Christmas Greetings

Dog Beds

Dash liked the cats' beds at Doug & Karen's so much, we had to get them for our house. Spoiled? No, our dogs aren't spoiled.

Friends in Deed

Our motorhome went into the shop on Monday to get some work done. We had to move out for the week and our friends Doug and Karen came to our rescue. Tom worked with Doug at the power plant in Fairbanks. When Doug retired a few years before Tom, he and Karen became full-time RVers for awhile. They just had a house built in Green Valley, Arizona, about 15 miles south of Tucson. We have the honor of being their first house-guests this week. Thank you Doug and Karen!!!

They have two cats, but luckily our dogs are pretty mellow around kittys. Dash would like to play with them, but they generally don't want to play with him. Thankfully he gets the hint quickly and leaves them alone. Gracie pretty much ignores them completely.

Dash decided he'd take over one of the cat beds and Gracie makes herself at home on Karen's recliner every evening. We're going to have to get a couple of these beds for the kiddies once we get our house back.

Clifton's Wedding

Last weekend, my nephew, Clifton got married to his lovely bride Sylvia. My mom flew down for the event and it was a very fun mini family reunion.

My mom (Fran), my brother (Mark) and me

My mom, Tom, me, our great-nephew Matthew and my sister-in-law Laura
My mom, Clifton and Sylvia

Arizona Sunset

We love the sunsets here.

Winter Home

Yesterday we arrived at the Palm Creek Golf & RV resort in Casa Grande, Arizona. We've stayed here twice before, for one month each time, and we so enjoyed this place we decided we'd spend the majority of our winter here this year. We still have a couple of things we need to get taken care of on the motorhome before we can really settle in for the winter (we need new tires and we need to have the back end aligned - which is why we need new tires) but we're still very happy to be "home."

Staying Ahead of the Storm

I checked the weather report this morning and learned there is a strong wind storm forecast for tomorrow - which was when we had planned to go to Yuma. As you can imagine, driving the motorhome in high winds is not the best idea. So we decided to come to Yuma today to stay ahead of the storm. We are now parked at the Pilot Knob RV Park in Winterhaven, CA (about 5 miles outside of Yuma).

We were able to make dentist appointments in Algodones for tomorrow and we'll have the roof repair touch up done on Wednesday. If all goes well, we'll be back in Casa Grande and settled in at Palm Creek RV park by Halloween.

Long Drive, Long Day

Wow! We covered about 500 miles today in about 9 hours. We haven't gone that far in one day in a looooooong time. Usually we try to limit our travel to about 4 hours a day or less.

We originally figured we'd only go about 280 miles today and get to Lordsburg, New Mexico. But when we got close to Lordsburg at around 2:00, we were both feeling pretty fresh and alert and decided to just keep on going all the way to Casa Grande, AZ. We'll spend the next three nights here, then go to Yuma for a touch up on the roof repairs they did last year.

We'll also try to fit in a quick visit to the dentist we saw in Algodones, Mexico last year. Then it will be back to Casa Grande where we plan to spend the majority of this winter.

On the Road Again

After a month of enjoying the peaceful atmosphere and wonderful weather in Kerrville, Texas we are on the road again making our way toward Arizona where we plan to spend most of the winter.

Tom drove about 350 miles today to get us to Van Horn, Texas; the first stopover on our journey west. We'd been a little nervous about today because of all the problems we had with the motorhome just before we got to Kerrville. But all went smoothly and the motorhome ran perfectly. Praise God! We both feel like a huge weight has lifted off our shoulders and we can relax and enjoy the next few days of travel.

Being Lazy

Our time here in Kerrville has been very uneventful, and that's just what we were hoping for. We were both pretty burned out from all the touring we did this summer, so we needed this down time. We've been here for three weeks so far and most of our days have been spent just relaxing. Tom is spending a lot of time fishing in the stream that runs through the park and I've managed to read 5 or 6 books already. We did visit our friends Roland and Elizabeth for a couple of days. And today we took a drive to Medina to the Love Creek Orchard Bakery to get one oftheir fabulous (and huge) apple pies.


We have one more week here, then we head to Arizona where we plan to spend the next five months.

Coast to Coast

On Jan 1, 2009 we were in Palm Springs, California. Late April found us in Florida and by mid August, we were in Belfast, Maine. Wow! We really put on the miles this year. All in all, we covered over 7000 miles in the motorhome and visited (or at least drove through) 28 states.

I keep a map in the "Where are We Now" block on the side bar of this blog showing the routes we've taken and where we've stayed along the way. I had to start a new map since we are now overlapping the route from earlier this year. But here is the map from January through now. You can zoom in on the map amd drag it around to see more detail if you are interested.



View January '09 to September '09 in a larger map

Fixed!

I think the engine is actually fixed! The CAT repair shop ended up putting in a whole new brain (computer). They drove it a couple of times without any problems before they called us on Friday morning to come get it. Once we got there yesterday afternoon, we drove it another 40 miles or so before we parked it for the night. Today we drove about 230 miles, still no problems. I think I can finally breathe again.

We made it to the Buckhorn Lake RV Resort in Kerrville where we'd wanted to spend a month. Not sure if we'll get to stay a whole month after all these delays, but we should be good for at least 3 weeks. I'm soooooooooo ready to just sit and relax!

And this is a good place for relaxing. We spent three days at this RV park this past spring and enjoyed it so much, we've really been looking forward to coming back. Our site is right on the bend of a stream that runs through the park so we have a lovely view.

Engine Trouble

One of my worst fears about living in the motorhome has come to pass. We are having engine trouble and for the moment, our motorhome is stuck in Waco, TX while the mechanics try to figure out what is wrong. The diagnostic computer is logging a fault with the speed sensors. The mechanics have changed out the speed sensors and the wiring to the speed sensors, but the engine is still running rough. When they started talking about tearing into the engine and needing us to move into a hotel for a couple of days, we decided to just throw some things in the car and drive the 130 miles down to Kingsbury, TX to stay with our friends Roland and Elizabeth. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends, willing to take us in on a moment's notice.

We have been in Kingsbury for the past three days while the motorhome remains in the shop in Waco. When Tom talked to the service manager this afternoon, he was cautiously optomistic that they may have solved the problem.

It's been a pretty stressful few days for us, not knowing what the problem is or when it might be fixed, but we are making the best of it and enjoying our time with Elizabeth and Roland.

More Wildlife from our Window

Rain, rain, rain. That's almost all we've seen for the last 3 days. We still haven't tried to explore Nashville because of the wet weather. And since this is our last day here, I guess it's just not in the cards for this visit. Horror stories of flooding and hydroplaning vehicles causing accidents have dominated the news. So we have just been staying home. Thankfully it's a lovely setting, even if we are seeing the view through the haze of falling rain.

Tennessee Flora and Fauna

We made it to Music City - Nashville, Tennessee - though we have yet to spend any time in the city doing the tourist thing. We're staying at Seven Points Park on the J. Percy Priest Lake just outside of Nashville. It's such a beautiful setting, we've been content to just hang out here and relax. These pictures were taken right from our campsite.

Kentucky Horse Country

While in Kentucky, we've been staying at the campground at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. The Horse Park is a huge complex which hosts various equestrian and other special events throughout the year. It will be the site of the World Horse Show in 2010. It seems like there are at least as many huge horse trailers here in the campground section of the park as there are RVs.

Lexington is serious horse country and everywhere you look there are rolling green pastures and split rail fences. And of course, horses, horses, horses. We like the Lexington area a lot. It's developed enough to have all the shopping, entertainment, services, etc. one needs for everyday living, but just minutes outside of the more urban areas and you are in "the country".

Today we drove about 60 miles west to Louisville. As home to Churchill Downs, we expected it to be much the same as Lexington. But it is not. Louisville has the look and feel of a densely populated big city.

We took a tour of Churchill Downs (home of the Kentucky Derby) which we really enjoyed. The tour included visiting the paddock area, the race track, the grandstand area and the trainers' stables behind the racecourse. There is no live racing going on this time of year though. I was kind of bummed about that. I would have loved to see the horses run. But according to Kentucky state law, only one track at a time can be holding races and it's not Churchill Downs' turn. They have race "meets" two times a year, from mid-April through mid-July and then late-October through late-November.

Today was our final day in Kentucky. We move on to Nashville, TN tomorrow.

Place your cursor over picture to pause slideshow.

It's the Water

Why does the best whiskey come from Kentucky and Tennessee? It's the water! That is one of the first things we learned today on our tour of the Woodford Reserve Distillery where they make super premium Bourbon whiskey. This area sits on a huge limestone aquifer that serves as a giant filter, removing unwanted minerals and adding calcium. The calcium reacts with the yeast during production to make a better Bourbon.

The tour begins in the Distillery Building where they start by cooking up a mixture of corn, rye, malted barley, water and yeast into a "sour mash" which is then transferred to a huge wooden fermenting tank for 4 to 6 days.

Once fermentation is complete, the mash is moved to the first of three copper pot stills to begin the process of separating the water and alcohol from the mash. It is distilled three times before being transferred to barrels. The barrels are then moved to the warehouse to be stored for aging by rolling them along rails. The Bourbon remains in the barrels for 7 to 8 years.

When the maturation process is complete and the Bourbon is deemed ready, it is bottled and shipped off to be sold. Some is held back for tour guests to taste (and buy at the gift shop.) So of course we had to buy some - along with some chocolates and Bourbon caramels. YUM. Tom bought a very big bottle, so it should keep us in Mint Juleps for a long time.

Almost Heaven - West Virginia

John Denver was on the right track when he wrote West Virginia was "almost heaven". At least from a gorgeous scenery stand-point, it's certainly true. For the last four days we've been at the Summersville Lake Retreat campground in Mount Nebo, West Virginia, in the Allegheny/Cumberland Mountains. We're surrounded by hills and river valleys all covered in a blanket of trees. The trees are just starting to change to their fall colors. It will be spectacular here in just another week or two. But we'll have to miss the show. Tomorrow we move on to Kentucky.

Horsing Around

We left New York this morning and are headed to Summersville, WV for the Labor Day weekend. We are spending the night in Washington, PA at the Meadows Racetrack and Casino. We have found that casinos are often a good place to spend the night when we are just passing through. They generally have large parking lots and will welcome RVers in the hopes that we will spend a few dollars in the casino. We rarely disappoint them on that score.

This one was particularly fun because in addition to the traditional casino, they have a racetrack which hosts harness races several nights a week. We'd never seen harness racing before and really enjoyed watching it.

We Fell for the Falls

Last week Jo and I came back to New York from Vermont. It was another beautiful drive in the northeast hill country. We are going to slowly head back south and then west for the winter.

I didn't believe that New York had anything but big cities. Well, so much for TV and the media. New York is absolutely gorgeous! From it's forests to it's farmland it is breathtaking.

When driving along the various roads, one thing in particular impressed us. The people there are particularly proud of their property and take care of it to the extremes. They have huge mowed lawns and multiple natural looking flower gardens. We love the old-style architecture of the eastern buildings and homes. Since the east was settled first, then obviously their buildings were the first built in the good 'ole U.S.of A. carried over from the “Motherland” of Merry Old England.

We came back to western New York to see THE Niagra Falls. There are two falls that fall on either side of an island like they are falling off of the face of the earth. The American Falls which do not touch our neighbor Canada and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls which separate Buffalo, New York from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally there was roughly five billion gallons of water an hour that fell over the falls. Now there is approximately half of that because much of the water is now diverted to a hydroelectric plant.





Jo and I took a boat ride to the base of the falls on “The Maid of the Mist”. This is a must-do for any visitors to Niagra Falls! We were awed by the primal power of the full force of the water pounding down from approximately two hundred feet above to the rocks and river below. The force of it blows a constant gust of wind and sprays a deluge of mist on all who want to know the falls intimately. Luckily the tour operators provide their guests with cheap rain ponchos (which we kept for emergency use and stashed in the car.)

After the boat ride. We decided to get even closer by taking a walking tour to the base of the American Falls. This tour was originally supposed to go behind the falls via a path and a small cave. Unfortunately over 50 years the path has eroded so that we could only follow a man-made boardwalk to the front/bottom of the falls. This boardwalk is rebuilt every spring because of the ice that goes over the falls during break-up. The tour operators were kind to their guest also by providing ponchos AND sandals. It's a good thing too because the water was gushing over the boardwalk and over our feet. (The used sandals can then be donated to a program which distributes them to poor communities in the world.) Our pant legs got soaked because we didn't wear shorts. We were limited in the photos that we could take because our camera is not waterproof. The ponchos were imperative because we were right up against the falls. We were so glad it was a sunny and hot day. We were lucky because the previous month was cool and rainy in New York. God was smiling down on us that week because the weather was beautiful.

Before we went on the tours we were able to go up on a two hundred and thirty foot tower/ overlook to get a very good look of the falls. We took a lot of pictures from there as well as from the tours. The whole experience brought wide smiles to our faces and kind of left us giddy. I can't express it because it takes all of your senses to experience it. We loved it. 'Nuff said.

Ben & Jerry's

Today we visited the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream factory. We took the tour which shows you a little video about the company's beginnings. It all started with a college drop out and medical school reject who took a five dollar correspondence course in making ice cream. But I was a little surprised to learn that Ben & Jerry no longer own the company and are only marginally involved. The tour then takes you to a spot overlooking the production floor and then to a tasting room for a little sample of whatever flavor is being made that day. No picture taking was allowed on the production floor. Everything is completely automated so there's not all that much to see anyway aside from a lot of stainless steele pipes and tanks. But the grounds around the factory were really pretty. And they have a "Flavor Graveyard" for their less successful flavor ideas that just cracked me up. They came up with such clever epitaphs for them. All in all, a very fun day.

Vermont

We are now in Vermont on an island in Lake Champlain which has one shore in New York and the other in Vermont. Our RV resort has a 9-hole executive golf course and guests can play one week of unlimited golf for only $45. So Tom has been out golfing every morning, and some afternoons too.

It's a beautiful area. Lots of oaks, maples, birch, spruce, pine and other trees I can't identify. The leaves are just starting to change so we are getting a preview of the fall color show to come.

We're just outside of Burlington which is Vermont's largest city. You'd never know it from driving around though. Other than a very small old downtown area and the University of Vermont campus, there are no large commercially developed areas anywhere that we have found. Just little pockets of commerce here and there. We went to Costco, Walmart and Best Buy yesterday and until we were practically right in their parking lots, we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere most of the time.

Burlington is home to Ben & Jerry's ice cream corporate headquaters and their factory is about 40 miles away in Waterbury. We plan to visit the factory to take their tour this week.

Bridge and Bar Harbor

Today we visited the Penobscot Narrows Observatory located atop one of the support towers for the Penobscot Narrows Bridge. It is 42 stories tall and has spectacular views.

From there we drove to Bar Harbor. We passed several "lobster pounds" along the way that looked very much along the same lines as Young's Lobster Pound though on a smaller scale. But we had seen an advertisement for Stewman's Lobster Pound on the waterfront in Bar Harbor so we passed all of these others planning to eat lunch at Stewmans. That turned out to be a mistake. The food at Stewmans was fine, but it was nothing like Young's. Stewman's is a full blown restaurant with a big menu, table service and the inflated prices that go along with the increase in overhead. I have no doubt we could have gotten twice as much lobster at one of the other pounds for what we paid at Stewman's. Still it was a lovely setting at the marina in Bar Harbor. After lunch we took a stroll around town, exploring a few of the tourist shops and enjoying the weather and the views.



On the drive home we stopped at a road side stand and bought a homemade blueberry pie and a quart of wild blueberries. They look a lot like Alaskan blueberries, but they're not quite as good. They don't have that little bit of tartness that makes the AK berries so delicious and unique. I think we'll still manage to enjoy eating them though.

Young's Lobster Pound

We went to Young's Lobster Pound for lunch today. It's basically just a big barn type building with quite a few huge tanks full of lobster, clams, etc and a gigantic tub of boiling water. Okay, so there's a little more to it than that, but not much. You go to the counter to place your order, they remove the appropriate crustacean(s) from the tank, put it in a big net bag and into the boiling water it goes. When it comes out they crack the shell for you if you want and plop it on a tray/plate along with a little container of melted butter. The only side dish choices available are a bag of chips, a cup of coleslaw or an ear of corn on the cob. However you are welcome to bring your own salads, veggies, whatever - even a bottle of wine or beer. The "dining room" is outside on a large deck at picnic tables overlooking the harbor. No frills but soooo delicious

Mid-Coast Region, Maine

We are now in Belfast, Maine, part of the Mid-Coast region. Or maybe it's Down East. We're right where one region ends and the other starts. But which ever it is, it is gorgeous. Our RV park is right on the water, and we have a waterfront site. The only drawback is we had to back into the space, so we can't look out over the water from inside, but I guess we can't have everything.

We spent the afternoon today sitting outside facing the water, relaxing, reading, and working on the computer. It's so peaceful here.

These pictures were all taken either from our campsite or the shoreline right in front of our RV park.

Casco Bay Region, Maine

The state of Maine is divided up into 8 regions and Freeport, where we spent the last four days, is part of the Casco Bay region. One day we drove along US 1 from Freeport down to Kennebunkport, passing through some wonderful coastal towns, beach areas and charming neighborhoods along the way.




And of course we had to stop at a roadside food stand for a famous Maine Lobster Roll - which is chunks of lobster meat mixed with a little bit of mayo, served on what they call a hot dog bun - which don't look anything like the hot dog buns we're used to.


Freeport is home to the LL Bean corporate headquarters so the downtown shopping area had several LL Bean stores. A home store, a hunting and fishing store, a camping store, a bike and boat store and of course a clothing store. We had fun exploring them all.


We are finding Maine to be a beautiful state and unlike some of the other New England states we have visited, it doesn't seem to be terribly overcrowded. It reminds us a lot of Alaska so we feel right at home.

East Coast Complete

We set out this summer to visit every state along the Atlantic Ocean and we've done it! We reached Maine today which completed the quest. The map on our motorhome now has all the states along the west coast, southern border and east coast filled in. There were a couple of times along the way we weren't quite sure if we would manage it. I'm so glad it all worked out because who knows if we'll ever get the chance to come this way again.

Beaches and Beer

This week we are staying at an RV park in Salisbury, Massachusetts, about 3/4 mile from the ocean. We spent our first couple of days relaxing on the beach. We are amazed at how crowded the beaches are here, even in the middle of the week. Where do all these people come from?

Today we decided to take a scenic drive through New Hampshire which is only a few miles north of here. We stopped a campground to check it out for future reference and got to talking to the campground owner. She told us there was a Busch Brewery in Merrimac, not too far from there. So we decided to find it and take the tour. It was fun and interesting. Tom's favorite part of course was the tasting room.

We have a couple more days here in Salisbury and we'll probably go to the beach at least one more time, then we head north to Maine.

Connecticut

We spent the last week in Connecticut, mostly just hanging out at the relaxing country campground where we're staying. It's such a lovely setting; so green, lots of trees, two ponds on the property where Tom did a bit of fishing.


We did manage an exploratory drive through Rhode Island, driving up around Providence and then down to Newport before returning to Connecticut. I've got to say, other than Newport we were not enamored of the state. Just seemed to darned crowded to us. So many people for such a little state.



We also spent a day in Mystic, Connecticut which is a charming sea port town that we really enjoyed. And of course while we were there, we had to eat lunch at Mystic Pizza (of movie fame.) Very good pizza but I still haven't found anything to beat Geraldo's Pizza in Fairbanks. Funny that the best pizza I've ever eaten was in Alaska of all places.


Tomorrow we move on again. We'll be driving about 120 miles north to Salisbury, Massachusetts. The RV park we'll be staying at is only 1/2 mile from the ocean. We're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll get some good beach weather.