Bob and Linda's Great Adventure

2010-09-29T18:55:00.000-07:00

September 10, 2010 Friday

That is the day that we actually left for our Fall trip, but the 2 says before were especially interesting as we prepared to leave. On Wed night we observed a vehicle parked outside our house that we did not recognize. Thurs morning Bob was outside working and he noticed someone sitting in a different car outside our house. He approached the car and the man showed him a Bellevue Police Badge and then came down to our driveway and explained that he was on survailance and for us to please ignore him. Later that day the first car was again there. In the early afternoon the car outside our house and several others descended on the house at the bottom of our street - we call it the "white trash" house and it has been a mess for years. They arrested the 24 year old son and the father. An hour or so later Linda went outside just in time to see the 9 member SWAT team enter the house to serve a search warrent. There were about 15 Bellevue and Redmond police in addition. They were in and out of the house all afternoon and evening, looking for stolen items. They towed the kids car. He had been spotted Wed leaving a house in Bellevue after a burglary and a citizen got his license number. There had been several burglaries in the neighborhood.

2010-03-15T19:57:00.000-07:00

Monday, March 10

Drove to Russian River Campground through the "Avenue of the Giants" redwoods area.

Wednesday, March 12

Drove around the vineyards and passed hundreds of wineries! Saw Clear Lake above the 3 wine valley areas.

Thursday, March 11

Drove to the coast through rolling hills and vineyards. Beautiful day and coastal vistas. Mendicino is a pretty "victorian" town (also known as Cabot Cove on the TV show). Visited Fort Bragg.

Friday, March 12

Moved to Alameda County Fairgrounds RV Park. Gem and mineral show on the grounds and lots of classic GMC motorhomes. Poured rain all day.

Saturday, March 13

Sunshine today. We like Pleasonton. Visited the Saturday market and bought artichokes and wonderful orange/hunny almonds!

Sunday, March 14

Toured San Francisco area. Wanted to take the boat to Alcatraz, but the whole Embarcadero area was having a festival, there were huge crowds and we could not get to the dock area. Decided to drive North to Sausilito and toured the coast line. Beautiful vistas on a georgeous day! Bob walked on the Golden Gate Bridge. Saw the new baseball stadium and the formerly suspect area around is being renewed nicely. City looks pretty good, but there is a lot of gang "tagging" and bums.

Monday, March 15

Moved to Delta Shores campground in the Sacramento Delta.

2010-03-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

We left on Wed, March 3. Heading South on I-5. Drove in sunshine and stopped in the Bi-Mart parking lot in Creswell, Or. On Thurs we drove to the coast and stopped in Trinidad at the Emerald Forrest camp ground in the Redwoods. There are huge stumps around us and really tall trees. The coast is rugged and beautiful and the views spectacular. We explored North on Saturday seeing countless fabulous views and strolling on remote beaches. A glorious day. On Sunday we headed South to Eureka, Ferndale, and Fortuna. They all have some wonderful Victorian homes and buildings. We explored the Humbolt Bay area with dunes and beautiful scenery. Eureka has lots of street people and Ferndale looked to be the most prosporous and the town we liked best. The whole area has aging hippy influence and seems to be living in the past. Way too many old guys with scruffy beards.

Liked the beauty shop we saw named, "Curl up and Dye"!

2009-10-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

Fall trip

September/October 2009 trip to Idaho and Montana

2009-10-03T17:32:00.000-07:00

Spring trip 2009

March/April trip to California - Central area as the weather was nice.

2008-01-06T20:15:00.000-08:00

Well, since my last post in November, life has gotten pretty hectic. Carlee and Cody stayed in our house until they purchased their new house in September, so we have to begin to get our house back in Bob and Linda mode. We also plan to remove the popcorn ceilings and paint the house. We are not going to put all of the furniture back in place until these projects are done. First off, Bob has to get his computer systems running properly so he can resume his trading. We have restored the master bedroom, complete with new bedding. Also, the kitchen/family area is pretty functional now, too. The rest is going to wait awhile. So the first week home was spent seeing the kids, unpacking the motor home and getting the bedroom and kitchen in reasonable shape.

On the evening of the 11th Mark called and said they were heading to the hospital - baby arriving a little early. We headed over and spent the night up with them. Jean really wanted a normal delivery, but circumstances dictated a C section around 8:30 the next morning. Caden James was born! It was very exciting as Carlee, Mark and I were in the delivery room. Loved seeing the newborn so soon. We were right by his isolet as they cleaned him up and checked him out. Jean was pretty out of it at that time, but Mark carried him over to show him to her. He is pretty small, 6 lb 10 oz, but 20" long. He had a little bit of breathing problems and some jaundice the first few days, but progressed just fine. Caden came home after 5 days in the hospital. Jean needed help, so I moved over to their house. The Drs wanted to make sure he was thriving so we went in to have the baby weighed several times. After a couple of weeks, he was gaining nicely and breastfeeding was going pretty well. Mark's mother came down for a couple of days to help so I could go to set up day for the Festival of Trees. We all made it to a nice Thanksgiving dinner at Carlees. Cody was not feeling well that afternoon and excused himself from the gang to go to bed early. Jean was beginning to feel better, about that time, then developed an infection in her incision with a fever that set her back. She had kind of a miserable week. Cody did not feel well for several days and ended up in the emergency room where they finally diagnosed a case of spinal meningitis - very scary, but fortunately not the worst kind. He spent 2 nights in the hospital and then came home to bed rest for awhile. With unfortunate situations in both daughters' homes, Bob and I were spread pretty thin helping. After about 5 difficult days, everyone finally began to get better!

Christmas preparations began very late for all of us! Everyone was feeling a little better by the second week in Dec and we managed to go on our annual family Christmas tree expedition. The tree farm where we went to cut, had closed just before we got there so we ended up with quite nice trees from the local Lowe's Hardware! We celebrated with a birthday dinner for Carlee. We had Christmas dinner at Jean and Marks with Ron, Sally, Wendina & Bryan; the Mann clan, and Marks folks and aunt. It was a fun day and quite interesting with 2 new family members, Kinsey and Caden, and Garrett and Parker, who were such fun to watch open presents. Garrett helped distribute presents and Parker was an amazing help with the family "dice" game. We had 3 holiday parties to go to including a 75th birthday for Charlie on New Years Eve.

We have noticed how much we love to see mountains in the distance. We really missed that on the East Coast and Midwest. However, it has been rather cold here and we remember warmer areas last year. We do miss the sun. It has come out some and we have ridden our bikes, but we would like more of that!

2007-11-06T19:33:00.000-08:00

We have arrived home! The first few days after arriving home are very busy. A top priority was to see the grandkids. Such fun! Cody brought them over saying that he had to pick something up at the house and they were surprised to see the motor home there. They were very excited! Carlee joined us and we had pizza for dinner.

We also visited Jean who has just entered her 9th month. She is feeling good and still taking it easy. The baby is doing well, so if she delivers a little early, they are not concerned.

I am going to be posting some random thoughts about our great adventure this year.

Most interesting experience: We really enjoyed the Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida. Extremely educational and interesting. It would be a wonderful experience for any young teen that is interested in aeronautics or space.

Best tour: The Harley-Davidson Factory in Pennsylvania. It was really amazing to be out on the floor right next to the assembly line. The Chevrolet Corvette Factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky was also good.

Biggest disappointments: The Nautilus Museum in New London, Connecticut, was closed for a 2 week renovation when we were there. Bob had been looking forward to that. We were also never able to ride on an actual stern wheeler on the Mississippi. We tried several times along the way but every time we booked a trip something happened to cancel it!

Best water adventure: Rode on an air boat in Florida. Very exciting.

It was interesting to see the difference in class of the motor home parks. When you book a park ahead, and don't know the area, you really don't know exactly what will be there. Most of the time we were happy with the facilities and the park in general. People were gracious and really nice in all of them. Even if the facilities were not the best, it didn't matter as we always use our own shower, bathroom and beds! They never varied! There was 1 park in Florida that was a little sketchy. The people were extremely friendly, but we noticed that about half the women (remember that they are mostly over 50) had tattoos! Tattoos on older people spoke volumes. Also, aging tattoos are not good!

2007-10-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

Today I am going to talk about some of the challenges of motor home travel. The day to day logistics.

Most of the time we stay in parks that are set up with electricity, cable TV, water, etc. Bob hooks all of that up every time we enter a new park. It takes about 10 - 15 minutes and you have to double check as each situation is different. It is also necessary to level the coach so the refrigerator will work properly. We don't have a fancy leveling system so we have to look at our bubble level and place blocks accordingly.

We can function perfectly fine without any of the hookups. Bob has installed extra batteries and we have a generator. We can carry water. We don't usually travel with totally full tanks as that adds a lot of weight.

We cook with propane and that fuel is used for heat and the refrigerator when we are not connected to electricity. Every month or so we have to buy propane. When you buy propane, you have to have an attendant come and dispense it. They have all been competent and pleasant. We are not sure why, but they have also all had teeth missing! Bob and I can hardly look at each other during this process as it has become such a cliche. We are beginning to wonder if propane rots teeth.

The challenges of towing a vehicle are many. The proper hookup to the motor home is important. The car has to be in neutral, brake off, key on ACC, brake buddy (braking system for tow cars) installed, radio off and windows up. There is a checklist to remember each time. It really is the best solution to our kind of travel. We park the coach and use the car for day trips and running around. It helps with the cost factor, also. Gas prices have been a concern. When we were in Chicago we were saddened to hear that Chicago had the highest prices in the country at that time! Now, as we are heading home prices are rising daily. We are paying over $3.00 a gallon and actually saw $3.99 for regular - YIKES. We plan our gas stops around Costco, Wall Mart and a few others that have the best prices in an area. We check prices on the Internet. Backing up is not an option while towing so we are very careful when we enter parking lots or small areas. It has only been necessary to disconnect the car to maneuver twice on the whole trip!

Laundry is a concern. Not all of the motor home parks have had laundry facilities. Those that do require various amounts of quarters. The time of the cycles also varies so there is a learning curve for each location! It has been a special bonus when visiting friends to use their washers and dryers. We did not bring any clothes with us that did not wash easily and certainly nothing that required ironing or special care.

It has been interesting to go into so many grocery stores. There is really a difference in the produce and meat departments from store to store. We are usually not in the same store more than once so we never know where anything is! We have had to try many new brands and products.

Thats all for today, will be adding more thoughts later.

2007-10-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

We have spent the last 2 days doing some pretty serious driving. Last night we stayed at a Forrest Service Campground near Mono Lake on the Cal/Nev border. Tonight we are in Alturas, Cal.

Since we are ending our year long adventure, we are talking about our conclusions from our travels. I am going to start reporting these things for the record. It will probably take several posting to get it all down.

Here goes:

favorite large city - Definitely Chicago. Beautiful architecture, great lake views, seems prosperous, very vital and has parks and open spaces. Surrounding areas are nice.

worst large city - Detroit. Some attempt to save historic area, but does not appear to be enough $ to do it. Part of downtown area is OK, but surrounding areas for several miles in each direction are awful (abandoned buildings, horrible housing, scary neighborhoods). There are some nice suburbs well outside the town.

favorite medium size town - Charleston, S. Carolina. Great historic area. Also great outside historic area. Surrounding areas are also nice. Seems very prosperous. Has had the same mayor for over 30 years. Stability seems to have been a plus.

most surprising small town - Quincy, Ill. Absolutely incredible architecture throughout the town. Even the small houses are beautiful and interesting.

Thats all for now!

2007-10-28T21:37:00.000-07:00

We worked our way across desert terrain to the Karchner Caverns near Tombstone, Arizona. There is a motorhome park near there that we have enjoyed in the past and we stayed there. Friends, Kesters, came down and joined us on the tour. The caves were discovered in 1988 and were kept secret for 14 years while it was set up as a State Park to protect access. The caves were in pristine condition, unlike many caves that were damaged by early explorers. We enjoyed the tour and the many fascinating formations.

The 4 of us had a fun dinner in Tombstone, Arizona at the Longhorn Cafe and a drink later at Big Nose Nellies. The town is famous for the OK Corral, Boot Hill, and many western personalities.

We then moved to the Cave Creek Recreation Area near the Kesters in Scottsdale. It was in the 90s - quite hot. Got together with the Weimers and Moore's at the Kester home.

We are now heading across the desert and can see the smoke from the fires in the San Diego/Los Angeles area. We will head North and not go into the LA basin.

2007-10-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

Albuquerque is definitely a Southwest town. The houses are mostly adobe which does seem appropriate here. We don't really like the look very much, but when we see a Colonial or NW Contemporary home they look out of place. We have had heavy winds and lots of dust blowing, but total sunshine.

When we were looking through some of the literature on New Mexico, we noticed that among things like the State flower and State bird was the State question, "Red or green?"

We have been driving a lot on historic Route 66. It was the original highway from Chicago to Los Angeles and some of the old motels and buildings remain.

This is a desert area with mountains in the distance. It is surprisingly green to us for this time of year. We have been driving along the Rio Grande where there are trees showing Fall colors. It has been cold at night and warm in the afternoons. There are lots of arroyos. They are dry now but suggest that there are huge amounts of water at times!

2007-10-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

2007-10-19T19:29:00.000-07:00

Our first day at Los Vegas, NM there was a wind storm all day - 35mph continuous with gusts to 55mph. We stayed in the motorhome most of the day and rocked back and forth! In Las Vegas we saw an original Carnegie Library that was still being used as a library. We also saw another original one still being used as a library Oklahoma! We have seen many of the original Carnegie Library buildings in small towns, but most towns have since built newer facilities. The buildings are all similar and beautiful. We had dinner in a historic "Plaza Hotel" built in 1882. This town was an early boomtown as it was on the Santa Fe trail and the Atcheson Topeka and the Santa Fe Railroad came in 1841. Coronado came through the area in 1541.

The next day we took a day drive through the Sangre Mountains with multiple scenic drives. Ate lunch in Taos and saw 2 ski areas and lots of beautiful vistas. Went over a 9,800 foot pass. Nice to see familiar mountain areas. There is a mountain, Wheeler Peak, almost as tall as Rainier. However, it rises from 6,000 feet not sea level!

We had some sad news as our longtime business associate and long term friend of my fathers, Jack Kendall, passed away. He will be greatly missed by his large family and many friends.

At home, Carlee and family are busy with school, pre school, and preparing for Halloween. Jean has been put on partial bed rest (precautionary) for the last 5 weeks of her pregnancy. She is feeling good and the baby is progressing well.

We have worked our way to Albuquerque, NM. Crossed the Pecos River and the Rio Grande River.

2007-10-16T19:33:00.001-07:00

We remembered another interesting thing about St. Lewis. There was a farmers market that we toured as they were having an Oktoberfest. It was similar to the one in Pioneer Square, except it was in a beautiful brick building that was built as a market in 1879.

Back to our trip after Branson, MO. We headed south into Arkansas. Unfortunately we had a mechanical problem. Our V10 engine blew a spark plug - the second time this has happened. It is apparently a problem with this engine. We were towed to a Ford dealer in Frederick, Arkansas. Thank goodness for our Good Sam towing insurance! So we spent 2 days in the Frederick area, which is really a rather nice area. There are 3 towns there and a good economic base with Tyson, and Wall Mart having a big presence and a university.

With apologies to Foster Farms, we had some fabulous chicken before they got in that Plymouth Belvedere to drive to Washington. The Arkansas Quality Chicken House had some of the best fried chicken we have ever had.

We continue to travel scenic routs whenever possible and avoid the major interstates. Went through the northern Oklahoma area and the northern Texas panhandle. Not much there. Not even McDonalds or Wall Mart. Oklahoma had several almost dead towns. One had a 2 block downtown of old historic type buildings that were totally run down with not one business in operation. Very sad. The countryside was actually quite pretty with trees and some hills. It gave way to the Southern Great plains area in western Oklahoma and into Texas. Texas appears a little more prosperous. We have crossed the Chisholm Trail, followed the Santa Fe Trail and have been along the Red River. It really is red from the red rock sand and mud on the shores. We are seeing more livestock now and lots of antelope along with plenty of road kill (coons, possums, armadillos and turtles).

In Frederick, Oklahoma we spent an evening watching for tornadoes, again. This is the 4th time on this trip that we have been in a county with a major tornado watch. It is so hard to follow the warnings because we don't always know exactly where we are in relation to the warnings that are given. We pour over the map and try to watch the doppler on the weather site on the computer. Unfortunately that night we had very poor internet service and had to rely on a bad TV signal. We did end up driving about 30 miles out of our way. Saw several tornado watchers with trucks full of antennas. They would set up cameras along the highway and all of a sudden bolt to a new location. We went the opposite direction! As usual, we just ended up with some thunderstorms. We are nervous about these advisories since we are traveling in a TORNADO MAGNET.

Have arrived at Las Vegas, New Mexico (not Nevada) which is near the Sangre Mountains, Santa Fe, and Taos. We are on a lake at a State Park and at the elevation of 6,000 feet. It is nice to see some more mountain like terrain.

2007-10-10T19:44:00.000-07:00

Gateway Arch, St. Lewis

2007-10-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

We toured St. Lewis. Found it to be fine, but unremarkable. The Arch is quite impressive and larger than we had pictured. The levees and flood doors are interesting!

We have worked our way South into the Ozarks. It is a hilly region in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. There are lots of trees, few evergreens. Most are oaks and others that turn rather brown in the fall and not the bright reds and golds of the maples or others. This is hillbilly country and there are names such as "Moonshine Beach"! We have gone up and down through the same 400 feet of elevation countless times.

Spent 3 days in Branson, MO. It is quite the entertainment area with all kinds of shows that are largely country western. It is family entertainment with shows all day long, including many for breakfast. There are Elvis impersonators, 50s reviews, Roy Rogers, Jr., Andy Williams, Charo, Mickey Gilley, Mel Tillis, etc. Some of the entertainers have built their own venues so they can establish themselves in the area. The town is very hilly and is also along a lake. The theaters and hotels are spread out and up the valleys and sometimes the steep hillsides. We wanted to go on a "Showboat" lunch cruise, but unfortunately the boat had a mechanical problem and a part is being airlifted from Europe, but the show takes place at the dock for 3 days. We opted to skip it as the lake cruise on a sternwheeler was what we were looking forward to. (We have tried to ride an actual sternwheeler several times along the Mississippi, but seem to get thwarted at every turn.) Went instead to a Broadway review which was quite entertaining. The host was Merril Osmund, who was lots of fun. The singing was excellent and it was a great sampling of favorites with some fun dance numbers. Show, food and lodging prices are reasonable. We are in a very nice resort where a beautiful indoor pool is actually open - Linda is thrilled.

2007-10-03T18:41:00.000-07:00

Coal barges on the Mississippi River

2007-10-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

We have been touring around the quad cities on the Mississippi. (Moline, Rock Island, Bettendorft and Davenport - 2 in Iowa and 2 in Illinois)

Saw a really interesting passage through a 600 foot locks. 9 barges full of coal - 3 abreast filled the whole space. The push tug does not fit in so they wench the barges out the other end and fill the locks again for the tug. He then hooks up and is on his way. It took about 1 1/2 hours and also required several turnings of a draw bridge that has 2 tiers with train tracks on 1 level and cars on the other.

Visited the town of Quincy, Illinois. It has the most diverse and interesting architecture of any smaller city (about 40,000) we have visited. It was a historic city on the river, a county seat and had the first railroad bridge to cross the river. That made it an early trade center. At that time there must have been many talented architects designing homes in the area. Big and smaller homes are of varied styles, periods and have interesting and unusual features. It all seems to be done in good taste! It just amazed us that block after block had one fabulous unusual home after another. The windows, verandas, woodwork, details, wrote iron work, roof detail, stairways, fences, stone and brick work, etc. were unusual without being bizarre.

We have gone south into Missouri and passed through Hannibal of Mark Twain fame.

Weather has been nice (a bit unusual we are told). The only trouble we have had was last evening and 3 nights ago when there were thunderstorms with tornado warnings. It is a bit hard for us as the info on TV is by county and we don't always know what our county is or what its shape is. We get out the maps and fire up the dopler on the computer. Those pesky arrows indicating tornadoes always seem to be near us. Since we live in a "tornado magnet" we pay attention. We are thankful for the "alert radio" the Piners gave us as we can go to sleep knowing that we will buzzed if necessary. A neighbor told us that the tornadoes never get down by the river. We hope that is true. Glad there are no such problems in Redmond!

2007-09-29T19:32:00.000-07:00

We have worked our way West from Chicago across Illinois to the Mississippi River that forms the border with Iowa. Illinois was largely flat, but as we neared the river it gave way to some hills. It is very pretty with lots of deciduous trees among the corn fields. Lots of massive corn fields! It was refreshing to find that gas prices have gone down a bit - while we were there, Chicigo had the highest price in the country.

We stopped at Rochele where the Union Pacific and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads cross. They are 2 major lines and it is one of the few places where two double tracks cross. There is a viewing stand with speakers and information and over 120 trains pass there each day. We spent about an hour there and saw 7 trains!

We have visited 3 locks on the Mississippi so far. Its fun to watch the barge traffic and also saw a riverboat casino going through the 6-10 foot change in water level.

It is harvest season and we have seen a lot of farm equipment. They are harvesting the soy beans and the corn. They work into the dark with lights. It appears to be corn for ethenol and corn products rather than table corn.

We are on the Iowa side of the river now. Today we went to the "Amana villages" area which is 7 small German villages from the 1800s. They were celebrating Ocktoberfest and we walked around the area. The buildings are mostly hand cut stone.

Iowa is surprisingly pretty. Again, it is hilly with lots of trees and the ever present corn fields. There are lots of small towns. You pass housing areas, corn fields, small businesses, open space, corn fields, some cattle and pigs, and then a town. The people are somewhat reserved. It brings to mind the words in the song from "The Music Man" - "Its the Iowa way to treat you if we treat you which we may not do at all!" People are surprised if you stop to let them cross the street, but don't wave or nod thanks! They don't aknowledge you for holding a door or stepping aside to let them pass or when you enter a store. If you initiate a conversation, then they are friendly and a nice lady asked if we needed help when we stopped near her house to look at a map.

Midwest impressions:

1. pretty flat - the hills are small by our standards

2. corn fields everywhere - some soybean but mostly corn

3. industry or power plants are often in the distance

4. huge silos

5. wind

6. farm vehicles on the road

7. lots of freight trucks on the freeways

8. every small town has a water tower - it always has the town name on it

9. restaurants still have smoking sections

10. no helmet laws - motorcycles or bicycles

11. lots of road kill - mostly coons

2007-09-22T18:40:00.000-07:00

We have spent several days in the Chicago area and like it a LOT. The downtown is beautiful. There are so many trees and beautiful landscaping around most buildings and streets lined with parkways and plantings. Of course there is Lake Michigan and rivers through town to add to the beauty. We have also had fabulous weather - clear, sunny and 75 to 85. (Most stores, buildings etc. have storm entrances to remind us that sometimes the weather is really bad.) The architecture is diverse and spectacular. Nothing is "strange" and it all seems to work together to create a beautiful city. Had a fun tour on a Double Decker bus with a really knowledgeable guide. She had great architectural info along with info about Oprah and others.

We had a wonderful lunch at "Signature", a restaurant on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building. It was so far above most of the buildings that it was a bit scary! The view was incredible.

The surrounding neighborhoods are also pleasant with lots of trees, parkways and plants. There are countless elegant high rise condos downtown with views of the Lake.

The terrain in the Midwest is quite flat. We forget how much that we rely on Mount Rainier or the Olympics in the distance in the Seattle area to help orient our location! There are no such landmarks here to do that. Our trusty GPS helps us to find North!

The traffic in Chicago is not too bad. It's definitely not as bad as New York and similar to Seattle. Bob has done fine driving around. If we stop to let a pedestrian cross, they look surprised and don't know what to do!

2007-09-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

2007-09-18T07:55:00.000-07:00

2007-09-17T17:08:00.000-07:00

Back on the road!

We have arrived in the Chicago area after our wonderful train trip! We boarded the Empire Builder at the King Street Station in Seattle. Rod and Linda gave us a ride down and were able to come on the train to see our digs! It was so relaxed - not at all like the airport. You could arrive just before boarding and get right on the train. No baggage search, shoe removal or anything. They don't check tickets until the train is well underway. It left late, but no one seemed to care.

We had a small bedroom which is 2 seats by day and 2 bunks at night after porter, Tom works his magic. It is small, but still comfortable during the day. We were in the very best location for a room of our size. It was downstairs where there are 5 rooms, 3 toilets and 1 shower. (We never had to wait to use anything.) The same size rooms upstairs are along the walk through hallway and much less private. People are constantly going to the dining car, observation car, or taking a walk. Our little corner of the world had a couple similar to us across the hall and we both had our doors open most of the time so we could see the scenery on both sides. The others in our area were: an elderly man who had owned a New York Deli for years and now lives in Concrete, WA on his son's property and often takes the train to visit other relatives, and a young couple from Japan on their honeymoon who did not speak English well.

We left on a beautiful day and we were on the Puget Sound side of the car with great views. When we passed Monroe, Carlee brought the kids to the tracks to wave at the train. We put a sign in our neighbors window as our room was on the wrong side. We saw them waving and hopefully they spotted our bright orange sign with their names on it! Cell phones made this rendezvous work!

The beginning of the ride was smooth and quiet. There were patches later that were much bumpier and rougher. Many of them at night! Bob had lots of fun with his GPS tracking.

The dining car was 3 cars away. The meals were quite good with about 8 choices. Menu was the same for both days. Dinner was by reservation and breakfast and lunch were first come first served. You gave your name and came back when called. Meals came with the fare - anything on the menu. Drinks and snacks in the club car were extra. We enjoyed everyone we met at meals. Many were part of a "cult" of people who take the train often. One of our table mates was a Sue from Oregon who turned out to be the mother of one of Jean's friends from work at Nintendo. We had actually met her son at the Nintendo house nextdoor in Hawaii! It really is a small world.

Our porter knew our neighbor, Bob, who had been a porter for many years. Bob's brother, Bill Murray (who said he was the original Bill Murray) had answered questions for Linda at the King Street Station.

It was such fun to see the world go by your window! There were many very short stops and some a bit longer. We frequently got off to stretch our legs. They always warned us to stay close as the train does not wait. The mountains and Glacier National Park were stunning. The plains were less beautiful, but still interesting.

Our main problem was with the beds. They are not very comfortable. The bottom bunk was definitely preferable. The top bunk was shorter, narrower, windowless, harder, and there was not enough clearance to sit up. Linda hardly slept, Bob did a little.

When we arrived in Chicago 46 hours later it was rather cold out! Bob got the rental car and we proceeded to drive to the motor home about 2 hours away in Michigan. Happily things were good in the coach. No bugs, mildew, or odors. The 6 moisture absorbers were nearly full and everything inside felt dry. It survived a hot humid summer. Our thermometer read that the highest temp inside had been 124! Linda slept 11 hours that night and unpacking and grocery shopping completely wore us out the next day.

We are now at the Leisure Lake resort, the nearest motor home park to Chicago. We will stay here several days while getting to know this area.

2007-08-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

We decided to fly to Redmond to be there for July and August - the 2 best months of the year. It was getting to be quite humid in the East and the motor home parks we wanted to visit were all crowded for those 2 months. It really seems that people in the East travel between Memorial Day and Labor Day en mass and its very difficult to get in anywhere during that time unless you have had reservations months in advance.

Sometimes things work out as they should since we were here with the family for the sudden sad passing of our niece, Janice Akey. She died of complications from pneumonia while on vacation at Disneyland with husband, son, and nephew. Janice was the flower girl at our wedding. She will be missed by the whole family.

Our house sitters, Carlee & Cody, have moved to their new home. We were here to help with that process which was complicated by 3 children, 2 dogs, and the new house being a bit of a drive to Monroe. Its a good house for their family with 4 bedrooms, a great yard, a lake, and close to schools and parks.

It has been enjoyable to see the grandkids, friends and family. We have been bike riding and canoeing. We are also preparing the house for some changes that we will do for us and also to be ready to sell if we ever find something smaller that we want to move to.

We stored our motor home and car near Chicago. Flew to Seattle - finally - after a cancellation and a very long day. We are going to take the train, Empire Builder, from Seattle to Chicago in mid September. This is going to be another part of our adventure. We have a roomette and will be on the train for 45 hours! We are very excited about this part of our trip. We will head south on the west side of the Mississippi into new territory. Then we will work our way back to the Seattle area in mid November. We will be back for Thanksgiving and Jean and Marks baby due Dec 2.

Will post again after our train trip!

2007-06-10T19:01:00.000-07:00

Ships in locks

2007-06-10T18:12:00.000-07:00

Headed west to Gaylord. Took a day trip up north to Sault Ste. Marie across from Canada. There are locks there between Lake Huron and Lake Superior on the St. Mary's river. There are 4 locks and they are huge and similar to our locks in Ballard in look and vintage. They can take 1,000 foot lake freighters that are designed specifically to just fit! Not too many pleasure boats use the locks. We were lucky enough to see 3 major ships pass through.

We took a ferry and spent a day on Mackinac Island. There are no cars allowed so you ride bikes or take horse drawn carriages everywhere. The Grand Hotel is located there and is very much the same as it was in the 1800s. (The movie "Somewhere in Time" was filmed there.) The wonderful coaches that serve the guests are just beautiful with liveried drivers and fine horses. There is no parking lot at the hotel - just a place for bicycles and stables for the horses!
We toured on 3 different team horse drawn carriages. The huge matching horses had great names like Earl, Bubba, and Charlie. We ate lunch at the Yankee Peddler restaurant and had a fabulous pot roast sandwich. The town is beautiful, clean, prosperous and totally charming!

Northern Michigan is really beautiful. It is much like Puget Sound only there are not huge mountains in the distance. It is very clean and neat with commanding views! We like it here a lot.

We are now heading down the east coast of Lake Michigan. We are going to Buchannan where we will leave the motor home and car and fly home on Wed. from nearby Ohare in Chicago.

We have decided to stay home for about 2 months and then come back in the early Fall for a couple more months of travel. We think that Redmond is the best place to be for the hot months of summer. The humidity and bugs are becoming an issue! We have air conditioning, but it gets rather confined in the motor home when the weather is really hot. Carlee and Cody are moving to their new home so we need to help with that and reclaim our house. It will be great to see family and friends who we have missed.

2007-06-04T16:02:00.000-07:00

Horray, I was finally able to get the June 3 report to post - been trying for 2 days!

2007-06-04T15:22:00.000-07:00

We have been in the Michigan area recently after leaving Indianapolis and our internet service has not been working well here. I have tried to blog several times, but have gotten kicked off and not been able to complete the postings. I am going to try and publish this and hope to get more posted soon. It may be a bit out of order for awhile as I have a lot of time to cover! I hope it works!

2007-06-03T17:15:00.000-07:00

We have not had great internet service recently, so I have not had a chance to report! Lots to catch up!

We had a great time at the Indy 500! We were with a group from Camping World and were located in a lot just across from the Speedway with lots of mega motor homes. (No amenities, electricity or water but location was everything.) It was a fun 3 days that included a dinner. We met people from all over. There was lots of celebrating! . The stadium was incredible - you could see grandstands full of people a mile away. The place is not fancy - even the best seats are all hard aluminum benches. They really pack in the 250,000 people. It rained ard in the morning, but stopped in time to dry the track before the start of the race. We sat between the 1st and 2nd turns and there was a lot of action there. It was really interesting to see the safety crews tend to the driver, car, and track after the 5 minor accidents that happened right near us. The noise is awesome -everyone wears ear protection! It rained again after 112 laps and we were able to escape easily to the motor home. Many did go home as there was no cover and it rained hard. Two hours later the race resumed and we walked across the street and saw about 50 more laps before the final rainstorm ended the day. It was to great to be located right there and not to fight the traffic and rainstorms.

Indianapolis is a nice city with some huge monuments and nice parks.

We went north into Michigan for 2 days to recover, do laundry, shop and plan for the next few weeks which will be touring in Michigan and the Great Lakes.

The roads have been very bad lately. It is obvious that hard winters and hot summers have caused numerous chuck holes and heat bumps. Some are very serious and there is no warning. We actually saw a cres on a mojor freeway with no warning signs at all. They had a truck on the shoulder and two guys were throwing shovelfuls of asphalt in the holes between cars going by at full speed.

There are lots of things that we would not see in our area: no helmets for motorcycles or bikes, pickup trucks full of people, unrestrained kids in cars, swimming pools that are not fenced, and workers without safety glasses.

We moved east to the Detroit area. Visited Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan - a huge campus. Detroit is a city in big trouble. There are some positives in the downtown area but it appears that there is not enough prosperity to solve the problems in the surrounding areas. There are nice new condos 2 blocks from the new downtown baseball park that start at $140,000 and don't seem to be selling. The areas surrounding downtown are just bad. There is no attempt at tourism - no tours or anything. Also the local CBS station does not even have news at 11:00. We have not seen a town anywhere that did not have all 3 network news at 11:00!

Drove around the Saginaw Bay area - they call it the "Thumb" and if you look at the map you can understand why. It is largely farmland. The coast has some interesting small towns, but it is really not too well developed for tourists. Each town has several beautiful old buildings, ornate churches and a street of wonderful old houses. We went wading in Lake Huron. It is about 58 degrees and smells and looks like the ocean.

We drove up the Lake Huron coast to Alpena. There are houses and small tourist cottages along the way and modest tourist facilities. All of the houses have signs with cutesy names (Nick's Nook") and lots of yard art and vignettes. We have seen a great deal of yard art in the midwest states - deer, madonnas, cowboy silhouettes, scarecrows and everything else that you can imagine. It must be a kind of "keeping up with the Jones" type of thing here on this coast!

2007-05-22T08:19:00.000-07:00

The town of Crothersville!

2007-05-22T07:47:00.001-07:00

We are now in Indianapolis across the street from the speedway with a group from Camping World. We are rather packed in with lots of huge, fabulous motorhomes from all over the country. There are events for 3 days. Today was a practice day at the speedway. About 60,000 came today for a race, vintage indy cars, Kid Rock concert, autographs, pit stop competition and lots of displays and other fun events. It was interesting to tour the huge track - something that will not be possible Sunday when 250,000 people are there. The track is gigantic, but not plush. All of the seats are aluminum flat benches. Not being big racing fans, a lot of the happenings are new to us and steeped in tradition. We are learning.

2007-05-22T07:47:00.000-07:00

Visited the town of Crothersville, Indiana yesterday! It is a town of about 1600 in a farm area. Drove all the streets and went to the library to see what info we could find! There was very little. Could not find anything about the origin other than the date it was started as the town of Retreat (1854) and the date the name was changed to Crothersville (1857). The librarian had 4 large books about the county history, but we found almost nothing about why the name was changed and about who or what was the inspiration for the change. Will have do do more research at home. There does not seem to be any active historical group or interested people in the area.

Went to an art fair in "Butchertown" Louisville - a very old area of the town. The town is full of modest very narrow houses (12 to 18 feet wide) as they were taxed by the frontage on the street in the early days. The lots are also small. There are very few "multiple" dwellings here - virtually all small single family.

Red trucks are popular here. Sort of like white trucks in our area. About 60% are red.

We saw fireflys in our campground at Charleston State Park!

Barge traffic on the Ohio river is fun to watch. There are locks and turns!

2007-05-19T18:06:00.000-07:00

Forgot to mention that while in Bowling Green we went to the GM Corvette and Cadillac sports car assembly plant. It was a great tour where you are on the floor with the assembly line and the workers. Fascinating to see the robots and the assembly from nothing to driving the car off the end of the line.

Bob toured the Mammoth Cave where there is over 300 miles of underground tunnels. He did not walk the whole length.

We are now at the Charlestown State Park in Indiana. It is on the Ohio River and just north of Louisville, Ky. We have been dancing back and forth between 3 states and 2 time zones. Hard to figure out what time it is and hard to know which time zone the TV shows we want to watch originate from.

Been touring around the Louisville area. Madison, Indianna is a small town that we found especially interesting. It's a very old river town and even today it only has local roads to it - no McDonalds, etc. The buildings are all 2-3 stories and extremely ornate. The beautiful countryside around Louisville has numerous fabulous horse breeding ranches. Louisville is a nice city.

We are pleased to see that Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana are much cleaner than the states further south. Its nice not to see so much trash! The towns and rural areas are tidy and we seldom see any abandoned houses.

2007-05-15T18:05:00.000-07:00

Linda and friend in Nashville.

2007-05-15T17:26:00.000-07:00

Today we toured Nashville which is 80 miles from where we are staying at the Mammoth Caves National Park. The Kentucky and Tennessee countryside on the way is very nice - those rolling green hills and lots of trees and flowers. Nashville is nice. We took an antique trolley ride to see the major attractions. Of course music is prominent here. It is interesting that the recording studio area is part old restored "homes" and part newer small buildings. It has a very small town feel. There are some "expected" touches - like the guitar shaped swimming pool at the hotel where Elvis used to stay when he came to record. We expected that we might have trouble understanding a tour guide with a heavy southern accent, but ended up with a fellow from New York with a strong Brooklyn accent! He had lived in Nashville for some time and did a good job, but he has not lost his accent.

A few recent observations:

1. We have seen several groups of prisoners doing work in the parks and picking up trash on the highways. Some even had black and white stripe clothes. Others wore orange or gold suits.

2. A common yard decoration is plastic deer - from one to small herds. It seems to be the mid south version of the Florida pink flamingo which is still alive down there.

3. Once we got away from Florida and the Gulf coast the "for sale" signs have declined to a normal level.

4. We have seen more Mexican people than we expected. Like our area, they are prominent in construction and yard maintenance.

2007-05-12T18:21:00.000-07:00

Along the Blue Ridge Parkway

2007-05-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

We drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway and are now in Kentucky in the Daniel Boone National Forrest. Finally found a train trip that worked for us. It was the Big South Fork Scenic Railway. The trip was into timber and coal country and along a beautiful river gorge.

The following are some interesting observations along the way:

1. It is surprising to us that we have not seen many black people in Tennessee and Kentucky.

2. There are a lot of "good old boys" and more Ford trucks than in Seattle.

3. A local high school mascot is the Redhounds.

4. People set up sort of "garage sales" out of their cars on the street corners complete with tables, etc.

5. Many stores set their merchandise outside by the road. There will be a gift/florist shop that has 20-30 arrangements (artificial) outside.

6. We continue to see "birthplace" signs. The latest was Lee Majors in Middleboro, Ky.

7. There are "Dollar stores" everywhere.

8. There are still so many Baptist Churches! We are starting to try to predict how many of them we will see between destinations.

On the way home today we drove through Corbin, Ky - home of the original Col Sanders KFC. There is a Sanders restaurant/museum there along with the current KFC fare.

We find that we generally like Tennessee and northern Mississippi. Have not seen much of Kentucky, yet.

We were tired of constantly searching for good radio stations and purchased XM Satellite Radio. Seems to be pretty good.

2007-05-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

We traveled through some really beautiful country today to Davey Crocket's Birthplace State Park in Tennessee. Contrary to the song, he was not "born on a mountain top in Tennessee". He was born in a magnificent valley on the shore of the Nolichucky river where we are camped for 2 days. Gorgeous! This area is wonderful with many upscale "normal" houses with lots of property.

The "National Ancient Brick" museum is in this area - proving yet again that there is a museum dedicated to everything.

It is interesting that the Smoky Mountain area has the most diverse collection of flora on the planet! It is beautiful and changes in each season. The Fall must be spectacular! We have seen so many new (to us) birds and also saw a huge majestic Golden Eagle. The monarch butterflies are beautiful.

2007-05-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

Great Smoky Mountain National Park
River in the National Park

2007-05-08T18:49:00.000-07:00

We have been driving around the Great Smoky Mountain National Park for the last 2 days. It is a huge and beautiful area with rivers, and what we would call foothills. There are no snow capped peaks in the distance like mountain parks in the West. It is still beautiful and we have really enjoyed the meandering rivers, waterfalls and trees. There is an abundant wild rhododendron that is not in bloom yet. This is the most visited National Park in the country and we can see why as it is so big and so unique in the East and South. We never did see any bears, but have seen lots of turkeys, birds and butterflies. We have been on some interesting roads - gravel, curves and hills!

Found a really wonderful Christmas Shop in Pigeon Forge. It was a surprise as this is such a hillbilly country and rather tacky area. It was by far the classiest Christmas Shop I have seen in the South. The Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area is themed a lot on Dolly and Elvis. However there are also upscale areas and shops and the towns are well designed for tourist needs. We have had some great meals out! There are a lot of big money houses in the Tennessee hills.

Drove around nearby Knoxville, a nice town. It was a beautiful day with low humidity and we had a nice lunch on a veranda overlooking the Tennessee River.

2007-05-05T19:39:00.000-07:00

Plantation mansion near Natchez.

2007-05-05T19:34:00.000-07:00

Hooray a picture! This is one of the beautiful plantation mansions near Natchez.

We have been driving along the Mississippi and Alabama borders heading toward Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee. The terrain has gotten more hilly and we actually got up to 1300 foot altitude as we traveled up the west side of the Appalachians. There is a beautiful dark red plant carpeting the side of the freeway that is called Crimson Clover. We are seeing interesting road kill - armadillos, turtles, possum, snakes etc. We actually saw a place called "The Road Kill Grill". We kept driving! We took the Ocoee Scenic Byway on the edge of the Cherokee National Forrest. Stopped at the location of the 1996 Olympic kayaking competition. This area is under the supervision of the Tennessee Valley Authority that was able to control the water flow to benefit the competition. Also passed the National Bird Dog Hall of Fame Museum! (We have seen museums for just about everything!) Also passed preparations on the Tennessee River for a Bass Masters Tournament at Guntersville this weekend. The fishermen were gathering and there were lots of fabulous bass boats. Stayed at a beautiful Forrest Service park. Woke up the next morning to rain, among the trees and next to the river - it felt like the Northwest. Drove along the edge of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park heading toward a specific campground that happened to be closed. Since it has rained there is so much fog that we could not see the views. We assume that's why its called "Smoky" mountains. Hopefully it will clear some tomorrow. We ended up in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee near the Park. The home of "Dollywood". It is quite the tourist trap with a "strip" area that is a mini Las Vegas country style. Our RV resort is near the strip, but very remote with horses next door.

We have a water line break that will need attention tomorrow.

2007-05-05T18:45:00.000-07:00

Boats along the Mississippi.

2007-05-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

Headed up the Nachez Trace from Vicksburg. Jackson, Mississippi had the worst roads that we have seen and was not a great town. Stopped at Kosciusko and discovered that it was Opera's birthplace. On to Tupelo which happened to be Elvis' birthplace. Tupelo is one of the nicer Southern towns that we have been in. We headed toward Memphis and traveled through lots of green hills and swamps. The Mississippi river delta area is largely farmland. We have spent 5 days in Tunica, just south of Memphis, Tennessee. It's a sort of less hectic Las Vegas area with about 6 large casino complexes that are very spread out. The weather has been beautiful and we have enjoyed relaxing and sight seeing. We don't gamble much, but did manage to attend a great seafood buffet.

We spent a day in Memphis. They call this area the mid-south. We liked Memphis a lot. Rode an antique Trolley Car around the town and waterfront. Met an 87 year old delightful lady who had been a singer with the big bands years ago. She married a drummer and had a great 57 year marriage. She works for fun as an usher at the Fed Ex Forum stadium - a job that she got when she was 80! Walked along Beale St. an area noted for Blues music. B. B. King's club anchors the area. There are "notes" in the sidewalk (like stars in Hollywood) with the names of blues music greats. We did not know too many! The stores all had bar-b-cue, beer, ribs and Elvis memorabilia. Memphis was pretty clean. Trash continues to be a huge problem throughout the South. Those plastic grocery bags (they don't offer paper) and beer cans are the most common offenders.

We crossed the Mississippi River at two locations for short trips into Arkansas. What we saw looked pretty grim. In general it seems like Mississippi is in better shape than Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas.

We did drive by Graceland. It's a beautiful mansion with nice grounds. We decided not to go inside and see the 60s and 70s decorating! Have seen many pictures. Elvis' cars and planes were visible. There is a gift shop that claims to sell upscale Elvis memorabilia - not sure what that would be!

2007-04-25T18:16:00.000-07:00

Spent some time in Vicksburg, Miss. It is on the Mississippi River and was the location of an important battle in the Civil War because it involved control of the river that was important to the North. The Confederates resisted the siege for 46 days before surrendering to Grant. There is a 16 mile one way road that winds through the difficult terrain and chronicles the long battle. It is beautifully done with great information and HUNDREDS of monuments to the various groups and officers of the approximately 90,000 men who fought.

Vicksburg is another really old city with many buildings from the 1700s and plantations in the area. It is now also the home to 4 large casino complexes. We could not help but laugh, in view of the recent news events, when we passed the "Nappy Roots Styling Salon"!

There are some interesting "houses" down near the shores of the river. They are sort of trailers that are up on scafoldings about 30 feet in the air. Obviously they are expecting high water. We have seen the high water marks on the sea wall. The highest was from 1923 and was 56 feet. Actually, it said it would have been 56 feet if the levy had held!

We have had some serious rain today and were under another tornado watch. We positioned ourselves well and have had no problems. Computer helpful again!

2007-04-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

Today we drove part way up the Nachez Trace which is a "road" that was used starting in the 1700s. Goods would come down the Mississippi River from Nashville to Nachez. Then people followed the Trace north to Nashville to get another load (mostly salt) since they could not get the rafts upstream. It went on for many years.

We see barge groupings being pushed up the river. We counted one group of 28 barges that were fastened together all being pushed by one huge tug with 3 stacks. Its quite amazing! And by the way, the Mississippi really is muddy.

Things are quite "loose" in the South. Here are some random illustrations:
1. The well dressed man next to us at the Sonic drive in with his nice family was drinking a Coors Light.
2. Have seen many kids not in their car seats and even groups in the back of pickup trucks.
3. Cars don't have front license plates and many don't have ones on the back either.
4. "Open" or "closed" signs mean nothing.
5. Signage beyond the interstate or major highways is hit or miss.
6. Building codes are ignored - anything goes.

Some fun observations:
1. Almost bought a book that was at a Plantation gift shop named, "If Lillibeth does not catch the Bouquet, Someone will Die - A Southern Woman's Guide to the Perfect Wedding."
2. Our cousin Jim alerted us to this and we have found it to be true - the Bass Boat will be in the garage and the pickup truck will be parked outside.
3. The restaurant names seem to be opposite of the quality of the food - The "Magnolia Grill" was not good but "Fat Mamas" and "Slough Daddy's" were great. We did see "Wilderman's Den of Sin" but we decided to pass!
4. Many older men sitting on their porch wave at us.

Some thoughts about motor home living:
1. We sleep really good. We are getting more sleep than we have in years.
2. Water quality is a real concern. We refill gallon containers for drinking water, but sometimes have trouble locating the refill machines with the proper filtration.
3. Laundry is a bit of a problem. The quality of the machines available varies. At least the motorhome parks in the south have facilities - many in the north had no laundries.
4. We are glad that our TV works most of the time and are thankful when the internet is not too slow.

2007-04-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

Our current location is the Riverview RV Resort in Vidalia, Louisiana - just across the Mississippi River from Nachez, Mississippi. Its a lovely park and we do have a great view of the barges and boats on the river. The pool is nice, too.

Driving through Miss was very much like Southern Oregon - rolling hills and green. It is still very much like most of the South. There will be some normal wonderful houses with beautiful large yards and grand old trees, then there will be a hovel nextdoor. More nice houses, a trailer, an abandoned house, then a Baptist Church!

Made a stop along the way in Hattisburg to drop some money at the Ford Dealer to fix electrical problems involving the lights and turn indicators.

Nachez is the oldest town on the Mississippi circa 1715. Many buildings are from the 17oos and the 1800s. There is a French and Spanish influence that is not seen in the really old towns in the North that are Colonial or Brittish. There are many "plantations" in the area from when cotton was king! There are numerous really old normal size homes. Many are beautifully kept, but there are many that need a lot of TLC and money.

We had a great meal of catfish and crawfish at the Slough Daddy River Grill. It was my birthday celebration. It was great to get phone calls from the kids and many emails. Garrett sang "Happy Birthday" all by himself and is getting good at singing! We do miss those grandchildren.

2007-04-18T17:42:00.000-07:00

We are now near Mobile, AL. Mobile itself is nothing special. We have explored the coastal areas on the East side of Mobile Bay and there are many charming communities. The beaches all have beautiful white sand. The sand is made of quartz from the Apalachan Mountains and are tiny oval grains. There are many great places for tourists. Pensacola has a very nice downtown with an interesting unique style. The new areas are very much set up like Redmond Town Center with living areas and work places integrated. Again, everything is for sale.

We had a wonderful seafood dinner at a restaurant near Mobile. We were on an island on the bay about 20 feet above the water. We saw an alligator go swimming by! Our waiter, Chris, told us about his hurricane experience. The water came up about 6 feet in the restaurant. He and wife lived in an apartment in Mobile. They were without power for 2 1/2 weeks. There was a curfew to prevent looting and he said the 2 weeks without air conditioning and not being able to go out was a miserable time!

Today we drove West toward New Orleans along the coast. Went through Biloxi and Gulfport. It was especially interesting to us as we had stayed in that area 14 years ago. It is terrible what the hurricanes did. We remembered the wonderful beachfront houses in Biloxi that were probably built starting in 1890 through about 1940. They had roomy yards and were just accross the road from the beautiful beach. Obviously, many had been there for years. Sadly they are virtually all gone! There are some foundations still there and an occasional remnant of a brick wall. The devistation goes back 1-2 blocks from the shore. There is very little rebuilding. It goes on for miles along the shore. It is going to take years for this area to recover. There are a few casinos that are trying, but the whole coast is still about 90% vacant! It looks like they are going to have beachfront high rises, but there are not many of them either. It is sad to see many businesses where the building is gone, but somehow the battered signs remained. We are not going any farther West on the gulf coast - too depressing.

We are going to head North now along the historic Natchez Trace Parkway to Nashville.

2007-04-14T15:48:00.000-07:00

We are in the Florida panhandle near DeFuniak Springs waiting for a major storm system to pass through! There is a tornado watch. It looks like the worst will be north of us, but we are paying attention. Our storm alert radio is on and we are watching the Dopler! Its raining.

Spent several days driving around the panhandle gulf area and saw many beautiful beaches and coastal scenes. The azaleas are really outstanding and the magnolia trees are beginning to bloom. There are lots of pine forests here with very tall, skinny trees. We have seen pulp mills and some logging (Bob calls it "twigging" as the trees are so narrow).

The coastal areas definitely have a depressed housing market - everything is for sale. There are many gated housing areas that have beautiful entrances, streets in and not one house under construction! The storm threats, insurance companies leaving and "global warming" are taking their toll. Should you want to move to Florida, you would be able to have your pick and pay very little.

We have driven up into Alabama and find the more hilly terrain very comfortable. The area is not as poor as rural Georgia. We decided to go to the Boll Wevil monument in Alabama - it seemed a good example of "Americana". We found ourselves in the city of Enterprise and all of a sudden noticed significant damage. Then it dawned on us that this was the town that had the tragic tornado recently that hit the local high school and killed several. The neighborhood around the school is full of brick ramblers and is a nice area. Many of the houses have significant damage and about a dozen have already been dozed away. There are piles of matching bricks around that may be waiting for new homes. The school complex has a lot of damage to the elementary, Jr. High, sports stadium, and part of the High School is just missing. It is very sobering to see such devistation. It is fenced off with guards while decisions are made if anything can be saved.

On a cheerier note, we enjoyed driving around on Easter. We saw so many families together in their best Spring clothes. We expected to see the ladies and girls all dressed up - and we sure did. The surprising thing was how dressed up the men were. Many had white or pastel suits. We even saw a bright turquoise suit!

2007-04-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

Spent 4 days in the Charleston SC area and we think this is our favorite southern town! It was such an important town in the early years as it is a great sheltered port. Ft. Sumter, where the civil war began, is on a man made island in the middle of the port entrance. You take a boat ride to get there and it was a beautiful and interesting morning. The numerous historic houses extend far beyond the downtown historic area. Most are in good shape as the city is prosperous. Property values are higher than most southern towns. They have had the same mayor for 31 years and it appears that a stable government has nurtured a good business environment and planning for the city. The tourist facilities are good, parks beautiful and functional and the citizens really take great pride in their city. There are some wonderful plantations in the surrounding area. One was a "Tea" plantation from the 1700s. There are also beautiful coastal island communities with small historic homes and wonderful beaches. (We liked this area and have to occasionally remind ourselves that a large wave would be devastating!)

Awhile back we visited a huge Nascar store. It is clear that Nascar is popular and the "signature" items are extremely expensive! Baseball hats were $29.00 and up.

We lost a rear tire on the Saturn while towing on the freeway. I am afraid we were responsible for some tire litter by the time we realized what had happened! At least the rim was OK.

We are on the way to the Carrabelle Palms area on the gulf coast below Tallahassee. We are having a couple of travel days and are staying at the Wall Mart tonight waiting for the Easter Bunny. For those of you who don't know, Wall Mart allows motor homes to overnight in their parking lots. We do this occasionally when we are on the move as the lots are lighted and patrolled. There are usually 2-3 large rigs parked on the perimeter of the lots. I am sure many do some shopping while there, also.

It has surprised us that we have not been able to find any "hot cross buns" this week before Easter in this area. We have been to several large stores and small bakeries. OK east coast friends, are these buns just a west coast thing? (Our QFC has some great ones!)

2007-04-04T17:34:00.000-07:00

We spent several days at the Savannah Oaks RV Resort which lived up to its name with lots of live oaks draped in spanish moss. The pool was not open yet (the second time this has happened). The lady said in a very sweet southern drawl, "It's just too cold yet." It was 84 that day!

Saw lots of alligators at the Okefenoke Swamp! Got a great picture of one right next to the car with his mouth open. We stayed in the car. (someday we hope to post more pictures - there are some problems having to do with the slow internet service on the road)

Had a fun day at the Folkston Funnel. About 60 trains pass there each day. There are north and south bound tracks and a Y nearby. They have built a small reviewing stand with fans, information and speakers so you can hear the control talking to the trains. There were a lot of "train guys" there. We were minor celebrities since we came from an area with lots of mountains, trestles and the 7 mile Cascade Tunnel! Its so flat here that most trains just have 2 engines that don,t have to work too hard.

Savannah is the Old South at its most beautiful. The city is built around 23 "squares" in the historic residential area that have monuments, fountains and wonderful trees. The houses are beautiful and individual and have more space between them then many historic areas. There are numerous interesting stories about such houses with their long history. The house occupied by Kevin Spacey's character in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" is a beautiful red brick. We had a great meal of southern fried chicken, collard greens (they were great - I suspect bacon, butter and garlic) and hoppin john (black eyed peas, ham and rice). Savannah does have typical city problems - some areas are not so nice, traffic is bad, and too much trash. (Plastic bags are used in most grocery stores in the south and they are a huge trash problem.)

We also toured Hilton Head, the beaches, and other small historic towns. There are lots of marshes and waterways. Boats are everywhere. We love going over bridges as they provide the best views around.

One of the problems with traveling is getting a haircut. I have been lucky until now! I asked her to take off 2 months growth and she took off about 6 months growth! Hopefully it will grow soon!

2007-04-01T18:50:00.000-07:00

2007-03-26T19:33:00.000-07:00

Historical hotel on Jekyll Island and information about the early millionaires who
lived on the island.

2007-03-26T17:12:00.000-07:00

We are now in Georgia just above Jacksonville, Fl. Jacksonville is a nice town that is clean and prosperous. It is pretty with lots of water access to homes and good use of the river, intercoastal waterway and other water areas.

Our GA motorhome park is on "Old Still Road" and it looks like an area were there could be an old still. We are near a scenic drive on the coast from here to Savannah. We visited Jekyll
Island which was originally built up with "cottages" owned by the very rich around the early 1900s. There are still some of the buildings that are being used as art centers and libraries, etc. There are some fine old hotels and the whole place is historic and quite charming.

Now that we are out of Florida we have some random impressions that we will share!

1. It is very flat! The "Terrace Hill Apartments" are at an elevation of 12 feet!

2. Everything is very green. Lots of palm trees, pine trees, low green shrubs, etc. However, there has not been as many flowers as we thought we would see. We are told it is hard to maintain them in the hot summers so most homeowners don't bother. There is a dark pink azalea that is in bloom now and is quite spectacular.

3. There is a definite difference in "class" in the motorhome parks. The price of the park or the quality of the surrounding area is not necessarily a clue to the class of the park. We really can't tell ahead of time when we are making advance reservations. We stayed in about 7 Florida parks and saw quite a variation. The worst park had lots of aging ladies with various tatoos - not a good thing! However, people were friendly everywhere once we said hello to them, and we have been generally pleased with most parks.

4. There is a lot of housing and property for sale. Probably due to the hurricanes and the fact that many insurance companies are trying to leave the area. Should you want to move here, you could do so for very little!

5. Things in general are low priced here. Groceries, restaurants, clothes and things at Home Depot seem to all be less.

6. The mild weather we have had has been very enjoyable. Swimming, bike riding and visiting the beach is very nice. (Although we have been surprised at the lack of actual bike trails. The flat terraine does make biking easy in areas away from traffic!)

The rural GA areas have many abandoned houses and small buildings. There are abandoned factories and the surrounding towns are dying. (It appears that environmental concerns and wages have led many businesses to go elswhere.) The coastal areas that depend on tourists are in better shape.

2007-03-22T17:20:00.000-07:00

2007-03-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

The Daytona Beach area is like a lot of Florida - some really beautiful areas and some low areas. The intercoastal waterway is always interesting and with the Indian River and the Halifax River there is some awsome scenery, beautiful homes and miles of beaches. It is still very flat so you really can't see a great distance. We have seen countles birds and pelicans and a few alligators. Went on a history cruise of the New Smyrna Beach area and enjoyed the warm and beautiful day. We have been bike riding on the beach. It seems odd that the sun does not set over the Atlantic. The beaches don't seem to have as much stuff (kelp, shells, drift, etc.) as we are used to on the West Coast. The sand seems to be more of ground up shells and often has a pink tone.

We just missed "Biker Week" - thank goodness. It appears to be near the scale of biking in Sturgis, S.D. Obviously biking is very big here as there are many businesses with names like "Kick Start Cafe", "Biker Bar" and "Biker's Tatoo Works". We saw a sign for the "Hot Throttle Divas" motorcycle club - just 1 of many such groups. There is lots of black leather clothes and aging guys with gray ponytails.

Daytona International Speedway is gigantic and impressive! We have nothing of this scale on the West Coast - they hold nearly 200,000 people.

2007-03-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

We are back in Florida after a month at home. It was a busy and fun time and special to spend so much time with the grandsons and new baby. We also managed to see some good friends and other family.

Kinsey Lee arrived on February 13 and weighed 8 lb, 10 oz. She has lots of dark hair and dark blue eyes. Carlee came through the C section well. Cody, Garrett and Parker are all excited to welcome a girl. I was at home with the boys helping Cody and Bob did lots of errands and runs to pre-school, etc. When Carlee and the baby came home, Bob moved to Jean and Marks where it was quieter at night and the food was better! The baby is quite good natured and managed to sleep 3-4 hour stretches right from the start. She is especially good at night going right back to sleep after the 3:00 am feeding. This allowed Carlee to get some sleep and recover quickly. She really recovered faster than she had from the 2 previous C section births. It's a busy household with the two little boys and Cody's unusual schedule which includes a second job. Cody took some time off for the birth and he is taking some more time off after I left. The Kirkland PD is quite family oriented and generous with the time off for a birth.

We rested for 2 days when we got back to Florida. I was quite tired and needed the relaxation time! It was good to get back to swimming and warm weather. We are in Daytona Beach and will be exploring here for a week!

2007-02-07T17:11:00.000-08:00

We have recovered from our "tornado" trama! Wish we had taken a picture of the radar on the computer screen, but that was not a priority at the time. Things have settled down and after a couple of days of colder temps, things are back to the normal - 70s and sun. The local weather guru predicts that because of el nino, there will be more severe weather this winter.

Stopped by the Police Hall of Fame and Museum yesterday. There were interesting displays of early police equipment, criminals, forensics, a shooting range and and impressive amount of weapons.

Visited the Kennedy Space Center today! Very well done. One display that we found especially interesting was about the moon landing. In August of 1969 we were attending the Atomic Cup hydroplane race in the tri-cities. The landing came during the race and the thousands of people watching the races were very excited and there was great cheering and celebrating. That evening, we were driving home across White Pass glued to our radio waiting for the first step on the moon. Radio reception was a bit sketchy so we stopped along the way where we had good reception to hear the actual first step. It was fun to relive all of that with the newsmen and reports of the day that we had largely missed. It was a special time when our country was united in our pursuit of this goal.

On Friday we take the motor home to storage and fly home on Saturday! We are excited to see everyone at home and are anxiously awaiting the birth on Tues morning, the 13th. Carlee is ready, too! We are especially looking forward to seeing Garrett, Parker, Carlee and Cody; Aunt Mary; Jean and Mark in their new home; and Nancy at the office.

2007-02-02T15:38:00.000-08:00

When we went to bed last night, the warnings about storms in the area were getting quite serious. Bob fired up the radar on the computer to keep watch. He got up in the night and saw that there were numerous tornados heading our way. You are kind of at a disadvantage not being familiar with the county names and all of the local towns and communities. They first issue a "tornado watch" then a "tornado warning" and finally a "take cover"! Our area was clearly in a "tornado watch". It was interesting to follow all of this on the computer, but quite frightening as we are in a very vulnerable home. Tornados can form quickly and are not as predictible as hurricanes. If it came to "take cover" our options were limited! Bob decided that a 40 mile drive would get us out of harms way. So we packed up quickly and headed south at 5am. We stopped at that distance as there was another cell forming and another "tornado watch" just south of there! We waited out the rain storm, had a nice breakfast out, then headed back. Things are not too bad when you have your own little house with you!

The TV and radio have been covering the story all day. Tornados are nothing to take a chance with. A church that was demolished today was built recently to withstand hurricane winds of 150 plus! We are glad to be relaxing this afternoon and that the weather forcast is good!!

2007-02-01T07:31:00.000-08:00

We have arrived in Titusville, FL - adjacent to Cape Canaveral on the "space coast". Driving across the state we actually got to about 150 feet elevation. Thats one thing that is very different about Florida, there are no hills in the distance. The best views are from the freeway overpasses. We find that strange!

Our current park is really beautiful. It is part of a golf course community and has wonderful facilities and lakes and fountains, etc. The instructions say not to swim in the lakes. A couple of sentences later it says "please don't feed the alligators that occasionally visit the lakes". I will be sticking to the pool! We have not yet seen an alligator but hope to sometime down here. We have seen many exotic birds including pelicans, herons and snowy egrets. We have also seen manatees in the inland waters.

There are definitely lots of people in Florida. There are countless housing development areas. In the nice beach areas much of the property is privately owned.

There are far too many toll roads as far as we are concerned!

Restaurants are busy and the large retirement crowd has late breakfasts and early dinners! A local IHOP and the patrons were robbed the other morning by 4 people with tazers! You would think you were relatively safe eating in an IHOP!

After a little rain overnight it is sunny and 75. There are thunderstorms predicted for tonight. The natives think it is pretty cold, be we think it is fine! I am on my way to swim and will probably be the only person in the pool.

2007-01-27T17:48:00.000-08:00

We have moved to Fort Myers, south of Tampa on the gulf coast. This particular
motorhome park is not the best, but the area is very nice. It is difficult to get reservations this time of year as it is peak season. We have managed OK and plan to move each week so we can get to know various areas. The beaches are nice here and also not crowded. There are lots of good restaurants!

"The Great Grouper Scandal" in this area is quite funny. (Grouper is a really good white fish that is quite popular in this area.) Recently, one of the local news agencies took samples from many of the local restaurants and had DNA tests run on them. It seems about 15% were inferior less expensive fish. We are pretty sure that the grouper we have had this week is the real thing!

The people here continue to be very nice. Again, we are the only ones from WA. There are not too many of the "Seinfeld" and "Costanza" types, but there are a few! There are accents from Maine, Kentucky, Tennessee, Quebec, New Jersey and others.

We went on a airboat ride today that was really fun! We cruised through mangrove tree inlets and grassland inlets bordering Everglades National Park. Loved the airboat. If you did not know the area you could get lost for years!

It has been a little colder here (65-70 days, 45 nights) and we find the weather reports humerous as they actually talk about the wind chill factor!

Visited nearby Naples which is a wonderful Florida town. Magnificent ocean front houses, lots of canal living and a quaint downtown shopping area that is one of the best we have ever seen. Numerous fabulous small restaurants, unique shops, decorating shops, small clothing shops and jewelry stores that rival Rodeo Drive, Palm Springs or 5th Avenue!

2007-01-20T07:43:00.000-08:00

We are enjoying the beautiful weather in Port Richey, FL (68-80 days, 55-65 nights). We follow reports from home and the rest of the country and understand why so many people come here in winter! I swim every day and we have visited many gulf coast beaches. The beaches are not very crowded and some are deserted! The locals think its a little chilly! We have watched the sunset from 4 different locations. It is nice to see the sun setting over the Gulf to the west! It seems much more familiar than the Atlantic coast where the sun sets in the "wrong" direction.

The people we have encountered are delightful. Many from Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minesota, and Michigan. We are the only ones from the West coast in this park of about 300. You can get quite involved in the park social life if you want to. Our next door neighbor is the "block captain" and hosts a happy hour from 4-5 daily. You bring your own drink of choice, a chair, and everyone leaves promptly at 5 - easy and fun. We have attended when we are here at that time and enoyed. There are sports and cultural activities for all tastes and there was an "Elvis impersonator" the other night.

One real problem is the water. It is bad. We buy filtered drinking water. Fortunately, there are little kiosk stands in shopping center parking lots where you can fill gallon containers for 25 cents. The coffee in restaurants is not good and I now drink very STRONG tea to mask the bad taste!

Explored St. Petersburg and found it a clean, uncrowded and nice area. There was actually a lot of parking available in the downtown area which appeared prosperous and tidy.

Many towns are honeycombed with water finger canals (like Newport Shores). Millions of boats! Nice areas have wide canals and more modest areas have narrow canals. There is water access to rivers, the gulf, the intercoastal waterway, or the bay everywhere. The terrain is quite flat and we have hardly been over 25 feet above sea level in some time. A serious sunami or hurricane would be devistating. People around here had to evacuate 3 times 2 years ago!

We have been eating out a fair amount as we are often on the go and prices are very reasonable. It seems interesting that the hostesses in restaurants are not very good, however the waiters are excellent!

2007-01-13T15:42:00.000-08:00

We are now in Florida at Port Richey - near Tampa on the Gulf Coast.

Had some trouble on the way down. The motorhome engine - triton V-10 - blew a spark plug out of the head. This is apparently a problem with all Ford triton engines! We are grateful for our Good Sam towing coverage, and there was a Ford dealer about 10 miles away. We could barely keep up as we followed the tow truck towing the motorhome at 80MPH! Camped at the dealership (they gave us a key to the yard) and left the next day after leaving some $.

We are in a great park - very friendly people! We are close to the shore and the sun sets over the ocean, just like it should. Sand is white with lots of small shells and the water is about 65 degrees. We are near highway 19 which is like an 8 lane Aurora. The East Coast has little zoning so you will see every type of property along the highway. There will be a church, Home Depot, Personal Injury Lawers office, Pre School, Gas Station, Adult shop, restaurant, etc. Florida has a wonderfully tacky side to it, but it also has the great weather, beaches, palm trees, flowers and relaxed atmosphere. There are lots of families around among the Seniors. It seems that most everyone is from somewhere else and we are somewhat rare being from Seattle. It does seem like a small world sometimes as we met a man yesterday who lived for 2 years at Villa Marina and another who has a son living in Kirkland.

We are relaxing alot and will stay here for about 2 weeks. It has been nice to catch up on everyday chores like laundry and cleaning and some bookwork and computer work. Everything is a little harder in the confines of the motorhome, but we are still having fun together! (We will celebrate our 41st anniversary Monday.) The slowness of the computer and the tiny bathroom are the main concerns!

We have just realized that we will be near Miami in early Feb and if luck holds for the Seahawks we might have to try and get Superbowl tickets!

2007-01-08T12:35:00.000-08:00

Toured Macon. It has more historic property than any city. There are many fine old homes and some have been kept up beautifully, however it is obvious that there is not enough $ to keep everything spiffy. This is a town that has suffered the decline of tobacco and needs new industry. Property is cheap. We have seen many examples of how towns decline after the business base leaves.

Wanted to mention a funny thing that happened at the Coca Cola Museum. There was an old ad featuring Ozzie Nelson. A boy about 12 asked his mom, "Who is that?" She answered, "Thats Ricky Nelson's dad." Then he asked, "Who is Ricky Nelson?" We felt a little old.

There are lots of pine tree planted areas. Many are owned by Weyerhouser (formerly from our area). Property is much cheaper here!

Visited Andersonville - the Confederate prison for the Union Soldiers, and National Cemetary. It's very sobering seeing rows of headstones touching each other over body filled trenches. Most have names since they felt it was desirable to let loved ones know and kept pretty good records. There are also many beautiful monuments from the various Union States.

"Georgia Red Clay" is very evident. Much of the dirt and ground has the red brick tone.

Central Georgia is really quite poor. Every small town has so many abandoned houses. Cotton, cows and peanuts seem to be the agricultural crops.

We also experienced our first "tornado watch". Nothing came of it and it did not pass very close to us. We did watch the weather on the computer to keep track. Just got a little rain!

Went to Plains, Jimmy Carter's hometown. It's pretty small, but not a bad little town.

We are now heading to Florida. Southern Georgia seems to be more prospeous.

2007-01-04T15:07:00.000-08:00

We spent both New Years Eve day and New Years Day touring Atlanta. Saw CNN, Turner, Brave Stadium (similar to Safeco Field), Georgia Dome, U of Georgia, Coca Cola Museum, Centennial Olympic Park, and many beautiful downtown buildings. Atlanta appears to be quite prosperous and urban renewel is doing well. Went to their spectacular Aquarium. Lots of people!

Driving in the South is interesting. They seem to use turning signals even less than in the West.
Freeway speeds are 55, but everyone drives 75! Freeways are wide and well marked. With 6 lane freeways and rapid transit, traffic is not bad. Peachtree Street, Road, Blvd, Circle, Lane, etc are everywhere! You have to pay attention!

There is an abundance of chicken franchise restaurants. KFC, Zaxby's, Churches, Popeyes, and Chick Fil A, are just a few that are common.

We are now in the Georgia rural countryside near Macon. This is an area with cotton and peanuts. It is a relatively poor area. There are many abandoned houses and derelict buildings. Weather is humid and buildings seem to deteriorate rapidly. Spanish moss covers things quickly! (Thats brown stringy moss, not green like Seattle moss.)

It is surprisingly hard to find good radio stations in the South. There are a lot of religious stations and country stations. Very few with good talk, news, pop, or oldies.

2006-12-29T18:28:00.000-08:00

Hi y,all! We have been in the Carolinas for a couple of weeks and are starting to talk funny! We don't care much for grits, but hush puppies are pretty good.

We took a day trip to the Agusta, GA area today and heard on the radio that Agusta was James Brown's hometown and the famous from the music world were all gathering there for his funeral tomorrow! We drove along the Savannah River and visited 2 dams. We got a little lost on the way home as it was dark and signs are hard to read. It also does not help that "home" keeps changing!

Yesterday we took a scenic drive along the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains in upstate SC. We were actually at elevations over 3,000 feet. They almost look like mountains. We were surprised to see many huge wild rhododendrons! They are plentiful in certain higher elevations in both the Carolinas and must be beautiful in the spring. The evergreen trees are mostly pines and there are many "stick" trees this time of year with mistletoe (it's a parasite) growing in clumps on the high branches. It was a clear sunny day and beautiful.

There are hundreds of Baptist Churches in this area! They are usually attractive red brick buildings with white trim and white spires and, of course, a graveyard.

Christmas decorations are everywhere. The traditional plain green wreath with a red bow at the top accounts for about 95% of the wreaths. They are very dramatic on all of the white houses. There is not much diversity in decorating styles and all of the variations we do at home are rare here.

2006-12-27T11:36:00.000-08:00

We have had a wonderful visit with cousins Arlane and Jim in North Carolina. Their son, Cameron wife Deb and teenage daughters Hannah and Rebecca are near and came for Christmas day along with Deb's mother Yvonne. We had a fun time and it was especially nice for us to be with family when our kids and grandsons are so far away! Teen girl presents (computer stuff, makeup, etc.) were fun to experience and different from the Cars items and toys that Santa brought Garrett and Parker! We did miss those two little faces and excitement on Christmas morning! It was hard not to be with Jean & Mark (finally in their new home) and Carlee & Cody. We missed Aunt Mary, brothers, sisters and cousins at home!

As usual, we have had some great meals with Arlane and Jim! We all went to the Snappy Lunch in Mount Aire (thats Mayberry) for pork chop sandwiches. It's next door to Floyds barber shop. We also hit the Lexington Bar B Cue that is famous and ALWAYS has a long wait!

Prices for food seem reasonable to us. Bob has gotten Sr. coffee at McDonalds for as low as 24 cents.

On the other end of the spectrum, we toured the Biltmore Estate. It's amazing!

It was hard to leave Arlane and Jim - we had such a special time and experienced the finest in southern hospitality!

We are now in Fair Play, SC on Lake Hartwell. We will enjoy the scenery here then head to Atlanta for the last of the Christmas lights. After one rainy day, it is again sunny and beautiful.

2006-12-21T18:49:00.000-08:00

The open house at Susan and Tods was a great event with about 100 people attending. The beautiful historic home was decorated with traditional decorations of wreaths, garlands, candles and an 18 foot tree! It was fun to help a bit and to meet so many new people from New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

We left our wonderful serene motorhome location at Susan and Tod's farm and headed south. We choose to bypass Baltimore and DC and meander through Delaware (very flat) and Virginia to Virginia Beach/Norfolk area. We crossed the Chessapeak Bay Bridge and tunnel - 17 miles long. That is something that has been on our list of must dos!

Virginia Beach is one of those towns that is VERY busy in the summer. They have a wonderful beach that has miles of a concrete "boardwalk" that is nicely done with artwork and great access. They have a Christmas light show for about 2 1/2 miles on the walk where they let cars drive down it at night. (For you Redmond people, it was similar to what was done at Marymoore Park a few years back.)

After 2 days at the beach we headed to cousin Arlane and Jims in Salisbury, North Carolina.

All of this travel was under sunny skis and reasonably warm weather! We have been so lucky with lots of sunshine and above normal temperatures. It appears we picked the right time to be gone from the Seattle area as Carlee, Cody and the boys were without power for 6 days after the big storm! Jean and Mark lost power in the new house for a few days just when they are trying to move in.

We spent the weekend with Arlane and Jim in Williamsburg, VA. The Christmas decorations were beautiful and we had several memorable meals! Traditional decorations are all natural and there were lots of green wreaths, garlands and red ribbons. They are accented with fruits, pods, pinecones and other natural items.

We also got to tag along at another wonderful holiday party. Arlane and Jim's friends Hank and Shirley have hosted a "Toys for Tots" party in concert with the local Marines for 13 years. They decorate their home and yard "bigtime" and this year received a community service award from a local TV station. There were about 400 people, 10 Marines, and by the end of the day a truckload of toys!

2006-12-08T12:27:00.000-08:00

2006-12-07T18:17:00.000-08:00

Our 2 weeks at home were a whirlwind. It was really great to see the children, grandchildren, Aunt Mary and several friends. Bob was busy working at Jean and Mark's house, Linda was working on the Festival of Trees and decorating. It was fun to do some baby girl layette shopping with Carlee and spend a lot of time with Garrett and Parker. We had planned to see more important people and do some errands the last 2 days, but the snow came and stopped all that. We did manage to go on a Christmas tree cutting excursion with family. Fortunately Cody got us to the airport fine and it was 70 degrees for a few days when we got back to New Jersey!

We did more sight seeing in the beautiful weather. The Delaware river (Washington crossed near here) is pretty. We have toured the Pennsylvania side of the river and the New Jersey side also. The Delaware and Raritan canal is interesting and there are countless small towns that are very old and beautiful.

Christmas decorations are springing up. Many houses have wreaths in every window and many have candle lights in every window. Garland swags with red bows are everywhere!

One of the problems of RVing in this part of the country is the lack of facilities open for dumping our tanks. The West coast is much more RV friendly. We had to drive 70 miles round trip to the only State Park that was open.

We had a fabulous day in New York City set up by our friend Susan. Visited her Madison Avenue office, had a wonderful lunch, a great walk of 5th Avenue stores like Tiffany's, hotels like the Waldorf Astoria and many famous locations. Saw the Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall and, yes, the Rockettes are really fabulous and precise! Had a great dinner at Cafe des Artistes and a drive around town to see the Christmas lights - beautiful. New York is friendly, interesting, hectic and has horrible traffic. To enjoy it, you need to stay right in town and pay the high prices at a hotel or have a driver that knows how to negotiate the style of driving!

Visited Valley Forge where Washington's army spent a long winter with almost no provisions.
Many died from disease and infection - it was before germs were understood.

We are staying at the farm through the weekend to attend Susan and Tod's annual holiday open house.

2006-11-13T09:50:00.000-08:00

Visited the Harley-Davidson factory in York, PA. It is a great tour where you actually walk around the plant and see the assembly line, the laser cutter, paint shop, etc. You have to wear safety glasses and go through security.

We also visited Gettysburg and toured the battlefields with a tape cassette for your car that allows you to proceed at your own speed - it is really well done. It is very moving as the fields of the 3 day siege are preserved and contain over 1,100 monuments to the regiments that fought on both sides of the battle.

As we drive around the Amish area you see beautiful neat farms, laundry hanging out on the lines, horse carts on the roads, farmers with horse drawn plows in the fields, and stores selling Amish furniture and other goods. It is all intermingled with what we consider more normal, but seems to work fine together.

We are now in Stockton, New Jersey visiting our friends Susan and Tod. They have a lovely country home with a core that dates from the 1600s. There is a red barn, pond and beautiful grounds. We are parked by the barn with a restful view of geese in the pond and visiting deer.
Had a lovely dinner at the Stockton Hotel. It was the inspiration for the song , "There's a Small Hotel, with a Wishing Well...." Susan and Tod have returned to New York and Washington DC for their respective jobs and will join us again, here at the end of November. We had a fun weekend together and are now enjoying this restful setting alone for a couple of days.

Wednesday we are flying home for 2 weeks. It's Festival of Trees time and decorating time for Linda, Bob is putting carpet in Mark and Jeans's new house, and we will have Thanksgiving with the family. Will come back to New Jersey on the 29th and spend a few more days enjoying the Christmas fun in New York and Philadelphia.

2006-11-07T10:52:00.000-08:00

2006-11-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

We are still in Pennsylvania. Spent several days at a park in Honesdale . Its in NE PA in the Pocono Mountain region. About the higest elevation we saw was only 1900 feet! The rolling hills are pretty with lots of brown/gold trees this time of year. The Poconos are a tourist resort area of another era. Lakes, small motels, cottages, and lots of diners. Coal and railroads were important in the early days. The whole area pretty much buttons up for the winter - there are lots of signs that say, "See you in April.".

Our weather continues to be good. There were 2 days of heavy winds and about 3 nights where it rained during the night, but the days have been clear and great for touring. The forecast is for several nice days with temps above normal.

Visited a great National Park Service Steam Train Museum in Scranton. Its a working museum where there were several engines being restored in the round house. Saw the nearby Nicholson Railroad Bridge - the earliest large reinforced concrete structure (2375 feet long and 300 feet high) that had 10 arches and is really impressive and beautiful.

Also visited the Anthracite Coal museum and Bob went on a mine tour. Anthricite coal is hard and is a very clean burning fuel. (Bituminous coal is the softer variety and the one that has the bad reputation for being dirty.)

A few practical difficulties: 1. Motorhome parks have the water turned off and it is hard to find places to fill our tanks. It has not really frozen yet, but they think it might any minute. Apparently no one travels in the Northeast after October! West Coast parks are much more prepared for off season travel. 2. The water is off in most rest areas, parks, etc. making finding rest rooms a challenge when taking day trips by car. Thank heavens for McDonalds! 3. Same problem with motorhome park laundrys - they are closed.

We are now in New Holland PA in the heart of Amish country. More gently rolling hills, pretty farms and small historic towns. Visited Lancaster yesterday and also went to Hershey! Yum, yum, we took the chocolate world tour - its a bit like Disneyland, but still fun. It smells great there and you get a chocolate bar at the end of the tour!

2006-11-01T16:29:00.000-08:00

We are currently in Pennsylvania at a Barns & Noble bookstore as we do not have internet reception in our motorhome park. You will have to wait until our next destination in a few days for an update.

2006-10-27T16:45:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we drove ourselves into Boston for the day. We had taken the rapid transit during the week. The wonderful old townhouses of the downtown are 3-4 stories tall and right up to the curb of very narrow streets. There is not much sunshine! We drove all around the town and through Harvard/M.I.T. area. There is so much coastline from the Atlantic and also rivers that it is a complicated city to negotiate but quite beautiful!

We spent some time in Rhode Island and of course visited Newport. It is amazing to see all of those fabulous "cottages" - there are hundreds! You can walk on a public beach walk that is in front of many of the best. They are really far beyond most anything we see in Seattle! It just goes on and on. There are many that can be toured, or have been donated to schools, etc. but also many are still private.

Providence was our next area to visit. It is another pretty city with many fabulous old buildings that are restored and being used well.

We have been traveling slowly along the coast from Massachusettes, Rhode Island and now into Conneticut. There are wonderful small historic Seaports everywhere. The ones that had natural harbors were settled early. We were sad that the Nautilus Museum of Submarines was closed this week.

Many places are closed now. It seems they don't expect many tourists this time of year. It is difficult to find motorhome parks open, too. We have been so lucky with the weather that we have enjoyed being North longer than we had anticipated.

2006-10-20T16:18:00.000-07:00

Thursday we spent the day in Boston. It's a beautiful city with wonderful buildings and so much history. It is so interesting to us to see so many structures from the 16 and 1700s. It was a sunny day, and we had a great lunch in an area of downtown waterfront condos.

There is a tight race for governor here in Mass. There are several tight races for senators and governors in New England. We have been bombarded with all the ads! It is interesting to hear this without a frame of reference as to the candidates and issues. It seems the republicans say the democrats are soft on crime and will tax and spend too much. The democrats say that the republicans will pander to special interests and give tax benefits to the rich. They both say they should work together, but the other guy is not. We decided we don't need to know the names - some things are just the same everywhere.

2006-10-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

We are still enjoying the Cape Cod area. Have seen some of the obvious must see attractions - Kennedy Memorial, Plymouth Rock, The Mayflower. Went to Provincetown at the tip of the Cape. Waded in the Atlantic and Cape Cod Bay - its cool but not "ankle freezing". Have also seen numerous great lighthouses.

The beaches are many and beautiful. They are very pristine - just light beige sand - not much in the way of logs, kelp, etc.

There are THOUSANDS of cottages, bed & breakfasts, motels and hotels in the whole cape area. It must be VERY crowded in the summer. It is not bad now, but many businesses and about half the restaurants close after Sept. They are boarding up many places preparing for storms.

The whole area is very confusing to find your way with narrow 2 lane roads that meander everywhere, all look alike, and are not marked well. It has been a challenge to Bob who is usually very good at finding his way around! It also does not help that the sun does not set over the ocean here - thats just wrong! The same name for towns is used repeatedly . Our motorhome park is in South Dennis. Well, there is a region (like a small county) called Dennis. Within Dennis there are the towns of Dennis, South Dennis, East Dennis and Dennis Port.

Yes, we have had some wonderful lobster, and seafood chowders!

2006-10-15T13:51:00.000-07:00

We have been driving around Cape Cod area looking at beaches, lighthouses, lots of antique stores, restaurants and charming gift shops in general. Things are spread out along all of the roads. There are little pockets of stores everywere, among the houses and beaches. Many are in old houses. Virtually all are in good repair and beautiful - property is very expensive. The views of the bay and ocean are wonderful.

Yesterday we took the ferry to Martha's Vineyard. We took a tour to get a feel of this famous area. The ferry was built in 1950 (not very glamorous and at least 20 coats of paint) and is much older than the ones in Puget Sound. The 6 towns have wonderful quaint small Victorian houses with white picket fences everywhere. The other houses are all of the Cape Cod type - gray shakes, simple lines, shutters, etc. Most are small with some grand exceptions. There is a lot of rich and famous here, but those houses are not in view. The Kennedy's have a 360 acre lot with a relatively modest house that Caroline and family use a lot.

People here really do have that New England accent. Martha is pronounced like ma and the r is silent. They say it like motha.

Some impressions of traveling in the New England area:
1. We have found that toll roads are not necessarily better than non-toll ones.
2. The roads in general are not in great shape, probably due to bad winters.
3. Traffic circles are called "Rotary".
4. Many intersections in the towns don't have the streets marked???
5. Freeways don't always list food/gas available at the next exit. They sometimes have them at the end of the exit, after you are committed.
6. Rest Areas are not as common as in the West. They often have what they call Parking Areas off the freeway where truckers, etc. can take a rest, but there are NO restrooms - not even sanicans!

2006-10-12T16:45:00.000-07:00

We are now in the Cape Cod area. We did not have internet service at our last location in Holderness NH so thats why I have not updated sooner. We took several days driving around Vermont and New Hampshire. The colors really are beautiful. It's not like we have not seen the colors in our area, but here it is everywhere in great profusion. (Along the highways, in parking lots, every yard and all kinds of normal places.) We also visited a farm that had maple syrup tasting. Learned there are 4 grades of syrup that depends upon when it was collected during the season that is from Feb to April. They drill the trees 2 1/2 inches deep and at least 6 inches from last years spot. The syrup is now mostly collected in plastic tubing (instead of the pails) and is gravity fed to the cooking room. This farm has 2400 trees.

I will list some impressions we have of New Hampshire and Vermont.
1. Hundreds of small farms with grass fields and rolling hills that are beautiful - just like you always saw in pictures.
2. Charming small towns with town squares (parks) in the middle of town and wonderful municipal buildings and statues.
3. Fabulous churches - small and grand.
4. MANY graveyards - every church, some in private yards and many others.
5. Lots of "Dunkin Doughnuts" - every small town has at least 1 - it is sort of the New England "Starbucks" - and there are not many Starbucks.
6. Great old houses - grand and modest - most in good repair. (Hardly any "Bellevue French", northwest contemporary or craftsman.)
7. Snow blowers, etc. are available everywhere. Most businesses have "storm" entries. Locals are preparing for winter in many ways. It gets cold here (30 below we are told) but they say they have not had a real blizzard in several years. Bad weather can come in any time now and we have been lucky to have good weather so far.
8. There are Christmas stores in most every town.

We also drove into Maine along the coast in the Portland area. Great lighthouses and old coastal tourist areas.

2006-10-05T16:32:00.000-07:00

We went to Niagara Falls on Monday - took a tour boat to the foot of the falls. You wear a raincoat as you get quite wet. The noise and the power are really incredible. There are actually 2 falls: American Falls in the US and Horseshoe Falls in Canada. It's quite beautiful! The Canadian side has focused on tourism for years and is quite developed. The US side, the town of Niagara Falls, did not focus on tourism in the early years. Now, with high NY taxes, their industry and business have left and the town has declined in population and is not in good shape. (Hope the State of Washington pays attention to this!)

The Allegany Mountain area was pretty. The term "mountain" seems a bit silly as they are just rolling hills. The leaves are turning and the color is getting quite dramatic.

We are now in the area where the St. Lawrence Seaway connects with Lake Ontario. There are over 1000 islands and it is beautiful. Towns are a mixture of old and new. Many beautiful old buildings with a lot of history. Some in need of attention and $. It gets very cold here in winter! After 1 day of rain, it is now sunny.

We have been very thankful along the way that we have our own bed, bath and kitchen! It would be hard to find motels on a trip like this.

Tomorrow we head to Holderness, NH. We will be on a scenic drive through the Adirondack Mountains.

2006-10-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

We are currently at the Allegany Mountain Resort in Western NY. We are staying for a few days to explore Niagara Falls/Buffalo area. The country is pretty with green grass rolling hills and lots of trees that are starting to get Fall colors.

We drove through Chicago during rush hour, but that was OK as we were going so slow we could look around a lot. We also managed to hit Cleveland during rush hour, but traffic was a lot less there.

Some interesting things happened while driving quickly across the country. There was a trucker who had no load on his flatbed except a "tonka toy" dump truck that was all strapped down in the middle of the great expanse. We also saw a sign at a gas station in Wisconsin that said, "Get Packers tickets without donating your spleen!" We found this especially funny as we had just finished listening to the only radio program that we could get clearly that was some local doctor giving too much information about the spleen. There was also the "Spam" museum (a wonderful brick building) in Austin, Minnesota - it is apparently a "Hormel" town!

2006-09-28T17:59:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Hawaii was just fabulous. We had a wonderful time relaxing in the beautiful NINTENDO House at Mauna Lani. Enjoyed the pool, the beach, and great meals prepared by Mark the "Chef".

We are now in Indiana along I-90 after several days of pretty heavy driving. The weather has been good and we have had no problems. It has been more traveling than we prefer, but we need to get to New England for the Fall. Then we will take it a little easier. Our internet is working pretty good. It is a little sketchy in the "middle" States, and slower than we are used to. We have seen thousands of antelope in Montana and Wyoming, corn in South Dakota and Minnesota, farms galore and numerous fields of various crops. We have had quick overnights in some motorhome parks and Wal-Mart parking lots! We have had TV, power, hot water and all the comforts every night - Bob has everything set up well!

We will add more in October when we will have a much slower pace.

It is exciting to start this great adventure and to get beyone the Western States we have visited before.

Love to family and friends - keep emailing! Linda and Bob

2006-08-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

Bob and Linda's Great Adventure

2006-08-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

We have set up this blog so that friends and family can keep track of our adventures on our extended motorhome trip.

The first leg of our adventure is going to be a wonderful trip to the Nintendo House in Hawaii for 10 days with Jean and Mark. We will return Sept 16 to pack up our motor home and leave ASAP heading for New England. We have reservations in New York, New Hampshire and Massachusettes for the entire month of October.