Westward Ho

It is that time of the year for us to take off again! As you can tell from the picture we have a new addition to our family. We are towing a car this year. I must tell you I went down kicking and screaming! Now I know they all say the car will follow behind you and you'll never know it is there. Yea Right. I am already in a 35 foot long monster and now you have added 10 more feet. I can see me now passing this poor little smart car and change lanes smaking it into the brim. Guess I will let Chris drive and I'll navigate.

Chris talked me into the towing by hitting my weak spot.......GOLF. By towing we can take along our clubs and expierence mountain golfing. Another reason was saftey. We will be in areas where there will not be towers for cell phones. In an emergency we can unhook and use our car.
Our German Sheppard, Misty, in Jan. had a stroke. She has recovered nicely, but at 13 1/2 years old we know we may need to see a vet while on the road. That is much easier in a car.

We are pulling out on the 4th of July with a wonderful 2 month agenda including New Orleans, Memphis, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone and much more.

Stay tuned for updates on our travels.

Spelunking in Virginia

We arrived here yesterday staying for 2 nights. The Caverns and the camp grounds are located on the same property. I took the first tour of the day, so it was a "privet" tour. Later in the day they have larger tours. It is a small cavern located in the side of the mountain. The tour took around an hour and there were 300 steps to go up and down. Part of the cave goes up 6 stories into the side of the mountain and down under the ground 10 feet. So today I was 10 feet under! I will need my Advil tonight after climbing all those steps and "Bring on the Wine!"

The drive from Hagerstown, MD to here was beautiful. We paralleled the Blue Ridge Parkway so the view was breath taking and enjoyable for the driver since we were on I-81 all the way. The camp grounds here at the caverns are reminiscent of Trailer Trash Park in GA. A lot of full time residences, pick up trucks and motor cycles. One traveling motor home has 5 dogs outside, 3 German Sheppard and 2 smaller dogs. Inside she said she had a female Shepperd with puppies. Couldn't imagine how that RV smelled. Chris wanted to say only 1 night but we stayed so I could go through the cave.

This trip has been a great experience. What a Wonderfully Beautiful County we live in. We have really enjoyed the campers we have met along the way. In Hagerstown we met two couples from Holland. They flew into NY, where they rented an RV and are traveling around for 3 weeks. They will end up in Boston where they will drop off the coach and flying home. Tomorrow we make the turn south to Charlotte, NC. Guess it is time to think about heading home. (After all there is an up coming wedding!) I see by my watch it is Wine Time!

15 Miles On The Erie Canal

Traveling from Maine through NH and VT was breath taking! The Mountain ranges are beautiful and both states are mostly forests. As we entered into NY and traveled along I-90 we ran parallel to the Erie Canal. Most of you reading this will not know the song mentioned in the title. I learned the song in grade school when we studied the Erie Canal.

We stayed at Herkimer, NY where they had a Diamond Mine that you can mine for diamonds (for a fee). Yeah, I can find enough diamonds to pay for this trip! Well, let's not hold our breath. It turns out that the diamonds are quarts and they give you a hammer to bang on rocks to find them. Where is Sandy when I need her? We met our friends Gary and Janet Townsend at the camp ground in Herkimer. They drove over from northern IN to meet us. After checking out the Diamond Mine, Janet and I decided it was more fun finding our diamonds in a jewelry store! We took a side trip into the small town of Little Falls located on the Erie Canal. The picture is of the Lock in that town.

We had lunch in a small cafe down town where Gary ordered Ham and Bean soup. Well it was a vegetable soup with beans (nothing like our ham and bean). I was going yo order a Gyro Sandwich but it was made with beef. Oh well, Janet and I ordered a salad. Gary and Janet only had a couple of days before they headed back to IN but it was fun sitting around the camp fire with them. We hope to do much more camping together if we can get Gary to retire.

After Herkimere we are headed to Batavia to visit Chris' brothers and do some golfing. I had problems with the WiFi and being able to Blog so that is why it has been some time between entries. Back soon with a posting from the Pocono Mountains.

It's Got Its Ups and Downs

What a day at Sea! We left the campground at 10:30am and caught the free bus into downtown Bar Harbor. We purchased our tickets for the Whale Watching Tour leaving at 1pm. We had lunch at a wonderful resturant on the harbor where we sat outside. For lunch we had pan roasted oysters and fish and chips made from fresh Haddock. The food was wonderful!

We sat on the dock overlooking the harbor waiting for our boat to return from the morning tour. It was late docking so we didn't leave until around 1:30pm. The water temp. was 52 and the land temp. in the high 60's. We were told to wear warm coats, hats and gloves as the sea air temp. would be between 45 - 50. Once we cleared the harbor the captain "put the medal to the pedal" to make up lost time. Outside the harbor, in the Gulf of Maine, the swells were 4-5 feet high. The best place to be on a boat in rough seas is at the back and outside in the fresh air. There were so many people sick that there was no room out back sooooo where does Chris have to sit, inside up front with several people around him using the barf bags!

I guess at this point I should tell you that I am up front loving it, as I love roller coasters and Chris does not! I love the Sea and Chris does not! (Any boat smaller than a Cruise Ship is not his "cup of tea".) Inside Chris is losing his lunch and losing his lunch and losing his lunch.

We finally get out far enough to slow down and look for Whales and we find two Humpbacks. I got a lot of great shots. We were out there a couple of hours before we headed back. The trip back took an hour but was much smoother and Chris did good with a ginger ale to help. Once we were docked Chris threatened to kiss the ground. (I don't think he will forgive me for this one!) He thought about asking the resturant for a refund but didn't think they would agree. (Lunch was not as good the second and third time around!)

Just one thing, I thought only fish were green around the gills! See you later.

Attach of the Lobster

OK this was a GREAT Lobster Dinner! We are sitting on the Beach in Old Orchard Beach, ME. Chris had a 2lb. lobster and mine was 1 1/4lb. The frozen Mango Daiquiris were wonderful. Life doesn't get any better!

Our drive from the Catskill Mountains was long with heavy traffic. (You forget how much traffic is in the North East.) Our KOA campground is very nice. They offer a pancake breakfast every morning. The pancakes are the size of a paper plate. One order has 3 pancakes. (Chris and I shared an order.) There is a Trolley that picks up at the camp ground and for $1 each way they take you to Old Orchard Beach which is about 4 miles from the KOA.

Now I must tell you, this was not our first Lobster dinner. We arrived on Saturday so on Sunday we took the Trolley. (Word of caution, NEVER take the recommendation of a Trolley Driver for a Lobster Dinner!) We went to a place called The Clambake Restaurant. We were told it was reasonable place to eat. You order your dinner and when they call your number you pick it up. Chris ordered a dinner that included lobster meat, sea scallops, and shrimp. I had a steamed lobster. When they called our number Chris picked up the dinners served on paper plates. Chris's dinner came in a small bowl and had only 3 small pieces of lobster with shrimp and scallops. I had a very small lobster. All this for $42.

Tomorrow we head out for Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. The camp grounds we are headed to is a first come first serve. We are a little nervous about this since we are headed into the 4th of July week end. It will take us about 3-4 hours to get there so we are heading out around 7am. Stay tuned for more.

PA State Park Camping

Yeh a picture! Here in the Catskill Mts. at the Pine Grove Furnace State Park we had no Internet and no TV signal! We were on top of a mountain in the woods. At each site there was electric hook-up and that is all. They had water stations to fill you tanks and dump stations (to dump of course). The park had new bathrooms with great showers. (Chris had his first shower in a bath house.)

Let me bring you up to date. We had a beautiful trip from Natural Bridge, VA to Pine Grove, PA. We decided to try a State Park for something different than the KOA camp grounds. The directions said 8 miles from the Interstate. No Problem! Well let me say, it took over 30 min. to just get to the Park Office due to steep hills and sharp curves on narrow county roads. (A white knuckle drive and that was ME the passenger!)

We parked next to the Camp Host, since they had only two 50amp sites. Ron and Sandra were a fun couple around our age. Sandra is director of the local hospital Blood Bank and Ron is retired from there. Chris was standing in their camp site, visiting, when a Very Large Bird decided to take a dump! A BIG dump on top of his head. I kept telling him (while laughing) that is was supposed to be good luck. (He wasn't buying it.)

We had a camp fire every night, watched the lightening bugs, and visited with our neighbors. The forest is pitch black at night. They had a nice lake that a swam in, brrrrrrrr cold. We decided as nice as the park was, we liked camp grounds better. Since we had time Chris did some routine maintenance. He even had me crawling under the RV! Wait, did I sign up for this?(See the picture.)

Wednesday morning we said our good byes to our new friends and headed out for the Catskill Mountains of PA. We had only gone a short distance (not out of the park) when I heard a loud click click click sound with each rotation of the tires. Chris stopped the Coach and walked around the vehicle. There was no apparent problem. We started up again and click click clicking. After traveling a few, miles taking a different route thanks to our Camp Hosts, we pulled over in a parking lot to recheck. I drove the home forward while Chris walked along outside and listened. He had put air in the tires while at the camp, so he decided to readjusted the lug nuts, to see if that was the problem. Yea, it was. On the road again.

Now I forgot to mention that I had walked through the RV while moving, to see if anything was loose and causing that clicking noise. While in the back bedroom I noticed heat pouring out of the floor vents. I checked the settings to see if the heat had been turned on. I didn't have the heart to tell Chris we had another problem while we were looking for the clicking. While he was fixing the lug nuts I got out the RV manual. It seems there is a switch on the dash that allows the engine heat, when turned on, helps heat the coach. Guess What? It was turned on! I turned it off and the problem was fixed! Gosh I'm Good! (I told Chris after the fact.) Who knows how long it was on. We were heating the bedroom while running the air conditioning. I wondered why the rear of the RV seemed to be warmer!

Well, I didn't mean to be so windy! Tomorrow we leave for the Coast of Maine and Lobster! I'll be back with more adventures!

Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

Here we are at Natural Bridge Virginia and it is beautiful! Our trip from Charlotte to here was smooth. We opened the windows in the RV because the air was so cool blowing in we did not need the A/C. We ran into construction on I-77 and sat in traffic for nearly 2 hours. It is nice to sit up high and be able to see far ahead with traffic. The only other traffic jam we have run into was in FL between Tampa and Ocala. A car was on its side on top of an overpass. No other car was involved and no one seemed hurt. It looked like the car had lost control, maybe hitting one of the concrete barriers then flipped. That wait was not nearly as long as I-77.

With the movement of the RV, I only put a small amount of water in the pets bowls. So here we are traveling at 65mph and I am checking the pets water dishes and see that Misty needs water. Now Skid has picked out the coolest spot in the coach to sleep, lying next to the sink. When I turn on the faucet for water, the air blowing in was so strong it blew the full stream of water onto the sleeping cat. Skid FLEW into the bedroom in shell shock! (No more sleeping on the counter. Guess that worked better than the squirt bottle of water I use.)

Poor Skid, she may be neurotic by the end of this trip. Here at the camp site, the front curtains were open so she could look out. When Chris decided to wash the front windshield she was sitting up there pretty as a picture. He got up on the ladder, grabbed his window cleaner, aimed at the window and sprayed. Skid was watching and the minute the spray hit the window she took off for the bedroom. Anyone know a good pet psychologist?

KOA had an "All you can eat" pancake breakfast here this morning in honor of Fathers Day. All dads ate free ( I had to pay $4.) We met a really nice couple at breakfast from PA headed to NC. Campers are a very friendly bunch always stopping to say hi and visit. It reminds me of simplier times when the living pace was slower. We are pulling out tomorrow morning headed for Pine Grove Furnace State Park, PA. There is no WiFi there so my next blog will be from the Catskil Mountains. Stay tuned.