Friday August 31 through Sunday September 2, 2007 Cloverdale RV Park, Cloverdale, IN
We again were on I70 all day. Much of this area looks a lot like some of Kansas but with more trees. They grow lots of soybeans and corn here. It looks like a good crop this year. Just read in the Indiana travel guide the state produces 365, 000,000 pounds of popcorn each year. Orville Redenbacher came from a small town in Indiana.

Wednesday Aug. 29, and Thursday 30, 2007 Wal-Mart, Washington, PA
We left Kinzers at about 10 am. We are on interstate highways mostly. Some are through mountains. Today we went through 5 tunnels. We see some farmland but mostly trees. The drive today seemed pretty long as most interstate trips do. We stayed at Wal-Mart in Washington PA. Seems like it is taking us a long time to get across Pennsylvania. It was pretty hot sleeping tonight. We turned on the generator so we could cool down the motor home a little but that does not last long when we turn it off. Thursday was overcast and cool, a very nice day to travel. We could not find any reasonably priced campgrounds with open sites due to the holiday weekend. So we stayed at Wal-Mart again. With the cool temperatures today we should be ok sleeping. There is a Mexican Restaurant here in this shopping center so we went there for supper. This is the first Mexican food we have had since June!! That is a long time for us as we really like Mexican cuisine.

Monday Aug 27 and 28, 2007 Roamers Retreat Campground, Kinzers, PA
This is a beautiful cool day in the 70’s and a beautiful drive to Kinzers where we will stay 2 nights. We are taking some back roads which are very narrow. Every few miles we go through a small town and most are very clean and have attractive homes. As we get closer to Kinzers we are seeing many small farms and lots of agriculture. There are huge fields of corn. One surprising things we see growing here is tobacco. We see fields where it has been cut and piled up like a corn shock where it drys somewhat before they put it in the barns.

This area has a large population of Amish. Small farms, very close together dot the landscape. It is quite a picturesque view of the countryside. Everything is green and very healthy. They do no irrigating and really do not need to. The Amish in this area do not use any form of powered transportation. They use horses with buggies, wagons, plows and/or other farm equipment....except it is ok to use tractors if they do not have rubber tires and it is ok to use generators and power driven tools.

Nearly every home has clothes hanging on the line and they have their clothes line on a pulley so that they can just real in the clothes. Notice the pulley at the top of the clothesline pole for realing in the clothes. We have not seen that since the olden days.

Roamers Retreat is a very nice campground with lots of shade. We will be here only long enough to the Sight and Sound Musical Production in Strasburg. Our friends, Jay and Betty, are coming from Delaware to go with us. Tuesday noon we had a nice soup and salad at home for lunch and then Jay drove us around to see the Amish countryside; we stopped at one Amish store and also saw a short film on the Mennonite and Amish faiths. If you are interested in learning about the Amish people and their faith:
http://www.800padutch.com/amish.shtml

By then it was time to make our way over to the Sight and Sound Theatre for the production of “In the Beginning”, the Genesis story. It is a great musical production with a stage that wraps around both sides of the huge auditorium. The sets are very elaborate and the music was recorded by a symphony orchestra from Prague. The lighting and sound are magnificent. It is a production equal to some in Las Vegas. But best of all was the message of Jesus Christ shared by the performers. There are angels flying around and live animals, 100 of them, along with huge animated full size animals. A magnificent program. Sight and Sound is opening a theatre in Branson, MO. It will be completed and begin showing the story of Noah in the spring of 2008. We encourage anyone who is making a trip to Branson to see this or here in Strasbury, PA. A history of the theatre can be found at:
http://www.sight-sound.com/WebSiteSS/gethistory.do

Saturday Aug. 25 and 26, 2007 Countryside Family Campground, Honesdale, PA.
We are on the road this morning and will be heading into Pennsylvania in just a few hours. We had heavy rain and lightening during the night. We thought the wind was blowing hard, but guess not, as many RV’s had awnings out and none were blown down. We never leave ours out at night and very seldom when we are gone for the day unlike a lot of people. We are out of the mountains but it is quite hilly. There are lots of agricultural crops along the way. A field just across from the campground was growing buckwheat and we see lots of soybeans. Also some oats and quite a bit of alfalfa. But mostly we see huge fields of corn growing right up the hillside—no terraces and no irrigation. Everything is very green and lush. There are also several farmers growing food crops and they often have a road side stand. We are on a secondary highway and we travel thru small towns every few miles. Most of New York seems to be this way. We see lots of beautiful old homes, many Victorian, with lots of gingerbread trim and painted attractively. One other thing we enjoy seeing are the BIG majestic churches in every town we go through. Oh my!! God is so good to us. It is not possible to get pictures of homes and buildings while going down the road or we could have a great album. We are in PA and one state closer to Kansas. We have been in 14 new states since we started our New England/northeast trip. I think we will go through 4 more on our way home. We are ready to stay put for a while. So get ready for us Kansas. Near our campground we see a bunch of wind generators and a beautiful lake. As we travel along today we have been watching the temperatures posted on banks…..the last one said 95 degrees!!!! That is way, way too hot for us. We may have to hibernate. There is really not much to do in this area so we can rest a bit, get some wash done and it wouldn’t hurt if we cleaned house a little. The temperature here in Honesdale today was about 95. We pretty much stayed inside and when it began to cool off we went swimming in the pool here at the campground. Sunday was a much nicer day. It rained early am before we got up and stayed cloudy all day. The temperature was is the mid 70’s most of the day. Gene did a few things around the house here and I finished the wash.

Wednesday Aug. 22 through Friday Aug. 24, 2007 Adirondack Gateway Campground & Lodge, Cold Brook, NY
Our trip here was uneventful. We drove through the mountains but none were very high and some of the time we were in a valley alongside a stream. We didn’t see anything worthy of a photo except noticing that here in mid-August we are seeing trees beginning to adorn their fall colors. We can tell they are going to be majestic in just a few short weeks.

Friday 8/24
The town of Herkimer, NY has a fun place to dig in the rocks and find a diamond-like gems called Herkimer Diamonds. Herkimer Diamonds are really double-terminated quartz crystals but they are beautiful and look like diamonds. These gemstones are believed to be close to 500 million years old. When we found them they already looked like they were precision cut and have a geometrical shape like a real diamond. That is why they are called the Herkimer Diamond. It was an over-cast day and very humid so we were somewhat uncomfortable while we broke up rocks looking for a diamond. Finally we decided to take a break and on the way back to the car Gene was looking in the rocks along the drive and found one! We decided to eat our lunch and then return to that area to look for rocks like the one we found it in. We found several more but then our luck ran out. We were glad we had some to brag about. We were hot and tired when we were done and for sure ready to quit.

When we left there we drove on to Little Falls where Lock 17 on the Erie Canal is located. The canal was completed in 1825 to connect Lake Erie to the Hudson River for commerce so that people who wanted to move inland could receive goods. In the beginning it was only four feet deep and 40 feet wide and the barges were pulled along by mules. Due to the building of the canal New York City became the main source of commerce and the city began to grow by leaps and bounds. In 1862 the canal depth was increased from 4 to 7 feet so the boats could carry more and heavier cargo. In 1905 plans were made to modernize the canal and the construction took until 1918 At that time it became a barge canal. Today it is used mainly for pleasure craft with a few commercial boats. Of all the locks on the Erie Canal, Lock 17 has the highest lift—40.5 feet. That is over twice the height of most barge canal locks. Lock 17 lifts boats higher than any single lock on the Panama Canal.

Thursday 8/23
Today we drove into Utica, NY to the visitors center to see what there is to do in the area. There seems to be quite a bit but not much that we wanted to see or else it would take longer than the two days we have here. So we did a little shopping and decided to come back tomorrow, in some older clothes, to go to the Herkimer Diamond Mine. The lady at the info center promised we would be able to find diamonds. We have wanted to do that and now is our chance.

Sunday August 19, through August 21 Blue Ridge Falls Campsite North Hudson, NY
We drove through mountains on our way across western Vermont. Separating Vermont and upstate New York is the southernmost point of Lake Champlain. As soon as we cross over into New York we immediately see mountains. The name, Blue Ridge Falls Campsite should have given us a clue of what to expect but we did not catch it. This campsite is very rustic, mostly dirt roads with a few big rocks thrown in. It sits on the side of a mountain and has 5 levels. Most of the sites are occupied by people who live and work here in the summer. Some have other homes not far away and some go to Florida in the winter. I spoke with one man who is a painter. He says he has no problems getting jobs when he moves from one area to the next. He owns a home on an island near the west coast of Florida. He was originally from here. Then there are several RV’s here belonging to people who live in New York and they come here for weekend get-a-ways. Also there is one section that is strictly for tenting. It is a fun place to stay a few days but we would not want to live here. The temperature dipped to 35 degrees the first morning we were here. Daytime temperatures are around 70 degrees. We are not sure whether that is normal or not as other parts of the north east have cooled off a bit too.

Monday 8/20
Our plan today is a circle drive that goes through the Adirondack Mountains and into Lake Placid. Lake Placid is the location where the 1980 Winter Olympics were held. We were there in the summer of 1979 as they were building and preparing for the 1980 Olympics. It will be fun to see that area again and learn what they do to utilize all the buildings in the area. On the way we saw two locations where the falls were spectacular. Both Willmington Falls and High Falls Gorge show deep cuts in the canyon where the force of the water have continuously, over millions of year ground down the rock ledge. Our camera was not able to fully capture the
beauty of the falls.

The swirling of the water caused “pot holes” in the rock in several places at the High Falls Gorge. We found it quite amazing.

Lake Placid is a busy area with sports enthusiasts and tourists. The Olympic venues are used for all kinds of activities year round. The Summer Storm Bobsled ride is a shot of adrenaline for anyone interested in soaring at speeds that feel supersonic. The cross country ski area is home to bikers who want the challenge of rugged terrain, jumps and slalom courses. Those interested can test their marksmanship on the same targets used by winter Olympic biathletes. At Whiteface Mountain, where the Olympic Skiing took place you can hike or bike on the trails after taking the gondola to the top of the mountain. Or you can drive the 8 mile journey on the Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway and see the view from there. The ice rink is a haven for hockey players, speed skaters and figure skaters who use it year round to hone their skills in a hopeful preparation for the next winter Olympics. Evening skating is open for anyone who would like to try. There are ongoing summer events taking place at each venue also. It is a busy place. Lake Placid also has lots of shopping, places to eat and many, many hotel/motel accommodations. We did not go into any of the venues as they were quite busy and we did not have a very good reason to be there or much interest. There were some beautiful views of the Adirondack Mountains with many lakes and quaint little mountain villages. Many of the towns are so small they do not even show up on maps and often are right next to one another along the

highway.

Tuesday 8/21
Today we are driving through another area that is said to be scenic but for a long way we see nothing but trees on both sides and an occasional view of the mountains in the distance. Around our lunch time we arrived at Lake George. This is a beautiful area. We found a small, kind of secluded, beach to eat our lunch. There was a picnic table and a view of the lake. A family was swimming at the beach and there people sailing. We had a good time relaxing and enjoying the beauty there before heading on to Fort Ticonderoga.

On our way to Ft. Ticonderoga we passed through the town of Ticonderoga. We saw this water fall and stopped to see if there was interesting history about it. We learned that at one time a large graphite mill there. It was twice the size it is now. It is no longer in use. In the front of the museum near there was a large model of a box of pencils. On them was written “Ticonderoga” which we have seen on pencils before. We think that perhaps pencils were made here in Ticonderoga from the graphite mill.

Ft. Ticonderoga was built by the French in 1755. It played a critical strategic role in the Seven Years’ War and the Revolutionary War. During the 18th century when nations fought to control the strategic route between the St. Lawrence River in Canada and the Hudson River to the south. First the French made it the base to attack their English rivals. In 1758 they withstood an English attack but the next year the English troops forced the French to retreat from the area. Then in 1775 during the Revolutionary War the American in a surprise attack captured Ticonderoga from the British. However in 1778 the English overtook the Americans and the fort again became British. Later Ft. Ticonderoga was abandoned by the British.

August 15, through August 18, 2007 Groton Forest Road Campground, Marshfield, VT.
We have only about 50 miles to travel today to our next destination in Vermont. It is a cloudy day with rain off and on. We are traveling along the north side of the mountains. There is some farm land but still lots of areas of dense trees. The campground has trees all around but the area for RV’s is tree free which makes it much better for TV reception. The temperatures here and in New Hampshire are cool enough that we do not need to run our air conditioner. This morning at 9 am it was only 50 degrees. It is supposed to be 100 in Kansas today. This part of the US seems to be a good place to be for summers.

Thursday 8/16
Today we drove to Montpelier to tour the granite quarry. First we had to find a dealer selling batteries for our cell phone which won’t stay charged more than 5 minutes without being plugged in. We have been unable to find one in stock and did not find one today either. By the time we had run all over looking we were out of the notion of going to the mine. Instead we headed back home and very close is the Cabot Cheese Factory. We stopped there and took a tour learning how cheese is made and packaged. It was interesting to see how the whey is removed from the curds and even more interesting to find out that cheese has to age as much as 18 months. We also learned that most of the cheddar cheese here is white and the only difference between white and yellow is the coloring they add to make it yellow. We were able to sample the cheese and other products they make at this factory, mmm, and we bought some goodies. We do enjoy factory tours.

Friday 8/17
The Rock of Ages Granite Quarry is a very big operation and will continue working for many years. This mountain of granite is 8 miles square and 10 miles deep! The specific area they are working is 500 feet across and they are working down so deep, 600 feet, that we were unable to see them because of the walls. There is a 4500 year supply of granite in this area. This area only has a light gray granite called Barre Gray. Since there are requests for other colors of granite Rock of Ages owns 10 other quarries in the US and overseas. From these other quarries they are able to supply all colors of granite. Seventy percent of granite is used for tombstone memorials, statues and other memorials, and buildings. The other 30 percent is used in many industries where granite is necessary. First we walked to a viewing area above the huge building where memorial stones are cut to size prepared and sand blasted to “cut in the wording and graphics on the stone. The highly skilled craftsmen who prepare these stones first glue, a sheet of rubber to the stone; then the pattern is applied so the craftsman can make cuts in the rubber leaving uncovered the areas of the stone that will be sand blasted.

The stones on the assembly line have written instructions laying on them so that the craftsman knows exactly what is to be put on it. He prepares it and then it is transferred to the gray building, just out of the right side of this picture, to be sand blasted. The sand blasting is a fairly fast procedure.

This craftsman is just finishing preparing the stone to be sand blasted.

The stone is taken from the quarry in huge room-sized blocks called tables, then sawed into slabs and polished. It is graded for flaws every step along the way. Each table is too heavy for the cranes to raise so they are cut into from 25 to 30 smaller blocks and brought to the surface. There are about 35 workers on each of the 2 shifts per day. They work 10 months a year. The mine closes down in January and February due to the cold weather and snow.

Looking around in this picture you can see the 12 flights of stairs on the back wall leading down to a level where there is some equipment and buildings. This will give you an idea of how big the quarry is.

The workers are transported into and out of the mine with this yellow skip. They also come back up at lunch time. It was lunch time when we were there so we saw this transportation take place.

Holes are drilled vertically about 4 inches apart using a water drill and then a special side drill cuts across the bottom. Then the huge table is divided into smaller blocks called tables, that the cranes are able to bring out of the quarry. This is the size the blocks are.

On our way home we stopped by the Bragg Family Sugar House where Maple Sap is turned into Maple Syrup in early spring. For the best quality the nights need to be 20 degrees and the day 40 degrees. The time for collecting the sap is only about 4 to 6 weeks. When the trees begin to bud out the syrup gets bitter and the gathering time is over for the season. It takes 9 gallon of sap to make one gallon of syrup. At the Bragg operation the sap is brought into the sugarhouse on 4-wheelers. It is piped into the vats that are heated with wood. The sap is boiled until it is just the right consistency. There are grades of maple syrup. The first sap to be processed in the spring is the top grade and as outside temperatures rise the grades change. The way they determine what grades the syrup is is by color. The very last syrup produced has a

Saturday 8/18
We woke up to rain and 40 degrees this morning. It soon quit but then started again before we could leave so we just stayed home. We will be leaving tomorrow and going west and a little south into upstate New York. Believe it or not…we do hope it is a little warmer there. Proof, I guess, that some people are never satisfied.

Tuesday 8/14
Today we are going to the top of Mt. Washington, New Englands highest peak at 6,288 feet. It is a trip much like Pike’s Peak but not nearly as high. We drove up but they do have a Cog Railway and guided tours that bring people up in a van, give them ½ hour to look around and then take them back down. In the winter they have a Snow Coach that escorts people up to the top. The climate changes dramatically from the bottom to the top. When we arrived at the top it was only 43 degrees with high winds.

Upon leaving Mt. Washington we took another scenic drive back home. We went through many little towns and saw a couple of covered bridges. The Bartlett, NH covered bridge, 1890, has been converted into a gift shop. It is very well kept but apparently not safe for auto traffic. In Stark, NH, a very small town we saw a bridge and several other historic buildings and a cemetery.

July 29 thru Aug 11, 2007 Greenwood Acres Resort, Eddington, ME
Monday
We drove to Bar Harbor, an hour away, to get tickets for our Wednesday ferry trip to Nova Scotia. Ate a fish sandwich at Guppy’s in downtown Bar Harbor walked around the shops and drove back home after taking a few pictures of the harbor.
Wednesday
Our day started very early as we are staying about an hour away from Bar Harbor, where we catch The Cat, the ferry that will take us to Nova Scotia. We have to be there by 7 am. We were up by a little after 4 and on the road by 5. We stopped to have breakfast at a McDonalds along the way. The Cat is the only North American ferry that can carry up to 775 passengers, 250 cars and 14 motorcoaches across the ocean at highway speeds of 60 miles per hour. On our trip there were only a few motorcoaches but there were about 50 or so motorcycles and many, many cars. The Cat has 2 food and drink bars, 4 TV movie lounges, a casino, a café, a gift shop and plenty of lounge chairs with a panoramic view from the front of the boat. At the back is an open observation deck where we could watch the water jets of The Cat shoot out a tail over 20 feet high and 50 feet long. For most of the trip we did fine but long towards the end it got very choppy and we both were a little queezy. The trip over to Yarmouth Nova Scotia is 3 hours.

We arrived in Yarmouth about 11:30 and stopped by a visitors center to get info on where to go and what to see. We were given a couple of travel guides to help us make our way around this area. We decided to take the Southwest Lighthouse route first. It promises several good places to view them. However, when out on the road, we found it does not tell us where they are. So we ended up seeing only 3 on this leg of our journey and only one of them was an “old” lighthouse. It is Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse and it and the area are very beautiful. The tiny village and its harbor help to make this one of the most photographed places in Canada.

We made our way on into Halifax. It was a very long day and we stopped at the first motel/hotel we found. It was a little more than we usually spend but was a nice room. We ate a late dinner at the motel’s restaurant -- shared a salad and a sandwich, watched a little TV and went to bed.

Thursday
In the morning we went to the waterfront to a Visitor’s Center to find out some things to see and do there. We are taking a walking tour of the Halifax historic part of town which is very clean and attractive.
There are several old churches, historic buildings and a very old burying ground.

The burying ground has 12,000 bodies buried there. It is in downtown Halifax and was established as a common burial ground in 1749. However the oldest remaining stone is 1752. They stopped using this cemetery in 1844 so all the markers are quite old. We were told we could identify the oldest ones as they have a skull and crossbones on them. This was changed over the years to faces, then cherubs and then to winged angelic figures. Many of the stones were hand carved from slate brought in from Massachusetts Bay.

The Boardwalk on the water front is quite inviting and we enjoyed the many interesting marine vessels and information presented on kiosks

One thing Gene knew about, here in Halifax, that he wanted to see was the cemetery where some of the Titanic victims are buried. He has seen many of the documentaries on the Titanic and has an interest in it. We found the cemetery and thought the memorial to honor them was very impressive. On April 10, 1912 the Titanic left on her maiden voyage with over 2,200 passengers and crew members aboard. Four days later, she struck an iceberg south of Newfoundland. She sank in two hours 40 minutes. Four Canadian vessels were commissioned to look for bodies in the area of the disaster. Two were ships from Halifax and recovered 209 bodies that were brought to Halifax. All of the Titanic victims thought to be Protestant were buried in Fairview Lawn Cemetery. The company that owned the Titanic purchased a section of land in the cemetery and paid for small headstones engraved with the name, if known, the number assigned to the body when found and the date of the tragedy. The cost of any additional engraving or more elaborate stones was assumed by families, friends or other groups. They are buried in 3 rows in no particular order.
Yesterday we traveled on highway 2 which follows the coast line as we were hoping to find lighthouses. Since we did not find many we decided to take Highway 103 which goes inland a little and look for signs leading us to some. We made better time and saw no information leading us to other lighthouses. We arrived in Baddeck and decided to stay at the Baddeck Telegraph House Motel and Cabins. It is a very nice little town with mostly motels, Bed and Breakfasts, and lots of restaurants to serve the people visiting Nova Scotia. It is very clean and inviting with many flowerbeds all over town. After snacking on our stash of food we brought along, we walked along main street and the shoreline. There is a beautiful setting at the edge of town with the Baddeck Lighthouse and harbor. We did not have our camera with us so we willcome back tomorrow morning to take some pictures.