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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Ontario - like Ohio, only further north.



A map to get you oriented. 
In Canada, we soared over Burlington Bay on the  James N. Allen Skyway in Hamilton, Ontario.  The poor woman driving next to us is probably still shaking from that frisky gust of wind that rocked our bulky camper toward her little car.  That was exciting!  



James N. Allen Skyway


We continued west across Ontario to Port Heron, Michigan.

 Our route goal was twofold - save some time,  miss the heavy Chicago and Detroit traffic AND avoiddriving across Ohio, Iowa, Illinois…. which are a bit monotonous, gotta say it.   Turns out…Ontario looks remarkably like the American Midwest that is directly south of Ontario.  Imagine that....

The map showed a veritable grid of roads and we expected dense population but the grid was composed mostly of farm roads and just separated all the tidy dairy farms across southern Ontario. 



If I were very clever, I'd figure out how to highlight our route.
Nope!
Follow the road with all the red squares- lots of exits....
to small towns. 


But, thankfully, the road were without any obnoxious billboards.

Instead small tasteful signs announce the next town with its population and attractions. Wonderful and effective.  Who can pass up the cheese museum in Ingersoll, Ontario? 


Not these two dairy farmer’s daughters!  We did skip a cheese curds purchased (yes, we have been chastised) and the cheese with a “bite” was a bit  mild for us but we had a great time.

http://www.ingersoll.ca/living_here/brief_history.html



And we found great stuff to explore. 


Still pining for a loom. sigh

My maiden name was Heddles..... it's destiny, I need a loom.
Where on earth would I put a loom? Or do with one? 


This was a great little museum- dairy industry in Ingersoll, cool displays of town history and this great story!


"....decided to take his bicycle and go exploring."
There's an understatement!



This was so cool- here's the relics of a true traveler!
(The bike.....)


Still here after all these years!
And he biked in ONE gear the entire way!  One less thing to break. 

Can't you just see this guy peddling across Mongolia! 


On to the cheese factory museum....


http://www.ingersoll.ca/living_here/brief_history.html

Hmm.... we forgot to take more photos. 

Except this one shot.
Of eggs..... from Montreal.  Still Canada.
And a great cow!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

WILDLIFE!!!




What did you expect- crazy shots of Janet and I?  Naw.... just a quick post about all the amazing "animal" sightings across the country.  

One of our miscellaneous lists was Wildlife Sightings.  So we saw…..



Vole running in a zig-zag path through tiny tunnels in the Gettysburg battlefield grass. Cool.

Black squirrel- is that rare?  Janet took a picture. Where's the photo? No idea.

Purple Martin bird houses and Purple Martins, Amish and Mennonite people- all rare  sights for Janet. The girl needs to get out of Colorado more and see some scenic sites.



Porcupine- dead. Hey, that counts.

Raccoons- two live, uncountable number dead. They either take way too many risks or there are just way too many of them.

A turtle – one of my personal favorites.

Deer- whoopee, it’s a large suburban rodent.

Elk –was that real?

Chipmunks- they're so cute.

Canadian geese- also known as flying poop machines.


A partridge - we wouldn’t have known what it was except someone else mentioned that one flew smack into their car. That would make two sightings for us- we saw that dead one and the one that almost flew into our camper.  They aren’t too bright.


A tiny minnow- but hey, it was in Lake Superior.



Also at Lake Superior- biting black flies. When people are running from a beach, don’t continue going down to said beach to take two lousy photos. Not worth it.

Look for these cliffs in another blog, coming soon.
Anyone know where we were?

Told you- lousy photo.
Aggressive flies.
Ouch- run!



Jet skiers on Lake Augusta on the Susquehanna- I love spelling that name.  And it was definitely wild life. 


And finally - 
Cool blue jay in Bay City, Michigan

Will it fit on top of the camper?

Wouldn't that look great driving down the road
with Woody Woodpecker's cousin strapped to the roof?
 First low bridge, he'd lose his head.

Friday, July 13, 2012

We take a break from our usual programming.....

On the road again.... just can't wait to get on the road again.  sigh....

Yep, another road trip calls.  My mom asked me to "go with" her, aka, "drive her" to Dubois, Wyoming.   She actually would probably take off on her own but she's finally getting a bit wiser in her golden years and realizes that driving 14 hours for a weekend isn't as easy at 84 than at 54. (And neither of those ages are accurate- Mom's cause I can't remember how old she is and the 54 cause it fits nice with the 84.  Don't ask- it's 6am!)

So in about an hour or as soon as I figure out my voice mail for my phone, I'm off to Rapid City to pick her up and off we go to Dubois. "Where Real Cowboys Work and Play"

http://www.focusproductions.com/Images/MtnCtry_Images/Dubois.downtown81.jpg


Dubois is an authentic western town located along the Wind River, rimmed by the Absarokaand Wind River Mountains. It's an area of striking contrasts from the badlands to the high peaks. It is among American Cowboy Magazine's Best Rural Towns of 2012. http://www.duboiswyoming.org/



Mom will share the weekend with college friends as they celebrate the live of my dad's best friend, Gunny. He has real name but Gunny is the name we always heard when college stories come out.  They attended Colorado Agricultural and Mechanical College (Colorado A&M) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_State_University

Later the school became Colorado State University and I graduated from there in 1977.  My dad and Gunny graduated in 1949. (My mom will correct me if either date is wrong! or her age.... she has more capacity for numbers at whatever her age is than I do. Scary times ahead )  My dad and Gunny enjoyed their years at Colorado A&M with skiing at Aspen with a T-bar, shenanigans at various local establishments , etc.  One of those life long freindships forged in college.



Tetons- one of my favorite mountain ranges.

A perfect reason for a road trip.  Celebrate, be together and hey, it's only 30 miles from Dubois to the Tetons.

 It's not like we're driving I 95 to ANYWHERE!


Water- lots of water....




The next day’s agenda?  Find Niagara Falls AND a quaint thrift store or even a yard sale for wine glasses and Egyptian organic cotton sheet. Cheap. ( I can dream…) I left South Dakota in January and had two down comforters- one in a duvet cover, two quilts and no top sheet.  Janet brought one but she wouldn’t share. I’m telling Mom.  

And it was in the upper 90’s.  Every day. Most nights. With excessive humidity.  And I put a 4-inch memory foam topper on the queen size camping mattress.  We might be camping but we will do it on Memory Foam.  One little problem…. Memory Foam must create its own heat.  So a human body side down cooks, human body side up freezes from the air conditioning.  

 It wasn’t until our final camping night, we discovered the AC had a thermostat.  With a nod to Mark Twain and his Innocents Abroad tome, this trip could be titled Idiot’s Abroad….

Off we go.  Still in New York and on the bumpiest road of our trip, we bounced toward Niagara Falls and suddenly; there was our yard sale. Hurrah…. Our breakfast drinks were sloshing out of the cups and our sore backs needed a break so let’s stop.  Well, the yard sale wasn’t exactly what we needed- no organic Egyptian sheets or wineglasses but we did find the hands of the green super hero - Hulk! 





Giant, puffy green hands that roar and growl when banged together. ”Don’t make me angry,” they threaten. Perfect- it’s just the comic break we needed.  Best buck we'd spent so far- they roar when we'd go around a corner or hit the brake a wee bit fast and we howled with laughter. It takes very little to amuse us.

And look- clearly a collector’s item!


We read up on crossing the international border into Canada.  Will they make us eat all our fresh produce? We will if we have to. No one gets our Trader Joe salads.  We have a seedpod from a Gettysburg’s tree and the cremains of a dead cat (another story…).  

We remove our sunglasses, calmly hand over our passports and serenely say, “No animals, no passengers.  All the boxes in the back seat are nutritional supplements for personal consumption.”  (The entire back seat was filled with our new Reliv business purchases) 

We refrain from chatty comments with the very serious border officer (very tough for the two of us) and reply we were only driving across his country and would leave by nightfall.  He checked out our passports, found out we are not security threats and waved us on our way.

Yeah, Canada! We were officially abroad!



 Everyone talks about how the Canadian side of the falls are so much nicer than the American, pretty, pretty, etc.  OK we believed them until we were routed right down Niagara Falls, Ontario’s “Las Vegas” strip past the Chippewa Nation Casino. 


Photo blatently lifted from the internet.
We missed this view but the people facing that wall of water must have a thrill each morning.

"Do you think that's really what it looks like, Harold? Let's go there and gamble!"





This is what is Niagara Falls, Ontario really looks like. So very attractive.
http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-photo/daslink/canada_roadtrip/1181226600/downtown_niagara_falls.jpg/tpod.html


Be still my heart. 



Still not sure about the cost of fuel in Canada.
Fortunately, we filled up in New York.

119.9 for regular?? Dollars, pesos, yen? 




It was unbelievable.  But our trek continued - find the big falling water and way, fewer people .  And it became the first of many serendipitous adventures. “Let’s go this way and wander over there and…. Well, look at that- a park, a quiet spot, the right street, etc.”   Great fun for us to wander and discover our way but we recognized that this would not be nearly as much fun for a spouse with an agenda.


Not Niagara Falls- Dufferin Falls and very nice.
http://www.exploringniagara.com/places_to_explore/parks_beaches/dufferin_islands.html



Niagara Falls- lots of water.




Don't jump!
Enjoy the spray- it was 100 degrees



One day, I'm going to write about these calm ducks fishing for dinner....


while this is twenty feet away.

Why doesn't it suck the little duckies in?
Or erode the sidewalk I'm standing on?

 Niagra Falls- lots and lots of water. 

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Lake Ontario!


Well, much to see in the Finger Lakes but we were on a mission.  My very sophisticated sister had scouted out our first destination north of the Finger Lakes- a vegan bakery and restaurant.  This was supposed to be a cleansing trip- as soon as we clean out the gas station breakfast and the Amish pickled eggs.  (And the pumpkin whoopie pie breakfast )

Here's Janet looking for vegan restaurants.....


So off we went to Sodus, New York.  Which is different from Sodus Center or Sodus Point or East Sodus (which is west of Sodus Point) or South Sodus.  We did find a cute lighthouse and boating village at Sodus Point and finally, after another internet search on our smart phones…ta dah-  the vegan bakery closed two hours prior and we never found its actual site. http://www.everydaygourmetbakery.com/- looks good online.



We did find the actual Sodus, 1812 Hotel. Clearly the wounded from the Sodus battle of the War of 1812 were likely housed here.  Internet search proves this place is a weird as it looks.http://www.waylandparanormal.com/1812.html



The town of Sodus is one of only two towns in Wayne County to ever experience a military battle within its borders. In the morning of June 19, 1813, during the War of 1812, the British attacked Sodus Point. The British seized the stores in the warehouses and burned the town. Only one building, a tavern, was spared. This building was spared because Asher Warner, who was severely wounded during the battle, was carried there by British soldiers. He died several hours later. One other man, Charles Terry, also died as a result of this attack. Terry, also wounded during the battle, made his way home. It was thought that he would recover, but after getting up from his bed and walking to the door, he caught cold and died a few days later. (Men never change- I'm NOT hurt!)






But we had found Lake Ontario- hence the Sodus Point lighthouse. On Lake Ontario.

We arrived at 5:15pm.

It had lovely hydrangeas

* Sodus Bay Lighthouse Museum, Ontario Street, Sodus Point
Sodus Point Lighthouse Museum
- Completed in 1871, this lighthouse was built to replace the lighthouse tower and keeper's residence constructed in 1824 at Sodus Bay. It was in use until 1901. Today, the Sodus Bay Lighthouse Museum is operated by the Sodus Bay Historical Society and houses maritime collections depicting the history of the Sodus Bay region. Open May-October, Tuesday-Sunday, 10 am - 5 pm. (315) 483-4936

It was closed. 


Lake Ontario
It wasn't closed!

Giving up on our vegan dinner, we cruised west along the road that hugged the lake- we knew it was scenic because the map showed green dots. What we saw were trees, glimpses of water, “wow, check out that house!”, more trees, glimpse of water, more houses. All the way to our next “What’s up with that?” moment. 

Really?- what road is only open December to April? The one we wanted to cross the Irondequoit Bay and go on to Niagara Falls.

"The Irondequoit Bay Bridge is on NY 104. This one is a seasonal swing bridge, open year-round but in two different senses of the word. In the summer season, it's "left open" so that boat traffic can pass between the Bay and Lake Ontario. In the winter off-season, the bridge is opened to vehicular traffic. I was here in summer, so you get the bridge while it's open and not while it's open.
"http://www.alpsroads.net/roads/ny/ibob/   Check out the link- full of fun pics and more zany writing about a bridge that isn't open unless it's open. 


So we skipped the "open" bridge and drove south along Irondequoit Bay  - fabulous houses, my, oh, my…. straight into Rochester, NY, then drove back north along the west side of the bay to the Lake Ontario Parkway.  

And stopped for the night at Hamlin Beach State Park http://exploreamericasparks.org/ny/hamlinbeach/vt/- where they clearly hire children to run the front desk.  Or we are just getting older?  Either way Ken and Barbie’s little brother and sister were busy with their summer jobs and checked us in. 
(FYI- Barbie's sister was Skipper and Ken's little brother was Tommy- they are ten, maybe.

Perky little Skipper gave us a yellow sheet from a small legal pad with 35 or 40 camp site numbers hand written on it – “Just drive around and find one you like! Bring the sheet back. I won’t give it to anyone else until you come back.” 

Hmm…. seemed an odd way to assign sites in a park that was getting full.   And... could she have really given the list I had in my hand to anyone else anyway?  We had the potential to really mess with their sophisticated system if we just left town with the master list.  But we didn’t. 

Grateful for open camp sites, we drove around and found the perfect site- no yelling kids or barking dogs, level, close the showers – wonderful.  We went back to Skipper and Tommy and she pouted a bit- “Oopsee, that one’s gone.  What’s your second choice?”  Okay….breathe deep and throw a dart.

They took our money and stuck a yellow golf tee marker into the campground map, officially securing our new camp site.  Then she informed us that we would share our electrical outlet with a neighbor and if the power failed, “Just give us a call!” Seriously?  

We were clearly desperate and drove off, found our site and carefully backed in next to Mr.Angry
Potty Mouth who was really irritated that we were coming to claim the site where he was getting/ stealing the power from. His outlet was broken and ours turned out to be a single plug only so we couldn't share it.  As we settled in, the dogs barked and the horde of kids yelled.  Lovely- let’s take a walk.


Yes, I did walk in public with a headlamp on my head. It was dark coming back... 




Nothing like a walk along a soft sand beach in the setting sun to soothe the nerves and redeem the campsite. The neighbor turned out to be a gruff but very helpful man, the kids went to bed and someone put those dogs out of our misery.  Excellent. 

Excellent park, even if Skipper and Tommy are running the show. 



North to Finger Lakes- it's all vineyard and trees!





Farewell to Fantasy Island
American camping at its best.... not
But it is on a nice river. 




We drove north through Amish/ Mennonite country- not a buggy on the road but whoops, what is that?  Men in straw hats tending big fire pits. We flipped a quick U-turn. Well, not quite…. Remember what we’re driving.  But we did return to the Amish market where the men would selling the best  BBQ chicken ever found on earth. . . . . . in four hours.  (And didn't feel free to take photos but the men were scenic and there was a horse) 


But a pattern was definitely  forming for the trip.  Gales of laughter would be frequent.   We would be too early or too late for everything. Farmer's markets were always yesterday or tomorrow. Shops were closed, great art shows were next month.  But we would never have to worry about what our travel buddy would eat- she ate whatever you ate.  A 1 ton camper pick up could zip trough traffic and U- turned on a dime IF you just pretend it is a VW bug.  And wandering without a set plan opens you up for really fun adventures.

And the Amish/Mennonite- I thought they were Mennonite but there was no electricity in the country store.... where we bought a healthy breakfast. A pumkin whoopie pie. http://www.joyofbaking.com/PumpkinWhoopiePies.html   A recipe for those who still bake!

Again no pictures.  Why? Delicious!



Later that day in Mansfield, PA we stopped to measure the back seat one more time to be sure we really could not  squeeze the coveted loom into the back seat. We made the decision not to drive six hours back to Philadelphia and attempt to load the loom.  It didn’t seem possible and the risk involved lots of extra driving.  But we discovered our first lesson of travel as we attempted to measure the truck’s back seat- a sense of humor goes a long way- people seem to be drawn to two women laughing themselves silly and loaned us a tape measure, checked our oil, offer directions, or at least smiled with us.

Also in Mansfield we had yet another regional meal- Janet experienced the touch screen menu at a Sheetz fuel station- food to go.  http://www.sheetz.com/main/food/menu.cfm   She really must get out of the Denver area more often and eat at more gas stations.  We had a pretty decent made to order breakfast burrito and were on our way.


It's a restaurant, it's a gas station-
it's Sheetz!

With regional gourmet food.

This is for my dear friend, Jan, who loves Tastky-Kakes!
Childhood in Pennsylvania...


On to Corning,  New York


Fabulous museum.
These are glass boats-/ships-/birds- cool things that seem to swim/float in the air/ water. 
Next stop? The Corning Glass Museum- which really is much more than an entire museum dedicated to a little white bowl with blue flowers on it. (I told you so.)  How to make glass, how to break glass, how to buy glass and the entire history of glass. 


Who knew the Persians were making such fabulous contemporary designs three thousands years ago? And how did it survive intact? Fascinating and we could have stayed all day.  We almost did.


But the Finger Lakes called. 



Fabulous Internet shot, not my own.
Captures the beauty of America's Lake District. 


We drove through the cute town of Watkins Glen and up along the west side of the Seneca Lake- vineyard, vineyard, vineyard, soft serve “ice cream”, a glimpse of lake and the pretty other side; then more- vineyard, vineyard, vineyard, soft serve “ice cream”, a glimpse of lake far below. Trees, lots of trees. Not quite what we expected but very pretty. 



 Gotta say, the East coast would really look much more distinctive if most the trees were cut down- the scenery began to look the same as we drove from state to state. 



This was an actual scenic overview in the Finger Lakes area.
I cannot get the sign to show up- it's embarrassed that the scenic overlook,
overlooks a pretty normal dairy farm and lots of plastic wrapped hay.
Where's the lakes?

Friday, July 6, 2012

Welcome to Pennsylvania!




We left Gettysburg and headed north on US 15 and found a local store for supplies and our first regional ethnic food- hard boiled eggs pickled in beet juice.
IF you like pickled beets, you'll.... either like or tolerate these.
I like them.




See how pretty this is? 

And I love the beets!

North of Harrisburg we picked up the Sesquehanna River north along US15 in lovely afternoon light.   The newest must have on any unplanned road trip is the official  “What’s with that….?” List  aka, notebook and pen on hand to write down odd things and questions we would surely have that we need the Internet to look up.   It was started  when we say a 25 foot tall white stone woman standing on a rock in the middle of the river. 

 Why is there a Statue of Liberty standing in the middle of the Susquehanna River?  


"Located in the Dauphin Narrows of the Susquehanna River, this 25 foot replica of The Statue of Liberty stands on an old Marysville bridge platform holding her torch high.  This is actually the second statue to stand on this pier.  Both statues were built by Gene Stilp. The original was built in 1986 but was destroyed some years later in a storm.  It was made from Venetian blinds and stood only 18 feet tall.  After it was destroyed Stilp rebuilt the statue using wood, metal, glass, and fiberglass."




Other burning question- 
Who or what is McKees Rocks- it’s a bridge in Pittsburgh and a waterfall in central PA.

History

For thousands of years, Native Americans inhabited the region. The Adena culture built a large mound at the future site of McKees Rocks. The mound, a burial site, was augmented in later years by members of the Hopewell culture.[2] Much later, it was considered by George Washington as a possible location for Fort Pitt, which was eventually built on the site of the destroyed French Fort Duquesne in what is now Pittsburgh's Point State Park.[3]
The borough derives its name from Alexander McKee, to whom a 1,300-acre (530 ha) tract of land was given in 1764, and from a rocky projection into the river at this site. In 1769, McKees Rocks officially got its name on a deed,[4] and that year is considered to be its founding date 

So now we all know....


Is there a whole falls?

This is the waterfall. 




But we had miles to go and places to be, specifically a campground.  When you travel in a rather spontaneous fashion, you actually spend more time than you should finding places to park and plug in for the night.  If we were with our husbands, there would have been words. 



But we found the whole process very funny as we drove through Shikellamy State park (with no camping) to the RV campground with camping-  “Oh, look- it’s right across the street!”   Fantasy Island campground, no less.  

Not quite a fantasy- wifi didn't work and my shower drilled holes in my skin but it was a place to park Clyde and our weary heads. 


And on the shore as the West Branch meets the rest of the Sesquehanna River- we watched youngsters on water craft cavort under the multiple bridges in the orange setting sun.  A lovely first day.  


And the first of many names we could not pronounce- Shikellamy?