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In 2017 Harry finally admitted that yes, he did want to travel for months in a very small trailer with his wife, Renee, and two dog pals, Jack and Sam. This blog recounts their trials (many) and their tribulations (even more!) Read more Ashfield, United States
  • TravelerOn the Road Again
    1
    1111111
    Day 5

    I'll take Manhattan!

    January 12, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ -2 °C

    Well, when I left off we were about to discover Manhattan, Kansas. Our hotel here was the Bluemont and it was right across the street from Kansas State University. I gravitate to staying in towns with universities. I like exploring campuses, checking out Libraries, and usually there is a lot of lawn for walking the dogs. Unfortunately the KSU campus was inundated with fat red squirrels which made walking the dogs difficult.

    I made two discoveries in Manhattan that I want to share - KSU has a great Library and we in Massachusetts have a connection to this town.

    When I went into the Main Campus Library (sans dogs) I introduced myself at the front desk and was immediately pressed to have a tour of the Library's best features by "Steve." Really nice guy. He told me that three years ago there was a major fire in the Library building and that what I saw now was after a $400 million dollar restoration. That means that the Library is a hub of fantastic up-to-the minute technology of which he was proud. He took me up to the top floor of the Library to show me what he called the "Hogwarts Room." This room was not destroyed by the fire even though it started in the roof, but suffered huge water damage. None of the Library's 300,000 million books were burned but they all had to be sent out to be cleaned and rid of the fire smell. What a mess that must have been.

    The Hogwarts Room is also known for four huge murals that were painted as part of the Public Works Art Project. Astonishing the reach of that Project. The murals, which you will see in this post, represent the four major areas of academic pursuit at the University - Agriculture, Industry, Arts and Home.

    The connection that Massachusetts has with Manhattan is that Manhattan was "founded" by "Free Staters" from Massachusetts brought in under the auspices of the New England Immigrant Aid Company. Reach back to third grade history and you will recall that a Free Stater went into a territory that was about to become a state and fought or lobbied to have that state come in as a non-slave state. Kansas did come in as a non-slave holding state.

    We liked being in Manhattan but time pressed so we loaded up and headed off to Denver. We hit our first bit of weather about 2 hours outside Denver. The I-70 was pelted with snow squalls and slowed traffic so we decided to take an alternate route into Denver which was not so great. In fact, it was kind of bad - limited visibility, snowy road, reduced speed, middle of nowhere, etc etc. Harry was driving and he did an amazing job of getting us to our port for the night just outside of Denver in Aurora at an Avid Hotel. Thanks Harry!

    Now we are heading to a dog park in an interesting part of town in Denver. It's not even 9:00 a.m. but I've been up since 5:00. The thing about time change is that the dogs don't get it. My well trained pup wants to go out at 7:00 Eastern time, even as we sit here in the Mountain time zone. Can't wait till we get the Pacific time zone! We are off to Green River, Utah after the dog park. Wish us luck getting through the Rockies!    Read more

  • TravelerOn the Road Again
    11
    Day 4

    Dang this country's wide

    January 11, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 0 °C

    But I think we've hit the half way mark!

    Let’s Review!

    On Day 1 we drove through Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania

    Day 2 we continued through Pennsylvania, crossed the top sliver of West Virginia, into Ohio, and into Indiana, stopping at Terre Haute. We stayed the night in Terre Haute, home of Indiana State University and the square donut. We walked around the campus for our exercise and ate the donuts for fun. On to Manhattan, Kansas

    Day 3 we finished up one minute in Indiana (Terre Haute is on the border), crossed into Illinois, and then Kansas, where we stopped last night in Manhattan. Manhattan, Kansas that is. We will be exploring Manhattan later this morning and I will report back.

    We have stayed in some good places - starting with the famous Ohiopyle Suites, on to Home 2 Suites, and I’m writing from the Bluemont, across the street from the University of Kansas. That’s lucky because in past trips we stayed in some doozies. Two dogs limit your choices.

    We’ve had amazing weather. It was hot yesterday as we drove through Illinois - in the 50s most of the day, sunny. Friends have asked whether we’ve noticed the weather on California’s Central Coast, where we are heading? home to recent evacuation notices. Even the woman who owns the cottage we stay in has been in touch, I think to reassure us that the cottage was on high ground, since we have never heard from her before.

    Yesterday early evening when we rolled into Manhattan, under a wide blazing orange sky, we went first to a dog park to let the guys run. A dog owner there told us that it had been -5 degrees two weeks ago, probably the same cold front we had in Ashfield, but last night we stood comfortably around in 50 degree weather.

    Later today when we hit Denver, we will be facing our first weather challenge and we will have to bide our time in Denver to cross the Rockies. You can not get caught on I-70 in bad weather without chains - that’s up to a $1,000 fine. You can’t even get caught with tire tread below 3/16th of an inch. I mean, besides the potential fines, the threat of loss of life is also daunting! There’s a great website GoI70.com that gives great weather reports for crossing through the Rockies, and here’s what we are looking to avoid:

    "Snow continues on Tuesday morning ahead of a break on Tuesday afternoon. Heavy snow returns by early Wednesday morning and continues through Wednesday night. Dry Thursday through Saturday ahead of off-and-on snowfall during the week of January 16."

    So we are waiting for the “dry Thursday through Saturday” break, — we’ll be crossing January 12th. We are fortunate that we had enough of a taste of crossing in bad conditions when we crossed in 2021, during the height of the pandemic. So better to just get all the way through to Utah in one driving stint.

    And by the way, puppy has been doing great. He’s very Jack-like in that he sticks to his routine no matter where we are, he sleeps tons in the car, and he’s pretty cheerful. BUT he is still a puppy and needs lots of exercise and sometimes just gets into fits of naughtiness in part due to the restriction of being in the car for hours at a time. He’s a keeper.

    Finally, something has been bothering me — how can it be light so much later in Kansas then it is in Ashfield? Last night when we arrived here there was still a fair amount of light in the sky at 7:30 p.m. How do you explain that?    Read more

  • TravelerOn the Road Again
    1111
    Day 1

    Ashfied to Ohiopyle, PA

    January 8, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 3 °C

    The 4th Great Western Migration - January 8, 2023

    Dedicated to Jack, January 2010 - August, 2022

    Gather round for I have tales to tell of strange new places.

    BUT FIRST! We had a pretty ordinary departure — we were out the door 100% on time, otherwise known as 9:30 a.m. It’s daunting to see that you have to cover 515 miles before you can put your feet up, but I try not to think about that too much. You also have to drive for a few hundred miles before you get your road legs.

    I had a low point about three nights before departure thinking about leaving and realizing that this would be our first westward journey without Jack. Made me sad - he was an extraordinary traveller. He had the back of the Subaru to himself and Sammie would have the middle seat. Now Kojak and Sammie sit together in the middle. There should be some pictures included here that I took right after I put them into the car, explaining that we would not be back for several months. I remember the first time we took off in 2017 when I actually had to pick Sammie up to get her in the car.

    Right now, as I look behind me, Kojak is sprawled across the whole back seat and Sammie is sitting upright in about 10% of the space. I don’t feel bad for her though because that pretty much mimics how I have to sleep every night - I get a 10% sliver to the right, Harry gets a 10% sliver to the left and Sammie and Kojac get 80% wherever they want it.

    We are spending our first night in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania after 9 1/2 hours on the road. We came much the same way in 2021, but stayed the night in Somerset, Pennsylvania, which is the stopping point if you are going to the 9/11 memorial at Shanksville. I created this deviation off I-70 for this trip because somehow I noticed that Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater was in the area and I thought it would be fun to do something different our first day out. We are staying at The Ohiopyle Suites — just a couple of miles from Fallingwater.

    Getting to Ohiopyle was nerve-wracking because as we dipped south off the main road, I-70, for this detour it seemed that we descended further and further into nowheresville. We’ve been on the road for going on 10 hours. We are running on empty psychically, night surrounds us, and I can sense Harry’s growing unease. I’m the trip planner — this all falls all on me.

    But we roll into Ohiopyle and easily find out hotel which is cheerily lit up with blue Christmas lights. We are the only guests. We let ourselves into our room. We are indeed in the middle of nowhere but it feels interesting. The dogs are happy to be out of the car, we are happy to have a glass of white wine, and we eat our dinner of cheese and crackers, the dogs get kibble.

    Awaking this morning (6:30 - puppy time) we begin to realize what a gem Ohiophyle is. Our “hotel” is steps from bike and hiking paths that hook up with the Ohiopyle State Park, and next door to summer places closed for the season - kayak and bike rentals, coffee shops, bakeries. It looks cool. the Youghiogheny [yawki-gay-nee] River flows right by us, as does train tracks with a very active train schedule. As we set out on our walk, we cross the Youghiogheny. The river is rough and known to be difficult to cross, but people raft it. This area is also part of the Great Allegheny Passage bicycle trail which connects with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath trail to form a continuous 335-mile off-road trail from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C. In the morning, Harry thinks I’m amazing for finding this great place, and I feel relieved.

    We head out for our 10:00 a.m. reservation at Fallingwater. I’ve never been to a Frank Lloyd Wright house, but Harry has, in fact he’s been to Fallingwater. The website for the house says that many consider Fallingwater Wright’s masterpiece. It was built as a summer home in 1936 for Pennsylvania department store owners - Liliani and Edgar J. Kaufman. It is perched over the Bear Run waterfalls. It is listed as one of the 28 places you have to see in your lifetime by the Smithsonian Museum. Who knew? Here’s the list.

    I have pictures to show you which seem like a much better use of space than me jawing on about it but one thing I would like to point out to my gardening friends is that almost every path we walked was lined with towering rhodendrum bushes - can you imagine what this would look like in Spring? The Kaufman family owned Fallingwater until their son gave it to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1963. It’s astounding to me that in 1936 some people were so recovered from the depression that they could spend the kind of money needed to build Fallingwater.

    By 11:00 a.m. we were off to Terre Haute, Indiana. Catch you later!    Read more

  • TravelerHere we go again ...
    Day 8

    Day 5 - more magnificent Rocky Mountains

    January 10, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    We ended Day 4 at the Motel 8 I mentioned above in what can accurately be called an unhappy state. We were so freaked out about Washington and then this Motel 8 did not have the kind of room we asked for ahead of time - easy access to the outside. Again, we were stunned by the number of people walking around without masks. I just don’t get it. Since Harry had made this reservation he had to go in to deal with the front desk and I was worried about that. People around the front desk had to have a mask on, but workers were piling out of a van behinad me in the parking lot - none wearing masks. Finally, even though this was dog-friendly motel, there was no area to walk Jack and Sam. We disliked this motel so much we didn’t even take showers.

    I got Jack and Sam out early to try to find some place to walk them - 9 degrees weather and all. Things were better in the daylight, I could see that Dillon was nestled in high snow covered peaks, and that we were surrounded by pot shops. We scrambled around in the snow (Marcine will appreciate that I was doing this in my ankle boots with no socks). We packed up quickly eager to get back on I-70 but not before, yes, our soothing first stop at a Starbucks. Our normal breakfast was $1.00+ more here - which was explained by the Barista as the mountain town tax. The other interesting thing about Dillon was that there was an outlet shopping center - my blood quickened but we were too early for the stores to be open.

    We continued cruising through the Rocky Mountains much of the morning, high high up and very cold. Tried imagining what it would be like live in such a demanding environment. 78 of the 100 highest peaks of the Rockies are in Colorado. Also tried imagining how in the world did people actually cross the Rockies in covered wagons? But investigation reveals that the route that I-70 takes through the Rockies is not one of the paths taken by earlier explorers. The I-70 crosses the Rockies through the Vail pass, which was engineered by Charles Vail, in approximately 1940.

    We couldn’t resist going to take a look at Vail to see what all the bruhaha was about. The downtown and connected areas are crowded and everything is about skiing - people lugging their skis, getting on to buses with skis, being shuttled to ski areas. We on the other hand went in search of a dog park and we found a nice one - Stephen’s Park. The the first time in five days Jack and Sam were off leash and free. It seemed odd that this dog park was completely unfenced and next to a frontage road next to I 70 but - what the hay.

    We wanted to get to Grand Junction, CO for lunch - mainly because the name sounded romantic to us. The city gets the "grand" part of its name from the Grand River, which is now known as the Upper Colorado River. The "junction" refers to the confluence of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers. We were surprised to learn that this area has long been a grape growing and wine producing area (from the 1880s) and is also a long time fruit growing area. All of this development happened after the United States Government abolished the Ute (as in Utah) Indian Territory in 1881, forcing the Utes into a reservation so that the government could open this area to white settlers. Can you imagine? We got a nice salad and a nice sandwich from Dream Café in the interesting (picturesque) downtown area. The air and light was stunning. We told the staff at the Dream we were going to go eat in a park we saw on 4th street and the frontage road but were told not to go there because homeless people lived there. We were directed to a park near the Public Library where there were also homeless-seeming people, and some shady looking characters. Problem, Grand Junction?

    After lunch we hit the road hard heading to our destination for the night - St. George, Utah. We arrived there at about 7:00, exhausted as usual but kind of excited - tomorrow is our last day on the road.    Read more

  • TravelerHere we go again ...
    Day 4

    Day Four - the Majestic Rockies

    January 6, 2021 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

    Day Four - Salina, Kansas to Dillon, Colorado

    We left Salina in good spirits having found another Starbucks where we could get our now customary breakfast before hitting the road. We had our first “real” dinner last night too, getting a take-out steak dinner. Pretty good - beats crackers and cheese. But Salina, Kansas sure looked desolate and poor this morning when I took the dogs out for our first walk at 7:00.

    Back on to I-70: as it crosses Kansas I-70 is buffeted by the winds that blow hard across the Great Plains. I drove for the first hour and then Harry took over. It’s hard to drive when there’s a strong wind and even though the speed limit is 75 across the whole state, the trucks don’t go that fast due to the wind. The other strange thing about I-70 in western Kansas is that they have snow gates that they actually drop down to close the Interstate when there are bad conditions. They just close the interstate. I had never heard of that before.

    I started this entry saying we left Salina in good spirits but those spirits took a dark turn when we became absorbed in the catastrophe that engulfed our country this Wednesday, January 6. Everything seemed unreal - we were truly undone. We listened to the terrible news as we said goodbye to Kansas and slipped into Colorado.

    The change in landscape between Kansas and Colorado is immediate - although we were still surrounded by huge fields of grain and hay, they just looked more lush in Colorado. It doesn’t take too long to get to Denver and again, I-70 rolls right through the town which is fun. By the time we had Denver in the rear view we were already at 5,000+ feet - remember it’s called “the mile high city.” And when you are driving west through the city you see ahead that you are going to be driving into some serous mountains and gorgeous snow covered peaks. We took pictures which will show up in this blog someday. Very exhilerating. I was driving which was kind of fun because I drove through the city infrastructure and then into the mountains, including the Eisenhower Tunnel. That tunnel carries I-70 under the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains. The tunnel has a maximum elevation of 11,158 feet and is one of the highest car and truck tunnels in the world. We were spit out of the tunnel into very dramatic sunlight and began a seven mile descent! I made the descent in the slowest lane and probably did a number on our brakes. We have been hugely fortunate in this part of our trip because if we were having any kind of bad weather we would be required to put on chains, which of course we don't have, and there is up to a $1,000 fine if you do not carry chains from fall through spring. Who knew?

    Anyway, we landed in a Motel 8 in a mountain town called Dillon. I have never been in the Rockys like this before so it’s very interesting - there are Rocky Mountain towns that are just nestled along the road. I’ll be able to see more tomorrow and will report more. Now, I need a glass of wine and some time to digest what is happening in our country.    Read more

  • TravelerHere we go again ...
    Day 3

    Day Three: Effingham, IL to Salina, KA

    January 5, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ -7 °C

    Day Three: Effingham, Illinois to Salina, Kansas

    Another grey start to our travelling day. Still pretty cold. Sammy’s better though. And our motel room last night was actually nice although still in a truck stop - The Baymont by Wyndham in Effingham, Illinois - pretty fancy. We had a Starbucks very close by where we got our now standard breakfast and found our way back to Interstate 70. Our mission to day is to drive 515 miles to Salina, Kansas where we will spend our third night on the road. I can still smell and taste, so so far so good. That's a COVID joke.

    Our first big landmark on today’s drive was St Louis, Missouri. It’s strangely exciting to see a city come into view when you are just driving and driving through countryside. 70 goes right through St Louis, no by-pass, which was dramatic. It’s like all of a sudden you are on Storrow Drive - very old looking infrastructure, and of course that beautiful arch, the Gateway to the West, which is truly huge. We also had to pass over a lovely suspension bridge which Harry took lots of pictures of but you know what? by the time I’m writing this at the end of a 10-hour day in the car, my desire to illustrate with photos is pretty minimal.

    I want to say right off the bat that Missouri has piss poor rest stops. Each stop has only one or two old vending machines and those vending machines are behind bars and have nothing you want to eat or drink, so why they have to be locked up is a mystery. On a more positive note, we had sunshine in Missouri and 49 degree weather. Another great thing about Missouri is that Lake of the Ozarks is IN MISSOURI!!! We have been watching Ozarks for the past several weeks but I had no idea Lake of the Ozarks is in Missouri. And the Osage River. That’s about it for Missouri but before we flew into Kansas, we went through Kansas City, Missouri - and then through Kansas City, Kansas. That’s gotta be confusing. Also, Missouri has great road signs - one fudge store boldly claimed there were no calories in road trip food. I’m afraid I am going to be living proof that is not true.

    I believe there is a reason we encountered our first 75-mile an hour speed limit in Kansas. You hit Kansas and say goodbye to rolling countryside and beautiful farms, and hello to acres and acres of, at this time of year, fields of hay and grain stubble. One interesting thing did happen while crossing Kansas, we crossed the center point of the contiguous United States. Also, we passed through Abilene Kansas, the home of Dwight D. Eisenhower before he came east at 20 to West Point and Russell, Kansas, the birthplace of Robert Dole.    Read more

  • TravelerHere we go again ...
    Day 2

    Day Two

    January 4, 2021 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 5 °C

    Somerset to Effingham, Illinois

    You might remember that I mentioned that Sammie was indisposed yesterday on the first leg of our trip - well, that also means that she was indisposed throughout the night which means one of us has to get up, get dressed and take her out into the very scenic parking area of the Days Inn.

    All this by way of saying we were not in the best mood when we woke up for Day 2 of this journey, one of us less so then the other. But it’s pretty darn hard to begrudge Sammie efforts on her behalf since we uprooted her from her routine and asked her to sit in the back seat of the car for ten hours. Good thing she can’t talk. And then there was the fact that it was snowing big fat flakes when I went out with the dogs at 7:30 - on a day we were not expecting more snow.

    However, things quickly turned sunnier when, while about to get on Interstate 70 going the wrong way (it’s really like objectively confusing) I noticed a Starbucks! So one breakfast sandwich and two coffee drinks later, we got on 70 going the right way. Yeah! AND the snow had stopped.

    So picture this: we are starting out in Somerset, Pennsylvania (9:30 a.m. departure again) and we are going to end up in Effingham, Illinois, and all we have to do is stay on I 70 the whole way. We are about to drive through Pennsylvania, the tiniest sliver of West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. It’s magic.

    The Pennsylvania land that we drove through was lovely rolling farm land with lots of silos and the feeling that we were in mountains. But winter bleak. We drove through Wheeling, West Virginia which oddly enough resonated with me because I had written about Joe McCarthy as an undergrad, and it was in Wheeling, West Virginia, at a talk before a woman’s club, that he first took out of his attaché case a fistful of papers that he waved around dramatically saying - I have here evidence of Communists in our Government! Next time you think we just escaped the worst political period ever remember Joe McCarthy - he was dispicable too.

    In Ohio we stopped at a lovely rest stop that had lots of park like grounds to walk the dogs and really good vending machines. This is what is important when you travel with two dogs. I also learned at this rest stop that Interstate 70 parallels and sometimes overlaps National Road 40 which has historial significance. National Road 40 is considered to be the first highway in the United States. Both Presidents Washington and Jefferson believed that a trans-Appalachian road was necessary for unifying the country, so this 820-mile long path through Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana and Illinois is considered the first federally funded road in the United States. When you are travelling on I 70 you will see exits to bring you down to 40 - side trips we are not able to take this time through. If you have some time, though, read about this road - it’s very interesting.

    We rode through Ohio, with our first glimpse of sun in three or four days, pleased to see big cities at Columbus and Dayton, into Indiana with a big city of course at Indianapolis and now here we rest for the night in Effingham, Illinois, having experienced our first time change. Effingham is at the crossroad of major north south roads and you cannot believe the number of trucks that are hunkered down here for the night - thousands. Another thing you won’t believe is that when we got to the office to check in here, there were three men standing in the check in office WITHOUT MASKS!!! Don’t worry, I called in to start the process and only went in after the maskless men exited. What is it with these people? when I see things like this I start to understand how we can have these ridiculous pandemic numbers - people are actually still not wearing masks!

    I have some pictures to download for this post but still have to figure out how to do it. Goodnight! onward to Kansas tomorrow.    Read more

  • TravelerHere we go again ...
    Day 1

    First Leg

    January 3, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 0 °C

    January 3rd, 2020

    There is something enormously freeing about waking up one morning and saying okay let’s hit the road - California here we come!

    Harry and I did a good job of getting ready for this trip starting way back with organizing our barn in the unexpected warmer weather in November. Uh huh, that far back and yes it started with the barn. By the time we got up this morning at 7:00 we just needed to pack up our necessities and pile into the car by 9:30. Our first stop was Somerset, Pennsylvania which would bring us to the beginning of Route 70, which should take us directly west across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinoise and all those “other states” until we hit Nevada Interstate 15 and head south on 15.

    Alas, between us and Somerset was a snowstorm that started about 3 1/2 hours into our trip. Lucky for me, that was the end of my driving stint and the beginning of Harry’s. He’s much better in snow. Three and a half hours of pretty intense snow. Poor Sammie has intestinal distress so we had to stop more times than we planned. In one of the stops we recognized that a half foot of snow had fallen. Also, at a Valero gas station in Pennsylvania two Amish horse drawn buggies went by in this very heavy snow fall at a very good clip. It was pretty dramatic to be at a regular old gas station and see these two buggies go by - beautiful horses, a fast clip.

    Well, we got to Somerset 10 hours after setting out and checked into a Days Inn Motel. Days Inn is our lot in life when travellng with two large dogs and wanting to be near the Interstate with access to our room through the parking lot. A lot of our friends are alarmed by the idea of us venturing across the country at the height of the pandemic and I totally agree but we weighed the risks and we told each other that we were making an informed decision The “informed” part of that sentence means that if something happens to us on this journey there can be no recriminations, second guessing, etc. And you have our permission to remind us of that.

    Back to The Days Inn - We are supposed to register from our car to minimize the only human contact we plan on having on this trip, and then just go inside to get the key. That didn’t happen exactly as planned at this first stop. I went into the office to show the clerk my driver’s license and to pick up our key. Both people working at the motel were behind a plexiglass petition but without masks. So far so good. I was in there for about 2 minutes when I realized I was hearing people talking nearer to me than they should be and looking up, I see a women (more than 10 feet away from me) talking to someone from behind the desk - WITHOUT A MASK ON. Major freak out. I told the clerk behind the plexiglass that I was leaving because I was super uncomfortable with someone not wearing a mask and rushed out to the car. Did I get COVID????

    Harry tended to the dogs while I tended to getting us ensconced in our room - we brought all of our linen, bed covers, food, a new hand propelled coffee maker, etc, and importantly wine for the evening. Getting us set up is a military field operation. All the while I am going back and forth into our room a guest from two doors down is outside her room smoking and trying to talk to me - which I am strongly discouraging since SHE IS NOT WEARING A MASK! Are these people crazy????

    And just to finish with a flourish - our room had an unidentifiable bug on the wall that Harry had to remove to the outside. Days Inn sucks. Two more things about Somerset - this is a town you might stay at if you wanted to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial - this is the area where the plane commandeered by the passengers and crew of Flight 93 on 9/11 went down. It is thought that the United States Capital was the terrorists’ destination thwarted by those brave folks. Also, Somerset abuts Johnstown, Pennsylvania which was the site of the largest flooding disaster in the 19th Century killing 2,209 people, and also the site of Clara Barton’s (founder of the Red Cross) first major disaster relief effort - the Johnstown Flood.

    Leg 1 completed - 482 miles. Tommorrow we set out for Leg 2 of the Great American Pandemic Get Away which starts us on Interstate 70 and ends at Effingham, Illinois.    Read more

  • TravelerTravels with Jack and Sam
    Day 57

    The party's over ....

    January 21, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    We rolled back into Ashfield on Saturday evening, January 21, 2018, temperature in the 20s, cold and gloomy. Hard not to think back on the sun we had left back in Fernandina, where I left you in my last post. From Fernandina we made our way to my sister's in Charleston, were we hunkered down for an extra day waiting for yet another ice snap to pass through the Eastern Seaboard. We had a really good time with Rita and Kurt, saw two movies and ate more bbq.

    We left Charleston on Thursday morning not knowing how far we would get that day nor whether we would spend the night in the camper or in a motel. We made it all the way to Roanoke Rapids, which is in North Carolina on the border with Virginia, went for the motel since we stopped driving late and had no water in the camper.

    We started our last day on the road a little on the late side - somewhat dragging our feet - and had a beautiful drive through Virginia - really stunning landscape that we vowed to visit in better weather. Our very last night on the road was spent at the the Microtel Inn and Suites in Hamburg, Virginia.

    Back to our Ashfield return: after spending Saturday night in Ashfield, we emptied and cleaned out our camper Sunday morning, and headed out for Montreal Sunday afternoon to return our camper. That was poignant - we had lived well in the 150 square feet provided by it and I didn't want to let it go.

    Since being back, our friends have asked several questions - what was the best part of your trip? would you do it again? how much did you spend on gas????

    These are hard questions to answer except for the last and we are in the process of calculating that. I think for me the best part of this experience was to strip away a lot of what goes on in my daily life. I was more present. I had fewer choices. We had no tv. I had four outfits and two pairs of shoes. I had to carry my toiletries to a communal bathhouse in the morning. I had to empty out anything I put into the trailer (or rather Harry did - thank you Harry!). I had to pay attention to Jack and Sam's needs. I had to be sure Harry was feeling good. In sum, everything was a little more immediate than what's typical in my ordinary daily life - and I am grateful for that experience. And yes I would do it again.    Read more

  • TravelerTravels with Jack and Sam
    1
    1111112
    Day 52

    The long and winding road ...

    January 16, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

    Destin Florida January 13 |Fernandina Beach, January 14

    There is no denying we are on our way home. I could stay on the road longer but Harry is ready to turn in his driving gloves. Thank goodness we stopped in at Henderson State Park in Destin, Florida (think western Florida panhandle) before we started heading north. My cousin Diane mentioned this as a great place when we were heading west, but we couldn’t get in. This park is awesome. I think it may be the nicest place to stay in Destin. The beach is very built up on both sides of the State Park so it has that Miami Beach feel. But in the State Park stretch of the beach, when you leave your camper you walk down a long sheltered path until you get to a boardwalk that meanders to the Gulf of Mexico. Also, the individual campsites have a lot of vegetation so you feel private. Some may not like the fact that you can hear road noises in the Park, but we don't mind -- and are thrilled to be near restaurants, donut shops, etc.

    This is the whitest beach I have ever seen but I haven’t been to the Caribbean. I think it’s okay to post these pictures of a white sandy beach because I believe it is colder here in Destin today than it is in Ashfield. One fly in the ointment - no dogs on the beach! What?

     Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island, January 14

    We set out from Destin early on Sunday, 9:00 ish, and drove the whole day uneventfully on 10. Beautiful day. We rolled into the Fort Clinch State Park, Fernandina Beach, on Amelia Island at about 4:00 and we got a spot! This was the first time we didn’t have a reservation so we were feeling pretty lucky - this State Park is another great example of what I have said many times - check out the pictures below - you couldn’t stay in a nicer place than this on Amelia Island and it cost 28.00! We are going to go explore Fort Clinch shortly. If you come here, there's a tiny cuban breakfast/lunch place called Hola Cafe that has great media noches, Cuban coffee, empanadas, etc.

    But we are alas now in the eastern time zone, and when we hit the road tomorrow, we will be heading North.    Read more

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