Sullivan's RV Adventure

Friday, October 29, 2010

2010-10-29T19:29:00.001-07:00

^{Where were we today? Looks like Arizona and saguaro cactuses. Not much to report today except that we drove 400 miles and saw the cities and the desert. We drove miles and miles and saw nothing that resembled civilization except the highway. Some day we will become dependent on the desert as an energy source; solar power and wind power. We already have hundreds of wind turbines in the Palm Springs area on I-10.}

^{Yesterday I said we were going to Bisbee. That didn’t happen. We decided to make a direct line to Donna, TX.}

^{Once we get to Donna we will stop the blog until we start traveling again. Maybe our last blog will be pictures of Victoria Palms Resort, our Texas winter home. I hope everyone has enjoyed following us, and I hope you have learned more about our great national parks and monuments.}

Thursday, October 28, 2010

2010-10-28T22:15:00.001-07:00

Today it was all about meteorites and moon rocks. The manager of the RV park is Jonathon Martin. His father was a professional photographer and developed some of the photos from the Apollo 11 space mission that landed on the moon in 1969. ( I hope I get most of these facts right).

When the shuttle returned one of the sealed boxes of moon rocks lost its seal and the rocks were no longer of value for scientific study. So the rocks were broken into smaller pieces and given to people who worked on the mission. Jonathon’s mother, a math professor at UCLA, also had something to do with it. Jonathon’s family got one of the moon rocks and now Jonathon has it. He’s very proud of the rock and the story behind it. He also has a small, but extremely heavy rock that was part of a meteor that crashed into the hills around Yucca Valley. Jonathon and his daughter, Heather, watched through a telescope as the meteorite fall to the earth and were able to find it some 75 miles away the next day! That’s pretty amazing!

Here I’m holding a rock that was part of a meteor. The density of this rock is heavier than any other material on earth.

Here’s student and teacher studying the moon rock. Jonathon was a science teacher in Austin, TX and really knows his stuff. In the photo below, my foot is resting on the moon rock, so I was able to say that I stood on the moon’s surface. Did I say that right?

This is a photo of the Yucca Valley RV Park where we stayed. It’s a very nice park. Just imagine, we traded that for a spot behind the Shell station in Gila Bend, AZ with no cable and zero channels on the TV. This is the second night of the World Series, and I will have to wait for the results.

Tomorrow we head for Bisbee, AZ.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

2010-10-27T16:22:00.001-07:00

At 6:30 A.M. the cell phone rang. It was our son, Eric, calling (9:30 A.M. Atlanta time) to say that Connie’s Face Book account has been compromised. Someone hacked into it, and they went into Connie’s chat room and said that we had been robbed in London and needed money immediately. DO NOT CHAT WITH HER UNTIL SHE GIVES YOU THE OK! Just so you know, we are in California and if we have been robbed, it was at the gas pump. Needless to say that got Connie’s day off to a fast start. She went from sound asleep to bright-eyed and on the laptop. She’s working to resolve the problem and wanted to tell all her “friends” that she might not be on FB for a while, but she will be back. Wow! Can you imagine not being on FB?

We visited Joshua Tree National Park later in the morning. This park is 794,000 acres of desert. Half of this is the Mojave Desert, above 3,000 ft. and half is the Colorado Desert, below 3,000 ft. The park is ‘as advertised,’ covered with Joshua trees, it also has many flora and fauna unique to the high-plains desert. The park was declared a national monument in 1936 by FDR and in Clinton’s presidency, 1994, it was renamed a national park. One of the interesting features of the park is that from Keys View (5,185 ft.) you can see the San Andreas Fault. You can also see Palm Springs (150 ft. elevation) and I 10.

Connie is standing beside the park’s namesake, a Joshua tree. The visitor center that we went to was in the town of Joshua Tree. It was in the same building as a donut and coffee shop - that was a first. Usually the visitor centers are very impressive but not this one.

Below is the general topography of the park. Notice the Yucca plants in the foreground.

The photo on the left is signed as the Mojave Desert. To the right is the vista from Keys View.

Today was an easy day. We visited the park and were back to the MH by mid-afternoon. I think we’re going to be heading directly to South Texas and get settled in at Victoria Palms. Let winter begin!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

2010-10-26T23:02:00.001-07:00

Today we hit the freeways of the Los Angeles area with the MH and toad. We had to drive from Simi Valley to Yorba Linda - a distance of about 90 miles, all on the freeways. Most of the time the traffic was, in my opinion, fast and heavy.

The Nixon Library and Museum was our destination in Yorba Linda. The Nixon Presidential Library and Museum is the 11th of the 12 presidential libraries that we have visited. The only one we haven’t seen is the Gerald Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, MI. I mistook the location of the Gerald Ford Museum as Ann Arbor rather than Grand Rapids when we went through Michigan on our way to Canada. By the time I discovered that the museum was in Grand Rapids, we were way past it. Maybe next year!

This library was dedicated in 1990 for the 37th President of the United States. His birth place and grave site are next to the library. The museum is full of exhibits because president Nixon was involved in government for most of his adult life. The exhibits cover his terms as representative, senator, two terms as vice president during the Eisenhower administration and his two terms as president. Oh, not quite two terms; Watergate shorten his second term. What a senseless waste of presidential power. Both Richard M. Nixon and his wife Pat are buried at the library.

The photos below are of the garden/reflecting pool area and of his boyhood home and birthplace.

To the left is Nixon as the vice president. Next are campaign pictures from the ‘68 campaign. The sign below says it all. When Nixon lost to John F. Kennedy in 1960, he got out of politics for a few years. This sign just seemed interesting to me.

These are some interesting statues in the museum. They are all to perfect scale and represent world known personalities (leaders). You can double “right click” any photo and enlarge it to get a better look. How many people can you identify?

This is a “Moon Rock” from the one of the trips to the moon.

This is one of the large paintings in the replica of the East Room of the White House. This is one of my favorite presidents, Theodore Roosevelt.

The below photos are of Pat Nixon and both of the Nixon’s head stones.

Monday, October 25, 2010

2010-10-26T20:00:00.001-07:00

The first thing we did today was take the MH in for service. It’s funny because when we pulled in to the service area, a lady came out and said someone would be with us shortly. Then she came back and said they were making room for us. I thought, “That’s OK”, and waited a while. Then the lady returned and said we would have to wash the MH. I told her I had never had to wash the MH before someone serviced it. "Service?”, she said. She thought we were delivering a new MH, not coming in for service. So finally we were sent to the service department.

After we filled out the service order, we showed the service rep what was wrong. Wouldn’t you know, everything worked just fine, The slide room worked fine, and the water issue worked as it should. He said they couldn’t replace any parts if everything worked. I agree. They might replace one thing, and it might turn out to be something else. End of service appointment!

We took the MH and toad and went to the Reagan Presidential Library. The museum part is undergoing a $15,000,000 (all donated money) renovation and most of the exhibits are closed to the public. The oval office was the only exhibit that was open except for Air Force One, the grounds, and the motor cycle exhibit.

The library and museum is located in Simi Valley, CA, 40 miles from downtown Los Angeles. It was dedicated in 2001 and President Reagan was buried on the grounds in 2004. Boone Pickens donated the money for the Air Force One pavilion. After the 707 was flown to California, the people from Boeing disassembled the plane and reassemble it at the museum. It has been the most visited of all the presidential libraries. That makes sense - California has 38,000,000 residents.

The original desk in the Oval Office in D.C. was built from the wood from the British ship Resolute. It was gifted to the United States by Queen Victoria in 1880. Every president since 1880 has used the desk with the exception of presidents Johnson, Nixon, and Ford. The original desk was open between the two pedestals, but was enclosed by FDR to conceal his leg braces. This one, obviously, is an identical reproduction.

Air Force One and Marine One.

The motor cycle collection covered early and late model bikes. The bike on the right is an Indian and was use by Steve McQueen in the movie “The Great Escape.” It was also used in “The Magnificent Seven” and “Bullitt.”

On the left is the Jelly Belly jelly bean display. The pictures in the background are mosaics made with…………………..jelly beans. The photo on the right is a part of the Berlin Wall.

The grounds and views around the museum are beautiful and fashioned to celebrate the Grand Old Party.

The grave site of the 49th President of the United States seems very simply stated. The life of Ronald Reagan is a very interesting and impressive American story.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

2010-10-26T16:35:00.001-07:00

We have some catching up to do. This addition of the blog will look like a photo gallery. Lots of pictures to share.

It’s Sunday night, and we haven’t written about Thursday night and later. After we went to the Hearst Castle we went back to Morro Bay and met Christina Elliott-Sheffield, a high school classmate of ours. Connie and Christina were very close friends from kindergarten through high school. We met at the motorhome and visited for several hours. Then we went to San Luis Obispo for a brief city tour, farmer’s market and dinner by the creek that runs through the downtown. We left for Los Angeles on Friday morning and got to our KOA near Ventura by early afternoon.

When we got parked and leveled the MH we usually run out the slide rooms. On Friday, we could not get the bedroom slide to do anything. It wouldn’t even make an attempt to slide out. I call the service desk at Winnebago, and he suggested a couple of things to try. I disconnected a fuse and put it back together and the slide room went out. Then I tried to bring it in and nothing happened. One more call to Winnebago, and we agreed that the electric motor is probably shot. We made an appointment with the local Winnebago dealer and will have them look at the problem on Monday. If parts are needed we will have to stay in the area a couple of more days. I will also have them fix a couple of other issues when it’s in the shop. It seems there is always something to go wrong. (It doesn’t just seem that way, it happens all the time.)

Friday night, we ventured over to my cousin, Tom and Barb McConville’s, for a visit. Tom and Barb are both teachers. Tom teaches at a private school, Villanova in Ojai, and Barb teaches special ed at the high school in Oxnard. We visited about “cousin stuff” and had pizza. It’s always FUN to get together with family.

On Saturday, we drove to the beach in Oxnard and spent most of the afternoon and evening with Larry and Shelia Chase. Larry was also in our high school class. We had lunch and watched Wisconsin beat Iowa. They gave us a tour of the area, and we stopped at the Channel Island Visitor’s Center. We had a fabulous time! Our seafood dinner was fabulous also!

Today, Sunday, we visited the Gamble House and Huntington Gardens and Museum. In the evening we went out to dinner with my cousin Tom. Barb was in San Francisco baby sitting their grandson. It was quite a day.

This is exactly how Connie and Christina act (giggle) when they get together. It’s funny just to listen and watch them.

This is a “morro” (a monolith) at Morro Bay.

My cousin Tom McConville and his wife Barb.

When we were with Larry and Shelia Chase we drove to the Channel Island National Park Visitor’s Center. We got the “Passport” book stamped, but did not take the boat ride to the islands.

The Gamble House was built by the Architects Greene & Greene in 1908. It’s one of the top ten residential homes in the Los Angeles area. The Gambles were owners of the Proctor & Gamble Company and built this as a winter home to escape the winters in Cincinnati. The house cost $50,000 to build back then and today it’s priceless. The attraction to the house is that all the interior is wood and most of the joinery is exposed. There are also many different types of woods used. The front door is teak. Other woods are Douglas Fir, Oak, and Cherry. The architects designed everything - the house, most of the furniture, the carpets, and the landscaping. Two of the bedrooms upstairs were furnished in original Stickley furniture. Some of the Greene & Greene furniture is so historic that it was on loan to the Huntington Museum for a special exhibit. In the early 60’s, heirs of the Gambles considered selling the home. They put the home on the market, but when they overheard one couple talk about painting the interior wood paneling and trim WHITE, they decided to give the home to USC and the City of Pasadena. In 1978, it was designated as a National Historic Site.

The Huntington is the residence of Henry Huntington and was built in 1911. Since then several other buildings have been added. One gallery (55,000 sq. ft.) “display one of the finest collections of European art in the nation.” Here you’ll can see photos we took of the original Blue Boy and Pinkie. Another gallery (16,000 sq. ft.) has American art. I especially noticed several Remington bronzes and several pieces of early American furniture. The chest on chest was made in Massachusetts, pre-1775! The chair and music stands were made by Sam Maloof. Sam specialized in custom rocking chairs, some of which ended up in the White House and the Smithsonian. He died within the past two years. He was over 90 years old, still worked every day and had orders for chairs that would have kept him busy another ten years. The museum even has a copy of the Gutenberg Bible. There is also a collection of rare books.

The gardens were past their peak and you had to look to find the really beautiful roses, but there were some.

Thomas Paine’s words are as true today as when he spoke them in 1776!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

2010-10-26T16:30:00.001-07:00

From Morrow Bay to the Hearst Castle is just a 30 minute drive on Hwy 1. We bought tickets for the 10:00 A.M. tour and arrived early enough to watch the movie about the building of the castle and some of the early guests that visited the castle.

The castle was built by William Randolph Hearst. The family fortune was made in the newspaper and magazine business. Mr. Hearst started construction on the castle in 1919 and construction continued until 1947. Much of the castle was completed in the 20’s and many Hollywood celebrities came to the castle on the weekends. The castle has 56 bedrooms and there is over 90,000 sq. ft. of space, in addition to 127 acres of gardens. In 1957, the Hearst family donated the castle to the State of California and it has been open to the public since. In 1976, the castle was named as a United States Historical Landmark.

The weather for our visit to the castle was very cloudy and a slight mist fell most of the time.

Above are some of the photos of the castle. You can see how cloudy it was from the top photos. The entry hall and dining room are pictured. The indoor pool was unbelievable! The blue color of the water and the (real) gold accents were beautiful. The picture of the castle in the clouds is a photo of a photo.

On our return from the castle we stopped at Robin’s in Cambria for lunch – a really nice restaurant.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

2010-10-20T21:22:00.001-07:00

Today’s blog has to cover a lot of ground; we haven’t added anything for the past four days. Saturday we spent in the Redwoods area of Northern California; on Sunday we drove to just north of San Francisco; on Monday we went into San Francisco, and on Tuesday we moved to Pleasanton.

When we stopped at Petaluma, north of San Francisco, I noticed something new to me; TV stations in Chinese. When I stop and think about it, it’s not surprising with the huge oriental population in the Bay area. On Tuesday when we stopped in Pleasanton, we had more Spanish and Oriental stations than English speaking.

On Monday, we spent most of the day in San Francisco. We went to the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park. Most of the park is floating in the bay. There are a dozen historic ships that are on exhibit. Several of the ships are available to board and view. The ones we boarded were very well-restored and interesting.

We had lunch at one of the many restaurants on Fisherman's Wharf. We took a boat tour of the Bay area and went under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. On our way back to the motor home, we stopped at Muir Woods National Monument, just north of the bridge.

Today we drove about 75 miles to Pleasanton to visit Connie’s cousin, Ricki.

In Northern California, the redwood parks are shared between the NPS and the state. The National Park Service didn’t get into the act until the Johnson administration when part of the redwood area was legislated as Redwood National Park in 1968. Lady Bird came out to dedicate the park. These two photos are of a 6 mile road we took through the redwoods. These are some of the tallest trees in the world.

To the left is the light house at Crescent City. To the right is a shot into the forest. It was quite foggy.

There are a few areas where the elk herds are unaware of the public.

These are photos of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park.

The photo to the left is the pier as it was before the Golden Gate Bridge was built. The old cars are displayed inside the ferry and these cars are the property of the NPS. Nice cars!

This was the view from our table at lunch. The Golden Gate Bridge is in the background.

You can make a wish when you cross under the bridge for the first time. Never pass up an opportunity to be a millionaire.

Muir Woods NM and one of the larger redwoods dedicated to Clifford Pinchot. William Kent bought 611 acres of old growth redwoods and in 1907, he gave 295 acres to the federal government. In 1908, Teddy Roosevelt declared it a national monument. This was the first national monument created from land donated to the federal government.

On Tuesday, we had lunch at P.F. Chang’s with Connie’s cousin, Ricki.

Ricki took us to see another of Connie’s 1st cousins, Vern Kaplan. Would you believe, Connie and Vern had NEVER met! They spent an interesting afternoon discussing their Jewish parents and their immigration from Poland.

Friday, October 15, 2010

2010-10-15T20:41:00.001-07:00

Today we made it to the Pacific Ocean! Wow, we made it from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in three months. That’s even allowing for a one month stay in Cedar Falls. Unfortunately, the view was not as clear as we would have liked; the sound of the ocean was great!

Yesterday we said good-bye to Jan Schmitt and her family. In the afternoon, we caught up with Todd and his fiancé, Keri. Todd is busy as an AMT, and Keri is an AMT also. Todd is also a scuba diver and instructor. Todd and our Andy were inseparable as toddlers and up to junior high age.

We met in downtown Redding at the Sundial bridge. The Sundial bridge was built at a cost of $23,500,000, and it’s accurate twice a year! The guy that sold Redding the bridge is one heck of a salesman. The designer was Santiago Calatrava. Goggle him; he has done some impressive work!

The drive today was about 200 miles - up the hill, down the hill, 15 mph curves, 30 mph curves, and a rare piece of straight road. That was most of the way. The reward was the view of the Pacific!

Our stay for the next two nights is on the banks of the Klamath River in northern California’s redwood area. The site is beautiful. Too bad the temperatures here dropped 20 degrees from yesterday. Low 50’s for highs. In Redding, it was 95 yesterday! I guess fall weather has caught up with us.

Here’s the most recent photos of Jan and family. The right photo is Todd and Keri.

The Sundial Bridge is in downtown Redding - a landmark!

That’s the beautiful Pacific in the background. Maybe it will be nicer weather tomorrow. Who cares? I don’t have to go to work tomorrow; I’m on vacation. No, I’m not on vacation! I don’t have a job! What could be better?!

This is the view from the MH at the Klamath River RV Park. It’s also a great view!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

2010-10-13T22:42:00.001-07:00

We’re in Redding, CA for two reasons; to visit Lassen Volcanic NP and to visit old friends that were our neighbors in Cedar Falls. Jan and her two children, Todd and Stacy ( our godchildren), now live here in Redding.

Stacy is married to Kyle, and they have a four year old, Sean. Todd is about to be married and has a 15 year old son, Tyler. Jan and Connie were, and still are, the best of friends. Todd and our Andy are the same age and Stacy and our Toby are very close in age.

In the morning, Stacy went with us to Lassen Volcanic NP. This park started as two separate national monuments in 1907 by Teddy Roosevelt and then the two were joined in 1916 and became one national park when Woodrow Wilson was president. Starting in 1914, Mt. Lassen had several eruptions that changed the landscape drastically. Even though it’s a beautiful park, it ranks as one of the least attended national parks.

This is where we are and who we are with. Connie is with Stacy, our godchild.

On the left, is the story of the night that Lassen erupted and on the right is Mt. Lassen as it is today.

The view from the highest elevation in the park is beautiful; we were at over 8,000 feet. The photo on the right is a volcanic gas emission. There are several other areas in the park with boiling pots and and gas emissions. The only other park we’ve seen with these gassy eruptions is Yellowstone NP. The film at the visitor center said the Lassen NP is the only place that you can find all four of the different types of volcanoes.

We grilled steaks at our RV park tonight. Here you see Kyle, Stacy and Jan. Little Sean loved “driving” the motor home.

Monday, October 11, 2010

2010-10-12T16:49:00.001-07:00

Today is our last day at Yosemite. We’ll be driving to Redding, CA tomorrow. We drove back to Yosemite Village and went to the museum, book store, general store, and Ahwahnee Lodge.

The museum had some of the original oil paintings of Yosemite that were painted back in the late 1800’s. Hutching’s California Magazine promoted tourism into Yosemite by showing paintings and prints of the valley. People thought that the prints were an exaggeration and didn’t visit the Yosemite Grant. It wasn’t until he could print actual photos of the valley that the people started to visit.

I bought a biography of John Muir. His name is all over Yosemite NP, and I thought it would be an interesting read. Maybe when we get to San Francisco, we can visit his home which is a national monument. Muir Woods is also a national monument and is in the Bay area.

We had lunch at Ahwahnee Lodge. This is one of the lodges featured in a PBS program about lodges of our national parks.

The top left photo is of Native American weaving a basket at the museum. The photo on the right is of one of the early painting of the valley.

The above photo is of the dining room at the Ahwahnee Lodge. This sign is posted at the front of the lodge. Bears are somewhat of a problem in the park, but we didn’t see any. There have been close to 100 incidents and 15 bears have been hit by cars.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

2010-10-10T22:08:00.001-07:00

Today was our second day in Yosemite National Park. We are staying at a KOA close(?) to the park. We have a 16 mile drive to the entrance each day. The road sign say ‘curves next 23 miles’ and they mean it. In the park and outside the park, the roads are very slow because of the curves and grade.

Yosemite was our first national park. Actually Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant into law which set aside part of the land that is now the national park. Galen Clark was the first custodian of the park. Yosemite became a national park in 1890 during Harrison’s presidency. Two other areas were added to the park in 1906. John Muir devoted most of his adult life to making Yosemite a national park. Ansel Adams is also linked with Yosemite because he spent years photographing the park. There’s a gallery in the park that has many of his original prints; one print that we saw was $3,500.

Yosemite is similar to Zion in that you are in the valley looking up at most of the major features. Also, most of the activities are concentrated in one area, the valley.

First the ‘where we are today’ photo. The photo on the right is El Capitan, one of the more notable features of Yosemite NP. Our friends, Mim and Don Baker’s son Lee climbed this mountain, we think. It took him two days. He spent one night hanging on the face in a sleeping bag. What an experience that must have been!

John Muir spent years exploring Yosemite and worked to have Yosemite named as a national park. In the photo above, in the lower right of that photo, is John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt in 1903. President Roosevelt spent time in the park and added additional land to the park, also in 1903.

Two falls in the park; Lower Yosemite Falls and Bridalveil Falls.

On the left, is a similar photo of ‘Half Dome’ that Ansel Adams made famous. To the right is a giant sequoia named Grizzly that is in Mariposa Grove.

At the top of Glacier Point, this is the view. Half Dome is one of the other major features on Yosemite NP. It’s on the left.

There is a telescope at the viewpoint. We could see 12+ people walking around on the top of Half Dome. We talked to four young men that were going to climb it tomorrow. They were going up the back of the mountain. In season, the NPS puts a cable on the back side to help climbers make the climb. That climb is for people much younger than us. Oh well, we can always talk to climbers.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

2010-10-07T21:36:00.001-07:00

One day, two national parks: Sequoia and Kings Canyon. We started by getting into Sequoia NP Visitor Center and picked up our maps and travel guide early. We knew ahead of time that there was road construction, and we had to get to the construction site on the top-of-the-hour for those heading up the mountain. For the day, we started at 300 feet above sea level and when we were the highest, we were at 8,000 feet. The highest elevation in the park is Mount Whitney, 14,494 feet.

How about some park history? The first of the two parks was Sequoia National Park established by President Benjamin Harrison in 1890 which made it the second national park to be established. What was the first national park? Two weeks after creating Sequoia, the Congress created General Grant NP. In 1940, Kings Canyon NP was created when FDR was president and the new park absorbed General Grant NP.

By the time we got to the top of the mountains, we were in the fog or clouds. At times, when we were driving, we could hardly see past the front bumper of the car, so we couldn’t see the bigger mountains and the snow because of the visibility. The temperature at the top was 40 degrees.

You guessed it, here’s the ‘where we are today’ photo. Next to it is a view from half way up the mountain while we were waiting for the flagger at the road construction site.

The above photo is one of the first Sequoia’s we saw near the Visitor Center. Next is ‘Tunnel Log.’

You can see how foggy/cloudy it was at the top. When we had lunch at the top, the views were only nearby. The visibility was terrible.

This is General Grant. No, the one on the right is General Grant. Below is the base of the tree and the top of the tree. This is the second largest tree in the world. The biggest tree in the world is General Sherman. We would have taken pictures of it, but to see it we would have had to have gone down 400 steps. That’s 400 steps back up - too much for me. So I will settle for the second largest in the world. General Grant is 267.4 feet tall and 107.6 feet around.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

2010-10-07T21:23:00.001-07:00

Today was another travel day- from Las Vegas to Lemon Cove, CA, close to the entrance of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. Already I’ve noticed that California is a lot more populated than Iowa. Duh! There are about ten times more people in California than Iowa. We’ll have a lot more to talk about about crowds as we travel around the state. Lots of people don’t recommend traveling to Los Angeles.

The big news of the day is the report on the show last night. We went to Jersey Boys at the Palazzo!!! The show was fantastic! Jersey Boys rock! I think it was about the best musical show that I have ever seen. Connie really enjoyed the show too. If you aren’t familiar with the show it is about the life and music of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. I think the songs are presented in the same order that they were written. This is the music that we grew up with, and it is still popular today.

After the show, we had dinner at one of the many restaurants at the casino. We ate outside, along the strip. Probably the best evening of the trip, so far.

Photos later.

Monday, October 4, 2010

2010-10-04T18:18:00.001-07:00

Easy day with no pictures taken. We drove from Zion to Las Vegas. What a difference. We arrived by 10:30 local time,we gained an hour.

Our first stop was at the local Bass Pro Shop; to look for clothing, not fishing tackle. The local Bass Pro is connected to Silverton Casino. We signed up for a players card so that we could take advantage of the $5 senior buffet. What a choice and very good quality! I guess it will be cold pizza for dinner.

We are staying at the Oasis Las Vegas RV Park again. It’s a very nice park. Connie has already made the call. We are going to see Jersey Boy’s tomorrow night.

We will be going back over to Hoover Dam to look at the bypass bridge. The opening will be October 16th, but obviously we will be gone by then. I checked out the web site and the bridge is ‘on time’ and ‘on budget.’

Pictures will return tomorrow.

Sunday, October 2, 2010

2010-10-03T19:55:00.001-07:00

Saturday, we made one more trip into Zion for a couple of short trails and to watch the movie on Zion. We were back home early. This RV park has cable and we were able to watch some football especially the Iowa vs. Penn State game. Go Hawks!

Today we visited Bryce Canyon NP, Red Canyon NF, and Cedar Breaks NM. It was a busy day. Bryce Canyon is not nearly as busy as Zion, but still has a shuttle bus available. One thing we noticed today, more than any other day, was we both thought we were in a different country. Today we heard a lot of German. Our national parks sure draw a lot of foreign visitors.

Lots of pictures today and yesterday

Top left is the ‘where we are’ photo for the past three days. Top right is called the ‘Weeping Rock’. Above left is just a view from the shuttle stop. The other is the ‘Court of the Patriarchs,’ three peaks that are called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We were told that two Methodist ministers road through the canyon in the early 1900’s and named many formations. Maybe we’re lucky they didn’t call them Moe, Curley, and Larry.

The Zion shuttle system is a great system.

Here are our Sunday photos. Above right formations are call ‘Grottos.’

Bryce Canyon NP are views from the top down, compared to Zion where the views are bottom up. Beautiful scenery!

On the way in and out of Bryce Canyon NP, we drove through Red Canyon National Forest. There are two tunnels and a sign that says that Butch Cassidy spent time here.

The above four photos are from Cedar Breaks National Monument created by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Cedar Breaks is over 603,000 acres and its latest attendance figures show that only slightly over 500,000 people visit annually. The park brochure says that if it were in any other state it would have lots more visits. Because it’s in Southern Utah it competes against Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyonlands.

Driving back toward Zion, this is our last photo of the area.

Friday, October 1, 2010

2010-10-01T17:03:00.001-07:00

Today was forecasted to be very warm, so we decided to beat the heat and get up early and hit the trails. We drove to the Visitor Center and got on the shuttle bus by 7:30 A.M.

The shuttle is the only way you can access much of the park. The NPS started the shuttles in 1999 because they had 5,000 cars in the park on many days and only 400 parking spaces. There is a shuttle stopping every 8 minutes at every stop in the park.

We took the shuttle to the end of the canyon,the Temple of Sinawava, and took the Riverside Wall, 2.2 miles round trip. At the end of the trail you can continue up the canyon into the ‘narrows,’ but you would have to walk up the stream, the Virgin River. Many people walk the river. We stopped at the end of the walking tail. Obviously, beautiful views all the way.

Then we took the shuttle to another stop, Big Bend. Took a few photos and continued to the “Grotto,” got off and took a .5 mile trail to the Zion Lodge. We decided to do one more hike and thought we were taking an ‘easy’ trail to a place called Lower Emerald Pool. We made a wrong turn and got onto the ‘moderate’ trail to Middle Emerald Pools. The ‘moderate’ tail was very steep and much more difficult. But, we stuck it out and made it to the top. We did take the easy trail on the way back down. On the way, we talked to two ladies from Waverly, IA - small world. That hike was 1.8 miles.

Our total hike for the day was 4.5 miles. Pretty good for us - a drop in the bucket for most of you.

Zion became a National Monument in 1909 when William Howard Taft was president. It became a National Park in 1919, Woodrow Wilson was president.

When we were on the trail this morning, we talked with an older gentleman whose father was a park ranger in the park during the 1920’s. He said his mother was the first woman to walk through the tunnel on the east side of the park. The tunnel is over a mile long and was completed in 1929. It’s an impressive tunnel.

Have I mentioned that we are pretty lucky that some of our early presidents, especially Theodore Roosevelt, established so many of our parks, monuments, and preserves. Jimmy Carter added more acres to the national park system than any other president. Most of his additions were in Alaska.

Enough useless information, now some photos!

The above three photos are on the first trail, the Riverside Walk to the Narrows.

This was the first Visitor Center, circa 1919.

These photos are from the trail to the Emerald Pools. The photo on the upper right show what it looks like when you make the wrong turn. If you double-click you can see that there are people walking across a bridge, way down there.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

2010-09-30T18:27:00.001-07:00

Not much happening today. We drove from Page, AZ to Zion NP, Springdale, UT, only 120 miles. Once we got into Zion NP we had to prepare for 12 miles of road construction and a mile long tunnel. We are too long to go through the construction with the car attached, so we disconnected and Connie followed me. The road was dirt in spots, very narrow, lots of switch backs, and pylons taking up the space in the middle. The tunnel was a neat experience. Our MH is 12’6” tall, we only had a little clear space and had to drive in the middle of the tunnel. All went well and we got through the park and into Springdale to our RV park.

These are three photos taken from our RV park. The top photo is cropped from a shot similar to the lower right. It a Political Year and, you guessed it, Connie is on the ‘stump.’ If elected, her first action would be to get rid of the junk concrete plant next to the RV park.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

2010-09-29T17:50:00.001-07:00

The first photo today is the boat we were on Monday night for the dinner cruise. Nice boat.

We started our day with a tour of the Glen Canyon Dam. We scheduled the early tour at 8:30 A.M. because we thought it would be the coolest time of the day. It was a very informative tour. Interestingly, the first thing I found out was that the dam wasn’t built for generating electricity. It was built to control the flow of the Colorado River. By controlling the water, agriculture benefitted downstream, and California, Nevada and Arizona have an ample supply of water. The electricity that the dams generates is a nice benefit that has brought in billions of dollars in revenue for the dam.

The town of Page was established when construction of the dam started. There was no town prior to 1956. The entire area was undeveloped prior to building the dam. The bridge was also built while the dam was being built. President Eisenhower pushed the button, in Washington D.C., that set off the first dynamite blast at the dam site. That was in 1956. On June 17, 1960, they began pouring concrete, and it was a continuous pour 24/7 until September 13, 1963. The dam contains 5,000,000 cubic yards of concrete. The dam is 710 feet high and has 8 turbines that generate power for many western states. Lady Bird Johnson dedicated the dam on September 22, 1966. Once the dam was completed, it took 17 years to fill.

Lake Powell, behind the dam was named after early explorer John Wesley Powell. Powell was a Civil War veteran who lost one arm in the war. Powell was the first to explore the Colorado River. He took eight men in three wooden boats down the river in 1869.

In 1972 this area was established as the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and is managed by the National Park Service.

At 10:30 A.M. we took a boat tour and saw that portion the lake above the dam, and we went into Antelope Canyon. In the afternoon, we visited the Powell Museum in Page.

Above is the dinner cruise boat and the sign for the Glenn Canyon Recreation Area. Above is one of the views from the campground and a shot of our MH.

Our tour guide is Curtis, a Navajo who is studying to be a civil engineer, who also speaks Italian. Go figure! The bridge is the Glen Canyon Bridge.

Curtis is telling the tour about the eight intake tunnels on the dam. There is one intake tunnel for each of the eight turbines you see in the generating room.

The photo above shows the bridge, the power lines, and the Visitor’s Center.

Above is the tour boat for the lake tour and a photo of the upstream side of the dam.

These are two views of Antelope Canyon. We went as far back into the canyon as possible for the size tour boat we were on. The canyon gets very, very narrow further in, and that’s where there are some really nice pictures taken. Goggle Antelope Canyon, Page, AZ for pictures.

There are lots of small boats on Lake Powell, but this might be one of the largest collections of house boats that I have ever seen. There has to be hundreds at just this marina. With over 1,900 miles of shoreline and many other marinas, there are many, many more house boats. Lots of these house boats are very high-dollar boats. Oh well, back to the confines of our modest MH.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

2010-09-28T18:27:00.001-07:00

The photo of the dinner cruise boat will have to wait until tomorrow.

Today we visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Lee’s Ferry/Navajo Bridge Interpretive Center and stopped and bought a Navajo vase. The trip to the North Rim is all scenic highways with lots of mountains and high forests. The temperature today in Page, AZ, is 93 degrees and the humidity is 7%. It is unseasonably warm in this area of the country. Not complaining because even though the daytime temperatures are warm, the evenings cool down to the low 60’s-high 50’s. I had thought that by traveling in the fall of the year the temperatures would be more moderate.

The first photo is of the changing color of the Aspens in the high mountain meadows. The highest elevation we reached today was 8,420 feet. The next photo is the usual.

These photos are on the Bright Angel Trail to the major view point on the North Rim. This is a spectacular view of the canyon.

Look at that table and the view! You can have a burger for a couple bucks more than at McDonalds and have a view of one of the Seven Wonders of the World! How great is that? There’s only one lodge on the North Rim and this is a photo of the dining room. All around the lodge there are cabins and many are sitting right along the rim with million dollar views of the canyon. How great is that?

We have the greatest National Park system in the world! We have seen people from all over the world visiting our National Parks.

As seniors, we can buy ($10 for life) the Golden Age Passport and visit any national park or monument for free. Free, no fee. How great is that? Now that’s a great value or benefit, and I think that seniors are entitled to some benefits, but this one might be going too far; it’s TOO generous. I would like to see an annual fee for national parks and monuments because the park system needs more revenue to maintain and modernize all of the parks. We have seen historic buildings that are in desperate need of repair, and there aren’t funds available to restore them.

On our way to the North Rim, we stopped along the highway and looked at the Navajo jewelry and pottery. On the way back, we stopped and bought a beautiful horse-hair vase with a picture story painted around it. In 50 years we’ll take it to the Antiques Road Show and see if it appreciated in value.

Below is the view from behind the tables of Navajo wares. How great is that?

Monday, September 27, 2010

2010-09-27T20:59:00.001-07:00

We didn’t blog yesterday because it was a day of rest. Traveling is hard work and sometimes you just have to say, “Stop!” Besides, sometimes you have to do the wash and clean the RV.

Today we drove to Page, AZ, home of Lake Powell, Glenn Canyon National Recreation Area, and Rainbow Bridge National Monument.

We’re staying at the Wahweap RV Park on Lake Powell. It’s an excellent park. Tonight we took an upscale dinner cruise on the lake. (I’ll show you a picture of the boat tomorrow.) It was an excellent meal and the views were beautiful. The weather was perfect. That’s pretty much it for today. Tomorrow we’re going to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon NP.

This was one of our first views of the lake. In the distance you can see the marina and all the house boats.

These three pictures are from the dinner cruise. There has to be better pictures of the lake, but I just haven’t taken them yet. The cruise left at 5:00 and the sun set at 6:15, so most of the shots were near sunset. We were back home by 7:30.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

2010-09-25T20:22:00.001-07:00

Today we moved from Moab to Blanding, UT. It was only a 77 mile driving day. We got to the RV park and took the toad out for the afternoon. First, we went to Natural Bridges National Monument, then Moki Dugway, and then Valley of the Gods.

(Today admission to all national parks is free. Hope you took advantage of the offer.)

Natural Bridges is a National Monument, not a National Park. But, it is the first National Monument in Utah. President Theodore Roosevelt, with the stroke of a pen, made Natural Bridges a National Monument in 1908. Theodore Roosevelt created a lot of national parks during his presidency, probably more than any other president. He created bird sanctuaries and national forests also. Interestingly, Natural Bridges is a small park. It is only 7,637 acres and the park ‘loop’ is only 9 miles. A natural bridge is different from an arch. Natural bridges are created by moving water and an arch is created by erosion.

Moki Dugway was the end of the paved road on State Highway 261 south of the park. The paved road comes to an end and becomes gravel. It’s narrow, steep, and has lots of switchbacks. The vertical drop must be over 1,000 feet and the road is at a 10% grade.

At the bottom of the mountain, we took County Road 242 through Valley of the Gods.The attraction is that the area is similar to Monument Valley, but on a smaller scale. THIS is not a county road as you might think of a county road- it’s worse, much, much worse! This is the WORST road we have been on for a long, long time. The road cuts through lots of dry-washes, and they just had a rain within the past few days. After we were on the road for over an hour, Connie read that we should allow 3 hours for this trip. Neither one of us wanted to spend another two hours on this road and the views were just more of the same. Fortunately, we weren’t as slow as the average traveler, and we got to the next road, a state highway, in less than two hours.

Here’s the photos of the day:

First, where we are today and the Natural Bridges story.

Sipapu Bridge

Kavhina Bridge

Owachomo Bridge

Above is our first view looking down from the top of Moki Dugway and here’s a shot of one of the switch backs. Goggle ‘moki dugway’ and look at some other photos. Quite interesting.

These are photos of our trek through Valley of the Gods. I think Connie is giving me ‘that look’ in the photo above. Is she saying, “Why are we doing this????” The next photo is the road. You’re looking at a slab of rock that is the road. The last photo is an above average photo of the road and the views in the background.

We finally made it to Bluff, UT for a nice dinner! We will have better travel days and better roads from here on out!

Friday, September 24, 2010

2010-09-24T20:32:00.001-07:00

Today we weren’t sure if we were going to take the time to drive to Capitol Reef NP or skip it. It is one of the 58 NP’s, and we are both a little crazy about getting stamps in our National Parks Passport Book, so we drove the ‘toad’ and visited the park. Once we were in the park, we couldn’t understand why we even thought about skipping it. Capitol Reef compares to Arches and Canyonlands in its beauty.

Here’s a little history about the park. It was created 50-65 million years ago when the area warped and created a ‘fold.’ This shift created a barrier, or reef of rocks. The rocks looked something like the US Capitol and hence we get the name Capitol Reef. Everybody’s favorite president, Richard M. Nixon, signed legislation that made Capitol Reef a National Park in 1971. The park is about 250,000 acres.

Every park we have visited has been a great experience and this didn’t disappoint us at all. The park is rugged, the roads sometimes turn to gravel and are rough. Most of the park would be unfriendly to 38’ motor homes, so we were glad we left the RV in Moab and drove the toad. This park also had some interesting history of the people that lived there and how they survived. Surprisingly, they had large orchards and grew apples, pears, and peaches. As a Mormon community, they had their own school until 1941. These few things made Capitol Reef NP different from Arches and Canyonlands.

Here’s the ‘where we are’ shot and one of the layers of rock in the mountains.

Rain is infrequent, but when it comes, the run-off causes many wash-outs. We also visited the farmhouse and were able to find pie and ice cream. Both were delicious.

The school house that they built in the 19th century, still stands and is staffed with a NPS ranger. Connie really enjoyed this stop.

Here’s a progression of shots. After the hard surfaced roads stopped, the road turned to gravel. Then the sign at the start of the Capitol Gorge trail, a shot of the trail, and a picture of the rock wall where some pioneers registered their names in the 1800’s. The last is a shot of Connie examining some of the holes in the walls.

Driving the 2 hours back home (back to the motor home), we both agreed that visiting Capitol Reef NP was time well spent.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

2010-09-23T21:49:00.001-07:00

Today we visited Dead Horse Point State Park, Canyonlands National Park and did Canyonlands by Night.

First - Dead Horse Point State Park. The park got it’s name because when cowboys were trying to break some wild horses, they drove them out onto this point (peninsula) because it was a natural corral. This point, or mesa, is surrounded by cliffs 2,000 feet high. Legend has it that one group of horses was left without food or water, and they all starved to death. Today this area is a beautiful state park that overlooks the Colorado River.

The entire area around Moab has been the scene of many movies. The final scene of Thelma and Louise was filmed in Dead Horse Point State Park. Early westerns like Stagecoach and recent films like Mission Impossible were filmed here in Canyonlands NP.

Canyonlands NP is 527 sq. miles of canyons, mesas, buttes, fins, arches, and spires. Fins are narrow vertical sheets of rock that look like the fins on a fish. Spires are tall rock columns that stand alone. You probably already knew these definitions. I just learned about them in the past few days. The park was established in 1964 when Lyndon Johnson was president. Prior to it becoming a national park, it was under the control of the Bureau of Land Management. The park is divided into three sections by the Green and Colorado Rivers. The views are similar, but on a smaller scale, to the Grand Canyon.

For dinner, we went to a ‘Cowboy Dutch Oven’ dinner. After dinner, we took a two hour boat cruise and light show on the Colorado River. The package is bundled as ‘Canyonlands by Night.’ A ‘Cowboy Dutch Oven’ dinner is a marketing phrase for a buffet dinner. The cruise left at about 7:00 and after sunset, they did a light show against the canyon walls with music and a narrative of the history of the area from creation to present day. It was a nice ride and show. We were not allowed to take pictures, but they told us we could download pictures from their website: canyonlandsbynight.com., but I couldn’t get them from the website to our blog.

Now, the photos of the day:

These shots are from Dead Horse Point State Park. The Colorado River is in the background behind me. The right photo shows what the cowboys might have laid up as a fence at the end of the mesa.

On the left is where we are today. Next is Buck Canyon, Canyonlands NP.

These are two photos from Grand View Point Overlook, Canyonlands NP.

The arch on the left is Mesa Arch, Canyonlands NP. The arch on the right is the improved version of Mesa Arch, thanks to Connie.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

2010-09-22T19:29:00.001-07:00

Today, we returned to Arches NP to take the trail back to ‘landscape arch.’ This is the arch that is shown in promotional photos of Arches NP. The arch spans over 300 feet. Several years ago a visitor was in the right place, at the right time and took video of a large section of the arch that collapsed. It was a relatively easy 1.6 mile hike and well worth the walk.

Here’s your history lesson for the day. Arches NP is one of 58 National Parks. I would bet that if you asked someone how many National Parks there are, they would guess many more that just 58. Many National Monuments are considered National Parks. Herbert Hoover signed legislation that made Arches a National Monument in 1929. It became a National Park in 1971. The park is 119 square miles and contains over 2,000 sandstone arches and they feel there are more to be discovered.

Yesterday, I described the photos as top, middle, and bottom row. That’s how it looked when I wrote it in “Windows Live Writer;” a new blog program that we got with our new computer. When I published the blog it put three photos per line. Whatever.

Here are the photos for today:

These describe themselves.

This is ‘Landscape Arch.’

This is just one of thousands of great views in Arches NP.

These are two photos of rock climbers. On our way out of the park we stopped at a pullout and spotted these ‘free climbers.’ These guys are hundreds of feet up. Connie thought that the lower climber gave up. He didn’t move all the time we watched them.

The area around Moab, Utah is beautiful. These National Parks are real treasures!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

2010-09-21T14:50:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Summer!! Summer is our second-oldest grand daughter. She is 14 today!

Today grandpa and grandma visited Arches National Park just outside of Moab, UT.

The top left photo is our typical “This is where we are” photo. Top right is called’ wall street.’ Center left is ‘the three gossips.’ Center right is ‘balanced rock.’ Lower left is ‘south windows’ and lower right is ‘north windows.’

Tomorrow we will do one more trip into Arches and then visit Canyonland NP.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

2010-07-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were in Hyde Park today. There are five different National Historic Sites here: the home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt's home (Val-Kill), Top Cottage (FDR's cottage), FDR Presidential Museum, and the Vanderbilt's mansion. We made it to three of the five. Both the homes of Franklin and Eleanor were guided tours. To date, by the way, we have now been to 9 of the 12 official presidential libraries and a total of at least 69 national historical sites/parks (most this last year).

The two photos above represent the beginning and the end of FDR's life. The "beginning" because he was born in this house in 1882. The original house did not have the two story wings or the third story; these were added after FDR and Eleanor were married. The "end" because he was buried in the rose garden next to the house in 1945.

The above photo is the front of Val-Kill (kill means river). This was the private home of Eleanor. She had wanted to get away from her mother-in-law and remodeled this building as her private residence. The building was originally built by Eleanor as a factory for Val-Kill Industries, built in 1926 to make high quality furniture. The factory closed in 1936 and Eleanor converted it into her home. (FDR never spent the night at Val-Kill; he promised his mother that he would always stay at the family home. Do you think his mother, Sara, was dominating?)

The gentleman to the right of FDR and Eleanor is Louis Howe. Louis had a room at the White House, at Campobello, and at the family home. Louie was in the newspaper business and became the politial advisor for FDR very early in FDR's political career. FDR relied a lot on Louie's opinions. Louie convinced FDR to run for president even though FDR thought his polio would keep him out of the race.

Eleanor was quite a "First Lady." We have not had as strong a "First Lady" before or after. While we were at Val-Kill,one of the park rangers said that Ken Burns will be doing a special on the Roosevelts, maybe next year. The special will star Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor!

The dog was FDR's and its name is Fala. FDR took him almost everywhere and when FDR died the dog became Eleanor's dog.

Here's an EXTRA for today: If you look very close at the photo above (double-click it), you will see that the name of the store is the Rhinebeck General Merchandise Co. This is in Rhinebeck, NY. If you have been following the upcoming marriage of Chelsea Clinton, the wedding is suspected to be at the Astor estate in Rhinebeck, NY. The wedding is estimated to cost $2,000,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go figure!

Monday, July 26, 2010

2010-07-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

We just arrived in Saugerties, NY at another KOA campground. The past three days we spent at Nelson's Family Campground in East Hampton, CT.

Over the past several winters at Grace Epsicopal Church, in Weslaco, TX, we have had the pleasure of getting to know Nelson Gustine, the owner of Nelson's Family Campground. Nelson had given us a brochure on the campground and we tried to stay there last fall, but they were closed for the season. We called several weeks ago and made reservations for last weekend. When we got to the campground, the office people told us that we staying there for free! Thanks, Nelson! We spent a lot of time with Nelson; went to a benefit spagetti dinner for Nelson's granddaughter''s soccer team, to Christ Episcopal Church on Sunday, and to breakfast afterwards, and to coffee on Monday before we left.

The campground is huge; 300 sites and many are seasonal sites. There are many ammenities; it's a beautiful place!

We also met another couple from East Hampton; Floy and Gail Hodge, friends of Nelson's. We found we had many things in common. They have a home is Flordia, but travel to the RGV each March. They used to have a place in the Valley (South Texas).

Wednesday-Thursday, July 21, 22, 2010

2010-07-22T14:54:00.000-07:00

(This photo is of the Wayside house and should be further down in the blog, but it's too difficult to get it where it belongs. )

Wednesday we drove toward Boston to the end of the "T", the subway, or MTA, and took it to the Kennedy/ UMASS stop. We then took the free shuttle to the Kennedy Library and Museum. The center has a nice film and has all of the displays of his campaign and presidency. One interesting display was of his winning the primary in West Virginia. Early in the presidential primary, he was leading in West Virginia, but then it became known that he was a Catholic. He then lost his lead and went to West Virginia and made several notable/historic speeches and ended winning the state in the primary.

The photo to the right is inside the south end of the museum and overlooks the harbor and Logan airport. We had lunch at the JFK Cafe and then got back on the "T" and went to the Quincy stop.

The Adams National Historic Park is in Quincy. The church pictured is where the second and sixth presidents are buried, along with their wives. We toured the church while we were waiting for the tour of the Adams' homes. We sat in the Adams' pew. It was the family pew of John Quincy Adams.

This is a statue of Abigail Adams in front of the visitor center.

This is the original Adams' home where John Adams was born.
They are right next door to each other.

This home was purchased by John and Abigail and is where John Quincy was born.

After John and Abigail returned from Europe in 1788 they moved into this home (not exactly as it looks today) which they called "Peace Field." This is where John Adams died on July 4, 1826. As you might know, this is the same day that Thomas Jefferson died.

This building is the "Stone Library" and was built by John Adam's grandson well after his death. It contains over 12,000 volumes of books belonging to the Adams family.

Thursday, we visited the Minute Man National Historic Park in Concord, MA. The picture at the right is of Paul Revere, who history tells us, was famous for his "midnight ride." "One if by land, two if by sea." Well, Paul Revere was captured by the British the night of his famous ride and one of the others in the group completed the ride. This was the night before the famous battle at North Bridge. The date of the battle was April 19, 1775.

This is Hartwell Tavern on the road from Lexington to Concord. It's important because it's still standing and pretty-much original.

The very top photo is of the "Wayside" house. This house is famous for all of the 1800's authors and their literature.
Louisa May Alcott grew up here and this home inspired her to write Little Women. Many other authors lived in this area

including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau (Waldon's Pond which is near here), Hawthorne and Margaret Sidney who wrote The five Little Peppers and How They Grew.

The end of the day was at North Bridge. "The shot heard 'round the world" was fired here. The statue is the Minute Man Statue placed here in 1836.

So much history!!!!

Monday, July 19, 2010

2010-07-20T17:09:00.000-07:00

Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park are beautiful. One of our first stops was at the light house on the south side of the island. The other photo above is of one of several harbors near Bar Harbor. There are several huge yachts in this photo. This is an affluent area.

The park has a nice nature center and has many of the plants in the park on display with name tags.

When we asked our son, Andy, what we should do while at Acadia, he said, "The sunsets at Cadillac Mountain are really beautiful". What do you think? The park is listed as one of the top ten national parks in the country.

On day two, we decided to hike one of the "moderate" trails, South Bubble Rock. This is a 2 mile trail, but it gains 700 feet in elevation going up. The trail is steep and rocky. We thought it was a good climb for a couple of old folks.

The photos are from the top. Great views!

The photo above is at Jordon Pond. We took a shot walk around the south end of the pond.
(We were just too tired after the tough hike up to Bubble Rock).

Here's a plaque on the top of Cadillac Mountain of Stephan Mather. If you have watched the Ken Burn's National Parks series on PBS, you would recognise Stephan Mather's name as one of the early people that promoted the National Parks system.

The photo below is of the shore line of Acadia National Park near what is call the "Thunder Hole." It was pretty amazing to watch the high tide roll in.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

2010-07-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday, for our 45th wedding anniversary, we drove to Campobello Island, New Brunswick, to visit Roosevelt Campobello International Park. We had to drive into Maine, (the first in the USA since May 24th), and drive to the bridge that joins Campobello Island with the USA. We, of course, drove through Canadian Customs and on to the park. Interestingly, The Roosevelt Campobello International Park is owned by the United States and Canada. It is staffed by both Canadians and Americans and is funded by both countries. The park is 2,800 acres and includes the cottage, visitor center, and many nature areas.

The cottage was sold out of the Roosevelt family for a short period of time and then given to the federal governments of the US and Canada. It became a National Historic Site in 1964 and has been open and free since then.

Part of the park is the Eagle Hill bog. The photo below is of Eastern Larch. What I thought was interesting about this tree is that it is a deciduous conifer. I always thought trees were either conifers or deciduous. The Larch, though, loses its needles in the fall. This tree is, obviously, very water tolerant since it grows in a bog.

The other photo is of "old man's whiskers" and is a moss that attaches to dead plant material.

This is a photo of the roads in the park. Very dense withs lot of moss and ferns.

These two photos are of the several "points" around the park. The fog was very thick in some places and the temperatures were crazy. When we were at the cottage the temperature was over 80. When we drove through the woods and near the ocean, the temperature was 55. What a change in just a few miles!

Friday, July 16, 2010

2010-07-16T12:31:00.001-07:00

Today we drove about three hours from Sussex, NB, to St. Andrews, NB. This is a tourist destination site. It's a quaint little ocean town and just a short distance to the United States. Downtown is full of shops and restaurants. They also have some murals on buildings that are very well done. We ate outside at a restaurant on the bay. Great spot, but it was chilly and breezy! We know that everyone else is sweltering in typical summer heat, but today in St. Andrews it's cool. We noticed other patrons with blankets, so we asked our waitress for blankets too. You can see that we aren't the only ones that are cold. Anyway, the lunch was fine. ?The photo looks like I'm not enjoying the cool weather, but I prefer cool to hot, but just not this cool for July 16th.

After lunch it warmed up a lot, and we went to Kingsbrae Gardens. This is billed as one of the top ten gardens in New Brunswick, and I believe it to be true. Almost everything was in bloom. They claim to have 2,500 different varieties of trees, shrubs, and plants. They have a sculpture garden and a few animals too. The Lamas had just been sheered from the looks of them.

Here's a view at the Kiwanis Oceanfront RV Park. The view is beautiful. That's the Atlantic Ocean in front of the motor home.

Tomorrow we're going to Campobello for the day. It's a US National Historic Site that is located in Canada. It was the summer home of Franklin Delanor Roosevelt. I'm told that is furnished exactly like they left it back in the 40's. Exciting, right?

Just a reminder to our family; tomorrow is our 45th anniversary. It's a "green" anniversary!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

2010-07-15T13:14:00.001-07:00

We took the ferry, Atlantic Vision, back to Nova Scotia on Tuesday. The Atlantic Vision is the newest ferry traveling between Newfoundland and North Syndey, Nova Scotia. It was a very nice ship. The ride was slightly "rolling" and foggy for the first part of the ride, but the fog lifted and the sea was very smooth most of the way. We stayed in the same KOA in North Syndey that we stayed at on the way to NL. The photo to the left is the view of a bridge from the campground. What is unusual is the U.S. flag. It was standing alone, no Canadian flag anywhere around. One of our Canadian readers can probably answer the question, "Did the U.S. buy Nova Scotia?"

We had a great time in Newfoundland-Labrador! We thank all of our friends from Newfoundland for their time and hospitality. Thanks to Clarence and Jean Butt, Les and Shirley Smith, and Sterling and Joan Elliott; you were each part of the highlights of our stay on "The Rock." We even had a little withdrawal or sadness when we left. It was the highlight of our trip! We hope to come back sometime.

On our way back, we stopped at the Gaelic College on Cape Breton, near Baddeck, on the Cabot Trail. The young bag piper was playing his bag pipe when we arrived. He said he had been coming to the school every summer for the past 6-8 years. He has to stand out by the gift shop for two hours each day for two weeks. When we were leaving he asked if we had any bug spray. He was getting bitten by "black flies." Dave has ancestors from the area on the Scotish side of his family, therefore the picture next to the ???.

We stayed in Truro Wednesday night. It rained in the afternoon quite hard and the campground was very wet. No gravel pads, we camped on grass.

Thursday, we drove Dave and Ruth to the airport in Halifax and said good bye after three weeks travelling with them. There will be no more bridge in the evening- back to cribbage. We really enjoyed their company and will now be on our own for a while.

Monday, July 12, 2010

2010-07-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

Sunday was a travel day. We drove from Twillingate to Doyles. We were going to take two days, but decided to push it and have time to do some sightseeing around Port Aux Basques on Monday. We drove 592 km (355 miles). Toward the end of the day, we were driving in rain, and it was raining the worst when we got to the RV park. It hardly stopped raining all night.

Today we drove to Port Aux Basques and everything was solid fog. We went to the Rose Blanche lighthouse, and you can see that any hopes of a view of the ocean were gone.

On our way to the lighthouse, we stopped at The Ann Harvey Trail, an area memorializing the efforts of Ann and her Newfoundland dog that helped save the lives of 150 passengers on a ship that was sinking in a storm back in 1820. At the community center/interpretive center, I found out there was a boat being built in the basement. The photo shows a start of the project.

Tomorrow, we take the ferry back to Nova Scotia. Departure time is 8:30 A.M., and we have to be there 1 hour early. It's about a 30 minute drive in good weather, but tomorrow morning will probably not be "good" weather, so we are planning on taking 1 hour to get there. That makes for an early 'rise and shine' time.

P.S. The guys have been whooping the gals in bridge. Dave had 33 points in one hand and also bid and made a small slam bid. The gals haven't given up yet, though!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

2010-07-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

Twillingate, NL, is a typical fishing village with lots of interesting places for tourists to see. We started at the Anglican Parsonage, which is the local museum. Just across the street is St. Peter's Anglican Church. I think it's been a day or so since I showed you a picture of an Anglican church.

Our next stop was at Herring Neck, a beautiful little fishing village. We saw a fairly large fishing boat off-loading some crab pots, and we stopped to ask him some questions. His name was Jim King and, he was the owner of the boat. They were bringing in all their pots because Saturday will be the last day of the season. It will take three trips to bring in all the pots and line. When we were visiting they were off-loading 15 miles of rope which is used to connect the pots. He, Jim King, said that they might get 30 pounds of crab to a pot. They would like to get 45 pounds, but crabbing isn't that good right now. Below is a photo of a village near Main Tickle Bay.

The photo, above right, is of Twillingate Light House. The light house is being renovated and you can see they are working on the siding and windows. Mike Paterson is doing the windows and casings. He's the woodworker that we visited last Sunday. The work is being done to original spec's.

Thursday night, we went to a dinner theater in Crow Head. The group is called the Round the Circle, and they serve the meal and then do a show that is true Nufey humor. The jokes and skits are so stupid they are funny. The photo at the left is a take-off on Lilly Tomlin's.

When we checked in at the campground on Thursday, Connie mentioned that we knew of some people who lived in Twillingate, but had never met them. Les Smith told us that the Elliott's lived in Twillingate. The owner of the park knew the Elliott's and gave them a call. Later Sterling and Joan Elliott stopped at the campground and introduced themselves. We visited a while and they invited us to their home on Friday night, after the dinner theater. We enjoyed meeting them and had a very nice visit. They are pictured here in front of their beautiful home.

Today, we went to Prime Berth, photos above. The owner does the tours and talks about growing up in Tizzard's Harbour. His father was a cod fisherman. He demonstrated how the cod are cleaned and salted. The whale bones are from a actual whale that had died and washed up on a beach. He contacted the government agency and asked if he could have the carcass. He towed it quite a distance, let the flesh decompose, and then reassembled the bones for display.

The picture, upper right, is of fishing boats at Tizzard's Harbour.

This photo is to add a little humor to the blog. Yes, there is a Dildo Run Provincial Park.

We will continue to look for interesting points of interest.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

2010-07-08T13:06:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, we drove to Trinity/Bonavista Bay and spent the night in Les and Shirley Smith's driveway. The blog today is short on pictures and long on story.

When we were in Trinity/Trinity Bay on Tuesday, I asked several people if they knew Shirley Brown, Les' wife. Les told me that when I got to Trinity, all I had to do was ask and anyone in Trinity would know her. Both times I asked, neither knew of her, and I was told the Browns were all from Trinity East.

Later, after talking with Shirley, I was told they didn't live in "that" Trinity, they lived in the other Trinity. The Smith's live at Trinity/ Bonavista Bay. She had circled the correct Trinity on the Newfoundland map that Les gave me last winter, but I forgot to check that map because we had picked several other NL maps.

Anyway, we got to their home around 5:00 and had a great meal with Les and Shirley. Here's another example of wonderful Newfoundland hospitality!

Above is a photo of Les and Shirley. Look in the background! That's the Atlantic Ocean! The views from their home are fantastic. The photo above is of the group on their front deck. Connie and I know Les and Shirley as Winter Texans from Victoria Palms. I know I've said it before, but we are so fortunate to have such wonderful friends from South Texas.

Today we left Trinity and drove to Twillingate, NL to the Payton's RV Park. This will be our last major stop on the "Rock" before we head for the ferry next Tuesday.

The light house is the Long Point Light House. Imagine that, another light house.

Tuesday, July6, 2010

2010-07-07T05:55:00.000-07:00

Saturday we left Pippy Park in St. John's and drove to the end of Bonavista Peninsula to a campsite call Paradise. The owner was very friendly and helpful in giving us information on what to see and do. We drove to Elliston and tried to get close to Puffins but only saw them at a distance. We then drove to the Cape Bonavista light house that you see above. We stopped at the local city park and saw another statue of John Cabot who landed here in 1497, notice the light house in the background. Then we drove to Dungeon Provincial Park. The park gets its name because the waves had cut two holes in the rocks and the earth above collapsed into the open area.

Sunday, the 4th was a very interesting day. We wanted to go back to Elliston and try to get closer to the Puffins. The early morning was foggy, very cool, and misting sometimes. We still chose to try getting closer to the Puffins. We walked back and found some Puffins very close. Before they were only across on an island. Sunday morning, they were on our side. I had the telephoto lens on (6X) and took over 140 pictures very close up. The one photo below shows them across on the rocks where they were nesting. The other two photos are the close-ups.

The next thing we did was tour the Ryan Premises National Historic Site in Bonavista. Ryan was a wealthy merchant in the late 19th century. He made his fortune off the cod fishing. The historic site is a museum about the cod fishing and the area. The photo at the bottom is of one of the statues in the museum.

We drove to Upper Amherst Cove looking for a woodworking business, Paterson Woodworking. We found the business and, luckily, Mike Paterson, the owner, was there on a Sunday afternoon. We had a great visit, and he gave us a tour of his shop, and we looked through his showroom. To me, that was an exciting part of the day.

We drove to Port Union and toured the Coaker Museum. Sir William Coaker built the town and opened a newspaper that published "The Fisherman's Advocate." Port Union is the only union built town in North America. The second floor of the museum still has a lot of the old belt-driven woodworking tools that were used in the early 1900's.

Elliston is also the root cellar capital of Newfoundland.

Monday we visited Trinity on Trinity Bay and did a walking tour of six different historic homes and shops. The piece of furniture to the right is original to one of the homes. It dates to the 1700's.

This Anglican church is in Trinity.

This photo is of a mussel farm near Trinity. The floats are holding ropes where the mussels are attached and growing. I understand that it takes two years for mussels to grow to maturity.

On Tuesday, we drove to Gander and visited the Silent Witness Memorial. The memorial is for the 254 American soldiers and crew that died when their plane crashed shortly after refueling in Gander. They were returning from a peace-keeping mission in Egypt.

We also visited the Newfoundland Aviation Museum in Gander.

Wednesday, July 1, 2010

2010-07-02T15:43:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, we went south of St. John's on the Avalon Peninsula. We went whale and bird watching on the Molly Bawn, the fine boat you see pictured. At first I wasn't so sure that I wanted to go out in the ocean in that thing, but it was fine. The sea was fairly rough, but nobody got sick except for the fellow from China. We didn't see any whales, but saw lots of birds as you can see. We saw puffins, the common murres, kittiwakes, razor bills, a bald eagle, and gulls.

The area is the Mobile Witless Bay Ecological Reserve and you can see there are tens of thousands of birds on just this one island.

On the way back, we passed a small pond with many miniature boats (about 3 feet long) and a miniature of a fishing village. Whoever did it paid a lot of attention to detail. Connie wanted one for our pond at home.

On Wednesday, Canada Day, we went to Signal Hill National Historic Site. The Canada Day celebration in St. John's started here at 6:00 A.M. with a round of cannon fire. The Visitor Center was very well done and they had a nice film of the history of Signal Hill. It was first controlled by the French and then lost to the British. The building on the hill is called the Cabot Tower and was used by the British to signal what ships were coming into the harbor. It was also used by Marconi to send wireless messages to England.

Here is a panel about icebergs. You can double click the picture to enlarge it. Only about 370 of up to 40,000 glaciers that are produced in Greenland make it as far down as St. John's.

Here's a look at the St. John's harbor from on top of Signal Hill. From the sea, it would be hard to tell that there is a big harbor. It is well protected from the ocean. The harbor is huge. During WWI and WWII this harbor played a big part in shipping supplies to Britain.

Oh, lunch downtown at a micro brewery. Lunch seems to agree with Connie. It makes her happier.

We also had an opportunity to visit the oldest Anglican parish in North America. The parish started in 1699. It is now the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. The stained glass pictured is the only glass that survived a fire. The piece of furniture I found interesting was the Bishop's chair you see pictured.

A beautiful church with a lot of history. We were given a tour by one of two ladies that volunteer their time to add some history for each visitor.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

2010-06-29T14:44:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, we left Gros Morne National Park and drove to St. Barbe to catch the ferry to Labrador. The picture above shows the ferry unloading at St. Barbe before we got on; we left the motor home and just drove the car. It's an 1 hour 45 minute ride, and we got to Labrador at 1:45. Labrador seems quite different than Newfoundland. The first impression is that it is very rocky and very few people (30,000). I think that's an accurate first impression. The ferry actually docks in Quebec, but Labrador is only a few minutes east. There are only 48 miles of paved roads in this portion of Labrador and most of those 48 miles could use some major help.

We drove to Red Bay to see the National Historic Site on Whaling. A very old Basque whaling boat was discovered in the bay not too long ago and quite a few artifacts were found and the story developed from the wreckage. I'm posed beside a whaler and the bones are from a whale's flipper.

We stopped at the light house you see in the photo. This is the oldest light house and second tallest light house in Canada, and it was built in 1858. It is still in use today. Not too far from the light house is the earliest funeral monument in North America. The monument is 7,500 years old. A 12 year old boy was laid to rest there with several different artifacts.

We spent the night at a B&B, the Greenfell Louie A. Hall B&B. It was originally built as a nursing station. It was a nice stop and a nice change from the motor home.

Sunday morning, we caught the early ferry back to St. Barbe and drove to L'Anse Aux Medows National Historic Site. This is the site where the Vikings landed back in the 13th century. The site wasn't discovered until the late 1950's. A lot of the remains of the settlement were found and large enclosures were built to allow the public to view what remained of the buildings. But, because of the severe winters and the huge snowfalls, the enclosures were deteriorating the remains so they covered them over with dirt. They did build a replica of one of the sod buildings and that is what you see in the picture. There's a photo of the tour guide, and he did a great job with the tour.

As you can see, we did see some icebergs. The photo is of the largest, and I took the picture from about half a mile away. We heard of some that people had seen that were 200 feet high. This one isn't that big, but it is large.

We left the historic site and drove back to St. Barbe, picked up the motor home and drove down the coast. We decided we wanted to dry camp as close to the ocean as possible. We found a minimum service gravel road between the highway and the ocean and spent the night. We ate at 10:30 p.m., played some bridge (girls won) , and went to bed at 12:00.

Monday, we drove back to Deer Lake, caught the TCH (Trans Canada Highway) and drove to Grand Falls-Windsor. Today we drove to St. John's and are staying at Pippy Park for the next 4 or 5 days.

Friday, June 25, 2010

2010-06-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

Today, started out cloudy and cool, so we did a lot of driving and sightseeing. Our first stop was at the Gros Morne Discovery Centre. It had nice displays about the geology, biology, landscape, and wildlife of the park. The park is so old that geologist come to the park to see what they have only seen in text books. Part of the park is called the Tablelands; this was once the ocean floor before it heaved up to become land. Much of the park is the oldest in the world (before the continents shifted into place as they are now). There are pictures of Dave and Ruth, and Connie and me. The Discovery Centre had a bronze of a moose and that is the only moose I've seen so far. Yesterday, we did see two caribou when we were on the cruise on Western Brook Pond.

We drove to the far end of the park to Trout River. The photos are of the local harbor at Trout River. We had lunch at the world famous Seaside Restaurant. Fish chowder and a cod sandwich. It was a nice lunch. Not lobster, but a nice lunch.

For those of you who have been to Gros Morne, we went to Woody Point and Norris Point. These are on opposite sides of the South Arm of Bonne Bay. The last photo was taken from Norris Point with Woody Point on the opposite side. About 2 km across the bay and 40 km by road. Probably more bridge tonight. Last night, the men were victorious!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

2010-06-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

Sunday, we picked up our friends, Dave and Ruth Buck, at the Halifax airport. We spent the night at the RV park in Halifax and drove to North Sydney, Nova Scotia, and stayed at the KOA. The park is only a short drive to the Newfoundland Ferry.

Tuesday we crossed over to Newfoundland on the Caribou. It was a huge ship. It had two decks for cars and trucks. The lower level was just for semi trailers and the level above had RV's, commercial trucks, and cars. The trip took just over six hours and the sea was very calm. Here's a picture of Connie and Ruth by the life raft, just in case.

We spent our first night on the "Rock" (Newfoundland) not too far from where we got off the ferry. On Wednesday, we drove to Red Deer, very close to Gros Morne National Park. , and they came and met us. We picked up six nice lobsters and went to their cottage for a lobster dinner. They had a place for us to park overnight and things worked out great. Again, we are thankful for all of the friends we have from South Texas. There's a picture of Clarence and Jean with Connie and the Bucks. There's also a nice picture of Clarence putting the lobster in the pot.

Today, we drove into Gros Morne National Park, to Rocky Harbor and our campground. The big attraction at the park is a boat ride on Western Brook Pond. It's a beautiful ride with lots on high rock walls and many water falls. In order to take the boat ride, you have to hike 3 km from the parking lot to the dock. But the hike was worth it. The boat ride was tiring for some of us, as you can see from the photo of Dave taking a short nap.

On the way back to the RV, we stopped to see one of the earlier light houses on the island. We picked up some fresh cod fish and had another nice dinner.

We're going to spend one more day in Gros Morne and then head to Labrador.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

2010-06-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

Today, we drove in Northwest of Nova Scotia in the area known as the Annapolis River area. First, we toured the Historic Gardens in Annapolis Royal. The gardens were very well done; they had a great rose garden section. I have shown only a few of the pictures.

Second, we visited Fort Anne, also in Annapolis Royal. The fort dates back to the 1600's. The town was the early colonial capital for the French and British. You can see in the picture the cannons of the fort and the tidal waters of the Annapolis River flowing into the Fundy Bay.

Our last stop of the day was in Digby, known for its scallops. We wanted scallops for lunch and were told by one of the locals that The Royal Fundy Fish Market was a good place for lunch. We walked in a little before 1:00, ordered scallops, left at 2:15 and were never served. Waiting over an hour for lunch is ridiculous, so we left. The second place we stopped featured a special on scallops, but only if you ordered deep fried, so we left there too. We finally had lunch at our third choice and the scallops were very good. By the time lunch was finished it was 3:30 and time to drive back to our RV.

Tomorrow we pick up our friends Dave & Ruth Buck at the Halifax airport. They will be traveling with us to Newfoundland for the next three weeks.

Friday, June 18, 2010

2010-06-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

Friday was the warmest day in the past two weeks. It was about 30c. We toured the Southwest part of Nova Scotia today. Our first stop was Kejimkujik National Park, the seaside section of the park. The big attraction here is the beach and the possibility of seeing seals. To see either, you have to hike back in about 2.5 km. It was certainly worth the walk. The ocean views were spectacular, and we did see seals on the rocks and swimming around the island. After the 2.5 km walk to the beach we had a 2.5 km walk back. I enjoyed the walk down to the beach better.

Our second stop was at Blue rocks that was advertised as being just as nice as Peggy's Cove, but without the crowds. It was less than advertised. It is near the town of Lunenberg which has some amazing architeturally designed homes dating back to the 1700's. They had a walking tour, but we were too worn out by then. There was an interesting Anglican Church in town that dates back to 1753. It was the second Anglican church built in Canada.

We drove to picturesque Peggy's Cove and stopped at the Memorial to Flight 111. This is the memorial to the 229 people who died when the Swissair flight exploded on September 2, 1998.

Our last stop was at the octagonal lighthouse at Peggy's Cove. It is one of the oldest on the Atlantic coast. There's a photo of the town also. The local population is 120 until the tourist are turned loose.

That's the end of our travels for today. Now we have a 10:00 scheduled skype call to wish our grand-daughter, Beatrice, a happy 6th birthday.

Wednesday-Thursday, June 15 & 16, 2010

2010-06-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was a 'drive' day from Baddeck to Halifax. Before we left, we drove into town to visit the Alexander G. Bell Museum. I would think that it would focus of the telephone. It did, but most of the museum was about 'flight.' Bell was involved in the first flight in Canada which took place in 1909. Bell worked also to build the hydrofoil boat. That's what I'm standing beside.

Thursday, we drove downtown and went to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. The focus of the museum was on the Halifax Explosion of 1917, The Titanic Tragedy of 1912, Boats, Ships, and the Jewish Immigration attempt of 1939.

There were 2 beautiful yachts docked at the Halifax wharf - one from England and one from Bermuda. I forgot to include those pictures.

The Halifax Explosion was the largest man-made explosion before the atomic bomb. A large ship that was loaded with munitions for WWI was accidentally rammed in the harbor, caught on fire, and exploded. There were thousands of tons of explosives that blew-up. Hundreds of people on shore were killed because of the size of the explosion.

The Jewish Immigration story is about a full ship of German Jews that were trying to flee Hitler's German. They were originally going to Cuba, but while in transit Cuba changed its laws, and they were refused entry. They were refused in Florida also, and tried to immigrate to Nova Scotia and were denied there also. They had to go back to Germany and many were sent to concentration camps and died. On the list was a 'Levin' and a 'Finkelstein', Connie's maiden name and her grandmother's maiden' name.

The Titanic Tragedy is familiar to most and there are many artifacts in the museum. We went to the cemetery where over 300 casualties are buried. The little child's grave is a focal point in the cemetery. Many of the graves have only a number, no name. Many of those lost were never positively identified.

The local park had some beautiful flowers, and I couldn't resist putting four in today's blog. It rained off and on today and the poppies and iris's were still wet. I thought that made them especially photographic.

We have a couple of other downtown places to go, but didn't have time today.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

2010-06-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Fort Louisbourg which is the largest reconstructed 18th century historic sight in North America. It was rebuilt to look exactly as it would have in 1744. The site is huge, and yet it only represents 20% of what was here in 1744. The people that work at the fort are referred to as costumed interpreters and talk and act as they would have back in the day.

One of the first pictures is of Connie being challenged at the gate. Before that we were told of the value of the Fort to the French. The cod fish that were caught here in the 18th century were more valuable than the fur trading business from around the Hudson Bay and West.

The two gals that worked in the bakery were kind enough to show us their knitted socks and period shoes. We also visited their garden and got some advice.

The buildings were beautiful and the reproduction furniture was impressive. Even though all the buildings were destroyed and pilfhered over the years, there were still blueprints and old bills that covered everything that had been built.

We were also able to watch the cannon being fired. The soldiers that are marching are the ones that fired the cannon.

Everything about the fort was done in period. Even lunch was served in period. We had vegetable soup, broiled fish, and potatoes and carrots. The only utensil you were given was a spoon. I'm guessing the food was the same today as in 1744- expensive and small portions.

The church was very nice and we felt fortunate that we were the only people in the church at the time. One of the pictures is of one of the friars sitting next to a large buffet. He could very easily have been 200 years old.

Everything was done beautifully.! It was a great stop! Maybe too many pictures, but I thought they needed to be shown to get an idea of the size of the site.

Also, the photo and plaque about the "loophole" are interesting. Is that where the phrase "looking for a loophole" came from?

The photo of the picture is what the harbor looked like back in 1744.

When we first arrived, we were shown how they caught the cod back in the 18th century. They had a board that the line was wrapped around, a sinker, and a hook just above the sinker. Maybe I'm a little slow, but don't you think that is where the phase 'hook, line and sinker' came from?

I forgot to mention that it was a nasty day. It rained occassionally, the temperature was about 12 C, and the winds gusted to 60 km+. But it still was a fun, fun day!

Monday, June 14, 2010

2010-06-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

veterans

Saturday & Sunday, June 12 & 13, 2010

2010-06-13T16:54:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we drove to Charlottetown, the capital of PEI. Our first stop was at Founder's Hall, the visitor's center, where we walked through a narrirated display about the history of the founding of the "Domain of Canada" and the history of all the Provinces of Canada including the newest Province, Nunivut (?). I had to put in the picture about Confederation Day, July 1, 1867. It is now called Canada Day. Before 1867, all the Provinces were independent of one another,but still under the control of Great Britian. The Province of Canada included what is now Ontario and Quebec.

The photo of the boat (The Queen Victoria) in the exhibit represents the polititians from the Province of Canada coming to the first meeting about Confederation. Originally they were not invited to the meeting, but heard of the meeting, and took the first ship to Charlottetown for the meeting.

John McDonald was an important figure in the meetings and became the first Prime Minister of Canada. Connie was able to have a visit with him at one of the park benches in the downtown area.

The Parliment Chambers are pictured, and it should be noted that the Parlimemt only has 27 members, and they won't be in session until October. The photo of the large building is Province House. That is where the first talks about Confederation took place and it is now where the Parliment and House meet.

We had lunch in the harbor area and drove back to Cavandish via the National Park along the bay.

No trip to PEI would be complete without visiting the historic home in the novels/ series, Anne of Green Gables. Connie is shown next to the main character, Anne. She loves watching the series on public television.

Today we hit the road and drove to Baddeck, Nova Scotia. We will travel the Cabot Trail tomorrow.

The biggest event of the day was talking with our son, Toby, and granddaughters, Anna and Mary, on Skype. That was great to see and talk to the girls and Toby. Get with Connie through Facebook, and let's set up a time when we can skype with you.

Thursday-Friday, June 10 & 11, 2010

2010-06-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

Thursday we left Seaside and drove through Bay of Fundy National Park. Surprisingly we only saw distant views of the bay. We did stop at Hopewell Provincial Park to view the "flower pot" rocks. If you have ever seen a photo of the tidal changes in the Bay of Fundy, the "flower pot" rocks are what they show. We arrived at close to 'medium tide' and were able to walk around on the ocean floor. At high tide, the water would have been 14' higher. The tidal change at Hopewell Park is the greatest in the world. The park closed at 5:oo and the high tide was later than that, so we decided to drive on to Prince Edward Island one day early.

The drive was only just over two hours and we arrived in Cavendish, PE, at the KOA. We crossed over into PEI on the Confederation Bridge, the longest bridge over ice covered water in the world. The bay wasn't ice covered when we crossed, so in the summer it's just a long bridge. The bridge is 12.9 km (8 miles) long and was opened in 1997. All traffic prior to that was by one of two ferries.

Today, Friday, we drove the North Cape Coast Drive and stopped at "The Bottle House" at Cap Egmont. Then we went to the "Potato Museum" at O'Leary. The photo next to me standing by the museum sign is of a newly planted potato field. Imagine how the fields will look when the plants begin to flower. PEI produces lots of seed potatoes for export worldwide.

Later we drove to the end of the island, North Cape. North Cape has a large wind farm and is home to Canada's National Wind Energy Institute. North Cape also lays claim to the longest natural rock reef in North America. It is the point where the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawerance and the Northumberland Straits collide.

On our way back to Cavendish, we stopped in Summerside and walked around the waterfront. The weather was perfect - sunny and warm!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

2010-06-10T18:00:00.000-07:00

Today we spent with Linda and John. They offered to show us around the local area for the day. We drove to Sussex and had lunch at their daughter, Kathy's, restaurant in downtown Sussex. Linda's background is in foodservice and it appears that the 'fruit doesn't fall far from the tree'. Lunch was very good and the place was spotless. After lunch we picked up some groceries and stopped by Linda and John's beautiful farm. The photo above is part of their farm. They have three grown children, grand and great -grand children and they all live very close to home. John is a miner in a potash mine, and we learned a lot about mining today. He also worked as a logger and also worked on an oil rig. Interesting jobs and interesting background.

Linda bought groceries for dinner, and she introduced us to steamed mussels as appetizers, along with deer sausage (John is quite a hunter) and sweet corn for dinner. After dinner we listened to Linda play a tune on her fiddle. (She is quite a fiddler). Then we played cribbage and this time the men won.

We really enjoyed our time with this warm and generous couple, and we hope to see them again.

Since Monday we have been able to see the extreme changes in the tides that make the Bay of Fundy so popular. The above photo was taken at Seaside. If you look real close you can see Connie standing down by the water. It's low tide. At high tide the water would be almost all the way up the shore. The tides are amazing. The biggest tidal change in the world.

To see more detail in any of the pictures, just "double left-click" on the photo and then you can enlarge the picture to see more detail.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

2010-06-10T17:13:00.001-07:00

Today we drove to St. John and took in some of the local sites. Our first stop was the Loyalist House, built in 1810 by the Merritt family who were wealthy Loyalist from New York who fled to St. John during the Revolutionary War. The house is the oldest original house in St. John. Several pieces of furniture are very rare and valuable. The sewing table, in Duncan Phyfe style, was valued by the "Antiques Road Show" at $25,000 - $30,000. The 3/4 piano and organ is only one of two made and the other one is in a museum in Boston. The tour guide made this stop very informative and enjoyable. Mary and Al, it reminded us of the piano in your home.

We also visited the local Anglican (Episcopal) Church which was built in 1786. It was as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside. We also visited the Old City Market, the Reversing Falls, the Ft. Howe block house and the local Jewish Museum. We ate lunch at Billy's Seafood Co. and had another sample of chowder and seafood.

I thought the Reversing Falls was over-rated unless you took the boat ride up the falls. The water flows in one direction during low tide and then in the opposite direction during high tide. During high tide, you go up the falls. Maybe I wasn't impressed because we were there sometime between low and high tides. We drove back to Seaside by late afternoon.

One thing that we love about RVing, is the wonderful people that we meet in campgrounds. This afternoon, we met a couple, John and Linda Dalling. They live in Sussex, NB, about 60 km away from St. Martins, but they have a 'seasonal' lot at the campground where we are staying. We visited for a long time and then decided to play 4 -handed cribbage tonight. The women won! (Connie wrote the last sentence this against my wishes.)

Monday, June 7, 2010

2010-06-10T16:37:00.000-07:00

On Monday, we drove to St. Martins on the Bay of Fundy. Getting there was a real experience. We programed St. Martins into the GPS (Carmen, the Garmin) , and it took us the most direct route. It was the worst roads we had been on yet - narrow, rough, winding, and hilly - not fun in a motor home! 50km was too fast most of the time. At one point, it directed us down a narrow black top road that became a dirt road and dead ended in a farmer's front yard. We were just bearly able to turn the motor home around without taking off the toad. It took us over four hours to drive just over 150 km. We stayed at the Seaside Tent & Trailer Park which is right on the Bay. We were less than 50 meters from the water. P.S. I think we'll fire Carmen!

In the afternoon, we drove the Bay of Fundy Trail. The trail runs 11km along the coast line (top left photo). There are many stops along the way and an interperative center at the end. The falls was one of the stops. To get to the falls, we had to use the rope steps (58 steps) but the climb was worth it. We really enjoyed the trail!

We ate dinner at a wonderful restaurant. We had their 'world famous chowder' and shared a delicious seafood platter. YUM! After dinner, we drove to a local lighthouse and took the picture (top right) that you see.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

2010-06-09T19:38:00.000-07:00

Sunday, June 6, 2010

2010-06-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

Cold, cloudy, and misty would describe today's weather. We left Quebec and are now in New Brunswick. We stopped at a great visitor's center as soon as we got into NB. They gave us lots of information and maps for NB, NS, and PEI along with a canvas bag to carry it all. That's unusual to say the least. We next drove the St. John River Valley Road. Our first stop was at the Grand Fall's Gorge in Grand Falls, NB. Connie got a lesson on Indian sign language from one of the locals.

The pictures above are of the world's longest covered bridge; this bridge is 1,282 feet long. The bridge is in Hartland, NB. The bridge is tall enough that we could have driven the motor home through, but I felt that wasn't necessary. It's been standing for over 100 years,, and we should give it a chance for another few years.

We stopped for the night along the St. John River near Woodstock, NB. We are only 7 km from Houlton, ME, and have been close to the U.S. most of the day. That just seems weird!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

2010-06-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

Thursday we drove just a short distance from Richmond, ON and parked the motor home at an RV park near Brockville, ON. We then drove 75-80 Km to Kingston where I had booked a river cruise to see the 1000 Islands on the St. Laurence Seaway. I made a mistake. I was hoping to see vacation homes on the small islands, but only saw a few. We did see Fr. Henry (pictured above). It was built during the War of 1812. On our way back to the motor home, we took the 1000 Islands Parkway and did manage to see some of the cottages on the islands. We found out that the river views we were looking for were only a few kilometers away from our campsite! There should be a moral to this story. One might be to ask the local people before you make judgements on your own.

We drove to Quebec City on Friday and stayed in Levis, ON, just across the river from Quebec City. We took a ferry over to Quebec on Saturday morning. The weather forcast was for rain and we tried to get the city in before it rained. We saw the Citadelle, the Plains of Abraham, the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel (photo above), the Norte-Dame-de-Quebec Cathedral, hundreds of shops and hundreds of restaurantes.

The horse and carriage were just outside the walls around Quebec City (the only walled city in North America). The Citadelle was built in the 17th century by the British; it's built in a 'star' shape, it's call the "Gilbraltor of America, and it is still being used.

We had lunch at this small cafe, looked through some shops, and took the ferry back to Levis and the RV park. Tomorrow we will leave for New Brunswick.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

2010-06-03T14:05:00.000-07:00

On Monday, we left Alpine Resort and drove the 'toad' to Haliburton and had a short visit with Jeff and Mary Martin at their cottage on the lake. I think Jeff said they have 16 acres on the lake. They have a beautiful spot, and we had a very nice visit; we went to the village and had lunch with them. Jeff and Mary are pictured on the lake side of their cottage.

We then drove back to Alpine, picked up the motor home, and drove to Richmond just south of Ottawa and are staying with our friends, Alastair and Mary Munro on their farm.

On Tuesday, we toured Ottawa with the Munro's. Al and Mary are pictured in front of a fountain in downtown Ottawa. We started with a city bus tour of about 12 different sites.We made it to the second stop across the river into Quebec, got off the bus and went to the Canadian Museum of Civilization. That was a great stop! The time line of the museum is from the First Peoples to modern day. We saw more Inuit art, Pacific coast Aboriginal exhibits, and we stopped so that I could get some 'first-hand' instruction on throwing a whaling harpoon. After a short time, my instructor gave up on me. After the museum, we got back on the bus, and finished the tour of the city. We then walked around downtown and saw many of the national government buildings. The one pictured is the main Parliament building which houses the representatve and senate chambers; the tall tower is called the 'Peace Tower' and was built after the 'Great War'. It was later rededicated after WW II and Korean War/ Conflict. Ottawa has celebrated its 400th birthday, so you can imagine there is a lot of history here.

There is a lot to see in downtown Ottawa. One day does not do justice to the city. With the hospitality we have enjoyed with the Munro's, we just might have to come back again!

Today, Wednesday, Al and U washed the motor home and in the afternoon, we went to an automated milking house near their home. The whole operation is just about void of human intervention, with the exception of bringing in the feed and taking out the milk. The milk cows are each tagged, so that they can be tracked for milk production. They move into the automatic milking station on their own because they get feed, and they want to be milked. The get positioned in the station, have their teats cleaned while the milking machine attaches itself, and are milked. Pretty amazing! Their weight is recorded, and the milking machine removed. The machine is washed and the cows are gently pushed out of the milking station. Al said there are 50 cows in the building and the whole operation cost about $1,000,000, plus the cows.

New thought, everywhere we have stopped to visit, our friends have been wonderful! We can't thank them enough for their friendship and hospitality. We hope to have a chance to entertain them in our home someday in the future.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

2010-05-30T19:35:00.002-07:00

We started the day playing Newfie horseshoes. It's a fun game where you throw steel washers into boxes (12"x12"x 8"). The boxes are 20' apart. In the middle of the open end of the box is an open ended 3" pipe. If the washer goes in the pipe, 3 points. If the washer goes in the box, 2 points. If the washer is close to the outside of the box, 1 points (within the width of the washer). You draw for partners and play as a team toward the final match. There were 30 people playing, and my team won twice and Connie's team didn't win at all. Good fun!

After horseshoes, we took a side trip with Roger and Marcia to Peterborough, ON, to see the 'Lift Lock." You can see in the photo that it's not like a regular lock because it has two 140'X 30' chambers that rise and fall 65' to move boats from one level of the river to the other. We were lucky that a cruise boat was going through the locks when we were there. This lift lock was built between 1896 and 1904 and is part of an elaborate lock system that connects Lake Ontario and Lake Huron.

Our next stop was to visit Gail and Nestor Gulka at their new home in Lindsay. Gail and Nestor are also friends that we met in Texas. They also took us to Tim Horton's and M & M Meat Store. Tim Horton's is a chain of donut/coffee stores throughout Canada and M & M is also a chain that specialize in frozen foods - mostly ready to cook meats.

We ended the day with the Gulka's and the Miller's. We had a cookout and said good bye after dinner. It's amazing what dear friends we have been fortunate enough to meet in South Texas. Tomorrow we are off to Ottawa.

2010-05-30T06:43:00.000-07:00

Today we drove to Alpine RV Resort near Lindsay, ON. The first photo tells some of you that we have arrived at Victoria Palms North. Everyone in the picture are Winter Texans. From left to right: Malcolm, Roger, Gail, Nester, Connie, Marcia, Fran, and Doreen. After the reunion, we took a boat ride in Roger and Marcia's boat on Sturgeon Lake, down the river, and to the locks in Lindsay. They had a pot luck in the club house and then a bonfire at Gail and Nesters.
It's so fun to be with our Canadian Texas friends again!

Friday, May 28, 2010

2010-05-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

The photo above is of Marcia and Roger Miller at their front door in Thornhill, ON. They have a beautiful home, and Roger has done some very nice landscaping in the front yard.

Today, we went downtown Toronto to the Museum of Inuit Art, the lake front (Lake Ontario), and China Town.

The Inuit Art Museum represents native Eskimo art. The Inuit's live near the Artic Circle in both Canada and the US. If you've ever been to Alaska, you will probably recognize the art. A lot of the medium is stone and soapstone. It's beautiful.

The photo above is of the CN (Canadian National Railroad) tower. The tower is a communications tower, but does have a restaurant and observation section.

We continue to eat ourselves into oblivion! Marcia made us a wonderful turkey dinner on Wednesday night and tonight we are having steaks. Since Toronto has such a diverse population, we have eaten lunch in very ethic restaurants - Greek yesterday and today we had Thai food.

Tomorrow were off to the lake.

2010-05-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Wednesday, we visited Grace and Earl Dodds. We met the Dodds' two years ago in Victoria Palms, Donna, TX. Earl spends some time in the woodworking shop and Connie knows Grace from the sewing room. They live in a beautiful new home near Orangeville, ON and the photo below is in front of their waterfalls in their back yard. The other photo is of the front of their home. We were only able to stay for lunch and a short visit.

Our next stop was at Thornhill, ON, at Roger and Marcia Miller's home. We parked the motor home in their driveway and will be here till Saturday.

Today,Thursday, we toured Toronto and had lunch in the Greek area. We also visited Casa Loma, a castle built by Sir Henry Pellatt. Sir Henry built the castle in 1911 at a cost of $2.5 million. I'm sure, at that time he was one of the wealthiest men in Canada. In 1901, he was chairman of 25 separate companies and controlled 25% of Canada. Unfortunately, after WWI, the Canadian economy took a dive, and he had to declare bankruptcy. The pictures below are of Marcia and Roger at the castle.

More tomorrow. Roger just beat me two games of cribbage, and I need to try to get even.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

2010-05-25T17:37:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario, yesterday afternoon, checked into the RV Park, and drove over to Bernie and Jane Beleskey's for dinner. They really pulled off a great meal. I know you're not interested in what we had for dinner, but it was so good, I have to tell. Ceasar salad, grilled shrimp, top sirloin, asparagus, baked potato, and rhubarb pie. It was fantastic! Here's a picture of Jane and Bernie in front of Niagara Falls - the Canadian Falls.

Tuesday, Bernie and Jane took us to Niagara Falls, the Canadian side of the falls. We took the ride on the Maid of the Mist and went about as close to "Horse Shoe Falls," the Canadian Falls, as is possible. The bottom photo was shot right when we were in front of the falls. Everyone is issued the blue hooded rainwear. You really need it! The mist is almost like rain and it's cold too.

The photo below is of the American Falls and the small falls to the right is the Bridal Falls. You can see people walking up and behind the falls.

We finished the day with lunch in the town of Niagara on the Lake. It was a wonderfull day and we thank Jane and Bernie for showing us Niagara Falls.

Tomorrow were off to see more friends.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

2010-05-22T19:34:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome back to our "blog."

We left home this morning and are on our way to the Canadian Maritime Provinces. We drove as far as Joliet, Il and are staying at the RV park at the Empress Casino.

We stopped in Bettendorf, IA and had lunch with friends, Dan and Bobbi Ford. I hired Dan 18 years ago, and he has been a good friend ever since. Their daughter, Bailey is graduating from high school this year; we got an invitation to her open house but had to visit a week early because of our travel plans. Baily is headed to the University of Iowa and wants to be a doctor! We had a nice visit with the Ford's.

I have posted a picture of my wooden boat that I have been working on for the past year, whenever I'm home. It's a cedar stirip, V-bottom, fishing boat. All I have to do is cane the seats and put two more coats of finish on the inside.

That's it for today. Just a start. Hope you will follow along.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

2010-04-11T19:33:00.000-07:00

Just a note if you have been looking for a new post on the blog. We're sitting in our driveway for a few weeks. We'll be leaving again about May 23rd. Connie will be doing yard work and planting the garden and I will be finishing the boat. Check back on the blog after May 23rd.

Monday PM, March 29, 2010

2010-03-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went downtown and watched and listened to "The Fremont Street Experience." It’s a $70 million light canopy with a $17 million sound system. The canopy is 1,400 feet long and 90 feet above the street. It has 12.5 million LED modules. One of the songs they played was Bye Bye American Pie with images as in the photos. During the shows there are thousands of people on the street and everyone is looking up, Connie included. It must be spring break.

More later!

Monday, March 29, 2010

2010-03-29T17:55:00.001-07:00

This morning we toured Hoover Dam. We got to the Visitor’s Center about 9:00 and were on the first tour at 9:30. We toured as much of the dam as is allowed; the power plant and the inspection tunnels. We stood above the inlet tubes for the generators and could feel the water rushing through. This is the water that propels the turbines that produce the electricity that pays for the dam. The dam was built beginning in 1930 and dedicated in 1937 by F.D. Roosevelt. It was dedicated as Boulder Dam and in 1847 it was renamed Hoover Dam. FDR did not like Hoover and didn't want the dam named after him. It was during Hoover's Presidency that the idea was started. The dam has 17 generators and produces four billion kilowatts of electricity. The dam is one of the top 10 construction achievements of the 20th century. 35 million people have toured the dam since it was opened to the public.

What has been particularly interesting to me is the by-pass bridge that they are building just south of the dam. I saw a TV program about the construction of the piers for the bridge and the engineering that had to go into its building. The bridge will be finished within the next year and, as you can see, they have most of the parts in place. They were setting one of the deck supports while we were there. When completed, the by-pass will take a lot of the traffic pressure off of the dam. I’m sure that security was also a consideration for building the bridge. Today they don’t allow trucks, buses, or motor homes across the dam.

As we left the visitor’s center the traffic driving to the dam was backed-up to Boulder City, four miles away. We said that we had made the right choice to get to the dam by 9:00. It's spring break.

Just a short distance from the dam, we stopped at the Visitor’s Center for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. The dam has created the largest man-made lake in the US. The lake is the size of the state of Pennsylvania.

More later.

2010-03-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

Today we spent the afternoon on “The Strip,” Las Vegas Boulevard. There had to be 100,000+ tourists in the city today. Everything was crowded; its spring break too.

We watched the water show in front of Bellagio’s. The photo of Connie and the Gerber Daisies is from the Conservatory and Botanical Garden inside Bellagio’s. Bellagio’s is huge. We walked for blocks just to get from one end to the other.

We also went to the auto museum and auto auction at the Imperial Palace Casino. I think the cars are part of the Harrah’s collection. While we were at the museum, Connie had a chance to dance with one of The Blues Brothers. That might have been a once in a lifetime opportunity. I also put a picture of the front of one of the cars in the museum. Can you tell me what make of the car it is?

The shot of the Eiffel Tower is at the Paris Casino. Today there will be more pictures than talk. Enjoy

Friday, March 26, 2010

2010-03-26T21:14:00.000-07:00

Today we stopped in Seligman, AZ, at the Route 66 KOA. We drove 400 miles, every single mile into strong winds. A ‘wind advisory’ was issued in the morning forecasting winds of up to 40 mph, with gusts of 60. Driving was a full-time job today.

There is no TV reception here, but we were able to watch most of the game on the internet, but lost the signal in the second half. Too bad UNI lost.

Tomorrow Las Vegas!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

2010-03-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of the Rally. We went in this morning for three more seminars. I went to a seminar of Allison transmissions; Connie went to one on computer safety and security, and we both went to one on Atlantic Canada. We’ve spent four days going to seminars, and we’ve learned something at all. But the seminar about Allison was the most unprofessional one of the week. The only thing that saved them was that they have a good website for RV’ers.

The total count of motor homes at the Rally was 1,780. Some are in the above photo.

In the afternoon, I installed the tire monitor system that we bought at the Rally. It monitors the pressure of all ten tires on the ground; six on the motor home and four on the toad. Unfortunately, two of the sensors leaked on the inside duals of the motor home. Nothing seems to be easy any more. Why couldn’t I just screw on the extensions and then screw on the sensors?

I’ll have to fix it in the morning before we leave.

Tonight we went to our last concert, The Flying J Wranglers. They did a great job. After the concert we watched the balloon glow. It was very over-rated. They only had one balloon. I thought they would have more. Maybe it was too windy.

Regardless, our first FMCA Rally is history. We had a great time. Tomorrow we head for Las Vegas. Send money, we will bet it for you!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

2010-03-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

Tuesday we did more seminars. We attended seminars on Cummins diesel engines, digital cameras, generator maintenance, and microwave/convection cooking. A lot of information.

Wednesday was another day of seminars; we attended one on Freightliner, microwave/convection cooking, and RVing Alaska. We also watched a presentation for an RV caravan tour to the Copper Canyon in Mexico. The caravan would be for 19 day trip in October of 2010 or 2011. We’re considering it.

Tonight we went to a concert featuring B.J. Thomas. His first hit was in 1965, and he has won 5 Grammies. One hit that everyone should remember is from the movie Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, Rain Drops Keep Falling on My Head. The concert was scheduled as an outdoor event, but the weather today was not a spring day. It was snowing this morning and then sunny, but still cold – kind of like having winter, spring, summer and fall all in one day.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Rally.

Monday, March 22, 2010

2010-03-24T20:40:00.000-07:00

First big day at the Rally! Between the two of us we attended five different seminars; Orientation, Toad (name for towed car) Braking, Batteries, Full-timing, and Enhancing the RV Lifestyle (don’t go without Velcro). We might be a little crazy to spend the day listening to people talk about this stuff, but hopefully it will extend our RV’s life and our enjoyment.

Tonight the scheduled activity was “Movie Night.” All of the seniors watched the movie “UP”. It had a “balloon” theme and was kind of cute. There was free popcorn and soft drinks; we were home by 9:00.

The weather today was perfect - a high of 66 degrees and clear skies. We are parked next to the balloon ascension area, and this morning there were five balloons in the air when we left for the Rally at Expo New Mexico. If the weather holds, there is a balloon glow scheduled for Thursday night. We’re looking forward to that!

Pictures later.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

2010-03-22T16:07:00.000-07:00

We woke up Saturday morning to snow and 27 degrees. BRRR! We waited until 10:00 and drove to the Balloon Fiesta Park where we parked the motor home for the Rally.

After we got parked, we drove to Santa Fe to visit the Kingsbury’s. What a great time! We hadn’t visited with them for 10 years. They retired to Santa Fe after Khalil retired from John Deere. They live in a beautiful adobe in a gated community northwest of downtown. Mimi and Khalil are in the picture with the mountains in the background.

Sunday, we went to their Episcopal Church, had breakfast at Harry’s Road House, went to the “Miracle Staircase” at the Loretto Chapel. Then we went to the New Mexico History Museum, and to the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos. Later, we stopped at Trish and Clark Elmer’s; they also retired to Santa Fe from Cedar Falls about six years ago. They live in the same area as the Kingsbury’s. Both have beautiful homes!

Here’s the history for today. The Loretto Chapel is home to the “Miracle Staircase.” Around 1865, a carpenter was passing through Santa Fe and the Sisters at the chapel asked him to make a staircase up to their choir loft. He built a circular staircase to the loft with two full 360 degree rotations and no supports. Modern carpenters would have a very difficult time reproducing this staircase. When he finished he just left, vanished.

More history, the Bradbury Science Museum displays the history of the atomic bomb/the Manhattan Project. Los Alamos is home to the Los Alamos National Laboratory which employees 11,000 people. The Laboratory works on nuclear programs, national defense, and lots of secret stuff.

Tomorrow the Rally begins. We have an orientation seminar at 8:15 A.M. More later.