Wednesday, August 31, 2016

2016 New England, Harrisville NH-Kennebunkport ME

2016 New England, Harrisville NH-Kennebunkport ME

July 26.     Packed up and on the road by 8 am. Took detour through Rhode Island to let Daisy experience the roads here. We then traveled north through Massachusetts and onto Harrisville, New Hampshire. This town was not RV friendly but we found parking at a closed road next to Harrisville Looms where Sherry wanted to visit. This is an abandoned water mill weaving factory that has been converted to a woodworking manufacturing and outlet for yarns and fiber related materials. 





We spent a couple of hours here and then had to figure out how to turn the RV around. I should have just unhooked the tow vehicle and did a three point turn at the intersection but instead drove about ten miles up the road and made a loop through a church parking area. There was a wedding or funeral just leaving out and I had to wait until traffic allowed me to complete the turn around.
     
We then journeyed to Old Orchard Beach ME where we stayed at Wagon Wheel RV resort our second Passport America Park and stayed for two nights. Old Orchard Beach is a tourist area (trap) with a permanent carnival, and lots of shops in the downtown area. There is a trolley that picks up at the RV Park and takes the awaiting tourists to the downtown area. The first night we drove the car downtown and put up with all the traffic, both vehicles and pedestrians quite the area. Supposed to be the closest beach to Quebec Canada, and lots of French could be heard between trapped tourists. We took the trolley ride the next day and then walked around the downtown area. We saw some beach and ocean but this place didn’t fit our current lifestyle.







July 27. We drove to Kennebunkport which was 18 miles up the road and enjoyed revisiting. There are lots of neat homes here as well as places to pull off the road and take pictures of the ocean views.  We took pictures of the Bush compound and then I dropped Sherry downtown to find a hat pin souvenir. Traffic was terrible, all the parking places were taken and I made about 6 loops before driving about a mile away and parked in a lot that was for guests only and waited until Sherry said she was ready to be picked up. We had lunch at Mabel’s restaurant, sat outside and enjoyed the lobster roll and deep fried oysters. Mabel’s is famous for entertaining the Bush’s, but we didn’t see anyone we recognized. 







Saturday, August 13, 2016

2016 New England , Mark Twain to Mystic Seaport


      July 24.   We traveled from Thompson CT to Hartford and toured the Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) Home. 
Back of the house Servant quarters on right
Mark Twain Lego Statue

We really enjoyed the tour of the home and the visitor’s center. The home was really beautiful on the inside but very dark. The gas lights that are original have been converted to electric but are kept to the same output as the gas originals. This house is where he wrote many of his books. He wrote upstairs on the third floor where he had a pool table and lots of windows and porch to step out on.  The guide told the story that when Sam was writing he wanted to keep his concentration on the story and if interrupted it would take some time to get back into the theme.
Entry porch

Porch above Sherry is writing studio.

 He asked his wife to tell anyone who came calling that he was out. She didn’t like lying to the guest and expressed this to Sam. Sam then told her she wouldn’t be lying as he would hear the doorbell and then would get up and step out to the upper balcony porch. His writing desk faced a paneled wall with no window so he wasn’t distracted. Sam was an active pool player and if his desk faced the pool area he would interrupt the book to play a game. This caused him problems which was solved when he faced the wall.
     His three girls had him tell a story every night with the items on the fireplace mantel. Though the items remained the same the story told each evening was different as no one could spin a yarn like Mark Twain.
      Leaving Hartford we drove onto Old Mystic CT and checked into Seaport RV resort. This was our first Passport America Park. We joined Passport America because the savings is 50% when available. So our second night is essentially free. We have been to Mystic Seaport before several years ago and enjoyed our stay. 








The last time here it was September and cooler with much less traffic and crowds. We found parking at the middle entrance to the Museum and walked across the street to the book store and art store. We looked into obtaining tickets, but decided to delay or forget the museum because of the time of day and also we have toured here before. We drove downtown to the drawbridge and looked around but traffic was intense and parking was not to be found.  The next day Monday we returned downtown and parking was much better.  Sherry located the yarn store she wanted to visit only to find they were closed on Monday and Tuesday, she was disappointed. We shopped and mostly browsed in a few stores and went to Mystic Pizza for lunch. The shop was made famous by the Julia Roberts movie made here in the 80’s about three waitresses. 



Great Pizza and service was fun to be sitting in the booth.  Really enjoyed visiting Mystic Seaport again the RV park was quiet and friendly staff. Only negative was the stone drive and pad as there was no rain here for several weeks and the dust was bad. We did laundry here and the machines were almost new and worked like you would expect.



Thursday, August 4, 2016

2016 New England trip

2016 New England trip
      July 14 we left Geneva and traveled to Holmes county Ohio, we stayed at campground in Berlin Ohio. We visited Guggisberg cheese company in Millersburg, Ohio and purchased several varieties. We then shopped at Berlin, the roads were being resurfaced and traffic was difficult. We only stayed overnight then journeyed to Lehmans country store in Kidron Ohio. We were able to obtain a ceramic skillet that was induction rated that Jay has been wanting. We also purchased a pastry scraper and raspberry tea and candy.
Guggisberg cheese company

      When we left Holmes county we traveled to Bedford PA where we stayed two nights at Friendship villiage. We toured the American Coverlet museum and enjoyed the education we received from the tour guide who was the cofounder with his wife. This gentlemen’s specialty in the antique business was American coverlets. We enjoyed the coverlets of weavers from many different states and learned Indiana was about as far west as coverlets were produced.  Printed material mainly printed flour sacks were used to make quilts and replaced the woven coverlets.  We saw a Jacquard attachment and saw the amazing technology. He was very interested to know that Sherry was a weaver from Indiana.
Barn loom American Coverlet Museum

     We then did the driving tour of the Bedford county covered bridges and saw 9 of the 13 bridges on the tour. It is said the county has more covered bridges than traffic lights.

       July 17 we left Bedford and drove to Shenadoah national park. We camped at the Mathews Arm campground close to the north entrance. Camping was cheap at $7.50 with my senior pass water and dump station were available but all sites were non electric. We drove about 60 of the 105 miles along the skyline and enjoyed the views.  In the campground I asked one of the hikers I saw if he had seen any bears. Just that morning he had seen a bear in the campground along the “A” Loop. We were in the “B” Loop and didn’t see any bears. When we were driving traffic had come to a complete stop because a bear had crossed the road and people were trying to get pictures. One fellow showed me a picture on his tablet of a black bear.
       July 18 we arrived Shenandoah crossing a Blue Green vacation resort. We stayed here four nights and were entertained with their time share spiel. The resort was very nice we had a presidential site that included a gas grill, and sink with running water. There was a hot tub on the site as well, but with the rains and debris that floated into the site we didn’t use any of the extras. Two of the four days here we had torrential rains. There were several amenities here along with horse riding, 
Shenandoah Crossing RV resort

Lodge with restaurant, a lake, and miniature golf. Madison home Monroe’s home Michee tavern
        July 22 Locust Lake state park Barnesville PA, We stopped at Gettysburg battlefield and museum as we were close. We traveled through four states today. Journeyed from Virginia to West Virginia to Pennsylvania. 
Gettysburg welcome center
Sherry getting some political advise from Abraham.
She asked: Well Abe who would you vote for this year?


     July 23 Thompson Connecticut, We Journeyed through, New York, New Jersey, to Connecticut. We stayed overnight at Branch Brook campground, in Thompson Connecticut. When we called for a reservation the office said they would be leaving at 4pm for a birthday party. We were to follow the instructions on the door. Cash only, with $3.00 extra for air-conditioning. We are Good Sam members and the 10% savings at Good Sam parks pay for the membership. However we decided to join Passport America to receive their 50% reduced rate. The cost for the PA membership is $44 per year. The two times we have used the membership we saved $150.00. There are restrictions, it is not available at all parks and most parks restrict usage to Sunday through Thursday. Some parks won’t allow use during busy seasons. 

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Catch up blog:

Catch up blog:

We left Rockport at the end of February and journeyed to San Antonio. This was a short hop of about 125 miles, we stayed at the famous Travelers world campground close to downtown, Sherry and I toured the missions this included the Alamo mission.
The Alamo

      We then traveled to Fredericksburg, and checked into Buckhorn Lake resort. This is in the hill country of Texas and the views here were incredible we took lots of pictures and enjoyed our short stay. Touring the Admiral Nimitz WWII Museum. 
The Admiral

We also took a driving tour to Bandera TX which is the cowboy capitol of the world.  We toured a cowboy museum in Kerrville and saw several bronze sculptures and paintings. We met a famous sculptor Jason Scull and enjoyed visiting with him. He educated us on the process of making a clay sculpture and transforming it into both small and life size works of art.
The Cowboy Capitol


        We left Fredericksburg on March 5th and headed to Texarkana we stayed a noisy campground and had to wear earplugs to sleep. We arrived back in Indiana March 6th and settled into our normal schedules until May when we journeyed to Lexington Kentucky for four days and enjoyed the Kentucky Sheep and Wool festival. Sherry met Benita Story and they enjoyed visiting and discussing her blog posts and podcasts. 
Downtown Franklin TN

We then met with Sherry’s mom and Bennie as they were in the area for a concert. We went to downtown Lexington and had supper at the Blue Door Smokehouse. This was by far the best brisket sandwich I have ever consumed. It had the best rating from TripAdvisor and while the atmosphere was lacking the food was great.


        Sometime between March and May I did some repairs and upgrades to Daisy the Coachman RV. The faucet in the bathroom had developed a leak, and was showing signs of wear. So Sherry and I made a trip to Lowes and purchased a new faucet this one has a higher reach over the sink so you can get your hands under the water easier, and it also is a single lever as opposed to the knob style. I found some stick and place tile that was recommended by another blogger. These really dressed up the back splash on the bathroom and kitchen areas behind the sink. The faucet in the kitchen had smooth nickel finished knobs and they were really hard to operate when your hands were wet and soapy. So I found some replacement handles and was able to increase the diameter and press them onto the existing nickel handles. This has been a fantastic upgrade because we can now operate the valves when with ease. The front TV had been showing signs of not working it would lose signals and no channels could be found. I thought at first it was the loss from the antenna, and replaced the cable but this didn’t help. The original was a Jensen TV supposed to be rated for vibration. I replaced it with a VIZO larger screen and have been very happy so far. Also the faux leather seat coverings on the couch and dinette were showing considerable wear. I found a local upholster and had him replace the foam with a denser material and recover the seats and backs for both the couch and dinette.