RETIREMENT IS GRAND

I'M MOVING MY BLOG.......

2010-08-01T12:56:00.000-04:00

I have been working with blogspot since my return from Canada to improve my ability to post while traveling. Blogspot blames it on a Google problem and Google will not address it.....

SO

I'm moving my blog to wordpress. Please feel free to visit my "new" blog at:

carolnbill.wordpress.com

Hope to see you over there.

HOT, HUMID AND DOWNRIGHT MUGGY

2010-07-28T10:25:00.001-04:00

We arrived back home to a sweltering heatwave…. Reagan National Airport has recorded 42 90+ degree days, tying with 1994 for the highest number of such days in a year through July 25th. We haven’t beat the record yet, which was 1980 with 67 of these hot, humid, muggy days. Monday was the first day below 90 degrees in 2 weeks.

Whereas in Baltimore Washington Airport hit 100 yesterday, breaking the previous record of 99 from 1934. It has reached 100 for the fifth time this month – THE MOST EVER 100 DEGREE OCCURRENCES FOR ANY MONTH IN BALTIMORE IN RECORDED HISTORY! It also marked Baltimore’s seventh 100 degree or higher day in 2010, tying with 1988 and 1933 for the most ever in a summer. AND WE STILL HAVE AUGUST TO GET THROUGH!

WHY DID WE COME BACK HOME?

Oh yea, my grandchildren. We got to see Shane briefly before flew out to California for water polo. Below he is enjoying California's beautiful weather with friends.

We drove over to the Eastern Shore to visit Olivia. Billy brought her home from daycare at noon so we could babysit her until they got home from work.

We were only gone about a month and she’s already sitting up!

Gaspe & Canadian Atlantic Maritimes Trip Departure

2010-07-28T09:28:00.002-04:00

Preparing for our departure from our trip to head home, Bill took a picture of me working vigorously on the last day of the blog.

In case anyone is disappointed that they won’t be able to read about Newfoundland, the new tailgunners are continuing the blog at: http://www.travelingwithsykes.blogspot.com

Our last day with the Caravan…….As Bill and I walked around the campground bidding our last farewell to our guest, (who were up and about-we were sorry we didn’t get a chance to see everyone, but with the schedule everyone had been keeping, we didn’t want to wake anyone up) we couldn’t help but feel the sadness that we were unable to finish the trip. Everyone was wonderful and understood, but we still had that feeling of letting everyone down. It didn’t make us feel any better to find that one of our guests awoke that morning to a dead RV….. It was a Saturday, so they had to wait until Monday to have it towed in for repairs and missed the 14 hr. ferry over to Newfoundland and had to wait until Saturday to get on the ferry. Later, on the road in Newfoundland, another one of our guests had a computer problem of some sort which required them to backtrack in order to get it fixed. Boy, they would have continued to keep Bill busy! But we were happy that they were able to find new tailgunners to come in and take our place, and we really appreciated the fact that they drove MANY miles to get up there (as they are from Arkansas).

Unfortunately I have no pictures of coming home as we were both worried about Bill’s dad, driving fast, over REALLY ROUGH roads. We made it to the border and then some the first night. Crossing the border, we were asked some stupid questions like, did you get into any trouble while in Canada……dah like we would have told him! I forget the name of the town we made it to, but we drove 625 miles miles! We made one mistake. We should have exchanged our money prior to leaving Canada, because now it was Saturday and no banks are open on a Saturday in Nova Scotia.

We made it from Maine to home on the second day, ANOTHER 625 MILES, getting home in the evening and boy did it feel good! The roads were so bumpy (and it didn’t help with the fact that Bill was driving as fast as he could) that somehow my jumpdrive came out of my storage box & our recliner chair “jumped” on it and it is now in pieces…..Not to mention a lot of other things that were thrown around in the 5th wheel.

The one good thing was, we didn’t break down on our way home AND paying $2.75/gallon for diesel felt good after paying $1.01/liter in Canada!

The other good thing is, Bill’s dad is “out of the woods.” He’s still in a lot of pain, but he’s on the road to recovery. He is now complaining about stomach pain and the VA hospital can’t find anything wrong in that area. As I write, they are preparing to ship him back to a nursing home to recover. Let’s hope he doesn’t end up back in the hospital.

Day 26-28 Baddeck, Nova Scotia

2010-07-11T21:37:00.009-04:00

We toured the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. He was a remarkable person. It’s amazing the other things you learn about famous people. When we think of Alexander Graham Bell, we think of the inventor of the telephone. I had no idea he had anything to do with teaching deaf people to speak. He grew up in a family where speech and hearing were very important. Both is father and grandfather were well-known teachers of speech.

Bell’s lifelong commitment to helping the deaf began with his father, Alexander Melville Bell, whose greatest achievement was a new phonetic alphabet which he called “Visible Speech.” When Alexander Graham Bell tried using his father’s invention to teach the deaf to speak, he was an instant success.

Visible Speech was based on Melville Bell’s knowledge of the human organs of speech. He studied the vocal organs when making sounds and assigned to each sound a symbol that represented the corresponding position of the vocal organs, creating the phonetic alphabet.

Below is a photo of Bell with Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan. Bell first met Helen Keller when she was a little girl. She later gave Bell credit for her ability to write and speak.

Fascinated by his father’s work, young Alec Bell explored the mechanics of speech. He and his brothers constructed a “voice automation,” a crude replica of the human speech organs. They also taught a dog to speak. By the application of suitable doses of food material, the dog was taught to sit up on his hind legs and growl continuously while Alec manipulated his mouth, and stop growling when he took his hands away. The dog’s repertoire consisted of the vowels “ah” and “oo,” the dipthong “ow,” and the syllables “ma” and “ga.” They then manufactured words and sentences composed of those elements, and the dog’s final linguistic accomplishment consisted in “ow-ah-oo-gamama,” which they passed off as “How are you, grandma?” The fame of the dog spread among their father’s friends and people came from far and near to witness the performance.

In 1875, Bell’s gifted assistant Thomas Watson, accidentally plucked a transmitter reed on Bell’s apparatus. Bell, in another room, heard a sound. Watson had unexpectedly generated an electric current strong enough to activate Bell’s receiver. Bell quickly modified his apparatus which worked. Watson could hear the muffled sound of Bell’s voice. VOILA The telephone was born.

Alexander taught at a school for the deaf and ultimately married one of his students. They had 2 daughters and 10 grandchildren. Their Nova Scotia home can be seen from the museum.

Once a year on their wedding anniversary, the middle of July, their family (there are approximately 100 members now) comes together to their to home to raise a toast in their honor.

As we were leaving the museum, a beautiful sailboat sailed past the lighthouse. I couldn’t resist grabbing a picture.

Our last day of touring with the group before our departure, was Cabot Trail by bus. We visited the Village of Cheticamp and Celtic Lodge and Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

First stop was the scare crow patch. What an imagination the creator has! Unfortunately we did not get to meet her as her husband was ill and she closed the shop for the season and is searching for a buyer.

Stopping at Saint Pierre’s church,

our guide gave us a great tour and one of our guests demonstrated the acoustics by YODELING for us.

We made an unscheduled stop at an art museum with the most unusual hook rug pieces.

Marguerite Gallant, 1890-1983, was a native of Chéticamp with a profound love of collecting. As Marguerite's reputation for collection spread through the community, people brought objects to her rather than let them be thrown away. Thanks to this incurable collector, many valuable artifacts from Chéticamp's history have been preserved. Check out these photos of her house!

The museum holds the largest collection of pieces by Elizabeth LeFort, born in 1914. She learned to hook rugs at a very young age. Over the years, she made hundreds of tapestries in a large variety of subjects including pastoral scenes, birds, animals and floral motifs. She was so skillful at reproducing photographs that she began to create portraits in wool.
Her portrait of Dwight Eisenhower was presented to him at the White House in 1957.

She’s done Queen Elizabeth II, Pope Pius XII, Jacqueline Kennedy, Prince Charles. Consequently, her art has graced Buckingham Palace, the White House, and Vatican City. Her tapestry of the “Last Supper” is displayed in Vatican City.

She offered to sell her tapestry of the Presidents to the United States Government, but they declined. They obviously didn’t understand what they were turning down, our loss, Canada’s gain.At the height of Elizabeth’s career, she could hook 55 loops each minute, 3,300 loops per hour.

Her largest creation was a rug for a house in Virginia many, many years ago, but Canada’s attempt to locate it has failed.

I never really thought much of hook rugs, but these are extremely beautiful. Every stitch is done with precision.

We ended our day with our final driver’s meeting and bid farewell to our new friends.

The caravan will ferry over to Newfoundland on Monday night. We wish them all well.

Day 25 – Murder in Margaritaland

2010-07-08T15:03:00.003-04:00

Today was a free day which gave us an opportunity to prepare for our Murder Mystery Dinner. How creative our guests were.

It was fun to watch them interact with each other to expand their wealth, collect clues, as well as give clues.

When all of a sudden screams were heard, then crying because a murder was committed. There was Sid, stiff as a board!

Thank goodness we had Sgt. Lord available to keep everyone away from the dead body, and believe me, that was a tough job. They kept trying to come closer as he ordered them to stand back. I thought he was authoritative. He didn’t seem to faze some of them, but she sure scared me!

Our tattoo artist, Sharon, was truly an artist. She did “free hand” tattoos for those who wanted them. I got a flamingo and Marsha got a gecko.

Poor Sharon barely got to eat as her services were required non-stop.

Dick, who btw is an award winning smoker, has smoked several of our meals for us got a great tattoo.

I actually thought she would come away with the most money, but it turned out to be David who sold chances for a piece of artwork! What an ingenious idea!

This was one of our more intelligent groups, or maybe they were just better at sleuthing because we had 4 people guess the murderer correctly! Good thing we had plenty of prizes.

We ended our evening with sad news. Two of the guests were leaving us after tonight. They only joined us for about two weeks (their main objective was to see PEI), they fit right in, and we enjoyed their company.

Bill and I also had sad news for our group. We will also have to leave the caravan on Saturday to return home. Bill’s father is in the hospital, and we need to be there. We always felt sad for those guests who end up leaving a tour early for whatever reason and now we have first-hand experience on that sadness. This has been such a fantastic group and everyone has brought enjoyment in some way to make it a fun trip. I hope everyone has enjoyed our blog which has enabled us to share our wonderful experience.

Ending the day on a good note, there is a great couple who will join the group for the Newfoundland part of the trip to replace us and hopefully the blog will continue so that Bill and I can keep tabs on our new found friends.

Day 23-24 Halifax, Nova Scotia

2010-07-07T12:12:00.003-04:00

Upon arriving in Halifax, our group all voted to see the Royal Nova Scotia International “Tattoo,” featuring over 2,000 world-class Canadian and international military and civilian performers. They have pipes and drums, military and civilian bands, historic reenactments, dancers, acrobats, choirs, military displays and competitions, drama and comedy in a number of innovative acts.

Why is it called Tattoo, you ask? Well, I asked too. In 17th century Dutch villages, drummers marched through the streets summoning British soldiers to return to their quarters from the taverns and inns. A drumbeat signaling innkeepers to “doe den tap toe” or “turn off the taps” was shortened to “tattoo.”

We started our first full day of touring in Halifax with a first class motor coach tour. Our guide showed up in his kilts and was informative as well as entertaining. The terrain in Nova Scotia is very different from Gaspe and Prince Edward Island. The Halifax area is very, very rocky.

We stopped at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery, the burial site for the protestant victims of the Titanic, April 15, 1912. Only 700 out of 2,200 were saved. 328 Titanic victims were recovered. 209 bodies were brought to Halifax, the closest port to the area of the sinking. Most were men, since woman and children were put on the life boats, but there are 4 women buried at Fairview. The graves are lined up outlining the bow of the ship.

One headstone marked the grave of an unknown child whose remains recovered after the disaster, but our guide informed us that just a few years ago, thru DNA, they discovered the child’s name. He was a 2 year old boy from England.

Citadel Hill has served as the site of four different forts since 1749. Each was built during a time of perceived threat. The Citadel we toured was the last to be built and took over 28 years to complete, finished in 1856.

One of our guests we call Marsha “Small” (because our wagonmaster is Marcia “Tall”) cracked me up standing next to this soldier.

During two world wars, the Citadel served as a sentinel on the home front and a symbol for those departing for overseas. In front of the fortress is a beautiful clock/bell tower.

December 6, 1917, a Belgium steamer (Imo) sliced into the French munitions freighter (Mont Blanc) in Halifax Harbour. Mont Blanc blew up and resulted into an explosion that flattened six square kilometers of the city. The blast created earth tremors and a huge wave ripped ships from their moorings, tossing them about like toys. More than 25,000 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged. Casualties were horrific – 2,000 killed and 9,000 injured. Below is a picture of personal objects recovered from bodies of two victims of the explosion.

Somehow the oldest wooden house in Nova Scotia withstood the explosion.

We toured through the section of most beautiful homes in Halifax. The “castle house” is my favorite.

Built by the Olands of Oland Brewery and the sponsor of the Bluenose II. It’s the most expensive house in Halifax, worth $5-6 million.

Then it was on to the beautiful downtown gardens.

We had lunch at Peggy’s Cove, my new favorite place.

Peggy’s Cove is a picturesque village and lighthouse and is among the most photographed places in Canada. I could spend all day in this town just taking photos. It is an absolutely gorgeous setting. But then again, I’m partial to lighthouses.

We stopped at a monumental work of art. Now what would you do with a 30 metre (.01 mile) piece of granite in your backyard? Well in 1977, Artist William deGarthe, age 70, decided to make it a piece of artwork. He chiseled figures sleeping in the rock for over 10 million years. A monument to the hard-working fishermen of his adopted home, Peggy’s Cove.

While driving home, we stopped when we saw this house completely painted with a Muriel of Peggy’s Cove to remind people of the romantic folk tale about how the Cove got its name. The artist, Ivan Frazier, grew up in this house. It was his grandmothers. As it happened, while we were stopped for pictures, he drove up and introduced himself and gave us copies of the 3 books he wrote about Peggy’s Cove. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF THAT HAPPENING! How lucky can we be?

We invited him on the bus to tell us the folk tale. Young Petty was travelling to Halifax to meet her fiancé when the ship she was in foundered on the rocks. She was rescued by local folk, and when visitors went to see her they would say they were going to see “Peggy of the Cove.”

As he finished, he laughed as he told us the neighbor next door, said his grandmother would be rolling over in her grave if she saw this house now. LOL You can visit his website at: http://peggyofthecove.com/

Day 21-22 Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

2010-07-05T14:27:00.008-04:00

Our drive to Lunenburg was a short drive so when we got in, we tore ourselves away from our beautiful view

And drove around town. Along the sidewalk, hanging from the telephone poles were fish sculptures. There are forth of them displayed along 2 of the streets, honoring the top twenty fish and shellfish species landed by the area’s commercial fishery.

There were different kinds of art all over town that we enjoyed;

many muriels painted on the sides of buildings; (this was my favorite, which was on the side of a restaurant)

and really cute houses and buildings. I love the way Canadians take pride in their buildings and the way they paint them. They are so decorative. Check out the green building below, it’s called “Cilantro.”

As we walked around the wharf, we saw that the Bluenose II was at the dock and found that we were able to climb aboard.

We had been told that it was going to be dry docked for renovation, but when we arrived, we found that it was leaving on Monday for the renovation, so we were one of the last people to board. HOW LUCKY WE ARE!

Carrie, this photo is for you! Your parents are having a wonderful time. Don’t they look like honeymooners?

During our tour of the Lunenburg Fisheries Museum, we learned so much about the Bluenose I and II. Bluenose I launched in March 1921. In order to race, it had to be a fishing boat for 1 season, so in April 1921 through September it worked as a fishing schooner. In the fall, it ran its first race and came in 2nd. Below is a photo of the schooner with a #2 on its sail. It very quickly earned a #1.

On its second race, it took first place and continued to be the first place winner for 17 years. During these years, she earned her keep and was high-liner (meaning brought in a good catch) of the Lunenburg fishing fleet on a number of occasions. In 1938 she was named Queen of the North Atlantic fishing fleet.

World War II marked the end of the great fishing schooners. Modern diesel-powered steel trawlers began to replace them. In 1942, the Bluenose I was sold to the West Indian Trading Company, but in 1946, the Bluenose struck a Haitian reef and sank.

The Bluenose II was launched in 1963. It is identical to Bluenose I, built in the same shipyard and by some of the same men. In 1971 it was sold to the government of Nova Scotia for $1 by the Oland family of Halifax. It has the largest working mainsail in the world, measuring 4,150 square feet. Total sail area measures over 11,000 square feet!

Inside the museum, we had a wonderful guide and learned a lot about the fishing industry in Lunenburg. By 1540, each spring the fishermen set out to fish on the offshore banks. The catch was split and stowed in the ship’s hold between layers of salt to preserve it. Months later, when the vessel returned home, the fish was still moist or “green.” This is known as greenfishing.

In the 1870s, a new method of fishing came about. Instead of jigging from the deck with a handline, the men rowed out from the schooner in dories to set trawls (longlines with hundreds of hooks) over a wide area. This greatly increased the catch per man (because the longline had hundreds of hooks whereas the handline only had one or two) and is known as the golden age of the saltbanker. The dory was great for bank fishing because they could be stacked one inside the other on the crowded deck of a schooner. They were 15 feet in length and could carry a large load while away from the mother ship. Check out Marsha and me in our dory.

In the last fifty years, the offshore fishery has changed greatly. Diesel and electric motors have replaced wind and muscle power. Most of the catch is now destined for North American markets rather than the export trade and is sold fresh or frozen, rather than dried. Catching, processing and transportation methods have all been mechanized, resulting in an increased efficiency and expanding markets and increased the economic rewards both for those actually engaged in fishery and for the economy of Atlantic Canada.

In the years after World War I, smuggling liquor was a money making business for many people. “Prohibition,” which outlawed the general use of alcohol, was instituted in both Canada and the United States. Rum running in the early 1920’s quickly expanded to include people of many occupations. Fishermen, with their close proximity to the sea and seldom used coves and inlets of the Atlantic coast, had an integral part in this movement. Check out this radio that was used on land to communicate with a rum runner!

Today we have “hand helds.”

We watched a film “Around Cape Horn” a voyage around Cape Horn on the barque, Peking, in 1929. It was narrated in 1980 by the same person (sailor) who filmed it. The schooner did not have one mechanical engine, switch, etc.! It was all “manpower.” The sails themselves weighed TONS! Many times the camera itself ended up underwater, so I’m not sure how he continued to film the trip, unless he had more than one camera. It showed how the men climbed up and down the sails with not a thought to safety. One of the more interesting things shown was the 13 foot jellyfish! The film was produced by Mystic Harbor. We visited Mystic Harbor in 2008, what a small world!

There was an exhibit of the work of a marine artist, Earl Bailly, who has become synonymous with images of the Nova Scotia coast during the age of schooners and dory fishing. Above his name in the photo, is a photograph of Earl.

What is interesting about him as an artist is the fact that at the age of 3 he contracted polio and became a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the shoulders down. His mother, a teacher, taught him to hold a pencil with his mouth. As a child, he became interested in drawing, progressing to pen, watercolors and eventually oil painting. It’s amazing what you can do if you want it badly enough.

Whales are the largest animals ever to inhabit the earth. They are mammals without hind legs, thought to be distantly related to hoofed animals. The earliest whales existed soon after the Age of Dinosaurs. The life span of a whale varies from 35 years to 100 years, depending on the kind of whale. A Fin Whale measures up to 70 feet and lives for 100 years. Check out the jawbone of a Fin Whale.

On the wharf was a lobster trap so Bill and I decided to see how they feel when they get trapped.

In the aquarium there were many different kinds of fish. We even saw live scallops which were fun to watch. I had never seen a live scallop before.

I could not resist this photo. It’s a face only a mother could love.

We ended our time in Lunenburg with an ice cream social.

I can’t think of a better way to end a day.

Day 17-20 Hilden & Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia

2010-07-02T21:36:00.004-04:00

On our drive to Hilden, Nova Scotia,

we stopped at the Anne Murray Museum. What a fabulous stroll down memory lane. As we walked through, listening to her wonderful songs, we learned about her life. She was born and raised in Springhill, Nova Scotia and still has a cottage there. We heard she was in town and due for a visit, but it didn’t happen while we were there. The woman working there thought Bill was Dennis Franz (NYPD Blues). I’m still not sure she believed us when we said he was not.

The town of Hilden had a lot to offer sight-wise, but we didn’t get to experience it because we opted for the Tidal Bore. Below is a photo “prior” to the tidal bore.

The tidal bore is a natural phenomenon which is seen in very few parts of the world. The Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia is noted for its extremely high tides, the highest in the world, and for its tidal bore.

As the ocean tide comes in, at the very head of the bay, the advancing tide becomes a wave varying from just a ripple to several feet in height, and this wave continues into and up the rivers which empty into the bay. This wave is referred to as the “Tidal Bore.” We saw the river change its direction of flow right before our very eyes, created by the tidal wave, or bore, flowing in over the outgoing river water.

The height of the tidal bore varies with the range of the tide. We hear Aug. 11th is going to be a big one! The range of the tide varies with the phases of the moon, the distance the moon and other factors.

We arrived in plenty of time to gear up for our tidal bore experience. Our guests piled into 2 of the rafts, while Bill and I got another raft occupied by 4 people from Michigan and 2 “locals.” Travis was our captain, and we quickly found out that he is a bit crazy (he destroyed 3 boat engines last year) and enjoyed VERY MUCH drenching his victims. It was hard to remember we were in a raft since most of the time the water seemed higher inside the raft than outside! The tide came in at 4 feet and the river rose 24 feet on our rafting day. Travis was born and raised around the Shubenacadie River and says the tide comes in just over 30 knots. The river only travels about 12 knots going out, so that’s quite a change coming in!

After we had enough of riding the tide (which was quite a bit), we went “mud sliding.” If you have never done it, you are missing out! The wetter you are, the faster you go! The mud is red and anything you are wearing is forever muddy red. We had so much fun! Unfortunately, we didn’t get any pictures of that. Travis gave us an adventure we will never forget.

If you would like to see a video of a rafting trip, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5CUf6DTGkE

I have now seen the 2 main things I wanted to see on this trip; St.Anne Basilica and The Bay of Fundy.

While driving to Annapolis Royal, we saw a few places where the tidal bore comes through.

The St.Croix River

The Avon River

As we topped a hill we had a beautiful view of the Minas Basin.

Gaspereau River

We stopped at the Grand Pre National Historic Park where we found out what really happened to the Acadians.

What a sad story. When we were at their Village in the New Brunswick, I thought when they were deported, they were deported “to” New Brunswick. But in actuality, they were deported “from” all of their settlements here in the “New World” down to the English colonies. Many of them settled in Massachusetts, South Carolina, Louisiana. They tried to stay neutral which didn’t work out for them. The British didn’t trust them and the French wanted them to choose their side. The British and New England troops launched the forced removal of the Acadian people from their homeland. Approximately 10,000 people were removed from Today’s Maritime Provinces. They then burned out of their villages to be sure that they would not return. They deported them back by boats to France. Many of them died at sea. Although the deportation officially ended in 1764, the Acadians searched for a new homeland for another 50 years.

In the 1920s, this Memorial Church was built on what were believed to be the ruins of the Acadian Church of Saint-Charles-des,Mines, established in 1687. It may have been destroyed during the deportation in 1755. The statute of Evangeline, heroine of Longfellow’s poem “Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie” is a powerful emotive symbol of the deportation. It connects the story of Evangeline to the history of Grand-Pre.

This well, once used for watering livestock, was discovered in the late 1800s. Later excavations yielded a variety of iron artifacts. In the early 1900s, the well was promoted as “Evangeline’s Well,” in reference to Longfellow’s fictitious heroine.

When we pulled up to our campground we thought at first it was our “Wagonmaster” greeting us, only to find a “dummy.”

Garrison Graveyard tour by lantern at Ft. Anne.

It is the oldest graveyard in Nova Scotia. The oldest grave was a man who died at age 100 in 1720. Unfortunately it was too dark so you can’t read the inscription.

The second oldest grave was a child who died in 1729.

We were very lucky to have our tour led by Alan M. who is an Acadian descendent.

His ancestor was deported at age 71 with his 2 sons. They were put on a ship bound for S.C. and while in transit, they overthrew the ship. One of the sons came back to Nova Scotia area and hid out until after the war. Alan is a descendant of that son. Once the war was over, they still were not allowed to go to their big farm they once had. Instead, he left the Annapolis Royal area and settled about an hour’s drive away.

When the British had control of Ft. Anne they did not bury their soldiers in the cemetery as they didn’t want the people to know that they were dying off. Instead, they buried them in the mud on the shoreline, one of which surfaced in 1996. Many of the graves in the graveyard are no longer marked. The Acadians buried here are no longer marked as they used wooden headstones.

We spent our last day in Annapolis Royal at the Historic Gardens where we “stopped to smell the roses.”

In the gardens there is a German Bakery and a Garden Café where we enjoyed a delicious lunch, complete with a yummy dessert. German cooks are the best! Heiderose is from East Germany and is a master chef, third generation of bakers. She, her husband and daughter run the bakery and café.

After lunch everyone crowded in to purchase their desserts to eat later, my guess is they’ll be enjoying their purchases at “happy hour.” All I can say is, it took them a long time to figure out what they wanted as there were so many choices. They even had soft pretzels!

Our tour of Fort Anne, built in 1702, proved to be very informative and interesting. The fort itself was a star shaped fort.

We discovered that the design was very well thought out. The fort itself was in a hole so that only the very top of the fort could be seen from the ground, so if they tried to shoot a cannon at it, they could not blast through the walls. The only way would have been to tunnel under the ground, which would have been nearly impossible without getting caught. The star design was also to make it more difficult for the enemy to blast through the walls if they were to be able to shoot at it.

Inside the fort, houses a beautiful tapestry of four panels, depicting over 400 years of history in the Annapolis Royal area. There are 3.2 million stitches by over 100 volunteers.

Even Queen Elizabeth stitched part of the chain of the Queen’s gold necklace.

Next on our list was Port Royal, where they have reconstructed a small French compound. It was home to one of the earliest European settlements on this continent, 1605.

It survived until 1613 when it was destroyed in an attack by Captain Samuel Argall of Virginia.

Day 14-16 Prince Edward Island

2010-06-30T10:15:00.000-04:00

My first view of PEI from the Confederation Bridge was breathtaking. The bridge itself is 9 miles long and an average of 40 meters from the water. It cost $1 billion to build and is the longest bridge over ice covered water in the world. The lights from the bridge can be seen from space, along with the Great Wall of China and Las Vegas.

The island itself has beautiful landscapes and beautiful flowers, lupines.

We began our tour at PEI National Park. Their beaches are different than what we’re used to. They called the sand at this beach “white sand” while on the other side of the island, it is red. But, looked like red sand to me…. I can only assume the sand on the other side, must be “really” red.

While visiting North Rustico, we met 87 year old Emerad (not sure of the spelling of his name), the only Protestant family in this area. Everyone else is Roman Catholic. What a character he is. He loves to get his picture taken and was more than willing to pose for us.

What a ham! He was born in 1923 and lived in his house next to the lighthouse all his life. He talked about people from all over the world coming to take his picture. One lady from Ohio won a blue ribbon for his photo and other couple from Germany showed him an advertisement in their newspaper of his house. He is world famous!

A whale’s jawbone washed up on shore about 80 years ago, so Emerad’s family uses it as the border for their garden. Can you tell it’s a jawbone?

While visiting the harbor, hoping to see a lobster catch come in, we spotted a tow truck for those boats that sometimes need help. We liked his slogan, “No Cash, No Splash.”

Lunch was at the PEI Preserve Company, where we met the owner, Bruce. What a character he is! He’s Scottish and always had a dream of owning his own restaurant. After practically losing his shirt, he came up with a preserve with alcohol incorporated into the recipe, TOTALLY BY ACCIDENT. It seemed while working for someone else, who liked to drink, Bruce decided to help his boss drink the Grand Marnier (he was saving him from getting toooooo intoxicated). When Bruce could drink no more, he had no alternative but to dump the rest of the bottle into the vat of preserves. VOILA! Strawberry preserves with Grand Marnier. Once he had a product, he needed a label. The girl he was dating was a good artist, so she designed him a label. He since married her, they bought and old butter factory, started a restaurant, and that is how the PEI Preserve Company started. Check out the quilts hanging on the ceiling.

In the 19 years he’s been in business, he’s become famous for his preserves all over the world, even selling to Nordstrom’s and Neiman Marcus! My favorite is the Raspberry with champagne jam and Peach Salsa. Bill’s favorite is the strawberry with Grand Marnier jam.

Next, it was off to visit the house that inspired the book “Anne of Green Gables.” Anne’s room is just as the book describes.

The author, Lucy Maud Montgomery, was born in New London, Prince Edward Island, in 1874 and was raised by her maternal grandparents (Alexander and Lucy Macneill) in Cavendish 1976-1911. It was here that she wrote Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Kilmeny of the Orchard and The Story Girl.

I was very surprised to find out is that Anne is fictional. I always thought she was a real person. Montgomery found inspiration in glossy magazines and used a photograph of New York model Evelyn Nesbit as the origin for Anne’s face. It was amazing to find all the things that inspired her to write her book. Her adopted cousin, Ellen Macneill, a Nova Scotia orphan girl, provided the final spark for the inspired story of the redheaded orphan.

Haunted Wood Trail

The Balsam Hollow trail begins as Montgomery’s own Lover’s Lane.

In 1831, the farm Montgomery named “Green Gables” was acquired by David Macneill Sr. When he died in 1891 the farm passed on to his son, David, Jr., who lived there with his sister Margaret. In the early 1890s their niece Ada Macneill and her daughter Myrtle came to live with them. In 1906, Myrtle and her husband Ernest Webb took over the farm.

While driving around we found L.M. Montgomery’s birthplace

As well as her resting place.

We also found the site of her Cavendish home. John Macneill is the great-grandson of Alexander, was born and still lives in his grandfather’s house.

While in North Rustico, we bought our own fresh lobster from the wharf. Our first of many lobster dinners was simply delicious!

On our free day, we visited the town of Summerside.

Throughout the town are beautiful murals.

In the park, located in the center of town, we found a few trees that were shaped into artwork. It shows their creativity for trees that were in need of being chopped down.

The Haunted Mansion looked interesting.

We had a great lobster dinner at the Fisherman’s Wharf, complete with a HUGE salad/dessert buffet. While waiting for our soup and lobster, I began my dinner with dessert! I could not decide which dessert to eat, so I had several. After our dinner, the manager invited us to tour the kitchen. They serve between 450 and 500 lobsters per night!

Check out the 3 ½ pounder.

On our drive back to the campground, we came upon a red fox. Bill stopped so I could get a picture. The fox stopped and watched me for as long as I watched him. See how nice he posed for me?

Our campground hosts were wonderful saving us “adult” time on the “balloon jump.”

Our last day in PEI was rain, rain, rain. So this was a catch up day while waiting for our driver’s meeting and bus to take us into Charlottetown for dinner. Check out the rat Bill found just outside the theater.

Then on to see the Buddy Holly Story.

What a fabulous play. I didn’t realize he was only 21 or 22 when he was killed in a plane crash. He put out 10 top songs in 18 months. Just imagine what would have happened had he not been killed.

Day 11-13 Caraquet, New Brunswick

2010-06-30T09:11:00.000-04:00

What a great night’s sleep we had back in our own RV. Helene at the RV Park where we left our RV was the best hostess! We thought we had closed all our windows when we left, but when the rain came in, she closed them for us. She was so thoughtful. She bid us farewell and off we went to catch up with our group.

Our route took us over some patchy roads and a few steep grades.

As we drove along the River, we saw a few covered bridges. We stopped at the largest.

It was this high… and this wide.

Inside the flooring was very warped. We tried to capture it in a picture, but not sure if you can tell.

As we went thru the town of Saint-Damase, Bill laughed and wanted a picture of the sign. I’m sure he was not pronouncing the word Damase the way they do.

GET IT?

As we drove along Rt. 132, we saw one of our guests drive by. We thought they must be lost because they should not have passed us at this point. We had yet to get back on route. Next thing we knew, another guest drove by. We then thought omg, maybe we missed the turn to the bridge which would take us over to New Brunswick. The log said it was easy to miss… We tried to reach them by radio, but that was a no go. We pulled over at a gas station to figure it out. We were correct in that we had not yet gotten to the turn for the bridge, which meant they missed their turn. They were heading to another bridge farther off route. As we were asking directions to make sure they didn’t have any low bridges to go under on the route they were about to take,(apparently there were a few low bridges on the other side that our log cautioned us on) another one of our guests drove by. We were able to catch them on the radio and waited for them to turn around. We decided that the turn that everyone seemed to be missing for the bridge over to New Brunswick was a good place to stop and have lunch. We caught quite a few of them who were about to miss the turn. The funniest one was when one of our couples was arguing about whether the turn was the correct turn or not and as they went by, they heard a voice over their radio saying very calmly, “You missed your turn.” LOL It was Bill! They went by so fast, Bill didn’t see what number rig it was, so he decided to just let them know they missed the turn. When they heard the voice, they stopped arguing immediately and looked at each other. They thought it was God talking to them!

Once everyone got into the campground at Caraquet, New Brunswick, we celebrated with a BBQ, compliments of one of our guests, who just happens to be a BBQ competitor. How lucky are we?! He did a fabulous job on the pork BBQ and everyone brought sides. If anyone went away hungry from that feast, it was their own fault. Everything was so delicious that they decided to collect recipes and make a booklet.

Our only full day in Caraquet, we visited an Acadian Village. Between 1755 and 1763 an important part of the Acadian population was deported to the English Colonies because they refused to take an unconditional oath of allegiance to the British King.

The Acadians fished in order to make ends meet. Most of the big companies did not pay their
workers in cash. Instead they gave them tokens that could be used only in the company’s stores. The Acadians were at the mercy of these monopolies.

The General Store seemed pretty small from the outside, but they sure had quite an assortment of things to sell inside.

Shore fishing produced clams, mussels, algae, and smelt. Coastal fishing (in vessels for less than 24 hours) produced lobster, scallops, oysters, mackerel, herring, and certain species of groundfish such as cod. Mid-shore fishing (slightly larger vessels out for 3 to 4 days) produced lobster, crab, shrimp, herring and mackerel. Offshore fishing done mainly off the Gulf of St. Lawrence with a base port in Newfoundland or Nova Scotia produced groundfish, shrimp, and scallops.

It took some time for the Acadians to learn that all of these species were edible. For a long time lobster, spring herring, and crab were used only to fertilize gardens! Then it was only the poor who ate them.

Different species of fish required various methods of dressing, but the most widely used were salting, drying, and freezing.

Cod was the most popular fish and could be stored up to one year after salting. Lobster was canned by the pound, half pound, or quarter pound. Fresh fish included salmon and herring was most often salted. Mackerel, haddock, halibut and eel were also caught.

Most of them led a very simple life. We visited a few of the homes.

The nicest home we visited was owned by the magistrate, who had 7 children. Seven children was actually a small family back then. Many of the families had 10 or more.

The blacksmith was busy making square nails.

We watched as he made one nail. We should have timed him. He can’t make too many of those in one day.

The town of course had a one-room school house and a print shop.

It took the printshop a whole week to typeset 4 pages!

I personally liked the old gas station. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve always thought the old gas pumps were so cool looking.

Covered bridges are also one of my favorites. This one had an interesting sign. “$20 fine for driving on the bridge faster than a walk.

But the grandest of all was the hotel, which is currently in business and you can actually stay the night.

Inside, we found a barber shop, sitting room, and restaurant.

Day 13, on our way to Prince Edward Island started out on the same foot as day 5 when we had several breakdowns…. We didn’t get 20 miles away from our departure campground when we found one of our guests on the side of the road with a broken diesel fuel pump. THAT’S NOT GOOD. I do have to say that the Canadians are so friendly and helpful. Every one of our break downs found Canadians stopping to see if they could help. Even if we pulled over to the side of the road for lunch, we would find people stopping to see if we needed help.

Luckily our guest who broke down had “Good Sam” road service. They were great. The tow truck was there fairly quickly and towed them to a place who fixed it and they met up with us that evening.

Day 8-10 Cap-aux-Os & Perce

2010-06-26T07:07:00.001-04:00

We saw our first bit of rain on day 8 of this trip. We visited Forillon National Park.

Before the Government made it a park, it was a community of fisherman, mostly cod fish. The coast of Gaspe is where the finest cod in all America is cured. It is well-known on the markets of Spain and Italy where it is the preferred fish. They would fish hundreds of pounds per day that needed to be dried to be preserved. It was known as the “Gaspe Cure,” dried code from the Gaspe was famous for its pale, translucent appearance and its virtual imperishability. They used a quality curing process inherited from the 16th century which thrived throughout the 19th century.

The area is now a national forest where they have a General Store set up from the late 1800, early 1900 era. The clerk was trying to get Bill to open up an account.

We also visited a house and barn. In the barn, we found graffiti dating back to late 1800. Bill found graffiti from PS Horton who arrived on Bill’s birthday, May 24, only it was 1907.

We got back to the park in time to spend the evening celebrating one of our guest’s 40th wedding anniversary. We hope on our 40th we will be on a wonderful trip like this.

The next day was the most beautiful drive so far around the Gaspe Peninsula.

Once at our RV park, the view was breathtaking. We had a beautiful view of Bonaventure Island and “The Rock.”

We had a hot dog roast overlooking “Land’s End”, what a beautiful sunset that was. The rock seems to change colors “kinda-sorta” like it does in Bryce Canyon.

Our boat ride over to the island gave us a close look at this unique rock,

as well as the other side of the island, where we found the colony of gannets, the largest colony in North America and the second largest in the world.

The birds were everywhere, swimming, flying and nesting on the rocks. When they dive into the water from the air, they hit the water at over 100 miles per hour, or was that kilometers? Hmmmm…..

We even saw some puffins amongst them.

Once we unloaded onto the island, we hiked across the island, which was 5.6 km roundtrip, to get a closer glimpse of the gannets. It was worth the uphill hike! Wow, what a sight! There were thousands! They were so fun to watch.

We didn’t spend as long as we would have liked because we had to hurry back to our car to get back on the road again to backtrack to get our truck and trailer that we left in Metis-sur-mer. We saw “Mutual fencing, mutual preening, territorial defense, sky pointing, and regurgitation.”

Our truck was fixed today. It had another bad fuel injector. This was a different fuel injector from the one that went bad last year, and there are 8 fuel injectors! 6 more to go….Thank goodness for the extended warranty!!.

Day 5-7 Metis-sur-Mer, Gaspe

2010-06-25T07:37:00.001-04:00

Our next driving day was unfortunately not uneventful. 60 miles into the trip one of our guest’s truck brakes locked up. Luckily we weren’t too far away, so we unhooked our truck to go back and pull their trailer to an RV park while they waited a day for their truck to get fixed. Meanwhile, another guest who was 70 miles ahead of us had all their cabinets over the driver and passenger seats of their motor home fall down, leaving it undriveable.

Luckily Bill is handy and fixed the problem and they were on their way. As if that wasn’t enough, the guest we just helped was just feet from the entrance of the park and ended up putting their rig in a ditch

just as we discovered that our truck is blowing out black smoke AGAIN so I guess a sensor is going bad.……So our 230 mile day turned into 13 hours in the truck for us.

We found a Ford Dealership 25 miles away and were told they will look at it on Monday or Tuesday. Hmmmmm this is Friday…..

We spent the day at Reford Gardens. Luckily we found out before we left that the bugs were biting terribly there, so we were prepared. At the entrance is a huge lawn chair, so of course we had to get our pictures.

They had a small museum with replicas. Bill was about to use the restroom

NO, NO, Bill, that’s just for show!!!!

What a beautiful garden.

Bill and I both were practicing with our new cameras. Unfortunately, we have a lot more practicing to do.

Since our truck was not fixed, we had to leave with our rental car. Don’t think it’s going to pull like our truck….

We found the most unique looking homes.

On our way to Cap-aux-Os, Gaspe, many of us stopped at the Nordais Wind Park “Eole”.

Our guide, Rene spoke very good English and was very excited to explain to us how windmills work. In the center of the park is the tallest vertical-axis wind generator in the WORLD!

That generator costs $37 million to build. As we went inside this generator, we were shown all the mechanics of what makes it run.

There was also a small windmill on display. This windmill at the cost of $75,000-$100,000 can power 3 houses.

The smaller windmills, the ones we are most familiar with, cost $200,000 per blade. They use 3 blades per windmill with each blade weighing 9 tons. Those are the blades you might see a tractor trailer hauling down the highway. I didn’t realize they had brakes! Below is a picture of the windmill with its brakes on.

One of the good things about us not having our trailer were some of the steep grades. They are not quite like out west because they are much shorter, but they are just as steep.

Since we were in a car instead of pulling our RV, we were able to visit a beautiful lighthouse

What a view!

Gaspe & Canadian Atlantic Maritime Provinces

2010-06-24T15:55:00.005-04:00

Day 1-4 Hermon, ME-Quebec

Our Adventure Caravan Gaspe & Canadian Atlantic Maritime Province 56 day trip is officially under way. We arrived 2 days early so that we could begin our preparations for the trip. We have 16 rigs on this trip which is considered a small group.

We started in Hermon, Maine, at the Pumpkin Patch RV Park. The park staff was very accommodating and we could not have asked for nicer people. The park itself was beautifully surrounded by woods, which made for a great lightening bug show at night. We started our trip off with orientation and staff prepared lasagna dinner. We have an interesting group, with quite a few into engineering and aviation.

We enjoyed our first weekend with beautiful weather, but as we drove to Ste-Foy, Quebec, Canada, the weather turned to rain, but that’s okay as long as it’s raining just while we are driving.

As we approached the Canadian border, we saw one of our guests detained for inspection of their motor home. As we were resigned to pulling over to wait for them, we were informed by the border patrol that we needed to pull over for an inspection. I think maybe the question, do you own any firearms did us in even though we did not have any with us. As we waited outside our RV, I had visions of going back in and finding the whole inside in disarray. It’s a very weird feeling to go through inspection. As they open every nook and cranny, you feel like you’ve been violated. But when they emerged out of our RV, with a smile on their face, they said we were free to go and one of them commented he inspected our vehicle with envy. He commended on how much room we have inside, yes they made us open up the slides! I do have to say that they were very nice and left everything exactly as it was.

Our first day of touring Quebec was a motor coach ride through new and old Quebec City. We came across a building that was being renovated in a very unique way. While they renovated the outside, a drape was put into place to cover up the workers and make it looked like the building was intact.

Even the horse watering holes were unique.

I found it very interesting that a canon ball would be embedded at the base of a tree.

We stopped along the river near the fort and then headed into old Quebec

for a historical tour of Chateau Frontanac, followed by lunch on our own in the city.

The hotel was built by Emily Post’s father. It was in this hotel that she wrote her book of etiquette. You can see the hotel off in the distance.

We were split up into three groups, one led by the chamber maid, one led by a bellhop, and I’m not sure who she was, but she was in a beautiful long dress, carrying an umbrella and walked in singing. We went with the chamber maid who shared a lot of old stories about the hotel and secrets.

I found it very interesting that it was in that hotel where strategy was planned for “D-Day.” It seems that one of the employees who cleaned up after the meeting found a pad of notes regarding their strategy. When the officer came back to the room to get his notes that he forgot, he discovered that there were already found and the employee was asked to keep them a secret until it happened. Believe it or not, he did keep that secret and only talked about it after D-Day.

There were many old photographs of famous people who visited the hotel over the years. I found the photo of Princess Grace dancing with “Tom Cruise” fascinating.

BUT WAIT, Tom Cruise and Princess Grace. Impossible! It turned out that it was not Tom Cruise at all, but a royal dignitary from the middle of the 20^th century, probably before Tom was born!

At the end of the tour, we walked down the “magical steps.” They are said to be magical because if you make a wish and don’t reveal the wish, it will come true and only then can you tell of your wish. Years ago a couple was married in the hotel and they each made their own wish. In 1993, they returned to the hotel for their 60^th wedding anniversary and revealed their wish. Their wish was that they would live happily together for the rest of their lives and one day they would return to the hotel.

What a beautiful city Old Quebec is. As we wondered around, we found a Muriel showing all the prominent people of Quebec.

Our last day in Quebec, we started out at the Montmorency Falls.

Wow, what a hike! Just walking up the stairs, which weren’t much, to the bridge let me know just how out of shape I was. Luckily, after viewing the falls from the top, we walked the 430 steps, but at least that was down. Up would have been a challenge.

In the gift shop, there were photos of the falls in the winter. People actually use metal poles to walk up the falls.

I can’t even imagine being up here in the winter. Near the main waterfall is a smaller “bridal veil” fall.

Next to the Isle of Orleans for lunch. What unique houses they have. Many of the houses were built in the 1700s and are not allowed to be changed. They also have a building moratorium on building, so the older homes are bought and renovated as much as they are allowed. The minimum cost for a very small house on the Isle is $250,000. For waterfront, add another $100,000. Here’s a cute little Gingerbread type house.

We stopped at the Chocolate factory for lunch, No, we didn’t eat chocolate for lunch. There was a deli, but we did get some soft ice cream dipped in chocolate for dessert. Oh my gosh! It was the best! The chocolate dip was so thick, not like in the U.S.

We toured Albert Giles Copper Works. The creator died 30 years ago and the art is still carried on by his wife and children. One of his daughters gave us a tour and explained the process to us. What beautiful things they had on display and for sale. Can you guess what the yellow background is made of in the picture of the monkey?

Believe it or not, it’s eggshells!

As we drove around Cot-de-Beaupre we came across a few vaulted cellars, which are rare because it required hiring a specialized stone worker. In order for the structure to last, the stones had to be shaped and fitted to form keystone arches. The walls are very thick, the front wall usually being almost three feet thick. The vault was usually covered with soil and sometimes had a second roof.

We made a quick stop at the sugar shop-Chateau Beaupre for a taste of honey butter on fresh bread. The bread is made in the same brick ovens from the 1600s and 1700s. There were also a lot of root cellars and houses from that era.

Our last stop for the day was the Sainte-Anne Beaupre Basillica. My Patron Saint.

What a beautiful church.

Downstairs we found a room of candles. There were so many lit that you immediately felt the heat as you walked into the room. It felt like a huge fireplace burning.

Before I left, I bought myself a medal and had it blessed. I think the priest was more interested in learning about our group than blessing my medal. LOL

We finished off our day with the movie “Anne of Green Gables” and popcorn. The movie didn’t end until 11 p.m. It must have been good because most people stayed for the ending.

Back on the Road Again

2010-06-10T20:30:00.009-04:00

Bill and I are now headed to Maine for our first Adventure Caravan trip this year. We dropped off our friend at the airport Tuesday morning and decided to begin our trip in the afternoon instead of Wednesday morning.

As we headed toward the Bay Bridge, we met up with Daughter Alicia and Grandson Shane for our final farewell. Our trip was pretty uneventful reaching cities before or after rush hour. We made it to our first destination in Connecticut at 9 p.m. but in the future we will take the route we took in 2008. (On this trip, we took the G Washington Bridge into New York, but it wasn’t far enough away from the city for our liking, not to mention the tolls were higher and the road was in desperate need of repair.)

We started our first morning with a fascinating tour of the Creed Monarch facility.

This is the company that designed and built the D-Brake that we installed on our truck last year for our trip out West. We went thru several systems, and for those of you who kept up with our travels last year, you will remember that we worked out most of the bugs for them. We just replaced the system prior to this trip and feel that it will work 100%. For anyone interested in purchasing a braking system for their truck, we highly recommend the D-Brake. We could not have asked for a more customer oriented company than Creed Monarch.

Richard’s dad started the company in 1953 so we were lucky to have Richard give us our tour. It’s so interesting how companies start up, evolve and grow. We quickly learned that Creed does more than D-Brakes. It’s basically a tool and die shop. They make parts for all kinds of things, guns, pipelines, cars, etc. Richard explained to us how the company evolved and how the machinery and robots are a big part of the company, but the most important part of the company are the people. I like his philosophy, and I’m sure he is appreciated by his employees.

Richard than passed us over to John, who is the inventor and the person we’ve been working with on the D-Brake system. John showed us his trial and errors on the D-Brake system and demonstrated how they simulate and test the equipment in the shop. John was happy to work with us in getting the system to run correctly on our truck, and we are happy he did! He also showed us his “Professional Tow Brake,” which they are selling to Blue Ox for tow cars, known as the Patriot.

John took us to a great Italian Restaurant “Paradise” where he introduced us to a little taste of growing up in the town of New Britain, Connecticut, home of the universal meat grinder and toaster. Speaking of grinder, that is what they call their “Hoagies” or “Subs.” I just had to try their special of the day, Chicken Ranchero Grinder, which was very good. John has also promised to send me his mother’s recipe for Canadian meat pie. When we get back home, I just might try it and feature it on our blog.

We met up with our friends Bobby and Marcia in Freeport, Maine, at the outlet shopping area. Bobby gave us directions off a different exit than the one he took, which got us into some construction and the need to turn around. What a mess. Then as we headed back in the right direction, our trailer started to make a squealing noise. HERE WE GO AGAIN! As we got closer to our meeting place, the noise got louder and louder. We thought for sure it was the D-Brake again. We called John to give him the bad news, and Bill was back under the truck taking it apart. That did not seem to be the problem, so checking out the rest of the truck, Bill and Bobby concluded it was a bad rotor in one of the wheels. JUST WHAT WE NEEDED! Another trip to the Ford Dealership…. Well, at least we got our extended warranty extended again. As Bill was putting things back together, he took another look at the wheel causing all the noise. We weren’t even sure we would be able to drive it the 5 miles to the dealership. GUESS WHAT HE FOUND. A tiny, little stone stuck between the brake rotor and a sheet metal protection thing. Once he removed the stone, NO MORE NOISE. Boy, the dealership would have had fun with us on that one! We immediately called John so he could also have a good laugh. (he needed one) We concluded it was all Bobby’s fault because if he didn’t give us incorrect directions, we would not have been in the construction zone and picked up that stone.

Solving our truck problem, we had a great night’s sleep and headed the next morning to Hermon, Maine, to shop for our trip and prepare for our guests.

Baby Megan

2010-06-06T11:12:00.000-04:00

Dawn’s was right! Her baby came early. Definitely much earlier than expected. Born on June 3, just 27 days early.

And here she is, drum roll.......

And proud parents, Dawn and Scot

Corey's Wedding

2010-06-05T20:14:00.016-04:00

Memorial Day weekend, we were off to Lorraine, Ohio, near Cleveland, to attend our niece’s wedding. Our drive proved to be an adventure. We didn’t get far (Hagerstown, MD) before we had to take a break so Jenn could feed Baby Olivia. Bill, Billy and I decided to wander over to the pawn shop and found some treasures. Billy got a good deal on a pink ipod, WITH A LOT OF GOOD MUSIC ALREADY LOADED. Since it was pink, he bought it for Olivia. I found a pocketsize camera with a viewfinder (that they don’t make anymore) as well as the LCD screen. Sony Cyber-shot 13.6 mp. I’m very happy with it, but I’m still learning how to use my Panasonic Lumix as well as this one so many of my pictures didn’t turn out very well……

Back on the road again, then it happened, A TIRE BLOWOUT! Luckily the spare got us to our destination. Baby Olivia was extremely good for such a long car ride (approximately 10 hours).

We were able to get together with family for lunch prior to the wedding.

Wow, 4 generations of Hamiltons. Pictured below, Daddy Billy, Olivia, Grandpa Bill, and Great Grandpa Robert.

What a beautiful, sunny weekend. The venue was a beautiful setting on Lake Erie. Corey made her entrance like a princess.

She was beautiful and if she was nervous, she sure didn’t show it. She never stopped smiling.

The reception was held in a building right there in the park, overlooking Lake Erie. The decorations were unique and very tastefully done.

The cake not only looked beautiful, it was delicious, caramel apple and lemon flavored.

One little guy seemed to be the life of the party.

The DJ did a great job getting everyone movin’ and a shakin’ (which accounts for most of my photos turning out fuzzy) on the dance floor.

That is until the sunset.

Great Day With Old Friends

2010-05-20T18:59:00.003-04:00

After days and days of rainy weather, the skies cleared and made for a beautiful day for us to visit with high school friends. Sarah came over from Oxford, Maryland. Poor thing had to deal with the Bay Bridge traffic causing her to run late so we didn’t get to visit as long as we would have liked.

We started out by picking up Dianne, who lives close to me, and driving down to Solomon’s Island to visit with her twin sister, Elaine – known as “Tippy” to us. Tippy has also retired from her job and is now babysitting her first and only granddaughter and loving life.

We visited with their mom for a while, then headed over to the “Island.”

I always wondered why they called it Solomon’s Island because I didn’t think it was an actual island. I thought it was a peninsula. Tippy pointed out that it really is an island. As you are leaving the island and passing J.C. Lore & Sons Oyster House, you go over a bridge that you don’t realize you are really crossing a body of water. Coincidentally, my dad in his geneology research found that we are related to the Lore’s. Small World…

We had a wonderful lunch at the Captain’s Table, which was really lunch/dinner since we didn’t get down there until really late.

Sorry family, tonight there will be no dinner…..

Niece's Baby Shower

2010-05-17T07:26:00.000-04:00

My niece, Dawn, is expecting her first baby June 30th. Hope the baby is not late as she is registered for a class July 6th.

What a great time we had. They had lots of games to play and I think the cutest one was trying to guess (with a piece of ribbon) how big Dawn was. I “almost” won…..

She received so many nice gifts.

My favorites were the flip flops the beautiful blanket that someone made for her.

And we could not leave Daddy Scott out. Isn’t he cute?

It’s so nice when family can get together.

Mother's Day

2010-05-09T17:22:00.000-04:00

My first Mother’s Day with my two grandchildren. What a wonderful thing. Baby Olivia is growing by leaps and bounds.

And so is my grandson, Shane, who will be turning 11 at the end of the month.

We started the day at the Oxford Fire Dept. for our free mother’s day breakfast feast. Well, free for us mothers, the dads had to pay. HAHA. Mom, dad, Bill and I met our friends Sarah and Pat for breakfast. We received a great welcome, wonder if that’s because their son is, or was, the fire chef. Hmmmmmmm.

I made brunch out of it. They had so much food and I have to say the volunteers are great cooks and they did a wonderful job replenishing everything; pancakes, French toast, eggs, fried potatoes, grits (yuck), bacon, sausage, chipped beef and gravy, biscuits. I’m getting hungry again just listing all the food. Oh, yeah, they had healthy food too, like fruit.

Doesn’t that look delicious? Well, it was.

Dinner at daughter, Alicia’s. It’s so nice not to have to cook for an entire day. My son, Robby, even joined us.

He knows how good a cook Alicia is, but WAIT A MINUTE. It’s “Mother’s Day.” So why isn’t Chris, Bill and Robby doing the cooking?

Reminiscing…Back to the 1960s

2010-05-04T20:00:00.003-04:00

What a great day to reminisce. My childhood friend, Sarah, and I took the day to visit the neighborhood we grew up, Bladensburg, MD. Or as we knew it, South Cheverly Forest. WOW! How small the houses are. They were so big when we were young.

We started up the street when I lived

Stopping so I could get a picture of my house.

As I’m snapping pictures, some blond haired lady comes out yelling and asking what were we doing taking pictures. It was Carolyn who lived 2 doors down from me.

SHE STILL LIVES THERE! Thank goodness we knew her or I think we might have been in trouble. She looked fierce LOL. She calmed down once we told her who we were and of course she remembered us. I didn’t have the nerve to ask her if she remembered how we used to taunt her so…..

Since no one lives in our house (we think it recently went to auction) we walked on up and around the back. The cement my dad poured to level our little swimming pool was still there!

Since there were no curtains on the kitchen window, we could peek in. They changed the old metal cabinets out for wood, the stove was missing and there were 2 refrigerators. Don’t know if they were changing the out or if they just needed 2 fridges. Carolyn said the inside looks like it did when we lived there. I don’t remember a tree planted in this location, but if it was, it certainly wasn’t that big.

As we walked up to see Murray’s old house,

I was reminiscing about our kickball games that we used to play in the street. Home plate was the utility plate in the middle of the street, first base was the curb crack next to the telephone pole, second base was the patch/hole in the middle of the street and third base was the curb crack opposite first base.

And the woods that we used to play in. Doubt that the kids play in the woods these days.

We walked by Hobar’s house Miller’s House

Breen’s house. It’s amazing that 10 kids and a mother-in-law lived in this house.

And last but not least on the houses, was Sarah’s house.

Looks like the owners are taking good care of her house. Some of the houses were well taken care of, while others needed a lot of work. We found this landscaping quite interesting.

We drove down the “third” street, but we weren’t sure which house belonged to the Goulets, Angers, Seeleys.

On our way over to area where the old Jr. High was, we passed by our favorite sleigh riding hill, known as “the three hills.”

Yep, we slid down the hill and right into the street. IF we had a lot of people and someone who had to share a sled, we would have a “lookout” for cars. Otherwise (which was most of the time) we just took our chances. It’s hard to believe that no one ever got hit by a car.

The Jr. High is now the Bladensburg Elementary School

As we rounded the corner, they were working on the “Christofane” house. Not sure if I spelled that correctly, but when we were growing up, a Mrs. Christofane used to live there and would let us pet her horses.

It is more commonly known as the Bostwick House, built in 1746 by Christopher Lowendes, a Merchant Shipbuilder, first postmaster, and prominent citizen of Bladensburg.

As we sat at the corner of 57th Avenue and Rt. 450 on our way to the High School, we noticed that our favorite building was torn down.

We called it the “WPGC” building because that’s where they used to broadcast from. It was our stopping point in the winter so that we could warm up on our way to school. (Back then we had to walk to school, don’t think kids do that anymore).

Seeing the new building they call Bladensburg Sr. High School was a depressing experience. They tore down our beautiful school and replaced it with something that looks like a jail.

We didn’t get to see everything we set out to see, so we’ll have to take another trip. Stay tuned for Reminiscing Part II.

Tea Party April 15, 2010

2010-04-20T23:00:00.001-04:00

We Americans have had enough! We’re tired of Government taking control of our lives. First it was the banking industry, then the automotive industry, and now the health care industry. WHEN ARE THE GOING TO STOP?

Well over 1,000 of us came together on the Eastern Shore of Maryland to protest, one of many across the country.

We were greeted by Congressmen, Sheriffs, Candidates, as well as Ellen Saurbrey, who unsuccessfully ran for Governor a few years ago,

and Kendall, Bob Ehrlich’s wife.

I loved the creativity.

Check out the the teabags.

There were many great speeches about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Happy Birthday To My Dad

2010-04-19T08:18:00.001-04:00

Wow, what do you buy for someone turning 81? He doesn’t ask for anything, he doesn’t need anything. If he wants something, he goes out and buys it……

This year, I decided to spoil him with some of his favorite things from the Amish Market: Sticky Buns, Coconut/Walnut Cake, Apple Dumpling, Chewy Praline Fudge, and Cheddar Horseradish Cheese Spread.

Then he tells he that he just started a, diet….. Well, eat up dad, dieting is for next week.

Olivia's Day

2010-04-16T20:57:00.006-04:00

April 11th was a beautiful day for a beautiful little girl, my granddaughter. Olivia was baptized during their Sunday sermon.

The fact that she was the only baby to be baptized made it even more special. After the sprinkling of the water, which she didn’t seem to mind one bit,

Grandpop Scott carried her down the aisle to introduce her to the congregation. How proud he was!

I think she liked all the attention because after the baptism portion of the ceremony, she had a hard time settling down. Was the christening dress bothering her (can’t imagine with all those scratchy layers) or did she still want to be the center of attention?

Following the service, we had a great luncheon at Jenn’s parents house where Olivia was passed around from person to person. She was in her glory.

She received many wonderful keepsake gifts.

And told us how she felt about them.

She cooperated for everyone to take pictures by smiling all day. Alicia has nicknamed her Sunshine.

Maybe we’ll just call her Sunny.

Easter

2010-04-13T12:16:00.025-04:00

We had a special Easter this year at my mom’s. Almost everyone was there, with the addition of my cousin, Kevin, and his family. Mom put out her usual spread of food which you fill up on before dinner….

Olivia arrived in her Easter dress, ready to celebrate.

Her aunts and cousins were all over her since this was their first meeting. She loved every minute of it.

While the women fussed over the baby, the guys fussed over the “IPAD” that Chris brought. For anyone who doesn’t know what an Ipad is, it’s the newest gadget that Apple just unveiled.

Mom, Billy, Olivia, and I took this opportunity to have our photo together showing 4 generations.

Wait, who’s this big guy?

After dinner, we started the kids off with a traditional easter egg hunt. I think there were approximately 110 hidden eggs, all over the place. Front and back yard, as well as in and around the cars.

We also did an egg race

And a 3 legged race. I think Griffin decided if he was going to win the race, Shane needed a little help. I’m not sure if that’s a legal move.

My athletic son, Billy, coordinated some football. What would a gathering be without football.

While some just chilled out.

There’s nothing more serene than a sleeping baby.

I popped in on Jenn as she was getting Olivia ready for bed and found out why she loves her bath so much. She gets to see herself in the mirror.

I wonder if she knows it's her or if she thinks it’s another baby.

The next morning I heard Billy get ready to leave for work, so I ran outside to get a picture.

It’s so nice to spend holidays with family.

Spring time in Annapolis, MD

2010-04-07T14:34:00.002-04:00

I don't know if you have ever been on Harry Truman Drive on any holiday, but if you have, you have seen the Dept. of Agriculture "cows." I missed St. Patty's Day, but here they are in their Easter Bonnets.

Go Billy!

2010-04-01T16:48:00.000-04:00

My son the hockey player.

Yes that is correct, he is now an adult but he has never grown up. LOL

There he is, check that stance.

For this game he was #88 and did an awesome job.

His team won the tournament 5 to 3 without even going into overtime. Apparently every time they’ve played this team, they went into overtime.

Oh did I mention that the team was put together by someone who owns a local beer brewery? Could it be that they had to many samplers prior to the game?

Way to go team!

And here is my son with the trophy. I understand they tried to drink beer from the cup, but it leaked all over. Trophies are not made to be “used.”

Philly Has Great Food

2010-03-25T14:02:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday Allen and Gabriela

First day of spring was spent with my cousins in Philadelphia. Kevin and Janet’s son, Allen, turned 13 and daughter, Gabriela, turned 10. It just happened to be the prettiest weekend of 2010 so far. Just as we had an unusual amount of snow this past winter, our first day of spring, was unusually warm. El Nino is wreaking havoc this year. We have already set a lot of firsts in the mid eastern region this year and it’s only the third month!

We spent Friday evening watching Gabby play indoor soccer and the best part is THEY WON! On to the next playoff game. Then it was home to eat pizza and some leisure time to catch up. The pizza was within walking distance and was the BEST!

The next morning Kevin cooked us a great breakfast, Belgium waffles and scrapple.

Then it was out the door to run to the local specialty stores to pick up the food for the birthday party. First stop was to get the rye bread and Kevin just knew that Bill and I wanted to pick up some steak meat to take back home so we can make our own Philly Cheese steaks. So the first stop was Robert Lachowicz Quality Foods where we waited in line for our fresh cut meat. Lachowicz makes their own Kielbasa and people from all around (as far as Scranton, PA) put their orders in for their Easter dinner, that is if you are a Polish Catholic. If you don’t order it, you don’t get it……..

Next stop was Cacia’s Bakery. Can’t have meatball subs without their rolls. Their pizza looked so inviting, but we’re not much on pizza for breakfast. BUT we did pick, up Stromboli for later.

Then we headed to South Philly for authentic Philly hoagies. The two original Philly Cheesesteak restaurants are in South Philly, located practically across the street from one another. Pat’s and Gino’s.

There’s a great muriel located between the two restaurants. It depicts some of the famous stars who are from Philly.

Making our way back north to another bakery that specializes in cakes to get the best pound cake ever, we passed the trolley. These trollies were just put back into service about 4 or 5 years ago and are refurbished from the 1940s. What memories that brought back. When I was a kid, my brother and I used to jump on the trolley from my grandmother’s house and ride it all the way to the end and back. Little did we realize we were sent to ride the trolley to get us out of their hair.

We arrived back home just in time to start getting the food ready before everyone started arriving. Mom, dad, Linda, and Sarah were the first to arrive, followed by Dolores, Tom, and Savannah, Aunt Shirley, my cousin, Vicki, Bob, Lauren, and Bryan.

It’s hard to believe Kevin and Vicki are brother and sister. As you can see, Kevin got all the tall genes.

After cake and presents, it was outside for a nerf dart shootout. I don’t know who won, but I know that when I came outside, I was hit in the shoulder by Savannah!

What a great weekend. Nothing better than Philly cheesesteak, pizza, kielbasa, Stromboli, poundcake and fresh rolls. Hmmmm my mouth is watering again.

A Day In The Sun

2010-03-21T22:31:00.002-04:00

Finally after 4 horrendous snow storms and rainy weather, the sun appeared on St. Patty’s Day. Two high school friends and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and my daughter’s beach to get together and enjoy each other’s company. Sarah and I grew up together and have kept in touch after h.s. graduation. We have been communicating with Colleen on facebook (as well as Mike a/k/a Pop who could not make it) and finally got the time to get together after 39 years!

After we got our Starbucks fix, CHEERS!

we found ourselves looking for beach treasures, seaglass, etc.

Before just chilling out in our beach chairs and “catching up” on what we’ve been doing with our lives. Colleen has been retired for 8 years (lucky her), I’ve only been retired 4 years and Sarah has worked on and off over the years. Sarah will never be able to retire as long as she has her softshell crab business going, which keeps her busy during the summer months.

Then it was inside to go over our yearbook and reunion group pictures.

What a great day to do absolutely NOTHING.

SNOW, SNOW, AND MORE SNOW

2010-02-12T19:49:00.000-05:00

This year started out with an early snow and it just keeps on coming. Washington, D.C. has never seen this much snow since they’ve been recording the snowfall in the 1800s. So far this year, we have had 79.5 inches of snowfall.. One week ago, we got hit with 27 inches.

The kids packed the snow on the steps and made their own sleigh riding hill.

Then it was on to building an igloo and finally relaxing in the hot tub.

While poor little Dylan had to figure out how to do his business.

After shoveling ourselves out,

we made our way to Annapolis to shovel out our daughter since she was out of town during all the “fun.”

This is what Rt. 50 looked like 2 days after the snow stopped falling. Notice we had to drive on the shoulder.

Luckily we found 2 teenagers to help us shovel our way into Alicia & Chris’ house. It took 5 of us 1 ½ hours. Soaking in the hot tub that night was a MUST.

After shoveling ourselves out, on Tuesday it began to snow again, so we watched it from the hot tub. It snowed, and snowed and snowed. Finally finishing about 10:30 on Wed. night, accumulating another 19 inches!

Cabin fever was starting to set in so I went down the street to visit neighbors. Neighbor Larry was busy shoveling out his driveway for the umpteenth time. Notice all the snow in the cul-de-sac behind him.

Grandson, Shane, went sleigh riding with the neighborhood kids.

While walking back home I saw beautiful patterns in the snow. It’s hard to believe it could cause such turmoil.

Everyone celebrated the ending of our blizzard with a beer at the local pub.

We are awaiting another snowfall on Monday (but it’s supposed to be light). OOPS! I just checked the weather and we are expecting a few snow showers tonight, tomorrow morning, Monday and Tuesday…….

Going Home

2010-01-14T10:24:00.000-05:00

Mommy and daddy were able to catch a few catnaps at the hospital. They were mistakenly under the impression that they would be able to sleep better once at home. Why is it that babies sleep better in the hospital than at home?

Baby Olivia is Jenn’s parent’s first grandbaby.

How many hands does it take to get a baby dressed?

FINALLY ready to leave the hospital.

Waiting patiently for the paperwork to be completed.

Olivia Lynn

2010-01-09T22:11:00.002-05:00

SHE'S HERE, SHE'S HERE! Finally after 9 long months, or should I say "almost" 9 long months. She actually came 9 days early. Pretty amazing for a first baby. And here she is....drum roll.....

Poor papa Billy was totally exhausted by the end of the day. You would have thought he delivered the baby.

While Mama Jenn smiled the whole day and never seemed tired, although we know she was exhausted.

Then there was Auntie Alicia who had a great time shopping for the baby princess and had a hard time leaving the hospital.

What a great day! Hopefully Jenn and Billy will be able to catch some sleep tonight and be ready for whatever tomorrow brings.

Year 2010

2010-01-07T20:40:00.001-05:00

Not sure about the start of 2010. The only word to describe it is abnormally cold. This is the view from our beach house looking up the canal. Too bad I didn't bring my ice skates.

My last week at my daughter, Alicia's, continued to be frigid. The morning I took this photo it was so cold that the Bay in front of her house was frozen all the way over to the island, but I could not refuse running outside to take this picture of such a gorgeous sunrise.

Next week, I'll be over at my son, Billy's, house helping with their newborn baby.

Christmas - Better Late Than Never....

2010-01-07T09:05:00.003-05:00

Every Year, Chris’ aunt has all the kids over to make Christmas decorations. What a brave soul she is! This year there were 10 little ones!

They decorated Santa Claus goodie bags, pinecones, Christmas Trees ……

Even dad got into the act.

They sure had fun and what a mess they made. The decorations that didn’t get put on their ornament, were found all over the table and floor.

Since Alicia was not real mobile, she sat and played with baby Jacob, Chris’ nephew who lives in Florida.

And finally Christmas Day which we celebrated at Alicia’s. It was calm and quiet until all four boys arrived. Then, let the chaos begin.

Shane and Landon got electric scooters so we had to go outside for the big race. ON YOUR MARK, SET GO!

The kids had more fun wrapping a present to us from Chris, Alicia and the boys.

Darla, our photographer friend, joined us for Christmas evening.

Everyone had a hand in getting dinner on the table.

Mom and dad got to relax with Darla while we cleaned up.

We topped the night off with Rock Band

And American Idol.

Murder in Sin City

2009-12-09T22:23:00.015-05:00

Our neighborhood homeowner’s association held our annual Murder Mystery Dinner, "MURDER IN SIN CITY." Instead of progressing from house to house, our wonderful neighbors, Puna and TJ, hosted the entire evening. Bill was “Ronald Trump” and I was Mrs. Trump hosting the opening of our renovated casino.

Neighbor Theresa a/k/a “Precious”, our daughter and manager, wanted a family photo.

Neighbor Ted a/k/a “Ace High” was murdered. Neighbor Maureen was the detective investigating the murder.

Looks like Neighbor Alonso a/k/a “Security Sam” was fraternizing with the hired help……

Neighbor Yvonne was the hotel “floozy.” She played her part so well, she was awarded best actress.

Neighbor Cathy a/k/a “Mimi Cocktail” dressed to kill was awarded best dressed. Can you believe she kept those glasses on the tray all night long!
Looks like they are all up to something….

There was so much drama going on, I can’t even remember it all. What a great time!

"A Song For Charlie"

2009-10-27T09:33:00.028-04:00

Charlie Taylor Memorial Festival 2009
“A Song For Charlie”

Sunday was like an old neighborhood/school reunion. Members of some local bands that played back in the 60s and 70s got together for a benefit in honor of Charlie Taylor, a member who passed away this year.

We were greeted with this great memory

IT WAS FABULOUS!

My favorites were the NoWhere Men, Second Coming, and Lawrence and the Arabians.

A real treat was hearing Larry Kidwell of Lawrence and the Arabians WHAT MEMORIES!

One of our neighborhood friends, Dickey played with the NoWhere Men.

We connected with Kevin

Sarah and Bill

MaryEllen and Tommy

Jo

Bernard, Rickey, and Dickie
Darlene

And even a friend from the Teamsters, Debbie

And of course, they could not finish the evening without a little comedy.

Billy & Jenn's Baby Shower

2009-10-19T18:48:00.011-04:00

Boy, it’s good to be home! Alicia hosted my daughter-in-law’s baby shower the following day.

Yes, I think Jenn was quite surprised. She thought she was coming to a homecoming party for us, so she baked cookies—how cute is that!

What a great time.

There was plenty of food, games, and most of all, family and friends.

Home At Last!

2009-10-08T19:50:00.024-04:00

As we left Sedonna, Arizona, and drove eastward, the weather seemed to get cooler and cooler. We started out to take our time and enjoy, but plans are made to be broken. When we got to Albuquerque, New Mexico, RV parking was limited because of the Balloon Festival and the State Fair. So instead of spending a few days as planned, we continued on. We went through 4 states in one day – New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.

As we drove through New Mexico, we saw a large area of lava. I’m not sure where the volcano was, but it sure was weird to see this lava everywhere. Since there was some greenery also around, that lava must have been there for a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY long time.

I don’t remember what state this rest stop was in, but I thought it was pretty unique.

As we drove east, we noticed the days getting shorter….. What a beautiful sunset.

I managed to see one sunrise while on our trip. It was in Arkansas. We wanted to make it to our friend’s before dark, so we got an early start.

We made it to our friends, Bob and Ann, in Rickman, Tennessee in three days!!!! THAT was some driving! I think Bill was determined to make it to their party, which we did.

Our original plan was to come back East through Indiana so that we could have the axel company check our trailer. Instead we found a dealer in Tennessee, close to our friend’s house, who changed out the brake system and what a difference! NO MORE SQUEALING! The self-adjusters on the old system kept hanging up, so the entire trip, poor Bill was constantly adjusting the “self-adjusters.”

We had a great visit with Bob and Ann as we rested up. Ann and Robby took a little time to ride. Ann rode her horse, Ollie, and Robby rode her “newer” horse, Honey.

It was great to have time to get ourselves together before we headed the rest of the way home. We would have liked to take more time getting home to stop and visit with more friends, but we wanted to be home for my son and daughter-in-law’s baby shower and Robby is scheduled for his CDL test.

PLAN B: Not far over the Tennessee border, in Wythesville, Virginia, we noticed the truck lacking power and a lot of black smoke. Luckily we were able to make it to the Ford Dealership, and we are really lucky that there was room for our RV. So here we are on a Friday afternoon, in a small town…… They “believe” one of the fuel injectors needs to be replaced. The only rental car in town, Enterprise, had one car, which was reserved…. Lucky for us, the dealership knew of a small company 25 miles away – in the opposite direction…. They picked us up, we backtracked 25 miles to fill out the paperwork and were back on the road again with 300 miles to home, arriving at midnight.

Bill was able to return to pick up the RV on Monday. It turned out, it was the 4th fuel injector and it was covered under warranty. Wonder if that has been our problem this whole trip…..

What a way to end a trip.

Sedona, Arizona

2009-09-25T21:52:00.078-04:00

Day 26-29
Last stop, Sedona, Arizona. It’s hard to believe that this trip is almost over. Sedona is one of my favorite places. Actually almost all of our stops have been added as a favorite.

The drive was just as scenic as all our other drives.

We celebrated our first night at our last stop with a Margarita Munchie Party and a beautiful sunset.

Our campground had wonderful facilities. Our first morning, we had a busy schedule, with an early bus pick up.

We headed off to the beautiful town of Sedona, where we saw the Bell Tower

As well as Submarine Rock and Cathedral Rock on our way to Oak Creek Canyon. As we passed Slip Rock State Park, there was an apple festival in full force. Slip Rock Park, a natural water park, is one of the biggest attractions in Sedonna. Oak Creek runs through it and people can float down with the current over the rocks, like a slip and slide.

At the Oak Creek Canyon Overlook we were able to enjoy the view as well as check out the Native American’s selling their jewelry and artwork.

On our way back to town, we stopped at a “water hole” where people come from all over to fill up jugs of water. It’s spring water from the creek and boy is it good! While there, one guy was filling up three 5 gallon jugs to take home.

We drove up to the airport mesa overlook, but traffic was so bad because of a car show that we didn’t have time to get out and take pictures, but the view was great.

We made it to the once booming copper mining town of Jerome in time for lunch. It was the largest copper mine in Arizona, producing 3 million pounds of copper per month! Jerome, founded in 1876, once the fourth largest city in the Arizona Territory, is now considered a ghost town with a little over 300 population, whereas in 1920s they had 15,000 and dropping to less than 5,000 in the 1930s. The estate of the owner of the copper mine is run by the state but tours have been suspended because of funding.

We heard the “Haunted Hamburger” restaurant was the best, so we all ate their for lunch. The food and service were good, and the portions were huge. It is said that the dwelling has a resident ghost and has been featured on Ghosthunters. We, however, didn’t get to experience the ghost, much to Bill’s dismay. (He’s just dying to experience a ghost!)

Jerome is a really unique town. It is so full of history and memories, which I’ll talk about later, for so many people. A walk up and down Main Street will find you in a lot of unique shops.

We then toured the Tuzigood Indian Ruins, Montezuma Castle, and museum. As we walked up to the ruins (Tuzigood), it was dejevue for Bill and I. In 1985 we visited the ruins with Robby. Tuzigoot (Apache for “crooked water”) is the remnant of a Southern Sinagua village built between 1125 and 1400. It crowns the summit of a long ridge that rises 120 feet above the Verde Valley. The original pueblo was 2 stories high in places, with 77 ground-floor rooms.

Southern Sinagua farmers began building this five-story, 20 room dwelling early in the 1100s. It stands in a cliff recess 100 feet above the valley.

The limestone at Montezuma Castle is fairly soft and splits unevenly. Yet the Castle was so well built that it has stood for over 600 years and is one of the best-preserved prehistoric structures in the Southwest.

Tuzigood and Montezuma Castle villages reached their maximum size in the 1300s and were occupied for another century. No one knows why they abandoned their pueblos by the early 1400s.

Our son, Robby, flew in that evening so that he could enjoy our free day and the drive back home with us. What a beautiful sunset on our way to the Phoenix Airport.

On our free day, Bill, Bobby, Marcia and a few guests took a motorcycle ride. Robby and I headed to Sedona,

stopping at the V-V Petroglyph Site, which consisted of 3 HUGE rocks full of petroglyphs. There were more petroglyphs on these rocks than we have seen in all the trips combined this summer. These were a little different though. The drawings all seemed to be connected. I think the author was writing in cursive.

We also stopped at the Chapel of the Holy Cross, built in 1956, known for the unique architecture, which was considered quite bold and daring in the 1950s. Just across the street from the chapel is this HUGE estate, so of course we took a lot of photos of it.

We later found that we think it may be owned by Nicholas Cage, but no one is really sure. They have been building it for 4 years, it still is not complete and has been for sale for the last 2 years. So if you are in the market for a nice house in Sedona, let me know and I’ll send you the address.

On our way out of Sedona, Robby’s observant eye caught a unique looking truck, so we stopped to take a picture. We found out it was used in the movie,“Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang.”

Our farewell dinner was held at the Cliff Castle Casino Lodge. We had a nice private room and great food. The service could not have been better. At our farewell dinners, each couple is responsible for telling the funniest and most memorable story from the trip. We always enjoy hearing what everyone has to say and most of the time, a lot of things, which have been forgotten are remembered. We were surprised that the almost all of the guests enjoyed 2 of the optional events, the river raft trip and the murder mystery dinner. We never know if the majority of the guests will enjoy the optional suggestions that we propose, so it’s so nice when our choices are a success.

We held our hitch up breakfast the next morning so that we could say our goodbyes and send them off with a well rounded meal. Boy the goodbyes are difficult. Every group is special, but because this was a small group, it seemed that we were able to get to know everyone much better. This trip was also special to Bill and I because we had 2 couples that we had traveled with last year and it was like a reunion. We enjoyed them even more on this trip and we look forward to traveling again with them in the future. We also hope to travel with the other guests sometime in the future and to be able to get together within the next year with those who live on the East Coast.

Bobby, Marcia, Bill, Robby and I enjoyed a great Mexican dinner and sunset as we reminisced about all our trips.

Our final day in the Verde Valley was spent back in the town of Jerome. Once again, we were so lucky to run into one of the locals, Rosalie Palacios (age 88), who was born in Jerome and was back visiting and reminiscing with her cousin who also was born in Jerome. We first met her at one of the shops and then later found her looking at one of the older houses, which we thought was her grandmother’s, but found out it was the bordello that was across the street from her grandmothers.

She told us of the mine collapse which destroyed some of the town, including her grandmother’s house. It was a great feeling to watch as she looked on to where the steps of her grandmother’s house still stand remembering how her grandmother used to sit on the steps.

She had a 3 bedroom house and raised I think it was 15 kids. She talked about how hard she worked running a boarding house. Next door was the bowling alley, across the street was the swimming pool, and up the street was a grocery store. The family that owned the store lived upstairs, where you see the 3 big windows. What a view they must have had.

In 1936 an enormous charge of dynamite (260,000 pounds) was set off – equal to 6 freight car loads – and the surface began to shift. Tunnels under the town, some as deep as 4,800 feet below the surface, began to crack. The shifting, combined with the 30 degree incline of the mountainside, pulled a number of buildings down the slope, and entire sections of the business district collapsed or slid downhill. Jerome’s famous “Sliding Jail” moved downhill 225 feet and sat in the middle of Hull Avenue until a bulldozer moved it to its final resting place across the road from its original site, with one of the beds still intact. There are still 88 miles of tunnels under the town, and there are four geological faults in the area.

Rosalie told us that her grandmother spent the night in the jail one time and when asked why, she told us that she used to grow beautiful pots of plants. Not only did she think her plants were pretty, but she used them for medicecal purposes. Well, it turned out that those beautiful plants were marijuana, unbeknownst to her.

She also pointed out what the call the “ammo house,” which is a building made from dynamite cases from the mining operations. It started out as a church, then someone bought it as a residence, and now I believe it is empty.

We found that this town used to thrive on prostitution because there were so many single men who worked in the mines. Rosalie said that Jerome was a very happy, happy city. As we walked up past the shops, we stumbled across “husband alley.” This was the back entrance of the “cribs” so that the patrons could come and go without being noticed. The girls who worked in the “cribs” were one step above a “street walker.” Below is what the cribs looked like.

We visited the Mining Museum, which was very interesting and gave us a lot of history about the town. There was even a Chinese washing machine.

Crank and gear mechanisms were used to agitate and spin the laundry.

As we drove out of town, we passed the Jerome Grand Hotel. The building was built in 1926 as a hospital and operated until 1950. The building was vacant for almost 45 years and opened as the Grand Hotel in 1996. At a one mile elevation, the panoramic views of the Verde Valley and Sedona Red Rocks are breathtaking.

Tomorrow, it’s time for Bill, Robby, and me to head back east, leaving our dear friends, Bobby and Marcia.

Lake Powell, AZ

2009-09-21T21:16:00.027-04:00

Day 24-25

As we departed Monument Valley, we could see a big rainstorm headed our way. I wonder if they got their 6 inches of rain in this last week….

One thing that is really cool out west, you can see a rainstorm miles and miles away. And of course the views on our travel day were beautiful.

Lake Powell has to be one of the prettier campgrounds (I keep saying that about each and every one…). Our campground was located in Arizona, but Utah was not far away, needless to say, our cell phones were going crazy trying to figure out the correct time. This was our view from the campground.

Before our boat tour, we ran over to the Glen Canyon Dam to check it out. In front of the visitor center was Dinosaur Tracks, HOW COOL WAS THAT! The imprints were made by a one ton, twenty foot long, meat-eating dinosaur, Dilophosaurus. The slab of sandstone came from a nearby side canyon.

The dam itself is 710 feet above bedrock, and 583 feet above the original river channel. Work began on the dam in 1957 and completed in 1963. It took over 3 years of straight continuous pouring of concrete to build the dam.
It took 17 years for the new lake to fill completely. The lake reached full pool level in 1980, 1983 and 1984. Glen Canyon Dam provides enough electricity in a year to supply 1 million homes. Lake Powell’s meandering shoreline is 1,960 miles and is longer than the entire US western coastline. 87 percent is desert, sandstone, and canyons.

We boarded a boat, that had the inscription Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the back – CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT, for a 5 hour tour. Our destination was Rainbow Bridge National Monument, about 50 miles from the dock. What a beautiful ride.

Rainbow Bridge is the world’s largest natural bridge, arching 290 feet high and spanning 270 feet across. The top is 42 feet thick and 33 feet wide.
The rock formation change in color as the sun sets, just like in Bryce Canyon.

And of course, the sky at sunset here was absolutely gorgeous. Lake Powell is so beautiful, I wish we could have stayed longer.