New Brunswick and Nova Scotia

Moncton – Moncton is the near Fundy National Park. We spent a couple days there seeing all it has to offer. We saw waterfalls, visited Hopewell Rocks, saw the high and low tide in Alma NB, and just enjoyed the scenery. One day we visited an old carriage factory that the owners basically just closed the door and left. All of the equipment, tools, and materials were there. They built carriages and even hearses. We spent one night at a local dinner theater. It was a fun evening. We also were able to see a tidal bore, basically a wave created when the tide and the river meet.

Carriage factory

Halifax Citadel

Halifax Citadel

Finally found a moose

Fundy National Park

Fundy National Park

High Tide at Alma

Same boat at low tide in Alma

Hopewell Rocks at low tide

Peggy’s Cove

Peggy’s Cove

Peggy’s Cove

Tribute to fishermen

Maritime Titanic Exhibit

Tidal Bore

Now we are in Halifax. It rained a lot today. We visited the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic(has a Titanic exhibit) and a market. The market was way crowded and not my cup of tea. On the way back to the RV park we stopped at Peggy’s Cove. There is a really nice lighthouse there, and the rock formations are unique. We also saw a stone carving by William deGarthe. It is an incredible tribute to Canadian Fisherman. We also stopped at the memorial for Swiss Air 111. Swissair Flight 111 was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland. This flight was also a codeshare flight with Delta Air Lines.

On Wednesday, 2 September 1998, the aircraft used for the flight, registered HB-IWF, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Halifax International Airport at the entrance to St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. The crash site was 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from shore, roughly equidistant from the tiny fishing and tourist communities of Peggys Cove and Bayswater. All 229 people on board died—the highest death toll of any aviation accident involving a McDonnell Douglas MD-11^[2] and the second-highest of any air disaster to occur in Canada, after Arrow Air Flight 1285. This is one of only two hull losses of the passenger configured MD-11, along with China Airlines Flight 642.

The initial search and rescue response, crash recovery operation, and resulting investigation by the Government of Canada took over four years and cost CAD 57 million (at that time approximately US$38 million).^[3] The Transportation Safety Board of Canada‘s (TSB) official report of their investigation stated that flammable material used in the aircraft’s structure allowed a fire to spread beyond the control of the crew, resulting in a loss of control and the crash of the aircraft.^[4]

Today we visited Dartmouth and went back to Halifax to see the Citadel. It is still an impressive fort though it never saw action in any war.

After Halifax, Gary and Lynn are going on down the coast, and we are headed the other way. We will soon be headed back to the states and to Derek and Michelle’s house.

Points North

We next spent about a week in the Boston Area. The first day we drove into Boston in the car. We had to pay $37 to park. We took the Hop On-Hop Off Bus to get an overview of the city. It was money well spent. We also did a narrated boat tour of the city. It was interesting also. On Saturday, we got a little smarter and took the commuter train into the city. We did the 2 1/2 mile Freedom Trail and toured the USS Constitution. On Sunday, we drove to Quincy and toured the USS Salem. Gary was aboard the sister ship off Vietnam so he was able to give us a great tour with anecdotes along the way. We then toured the John Adams and John Quincy Adams homes. The trolley managed to have a blow-out, but we still got to do the tour on a replacement trolley. The next day we again took the train into Boston and visited the JFK Library.   The building is beautiful and the exhibits were great. Our weather has been very pleasant.

Yesterday, we drove to the Bar Harbour, Maine area. It is raining today, but Gary and Lynn braved the weather to see one of the tall ships,the L’Hermione, a replica of the 32 gun frigate that brought Lafayett to America with news that France would support us during the Revolutionary War. This is her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. The crew is in period costume. If the weather clears, we may go tomorrow. We went to dinner at a lobster restaurant that served 1 1/4 pound lobster with corn on the cob, coleslaw, and a dinner roll for $14.95.

Well, the rain did not clear. Instead we went to the Tidal Falls and to Bar Harbour for dinner (lobster again). The next day we toured Acadia National Park. The area is beautiful and Cadillac mountain is the tallest mountain on the east coast. (a little over 1,500 feet).

On the 17th we left for Canada. We stayed in a gorgeous city park in St. John, NB. We sat out on a lake for drinks and attended a festival downtown. We ate fish and chips in downtown watching the people out the window. On Saturday, we drove a route that featured lighthouses. We had lunch at a little pub on an inlet, where we saw $4oo,000 boats. The pubkeeper said that one local boat called “Waterfront Property” cost 1 million 2 thousand. We ate at a not so good Mexican restaurant downtown. Today, it is raining. We are going to a movie later. Tomorrow we head for Moncton.

John Quincy Adams home

 

Boston Tea Party Site

USS Salem in Quincy

Boston Harbor

Finally to the Coast

 

Harper’s Ferry

Harper’s Ferry

Harper’s Ferry

Antietam

Mystic Seaport

The Nautilus

We traveled to Falling Waters, Pennsylvania, on July 1.  We spent a day at Harper’s Ferry and another at the Antietam Battle site.  Both were well worth the time.  We didn’t do much of anything on the fourth.  There were fireworks around, but traffic was pretty bad.  On the 5th we traveled to the Promised Land (Pennsylvania State Park, that is).  We stayed in a nice state park that sported eagles’ nests and a nice lake.  We played golf at a really pretty wooded golf course.

Yesterday we came to Groton, Conn.  We spent time at the Seaport at Mystic, visited the submarine the Nautilus, and ate a lot of clam chowder and fish.  Tomorrow we will go to Boston.

Still moving east

Well, finding internet in the east is no easy task. I am writing this on “word” with hopes that I can copy it and paste it on wordpress at McDonalds or some place.

I think the last time I wrote, we were in Nashville.

From there we headed for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, the home of Dollywood. The first day there we just looked around and went to a pretty good magic show. We ate dinner at a catfish place with unlimited “vittles”. We spent one beautiful day in Smoky Mountains National Park. The next day we woke up to rain. We had prepaid for a white water rafting trip, so we headed out there to see what would happen. By the time we got there, the sun was out and it was a great temperature. We had a really good guide on the river and had a super time. They classified the rapids as 3’s and 4’s. We classified them as 2’s and 3’s, but it was fun anyway.

From Pigeon Forge, we traveled to Front Royal, Virginia.   We were able to spend an entire day at the Smithsonian. Gary and Lynn lived in the DC area for quite a while, so they were able to guide us to the metro and get us off the metro at the Smithsonian stop. You could spend days there, but we did a rapid tour and saw three museums in one day. Don Yegan was in the DC at the same time, but we didn’t know it until we were back at Front Royal so we didn’t get to see him. We knew that Mike and Linda Mongeon were on their way to Texas from Vermont, so we shared that we were in Front Royal. They were able to spend the night in the same park we were in, so we got to visit with them for one evening.

Now we have arrived in Falling Waters, West Virginia. The internet is lousy here, too, but we do get satellite.

We will start touring around here tomorrow. The farther east we go so far, the less humidity we have. The temperature is in the mid 80’s and very comfortable today.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Luray Caverns

Smithsonian

Another week on the road….

Since the last time I wrote, we toured Graceland.  That is quite a place, but it is really commercialized.    It rained a lot while we were in Memphis.  Between Memphis and Nashville, we spent a night at Loretty Lynn’s Ranch.  The country was pretty, but the ranch really wasn’t much.

Next stop was Nashville.  We went to see The Hermitage (Andrew Jackson’s home) one day.  The temperature was in the low 100’s as was the humidity.  So the next day we went to the Country Music Hall of Fame.  Other than the fact that I fell UP the steps at the tourist bureau, that day was fine.  We met the daughter of some friends of Lynn and Gary’s, and she took us to a barbeque place and a club called 3rd and Lindsley.  The band playing there was way loud, but “Deacon” from the TV show Nashville was a friend of the band members and he sang 4 or 5 songs.  We did take a picture at the BlueBird Café.  It is really a dive in a little strip shopping center. There was some guy from the bachelorette there and the girls went crazy over him.  Last night we went to the Grand Ole Opry.  There were seven different acts,  all of which were pretty good.  The Gatlin Brothers were about the only act we knew.  We had seen them before when they played at a Ford function in San Francisco.  Another thing we saw was a replica of the Parthenon that was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition.  it was pretty impressive.

Today we drove to Pigeon Forge.  It is a real tourist trap.  Derek, it reminds me of the Dells.

I will add some pictures, but I haven’t figured out how to caption each one, so you will have to figure that out unless I happen upon a way to label them.

ONE FUN MESS AFTER ANOTHER

Well, the last 12 days have not been fun.  Between Albuquerque and  Moriarity, a light that says “Add water” came on.  The engine got really hot going up that long hill just outside of Albuquerque.  We stopped at a shop in Moriarity, and they had to add one and one half gallons of coolant.  That fixed that.  Then when we stopped for the night, our refrigerator temperature was 72.  Not so good.  We drove to Clinton and took the coach to a repair place.  They said we needed a new coolant coil or some such thing.  It was Saturday so they couldn’t order it until Monday, but it would be shipped over night.  Overnight turned out to be Thursday evening.  So they were ready to put the thing in on Friday morning.  Wait!!!  Because it cost over $2,000, the warranty company wanted to send an inspector to see if it really needed it.  BUT, since it was Friday, they couldn’t come until Monday.  They came on Monday and the repair shop put in the item and said the fridge was fixed.  We took off for Little Rock to meet Gary and Lynn.  When we arrived in Little Rock, the refrigerator’s temperature was, guess what…. 70 degrees.  The freezer was at 19 degrees, which isn’t too bad.  However, now the ice maker is not making ice.  We drove on to Memphis, but have no real plan as to how we will proceed with the fridge.

We did get to go out to dinner with Gary and Lynn, Tim and Ginger Schreiber, and Carroll Isbell in Oklahoma City for Duane’s birthday.  Also, thankfully, we could stay at Robert and DeAnn’s while they worked on the fridge.  We got to watch Race play about 7 games of baseball.  He is a good little first baseman.  Today, we went to the STAX Museum and to Beale Street and Central Barbeque.  Tomorrow, we plan to go to Graceland.

Beale Street

FIRST WEEK OUT

Our first stop was Elephant Butte, NM.  We spent 3 days in our jeeps prerunning runs for a trip we will lead for our SaddleBrooke jeep club in October.  The weather was great.  We also played golf at a really cool golf course.  It was a 9 hole municipal course at one time.  A new group took it over, made it 18 beautiful holes and are building massive houses around it.  We stayed in a Passport America RV Park with no internet.  The 4g wasn’t very good either.  However, we had a good time.

We left Elephant Butte on Friday.  The Averetts headed for Albuquerque to visit family and we headed for Clinton to see Robert and DeAnn.  We arrived Saturday morning and were able to watch Race play in a baseball tournament.  He is really a good little first baseman.  The only problem was that the tournament was 60 miles from Clinton and they played 5 games on Saturday – the first was at 8 AM and the last ended at midnight.  So we obviously slept in this morning.  We were planning to be in Oklahoma City on Monday.  However, our refrigerator wasn’t cooling well and needs a new cooling unit.  It will be ordered on Monday and they will install it on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on when it is delivered.  The RV repair shop is booked 10 days out, but, the owner knows Robert and DeAnn and put us at the front of the line – the advantage of living in a smaller town.

I will try to post some pictures to go with this post.  Derek, stay close.  I may need you!

Duane on the tee

Hello world! We are leaving on a trip that will take us across the United States and on to the maritimes of Canada and back. We anticipate it will take about 3 months for us to make the trip. We will be traveling with Gary Averett and Lynn Simon in our motorhomes.