Yes, we often show up in odd ball destinations like Wickenburg, AZ, visiting obscure attractions like the “Jail Tree.” This week, however, we set our sights on a top tourist destination, Mackinac Island in the Mackinac Straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron in upper Michigan. By the way up here it is pronounced “Mackinaw,” the “c” at the end of the word is silent. The name is a shortening of the original Indian name Michilimackinac which means “place of the great turtle.” Read More
Tourist Destinations:
July 16, 2011
The Attic:
July 11, 2011
Here we were drifting around the nation’s rust belt, Detroit and Dearborn Michigan, when we stumbled into America’s attic. Maybe not exactly stumbled, more like encouraged by long time friends Jim and MaryKay and their daughter Kati and hubby JT. We arranged a rendezvous in Tipp City, Ohio and enjoyed a long visit. Read More
Time Warp
June 19, 2011
If you think we have a lock on wild scenic country in the west, think again. Here we are in the middle of Kentucky, a half days drive by freeway to places like Cincinnati, Louisville and Memphis . Yet we are caught in a time warp. Our campground in Mammoth Caves National Park has no electricity, no water, no cell phone coverage, no cable TV and no WiFi. Read More
Catch Up:
May 27, 2011
The past ten days have been both exciting and hectic: Exciting in that we are exploring a completely new part of the country: Hectic because a couple things have quit working. Read More
The Cabot Trail:
August 17, 2006
Nova Scotia seems to me to be roughly divided into two parts. Cape Breton Island and all the rest of Nova Scotia. Cape Breton Island was likened to the Scottish Highlands by Alexander Graham Bell. Of course Nova Scotia means New Scotland, and this area has a strong Scottish heritage. Nowhere on Cape Breton Island are you ever very far from water. Read More
Gettysburg PA:
October 19, 2005
The last three days we have been reviewing our U.S. History up close and personal. I certainly am not going to tell you folks the story of what happened here. I will encourage you all to take time whenever you pass these historical places to take the time to reflect on what our forbearers were doing back then. Read More
Acadia National Park:
September 25, 2005
We have found a real treasure here in Bar Harbor Maine. It is Acadia National Park. We have been hiking and biking and riding all of the free shuttle buses. The weather has been outstanding. We may get our spirits dampened a bit tomorrow as a frontal system blows in from New York State. Read More
The Murphy Factor:
September 22, 2005
Well we are still seeing lots of neat new places and doing fun things, but we have a hitch-hiker along. His name is Murphy. Now I won’t go into detail for I don’t want to sound like a whiner but here are some of the things that Murphy has had his fingers in
We have spent the last couple days visiting Ricky Lord’s Computer Repair Service in Calais Maine. Our Laptop Computer caught a virus and wasn’t feeling very well. You could punch his go button and he would make a brave attempt to get up, sniffle a couple times and go back to bed. Ricky finally identified the critter, a Trojan called Dropper.32.delf. It had been lying dormant since October of 2004 and woke up on September 16, 2005. This virus took over ownership of our computer, assigned its own password and wouldn’t let anyone start up or change the computer. Thanks for the help Ricky.
This took several trips in the motor home to Calais Maine where Ricky has his shop; a fellow camper came up and pointed out that the cover door over our hot water heater was missing after one of these trips. He took a ride on his Harley later in the afternoon and retraced our route to Calais and he did find our cover door it had been run over…repeatedly. A couple hours with a ball peen hammer and a bumping steel and the door fits again. It ain’t pretty but it is functional.
But wait, that is not enough. When I went to start up my newly remodeled computer I was missing my power supply. A call to Ricky confirmed my fears. It was 30 miles back up the road in Calais Maine. We are starting to feel like commuters.
What next; how about the bedroom curtain jumping its track. Now we are experts at removing the window treatments and putting them back together.
Through all of that we have continued our travels. We exited Canada on Monday, September 18th. We crossed over from St. Stephen, New Brunswick to Calais Maine. Along the way we ate our way through the Ganong Chocolate Museum, filled up with cheap(er) Diesel in the USA and restocked our totally depleted supply of vegetables and fruits. We have been riding Path, our faithful Tandem Bicycle, daily and are starting to get back in shape after doing without the bicycle for so long. We rode out to West Quoddy Head Light House today. This cape is the most easterly point in the United States, and it has a very pretty red and white striped light house on it. Tomorrow we plan to do about a 20 mile ride on Campobello Island which is back in New Brunswick. To get there from Canada they have to take a series of ferries. Here in Lubek Maine there is a short International bridge to the island. It is famous for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s summer home. They tell us we can walk out to the light house on the far end if this island also, but the tide needs to be out to do it. These are still Bay of Fundy tides so there should be lots of semi-dry ocean floor to walk on.
Well it is time to say good bye and send along our love to all.
Gary and Judy
West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, Easternmost Point in the USA
Walkin’ About:
September 3, 2005
We are winding up our last week here in Newfoundland. On Thursday we will hop back on the ferry for a fourteen hour ride back to Nova Scotia. We are anxious to get back and see how Path the green dragon, our tandem bicycle is doing. Without our bicycle we have been walking everywhere to visit the sights. Yesterday we walked across the town of St. Johns, the Capitol of Newfoundland and its largest city. Read More
The End of the Earth:
August 29, 2005
Good Day:
I know, I have used Hi Everyone since the start, but around here we almost always get greeted with “Good Day.” It is not “g’ day” like the Ausies say. But when we get way out in the province we are finding that we have to listen real keen-like to understand the Newfoundland dialect. Read More
