Au ReVoir

 

 

We had a nice brief visit in Montreal. Montreal is a striking union of European Charm and North American attitude. This beautiful city has a harmonious pairing of the historic and the new right along the St. Lawrence River.

 

 

The French colonists arrived first, followed by the English, the Scottish and the Irish. Today, 120 distinct ethnic communities comprise a population of more than 4 million, making Montreal a true mosaic of cultures and traditions.

We were warned not to drive in historic Montreal, so from our campsite we drove to Montreal University and then took the subway to Old Montreal. It only took us three different times asking people which subway line to use to go to the historic district. What short -term memory loss? Thank goodness more people are speaking English the farther west we go. Everyone in Montreal was extremely nice. The cobblestone streets and containers of beautiful flowers were everywhere in Old Montreal. There are many wonderful cafes and restaurants up and down each street including along the Saint Lawrence River, plus boutiques selling fur hats and sweaters. I was thinking if I ever wore a sweater last winter and the answer was maybe once. So we passed on those shops and souvenir shops.

It was fun seeing a Canadian Regiment marching down the street. I unfortunately only got a rear shot, but please enjoy.

 

We really liked Montreal better than Quebec City. There are less people, plus it has this great vibe to it that is hard to describe. We found a wonderful restaurant called Modavie where we had organic salmon fillet topped with an olive, garlic confit & roasted tomato tapenade and served with seasonal vegetables and a cauliflower & raisin tabboule. I thought I would write in English rather than French. Plus a delicious Italian Soave. They had French music and our waiter was fantastic and he spoke English. This was a wonderful experience in Montreal. Again note trend, memorable lunch, great city.

A little history lesson on Niagara Falls, it is the collective name for three waterfalls that straddle the international border between the Canadian province of Ontario and the American state of New York. They form the southern end of the Niagara Gorge.

From largest to smallest, the three waterfalls are the Horseshoe Falls, the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls. The Horseshoe Falls lies on the border of the United States and Canada with the American Falls entirely on the United States’ side, separated by Goat Island. The smaller Bridal Veil Falls are also on the United States’ side, separated from the American Falls by Luna Island.

 

Located on the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, the combined falls form the highest flow rate of any waterfall in North America that has a vertical drop of more than 165 feet (50 m). During peak daytime tourist hours, more than six million cubic feet (168,000 m³) of water goes over the crest of the falls every minute. Horseshoe Falls is the most powerful waterfall in North America, as measured by flow rate.

Niagara Falls was formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation(the last ice age), and water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Niagara Falls is famed both for its beauty and as a valuable source of hydroelectric power.

 

I am so glad we decided to see Niagara Falls on the Canadian Side. They have beautifully landscaped flowers, botanical gardens and green grass as you walk along the walkway taking pictures of the incredible falls. When we got closer to the Canadian Horseshoe Falls the mist from the falls sprayed everyone along the walkway. On this 94 degree day with 40% humidity if felt pretty darn good.

 

Nestled in the corner of the Niagara Region just beyond Niagara Falls, is the picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake that epitomizes historic town charm. The village is bordered on both sides by waterfront with arbor-framed streets among lush boulevard gardens.  The Heritage District has bakeries, boutiques, antique shops, gelato and ice cream shops and some excellent bistros. They even have a horse drawn carriage if you want to get the full experience of this beautiful town. Niagara Region is also know for its ice wines and they have over 40 wineries with many having restaurants as well. Who knew, not us, but so sad, we didn’t have time to explore any on this trip,

 

 

We did find a great restaurant in town called Treadwell’s. It was a blast sitting at the counter watching the chefs prepare the meals in the open kitchen.  We both had the East Coast Lobster “Club” on duck fat fried homemade bread with sundried tomato whipped goat cheese and smoked bacon. My goodness it was delicious and to top it off we had a Viognier (white wine) from the Niagara region. Good food-good wine-good restaurant.

 

We have certainly enjoyed our time here in Canada and throughout the East Coast.

Sabrina the princess says good bye

It is now time to say Au ReVoir to Canada and Hello USA.  We have so far driven over 8,000 miles and now we have decided to head home somewhat early.  We will have been gone 3 months and 4 days. Time to embrace the heat and get back to a routine.

Bob’s mom is celebrating her 90^thbirthday on August 31 and we will be there in Carlsbad to help her celebration her big day. No, not with the Airstream, we would slit our wrists before traveling with the Airstream in southern California.

We hope you have enjoyed our blog for the last 3 months. There are many stories we actually couldn’t print, but one from Bob is, we have 2 navigation systems and me. He is not sure which of the three women he should listen to or just ignore all of them like usual.  I think I say directions with a little more emphasis and a little louder than the other two.

Thank you all for your kind remarks about our blog. See More, Do More, Live More.

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Quebec City

Old Quebec City, Cradle of French America is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is the only walled city north of Mexico. It is ranked among the top 20 most romantic destinations in the world and we were here for our birthdays.

The French and English regimes left their mark on this part of the city, which is still remarkably well preserved after 400 years.  95% of Quebec City people are native speakers of French. It is like being in a little European town except Quebec City has nearly 4.3 million tourists that visit each year from some 75 other countries including cruise ships. I think 1 million were in town each day while we were there.

We walked the quaint, narrow cobblestone streets with beautiful baskets hanging from the lampposts and window-sills.

 

 

 

There are many street musicians playing through out old Quebec. We had one right by our cafe that played through our entire lunch.

There were many café and restaurants on each street plus many souvenir shops and a few boutiques. Quebec City is situated on rolling hills and getting from upper to lower part of town or vise versa, you climb many stairs or take the funicular (cable car) We chose the stairs to get a little cardio in each day.

 

Street Murals

On one street there are fresco murals on the side of a building that illustrates the lives of the residents of the Cap-Bland district, as well as the bombardments, landslides and other major events that occurred here.

Street Murals

 

We saw the world-famous hotel Fairmount Le Chateau Frontenac, inaugurated in 1893 and the central tower was built in 1924. This year the hotel celebrates its 125^thanniversary.

 

 

The plaza in front of the Frontenac is a popular meeting place called Place d’Armes with a gothic style fountain that stands in the center and a monument de la Foi commemorating the 300^thanniversary of the arrival of the Recollet Fathers in 1615.

Plus a much younger and more handsome Bob.

We were thrilled to get to see inside the Notre-Dame de Quebec Basilica-Cathedral built in 1647 that had been bombarded and burnt to the ground, but thankfully rebuilt in 1925 according to the original plans. It is now a national historic site of Canada.

We have enjoyed eating at the little outside cafe’s and people watching sipping some delicious French white wine and eating sole meuniere and Salmon and, of course, croissants. This city exudes joie de vivre (cheerfulness and happiness).

A totally new experience for us are the toilets that have a picture of a male and female, but both men and women go in the same bathroom with stalls and you wait in line with both until a stall opens. Very weird, but the good news is that there are no urinals.

 

We are truly missing barbequing in the backyard. We saw Porky and it reminded us that we are ready for some of Bob’s delicious BBQ. Sorry no party planned.

 

 

 

Cape Breton Highlands National Park and Prince Edward Island

 

Plage St. Pierre Campground

Our next stop was to Cape Breton Island and Cheticamp, Nova Scotia that rests on the west coast of the Island by the beautiful Gulf of St. Lawrence. Cape Breton Highlands National Park is on the other side with spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean.

We stayed at a campground called Plage St. Pierre. It was right on the gulf, so you could play in the nice cold water plus it had trees all around the campground and the beach.

The number one thing to do here is the Cabot Trail that stretches for 185 miles. It is the primary road around the island. Cabot Trail one of the top most scenic drives because of ocean vistas, deep canyons, colorful fishing fleets and many beaches and mountains.  They say to allow 8 hours to drive this road because it is narrow, sharp drop offs and many places to pull over and see the views. We were warned to definitely not take our trailer because of the gnarly road. So glad we listened to that advice.

Beginning of Cabot Trail

 

One can even do some hiking. We drove it on weekday so unfortunately there was construction, so we waited all along the trail because at times it was only a one -way road. Poor Bob had to concentrate so much on the driving that the only time he was able to see the beautiful scenery was at the pull offs. It actually took us 6 hours because we didn’t stop to eat or spend too much time at the vista’s.  We lucked out because our nice Canadian neighbor at the campsite drove it on Saturday and it took them 10 hours because of traffic

I can’t describe any food because we actually didn’t find any places that we can talk about. Poor us, average food.

Our next stop was in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia for the night. The following morning our GPS said we only had 75 miles to our campground on PEI. We thought, bonus, a short day. Five miles down the road both GPS’s say take the ferry. WHAT, no that can’t be right, so we turn around and head down the Trans Canadian for 10 miles and I start looking at a paper map. Uh Oh, taking the road to the Confederation Bridge is a longgg way. So back we go for the fifth time on the same road stopping at a visitor’s center that  said to definitely take the ferry. It turned out it was a great way to go across. It took 90 minutes and we just relaxed on the upper deck and Sabrina was lounging in the trailer. You don’t pay as you get on or off the ferry, you pay when you leave PEI. It turned out we actually saved 40% by doing it the way we did. Our wonderful GPS took us through downtown Charlottetown’s narrow streets with cars and people everywhere, on the way to our park. It truly is a love hate with these GPS’s.

Our campgrounds or RV parks have been mostly pretty good. Well, you can’t win them all. The positive about the park was that it was close to the Gulf of St. Lawrence  on the central coast and close to Prince Edward National Park with beautiful red cliffs and the blue gulf water.

It had good internet and is was a quiet park, plus the young gal that checked us in gave us a great recommendation for lunch right down the road on the water. The showers at the front of the park were out of order and they built two temporary showers out of plywood, so you could shower outdoors. I first thought they were for the pool area.

No, for the campground and there was a pickup truck up on blocks being worked on by a seasonal. (aka snowbird or rather sunbird in Canada) The other showers were up a long hill (see we are getting some exercise), but that helped burn some calories before and after showering.

Now you ask, why don’t we use our shower? We do in a pinch, but it typically is our storage room for the additional things we need on this trip. We can take out all the stuff, but then because of the humidity, the trailer is hot and steamy and nothing dries ever. Sabrina says she really doesn’t like it when it’s hot and humid. The princess really likes it cool and dry.

We drove back to Charlottetown for supplies and lunch. We typically check Tripadvisor for restaurants and we found one that sounded great with good seafood. Wellll, little did we know that there were two huge cruise ships in port and all those people were out and about. (Canadian don’t you know) EH? We sadly had to admit that the place we ate at, had overcooked food and bad wine. Don’t you feel sorry for us?

Bob and I did try the restaurant Blue Mussel that was recommended to us. It was so great, big PEI mussels, lobster rolls and blackened halibut, plus good wine. It was so good we ate there two days in a row. We were happy campers, no pun intended.

Mussels Baby

Bob’s new job

Lobster traps for Bob

Mussels Baby

Now we have been on the road for over two months. Every night over a cocktail we say I love you. One night we said I love you and then a pause and I say two months, thinking that it has been two months and we still haven’t killed each other and still love each other.  Bob says, I have loved you for over 30 years. Oh my, he is so silly.

Another Bobism, I commented that I had been doing my own nails and they are au natural. Bob says, that is the way they should be. I ask what does he mean. You weren’t born with nail polish on you?

Bob’s new job

Lobster traps for Bob

We are now headed to Quebec City.

Nova Scotia Part One

 

 

We have been officially on the road for over two months, 4100 miles and a true test of a good marriage with a very even (mostly) tempered husband was what we experienced in Halifax.

The One Moose I found was at our RV park

Sign at our RV park

 

We were camping in a nice RV/Campground about 15 miles outside of Halifax. Now I have been reading about Halifax (Bob calls it Equifax), Nova Scotia for a few months now. We had to go to Lower Water Street and there were a number of seafood restaurants with outside patios. We needed to see the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site, the Halifax Public gardens and some shopping.

 

I asked Bob where he chose for lunch and he said he found a nice bistro right down the road from our campground. I said No, I wanted to go to Halifax and eat seafood and sit by the water. Sweet Bob said that Halifax was 40 minutes away, I said so?? Away we go to Halifax.

Let me describe downtown Halifax, narrow roads with cars parked on each side, one- way streets, construction, dump trucks, more construction and tons of people and tons of cars. Oh, and the Jazz festival was going on as well that was being held on the Waterfront and took up all the public parking.

Now, we are driving a Ford F250 with a trailer hitch, so we can’t fit in parking garages, they were all full anyway. We drove up and down many streets in stopped traffic and an accident at one intersection looking for a parking space, Nada.

We start looking for a restaurant away from the waterfront while we were sitting in traffic. Didn’t find much, two hours we spent in Halifax looking for parking and now it is 3:00 pm. Bob is really not saying too much, which might be a good thing since his face is getting as red as his shirt, so I said, lets just go back towards our campsite.

We ended up at the restaurant that Bob chose after all. Asking for a bottle of wine immediately. Yes indeed, Bob is a keeper, putting up with me.

Lunenburg Harbor with Golf Course in background

The next day we drove to Old town Lunenburg that is one of the best surviving UNESCO World Heritage Site that was established in 1753. It has a colorful waterfront area and narrow streets (we found great parking), but many of the shops were out of business, however we did have a fabulous lunch (notice a theme here wine & seafood makes a great lunch) that is called Grand Banker Bar and Grill. Wonderful view of the harbor and we shared The most delicious Steamed Mussels and our entrées were scrumptious 8 Sea Scallops with the best mashed potatoes we had ever had. Sorry, we forgot photos.

Our favorite place so far in Nova Scotia is Peggy’s Cove and Peggy’s Point Lighthouse that is perched atop a massive granite worn smooth by the pounding waves below. This lighthouse has been guiding sailors and fishermen home since 1868. It was so fun seeing a bagpiper playing right by Peggy’s Lighthouse.

 

The harbor has these colorful building’s next to the working harbor. We notice that many of the harbors or towns have all different color homes. I think it is because in the winter they can find their way home in the snow.

We found a funky small restaurant just outside Peggy’s Cove called Shaw’s Landing. It is over looking this quaint fishing harbor.

 

This is where we had our second full 1 ¼ lb Lobster with French fries and slaw. The Lobster here had more flavor than the Maine Lobster. They say they cook in salt water instead of fresh water. It was yummy, what’s not good, dripping with garlic butter.

Fort Anne National Historic Site in Annapolis Royal brings to life part of Canada’s past when conflict between Europe’s empire-builders took place on the shore of the Annapolis River.The battles between the British and the French were well explained in the museum. There is a remaining building onsite from 1708.

 

Annapolis Royal has a beautiful Historic Gardens that has paths winding through 17 acres of formal and informal gardens. Many of the homes are wonderful Victorian homes that have been well preserved.

On another day at this campsite we went to Digby, Nova Scotia that is world famous for their scallops.  So with our continuing research of great seafood, we had lunch at a place called The Wheelhouse Seafood and Pasta. Delicious pan seared Scallops and oh yah, extra crispy French fries. Yummers. We figure since we were having Scallops as one of the food groups, we would do one of the other food groups, potatoes and fruit-white wine. Yesser, that is what I call a balanced diet.

Our campsite outside of Digby was by the Bay of Fundy. Every day, 160 billion tonnes (2,205 lbs. per tonne) move through the Bay of Fundy. That’s more water than the combined flow of all the world’s freshwater rivers and steams in the world that flows in and out of the bay in one 12.5 hour tide cycle each day. The bay’s incoming tide is so extreme it temporarily reverses the flow of several rivers that empty into the bay. When the tide and rivers collide (twice a day) a notable wave called a “tidal bore” can be viewed moving upriver.

Sail boats playing in the tidal bore as a rain storm came in

It was so awesome to see the power of the tides. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get close to take a picture, but sitting by the Annapolis River, I could see how much the rocks were covered and the sailboats were enjoying the current coming in.

We did try a favorite of Nova Scotia called Chicken Rappie Pie.  Rappie pie, or rapture in French, is a well- loved traditional Acadian dish. It’s a mix of potatoes and chicken, and it’s unique to the region. … But it is a popular local dish, and in many households, a tradition for special occasions like birthdays or Christmas. It is basically, shredded potatoes that have had the liquid squeezed out,  then chicken broth and chicken added and then baked. We bought one and all we have to do is take a square and fry it in a pan. Bon Appetite. Ok, not so Bon Appetite, but then that’s all part of the adventure

Our next stop is Cape Breton Highlands National Park at the northern end of Nova Scotia. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Maine Event

We wanted to tell you a few valuable facts about Maine before we tell you what we have been up to.

Approximately 40 million pounds (nearly 90%) of the nations lobster supply is caught off the coast of Maine. Lobsters can live to be 100 years old or older.

A lobster’s brain is in its throat, and they taste with their feet.  Lobsters can grow up to four feet long and weigh as much as 40 pounds. Lobsters aren’t red, they turn red when cooked but in nature they can be green, yellow or even bright blue.

Maine is the leading producer of “wild” or lowbush blueberries, harvesting 91.1 million pounds in 2012 and 99% of this wild blueberry crop is frozen.

The Whoopie Pie was designated the Official State Treat of Maine in 2010. Also, in 2010, Blueberry Pie was designated the Official State Dessert.

It is estimated that Maine has approximately 76,000 Moose, the largest concentration of moose in the country next to Alaska. They stand as high as 7 feet at the shoulder, as much as 10 ft in length, and weighing anywhere from 1000 to 1500 lbs. This is the only one we saw on our trip so far.

They don’t pronounce their R’s here, so its Pah yah cah, not Park your car. Its Lobstah not Lobster. Our neighbor said to us “ It was a scahchah today.” I thought he said “did we have Scotch today” I answered, no we are having wine. Scahchah is actually scorcher up in New England.

 

The infamous Lobster Roll. Now we have done extensive research on the Lobster Roll for everyone. First off, every place we tried them said they had “the” best Lobster roll. We had them toasted on hotdog buns with the Lobster lightly tossed with Cain mayonnaise. We had them on toasted white bread with a little bit of lettuce added. Bob even tried them with melted butter.  We had anywhere from ¼ lb of Lobster to ½ lb of Lobster in the roll. All of them we tried were truly delicious. They all were usually accompanied with French fries and cole slaw.

Our first stop was in Wells, Maine. We chose here because it was close to a number of different towns that we could do day trips to. Bob’s favorite trip was Congdon’s Donut Shop, which made THE best fresh homemade donuts and large Whoopie Pies.

We visited Freeport, Maine which is a historic coastal Maine village with over 170 retailers, B&B’s and the flagship store of LL Bean which is open 24/7 365 days a year. They have 3 million people visit their store every year. Freeport is where we tried out first Whoopie Pie from Wicked Whoopie’s. What is not to like about a chocolate cake and cream filling.

Our next day drive was to Cape Elizabeth and the Portland Head Light.

It was truly picturesque. We stopped for lunch in Portland, Maine. This was not our favorite city. It is, however, the most popular destination in all of Maine. They have a thriving arts and culinary district, but there we too many people everywhere and many homeless.  Bob was paying for the parking meter and a homeless guy was using a hammer right next to him to try and break open the coin box in broad daylight with his girlfriend sitting on the sidewalk picking her toenails. Gross.

We did love Kennebunkport, which has tree-lined streets with 17^thand 18^thcentury homes, many converted into elegant inns and charming B&B’s and the harbor is lovely. Oh, and yes, and Walkers Point where George HW Bush has a summer home. It was amazing because the town was not as crowded as we thought it would be.

Our first day it was raining pretty good, but we found a wonderful restaurant called Mabel’s Lobster Claw. Very casual restaurant where we had a small bowl of clam chowder and a 2 lb Lobster that they cleaned out and laid open with 6 prawns lightly baked in garlic butter. Wowza, it was delicious.

Mabel’s was so good that we went back the next day and tried the Maine Steamed Clams. They are different than what we were use to. You have to pull this dark looking sheath of the tail of the clam off, rinse it in warm salt water, then dip it in butter and eat it. They were really big and delicious. Bob continued his research on Lobster Rolls and I had a baked Haddock and Scallops in garlic butter.

One thing Bob, Sabrina and I have had to get use to is the humidity. With 85+ degrees and 70% humidity, it is not any fun. Your clothing, sheets, towels are damp all the time. People say how can we stand our nice dry heat in Arizona. Well, we will take it anytime over humidity.

Maine is beautiful with everything so green and many ferns, moss on rocks and trees. I now know why, they get 18 inches of rain in June alone.  I just wish they would send some to Arizona.

Over the 4^thof July we were in Boothbay Harbor. It has been named one of the top ten coastal towns in Maine as well as The Boating Capital of New England. There are many small charter boats that take you out into the harbor with 50-100 of your closest friends. Bob and I scored, we found a 65 ft. schooner called Eastwind that would typically take anywhere from 4-28 passengers out cruising the harbors. The day we chose, we were the only two signed that up, so we got a 2 hour private cruise. It was a blast and very educational about the area and Captain Michael took us up close to Burnt Island Lighthouse. This truly made our stay.

Us

Shipmate Tom

Eastwind Schooner

View of the harbor

Lobster traps at Boothbay

Burnt Island Lighthouse

Our plans were to go down to the harbor for the fireworks on the fourth. First of all it was very humid with it reaching 92 degrees and we had the AC on all day. Second, finding a place to park in tiny beautiful Boothbay is a problem, but Thirdly, they are on daylight savings time and they don’t start until 9:30. We are in bed by then. I know, we are whimps, but that is our excuse and we sticking to it. We did celebrate the 4^thby buying a homemade blueberry pie to enjoy.

Our final day we visited the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens which is a natural wonder on 270 acres of shorefront with spectacular ornamental gardens and traversing miles of waterfront and woodland trails. It was interesting to see all the different plants that they have in Maine vs. Arizona.

If you are an antique’s lover, the Northeast is a perfect area to find many antique shops that have everything you can think of to sell.

Our final camping spot was Acadia National Park. Acadia is 49,000 acres, 120 miles of hiking trails and an extensive network of carriage roads, with a beautiful coastline of chiseled granite, the ocean dotted with islands, 17 mountain peaks and close to a dozen glacial lakes and ponds and spruce-fir forests. This is an amazing National Park that gets 4 million visitors a year.

On our 27 mile loop drive we stopped at Jordan Pond which has this great restaurant that is famous for their fresh made popovers with butter and homemade strawberry jam. They make 4,000 a day and they only keep them in a warming drawer for 20 minutes. After that they give them to a local farmer for his pigs. It was fun to try them, but doesn’t everything taste good with homemade strawberry jam and butter?

We were hampered by rain one day with no internet, phone, electric or water, but we survived just fine, but we know we are spoiled by the amenities.

We have discovered that we have PTSP regarding hiking while on vacation. Acadia is a hikers paradise, but there were signs stating slippery when wet. No thank you, we will pass and catch up on hiking once we get home.

 

We are now on our way to New Brunswick, Canada.  I hope they let us cross back over the border in a month.

 

 

 

Vermont and New Hampshire

 

Named the “quintessential New England village,” the town of Woodstock, Vermont is chock full of charming Americana, including a covered bridge smack in the center of town and a village green surrounded by restored Georgian, Federal Style and Greek Revival homes.

 

I wish our pictures really showed the beauty of Woodstock. We were able to see three different covered bridges while we were here. Of course, they are all single bridges, but the locals laugh, because every year a couple of yoyos try to take their RV and truck through the bridges and get stuck. My favorite saying is “Common sense is the least common thing around.”

Vermont is so green with rolling mountains that have sugar maple, Eastern Hemlock, white and yellow birch and pine. We visited a working cheese and maple syrup farm called Sugarbush Farm. I thought it was fascinating to learn that where large groups of maple trees grow and are used for maple syrup production, the area is called a “Sugarbush”. The maple trees have to be 40 years old in order for it to be tapped. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon. Maple syrup is graded according to Vermont Dept. of Agriculture Standards. The grades are based on color and intensity of flavor.  The Amber was absolutely heavenly and will last 2 years unopened and 2 years refrigerated.  Sugarbush Farm makes 14 varieties of cheese.  WOW, they were all so delicious and we watched as they hand packaged and dipped the cheese in a special cheese coating. I love love love cheese. I was in heaven and of course, bought some for our appetizers. We were  able to cross over the Taft red covered bridge, which was a blast.

 

 

We  had lunch and toured Simon Pearce glassware workshop. We were right on the Quechee river with a covered bridge, plus watching them hand blow these beautiful pieces of glassware. Oh, the lunch was delicious too.

King Arthur cafe, cooking school and gift shop was great. It almost made me want to take up baking again when I get home. I did find my second knight in shining armor.

New Hampshire is another beautiful state with stunning mountains and trees. It is popular for skiing and hiking, ticks included. Their license plate says Live Free or Die…hmmmm.

Our next three nights, were at a National Forest campground called Russell Pond in Lincoln, New Hampshire.

There was a beautiful pond where you could kayak and fish, plus the camping. Each large campsite is surrounded by beautiful trees and it was wonderful to have a campfire the nights that it didn’t pour down rain. It was totally dry camping, but we did great and Sabrina loved the goose down comforters out for the night.

Our final stop in New Hampshire was at a funky campground that has many summer permanent campers and the campground prides itself on fishing and frog gigging in the pond.

We are on to the coast of Maine.

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New York, New York

We camped at the #1 State Park (by USA Today), Letchworth State Park. It is a beautiful park featuring 14,350 acres and 66 miles of gorgeous hiking, biking and horse trails. They call this park “The Little Grand Canyon of the East”. I really wouldn’t go that far, since it is up to 600 ft. deep, but then I am a little biased coming from Arizona.

The Genesee River Gorge splits the park in two, where there are three beautiful waterfalls and the Middle Falls has a 110 ft. drop. There is a beautiful Lodge, The Glen Isle Lodge on the rim of the Upper Falls with Adirondack chairs around the front porch where you could enjoy a glass of wine and listen to the falls. We also had lunch inside (it was too chilly outside). Bob had Beef on Weck. This is shaved prime rib on a bun with au jus and horseradish to add if you want. It was delicious and I had good ole fashioned pot roast and roasted potatoes.

On our way back to our campsite we saw a small red fox with a squirrel in its mouth. Then one night a raccoon visited our campsite, leaving behind a paw print on the grill. We didn’t hike here because there is a huge tick problem and they warn people of Lyme disease. Bob said that the ticks are green. I said, how do you know that? He said, hello Lyme disease, they have to be green. (groan)

Our next stop was #3 ranked state park, Watkins Glen. This is another beautiful park that has 19 waterfalls along the hiking trails, plus it is nestled in northern forests. Oh, I almost forgot, it is right at the start of the Seneca Wine Trail, which is along the Seneca Lake, one of the Finger Lakes of New York. This region also has a budding microbrewing industry, as well as distilleries and cideries. Watkins Glen International Raceway is a great raceway that goes up a hill and around. For $30 you can drive your own car around the racetrack on certain days. We decided we would pass on driving the truck around it. Can you imagine how funny that would look?

A little trivia, New York is number 3 in wine production in the US. California is number 1 with 89% of the production, Washington is second and New York is third. Oregon is second in the number of wineries, but not production. So much wine, so little time, sigh.

We have been learning about Dry Riesling’s. We found a winery called Hermann J. Wiemer. They have the most delicious Rieslings. I wasn’t too fond of Rieslings before because I thought they were too sweet. Oh contraire, the Dry Rieslings are light with a little bit of smooth fruitiness at the end. A couple other wineries we liked were Fulkerson, Red Newt and Glenora Winery and Inn. Many of these wineries are on a hill overlooking Seneca Lake, which is beautiful. All the wineries only charge $5-6.00 for 5 tastings. Sure is different than California and Oregon. Reislings are a perfect summer wine, unfortunately they don’t ship from New York to Arizona.

We found a wonderful bakery, deli, and winery. Great delicious baked goodies including the strawberry apple pie we bought for our trailer. Tabora Farm and Winery had an outside patio. We love supporting the non-chains.  It was  so delicious that we ate there twice. On the other side of Seneca Lake was a great café called Stone Cat Café. Bob had a smoked duck salad and I had a falafel salad, both were great along with our new summer favorite, Dry Riesling. Stone Cat had a nice vibe and had a patio that over looked their vineyards.

Our campsite was great, tucked in the trees and Bob was able to take a little snooze in his hammock.

We are now camping in the Adirondack Mountains at a rustic forested campground. It has been chilly (for us) at night so we have been having campfires.

We are within 5 miles of Lake George. This 32-mile-long “Queen of American Lakes” is chock-full of small quaint motels, lots of attraction for kids, including Six Flags Grand Adventure. Lake George is too touristy for our taste with tons of tee shirt shops, Ben & Jerry ice cream stores, parasailing and steam boat cruises. Lake George was a significant player in American history, which is the site of two forts, Fort William Henry and Fort Ticonderoga, both open to the public.

The Adirondack Mountains are beautiful green mountains with Lake George at the base. The drive up to the top of Prospect Mountain was spectacular.

We did drive to a great small town called Warrensburg, NY.  We stopped by Oscar’s Smoke House, which has been smoking meats and cheeses for over 70 years. They are well known for their smoked flavored ham, bacon and their baked goods. Their apple pie was terrific. Bob says that eating apple pie for breakfast counts as fruit.

The other meat shop is Jacob’s & Toney’s, which has been in business for over 100 years. The chicken we bought from there we put on the smoker and was delicious. Tonight we are smoking some ribs from there. It is so delightful to see these two independent shops stay in business for all this time.

Tomorrow we head on into Vermont.

 

 

 

 

Amish and Mennonite Country in Ohio

 

This is the largest Amish and Mennonite population in the world at 35,000 people.You can tell the difference between Amish or Mennonite because all Amish have rejected the ownership of automobiles as their primary form of locomotion. Instead, they use the iconic horse-drawn buggy or wagon. This is not meant to be quaint, rather, it fosters a sense of community – you are more likely to be connected to the folks in your neighborhood when you are limited by a reasonable radius of travel. They also hand plow their fields with four horses to help.

There are many Mennonites who wear distinctive garb and beards without mustaches as do the Amish, so in the community automobile ownership is one of the ways one can define the two groups.

 

It was great fun learning about this culture. They do a lot of baking all from scratch. One of their specialties is fried fruit pies. Whatever fruit they harvested and freeze, is what they make the pies from.

We visited a couple of their markets and most of the market is loaded with bulk food, not only beans and pasta, but flour, sugar, jello, bushels of apples and everything to make their own jellies and do their own canning. Bakeries are very popular in these small towns and the Swiss and German influence is seen everywhere. Of course, we had to try a fried apple pie, pecan roll, a mini apple pie and biscotti. This is definitely more fun than hiking and breaking an ankle.

 

We visited Sugarcreek, Ohio where the world’s largest cuckoo clock is and it strikes on the half hour and these little men come out with their instruments.  Just down the road from here, we stopped at Broad Run Cheesehouse & Swiss Heritage Winery. They advertise “experience the area’s most exquisite curtains, lace and Victorian shop with 30 plus cheeses to sample with your favorite wine. Well, the Victorian was accurate, but for the first time in our wine tasting history did we sample a couple wines from little clear plastic medicine cups that cost .50 cents each to try. The woman gave me a list of their wines and it read like descriptions of jellies instead of wine. Cherry, Blackberry and Cranberry flavor with a hint of mint. Box wine is 100% better than this wine. Since neither of us were into Victorian and lace, we exited fairly quickly.

We did stop at a really cool market that was part market selling bulk items, home goods, bakery, deli, large cheese area butcher. Ohio was one of the first places to start making Swiss Cheese years ago. However, their’s is very mild compared to the type of Swiss Cheese we are use to.

Our next stop was Geneva State Park, which is walking distance to Lake Erie. Who knew that Lake Erie was so big? Big trees were all around our camp site and chilly enough to have campfire at night. Everything is so green here, hmm maybe because they have received a ton of rain?

We did visit a couple wineries and sampled a few of their wines. We asked at one winery, why the plastic cups. Ohio has this law about water usage. So the wineries put the tastings into plastic cups and you try them from the whites to the reds.

From here we are on to New York Finger Lake Area.

 

 

Three Weeks On The Road

Indianapolis, Indiana probably would have been more fun to explore, but there was this thing called the Indianapolis 500 going at that time, so the downtown area was packed and the “must see” places, we will “must see” next time. It was a good place to replenish our supplies.

Over the holiday weekend we were at Indian Lake State Park. There is boating, fishing, camping, swimming pool and volleyball. This was our first experience of a horrible camping experience.

First, our campsite was right next to each other. One side, the people were nice and quiet. The other side, it started off that it was suppose to be a Mother/Daughter tent camping weekend.

Well…… the first morning one daughter decided to play the radio really loud early in the morning.  Calm Bob (good thing I didn’t go over) went kindly over to them, he had to yell three times right behind them for them to even hear him. It went from bad to worse, more friends and family came, pitched their tents and they all started fighting with each other, and one daughter and her mom were driving somewhere and we heard later that the daughter, kicked her mom out of the car and left her on the side of the road. Oh, yes we heard more F bombs going on all weekend. Yes, even more than some of my friends.

Did I mention the gazillion kids of all ages, riding their bikes and playing, plus many people with golf carts riding around, trucks pulling boats all in front of our campsite?

My goodness I sound like a cranky old person. We made the executive decision to leave early and head over to a KOA for the last night. Ahhhh, peace and quiet and it was great because there was a number of Airstreams camped there before heading to Alumapaloosa the next day. Plus KOA made hot fresh pizza and delivered it to your campsite. Nice. KOA is A Okay with me.

 

Camping on the factory grounds in Jackson Center, Ohio was fun because there were 179 Airstreams of all years and models and every age group from 30’s on up.

We took a tour of the working plant twice because it was so interesting to see each trailer being built.

Airstream employs over a 1000 employees that build every Airstream by hand. It takes them 3-4 days, 230 hours to build one trailer. It takes 8 hours just to build the door. Airstream makes 8 different models in 45 different floor plans. They produce 100 trailers a week and build them as the orders come in, not by a particular style. They build trailers for the international market as well. They ship to 6 countries, South Korea, China, Japan, Australia, Italy and England, 5% in the production is shipped overseas. It was interesting because the international ones have different safety features and design than the US models.

Airstream currently has a backlog of 3000 trailers. A new 255,000 sq. ft. plant is being built a mile away to handle the demand.

The seminars have been helpful, which I know many of you would be interested in. For example, fresh water tank maintenance, propane maintenance, setting up your hitch correctly and tire pressure monitoring systems.

We are now headed to the Amish Country and then to the Finger Lakes, NY for some wine tasting.

 

First Ten Days on the Road

Our first Ten Days on the Road

You might have been wondering where are the Burnand’s? We have had a rather non -eventful few days from Winslow, Arizona to two nights in Bernalillo, NM. We did see some great Airstream friends one night, but missed my BFF of over 40 years the next night. She gave me some lame excuse that she had to take her husband to Urgent Care. Thankfully, he is ok.

I can tell you there is not much in Dahlhart, TX or Wichita, KS , that I can write about. The most exciting thing for us in Texas and Kansas were the types of road kill on the road, from Raccoons, Armadillos, and deer to a fox.

We stayed three nights in Kansas City, MO at a wonderful county Park. Beautiful green rolling hills and nice spacious sites. We figured out why everything was green. Rain and more rain, but that did not deter us from having some great BBQ at Q39 and Joe’s Kansas City BBQ. Joe’s we stood in line for 45 minutes to get in, the time did see to fly by with some draft beer. Very good BBQ.

The last two days we have been in St. Louis, MO. I have to admit that we were kind of tired of BBQ, so one of the nights we did go to The Hill. This is an Italian section of St. Louis. It is really nothing like the Italian area in New York, where there are restaurants side by side with Mario Lanza songs playing.

In St. Louis, the restaurants are sprinkled in between the tall brick narrow homes. We ate at Charlie Gitto’s on the Hill. Nice, but food was ho hum, ravioli and seafood risotto and pretty pricey. Oh well, it was a nice change from BBQ.

Our second day in St. Louis was so much fun. We drove down to see the iconic Gateway Arch. It is situated by the Mississippi River and in a beautiful park. From there we did the Anheuser-Busch Brewery free tour. It was an hour long, we got to see the Clydesdales up close. They have 170 horses and they each weight approximately a ton. They are beautiful. It was such a fun learning tour, plus free beer twice on the tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished off St. Louis in grand style by having a late lunch at Blues City Deli.  It is a small place, but at night they have great blues bands while munching on a Muffuletta sandwich and a New York style Pastrami & Swiss.

Now on to Indianapolis.