August 16 - 28, 2009

We were busy during our 4 full days in Massachusetts. We visited with others at the wine and cheese social and I went to two different spa sessions, one with Beauti Control and the other with Arbonne. We spent one day in Hyde Park, New York visiting the Vanderbilt Historic Site,

FDR National Historic Park

and then the Eleanor Roosevelt Historic Park called Val-Kill.

The FDR site was where he was born, raised, lived and also died. We learned quite a bit. At the Vanderbilt site the park has hired goats from a farmer to eat the vegetation on the hill along the Hudson River.

We enjoyed many fresh vegetables from the road side stands. Eating fresh corn-on-the-cob, BLTs and peach shortcake has been fun.

We didn’t have a full week in Massachusetts but moved on Friday, August 21 to Rangeley, Maine. On our way up through the country we visited the only National Park in New Hampshire which is Saint-Gaudens.

He was a sculptor who is best known for his standing Lincoln.

He had a studio here.

We also learned that he was friends with Chester Arthur French who sculpted the sitting Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial.

It rained all afternoon after we had lunch in West Lebanon, New Hampshire and the van started leaking again. We arrived in Rangeley, Maine about 6 p.m. Oh wow, how awesome. We were in a three bedroom log cabin.

The master bedroom and bath were upstairs and there were two bedrooms and bath downstairs as well as a nice kitchen, dining area and living room with a fireplace.

There was a covered front porch with a picnic table and a couple of chairs. We could see Rangeley Lake from the main lodge.

We walked in the mornings down to the lake edge where there was a dock.

It was comfortable and very relaxing all week. I loved to sit in the rocking chair and watch out the big picture window.

The visitor center operates a free moose tour two evenings a week for about 2 hours in the evening just before dark. Since I have been so many places and have never seen a moose we decided to go on Monday night. But it was a bust. No moose and this was the first time with this bus driver. Oh well. Bob & I drove out on our own on Wednesday night and did actually see 3 moose. It was almost dark and we couldn’t take a picture but we did see them. They were females so no large antlers. We didn’t do any other traveling during the week as Bob worked to dry out the carpet of the van. This was one of the first places that I really didn’t want to leave because it was so comfortable.

August 8-16, 2009

We left Virginia and traveled north to New Jersey. We spent a lovely evening and day with Coleen’s cousin Sandy & Frank. We hadn’t seen them for over a year and it was great to spend some time visiting with them. They graciously opened their home to us for the night. We worshiped with them at their church on Sunday morning. Coleen even visited 2 quilt shops with Sandy. Bob went with Frank to see the remodeling on Kathy & Garrett’s house. Kathy, Garrett and Alisa stopped in to see us Saturday night.

We left New Jersey early Sunday evening and drove to Shawnee-on-the-Delaware, Pennsylvania. We moved into a nice two bedroom condo. There were two floors with bedrooms up and a very nice screened porch. Monday we got our bearings and did some planning for the week. Tuesday Bob took the van to get and oil change. We then went to the outlet mall and found some really good bargains on some clothes. We stopped at the grocery and arrived back at the condo about 7 p.m. just in time to see a black bear tipping over the garbage cans in the parking lot. We guessed that the bear was about a year old but it sure knew what to do. We also saw a skunk walking around the parking lot of the recreation center.

We went to the Delaware Water Gap National Park at Dingmans Falls. We walked to see them and also passed by Silverthread Falls. We spent another day driving to the Upper Delaware Gap National Park. We stopped at the Roebling Delaware Aqueduct. It brought back memories of our canal trip in June. It is a road now but used to be a canal over the river. We stopped at Grey Towers which is a National Historic Site operated in Milford, PA. It was the summer home of the Gifford Pinchot family who was governor of Pennsylvania twice and was instrumental in starting the forest service.


Next was the Zane Grey Museum in Lackawaxen right on the Delaware River.

The last stop of the day was the Steamtown National Historic Park in Scranton.





It brought back memories of the Durango steam trains. The roundhouse, turntable and yard have been restored and there is an excellent museum. We went through a caboose,

box car,
sleeping car and then the mail car.


We got back to the condo just in time to see the 3 raccoon run under our porch.

As we returned from our Saturday morning walk we enjoyed another visit from a bear. This was a larger one and she also came back a second time about a half hour later. She just pushed the entire bin over so that the trash cans inside dump out and then she rifled through the garbage. We decided that this was our wild animal week.

We left on Sunday for Hancock, Massachusetts. On the way we stopped in Kinderhook, New York at Martin Van Buren Historic Site to see Lindenwald. Since we are seeing so many historic items I found a book called Presidents for Dummies and purchased it to see what we might learn in a short amount of time.

July 25 - August 9, 2009

DILLARD, GEROGIA

Oh, another long drive from Destin to Dillard, Georgia. It was stop and go traffic as we left Destin and in a couple of places in Alabama. Dillard is in the far north almost in North Carolina. In fact the road to the resort goes from Georgia, into North Carolina, into Georgia, into North Carolina and then back into Georgia to the resort. It is in the mountains and we had no cell phone service. We were able to have some internet at the office part of the time. We stayed in a fairly small unit but it was comfortable. A lot of our time was spent on the patio doing our cross-stitch. We also watched some movies and even a 12 part RinTinTin. We saw some falls close to the resort and also walked around a small mall in Franklin, North Carolina. It rained about half of the week. We enjoyed fresh Georgia peaches and corn-on-the-cob.

BAYSE, VIRGINIA
We left Dillard on Saturday, August 1 and drove to Bayse, VA. As we left the area we enjoyed the beautiful low white clouds in the valleys of the mountains.
As we drove into Highland, NC we saw a bear that crossed the road right in front of us. We drove from Georgia, through North Carolina, through Tennessee and into Virginia. We stayed in a two bedroom, two bath, 2 floor unit. Actually the second floor was like a loft and we used that for our bedroom. There was even a sauna.

We did quite a bit of exploring from here. One day we went to Front Royal and did a town walking tour which included many historic buildings and this clock.
We then entered the Shenandoah National Park at the north entrance and drove about 30 miles along what is called Skyline Drive. The view was nice but very hazy.

We went to the covered bridge which is about 15 miles from the resort. We also stopped at the Route 11 Potato Chip factory.
The chips can now be found in Cracker Barrel’s and yes we did get to sample them.


There was no cell phone or internet at our unit but there was a good hot spot at the library which was also the airport.


There was even a plane that landed when we were there.

We also found good roadside vegetable and fruit stands. We really enjoy fresh veggies.

We took a trip to the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park and then visited James Madison’s Montpelier.
We continued to Rockville to visit with Richard and Teresa. It was lovely to see them and we had a pleasant afternoon/evening. It was a very long day with a long drive back at night but we were so thankful that we were able to visit.

At the end of the week we had one night that we spent in New Jersey at Sandy and Frank’s. It had been a year since we had seen them and it was great to visit. Coleen even got to go to 2 quilt shops with Sandy. We also were able to worship with them on Sunday morning.

July 2009

NASHVILLE - We relaxed and unwound in Nashville even though Debby did keep us a little busy. We spent time with the Sammons,





went to a concert in the park for 4th of July (it rained),



to Bible study, church and Sunday school. We had hair appointments and dentist appointments. We repacked the van and tried to organize, at least somewhat. We got to ride in Debby’s “new to her” car since her Saturn died the day before we got back. We were very bad and didn’t even take many pictures. We left Nashville on Wednesday, July 8 and spent three nights in a Wyndham timeshare in Villa Rica, Georgia.
GEORGIA We walked, read, did computer and relaxed. During the Wednesday travel day I determined that “the agony of travel consists of the movement from place to place using any mode of transportation”. As much as I love to go there is still not a mode of transportation that I enjoy or even remotely like.

DESTIN, FLORIDA We arrived in Destin, Florida on Saturday, July 11. It was beautiful, hot and busy. We spent two weeks and Phil, Susan and James were able to spend about 4 days with us.


Unfortunately they had to leave early because her father was to have emergency surgery. We had a couple of days of rain but spent some time on the beach and at the pool. We also tried to do some walking in the mornings or evenings.

We ate fish and shrimp most days. My back was quite sore a couple of days and Phil got me started on Mafia Wars. By the end of the 2 weeks I was walking a little better and still feeling stronger.