Age has nothing to do with it

You know I made a promise to myself that once I moved into nicer weather I would start getting more active again, biking,hiking,and working out. I thought I would eat a little smarter and take off a few extra ,pounds that I put on while eating across America. Well I have been getting a lot more exercise, but the eating part- well let's just say it could use a little work. I am not one of these people who blames my weight gain on my age, I know better. Every area we travel has it's unique foods and I always seem to gravitate to the bakeries.
Because of Mardi Gras everyone around here are making "King Cakes", they are absolutely fabulous when made properly and they come in so many scrumptous flavors. (Blueberry and cream cheese, rasberry and cream cheese, cinnamon and cream cheese, praline and cream cheese, etc)  So of course we bought one the day after I made some peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies. 

I got up yesterday and started my day with a piece of the King Cake, then I went out and rode my bike. For lunch I ate some carrots and had a couple of handfuls of some Harry and David "Moose Munch" I had to buy because it was on sale after Christmas. Then in the afternoon I watched Oprah in Australia to occupy myself while I did 45 minutes of pilates. Then another little bike ride.  Dinner was sensible, a grilled pork chop, grilled broccoli, and a tomato caprese salad. But then I ate about 8 peanut butter cookies. So you see I know why when I put my jeans on this morning they were to damn tight!  Age has nothing to do with it, bread and sugar, they are my demise. I write this to shame myself into control.

Speaking of food, we found an absolutley fabulous local seafood shop. Most of you know the gulf coast and cajun country are where you get great crawfish. We bought a couple of pounds and had for them for dinner and the spice on them was to die for!  Nobody cooks them like these people. Also we bought a shrimp I had never heard of before, "Royal Reds". They're on all the menus and are quite pricey. They are naturally salty and sweet so you aren't supposed to season them in any way, they were delish!!

This also  reminds me to talk about the oil spill and the clean up process. This area desperately wants everyone to know the damage has been greatly exaggerated. and that BP is really cleaning up the area better than it was before the spill. They are digging with Excavators to a depth of 4 feet all the way from the water to the dunes, they are sifting the sand to remove all of the oil, and any other debris along with it, and they say that the beaches are cleaner than they have ever been. We have walked the beach and have found some tar balls. I would not have even known what they were if not for one of the beach clean up guys who pulled up on his new big 4 wheeler, bought and paid for by BP, and preceded to pick a couple up. That's what he, and a lot of others get paid to do. It's obvious that BP is spending a tremendous amount of money and that they are taking this cleanup seriously. There are tar balls that wash up on shore on a regular basis and these hunky guys drive up and down the beach keeping them cleaned up. It's very apparent when talking to the locals that they are very happy with how BP has handled this whole thing. 

The fishing in the Gulf has resumed and is back to normal. Everything that is caught and sold is completely safe. They want you to tell every one you know that they can come back now.

Sweet Home Alabama

   Sweet Home Alabama. Well it’s not exactly home but it’s where we are living right now while the rest of the country is in a deep freeze.

   Our time spent in Asheville was quite nice spending time with friends and family over the holidays but with freezing temperatures most of the time that we were there, it wasn’t a lot of fun dealing with things like frozen pipes. These RV’s aren’t really made for cold weather living, but we survived the 7 weeks that we were there.

   When we left Asheville, we made a three day stop in Nashville, TN and spent New Years with some friends and then headed south to the gulf coast to get out of all things frozen.

   Since I do all of the driving, I wanted to stop and rest for a while. I  figured that south Alabama would be a good place to do that. Our home for he next several months is the Magnolia Springs Golf and RV Resort just north of Gulf Shores Alabama. We’ve already been here two weeks and I’m finally sitting down to blog for the first time in months.
   In the time that we have been here, the weather has bounced around quite a bit. It got down to 26 and 27 two consecutive nights but was in the mid forties during the day. Today was really nice, Deb and I took Molly down to the beach and walked for about an hour. I was hot and sweaty by the time we got back to the truck. I guess 65 degrees and bright sunshine will do that to a person. It’s pretty weird walking on the beach here, everybody is from Wisconsin.

   The first weekend that we got here I went out knocking on doors to gain permission to hunt. I talked to nine landowners and got permission from seven of them. It seems that there are a lot of wild pigs in this area and they are causing a lot of property damage. I was told that they are very difficult to hunt and if you put a little pressure on them, they simply leave the area and take up residence elsewhere.

   After about 4 hours of hunting, I had already seen about 30 and killed two. Yes, they are difficult to hunt because they live in the thickest nastiest brush that you ever want to see and just because you see them doesn’t mean that you will have an opportunity for a shot because the brush is thick and they don’t stop moving for more than a second or two.

   After killing two pigs, I thought that I would donate the meat to a local charity but I found out that there are no local donation programs available for pork. They will take all the venison you can give them but no pork. Since the area has a pig problem, you would think that they could solve two problems at the same time by making it easy to donate pork to the needy.

Not only could I not find a donation program, I then spent several hours figuring out that there weren’t any pork processors here either. I found out that the State of Alabama quit allowing people who cut up deer to do pigs anymore. I’m sure that they had a reason but it sure seems counterproductive to me. I had to drive 50 miles to a processor in Florida to have my pigs cut up. I’m sending the meat home so it’s waiting for us when we get there.

The next little piggy is going on a big smoker for a pig roast here at the RV park.

Our trip in review so far.........

By the time we got to Asheville for Christmas holiday ,we had traveled a little over 10,000 miles from July 1st thru Nov. 15th, 2010. We have been to 19 states and 4 Canadian Provinces.
 The following is a compilation of" best ofs" and" worst ofs" as we experienced them. If there are two answers it's because we experienced things differently,  go figure.

Best Grocery Store-  Ingles Supermarkets ( They are all over the south and originated in Asheville,NC, who knew we have been spoiled)

2nd Best Grocery Store- Hannaford's ( found in the Northest)

Astonishing  Natural Phenomenon- Tidal Bore in New Brunswick, Canada

Best scenic drive-   Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Best and Cheapest Lobster-  Maine, Maine, Maine, Maine!!!

Friendliest People-  Michigan or Maine

Who smokes the most-    St. John, New Brunswick

Best Fishing- A lake in northern Wisconsin that must never be revealed

Favorite Tree-   Magnolia Trees or for Rob, the tree that he shot his 455 pound bear from

Biggest dissappointment-   Amish Country in Lancaster county in Pennsylvania-(way to commercial, isn't that an oxymoron?)

Best Blue Crab- Chesapeake Bay, Maryland

Best overall campground- South Higgins Lake State Park, Michigan  or Campbell Point Campground, Shell Knob, Missouri

Worst Campground-Tapps Rv Park, Asheville NC.  Not only is it a crappy park but the owner is looney tunes

Best cheese- Vermont white aged cheddar. Rob says Wisconsin

Best beaches- Outer Banks, NC (one side has great waves and beaches you can drive on, other side is calm and both sides the dogs can run free because there are hardly any people)

Update from the Gulf

We got all settled in on Monday to our new home for the next couple of months. Soooo cheap to stay here. We are right on a Par 3 golf course, 10 miles from the Gulf, includes sewer, water and electricity for only $330 a month!!! Today there is an ice cream social at 2:00, yesterday bingo at 2:00. There are all kinds of cute little activities we can participate in. Yes most of the people staying here are older than we are, so often people say to us, you aren't retired already are you? Here is how I explain everything without going into  a lot of unnecessary detail, (you all know I am the queen of unnecessary detail), After closing a business we ran for 26 years, some health issues and family difficulties,.. we decided to take a sabatical and recharge our batteries for awhile. And we are doing just that.

This will be a great place to get back into a fitness routine as we both need it. We have been in an endless eating routine since Maine!! And it shows. So now back to biking, hiking and  moderation eating, afterall isn't that what we all do at the first of the year?

Speaking of first of the year I am preparing my next bog which will be our year in review, "the best ofs" and "the worst ofs" of the areas we have traveled so far.  Stay tuned!!

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.