Black Dog's House on Wheels

Naval Aviation Museum and more, February 10

2012-02-15T13:56:00.000-08:00

If you like airplanes, the National Museum of Naval Aviation is one museum that is a must see and it is FREE except for the IMAX movies. There are airplanes from every era and in every size and shape. The museum is located at the Pensacola, Naval Air Station. Docent led tours are available, but we chose to wander through the hangers on our own schedule and also take in one of the three IMAX movies. There is also a trolley car tour which takes you out to the field. All of the restoration work is performed on site. Some my favorite pictures are :

The aircraft below specialized in detecting submarines.

Below are conflict ribbons flown from Coast Guard Ships for every conflict they participated in.

The Pensacola Lighthouse was just around the corner from the aviation museum.

Fort Barrancas is also located on base but is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the inside because it closes early during the winter season. It is the most finished and in the best shape of the forts in the area.

This gives you an idea of where the various forts were located to protect the Pensacola Bay

On another day we did visit the Naval Live Oaks district visitor center for the Gulf Islands located in Gulf Breeze. Its a small section of the national seashore but is unique in that it is considered the first tree farm in the US. It was developed for the purpose of supplying live oak timber for shipbuilding in the 1800's. Live oak is renowned for resistance to disease, incredible density, and durable wood for ship building. Below is a section of the park, but a lot of the live oaks are missing and only pine trees can be seen.

We have a few more days left to explore the beaches, but the weather is starting to turn cold.

Gulf Islands National Seashore and more February 7-14

2012-02-15T13:01:00.000-08:00

Leaving Panacea, Florida, very early in the morning (really early....we were on the road by 7:00 a.m.) afforded the opportunity to arrive at Gulf Islands National Seashore just before noon, which was a good thing. We did not have reservations and check out and check in time at the park is 12:00, so timing was everything. We really lucked out and were able to secure a space for seven days. A long line formed behind us soon after we arrived. Wow! Seven days of white sandy beaches! I'm always at home when near beaches and there are miles and miles and miles of white sandy, clean, shoreline looking towards the Gulf of Mexico on one side and Pensacola Bay on the other to explore and enjoy.

Gulf Islands National Seashore includes 12 units and stretches nearly 160 miles along the Gulf of Mexico from Mississippi to the Florida Panhandle. Our campsite was located on Santa Rosa Island in the Fort Pickens unit across the Bay from Pensacola and Gulf Breeze. The beaches are very,very white. I think I read that the white sandy beaches are made of quartz which washed down from the Appalachian Mountains during the glacial age. They are the same brilliant white as the White Sands at White Sands National Park in New Mexico.

This area is often referred to as the Emerald Coast. Looking toward the Gulf from near our campsite:

This is looking toward Gulf Breeze and Pensacola:

Fort Pickens is the largest of four forts build to defend Pensacola Bay and was a short walk/bicycle ride from out site. Ranger led tours are offered every day and we participated in the well informed tour. Below is the entrance to the visitor center and fort.

The photo below is an example of how erosion and shifting sands change the landscape. The stairs you see are half berried under the sand. They meet together under the sand to form a perfect V shape.

An animated Ranger Dave provided an informative and interesting tour, which lasted over an hour. He made what could have been a dull, history laden tour, into a fun, fast paced informative hour.

One of the batteries looking out towards the Gulf of Mexico:

One of the interesting things about Fort Pickens is that it is a fort within a fort. With changing technology, i.e. armory, a separate fort was built inside the walls of Fort Pickens during WWII, but never was used. Ironically, Fort Pickens was built to protect our freedom by slaves deprived of freedom, and the only time Fort Pickens saw action was when the country was at war with itself and was one of four seacoast forts in the South that remained in Union control during the Civil War.

We walked the white sandy beaches and watched the beautiful sunsets. We had several nice days of weather, but then it turned really, really cold...down in the mid twenties one night and was pretty windy, but that didn't stop us from walking and riding our bikes. I guess winter finally caught up with us.

During our stay we did explore two other units of Gulf Islands National Seashore which included Fort Barrancas located on the Pensacola Navy Base and the Naval Live Oaks Area, and I'll comment on those in another blog.

February 1-6-a full week of enjoying the "Forgotten Coast"

2012-02-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

We left the Inverness Moose Lodge and drove to another Moose Lodge, in Panacea, Florida. We had contacted an the lodge earlier and confirmed there would be RV parking. The Wakulla County Moose Lodge greeted us with open arms and seemed very happy that we were using their dry camping facilities. For such a small community, this Moose Lodge was very active....there was always some type of activity going on...pool tournaments, chili cook offs, taco night, etc. The area is marketed as "The Forgotten Coast"; it is quiet and not as over populated as some of the gulf areas.

The Gulf of Mexico was only a short drive away from the lodge , and we squeezed in a short walk on the beach towards Alligator point after we got settled. We didn't make all the way to Alligator point on our walk, but there would be lots of other beach walks. Alligator point is in the far distance.

We were only about 40 miles south of Tallahassee, so we made a visit to the Capital building as well as the old capital building. The current capital was built in 1977 and represents the "New Classicism". The main tower is 22 stories tall with an observation floor on the 22nd story offering some nice panoramic views. The interior is a lot more interesting than the exterior.

The old capitol is across the plaza from the new one and much more southern looking and more inviting. The inside was recently renovated and has some interesting exhibits. The rotunda is still being renovated but the stain glass is colorful. Parking around the area is scarce. We couldn't find any public parking lots so we were "on the meter: and rushed through most of the exhibits.

Another day we drove all the way to Point Joe and St. San Blas exploring beaches as well as the little town of Apalachicola...nearly 80 miles one way. We had fresh local oysters at Up The Creek, raw bar, as they call them in this area..yummm.

There are lots of rivers and wildlife preserves within a short drive of Panacea. One day we paddled the Wakulla River all the way to St. Marks with our friends Peter and Carolyn. It was a beautiful relaxing four or so mile paddle down the quiet river.

The river is lined with private docks which provide refuge for the manatee, but we didn't see any manatee on this trip. I did see lots of large fish in the river and encountered fishermen along the way.

These huge turtles were enjoying the quiet day.

I've never seen this water flower before.

There were lots of different water fowl along the way.

Another one of the docks along the way.

Another day we paddled the Wicissa River. Originally, we had planned to paddle 10 miles down the river, but after doing some research we determined the take out would involve too long a shuttle, so we opted to just paddle down the river for a while and then paddle back. The river was much wider and more shallow than the Wakulla and the current was very slow. There was an abundance of wildlife including alligators, river otters, turtles, snakes, deer and many different birds. I've never seen river otter in the wild before, so that was a real treat for me. They moved pretty fast and were shy so I wasn't able to get any picture of them.

If you look very carefully at the picture below you can see the head of an owl. He really blends in well.

About a mile from the put in and off to a side channel 1/4 mile is Blue Springs. It is a large deep spring and very blue.

There are also creatures lurking in these waters.... Joel couldn't see the bottom it was so deep.

W saw this snake sunning himself . I wouldn't have wanted to encounter him in the water.

The alligator was not about to move. Couldn't care less as I approached him

even though Joel was on the other side.

This tree was full of Ibis.

Bald Point State Park is just a few miles down the road, and one afternoon we walked all the way to the point enjoying the white sandy beaches.

The point looks over towards Panacea.

We left this quiet area very early on Tuesday morning and headed for Gulf Island National Park so check back for pictures of more white sandy beaches and more adventures.

January 24 ...

2012-02-03T05:39:00.000-08:00

When I last posted, I was enjoying the great January weather in Reno and on the California central coast. Well, all things must come to an end. I had made a quick trip to Pacific Grove to visit mom and the blue skies lulled me into believing it was spring. The morning after I returned I woke up to Rio looking forlornly out the window ( No, I didn't get a dog...this is Jeremy's dog )....

To a dumping of heavy white snow.

Even Mt Rose received snow. What a difference a few days can make.

Tromping through the snow, loading suit cases in the car at 5:00 A.M. (no picnic but the end result was worth it ), I caught a flight to Orlando to meet up with Joel. The passengers let out cheers as we landed to evening temperatures of 77 degrees. I'm thinking to myself "maybe I don't need all two suite cases of clothes with these balmy temperatures".

I spent two nights at the Claremont Thousand Trails getting reacquainted with the "Big House", Joel, and enjoying the warm weather. One day Joel and I explored the old town of Kissimmee. I'm still getting back into the groove and forgot to take pictures of some of the wonderful sculptures along the main street.

We headed for the Crystal River area to catch up with some WIN friends who were parked at the local Moose Lodge in Lacanto. The Crystal River area is known for clear waters and a manatee sanctuary. Saturday we launched our Kayaks in the river and headed over to the sanctuary to see the manatees. There were swarms of kayakers so we returned on Monday, when it wasn't so crowded. I dawned the mask and snorkel and swam with the manatee. These creatures are mesmerizing. Joel also used the mask and snorkel and he was like a little kid as he played in the water. (In my haste to leave Portola, I forgot the waterproof camera case to my camera so I couldn't take any underwater pictures).

Joel eventually got all the way in the water, getting his shorts and shirt wet, which made for cold kayaking back to the take out.

Some of the small fish in the Three Sisters Spring.

There is a section of the river roped off allowing the manatee to sleep in peace. The brown blob is one of the manatees. They swim freely from the pool to the river. Divers and kayakers are not allowed to go beyond the ropes.

Lots of folks venture out in wetsuits, snorkels, and masks to view the manatee.

The water is really clear. These are all manatee sleeping in the roped off section.

We meandered up and round the river to three sisters springs.

We also meandered around the river and up along the different canals behind the residential area. Along the way I saw this interesting bottle tree.

This crane and I had a staring contest. He eventually flew off.

Cedar Key is just down the road a ways, and was suppose to be another good kayaking area, so we drove there one day to check it out. The tides were way out and it wasn't feasible to put in without slogging through the mud. We did explore the little town of Cedar Key and watched the locals fish from the docks. The pelicans cast a watchful eye waiting for free bait i.e. lunch.

This guy, didn't budge the whole time we were on the dock. I almost tripped over him. I guess he had staked out his sunny territory for the day.

This part of Florida is a lot different than the areas around Orlando and farther south. The towns are smaller and more rural and the people a lot more friendly. We explored the area while I looked for an old clunker bicycle. There are lots of bike paths to ride in Florida including flat level Rails to Trails paths. I found a beach cruiser with no gears and coaster brakes...my thinking is without gears I'd have to work a little harder and Joel wouldn't have to work so hard to could keep up with me....(I have a habit of getting on the bicycle and just cruise along in my "zen" mode).

The next stop will be a little farther north and west as we explore some of the beach areas along the Gulf.

More January Hiking around Reno

2012-01-20T17:54:00.000-08:00

When I last posted I commented on how great the weather has been for January around Reno... cold mornings with day time temperatures in the 60s make for great hiking. Mid January turned out another another spring like day and hiking buddy, Sandi, and I headed over to Mt. Davidson which overlooks the old mining town of Virginia City. Mt. Davidson is a short steep climb from Virgina town center and rewards one with vista views of mountains to the north and Washoe Valley and Washoe Lake to the south. This was one hike I would not want to do in the Summer, as the hike was steep and without any shade.

At the very beginning of our "climb" we saw these mule deer. They were probably searching out water.

Mt. Davidson is the farthest knoll. It doesn't look to menacing from this vantage point but once I got closer it seemed a lot steeper.

The views toward Mt. Rose and Slide Mountain. You can see the ski runs that are now brown and normally are full of skiers this time of year.

Washoe Lake which is the center piece for Washoe Valley.

Virgina City from near the top of Mt. Davidson.

Is it really January?

2012-01-07T15:10:00.000-08:00

I've lived in the Reno/Tahoe area for nearly 20 years and I have never, ever, seen the hills and mountains around Reno in December like this:

Brown, very brown. Usually this time of year the hills and mountains have at least a dusting of snow...but this!? Reno had a really bad fire in Mid-December due to the lack of rain and high winds. A cold front with some rain came in and helped contain the fire. Dozens of homes were lost. The fire was on the hills behind the down town area. If you look closely you can see some really black/dark hills on the extreme right where the fire went through. Also, a fire went through the Peavine area not too long ago. You can see the burn on the lower left part of the photo.

Thursday, my hiking pal Sandi and I, meandered up the Peavine Mountains. We didn't make all the way to the microwave towers, but got pretty close. The day was a perfect day for hiking...temps in the low 60's with very little wind, and very clear blue skies, except for a "pancake" cloud here and there. Actually, they are called lenticular clouds and are unique to the Eastern Sierras, although I have seen them other places. Usually these clouds appear in the Spring when the upper atmosphere is really windy. I've hiked in this area in the winter time, the only difference is that usually at this time of year you need snowshoes!

With weather this nice (albeit a little cooler in Portola) I'll probably stick around...at least until it gets really, really, cold .

Happy Holidays to all

2011-12-27T18:16:00.000-08:00

Well, my time at Amazon came to a close on December 21 and not all to soon. It was a good experience with lots of lessons learned along with many new friendships. The Fernley facility hired 267 workampers and 207 made it to the end....kind of tells you it was hard work. Amazon give us all glowing reports (its only the second year for the program at Fernley) and were really impressed by us "older workers" work ethics. By the end many were grumbling about the cold weather and could not wait to pull out and head for warmer climates. The Sparks Marina RV park was pretty empty by Thursday morning.

With this blog, I'll try and catch up everyone on what the family is doing. I didn't send out Christmas letters this year, so the bog will have to be it for Christmas and New Years wishes. I'm not going to include pictures this time, either.

Oldest son Craig arrived from New Mexico a week or so ago and hung out at Jeremy's house in Portola doing their favorite past time and hobby....making beer. (Jeremy plans to enter in the Reno Home Brew Contest in May) Mid-week they drove up to Chico and toured the Sierra Nevada Brewery and picked up a lot of tips. Both are pretty experience home brewers and apparently the tour guide was a little surprised at some of the questions that were asked. Craig's girlfriend flew in on Thursday and they headed down to Pacific Grove to visit "grandma" for Christmas. Craig plans to continue on to Sierra Vista, AZ, to work on his house and get it ready to rent. Seems the property manager keeps adding to the "to do list".

Middle son Justin arrived from Virginia on Thursday for a few days. He has been attending grad school in Virginia , working on a Masters Degree in environmental policy. He interned with a non-profit environmental policy research center last summer in DC and was recently offered a full-time job with the same group. He was on target to finish his masters in May, but now will only take one class at a time so it may be a little longer before he completes his masters degree. In today's economy, the job was paramount. Liz, his wife, is also working on her MBA(in addition to working full time) and taking a concentrated course over the holidays so did not make it out west this time. These are two very busy young people!!

Jason and Rhonda are still in Tennessee. Jason is working for Lowe's Cabinet Making department near Nashville and is extremely grateful to finally be employed and have insurance benefits. . Rhonda recently started treatments for multiple myoloma ( a type of cancer of the blood) and has been doing well. Her latest tests shows the treatments are working to bring her protein levels closer to normal. She has had quite a rough time and had to have a rod put in her arm to due to a tumor fracturing a bone and it didn't heal. She is a survivor and fighter.

Christmas Eve, Justin, Jeremy, and I took the RV down to PG to spend Christmas Day with mom. She was thrilled we all arrived including my brother Dale and his wife Carolann. We had a wonderful dinner in the Canterbury dinning room on Christmas day after spending a relaxing day walking on the beach, (nice balmy weather) visiting and catching up. I hated to leave, but Justin had to catch a flight out of Reno today.

I still haven't decided where I am going or what I am doing next. The jello has been shaking, but can't seem to get it to settle down at all and let me know. For the time being I'll stay a Jeremy's house at least until the snow starts to fly..the weather has been good, in fact there have been record breaking temperatures in the Tahoe basin.

Fall update, November 8

2011-11-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I've have several inquiries as to how things are going. I've been extremely busy the past six weeks. The first month was spent at my son Jeremy's house driveway parking. I has a huge house which backs up to BLM land, which also has a nice level parking area just perfect for my little Born Free. You can't see the pad in the picture, but it is in front of and just to the left of the stairs. The picture was taken about two weeks ago, right after a little dusting of snow.

The first few days at Jeremy's were spent going back and forth to Verdi, Nevada to empty out my storage units. We rented a truck and transported all the furniture to Jeremy's house. He only had a bed, dining table (a previous hand me down from me) and TV in the house , because his girlfriend took everything when she moved out. Jeremy went through all my stuff and we sorted, and sorted, and sorted some more and set aside stuff for a garage sale and other items for my other son Conlan who need a few house hold goods. (he is suppose to come out from New Mexico for Christmas) I condensed old files, tax returns, statements, etc accumulated over the past 15 years into a few bankers boxes and pictures. Some day I'll get those pictures into some albums. Most of the furniture has found its place in the house, and those pieces that Jeremy didn't want and I wanted to keep found a place in the basement.

The garage sale was very successful, although not very profitable. I had hoped to re coop the cost of renting the truck but the proceeds didn't cover it. Oh, well..beats paying storage fees. The left overs were gladly accepted by the local Goodwill.

After cleaning out the storage units and garage sale I headed over to the coast to see my mother.
On the way I saw this:

A huge pumpkin in the back of a pickup truck on the freeway in the San Francisco Bay area!! Sorry about the poor quality. The cracked windshield doesn't help, but it has since been fixed. There were quite a few heads turning.

The weather was pretty nice in Pacific Grove, although there were a few clouds. Asilomar Beach is my favorite place to walk and enjoy the surf, and its only a few minutes from mom's place. The "surf was up".

I started the "Elf" work at Amazon two weeks ago. I was warned it would be hard work, but fun. So far the hard work has been just that, very hard with long hours. I am working the night shift from 6:00 P.M. to 4:30 A.M, Wednesday through Saturday/Sunday in the shipping department packing packages for shipping. I'm averaging between 55-70 pieces per hour depending on the size of the boxes on one line, and 90-100 on another line. The conveyor belt never stops so things are constantly moving fast. It's not hard work, but some of the boxes are heavy and big ...I'm getting biceps.:) Amazon doesn't allow you to take things like cell phone or cameras in the warehouse so I can't show you any pictures. Amazon has hired nearly 300 workampers for its Fernley plant and is bringing in 500 more temps this week.

I have yet to see the "fun" in the work . The way the stations are set up there is no time for socialization, except for on two 15 minute breaks and one 1/2 hour lunch in the break room. By the time you get to the break room, your time has been cut by five minutes, and its not pleasant to wolf down your lunch in 20 minutes (you need to leave time for a bathroom stop). My hands are sore, but my body is adjusting to the weird time. Fortunately, the RV park that I am staying at is really nice, except for the commute distance to Amazon is a 65 miles round trip. Now that the shifts and days have settled out it is possible to car pool with several other "Elves", which helps ..

On my days off I head over to Jeremy's house and live like a "normal" person, and take walks in the woods, and pretty soon, there will be enough snow to Cross Country Ski or Snow Shoe, with Jeremy's dog Rio.

Well, that's all for now. Seven more weeks of Amazon, but I still don't know what I am doing after December 23....

Where am I ? September 24

2011-09-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

The past nine months have been a wonderful and great adventure traveling and exploring the Mid-South, a the Natchez Trace, along with New England, with Joel, but that chapter has comes to an end as I arrived in Phoenix to temperatures of over a 100 degrees on the 13th. Will summer ever end? I retrieved my neglected Born Free and Jeep from the Verde Camp Thousand Trails (at least it was a little cooler there.) Much to my pleasure my home on wheels survived O.K. during the winter, spring, and summer storage, except I had to jump start the engine. The engine battery was deader than a door nail. I had made an appointment with D and R family RV in Glendale to replace the coach batteries which had been removed and put in Joel's rig during storage .When I got to D and R the engine battery died again so I also had to replace it. It was over 5 years old so I guess it was time and expected.

I also needed to have the brakes worked on. The last RV repair vendor said I really needed new brake pads....(explains the squeak in the wheels and mountain driving is really hard on brakes), so I went to the local Ford truck service place. They don't make appointment but do have electric hookups and water if you have stay over night and while you wait...thank goodness because it definitely was a day to have the AC on and I did end up spending the night there. Anyway, all went pretty smoothly including retrieving my "stuff" I had shipped from Joel's rig to Glendale via Greyhound...except my bike which Joel insisted be shipped to me. After talking with Greyhound, it would be a few more days before the bike would arrive.

Hmmm. do I hang out in 100 degree plus temperature or head north to Flagstaff. A call to my son Conlan in Tierra Amarillo in northern New Mexico settled the matter. I hadn't seen him since last spring when we caught up with him on our way to Texas. He had several days off so I headed to TA where there was cooler weather (a no brainer). I left the Born Free at the Elks Lodge in Sedona and was off to meet up with Conlan and see my other 4 legged grandchild, Boone, a huge 6 year old black lab, and meet Conlan's new girlfriend. It was a long drive, but spectacular as I skirted the fringes of Monument Valley on Highway 160.

Nothing like a lab and water.

It was a wonderful decision to go and see Conlan. Tierra Amarillo is a small little spot in the road, just a few miles south of the charming little town of Chama. The focal point is the Raven coffee shop where the locals gather. On weekends, Paul (the owner) provides live music and plays on the box drums. It happened that the weekend I was there was the last weekend of live music until next year. That's Paul on his Garbage Can Base drum and one of his box drums is beside him.

TA is a little step back in time and reminds me of many little mountain towns before they "were discovered". My few days visit were not enough and I can't wait to return to visit in the Spring or Fall and explore more of the area.

So, the bike arrived at the Greyhound in Glendale and I packed it up; hitched up the Born Free on Thursday; and headed towards Reno, Nevada. I'd forgotten how mountainous the drive was, which translates to really poor gas mileage and long uphill stretches at 40 MPH. I arrived in Reno on Friday and it was really hot...summer is suppose to be over...right? Anyway, I continued to my son Jeremy's house in Portola, California, (just a few miles north of Reno) where the temperature was a nice 83 degrees with no humidity, (AHHH) along with cool nights for good sleeping.

I'll be in Northern Nevada for the next three months taking care of lose ends and doing a little work camping as an "Elf" at the Amazon.Com Fernley facility, and visiting with family when I can on the California coast. It feels really good to be back in my own house on wheels and back in the mountains.

Washingto DC Part II, September 11

2011-09-12T16:15:00.000-07:00

Today was the 10 year anniversary of 911 and I was a tiny bit apprehensive about going back to D.C. but not enough to give up a day with my personal guide, Justin. Liz decided to stay home because we wore her out yesterday. We did do a lot of walking and the heat and humidity wares me out too.

Justin and I got a little later start today and headed out just after lunch following the same routine of driving to Vienna to catch the train in to D.C. He had the whole day planned out and it was a good thing I had my walking shoes on because we hit the ground walking and didn't stop until we caught the train back home. There was just too much to see! Our plan was to visit the National Mall and the various memorials the surround the Potomac River.

We walked by the White House. ... lots of security and some demonstrators. Justin pointed out there was one lady who is there everyday, 365 days a year, demonstrating again nuclear power. She must be really dedicated and independently wealthy to spend every day there.

Some of the various demonstrators in front of the white house. The police seem to leave them alone as long as they were peaceful. I did hear one policemen ask a bicyclist to keep his bicycle with him and not leave it unattended.

There are several war memorials along the National Mall and Park and the first one we visited was the World War II Memorial.

The memorial is a large oblong shape and built around a water feature. One end is dedicated to the Pacific and the other dedicated to the Atlantic. There is a column for each state and wreaths on the columns. There lots of folks sitting around enjoying the fountain.

Next was the Viet Nam memorial. It is truly is sobering, especially for me as many of my classmates were involved in the Viet Nam war . The shiny, black, granite wall reminds us of how many casualties there were. If you look closely, you can see the Washington Monument in the lower right hand corner in the distance. .

The Korean War Memorial was very different. There was a black granite wall with faces and names etched in it. The etching were misty looking projecting the haze of war and and really hard to photograph. Adjacent to the wall were statues of soldiers in a field. The artist has done a excellent job of catching the expressions of war on their faces. Very emotional.

I think one of my favorite memorials was the FDR memorial. It was quite large and included lots of water features and was scattered with quotes from Roosevelt. There were lots of places to sit and reflect.

The Lincoln Memorial is gigantic and it was as big as I remembered it. Although, I think when I was 10 years old there were not nearly as many security guards and I'm sure I was allowed to explore the statue of Lincoln.

The Lincoln Memorial looks out towards the Washington Memorial over the reflecting pool, but the pool has become so fowled(no pun intended) from all the ducks and geese that it is being renovated. If you look towards the bottom of the picture in the dark area you'll see the spot where Martin Luther King made his speech "I Have a Dream".

Speaking of MLK, there is a new memorial in the park. It was supposed to be dedicated last weekend but Hurricane Irene canceled the dedication and with the 911 ceremonies this weekend the official dedication has been moved to early October.

The Jefferson Memorial stands out as does the Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately we weren't able to go inside, because security had blocked it off. They would not tell us what was going on, but the closure was temporary...for a few minutes to a few hours.

You can see all the police cars in front of the memorial. There was lots of security and police activity while we were in this area. Some of it was due to President Obama giving a speech at the Pentagon which wasn't very far away, and in the closing of the Jefferson Memorial, probably something suspicious was lurking behind a column.

The Washington Monument was damaged during the recent earthquake so it was also closed also, and the grounds adjacent were roped off, but it is still a striking landmark.

So I've hit some of the major highlights n Washington D.C. but have barely scratch the service. Justin has done a great job of showing me around and I look forward to returning and seeing more. There is a different feeling just being near the Capitol. One gets the feeling of being energized and patriotic. More information is available and the information seems more in depth...not as water down as we get in the West.

I will be returning to Arizona in a few days to retrieve my motor home and head back to Reno for a while. On one hand I'm looking forward to the dry heat of Arizona and the turn of the season in Nevada. The humidity here is killing me. I don't know which is worse: dry heat at 105 degrees or 80 degrees with high humidity.

The "District" Part I, September 10

2011-09-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning Justin, Liz and I were up early in anticipation of a very filled day. Justin had made reservations to tour the Capitol and 10:45. We left the house about 8:30 and drove to the train station in Vienna. The train costs about $3.00 one way (unless you have a Smartcard or are over 65 and jump through hoops to get a senior card) and takes 20-40 minutes to get to the "District" as the locals call it. The reservations stated we needed to be at the check in station 45 minutes before our tour for security reasons. With it being the day before 9/11 I expected all kinds of delays, but everyone seemed to have their act together and we sailed through security and the train was not delayed. In fact, we arrived a little early at the check in and were asked if we would like to take an earlier tour. We took the earlier tour which was nice because at that hour there were not too many people. We also found out that there are spaces available for "walk ups".

The Statue of Freedom sits on top of the capitol dome and this is the mold that was used to cast her.

The rotunda is truly elegant. The gold leaf didn't show up in the picture very well, but you can get an idea. There is much symbolism in the painting, thirteen figures represent the thirteen colonies.

The relief looks like carving but are really paintings.

The statue room used to be used for the house but the acoustics were terrible and as the number of states grew, it became too small. Today it holds some of the statues from the different states. Each state is allowed two statues and they must be made of bronze or marble. Obviously there isn't enough room for all the states statutes so some are places throughout the Capitol in prominent places.

This is one of Nevada's statues and it is of Winnemucca who was a defender of human rights and the first women native to author a book.

If you have been to Hawaii you will recognize King Kamehameha

A classic view of the Capitol. Security was tight and there really weren't that many people. Maybe because of 911

After our Capitol tour we headed to the downtown area for lunch. We passed China town and saw the ornate entrance. Although the area was busy, Justin said it was really quiet, but during the week it is really busy.

I saw this rose in one of the popular squares. Justine said the square was a very popular gathering place for the lunch crowd during the week.

Our next stop was at the Smithsonian. I didn't realize there are over 16 Smithsonian's of varied exhibits. We chose to go to the American History Smithsonian, it was not what I expected. There were different exhibits about American History including a special one on the 150 anniversary of the Civil War. I've seen so much about the Civil Way this year I passed on that one.

There was an exhibit on Greensboro counter from 1960.

There was also an interesting exhibit on the gowns of the First Ladies, probably not the most interesting thing for guys. Below is Michelle Obama inaugural gown.

And this was Nancy Regan's inaugural gown.

There was another exhibit of American Icons. Guess what these are. ..Dorothy's shoes from the Wizard of Oz in 1939

And there were these shoes belonging Apollo Ono, Olympic champion.

These were the original Muppets.

I remember this guy from my childhood. He started out in radio but was popular on TV

We saw so much one day, there is no way to post it all. And, there was a lot more to see, but there is no way to cram it in to one day. Tomorrow is another day and we plan to return and see some of the monuments.

I wished I had had my act together and contacted my representative to arrange a tour of the Whitehouse and one of the Congress sessions. Arrangement have to be made no later than three weeks ahead of time but best to make them 4-6 months ahead. Oh well, I'll just have to catch them another time. Justin has two more semesters of grad school, so what I don't see while I am here this time I can see next time.

Alexandria, Virginia, September 9

2011-09-10T06:30:00.000-07:00

My early morning flight from NH arrived at DIA mid morning and Justin was able to meet me within a few minutes of my arrival and I hit the ground running as a tourist. We picked Liz up at work in the afternoon and then headed over to Alexandria, one of their favorite places to walk around and explore. It is a really pretty city with lots of alleys and shops and places to poke around in.

This is the market place, and prior to the civil war the market place for slaves.

We stumbled up this fascinating sign and decided to go explore.

It was an old torpedo factory that had been turned into an art center. There were over 80 working studios and 140 some artists. An eclectic assortment of media...something for everyone. This is the view from the second story. Note the paper mache animals on the balcony.

And there was metal work.

I thought this was an ingenious way of using paper from an old book to make a whimsical mobile

This was one of the original torpedoes.

Alexandria has a nice water front on the Potomac River.

We enjoyed walking inside some of the buildings, mainly because they were air conditioned but look what happened while we were inside! Oops. I don't know if this was from all of the recent rain or the tide. We had planned to eat at the restaurant on the other side, but had to go to Plan B.

See the little blue house? It's called a Spite House. There used to be an alley way in which the "ladies of the night" would gather and make little fires to keep warm. The house was built to keep them out of the alley way because there were no city ordinances prohibiting them from being there.

This was a long, but fun day for me. It was so nice to see my kids. Stay tuned. Justin worked in Washington, D.C. all summer so he has promised to give me several days of touring.

Manchester, NH August 8

2011-09-09T06:28:00.000-07:00

Frank Lloyd Wright homes always fascinate me and I was happy to learn there were two examples of FLW on the same street. The picture below is an example of Unsonian Classic. It's also referred to as the Zimmerman house.

The two pictures below are examples of Unsonian Automatic, and this home is currently occupied by Dr. Toufic Kalil of Manchester, N.N.

Usonian is an acronym for United States of North American, reflecting Wrights desire to design a house for the common people. These houses were built in the '50s with the idea of building an affordable "no frills" type house while maintaining a since of privacy and using space wisely. The Usonian Classic has been compared to a motor coach because of its galley style kitchen and linear flowing rooms. FLW was expanding on his prairie house design to make an efficient, compact, and affordable house. The Unisonian Automatic refers to the Usonian style houses constructed of modular concrete blocks, an inexpensive material, without ornamental details.

We continued to downtown Manchester, very typical of New England cities, and walked around for a bit. Manchester's claim to fame is the largest arena New Hampshire, the "Verizon Wireless Arena".

Portland, Maine and area Sept1-7

2011-09-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

I wished we could have spent more time in Acadia, but Joel was antsy and had a bad case of "hitch itch" after only a few days so we headed to Portland, Maine. Our goal was to find a "landing place" for the up coming Labor Day holiday. We ended up at an American Legion in South Portland overlooking the bay. We checked with the person in charge of the Post who seemed really surprised we would want to park there. There were three truck trailers full of telephone books to be distributed, but other than that no one ever parks in the lot. The parking lot was also adjacent a nice bicycle path which went to the commercial district one direction and all the way out to Spring Ledge Lighthouse the other direction.

The view from the parking lot over looking Casco Bay towards the commercial district of Portland in the early morning.

The Delorme Map store was just a few miles up the road in Yarmouth. Unfortunately Eartha was going through an update and wasn't working, but was still worth the visit.

This is the view from the third floor of Eratha. Eartha is almost four stories tall.

LL Bean's Flagship store is also located not very far from Yarmouth and Portland in Freeport. The town of Freeport is a shopping mecca full of high end stores and includes such stores as Patagonia, North Face, and others and a few outlets. I really didn't need anything, nor was in need of "retail therapy" but enjoyed wandering around. The LL Bean store is several separate stores located on the same campus. It could take one all day to go through the LL Bean's Home Store, Bike Boat and Ski Store, and Main Store.

I didn't know our WIN friend Maynard owned a chocolate store!!!

Another day we all rode our bikes down to the commercial district of Portland and explored some of the wharfs. There were several seafood markets that had reasonably priced fresh seafood.

I saw this neat mural on one of the buildings.

There were several side streets in the commercial district which were interesting. Note the old buildings.

One evening we took the bicycle path out to Bug Light Park. There was a replica of one of the old liberty ships from WWII. Portland, Maine had several ship building yards and I believe 32 Liberty ships were built here.

Bug Light. It had recently been painted. Originally, in 1855 it was a wooden lighthouse. Later it was remodeled using cast iron plates. Corinthian columns cover the seams of the the cast iron plates.

Just down the way was Spring Ledge Lighthouse. We got there in the early evening so the sun cast an eerie glow. Darn, the days are starting to get shorter already! This is a classic example of a "spark plug" lighthouse.

On Labor Day we visited Cape Elizabeth and the Portland Head Lighthouse which is in Ft. Williams Municipal Park. Ft. Williams park is managed by the town of Cape Elizabeth, mostly by volunteers and donations. It's evident the community takes pride in t he park. It is well kept.

Portland Head Lighthouse was the first lighthouse in Maine, activated in 1791. It overlooks the Casco Bay and entrance to the harbor. I think it is one of the most picturesque lighthouses I have seen so far.

The Goddard Mansion located in the park. It was a summer cottage at one point. The stone work is fascinating. I couldn't find much information on it, but in its day, it must have been very beautiful.

The sunsets are not as spectacular as in the West, but they are pretty nice, never the less. This one is looking over towards Portland from the Portland Head Lighthouse.

Well, the holiday is over and we are well rested and I think we have seen some of the highlights of Portland and its time to move on. We headed towards Manchester, New Hampshire where I will catch a plane to Virginia on Friday to see my son Justin. I haven't seen Justin and his wife Liz and my four legged grandchild Jezebel for over 1 1/2 years and I can't wait!

Acadia National Park, August 29-31

2011-09-02T04:45:00.000-07:00

I was a little concerned about visiting this park during August, the peak season, especially as we got closer to Labor Day. I'd been following several blogs about how crowded the park was and was prepared to spend a minimal amount of time. I really don't like crowds.

We arrived in Ellsworth,( about 20 miles from the Acadia NP) early enough to unhook the car and drive to the visitor center. We decided to drive the scenic Park Loop Drive which is a 27 miles scenic drive around the main part of the park. At first we were going to use the Desert Island Bus, but the visitor parking lot was half empty so we decided to drive. Much to our delight there were very few cars on the road. Apparently Hurricane Irene has kept the crowds away, at least for a few days.

The east part of Mount Desert Island, is the most popular and most visited part of the park. Our first stop on our drive was the famous Cadillac Mountain, the highest point of Desert Island. The views are spectacular from the top. The hurricane had blown much of the pollution out of the sky and we experienced crystal clear skies, the kind you can see forever. The pictures below were taken from Cadillac Mountain, which is also the highest mountain on the East coast. From Cadillac Mountain you can see the east and west part of Desert Island as well as the Schoodic Peninsula.

Bar Harbor, and other little villages can be seen from on top.

We stopped at Sand Beach, the only beach in the park. There were "no swimming" signs posted every where, probably due to the rough seas left over from the hurricane. I didn't think the surf was all that bad and it was obvious folks were enjoying the beautiful day.

The beach has white sand, but not the kind I'm used to. The sand is more like decomposed granite than the white sands I grew up with on the Pacific Coast, but it's pretty.

This is one of the many lakes in the park. I think this is Eagle Lake which we drove by on the way up to Cadillac Mountain.

After our short drive, (we didn't do the whole loop) we drove through Bar Harbor, a very touristy town with lots of touristy stores and eateries. We stopped at one restaurant to check it out and the first available reservation was from 9:00 that evening, but the waitress told us if we wanted a a "snack" vs dinner she could accommodate us as long as we didn't take to long to eat. It was 5:00 and they were already booked so we moved on and ended up eating at the Atlantic Brew Pub, which made Joel happy.

Acadia park has over 45 miles of carriage trails that can be used for hiking, biking, and horse back riding. We got out our bikes the next day and explored over 20 miles of the carriage trails. The carriage roads are examples of "broken stone" roads, a fancy name for hard packed gravel. John D Rockefeller built the carriage trails with no real destinations in mind so they meander up and down (operative words) and around the park. They are in excellent condition. My only comment is the park service could do a much better job with the printed maps they hand out. There was no description of the roads regarding steepness or points of interest. I was also disappointed that there were no picnic tables along the way.

I stopped and admired this beautiful water fall along one of the roads.

There were also lots of vistas of lakes along the carriage roads.

The next day we decided to explore the Schoodic Peninsula which is part of Acadia NP, but separated by private land. On the way we saw this heron along the road. He/she stood still for the longest time. At first I thought it was a decoy, but he was real.

From the Schoonic Peninsula you can see across to Desert Island. The tallest mountain on the horizon is Cadillac mountain which we had visited earlier.

The coast line along Schoonic Peninsula is breath taking. Joel got caught in some waves at Grinders Beach.

This is lobster country. If you look closely you can see some of the boyes in the water. The lobster man is pulling up the cages and sorting the lobsters. It seemed like he was throwing more lobsters back than keeping. We watched for a long time as he pulled up cage after cage. The odd thing was he didn't reset any of the cages. Maybe the catch wasn't all that great and he was going to set them somewhere else.

More of the beautiful shoreline around Schoonic Point looking towards Mark Island Lighthouse.

This was the actual Schoonic point where you can see out to the Atlantic ocean for ever:

I'd been craving more lobster (Joel and I had been to a '"lobster pound"a few weeks earlier which was terrible and I wanted some really good lobster) and we had seen a sign for fresh lobster right on the highway. Normally, I would avoid such touristy places, but it looked like fun and who could not laugh at the name: Mary and Whimpy's . So we stopped for the lobster special: a whole lobster and corn at $10.95. Ymmmm. Most of the fresh lobster boils we had seen were priced at $14.00 or higher, so this was a bargain.

Mary and Whimpy's turned out to be a good choice. We had excellent service and very good lobster.

So now it's time to mosey on down the road again. Our short stay in Acadia, wasn't long enough but the Labor Day weekend is coming up and predictions are that it will be crowded so off we go to Portland, Maine.

Hurricane Irene, August 29

2011-08-29T08:27:00.000-07:00

We woke up to rain and fog on Sunday morning and scurried down the dirt road out to Highway 1. The hurricane had been down graded to a tropical storm, but you never know.. We had decided that Machias, about 40 miles away and a little more inland would be a good place to wait out the storm and it was near a main road. The trick was to find some place that wouldn't flood, and would be away from flying debris. The forecast still indicated that we would not be in the "extreme" path of Hurricane Irene, but we would still feel the effects of it.

We found a nice level paved parking area in Machias and the owner said we could park and wait out the storm, but there could be a possibility of flooding due to the high tide, and he would be checking his property through out the day. Maybe we should search for higher ground??? We checked out some higher ground, but decided we would be fine where we were.

The rain came and the wind blew all night, but it wasn't that bad.... a little rock'n roll'n during the night with a few strong gusts occasionally, but that was about it.

This morning we woke up to sunny, brilliant, but windy skies, thankful that I wasn't in Vermont or somewhere else where roads are badly flooded.

Before leaving Machias, we checked out the Machias River and Little Bad River Falls.

Machias River, Machias

These are the Little Bad Falls, which is what Machias translates to.

We thanked the owner of the parking lot we stayed in (he was out and about early checking on his property) and headed down the road to Ellsworth near Acadia National Park. The drive down to Ellsworth was uneventful, without any signs of damage... just normal driving on a two lane bump road.

Eastport, August 27

2011-08-29T04:37:00.000-07:00

Eastport is the furthest north eastern town in the US and is about 1/2 hour from our camping site. After checking the weather and the where abouts of Hurricane Irene, we decided it would be safe to go check out Eastport. In addition to being the furthest eastern town, there is a phenomenon called the Sows Whirlpool where the tide forms a giant whirlpool, the second largest in the world, and can be seen from Eastport. Oh what tourists we are! The catch is that the whirlpool is best seen 2-3 hours before high tied, in this case between 7:00 and 8:00 A.M.

We arrived at Eastport to find a town still asleep. ... not much activity at all. We found the spot to view the whirlpool and much to our disappointment couldn't see much. We hung around for a while and then decided it was time to find breakfast. Surely there would be something open on a Saturday morning. We stopped to talk to one of the locals about the whirlpool. The first thing out of his mouth was "I wish they would stop publishing stuff about the Sows Whirlpool, It is such a disappointment". We all got a good laugh. Apparently the whirlpool does exists, but it is best seen from across Eastport by taking the ferry and sometimes it is more visible then others.

I guess if you can use your imagination you can see the whirlpool towards the rocks in the middle of the picture.

We wandered around town and watch a father and son land some mackerels.

This statue was erected for a TV reality show (don't remember which one) and the city like it so much they refurbished it and it is still standing.

We found a great little Cafe called WaCo and had breakfast. Its the little grey building in the picture below. It is suppose to be the oldest cafe in the area or was it Maine. The last two initials of the proprietors makes up the name. I wished I had remembered to take a picture of our pancake sandwich. The pancakes covered the whole plate! It was a good thing we shared it!

The quaint little fishing village taken from the pier.

After breakfast we walked around town some more killing time, it was such a beautiful day. We hung out long enough to have lunch and sample a "lobstah roll". Not bad. I think you get a whole lot more lobster on a sandwich with less work than eating a whole cooked lobster.

We continuously kept checking on Hurricane Irene and it looks like we will need to leave tomorrow. She's coming this way...but it looks like we are far enough east that we may be just on the fringes . The folks in Eastport didn't seem concerned at all about the hurricane saying it wasn't going to be any worse than their Nor Easters which bring snow instead of rain, which confirms what we have been hearing all along.

Campbobello Island, New Brunswick August 26

2011-08-29T04:05:00.000-07:00

According to the GPS New Brunswick is only about 8 miles away for our camp site ...as the crow flys. One can drive to Campobello Island from Lubec about 20 miles down and around the road. or take a ferry from Eastport. There are so many inlets, peninsulas, coves, that to get from point A to point B usually takes a while. We are still keeping a close eye on Hurricane Irene and it looked like she is still a day or two a way and today is suppose to be sunny, so without further debate we headed over to the island. What a gorgeous day it turned out to be!

OK. Whats on Campbello Island? It was the summer home of Franklin D Roosevelt and has been turned into the beautiful Roosevelt Campobello International Park. Roosevelt's summer summer cottage is open to the public for free. The park it self has numerous hiking and carriage trails and a nice place to spend the day ....except for the bugs. The island survives on a fishing economy but is also a tourist destination without being really crowded. It reminded me of the quaint little fishing villages found in Sourthern Portugal.

Mulholland Lighthouse on Mulholland Point looking towards Lubec, Maine.

Lubec, Maine from Compobello Island, New Brunswick.

FDR Memorial Bridge. The US and Canadian Customs were probably the most friendly agents I have encountered on the US/Canadian border. It was an easy crossing with no traffic or hassles.

FDR's summer "Cottage" There are twelve bedroom on the second floor. FDR parents vacationed on the island with he was a baby and they liked the area so well they bought property for a summer cottage. Later FDR's mother Sara bought the cottage for FDR as a wedding gift. The cottage was later sold but FDR's son Elliot purchased the cottage and donated it to the park when the park was being established. Most of the furnishings inside are original. The cottage is immaculately kept and the docents are very knowledgeable. The park is funded equally by the US and Canada.

Its seems the Canadians love their summer flowers because every time we have been to Canada we see beautiful annuals.

The back of the cottage has an expansive grassy area which over looks the bay towards Lubec.

How would you like to cook on this wood burning stove? There was no electricity in the cottage.

The Cottage over looks this cove. Today Atlantic Salmon farming is done in the pens in the picture.

Another landmark on the island is the Head Harbor Lighthouse. It is featured in many magazines and brochures. You can walk to the Lighthouse at low tide for $5.00 and for another $10.00 you can go inside the lighthouse. $15.00 seemed pretty steep for the privilege to walk to the lighthouse and up all those stairs so we enjoyed it from a far.

There are lots of coves and sandy beaches on the island. I'm used to the white sandy beaches of the central coast of California, so these black sandy beaches weren't really that appealing to me.

This is an example of the extreme tides in the area. The high tide goes all the way up to the trees. If you look really carefully you can see a boat in the middle of the picture that is stranded.

Another one of the pretty scenes on the island.

Can you say low tide??

a
Herring Cove is inland, and a very calm cove where fisherman dock their boats.

The crab pots and lobster ("lobstah "in Maine language) are ready to go out.

As we were driving a long we came across home which had a yard full of lobster and crab gear. The owner told us this was just some of the gear her husband used for his business. That's a lot of gear.

and these were just some of the buoys used. Aren't they colorful?

This was a really nice day trip. I was really impressed with the low key and slow pace of the island. Time permitting it would have been fun to hike some of the trails, but with the hurricane lurking, it's best we not doddle as there are other places to go and see.

Reversing Falls, August 25-28

2011-08-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

Reversing Falls Park/Reserve (I'm not sure what it is called) is a nice grassy area on top of a small knoll which overlooks part of Long Cove on the Cobscook Bay. Canada is only a few miles across the Bay and our cell phones are really confessed because they keep bouncing back and forth between Atlantic and Eastern time. We are close to Pembroke and Lubec, so we pretty far north on the coast, which is beautiful.

Reversing Falls is a phenomenon which occurs as the tide come and goes. Because of the coves and islands a reversing tide effect occurs making it look like the water is flowing backwards. It's hard to see in the pictures but it is quite dramatic near low tide. The tidal changes are very dramatic here. There can be as much as a 50 foot tide at certain times and it is quite evident.

Our plans were to stay a few days and explore the area contingent on Hurricane Irene which was scheduled hit the New England area on Sunday. The biggest concern is getting stranded due to either flooding tides and rivers or downed trees on the roads. We had to drive several miles on a well graded dirt road with lots of trees right on the shore of the cove to get to our quiet campsite. The paved roads out are narrow and near tidal zones with lots of trees.

Looking towards Long Cove.
What look like rapids (below) is really the reversing falls effect. The water flow churns up aquatic life for the birds and seals.

A tranquil misty scene at high tide.
Below a seal plays in the water and enjoys the plentiful food churned up by the tides. There were
several golden eagles in the area as well as lot of other birds.

While in the area we hope to visit Campobello in New Brunswick and Eastport, Maine, the most north eastern town in the US, so check back for more.

Millinocket, August 21-25

2011-08-25T16:36:00.000-07:00

We moved on down the road to Millenocket...well not exactly moving "on down"....but moving on down and around. There is no easy way to get to Millinocket from Greenville. As the crow flies its only about 60 miles of North Main Woods private dirt roads and gates. It takes about 120 miles the RV friendly way and still the road was bumpy in places.

So whats in Millinocket? Nothing. But....it is the closest town near Baxter State Park where Baxter Peak is located on Katahdin. Baxter Peak is also the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. Baxter State Park does not allow any motor vehicle more than 22 feet long, 9ft wide and 7 feet high. BSP is mostly a hiking destination. Not exactly RV friendly. There are lots of places to pull off the Golden Road which is a private logging road or off the Baxter State Park road, but we elected to stay in town at the American Legion...a very friendly post according to Joel.

The main reason for coming to Baxter State Park was to hike to the top of Baxter Peak the high point of Maine, almost a mile high. Also, my medicare card would be occupying my wallet in a few days so what better way to celebrate! We had been watching the weather and it looked that there was a two day window of good weather so Tuesday, Joel dropped Nancy and I off at the trail head for an early start, I mean really early..6:00. We took our first steps on the Appalachian Trail about 6:30. The hike is about 10.5 miles round trip with an elevation gain of over 4000 ft., so its not your average hike and rated as "difficult". We'd been told to allow at least 10 hours so we figured it would take at least 12 hours for us seniors.

The first few miles of the trail were very easy with a very gradual climb. I'm thinking to myself "this is not all that difficult...so far". The brook that flowed along the trail was pleasant.

The Katahdin Falls are not far from the trail head, and it would be the last falls we saw on the trail.

We took the Hunt trail which is also the official Appalachian trail. The trail is marked with white blazes like the small rectangle square on the tree below and ins some places the trail is marked with the blazes on rocks or boulders. Yep, that's a trail in the picture below.

The trail continued until we started above the tree line, and then we came across "the boulders" and the "monkey bars" below. Can you see the metal bar and little hook below it? That is what we used to get up over the rock.

So we have to get to the top, and that's not the peak. It seemed to take forever.

Can you see the white blazes on the boulders marking the "trail"?

Nancy makes it look easy:

Nancy took a few action shots of me negotiating some of the boulders. My little short legs sure got a workout!

Whew! I made that one!

Pretty steep!

But that's not the end.

Are you kidding me!!

I was also battling the wind.

OK. I made that one!

Wow, it feels good to be on some ground!!

But there is much more to go!

We got to the top and then had to cross the "table" to the peak which was a gentle climb, but rocky. The peak is towards the left where the clouds are.

Yea!! We made it to the top. The wind was ferocious and it was very cold so we didn't spend much time at the top savoring our accomplishment.

This is the official peak.

The rocks are supposedly piled high enough that the top rock is exactly one mile high.

The views were spectacular.

So, what goes up must come down. We started down on the Saddle Trail which was suppose to be easier. The trail looks easy, but we were walking on tennis ball size rocks...all loose. At this point the trail is marked with blue blazes...on rocks... and there are also large cairns piled along side of the "trail". You see one of the giant sized cairns below near Nancy.

Then we came to the junction of the Saddle Trail and the Chimney Pounds Trail. Nancy is just starting to head down in the above picture. The picture below is what I saw as I started down. You call this a trail? I call this a land slide. There were loose boulder size rocks with blue blazes indicating a route down down the land slide. I think it took us almost two hours to get down out of the loose rock but then the next 4 miles were spent rock hopping through a dry stream bed. I'd call this mountain climbing, not hiking!

Our destination is at the bottom where the ponds are.

This type of "trail" went on for miles.

and miles, and miles.....

It took us a little over 6 hours to get to the top of Baxter Peak about 5 miles. We figured it would take less time to go down the mountain but it took almost 7 hours to get back down to the Roaring Brook parking lot about 5.5 miles. The "easier" way over the mountain took us a lot longer, but both Nancy and I agreed we didn't want to go back over the Hunt trail and have to go down all those big boulders.

So, another "epic" hike under my belt. Thanks to Nancy, for taking pictures of my adventure and sharing them with me. Now, both Nancy and I can say we have climbed the highest peak on both the West and East (we don't count Denali in Alaska).

Needless to say, the next day was a day of rest which included a few pain killers. On Thursday ,we headed over to the coast of Maine, at least for a few days, but hurricane Irene may dictate how long or where we will stay. We have found a great little dry camping spot near West Pembroke to watch the Reversing Falls. There is no cell coverage but Joel's internet is functioning.

More on the Reversing Falls and the area later.

More on Moosehead Lake and and Mt. Kineo August 18-21

2011-08-21T03:16:00.000-07:00

After out Gulf Hagas hike, we needed a well deserved day of rest so we didn't do much the next day, except a little kayaking on the lake and catching up on chores and enjoying a nice sunset.

There are several short hikes around Greenville, so Friday we decided to go into "town" and pick up Joel's mail and check out several of the hikes . Going into town is a major ordeal as it is 9 miles of dirt road, dodging logging trucks and pot holes, so you don't go into Greenville for just a quart of milk. However, before going into Greenville, we took a little side trip to check out one of the roads that provides a more direct route over to Baxter State Park, which may be our next destination. On the way, we found:

No we didn't find Joel and Maynard, but these perfectly shaped colored pencils. Someone has a since of humor!

Then we saw this heron. I'm not sure if he was staring down the piece of wood or us, but he stood still for a very long time. You may be wondering about the Moose. Apparently, August is the worst month for moose sightings, unless you want to hire a guide and go on a "moose safari".

Greenville has a nice public launch with some nice tables and views so we enjoyed our picnic lunch watching the kayaks and boats in the little cove there, trying to decide which little hike to do.

We had read about the B-52 hike being a short hike and great for small children with no elevation gain to speak of...err walk. So, we found the turn off and explored the area. In January of 1963 a B-52 on training maneuvers crashed on Elephant Mountain killing 6 of the 8 crew members. The site has been established as a memorial and the Scott Paper Company which owns the land has set aside the crash site as a "non-harvest and non salvage area. It's pretty sobering to see all of the debris strewn around from the plane.

At there trail head there is a marker and this plaque.

Some of the debris is still stuck in trees. It's hard to believe this piece has been the tree for over 40 years.

This is one of the larger sections of the plane that went down.

On Saturday the lake was socked in with fog, but that didn't detour us from returning to Mt. Kineo to hike to the top. By the time we arrived at the end of the road the fog had burned off. There are several trails up and over the mountain but Nancy and I took the Indian Trail up. It was pretty steep, rocky, and full of roots...and a little wet which didn't help matters. The guys didn't come with us, which was probably a good thing.

Our hike took us to the top of the granite cliffs about 700 feet above the lake.

Below you can see part of the trail that goes almost all the way around.

There is a fire tower on top which we climbed (not for those afraid of heights) and the views were spectacular.

Moosehead Lake goes on forever. It is 40 miles long with many bays and coves. It would be a great place to explore with a motor boat and do some boat or kayak camping.

Looking towards Rockwood, on the west side. A ferry shuttles across every hour on the hour during the summer for a small fee of $10.00.

We took the Hardscrabble trail down the mountain (does the name tell you anything?) which was steep, full of rocks and roots, and slippery. The trail ends up at Hardscrabble Point where there is a lovely picnic site...great for kayakers paddling from Rockwood.

We took the Carriage Trail back which follows the shore in the trees. It's called a carriage trail but I'm not sure how a carriage could have traveled over the narrow path. We had made a big loop and our mileage totaled almost 8.5. So much for a short day.

We've enjoyed our time at Moosehead lake but it's time to move on down the road, so stay tuned.

Gulf Hagas, August 17

2011-08-19T13:57:00.000-07:00

I'd been reading about Gulf Hagas for some time and billed as one of the premier hikes of Maine and called the " Grand Canyon of the East". The weather forecast was for clear skies and the morning did bring bright sunny skies. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but the pictures I'd seen of the trail looked gorgeous.

The drive to the checkpoint took almost two hours..ugh. There was only about 20 miles of paved road out of the 50 or so miles to the check point. At the check point we paid our $10.00 each..(.yikes) to get through the gate. This ought to be good. The attendant at the gate gave us a few suggestions on which way to do the loop trail. Part of the trail along the rim is very strenuous; rocky; full of tree roots; and steep. The other part along the ridge was to be easy.

Gulf Hagas is basically a 2/1/2 mile water formed canyon. The loop is approximately eight miles and is a side route off the 100 Mile Wilderness section of the Appalachian Trail. The only access to the trail (unless you are already on the AT) is through a section of the North Maine Woods, Inc property. Thus the $10.00 access fee to cross over the North Maine Woods, Inc property ...about 4 miles to the trail head.

The rim portion of the Gulf Hagas trail is approximate 3 miles of steep, slippery, root filled, boggy trail that bumps you out on to view points of wild cascades and waterfalls. I've tried to pick out the best pictures and keep the photos to a minimum. We have been so fortunate to see so many beautiful falls falls recently, that sometimes the "wow" factor wasn't there on this hike where as I'm sure for someone else the "wow" factor would be double.

Oops is Joel stuck? Yep, it was pretty easy to get down to the ledge but just a little more effort needed to get back up.

There were many scenes like this.

It was really hard to get a full picture of the gorge from any of the vistas.

These blueberries were delicious and everywhere.

Example of the awful boggy, rocky, rooty, steep trail. Not the easiest trail, or should I even call it a trail. Sneakers and flip flops won't work here. The Maine Appalachian Trail Cub maintains the trail, and I think they could use some help. With all of the wet, boggy terrain and trees it almost feels like the movie set for The Hobbit. Joel sort blends in. He is on the left in the picture.

The end portion of the rim trail was probably the most spectacular.

We took the ridge trail back as suggested which was an easy three miles or so. All told it took us almost eight hours to do this hike and we are all in better than average shape for a bunch of old fogies. We paid $10.00 for this??? As for being the "Grand Canyon of the East", I think Watkins Glen in New York is much more dramatic and prettier and you don't have to work as hard! Of course nothing beats the real Grand Canyon in Arizona.

It was a really long day and we didn't get back to Greenville until dark. We were all bushed so we hit the nearest cafe for a quick dinner and then the 45 minute drive back to camp. Needless to say, I really enjoyed a hot shower and was in bed within an hour of getting back to camp.

Mooshead Lake and Mt. Kineo, August 16

2011-08-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

It rained all day Monday and into Tuesday morning. By noon we were getting cabin fever so Nancy, Manyard and I jumped in Joel's car and headed out to explore, hoping the roads would be OK. The main roads were very good and graded well, except for the occasional pothole and rocks, but not a wash board like many heavily used dirt roads are. I expected the roads would be in much worse condition due to all of the rain, but they were good. I've been on much, much worse.

We headed over to Mt. Kineo, a peninsula on Moosehead Lake. If you are staying on the west side of lake you can take a ferry from Rockwood to Mt. Kineo, but the map showed a road to it from east side. We drove until we came to huge boulders across the road about one mile from Mt. Kineo. I found out later the road is blocked off during the winter to slow down the snowmobilers. I queried but it's not winter yet? We followed the road on foot and much to our amazement came across big fancy homes and a 9 hole golf course. There is a nice trail to the top of Mt. Kineo, but it drizzled most of the day and we talked with some folks who had just come down off the top and they said it was really muddy. We'll do that one another day when there are clear skies and we can take advantage of the view.

Spencer Pond on the way to Mt. Kineo

We stopped at Cowen Cove and this little guy was really friendly. I think he was looking for hand outs. On the way we were treated to a Moose sighting of a sow and calf, but they ran in the trees before we could get pictures of them.

I've seen a lot of mushrooms on my hikes but this one was really unusual.

So we are walking along in the forest with absolutely no signs of humanity and we come across this:
Shocking!!

It turns out there are vacation homes and a 9 hole golf course next to Mt. Kineo. Mt. Kineo was a resort in the 1800's and at one time had a hotel which held over 500 guests. The golf course is thought to be the second oldest in New England.

The cliffs of Mt. Kineo rise more than 700 ft.

The ferry goes to Mt. Kineo every hour and shuttles back and forth to Rockwood. Supplies and building material are brought in by barge. There is only one road to the peninsula which is the one we took and is blocked off. It's not better than a snow mobile trail, so I imagine it would be hard to get supplies in on that road.

So there is an Eastern Pebble Beach?

Well, it is nothing like the Pebble Beach I grew up next to!

A nice ending to the day.

Tomorrow it is suppose to be sunny and clear. I see a long hike in my future....

On to Moosehead Lake, August 14

2011-08-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

We left the Bangor Elks Lodge pretty early on Sunday morning heading for Greenville which is on Moosehead Lake. The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer shows lots of camps, but it is unclear if they are private or public campgrounds and most are accessible by dirt road. The "jello plan" was to drive to Greenville and unhook and scout out some areas. By the time we did the dump and fill routine and fuel up it was noon before we arrived in Greenville.

View of Moosehead Lake coming into Greenville.

We had been told to talk to the folks at the Trading Post in Greenville about dry camping. the Trading Post happened to be right where we parked the rigs so we went in and asked where some dispersed camping might be. Apparently in this part of the country "dispersed camping" is not a common term and those folks didn't have a clue what we were talking about. They did point us to a camp down the road aways, which we went and checked out. It looked like some folks were "set in for the duration" so it didn't look to promising.

Next we stopped and talked one of the locals who used to work for one of the logging companies and he gave us some good tips and pointed us to a large dirt parking area not far from town, but I wanted "lake front property". The local guy talked about some private forest area that had plenty of camping but we were still a little confused as to accessibility and location, so we stopped at the forest service office. The ranger was amused by our questions about dispersed or remote camping but cleared up our concerns and pointed out some good spots we had circled on the Gazetteer. As it turns out most of the forest land in these parts is owned by private companies but management of the forest is tandem with the state and government and public camp sites are set up on the private logging lands for public access and camping.(That is a real simplistic explanation, for more detail google North Maine Woods..it's complicated). Most of the campgrounds were old primitive logging camps.

Our patients paid off and although we had to drive the rigs on 9 miles of dirt logging roads we ended up at the most awesome campsite...just what the doctor ordered after spending so much time in the city and "blacktop camping". It rained all day the first day, but you know what? We didn't care. Just sitting and looking at the lake and watching the Loons go by was all the excitement we needed.

You can see our homes on the shore of Spencer Bay

Spencer Mountain and Little Spencer Mountain

Life is tough!!

We well most like spend the whole week here. It is so quiet and peaceful. In addition to lake kayaking there are snowmobile and hiking trails to explore. Stayed tuned.

Old Town Canoe and Kayak, August 13

2011-08-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

Most of the WINs are kayakers and usually you can tell a WIN by the colorful Kayaks on the top of their cars, at least when you are in the mid-west or west. It seems that there are lots of kayakers in New England judging by the amount of cars that have either a kayak or canoe on top of them. We all decided to go to the Old Town Kayak and Canoe visitor center in Old Town just a few miles up the road from Bangor. Old Town, Necky, and a few other brands are manufactured in Old Town and the visitor center and outlet is a good place to go and get great deals on kayaks or canoes as well as good advice on what to purchase.

Laurie has wanted a hard kayak for while. She has an inflatable which she enjoys but wanted something a little more stable. There is a big swimming pool at the outlet so Laurie tried out this little recreation kayak.

She paddled back and forth several times and was sold.

The guys pitched in and got it all loaded on her car for her.

I'm sure she will have fun. She was planning to go kayaking the next day, but we were leaving for Moosehead Lake, up north in the Highland Region of Maine. We hope to find some dry camping away from airplanes, trains, and highways, preferable on the lake somewhere. It will be a challenge to find a place for three rigs.

Fort Knox Historic Site and Penobscot Narrows Observatory, August 12

2011-08-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

Fort Knox is Maine's largest historic fort constructed between 1844 and 1869. Adjacent to the fort is the Penobscot Narrows Observatory which sits atop a cable stay bridge. The observatory and Fort Knox are really two parks in one, with only one admission fee.

We arrived early, just as the park opened and were one of the first people to go up into the observatory. The elevator takes you almost all the way to the top and then there are several short flights of stairs. The views of the Penobscot Narrows are spectacular.

This is an over view of the new bridge and old bridge. The observatory is on the left.

For the observatory you can see Bucksport and some of Fort Knox sticking out about the middle left of the picture.

Looking the other direction out towards Penobscot Bay.

The bridge is built along side the old bridge and is a cable-stay type. We saw some of the same styles in Texas. Cables are bundled together into one large sleeve (the pipe/cannon looking thing) and this is the stay. This is an actual size of a section of the bridge. It is 57.6 feet wide and the top and 31 feet long at the and there were 181 of them used to construct the bridge. There were over 20,000 pounds steel and 70 cubic yards of concrete of used in each section.

This is the old bridge. Plans are to take it down, but according to the docent it probably won't happen anytime soon.

The old and the new bridge with a section of the new bridge.

Fort Knox is around the corner and up on the hill. The hill you see on the right is actually part of the Fort.

From the fort you get great views of the Bucksport.

This is one of the batteries of the Fort.

The fort is mostly granite construction. Parts look like a castle. You can see the canon ports.

This is an overview of the fort. You can walk the whole perimeter inside and out. Note the dry moat or dig all the way around.

This was a section of the officers quarters. There were wood floors and brick veneer in this section and a fireplace for warmth. The enlisted men's section was much more sparse with no fireplace.

Series of casemates, the arched section where the cannons were located. Each casemate was build independently of each other so that if one was damaged it didn't bring down the others.

View from inside from one of the cannon ports.

This was one of the corridors facing the dry moat.

The dry moat or dig that ran the perimeter of the fort as seen from one of the ports.

The heart of the fort.

Another view of the casemate. Note the tracks for the cannons.

One of the granite stair wells.

One of the canons set up

The construction of the fort was really interesting. It was manned during the Civil and Spanish American War but never saw any action.

Next we took the short drive over the Belfast, a little fishing village that is now mostly a colony of artists and craftsmen. We are on the coast of Maine...lobster territory...and in search of lobster for lunch. We checked in at the Chamber of Commerce and were directed to Young's a across the bay where you could pick out your lobster and they would cook it.

We headed over there and found the place was more like a fish market, with picnics tables set up in back with a nice view of the bay. We ordered our lobster which was served with butter for $19.99. A bit pricey, but what the heck...we were here for the experience. It was overcooked and the worst lobster I have ever had eaten. It's a good think we only ordered one to share. Joel had not eaten lobster before and he wasn't impressed. I probably should have complained and asked for another one, but the place was crowded and didn't want to wait any longer. I might order lobster again while in Maine, but not at that price.

The Cole Land Transportation Museum, August 11

2011-08-15T04:11:00.000-07:00

We left Gorham and headed towards Bangor, Maine with an overnight stop in Farmington Maine. We probably could have made it all the way to Bangor in one day, but that would have increased our average travel day mileage...:) We took Hwy 2 almost all the way across New Hampshire and Maine until it intersected with I 95. Highway 2 jigs and jogs; changes names frequently; is narrow and curvy in places; plus our GPS's were pretty erratic.

It was raining when arrived at the Bangor Elk Lodge and took awhile to get 12-14 rigs parked, but we managed to squeeze all of us in one portion of the parking lot. The Elks is located right next to the airport..not the most quiet place but the price was right.

Thursday morning we toured the Cole Land Transportation Museum. I'm really not a very good museum touring person. I get brain over load pretty easy, but the Cole Land Transportation Museum is a one of kind and it actually held my attention..for two hours..that and the fact we had a very good docent explaining and telling stories about the different exhibits and Maine.

A little history, which I had to look up on the internet. The museum was started by Galen Cole, the son of Allie Cole who started AJ Cole Express in the early 1900's in Maine. The Cole Express made deliveries in the inclement weather when other companies would not. The business grew and eventually merged and sold with another shipping company. Galen's dream was to build a museum to house all things to do with transportation, including difference types of transportation and maintenance. Google Cole Express and learn about Galen and and the Cole Family. It's pretty interesting.

The museum is well organized by category. It houses a huge collection of of everything from snow plows and fire engines and to snow sleds.

This is a snow roller. The roller was used to compact the snow so sleds could glide easily over the road.

One of the many old snow plows. Note those heavy wooden snow shovels.

One of the first snowmobile or snow cats as we know them today.

Old sewing machine equipment used to sew leather for harnesses and such.

Fire engine ally. This just shows how well organized the museum is.

There is also a collect of old cars including a Stanley Steamer

The Harley has all original parts including all of the chrome on it.

Yikes, there was even a hearse collection. The more money a town had, the fancier the hearse.

There were all shapes and forms of sleds

And even and old camper from 1925

These old gas pumps are in really good condition.

There was also a collection of engines.

This was a very unusual coal truck. Note the coal sacks on the back.

Part of the Cole Express fleet.

I'll let your imagination figure these out.. Actually, written messages were handed to the train engineer as he passed through a depot or station.

This is a Sally saw. It's curved to fit the tree truck. I don't think it was very successful.

This picture is for my two sons who handle chain saws on a daily basis for the Forest Service. It is one of the original style chain saws and took two men to use it. It weighed about 45 lbs!

The museum also has some memorabilia on WWII and there is a War Memorial on the grounds. One other interesting fact about the museum is its construction. The museum is closed during the winter but stays in the upper 40 degrees inside due to the heavy stone floor . Galen hired local high school students to install the floor which includes over 30,000 stones. That is a lot of stone!!

More on the White Mountains, August 8-9

2011-08-11T04:29:00.000-07:00

Monday was still drizzly and cloudy so Joel and I drove up on highway 110 towards the northern section of the White Mountains. We discovered a two delightful day use areas.

The first was a Jericho Mt. State Park, a day use area with a nice beach setting on Echo Lake. Its also a very popular ATV area on the weekends.

Next, we drove to the White Mountains South Pond Day Use area. Its a Forest Service Day use area set on South Pond several miles from the main road. We met the campground hosts who were on their third season of working at the day use area. They spend the winters in Arizona and were complaining that it was costing them too much in gas money to return to New Hampshire every summer. I think everyone is feeling the increase in gas costs. It sure was a pretty place to be a host.

The weather forecast for Tuesday was pretty good so we set our sites on going up to Mt Washington early in the morning.

Tuesday, we woke up to almost clear skies and could even see the top of Mt. Washington. It is the farthest mountain at the left of the picture. Its the grey area that looks like clouds.

We drove the short distance to the toll road and were first in line at the toll gate at 7:15. The road opens at 7:30 and we were the first ones up the road. The toll road costs are even more than Mt. Mansfield, totalling almost $49.00 for four of us. A little pricey, but its something I've always wanted to do. The road itself is good. It's a two lane, steep, winding, cliff hanger road, but it wasn't the worst I have ever been on. Ebbetts Pass (highway 4) in California is much worse and narrower.

The weather was good...for Mt. Washington. Apparently, it had rained most of Monday, so it was a good thing we didn't try and drive on Monday. We would have been rained out.

The views from the top were spectacular. The clouds came in and moved around.

We scurried to the top to get pictures before clouds could move in.

The picture below shows the cog rail tracks and the road. Note the cloud moving in.

We didn't have to climb very far to reach the summit. You can see the sign on the left.

This is part of the observation tower and all of the weather equipment.

The Tip Top House used to be a lodge on top of the mountain. In the early 1900's there were over 200 buildings on the top of the mountain. Earlier times brought horse drawn carriages full of tourists and later cars worked their way up the mountain.

These were the bunks for the tourists in earlier times.

They slept on moss with blankets. Doesn't look too comfortable to me.

It was a really clear day without much wind....

but subject to change within minutes. Note the same tower is now in the clouds.

Although we took the road up which took about 45 minutes, you can also ride the train which takes about 1 1/2 hours. It comes from the other side of the mountain. If you look closely you can see the smoke from the train at the far bottom left of the picture just starting to crest the hill.

It took quite a while for the train to make it over the top of the hill. I think it backed down and then got a better running start. It brought back memories of the childhood story "The Little Train that Could".. I Think I can, I think I can".

The first train of the day is coal powered and then the other are diesel powered.

Once the train gets to the top it's pretty easy going. You can see the road running adjacent to the tracks.

The engine pushes the car up the mountain on the cog track.

Once it got to the top, the engineer let all of the steam and pressure out of the engine.

Below is the old stage office. The chains are to hold the roof down due to high winds. I don't think Maynard would do much good if some really high winds came along :)

Wild Cat ski resort is one of the views of the mountain, which is right across the road from the gate to the toll road.

Our drive down the mountain was uneventful but we met a lot of traffic on the way down. When we got to the toll gate there was a line of cars all the way out to the highway. The old saying "the early bird gets the worm" really applies in this area if you want to beat the crowds!

We headed back to Gorham, raised the jacks, hooked the car up and were on our way again to Maine...finally. We only have about 150 miles to our next stop, Bangor, Maine, but it will probably take us two days. Joel, did a quick calculation a while back and it seems we average only about 75 miles a day.

The White Mountains, August 7

2011-08-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

Sunday was a drizzly, overcast day, so plans to drive up to Mt. Washington were scratched. No worries, though, because there are so many water falls and short hikes to do along some of the scenic by- ways that the day was packed full of beautiful scenes. We took many short hikes and explored the area.

The first stop of the morning was at The Wild Cat ski area. A gondola runs in the summer for those that want a scenic view of Washington Valley, but that was not in the plans today due to the overcast. There is a nice nature trail that leaves from the lodge that goes to the Thompson Waterfalls. It's just a short hike from the ski area. It was misting most of the way but the trees gave quite a bit of shelter so we didn't get soaking wet. The falls are pretty, and if you like to boulder hop, this is the place, although a little dangerous today with all of the mist. Some of those boulders were pretty slippery.

I've notices that a lot of the trees have fungi growing on them. I've never seen black fungi growing on a tree before.

Next we headed to Glen Ellis Falls. Again, this was another short hike from a well marked trail head. The falls are spectacular. There are 150 steps down so there is a bit of a pay back coming back up :)

Then we headed over to Cathedral Ledge View point. Cathedral Ledge is a popular climbing rock, but there wasn't much rock climbing on this misty, foggy day.

Washington Valley below the ledge.

The day continued to rain gently off on and , but that didn't stop us from continuing on until we found:

This one is for our WIN friend Diana who is spending the summer out West. I bet she didn't know there were baths and cascades named after her. :)There are lots of cascades with lots of pools. It was a popular place for families, even on a rainy day like today.

These young adults were really enjoying playing in the water.

We drove part of Kancamagus Highway or "Kank" to the Rocky Gorge. It's a pretty little gorge. I sure wouldn't want to be Kayaking down the swift river and not have any warning about the rapids!

There is a nice viewing bridge across the river that serves as a great viewing point.

We ended our day with a stop at Lower Falls. It was pretty crowded, mostly because it is right off the highway and there is a nice beach and a fun place for families. Its like having a natural water park. There were lots of water slides and pools to swim in.

These kids were having a blast.

And on a different water slide this teenager was having a lot of fun.

It was a great day with lot of scenery. My biggest challenge was picking out the best pictures to post. I think I took over 200 photos. We only drove about 1/3 of the scenic loop. One could spend a week driving the 100 mile loop because there are so many interesting pull offs and hikes.

Well, the weather doesn't look to good tomorrow for a Mt. Washington trip, but stay posted. We may end up staying in the area a little longer than planned.

New Hampshire, August 6

2011-08-08T04:28:00.000-07:00

We got a pretty early start on Saturday and headed for the little town of Gorham in New Hampshire. Usually we don't travel on Saturdays, but it was time to move on. (Yesterday was a catch up day and we were well rested. ) The drive was only about 75 miles and beautiful drive through hills and mountains with lots of little country farms. We found "black top" at an vacant shopping center.

After lunch we headed over to the Dolly Copp Forest Service campground to scout it out. Dolly Copp FS campground is the largest campground in the White Mountains with over 180 sites. There were 11 sites available, but not the best for our rigs so we opted to stay put at the shopping center.

We aren't far from the Pinkham Notch Appalachian Club visitor center so we headed over that way with a stop at the ranger station for hiking information. There are lots of trails that take off from the Pinkham Notch AMC visitor center and we all decided to take the short 1/2 mile hike up to Crystal Cascades, after visiting the AMC site.

The trail follows the creek most of the way through the trees.

There are several cascades along the way.

After climbing up and up you are rewarded with the beautiful crystal cascade falls.

The White Mountains is famous for 25 mountains that are all over 4000 which includes Mt. Washington.
Mt. Washington is also the high point of New Hampshire and famous for it's bad weather. We checked out the toll road and got information for the trip up in a few days. Our timing was terrible as it is August, one of the busiest times of the year, and it is 150 year anniversary of the toll road which is being celebrated this weekend. Ugh. So, we won't be going up to Mt. Washington on Sunday and we will see how the weather is Monday...which doesn't look real good due to predictions of rain.

There is dozens of trail heads in the area along with good parking. Things are crowded, but not like Yosemite...but there were sure a lot of people at Pinkham Notch and all of the parking areas seemed really full.

Vermont's High Point, August 4

2011-08-06T03:23:00.000-07:00

Most of you know I love to hike but I've been a little lazy lately, trying to do all of the touristy things near the areas we are camped at. I keep telling myself as I tour different states I should find the high point and hike it. I've hiked the high point in Nevada and California so I decided Mt. Mansfield, Vermont's high point at 4,393 feet would be part of my itinerary(with a little encouragement from my friend Nancy) while in the area. There is a toll road that goes almost all the way up to the top of Mt. Mansfield and then a short 1/1/2 mile hike with a 500 foot elevation gain to get to the top. From a distance, Mt. Mansfield looks like a mans head.

We joined up with friends Nancy(I think Nancy has about 20 high points under belt) and Maynard early in the morning for the hour drive to Stowe, Vermont and then took highway 108 to the toll road. The toll road opens at 9:00 and we wanted to beat the traffic, which was a good plan. The toll road is a steep price to pay for a 4.5 mile dirt road at $26.00 per car, but since there were four of us our pocket books didn't suffer hugely, besides, Nancy treated all of us. (Joel had helped Maynard install a new cooling unit for Nancy's refrigerator and I think this was her way of saying thank you). The price of the toll also includes a CD, bumper sticker for your car and a map. The toll road is a ski trail in the winter and is in the middle of a huge ski hill which seemed to me rivals Aspen or Squaw Valley. There are three different sections to the ski area.

We were ahead of most of the cars and there was only one other car parked at the visitor center when we arrived. "Visitor Center" is a loose term for the structure at the trail head ..there really isn't one. There is a volunteer from the Green Mountain club that greets you and gives a little spiel about staying on the trail because this is only one of three areas in New England that has tundra. If you step on it it will die. The Green Mountain Club maintains the Long Trail and other trails in the area.

The visitor center is at the base of the Chin, at the bottom of trees.

The trail follows high tundra and rock and is well marked with painted cairns.

The views are gorgeous. It's too bad that the clouds didn't lift. they say on a clear day you can see the Adirondacks on one side and Mt. Washington on the other.

We made it to the top and we were in the clouds.

We all stepped on the marker to prove we had been there.

The trail to the top is part of the Long Trail which goes from the Canadian Border to Massachusetts, so there were a few hard core hikers already on the top when we got there.

Some of the terrain we walked over:

The trail head is way in the distance where you can barely see the towers.

You can see some of the ski runs. There is a gondola that you can take but it is more pricey than the toll road and you still have to hike aways before reaching the top.

When we got back to the visitor center the parking area was full. So, it was a good thing we got an early start. We stopped at a few touristy places on the way back including a cider house, candy factory,Von Trapp Lodge and Green Mountain Coffees but our final will deserved stop was:

What a fun place to visit. It was a little crowded, but fun. We took a short tour of the factory and visitor center. You get free samples and they are just a sample, not even 1/4 of scoop, but good.

Probably the most fun part was the grave yard where all the "laid to rest" flavors are buried. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, but if you ever get to Waterbury, VT to see Ben & Jerry's be sure to visit the grave yard and get a good laugh.

What a fun, but busy day. We are suppose to leave tomorrow and head over towards New Hampshire, but we all need a day of rest, so we'll probably stay one more day at Groton Forest Road Campground. Oh, one other thing: my camera finally arrived! No more IPhone and no more borrowing cameras.

Marshfield area, August 3

2011-08-05T14:00:00.000-07:00

Today was another really busy day. We left the campground early and our first stop was the little waterfall in the middle of Marshfield. It was very picturesque and made for a nice warm up walk to the top and then a nice view point from the bottom.

Then we went to the Martin Bridge which was restored using as many original timbers as possible. It's a classic. The bridge is only for walking these days, but at one time it enabled farmers and their hay wagons to get across the river.

Joel and our club president Sharon.

We continued on to the countryside and passed these purple cones. The roots are used in the supplement euchanasia (sp?), which is suppose to boost your immune system.

The purple cones were growing by the Coburn Bridge which has an interesting history. We met the owner of the flower field and she said the Coburn Bridge was originally a privately built bridge built by the land owners so they could cross the river. Most of the bridges were built by the state and maintained by the state.

Next we went to Braggs Maple Farm and learned how maple syrup is made.

The trees are tapped and the liquid is immediately brought to the sugar house and boiled down to a syrup. During the early season, there is a lot of sugar in the liquid and the syrup is a lighter color. As the season progresses there is less sugar in the liquid and it takes longer to boil and thicken and the syrup turns a darker color and has a different taste. It talks nearly 60 gallons to make one quart of syrup in the latter part of the season. Trees that are at least 40 years old have one tap. There are Sugar Maples in their orchards that are over 350 years old and they can sustain up to 4 taps.

This is the boiling table. Look at all the buckets, clean, and ready for next years harvest.

We treated ourselves to a creamy. A creamy is a soft serve ice cream which has been infused with maple. It is much creamier than regular soft serve ice cream.

Oh, but the day is not over. Next we took the back roads to the Grand View Winery for wine tasting.

They do have a grand view.

The Grandview Winery makes fruit wines including Strawberry and Rhubarb, Raspberry Apple, and hard cider. The tasting included 5 or 6 wines which were all good. I thought maybe fruit wines would be really sweet, but they weren't. I had a hard time choosing which one I like best. Joel really liked the Strawberry Rhubarb and Raspberry Apple, so we picked up some.

Our final stop was at the Cabot Creamery where different cheddar cheeses are made.

These are jalapeno curds getting readied to be pressed into blocks.

One of the machines was decorated like a cow. The milk used in their cheeses is all produced locally.

The curds are pressed into blocks and wrapped. They are still warm at this point.

Then they are boxed and taken to the aging room. We didn't get to see the aging room, but the different cheeses are aged for up to two years, depending on the type.

This was the most fun part..tasting all the different types of cheddar cheese. They were pretty liberal with their samples and I think there was a sample of each cheese they make. I don't see much Cabot Cheese in the west, and when I have seen it, it's been in Walmart.

OK, I guess we could say we had lunch on the road today. Ice cream and maple syrup and then wine and then crackers and cheese. Tonight was burn your own pot luck night so we all rushed back to camp
to prepare a dish to share and prepare to eat more. I see a long hike in the future to burn some of these calories. What a life!

Rock of Ages, Hope Cemetary, and Montpelier Capitol, August 2

2011-08-05T09:09:00.000-07:00

I'm amazed at how much there is to see and do in Vermont. Wanda and Ernie, our hosts have lined up an itinerary that will shame any cruise guide...In fact I feel like I'm on a cruise. There is so much to chose from.

Our first stop this morning was the The Rock of Ages. The Rock of Ages is one of the oldest granite quarries in the US, located in Graniteville, just up the road from Barre. It's been in operation for over 125 years and is a major employer for the area. The granite quarried is used mostly for memorials and some commercial applications such as tool beds and giant paper rollers. You won't find granite counter top pieces and the like here.

First we went to the quarry where the giant blocks are cut out of the side of the mountain.

We all stood on the edge looking down at the quarry.

The quarry is one of the largest and deepest quarries in the world.

Large dereks are used to lift the huge blocks.

These are just some of "seconds" sitting by the road.

These are parts of blocks that are ready to be sold or shipped.

These are some slabs just laying around waiting for production.

This is grout, remnants from the granite that are piled up everywhere. In mining operations these would be called tailings.

These are custom made paper rollers, one of the products manufactured at the Rock of Ages.

Next we went into the "shed" where the granite is shaped into custom memorials. The majority of all memorials are special order and custom made at Rock of Ages. In the early years Italians emigrated from Italy and did most of the sculpturing. Now days much of the work is done by laser and finished by hand. The granite is cut and polished.

A stencil is placed on the memorial and then a laser us used to etch the design.

These are memorials getting readied for the artwork.

A laser is being used to etch the design on the granite.

Outside near the complex is a granite bowling alley. The company was going to manufacture granite bowling alleys, but determined the that it wouldn't be a good investment. We all had a try at a strike. The bowling balls were made of rubber and pretty light...nothing like a regular bowling ball, but fun.

Next we went to Barre (pronounced berry). Two major state highways highways funnel through the middle of town and go by this regal sculpture, a good example of the quality of granite that us mined just up the road. It was a busy little town. We ate our picnic lunch in the square and then headed over to the Hope Cemetery.

The Hope Cemetery is a very unusual cemetery with lots of different memorials. Some of the memorials were carved by Italian Emigrants in the early 1930's. The artists were used to carving marble in Italy which is non toxic. No one was aware of silicosis disease that is caused by granite dust in the early 1900s. Many of the Italian Sculptures died a a young age from the disease and their work is scattered through out the cemetery. These are some of the more unusual or artistic memorials:

Wanda had scheduled at tour of the capital of Montpelier at 3:00 . Montpelier is the smallest capitol city in the US. Our docent was very informative and gave us a good history lesson. The dome features real gold leaf, with Ceres, the goddess of agriculture on top.

Our docent showed up pictures of how the capitol looked prior to today. At one time every town in Vermont had a voice was represented but that has since changed and is now representation is based on population.

The floors are marble and the structure is a good example of Greek Revival.

This was another busy day, and we were all happy to return to the campground for the evening. Thanks Wanda for organizing such a great day.

On to Groton Forest Road Campground, Marshfield, VT. July 31

2011-08-02T04:13:00.000-07:00

We deviated from our Sunday morning routine of fixing bacon and eggs and watching the Sunday Good morning show, and pulled up the jacks early and were on the road by 8:00. We didn't have that far to go but had been told there was a small town that we needed to go through on the way that was having some sort of festival and it would be best to get through early. I like early starts, and it was a beautiful morning. The weather the last few days, since Cooperstown, has been delightful...mid 80's with lower humidity and cool nights in the 50's. I'll take it!!

On the way we stopped at the welcome center on I-89, which doesn't look much like a welcome center at all. It turns out that the facility is also a Vietnam Memorial to the Vermont Vietnam Vets.

The green house on the left is a "Living Water" treatment plant.

The outdoor memorial is very nice honoring Viet Nam Vets. Vermont was the first state to erect a Viet Nam and erected before the Wall in Washington, DC.. All of the Vermont Viet Nam vets are engraved on this mini wall.

The interior of the Living Water plant. Black and grey water are put through and initial screening process to filter out anything non biodegradable and plants break down the biodegradable and then the water is further filtered, colored blue as non potable, but reused for toilet flushing.

The visitor center also displayed some of the locally made items including this pack boat, which was beautiful.

One of our WIN members owns the Groton Forest Road Campground and she leases it out. She had mad arrangements for us to camp at a discounted rate during the week. The campground is very near the Groton Forest State Park and some good hiking. After our arrival to the campground, and after dinner, we all hiked the short distance up Owl Oak trail to a beautiful over look of Groton and Kettle Pond.

The walk was less than a mile but a nice little climb.

We all made it to the top easily.

Marshfield, VT is a neat little area with lots of back roads for exploring. There are lots of activities planned over the next few days so stayed tuned for more.

Blue Ridge Mountain via the Canty Trail, July 30

2011-08-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

Rutland, Vermont is located near the border of the Northern section of the Green Mountains. There are numerous ski resorts in the area as well as some excellent hiking. The Long Trail and the Appalachian Trail intersect near Killington, Vermont just a few miles up the road. I really wanted to do some hiking in "the mountains". Most of the elevation around the area is below 4,000 feet so I didn't really consider the terrain mountainous, but hilly. After doing a little research I determined there were several short day hikes a few miles from Rutland so we headed out early on Saturday morning.

We ran into a guide at one of the trail heads we had considered hiking and he told us about another "easy" hike just up the road with a water fall and views of the surrounding areas. We headed over to the Blue Ridge Mountain on the Canty Trail. It was a 6 mile round trip with an elevation gain of 1700 feet. Just driving up in the mountains made me feel like I was back in my element. Something about the mountains just makes me feel better.

The hike was pretty, following the creek most of the way through the trees. (I've looked on several maps and there is no name listed for the creek) The trail was well marked.(I think it is used for snow shoeing in the winter) but not an easy trail to walk. It had rained very heavily the day before and the roots and rocks on the trail were really slippery. I really had to watch my footing.

Just a few hundred yards from the trail head we came up several small abandoned cabins. They would be great warming huts or summer cabins, but they were pretty rustic.

Nancy and Maynard blazed through the trail.

There were huge fungi on the trees.

Yes, really big!

This tree had lots of little fungi on them, making for an interesting composition. Can you see the different faces?

Joel didn't have too much trouble negotiating the trail down over all the tree routes and rocks, but going up was a different story. It was tough for all of us.

The map simply notes that there are cascades on the way up and a "nice" waterfall:

We found the water fall and took a break on one of the conveniently placed logs at the base of the falls.

There were several sets of pretty cascades along the creek. I noted there was lots of tannin in the water which made the creek look foamy and dirty, but the water was really was crystal clear.

The views at the top of the mountain of Rutland and surrounding area. The trees have grown up so the view is now partially blocked.

All in all it was a pretty good day. We all agreed we are a little out of shape for a six mile hike with that much elevation gain, but the creek was pretty and we saw only two other people on the trail.

Rutland, The Vermont Marble Museum, July 29

2011-08-01T03:49:00.000-07:00

Vermont is known for it's marble quarries and the little village of Proctor houses one the largest, if not the largest marble exhibits in the US. The village of Proctor is just a few miles from Rutland where we were boon dock camping so off we went to see the displays of marble. The museum was excellent and they were having a special with roll back prices to 1978 so the admission was $1.00. Wow!

The entrance to the museum:

This is an example of antique Verdi marble. This chunk weights over 18,500 pounds.

There is a small sculpture garden near the entrance.

Danby Marble is one of the whitest marbles and is excavated in Vermont.

I didn't realize there were so many different colors of marble. I always thought all marble was white or close to white. Below are examples of white marble and black marble originating in Vermont.

The museum features the Hall of Presidents. There is a sculpture of each president with a description of his birthplace and who the first lady was for that particular president. Did you know some First Ladies were not wives but nieces or daughters even though they were married?

This is a close up of one of the sculptures. Since I am originally from California, its only fitting that I took a picture of Nixon. There were none from Nevada.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was also made out of Vermont Marble. A huge block of white marble was cut from the quarry.

These are just some of the products that are made from marble which includes calcium and sodium bicarbonate. In addition it is used in paint and dry wall mud. The Vermont Marble Company which was a family owned company was bought out by OMYA.

These samples of marble looked like art work to me.

Alan Dwight has been the resident sculpture for 30 years. His studio is full of sculptures and he was more than happy to talk about how he develops a sculpture from a piece of marble.

This piece reminded me of a piece of cut wood.

This sculpture was brought to the marble factory many years ago and was left for repair but never reclaimed. It reminds me of a large Hummel.

There are examples of marble and granite everywhere in Rutland and the surrounding villages, even the curbs are made out of granite. Churches and schools are made out of blocks of marble and granite and even some bridges. Now that I have learned a little about the material I will be on the look out as we travel through Vermont.

Cooperstown, July 27-28

2011-07-30T19:05:00.000-07:00

Cooperstown, NY is a delightful little village, abet a little busy. We hit the baseball hall of fame post weekend so there were lots of baseball fans and tourists. Our group had obtained permission from the Chamber of Commerce to park in one of the Trolley lots. The parking in town is horrendous so there are several free parking lots located around the outskirts of the downtown area and the Trolley shuttle tourists in to town for a small fee for $2.00 ( hop on and off all day).

We parked in the Yellow Trolley parking lot which turned out to be quite nice. The lot is located within a few minutes walk to Lake Otsego and the Cooperstown Golf Course and next to the Finemore Art Museum.

I did walk by the Baseball hall of Fame but didn't go through the museum.

Doubleday Field is named after Abner Doubleday who is thought to have first developed the scheme of baseball in the 1800's.

The trolley shuttles tourists from the parking lots to downtown. It is a very convenient and efficient way to see downtown Cooperstown.

Lake Otsego

This is part of the Finemore Museum of Art. It is a reproduction of an Iroquois hut.

Dug out canoe just laying on the shore of the lake. I think it was part of the museum exhibit.

This road was just a short distance from the trolley parking. It was a nice place to walk in the early morning and early evening.

I even saw a fox. Apparent the fox come into town and hunt small domestic cats and dogs.

He wasn't that far away and he just kept watch on us as we walked.

I thought this was a cool bronze sculpture near the Doubleday Field.

Even though Cooperstown was a big tourist area, I was really impressed with this little village. You can walk almost everywhere in town, and the folks are real friendly. The town is clean and the old homes are interesting. We walked into town both mornings before the businesses were open and enjoyed the little village in its early morning quiet state.

The sega of my camera repair continues. Unfortunately it didn't get sent out in time to arrive at Cooperstown, even though we stayed in extra day. Joel didn't mind waiting around one more day. It gave him a chance to fix the satellite dish that has been acting up since we left Jefferson, Ohio and it gave me a chance to catch up on paperwork and blogs. Anyway, we didn't live Cooperstown until late morning on Thursday (had to wait for the mail) and headed for Rutland, Vermont, our next stop. The Rutland postal employee was great and agreed to forward my camera it to our stop in upper Vermont where we will be about August 1, in a few days.

It took almost 6 hours to drive approximately 150 miles. The further north one goes the more windy the roads become. We took Highway 80 north from Cooperstown which is very narrow and windy, but beautiful. I could feel the increase in altitude and the decrease in humidity...a good feeling.

We'll be in Rutland just a few days before we head up near Marshfield, Vermont.

Watkins Glen Gorge, July 25

2011-07-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

Some of the group chose to go to Watkins Glen on Sunday because it was cloudy which made for good photography in the gorge. All I could think about was Sunday=Crowds, besides the forecast was for partial cloudiness on Monday.

I had seen signs of a rails to trails bike route from Montour Falls to Watkins Glenn State Park, just about 4 miles one way. .. all flat and mostly on hard packed RR bed, so I did a little research and determined it would be feasible to ride the bikes without a lot of effort to the park.

Joel and I, along with Nancy and Maynard, headed out early on the bikes stopping in Montour Falls to take a picture of the falls that are right in the middle of town (the falls are not called Montour Falls but some other really long Indian name) and then continued along the trail.

The only down side about the Catherine Valley Trail is that it bumps you out on the highway a little south of the park so you have to ride a short distance on a busy road.

We all arrived at the park just as it was opening and much to our delight there was free admission for cyclists, and even better, there were no cars in the parking lot. That was an $8.00 savings that could be spent on ice cream later :). The Watkins Glen Gorge is beautiful with lots of photo ops. The good thing was that due to our early arrival there was hardly anyone there and we were able to photograph and explore at our leisure. ..especially since there are 892 steps over about 1.5 miles. The day was partially cloudy which also help make for good photos.

Each water fall has a name and I didn't even try to remember them all. If you like water falls, you are in for a treat. My little IPhone worked OK,but the pictures are not as sharp as they would be with my other camera.

I got Nancy and Maynard to stop and pose for a minute while Joel headed on up the gorge.

One of Maynard's typical poses with Nancy going up a short flight of stairs.

This reminded me of some of the slot canyons in Arizona, only there was water not sand.

Note the cracks. They look like they were cut to relieve pressure. Really interesting stuff.

Looking down on the gorge and some of the steps.

We spent over two hours going up and just a few minutes coming down. Then before returning to Montour Falls, we headed over to the marina in Watkins Glen which sets on the picturesque Seneca Lake

We perused the little town on our bikes and headed back to the Moose Lodge around 1:00. Did you notice the clouds in the picture above the boats? They moved in a got darker and darker. Not ten minutes after we got back, it started to thunder and lightening with lots of hail and wind. Good thing we didn't stop for lunch. What a good day doing two of my favorite things: biking and hiking.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we leave for Cooperstown, NY for a quick overnight stop. Cooperstown is the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Farmers Museum, and the Fenimore Museum of Art. This ought to be interesting. I'm not a baseball fan and have seen plenty of museum farm stuff. I sure hope my camera is waiting for me so we will only have to stay one night.

Corning Museum of Glass, July 23-24

2011-07-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

We left Lockport early Friday morning (July 22) and headed for Montour Falls Moose Lodge, near Watkins Glen, New York. Joel had spent most of Thursday trying to repair the motosat satellite dish and recouping from the previous days adventures. Some our group went back over to Niagara on Thursday, but it was just too hot to be walking around asphalt.

Montour Falls is a quaint little town, just a few miles from Watkins Glen State Park which is the home of Watkins Glen Gorge and 17 waterfalls. The Corning Museum of Glass is about twenty miles south in the little village/town of Corning. Saturday and part of Sunday, we went to the Corning Museum of Glass. The purchase price of ticket includes two days and for a small additional fee you can upgrade the ticket to include the Rockwell Museum of Art also housed in Corning. They are both owned by Corning.

The architecture of the museum itself is very interesting. The museum used to be an old factory and was renovated to house the extensive collection of glass.

The museum traces 35 centuries of glass art, history and technology. There are several galleries ranging from contemporary to cross cultural.

This is a classic representation of Chihuly.

These bowls are made from thin strings of glass fibers.

The picture doesn't do this sculpture justice. The lights reflecting in the square shapes were really pretty and mesmerizing.

This is a cut glass replica of the Liberty Bell. It weights over 30 pounds so it must have been really hard to cut on a lath.

Another example of modern glass and old stuff used in an unusual manner.

This is a Peony, and suppose to be a good luck flower.

This is a cube that was made out of recycled LED glass, the kind that is used in TVs.

This was a giant mobile which seems to float.

Can you see the tree? This artist used premade glassware from various sources arranged in a tree. There were three trees, but I thought this one was the best.

This is a glass pressing machine used to make pressed glass. Pressed glass looks similar to cut glass but pressed glass does not have lead in it like cut glass and the edges are not as sharp and defined as cut glass. It was common in the late 1800's to early mid 1900's.

This was an exhibit of Carder who worked for Corning designing glassware and other items. What made this exhibit interesting was all the colors Carder developed and the explanation of what was used to make the colors in the glass.

Yes, it was an all day excursion and Joel was pretty patient, but he just had to take a break.

These are glass blinds. Corning's original start was making glass blinds. They didn't go over very well so he went on to other projects.

This was one of the exhibits of safety glass. The windshield on top shows what happens when two guns shots were shot into the windshield. The bullets did not go through the glass, but the glass sort of absorbs the impact but doesn't shatter. The second windshield shows safety glass which is laminated to tape which keeps the glass from shattering into sharp shards. The bottom windshield is from an old car with regular glass. The demonstration I attended showed how the bullet proof glass would shatter into little piece if hit just the right way, but not break into big pieces. It all has to do with how the glass is tempered.

This was a demonstration of mirrors and reflections. It was hard to get a photograph of what was going on. As you walked toward the glass, it felt like you were walking through several invisible partitions, which is why Joel is reaching out to try and touch the partition. Weird!

We've all heard of corning ware, the white pots you cook in. Corning ware was as a result of a mistake in over firing glass bowls. When fired long enough and hot enough, the bowl didn't melt but turned white and became tough enough to with standing baking and cooking. The bowls below represent the different strengths of the bowls. The glass colored ones (not as tough but similar to Pyrex ) on the bottom to the white colored ones on top which are Corning Ware.

The hot glass demonstration was one of the better demonstrations on glass blowing I've seen. A narrator walked you through the whole process, explaining the different names of the different tools and exactly what the artist was doing. It was very professional and informative. Glass making has always fascinated me and I never get tired of watching.

The optical fiber demonstration was also very interesting and is the museum newest exhibit. Did you know optical fiber is as thin as a strand of hair and can transmit over a half a million pieces of data at one time? There was a large circle at least five feet in diameter that enclosed solid copper wiring/cable (my photo did not turn out) and one small strand of optical fiber replaces all of the copper wiring in the five foot diameter. Amazing.

After the demonstrations we took the shuttle over to the Rockwell Museum of Western Art. The exhibit was nice and the Andy Warhol section on Cowboys and Indians was especially interesting. No, it is not the same Rockwell as Norman Rockwell.

We walked the town of Corning, which has lots of interesting little studios and shops. A nice place to visit, but it is obvious that Corning is what keeps this town of Corning alive. Its been really hot so we were happy to get back to the campground and use the AC even though it was the power was a little sporadic.

The Jet Boat Ride, afternoon of July 20

2011-07-26T03:54:00.000-07:00

The group decided they all wanted to do a Jet boat ride which goes up to the Whirlpool through the devils rapids. I was a little leery not only because of the cost, but because it seemed like a touristy thing to do. When I found out the ride would be around 50 minutes, I decided it would be fun and probably worth the money. Ernie and Wanda called the provider and told them there would be about 20 of us and they gave us a group rate.

We arrived the required 45 minutes a head of time for the orientation. Wow, was it ever hot!! You can use ponchos on the boat if you want to stay dry, but it was so hot I don't think anyone used the ponchos that were offered to us. We were told the first three rows were considered the power rows and it was guaranteed that no one would stay dry in those rows. We were also told that cameras would not stay dry, sunglasses could be removed from the rush of the water, and hats would be lost. What did I get myself into??

Joel took his camera (I'm down to my IPhone and no way it is going to get it exposed to any water) but he promptly put it away and the soft dry bags attached to the seats after launching. There is a camera on deck that takes pictures which you can purchase after the ride. Sharon, our club president graciously shared some of the pictures she purchased. Thanks, Sharon

Here we all are nice and dry and ready to go!

It was quite a ride. I'm in the second row in a white hat. and Joel is on the outside seat. I removed the hat shortly after we did a "180" in the water. The deck hand did a great job of narrating the ride and keeping everyone "pumped up" . Thumbs up meant we all wanted more action and a tap on the head meant we were in distress. Everyone gave a thumbs up.

OK. There is no staying dry in the first few rows! Whew did that feel good.

We are going through some Class V rapids. The Jet boat is the only boat that is certified to go through the Class V rapids on the Niagra. There are some Class VI rapids but the boats are not allowed to go through them as it is considered staging and there is a $10,000 fine.

Wow, this one was big. Our pilot seemed to be having a difficult time hitting the water just the right way and she kept returning and giving us more thrills. I think we got our money's worth.

Well, it was fun and a great way to cool off and a very fun ride...well worth the money. The day time temperatures reached at least 100 degrees and with high humidity it felt like I was entering a sauna every time I went outside. I don't think I would want to do this ride in the winter, though

It was a fun, busy day. You gotta love this life style!!

Erie Canal, Morning of July 20

2011-07-26T03:48:00.000-07:00

Lockport houses several locks along the Erie Canal. Although the locks no longer accommodate large barges they do service small cruise boats, fishing boats, and kayaks. Ernie had received permission to paddle the section of canal where the locks were located.

We found an easy put in about a mile from the locks. Laurie has a neat inflatable kayak and she pumped it up while the guys shuttled the cars to the take out down river from the locks.

Nancy and Maynard rented a canoe. Looks like Maynard is doing most of the work.

We had quite a group of Kayakers.

We had to share the canal with the cruise boat. The biggest challenge was to get out of the way and hug the side of the canal as the boat went by.

We floated towards the locks .

We paddled under the widest bridge in the US.

Joel is analysing the bridges structure.

We paddled by some old building in Lockport just before the locks.

The locks are at the end of the bridge. Once we reached the locks we had to paddle back to the other side and wait for the lock to fill up before the doors were opened. The lock tender told us to hold on to the sides of the canal as the current would get pretty strong. Well, there isn't much to hold on to, and as I was reaching for a large beam to grab hold onto I reached way too far and dumped my kayak. I managed to get back in before the current swept me to the locks, but my camera was dumped also. Dead camera. The day was really hot, so I did get cooled off.

We went through two locks. Each lock raised about 50 ft then the doors were opened and the water lowered really quickly.

This is the first lock.

You can see the difference in the water level as the water is lowered

That's quite a difference!! Then who who procedure is preformed again.

We are all lined up waiting for the second set of doors to open.

Its a fun ride as the the water level lowers and it happens within a matter of minutes.

Once on the other side of the locks the canal flows pretty slowly. You can see the original locks in the picture above.

We continued on down the canal for another mile or so and then reached the take out.

Thanks Nancy, for sharing the pictures of the locks.

Later that evening, I went back to the locks with my IPhone and took some pictures of the closed locks. This is a picture of the full lock.

The smaller lock on the left is one of the original locks.

After the paddling we had lunch at Reids where you can a hamburger for $1.00!!! But wait the day is not over. We have reservations for the Jet boat ride later this afternoon.

Niagara Falls, July 19

2011-07-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

Ernie and Wanda, our hosts for the Niagara Falls gathering warned us they had three fully packed days of adventure and we would hit the ground running. Ernie and Wanda had negotiated a great price for a bus tour and guide which picked us all up at 9:00 at the campground and would return us about six hours later.

The tour included both the Canadian and US sides of the falls, the Maid of the Mist cruise, lunch at the Sheraton and as it turned out much, much more. I took so many pictures it was hard to sort through and determine which ones were best! Half way through our day, my old pentax ran out of battery power and I had to use my IPhone for pictures, so some of the pictures are not the best. My Canon G9 is still being repaired and hopefully will catch up with me at our next stop.

From the US side of the falls you get an up close and personal look. The roar of the falls is sombering. You don't realize how powerful the falls are until you get this close. The water at the edge is only a few feet deep but the water is flowing really fast and ferious.

Rainbow bridge is in the back ground.

It's hard to get all of the falls in one picture. Horseshoe falls is the farthest and then there is the American and Bridal Veil Falls.

We all took the Maid of the Mist cruise, which was included in our bus ticket. The day was really hot so we didn't want to put on these ponchos until the very last minute. Joel is analyzing the best way to approach putting the poncho one. Nancy is almost there with hers.

The Maid of the Mist boat gets pretty close to the Horseshoe Falls. You can catch the cruise from either the Canadian or the US side. Our cruise left from the US side.

This is a picture of the boat taken from the Canadian side.

We were soaking wet from the boat ride, but did feel good. We walked to to Prospect point which over looks the river and is adjacent to one of the falls. It is a popular place for photos, so the lines get a little long.

Then we went over to the Canadian side. Going through customs was easy. We all got off the bus and walked through the custom building and the officers checked our pass ports. Since it was a week day it didn't take very long.

These are some nice views of the falls.

The skyline of Niagara Falls.

These are some of the rapids up river from the Falls taken from Three Sisters Islands. This part of the river is pretty high and looks like ocean waves.

This is the Devils Whirl pool. The river flows into a box canyon and then whirls around. We will be taking a jet boat ride into this pool. Are we crazy or what?

The jet boats have to maneuver through these rapids to get up to the whirlpool.

More pictures of the Falls.

Pretty powerful. I do need to learn how to load video on to the bogs. I did take some video and the sound is incredible.

More pictures:

This gives a little more perspective on how close the Maid of the Mist gets to the Falls.

You can see how wide the gorge is from this vantage point.

We took the Skylon which is and outside elevator which takes you up a large tower to a balcony and you get a 360 degree view of all of Niagara.

The Canadian side has a nice parkway along the water front with lots of flowers. The School of Horticulture does all of the grounds keeping in Niagara Falls.

We stopped at a gift shop on the way back to the US and there were more photo ops. Pretty touristy, eh?

Towards the end of the day, looking towards the rapids.

The mist from the falls

This is a Northern Black Squirrel.

Our tour guide Thomas is telling us about the Indian word that became Niagara. It was actual two words meaning thundering water.

Nichola Tesla, inventor and his theories formed the basis of modern alternate current (AC)

This is the famous flower clock. Too bad all the power lines are in the picture. The clock is suppose to play chimes on the hour, but it didn't perform today. We waited until a few minutes after the hour but nothing happened.

The workings of the clock are in a little room under the clock.

We ate lunch at the Sheraton near the top. Some of the picture were taken from the top and other were taken from the Skylon tower.

This is one of the power plants that generates power from the falls.

It was a long but good day. We didn't get back to our campground until well after 8:00. Thanks Ernie and Wanda for a great job!

Stayed tuned for more adventures in Niagara.

On to Niagara Falls, July 17-18

2011-07-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

We got a much later start from Kenisee Lakes Thousand Trails than planned. The Data Storm Antennae which provides satellite TV and newly activated internet would not stow. Error messages kept showing up that the motor was bad so Joel manually stowed it. Wouldn't you know he just got the internet reactivated so we could use it instead of the Verizon modem that seems to get slower and slower.

We decided not to take I-90 (which is a toll road) to Lockport our next stop and instead followed Highway 20 most of the way. It was a pretty drive, which took us through several old communities and lots of wine country.

I had wanted to get an early start so I could go to the Apple store in Buffalo. It seems my IPhone got damp, maybe due to all of the humidity or whatever. I had purchased an extended warranty so I called Apple only to find out "moisture" was not covered under the warranty. I also talked to ATT and they said it was not a moisture problem. Sheeze, what else. Anyway, I decided to go to Apple and check with a genius bar tech in person. Yep, there was moisture (there is some type of sensor inside that detects moisture) and it would cost $$$ to replace. I told the tech that I would just live with the distortions until the IPhone quit. Well, what do you know, he said he could give me a replacement without any charge. Hmmm. I asked him what the catch was, but there wasn't any. I would have to give him my damaged IPhone after syncing the new one. Thank goodness I had backed everything up! Synced the phone; cleared the old one ;and we were on our way. By this time it was well after 7:00 so we decided to stay in the Galleria Mall parking lot. As we were warming up left overs, Security came by and told us there was no over night parking allowed, so we headed for Plan B, the Lockport Moose Lodge which was 30 or so miles down the road.

We got settled in at the Moose Lodge which was open until 10:00, which I found unusual for a Sunday evening. We headed over to the Niagara County Camping Resort to scout out the park and planned to catch up with our WIN friends later in the day, only to find several had arrived early and were already there. So we promptly returned to the Moose Lodge and retrieved the Big House and headed back to the park . Thank goodness the park has electric hookups. Its very hot and expected to get warmer. Joel made a few phone calls to try and trouble shoot the antennae issue and order parts.

The next few days are going to be really busy. We only have three full days here and there is a lot to see.

Ashtabula area, July 14-16

2011-07-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was an "at home" day fussing with my camera and catching up on chores. Thursday morning I had had enough of being cooped up and we needed to go to the store so we headed over to Jefferson to the local grocery just a few miles from the campground . They didn't have what we needed so we decided to head to "Wally World" aka Walmart in Ashtabula just a few miles north. We also decided it would be a good time to check out the harbor which had been just a little to far when we were on our bike ride a few days before. The harbor is located on the shores of Lake Erie.

Ashtabula county is noted for its covered bridges (the longest and shortest) and wineries as well as the Western Greenway bike trail.

This is the Smolen-Gulf covered bridge. It is the longest covered bridge in the US and was built in 2008. It spans 613 ft and 93 ft above the Ashtabula River.

There is a nice pedestrian walkway on both sides.

We went into the harbor of Ashtabula, which is mainly a shipping harbor for coal and iron, and not much to photograph.

I had heard the Elks Lodge was suppose to be pretty nice so we meandered there and the views from the lodge of Lake Erie were pretty nice. To me, the lake looks like the Pacific Ocean near my home town of Pacific Grove, California,

so I got my "ocean fix"

and short walk on a beach with lots of drift wood and rocks.

This is looking towards Ashtabula,

and there were some "ghost trees" one of my favorite subjects to photograph.

The little town of Geneva-By-The-Lake is just a few miles from the Elks Lodge on the scenic by way. It is a summer beach community with arcades, and water slides. These teenagers were having a ball. The little town is a happening place on the weekends with craft shows and a live music in the park...so I'm told.

Our map showed another covered bridge on our route back to camp and I had read it was the shortest covered bridge, but didn't know if it was the shortest covered bridge in the county or the US. We had a hard time finding it mainly because it is still under construction. The covered bridge was shipped in components and volunteers are putting it together. It's span is only 18 feet.

While visiting the shortest covered bridge, one of the locals suggested we might want to visit the Harpersfield Bridge one our way back to camp. The Harpersfield Bridge was the longest covered bridge in Ohio. It spans over the Grand River near the area we had wanted to Kayak a few days earlier. I'm sure glad we didn't try kayaking here...it was really shallow in places. The bridge was built in 1868 but a flood 1913 washed soil away and changed the river channel so a steel extension was attached.

The Grand River looking towards the gorge section.

On Friday, I wanted to cycle part of the southern portion of the Western Greenway trail, so Joel and I headed out pretty early to avoid the heat. The southern part of the trail wasn't all that different from the northern part we cycled previously.

Our time at the Kenisee Lakes Thousand Trails is almost up. It's an older campground and has a nice cozy feel to it. The sites are large enough for big rigs and folks are very friendly.

There is no swimming allowed in the pond, but there is a nice swimming pool

Fishing is allowed and blue gill are plentiful...not my choice for eating though. You can fish here without a license.

There is a flock of geese

and canoes for rent.

This guy was our next door neighbor.

But this was my favorite.

We will be leaving in the morning and start heading towards Niagara Falls with a short overnight stop in Buffalo, NY.

A day of rest...sort of, July 13

2011-07-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

The other day I went to take a picture of Howard and Linda and my faithful Canon G9 Powershot turned on and the lens came out but nothing happened when I pushed the shutter button. Nothing. I turned the camera off and still nothing. The lens would not close and I would get "lens error reset the camera". Since Linda and Howard were ready to leave I snapped a quick shot of the group with my IPhone. I continued to fiddle with the camera, changing batteries, changing settings etc, nothing. The camera is about 3 years old and I had recently considered getting a newer one but after looking a bit I didn't find anything that was as good as what I have. It was still working fine so I decided I really didn't need a new one..then.

My next step was to get on the internet and look at some forums to see if I could trouble shoot the problem. The Power Shot G9 was a brand new model when I purchased it in 2008, and there wasn't much data on it back then. Not so now. Much to my amazement, I was not alone with my particular issue. It seems the lens error is a very common one and Canon will not own up to the problem. They claim the problem is due to abuse. The real problem is tiny little screws work their way lose inside the camera rattle around and short out the fuse or damage the mother board. I've taken this camera hiking, cycling, kayaking, backpacking, on airplanes, and its been bumped around and so it was amazing to me that my old friend hadn't acted up prior this.

Joel and I took the camera apart per the web site "who killed my G9" and sure enough there was a lose screw. We put the camera back together and.....nothing. I checked on what a new G9 would cost through Amazon. Cameras usually go down in price, but this one has more than doubled in price! Heh? I read several reviews of a company in Texas that will fix the camera for less than $100.00 so I called them. In short, I agreed to send the camera off to them for repairs which they guarantee for a year. Their fee includes replacing fuses, mother boards, and any necessary adjustments. While I was on the phone with them they asked me to look at the bottom of the camera to check for two screws that usually go missing. Sure enough those two screws were gone along with one other.

So why am I writing this long blog on a potentially dead camera? I find it incredulous that Canon will not own up to the fact that all they needed to do was put some lock tight on their screws. The newer Powershot G10s and up do not have this problem, but do have a myriad of other issues. Also, if you own a G9 I hope you have a back up camera because your G9 could quit anytime. Like I said I am amazed my didn't quit sooner.

Fortunately, I have an old, old, Pentax Optica (2003) that I kept for a back up that still works. It takes special batteries, which I only have one of so I'll have to be careful to keep it charged. It's so old that the largest cards I could buy at the time were 512 MB. The IPhone is fine for snap shots but I find it really hard to see the screen to know what I am shooting.

I'll do another post when my G9 is returned to me. Keep you fingers crossed!!