Portland, Oregon

We arrived in Portland on August, 31st for a 7-day stay. We parked at the Columbia River RV Park, a very nice facility with level RV pads, extra space for the toad, and good wi-fi. We met our nice neighbors, who are from the area, and had been coming there for many years. They gave us some tips on things to see on the Oregon Coast as we head to California.

• Day 1: Off to the International Rose Test Garden on a hill overlooking the city. Although past their peak for the season, their were still lots of nice blooms and the clear, sunny weather made for a very nice day. We also stopped at a local music shop named Artichoke Music, where Ellyn got a hard case for her dulcimer and Geoff bought some finger picks. They have a room for concerts but it was "dark" in August.
• Day 2: We met up with Pam, a good friend of Ellyn's sister, Laura, and had lunch. Another great weather day and we sat outside on the Raleigh Hills Pub patio. Then we went downtown and visited the "Duck Store" where they have just about every piece of University of Oregon Ducks goods you could imagine. Then we went to the Powell Bookstore, a 6 story building of new and used books. If you cannot find it there, it probably is not published yet. Geoff bought some copies of Disc World books he has not read yet (he has gone through all of the ones his brother, Wes, gave him) and Ellyn stocked up as well.
• Day 3: It was Saturday so we headed downtown again to the Portland Saturday Market. Lot of vendors, food, and music. Another nice weather day with hot weather and smoke from some nearby wildfires starting to move in . Some great musicians and odd characters on each corner made for an interesting time. A hot spot seemed to be Voodoo Doughnuts, which had a line most of the day and some interesting looking donuts.
• Day 4: One of our first, in a long time, days of hanging out in the RV with the A/C running. In the afternoon, we went to visit another one of Geoff's cousins, Bruce Bottomley and his wife Anne in their home here in Portland. Geoff and Bruce did not meet each other before (as far as they can remember) but Geoff's Mom used to baby sit Bruce and his brother Buster when they were kids and she has many stories that Geoff has heard over the years. We had a great time catching up on happenings, met their daughter, Sara, and went out for a nice dinner.
• Day 5: The heat is starting to break a bit. Out to lunch at Sushi Ville, where the plates of food come by on a conveyor and you pay by the plate. Then we went to see the movie "Super 8" at the Mission Theater and Pub, where we had comfortable seats in the balcony and a table for our sodas and popcorn.
• Day 6: We ventured out to Camping World to spend the generous gift certificate we had gotten from the CEO of Good Sam and Camping World at "The Rally" in Redmond Oregon in July. We picked up a lot of goodies and only had to pony up $40 of our own money. Nice! On the way, we had spotted a Costco so we stopped by there on the way back to pick up some supplies.
• Day 7: Back on the road and back to the Oregon Coast. Our destination: Nehalem Bay State Park, where we will start our trip down US101.

The End of the Trail

A continuing theme along our trip West was following the Lewis and Clark Trail along the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. We had seen the Mandam Village where they stopped and visited with the Native Americans. We saw Pompey's Pillar, which was a site they came upon on their return trip and where the only physical evidence of their passing still exists; William Clark's signature carved into the side of the cliff. Cape Disappointment, named because of the difficulty and sometimes impossibility of navigating the channel into the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean in the early 1800's, was where the trail for Lewis and Clark ended as they finally reached their destination. We stayed here for 3days.

Day 1: We drove most of the day along the northern shore of the Columbia River and at one point stopped to watch a very large ship making its way down the river towards the Pacific Ocean. We noted the name, Global Sentinel, and later looked it up to find it is a cable laying ship used to place underwater cable for transmitting power and other signals across bodies of water.

Day 2: We explored around Cape Disappointment State Park and visited Waikiki Beach, named in honor of a Hawaiian sailor who died near there in a shipwreck. We also visited Long Beach and bicycled on a trail which runs along it. We also visited "Clark's Tree".


Day 3: We visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center on Cape Disappointment and again visited Long Beach and flew our kites in the wind there.


The next day we left Cape Disappointment State Park and drove across the river to Astoria, OR. Here we parked the RV in a convenient parking lot and took the car to visit some local spots.

• Astoria Column - this is a tall column on the top of a prominent hill in Astoria which has paintings and wording depicting the history of that area of the country from before the arrival of the White Man to the arrival of the railroads. Geoff climbed the staircase inside the column and took pictures from the top.
• Fort Clatsop: Named for a Native American tribe in that region, the original fort was built by Lewis and Clark as a winter haven from the time they arrived until the spring when they could begin the return trip to Virginia.
• The Salt Works: In Seaside, this is where members of the L&C team boiled sea water to extract the salt for use in preserving meat for their return trip.

After returning to the RV in Astoria, we continued our journey along the Columbia River to Portland, Oregon.

The Olympic Peninsula

The trip over to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington was not too arduous. We only had a 2.5 mile drive to the ferry dock and then a 7 mile drive from the ferry landing to the RV park. We didn't even hook up the car. Ellyn drove it and I took the RV. The way they loaded the ferry, the RV was way in the back and the car way up near the bow. But they unload in Port Angeles from the rear, so I was out early and Ellyn had to wait until nearly the end to get out. So, by the time she got to the RV park, I already had the RV set up. After lunch, we went up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. It was partly cloudy but the mountains were almost all visible. It is quite a view of the Olympic mountain range from up there.

Day 2: Still in Port Angeles, we made another trip into the park up the Sol Duc River. We stopped off at the rapids where we hoped to see some salmon jumping and we were not disappointed. We saw several and even caught some of them on video and in still shots. It was fun. Then we went up to the end of the road where there was a short hike to the Sol Duc Falls. Then we went to the Sol Duc Hot Springs and relaxed for a couple hours before driving back to the RV.

Day 3: Back on the road down US 101 and over to the Washington coast. We stopped at Ruby Beach and went down to do some beach combing. The fog was in pretty thick and we could just make out the breakers near the shore. There were a lot of flat stones and people were skipping them in a tidal pool. As we were leaving and walking up the hill back to the RV, the fog started lifting. By the time we got to the top of the hill you could see several off shore islands and rocks. Then we made our last stop in the park at the Rain Forest. It was quite quiet there and a little hard to find, but it was an interesting short walk. Then we continued down to near Mount St. Helens.

Day 4: We spent this day at Johnston Ridge about 12 miles from the crater which was once Mount St. Helens. In the 31 years since it erupted, a lot of the surrounding vegetation has recovered. The area around the mountain was turned into a national park and is being allowed to regenerate naturally but the other land for miles around was replanted by the logging companies. These trees are now quite large and will be available for harvesting around 2025.

The next day we drove on to Cape Disappointment and the conclusion of our study of Lewis and Clark.

(Belated) Seattle, WA - Part 2

Ok, so I forgot to do the second part of our Seattle visit. This will give me a chance to reminisce. Good thing I keep notes.

Day 8: We got the kayaks off the car for the first time in a long time and launched out onto Lake Union, a part of the channel between Lake Washington and Puget Bay Sound. This was a great day for kayaking and the lake is nice because it is big but it is a no wake zone, so the boats did not disturb us. We saw the police boat stop some personal water craft and told them to slow down. Geoff got a t-shirt from the place that let us use their dock for launching. We had lunch at a Jimmy Johns sandwich store, like the one Geoff's cousin's husband manages in MS. It was delicious.

Day 9: A rainy start to the day and mostly cloudy afternoon, so we took another lazy day. We just went out for Mexican for dinner.

Day 10: Another wonderful, sunny day and we took a ferry ride across the Sound with Ellyn's friend, Moss, from her college days. We went to Keyport, WA to the Naval Undersea Museum to see the Bathyscaph Trieste. Geoff was attached to the Trieste for 8 months while in the Navy, 42 years ago, and it was retired to the museum in 1987. It was a big nostalgia trip for Geoff. We also enjyed the museum, which was very well done and had a lot of submarine and deep sea exploration displays, including an entire control room form a submarine and the second submarine sail, mounted outside the museum, that we have seen on our trip so far. We had lunch and Polish pastries in Poulsbo, WA.

Day 11: We went back into Seattle and visited the Experience Music Project and Sci-fi Museum. They have a great display on Jimmy Hendricks and some props from the TV show, Battlestar Galactica, both the older version and the newer one. They also have a huge video screen where they showed several documentary shows and music videos. We rode the monorail train from the museum to downtown and visited Pike Street Market.

Day 12: Laundry day before going into Canada and stocking up on groceries.

Day 13: Lunch at Ivar's Salmon House, then off to see the fish ladder at the locks. There were fish in the viewing area but we did not see any jumping. We also went by the UW campus so Ellyn could see the old physics building where she spent a lot of time on campus.

Day 14: On the road again north to BC, Canada.

Adventures in Canada

We have kind of been out of communications for a while because we went to Canada for a few weeks and did not have good access to the internet. Our phones could not be used because data access was too expensive and it seemed that every campground we went to had terrible internet access. So, enough excuses.

From Seattle we went north, across the border and to Vancouver, BC. Our campground was pretty nice, but the spaces were a bit cramped and the internet was only available in their lounge which closed at 11:00 PM. But we had a great time visiting in Vancouver. We were there for 6 days.

• Day 1: We went into the downtown area, and got on the Big Bus. This took us on a tour of the city and we could jump off and back on at any stop. When it got to Granville Island, we got off and explored. We got back on a couple of hours later and rode it back to the starting point.
• Day 2: We took the tramway to the top of Grouse Mountain, a local ski hill, where we could see all of Vancouver. It was quite a view too. There were also some entertainment things going on up there and we made a day of it.
• Day 3: We went to Stanley Park, a huge, tree-covered park at one end of Vancouver. It has many gardens, an aquarium, and other attractions. After that, we went down to the beach and got some take out and sat in our chairs for about an hour.
• Day 4: We went back to Granville Island to do some shopping at the market. We also rode our bikes around False Creek and then took the water taxi back to Granville.
• Day 5: It was a rare, cool, rainy day and we went to the Capilano River Facility where they have salmon ladders and a salmon hatchery. We had a great day just watching the fish. When it cleared up, we went to a dam and a lighthouse.
• Day 6: We met up with our friend Dave Cole's sister, Cyndia and her companion, Angie, and they took us on a tour of Richmond. We had a great dinner with them and then ice cream. It was a nice round-out to our stay.

We left Vancouver on a ferry boat and landed at Nanaimo, BC on Vancouver Island. We stayed over night at a campground near there and then headed across the island. We stopped half way at Port Alberni, which is at the end of a long inlet from the Pacific Ocean where a lot of shipping is done. There we learned about the big tsunami which hit there in the 1950's.

Then we went to Ucluelet on the Pacific coast and its sister city, Tofino. We spent 3 days there and enjoyed strolling their shops, eating at their restaurants and a boat ride up the coast to the hot springs, where we dipped between the springs and the sea.

Then we headed back across the island and down to Victoria on the southern tip. This is the capital on British Columbia. We spent most of our time there in the harbor area, where there was a market, entertainment, food, and the Royal BC Museum, which had some fascinating displays on their First Nation people and an Imax movie about Amazing Caves. We also went back there the last evening to hear a group singing sons of the lumber jacks (and I am not referring to Monty Python either).

Finally, we got onto another ferry in Victoria and landed in Port Angeles on the northern coast of the Olympic Peninsula, our return to US soil and our beloved internet access.

Two Weeks in Seattle, Washington

We swept into Seattle, actually into Bothell, WA on July 22nd and scheduled ourselves into the Lake Pleasant RV Park for 2 weeks. This was so we had time to catch up on some tasks we had been too busy to accomplish, for a bit of R&R after skipping over the US like a stone, to visit with some friends from Ellyn's college days, and to do some sight seeing in the Seattle area. The weather turned out to be, for the most part, very delightful.

1. Day 1: A potluck lunch with Ellyn's good friend Sidney, who was just back from an overseas teaching job. Geoff made his fabulous baked bean recipe and it was its usual big success. THe weather was perfect for sitting in her backyard and just relaxing.
   
   While we were at the lunch party, we discovered that our friend Henry from Los Angeles was in Seattle visiting his brother. We contacted him and went to dinner and then took a walking tour of Fremont, a very quirky little portion of Seattle.
   
2. Day 2: Geoff hung out at the RV working on a few little projects, like scraping bugs off the front of the RV that had been building up for most of the last 2,000 miles and starting a washing job on the RV. It had also accumulated a lot of grime.
   
   Ellyn went out with Sid and visited some locations where their friend, Mary Cooper, and her daughter, Suzanne Stoddard-Cooper are memorialized. They were the victims of a brutal murder more than a year ago which still goes unsolved.
   
3. Day 3: This was a rainy day so perfect for running errands. We both got needed blood tests and made a Costco run to one we had passed on the way. We also went to a Barnes and Nobel with a gift card Ellyn had found while cleaning out a drawer in the RV that morning.
   
4. Day 4: Another cool day, although not so rainy. This day we spent mostly in the RV doing some much needed straightening up and cleaning. We did go out once to a local coffee house (not a Starbucks; this was a Tully's Coffee place) to meet another of our friends, Moss, who was newly back in town. We made arrangements to go on a ferry ride the next week to an undersea museum.
   
5. Day 5: The weather got warmer again so we went into Seattle to the water front. We had lunch at Ivar's Acres of Clams and shared some very good soups and a salad. Then we hung around a while and ran into a Native American working on a totem project to honor his late brother, also a totem sculptor, who was mistakenly shot by police a year ago. It was very sad but we had a nice conversation with him and wished him well.
   
   Then we went on a Segway tour of Seattle for a couple of hours. It was our third time on Segway's and we enjoyed it very much. The hills were more of a challenge than we had encountered before but the devices are very easy to handle and even the beginners of the group had no problems. We even got to zip on them a bit near the football stadium, although they are governed at about 13 mph.
   
6. Day 6: Ellyn and Geoff both had a day out with Sidney, going to visit their old stomping grounds; the University of Washington Campus. We started on "The Ave", AKA University Way and, after lunch, walked onto the campus. We were in search of yet another memorial to Mary Cooper. After some checking with the library staff, we eventually found a bench and two trees which are dedicated to her, as well as a bench inside of one of the buildings. We spent some money at the UW bookstore and did a little grocery shopping on the way back home.
   
7. Day 7: We took in the Flea Market at the Country Village stores near our RV park and then went for a bike ride on one of the many bike paths in the Seattle area. People here put a lot of miles on their bikes.

End week one. The second week will be continued in the next post.

North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon

Whew, way behind schedule here. Let's see if we can squeeze a bunch of updates into one:

1. Our one stop in North Dakota was a great one;  Medora. This was a cute little town tucked right up against Theodore Roosevelt National Park - South Unit. The North Unit is about an hour north and we did spend a day there. Highlights were:
• A dusty campground, mainly because they had suffered a flood from the Little Missouri Scenic River, which runs right along its border.
• A short bike ride into the town, which has a distinctive Western flare to it and several nice, western-styled restaurants.
• The Medora Musical: a romping, family oriented, musical featuring lots of western themes and music and a fiddler who can really play "Orange Blossom Special" like nobodies business.
2. In Montana, we stopped in Billings and spent one of our few free overnights in a Cabela's parking lot. Then we made our way to Butte, which was having a Folk Festival weekend. We also stayed there free in a city park, which they had made available to festival goers. The weather was great, the music was even greater, and it all took place in the historic "Uptown" portion of the city, right under the huge mining operation. Our last morning there we toured one of the older mines in the area before heading for...
3. Idaho. Here we stayed in Arco, the first city in the world to be lit by atomic power back in the 50s, when they were trying to see if there were practical peace-time uses for splitting the atom. This is close to Craters of the Moon National Monument, which is a 12,000 year old volcanic area, where vegetation is still trying to get a foothold. We also found a monument in the town to nuclear submarines and had a great time talking with one of the locals who was able to show us a lot of memorabilia which was of particular interest to Geoff.
4. Oregon was one of the main reasons from coming this way. We attended "The Rally" put on by Camping World and Good Sam and featuring about 25,000 camping units. We boon-docked and found our new batterie,s which we put in last winter, to be really up to the task. We had wonderful weather (again), some great entertainment, and even met a couple from our FMCA "Chai" Chapter, who were there drumming up some touring business. It was great to spend an evening with them. After the rally, we went up to the Mt Hood area and spent several days touring there, seeing the Columbia River Gorge and the Timberline Lodge on the side of Mt Hood. It was still cold enough at 6000 ft for there still to be skiing in progress.

Our next stop is Seattle, Washington, where Ellyn has some friends from her college days.

South Dakota

• Day 1 - Drove west on I-90 to Kennebec, SD. It was pretty much a long day of interstate driving. The Kennebec KOA campgrounds had been flooded to a level of about 3 ft. just 10 days before.
• Day 2 - We started our exploration of the Lewis and Clark trail by back-tracking slightly and visiting the Lower Brule Reservation on the Missouri River. We continued up along Lake Sharpe, which is this dammed-up section of the river to Pierre, SD (say "pier").
• Pierre is heavily sand bagged in the downtown area.
• A short distance north is the Oahe Dam, where water is being released at a higher rate than needed for generating electricity.
• On our way up US-83, we were forced to take a 40 mile detour due to bridge work, adding a good hour to our trip to Pollock, SD.
• Day 3, 4 - West Pollock Recreation Area is on Lake Oahe about 2 miles from North Dakota. We relaxed for an extra day here and put up our shelter because the bugs were a bit thick.
• The second day found us dipping in the lake right off the back of our site. The water was the perfect temperature; refreshing but not cold. Ellyn's water thermometer showed to it to be around 77F.
• That evening there were fireworks being shot up from the other side of the hill from us and so we enjoyed a little display to finish off our 4th of July. We also watched the NYC fireworks on delay from the west coast satellite feed.
• Day 5 - Headed north on US-83 to North Dakota, the seventh state on our trip.

Rochester, MN (AKA "Old Home Week")

• Day 1 - Set up camp at the Marion KOA about 10 minutes southeast of town and then joined an ex-coworker, Paul and his wife, at a Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Tai.
• Day 2 - A lovely day in Minnesota! Visited with Jeff and Emily Bond and their daughter, Laura, at their home in Rochester. Geoff did a couple of loads of laundry at the campground in the afternoon.
• Day 3 - A hotter and more humid day, one like we were used to seeing in MN in late June. Geoff ran the remaining loads of laundry we had accumulated. Visited with George and Pat Penokie at their home, went out for Mexican food with them and then took in the "Thursdays on 1st and 3rd" event downtown, with live music and vendor booths. George ran into several co-workers, both past and present, and their insurance guy.
• Day 4 - The hottest and humidest of our stay! Spent most of it in our air-conditioned RV, air-conditioned car, air-conditioned restaurants (lunch with friends Tom and Liane Peterson in nearby Cannon Falls), air-conditioned stores, and air-conditioned synagogues (B'nai Israel, our first congregation after our move to MN where we met Joe and Barbara Davidson some 33 years ago). The day ended in typical MN style with a rousing thunderstorm followed by cooler, dryer air.

Wisconsin!

We're having a great time in Wisconsin. Here's an update on the past few days:

Camping: Lake Farm Park in Madison, WI

Highlights:

-- Taping of "Whad'ya Know" today in the Monona Terrace designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Show as good and it was fun to see everybody in person.

-- Visit to Milwaukee, yesterday, included a visit to the Domes indoor gardens and a Miller/Coors Brewery Tour, a stroll on the River Walk to see the Fonzie statue and lunch in a historic German restaurant.

-- Friday, we drove about an hour to Taliesin which was the home of Frank Lloyd Wright. Very interesting tour of the home and the school included a lot about Wright's life.

-- Nice campfires, last night and tonight, with campground neighbors. Very interesting couple with a new pop-up camper.

Tomorrow, we're heading north to Appleton where we'll see Bill Maher perform.

Wisconsin - Madison and Milwaukee

We came into Wisconsin with some wet weather trailing us. They were doing a lot of construction from Appleton to Madison. Just as we got onto a long stretch where their did not seem to be any exits, An alarm sounded: Jacks Down. Apparently, with all the bouncing and jarring we had been experiencing, one of the leveling jacks had dropped down from its "up" position. The alarm is quite high pitched and cannot be stopped, so I pulled off into an emergency area to see if I could get it back into position. It is one that I have had trouble with before and I guess we will have to get it fixed. I ran the jacks down and then back up but that one would not move off the ground. So I had to get the axe out to use as a pry bar and push it back into place. A Highway Patrol officer pulled off to see what the problem was and helped out with his lights and a stern look at the traffic until we were able to get going again.

In Madison, we set up in the campground, and a pretty consent drizzle kept us there for the night.

The next day wasn't much better but we had to get out and do some site-seeing. Off to Taliesin, the summer home of Frank Lloyd Wright near Spring Green, WI. We took a tour that lasted about 3 hours and covered a studio building where he had "apprentices" doing a lot of his drawings for projects and learning from him, but for no diploma. They would also perform tasks of upkeep on the farm lands he owned. Now it is a fully accredited school with the appropriately high tuition.

Then on to his home, Taliesin, where we had to wear booties over our shoes. Very impressive but very low ceilings. It seems he was quite a short man.

On the way to Spring Green we spotted a Costco and went there to replenish some of our supplies. We also stopped off at a small Farm Market building which had various goats, birds, and bunnies in pens for people to look at. We did. We also bought some veggies and a snack.

The next day was still cloudy but less threatening, and we headed over to Milwaukee to take a brewery tour at the MillerCoors plant there. Beer in mass quantities flows forth from there. Geoff got one of three possible samples but decided not to imbibe in more.

We also went to see The Domes, some environmental enclosures where they have some exotic plants and birds. One is a desert climate, one tropical, and one that changes from time to time.

One day three, we went into Madison to see the taping of the "What D'ya Know" program on NPR. It was very funny, the music was wonderful, the quizzes were fun, but the 2 hours went by very quickly. We took seats right down in the front row but did not get picked for anything.

After the show we went to Capitol Square, just a walk from Monona Terrace where the show was, and walked around the farmers market they hold there every Saturday during the summer. We went into a restaurant to eat lunch and then went back to the Terrace to enjoy the view of Lake Menona for a while. The sun was actually out on this day and the temperature got up to what you might expect for summer in the Midwest.

Tomorrow we leave Madison and back-track to Appleton to see Bill Mahr do some stand-up comedy. Then it will be off to Rochester, Minnesota.

Almost Out of Michigan

Today was a slow day as we took our time getting ready, this morning, and drove for several hours to Menominee, MI which is on the shore of Lake Michigan and right across the river from Wisconsin. Tomorrow, we drive to Madison, WI.

Food - Had lunch in the remote Jolly Inn in the tiny tiny town of Germfask, MI. My highlight was the homemade Cream of Mushroom soup. The other food highlight was a trip to the really nice Menominee grocery store. Items that were plentiful in the store included herring, sausages, pickles, liverwurst, and cheese product (i.e. various cheese curds). We did buy some samples of all those (except the liverwurst). Oh yes, and got some chicken soup with homemade dumplings which seems to be the soup-of-the-day in nearly every place we stop.

No sightseeing today...except that we did stop for a photo as we entered the tiny town of Ingalls, Mich.

Another feature I'm adding to the blog is to point out some of the details of life-on-the-road...

The RV Life - The question we are asked most often is: What do we do about our mail? We handle a lot of our business online so that minimizes the mail we receive. The mail we do receive goes to a mail forwarding service in Florida. They post, online, the return addresses of mail we receive. Every couple weeks or when we see something we want immediately, we tell the service where to send our mail. The service we use is very good.

New Blog Strategy

Okay... I know that I didn't get off to a good start with my plan to make frequent blog updates. So now, I'm going to give a "bulleting" strategy to see if that makes the updates easier. Here goes:

Camping at: Woodland Park, Grand Marais, Mich - on the shore of Lake Superior

Food Highlight: Pasties (Michigan Upper Peninsula specialty) for dinner at Mariner Restaurant in Munising, Mich

Memorable moments: Toured Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore with short hikes to view a sand dune, a waterfall (very mosquitoey), and view of the picture rocks which are eroded cliffs with mineral stains. Walked the beach and collected a variety of stones including a handful of the pea sized gravel. The lake had small waves lapping on shore. Unlike an ocean beach, there was no sign of shells, seaweed, or any smell. After returning to the RV, we sat around a campfire with campground neighbors..married 69 years and who have been camping since '61! In true Michigan style, he blames the drop in NASCAR attendance to the inclusion of Toyota cars.

Tomorrow, we head towards Wisconsin.

Yay! Made it to Detroit on schedule!

YAY!! We made it to Michigan. Had a nice uneventful ride across part of Ontario, Canada then had a bit of a stall getting back into the US. We were the only RV around and they sent us to wait in a closed RV line and told us it could be about 15minutes wait til that line was opened. Then it didn't look good when we saw three INS guys walking towards us with gloves on. Without even asking us a question, they came right into the RV to look around - even though we had only been in Canada for 5 hours. They even commented on the smell in our fridge - thanks to the rotten orange that has been gone 3 days but the smell lingers. And asked if our RV is always that cluttered. Didn't know how to answer that - well, it's not unusual for our RV to be cluttered but the reason it looked cluttered, then, was that the sides were pulled in, there was a pile of the "keep Ellyn occupied" stuff behind my seat and some stuff from the counters was nestled in the sofa so they wouldn't slide off the counter. Anyway, after 10 minutes of them poking around and asking us questions, we were off again. Made it here in plenty of sunshine due to Michigan's westerly location. Tomorrow, we have the day to relax and maybe do laundry and then dinner with Geoff's college friend, Ken and his wife, Josie.

Border Crossing Day

The first day of our huge trip went very well. We are very thankful that we got through Springfield, MA before the tornadoes. We found a picturesque little campground for the night. We woke up to a sunny chilly (55F) and very breezy morning. Geoff is having a handful driving us through the wind.

Today's plans are to cut through Ontario, Canada on our way to the Detroit area. Sure hope we don't have a repeat of the thorough border inspection that we had, last year, when we went into New Brunswick, Canada. While we are driving through Canada, we'll have the phones and internet link turned off. Guess I'll get some crocheting and reading done.

My goal is to include photos in each of these posts. Still need to work out that system.

By the way, if you want our new blog entries to go to your email, just go to the bottom of the blog page and press "subscribe."

Westward Ho - On the Road Big Time

We're on our way on our 2nd round the country RV trip. This time, we're taking a very northerly path to get to Seattle. Our first segment is driving through from Boston to arriving in The Western Michigan by tomorrow. Today, we're driving towards Buffallo and then, tomorrow we'll be driving through Ontario. It pretty easy driving. Lots of green trees and grass the the highway. The weather is very warm and we've had a few very small rain showers. No storms...Yet?

My goal is to make frequent updates to our blog as we travel along. Be sure to nag me if you don't see one for a couple days.

Winter Wonderland

So we have been parked, for the most part, for more than 2 months here in sunny Florida. This is our first winter in Sun-N-Fun Resort. Last year we did stay here twice for two weeks each and in that time decided that we wanted a longer stay this year. So we returned on 12/13 and, except for two short for trips, one to Disney World, and one for an RV Rally, have been here ever since. The weather has been great. Last year, there were some very cold periods but the jet stream has been staying well to the north so we have enjoyed a lot of sun and many days with temperatures in the 70's and low 80's.

Our days have been filled with the many activities that SNF has to offer. Ellyn has been sewing, quilting, playing Mah Jongg, learning the mountain dulcimer, and doing crafts. Geoff bowls, plays guitar, and built two music stands for both of us. He did the wood work and Ellyn made the cloth parts of them. Both of us do the pool exercise once or twice a week and also have some activities outside the “bubble”. Ellyn goes to NCJW meetings and luncheons and we have also gone to some Spring Training baseball games and even seen a shuttle launch.

We have made lots of new friends here. The people next door, Gayle and Rick, have become particularly close, including their little doggy, Sarah. Ellyn usually gets picked up when Sarah needs to go out for a walk. Geoff helped Rick out with a water leak they had under their clothes washer. Turned out it was just a loose fitting. Rick and Gayle are from Kentucky but, surprisingly, our accents do not seem to get in the way very often.

We have also had some visits from some old friends as well. Ken and Martha from Chicago, who we visited in 2009, and did some camping with on Cape Cod in 2008, stopped by for a month. We went to see a play, 12 Angry Men, locally with them. They are more athletically inclined than we are and would spend a lot of their time playing Pickleball, golfing and biking, but we went to some of the shows with them here at SNF. Ken also helped Geoff get and install a new set of house batteries in our RV. The old ones were not holding a charge and the new ones should be a big improvement if we boondock camp somewhere. We made tentative plans to get together with them in the summer of 2012 to make a trip to Alaska by RV. I emphasis the word “tentative” since that would be a long trip and gas prices would not be a good incentive to do that.

In December we made a short trip north to The Villages to attend a rally of our FMCA Chapter, Chai – Chaverat Yehudim. This group of intrepid Jewish travelers have been getting together for many years and we stayed at a small RV park up there and took a tour of The Villages. This is a huge group of over-55 residential units. It was nice, but seemed a bit to stationery for our current tastes. We, of course, did a lot of eating with this bunch.

In January, we ventured north again to Orlando to see our friends Norm and Shelly at their winter retreat. Then we continued into Fort Wilderness at Disney World where we met up with Marie and Dave from NY, who are avid WDW goers, and some of their family to spend 4 days in the parks.

Since then, we have been enjoying the stay here in Sun-N-Fun. We are anticipating our journey back north to Boston and our son Brian’s wedding in April.

On the Road, Again

YAY! We're on the road, again. This time, we're traveling from Foxboro, MA to Sarasota, FL with stops in Vienna, VA and Richmond, VA and Dothan, AL. Our travels have been going smoothly but, except for the visits at the stops, not too enjoyably due to the deep cold in the deep south. I'll post more in the coming days.

Fridge Continuing Saga, et. al.

When we last left you, we had a non-working refrigerator in our new RV and we were leaving (thank goodness) Bath, NY. Before we left, I did some research and found out there was an RV dealer and repair very close to where we would be attending the FMCA rally near Burlington, VT. I called them and had them order a new cooling unit for our fridge. Unfortunately, we would not be able to get it installed until the Monday after July 4th. So we continued to limp along using a cooler and ice.

On our way to Burlington, we stopped of at Mom’s place in White River Junction, VT. We stayed at the Rest & Nest RV Park in East Thetford for two days and visited with Mom. She is doing much better now that she has gotten over her intestinal problems (TMI). She is getting back into socializing with the other residents again.

The first day there, we hung out in her room for a while and then took her out to the campground to see our new RV. She liked it very much. She agreed it is much more roomy that the Bay Star was. The we went back and Ellyn and Mom got in on the Quiddler game which was in progress. It ran late so they suspended the game with three more rounds to go until the next day.

The next day, we went back to finish up the Quiddler game and then they started another which I joined in on. My first hand was a hoot. I was dealt 3 E’s and, when I was offered the discard from the previous player, I turned it down, since it was yet another E. So I drew one from the deck and, you guessed it, the 5th E. The rest of the game went much better. After Quiddler we played a few rounds of LCR, a game we later played for dimes at the Good Sam Samboree on Prince Edward Island in Canada. We then had lunch with Mom in the Country Kitchen. Delicious and with birthday cake for dessert. It seems it is always someone’s birthday at Valley Terrace.

With said bye to Mom and headed for Essex Junction, VT and the NEA FMCA Rally. We arrived one day early and park in the campground at the fairgrounds for the night. The next afternoon, we met up with the other members of the Chai Chapter and parked our coaches together not too far from where we had camped, so it was a short trip to move the RV. It was rainy that day (of course. It is always raining on the day we arrive at a rally) but the following days were nice. Toward the end of the weekend, it started getting downright hot. But we only had 30 amps, so we had to keep it to just one A/C unit. When we had our potluck dinner one of the days, several coaches popped their circuit breakers when they tried to run their microwaves and A/C units at the same time. Oops!  We had a great parking place, right near a shady park of the park where we could meet and schmooze.

We got a call shortly after the start of the Rally that they wanted us to come in on Friday before the 4th to fix the fridge (yay!). So we did but the warranting RV dealer wanted them to do some checking first to make sure it wasn’t some problem with the installation. So we took it to them and they spent the better part of the day checking. They did find a couple of possible problems but the fridge would still not cool properly. By this time, it was too late in the day to do the cooling unit install so they told us to come back again on Monday and they would install it (ugh). So, one more trip back on Monday.

Four hours later we returned to the dealer to find they were still working on it, and were greeted with the seven words you never want to hear; “I have good news and bad news”. The bad, that they had punctured a cooling coil on the new cooling unit during install and ruined it. The good was that they scavenged a (supposedly) like-new unit from another rig in their lot and installed it instead. We left there figuring all would be well as soon as it had time to stabilize. No such luck.

The next day, not only was the fridge not getting below ambient, but the freezer was not going below freezing. Unbelievable! However, I had been noticing that the fans in the back of the fridge, which need to move air around in the space near the cooling coils because the fridge is in a slide-out and has no natural vent at the top, were not running very often, if at all. So I  jumpered around their thermostat and also did some research to see what the settings on the ‘stat were. It turned out to operate at way too high a temperature. With the fans running fulltime, the fridge had no problem getting down to the right temperature.

We returned to the dealer when we left the rally and got a proper thermostat installed. After that, no problem, even on the warmest setting.

Next stop…Canada.

The Good, the Bad, and the Unlucky

Ok, we came to the Southern Tier of New York State to take a look at a new (to us) RV. The 29 footer, although our baby, was getting too crowed to be comfortable. Ellyn had found a 40 foot Dutch Star on the web at Wilkins RV in Bath, NY, so we headed up here after visiting for a couple of days with Ellyn’s cousins in New Jersey.

We got here last Monday and took a look at this 2003 Dutch Star with 3 slides, diesel pusher, lots of storage (we thought. Read on), and a pretty good price. So we started negotiations and trying to get a loan. It took some dickering (Ellyn is good at this. She played dicker in college), but we settled on something we could live with. Meanwhile, we had been parked for a couple of days in front of the dealership. Free water and electric. We also did a bit of site seeing at Watkins Glen and a couple of the Finger Lakes (Keuka and Seneca).

So finally, everything is set, we get the keys to the Dutch Star, turn over the keys to the Bay Star and start moving our stuff. It is unbelievable to us that we were able to carry this much stuff in the 29 foot Bay Star. We have been having a bit of a problem getting everything stored, but we were also rushing against a deadline, because we wanted to leave Bath by Saturday to get to a concert in Boston on Sunday night. We did not get access to the Dutch Star until late on Friday so we were up late working hard. We did not get it all done, but we thought we could get things wrapped up early on Saturday and pull out.

Then the spit hit the pan. During the check out with one of their techs, a cabinet door got crushed by a slide out. One of their techs does wood working and was able to get it all glued and it looks pretty good. Also, there was a little problem with the stabilizing jacks but that got fixed too. But the tech giving us the walkthrough gave me bad info on the operation of the jacks. It was not until I got a look at the operating instructions that I realized how they were really supposed to work.

So all that was not too bad, the really bad thing was, after we got everything moved except the fridge contents, we discovered that the fridge was not getting to operating temperature. We were not going to move our food into a fridge which would not go below the upper 50s. They told us it would take 12-24 hours to get to proper operating temperature, so we were stuck waiting while the fridge was cooling. However, over several hours, the temperature never went down. In fact, it went up some for a while. Each time we talked to the techs, they would indicate that it had to be tested over a long period before they could work on it. Well, we did leave it over night, but the temp was around 60 in the morning. So they tried changing a couple of parts, and then would go back to the long test period. Meanwhile, we want to get out of there so we could get to Boston for a concert of Carol King and James Taylor.

Now we got to Saturday PM and the fridge was still not fixed and the techs had no more tricks, so now it had to wait until Monday AM before they could do anything else. We considered driving in our car to Boston on Sunday, see the concert, stay in a motel, and then drive back on Monday, but we decided the cost of the gas and the motel would be too much. So we ate the tickets and hung out until Monday.

On Monday they replaced the thermistor but it did not have any affect on the refrigerator. Finally they gave up and said if we would locate a dealer for this unit who would replace it, they would handle it under their warranty program (30 days). We later called the manufacturer and found out the cooling unit, although less than 1 year old, was not covered under their warranty because that only covered the original owner. We now have an appointment for July 6th to have a new cooling unit installed. Meanwhile, we are living out of a cooler with ice.

Two Months: Now What?

Our two-month Spring Fling here in Foxboro, MA is nearly over. On Sunday we pull out and get back on the road for a while.  We are going to Danbury, CT for a couple of days to celebrate Memorial Day with our friends there.  We will also be celebrating a friend’s 50 Birthday in Wappinger Falls, NY.  Then we are heading out to Cape Code for a few days of beach dwelling. We hope the stretch of warm weather will continue so we can get lots of beach time in.

So what have we been doing all this time? Well, we have celebrated Brian and Katherine’s engagement, belatedly, our 32nd Wedding Anniversary, Mother’s Day, Brian’s 28th Birthday,Geoff’s 61st Birthday, Passover, Shavuot, and Easter with Geoff’s Mom.  We attended services at our favorite New England Synagogue and Rabbi Gold, and also at the Synagogue of another friend of ours who is getting ordained as a Cantor in June.  We helped Logan and Maureen gut their kitchen so they could install tile and new cabinets and appliances. We are going to see the results tomorrow. We went to one of Brian’s Ultimate Frisbee games. We took Logan, Maureen, Katherine, and Brian to a Boston Red Sox game (which they won spectacularly).  Logan and Brian took Geoff to the auto races in Stafford Springs, CT for his birthday and then all four of them came out to our campsite for a birthday dinner.

Most of the rest of the time we caught up on doctor and dentist appointments, watched traffic ebb and flow at the campgrounds, where the place would pack up on the weekends, even when the weather was cool or rainy, and then become a ghost town during the week.  We have also been attending Weight Watchers meetings, which we started in Florida, and where Geoff got back to his lifetime weight goal and Ellyn has been making great progress. We have done some sightseeing and bike riding in the area.

We are going to miss Normandy Farms a bit but we are looking forward to seeing our Danbury friends and being on the road again. It will be interesting to see if we have made any improvements in our mobility based on getting rid of some of the stuff we no longer need and lightening our load.

Spring Fling-ing

Well, we did some traveling in March and now we are settling in for Spring to catch up with us in  the Northeast. We have returned to the campground where we did our very first camping in our RV nearly two years ago (April, 2008 for our 30th Anniversary). We are in Foxboro, Mass at Normandy Farms Campground, where they have a special rate for April and May called their “Spring Fling”. The average daily rate comes to about $20.

However, the low rate was not our only reason for coming here. With both Logan and Brian living in Boston, we wanted to be here for Passover at the end of March. When we first arrived here, we went right over to Logan and Maureen’s house to (finally)  celebrate Brian and Katherine’s engagement. We brought the champaign and really enjoyed seeing everyone again, even Gus. We had a wonderful Seder at Brian and Katherine’s apartment in Cambridge. The kids did all the cooking and we brought the Hagadahs. We even got to see Reggie again.

We planned on going up to Vermont to see Mom for Easter but, a series of unfortunate events lead to Mom not feeling well enough that day for visitors. Fortunately, none of the events were life threatening or very serious, but taken all together, we understood but still want to go see her. So this Saturday will be the day.

On our way north, we had our first flat tire on the RV. Luckily, it was not a “blow out” although  we did hear a “pop”, but, when I stopped and got out, the air was still going out of the tire. We had to make a few calls to find out who could help us (we don’t carry a spare), but we were only stopped for about 90 minutes before we were able to get back on the road. It cost a bundle but it was nice that it didn’t slow us down a whole lot.

We did leave for a couple of days to go to Danbury to have doctor appointments. We parked in our friends’ driveway in Bethel. Ellyn got to visit with some of her friends and go play Mahjongg, and Geoff got to fix some computer problems. So now we are hunkered down for a while and, although it is a cool, rainy day, we are hoping for some warmer weather before we leave.

A Momentary Lapse of Blogging

Oops. It looks like, after we got back to the Sun’N’Fun Resort, we totally zoned out. We were so comfortable in our time there and so absorbed in enjoying it, that we could not break out long enough to post an update. Then we left Sun’N’Fun until next December (when we will be zoning for 3 months) and continued to zone. Now we are on our way north and suddenly (*gasp*) realized we have neglected our audience.

We promise an update in the next few days, but, until than, here are a few pictures (worth 100 words each). Enjoy.

Maintenance

As with all motor vehicles, Motor Homes require periodic maintenance. Ours, after approximately 2 years on the road, had just turned over 26,000 miles and we had scheduled to go to Lazy Days RV while in the Tampa area to get that done. In addition, while boondocking in Alexander Springs, our generator started acting up (no power out after running for a couple hours). We had also had a couple of minor problems over the past few months which we wanted them to look into.

We camped in their adjacent campground for the first couple of days, and then put the RV in for maintenance. We were hoping all would get done in one day and then we could move back to the campground for the night and head to Sarasota the next day, after taking their free Driver Confidence Course. Ellyn especially wanted to take this to allow her to be able to share in the driving a bit and to be able to take over in an emergency (G-d forbid).

while waiting for the work to be done, we got to sit in the large waiting area with other people, watch the Olympics, and talk about our experiences with our RVs. Sadly, one couple had a brand-new fifth wheel which was giving them a lot of problems. They had a list of about 90 things that had to be fixed. Ugh. We feel so fortunate that we seem to have a coach with very good workmanship. Most of the problems we have had are very minor and most of them our own fault (like breaking a door off the pantry twice while opening or closing the slide. I was able to fix it both times). As bad as their trouble was, they knew of others who had been there for weeks trying to get things right.

Well, they got through most of the work on Wednesday but had to do a little more debugging of some of the issues. So we had to stay in the coach in the repair bay overnight. That was ok, except that there were air compressors running in some of the garages around us, so it was kind of a noisy night.

On Thursday morning, we had to get out of the RV by 8:00 (yawn) and then we went to Lazy Days free breakfast. At 9:00 we went to the class and learned some interesting techniques for driving and parking an RV. In the afternoon, after the free lunch, Ellyn went back to do the driving part. I did not, as they were a bit overloaded with drivers.

We finally got out of there around 5:00 PM and headed to Sarasota, reaching Sun ‘N’ Fun by about 7:30 PM, after a (not too) quick stop at Costco. Yay!

2010 Travel Plan Changes

In the past couple weeks, Geoff and I have made big changes to our 2010 travel plans. Here's our current plans (God willing):

Now til early March - Florida with Geoff attending Datona 500 on Sunday Feb 14

Mid-March - Start north! Jekyl Island (hope there isn't a Noreaster this time), Day at NCJW's Washington Institute, Visit Ellyn's Brother and his family, Visit New Jersey Cousins, etc.

End of March - Arrive in Foxboro, MA, Geoff to attend Penny Arcade Expo, Passover Seders with "Kids" & hopefully cousins, too

April and May - Remain in Foxboro (great late spring camping deal at Normandy Farms), Geoff help with Logan's and Maureen's kitchen remodel, catch up on Dr. appts, Mah Jong, visit friends & NCJW in Danbury, Worship/Study at Shir Tikva, Visit Geoff's Mom on Easter and each week or two

June - Go where wind takes us

July 4th Weekend - Camp with FMCA Chai Chapter at Rally in Essex Junction, VT - visit with IBM friends there

July and August - Travel to Maine and Canadian Maritimes

August thru fall - No Plans, yet - perhaps go to Newmar Rally in Indiana

Thanksgiving and Chanukah - In Boston Area with "kids"

Mid Dec 2010 to Mid Mar 2011 - Three months at Sun 'n Fun in Sarasota

April 2011 - Looks like current date for Brian's and Katherine's wedding :-)

Remainder of 2011 - Trip to west and northern half of USA

After that, we may settle down or who knows?

Hope we'll get to see lots of you during our travels.

Resort Living!

I'm going to skip over our time in Venice, FL and our visit with Greg and Janet to do those in a later post so that I can tell everybody about our enjoyment of Sun 'n Fun RV Resort in Sarasota, FL. First, the resort is in a great location - only 10 minutes from Sarasota's cultural venues, shopping and incredible beaches. Plus, it's only 20 minutes from the natural beauty of Myakka River State Park. However, that's only if we want to escape what they call "the bubble".

The bubble is the incredible activity filled life within the Resort that is so busy that it's tempting never to leave the park. There's every activity you could possibly imagine: jewelry, stained glass and wood workshops, every summer sport, a huge gorgeous pool, mah jong and other games, weekly folk music jam session, craft activities, dulcimer lessons, etc. etc. Plus everybody is very friendly.

We're here for 17 nights and trying to take advantage of as much as possible. Yesterday, I was one of 65 at the 10:30 water exercise session. Then I went to a craft session that had a choice of 10 different crafts. In the evening, we first went to an hour of "bar bingo" then we went to the folk music jam session. This morning, I'm up a bit early to one of the two weekly Mah Jongg sessions. This afternoon we're going to check out the Pickle Ball and then we'll probably go to the pool. In addition to all the activities, this is a huge park (800 sites) so just riding our bikes around the park is a nice activity.

The price for all this fun - only $5 more a day than the boring campground we were last at. It's a bit above our average site cost but works out well for the budget because we're not paying for RV gas like we do when we're traveling.

We're seriously considering coming here for 3 months next winter. Oh yes - another advantage is that we're only two hours from Disney World so we could meet friends there!

Yikes time to have breakfast and get to Mah Jongg.

The Florida Everglades

We only had two days in and around the Everglades but they were pretty good ones. Our main objective was to see some alligators. We had been promised some at a couple other places we visited down here but we had not had any luck. It seems most of them are hibernating this time of year when the weather is cool and the water is warm down deep.

The first day, we went right into Everglades National Park and made our way to the Royal Palm area. There they have some boardwalks which go out over the swamps and you can see many birds and alligators. However, before we even got there, we ran into a very large number of small birds, some sort of swallows, I believe, but they were moving very fast and in a huge swarm. I got out to take some pictures and discovered they seemed to be swirling around a water hole and taking turns diving down into it. I think they were just getting a drink of water.

As turned out, the alligators were out in force. Along the water they were up on the grass getting as much warmth as they could, although there was not much that we could feel. I guess it must have been better than being in the water. As we went along, we saw more and more, some in the water and some on the land. In one place there were 5 or 6 big (about 20 ft) ones stacked up on some logs. About that time the sun was beginning to peek through the overcast.

As many alligators as there were, there were many many more birds. Egrets, storks, ibises, cranes and lots of Black Vultures. In fact, they had had trouble with the vultures damaging cars in the parking lot to the point that they had hung a couple of dead ones up as a deterrent. I am surprised that the others did not just eat them. I mean, that’s their job, isn’t it?

The second day, we moved on the Shark Valley. Here they have a tram that runs through the park or you can walk or bicycle. We opted for our bikes but only went a couple of miles in one direction before turning back. It was really quite uninteresting. We did see one alligator and lots of birds, but they were mostly off the road and frankly, we were getting somewhat “birded-out”. We went back and down the other loop, where we saw more alligators including some youngsters, only about 1-2 feet long. Very cute.  All in all, it was a very good time, although still a bit cooler than we would like in Florida.

‘09 Close Out in the Keys

It is a dream place to finish out the year, the Florida Keys. We cruised into the Grassy Keys RV Resort on December 23rd for a two week stay. It is very nice, right on the Gulf side, only two years old after an old trailer park was gutted and refurbished. They have a nice little club house, a swimming pool, and docks on the water’s edge for all the fisher’s with their boats.

We found out as soon as we arrived that they were going to have a potluck dinner on the 25th, with the park managers providing a deep fried turkey and everyone else bringing other dishes to share. It was a delicious affair and we met a very nice couple from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Laurel and Michael. We hit it off right away and ended up playing the game of Sequence with them. Ellyn and I had played this same game in Michigan with our “next door” neighbors. We had so much fun, we went back the next evening for a rematch after we went out for a nice dinner with them.

On the 28th, Ellyn and I went to Key West to take a sunset sail that Logan and Maureen had gifted to us for Chanukah. It turned out to be a real adventure as it was a pretty windy day, which is a good thing if you are on a sail boat. They took us out and sailed for about an hour before sunset. They us help with the sails, if we wished to, which I did. They even brought out some little canons and fired on one of the other sailing boats, which fired back.

The next day, we traveled in the other direction on the Keys to Key Largo to meet up with our friends Lynn and Rob from Alabama, who were down to visit with their son, Dan, who works as a dive instructor. We had a great time with them, got to see Dan’s work place, went to a bird sanctuary where we got to feed the pelicans, and had a couple of great meals.

On New Years Eve Day, we took to the water at Curry Hammock State Park. It turned out to be a perfect day for it. The sun was out, it was warm enough for swimming suits and getting mildly wet, and it was one of the last calm days we had. After that day, it got very windy, especially at night. We had some nights that the RV would rock from the wind and the slideout covers would be rattling in the wind. I had to tie down the flag on the back of the RV to get some sleep. We had a couple of days lazing on the beach, riding our bikes on the bridges, and walking on a nature trail. We collected lots of little shells, but not too many larger ones. We saw dolphins, crabs, a sea hare, many birds, a dead Portuguese Man-Of-War, other jelly fish possibly alive and spiders. It was a relaxing time for us.

Catch-Up Time, Again

We're behind, again, on our blog. Here's a quick update and then we'll fill in any missing details in a future post.

Walt Disney World We had a GREAT time in WDW with Marie, Dave and friend Mark. Although, rain had been forecast for the whole week, it held off until our last afternoon and evening. We camped in Fort Wilderness right next to a pretty creek and really enjoyed the over-the-top Christmas decorations put up by some of the RVers. Several of them had music-timed lights like the viral YouTube video of years past. As usual, the meals were a highlight of our Marie and Dave WDW "tour". In fact, I'm getting hungry, now, just thinking about the great meals. Favorites were Tusker House, Sushi from Yakitori House, and the new Iron Chef Cat Coura restaurant, Kouzzina. Other highlights were the shows - Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Nemo. The favorite ride, of course, was Toy Story Mania. I'm not sure it would work out for us to meet-up in WDW with Marie and Dave in 2010 but it would be great fun to do it, again! And, many thanks to Dave, who plans the great (and detailed) itineraries and makes the dining reservations.

Sunrise, FL Today, we wrapped up five nights at Markham Park in Sunrise, FL which is just west of Fort Lauderdale. It's a Broward County park and has great spacious RV sites PLUS a great lake to kayak, a model airplane field & landing strip, and a huge Rifle/Pistol Range. The bike ride around the park was almost 5 miles and took us past the Range which shooters were aiming at targets and flying clay pigeons. One of the guns we saw was a HUGE automatic weapon probably larger than most marines use in wartime. We also stopped by to see the model airplanes which included helicopters, models up to 3 feet long/wide and one jet that looked like a miniature Blue Angels jet. Sometimes, it was hard to tell which were the model airplanes or the aircraft flying from Miami Airport.

We were able to see some former Danbury friends while we were in Sunrise, We attended Erev Shabbat Services at the synagogue of Rabbi Bradd Boxman who had been our Rabbi in Danbury, and helped Geoff with his choice of Judaism. We also had lunch with Jodi and, her son, Jacob. We went on a walk in a great Nature Preserve with them to look for alligators. We didn't see any alligators but we did see MANY beautiful birds. In fact, I called it the birdie-est place we had visited. It's such a great perk of our travels to catch up with so many longtime friends.

Our most touristy day was a trip into Miami. First, we had Cuban Sandwiches in Little Havana. We sat on stools at a street side cafe where it seemed like we were visiting the cooks' home kitchen. Then we drove to South Beach to look at the Art Deco Architecture. We walked about 3 miles around the downtown area and through the Lincoln Road mall area and Espanola Way, and all the way to the Holocaust Memorial. We even walked a short distance on Miami Beach, although it was somewhat deserted.

From “D” to Shining “D”

Orange County, California to Orange County, Florida. 4518 RV-miles. 2 1/2 months. Disneyland to Disney World. What is the constant? Dave and Marie Cole, of course.

Acadiana Pit Stop

Hi! It's Ellyn, tonight. Geoff is already asleep - usually we write the posts together and he posts the photos but I wanted to get something posted so it's just me and no photos.

We're camped in the heart of Louisiana Cajun which is nicknamed Acadiana and a blending of Acadian and Louisiana. Acadia is now known as Nova Scotia and the French Catholics, there, were expelled by the British back in the 17th century. They were dispersed and then, ultimately, resettled in Louisiana. They became known as the Cadians which evolved into being called Cajun. It's an amazing story of cultural survival that, after 300 years, their culture, language and cuisine have survived - well, actually thrived.

We had intended to stay here only 4 days but our car is in the dealer service center awaiting brake parts so our stay is extended to at least 8 days. It's not a bad place to stay. The food in incredible in this area and we've only been eating in the local small places....more on that, below.

And Betty's RV park is the smallest and funnest campground people, ever. Last night, 12 of us went out for a crawfish dinner and tonight Betty made YUMMY Chicken Sausage Gumbo for us all PLUS she brought in a 3 piece band made up of a guitar playing vocalist with a bass and a lead guitar player. The vocalist was incredibly good and the guitar players were fantastic musicians. We both had wished the music was a bit more cajun instead of country-ish but we loved it and it was great to be part of the enthusiastic audience in Betty's RV Park gathering room. The gumbo was supurb - very much a long simmering rich chicken soup with cajun but not too spicey flavors.

The evening's festivities capped a day of driving in the country side. We had hoped to do some bird watching but we only got to see egrets which still do delight us. It was a sunny sunny day but chilly (starting out at 34F!). We did see a lovely little cemetery, had a great lunch at Suire's Grocery and Restaurant. We met one of the owners as we were walking in. She asked where we were from which happens with everybody we meet, here, and we answer "Connecticut" even though that isn't quite accurate, anymore. The owner went on the to tell us that a TV crew had been at the grocery just a few days earlier - I think she mentioned that the chef with them was Chef Besh and that he told her that when he was done being a chef in New Orleans that he would come there to work. We shared one crawfish and one shrimp etouffee stuffed pirouette (fried dough). Here's an article from the NY Times from 2002 that is a great description of where to get the good food here and mentions Suire's.

We also stopped in a Cajun jam session at a small cafe, in Erath, for about an hour. There were six musicians including an incredible acordian player playing incredible music. Plus we stopped by Delcambre to see the shrimp boats, which we saw, but there was no action on them as it's the weekend. We love driving by the countryside - seeing horses, cattle, crawfish fields and the occasional egret. It's very very flat here as it is all part of the deltas from the Mississippi and its offspring.

All in all, today was a heavenly day - beautiful sunny drive through the countryside, two venues of incredible live music and great food. Ahhhhh....the RV life! Now, if only our car is fixed on Monday! 


Update by Geoff, 12/9/2009: We have left Acadiana and headed off to Florida and the rest of our lives. But we would be lying if we did not say that our time in Abbeville had not changed us. When we arrived, I thought "Gee, this is a pretty basic RV park" as all was gravel, the sewer lines were above ground, the electric connection had no local breaker and the box door would not close over the connection. However, we did get right off to a fast start because there was a "happy hour" going on right as we arrived, so we got to meet most of the other campers. The camp owner, Betty, was hosting the party, had snacks out, and everyone brought their own drinks. This went on every night from 4:30 until about 6:00 or whenever people decided to head back to their rigs. We quickly learned that it was something to also show up for because everyone got to share what they had done that day and we could get ideas of other places to go and, especially, places to eat. Also, Betty was always planning outings for whomever was interested, usually to go for dinner or lunch. One evening she made gumbo for us and invited in some local musicians who were wonderful. We had a great time that night.

Between the great times with Betty, all the cultural things we got to see, we even met the mayor of Abbeville, and listening to a radio station with lots of Cajun music in both English and French, we feel like we have truly experienced Acadiana.

Houston and Acadiana Visits

We had a great time in Houston visiting with all four of Ellyn's cousins from her Father's side of the family and her Uncle Lou plus "new" cousin, Abbey, and her family ("new" = recent connection through family genealogist, Fred). Many thanks to all of them for all the food and laughter and good times during our visits. In addition to family, we visited the beaches on the Gulf two times, had a great bike ride, visited the beer can house, and bought cowboys boots & hat. Plus we did do some just plain relaxing and paperwork including finalizing the refinancing of our RV.

On Sunday, we resumed our eastward travel. Our first stop was in the beautiful little Sam Houston Jones State Park in Lake Charles, LA. It was great to be camped right near a swamp including water fowl, Spanish Moss, and Cyprus tree knees. It's amusing to see the ducks on the Gulf because there are white ones with red faces and other which have cow-like black and white coloring.

Our next stop was Jennings, LA where we went straight to Boudin King for boudin, a Louisiana sausage stuffed with spicy pork, onions, rice and herbs. The woman at the counter could tell we were visitors (our accents?) and offered us two inch samples of our choice of mild or spicy boudin (we chose mild). It was great tasting but there was so much else good on the menu that we decided to take one pound of boudin for dinner and to eat something else for lunch. Geoff had rice & beans with sausage and Ellyn had fried giblets and okra. Yummy.

We next went next door and visited the W. H. Tupper museum. What a wonderful time capsule of a rural store from the late 40's plus a telephone museum! And an extra treat was that the woman who showed us around was the Great-Granddaughter of the first mayor of Jennings so she knew a lot about the town history and people. Third stop was the Visitors center which had three big alligators and a baby alligator that we could hold. We remember us stopping to see the alligators with Logan and Brian, in '93, when we four drove around the US in four weeks.

Our next destination was Abbeville, LA, where we are currently parked in Betty's RV Park which is only 17 spots. A funny  thing is that our friends, Norm and Shelley, also camped here but we didn't even know that until after we had made plans to come here. Betty is the owner and there's a BYO happy hour each evening. Today, Betty provide home backed banana bread that was fantastic.

Today wasn't one of our better RVing days. First off, it is cold and rainy. Second, our car started making a loud clacking noise when we heading out for Avery Island, this morning. We were hesitant to continue driving it so we called a tow truck and then the car stayed in the shop the rest of the day but they couldn't find the problem. So, Geoff retrieved the car and when we drove it to dinner, tonight, it stopped making the noise. We had a great dinner at Shucks! I really liked the vinaigrette which had a nice sweet and tart taste. When I saw bottles of the Shucks Cane Sugar Vinaigrette at the cashiers and asked how much they were, she said I could just take one. A fun end to a day that started pretty gloomy.

So, we'll head for Avery Island, again, tomorrow. Hope the drive goes better than today's did.