COMPLETED ONE OF OUR GOALS

REACHED ONE OF OUR GOALS
FOUR CORNERS OF THE UNITED STATES
MOST NW POINT IS CAPE FLATTERY
MOST SW POINT IS THE MEXICAN BORDER
MOST SE POINT IS IN KEY WEST, FLORIDA
MOST NE POINT IS QUODDY HEAD, MAINE

August 29 & 30, 2008

Friday 29~~~Today we drove about 130 miles south to Bar Harbor, Maine. We had a little trouble setting up the satellite TV, but Kent is very patient when he does something, so we have our dish to watch tonight. We had Cindy send our mail to this town, so we got our mail and went out for a delicious Haddock fish dinner. Then we went home to watch television, our computer didn't work very good here, so we weren't on it very much. Saturday 30~~~ We drove to "Acadia Nat. Park" today, Acadia Nat. park has boasting rights to a number of firsts. It was the first National park established east of the Mississippi. It was the first Nat. Park whose land was donated entirely by private citizens (Rockefeller's, Morgans, Fords, Astor's, Vanderbilt's and Pulitzers). They all built huge magnificent summer "cottages" which they entertained lavishly in. This was the beginning of Acadia. In 1947 a great fire broke out burning for 10 days some 17000 acres before it was contained. More than 60 grand summer cottages were destroyed in "Millionaires Row" bringing the upper crust resort era to a close. John D. Rockefeller Jr. donated one third of the land and he built 47 miles of two lane roads with 17 bridges. It is a very popular place for the people from all over the east coast to go to bike ride, hike, enjoy the parks and cross country ski in the winter. From here we played 18 holes of miniature golf where Kent got 3 holes in one!! He was the winner and he got to buy ice cream which we took home to eat on the wild blueberry cobbler that Sharon made for dinner from the wild blueberries we bought from a roadside stand. Yum Yum !!!!!!!

August 28, 2008

Thursday 28~~~Today we went across the border to New Brunswick, Canada to see the summer home of Franklin D Roosevelt called Campabella. The United States and Canada share the responsibility of the island, home and grounds which is free to tourists. Roosevelt went to this island with his parents from the age of one every summer as he grew up. His parents purchased this home from the people next door to their home and gave it to Franklin and his new bride as a wedding gift. (picture) They went there every summer with their 5 children the same as his parents did with him, the home has 16 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. Each child had their own room and there was bedrooms for the maids and Nannies. The other staff lived in a cottage on the grounds. The original china and a lot of their furniture is on display. It is hard to imagine such a grand home for a summer cottage and to be closed up all winter. The winters were too cold and too much snow to live in it year round. The Park workers still completely pack up the entire house at the end of the tourist season to protect things from mice, elements and to be able to clean and put everything out fresh in the spring. One of the things that we thought was so unique was the stove in the laundry room. ( pictures) Notice in the picture there are many flat irons attached to the heating stove so there is no time wasted on the heating of the irons when doing the vast amount of laundry they did. The grounds are so beautiful with all the flowers they grow there, they are taken care of by volunteer workers. (Pictures) After this we had lunch and we went to the "Eastern Most Point in the United States". (picture) It was by an old light house that was very interesting and had a lot of history about it there. Now we have been to all 4 of the points in the U.S. About 100 feet from shore is a rock Island that is 100X100 feet. If you sailed directly South you wouldn't hit land until you got to South America. We really enjoyed touring the streets of the town and the shops are small and cute with their early American look, everyone is very friendly . (also curious)

August 27, 2008

Wednesday 27~~~ Today was a rough day on the road, we arrived in East Port, Maine about 5 PM, we were totally wore out when we checked into our campground. The highways in Maine are so poorly marked and in such rough shape. When you come to a town, you see a sign that says "entering with the name of the town, then no town!! then here is another sign saying the same thing and no town, finally when you think you must be lost, you see the 3rd sign, and there is the town. Three times we had to turn the trailer around and go back to find a road that wasn't marked properly. Kent is very good at backing up on a busy road and turning around on a dime. He also never gets rattled or panicky. He just tells Sharon, "I need you to get out and help me"! Sharon is getting so good at flagging cars and stopping traffic, we think she can get a job on a construction site if necessary to pay for the gas. LOL We were tired when we got set up, so we chose to eat at the restaurant in the camp ground. Sharon had a whole lobster (never again) and Kent chose a lobster roll ( chunks of lobster in a roll the size of a hot dog bun) and fries. It was good, but next time we will order 2 tails each and let them do the work. LOL

August 26, 2008

Tuesday 26~~~ We have arrived at Biddleford, Maine and we are staying at the "Homestead By The River Campground". The park is real neat, it has a corral with 5 horses and another pen with 3 llamas. They have chickens scratching in the dirt and a very overweight ewe running lose to follow you. They were all tame and fun to be around, the brown llama would run to the fence if he saw you coming. He was so friendly, he loved to smell Sharon's hair and he loved for Kent to scratch his back. The fur was so thick, it was hard to scratch him. They have reservations for a full campground for the labor day weekend, so we are moving on to another one that isn't full. The camp owners were so friendly and the country setting was so appealing we hated to leave.

August 24 and 25, 2008

Sunday 24~~~ Today we drove to Albany NY, it was a long drive, Sharon fell asleep and missed Kent stopping for ice cream. The GPS didn't do very good at finding the camp ground we plan to stay at tonight. It took us all over the state of New York. Here we are on a narrow county road with no way to turn around mile after mile and we go under a train underpass that the sign says 11 feet 6 inches, that is our level we can go under. Well this wasn't correctly posted or we gained a couple of inches with that new suspension we got and we tore the cover off of one of our air conditioners. We were lucky we didn't loose all of it. That really made the day!!! We finally found the camp and checked it all out. We found the air conditioner isn't too bad, just the cover. We fixed a nice dinner, watched TV and called it a day. Monday 25~~~ It rained quite a bit in the night last night but we didn't worry about it, as Kent covered the air conditioner up with a tarp last night, so we traveled to our next stop which is Woodford, Vermont. We stopped at the Nat. Park and learned more history of Battle of Saratoga, it is a beautiful battlefield. (picture) We are posting some of the blogs tonight that need pictures and watching TV. Tomorrow is going to be a long day driving to Maine. I can tasted I can taste the lobster already!

August 23, 2008

Saturday 23~~~ We drove to Canada again today to take the tour behind the falls. We were hoping we wouldn't see Grumpy at the border today, but we got a Mz. Attitude instead. She started with the usual questions of why you are going to Canada and how long, then the mace, pepper spray, knives, guns question twice. They she wanted to know how much money we were carrying on ourselves, after that we were told to pull over to the left and 2 men searched the truck pretty thorough, even the box in the bed of the truck. Then we had to go inside and they had us sit while they checked us out on their computer. It made you feel like a criminal sitting there with all those dark skinned people talking their foreign language. We think the computer showed we had been there yesterday and that made us look suspicious. They said we could go, so we went to the falls again to do the behind the falls tour. They took us down behind the falls in an elevator (150 feet). They had 3 tunnels you waked down and you could see the falls in the opening. There was a screen barrier to keep you back from the opening. That was very disappointing and not what we planned to do. We thought it would be like behind the falls at Silver Creek Falls in Oregon only on a larger scale with a rail by the edge. WRONG!!!! From there we went to the observation deck and that was right beside the falls, and you got drenched there even with the rain jacket. The mist was so heavy it was hard to get pictures. But we will post what we got. We rode a 32 person lift carriage 4 stories to get back to the street where we parked. We stopped for Pizza before we headed home it was one of the best we've had on our trip. We are leaving here in the morning for the Saratoga National Park which is about 300 miles across New York on the toll road. When you get on the toll road you get a card with all the exits listed and there prices to exit. We were going almost to the end of the toll road so our charge would be $64.75 cash... no credit cards to get off. With the prices they charge you wouldn't think the road would be heavily traveled. It was more crowded than the I-5 freeway to Salem, OR.

August 22 and 23, 2008

Friday 22~~~ This morning we went back to the United States side of Niagara falls and the first thing we did was go to the movie of the history of the falls. Next we took the double decker boat to the falls, they gave us blue rain gear (picture) to keep us dry, as we will be be within 200 ft of the falls. It was so beautiful to be so close and the mist from the spray really made us glad we wore the rain gear. The ride was about 40 minutes long and we were so glad we did it because you can't imagine the beauty of the falls so close. (Pictures) The water goes over the falls at the speed of 40 miles per hour and it is fed by four of the great lakes and the spray and mist goes up in the air about 4 stories. We packed a picnic lunch which we enjoyed after the boat ride, then we went to Buffalo to the National Historic Home of Ansley Wilcox where Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 26th President of the United States when President McKinley was shot by an assassin. We couldn't go through the the historical house where President Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as President because the house is being completely renovated. We took a picture of the house through the security fence. (picture)
From here we went to Canada to see Niagara falls from the Canadian side. We drove the truck and we went through the Canadian immigration with questions like "what are you doing in Canada", "how long will you be here," "do you have any guns, mace, pepper spray?" We said "no" to that question, then what would you do to protect your camper he asked when he seen the big hitch in the back of the truck. Kent told him he would run over them with his big truck if anyone messed with him, he looked like we were crazy and sent us on our way. They have the lights on the falls at night and it is so beautiful.(pictures) We had a terrible time finding a place to park, and we had to do a lot of walking, but it was worth it.

August 21, 2008

Thursday 21~~~ We have arrived in New York to the town of Grand Island, to a small, but nice campground (Cinderella Camp Ground) about 20 minutes from Niagara Falls. It has the most beautiful Black Eyed Susan flowers that Lisa and I try to grow in Oregon all the time. (picture) We set up camp and immediately set out to see the Falls. Beings it is so close to where we are staying, we could almost immediately see something that looked like smoke in the air. By then we knew what the white smog was, it was the spray of the falls. We drove to the small falls leading to the big falls, as we realized we had forgotten the camera, so no pictures tonight. Oh well, we are going back in the morning to see the movie on Niagara Falls and we are taking the big boat that takes you within 200 feet or less of the falls.

August 19 & 20, 2008

Tuesday 19~~~ We drove about 210 miles after we left the shop from getting our suspension on the trailer fixed. We stayed in East Harbor State Park in Marblehead, Ohio. We got the Dish to work by putting it on top of the picnic table, we can't miss any of the Olympics or our favorite shows. We were actually pretty tired from such a short nights sleep last night that we went to bed early for us, and spent no time on the computer. We found out in the morning that we could have stayed near the island where there was a National Park we wanted to see that we missed on the way in. Darn !!!!! Wednesday 20~~~ Today we drove to Mentor, Ohio to the National Historic Site where the home of James A. Garfield stands on 6 acres of the original several hundred acres of land. (Pictures) In November 1880 he was elected 20th president of the United States. His term was cut short on July 2 1881 when he was shot by a deranged political fanatic. He died on September 19, at the age of 49 leaving his wife with 5 boys and one girl to raise. His wife and children were able to give comfortably and make substantial improvements to the house thanks to financial contributions from the American public. Mrs. Garfield had another wing added to the main house for a memorial library and vault to safeguard her husbands numerous books and papers. The new addition was the size of the original house, she added gas lighting replacing the oil lamps and a pump house/windmill (picture) to pump and store water into the house for running water. The addition was made into a National Library and museum to honor her husband so people wouldn't forget him. That was very important to her that her husband always be remembered. She is given credit for starting the first Presidential Library. Mrs. Garfield lived to the age of 85 dying in 1918. She, her children and grandchildren had many years to enjoy the beautiful home. It remained with the family until 1936 when, because of increasing cost of upkeep, it was donated to the historical society as a shrine to the memory of James A Garfield. Most of the furnishings and personal effects in the main house are original Garfield family pieces, which is rare to find so many original pieces in a home left by the family. It was authorized as a Nat. Park in 1980 and is administered jointly by the Historical Society and the Nat. Park System. From here we drove on to Cornet, Ohio and stopped for the night. It is just on the border before you cross into Pennsylvania. The park here was real nice, but we could not get the dish to work no matter what we tried or did. Our antenna worked good enough to get the Olympics, so that was OK. We want to get up early in the morning as we are anxious to get to New York and to Niagara Falls.

August 18, 2008

Monday 18~~~We have another broken shock on the 5th wheel, we are just a short distance from the factory where out rig was made, and the plant where the suspension was made. We headed over there bright and early to try and get in and out fast today. It was a problem of the suspension, they put us right in their HUGE shop and started to work on it right away. They had a lovely lounge with a fridge with cold drinks, lots of snack food items, a large assortment of magazines and books to read and of course a TV. At 11:30 the receptionist gave us a take out menu to order a free lunch. That made the day go by rather quickly except they quit work at 2:30 (6:AM to 3:00PM). They are set up for you to sleep in your RV with cable TV and the works in their shop. They gave us a key and we were free to go out and tour, eat or what ever we wanted to do. They just asked us to not leave the area of the trailer. We had to be up early the next morning and out of the trailer by 6 AM so they could go to work. There was another rig in there with us spending the night. This shop is enormous (6bays) plus the area for assembling parts and shipping. They had the lounge open with coffee and donuts ready for us. We opted to go out for breakfast instead. We were pretty tired after eating, as we didn't sleep very good waiting for the alarm to ring at 6. We aren't used to having to get up anymore. LOL Kent took a little snooze and Sharon read her book, then we played a game of cards and visited with 2 other couples who are having work done also. At 11:00 AM they had our rig ready to go, they put on heavier shock compressors that should have been put on when it was manufactured. They went from an 8 to a 12 in size and that is a whole lot stronger. Now we can travel with greater suspension on these terrible highways and won't bottom out so easy. I am attaching a picture we took of a postcard of the white buffalo we saw in North Dakota. It is the mother and baby we saw in the herd that is grown now and she has another one. It is so neat, I want you to enjoy seeing it.

August 14, 2008 Joliet, ILL.

August 14~~~ Coming into the state of Illinois was a toll highway about 10 miles long. It was the only way to get into Illinois from the North, they charge by the axle so we paid $4.50, We see that back here as they pay for new roads or road improvement that way. We are going through another toll on our way out of town between Illinois and Indiana.We arrived at the "Empress casino" in Joliet, Illinois about 4 PM. The sun was shining and it was in the 80's outside, no rain. The campers beside us told us of a neat place to eat in town here, called the Golden Corral. We went there for dinner and it was great, they had the best chocolate frosted brownies we have ever ate with soft ice dream. YUM YUM!!!! No wonder Sharon is getting fat!!! August 15~~~ We rode the train (25 miles) to Chicago to sight see today, we caught a trolley when we got there and rode it quite a bit. There was one seat beside the door facing the driver right up by the front windshield, we sat in it and the driver a native Chicago person, told us what all the buildings were and about them. (pictures) It was the best unpaid tour we have ever had. We have never seen a seat there before to sit in an any of the bus or trolley's before. The driver was so neat, she even had everyone sing Happy Birthday to a sweet little girl about 5 who told her it was her birthday. We enjoyed lunch at Uno's Pizzeria which was recommended to us by several people. We finished up the day at the "Sears Tower Skydeck. (picture)It is no longer the tallest building in the world, it is the third tallest with 103 stories. It was beautiful up there and you could see the beauty of Chicago. There was a lot of old history all over and lots of old pictures and memorabilia about the famous people who are from Chicago or Illinois. We bought some carmel corn at the famous" Brenamins Popcorn" store, it was very good, but not any better than the carmel corn made by Thresa and Ex-Pat. Theirs is sooooooooooo good!!!!!! We caught the trolley and our driver was there again to take us to the train station for our trip home. It was about 9:30 PM when we got home, tired but happy for all the fun we had. August 16~~~Today Kent is doing the laundry and Sharon the cleaning and writing on the blog. We are going to the casino for dinner and a little slot fun this evening. We are leaving for Indiana in the morning.

August 12, 13, 2008 Wisconsin

Tuesday 12~~~ Traveling in rain again today, the storm clouds look so dark, it keeps us wondering if we might run into one of the famous storms they are know to have in this part of the United States. We are staying in a park (Menomonie, Wi.) with a beautiful setting of trees around it, but nothing else which is fine except when we pulled in the price was different than the ad in the camper book we use. That was OK also until Kent walked over to the office to ask a question and there posted on the wall was the price in the book. Kent asked him if he was trying to hose him or what the deal was and he said no, he charged us his price now! No wonder we were the only camper there for the night LOL (Picture) Wednesday 13~~~ We were off and driving bright and early this morning as we have about 230 miles to drive drive. We are staying at one of the nicest parks we have seen in awhile (Janesville, Wisconsin). The pool is so beautiful and each space is very spacious. We drove into town for ice cream cones and to check the town out after dinner. We would like to stay another night here but we want to get further along the road.

Ashby, Minnesota 8/11/08

Monday 11th~~~ Last night the wind was so strong that is was rocking the trailer. It woke us up and we got up and checked it out. The trees were blowing so hard and we didn't know what was going on. Kent got on the computer and checked out the weather, but there were no warnings, so we went back to sleep. LOL The camper beside us was a small tent trailer so we knew they must really be bouncing around if we were shaking with all of our weight. He told Kent this morning he stayed up until 5:30 and he had just got to sleep when some idiot in the park with a diesel truck started it up to go to work. We are in Ashby, Mn. as we had Cindy send our mail here, the post office was closed when we got here at 4:30, so we will go back in the morning.

August 8, 2008 through 10th, 2008

Friday 8th~~~ We arrived in Elgin, ND about 3 in the afternoon. Elaine and Sharon drove over to the RV Park to check it out before Kent pulled the trailer in as there was no one working there and we had to find the right spot. After walking around for a few minutes, Sharon looked down at her legs and they were covered with huge bugs. There was at least 5 on just her knee, She screamed at Elaine "what are these bugs"??? (Sharon is never bit by anything and Kent is devoured by all bugs) She said they were mosquito's, never have we seen so many Mosquito's that big anywhere, Sharon didn't even recognize them. LOL Before we let Kent go to the park, we sprayed him real good with a repellent they had and the bugs couldn't stand the smell and either could we. It sprinkled rain that night and the rest of the time were there, so we think that was why the Mosquito's and biting flies were so thick and biting. Saturday 9th~~~ We had a fun day visiting with our friends and watching them while they worked. They purchased a bait shop, filling station with a small bar and they are working real hard taking over a new business a short time ago. The customers were like most Midwest people, who are so friendly and fun to watch and talk to. Sharon gave Elaine a hair cut and all the customers liked it, she said Sharon could open up a shop there and she would be quite busy. LOL After they closed their business Saturday night, the 4 of us went to another bar and we had a lot of fun dancing to the juke box and visiting. Sunday 10th~~~We left for Jamestown, North Dakota after going out for breakfast with Elaine, Guy had to work, so we brought breakfast back to him. We had a great time with them, and we will most definitely stop there again if we go that way. In Jamestown, ND the campground had a herd of buffalo and an old Pioneer town that we had fun walking around acting silly and having fun with all the props in the old buildings. Sharon became a preacher and this is her doing her "Hell and Damnation speech" in the old church (picture). They have 3 white buffalo in the herd which is quite rare. One of them is a baby calf, we didn't see them up close, but they were in the pasture along the highway and we saw all 3. It is said the Indians worshipped the albino buffalo. (pictures)