September 28-30, 2009 Our brief visit to Massachusetts

Monday morning we dropped the “Boys”, our two dogs, Nigel and Bubba, off at the local pet store for a day spa treatment. Both of them really needed a good grooming. We then took the day to go and visit Plymouth Rock, the Mayflower II and the Plimouth (yes, this is the correct spelling) Plantation in Plymouth. This was very informative day, amazing how the Pilgrims were able to make the trip in 1620 in that small ship, in very crowded conditions and then to survive once they arrived. The representative settlements at the plantation were very well done with actors portraying native peoples and the Pilgrims as it might have been almost 400 years ago.
Tuesday we made the short drive to Cape Cod, pleased to have sunshine after another night of rain. After reaching our camp site we headed out to explore the “cape” We found beautiful blue ocean, white sandy beaches, traditional looking lighthouses and charmingly graying cedar shingled houses of every size and description. We made it to the northern most tip of the cape, Providencetown, what an interesting diverse, sort of funky town. The trip home was our first real “lost” experience. Without our GPS (left it in the MoHo) and no real street map we wandered around trying to find our way back to camp. No harm, no foul, we kept our sense of humor and poured a drink when we finally got back.
Wednesday morning we set out to explore the rest of the cape, we took Route 28 to Hyannis Port, yet another picturesque harbor. It is easy to understand why people would like to spend their summers here. We headed to the most westward point, Woods Hole, where we had lunch sitting at a wonderful little table, right on the water. Mike had yet one more lobster and Karen had fried clams ---- what a wonderful feast. We have really enjoyed this area and could definitely come back here to spend some more time. Tomorrow we head to Connecticut to see our daughter Kristin. Much more fun to continue.

September 26-27, 2009 Bye- Bye Lobster Feasts

Saturday we left our bayside campsite in Belfast, Maine and headed south towards other adventures. We drove through Freeport the home town of L.L. Bean. We stopped at their stores and the surrounding outlet shops, close to 100 other stores on the mile or so long street. All of the stores look fairly new and in keeping with the New England look, brick paved sidewalks with granite curbs. Fun place, loads of shoppers, think we were the only ones without a purchase in our hands. Enjoyed our last lobster lunch, bisque and the ever popular lobster roll, not sure we will ever think of lobster quite the same YUM!!!! We then drove another couple of hours to Saco just shy of the Maine boarder; this was just outside of the better known Kennebunk area.

Sunday morning, it is raining, really raining, kind of a nice change, we said our farewell to Maine, drove through a corner of New Hampshire and on into Massachusetts. We stopped in Salem thinking we would go see the sights, but just couldn’t seem to find a camping place. We thought it was probably wise to get through Boston on Sunday afternoon and avoid any crazy Monday morning traffic. We camped for the night in Plymouth, MA. a lovely campground, in a heavily wooded area. We spent a relaxing afternoon/evening listening to the rain and taking it easy watching football and just sitting around (with Jack D.) this is the life

September 23-25, 2009 Maine – Down-East, such a beautiful place

Wednesday morning we headed out of Bangor traveling south to Belfast Maine. We pulled into a nice little campground that had a wonderful view of Penobscot Bay on the Atlantic Ocean. What a beautiful place to spend a few days. We were both feeling a bit of travel weariness, this was just the ticket. After a trip into the town of Belfast, we stopped by Young’s Lobster Pound and bought our second lobster meal. This time we had 2 lobster rolls, an amazing amount of lobster meat, mixed with mayo served with lettuce and pickles on sesame see bun. Oh my, heavenly it was, we must of each had almost ½ pound of lobster each, so sweet, so tender, so amazing. Lobster pounds are fairly common in this area – they are typically sort of a barn like structure with large tanks of water, where they keep the lobsters alive until they are cooked and served. There were 100s of lobsters at Young’s where we bought lunch.
Thursday morning we headed out to see Acadia National Park, another beautiful day in paradise. We enjoyed a nice drive around the 27 mile loop road seeing a gorgeous rugged coastline, spectacular pink granite rocks, and some colorful trees. We drove up to Cadillac Mountain and enjoyed a marvelous view of the Mount Desert Island. What a great scene looking down into Bar Harbor with many big sailing boats and two large cruise ships. Cadillac Mountain is supposedly the first place in the U.S. to see the sunrise, have to take their word for it, we were up there mid-day, sunny, yes. We had lobster again at Carmen’s Veranda for lunch in Bar Harbor.
Friday – this is the beginning of our 7th week on this safari. We enjoyed a nice morning in the nearby the village of Camden. We walked along the main drag, taking in the cute shops and colorful scenery. Talk about your picturesque New England Town, this could be it. The weather was a bit cooler, cloudy and sprinkles this morning, but the sun showed up in the afternoon. We enjoyed a lobster roll out on a nice deck overlooking a scenic harbor – complete with several large masted schooners. What a life style that must be. We are not complaining we have it damn good.

September 20-22, 2009 The East Coast Adventure Continues…

Sunday afternoon we came to Fort Kent NY where we boarded a ferry boat, the MoHo, the Towed, and the 4 of us crossed Lake Champlain. It was a wonderful ride, beautiful, sunny and the water was fairly calm. Fun to talk to others on board who couldn’t believe we were from Oregon (Oregone). After about an hour’s cruise we landed and were in the state of Vermont. Off to Waterbury where we visited the home of Ben & Jerry’s and took the tour and of course ate ice cream. Fun stop and soon we were back on the road for another hour or so and stopped for the night in Quechee VT.
Monday morning we ate breakfast at a very authentic and good diner, their menu featured local produce, meats, and bakery goods. We then drove around the area, taking in the Village of Woodstock (no not that Woodstock) quite gentrified and almost too perfect looking, something off a picture postcard perhaps. Most of the towns that we drive through have cemeteries that date back to the late 1700’s with big granite headstones, a lot of granite rock in this area, so we guess that put it to good use. Rolling on down our favorite Highway 2 we went through many more villages, each with their own personalities. We left Vermont and entered the state of New Hampshire, another gorgeous state, indeed. Many of the homes along the roadside decorate for autumn with porches displaying pumpkins, scarecrows and beautiful pots of mums. At a local grocery store we say huge 5 gallon pots with dozens of blooms for only $5. Our stop for the night was just outside Gorham NH – just a hop, skip and a jump from Maine.
Tuesday is the first day of fall – and the evenings and mornings are beginning feel a bit crisp. We saw a good bit of tree color today. They call it leaf peeping when you are out driving and looking for fall colors. We crossed into Maine and continued to admire more countryside along the way. We kept our eyes peeled for a sighting of a moose, saw road signs warning of them, but to no avail. We stopped for the evening in Bangor ME. Took Mike out to a brew pub dinner at the Sea Dog Brewing Company. We ate the dinner special a bucket of lobster – 3 lobsters (a.k.a. Larry, Mo, & Curly) and fries for $19.95. Oh were they ever sweet and delicious, served of course with the obligatory melted butter, mmmmm, YUM! Think we will have to sample some more of this delicacy during our next few days in Maine.

September 18-20, 2009 Lake Placid and up-state New York Adventures
Friday morning we drove about 150 miles along some very picturesque scenery following Highway 3. The trees are getting more colorful every day. After checking into our campground we went into the village of Lake Placid and enjoyed an afternoon browsing around this mountain resort area, reminds us a bit of Lake Tahoe or Mammoth. Lake Placid hosted the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympic Games.
Saturday we had an exciting Olympic Experience. We started the morning off riding up Whiteface Mountain on the Cloudsplitter Gondolas. The 360 degree view of the Adirondack Mountains was amazing. It was a bit chilly up on top, 35 degrees. We then went to the Olympic Jumping Complex. We watched training sessions of freestyle ski jumpers going off ski jumps into a swimming pool below – amazing athleticism. From there we took a chair lift and a 26 story elevator to the top of the k-120 jump tower, YIKES, that was way up there, can’t imagine doing that. As we drove out of this area we saw the Olympic torch (not lit), it stands in the equestrian area. Our next venue was at the Olympic Sports Complex. We went on a tour of the bobsled/skeleton/luge run. They will be icing it up and preparing it for training in the next week. We also saw parts of the original 1932 runs that were cut into the rock of the hillside. This was followed by our bobsled ride. We rode a wheeled bobsled, complete with driver and brakeman down the ½ mile track. We did it in just over 40 seconds. Phew, it was twisting and turning and zigzagging; what a rush. Our last stop for the day was at the Olympic Center; we toured through the museum and walked around the 2 ice rinks. This was where the famous 1980 ice hockey game took place -- the U.S. Team beating the championship Russian Team. Wow, what an amazing day.
Sunday morning we took a great hike along the High Falls Gorge on the AuSable River. This was a beautiful area with very large granite and anthracite rocks, some dating 1 ½ billion years old. The falls were lined with pine, birch and ash trees, many beginning show their fall colors. We then headed east and out of New York State. But just before we crossed Lake Champlain we discovered another beautiful area, AuSable Chasm, a deep granite canyon with a beautiful river and falls.

September 16-17, 2009 Thousand Island, upstate New York
Wednesday morning saw us heading east again towards the St. Lawrence Seaway and the 1000 Islands area (yes this where the salad dressing was 1st created). Along the route we stopped in Seneca Falls to see the Women’s Rights National Historic Park. It was located at The Wesleyan Chapel where the first meeting of the women’s equality was held in 1848. This was one of our favorite stops so far. Great exhibits and an awful lot of information that we hadn’t remembered. We arrived in Alexandria Bay about happy hour time; do we know how to schedule our days or what?
Thursday morning we went down to boat harbor and joined a cruise to see the 1000 Islands, along the St Lawrence Seaway. This is an amazingly big body of water, some 2,300 miles long from Duluth MN to the Atlantic Ocean going through all of the Great Lakes. Our cruise took us up the recreational lane seeing both the N.Y. side and some of the Canadian. We saw 50 or more islands of the 1,800+; some so small that only a tree stood on it, and many quite large with incredible “summer homes”. Many of these mansions were built in the late 1800’s, a time of amazing grandeur and WEALTH. The last stop we made was Heart Island, home of the Boldt Castle. The Boldt family were hotel tycoons that started the, Bellevue-Stratford in Philadelphia and worked with the Aster family to build the Waldorf –Astoria in N.Y.C. Built in the 1898 the castle looks like something from Europe or maybe Disneyland. The boat-house which now houses a dozen or so antique boats was on a separate island; what amazing wealth some of these people had. All of this is now owned by the 1000 Island Bridge Authority and they are working to restore it, the castle lay in disrepair from 1904 – 1977. This is one of those places it would be nice to see again in 10-15 years just to see the progress being made. Another great experience for the Wraight Adventure Book.

September 14-15, 2009 Travel, troubles and more adventures….
Monday morning we arrived back into the good ol’ USA. We made it back across the border with only a quick peek inside by the guard, phew, always makes me a bit nervous even though I know we haven’t done anything wrong. The drive was fairly short one to Niagara Falls N.Y. As we were crossing the river, on the toll bridge, we noticed that our brakes were smoking (not a good sign). Mike had been a bit concerned about them, but this definitely was a message to get them looked at. So we found a very nice RV dealer that could get us in first thing Tuesday morning. So we made camp there in their little RV camp ground. Used the day to run errands, do laundry, give the little “toad” a good cleaning inside and out.
Tuesday bright and early we dropped the MoHo off at the repair shop and headed off to see the U.S. side of the falls. A beautiful fall day, weather was perfect. We walked the dogs over to see both the American Falls and Horseshoe Falls, the water was so green, and we saw several rainbows --- supposed to be good luck. Think it might have been, because the RV shop called and said it was only brake pads, not a full brake job – “oh thanks goodness”. We returned to camp and were able to bail the MoHo out just as they were closing. Karen just about had a heart attack, when Mike came back with the bill and said” it was $8,300.” She was ready to pack up and head back home, trip over!!! Ooooops Mike says “I mean $830.”, still a sting, but not the end of the adventure. Oh the fun just keep on coming!

sorry, no photos. Sometimes the wifi just wont let photos load. I will repost with photos later. Mike

September 10-13, 2009 Merrily we Roll Along….
Leaving Upper Michigan and journeying to Ontario, Canada – Niagara Falls region.
Thursday we crossed over the Mackinac Bridge. This is one great expanse – 5 miles from beginning to end; Lake Michigan on one side and Lake Huron on the other. We stopped, once across the bridge, and finally purchased the obligatory FUDGE. It wasn’t anything too special, but we are eating it and some salt water taffy, non-the-less. Another nice day of driving along the lakeshore, Highway 23 leads us through some nice scenery and small towns along the way. We have enjoyed staying off the interstates for the most part. Lunch was a great surprise. We found a Bob’s Big Boy Restaurant, circa 1960s. Just as good as we remembered, Big Boy combo and of course a chocolate shake, be still my cholesterol ridden heart.
Friday was another nice day tooling along the road. We put about another 200 miles on the MoHo enjoying stops along the way in Vassar, Michigan. We Stopped for the night in Port Huron – just a couple of miles short of the Canadian border. Spent the night boon-docking behind a strip mall, all went well until someone set off an alarm at one of the local establishments and woke us up.
Saturday, we arose early and headed across the border. We were all prepared with our passports, licenses, and dog’s records. We thought we were passing with flying colors until they asked us if we had any firewood --- oh yes we had wood, had bought some at the last campground. Well that had to be dumped, because of a problem with bark beetles. We guess because we had to pull over to dump our wood, they would just take a “look see” to check us over. We got out of the rig, with the “Boys” and stood and waited for about 10 minutes. We could see the guards looking in our closets, drawers etc. Guess they were satisfied that we weren’t suspicious and we finally got back on the road. We drove the 100+ kilometers to our campground, where we set up, had lunch and then struck out to see the area. We took a nice tour, seeing the town of Niagara on the Lake, many beautiful vineyards, wineries, gardens, homes and drove down to the area of the falls. We watched the falls as the spot lights were coming on and also enjoying the view from the Sky Wheel ferris wheel 175 feet above the falls.
Sunday we started the morning off with a fantastic helicopter flight over the falls, we saw the Niagara Whirlpool, the river, gorge, much of Queen Victoria Park and of course the American Falls and the Horseshoe Falls. This was a quick flight, only 10 minutes or less, but what you saw was well worth it. We then took a nice leisurely stroll through the Botanical Gardens, followed by some more strolling and shopping along the street of the posh and very nice Niagara on the Lakes town. We completed our afternoon with some wine tasting at Pellar Winery, where we had a very nice Gamay Noir. This wine region caught by surprise. Over 80 wineries in the Ontario region, who would have guessed that this area would be so good for viniculture? The fun just keeps on coming. Tomorrow back to the USA.

September 7-9, 2009 The Upper Peninsula of Michigan “Yooper”

Monday, Labor Day and we are not working!! Oh this retired life is pretty hard to beat. Nice drive today along the Yooper (U.P.) of Michigan on Lake Superior. We drove about 250 miles through Ottawa National Forest area along Hwy 28, our first town along the road was Ashland, Wisconsin. We enjoyed the trip, but were very glad to get to our nice campground right on the shore of Lake Superior. We had a nice dinner and enjoyed a sunset over the lake.
Tuesday morning we cruised along Lake Superior, past Grand Island to the Picture Rocks National Lakeshore Area. The cruise was about 2 ½ hours long with many very interesting sandstone rock structures, gorgeous views, beautiful clear green water, and close to perfect weather to enjoy. On our way back to camp we stopped by the Fish House and bought some freshly caught whitefish for dinner. After an afternoon walk up to Munising Falls, we returned to camp for a great bbq of whitefish, corn on the cob and wom-poms cooked over the campfire.
Wednesday, 09-09-09 We continued traveling east across the U.P. of Michigan, what a beautiful area. A relatively short drive today, we were in St. Ignace by 1:00pm. A quick camp set up and we were on the ferry over to Mackinac Island. This is a popular retreat on Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac. Horse drawn carriages, bicycles, and foot traffic are the only way to get around this quaint island. There must have been at least a dozen fudge shops along the down-town area, (with some restraint, we avoided each and every one of them). We hiked up the hill to the Grand Hotel (a place listed in our “1000 Places to See Before You Die” book.) Wow, what a splendid place. ***** Five Star at the very least! We were charged $10. each just to go into this resort (it was quite amazing, beautiful and elegant). A dress code of tie and sport coat for gentlemen and dresses for women after 6:00pm were required. Yikes VERY high class, a notch or two above us, to be sure. We ate lunch at the Jockey Club, the restaurant on their golf course. Good, and we can say we have been here, but not our really our style. We took a nice walk along the 4 blocks of old homes, shops and interesting historical sites of the island. We got back to the KOA (not quite the Grand) and spent the evening catching up on up on our blog, e-mails, and some housekeeping. Tomorrow completes our 4th week on the road. We are having a fantastic time and seeing so much of this amazing country of ours.

Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

September 5-6, 2009 Lake Superior, in Northern most Wisconsin
Saturday finds the “Fantastic Four” heading north-east; a good drive along Interstate 90 to Lake Superior. Minnesota was beautiful, and Wisconsin appears to be a lot the same, very green, lush, with lakes, streams and many panoramic views of nature. We skirted the big city of Duluth, MN; would have liked to have stopped, but felt like we should try and make up some time. We arrived in Bayfield, Wisconsin about mid-day. We found a small picturesque lake-side town with many colorful boats in the harbor, distinctive older houses, and several artsy shops. Quite busy in town because it was Labor Day Weekend and for many folks enjoying the sights and wonderful weather. Hard to believe that in a couple of short months the weather will be cold and the water here will be frozen up to three feet thick. We are so lucky the weather has been near perfect. The leaves are starting to change already. We had dinner at the Pickled Herring Restaurant – nice view of the harbor.
Sunday morning we took a 3 hour boat tour (uh oh, remember Gilligan) of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore on Lake Superior. We zipped around most of the 22 islands that skirt the coast line. It was an interesting excursion with an informative narrative about a lot of culture, geology, and natural history of this area. The boat captain has been doing this for 38 years, and has written 4 books about the islands and this part of Lake Superior, he has an amazing amount of information to share. The most interesting was the farthest north island – Devil’s Island with amazing sea caves that would have been fun to kayak in and around. We took an afternoon drive along more of the coast line this afternoon stopping in a small town of Cornucopia, having pizza and drinks at the local restaurant, Fish Lips – sort of a dive, but fun. We finished the evening with a nice campfire and s’mores. Oh the fun just keeps on coming, how lucky we are.

Badlands NP

September 2-4, 2009 Getting the Heck out of Dodge….
Wednesday – We are both starting to go a bit crazy. Rapid City is a nice enough place, but enough is enough!! We did a few errands, found a self wash for the “Boys” and got them spruced up a bit, and then WAITED for the completion of the work on the MoHo to be done. We had really hoped it would be completed before noon, but Bill our “Body man” was about an hour away from getting it all back together when he stood up under one of the bay doors and cracked his head open. After a trip to the hospital and 5 staples in his head, he was back to finish the job. We finally pulled away from J & J’s about 3:15pm, more than ready to head east. The 4 of us were glad to been back on the road. We took a nice drive through part of the Bad Lands. The views were amazing; we had some nice shadows as the sun was setting on us. There are actually pictures to prove our visit – our 1st trip we shot a lot of great views with an empty camera (The kids have never let their dad forget that). The MoHo headed on this easterly route until about 10:00pm when we pulled over in Murdo, S.D. for a “boon-dock” alongside a big rig.
Thursday morning we headed east again, trying to get out of South Dakota. Along Hwy 90 we stopped at Mitchell to fuel up and ran into town to see the Corn Palace. It was a repeat of our trip 17 years ago ---- still amazing how they decorate this unique building with corn, seeds, and other vegetation. Quickly we burned up some more miles; we drove through Sioux Falls and crossed the state line into Minnesota. Do the “happy dance”; we are finally out of South Dakota after 9 days. We stopped for the night in Pipestone, MN. This is the home of the Pipestone National Monument. We took the ¾ mile guided walk, visiting various points of interest along the way. It was very informative seeing the quarries where the Native Americans quarry the red pipestone that they use in their pipes. This is only place where the red pipestone is found and it is a very sacred area to them. We had a nice evening of drinks and dinner at Eddies Pub, a local place where we visited with the bartender; we were his only customers for the evening.
Friday morning we spent a couple of hours doing some much needed housekeeping on the MoHo, we vacuumed and dusted and got it looking and feeling a lot better. We headed out on the Hwy 23 going in a north-east direction across the state of Minnesota. A pretty drive with many, many miles of corn and soy beans, we also saw several big wind farms along the way. Mike really kept his foot to the pedal; we were trying to catch up a bit on our time lost. We stopped for the evening in Hickney, MN at the Grand Casino. The RV sites were full because of the Labor Day weekend, but we were able to get an overflow site, and still had the benefit of their Wi-Fi, which is what we are doing at 10PM Central Standard Time.