Can You Say New Hampsha?

Aug 31 – We can’t believe another month has passed. So, let me make the final entry for the month of August 2010. After visiting Bennington, VT we drove to Bethlehem, New Hampshire. It is a small town just outside the White Mountain National Forest. We’re in a small secluded campground barely out of town. We originally planned to stay just a few days but with the hurricane predicted to impact the New England area we decided to stay here until it passes. This will be the longest we stayed in any single place.

So far we’ve driven the scenic roadways in the area: one in particular, the Kankamagus highway, is famous for its scenery year-round. The trees here are just beginning to change. We see the occasional tree that’s already brilliant red but most haven’t changed yet. I guess we have to wait a few more weeks for that.

We’ve seen several waterfalls in some very pretty forested areas and hiked some short trails. There are streams/creeks everywhere here. Most are too rocky to kayak down (Gary’s still waiting to do that) but they are still nice to look at. There are a lot of things to do in the area so we’ve decided to pace ourselves and not go out every day. It’s nice to stay at home (the motorhome) once in a while and veg.

We’re looking forward to checking out the coastal towns in Maine and eating some great seafood.

That’s about it for now. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Left NY for a while

Aug 25 – If you tried to call us you found out that we were out of service. The Adirondacks have huge holes in coverage I guess due to the mountains. Anyway, we’re back. The Adirondacks were really nice. It rained the first two days we were there. There are lots of small lakes dotting the country side. Most of the lakes had homes and private docks along the lakeshore; can you say ahhhhh? I included a photo of one for your viewing pleasure.

One of the towns we drove through had a farmer’s market downtown. We always stop at these. The ladies love to see what the locals have to offer. Val found an egg plant that grows eggs. Check out the photo. Those things really look like eggs. And you thought all eggs came from chickens.

Today we drove into Vermont and are at a town called Bennington. It has wildly painted mooses, or is it moose, all over the city. They look really cool. You see I grabbed a photo of Val being sniffed by one of those moose. She complained of not seeing enough in Alaska and here they’re all over the place and bright colors too so they’re easy to see.

The town is home to the Hemming’s Motor News museum and gas station. They have a fully functional gas station that looks like it’s from the 40s. There are Victorian mansions, covered bridges and several museums for us to take in while we’re here. We’ll probably spend a day or two checking things out.

Aug 20 – Our trip from Chicago to Niagara Falls was full of small towns and old houses. We absolutely loved the drive. We try to take as many secondary roads as possible: you don’t see much from the freeways. Southern Michigan looks really quaint in the summer. Don’t think it would look as welcoming in the winter.

We visited both the American and Canadian sides of the falls. There are crowds of people from all over the world there; absolutely amazing. I have to admit the Canadian falls are nicer to look at. We all thought that the falls would be bigger than they were. We expected them to be taller. Took a lot of photos; see attached. We walked across the bridge so we didn’t have to wait in the long lines to get back to the US. Did you know they charge you to cross the bridge? We had to pay 50 cents each to get back to the US. What a deal. The price we pay for freedom eh?

The next day we visited some botanical gardens that were filled with a huge variety of plants and cacti. Maggie and Gary enjoyed looking at everything but not like Val did. She loves that stuff. Afterwards we went to a small local diner and got to hear the waitresses say “Yous guys want sometin to eat?” It was classic. The food was even good. Tomorrow we’ll start heading further east and make our way through the Adirondacks.

New Look for old faces

Aug 16 – Well, we made it to Minneapolis, Min ee sota. Had a short but nice visit with an old USAF buddy of Gary’s. We didn’t stay long though. The night we were there the emergency warning sirens went off about 2 in the morning warning us of a nearby tornado. The entire night was rockin and rollin with lots of rain, lightning and thunder. The next few days were predicted to be the same so we left.

We drove through Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana and stayed at a Cabela’s outside of Chicago. They let you stay in their lot for free, just like Wal-Mart. We spent a couple of days checking out some famous Chicago sites like the Navy Pier, Lake Front Drive, Union Station and ate at some famous hot dog and deep dish pizza places. Yum!

News Flash! - - - Val and Maggie both got haircuts. I, Gary, don’t know why. Their hair keeps getting shorter and mine keeps getting longer. Their hair is way shorter than mine. I thought girls’ hair was supposed to be longer than boys’. But they do look great, sexy, beautiful, adorable, cute, sweet and sassy with their new styles. (They made me say that!) For those of you wondering what we look like, here are a couple of photos from today. Hummm???

More South Dakota

Aug 11 – I feel as though I didn’t do justice to the sights mentioned in my last update. Let me expand some. STURGIS: This event is so big, the downtown area merchants lease their stores to those selling biker related goods for the entire month. They clear out their goods and the biker retailers put up new signs and fill the place with their own merchandize. Block after block after block all you see downtown are brick and motor store fronts selling motorcycle related goods, amazing. Everyone that has room for a motorhome or tent in their front yard rents the space out. There are doctor and dentist offices, funeral parlors and average homes, all full of tents and campers. Children hold signs “camp in my front yard $15 a night.” Hundreds of people line the streets to watch the constant parade of motorcycles head towards downtown.

THE BADLANDS: What a change of scenery. This thing look like someone took a handful of wet sand and let it run out onto the ground creating a little pile. They’re all over. They are composed of soft sand. You can rub it a bit and the sand comes loose. We saw prairie dog towns, several big horn sheep, prong horn antelope and luckily no rattle snakes. They have signs all over warning you to stay on the sidewalks because of the large number of rattle snakes they have there. Don’t worry about Val, she had no intention of straying.

The various colors of the dirt is really something. Some was, naturally, tan other yellow, then pink, then mauve (the decorator in me says there’s a subtle difference). Each color was layered one on top of the other. Made for some great photos.

We drove to Mitchell, South Dakota and saw the famous Corn Palace. This place was amazing. The entire exterior is covered in corn cobs or husks. They put them together to form murals. Check out the photos. Inside they have huge murals all made of corn. We saw a short film and it said it takes 275,000 ears of corn and over 100 acres just for the decorations. They change is every year. They just finished the 2010 exterior in time for their annual festival. Kenny Rogers is the head performer but they have people every night for a week. Gee, it might compete with Sturgis. No, Sturgis will be over this weekend and the Corn festival starts Aug 25th. Whew, had me worried there for a moment.

Tomorrow we should break into Minnesota. More to come.

South Dakota

Aug 10 – After 5 days in Rapid City it’s time to move on. We toured the Black Hills, saw Mount Rushmore and went to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Wow! Everywhere you look are thousands of motorcycles. Next is the Badlands.

Devil's Tower

Aug 5 – We toured the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody. If you are ever near Cody you need to go. It’s fantastic. We spent the entire day there. They have a gun museum that Val and Maggie even found interesting and that’s saying something.

After leaving Cody we drove to the Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. It’s a huge rock thing that sticks up over 1200 feet above the neighboring river. It was featured in the Close Encounters of the Third Kind movie many years ago. We walked around the base (about 1 ½ mile walk) and watched several climbers making their way to the top. We all agreed that it was better to watch than climb.

Today we drove to Rapid City, specifically Ellsworth AFB, and will spend the next several days here. We plan on seeing Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse monuments as well as other touristy things. Maggie and Gary are going to the Sturgis motorcycle rally. They’re expecting 500,000 bikers this year. Too crazy for Val but the other two want to see just how crazy crazy gets. I’m sure you’ll see a photo or two in a couple of days.