9 August

It started to rain and thunder around 5 am this morning, so getting up by 6:30 am wasn’t a problem.  We had reservations on the 8:15 steam engine Mt Washington cog train this morning and the literature said to be at the station an hour before departure.  There were only 38 of us on the train this morning, which begged the question why did we need to be there so early?  The coal fired steam engine goes up the mountain at a rate of 3 mph, so it takes an hour to travel the three miles of track to the summit of Mt Washington at 6,288 feet.  It was drizzling at the station and rained off and on up the tracks.  The train engine pushes the passenger car up the track and burns through about 1 ton of coal.  The steam engine only makes one trip a day.  The rest of the trips are done by a bio-diesel engine.  Regardless both engines have to traverse rails that have inclines as great as 37 degrees.  The train is operated by three people:  the engineer, the coal shoveler, and brakeman.  The coal shoveler shovels coal into the firebox at a rate of one shovel per minute.  The cog in the engine is used to assist in the climb up the mountain, and it grabs a special center track that has distances that match the teeth in the cog.  The uphill steam train has to stop mid-way to take on more water, as the steam engine converts from coal, to steam, to exhaust.  The downhill trip is mostly gravity run, with the brakeman doing the work to keep the passenger car in contact with the engine, which is using the cog to control the engine’s downhill speed as well.

 

 

At the summit, it was  a cold wet 50 degrees, with no scenic views due to being in the rain and clouds/fog.  There were about 30 very wet and tired hikers in the Summit building.  Roger chatted with a guy who is hiking the Appalachian Trail, and left Georgia about 4 months ago.  The guy told Roger that he’s lost 25 lbs on the trek and wouldn’t recommend it as a good diet.  The guy looked very lean to us.

We got to the US/Canada border and it was slow crossing as it took 40 minutes to finally be in the province of Quebec Canada.  It was interesting to note that the Canadian flag was not flying anywhere that we saw, but the Quebec provincial flag of blue with 4 fleur d’leis.  We got the feeling that we weren’t in Canada, but a French province because all the signs are in French and hardly any bilingual.  At the campground the signs that are in English have either spelling or syntax errors, for example “out  off order.”    We got settled in, found out about how to get the ferry to Quebec City and unloaded the bikes so the RV is easier to park tomorrow.  It currently isn’t raining and hopefully tomorrow there won’t be any rain in the forecast because it would be nice not to have to pack the rain jackets.  Roger and I just returned from the shower house, sans shower.  The shower costs 25 cents Canadian for one minute and we had not expected this, because it wasn’t listed as a fee shower in the campground book.  You would think for $75 Canadian/night the campground could provide some free shower water.  Needless to say we were both miffed and Roger turned on the hot water heater for our shower inside the RV.  Showering in the RV is just inconvenient, because I feel compelled to wipe it completely down after it’s all said and done.  The shower curtain keeps the doors dry enough, but then drying the curtain in the sink works well enough it’s just that we don’t want to make a habit of it.  Tomorrow we’ll definitely have some coins, as we’ll be hitting an ATM for some Canadian money. 

 

 

Off to Vermont and New Hampshire

8 August
We left New York and sort of headed east.  Roger wanted to go to Fort Ticonderoga, so we left Lake George and headed north-east on the eastern side of Lake George to eventually end up on the western side of Lake Champlain.  The fort tour was interesting enough, as there were several non-busy period guides who were very willing to chat, while Roger perused the more specific displays (i.e. the largest Revolutionary period collection of muskets in the country  [huge yawn].)  There was a fife and drum demo, as well as talk on musket formation shooting.  The day started out cloudy and humid, but by the time we left the sun had made an appearance and it was starting to get warm enough for the guys wool to get toasty.

 

After we left Fort Tico, we initially were headed to Lake Placid because Roger wanted to see the Adirondack mountains.  We drove for a while on Rt 7 and I think Roger realized after an hour that these mountains weren't going to be any different if we drove all the way to Lake Placid.  So I got out my New Hampshire/Vermont map and re-routed us to Essex NY so we were able to catch the ferry across to Lake Champlain to Charlotte Vermont.  Note:  GPS is good, but not perfect.  Traveling with a state map is very important to get to places you have no idea how to ask GPS to get to.  In other words you have to know your destination, which in our case isn't always known ahead of time.  The ferry was a short half an hour and it saved us a lot of road time, (going north to come back south around Lake Champlain.)

 

While on the ferry, we chatted with two bicyclists who said that if we were in Vermont we had to go to Waterbury.  So once we got off the ferry, I got my trusty paper map out and routed us to Waterbury.  Below is a picture of what we saw in Waterbury.



Ben and Jerry's headquarters is in Waterbury.  So far this site has been the most crowded of any place we've been on the trip (not counting Wrigley Field).  The line for ice cream was too long for my patient husband to stand in, but we now "have the T-shirt" for visiting the birthplace of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.  On the way out of town, we stopped at the local grocery store and sure enough there was a huge case of the widest variety of Ben and Jerry's ice cream we've ever seen.  Roger bought a pint of ... cookie dough (of course) and I bought some delicious cheesecake and brownie.  OBTW there is a flavor graveyard at the BJ HQ.

From Waterbury, I found a campground near Mount Washington NH.  GPS and I agreed on the route and we arrived without any conflict.  We have tickets for the 8:15 COG railroad up Mt Washington tomorrow.  We're going up the railroad for a couple of reasons:  1) the RV is borderline on the recommended road width of 80 inches; 2) Roger has a habit of trying to sneak peeks of the area, thereby diverting his full attention from a tricky road; 3) I thought it would be better for us both to ride the train, as opposed to potentially ending up in a ravine, so the cog it is.  OBTW for my out of country friends, Mt Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States  at 6,288 ft (1,917 m) and the most prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. It is famous for dangerously erratic weather. For 76 years, until 2010, a weather observatory on the summit held the record for the highest wind gust directly measured at the Earth's surface, 231 mph (372 km/h or 103 m/s), on the afternoon of April 12, 1934.  The observatory's moto is "home of the country's worst weather."   It promises to be cooler there tomorrow than in San Antonio.  We both are going to be wearing long pants for the train ride.

July 26 - Aug 7

July 26- Aug 7

We left Garden Ridge and headed north.  Had an afternoon start so we made it as far as 30 miles from Dallas.  The next day was a long one and we camped just south of the Land Between the Lakes in TN.  Roger wanted to drive the road between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, since we hadn't gone that way. There is a Bison area that has about 50 head, that are the farthest east and north bison in the USA that are not in a zoo.  Bison were found in Kentucky and Tennessee up until they were hunted out by the 1790s, and are the largest land animals found in the North American continent weighing up to 2,000 lobs.

After seeing the bison in the south part of the park, the drive was through a long green tunnel, with no views of either lake until we left the park and turned left to the dam.  We took our bikes off for a ride along the dam and as far as the bike trail went.  After that it was only noon-ish, so we headed on to Louisville.  We arrived by 3:30 pm and Mom had said she was checking every noise.  Roger got to work on his yard chores and we eventually spread 28 bags of 3 cu ft of mulch.  We did some other routine things that get done when we visit Mom, as well as celebrated my birthday.

 
We left on Wednesday to go to the Columbus Zoo, which despite being in the top 5 in the USA was unremarkable, although it is a rehab zoo.

  We got to Great Lakes Naval Base on Thursday and spent one night dry camping before moving to the Hampton Inn on Friday.

On Friday, 2 August, we met Jenny's mother, Kitty and her sister Andi, for brunch at the Lucky Platter in Easton IL.  (Easton is a north Chicago suburb on Lake Michigan.)  Roger and I both enjoyed meeting Jenny's mother and aunt.  Roger also was relieved that he didn't have to actually go to the shower to meet them.  After brunch Roger and I headed into Chicago for a Cubs vs Dodgers game at Wrigley Field. 

We rode the L into north Chicago, which was really easy plus we didn't have to worry about traffic or the RV.  (Although we did take the bikes off the RV and move them inside our hotel room.  There are NO campgrounds nearby Chicago, much like any other big US city.  We therefore opted for two nights at the Hampton Inn in Skokie/Easton IL which worked out well for game transportation and the shower.)

The game was not the best major league game we have ever seen.  The Cubs only managed to score 2 runs off of 15 hits.  The Dodgers scored 6 runs off of 9 hits, and 2 of the runs were unearned.  Pitching on both sides was pathetic, and despite all the hits there were no homeruns.  But we can now say we've seen 20th century Wrigley Field before it gets a major renovation this off season.  It was cool to see the manual scoreboard, where a human changes the score on the scoreboard.

3 August-- On Saturday, I went to Jenny's Bridal Shower and met all of Jenny's sisters, plus her Aunt Judi, Maddie and Sydney.  I had a really nice time and Jenny's sisters Katherine and Gail did a great job hosting at their Aunt Andi's place.  (Roger went looking for a auto parts store that had a headlight bulb to replace one in the RV.)  The shower group ended up walking down to Lake Michigan for pictures, since it was such a gorgeous day.

We left Chicago and headed to Elkhart IN on Sunday.  We spent Sunday night at Duncan RV repair, because the AC fan had rattled loose again and it need to be fixed.  We don't have room or a place to carry a ladder, so we had to get to a shop.  Camping was "free" for the night and with an 8:30 appointment we were back on the road Monday by 11.  From Elkhart we drove to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and it was once again a green tunnel.  The park has trails along parts of the Ohio-Erie canal, but since we got such a late start and it looked like rain, we skipped biking and headed further east.  On Tuesday we made it to Williamsport PA and saw the pristine fields of the Little League World Series. 

Lamade Stadium looks as nice as Wrigley and it was interesting to see all the activity getting ready for the start of the LLWS in less than 2 weeks.  We spent the night near Newburgh NY, as Roger had West Point on his list.

7 August-- we got up bright and early this morning and were at Newburgh Auto Park at 8. Roger wanted to get the oil changed since it was due.  The bill was nearly $200, since the RV took 13 quarts of special synthetic diesel oil (over $9/qt + filter + crawl under labor, because they didn't have a pit or ceiling high enough to lift the RV).  Afterwards we headed to West Point.  We parked at the Jewish Chapel on the campus and walked around.  There are a lot of  "off limits" places on the campus, which sort of surprised us considering that the only major area "off limits" at Navy is Bancroft Hall.  It was a cloudy, humid, breezy GRAY day.  No surprise to me why USMA grads are referred to as "the long gray line."  The majority of the buildings are of Hudson River granite and I'm sure in the winter time are depressingly gray.  It was depressing on a summer day. 

 

From West Point we headed north to Saratoga National Battlefield Park.  I drove through the park, enabling Roger to look around.  The park has a 10 spot driving tour.  I am trying to be very patient with my history loving husband.  I just don't have the imagination to see the battle fields and lines that are described on the plaques.  There was a nice view at one stop of the Hudson River and it's bend that the American troops were able to bombard any British ships.  This was obvious even to me, without much brainstrain.  We're spending tonight at the most expensive campsite ever, $80/night.  The campground is a "resort" in Lake George NY.  Roger and I are of the opinion that campgrounds put "resort" in their name just so they can charge more.  Tomorrow is off to Fort Ticonderoga and Lake Placid if the weather holds up.