May 31, 2012

The Governors quarters

Another dreary day in Nova Scotia. Waiting for the sun to come out before we tackle the Cabot Trail, hopefully tomorrow or Saturday. Visited the Louisbourg Fortress today on the southeast coast of Cape Breton about 65 miles from our campground. The fortress was built by the French to protect the harbor from invading British. Soon after it was finished it was under siege by the British. The British won and took over the fortress. They eventually gave it back, but then took it over again in a subsequent battle. During the normal summer season, there are people dressed in period costume reenacting scenes from daily life. We’re about a month too early for that, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Rob trying to decide how many of these he can get in the motorhome for his winemaking.

Actually those were powder barrels for the armament.

May 30, 2012

Very rainy today in Baddeck with ¾ of an inch expected. We opted to visit the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. AGB and his wife Mabel built a huge home on the Bras d’Ore Lake right here in Baddeck for their summer home. He seems to have spent quite a bit of his time here whatever the season and is buried on the homestead. Bell started life as a teacher of the deaf. His father had created Visual Speech, a graphic representation of oral speech patterns, a technique that Bell applied with his students.  His wife was among his first students and later, Helen Keller. Of course, he is best known for inventing the telephone, which arose out of his work to improve telegraphic communication. He has many other inventions to his credit. Although the Wright brothers are credited with the first successful flight, Bell is considered the father of Canadian Aviation for his substantial improvements to aviation with the first aircraft to fly over a kilometer. He spent a lot of time working with kites incorporating tetrahedrons He applied many of his air flight concepts to the improvement of hydrofoils and held the record of over 70 miles an hour in the early 1900s. Other inventions include a metal jacket to help with breathing problems, an audiometer, a metal detector (which he unsuccessfully used on President Taft), and many more. He also co-founded the National Geographic Society.

St. Andrews is located in the southwest corner of New Brunswick at the tip of a peninsula bounded on one side by the St. Croix River. Maine is on the other side of the river, two kilometers away. The peninsula extends into Passamaquoddy Bay which empties into the Bay of Fundy.  Our campground is at the tip of the peninsula right on the water. We were able to experience the effect of the extreme tides of the Bay of Fundy as the water receded from the shore out about 100 yards.

        Low tide with wharf in background from restaurant on main street.

The town was founded in 1783 by American Loyalists and many of the original buildings still stand. The Algonquin, an enormous resort hotel built in 1889, sits on a hill overlooking the entire town.

Original inhabitants of the area were the Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Micmak, branches of the Algonquins. They established weirs in the bay to collect fish, particularly herring. The technique was later adopted by immigrant settlors. Weirs can still be seen at low tide although herring fishing has given way to salmon farming in the bay.

Samuel de Champlain attempted the first French settlement in the New World on St. Croix Island which sits in the St. Croix River, between St. Andrews and Maine. The first winter was particularly harsh and the settlement was moved onshore.

St. Croix island in the right middle of picture, Maine on the far side, Canada in front. Seems like either side would have been a better choice.

Our plan was to use our last day in St. Andrews for birding, but the wind and rain curtailed that idea. Instead we packed up and headed for Baddeck, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, a short nine hour drive away. We were drenched in St. John, but ahead of the rain the rest of the way with just a few sprinkles here and there. We made it to our campground at 6 p.m. with the owner waiting to show us to our site. Once again we are camped in the middle of a forest. Rain is forecast for the day so we’ll probably visit some of the museums in town. Exploration of the Cabot Trail will wait for another day.

2^nd day in Trenton we ventured into Acadia Nat’l Park. We had been there before, but didn’t have a good recollection of it other than we were climbing around some rocks. This was Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and we expected to be among the throngs so we opted to visit a remote section of the park. So remote it’s not even on the same peninsula. We had not visited this area before and were quite surprised at the scarcity of tourists. Very few people over on this side.  Beautiful scenery overlooking the bay of Maine and its many, many islands. After a nice lunch in a small café in Winter Harbor we went back to the RV to leave Dusty, then we hit the road for the main attraction in the park. This was obviously  the destination for the weekend. The rocks, that we finally remembered we had been to before, were crawling with people. For anyone having trouble with HP service over the weekend…all the service reps were in Acadia NP. We saw enough in less than 15 minutes so gave up our parking space and headed home.

                                         Summit of Cadillac Mtn

Our neighbors in the RV park are locals and gave us some info on where to buy the best lobsters. I thought I was done with lobster after Scarborough, but no Rob wanted his turn at cracking the shell. So on our way back from the park we stopped at a lobster shack and bought a live lobster, which we had them cook for us. Back home we tore it apart and had it in a salad. Delicious!. Then our neighbors invited us over to their campfire. We brought out bottle of Bailey’s and enjoyed their company.

                                             Rob's lobster

Early today, Sunday, we headed out for the Canadian border. We had some concern about some of the fresh fruit we had as well as the quantity of wine we were still carrying. Somehow the three cases of wine we left home with, augmented by stops at several wineries along the way, wasn’t reduced to the limit of two bottles per person. We still had more than a case of wine, which we declared at the border. There was some discussion between border agents about whether we would fit under their crossbeams which clearly read 12’6”. To be safe they pulled us off  to the side across incoming traffic. Two agents went through out coach while Rob and Dusty and I waited outside. We could hear them going through all the cabinets. After a few minutes they came out and told us they weren’t going to charge us for the extra bottles of wine and the litre of bourbon Rob bought in Kentucky. Nice guys.

Right now we’re in St. Andrews, New Brunswick looking out at Passamaquoddy Bay. This evening, while we were sitting outside enjoying a glass of wine, a murder of 3 crows flew over obviously very agitated. As we watched, they were diving at something over the sea wall along the shore. Shortly, a bald eagle soared up, oblivious to the crows, and dove down much like a pelican. Cool!

                              Eagle under attack by my little camera.

                                         Photo by Rob

Today is Friday, May 25, 2012 and we have finally arrived in Maine after spending a night and a day at Camp Cummins in Scarborough our coach is finally running smoothly. YEA!!
We left Vermont via a 40 mile detour to get us to the Massachusetts Turnpike. The Green Hills of Vermont gave way to the Berkshires of Massachusetts. I didn’t see much of a difference in the vegetation, but there were sure a lot more resort getaways along the highway in Mass. Anyway, we were still limping at that point and on top of that it was raining. The rain gave us an excuse to go slower, as far as other motorists were concerned. We opted to take the detour so we could take the turnpike where other vehicles would be able to pass us. It worked pretty well. Our Silverleaf calculated our average speed at about 38mph. We stayed one night at Wild Duck Campground in Scarborough, Me. A very nice, adults only, campground smack in the middle of a wetlands. I think most of this part of Maine is a wetlands tho’. There’s water just about everywhere. Rob called Con-Way, the shipper of the part we needed, and found it had made it to Pennsylvania. We were assured it would arrive on schedule on Thursday. We checked in with Cummins and found out where they wanted us to park. Very casual affair…we weren’t listed in their computer as having an apt, but were quickly added. We thought we would show up on Wednesday hoping they could start tearing our coach apart so as to be ready for installation on Thursday and then we could go. It sort of worked out that way. We parked Wed afternoon and Rob called Con-Way again for an update. We were told that the part was in Scarborough and should be delivered within the hour. As we were relaying this information to the service mgr the Con-Way truck appeared with our part. So, after consulting with our technician (another Rob), we left to have dinner at d’Millo’s floating restaurant in Portland. Rob was to be working on the coach until closing at 11:00 p.m. He worked on it long enough to determine that he would need to jack the rear end of the coach up to be able to drop the radiator. Of course, he couldn’t start on that because the slides needed to be in and we had left, leaving them out. He promised to start again at 7 a.m. on Thursday. Both of us were up at 5:30 so we could get showered and dressed and get everything ready for the coach to be jacked up. We’re thinking to drop the radiator he would need to jack it up at least four feet. I was wondering if the coach was going to bend in the middle. It took all day and the coach was only jacked up about 1 ½ feet, but the work got done. After taking a test drive around the block a couple of times to make sure everything got put back together correctly we were off. It was late afternoon, but we decided to head for our next destination a day early with a late check-in. We ran into a fog bank, otherwise it would just been dusk when we arrived, about 8:00. We’re not in Trenton, Maine, just outside of Bar Harbor. Had lunch at the harbor today and took a “nature tour” boat ride around the harbor, in the fog. Reminds us of a boat ride we took in Alaska…pine trees growing to the water’s edge, very rocky coastline, same varieties of birds, and cold. Tomorrow sun is promised. 

The coach at Camp Cummins. Two jacks on each side.

Wild Duck Campground. Coaches are in the trees. Wetlands is all around.

This is what the Maine coast looks like.

                                Apparently there are moose in Bennington. Painted moose were all around the town, much like the angels in LA and cows in Chicago.
                                

Limping along to Vermont has given us an opportunity to really enjoy the scenery. Rolling hills packed with endless expanses of hardwood trees dotted with occasional stands of firs and pines all leafed out in varying shades of green and here and there farms of all sizes carving out pastures and homesteads. Not hard to imagine the colorful display fall brings. We had reservations at an RV park in Vermont just south of Bennington in the Green Mountains. We opted to take a scenic route which was slower since we went through some small towns and didn't collect miles of other vehicles trailing along behind. In deciding on a prospective RV site we consult a website where other campers leave their impressions and recomendations of parks they've stayed out. That's how we picked the one in Oneanta. We approached the new park with a little trepidation, especially after the paved road ran out and we found ourselves following a dirt path through a forest. This time we lucked out. The forest opened up to a beautiful glade with a small pond in the middle and campsites surrounding the pond as well as hidden up in the trees and the park was relatively empty. That soon changed as the weekend approached, but it is still fairly empty. While we're here we'll do some birding and maybe, if it doesn't rain take a trip up to the marble area a bit north of Bennington. Just a quick trip around Bennington revealed many old buildings making use of local marble. Today we did visit the first church established in Vermont. Of note, is the grave of Robert Frost in the church's cemetary...many graves from the early 1700's are of Revolutionary War soldiers.

Looking across the pond at our coach.

Vermont's first church - Congregationalist.

Addendum from Oneonta, NY.... Whoever said something about the "best laid plans..." was right on. Just finishing dinner here in NY when we get a call from our wonderful housesitter, Charlene. Keep in mind it's three hours earlier in California, about 7:30 in NY. Even tho' we meticulously went through the entire sprinkler system and replaced valves and heads where needed before we left, one devilish valve decided to fail. Rob managed to guide Charlene through turning off the water to the yard, but then he had to decide who to call to fix it. So far, while we've been gone, we've called Travis, our plumber and Lee, our sometimes pool guy to fix unforeseen problems. With a stroke of genius from spouse who remembered our new neighbors Lane and Laurie, in their renovating their lawn, had had their contractor, Alex, put in a new sprinkler system. Rob, seeing the quality work Alex did, also had him repair our driveway. Alas, we didn't have Alex' number. Not to worry, we did have Lane and Laurie's. After searching through the checkbook, both online and paper, not to mention the brain cells after several glasses of wine, Rob placed a call to Lane and Laurie and got both voicemails. OH NO, he muses, they're probably on their honeymoon, remembering that their nuptuals where imminent. He just finished leaving a message for Laurie and resumed eating dinner when his phone rang. Lane to the rescue, having just disembarked from an airplane from Oxnard to LAX where he's leaving to join Laurie in the Bay area for Laurie's daughter's graduation from USF. Do we live a charmed life or what??? Lane was able to provide Alex's phone number and within 10 minutes we were set with repairs to the sprinkler valve. If this keeps up, we may have a whole new house before we return. Of course, Rob will soon be looking for work.

One night in Erie turned into two since Rob spent one entire day either underneath the motorhome or running into town for another tool. Kevin, at Country Coach, asked Rob to see if he could locate the part number so he could verify which cooler we might need. In his search for the number, by crawling under the coach he found some broken bolts and missing nuts on the charge air cooler so set out on a mission to replace them with the hope that that would solve our lack of power. Not so easy to do due to the placement of the bolts. We decided to stay the extra night since it was too late to head out by the time he finished his project. Turns out there were thunderstorm/hail advisories on the route we were to take so all in all it was a good idea.
Got an early start this morning anxious to see if the repairs made any difference in the power.  Nope! The power rating which should be 20 - 40 is down around 11-12.  Another call to Kevin to start the order/shipping process. He confirmed the part is in stock and will be shipped today to Maine.

We were doing okay until we had to go over some of the plentiful hills. Not only was it somewhat hilly, but New York has decided to repair their roads and many stretches are limited to one lane in our direction. At one point we had about 30 not-so-happy drivers trailing along behind us at 25 MPH in 2nd gear. Still, we made pretty good time and bypassed a couple of rv parks we had identified as potential overnighters. Finally landed in Oneonta, NY. This will be a one night stand. I'd call it sort of a red-neck RV park.

One of our neighbors....We're not sure if this is a result of an accident or if they planned it this way.

Time for a glass of wine! Tomorrow we'll breeze through the rest of New York for a three or four night stay just south of Bennington, Vermont.  Then we'll be off to Scarborough, Maine to await the arrival of a new charge air cooler. Cummins is already set to install it.  We may make it to the Maritime Provinces yet.

Cardinal posing for me at the Horse Park

Statue of Man O' War over his grave

Sunrise over the farm

My cousin's farm. Our coach is parked

behind the barn on the left.

What happens when you go in the out!

Had a stupendous day birding at the Nature Center in Maumee Bay State Park. This was supposed to be a "big" birding weekend with people coming from all over the world. We missed the Saturday event as I said in a previous blog, but we showed up bright and early Sunday. The only other person that came was the naturalist who was to lead the walk. There's a nature trail at the nature center that traverses miles of swamp forest with boardwalks. Sheryl, the naturalist, was more than willing to lead me and Rob so off we went. We spotted several birds new for us and were able to identify them immediately with Sheryl's help. We wandered the boardwalks for five hours watching for and listening to all the birds. Dusty had his legs crossed when we got back to the motorhome.  Sheryl told us about another birding event in Point Pelee, across the lake in Canada. She was leaving the next day and would be there for several days. This is apparently a point where migrating birds stop after their long journey from South and Central America. We had been pondering whether to go northeast on the Canadian side of the border or the US side. We thought we'd like to go to Point Pelee so we decided to go up the Canadian side.

Best laid plans....Took the coach to a Cummins service center in Toledo on Monday to have it looked at for the whiney noise from the enging compartment. Turns out the turbocharger air cooler is leaking and needs replacing. They didn't have the part and it will take a week to get it from Country Coach in Oregon.  The coach runs, it just doesn't have the same power. So, after several calls to CC we arranged to have the part shipped to Cummins in Maine and will limp there for repairs. Problem is we don't know what the part number is and are relying on CC to figure it out.

Left Maumee Bay this morning and made it to Erie, PA without too much trouble. Campground here is putting in a wave park so there is some construction going on. Nice, good sized park with a pond in it, which we're parked next to. Only problem is our power post is not working so our electrical cable is stretched to the neighboring site. Luckily it's empty. Oh well, only one night here. Internet is pretty strong even tho' the told us we'd have to go to the office to access it. No idea where we're going tomorrow, but we're on the way to Maine.

Oh Boy, Loading this blog using the hotspot on my phone is murderously  slow. We've been without an internet otherwise for five days and won't for another two or three. We're now in Oregon, Ohio on the banks of Lake Erie. The campground is a state park and nicely laid out with lots of sites with electric hookups only. There is a gathering of birders here for the "Biggest Week in American Birding". We missed the first day, but we'll be out tomorrow at 8 am to see what there is to see.

We have been visiting my cousins, Chips and Jeannie, in Demossville, Ky for the past two days. Don't bother looking it up. You won't find it easily on a map. We had explicit instructions on when to get off the interstate, but, you guessed it, we missed the turnoff. Not to worry, the next offramp would also take us to their farm. Jeannie said we should just pull over and she would come to meet us and guide us in. Okay, well, no place to pull over, so we trudged on. Met up with her in Gardnersville and was guided carefully over rural, windy, narrow roads all the way to their farm. Chips was there to greet us after spending the morning chasing escapees. Found them two farms over. We were able to back the coach up next to their barn and hook up to power so we were good to go. The farm is Jeannie's childhood home, also where many of her relatives lived. Originally a dairy and tobacco farm, Chips has turned it into a cattle farm and has increased the acreage to almost a full section with close to 100 head of cattle. Their house is over 100 years old and in great condition. Dusty was overjoyed at being able to run and romp with Rex, a chihuahua. Rex wasn't too sure, but eventually decided he could hold is own with the big dog. Since we hadn't had an opportunity to visit any bourbon distilleries while we were in Lexington, the four of us did a little sightseeing on Friday ending up at Four Roses bourbon distillery somewhere near Lexington. Jeannie was guiding us with her GPS and had me totally turned around, but we got there. Had a tour of the distillery which was shut down for the summer season. They get rolling again in another couple of months. Must have something to do when the corn is harvested. After the tour, we got to taste each of the blends Four Roses bottles. I learned bourbon isn't my choice of cocktails, but Rob enjoyed it and bought a bottle of special stuff. We did make it to a beautiful winery which was more to my liking, Elk Creek. We enjoyed a great lunch and a bottle wine on their patio overlooking rolling hills sparsely (by Calif standards) planted with grape vines.

We had a great time visiting with Chips and Jeannie and catching up on some family history. Chips' father and my mother were bro and sis. Both my father and my uncle were at Annapolis together so had many military exploits together. Photos when we have more internet power.

Yesterday the rolling green hills, er, mountains gave way to the endless green pastures of horse country Kentucky. We skipped through Tennessee on a route that seemed to be a slot cut through the mountains. A beautiful drive that, even though it rained on us,  brought us to the Kentucky Horse Farm campground. Rain stopped and has been beautiful since. This is a very large campground completely landscaped with grass and trees. The only thing paved are the pads and the access roads. You can walk to the Horse Farm, but we chose to drive. The Horse Farm has several arenas for different horsey events, as well as several barns, a couple of museums and some shows. We went to the Hall of Champions where we were shown several retired race horses. After that we went to the Horses of the World barn where horse breeds (there are a few hundred) I've never heard of were trotted out. Then we took in the International Museum of the Horse with exhibits that present the history of the horse starting prehistorically. The horse originated in North America, but for an unknown reason was decimated. They were reintroduced with the discovery of America and, of course, have flourished. Several famous horses are buried on the grounds, the most famous being Man O' War. When most race horses are buried only the head, heart and feet are buried. The head for their intelligence, the heart for their courage  and their feet for their speed. Man O' War was buried whole. His gait was measured at 28 feet. Took me 16 paces to match it.

We had planned to check out at least one of the local distilleries of Kentucky bourbon, but Rob's phone died. Instead we found a Verizon store to see if they could help. We weren't able to resuscitate it so Rob is now the proud owner of a Droid, same number. We switched our hot spot to my phone so we can access the internet when there's no wifi. It's not strong enough to load pictures. They will have to wait.

Tomorrow we're off to visit my cousins, Chips and Jeannie in the north, near Cincinatti. We'll be drycamping on their farm. Dusty can't wait to be free of the leash.

Well we traded palm and pine trees for rhodendrons and sycamores; 95 degrees and 80% humidity for 75 degrees and 20% humidity.  All of that aside, Asheville, NC is hands down the prettiest place we've been so far. Set in the Blue Ridge Mtns, part of the Appalachians. We arrived yesterday early enough to take a tour around town; got lost even with GPS in the car and on my Iphone. Finally figured out we wanted south Bear Creek, not north. The founder of the town decided the streets should follow the natural curvature of the mountains rather than being set up on a grid. Very confusing.  So today we took a trolley tour and found out all about Asheville. Many noted individuals have spent time here. Among them O'Hara, Wm Jennings Bryan, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda, (Zelda was a patient in a psychiatric hospital being treated for schizophrenia when the building burned down and she perished), Tom Wolfe (he was raised here and wrote "Look Homeward Angels" based on his childhood here. The book was banned in the library and he was basically run out of town). George Vanderbilt built the largest house in the U.S. here, the Biltmore Estate...one of many. The estate was initially over 8000 acres, but many were sold to be maintained as a natural forest. The estate is still owned by the Vanderbilt family, but is open to the public for a small fortune. There are lots of picturesque waterfalls close by. We hiked to two of them in the afternoon. Beautiful trails through a heavily wooded state park. So far we've missed any dangerous weather. We've either been in front of it or behind it. Tomorrow we move to Lexington, KY and heavy rain is predicted. Just so there are no tornados!!

Not the Biltmore but a house built in the 20s by the psychiatrist who treated Zelda Fitzgerald. Many other houses of similar elegance are scattered through Asheville.

Hooker Falls

High Falls

This is our last day in the South. As we left Florida we noticed a crack creeping up the windshield under the wiper. We stopped at a Safelite store before Savannah to see if they could keep it from spreading. We'll have it replaced when we get to Oregon in August. They applied some epoxy-like stuff with no guarantee. We'll hope for the best. We also had the windshield replaced in the Yukon.  Consequently, it was late when we got to Savannah.
We had a white-knuckle ride right through the historic part of Savannah. Very tight lanes with trucks restricted to the left lane. With cars parked on the side of the right lane we opted to be a truck, but it was still tight for several blocks. The Tall Ships were in port so there were people everywhere dodging cars crossing the streets.

Tybee Island is fairly laid back, not as touristy as nearby Hilton Head.
The park itself is set among the pines and oaks within walking distance of the beach. The beach is accessed by walkways over protected dunes. Rob managed to find the ubiquitous sand gnats and has the bites on his legs to prove it.

We spent Friday in Savannah looking at the ships and touring the historic area. Bull St. has parks in the middle of street almost the entire length. Each one had historic importance in the Civil War. Many very well kept old mansions were all along this street. Hard to take pictures because of the tall, old oak and magnolia trees.

Saturday was blisteringly hot. We set out walking to take in some of the local events, starting out at the beach where there was supposed to be a sand sculpture contest. Lots of people on the beach, but no sculptures. Next there was supposed to be an art show near the lighthouse. There was a Corvette show instead. We finally did find the art show but not before following arrows that we thought were leading us to the show. Not...they marked a cancer walk that was to take place in the evening. We gave up and stopped for lunch then got the car with air conditioning.

Tomorrow we head for Asheville, NC. Watching the weather channel closely.

After a four hour round trip to Tallahassee, Rob got a replacement BBQ. Another couple of hours to set it up and the day was gone. At least I got the laundry done and finished a book while he was gone. Oh and walked Dusty on the beach several times. He's decided he likes to walk on the beach and chase the waves so about every hour he sits at the door and whines. Then he leads me across the street to the beach. Who says he's not spoiled.
Scoured the local attractions, Appalachacola and St. George Island. Appalachacola was interesting with its old picturesque homes. St. George Island is a beach vacation destination with lots of rental homes, much like the Outer Banks in NC. Not much else there, but an interesting drive over another long, long bridge. Walked through a swamp looking for birds. Spotted a Green Heron, but the rest of the birds apparently found a cooler, less humid spot to roost.  Had planned to play golf, but the winds came up and we decided to relax instead.


A crowded day on Carrabelle Beach!

In 1943 Carrabelle Beach was used to train the 4th Army Infantry Division to prepare for D-Day amphibious invasion on Utah beach. On D-Day the first amphibious assault teams to arrive on French soil were from the 4th Army.

Next stop Tybee Island, GA.