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.

New York

This week we are staying at a membership park in Wurtsboro, New York; just a little bit south of the Catskill State Park in the lower elevations of the Catskill Mountains. It's a very green, heavily wooded area that kind of reminds us of Alaska.

It's also about 80 miles northwest of New York City where our niece Lorrie lives. On Saturday evening, Lorrie took a train up to visit with us for the night and Sunday afternoon. We loved seeing her again. We realized it's been about 4 years since we'd seen her last.



We drove her back to the city late Sunday afternoon. Now that was quite an adventure. Talk about traffic jams. Wow. Bumper to bumper cars the whole way once we got near the George Washington Bridge. And that was on a Sunday. I can't even imagine what it must be like during the week. We got to see Lorrie's small but charming and cozy apartment and meet her adorable kitty cat before we had to head back.

Still bumper to bumper traffic until we got back over the George Washington Bridge. Then the congestion eased, but I somehow managed to miss an off ramp and had to circle back around to get on track again. Which would have been no big deal, but it meant I had to go through a toll booth. Which would have been no big deal, it was only one dollar, but we're such rookies at that kind of thing, we didn't know the "exact change" lane meant exact coins not bills. We had a dollar bill ready but once we got up to the gate we saw a big bowl sort of thing to toss your coins into, but nowhere to put a dollar bill and no human toll taker anywhere nearby. We scrambled to find a dollar in coins. No luck. Now what? It's not possible to turn around and traffic was lining up behind us so we couldn't back up and go into a different lane. Finally I noticed a sign that read "If coin reader fails, honk horn, wait 10 seconds, then proceed." So that's what I did. I honked, counted to 10 and drove off. Hopefully we won't get a ticket in the mail a month from now.

Amish Country

We drove about 80 miles east yesterday to Kinzers, PA - a town in Lancaster County in the heart of Amish Country. Today we took a sight seeing drive around the area and marveled at all the beautiful farmland. Barns, silos, farm houses, fields of corn and other crops, grazing cows and horses as far as the eye can see. And in some areas almost as many horse and buggies as cars. I just loved the horses they use for their buggies. These are not the large heavy draft horses used for plowing. These are sleek, long legged, high stepping beauties. We were impressed with the simple, yet hard working way of life lived by the Amish people.

Chocolate!

Yesterday we visited Hershey, Pennsylvania, home of Hershey's Chocolate Company. I was disappointed to learn tours of the actual factory are no longer available to the general public. Instead you go through a sort of "faux factory" with simulations and video of the various processes involved in creating Hershey bars, Reeses, and Kisses. It was interesting, but not the same as seeing the real thing.

We did enjoy the trolley tour through town where the guides told us much about the life of Milton Hershey. He was a man to be admired, investing much of his personal fortune to keep the town prospering during the great depression as well as founding a school for orphans that still operates today to benefit underpriveleged children.

Williamsburg, Monticello and D.C.

Wow, the Williamsburg area was exhausting. But fun and fascinating too. We spent five days immersed in colonial and revolutionary history while we explored Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown, Virginia.

From there we went a couple hours north to Charlottesville, VA where we toured Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello. I learned quite a few things I never knew about our 3rd President. The man was a genius.

After three days in Charlottesville, we are continuing our U.S. history lessons in our nation's capitol. We are currently at an RV park in College Park, MD, just a few miles outside of Washington D.C. We've been on the go every day. So far we've toured the Capitol Building, wandered around the Library of Congress, sat in the courtroom of the Supreme Court Building, viewed most of the war memorials as well as the Washington and Lincoln monuments, seen the White House, and explored several of the Smithsonian Museum buildings. And in the middle of all that, we managed to squeeze in a day at the AT&T National Golf Tournament hosted by Tiger Woods in Bethesda, Maryland. We saw Tiger make two of the seven birdies he got on the first day of the tournament. Along with other notables, we also got to see Vijay Singh play a few holes. We only have two days left here and there's no way we'll be able to see everything on our list before our time is up. We'll have to come back someday.

There is more I want to say about all these places, along with pictures we want to share, but we're just feeling so overwhelmed with all this tourist activity, we can't yet find the words. We'll expand on this entry when things slow down for us a bit. But we wanted to at least give you all an overview of what we've been doing.