Day 21 (7/12/09) - Shelburne NH to Harrington ME

After a drizzly night, a beautiful morning greeted us. We left at 7:50 (59°) because we were eating breakfast out! We saw a review online for The Moonbeam Cafe in Gorham, NH, just up the road. It's a small place and the review said if we didn't get there by 8am on Sunday, we'd have to wait in line. We arrived shortly after 8am and were seated immediately. Quaint little place that used to be a barber shop. Steve had blueberry pancakes with "local" maple syrup and Donna had her maple syrup on french toast made from Portuguese Sweet Bread (whatever that means). Both were very good.

On to Maine via highway 16. We didn't stop at the Wilhelm Reich museum - it didn't open until 1pm and we passed it's entrance at 10:30. Guess we'll never know the "secrets" he uncovered.

By the time we got to Rangeley, the scenic route mode had become tiresome. So, we took Hiway 4 towards Farmington, ME. During that stretch, we encountered some construction. At one point we rounded a bend and a sign stating "pavement ends" greated us. There was no indication from signage regarding the length of the non-pavement. We flagged down an oncoming motorist with Maine plates and were told it only lasts a couple of miles. Whew! We rewarded ourselves with ice cream at Gifford's Ice Cream (http://www.giffords.com/products/ice_cream_and_sorbets.cfm) in Farmington.

We proceeded to I95 in Waterville and took it to Bangor. We then headed South toward Acadia National Park. Since we had been there before, we elected to bypass this park and head NE on Hiway 1 along the coast. Finally found an acceptable rv park (maybe because it was the last one for many miles) in Harrington. It's called the Sunset Point RV Park. Just as we pulled in, a large fog bank arrived. It's been here ever since. When we checked in, I asked the owner where we should go to view the sunset and he suggested Florida or Arizona! I think they're getting a little tired of the rain here.

We head for Campobello International Park in the morning.

Distance: 279 miles

Driving time: 7.1 hours

MPG: 24

Fuel: $50.00 (19.2 gal at $2.60/gal)

Camping: $22 (no discount for lack of sunset)

Day 20 (7/11/09) - Colchester, VT to Shelburne, NH

After departure at 8:20 (70°) we drove through Burlington, an interesting, laid-back, bohemian-looking town, with lots of stop lights - all red!!

Just outside the city at Richmond, we stopped to see "The Old Round Church." A 16-sided building, constructed in 1812-13 as a worship place for five different denominations (http://www.oldroundchurch.com/). Today it's used for special events, such as concerts and weddings. We arrived too early and were unable to see inside.

Stopped at a small shopping complex, near Waterbury, wherein they sold Cabot Cheese, Vermont Wine and Chocolate. The manager of the Cabot Cheese store had just returned from a week in Nova Scotia and PEI. She thoroughly enjoyed her trip, though the weather was somewhat dreary. There were few visitors and, at times, she was able to drive for 30-45 minutes without seeing another car! Due to the lack of tourists, service personnel were very attentive wherever she went. We can hardly wait.

The highlight of the day, I guess, was a visit to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory. We had the obligatory ice cream (it WAS very good) and purchased a small souvenir. The crowd was much smaller than we expected; we were the only RV in the parking lot when we left. In fact, we have seen very few RVs during this part of the trip.

We drove through some pretty scenic stuff in the White Mountains of NH. Lots of weekend visitors from MA, ME, NY, CT, and RI. Some crowded roads. We're now in a very quiet RV park (only two kids!) near the Maine state line. Supposed to be a heavy thunderstorm in a few hours, but might be better tomorrow.

Tomorrow we may stop at the Welhelm Reich museum. Didn't know anything about him, but found out he might have been a little strange. See a wiki about him at - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich. Maybe we'll learn a little!

Distance: 191 miles

Driving time: 5.6 hours

MPG: 23.1

Fuel: none puchased

Camping: $29.43

Day 19 (7/10/09) - Lake George to Colchester, VT

We departed Ledgeview RV at 8:10 (57 degrees). First stop was Ft. Ticonderoga. To our surprise it is not a National Monument. It is a non-profit site that wants $15 to walk around the Fort. Seemed a little steep, so we moved on.

The next stop was the Shelburne Museum (http://www.shelburnemuseum.org/) just South of Burlington. Frommer's said it best ..

"Think of this sprawling museum as New England's attic. Located on 45 acres on the shores of Lake Champlain, the Shelburne Museum not only has the usual exhibits of quilts and early glass, but also entire buildings preserved like specimens in formaldehyde."

The Tiffany Glass and the hooked rugs special exhibits were the most impressive to Donna. Her favorite "formaldehyde" building was the 195o's house.

A couple of buildings were closed for a special event, which we learned was a visit by the Governor, Senator Leahy, and the French Ambassador. Turns out the Ambassador was presenting the wampum belts for a special exhibit. They must have had some scheduling problems as that exhibit was supposed to open on July 2. Bummer.

Next was a visit to "Snowflake" Bentley's Museum in Jericho (a Frommer recommendation). Housed in an old red mill, in a small town, the photographs of Wilson Bentley (http://www.snowflakebentley.com/museum.htm) were displayed. "From the time of his first successful print in January 1885, he took over 5,000 microphotographs of snow crystals. This was done with the simplest equipment: a microscope, a bellows camera, light from a window for his exposures, sunlight to develop his prints, and a brook to wash negatives" - Museum Brochure

Bentley's work was published in National Geographic, Scientific American, and the National Weather Service Research Journal. He died in 1931 shortly after his book, "Snow Crystals", was published. He was one of the first to profess the uniqueness of each snowflake. "Each snowflake is as different from it's fellows as we human beings are from each other."

Distance Traveled: 126 miles

Travel Time: 4 hrs

MPG: 23.9

Fuel: $37.07 (13.7 gal at $2.69 per gal)

Camping: $44.52!!!! Might as well stay in a motel. Seems a little high for camping next to all these kids.

Day 17 (7/8/09) - Lantz Corners, PA to Lake George, NY

Departed Foote Rest RV Park at 8:55 (temp 57). Found out that camping cost $30.18 and the terrible tasting water "had been tested by the PA Dept of ... and found to be ok to drink". It was full of iron and left a rusty spot on the RV! We were told that all of NW PA's water tasted the same. We are now buying distilled water for our drinks.

Our orignal plans were to spend the night in the Seneca Falls area after visiting several wineries. Instead, we chose the "shorter" wine trail along Keuka Lake, and only stopped at two wineries. Both were good and we have a case of white from the Fox Run Winery being shipped to home. We'll use one of those wines as our "wine from home" next season.

The first winery was Macgregor's. This winery was way up the hillside and afforded great views of the lake. We only tasted one wine there, so didn't have to pay the tasting fee; we did buy the wine. A very good unoaked chardonnay. Talked to the owner a little bit and petted his Portuguese Water Dog - Max. He said, "You may not believe this, but I used to live next door to Barack Obama in Chicago. I like to think that Max and I were the reason he picked his dog, but I know it probably was because of the Kennedy's. However, several people in the neighborhood had Portuguese Water Dogs. So, who knows?" Interesting gentleman.

Oh, BTW, Smethport, PA is home of Wooly Willy. Look him up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wooly_Willy

Sometime during the day of driving through many, many small towns, I made the decision to return to the interstate for a while. I needed the rest; too many speed changes. At that time we decided to drive on to Lake George and spend two nights there. I'm glad we changed plans, yet once again, we saw 5 different rainbows on the way. One was complete and appeared to begin over the interstate lanes to our left. Beautiful scenery.

I may have mentioned this before, but our two GPSs failed early on in the trip and we bought another - a Mio S501 - Samantha. The iWay's screen failed to respond to touches (it's now in a trash can somewhere) and the new Magellan has no longer allowed us to create routes (it always wants to restart). So, Samantha has been our routing friend/foe. Donna continues to use the map and other paper guides, in case Samantha wants to take us down some country road - which sometimes she is wont to do. Many times I'd like to throw Samantha out the window. However, yesterday afternoon we let Samantha have her way and drove through downtown Saratoga Springs. What a beautiful, quaint, and vibrant area. Many restaurants with outdoor dining and people everywhere. The attraction seemed to be the New York City Ballet performing in town.

Made it to Ledgeview RV just before sundown - happy to get out of the rig for a little while. A pretty quiet park, but a little pricey at $39. Today (Thursday, July 9) was spent doing washing and ironing, and planning the next few days.

We'll try to leave a little earlier in the morning because the weather forecast sounds good and there are some neat things to see in Vermont.

Miles Driven: 393

Driving Time: 8.7 hours !!!! Let's don't do that again.

MPG: 22.6

Fuel: $47.62 (17 gal at $2.80 - and it's getting higher)

Camping: $78 (two nights)

Mini - Post

We're in Lake George, NY. We didn't win the $133M Mega-million jackpot, so we have to continue our trip. Plan to be here for two nights. I'll update the blog tomorrow.

Day 16 - West Branch to Lantz Corners, PA

We left at 9:30 (we've got to start earlier) and it was 68°.

We took off for Pennsylvania. Donna saw on the map, several days ago, the Great Blue Heron Sanctuary near Greenville. We looked for more information online and through the AAA function of our GPS, but found little about the place. It was mentioned in various web sites. Red Flag No. 1!

As was we got closer to Greenville, we saw no signs directing us to the sanctuary. Red Flag No. 2!

We continued to follow the map and found the location which, obviously, hadn't been used in years. See the pictures on SmugMug. Donna was bummed!

Onward.

The next point of interest we had selected on the map was DeBence Antique Music World in Franklin, PA. It did not disappoint. This is a see and hear museum that presents an extensive collection of old-time mechanical musical instruments (http://www.debencemusicworld.com/). Mechanical music is defined as any music produced by other than human hands - player pianos, nickelodeons, carousel organs, and music boxes. From a web site -

" This collection was begun about 50 years ago by Mr. and Mrs. Jake DeBence, then dairy farmers in Grove City. Although neither of the DeBences were musicians, both loved the music produced by these wonderful mechanical marvels. After retirement in 1960, the DeBences moved to the Franklin area and kept their music box and antique music machine collection in their barn a few miles outside of town. After Jake passed away, the museum became a non-profit organization and relocated to historic downtown Franklin."

It's the second don't miss-it location we've found; we're glad we had to reroute our trip. And then we ate out. We're spending the night at Foote Rest RV Park. The office was closed when we arrived, so don't know for sure how much this costs. The park is filled with tame rabbits (the large pet variety).

Distance: 188 miles
Driving Time: 4.6 hours
MPG: 24.3
Camping Cost: ??
Fuel: Did not purchase

Day 15 - Bluffton, IN to West Branch State Park, OH

Departed Bluffton at 9:15 and 69°. We took highway 30 across Ohio; really nice because the truck speed limit was 55 and cars was 65. And, it is a mostly smooth divided highway.

The AAA information on our GPS indicated we should stop in Mansfield, OH to see the Richland Carousel Park; we thought it would be a good lunch stop. After all, it is a park. However, the "park" was a building on a street corner that housed the merry-go-round. Didn't look that special, anyway, so we moved on to Kingwood Center, also in Mansfield. This is the estate of Charles King ( http://www.kingwoodcenter.org/our_history.html). It is 47 acres of landscaped gardens, trails, and ponds. Lot's of pretty flowers, but it was probably best early in the Spring because they have one of the country's largest displays of tulips and daffodils. Pictures have been uploaded to SmugMug. We enjoyed our lunch under a shade tree by the parking lot!!!

We were tired of hiway 30, very little to see on the way, so on AAA recommendation, we headed down highway 39 through Amish Country (BTW, Berlin is very crowded with tourists at the "Amish" stores) towards Dover to visit the Warther Carving Museum (http://www.warthers.com/). Everybody should visit this place!! "Mooney" Warther found a pocket knife when he was 5 years old, began to carve, and continued until he was 85. There are amazing displays of locomotives in ivory, ebony, and walnut. You have to see it to believe it. His early works were multiple pliers made from one piece of wood (see pictures on SmugMug). While he carved, his wife collected buttons. Over 73,000 of them! She made elaborate framed displays - again, you have to see it to believe it. He also collected great quantities of native american arrow heads (Don, take note!). I'll upload as many pictures as I think needed to show the collection. The staff was very nice and offered us free camping in their parking lot. However, it was too early to stop, so we moved on to ----

West Branch State Park near Ravenna, OH. One of the nicest State Park camping grounds we've seen. It cost $25, but it's work it. The bird of the evening is the Grey Catbird.

Tomorrow - Pennsylvania

Distance Traveled: 300 miles

Driving Time: 7.2 hours

MPG: 22.7

Camping Cost: $25

Fuel: $49.94 (19.3 gal at $2.49/gal)

Another Update to Today

Needed to say that both Illinois and Indiana have LOTS of corn. There is another crop that I suspect is some sort of bean (soybeans?), but I don't know what it is. It's a close second after CORN.

Update to Today

The KOA in Bluffton has wifi. Normally wifi at a campground is not good. Most of the time you can't even get access. HOWEVER, this campground has the best wifi I've ever seen - over 3mb/s!! If only Gold Canyon could be so good.

Day 14 - Petersburg to Bluffton, IN

We left the Ray's at 8:15 - 62° and raining. As we left their park, our directional signals failed. Steve removed the relay and reinstalled and they started working again. Was it rusting already? We did note the part number, just in case.

Gibson City we stopped at another city park to stretch our legs. This little park had just completed their installation of a small campground for RVs! Probably 10 sites. Very nice; water and electric for only $10 a night. Consider it if you're in the area!

We ate lunch in a city park in Watseka. We hit the Indiana state line at 12:25 (central time). At Monticello a Wal-Mart stop and a stop at the Whyte (this is the correct spelling) Horse Winery - a nice setting, but the dry white wines were about $25, so we moved on.

That was on to Peru, home of Cole Porter. AND, the Circus Capital of the World (we've noticed that a lot of places are "The Captial" fo something). We tried to visit the Circus City Festival Museum, but because it was Sunday, they were closed. However, there were workers preparing for next week's 50th Anniversary Amateur Circus Festival offered to show us around. The museum was locked, but he took us into their performance arena. Each year approximately 200 young people, ages 7 to 21, supported by a tremendous number of adult volunteers, present 10 performance during an 8 day period in July. Some were practicing in the arena at the time. We wanted a refrigerator magnet, but because the sales cases were locked, our nice guide gave us a name badge sticker with the festival logo that Donna will make into a magnet in the Fall.

We're spending the night at a brand new KOA in Bluffton, IN. The park isn't completed, but it is in a very nice and quiet location near the Wabash River. Glad we stopped here. Tomorrow is Ohio.

Distance Traveled: 286 miles
Driving Time: 6 hrs 30 min
MPG: 23
Camping: $32
Fuel: $44.99 (17.3 gal at $2.60 gal)

Day 13 - Rainy 4th of July

It rained all day on the 4th, so we went to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. Very interesting place; the normal letters, dresses, cups & saucers, but this museum also had high tech audio-visual presentations. If you get a chance - go.

That afternoon Jim cooked a pork loin, potatoes, fresh corn on the cob, green beans, and rolls. We must say that Linda helped, too, and also made a great fruit salad. Afterwards, Jim and Steve made ice cream ... at least they sat and watched the freezer turn!!

A very good weekend in spite of the rain.

Day 12 - Desloge to Petersburg, IL

Corn, corn, corn and we're not in Iowa. Lot's of corn here. We had our picnic lunch at the American Legion ball field in Carlinville, IL. All by ourselves.

Just watched the fireworks show at Jim & Linda's place outside of Petersburg. They paid $500 for their lot a few years ago; their monthly fee for everything except electricity is $45. What a deal.

Internet access is slow here, so I can't add much more. We'll leave here on Sunday - Day 14.

Miles Driven: About 195
No other information available.

Day 10 - Ft. Smith to Desloge, MO

Departed Ft. Smith at 8:45 - Humid and 84° F. Camping near the river in that weather is a little different than Arizona! It's almost like living in ... Iowa.

We met Steve's niece for lunch in Bentonville. She used to be a blond, so it was a shock to see somebody else.

As we've said before, interstates are the pits. And this day was no different. We don't think we've seen as many trucks as on this day's travel. We believe more than half the traffic is freight. What would we do if the trucks stopped??? A small construction project (one side of the road for only a 100'), tied up traffic for about 45 minutes. The delay was caused, in no small part, to people refusing to merge until the last possible moment.

We found a nice city park with swimming pool in Cuba, MO. This is where we had our dinner sandwich. Very nice. We hope the city parks continue to make themselves available.

At Donna's parents today we worked. Donna has been washing and ironing (and helping Steve). Steve has been caulking the roof and trying to provide support under the shower to eliminate further plastic flex. Donna was successful; hoping Steve was, too.

Tomorrow morning it's on to Jim and Linda's place with a stop at Costco in St. Louis for some supplies (the grape kind).

Miles Driven: 398
Travel Time: 7.9 hours
MPG: 20.5
Fuel: $52.25 (20.9 gal @ $2.50/gal)

Camping Cost in Ft. Smith was $36 for two night.