20040730

July 30, 2004
Friday

Start: Ottawa Municpal CG, Ottawa ON
End: Plattsburgh RV Park, Plattsburgh NY
Miles: 162

We lost this file. Basically, we moved from Ottawa ON to Plattsburgh NH.


20040731

July 31, 2004
Saturday

Start: Plattsburgh RV Park, Plattsburgh NY
End: Twin Rivers RV Park, Bath NH
Miles: 173

Temps: High 89.1, Low 70.9. Cloudy, humid. The real high wasn't as high as our thermometer recorded; 83 or so would have been about right.

It was forecast to be hot today, but it didn't get anywhere near 90. It wound up being a seasonally warm day, wind out of the south, and humid. Summer.

We scooted out of Plattsburgh on I-87 north, back up to US-11. There, we refueled ($1.949/gallon) and headed east on US-11 and then US-2, then I-91 south through Burlington to Montpelier. Back onto US-2 to St. Johnsbury and down I-91 to US-302 to Bath and the campground.

US-2 between Montpelier and St. Johnsbury needs help. It's rutted and potholed and beats you to death if you try to get above 40 or so (the limit is 50). At one point, we came around a curve to a narrow bridge. I edged over as much as I dared and I know I was totally on my side of the road, but our mirror hit the mirror on an SUV going the other direction. I lost the outer mirror surface from mine, but it didn't move the mirror housing itself. I have no idea what happened to his. Finally, in the campground, I found the mirror surface in the bed of the truck, with lots of the reflective surface gone. It must have bounced off the trailer and down into the bed. But it popped back into the shell, so I have enough mirror to get us to where we can buy another. We found no damage on our trailer. Weird.

The campground is nice. There's a row of sites along the trees if that's what you want, and plenty of sites out in the open if that's what you need. We got one of the open sites, which made it easy to park. Since we're visiting relatives, we don't much care where the site is. The park people are pleasant.

We called Marybeth and told her we had to get groceries and then we'd come to her place. We bought the groceries (big bill, we haven't bought the major items in some time) and put them away in the trailer. We found their place easily and re-acquainted ourselves with David (rising junior), Julieann (rising sophmore), and Timmy (rising second-grade). They're good youngsters.

We sat around and chatted until dinner time, mainly about their family's week at Myrtle Beach (their parents (Mary & Walter), all four children (Annamarie, Peter, Margaret and Marybeth) and their spouses (respectively, Randy, Brenda, Otto and Bill) and all their kids (6) spent the week together). It sounds as though they had a fantastic week of fun and family.

Marybeth & Bill have an attack chihuahua that's a funny little thing. Bill's now Operations manager for his company, which makes scales of various kinds for commercial and hospital (and probably more) uses. One big customer is UPS.

They're currently renting the carriage house of an old Vermont large home, while they figure out what to buy or build. It's a nice place that would be great for a smaller family or a couple, but they say it's too small for them; however, it has the schools they wish the kids to attend. They could get four acres behind the carriage house that front on the Connecticut River, so building there is on their mind. They told us of the selling of the home and contents in North Charlestown NH after they decided to move here to be closer to Bill's work, which is a story in itself.

David had friends who wanted to go to the fair, so he skipped going to dinner with us. We went to an Italian restaurant in Bradford (Colatina's?) that they like. It was busy thus we couldn't get seated immediately, so we had a glass in the lounge. Then we were seated and gave our orders and continued talking. Timmy's pizza came back as a 14" instead of the personal 8" size, and my veal piccata fell thru the cracks completely. Dolores also had piccata, so we shared as they cooked another one; it finally came, we shared again and left. The tip was less than I'd usually leave. Julieann says she'll take care of the leftover pizza.

We returned to their house and said good-night quickly, since Timmy is showing his miniature horse (only 26" high) at the fair early in the morning and everyone should wind down.

After the computer chores, it's time to go to bed to get up early.


20040801

August 1, 2004 PhotoLink
Sunday

Start: Twin Rivers RV Park, Bath NH
End: Twin Rivers RV Park, Bath NH
Miles: 0

Temps: High 87.1, Low 68.9, rather warm and humid.

We got up really early for us, 7:00am, dressed and went to the North Haverhill (NH) Fair. We found Marybeth and Bill and Timmy at their van/trailer.

Bill bought us all coffee to start the day and then brought Moonbeam out of the trailer. Marybeth began working on Moonbeam the miniature horse to prepare him for showing. Bill held the horse and Marybeth did the cosmetic work. Tim went off to get dressed (boots, blue suit and ten-gallon white straw hat). At 8:00am, the National Anthem was played, and the action began just after that.

Several groups passed by during this grooming process, and they all remarked on how "cute" the little horse is.

Several events passed before Tim showed Moonbeam in event 11. There were only three small horses doing the in-hand exhibition, but darned if Tim didn't win the Blue Ribbon and Trophy. He was SO happy and proud. A few events later, he participated again and took a second place ribbon. Again, he was quite happy.

Later in the morning, all the "in-hand" winners were gathered to judge the best in show. Tim and miniature horse Moonbeam looked so small compared to the winners of the full-size horse events that we had to take pictures to show it. They looked so small. They didn't place, and didn't expect to; the idea was to participate and gain experience.

Dolores & I then took off to walk the midway of the fair and tour the exhibition halls. We looked around and then drove back to the trailer. There, we moved the photos to the computer and organized them. We printed a few of the pictures to glossy paper and took that back to Marybeth & Bill's house.

We chatted for while and looked at things on our computer, including Susan's wedding and pictures of past trips to Alaska. They picked a few more of today's pictures they'd like to have printed. Then we had dinner, during which the people who inhabit the front half of the long house returned. Lots of introductions and talk, while eating. Afterwards, we had coffee and cheesecake and talked and had a lot of fun talking about what our kids have done and (regretably) what we had done. Julieann was with us for the whole evening, while David left for a while and came back. We came to the conclusion that these kids are great - they're straight and tall and happy and free of the bad influences we saw in the DC area and see in the PCB area. They also drive their parents crazy (as our kids did us) with comments and questions that advance their position in the discussion.

After a lot of fun talk and food, we took our leave. We hope to get back soon or see them at our place.

We came back to the trailer and did computer chores like printing and filing today's pictures.

To bed (late).


20040802

August 2, 2004
Monday

Start: Twin Rivers RV Park, Bath NH
End: KOA North, Brattleboro VT
Miles: 102

Temps: High 90.5, Low 62.4

Again, the high is too high. It was more like 85. Warm, not as humid, sunny.

We ate and then took the truck (only) onto the road for a ride into the White Mountains of New Hampshire. First, we dropped off pictures we took of the Webb family at their house. Then we went east to North Woodstock NH. This was a nice ride through the hills.

Then we went north on NH3 to and through Franconia Notch, where the profile of the "Old Man of the Mountain" was located. A year or so ago, the rock ledge forming the "face" of the old man fractured and fell into then notch. Now, there's no profile, only pictures. This was the icon for the state; it's on all the road signs and state paper. They're still in a quandary of what-to-do about it.

Then we returned west on US-302 to the campground, ate lunch, hooked up the trailer, and headed south.

We did NH10 for a while, then jumped over the Connecticut River onto I-91 south to this campground.

We rested for a bit, I got the e-mail and found that a guy who had worked for me on USS Ray in 1968 had died. He was a really nice guy, younger than I am by several years. A real shame.

Then we went to Dolores's sister Mary's (husband Walter) house for talking, comparing notes, showing pictures, dinner, more pictures and talk, and then back to the trailer. A very nice afternoon and evening.


20040803

August 3, 2004 PhotoLink
Teusday

Start: KOA North, Brattleboro VT
End: KOA North, Brattleboro VT
Miles: 0

Temps: High 85.5, Low 62.2. I believe these readings.

I got up, ate, and left Dolores at the trailer.

I went into Windham County, to the Town of Halifax, to a place on Collins Road and parked. Then I walked 300 yards into the woods to the Bascom Cemetery. This cemetery hasn't been used since about 1870. It is exactly where the VOCA (Vermont Old Cemetery Assoc) gave as the GPS co-ordinates (I read 42.80597N, 772.79713W, 1932 Altitude). The trail in to the cemetery starts as a grass lawn that narrows as it goes back. It's just west of a tiny pond, which is just west of a house; all are almost at the top of the highest ridge around. The walk in wasn't hard, although I wouldn't drive it in anything less than a 4x4 - the road is boggy in places. The cemetery is surrounded by a stone wall (stones are cheap up here), with openings in the east and north walls for people entry. The entry in the east wall has a sort-of path out to the old trail into the woods. The cemetery is on the west side of that trail.

This place is easiest found by going to Greenfield, Massachusetts, and then west on MA-2 to MA-112; then north on 112, which becomes VT-112 to Branch Road. One turns right onto Branch Road (also indicated by a sign West Halifax) and proceeds to the tiny village of West Halifax. Branch Road becomes Collins Road and is the main street in the village. If you stand in front of the Halifax Historical Society building and face it, you're standing on Collins Road and you need to go about two more miles Northwest on it to the left-only junction with Hall Road. The point of entry into the trail is about 200 yards further up the ridge on Collins Road. The trail goes S-by-SE into the woods.

My purpose was to try to find the headstone of an ancestor, Molly Livermore, or any of that name, or any Owens. I failed in all of these; no such headstones could be found (at least by me in a couple of hours).

I took pictures of all the readable headstones and some of the unreadable ones, hoping that I could bring out the names with video processing later in the computer. There are a flock of Bascoms, and some Halls, some Guilds, a Putnam or two, and a Hale or two. The earliest date I found was 1801 and the latest was 1866.

I did find headstones sitting on the wall of the cemetery, where Molly's was supposed to be. One was of Tarant Putnam; several more were unreadable, totally erased by the years of acid rain and normal wear. I can't say that Molly's is not there. I found one headstone flat, face up, nearly buried under moss and ferns, that was easily read. There could be more.

It would take the work of five to ten people a full day to rake and mow the cemetery to the point you could feel you have found all there is to find. Someone has done this in the past, since the ferns are short and there are no small trees growing inside the walls - one big one, but no small ones. Also, the trail is mowed through the grass for the most part. Perhaps a neighbor is doing some protective work.

I had found my way in to the cemetery from VT-9, which was tedious. Narrow gravel roads, up and down ridges. I decided I'd just head east-southeast to get back to Brattleboro. Bad decision. On the first attempt, I came out on the aforementioned route 112, just north of the Mass line. I retraced my path and headed more to the east and got back to civilization as I reached MA-2 just west of Greenfield. Then I had to drive 25 miles north to get back to Brattleboro and the campground.

There, I carefully undressed looking for ticks, then took a shower (which I needed desparately). Then I downloaded the photos into the computer and named them and put them where I wanted them. Then I waited for word sfrom Dolores. I did some computer work in the trailer when I found the KOA wireless high-speed internet hookup was working - that was nice.

Dolores had straightened the trailer and then was visited by Walter & Mary. She showed them the trailer (they like it). Then they all went to Keene, NH, on a look-and-shop trip. Dolores bought several small things as gifts or for our house. They had lunch at a nice place (including a great soup). Then they returned to Walter & Mary's house. I had just left their house after wondering where they were for several hours. I went down the hill to where cell phone reception is good again; as I started back up the hill, I got Dolores's message that they had returned home. So we finally got back together.

We looked at their pictures of the week they had at Myrtle Beach with all four of their kids and all six grand-children. They rented a house for a week and had a lot of fun. Even the kids paired off nicely by ages - Samantha & Julieann, Alec & David, Luke & Tim. The pictures showed them having a ball, swimming, boating, and just laying around.

Dolores & Mary talked about their earlier family after I told them what I had done in search of ancestors. Dolores took some notes and Mary promised to smooth her notes so others could more easily use them for research.

We agreed finally on what to do tomorrow during a small thunderstorm. When the rain let up, we left and returned to the trailer. I did these notes and we checked out the weather forecast (possible showers tomorrow, high Thursay in the upper 60's).


20040804

August 4, 2004
Wednesday

Start: KOA North, Brattleboro VT
End: KOA North, Brattleboro VT
Miles: 0

Temps: High 79.3, Low 65.5. Seems right.

We stayed in the campground till 2:00pm, mainly doing computer chores (downloading updates over the high-speed wireless and so forth). Ate lunch in the trailer.

We went to Mary & Walter's house and stayed there a bit before going to Sunapee Harbor on Lake Sunapee. We toured gift shops and watched boats and ducks and chatted. Mary told us the story of how they came to relocate from Wappinger's Falls NY to N. Charlestown NH in the mid-80's.

Then we went to the Anchorage for a light dinner (sandwiches, salads, etc). We looked around some more until the band struck up in the gazebo. Then we were entertained by the Upper Valley Community Band for two hours of marches and show tunes from the 50's. It was the typical concert - little kids running all over, every now and then a dog-vs-dog conversation, and the other distractions.

The intermission gave the Garden Club a chance to put on their tribute to those who have passed on. They did a thing with long sparklers stuck into the ground around the flowerbed, one for each name read out. At the end of the second hour, it was so dark we couldn't join in the sing-a-long (except we all know the words to America The Beautiful).

We came back to their house, picked up some foodstuffs Mary gave us for lunch tomorrow, and returned to the trailer. It's now 11:06 and we're finishing up the chores and preparing to leave in the morning for New York state.

It was a nice day and a good stay in NH/VT.


20040805

August 5, 2004 PhotoLink
Thursday

Start: KOA North, Brattleboro VT
End: Villages of Turning Stone RV Park, Verona NY
Miles: 230

Temps: High 82.2, Low 62.6.

We scurried out of the campground quite early, soon after we realized the rain had passed us to the south and that we had a nice day.

The route we took crossed the ridges of Vermont and eastern New York in a jagged path (I-91 north, VT103 NW, VT11 W, VT7 S, VT9 W, NY9 W, I-87 S, I-90 W) to and onto the New York State Thruway. We rode up the Mohawk River recalling James Fennimore Cooper and his Tales, while reading all the Dutch town names.

Finally, we got off the thruway just prior to a massive traffic tie-up at NY365 and went into this campground. It's owned by the Oneida indian tribe, as is the casino of the same name (Turning Stone) across the road and up a ways. The shuttle bus will gladly pick you up, take you there, and return you to your site. It's a very nice campground, well appointed and staffed.

The wind by mid-afternoon had settled into a stiff breeze from the northwest. The weather weasels are forecasting lows tonight in the low 50's and highs tomorrow in the 60's. It looks like I'll get a chance to wear jeans again.

We called ahead for reservations on this weekend, got them, and called my brother John to let him know when we'd arrive.

Then we had chicken and stuffing with salad and pinot grigio, quite nice. Now we're doing the chores and watching non-news, non-talk, channels on TV.


20040806

August 6, 2004
Friday

Start: Villages of Turning Stone RV Park, Verona NY
End: Niagara Falls KOA, Niagara Falls NY
Miles: 194

Temps: High 75.4, Low 52.3. Definitely cooler. The high logged here must have been caused by direct sunlight on the side of the trailer; I'd give it 65 max.

We didn't have far to go today and knew we'd cover the distance quickly, so we left at a casual hour.

We went west one exit on NY-5 to get around the construction area on the Thruway (see yesterday's notes). Then we just went west on the Thruway to Buffalo, then I-290, I-190 and into the campground.

We set up and had a drink (the Buffalo traffic is the worst we've faced in a while).

We took a hike around this monster campground (450 sites, two ponds, two pools, etc.). It has a gate into the adjacent amusement park. There are lots of families here and I suspect there would be more if the weather were warmer.

Then we went out for a light early dinner at a neighborhood restaurant. Nothing to write about, but ok.

I went to the head shed to get the e-mail and look at the web for Buffalo/Niagara Falls attractions. There are quite a few to choose from, besides the obvious one. We'll look briefly at the falls tomorrow, then go find something else.

Computer chores & books tonight.


20040807

August 7, 2004 PhotoLink
Saturday

Start: Niagara Falls KOA, Niagara Falls NY
End: Niagara Falls KOA, Niagara Falls NY
Miles: 0

Temps: High 71.4, Low 55.9. Cool, cloudy.

We went out mid-morning to perform our touristy chores.

First in to Niagara Falls, to the State Park, which has all the grounds on the American side at the falls and before it, and on the island in midstream. We walked the visitor's center to the falls, to the island and all over the falls end of it (including the view of the Canadian Falls and Canada). We took pictures as we went. Then we returned to the truck and started a tour of the area on wheels.

We went north on the Robt Moses parkway until we reached Lake Ontario, then we east on the Lake Road to Wilson, where we had lunch in a delightful place called the Harbor Inn. It overlooks the tiny harbor, of course. We ate sandwiches (after sharing a chicken/shrimp/andouille gumbo over rice) outside on the deck.

Then we went on to route 78 at Olcott and turned south following it. The town of Lockport came to hand so we looked at the famous locks on the Erie Canal. When built, it had side-by-side sets of five continuous locks to take the little towboats or barges up the 49' made necessary by the Niagara Escarpment. In the 30's, one side was widened and the locks lengthened; now only two are necessary and they take larger barges up the 49'. The remaining old set of locks is used only for overflow traffic.

We came back to the trailer via Tonowanda, where we sat briefly before attending St Stephan's church. The service was nice, but the acoustics awful in the new church. Dolores thought they were bad in one way while I thought they were bad in another.

After that, we went to the supermarket and bought bananas & water, thence to the diesel fuel stop to top off for tomorrow's run across lower Ontario to Sarnia.

Now, we're processing the pictures, reading, and readying for tomorrow.

A good day.