Key West

A nice 4 hour ride on beautiful US 1 to Key West. Gulf on one side and ocean on the other. We're staying at the Navy's Sigsbee RV Park LINK  

Everglades

Fantastic all back roads trip of about 5 hours to the Everglades down Tamiami trail. Neat thing is the alligators in the canal that is aside the road. We stayed overnight in a very nice National Park Service campground in the Big Cypress National Reserve.  LINK. The alligators in the pictures was in the canal near the road. We were one of two rigs that stayed overnight. No alligators came visiting.

Lazy at Lazy Days

Short, 1 hour run to Lazy Days Campground. LINK Lazy Days is a huge RV dealer on the outskirts of Tampa. A very unique thing is that they leave the RV's, new and used, unlocked during the day and let you wander through them without a sales rep. We saw MANY motor homes and got some ideas to add to ours.

Beach

Anne took us to a fantastic beach near St. Petersburg Beach. The beach is located at Pass-a-Grille. Anne and Robin had a great time baking and chatting. Steve sat in the shade and read his Kindle.

Giraffe Feeding (Camels too)

FANTASTIC day at the Giraffe Ranch. LINK Robin says this was the best time she ever had. The owners are very knowledgeable and the husband ran the Zoo in Tampa for decades.


We had a great dinner at Kafe Kokopelli in Dade City, LINK.  The restaurant location used to be the garage of an auto dealership! Note the amazing bar.

Church and Tarpon Springs

Started out at early services at Anne's church, St Mary's Episcopal LINK. The pictures on the website don't do it justice. Robin is getting quite an exposure to different Protestant religions!

Tarpon Springs

Tampa

Today Anne took us into town for a fantastic tour of theTampa Bay History Center Link It is a great history museum with lots of interactive displays of Tampa area history: Indians, cattle, citrus, etc. Really enjoyed this. Afterwards we ate like kings, yet again, at the museum branch of the famous Columbia Restaurant LINK

Dade City

While Tibby was finally getting groomed, Anne took us on a windshield tour of Dade City. LINK When I first came here this was a citrus town with a huge OJ processing plant and orange groves everywhere. Diseases have severely damages the groves and the plant has closed. It is still a quaint town where it seems everyone knows each other. We had a great lunch and then talked more. For dinner we went to the City Market Bistro LINK for a fantastic meal.

Florida

Another all back roads run to Dade City Florida to see Steve's Sister-In-Law Anne and introduce her to Robin. Went all on US 1 and US 301. Great seeing the small towns along the way.

My late Brother Frank and Anne turned their property into a work of landscape art. Robin says it looks like in the movies. Some pictures.

I was last here almost 3 years ago so it was great to catch up with things with Anne and she and Robin chatted late into the night. Great chemistry!

Moving on to Georgia

Great time in Lenoir but moving on time. Heading south to Florida. We are staying at Ft Gordon's RV park Pointes West on Strom Thurmond Lake near Augusta GA for 2 nights .  LINK

Went to the Signal Corps museum but wasn't impressed...Vietnam era barely mentioned. 

Lunch with Howard

Fantastic 2 hour drive up into the mountains to have lunch with Howard (Robin's dad). We went to the Shatley Springs  family style restaurant LINK that has been a favorite for ages. Everything was amazing, including the ride in the moutains!

Happy Birthday Twins!!

Today was the Twin's first birthday and what a fest it was. The theme was Wizard of Oz and the craftsmanship of the decorations and goodies was amazing. Great food too. The Twins got a lot of goodies.

Lenoir NC and Twins Birthday

Great 6 hour, all back roads, run from Wilmington to our favorite Campground in Hickory NC...Indian Springs LINK. Spent the next weeks helping Aunt Gracie recover from her fall and seeing family and friends. The major event was the twin's first birthday on the 24th.

We took Eli to Linville Caverns LINK where a great time was had. From there we went to Chimney Rock  Link for a great view.  Eli was apprehensive about the height but overcame it and seemed to have a great time.

Wilmington and Battleship NC

Short, 4 hour run to the Wilmington KOA LINK. Purpose of this trip is to show grandson Eli the Battleship North Carolina in Wilmington NC LINK. We had a great visit! It was hot out but the self guided tour was very pleasant and not hot at all. They have done a great job of maintaining the ship and organizing it for the tour. Lots of walking up and down ladders to the bowels of the ship to the bridge. Some pictures.

The KOA is quite nice. The only site they had left was a deluxe one...$80/day!!!! A humongous BBQ grill and paved patio was included. It was fun for 2 nights but too rich for our blood. Eli loved the pool though.

Had a great meal at the Indian restaurant. This place is a must. LINK

On The Road Again

By popular demand from our vast readership, we are continuing the blog. Thanks to the readers for asking. The next posts will cover a journey to Wilmington to see Battleship NC, Twin's Birthday in Lenoir; Anne's in Dade City Fla, Key West, and....

RTB

RTB (Return to Base in Air Force lingo)

Got in to Charlotte at about 1500. Uneventful trip. Nice ride through the Shenandoah Valley.

In a great little park in downtown Charlotte. Struggling with a tight place to pull in and Robin was outside helping...both phones started going crazy...couldn't answer. Turns out it was nice Cedar Island folks: the washer in the rental caught on fire and the FD was there! No damage except the washer is toast.

Here endeth the New England trip blog. I know you zillions of readers will be disappointed.

Spaghetti Night Day

A year ago today there were two people in very bad mental shape. I was in severe depression. I had lost my wonderful wife of 30 years in a flash, with no warning. I had heard about spouses dying shortly after the other spouse passed but didn’t think much of that theory…until last year. I had been on THE trip in motor home that was going to get me out of the frump. It didn’t. It made it worse. I was in bad shape.

A Little Bird was going through her own hell. Working non-stop and sad from worry and her own depression.

Two people in their own shells and own hell and no interest in the outside world.

Something happened. Some force (Devine?) led to an invitation to talk over a meal - for some forgotten reason across the RV table and not the house. I think it was because I wanted to show her a motor home.

We parted, feeling a little better at having someone who listened.

Time went by and we talked more and more. We fell in love. I worried that I was disrespecting my beloved Danièle. Little Bird helped that so much by always encouraging me to talk about her and respecting her legacy... Today we still light a candle for her at any Catholic church. Yet I worried. Many gave me great counsel but the one that summed it up best was my bud Eddie Bo: “Steve, you don’t have much time left…get moving.”

So here we are a year later, married!

What a ride! Family and friends have supported us in this whirlwind that still goes on. Too much to see. Do it while we can.  

24 June, “Spaghetti Night”, is a recurring annual holiday on our calendar.

Robin’s Girls: I love your Mom so very much.

UPDATE: we had a great trip down I84 and I81. We stopped for the night HERE. Very nice new CG. Walking distance to the Shenandoah Caverns...next trip...gotta get to CLT and help Andi and David move. Now to cook the spaghetti.

Heading South

Yea! Got a complaint that I hadn't updated in a few days. So, someone is reading this.

Didn't update because was lazy. We just rode around and ate lobster. I'll post some pix later,

Something you might be interested in. I asked a local about Pres Bush 41's impact on traffic in the small town of Kennebunkport, She said there is steady procession on the road near the compound. She said he and Mrs Bush often come into town for dinner etc but it is usually low key. She said they both are very personable and nice to the other diners. She said it was a zoo when W came into see his folks when he was Pres. It is still heavy even though he is out of office but better. She said that Pres Clinton comes 3 or 4 times a year to visit 41 and it is a zoo.

Today we depart and head towards Charlotte. Should arrive Wednesday. Tonight we should RON at Promised Land State Park in PA. That's the plan but plans can change.

Update: we're here. good trip except horrible road on I84 in PA. Off to I81 in VA tomorrow. Will probably RON near Stauton.

Kennebunk

We love the Red Apple Campground  Clicky. Grass everywhere that is manicured. Nice gas grills are throughout the park for use. The dog play area comes with toys and is also manicured. The owners are fantastic.

Walking around, Robin said we should find a fire ring/grill for Pelicans Rest like they have on every site. I said that I had looked for years but they were horribly expensive; they would only sell 3 or 4 at a time; shipping was more than the grill. About then we ended up at the office and there was a stack of the grills for $150! So, Pelicans Rest will have a fire pit and grill! Now, it would seem ok that our CPA will let me write off the whole trip since we were seraching for the grills?

 

 Down East we have the Crab Pot Christmas trees. Here they have Lobster Pot furniture!!!

If you tell the owners by 1000, they will order Lobsters that are still swimming. They will be cooked and delivered to your site, complete with utensils and bibs, by 1730! We got two 1.5 pound ones for $30. They were delicious. 

Bruno and Minoux Love Lobster!

 
During the day, we toured Kennebunkport, including an overlook of the summer home of President Bush 41.  The captions tell you what you're seeing. Note the low tide! This is normal. 10' tides here.

Low Tide!

High Tide the next day

Low Tide

High Tide the next day

President Bush 41 Compound

President Bush 41 Compound

Lunch. The Ever Popular Lobster Roll!!!!!

BTW, it is in the 60's/low 70's here. NC is in the 90's!

Kennebunkport

Short 2 hour jaunt up 95/1 to Kennebunkport Maine. A FANTASTIC campground. Look at their website HERE.  They deliver freshly caught lobster to your site. That will be dinner tomorrow (and every night?)

Gotta run now...George and Barbara will probably call us soon to drop by the Bush Compound....it's right around the corner.

Nothing

Another lazy day. Robin studied. Maine tomorrow.

Boston

Took the subway into Boston both days and then took the trolley that you can get on and off of. Fantastic tour.

Our first selfie...on the subway to Boston

On Sunday we stayed on the trolley for the whole circuit. On Monday we got on and off. Plus, it included a harbor cruise.

Sunday we went to a High Mass, complete with Bells & Smells at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

Cathedral of the Holy Cross

 

An amazing, yet sad, thing: Robin and I have started a tradition of lighting votive candles (explanation click here...to quote Wiki..."To "light a candle for someone" indicates one's intention to say a prayer for another person, and the candle symbolizes that prayer) in any Catholic Church that we visit in honor of Robin's Mom and Daniele. We were early for Mass so we looked for the candles in the Cathedral. None. I asked the Parish Priest....a real Bostonian. He said: "they are illegal in Massachusetts...isn't that great?" 

We walked through a beautiful neighborhood to get there and then walked back to the trolley.

Beautiful streets in South Boston

Boston Harbor and the Constitution

Constitution

 Wonderful lunch on Monday at Pellino's Ristorante LINK
 

Mussels

Fantastic meal

See the Rock

Did a drive down to Plymouth to see the Rock.

More later.

Hanscom

Rainy day so study time.

West Point to Boston (Hanscom AFB)

A boring all Interstate trip of about 5 hours in fog, mist and rain. Uneventful though, Staying at Hanscom Air Force Base which is very convenient to Boston. A LINK if you care. No pictures.

Nada

Calves are sore from all the walking and the weather is yuck. So a nothing day except that Robin studied and took exams all day. U went and got Chinese take-out...which was excellent BTW.

On the road tomorrow for about 5 hours to Boston. Staying at Hanscomb AFB.

BTW: here's a photo of our site at West Point. Foggy and damp.

"50 Bucks so far and the train hasn't left the station"

The title is a Robin quote. We had just paid to park at the train depot and bought our tickets to NYC (Round Trip).  We observed in the City that parking garages charged $8 for 1/2 hour! $46 for 8 hours! Entrance to any of the sites like Top of The Rock or Empire State was $24+ each.

Great train ride to Grand Central. The station was just like you see in the movies. Just beautiful.


We then walked to St Patrick's cathedral and lit candles for Robin's Mom and Daniele. It is undergoing a lot of renovation so the beauty was hard to see.

From there we walked to Rockefeller Center and explored.

Then we went by Fox News studios. Right outside talking on a cell phone was Ollie North! We had a nice lunch near there and then headed to Times Square.

We then walked down Broadway to the Empire State Building. On the way, in front of one of the network studios, we were offered a pass to the taping of Jon Stewart's Daily Show tonight. Bruno would not have been pleased if we stayed in the City that late.

Hopped a subway there and went down to the 9-11 memorial. Erie feeling seeing the neighborhood that was so devastated, including the nearby Fire Station that lost a lot of their members.

Another subway back to Grand Central and a train back home.

Observations:

• The City really looks nice. No trash anywhere in our walks and barely any graffiti.
• Times Square was busy but nice.
• The subways were crowded and hot but clean.
• The 9-11 memorial is very moving. 
• Every single person we met was as nice as they could be. 
• I had trouble with the machine reading my ticket for the subway and a gent came up and ran his card through so that I could enter. He simply saw I was having a problem.
• Cashiers were patient and very helpful. 
• Street vendors of tourist things were polite and offered to help even if we didn't buy their merchandise.Even smiled when we declined.

 Pictures later.

Still, West Point

A hugely exciting day! You won't believe it! We:

1. Slept late because it was a rainy day and Bruno didn't need to pee
2. Ate SOS
3. Did Laundry
4. Dropped by the PX
5. Took coding exams
6. Watched some TV.

Tomorrow we hit the Big Apple!

West Point still

Plan A was to catch a train into NYC (Grand Central Station) and go to Mass at St Patrick's and then see the sites in the 5th Ave area. Luckily we had the TV on and the local NYC station said that the Puerto Rican Day Parade would kick off at 1100 in the exact area we plan to cover. Here's a LINK. They're expecting over 2 mil people just for the parade....in addition to the people that are normally there!

We're doing Plan B: local ops. Go to the West Point museum and visitor's center. Late lunch. Ride local roads in a loop around the Hudson.

We did that and it was a nice ride. Museum was very interesting and the ride along the Hudson very pretty. We ended up having a very nice dinner at the Riverview Restaurant in Cold Spring....right across from West Point. Here's a LINK to the restaurant. 

We'll do NYC tomorrow...if it doesn't rain.

West Point

Rode around the grounds of the USMA and had lunch. Robin did a lot of school work. That's about it. Beautiful area. 

Philly to West Point

Another great trip. All back roads-no Interstates. Left about 1000 and arrived at about 1530. Beautiful country side.

We're at the military campground on the West Point (Unites States Military Academy [USMA])  reservation. Beautiful place. Here's a link to some pictures etc.

Down Day

Lazy day, at least for me. Robin slaved away on her Coding course work.

The funny of the day: Robin went in the post office to mail some post cards. The Postmaster listened to her request and said: "You're not from around here, are you?"  All said in good spirit and fun. PA Yankees have been very nice to us.

Few chores to get ready for departure tomorrow. Short jaunt to the US Military Academy at West Point, our base camp for New York City explorations.

Philly and suburbs summary: beautiful rolling hills; lush vegetation; amazing mansions along creeks; very nice people. The city seemed very nice but we did not venture too far from the historic center so we may be wrong. I think we both would like to come back sometime. 

Philly

Bruno did NOT break this!
(We thought it would be bigger)

Did Philly yesterday and had a great trip.

PLEASE: send an email/text and let us know if you're reading this. It is time consuming so why bother if no readers?Claire asked about following. I don't know but it seems she figured it out somehow because she shows up as a follower? BTW, know that most of us don't want to fool with Google sign ins etc. Not asking for comments (but they are nice), just let us know to give us motivation to keep doing this.

So,there is a train station near the KOA. We drove there and parked all day for $1! The train leaves on the hour, every hour and takes about 1 hour, 10 minutes to the heart of the city. Cost? Well, well. It pays to be a geezer sometimes. Flashed my Medicare card and it was $1 each way! Robin got an all day tourist pass for $12 that is good for 24 hours of unlimited travel on buses and trains. Such a deal.  And the trains are very modern and clean.

 

Most Pictures won't load....not enough bandwidth. Pictures of  what we saw are on the WWW so no big deal.


There was another couple that are natives and invited us to follow them to Independence Hall. We saw it all (well, almost) in spite of there being a zillion school groups in town with huge lines. 

A great day. I'll let Robin describe her impressions of the big city. I often reminded her of Andi's frequent comment to her: "Mom, you're not in Kansas anymore!"

PS. No, we forgot to get a cheese steak sub. An excuse to come back.

Amish Country (Lancaster PA)

???Anyone reading this??? If you don't want to comment here at least send an Email so we know if it is worth keeping this up.

Before we get started on Amish Country:

Robin...if you feed the animals.....

Lancaster County is Amish country. It is about 1 hour away on beautiful country roads. On the way we saw an old fashioned silver diner along the highway....something like you'd see on the Food or Travel Channel. The parking lot had a lot of cars in in so we went in. We were not disappointed! Juke box things on the tables; stereotypical dinner wait staff; walls lined with pictures of Service members who were patrons; oh, and excellent, cheap food!

 

Burger plate $7; Fish & Chips $6.50; Onion Rings $3.50

 The KOA has a CD that you can rent for $5/day. It has a map that you follow and along the way, it describes what you're seeing, Amish customs, dress, etc. Its about 1.5 drive around Lancaster County. Since we're heading to Philly on the train in a few minutes we will just post some pix and comment more later. Things that impressed us: beautiful rolling farmland; silos everywhere; 6 animal teams of huge horses/mules pulling plows.