Let's Get On With It

We'll be movin' on down the road as of Thursday Dec.30th. We got a little delayed with the Christmas Day snowstorm that hit the east coast. On Sunday after 7 inches of snow fell, we were hit with 37 mile an hour sustained winds and up to 80 mile an hour gusts. Brrrrrrrrrrrr! We were as snug as bugs in rugs. Mat and Rob and I watched a lot of movies, played scrabble and ate up a lot more of the Christmas goodies.
We had a great visit all the way around in Asheville. Spending a lot of time with the kids was great. We found out in early December that Robin and Pat are having a girl!! We are all very thrilled and I have been shopping for her already... can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!!!  And she is kicking Robin already,, she bypassed the flutters and went straight to kicking!

 

We spent a lot of time with Mat. This has been another one of our enormous blessings, our son is getting his life back and we are getting our son back.  It can be attributed to a variety of reasons, the main one being Mat was ready to fix himself. He has some very solid people in his life who are mentoring him as well. People who have been down the addiction road and put their lives back together. Religion and a belief in God and forgiveness has played  a huge part. This is an answer to our prayers.   Our lives are lookin' pretty damn good these days.

We had our grandson Elliott come and join us for a week again in December right before Christmas. Man, do we love that kid. He is so incredibly special.

After battling the elements in an RV taking this show back on the road and heading south is looking pretty darn good. But first, we need to spend some time with our friends Jack and Laura in Nashville. We'll be  spending New Years weekend with them and then we will head down to Foley, Alabama which is about 15 minutes from the Gulf.  We will be there for a month or two or three... We'll see.. Stay tuned.

HAPPY NEW YEAR everybody!!

A Very Merry Christmas Indeed

For all of you who have logged on here this holiday season, welcome and a very merry Christmas to you all!

If this is your first time here you may want to do some catching up, feel free to read the preceding entries as it will fill you in on our travels for the last 6 months. Wow, we have been living in an RV for 6 months!!

We arrived back home right before Thanksgiving and have been running here and there ever since. I don't mind saying, there really is no place like home. We have spent alot of time with Pat and Robin  and Mathew. Robin is aprox. 4 months and 1 week into her pregnancy. She has just a little baby bump and has only gained 5 pounds. She'll probably be one of these women who just gains baby weight and then as soon as she  is born Robin will look like she did before. They are finding out the sex of the baby in a few days, of course either sex will be totally ok, but I am rooting for a girl until we know for sure. To be able to buy girlie baby things would be so much fun!!  Patrick of course has been super busy with his Tree business. Thank God in this economy his business is on fire, he must be doing something very right.

Mathew has  been making lifechanging decisions and  has been  setting in motion a new course for his life. I don't want to talk about it prematurely and jinx it. Hopefully I can let the cat out of the bag  sometime in early 2011. We support his new direction whole heartedly.

We haven't seen Jim and Eliott  since we have been home, Jim's business is keeping him extremely busy and it is thriving. We are so happy for him!  We will be spending plenty of time with them in the weeks to come. We sure do miss our little guy, Eliott.

What the heck is going on with this weather?!!  We are in a deep freeze, lows in the teens at night. This is not good when you live in a camper. Currently our cold water is frozen , and we can't dump any of our tanks as they are frozen shut. This week end may be back up in the 40's so we hope to thaw out.

Some of you may be wondering about our future plans. We have the next 6 months figured out. From here we are going to Foley, Alabama in the last week of December. This is located near the Gulf Shores area. We'll be there aprox. 6 weeks then on to St. Augustine, Florida for another 6 weeks then up to a favorite spot in Tennessee for two weeks. Then we are coming back to North Carolina in April to be here for the birth of newest grandchild, we will stay here awhile but do not know exactly what that means at this time.

Life on the road has been interesting to say the least, at times it has been difficult. Probably because we aren't around the day to day lives of our kids and of course we miss our close friends.   I guess you could also say that the silver lining is we have given our kids the space from us that they need to make their own ways in the world. We sure have met some very special people out there and seen so many great, beautiful places that this continent has to offer. We have barely scratched the surface, so I guess we will be doing it for the remainder of 2011.  We have seen  a lot of beautiful campgrounds and thought that would make a great business to get into, so who knows, maybe thats something we will settle into next. 

One thing is for sure and that is, our lives are ever changing. Some change we control, some we do not. For us, we just try to to make  every day count. For you never know what tommorrow will bring. So on that note, Rob and I sincerely wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas. May each and every day bring you all the blessings you deserve.

With all the negative news that we are inundated with  on a daily basis it's easy to feel like we are living in a bad bad world.  I am here to tell you, we are not. We have been working at the Salvation Army Angel Tree almost daily since we got home.This is the most needy season we have had  in many many years with over 2000 kids we are trying to help. In all the years I have been doing this I have never seen so many people step up to help, all 2000 kids are currently taken care of  and the people keep coming wanting to do more. When times are tough people show their true nature, maybe  that's why we have to have the tough times.
If goodness is what is missing from your life, then be the goodness.

There's no place like home.......

We leave the Outer Banks today. It is warmer in Asheville than it is here!  The wind on a daily basis has been a little too much also. So we are packing up and heading to an area inland where we are meeting up with the same couple we visited in Maryland, Steve and Lorraine Upton. They own a parcel of land that Steve and Rob are going to deer hunt on for a couple of days. We'll go home on Monday!! Yippee!! I am so excited, can't wait to see everybody. Also can't wait to have Sara do my hair!!

I will probably only post a couple of times in the next 6 weeks. My annual Christmas letter will be short and sweet and on here, as you all know what we have been up to.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Enjoy!!

Outer Banks, North Carolina

Our grandson has been with us for about 9 days now at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. These islands are pretty quiet at this time of the year. Many places are even closed. It is quite blustery most of the time. That doesn't stop us from getting outside and going to the beach. Many days we threw a line in the water or put Eliott's new kite up into the air. Eliott has made and destroyed many sand castles.

It's been a long time since we have been trick or treating so what a "treat" it was to escort our little Nascar Pit Crew guy from door to door. After hitting a nearby neighborhood we came back and went from camper door to camper door. Some were prepared, some were not so we got a variety of treats that included a fiber bar, a Susan B. Anthony dollar, a breakfast cookie and some people told him they had nothing for him. He was gracious at every door. Our campground owner came by our camper the next day and apologized for not being around for Halloween and handed Eliott a bag of money( 6 one dollar bills and 4 dollars in quarters). So sweet but so unnecessary. People never cease to amaze us.

Since it rained all day yesterday we drove to an aquarium, Eliott was fascinated. Every day we go check our crab pot we threw in when we got here. Every day it only has two in it. Either the crabs are gone or we are in the wrong spot.

We have included in todays posting a picture of Bear's grave. Our daughter-in-law Robin sent us a few things to put on her grave and they look so beautiful. This one is for you Robin, we thank you and love you for it.

She played on the beach...

Our 9 year old lab, Bear, died in the night last evening. As we think about it, there have been some signs over the past few weeks that something was wrong.

 Our grandson, Eliott, joined us on the road two days ago and we picked up camp yesterday and headed to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for our last three weeks until we go home for the holidays. It was a warm, maybe even hot day. We set up our new camp and then about 4:00 headed to the beach. The last time Bear had been there was about 4 years ago with her mother, Millie. Bear played with Mollie in the surf as she had many years ago with Millie. Watching Eliott and two dogs enjoying one another will be our last memories of Bear.

When we went to bed last night Bear was showing signs of discomfort. At 1:00 A.M. she woke us up and Rob took her outside. He could tell she was seriously ill, I tended to her outside while he got online and tried to find an emergency Vet out here on the Banks, the closest one was three hours away. Bear layed her head in my hands at one point and we looked one another in the eyes, and I knew. I told her I loved her and to tell Millie hello for us. Rob said his good byes.

Sometime in the night she went on to where ever it is our beloved companions go. And now there are two. Our hearts are heavy, but she had a wonderful life and gave and got, so much love.

Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Pecans

We settled into this campground last Friday. We are in Williamsburg, Virginia and we picked a spot that was just a few miles from everything. When you are picking campgrounds on-line you really never know what you are going to get. All we needed was water,sewer and electricity and that is really all we got. This place was probably quite a campground about 30 years ago. Everything is extremely run down. I thought I might go to the laundry and do some blankets in bigger machines than we have. Out of the 12 washer and dryers, which were about 30 years old, only two didn't have an" out of order" sign on them. Oh well, we didn't come to this historic city to spend time at the campground. Here is one big plus! We are parked underneath a big Pecan tree and they are dropping off the tree quite consistently. So far we have picked up a whole bowl full and they taste delicious!! Now that's special.

As soon as Rob felt well enough (suffering from the "pushed the boat to far" flu) we started seeing the historical areas. We visited the Jamestown Settlement, you know, where John Smith came, and later Poccahontus. Fascinating. Then over to the Jametown  reconstruction area. The next two days we spent in Colonial Williamsburg. Now this place in unbeleivable. They have done and are doing an exceptional job restoring this area to an authentic replication of what it would have been like to live here in the 1700's. History, history, history, so much history. We did not see it all, but we put a good dent in it. That's kind of what do everywhere we go.

 Hey I just remembered that I forgot something in our last blog. When we were in Maryland we went to Rob's nephew, Tinker and his wife's (Annie)  house for dinner one night. It was so good to see them for it had been  way to long!

Now for some exciting news! Rob left three hours ago to drive to Raleigh, NC to meet our son Jim and our 3 year old grandson, Eliott. He is bringing him back here tommorrow and he'll be spending the next two weeks with us while we are at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. And yes we will be taking him Trick or Treating!!  Yea!! We are so excited! Funny little story, Eliott asked his mother today if he was coming to see Mimi and Pop (Rob and I) today. She told him no, not until tommorrow. He said, "not tommorrow, Mimi said she can't wait to see me".    Obviously I told him I couldn't wait to see him, he thought we would leave without him.  SOOOOOOOOOO cute. Anyway, these next two weeks should be very special and we so happy his mom and dad let us do this.

A Trip down Memory Lane

We spent some time in Edgewood, Maryland. Rob took me  to the neighborhood of his boyhood home that he lived in with his ten brothers and sisters from third grade until he graduated from high school. He pointed out all the homes of his friends that I have heard so much about thru the years. We drove by the grade school, junior high and high school they all  attended. We drove over the culvert that Rob and some of his buddies blew up with some kind of homemade explosive device.  He pointed out first, second, and third jobs, bars he use to stumble out of, and places he used to hunt.

We connected up with a friend of Rob's that he hadn't seen or spoken to in over 30 years, Steve Upton. This was a guy he used to spend endless amounts of time with hunting and carrousing. Steve and his wife, Lorraine had us over for a dinner of freshly caught blue crabs. We spent hours connecting or as in Steve and Rob's case, reconnecting as they told old stories looking  over old photographs and caught up on each other lives. It was pretty cool  to be a part of. These two people turned out to be pretty special and  I am convinced we will be spending time together in the near future.
By now you have probably already read  Rob's account of their duck hunting expedition the following day. A pretty harrowing experience that  seems to get funnier every time I hear it.

We also spent time with other old friends in that area and when we went  Houston, Delaware. One of Rob's best friends, John Evans and his wife Faye entertained us  for three days. It was great to to finally meet people I had been sending Christmas cards to for 22 years.

Crabs and Duck hunting in Maryland

It was an experience being back in the area that I grew up in. For those of you who don't know, I moved to Edgewood, MD at the age of 9 and stayed until I was 21, so I guess that you could really call this a visit to my "hometown". We stayed at Elk Neck State Park the first 4 days and hen moved over to Long Bar Harbor RV Park and Marina to park next to my sister Jeanne and her husband John.

Before arriving, I had contacted some friends and family to advise them that we were on our way. We made plans to see people, most of which fell thru (keep reading, you'll find out why) and had great  expectations to reconnect with people from my past.

While in Lancaster the week before, I found a good friend (Steve Upton) whom I have not seen or talked to for 35 years. Of all the people who I contacted, he was the most enthusiastic about getting together and we made plans to go crabbing and then duck hunting on Saturday, which was the opening day of the MD duck season.

Deb and I went to Steve's on Friday, met

 his wife Lorraine, and drank a few Miller Lites while we caught up on old times as well as the last three decades of our lives. Steve and Lorraine have a great place on the Gunpowder River with a "crab shack" right on the water. We met some of their friends and one of their daughters and although it was quite blustery , we hung out in the crab shack while Steve used his secret recipe in the home made steamer that he made out of a beer keg. When the bushel was done we all piled into the house and picked crabs for the next couple of hours. It was one experience which had been just as I remember it from my youth, the only difference being the fact hat we used to do it at Steve's parents house back in the old days.

Saturday morning I rose at 4:45 and headed to Steve's to duck hunt with him and his friends, Jeff and Kent. We headed across the river in the dark, set out the decoys and drove the boat up on shore. As soon as I stepped into the water, my borrowed waders filled up with water. I should have known, nobody buys a second pair of waders unless the first one is leaking, duh! That one thing set the tone for the day.

Five minutes before the legal shooting time, the ducks started buzzing the decoy spread. Back in the 70's we would have shot a dozen times but this day, everyone waited for the legal time and the shooting began.

By 10:00 the tide was going out and the water was quickly disappearing. Another group of hunters came out of the creek behind us at about 10:30 struggling to push their boat thru the 4" deep water (see picture) and all three of my companions discussed getting out of there but decided to stick it out and hunt until the tide came back in because nobody wanted to "mud walk" out of there. We were in a little sheltered area and what we had not noticed was that the wind had picked up, blowing about 40mph out of the NW which meant that all the water was being blown down river into the Chesapeake Bay which left us staring at a mud flat which stretched out 100yds in front of us. High tide came and went at 3:30pm without one inch of rise in the river level. The wind continued to blow while the river retreated even farther.

At mid afternoon, I was forced to call the friends and family who were going to congregate at our campsite for a campfire and visit. I am sorry that I missed you all while we were there.

By nightfall, the wind had died down but since we were on a retreating tide, we all figured that the water would not return until it turned around and started coming in. Since high tide was not until 4am, we figured that we would not see enough water to float the boat until close to 2:30 and none of us wanted to wait. We had all brought just enough food and drink for the morning hunt since we had made plans to go out for lunch.

As we started to slide the boat into the creek bed, it seemed that the job was not going to be as difficult as we had imagined. Forty yards later when the boat was stuck solid in the mud at the mouth of the creek we realized that we were wrong. After moving the boat just 1/2" in 4 attempts to push it, we changed direction slightly to try to take advantage of the small pockets of puddles which were spaced out across the mud.

Pushing was not only very difficult because we had very little water, it was compounded by the fact that we were in knee deep muck but we got the boat moving. With Jeff and Steve on the left of the motor and me and Kent on the right, we trudged along with Jeff shouting "don't stop!, don't stop!". About 40yds later, Kent fell and the three of us continued until Jeff and Steve were laughing so hard that they couldn't continue.

I looked back to see Kent laying flat in the mud trying to pull himself along on all fours, all the while whining " I can't get up, I can't get my legs up under me, I can't get up". As the three of us stood there laughing our asses off, Kent made his way to the boat's stern but, by now with panic in his voice, could not even pull himself up so Jeff and I lifted him and helped him drag himself into the boat. For he next 100yds Steve, Jeff and I pushed 20 steps and rested, repeating the grueling process over and over until Steve could go no farther so he ended up in the boat. Steve had a push pole in the boat so he and Kent took turns pushing while Jeff and I continued on.

At this point, I was not feeling confident. Jeff, I thought, was the one person who was in the wors

t shape out of all of us. He had just survived a bout of cancer and had spent 6 days in a coma and lost 60 pounds during the ordeal. He is still a big man and I thought for sure that this would be his last experience.

Jeff and I pushed the boat another 100yds. By now the muck was crotch deep but at least we had gotten to the point in which there was 2” of water on top of it so the boat was moving just a little easier. That was until another couple hundred pounds was added to the boat when Jeff announced that he could go no more.

And then there was one! For the last hundred yards or so I did all that I could until we finally had just barely enough water under the boat that the push pole was all that was needed to move the boat the last 50yds to open water.

Back on the dock we were met by Steve’s and Jeff’s wives along with Steve’s daughter. I looked up at Kent who looked just like The Creature From the Black Lagoon and after pointing it out o everyone else, collapsed on the dock while laughing so hard I nearly wet myself.

Intercourse is not how I remember it

Intercourse is not what it used to be. For quite a while I was telling Deb all about how unique and special Intercourse was. She was definitely looking forward to it and was also really excited about visiting Paradise, Bird-in-hand, Virginville, and all the other Amish communities just east of Lancaster, PA so we set our sights on visiting the area on our way to northern, MD where I grew up.

We stayed in a park near Paradise just off of Hwy 30 southwest of Intercourse. Our first day in the area we traveled about 30 miles west to Hershey, PA to visit the chocolate factory. I have some great childhood memories of the area and it was our family trip to Hershey in 1970 when the photographers from Life Magazine followed my family around to do the story in their August 1970 magazine. Adjacent to the chocolate factory, there is also “Hershey Park” which is a theme park with roller coasters and all the other features to make kids happy. It was closed for the season but a huge car show was taking place in the parking lot for the theme park so traffic was heavier than we expected.

We toured the chocolate factory on a little ride which reminded me of “It’s a small world” at Walt Disney World. The ride with the singing dairy cows was not at all like the walk thru tour that I remember from my youth but it was informative. It ended at, of all places, the gift shop which was chocked full of everything chocolate plus chocolate themed t-shirts, hats, pajamas, etc. We walked out with only six bags of stuff, all of it edible which, at first, did not help alleviate the overloading problem that we have in our trailer.

On day two we decided to drive the roads from town to town in the Amish area east of Lancaster intending to do a little shopping as well as sampling all of the goodies that we could find . In bumper to bumper traffic, we drove to Bird-in-Hand and stopped at a very busy market. At the first shop that we stopped in, Deb turned something over uncovering a “made in China” sticker. Everything in the shop was the same crap that you could find in any gift shop in any tourist area in the country. Having been turned off by the experience, we hopped in the truck and headed towards Intercourse (still bumper to bumper). Several miles down the road, there were signs for a huge yard sale and we noticed smoke billowing across the road up ahead. When we got to the yard sale, we saw that it was an Amish family who not only had their “junk” for sale but barbequed chicken (hence the smoke), baked goods and cold drinks so we decided to stop.

Of all the things that we did in that area, that was the highlight of our trip. We visited with various family members, watched the boys play catch, ate the best chicken that we’ve tasted in years, purchased fresh produce to take home and learned a little bit about the people that we really came to see.

Sunday we drove a lot of back roads, took pictures of some cool old barns, houses, and covered bridges and at one point came upon a home that had about 40 carriages in the yard along with a stable of horses that could pull a dozen Budweiser wagons. It was obviously the local Sunday meeting place and I would have loved to have stopped and taken pictures but there was a man in the yard tending to the horses and, besides the fact that they don’t want their pictures taken, I didn’t want to be an interruption or distraction on their day of prayer.

Some things change for the better but one thing that I know for certain is that the Amish area, as well as the beautiful people who made the area both famous and unique in Lancaster County has been irreparably harmed by tourism that grew up around, and now within their community.

Eating, eating, and more eating

I have decided a better name for this blog would be 'Eating Our Way Across America'. Here we are in Pennsylvania, Amish Country to be exact. You can't go one city block without finding some delectable thing to eat. I did not care for their Shoo Fly Pie or Whoopie Pies. But I did like the cinnnamon rolls, caramel rolls,peanut butter cookies,custard filled things,the bar-be-que chicken ( the best), and homemade rootbeer.
Rob will blog about how much things have changed in this area since he was here 30 some years ago, but I was surprised at how many tourists came to this area. We were in bumper to bumper traffic all day Saturday which took quaintness right out of the picture. It was a little strange to go into a supposed Amish gift shop and pick up items that said "made in China" on the bottom. ?!?  The best time we had was attending a  several family yard sale (Amish). That's where we had the absolutely best bar-be-qued chicken. I bought a huge beautiful head of cauliflower and some homemade rootbeer. We did drive around on back roads and got a lot of great pictures of covered bridges, old buildings and horse and buggies

Back to the eating subject, right before we came here we went to Hershey, PA. Yes,where all the Hershey chocolate is made. We did the factory tour and of course spent a lot of time in their great shopping area. Corbin, Grace and Elliot, wait until you see what we bought for Christmas!! (If I don't eat it first)
The city of Hershey is so cute with their Hershey Kisses street lights and the street names all so candy oriented.  Had to do it.

South Maine coast and Boston, MA

We picked up Jack and Laura at the airport in Portland, Maine on Sept. 30th at noon. We were camped 30 miles away in Wells. Before we left Portland we made a trip to the wharf to pick up a dozen 1 pound lobsters to go with the clams Rob and I had harvested for this occasion. The rest of our first glorious day together was spent cooking and eating, having cocktails and playing our favorite game, Uker. Always guys against the girls, Laura and I should have stopped after the first two games. Just a little sidebar, Rob and I dug up way too many clams, the first batch we cooked of about 4 dozen would have been more than enough, but we had to cook all of them, which was probably another 7 dozen and none of us wanted to eat them because we were stuffed to the brim , I just wanted to throw them away but Rob insisted that we make good use of them so they were shucked and are currently in the freezer. I don't care if I ever see another clam.

Day two was the rainy day, but we didn't let that stop us. We headed south of Wells and went to the Kittery Trading Post and the little seaside town of York, where we went to an absolutely beautiful light house on Cape Neddick nicknamed the Nubbles Lighthouse. We then went on to Portsmouth in New Hampshire. All along the way stopping and shopping, we found an unbelievable pastry shop and picked up the best seafood chowder for dinner at the Maine diner in Wells.

Day three we went north to Kennebuck, Kennebunkport (the Bushes were not in town),Saco, Old Orchard Beach, Scarborough and then to Portland for dinner. We had all been told to have dinner at DeMillo's Restauant which is an Italian restaurant on a retired car ferry in the harbor. The food was mediocre but we still had a big time. There was a big yacht parked right next door called "Casino Royale" and decked out in all kinds of James Bond decor. When we went outside the entire crew of the yacht were standing on the upper deck taking pictures and waving up to the sky. We turned around to see and it was a 727 coming in for a landing at the nearby airport. Boy did we ever want to know who was on that airplane. Course we later googled it, and it was someone we had never heard of. The man apparently has the largest car dealership in the country as well as a dozen others. I was convinced it was John Travolta, you know, flying his own plane, doing a fly by of his yacht and his adoring crew enthusiastically awaiting his arrival. Our fantasy was far better than the reality.

Day four was a trip to Boston. Jack was particularily excited about this leg of the trip. We all would have liked to see the Red Sox play at Fenway but it wasn't to be. First we went to brunch and then did a two hour walking tour which was led by a young woman who was extraordinary at her job. She was dressed in 1700 period attire and had the accent and attitude to match. We got the REAL scoop on  our nations history and got to see some pretty amazing landmarks. Paul Revere's home, the oldest  running tavern  in America "The Bell in Hand", Old North Church (where they signaled the British are coming) and so many other little tidbits. It was  great!  Then on to Little Italy with our Italian friends, Jack and Laura. Here we sampled all kinds of Italian fare and drink and it was all mighty fine.

 Day 5 was hitting all the shops we missed on the way back to the airport for Jack and Laura's 6:00 p.m. flight. Laura went home with all kinds of goodies. We had such a wonderful time with our dear friends and I am positive we all gained several pounds. Thank you Jack and Laura for spending some time with us out here on the trail, it gave Rob and I a much needed break from each other.We do love you guys.

Clamming in Frenchmen Bay - Maine

   It's hard to believe that we've been parked for a week already. The weather has been mostly dreary and cold but we still found a lot of time to get out and do the things that we wanted to do.
   When we arrived back in the U.S., there were very few trees that had started to change colors but with the week of off and on cold showers, the colors are really starting to pop which adds another element to an already beautiful area. Unfortunately because of the constant over cast skies and fog which is prevalent almost every morning and evening, the opportunity to take some really good pictures has not presented itself.

   One of the things that Deb wanted to do is to go clamming while we were here so last Thursday we set out to find a place to dig. After visiting the town hall in Harrington, we were told the very confusing rules that this town had just to get a license to dig. I would explain it, but there is absolutely no way that anybody could possibly understand what we had been told, including whoever the idiots were who wrote them.
   The very nice lady at the Harrington town hall did give us the information that we needed. She told us to go to the town of Sullivan about 20 miles southwest of here. She told us that we could buy a license over the counter which is good for one year for just $11, so off we went.
    I didn't know where the town hall was but all of these little coastal towns are very small so I was confident that we would easily find it. We drove thru Sullivan on the main road (U.S. Hwy 1) but did not see the town hall so I turned inland one block over and started back in the direction that we came from. About two blocks down, we passed a young family in their yard but decided to stop and back up to ask them the location of the town hall. After getting quick directions, I asked the man if he knew anything about clamming. A big smile spread across his face and he said that he knew a little bit. I explained that we were from NC and wanted to go dig some clams after we bought our license at the town hall and asked if he would tell us a place that we could go find some. As it turned out, he was the regional director in charge of shellfish for the State of Maine. What are the odds of that????
  He told us exactly where to go, how big the clams would be in that area and then proceeded to tell us where we would need to go to find mussels. The clams were easy to find but hard on the knees and the back. After about 5 dozen, we decided to go down the road to where he said we could find mussels. Holy cow, did we ever find mussels! I could have filled the back of my pickup truck in about a half hour if I wanted to. They were everywhere and you could just walk along and pick them up two dozen at a time.
We collected about 7 dozen, went home and cooked them all up along with the 4 lobsters that we bought for $4.25 a pound. I never knew that a person could get stuffed on lobsters, clams, and mussels. Deb used the leftovers to make seafood gumbo the next night.

   Tomorrow we move to another coastal community south of Portland so, despite the intermitant showers, Deb and I took off early this morning at low tide to dig a bunch of clams to take with us when we go. Jack and Laura Camaratta are flying in from Nashville to meet us on Thursday so we wanted to stockpile a supply for when they are here. After about 2-1/2 hours, we had the equivalent of about 4 gallons of clams in the cooler. Unforunately by then the tide had come in too far for me to collect any mussels to go with them.
   We've been told that we can buy a "lobster car" at the next place where we are going for $50. For that, you get  13 one pound lobsters so I guess that we will have enough to stuff ourselves again!

It's all about the hair

As I mentioned previously I desparetly needed to do something professional with my hair. I took a gamble and made an appointment with a salon that by all outward appearances gave me a good  impression. Heather and I began getting to know each other immediately as you do when you settle into the hair chair. I told her as much as I know about my hair to give her as much of an advantage as possible so as to insure a positive result. She came back with a bowl full of color and applied it painstakingly to all my roots, all the while telling me how she had just gotten out of hair school a mere few months ago.  I am thinking, oh oh.
 We then move on to the highlights. I have been coloring my hair for quite a few years. It is taking her an excruciatingly long time. I know from past experience that color is usually left on for 30 minutes, the color has been on for 45 when she finishes the highlights which are left to process for another 25 minutes. In the mean time Rob comes to pick me up ( I told him to give me about 2 hours) so we send him away. While waiting for the time to pass my scalp is burning and I keep thinking I am about to see big clumps of my hair falling to the floor.  You are probably wondering if at any point I voiced any of my concerns. I said nothing, I was at a loss for words.  She was such a sweet girl, and I did not know what to say.
We then move to the shampoo bowl, after she shampoos she says"do you have a problem with DRY HAIR?"  I am thinking, well I am sure I do now. So we put a conditioning treatment on it, which takes more time and Rob comes again and we send him away again.
Then she cuts my hair and blow dries it with a round brush. I swear to God she had the hottest blow dryer I have ever felt. It takes forever to dry my hair anyway and I thought I would die. Well not die, but it really was awful.  To top it off,  I'm not very happy with the haircut either.

Here I am three days later, I scratched my head today and it feels like a severe sunburn which is what made me think of this today. So this story is for all the ladies out there who can relate.

The nick of time

My God we got out of Cape Briton in the nick of time. Hurricane Ivan just slammed the area we were staying in. Let me tell you they didn't need more rain. You know the whole time we were in Canada we never got a local weather forecast. When you have a satelite dish you can't get anything but US staions.

You may have noticed that the blog has improved in appearance. My computer abilities are slightly limited so I enlisted the help of my daughter-in-law, Robin, who is currently pregnant with our grandchild. Have I mentioned that before? Anyway, I knew Robin would figure it out and she did. Didn't she do a great job? We have officially named her editor-in-chief. Now we just have to figure out how to get little videos on here.

Sara, my hair stylist who did my hair for the last 11 years, set me up with hair color for this road trip that Rob and I could apply when needed. It's a liitle weird having your husband color your hair, especially when he keeps saying ,"why don't you just go natural". Or, " boy, are you gray".  I am not ready to be gray yet!!!!  So today, downtown St.John, New Brunswick, I am seeking a professional. It's a little scary because you never know what you are going to get. But then I guess nothing is scarier than having Rob do it.

Speaking of St. John, COOL city. This is an old harbor city, lots of great old big buildings and churches. Hustling, bustling area where cruise ships dock and people get off and go shopping. Somebodies Port of Call. We are staying at a campground right in the downtown area, one of only two that are still open at this time of year.  The tide that comes in here from the Bay of Fundy raises the water level 25 to 35 feet! Unbeleivable. Everybody smokes cigeretts here. And windy.

 We head to Bar Harbor, ME tomorrow. Back in cell range. Woke up after a horrible dream this morning in which Patrick was saying to me "Sorry to have to tell you this". Then my eyes shot open. Leaves you with a nagging feeling if you know what I mean.

Heading back to the USA

Since the weather was going to stay rainy for a few days we decided it was time to start back to the states. Our Nova Scotia experience was so worth the bad roads and uncooperative weather. The pictures we put on here should speak volumes. We spent all our time in the Cape Breton area. This is the part of Nova Scotia best known for it's 186 mile coastal highway that boasts the best scenic route in the world. We covered about half of it and it did not disappoint. If the weather had permitted, we would have done several of the hiking trails. As it was, we tried to cram everything into one day that was sunny.

We went out on the Gulf of St. Lawrence in a Zodiac to whale watch. Not only did we have Pilot Whales all over the place but the bumpy ride out to where they were was like a carnival ride. I LOVED IT. It was also  great to see this awesome coastline from the sea. It was guaranteed, no whales, you get your money back but it was $78 well spent.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Then we hopped on the scenic drive, took a thousand pictures  and headed back to camp to take pictures of the fantastic sunset. Something odd about being on the east coast and being able to watch the sun set over the ocean.

We are now camped in St. John, New Brunswick. Can't tell you all how much we miss everybody. Since we have a new grandbaby on the way we have been talking about how we will probably change up our future plans. After we figure it out we'll let you know.

Rainy, rainy, rainy day

   We awoke to the patter of raindrops on the roof of the trailer and the weather went down hill from there. It had started out being just a light rain but by late afternoon the wind was whipping heavy rain sideways and, at times, rocking the trailer.

   When we first set up camp anywhere that we stay, one of my jobs is to get the satellite antennae in a position so that it can acquire a signal. When I first did so here, the signal was so weak that we only got a few channels and even those would break up the picture from time to time. The sky was quite overcast which didn’t help but I also made the determination that we are so far up in the northeast that the dish had to point to the southwest at such a low angle to find a satellite that the horizon was getting in the way of the signal. Once I picked the dish up off the ground and placed it on the roof of the trailer, we got a much better signal and were able to get some more channels.

   Why do I tell you this? Simply so that you understand that today, with the bad weather, we were completely cut off from the outside world. It rained and blew so hard in the afternoon that we could not even get a strong enough Wi-Fi signal to stay connected to the campgrounds Internet connection. To be to able to write this blog I had to do it on my word processor and the paste it here later. ( Deb just opened a bottle of Cabernet Franc that we bought in New York so I’m taking a break to play scrabble with her and will continue this later )

   At one point after lunch, I decided that I would get a couple repairs done on the camper. When the tire blew out on the highway the other day, it ripped open the material covering the under belly and there were wires hanging out that I had to tie up to continue the trip.
   I went under the trailer with the wind whipping under it about 25mph and repaired the damage the best that I could do with the items that I carry with us. That took a half an hour so it was back inside for the remainder of the afternoon.
    About two hours before it got dark, the rain subsided and we decided to take the dogs out for a run on the beach. It was a much needed escape for the dogs. Labrador Retrievers love water and both went crashing into the surf of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The beach here is about a half mile long with 400 foot cliffs at each end with a mountain stream running thru it to the gulf. The dogs covered it from one end to the other exploring every inch of it. The wind was blowing constantly and after about a half hour, the rain started coming down in sheets so we had to head back..
    Despite the weather, it was a nice day with some reading, some napping and a lot of time just sitting in front of the fireplace enjoying it’s warm glow but we are definitely looking forward to getting out into the Cape Breton Highlands. Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be sunny and warm.

New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia

New Brunswick was like being in northern WI or MN. The terrain was the same. The city of Moncton is about 30 miles inland from the Northumberland Straight. So this Tidal Bore that Rob told you about is coming from quite a ways. It actually originates from the Bay of Fundy. One of only two places in the world this occurs and this is the only one that happens twice a day . It really is fascinating. Ok, so Magnetic Hill was so stupid. This spot used to be the actual point of magnetic north, but since the poles are ever shifting, that is in Alaska now. Somebody needs to tell these charlatans.
Don't know exactly  what I expected but Canada does definetly feel like an extention of the US. Moncton had the Walmarts, Michaels,Mcdonald's,DQ's, etc. All the packaging of goods sold are different  from in the states, probably has something to do with imports. Gas is a little more expensive, sold by the liter and they call it the "Imperial Gallon" (4 liters to a gallon) so not something you can easily compute right on the spot to compare.  When listening to the local radio stations it's 95% american music. This part of Canada has alot of French Canadians so everything is in English and French.

We decided to take a drive over to Prince Edward Island, mainly to drive the Confederation Bridge and see a little of the Island and say we did. We took Mollie and Bear with us. The bridge is a marvel, it is 8 miles long, a one of its kind in the world. It is only 10 years old, they used to go back and forth by ferry only. What a way to live!  They are obviously still paying for this bridge as we soon found out because to get OFF THE FRIGGIN' ISLAND WE HAD TO PAY $42.00!!!!  Ok I'll calm down, but some lady had told us it would cost $7.00 so we never paid attention to the signs.  It kind of ticked me off since we are on a budget and all and it was my idea, again and well that was a hell of an expensive bridge ride. I did buy a cute t-shirt for only $8.00  to commerate the experience.

It took us another 7 hours to get over to Cape Briton,Nova Scotia, where we are camping. We had a tire on the camper literally BLOW out that set us back a couple of hours and $195.00 to replace the spare. The people at the tire shop were quite surprised that this tire blew like it did. We pulled into camp with just enough time to set up before dark. Nova Scotia is beautiful!! It is what I would expect Ireland or Scotland to look like and feel like. The wind is just whipping, right here where we are camped, right next to the sea. Years ago, about two years before Rob's mom started to go downhill, she talked about wanting to make a trip to Nova Scotia. She, being a Kennedy had some serious Celtic roots. Well this trip is for you Fran.
This area is steeped in Scottish and Irish tradition. It is going to be fun to explore

On to Canada...

   After working my ass off all week at bear camp, I needed a vacation so I was looking forward to heading to Moncton New Brunswick for a little R&R. Deb seemed to have a different agenda after spending the same week in Patten Maine with nothing to do. She wanted to go SEE everything.

   We went to a place called Magnetic Hill. Apparently someone seemed convinced that this 15 ft rise in the ground had such strong "magnetism" that it would actually pull your car all the way to the top so they built a theme park, a zoo and a bunch of tourists shops around it to lure people like Debbie in. Well it worked!

   I don't mean the magnetism, I mean it lured Deb in. As far as the "magnetism", my truck certainly coasted all the way to the top of the hill but only because they had figured out exactly where to place the white post that you are suppossed to park next to on the adjacent hill. Yes, you pay $5.00, drive around the corner to park next to the white post, put your car in nuetral and suppossedly the "magnetism" pulls you to the top of the next hill. Am I the only one who understands that your car will roll down the hill and up the next one????

   Maybe I need to take the idea back to Asheville and build a theme park. I don't have the money yet but if I could get enough ignorant tourists to pay 5 bucks to coast down a hill, I might get enough to do it.

   We didn't buy a T-shirt or a hat.

   We did see a really cool natural attraction that I would have been happy to pay for but it was free. The Chocolate River runs right thru downown Moncton. The water looks just like chocolate syrup but thats not the cool part. Southeast of town is the Bay of Fundy which has the highest tides in the world. When the tide comes in, it comes in so fast that it sends a wall of water about 3 feet high racing up the river. We were on the river when, what they call the tidal bore came up the river. At low tide, the river was flowing southeast. Then came the tidal bore which changed the direction of the river with all of he water flowing up hill in the opposite direction. What is equally amazing is the fact that about 2-1/2 hours later the level of the river was 25 feet deeper, filling the banks to the top.

   When we head back thru there on our way south, I think that I want to witness it right at the bay.

The Bear facts

   Well as you know, I had a little time to bear hunt in Maine. For those of you who don't undertand how special the bear was that I shot , I'll fill you in. There is a record book for animals harvested with a bow called Pope and Young. The minimum skull measurement to make it into the book is 17". Mine scored
20-1/2" so it will rank quite high. There is another book called Boone & Crocket for animals taken with any weapon, rifle, bow, spear, handgun, etc. The minimum is 20" so I will make that book also.
   This bear is what every hunter dreams of when they go to the woods. On the back end, my picture is being used in the next edition of Bow Hunt America magazine in an advertisement to solicit readers to submit articles to the magazine for publication and the story will run in the magazine after the first of the year.

On to New Brunswick

We finished our time in bear hunt camp, Rob fulfilled his obligation. We made some friends this week and it just so happens they are from the Asheville area, small world. We unloaded about another 300 pounds and sent it back home with them to give to our son, Pat. We definetly brought along way more than we ever needed. Bulwinkle still eludes me, that was my goal, to see a moose. We'll keep looking.

We just arrived in Moncton, New Brunswick. This is a stop for 3 days before we go on to Nova Scotia. From here we may pop over to Prince Edward Island. Everything up here has cooled off, leaves are just starting to change. The four hour drive to get here was nothing but forest for the most part. Very few towns in this part of New Brunswick. All road signs are in French and English. Speed limit was 110km. The exchange rate is even up. We crossed over to the Atlantic time zone.

The Big One

You know I was a bit reluctant to come to a bear hunt camp for a week, I don't mind telling you. I envisioned no water, no electricity, boredom, etc. while Rob went to the woods to do his thing. We are on a budget so I didn't know what this would set us back. Rob was here 10 years ago so he worked out with the guy who owns this camp to do maintenance work around camp in exchange for the hunting. Yesterday was the first day in the woods for this week's new group. Rob called me at dusk to say he had just killed a monster bear with his bow. He could hardly contain himself. It took 6 people until about 9:30 to get it out of the woods. The owner of this hunt camp said it could be a Maine 2010 state record killed by a bow. It weighed in at 455 pounds!! I do not want to steal any of Rob's thunder here, I am sure a story from him will follow shortly with pictures. I just want to say watching my husband float around camp basking in all this glory was so worth coming here. This is a once in a lifetime experience for a hunter and I am so thankful I was here to be a part of it.

From New York to Vermont to Maine

We finished up our visit to the finger lakes area, Cayuga Lake to be exact. We spent a half a day on the Cayuga Wine Trail that has 16 wineries on it. Most wineries offer eight tastings so after six wineries we were ready for a nap. I have to say we tasted some really good wines!
We headed to a friend of ours from Asheville who is currently living in Woodstock, Vermont. He recently got married and this was one of her homes. We had a bit of an open invitation to come and stay but had been unable to get a hold of them to let them know we were on our way.So we just show up and our friend ,Will, has gone to Asheville. We introduce ouselves to Lynn, whom we have never met, and needless to say this could have been extremely awkward. But it wasn't!! She got us settled in and was a fabulous hostess. She called Will and he headed back to Vermont (which is about a 17 hour drive). In the meantime we did a variety of things with Lynn that included eating, going to a Scottish Festival, shopping, gardening and just relaxing. Lynn owns two beautiful Andulusion horses, big, beautiful, pure white horses. They were beautiful all by themselves but then she gave us a Dresage exhibition, and the two of them(Lynn and the horse)were absolutely breathtaking. That same day a friend of hers from the scottish festival had joined us. When Lynn finished riding, this gentleman played the bagpipes for us for about an hour. Here we were in the Green Mountains of Vermont enjoying ourselves in a way we could scarcely have imagined.
That night Rob and I noticed the night sky, it was void of all interference from city lights and no moon. It was extraordinary.
Will arrived two days after our arrival and the four of us spent some quality time together. Some times the best laid plans, are no plans at all. Lynn and Will, thank-you, thank-you.

A little side-bar here. My God is it expensive to live in Vermont!! I went to the grocery store and these people are getting raped!

After our 4 day visit we headed to Maine. We are stayng on a lake right outside of Augusta, the capital city. This is aproximately 40 miles from the coast. It's even hot up here. It's been about 92 degrees every day. Last night we cooked two large live lobsters for dinner, and oh my God, they were to die for!!

Since hurricane Earl is breathing down our necks we are heading north east tommorrow morning. We will get some wind and rain but that's about it, hopefully.
We are going on to Patton, Maine and Rob hopes to do a little bear hunting.