Kit and Carol on the Road

Washington Da Capital* (10/29)
*One of the infamous eighth graders, when asked what DC stood for…replied “Da Capital”
So here we are in close proximity to the Nation’s Capital. We have settled into a very impressive RV Park in College Park, Maryland: a good HQ for sightseeing if we have time. This morning we headed out for breakfast at Gwen and Jim’s. Then Jim drove us into downtown DC. We parked near the Washington Memorial and walked through the new WWII Memorial (which is totally uninspiring) up to the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln is always impressive and the Vietnam Wall is a true memorial. But my favorite was the statue of Albert Einstein. This afternoon, we drove to yet another state, Virginia, to help my cousin Kay move some things to storage. Tomorrow we are off on another outing with Gwen and Jim. Monday we have to sit here and wait for the mail in hopes that our MONEY cards will arrive so we can continue our journey. Monday is the last day we can use our current cards and we are up a creek without them.

The Marines are Coming!!! (10/30)
This morning we set out with Gwen and Jim again to visit Arlington National Cemetery and then have a hike. After circling the Pentagon two or three times and discovering most the roads were closed we figured out something was up. It was the annual Marines Marathon. Traffic was a mess. Finally we made it out of the city and into the wonderful Maryland Countryside. Side by side with the Potomac is the C and O canal with the old towpath being a hiking biking trail. We had a lovely long walk along the canal. I loved the reflections. Almost none of the trees here have put on their fall colors so everything is still green. We had late lunch at a nice deli in the upscale town of Potomac. Now back at camp doing mundane things like laundry.

Cannons at the Confederate Stronghold in Gettysburg. This is the spot where Pickett started his charge--the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. 

Kit's favorite thing in Boston. This poster was in the window of an Italian Restaurant in Little Italy. 

Mystic Seaport, Connecticut 

Not much time to write this as I am online but we: traveled through the Gettysburg battlefield and looked from the viewpoints of Confederate (in the north) and Untion (in the south) soldiers. Had lunch in a colonial era tavern. Then went to visit Ike and Mamie and their farm and had a look at their black angus cows--and the house.

Pumpkins alit on the Boston Common. (Tom and I taking a look.  

We have just arrived at Round Top Campground in Gettysburg where I am finally able to get commected. Here's the update from the past whenever.

Pilgrims Under Siege (10/19)
We were quite excited about Plimoth Plantation because of the “real pilgrims” you can talk with—not so much to see but lots to learn. (Kit and I are at totally different levels on this history stuff because I’ve taught 5th graders for lots of years). At Plimoth, we learned a very important lesson for all travelers: don’t be complacent about being “off season”—plan your visit to places like this on Sundays or after 2 pm. Plimoth was literally swarming with school groups. I am sure there were well over 500 kids from preschool through high school. I usually don’t mind kids but there were so many it cannot have been a good experience for them or us. Forget talking to the villagers. We finally left for lunch and came back after 2pm when things had quieted down a bit. It’s a unique place to visit—I just wish they would put a quota on school groups.

Biking on the Cape (10/20-21)
We were lucky enough to have good weather for a couple days on Cape Cod. We were also lucky enough to have our own private RV park (the Fedge driveway) with hot baths a real bonus. (and of course, visiting with Tom) Wonderful bike trails on the cape. Thursday afternoon we rode part of the Cape Cod Rail trail. On Friday we went out to the National Seashore and rode several sections to beaches, through the dunes, and through a beech forest, past ponds ringed by brilliant leaved trees.

Substitute Eighth Graders (10/22)
Saturday was cold and drizzly but not a bad day to visit Boston. (after we went to the Unitarian Church fair in Brewster). Tom is taking two groups of 150 8th graders to Boston next week so we went in to check it out. He led us on a walking tour of the Freedom Trail and other bits of Boston as well. It was quite a surprise to come out of the parking garage onto the Boston Common which was adorned with carved pumpkins. Boston is trying for a world record. Anyway we loved Boston—saw lots of historic stuff, lots of shopping malls, (where we didn’t spend), and lots of Italian restaurants (where we didn’t eat). 18th of April in ’75…. Paul Revere was out on his horse so he didn’t do the lanterns in the Old North Church.

Fleeing the Storm (10/24)
Drove out of New England and the wonderful tree-lined freeways, into New York and across the Hudson River, and into Pennsylvania.. a day ahead of the “Nor ‘easter”. It is not easy driving across Pennsylvania—none of the freeways seem to go in the direction we are headed. Drive down back roads along the Delaware River and onto the Pennsylvania Pike (bumpy toll road) and Highway 222 which was slow one lane for miles. Finally we came to the current RV Park. (near Lancaster, PA) It rained all night but no flooding, wind, or snow.

Cost Update
Diesel was pretty much $2.95 for about two weeks. Then on Cape Cod we found it for $2.89. Then in New York we paid $3.13. Today in PA it was $2.83. Talk about yo-yo. And the lowest camp prices are now around $30.

Amish Country (10/25)
Do you believe it has been 20 years since the movie Witness came out! There was an exhibit at the Lancaster Cultural Museum that did an excellent job of explaining Amish life (because of the movie anniversary). Despite the rain there were lots of horse and buggies out on the roads. At the museum we saw a driver’s manual for horse and buggy. I’m sure in the sun this is beautiful country. But it’s not all just Amish farms. Big suburban houses are now dotting the landscape—and even on back roads there’s plenty of car traffic. We first went to the town of Intercourse. (Tom, bet your kids would have fun with this one). I found, not only one fabric store, but lots of them. This is a mecca for quilters. In Lancaster I visited the quilt museum along with a tour group of German quilters. We also found a wonderful food market (and I lost my umbrella) where we got some great stuff for supper. Pennsylvania is not our favorite state so far. You have to buy wine in a state liquor store and beer you can only get by the case at a beer distributor. Plus the roads are unimpressive to say the least.

We are back in Connecticut having come today from the Cape and Boston. I'll update--and hopefully post pictures when I get a chance.

Rain and Pain
Nothing puts a damper on travel adventure like rain, rain, rain. (No doubt you’ve heard about New England’s wet weather) Plus I’ve been “under the weather” and in some pain, which doesn’t make for fun, fun, fun. But we’ve been doing OK. We had dinner with Fran, Celia, and the “kids”. We spent a not-so-rainy day at Hancock Shaker Village. Back in New York we met up with Carol and Bob and spent the night at their camp on Lake Sacandaga: a cozy place to spend a rainy evening. Then we drove down to Connecticut through the rain. (The next day it rained so much they closed the interstate). At least we have found a first class RV park. (in East Lyme—SE CT) Still and all it’s a long way to the “friends and family”. We met these people in New York who were on the first night of a 9 month trip around the US. They plan to spend most of it visiting friends and family. Little do they know that’s the most stressful part of traveling-- trying to find a place to stay nearby and making connections. We did make it up to Hartford today (an easy hour drive) to visit my niece Darci. We had a good visit and spent much of the afternoon at the Mark Twain House and Museum. (for our mini-theme of Victorian mansions). In the past we’ve had good luck with museum food but were not impressed with the café here so found a Mexican (Oaxacan) restaurant down the street.

Mystic Quesadilla (10/17)
(For the culturally deprived this is a sorry take off on the movie title “Mystic Pizza”)
A gorgeous, mostly sunny, though quite windy, day in southern Connecticut was a great time to visit Mystic Seaport. (major tourist attraction) We were there from 10 until 3:30 and did not see everything. The poor tour bus people only get an hour here before they are shuttled away. The school kids got 2 hours. I guess the marine/ boat thing can be a mini-theme of our trip too. There are a number of restored tall ships here and a working shipyard. I was fascinated with the demonstration of rope making—and the rope walk. Besides all the boat stuff there is a “seaport village” depicting life in the 1800’s. My most memorable experience will be talking with the one “period re-enactor” that we found. She was the wife of a Welsh sea captain and had quite interesting stories about her travels. OK—you are wondering about the quesadilla part. We were not at all impressed with the “restaurant” here but just outside the gate we found The Seaman’s Inne where we had a wonderful lunch in the pub. I guess hummus and artichoke quesadillas are not particularly 19th century food, but the food was really good.

So much for backroads…
In our stay in the northeast we’ve spent a lot off time on the interstates—they are everywhere and it is just a faster way to get around, given a finite amount of time.
Today we whizzed through Rhode Island in an hour. I have decided we get to count it on our map even though we didn’t sleep there or even set foot on Rhode Island soil. So we arrived here in Plymouth before noon. We have a lovely wooded spot in one of those “dreaded family campgrounds”. It is actually quite nice and just a few minutes drive into Plymouth. We went in mid afternoon for a look-see. Unlike Bar Harbor, which felt like total chaos from which I couldn’t wait to escape, Plymouth is a quite nice little tourist town where I could see spending a bit more time visiting shops and such. (I FINALLY found another fabric shop). We trod on the land of our forefathers, gazed at what’s left of Plymouth Rock, gaped at the Mayflower, and admired the colonial houses. Tomorrow we do Plimoth Plantation.

Carol and Art (and Lynne) and friends. (Did you know Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell?) 

In New England for the colors
Hope for leaves of reds and yellows
Shades of gray color the sky
And the rivers roaring by
But the leaves are mostly green
Not the perfect autumn scene
Here and there a splash of flame
Such as spreads New Englands fame
Mostly yellows turning brown
Wind and rain will bring them down
Now the colors blanket earth
Waiting for the leaves' rebirth....

Massachusetts Rain (10/8)
We nearly didn’t get a camping spot in the park we chose in Littleton. It turns out that Columbus Day weekend is a 3 day weekend in MA and everyone goes out for a last camping trip and to look at the leaves.In the two days and nights we were in Mass., it rained 6 inches. It sure put a curb on our enthusiasm for camping. But my friends Art and Lynne came and we all went into Lowell and had a great time despite the rain. There is a National Historic Park in Lowell that relates to the industrial revolution. You can still see the canals and the old textile mills. The museum has a working textile mill (just the weaving part) on the first floor. It was like watching a bunch of automated Mexican weavers doing triple time. Fascinating—but noisy. Kit and I both think this would be a great soup supper program but we didn’t take many photos or buy a video. The most interesting part is the lives of the mill workers—first the farm girls who came to work in the mills and lived in boarding houses nearby, and later the immigrants. I can’t begin to cover all the interesting ‘stuff’ we learned in this brief entry. I also learned that Jack Kerouac was born in Lowell and so I finally bought a copy of On the Road for road reading.

East Coast Woes (10/9)
I am not sure why they do not seem to have real RV parks on the east coast. Both our park in Mass, and the new one in New York are “Family Campgrounds”—a term I have come to dread. This means they are out in the boondocks with trees and mud—nice quiet getaways for city families but totally inappropriate for travelers on the road. We cannot get cell phone coverage where we now and since my whole reason for being in this area is connecting with friends—AND the pay phone here is dead—we had to drive 10 miles until we could get a signal so I could make calls. But this is the only place to stay that we were able to find within 50 miles of Albany.
We did have a nice enough drive today, through the Berkshires and past brown rushing rivers. There are some bright patches of color but the majority of leaves are either still green or fallen in the wind. It is not a great year for leaf color.

Day of Culture (10/10)
Today we went to meet my friends Karen and Roy at MASS MoCa in North Adams. This museum of contemporary art is very unique and like nothing I’ve seen anywhere else. I was here last year and this year’s exhibits were all different. One was all this video of a Swedish performance artist calling herself “Queen of Mud”—totally bizarre.
We also discovered that you could get a discount visiting two museums in the same day so after a late lunch Kit and I went to “The Clark”—a more conventional art museum but surprisingly located in a small country town. (Williamstown, MA) The museum has a quite eclectic art collection including a surprising number of Renoirs and other impressionists. (collected by Sterling Clark and his wife) The special exhibit was Winslow Homer.

The Olson house made famous by Andrew Wyeth in his many paintings, esp. Christina's World. 

Lubec, Maine (easternmost town in the country)from Campobello Island.New Brunswick. 

Sand Beach in Acadia State Park. (Dare I hope this will send) 

Sorry--we are having trouble with the software that sends pictures. Have some good ones but can't post them.

Cycling in Acadia (10/4)
We woke surrounded by fog so got a little later start than we planned. Took our bikes on the free shuttle bus to the visitor center and spent the day cycling on the carriage roads. The fog eventually burned off and it was a gorgeous day. The leaves have really started turning since we’ve arrived. There are lakes and ponds everywhere in this park. The carriage roads are gravel and sometimes hilly but still good cycling and we did nearly 20 miles in a loop. Had to wait nearly an hour for the shuttle home though. The shuttles are powered by propane. They run throughout the park but not quite as convenient as Grand Canyon or Zion. In the evening we drove south to Bass Harbor (a less touristy town) for a fine seafood dinner. It was dark so not much scenery.

Moving South (10/5)
Today we spent nearly a whole day traveling 80 miles. This touristy part of Highway 1 is very slow going. Plus we found a wonderful marine museum in Searsport and spent a large part of the day there. Learned a lot about Maine. In the 1800’s Searsport was as famous a port as Boston or New York. Now it is an unpresumptuous town of 3000 people. Besides the shipbuilding industry, lots of sea captains chose to live there. We think the coast of Maine is a lot like home but 200 years ago in the days of sail it was an entirely different place.

In the Fog (10/6)
We spent today driving around in the fog. No outstanding water views but we discovered foggy days are great for taking photos of houses—no shadows. I wanted to go to the town of Port Clyde but there was NO PARKING anywhere there. Found a road which crossed a bridge to an island. Drove out to the lighthouse on Owls Head which was cool in the fog except the foghorn was hard on the ears. Back in Thomaston (near where we are staying) we had some wonderful haddock chowder and blueberry pie at the local café –and did part of the “Museum on the Streets” walking tour. We love old Victorian and Colonial houses. In 1840 the richest man in America lived here. We saw the house and the sign says the house is so huge that you could fit an ordinary ranch house in the living room. Later this afternoon Kit planned to do a bike ride so I took the truck to find the Olson House which is owned by the Farnsworth Museum. The Olson house is featured in many of Andrew Wyeth’s paintings—esp. “Christina’s World”. It’s not been “dressed up” but left pretty much as it was when Christina and her brother died—a very stark and photogenic place, especially in the fog. I had a heck of a time finding it though—an adventure in itself. It’s only 8 miles from our RV park but took me 45 minutes to get there.

Down East (10/2)
We have arrived in Bar Harbor, Maine. We can no longer tell people we are going to Maine. We can no longer go east. We have been to the easternmost town in the USA. (Lubec: where I filed the last post). Everything is west and south from here on. We loved Lubec and Eastport, where we were camped—so quiet and un-touristy and with amazing views. I wrote about the wonderful library in Lubec. I asked how it was funded since it is such a small town. It turns out the library was built and operates from the bequest of one woman. From Lubec, we crossed the bridge into New Brunswick. (Campobello Island). Just over the bridge is the Roosevelt International Peace Park, where Franklin Roosevelt had his summer house. You can tour the house—for FREE. Also there is a huge nature preserve with hiking trails along the coast—and looking out to the Bay of Fundy. We wished we’d had more time for hiking. We found out there was a provincial park on the island and planned to move over there today—but it was closed beginning today. We are constantly under the threat of “winter” even though the weather is still fair and fine and in the 70’s. About 99 percent of the RV parks in the Northeast close on October 15. Maybe I’ve said that before.

Today we tore ourselves away from our beautiful camp spot in Eastport and came to the Bar Harbor KOA. This place has been the biggest challenge for leveling to date but our spot is close to a beach with awesome views and big rocks for sitting. Unlike the Great Lakes there is life on the beaches here but nothing like on the Puget Sound. Kit went bicycling and saw a man bringing in a truckload of lobsters in plastic bins pulled by a dinghy. I did laundry and enjoyed the ambiance. We are happy to discover it is quiet here. Like everywhere we go in Maine, we are finding lots of people from Washington. Tomorrow we explore Acadia National Park.

Maine joke: You can tell you’re a redneck when you buy your child’s Halloween costume big enough to fit over a snowsuit.

Acadia National Park (10/3)
Maine is so much like home. Have you heard that before? Actually we met a young woman from Connecticut on the trail who hiked out of Vancouver BC last year and thought it was a lot like Maine. I was not impressed with the Visitor Center for this park—worst acoustics of any building I have been in and too many people—even midweek in October. We wanted an overview of the park so drove the loop road today and took a couple short hikes. The first was up the Great Head from the Sandy Beach—a very short hike but took a long time climbing up the rocks and stopping for photos. The second hike was around Jordan Pond (which is really a lake)—a nice level easy hike (3 mi) for some good exercise. We did NOT rock climb straight up the mountain like Fred recommended. Tomorrow we plan to go back for some cycling. We DID drive through the town of Bar Harbor which was absolutely crazy with tourists—did not even stop.

After blowing into Maine, the weather has been perfect and expected to get more so over the next week. We have just found the easternmost town in the US (Lubec) where they have a really amazing library. Even have quilts hanging everywhere. We are staying in Eastport around the bay--in a spot with a wonderful view. We are just a hop and a jump from Canada--across a bridge is Campabella Island where Pres. Roosevelt summered. We are heading there soon. Maine is so much like home it makes me homesick. Got to get out and soak up some more Maine scenery.