and silver to pay for the operation. Wow! They have been mining this particular vein of copper for 110 years and have plans for possibly mining it from underground after surface mining is no longer feasible, in another 5 or 10 years.

Like the Grand Canyon, the scale is almost impossible to grasp by looking into the pit, except for the machinery moving around in there. It can be deceiving until one of the dump trucks comes close enough to see how large they are, like when they are near a recognizable object, such as a pickup truck. Then the mind starts to boggle. (photo on left: In left lane, the tiny dot of a vehicle is a pickup truck followed by a "small" mine dump truck. In the right lane is the "large" mine dump truck. As you can see, it could carry many of the pick-up trucks! Now, that's huge!) As we were getting out of our RV, we noticed a car nearby with people pointing and taking pictures of us. So we walked over to talk to them. It turned out they were tourists from Israel. They were going to meet some friends and go to Yellowstone, Brice, Zion, and some of the other western parks. It was funny that they thought our little RV was big enough to take pictures. With the car in tow it is 50 ft. but they had just looked at 100 foot long dump trucks and 30 billion cubic feet of hole. I guess this was just too real to pass up.

Arches until our arches have fallen arches

Arches National Park near Moab, UT. What more can I say? A picture is worth a thousand words so here are 12,000. Click on a picture to see it in as much glory as your computer screen resolution will allow. Go!

         

From left to right, top to bottom, Visitor Center Sign, the campground at sunrise, some cool buttes, Skyline arch, Geoff at Broken arch, Sand Dune arch, Turret arch, North and South Window arches, Ellyn in North Window arch, Delicate arch, Factory Row (named as such by Geoff), Laughing Dolphin (again by Geoff), the valley floor.

Colorado!!!

There's lots of good things to say about our trip to Colorado.

We had a great time visiting long time friends from when we worked at IBM and lived here from '82 to '86 plus lots of tourist time. It was so nice to pick up where we left off and to catch up with everybody!

Geoff has posted some photos on flickr - the link is to the left.

Here's a summary....

• A great dinner in an airplane (really!) restaurant with Amy and her family.
• A bike ride surrounded by red rocks spires in Colorado Springs followed by sips from the nearby springs.
• A Walnut Brewery lunch, near the Pearl Street Mall, with Yuma Circle neighbors John & Jamie. Plus a quick chat with one of Logan's and Brian's first pals, Nick. who is newly engaged and in the midst of planning a New Year's Eve Wedding.
  
• A relaxing visit with Andy who is the only person to have attended our wedding as well as the Bris of both Logan and Brian. We also met his delightful daughter, Sarah, who is an Art student in San Francisco.
• A visit to Margaret's and Dennis' 15th floor condo that overlooks Denver & the Rockies' stadium. Had fun dining with them in a nearby sports bar/cafe while the game was playing and the Rockie's comeback from being down 3-6 to win 14-11 delighted everybody.
  
• A great dinner with Diane and David. Jamie, Diane and I were charter members of a book club that they still belong to more than 25 years later! Ellyn received a nice list of recommended reading from Diane! :-)
• A tea-riffic tour of Celestial Seasons with yummy tea tastings!
  
• Really enjoyed two days in Rocky Mountain National Park with breathtaking views. After huffing in the high altitudes, I'm more appreciative of the oxygen we have at lower altitudes!
  
• Enjoyed a bike ride along Boulder Creek Path and, today, a bike ride along the Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon.
  
• Had a most relaxing swim in the enormous and renowned Glenwood Hot Springs pool. Of course, we couldn't help but remember back Brian's first swim, there, at the age of 3 months.
  

In a few minutes, we'll be leaving Glenwood Springs for Utah's Arches National Park. We'll be in the SF Bay Area in less than a week!

We, in fact, ARE in Kansas, Dorothy

And it is turning out to be a somewhat more interesting place than we expected. Of course our expectations were quite low, since you expect to see nothing but flat and cows in this state after you pass Kansas City.

We “snuck” into the state via US 50, I-470 and I-435 instead of the usual route from St. Louis of I-70. This was mainly because we stopped in Sedalia, MO for the Missouri State Fair (a great state fair). We love state fairs of all kinds and this was a chance to go to a real western one, not one of those wimpy eastern fairs, like the Big-E, where you have to get 6 states together to have one decent sized fair. No, this one had real cowboys.

Anyway, this put us 16 miles south of I-70 and close to US 50, so we opted to follow US 50, which put us closer to I-70 after crossing over into Kansas. Then we rejoined it and continued. When we got to Lawrence, KS, we stopped for lunch. We went all the way into the downtown area and found a BBQ place. We had to take up 3 parking spaces but the meter rates were reasonable. After lunch, we walked around downtown a bit and did some window shopping. Then back on the road.

We stopped again in Topeka to see the Brown vs The Board of Education National Historical Site. It was in an old school house which was one that the black children had to attend instead of the one closer to their home. The case was filed in Topeka to avoid deep south politics and because, in Topeka, the schools were separate but they were more-or-less equal. In that way, the case would clearly test whether segregation of schools should be constitutional. As we all know now, Brown vs. Board of Education was just the first step in the long (hard fought) path to end segregation in this country.

When we parked at a KOA in Salina, right off the highway, Ellyn discovered that there was a hamburger stand in downtown Salina which had sliders since 1922 in the same location. The story made then sound very good so we had to unhook the car and go check it out. They were yummy.

Missouri State Fair - Sedalia, MO

When yesterday began, we thought we would end up the day in Kansas but the lure of attending a State Fair was too strong. We took an 18mile detour off of I-70 to attend the Missouri state fair in Sedalia which is about 70 miles East of Kansas City. We parked/camped in the adjacent campground that had water and electric and then entered the fair at 5pm for on $5 each. The highlight of the evening was the Cowboy/girl Mounted Shooting Competition. The video (taken on my Palm Phone) is a bit fuzzy and it got smokey in the arena from the gunfire, but you can get the idea of the shooting course. They are shooting at balloons and had to go around the barrels using two guns each with only five bullets. So if they only get one shot at each balloon. They are timed and there is a (huge) five second penalty if they miss a balloon or knock over the barrels. The top competitors got all the ballons in under 15 seconds which is amazing consider they have to control the hourses and shoot. At the very end of the video, the women on the right side moves her head for a second and you can see the timing clock.



We also had fun going through the buildings, seeing the turkey calling contest, eating fair food, seeing the crafts (including some incredible quilts). The camping was good and now we're off to Kansas and points west.

Meet Me In St. Louis

The night before we arrived in St. Louis, we watched the great Judy Garland film, "Meet Me in St. Louis" to get us in the mood. Our main plan, here, was to visit our long time friends, Barbara and Joe. Many of you have heard the story of how we befriended them when Joe was our Rabbi in Rochester, MN when we first got married. Then they moved to Denver and the next year we were transfered to Boulder. Then we got transferred to Danbury and (this one was pretty amazing) then Joe became Rabbi of the small Conservative Synaogogue in Danbury. Unfortunately (for us) Barbara and Joe moved to Charlotte, a few years later, but we stayed on in Danbury. At any rate, we've been friends for more than 31 years so it's been really great to catch up with them.

Barbara and Joe hosted us for DELICIOUS gourmet dinners - first tuna steaks and then chicken breasts with a delicate sweet and spicey sauce. A highlight was meeting Barbara's and Joe's son-in-law and grandchildren especially since we met their mother she was just two years old.

During the days, we have played tourist a bit - visiting the arch, the zoo, the art museum. A highlight at the zoo was the penguins and also a mini-show by the St. Louis Muni Theater's kid's group. As always we made sure to have some regional food such Porter's Fried Chicken where Ellyn had favorite treats, fried okra and fried gizzards. Yesterday, we had hickory smoked BBQ and the heavenly treat, "Concrete" frozen custard at Ted Drewe's.

Today, we're taking the day off to hang around the RV but I'm hoping we do go out for more frozen custard! :-) We'll end Shabbat with our friend, Rabbi Josef Davidson, as he teaches during the Shabbat Third Meal proceeding Havdalah at B'nai Amoona.

Tomorrow, we start heading west with a goal to get into Kansas by the end of the day.

Gettin’ Our Kicks

After staying overnight near Springfield, IL, we had a short trip to St. Louis, MO and all day to get there. So we decided this was a great opportunity to get off the Interstate Highway grid and see some of rural America. Coincidentally, we were right next to old Route 66 which runs from Chicago to the west coast. We looked up some info on it and directions on how to get to it and found out that it was right across I-55 from the campgrounds. So we were off.

Ellyn got online and started reading about what we might see. In the next town we found an old gas station which had been refurbished but was not selling gas. We looked around for a restaurant she found listed but discovered it was really in the previous town. So we continued on.

Next we came to Henry’s Rabbit Ranch. Henry came out to greet us and we found out that, what appeared to be an old gas station was really built by Henry and decorated to look like an old gas station. He had pens of rabbits which he treated like his children and had little stories about each one of them and where they had been rescued from. He seemed like a very nice guy and we bought some souvenirs, petted the bunnies, and headed on down the road.

Henry had told us about a place to stop for lunch, so we hit Weezy’s Route 66 Grill. We parked across the street in front of a farmer’s stand, where we bought some fruit and vegetables after lunch. We had a nice conversation with the owner and his S.O. about our travels and he said it was his dream as well, and that they were going to take a trip at the end of the season.

As we approached the Mississippi River, we pulled off to go to the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, which used to be the road over the river on Route 66 until the 1970’s, when the bridge on I-270 was completed nearby. Now it is a pedestrian and biking bridge so we parked the RV and got the bikes out for a nice 2 mile ride (1 over, 1 back). We also saw a beach down on the river near the “chain of rocks” across the river and so we drove down there to see the river up close. Ellyn got stuck in the silt and we talked with a guy who had been fishing, and had some down-home stories for us. Once again, the RV was a conversation starter.

From there, we got back onto the interstate and headed to Babler Memorial State Park and our 4 day camping spot.

Quilts, Flowers, and RVs in Indiana

We're now camped at Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds in Goshen, IN for a Newmar Kountry Klub (NKK) Rally. NKK is the owners club for RV's mfg'd by Newmar. Ther's 400-some RVs here. Rallies are pretty much like a convention except the topic is RVing and the attendees are all living in RVs.

We've really enjoyed touring the area around the Rally - very picturesque farms - many of which are owned by Amish who can be seen riding around in horse-drawn carts or riding bicycles. We've enjoyed visiting the many shops...noodle, cheese, quilt, garden, etc.

What we like best at Rally's is exchanging ideas with others about travel destinations and RV living!

Oops!

Nuts! Forgot to get something at our friends house before we left. I did not discover it until after lunch 30 minutes away and was ready to hook up the car. I had to drive back to Bethel and pick it up. So we lost about an hour of travel time today. However, we did go about the same distance we had planned. Now we are in South Williamsport, PA at the Nittany Mountain KOA for the night.

Thanks, Danbury! California Here We Come!

We had a great week in Danbury. Caught up on some doctor appointments - Ellyn's semi-annual bloodwork was great and she got another shot of artificial cartilage into her trick knee. Our dear friend (and Rabbi) Lynne was visiting Danbury from Dothan, AL with her husband and it was almost like old times to attend Shabbat services with them and our other UJC friends. Ellyn had a great Rosh Hodesh Group outing on Mindy's boat - so glad the lightning almost held off 'til we were back on the dock. While, Geoff hung out with Jim and Rob. We had a wonderful dinner at Patti's and Gerry's and it was so wonderful to be parked (and neighbors for a week) at Debbi's and Peter's. They were terrifically gracious about welcoming our RV to their driveway and we greatly enjoyed their new shower!

And now the time has come for us to start our big trek to California. Our target is to be in the SF Bay Area on September 2nd. In the meantime, we are excited to be seeing many sights, having many experiences, and visiting with many long-time (and some new) friends. This entire journey, including wintering in the south is scheduled to end up with return to the Northeast for Passover. It should be really something special to be on the road (yet still be in our home) for that long. We really appreciate the support from our friends and family. We look forward to you keeping in touch and keeping us up-to-date with what's happening in your lives while we're on our journey!

Back in the Soup

We have been in Connecticut for a few days now and it has rained every one of them.  

After we were in Maine we went to Cape Cod for a few days. We stayed in Camper’s Haven RV Park in Dennisport. They had a nice little beach right on Nantucket Sound and we hung out there a couple of days. I tried to get my kite up in the air again there but it was too gusty. I am going to see if I can convert it from an aerobatic kite to a regular one to see if it will fly better. If that doesn’t work, I will find a kite store and get something new. The beach was teaming with shells,which we later discovered were Atlantic Slippers.

From the Cape, we moved to Rhode Island to Fisherman’s Memorial State Park near Judith Point. From there we took the ferry to Block Island to visit with Norm and Shelly Topf. Norm is the brother of a good friend of Ellyn’s, Barbara Uziel, from NCJW. Norm and Shelly are also RVers and members of the Chai Chapter of FMCA. We met them in Brookville, FL this last winter when we attended the FMCA Rally down there. They have a summer home on Block Island and we went to visit with them. They took us out for a day of clamming and kayaking (I paddled around in one of their kayaks and Ellyn got a clamming license). It was good clamming there and Ellyn and Norm raked in enough to make a really good snack of stuffed clams back at the house. Norm cooked them up on the grill and Shelly stuffed them. Afterwards, we spread the clam shells on their driveway and stomped them down to make paving. It is going to take a lot of clams to finish the job.

We came back to Danbury to do some Dr. appointments and pick up our mail. From here we head west to Indiana, Chicago, St. Louis, Boulder, et. al. Watch here for more news as our travels continue.

Beautiful Wonderfilled Maine

It had been 18 months since our last trip to Maine (with Nicole and Pieter that time) and as soon as we were back here, we were quickly reminded why we love Maine so much. It's the seacoasts, little harbors, the lobster bouys and boats, the lighthouses, eating the lobster, the little craft shops everywhere, etc. etc. And now we can add something new to the list....the numerous lightning bugs right in the field near camp site.

Geoff has started posting the Maine photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoff0522/ (Note: the link is always on the left on this blog page)

We had a nice time last night joining the German tourist family at their campfire last night. They're spending two weeks in a rented RV traveling from NY to Bar Harbor and are now on the return trip back to NYC. They had never seen lighting bugs and it added to the fun to watch their daughter's joy and delight as she caught them.

Oh yes - and another highlight of our stay in Maine was the day at Logan's in-law's "camp" on the lake with the whole family....Maureen's whole family including her Grandfather and our whole family including Brian's girlfriend, Katherine. That day was quite windy and we found kayaking on their normally mirror-like lake quite choppy. Even so, it was great fun to be out kayaking with Logan and Brian using Marc's and Diane's kayaks.

We're here for 3 more days (including today) with hopes for another kayak outing, some beachcoming, a visit to Boothbay Harbor and I'm sure more surprises!!

Much Better Now

We have been in Massachusetts now for about 5 days and the weather has improved a lot.  After one day of mostly rain, we got a half a day of nice weather, then a full day, and then, on the 4th of July, it was nearly perfect.

The fireworks in Boston went off without a h itch and we enjoyed them very much.

On July5, we had a BBQ party at Logan and Maureen’s house, and it was really nice, bordering on hot.

Today, it was hot. Ellyn and I went kayaking while our RV was in the shop and it was a scorcher until the clouds moved in. The water in the lake was very nice however.

It was Lake Rico in Massasoit State Park, in Taunton, MA.

Now we are at the Boston/Cape Cod KOA in Middleborough, MA. Or is it Middleboro. It looks like they are actually the same place. It can be spelled either way? Weird.

New Dampshire

Yep, we're here and, yep, it's been raining. The north east has been getting pounded with the wettest spring on record, and now we are in the midst of it. We got to Brookline, NH yesterday and visited with Ellyn's cousin Philip and his wife Vicki, and Ellyn's Uncle Lou was also visiting. When he heard we were on our way, he stayed over a day to see us. It was our first visit to their home and we got to see all of the adding on and remodeling they have done. The house is about twice the square footage it was originally and they are still making changes.
But today is a soaker. I think the weather people have given upon predicting all day rain because they said just a chance of thundershowers and it has rained pretty much all day here. I did get out and flip the kayaks after pulling out extra stuff we had stored in them with tarps on. Now that stuff is back in the car and the tarps are off. I like the configuration better this way.
Off to the Boston Minute Man Campground in Littleton, MA tomorrow for four days and to spend part of the 4th of July holiday with our sons.

Mixed Emotions: Relief, Amazement, Sadness

Relief: The trip is over. Mom has been returned to her home at Valley Terrace in White River Junction, VT. Ellyn and I now have the RV all to ourselves again. We can come and go as we wish, can stay up as late as we want, can sleep with the door open to our bedroom, and can regulate the temperature in the RV according to our wishes. I am not saying that Mom had made too many demands, but we needed to change our own behavior because she was our guest in the RV. Now we are "empty nesters" again.

Amazement: First, we are amazed that everything went much more smoothly than we thought they would. Mom traveled much better than we thought she would, was much more at home sleeping on our RV fold-out sofa than we feared she might, and the clean out of the house went quicker than we thought it would. We even were able to relax for one entire weekend and do some fun things instead of just working. Secondly, that we were able to get everything done and Mom back to VT about a week quicker than we expected. We have a week to relax now and travel in VT and NH before visiting the boys in Boston for the 4th weekend.

Sadness: We have to say bye to Mom now for the better part of a year. Of course, we will be able to stay in touch by phone and send her cards, but we will be traveling out west during the summer and will likely winter in the south west. She is ok with this and we have our lives to live but she is not getting any younger and we frankly don't know if we will have another chance to spend this much time with her.

The house is on the market in Grand Rapids and we are waiting to hear of any nibbles. There is one couple who seem serious but we have not heard anything about an offer yet. There is still that other shoe left to drop.

Geoff's Mom's House

We just wouldn't have thought it possible, a week ago. Geoff's Mom's house is emptied out and on the market. The realtor held an open house, today. Just about the only thing we have left to do is to pack up the stuff we're taking back from the house and head east. We'll do that on Monday. Between now and then, we'll have a relaxing Father's Day and visit Geoff's Uncle.

Photos of the house are are on Geoff's flickr page - the link is the left.

Michigan, Day 12

Saturday, to be exact. We did the flea market last Saturday, but today the realtor is having an open house. Mom and I have to go by there this morning and do some clean up. All our boxes of stuff to take should be put into the garage and we need to run the vacuum sweeper around. Also, I need to make some copies of the photos I took yesterday onto a disk for the realtor.

Susan has been great help getting the house cleaned out, also with the help of her boy-friend Craig and his truck. The garage is totally empty. I had some trouble parting with Dad's stuff, but then I realized it was the man who defined the stuff, not the other way around. With him gone, it was just stuff again. I have a few of the tools which I could use but the rest are gone to others who may be able to use them. I found the odd "created" tool, like the C-clamp, cut and welded to pipes to make the opening deeper.

Update: Monday, 6/22- Leaving Michigan. So we headed out today for Vermont to take Mom home. The house is safely on the market and we have removed everything we want from it. The rest is gone except some furniture items. Susan the Realtor told us today that a couple from a local trailer park are talking to their lender and we could possibly have an offer before we get Mom to Vermont.

We stopped off near Detroit to visit with Ken Hafeli and his wife Josie. Ken and I were fellow "Lounge Rats" at Michigan Tech in the 70's.Now were are grey haired old fogies with married children (all 3 of his, just one of ours). We had a great dinner at a local diner and then played Ladder Horseshoes in their back yard (Ken and I won over Ellyn and Josie).

We are staying at a campground in Monroe, MI and will head into Ohio tomorrow.

Our Future Plans

Wow - we're a bit behind in updating the blog. Here's a quick summary - we picked Geoff's Mom up in VT on 6/3, it took us 5 days to drive to Grand Rapids and we've been here working to empty Mom's house since last Monday. We're staying at a cute campground on a lake with very friendly neighbors that's about 20min. from Mom's home. We'll fill in more details in a later post.

Meanwhile, we've made some plans for our future travels....

July 2 to 9 - Boston area for an extended 4th of July weekend. Maybe we'll even go see the big fireworks. We've never seen a big city fireworks display so that might be fun. And maybe we'll finally get to kayak on the Charles river. And of course, we'll get together with L&B a bit.

July 9 to 16 - A week in Maine staying at a campground right on a river/bay for some lobster and kayaking, touring, and perhaps a family get-together at L's in-law's "camp".

At that point, we'll probably drop by Danbury for a couple days and then we're off to the west for a really extended trip.

August - Our first set stop is a rally of RVers with the same maker as our RV. Here's a good article about the rally and it's effort to bring some economic impact to those affected by a really ailing industry: http://www.newmarcorp.com/news/kountry_klub_rally
After the rally, we will travel to CA - route not yet determined.

September - We have reservations starting the week of Labor Day for six days in Yosemite - our honeymoon location. L&J may join us up there for a few days. Then time in the bay area and then down to S. Cal.

Sometime in Oct, we'll start heading east with stops in TX to see cousins and much etc. So much to do and see!

Danbury, NYC, & Cambridge Visits

Here's a quick update to catch you all up....
1) Had a quick visit to Danbury. We parked in Bethel first for a couple days in Allison's driveway, when they were away, and then in the treet in front of their home. We had lots of fun eating and catching up with them....including an incredible pasta dinner debbi made for Liana track team. Ellyn also got a chance to play Mah Jongg, with her friends.
2) On Satureday we went to NYC to have lunch with Ellyn's father. He was in NYC to receive a distinguised alumni career award from CCNY. Logan & Maureen, Brian & Katherine as well as Ellyn's cousin Ann-Lynn and her husband, Alan were all there. The restaurant was great and it was great to all be together and it was a beautiful day in NYC.
3) Next we met up with the group we went out to dinner with on a monthly basis. Our timing was great to meetup with them for a visit to Melting Pot fondue restaurant. It was pricey but a great time was had by all.
4) On Tuesday, we left for Boston where we visited Brian's and Katherine's apartment for the first time. It is really spacious and sun-lit on the 6th floor with a great view. Brian had gotten take-0ut for us. We each made a menu choice from either the bar-b-q restaurant or Japanese/Chinese restaurant. Plus the kids gave Geoff a b-day gift of $$ to go on a sand-dune buggy ride when we are in Michigan.They love giving us gifts of memorable experiences instead of things.
5) Yesterday, we drove up to VT so we could pick up Geoff's Mom to take her to Michigan to empty out her home of more than 60 years. As I write this, Mom is in the "navigator seat" and I'm at the dinette table. We realized a couple days ago that Geoff's passport is expired so we won't be able to take the short cut through Canada. Bad timing - because the requirement for a passport just went into effect on Monday. It's only a couple hours longer to drive around the Great Lakes via Cleveland.
That catches up the blog - we are hoping to do some fun stuff on the trip and will post the highlights.

Shenandoah Valley WOW!

We arrived at Shenandoah Valley Campground on Monday afternoon with plans to stay two nights and one day. We love this campground - it is in a beautiful little valley and right next to a little river that even has a waterfall. Ellyn says it's her all-time favorite campground. Geoff said that Ellyn says that about every campground we go to.

Here's all we've done in our one day, here...

1. Our plan for a pre-breakfast bike ride around the campground scuttled by the flat tire on my bike. That made getting my bike tire and inner tube replaced as the first thing on our agenda. It was easy to find a bike shop in Staunton - about 15 min. away. The bike guy fixed the bike quickly but not so quick that we didn't have time to pick up a few sundries in the bike store.
   
2. After the bike was done, we took advantage of being in Historic Staunton to walk around the charming small city. There are many 19th century buildings and we had fun using the Walking Tour Map to learn about each of them. We had lunch at a great Mexican restaurant.
   
3. Our next stop was Grand Caverns. We've always enjoyed visiting Caverns through the years - though it was even more fun when Logan and Brian were still traveling with us. We were totally impressed by this cavern - really nice big rooms with plenty of undamaged stalactites and was unique in three ways: A) The limestone plates in this cavern ran vertically 2) There are about 30 or more "shield"features - a typical cave only has a few and 3) The cave has been open to the public since 1806 - more than 200 years ago. Both union and confederate civil war soldiers visited the cavern. And it was the custom back then for visitors to sign the walls - more than 200 signatures have been authenticated to be civil war soldiers - we saw a few of them.
   
4. We then returned back to the Campground and did laundry. However, the special aspect of this laundry room was that it was right next to the hot tub room - with six hot tubs. We relaxed in the hot tub while the laundry was being completed.
   
5. Next, a very quick dinner so we could get to the DJ entertainment for the second night. There's a deck with lots of red, white and blue colored lights and a DJ each night. Other than the campground owner family, there were only a few other people but we still had lots of fun doing the two step and Geoff even did Kareoke.
   

That's a pretty busy day. We really like it here and want to come back - hopefully when the weather is a bit warmer and we can go in the river or the pool and we still need to drive on the blue ridge parkway.

Photos to follow on Geoff's flickr page - please see link on the left.


Tomorrow, we plan to drive most of the way back to New York. We'll see many of you in the next few week as we visit the NE. See you soon.

The Coca Cola 340 and a half

Six and one half hours of bumper-to-bumper, all out racing (with intervals of extreme boredom while they dried the track, or tried to) added up to one wet day in NC. The Coca Cola 600 rolled off a day late and was able to get in only 227 laps. They had one period of about one hour of track drying around lap 70, and another of about 2 hours at lap 170. Finally they reached 201 laps, an official race distance, and it was not raining. 26 laps later was a different story. They tried to get the track dry 3 times during the next 3 hours but to no avail. The rain kept coming; not an all out deluge like we had had on Sunday that had delayed it in the first place, or like on Saturday, when they called the Nationwide Series Carquest 300 after 170 of 200 laps, but just a steady drizzle.

During this time, fans slowly but surely started filtering out of the stands, and only the diehard fans with no pressing appointments or with their homes near enough by to be able to be home before midnight, stayed on. Finally NASCAR called it. Of course, that was the signal for the rain to stop and the sun to come out.

I returned my scanner that I had rented for the weekend and started the long walk back to the RV. By this time many of the RVs in the campgrounds have left. Some left this morning and I saw more leaving at each red flag period. We will still be here tonight and will head out in the morning, up into Virginia. The next place we have to be is in Danbury on June 1st for some Dr. appointments.

Clam Strips Questions Answered

I've always been curious about clam strips because it didn't make sense that they were a little park cut out of a regular clam. Finally, I thought to look it up and here's a great explanation http://www.weloveclams.com/strips.html It doesn't have anything to do with our current travels but I thought others might find this interesting.

Deluge - Bad Timing

A short time ago, I walked Geoff to the track, when he went to the Nationwide Cup 300mile race, so that I could use the rest room. While I was in the rest room, the cloudy sky just opened up and it started totally pouring rain. By time it let up enough for me to walk back, our RV's open vents had dropped water onto our TV which is now not working. We use a flat screen on a wheeled cart in the RV. I can't believe that I was gone for only a few minutes and that happened. Oh well. Maybe when it dries out, it will start working.

Meanwhile, I'm it's more or less stopped raining but I'm sure there will be quite a delay in the running of the race. I'm sure Geoff will have a good time and lots of stories to tell me when he gets back to the RV later tonight.

Geoff: Wow, that was close. I almost had to go back to the RV for a change of clothes. The skies opened up, as Ellyn described, just as I reached the entrance to the area under the grandstands. It was packed with people and there were gofl carts trying to move around under there too.

The track was soaked but the rain stopped and the race started about 1 1/2 hours late. About 11:00 and 170 laps down out of 200, it started raining again. At first it looked like it would just be a little and they could restart but then it came down harder and they called it about 11:30.

It was fun being there though. There is nothing you can see on TV which is like sitting in the stands and feeling the thunder from those 43 engines racing by at nearly 200 mph. I felt a little bad though for an older woman sitting near me who came with one of her children and who obviously could not tell what was going on. She did not stand for the restarts, which she probably could not have seen anyway because she was shorter than those around her, and did not appear to be able to tell which car was which even if she could see them. Whenever I looked over at her, she looked bored and deafened, since she was not wearing any ear protection. Heck, I was following it and had my scanner on, and I could barely tell which car was which.

Geoff's Big B-Day - Generator Village

Today's the day of Geoff's big birthday and we're camped in the Family Campground at Lowe's Motor Speedway. When we made the reservations, the campground was sponsered by and named after "Country Crock" but now the signs indicate that it's the "Klondike" Campground. Ah - the big business world of NASCAR.

As most of you know, Geoff is a huge NASCAR fan so this 2nd biggest race weekend of the year (2nd only to Daytona) is perfect timing for his birthday weekend. 10 years ago, for his 50th b-day, I gave him a NASCAR Driver experience right here at this same racetrack so he's driven it himself.

The weekend is chock full of races and race events. Last night, I joined Geoff for the timed qualifying. One car at a time doing one (with an optional 2nd) timed to determine which order they would start Sunday's race and also the slowest four cars/drivers wouldn't make the race. I liked the qualifying a lot - but even with ear plugs and sound deadening earmuffs, I could still hear the cars and (surprisingly) the announcer. I was surprised that many of the fans cheered for more than one driver and I didn't hear any boo (as they sometimes do) for the driver I kind of root for, Jeff Gordon. Also, I learned from the announcer that the new rookie Home Depot driver, Joey Lagano, is from CONNECTICUT!!

Tonight Geoff went to the dirt track racing, tomorrow night is the 300 mile 2nd tier (Nationwide Cup) NASCAR race and Sunday night is the main Sprint Cup event - the Coca-Cola 600. I'm not going to any of those races - too scary because of the likelihood of accidents and too noisey for me. However, today, Geoff and I took a bus tour to two of the NASCAR shops/museums/stores. Each of those facilities housed four Sprint Cup Drivers - including Jeff Gordon at the Hendrick's shop.

Now for the bad news - we are totally sardined into this campground which is adjacent to the track. And everybody is running generators - and the ones that are stand-alone generators (like those folks use when their power goes out) are NOISY. And the RV that just pulled next to us, put their generator right under our window. The good news is that all the generators need to be turned off between midnight and 7am. The trick is to time sleeping for exactly those hours. The generators are definitely a downside of this experience. This afternoon, Geoff took a snooze in our outdoor recliner with the hearing protection on.

Be sure to use the link to Geoff's photos on the left.

Jekyll Island - Our First Rain

We're now on Jekyll Island - a Georgia barrier island. The entire island once was owned by a group of "barons" of the end of the 19th century. Now, it seems like a cross between Walt Disney World, Newport Mansions and a large National Park. By law, the island must remain at least 65% undeveloped and it is criss-crossed by 20 miles of paved biking trails. That's the good news - but the bad news is that it has rained since we arrived here, yesterday afternoon. We really can't complain because it's the first rain-out in the month that we've been traveling. BUT it is unfortunate that the forecast is for it to rain, again, tomorrow and we leave on Wednesday. Guess we'll just have to return here, again.

Despite the rain, we did visit the beach, for a few minutes, to view and photograph the turbulent sea. We also stopped by the Nature center where there were several sizes of sea turtles. Ellyn can't help but think of the turtle, Crush, in "Finding Nemo" when she sees those real turtles. We had a great seafood lunch - love those Grouper sandwhiches - and dropped by the Jekyll Museum which had a lot of details about all aspects of Jekyll Island's past.

We are hoping that there is a break in the rain, tomorrow, for us to do some bike riding and, perhaps, to take a tram tour of the island.

Happy Birthday to Brian, yesterday. And we're on a countdown to Friday - Geoff's big birthday!

Don't forget to take a peak at our photos - the links are on the left side of our blog page.

On the Road Again - A Beautiful Coastal Road

Most of this is excerpted from a note I sent my brother, yesterday.....

We drove from Panama City Beach to Panacea - we only stopped in Apalachacola for lunch at the Apalachacola Seafood Grille (recommended strongly by my brother's wife, Liz). Geoff had the "Largest Seafood Sandwich" which was cod bites piled high and Ellyn had a fried grouper sandwhich. Both were great but Ellyn concluded that the Grouper was more tastey. We, then, walked around the block. It was a very quaint historic seeming town to visit - but it was fairly hot for walking around too much. We liked seeing the real fishing boats and also looked in the windows at the closed print shop plus took a few photos. We'll have to get back there to spend more time, I think. Next, we drove on to Holiday RV park on the water in Panacea, FL. We went for the dip in the pool and will generally just hang out here this evening (great view). Today, our plans are to drive to Wakula Springs and to the Costco in Talahasee then drive towards the Atlantic Coast. We have reservations on Jekyll Island for 3 nites starting Sunday. Then, onto the raceway in Charlotte with plans to arrive there on the 21st - in time for Geoff's big birthday on the 22nd. We have liked the Panhandle coast and do hope to get back here again.