Day 14, Thursday, July 10, Gettysburg, PA. We all took our time getting up today, I didn't get out of "bed" til 9:40, a new record for this trip. We drove the camper to the new and improved visitors center and looked around a bit before heading into the theater to watch a video, narrorated by Morgan Freeman, called A New Birth of Freedom, which told us a little of the background of the Civil War and all about the 3 day Battle of Gettysburg. Then we went on a 2 and a half hour bus tour, which actually wasn't that bad. We drove around the battlefield and got out about 3 times. Our tour guide as full of information and also made a few jokes ("That mexican restaurant was there as well, The soldiers stopped at that McDonald's as well...etc....). After the tour, we rested up a bit at Visitor's Center's restaurant then hopped in the camper, and headed over to the cemetary. We walked around there for a bit and then walked town and through the town itself. We walked down to about the center of town and then, at the protest of our screaming feet, headed back up to the camper. Now, we're settled in for the evening, but we've got to be ready cause tomorrow we're headed back home!
Since we are headed back tomorrow, this seems to be the perfect time to list the states we've visited, just as a final tally of sorts....
If only we'd just visited Vermont, then we could've really done the whole of New England...but 11 states, not bad, even if we only drove through Connecticut, we drove through it in the camper which's got to count for something. And, as of 6:08 PM on the last official camping day, we've made it through. Two whole weeks in the campers with no major injuries. Not bad considering we shrunk down from a very nice sized house to a 29-ft camper....not bad at all.....
]]>Day 9, Saturday, July 5, The Maine day (I couldn't let that one go). Today was the day we drove to Maine! It was very beautiful witht he rocks and the trees and of course all the lovely houses. We went to Kennebunkport, just to look around a bit and drive through. Then we drove to Portland where we had lunch (lobstah and chowdah, of course). Near where we ate there was a man dressed as a lobster and some tourists wanted a picture with him, the woman asked him what his name was and he said, "Bob", so it was Baaab the Laaabstah (unless he was making that up for a good story, I'm serious). After lunch we walked around Portland a bit, picked up a couple souvenirs in Cool as a Moose, and hopped in the car. We headed over to Old Orchard Beach and entertained ourselves with looking around the Maine boardwalk and couldn't help playing a few games, winning a stuffed lobstah (dubbed Glenda), a blow-up beach ball, and buying fried dough (which was better than it would seem, what with the original name). We passed though, on the fried Oreos, (one person can only handle so much fried food in one day).
Day 10, Sunday, July 6, Salem, Mass. This is where we were headed way back on that day when I wrote Have Wheels, Have Traveled, Part I, only then I had no idea that I'd keep using the same name, so it was without the Part I. We took our time time getting up and headed out for the about half hour trip to Salem. Once there, we headed over to The Salem Witch Museum, and went in for a sort of diorama/panorama/multi-media presentation type thing, where you stood in the middle of a dark room and listened to the story behind the infamous witch trials. It was interesting to learn the things but they did it by showing lights on statues and playing sound clips. They had the devil in one scene so there was demon with bright eyes and it was one of the first things you saw so it was kind of getting you ready for some creepy things. Then when, it was mostly interesting until they got to the scene with the trial, because the girls were supposed to freak out when the woman was proved not guilty, so they played some sound clips of crazy girls screaming, and not like crazy like crazy fangirls, but like crazy, like hysterical and it was...awkward almost, odd, definitely. After that we moved on into a smaller room to learn about witches and what's based in fact and what's based in fiction. This time there was no dark room and no crazy screaming, but there were statues that "spoke" (really, the guide pressed a button and the statue got a light on it and a voice came on from some speakers in the back). Then we learned about Wicca (which was interesting, because I don't think any of us knew much about them) and we learned that there are about 1,000 people in Salem, who practice Wicca. Then we moved on to the gift shop, which was my second favorite thing in the museum (behind the diorama/panorama/multi-media thing, and ahead of the witch bit). Suprisingly, no Harry Potter references, you would think that there would be something about it, maybe in Witches in Fiction, but no, the closest Harry Potter thing there, was a plastic wizard doll with HP-esque robes and big round glasses. After lunch we stopped in the Peabody Essex Museum for their special on "Wedded Bliss, the Marriage of Art and Ceremony." Which was pretty and interesting as they had information on weddings around the world and throughout history and well and dresses and videos and paintings and everything you could want to know about weddings.
Day 11, Monday July 7, Yet another travel day. We had to drop off the rental car and from Mass/NH to Cooperstown New York took about 5 hours. We arrived at our campsite and the homemade looking mini-golf area looked cute, the red barn looked quaint, and the police car that pulled up behind us looked....wait a minute, police car? That was a little unnerving....however we stuck with it, set up camp and, breathed in the smell of horse, and looked around, right around just in time to see...the elk. Well at least we think it was an elk, we're not all that great with naming creatures but it had antlers and didn't look like a dear so.....
Day 12, Tuesday July 8, It had been a rough night, the peacocks (or whatever they were) were making a LOT of noise, squawking all night long, together with the smell, the sights, the sounds, and the police car, we thought that maybe it was a good time to check into a hotel for a night. So we unplugged our home on wheels, and headed over to the Best Western to book a room for a night. Then we headed into Cooperstown, the home of Baseball. We headed into town and shopped around a little before heading into baseball Mecca. Ther was alot to see and you could tell that it wasn't for baseball newbies, but for hard-core b-ball fans. There was a multi-media presentation with a room decorated like an old time ballpark and a montage of baseball videos but that was really one of the only, new, modern things there. After seeing all the memorabilia came the part we all really wanted to see, the reason people want to play, the reason the pros strive so hard, the Hall of Fame. Hallowed halls, without a doubt. The plaques along the wall the tall marble columns, the bright lights, definitely not a let-down. One of the coolest things was the plaque in the front with the names of all the Hall of Famers who served in a war and then under their plaques their branch's seal and the name of the war they fought in. All-in-all, you could see that America's pastime was no joke.
Day 13, Wednesday July 9. Today, I've FINALLY made it to today, maybe that means that have wheels have traveled won't work....Today was just a travel day, from Cooperstown NY, to Gettysburg PA. This campsite has promise, the pool was nice and I didn't see any police cars so that's good. Tomorrow we're heading into Gettysburg and we hope to get a good look around. Blue wowed us with his Civil War trivia knowledge today so he should enjoy that.
I've caught up, sure it's taken me ALL day and now it's 10:45, but now I've caught up and I'm right on track, and only 13 days in....
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Day 8, July 4. Happy birthday America! What better way to celebrate the birth of our great nation that with a small road trip in this great nation! We left our campsite to go to another north of Boston this time. Actually, the state line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire and depending on whether or not the state line is straight there and depending on the exact postioning on the camper....there was a good chance (I'd go with 90%....75% at least) that our camper was split into two states! We rested for the rest of the day and played Monopolt that night, which did get a little tight on the tiny table but was enjoyable....as usual.
Speaking of the tiny table...it's time to eat now so the table has to be cleared, or everything, including the laptop. So, until next time (which means about 30 minutes from now), enjoy your wait for Part VI (creativity is on vacation as well).
]]>Day 6, July 2, Boston Day 2. This time, no ferry, we took the commuter train instead. We thought the train came at one time, but when we got there (10 minutes earlier, for once!) we saw the train was about to leave! We ran onto the train and had to pay the conductor for our tickets on the train instead of beforehand. Today we didn't have anything we HAD to do so whatever we felt like seeing we did. We went to Harvard (to visit...this time at least) and just after we went into some oven brick pizza place, it started to pour. We also went to Fenway (we just missed the last tour but we stood outside it which counts for something). We found out that to get a PhD in a romance language in Harvard, you have to know Latin, so there goes that great idea....It poured rain on and off all day so we just kind of wandered and enjoyed the city.
Day 7, July 3, Another day trip today. First we went to Plymouth...and were dissapointed. It was (as we had been warned) ....just rock. Actually, it was a rock under some fancy arches, under some scaffolding, so it was like a rock under construction, not quite what you would have expected but, luckily that wasn't our only stop for the day! We then went to Hyannis and Hyannis Port. We drove by and (over the bushes) got to get a glimpse of the Kennedy compound and the pier that just a few weeks ago, on the news, we saw Ted Kennedy walking down. It was a lovely, afternoon with more great views of the water and then that night, their were fireworks. Apparently it was a sort traditon in the area and the neighbors tried to outdo each other so we had a lot of fire works and it was a great Independence Day Eve.
]]>Day 5, Tuesday, July 1, Newport, Rhode Island Mansions. Our rental car's first real day trip was to Newport, Rhode Island to see the summer homes of turn-of-the-century New York's most prominent families. We first went to The Breakers, summer home of the Vanderbilt family. The house was huge, ornate, elaborate and, ostentatious...by our standards at least. Their summer cottage was a quite little get-away, only 70 or so rooms, as opposed to their 150 room home in New York. The HUGE ceilings, fancy windows, and overall, incredibly, expensive house, were very nice to look at but also kind of mindblowing, in that it was very hard to imagine what it would have been like to live there, so recently as 100 years ago. After a quick lunch right next to Bowen's Wharf (no joke) we headed over to Rosecliff. Rosecliff was modeled after the Grand Trianon at Versailles, and was much smaller but slightly more charming than The Breakers. Our tour guide seemed to know a lot about the place telling us all about a ball that was thrown there one (the Ball Blanc), the different people who owned the house, and even the names and histories of the people in the portraits on the wall. The upstairs of the house had a special exhibit on women's fashions so we were able to see some very interesting dresses from about the 1940's-ish on. From the back yard, we got great views of the water and of neighboring mansions. After leaving Rosecliff, we drove around Newport a little and discovered that huge mansions aren't just a thing of the past.
That's all I have time for right now (we have to meet go to the campground's pool of course!) But we've got internet for the next 24 hours so I'll write back very soon (fingers crossed)!
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I'm writing now from a hotel room! No, the camper didn't break down (That would've been the very first thing I wrote about) We had a.....difficult-ish night at the campground and thought it might be time for one night with a little more space....
Day 3, Sunday June 29, Boston Day 1! Actually we didn't go into Boston today but we drove from New York to Massachusetts to our campground, which was about half an hour from Boston. We rented a car on our way so that we could make it into Boston, or go on little day trips without going in the 29 foot camper. The campground was located on an island and from our spot we could see across the water and onto the mainland and in the evening we got great views of the setting sun. Our camper was a little tilted though and so we bought a couple slabs of wood to stick under the wheel to even it out.
Day 4, Monday, June 30, Boston Day 2. This was actually a Boston day and we woke up bright and early to hop into the car to drive over to the....ferry. We made the mistake of going up to the top right as the ferry picked up speed and so we were splattered with coffee, our hair was whipped about our faces, and we had to hold onto the rails for dear life. We quickly learned our lesson and didn't step outside again until the skyline was in view. We did get grat views of the skyline and was a great way to see the city for the first time. We went on the Freedom Trail so we got to see a lot of history just by following a little red line. There were only a couple things we didn't see, like Bunker Hill, (but the T didn't go all the way over there, so why waste your energy seeing the site of some battle, right?) but we did get to see Cheers (which makes up for somethings probably). We ate lunch at a place called Durgin-Park, which, according to the little article about the restaurant which we were given on the way in, was a hot-spot for presidents like, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and Coolidge, during their pre-White House days. The food was great and we bought "chowdah" (of course) and enjoyed our first taste of Boston.
Today is, however, another day on the road (we're going to Gettysburg today) and we need to get a head start, and of course there's the hotel breakfast to consider.....,
]]>It's now, Saturday, and we left on Friday. We've taken a LOT of pictures but I think I'll post another entry later today maybe, with the pictures.
]]>It's now, Saturday, and we left on Friday. We've taken a LOT of pictures but I think I'll post another entry later today maybe, with the pictures.
Day 1, Friday June 27, Dad and Blue left to get the camper at about 9 and by 11 they were home and setting up began. It took a very long time to set things up partially because we weren't quite done packing and also because it takes a long time to lug all that stuff from the dining room all the way outside to the camper. However by about 1:30 the camper was packed and we were on our way! The rest of the day was just heavy driving, when we went on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel the huge windows gave of huge views of the water. That evening we arrived in Maryland and settled in for the night.
Day 2, Saturday June 28, Another day of heavy driving, only this time, we had a real tourist destination. West Point. We got there around 2:15 and had a enough time to check out the gift shop and catch the last tour. Blue took advantage of the gift shop and bought a Go Army, Beat Navy coozie (a.k.a. squishy cup holder). We then went on the last tour of day with only about 6 other people. The tour was only an hour but we got great views of the Hudson and of the campus. We then hopped into the camper and drove to the campsite, Round Pond. Slowly on this trip, we were beginning to realize that there was a whole different way of life out there that we knew nothing about, the life of the full time RV-er. Camped next to us at West Point was a couple that lived in their RV all year! 7 months at West Point and the rest of the year in Key West.
The trip doesn't wait however, not even for a blog that hasn't been updated in a week and today Salem Mass. is our destination so that's all for now and I'll write again this evening (hopefully)!
]]>However working under pressure seems to be our thing and our dining room table is now packed with things and everyone's making sure that when we pick up the camper tomorrow we'll be ready!
]]>However working under pressure seems to be our thing and our dining room table is now packed with things and everyone's making sure that when we pick up the camper tomorrow we'll be ready!
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Since then we've been planning. In about December, a map went up next to out diner table, a map of North Eastern America, we each had a puch pin in a certain color for each of us and we had to place it on the spot we wanted to go. Then, at dinner we'd look at the map and think about the trip. Soon the 12 or so stops dwindled down, as we realized there was NO way we'd be able to do each place justice in the amount of time we had. We also happened to choose the PERFECT time to go on a ROAD trip, what with the gas prices these days! So we've been thinking hard about where we're going to stop and for how long.
Now, we have plans to drive in the camper, and then rent a car by day to go on day trips, our stops are down to about 4, and our dream is starting to become a reality. While the trip is still about a month away, we're all getting really exciting for our first taste of the road.
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