Moving Steadily South

We have gone through a few states in the last month (or however long it has
been).  At one of our stops in South Carolina we visited with Toni and Chris
Bennett.  A few years ago they went to the same church as us. Recently we
had our children in the same school that their children attended.  Last
August they moved out this way, they were very happy to see folks that have
suffered through Oregon's water weather.

We spent a day on the Atlantic beach, first hiking a shoreline trail to
visit a lighthouse.  Unfortunately, the lighthouse was located in the middle
of a bay and only accessible by boat.  After some beach combing we left and
went to play in the surf.  What a relaxing time to spend a winter day
frolicking in the waves.  We weren't alone, but there weren't crowds.  The
water was very warm compared to Oregon's ocean.  Quite a fun thought that in
a normal year we would be wearing winter coats.

There is a terrific park in Georgia which has some bicycle trails that rival
Sun River in every way...except hills.  There weren't even bumps in the
landscape.  Speed bumps are posted with the altitude so we can know how high
we will be going.  Anyway, these bike trails go through forest and swamp
land and can be done without any major effort on our parts--except the
bearings on my bike failed, so I was working twice as hard as I needed.  The
bike shop warned me that my bike was so old it needed to be retired (not
re-tired as in new wheels).  If we ever have a space of a few days with
nothing to do, bicycle shopping may happen. The park in which we went
bicycling was the site of a major Christmas light pageant.  In fact, as we
were finishing our ride some of the lights were lit.  What fun to go through
the forest and have all those twinkling lights come on.  Without a doubt
returning when the sun went down was our plan.

The evening trip through the same park we spent the day riding in was even
better.  It surprised us to find a place with a better light display than
the Portland zoo.  This was an amazing display of lights.  In the middle of
the drive-through was a parking area to allow for walking down those bike
trails while Christmas carols were played.  It was so refreshing to be out
in the woods at night with glorious music AND spectacular lights.  It would
only be fair to mention the carousel and Christmas train ride as well.  Oh,
did I say anything about the sand sculpture???  It was a group of Victorian
carolers about 10 feet tall.  We truly felt christmasfied by the time we
finished the evening.  The driving route through the lights was planned so
you could repeat as many times as you wanted.  We went twice.  It was still
good.

Did I mention we went to the beach? In November? The day before
Thanksgiving? And we weren't cold?  Oh.

There was a hiking trail not far from our campground in North Carolina and
we opted to hike it on a cooler day.  It was fun, but much calmer than
anything we did in Maine.  In fact, there aren't many rocks here at all.
Different commentaries discuss the effort it took to get any granite markers
to this area.  It seems the colonists would order the rock and have it
brought as ship ballast.  Most of the cemetery markers are fairly new as few
could afford such luxuries for their loved ones.  Imagine our surprise when
we were hiking through the swamp/forest and came upon a headstone.  Only one
..  There wasn't even a homestead around there.  The destination of the hike
into the forest, was to see alligators.  Not sure what time they eat, but
they weren't interested in coming to see us on a cold day.  We are holding
out hope that somewhere further south one will materialize for us.  We did
get to see the nesting area for storks, and lots of swamps.  Nice hike.

Speaking of further south, we entered Florida.  There are a LOT of white
hairs here!!!  My-oh-my.  It is scary.  Of course I live with one of those
critters so have faced that fear.

Oh, did I mention we went to the beach? In December? And we weren't cold? Oh


Well then, did I mention that we had fresh strawberries...picked that
morning from the field across the road from our campground?  Sorry, can't
resist rubbing it in a bit.

Our first exposure to camping in Florida was in the jungle located on the
beach.  It was beyond belief.  Since it was the middle of the week (and
December) it was mostly empty.  There weren't any evergreen trees, just palm
trees and hardwood trees with Spanish moss dripping from the branches.  Very
picturesque.  Signs warned us that there were alligators and to not feed
them.  Yeah right.  Didn't see any.  We did see a blue crab.  Chris made
friends (surprse?) and they invited him fish with them.  He was the only one
to catch anything and it was blue crab.  Very pretty color.  Chris was a
friend, but they still took his crab to their campsite.  That was the last
we saw the crab.  To be honest, it was probably thrown back since the dad
said it wasn't big enough yet.  Very nice friends.

We fully expect our next campsite to be more wonderful than this one since
it will be at Disney World.  That will be another week and another email.

Til then you can find us at the beach.

Williamsburg

The main event in the historic triangle is Williamsburg. The capital moved from Jamestown to Williamsburg because it was more central to all the other settlements. Settlements weren't called settlements, they were called plantations. That word (plantation) morphed later into what we understand it to be. The first words of revolution were spoken in Williamsburg by all those historically famous people (Washington, Raymond Burr, Thomas Jefferson ..bunch more, but it all becomes a blur). The revolution really got going once news came here of the Boston massacre and how the British were treating the colonists in Massachusetts. The final straw came one night when the colonists went to the armory to secure (steal) the powder and munitions and found the British already had it all loaded in carts and were hauling it away. Timing is everything it seems in war.

Williamsburg is an amazing living history village, complete with a palace, parliament, stores, taverns, colonists, soldiers and patriots. Each day they reinact a moment in history that happened there. There is a square-mile area that automobile traffic is restricted. We took this as an opportunity to use our bicycles. Good idea. Williamsburg can not be toured in a day...we took three. Part of the village includes the Rockefeller museum and their home. We were amazed at the part this family had in recovering this town so we could enjoy it. There was an amazing tree in their back yard that I had Rose and Chris hug.

A special treat was to go at night for a ghost walk tour. These ghosts were really story tellers of that era. The walk was by lantern to several buildings that were only open for evening adventures. What a delight when the first story teller told about the Cherokee Indians that came to Williamsburg. Rose was enthralled. Having stories told by candlelight was a wonderful experience for all of us.

When we toured the palace Chris and I were rather impressed by all the weaponry that was hung in the entry way. The picture shows only one wall, but every wall had the same sort of display. Chris was thinking they should give him one sword since they had so many. I was happy to know that would not happen. The gardens (acres and acres) behind the palace kept us amused for hours. One highlight was the maze. We are getting rather good at them now...
The cellar under the palace was a surprise. Chris was looking for the restrooms and found the steps. It was very quiet down there and enough separate rooms that our imaginations could travel back to what those locked rooms could really have held.

The last event of the week was meeting relatives of Chris and Rose. We were pleased to find family living in this area and we were delighted to spend an afternoon touring the Virginia museum with them. Rose and Chris talked non-stop (as usual) and had a great time with their new aunts, uncle and cousin.

This was a very busy week and we would love to return and do it all again. I failed to adequately mention how beautiful the gardens were in all the places we went as well as the wonder of driving the Colonial Highway between the cities. The arched bridges and waterways, deer and other wild life (.. but no hope of a moose, we are now watching for alligators).
Now we are moving to the deep south, and hopefully sunshine and warmth. Next stop: North Carolina.

Jamestown and Yorktown

Some emails we have gotten question how we are going to handle the boredom
of living at home again. Rest assured that what I send you are the
highlights of our trip. What you are missing is all the laundry, grocery
shopping and cleaning days. It is a full day when we move from one spot to
another (mostly because when we get set-up we want to sit down). I am sure
when we get back to Oregon we will find this saying true: "Be it ever so
humble, there is no place like Home."

The area we have been for over a week is called the Historic Triangle. The
three towns are: Jamestown, Yorktowne and Williamsburg. The triangle is so
rich with activities that it could take a week to describe it to you, I will
limit myself to two updates.

This year is the 400th celebration of the settling of Jamestown. Jamestown
is the area that the first permanent English settlement was made...unless
you talk to someone up around Massachusetts. Up there, they say that the
pilgrims were the first characters to float across the big water and start a
settlement. Either way, all of them had a rough time! Most of that initial
group died the first year. In fact, they had several years of difficulty
until they brought over the first women. Then things leveled out and the
colony began growing. (All the women can smile here...)

There are two parts of Jamestown. There is the actual historic area (museum
and archeological dig) then there is Jamestown village which is a
re-creation for living history where children can learn without realizing it


A Powhotan Indian village has been recreated and the admission allows you to
be an Indian as long as you want. Every house is fully equipped in the way
it would have been 400 years ago. Rose and Chris told everyone that they
were Cherokee which raised a lot of eyebrows as they looked into those
honest blue eyes. There are several Indians doing Indian things...which
means they answered a lot of questions from these two. It wasn't an easy
task to convince them to see what else there was to see, mostly they wanted
to be Indians in the Indian village.

Down the hill from the Indian village was the dock complete with replicas of
the three ships that brought the first group to America. The ships were
fully furnished and everything could be touched and felt (as long as you had
an adult in attendance). While talking with the captain we found that if
you volunteer enough hours for the museum they will actually let you ride on
the ships when they sail them in the summer. Sounds like another "big field
trip" to plan for.

Along the shore is a ship-building area where we helped make a log canoe.
They built a ship last year, in fact it was one of the ships that was on the
dock.

To finish the day was the rebuilt fort. Every building was available to
explore and had everything just as it would have been 400 years ago. The
armor shop had complete suits of armor (child size of course) that could be
worn and played with (check out the cute soldiers). The only activity that
was restricted was cooking in the kitchen building. That was reserved for
the curator...but she patiently answered all the questions that Rose and
Chris could dream up. One flyer said to plan 3 hours at Jamestown....we
were there the whole day and could have played more, but it gets cold when
the sun sets.

Yorktowne is where the British surrendered, ending the revolution. The
British got hurt feelings when they lost the siege in Yorktowne. After the
terms of surrender were written, Cornwallis said he had a tummy ache and
wouldn't be able to relinquish his sword to Washington. He sent his aide
instead. Washington answered by not accepting the aides sword, but sent his
aide to accept the surrender. At any rate, the war didn't end immediately
but the fighting was pretty much over for the British.

While touring Yorktowne we saw what we thought was a misstatement. On one
plaque it said that the German forces were on the British side fighting.
Then another one said the Germans were helping the Americans. Turns out
they are both right. The Germans were on both sides. It seems the German
government was short of funds and England offered to rent soldiers. The
Germans who helped the colonists were promised a piece land if they would
help out. I guess they were making a gamble and bound to win. The French
were the deciding factor in our being a country. They had the ships that
were needed to blockade the English ships at the harbor mouth. The Freedom
Tower is a tribute to both the American and French troops. According to
what we learned, more French troops lost their lives than Americans at
Yorktowne.

There was a recreated army camp (not a fort) complete with muskets and
cannons. Chris was delighted that he could hold a black-powder rifle as
much as he wanted. Actually he couldn't hold it alone. Those guns are
rather heavy. A cannon demonstration included volunteers to help. Guess
who got to be a helper?? Even now they can explain how a cannon is loaded
and fired. At the end of the demonstration the cannon was actually fired
and we were all thrilled.

Next installment: Williamsburg

Getting some good history here

While in New York state we found a grist mill to visit. We were hoping to
see a paddle-wheel turning and hear the mill wheels grinding the grain.
Unfortunately, they only run the wheel a few times a year and we were a week
early. Even so, it was a very informative tour. The picture is of the
gears used to turn the huge mill wheels. All the gears are made from wood,
so I was very keen on seeing them. Each cog is set in a clamp system that
is fascinating by itself. The paddle wheel was actually housed within the
building, and I couldn't get back far enough for a good picture, so we have
to be happy with the memory.

The rain moved into the Philadelphia area about the time we did. Since they
are having a drought the locals were happy to see us and what we brought
(rain). The whole Continental Congress and Ben Franklin thing was lost on
Rose and Chris. The Philly-steak sandwich was lost on me, as for
interesting things this place was it. The best fun was the time before a
movie in the visitor center when Rose and Chris had a friend to make faces
with. They had a great time. After the movie we "met" the friend and he
was probably in his 60's and very fun. He fished around in his huge
overcoat because he knew he had something in there begging to get out.
Finally he found two little piggy banks to give to them. Silly me, I didn't
think of a group picture until he was lost in the crowd. So, we have
another time to be happy with the memory.

Taking a break from all of our history lessons, we took another train ride.
This was a wish Rose has had since the beginning of our "big field trip"--to
go on a steam train. This one traveled about two hours (round-trip) through
the Pennyslvania countryside. Without realizing our good planning, we got
the first run of the day. There were less than a dozen passengers traveling
with us. When we returned to the station it was packed! On a nice day this
train would be a good one for a picnic as they have an area where the train
will stop to allow you to disembark and pick-up on one of the other return
trips. It was a delightful day. We at least have pictures to trigger this
good memory.

Back to more history meant a tour of Washington DC. There is so much to see
there it is almost overwhelming. The natural history museum was our first
stop (we needed a pit stop and that was the closest building). Then it was
the long walk up the mall to the capital. The safety restrictions won't
allow us to carry bags or packages inside, so Jerry opted to sit-out this
time and the rest of us went in. The guides do a lot of talking which isn't
at all interesting when you are five and six, so we did our own tour
(unofficially of course). While we were wandering around in the hall of
statues the minority whip came out of his office and did part of our
mini-tour with us. Uhm....again, another memory as I didn't think to turn
the camera on him. We are still happy.

Our map doesn't have the cat (what we call the fifth-wheel) traveling into
Delaware, so we took a one-day excursion to find the beach. The coast line
here is much different from what we have on the left-side of the country.
Here, there are a lot of spits and rivers, which means there are few ocean
beaches. Although Delaware is the smallest state, when you are driving the
length of it without beach success you quickly tire of the effort. We did
go into a wildlife viewing area...the rule sign informed us that we were to
stay inside our car and not make any noise. We did. No wildlife ever came
into view. Take all of this to mean that it wasn't worth a picture and we
don't need a memory.

Next stop: Virginia.

Fall is about over here

My grandmother's family had their start in Connecticut and the family farm still exists. Seemed like a natural to go visit them. Even better since they had a corn maze and pumpkin festival. This is the first corn maze we have ever done and it was a very exciting thing to complete as a family. There were so many fun activities for children that it would be hard to say what was enjoyed the most, but both Rose and Chris said they liked rolling around in the culvert pipe best. The weather again was still very nice. We weren't the only ones still wearing shorts in October. Anyone could see that it was a good play day by how dirty two children were that night.

A second trip through New York state has us camping on the eastern part in the Catskill Mountains. When we pulled in we noticed there is a lot more color here than up north, but the first night we were hit with a storm. The weather report said that 11 inches of rain was dumped on this area in a 24-hour period. They said something about flash flooding in NYC. The next day the mountains had skeleton trees to view. This isn't a good year for color.

Did you know that all the trees always have colored leaves? The reason that we see green leaves is because the tree is sucking up water and making chlorophyll (which is green). When the temperature drops and the nights are longer the trees chemistry changes and the chlorophyll is restricted from going to the leaves. Then the true colors of the trees can be seen. We are learning a lot. Some of the trees are lacking that chemical that blocks the chlorophyll, and they just keep sucking (so to speak).

There is a lot of evidence that Rip Van Winkle truly did exist, but we are a bit skeptical. Just to be sure, we spent a day hiking in the woods--there are some terrific waterfalls to see and they have a bit of fall color around them. Kaaterskill Falls is a beautiful short hike. The signs all say that it is the highest water fall in New York, but it isn't true. We are discovering that you can't believe everything printed on signs. (More reason not to believe ol' Rip lived.) Even so, it is a peaceful place to go and quite impressive. An artist had set-up her easel at the pool and we got to watch her work. An exciting experience for our little artist. After viewing the falls from below we drove up the mountain and hiked to the top of the falls (second water shot). There was a rough trail up the canyon on the side of the falls we could have climbed, but it looked a bit risky since the wet leaves were piled on the rocks. A couple of hardy young men were doing it while we were there and managed it nicely.

We are satisfied with the fall color and now would like to go south so we can keep wearing shorts. It is starting to get cold here. They are talking frost in various places. We went to wal-mart yesterday and were the only ones with legs showing. Some folks even were wearing heavy winter coats. hmmm...we didn't even bring anything as heavy as they were wearing. I pulled out some jeans for Chris and he looked at me like I was crazy. He got his shorts out instead, he will change when he gets cold.

Until next time....

Working our way south

Our last big event in New Hampshire was a bonus for Jerry. We read in a local flyer about a tree on Robert Frost's property that was to be cut down due to age/disease. The wood was going to be sold and/or given to those that made a reservation. Unfortunately the dead-line for the reservation was the day before we read the article. Jerry can sound pathetic when he wants, so he called and asked if they couldn't please make an exception. The lady took his name and number and added him to her list. She said not to expect the rule to be bent "just because you are from---where did you say you were from?" (truth is I don't know what he said or she said. It just sounds like a good story.)

No one called him that night and the next morning was the event. We drove there anyway. Jerry spoke with the distant cousin that was in charge of the wood dispersal. Like all good wood-turners they spent a lot of time yukking it up and eventually Jerry not only got several chunks of the tree, but also some other special wood. A letter of authenticity will be sent so Jerry has a real treasure. Needless to say he was floating on clouds for days. Seems that the tree holds significance as it was probably the one that inspired Robert Frost to write the poem "The tree from my window". Correct the name of the poem as I have never read it. I like another poem he wrote about the road less traveled. Seems to be the theme of our "big field trip", it has made all the difference. (Picture of Jerry on the stump of THE tree.)

While in Massachusetts we visited both Boston and Salem. We went to Boston to get a sense about the start of the Revolutionary War. The tour through the North End was easy since they have a red stripe that you walk along. It saves all of us from reading a map and getting lost anyway. The walk includes the home of Paul Revere and the Old North Church. It also took us over the river to the USS Constitution and up to Bunker Hill...which isn't really Bunker Hill--it is just called that because that is where the battle was suppose to be. It seems that the order was given to fight the British on Bunker Hill, but was disobeyed and fought on a smaller hill with a better view. To cover the foul-up, they called it Bunker Hill. There is a tower built there as a memorial of the battle. Rose and Chris felt like they needed to climb to the top. Jerry felt like he should rest. So--it is a total of just under 600 steps. There aren't any short cuts. The pain afterwards only last three days (unless you are in shape. Which I was not). There is a picture of Rose and Chris sitting on the top three steps where short people can go to look out the peep-hole.

Hearing about the witch trials in Salem and being so close, it seemed like a natural excursion. Besides that I found a pirate museum was located there as well. The pirate museum wasn't a museum. Think along the lines of a wax museum only with department store dummies dressed as pirates. There were some interesting stories told by a totally ungifted speaker. In other words, buy a book....or read about pirates on the Internet. It did have a lot of potential. Children under 12 will find it enjoyable. Parents will feel ripped-off as there is little value to any of it other than the knowledge that piracy still exists and they just got took.

In fact, Salem was a bust. Funny thing is that we enjoyed our day there more than Boston. The whole witch trials thing, didn't happen in Salem. They happened in the village next to what is now called Salem. That village at one time was called Salem Village. When the furor of the witch hunt and hangings subsided (probably 100 years later) and the good citizenry realized how far wrong they were, they became embarrassed. To keep the world from pointing a finger at them, they changed the name of their town. Then the attention shifted to Salem Harbor (present day Salem). These good folk realized they could cash in on the whole thing by making the world believe it happened there. That is just what they did, they dropped the Harbor part of their name and became Salem. Witchery is VERY much in vogue there. The whole month of October is a celebration. Think Mardi Gras in New Orleans. There is a lot of that sort of craziness there. We left before the evening really got started as it just isn't our thing. Strange people are there. Get the book instead--unless you really want to "get down and dirty".

We did go to the harbor and see the ship Friendship. Very picturesque. Also saw the home of Nathenial Hawthorne; House of Seven Gables fame. Saw that house as well. We didn't go through it...just a walking tour through the town. They did the same red-line trick to keep tourists from going astray. Very nice of them I'd say.

Our campground was close enough that we could visit other states besides Massachusetts. So while the weather was good we went to Rhode Island and found that it was over 80 degrees at the beach there. We spent part of our day and Rose accidentally learned how to body surf. She was all over it from then on. Chris even enjoyed the gentler surf and got wet clear up to his shorts. The day was a record breaker; 20 degrees above normal. Very nice.

The goal for our trip to Rhode Island was Providence for the WaterFire art show. A few years ago when the city center was dying, an artist decided to make a display using the canal that goes right through downtown. He started with a few urns which were piled with wood and fired them up at dark. Not sure just how often he did his art, but it has now grown to (I think) a thousand urns and he fires them every other Saturday from spring until sometime in October. Down town is now revitalized, the show is worth seeing. The lighting started at 6:30 and when we left an hour later they were still traveling the canal restocking the urns. The whole experience is wonderful as the wood is snapping dry and the flames make each of my pyromaniacs very pleased. Music is piped throughout the city during the evening from several stages. The urns stretched five or six city blocks long, maybe more. Very very good. To add to the ambience, the temperature was hovering around 78.

Just want you folks to know that we do miss you and it is sure nice to hear how things are going at home. We watch the weather just to see if we can see the west coast. Pretty thrilling when they mention anything about Oregon.

New Hampshire has waterfalls

There are so many Kodak moments that I really am having a hard time limiting
myself to six pictures...

The Kancamagus Highway through New Hampshire is rated as one of the top ten
most scenic roads in the country. I would like the job of the person making
that decision. This 100-mile loop through the mountains and notches, along
rivers and lakes, is a wonderful auto touring experience. However, to
really appreciate what is here the car must be parked and the feet put in
gear. Someone must have thought the same thing since there are ample
turn-outs as well as parking lots. We couldn't stop at each one (there are
over 100 waterfalls), but the ones at which we did stop was a sensory reward
After a few waterfalls you would think that we would be calloused, but
that just didn't happen. Every waterfall is different and wonderful.
Turning corners on the trails reveal more wonderful sights. Even without
the leaves changing it would be a grand experience, but we are blessed with
the addition of the fall colors to the beauty of the trails.

Some of you may recognize the names of the sites from your own journeys. It
will be a pleasant memory when you hear them. Names like Sabbaday Falls,
The Basin, Crawford Notch, Franconia Notch, White Mountain.

A lot of the trails we hiked were on pavement. There were a few that are
rails-to-trails. One was a bit better than just blazing our own trail
through the mountains as the trees are marked (kept us from wandering).
Chris and Rose liked the rough trail the best. They really love climbing
over rocks and walking through the streams and spotting the trail markers.
Now that they both have water sandals they love crossing streams.

What an unexpected delight to find that our camping site was next to one of
the scenic rivers. We spent hours lolling along the shore (also known as
fishing), as well as trying our hand at painting. Neither activity produced
record breakers or masterpieces, but we are sure willing to try again..
until we get it right. The picture of Chris relaxing on the log over the
water should give you an idea of just how much effort we are giving to this
activity.

The fall colors are promising, but we haven't gotten to the peak yet. Each day we expect to be overwhelmed by red, orange and yellow hillsides. The locals say the season is over by Columbus Day. That is the date a lot of them close shop and head south. Having two residences in separate states isn't unusual back here for anyone. Even some campers rent their sites for months (or years) commuting between home and camp.