Catching Up 2

View of ski runs from Sprague Park Campground, NY
Obviously high elevations are not necessary to ski

On to New York and Sprague Brook Campground in Erie County, about an hour south of Niagara Falls. You may be wondering how can you travel west through New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and continue West to New York. Check it out on the map. New York is a very interesting and beautiful state.

The Erie County campground was another beautiful site with all kinds of facilities beyond camping for picnics, sports, hiking, biking. The grounds had vast expanses of mowed grass, forests, natural grassland, and a small stream. We saw deer every day.

The highlight of this stop was a visit to Niagara Falls. We did not have passports so were restricted to the U.S. Side but spent several hours hiking a few miles to enjoy the different views of the river rapids and the falls. As our time was limited (QT again!) we passed up the Maid of the Mist boat trip. It was our first visit to Niagara Falls and we were duly awed and overwhelmed by this magnificent wonder.

I had recently read a biography of Tesla and enjoyed reading some of the displays about the early efforts to harness the energy of the river for electricity, especially the contest between Tesla and Edison to determine whether it was going to be AC or DC.

If Sprague Brook was one of our favorite camping sites then the exact opposite would have to be the Pilot Travel Center we stopped at next. Caesar Creek Campground in Ohio was too far for a one day drive so we decided to overnight at Pilot. We pulled into one of the lanes among the trucks beyond the pumps. We kept looking for the other RVs but saw nary a one. We did see LOTS of trucks of all sizes (but all big!) with a variety of cargo coming and going all night long and most with their engines continuing to run.

Days later we learned that many, perhaps most Pilot Travel Centers do not have RV parking. Oh well! It did help to keep our average campsite cost still close to $10 per night :-)

Edna and Ted Zabel

One of the main purposes of stopping at Caesar Creek Campground just south of Dayton, Ohio was to reconnect with Ted and Edna Zabel. They were classmates at Simpson Bible College in San Francisco in the late '50s. They were on the pastoral staff at Salem Alliance Church (Oregon) where we attended while teaching at North Salem High School. They came out as part of a singing ministry team for a Spiritual Emphasis Week at Dalat School in Malaysia. It was so good to spend time with them again.

They took us for a long drive around the Dayton area. One of the special treats was a few hours in the aviation museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. That's a museum that needs to be visited again and again!

David Smith, lead pastor of Fairhaven Church w/ Pearl and Elmer
Unfortunately we missed seeing Kathy

We went to church with them at Fairhaven Church where Ted and Edna minister to senior citizens in a variety of ways. An unexpected extra blessing was to listen to a great message on forgiveness by lead pastor, David Smith. David and his wife Kathy were students of ours at Dalat School. It was a joy to get to spend a few minutes talking with David between services.

We are constantly learning on this trip. Right now our lessons are about thunderstorms! Almost every afternoon/evening we are watching the news, looking at the sky, listening for the thunder and making decisions about the awning, the windows, and the possibility of a trip to the campground toilet/shower building. Lots of downpours, some thunder/lightning but so far we haven't experienced anything severe.

 One of the bothering thoughts: If we have to seek refuge do we go to the MEN's or the WOMEN's section? Or do we split up? Or do we go to one section for refuge and the other for normal use?

Catching Up 1

Wompatuck State Park was carefully selected for its location near Boston and fairly close to Nashua NH. A ferry operates from a nearby town which would take us right to downtown Boston and metro lines. Heather (Littlefield) North, a former teaching colleague with us in Africa, lives in Nashua. For months we had anticipated spending time with her and her family.

Mayflower replica at Plymouth Rock, MA

My brother and wife had been traveling with us in their RV. They arrived later at Wompatuck after a refrigerator fire in their RV. Then sickness began to strike each of us. Pearl and I had spent some time on Cape Cod and seeing the Plymouth Rock and Mayflower replica before we came down sick but Boston was written off—great disappointment!

Gary and Heather North with twins Ryan & Tyler and Abigail

Because of the illnesses plans with Heather and her family kept getting reduced and began to look doubtful but thanks to Heather’s persistence and the willingness to be around sick/recovering people we spent a delightful few hours with them at our campsite. Heather had taught at ICA with us and spent some time touring in Europe with us while at a conference. She is a home school teacher now for her children. Heather’s husband, Gary, is an engineer. They live in Nashua, NH.

Still recovering from our illnesses we proceeded to Acadia National Park in Maine. Lots of warning signs about moose, likely looking environment for moose, but we didn’t see any L. Dick and Shirley came separately as they had an appointment to have a new refrigerator installed.

Rugged shoreline at Acadia National Park, ME

The park is scattered over a wide area, much of it on an island. We spent many hours enjoying the rugged shorelines, views from Cadillac Mountain, and near our own campsite. QT and I usually took the trail through the woods on our morning walk to a great vista where you could watch the boats tending the lobster pots just a quarter mile or so from our campsite.

QT enjoying some lap time and a beautiful view
near our campsite at Acadia National Park, ME

Of course we visited Bar Harbor to take in the tourist scene and have some Maine lobster. A fun place to be once you found a parking place. I thought it was crowded when we were there with one cruise ship in port. I understand there are sometimes two or more at one time.

On the way to our next campground in Vermont we needed to have the motorhome serviced which resulted in two overnight stays—unusual for us as we prefer several days in each spot. One in Maine we reserved ahead of time and one in New Hampshire we just drove in. Both were very nice and allowed us to take advantage of a Passport America discount.

Negotiating the narrow bridge
at Winhall Brook Campground in southern VT

Next stop was Winhall Brook campground at the Southern end of Vermont. The campground setting was beautiful with wide expanses of mowed grass, a river flowing through, and surrounded by trees. More fun experience with the motorhome as we negotiated a tight corner to get lined up straight for the very narrow bridge to the campsite—the mirrors are still intact. We liked this area so much that we extended our stay. Nice to have the freedom to do that!

This was one of our favorite driving segments traveling through rural New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont from Maine. Rolling hills with lots of 7% to 9% grades to challenge the motorhome, beautiful green everywhere, and always interesting little towns to drive through. Especially enjoyed the beauty and fragrance of lilacs everywhere along the way.

 
Not so enjoyable were some of the roads with frost heaves and potholes still not repaired after a severe winter.

Gertrude

Gertrude has accompanied us for the entire trip. We have come to look forward to her input and seldom fail to do what she suggests. Sometimes we question her advice but invariably she turns out to be right.

We have especially appreciated the way she often takes us off the freeways to enjoy seeing more of the U.S. than just the standard Interstate highway environment. The U.S. is full of interesting little towns and the lesser highways often take us right thru them to see what the homes and yards look like and provide some insight into the make-up of the town.

Gertrude doesn’t just give advice but she also is interested in hearing what we like and we have shared with her some of our route preferences.  So I guess I can’t entirely blame her for what happened.

We were at an RV resort in Tom’s River, New Jersey. We had a good stay there and enjoyed our first New Jersey Boardwalk experience.   Still early spring and early in the day so it wasn’t crowded and the beaches were empty other than areas where beach volleyball was in progress. We would have enjoyed walking on the neatly raked beaches but there were toll booths all along the boardwalk with signs telling how much you have to pay to walk on the beach.

Our destination, Wompatuck State Park, south of Boston MA was carefully entered into the GPS and we were on our way. Soon it was evident that Gertrude had some very special experiences in store for us including a trip through downtown Newark. Newark is not one of the little towns in the U.S. that we wanted to tour in our motorhome.

There ensued numerous instances where we were baffled at Gertrude’s directions. I remember one intersection in particular where her directions just did not make sense and we would go where we thought was right only to find that wouldn’t work and Gertie would patiently bring us back to the same intersection with the same instructions. The third time around we finally got it. She had been correct. Her instructions were right on.

But we were still in Newark and wanted out. At one intersection we ended up trapped in the lanes going across the George Washington Bridge. That seemed OK until we got to the toll booth and the lady said our toll was $68. She seemed sympathetic but didn’t offer to reduce the price.

Soon Gertie suggested a tour of the Bronx in New York including a pass by the Bronx Zoo. We were in downtown New York before we realized it. If it had to happen I’m glad it occurred after six months experience driving the motorhome. It was obvious from people on the streets that a large motorhome driving through the Bronx was not an every day happening.

Gertie is a dear friend but we were getting tired of the big city tours, consulted the map, found the first signs to Interstate 95 N and ignored all of Gertie’s advice until we neared our destination at the other end.

Gertie is still a best friend. We depend upon her but we have learned to be more careful about what we tell her about the kind of routes we want to take. We also are more careful to look ahead of time to compare where she is taking us with the map.

For a GPS we use an Android app called CoPilot on our Nexus 7 tablet. The app only costs a few dollars, regular updates are free, and the larger screen size is helpful for old eyes.