Pictures from a Moving Car

	Cross Country 2007: From a Moving Car email me This is the eastern part of the trip. See below for some notes. Or go back to trip Part 1. Or Part 3 Or Part 4 or the western return!

Cross Country 2007: From a Moving Car
email me

This is the eastern part of the trip.
See below for some notes. Or go back to trip Part 1. Or Part 3 Or Part 4 or the western return!

Stops on the way...
October 19, 2007	Amarillo, TX: Another KOA and a great ride on 66 to get here. The next day we went to the Palo Duro outside Amarillo. It is the second largest canyon in the country. Beautiful colors and vistas and history of the pioneers and native americans. Same old story it seems. Tomorrow we leave for Tucumcari, NM. But before we leave Amarillo we will see the Cadillac Ranch. More to come...
October 18, 2007	Clinton/Elk, OK: The cities are sounding like the old Route 66 song. We didn't start in Chicago and missed St. Louis, but we did drive by Joplin MO. We find the old road again and stop in Sayre, OK for lunch at Deb's Cafe. The burrito I ordered actually had no meat at all. Seems if you order beans saying that you are a vegetarian they totally miss the fact that bacon is meat. We stopped at Elk City, OK for the Route 66 National Museum. It was great to see all the old stuff. One of the buildings had old farm equipment and a display of barbed wire. This was an omen of things to come as we stopped in McLean, TX at the largest Barbed Wire Museum in the world. You would think it wouldn't have to be too large to claim this, but it was huge huge huge. It was housed in an old brassiere factory warehouse. Seems it is in no danger of being eclipsed in size any time soon. We stay one night at the KOA. It is nice but too near the highway and is quite noisy.
October 17, 2007	East Oklahoma City, OK: We travel through the weather with just a little rain and some lightning. We are very lucky that the tornados skipped past us. Following old Route 66 we had lunch at Coaches Corner Cafe in Depew. These places are great. Especially if you like meat and are allergic to vegetables. We stay one night at the KOA. It is nice but too near the highway and is quite noisy.
October 15, 2007	Grove, OK: Another day, another state. We find old Route 66 and follow it as best we can reading some new maps that follow the old roadway. Jack and his family traveled the route in 1952 and 1954. Very little is left of it, but there are some old landmarks and museums. We decide to stay two nights at the Grand Lake O' the Cherokees RV park. Our trailer is on the huge manmade lake and there are countless birds, ducks, egrets and others. The RV park is very pretty with lots of flowers and very nice people. Time for laundry again. And time to find the best local cafe for breakfast. This time it is Sandra's Diner in Grove, OK. A really great place but we are a bit skidish about some weather coming in. Tornado warnings. So we decide to pack up early on the 17th and head west on Route 66 again.
October 13, 2007	West Plains, MO: Went through Arkansas, but only bought gas. That and we ate lunch at Dan's Steakhouse. More gas. Seems the accents are getting harder to follow. I just smile and nod like I did in Italy. We pulled into the Road Runner RV Park. A bit noisy as it is on the highway, but such nice people. The next day the trailer and the dog got a bath and we went on a ride that we thought would be about 20 miles into the Ozark Mountains to see an old Mill. Well it turned out to be more like an 80 mile trip. Very interesting. We got lost a bit and that added another 20 miles or so to the trip. But the lunch at the Mill was fantastic.
October 11, 2007	Caruthersville, MO: This is an RV park in a Casino, so we thought it might be like the one in Hinkley, MI. Not really. It is a floating (boatlike) casino on the Mississippi and there seemed to be no one in the casino. We just peeked in and asked if they served breakfast the day after arriving. They didn't have a restaurant in the casino. So we asked at the office for a good place for breakfast. The Roundhouse Cafe was it! A great little diner with torn seats at the booths, but very friendly and a very good breakfast. After that we decided to head for the library. I would say that if you find yourself in a small town and want to find out what to do and where the good stuff is, just head for the local library. They pointed us to a walk along the Mississippi River. Even though our trailer was about 20 feet from the river there was no way to access it. So we did that and the laundry. I also bought another hard drive for my pictures.
October 10, 2007	Lebanon, TN: Well we stopped here really just to rest for one night. We are close to Nashville, but we don't actually spend any time there. Seems this trip is about beautiful places and rural small towns. We decided we could fly to large cities, but it would be harder to fly to small towns. The trailer park was very nice. We even got mints to put on our pillows when we checked in! Also very dog friendly which was wonderful after the poor reception we got at the last place.
October 8, 2007	Gatlinburg, TN: The other side of the Great Smokey Mountains. We travel only 32 miles from Cherokee, NC to Gatlinburg to stay two nights so we can see the other side of the Great Smokeys. It is beautiful. We drove and walked through an old settlement: Cades Cove: Life in the early to late 1800s. A gorgeous valley, but the life sure seemed harsh. The first trailer park we pulled into sized us up and decided they didn't want us. Said they were full and besides they didn't allow trailers with soft sides and Queensland Heelers! Ha! We just mosied down the road and found a very friendly trailer park with great people who just loved Trixie! Besides the first park seemed to have far too many doilies in the office for my taste.
September 26 - October 6, 2007	Front Royal, VA to Cherokee, NC: We skip through Maryland and West VA to VA and the beginning of the Shenandoah Skyline Drive. It is very beautiful. Please see Map 3 for more information.
September 26, 2007	Shartlesville, PA: We leave family in Connecticutt. It is hard, we had such a great visit. We travel through New York and New Jersey on the way to Pennsylvania. We stayed one night at a trailer park in Pennslyvania Dutch country. We stay long enough to find out that it was settled by people who called themselves Deutch but those already there misinterpreted the name to mean Dutch. Big thunder storm that night. The lightning seemed to be right overhead. Very loud and very bright.
September 24, 2007	Fairfield, CT: We visit Jack's niece Wendi and her husband Tom and their daughters Riley and Lily. They were so nice to let us park our trailer alongside their house!
September 22, 2007	Tiverton, RI: We visit Jack's niece Sandy and her husband Chris and their daughter Mary. Our trailer sits on their lawn! Not only is there no need for quarters for the laundry but there is an outdoor shower. And beautiful weather.
September 15, 2007	Rockport, ME: And the Megunticutt Campground. My first workshop starts tomorrow at the Maine Media Workshops. Great experience, great instructor: Brenda Tharp (website). A great week and great inspiration.
September 6, 2007	Cranston, RI: We stay with Jack's sister for about 10 days. It was great and restful. Showers without flipflops, laundry without quarters. What luxury!
September 5, 2007	Off early in the morning to make it to Mass. Seems only "N" states get one night stays. Just like "W" states. Well the Old Sturbridge Village was a hoot. We closed the place. A village set up to show life as it was 150 years ago in a village in New England. We didn't see everything but did see how a grist mill and saw mill worked. And saw an old mill pond. We saw inside homes and offices and a 5 pipe organ in a puritan type church. I did see some spinning and found out how the yarn was dyed. Beautiful color from plants, insects and trees. The campground where we stayed was treeless but did have a lake. We only stayed one night and a good thing to as all night there was a loud buzzing noise coming from some shed just below my "window".
September 4, 2007	Johnstown, NY: And hello to the Royal Mountain Family Campground. Great place with its own ice cream stand on site and lots of trees. The night we drove in we had soft serve ice cream there! Walked to it! And the place was jumping. Full of folks from around there; old and young. Maybe the only thing open for a while. But we only stayed one night as we needed to head off to Old Sturbridge village in MA.
September 4, 2007	Well it is good bye to Thousand Islands, their dressing, the Happy Green Acres Campground and Canada. Yes, this morning we slipped across the border back in the USA. Weird that on our boat tour of the Thousand Island a few days ago we could not tour the Boldt Castle because we did not have our US Passports and this morning we just smiled, showed our California Drivers' Licenses and waved good by to Canada just as easy as you please. And the agent at the border was wearing combat boots! Across the St. Lawrence River from where we were stayin at the Happy Green Acres Campground (just love that name) is a town where Jack caught his first fish at his Aunt and Uncles in Oak Point, Hammond, NY. So we went on a journey to find the house and we did! Took a few pictures. What a picturesque place to live. Further down the road in Watertown we spun around the block a few times before getting back on the road. Seems we shoud pay more attention to the GPS when it says to turn right. Then we find a Walmart and stock up on some food and caulking for the broken shower drain. Then a few hours later we arrive in Johnstown and Grand Mountain Resort. A really cute place, very old, very quaint. With a pond and an ice cream stand out front that seems to be the local draw as we walked over to get an ice cream after dinner and found the place jumping with children, teenagers, old folks and the like! Okay, so I have WIFI here and I am uploading some photos, so if you are interested, send me an email and I will lead you to the gallery: email me Be warned, there are a number of them, but you can just click through them at your own speed.
August 30, 2007	Thousand Islands, ON: Gabbie's birthday is today! Happy Birthday Gabbie. We are now in Brockville, Ontario or near it anyway. We are in the Thousand Islands of the Ste. Lawrence River. It is so beautiful. We pulled into the KOA today and it has stopped raining finally. I found the pool and swam some laps. Friday, August 31: Off to Rockport, ON for a boat tour of the Ste Lawrence and all those islands (1,864 of them). In order to be defined as an island they must be at least one foot square, above the water line 365 days of the year and have one tree on it! We skipped the tour of the Boldt Castle on one of the islands built by a rich guy from NYC. Seems we needed to have two forms of citizenship proof to get on the island. Hope we don't need two to get across the US/Canada bridge in a few days time! Canada is nice though We are staying here until the day after Labor Day (Tuesday) to avoid the usual holiday travel traffic. September 1: My brother's birthday, Happy Birthday Bill! Today we are in Brockville. We had lunch at a Tea House. It was wonderful. Now we are at the library using their WIFI. I hope I can put up some pictures soon. At least before the end of the trip! Turns out there was a great pub in town so we had dinner there. The next day, September 2 we just stayed around the trailer park, went for a long walk, I organized some pictures and we re arranged the back of the truck. Now maybe we won't keep buying paper towels as there seems to be hidden stashes in the back of the truck. I sketched the trailer, first sketch of the trip. Seems the camera is all I can handle now, but it felt good to draw. The pool is great and I swam laps, showered and was very tired at the end of the day. Monday, Sept 3: Labor Day We took off for Smiths Falls. Decided to go out to breakfast but could not find anything open. Since we didn't know where we were it was even harder to find a place. We did find the railroad museum and I got out and asked the guy there if he knew of a place. He said, "Boy do I!" Always good to ask a local person. So off we went after promising to come back to the museum. Which we did. It was a great museum and I think I got some good pix. Next we headed off to the locks in town. We watched as two pleasure boats used the locks to travel the Rideau Canal. Then we went to the Rideau Canal Museum and I found out that the US tried to invade Canada during the war of 1812! We tried to take Montreal! Wow, seems a bit silly now. I mean What with the great CBC radio shows and all that wood and snow we would need to take care of. Besides the Canadians are so nice and make such great neighbors. What were we thinking? Back at the trailer park; more laps, another shower and Gabbie called me from her return trip from Burning Man. So great to hear everyone had a great time and everyone is safe.
August 28, 2007	Renfrew, ON: Here we get into the trailer park, the Renfrew KOA at about 4pm, unhook the trailer, setup and then jump in the lake. Hooray! a lake that is shallow for about 20 feet and then over our heads! What beautiful water too! Such a nice lake. Small but nice. Well until I see a head pop out of the water, fish? turtle? Hmmm maybe this is why I like to swim laps in a pool. Next day we swim in the morning, rent a canoe and paddle around the lake into a swamp and get stuck. We saw two loons. Then that afternoon we head to town for some shopping, gas and encounter a HUGE lightning and thunder storm! HUGE HUGE HUGE. Nothing like California lightning and thunder. It just did not stop. And the rain came down in buckets!
August 26, 2007	Sturgeon Falls: ON: AKA Lake Nipissing (accent on the first three letters please. It was a beautiful drive, but long so I took over driving after our picnic at a "Roadside Park". Kind of like a rest stop in the US, but seem to be prettier. We met a couple moving to New Brunswick who had stopped to let their two cats out for exercise on leashes! We stayed at the Glencove Trailer Park on Lake Nipissing. Very pretty lake, but just like Michigamme it is shallow for what seem to be miles. Very hard to swim in a body of water only 2.5 feet deep. There was a family with 3 daughters and a telescope next to us, so Jack was happy pointing out the stars and constellations. One of the daughters was named Miriam and they called her Mir! Just like my daughter!
August 24, 2007	Sault Ste. Marie, ON: Saturday, August 25: Here we went on a boat tour of the Locks on both the US and Canadian sides of the river that connects Lake Superior and Lake Huron. There is a discrepancy of altitude of 61 feet, so ships have to enter a lock and in our case add water to reach the level of Lake Superior then out to the lake and back through the Canadian Locks to lose the 61 feet of altitude so we could go back to the St. Mary River (the level of Lake Huron) and back to the dock. It was beautiful and so interesting as the lock was filling or emptying of water. Ate at an Italian restaurant (of which there seem to be many in Sault Ste. Marie) for dinner.
August 22, 2007	Lake Michigamme, MI: Lots 'o Lakes in this part of the country. This one is very pretty. The sand is red from all the iron in the ground, so the water looks red when you are swimming. Where we stayed is a very low part of the lake, only a few feet deep for a long long way off. When we arrived it was hot and somewhat dry so we dove in! Very refreshing, but the dive was more of a walk in and scrunch down rather than swim. I can see why people come to the upper penninsula for vacations. It is beautiful here. So many lakes and so many trees! Some are already starting to turn color. Next morning we walked to the Peshekee River. A few mosquitos were waiting for us. Went to town for provisions. Visited Champion, Ishpeming (yes that is where the National Ski Hall of Fame is) and Negaunee. Another Brew Pub for lunch; Jasper Ridge Brewery. This time the reverse: Beer good, food not so good. How can any restaurant so close to Wisconsin use squirt cheese?
August 21, 2007	Ashland, WI: evidently states that start with a "W" only get one stop. Political statement? Rainy still. The Keher Trailer park is right on Lake Superior under an ore dock. Seems trains used to drive on to the dock and release their ore from the land into the holds of large ships. Dock is closed now and rotting, but the town cannot remove it as the high school refers to themselves as the ore dockers. We went out to a brew pub for dinner. Unfortunately jack's beer was too sweet and not hoppy enough. Food was good though. There are several great murals in town painted by the local high school art teacher.

Stops on the way...

October 19, 2007

Amarillo, TX: Another KOA and a great ride on 66 to get here. The next day we went to the Palo Duro outside Amarillo. It is the second largest canyon in the country. Beautiful colors and vistas and history of the pioneers and native americans. Same old story it seems. Tomorrow we leave for Tucumcari, NM. But before we leave Amarillo we will see the Cadillac Ranch. More to come...

October 18, 2007

Clinton/Elk, OK: The cities are sounding like the old Route 66 song. We didn't start in Chicago and missed St. Louis, but we did drive by Joplin MO. We find the old road again and stop in Sayre, OK for lunch at Deb's Cafe. The burrito I ordered actually had no meat at all. Seems if you order beans saying that you are a vegetarian they totally miss the fact that bacon is meat. We stopped at Elk City, OK for the Route 66 National Museum. It was great to see all the old stuff. One of the buildings had old farm equipment and a display of barbed wire. This was an omen of things to come as we stopped in McLean, TX at the largest Barbed Wire Museum in the world. You would think it wouldn't have to be too large to claim this, but it was huge huge huge. It was housed in an old brassiere factory warehouse. Seems it is in no danger of being eclipsed in size any time soon.
We stay one night at the KOA. It is nice but too near the highway and is quite noisy.

October 17, 2007

East Oklahoma City, OK: We travel through the weather with just a little rain and some lightning. We are very lucky that the tornados skipped past us. Following old Route 66 we had lunch at Coaches Corner Cafe in Depew. These places are great. Especially if you like meat and are allergic to vegetables.
We stay one night at the KOA. It is nice but too near the highway and is quite noisy.

October 15, 2007

Grove, OK: Another day, another state. We find old Route 66 and follow it as best we can reading some new maps that follow the old roadway. Jack and his family traveled the route in 1952 and 1954. Very little is left of it, but there are some old landmarks and museums. We decide to stay two nights at the Grand Lake O' the Cherokees RV park. Our trailer is on the huge manmade lake and there are countless birds, ducks, egrets and others. The RV park is very pretty with lots of flowers and very nice people. Time for laundry again. And time to find the best local cafe for breakfast. This time it is Sandra's Diner in Grove, OK.
A really great place but we are a bit skidish about some weather coming in. Tornado warnings. So we decide to pack up early on the 17th and head west on Route 66 again.

October 13, 2007

West Plains, MO: Went through Arkansas, but only bought gas. That and we ate lunch at Dan's Steakhouse. More gas. Seems the accents are getting harder to follow. I just smile and nod like I did in Italy.
We pulled into the Road Runner RV Park. A bit noisy as it is on the highway, but such nice people. The next day the trailer and the dog got a bath and we went on a ride that we thought would be about 20 miles into the Ozark Mountains to see an old Mill. Well it turned out to be more like an 80 mile trip. Very interesting. We got lost a bit and that added another 20 miles or so to the trip. But the lunch at the Mill was fantastic.

October 11, 2007

Caruthersville, MO: This is an RV park in a Casino, so we thought it might be like the one in Hinkley, MI. Not really. It is a floating (boatlike) casino on the Mississippi and there seemed to be no one in the casino. We just peeked in and asked if they served breakfast the day after arriving. They didn't have a restaurant in the casino. So we asked at the office for a good place for breakfast. The Roundhouse Cafe was it! A great little diner with torn seats at the booths, but very friendly and a very good breakfast. After that we decided to head for the library. I would say that if you find yourself in a small town and want to find out what to do and where the good stuff is, just head for the local library. They pointed us to a walk along the Mississippi River. Even though our trailer was about 20 feet from the river there was no way to access it. So we did that and the laundry. I also bought another hard drive for my pictures.

October 10, 2007

Lebanon, TN: Well we stopped here really just to rest for one night. We are close to Nashville, but we don't actually spend any time there. Seems this trip is about beautiful places and rural small towns. We decided we could fly to large cities, but it would be harder to fly to small towns.
The trailer park was very nice. We even got mints to put on our pillows when we checked in! Also very dog friendly which was wonderful after the poor reception we got at the last place.

October 8, 2007

Gatlinburg, TN: The other side of the Great Smokey Mountains. We travel only 32 miles from Cherokee, NC to Gatlinburg to stay two nights so we can see the other side of the Great Smokeys. It is beautiful. We drove and walked through an old settlement: Cades Cove: Life in the early to late 1800s. A gorgeous valley, but the life sure seemed harsh.
The first trailer park we pulled into sized us up and decided they didn't want us. Said they were full and besides they didn't allow trailers with soft sides and Queensland Heelers! Ha! We just mosied down the road and found a very friendly trailer park with great people who just loved Trixie! Besides the first park seemed to have far too many doilies in the office for my taste.

September 26 -
October 6, 2007

Front Royal, VA to Cherokee, NC: We skip through Maryland and West VA to VA and the beginning of the Shenandoah Skyline Drive. It is very beautiful. Please see Map 3 for more information.

September 26, 2007

Shartlesville, PA: We leave family in Connecticutt. It is hard, we had such a great visit. We travel through New York and New Jersey on the way to Pennsylvania. We stayed one night at a trailer park in Pennslyvania Dutch country. We stay long enough to find out that it was settled by people who called themselves Deutch but those already there misinterpreted the name to mean Dutch.
Big thunder storm that night. The lightning seemed to be right overhead. Very loud and very bright.

September 24, 2007

Fairfield, CT: We visit Jack's niece Wendi and her husband Tom and their daughters Riley and Lily. They were so nice to let us park our trailer alongside their house!

September 22, 2007

Tiverton, RI: We visit Jack's niece Sandy and her husband Chris and their daughter Mary. Our trailer sits on their lawn! Not only is there no need for quarters for the laundry but there is an outdoor shower. And beautiful weather.

September 15, 2007

Rockport, ME: And the Megunticutt Campground. My first workshop starts tomorrow at the Maine Media Workshops. Great experience, great instructor: Brenda Tharp (website). A great week and great inspiration.

September 6, 2007

Cranston, RI: We stay with Jack's sister for about 10 days. It was great and restful. Showers without flipflops, laundry without quarters. What luxury!

September 5, 2007

Off early in the morning to make it to Mass. Seems only "N" states get one night stays. Just like "W" states. Well the Old Sturbridge Village was a hoot. We closed the place. A village set up to show life as it was 150 years ago in a village in New England. We didn't see everything but did see how a grist mill and saw mill worked. And saw an old mill pond. We saw inside homes and offices and a 5 pipe organ in a puritan type church. I did see some spinning and found out how the yarn was dyed. Beautiful color from plants, insects and trees.
The campground where we stayed was treeless but did have a lake. We only stayed one night and a good thing to as all night there was a loud buzzing noise coming from some shed just below my "window".

September 4, 2007

Johnstown, NY: And hello to the Royal Mountain Family Campground. Great place with its own ice cream stand on site and lots of trees. The night we drove in we had soft serve ice cream there! Walked to it! And the place was jumping. Full of folks from around there; old and young. Maybe the only thing open for a while. But we only stayed one night as we needed to head off to Old Sturbridge village in MA.

September 4, 2007

Well it is good bye to Thousand Islands, their dressing, the Happy Green Acres Campground and Canada. Yes, this morning we slipped across the border back in the USA. Weird that on our boat tour of the Thousand Island a few days ago we could not tour the Boldt Castle because we did not have our US Passports and this morning we just smiled, showed our California Drivers' Licenses and waved good by to Canada just as easy as you please. And the agent at the border was wearing combat boots!
Across the St. Lawrence River from where we were stayin at the Happy Green Acres Campground (just love that name) is a town where Jack caught his first fish at his Aunt and Uncles in Oak Point, Hammond, NY. So we went on a journey to find the house and we did! Took a few pictures. What a picturesque place to live.
Further down the road in Watertown we spun around the block a few times before getting back on the road. Seems we shoud pay more attention to the GPS when it says to turn right.
Then we find a Walmart and stock up on some food and caulking for the broken shower drain. Then a few hours later we arrive in Johnstown and Grand Mountain Resort. A really cute place, very old, very quaint. With a pond and an ice cream stand out front that seems to be the local draw as we walked over to get an ice cream after dinner and found the place jumping with children, teenagers, old folks and the like!
Okay, so I have WIFI here and I am uploading some photos, so if you are interested, send me an email and I will lead you to the gallery: email me Be warned, there are a number of them, but you can just click through them at your own speed.

August 30, 2007

Thousand Islands, ON: Gabbie's birthday is today! Happy Birthday Gabbie. We are now in Brockville, Ontario or near it anyway. We are in the Thousand Islands of the Ste. Lawrence River. It is so beautiful. We pulled into the KOA today and it has stopped raining finally. I found the pool and swam some laps.
Friday, August 31: Off to Rockport, ON for a boat tour of the Ste Lawrence and all those islands (1,864 of them). In order to be defined as an island they must be at least one foot square, above the water line 365 days of the year and have one tree on it! We skipped the tour of the Boldt Castle on one of the islands built by a rich guy from NYC. Seems we needed to have two forms of citizenship proof to get on the island. Hope we don't need two to get across the US/Canada bridge in a few days time! Canada is nice though
We are staying here until the day after Labor Day (Tuesday) to avoid the usual holiday travel traffic.
September 1: My brother's birthday, Happy Birthday Bill!
Today we are in Brockville. We had lunch at a Tea House. It was wonderful. Now we are at the library using their WIFI. I hope I can put up some pictures soon. At least before the end of the trip!
Turns out there was a great pub in town so we had dinner there.
The next day, September 2 we just stayed around the trailer park, went for a long walk, I organized some pictures and we re arranged the back of the truck. Now maybe we won't keep buying paper towels as there seems to be hidden stashes in the back of the truck. I sketched the trailer, first sketch of the trip. Seems the camera is all I can handle now, but it felt good to draw.
The pool is great and I swam laps, showered and was very tired at the end of the day.
Monday, Sept 3: Labor Day
We took off for Smiths Falls. Decided to go out to breakfast but could not find anything open. Since we didn't know where we were it was even harder to find a place. We did find the railroad museum and I got out and asked the guy there if he knew of a place. He said, "Boy do I!" Always good to ask a local person. So off we went after promising to come back to the museum. Which we did. It was a great museum and I think I got some good pix. Next we headed off to the locks in town. We watched as two pleasure boats used the locks to travel the Rideau Canal. Then we went to the Rideau Canal Museum and I found out that the US tried to invade Canada during the war of 1812! We tried to take Montreal! Wow, seems a bit silly now. I mean What with the great CBC radio shows and all that wood and snow we would need to take care of. Besides the Canadians are so nice and make such great neighbors. What were we thinking?
Back at the trailer park; more laps, another shower and Gabbie called me from her return trip from Burning Man. So great to hear everyone had a great time and everyone is safe.

August 28, 2007

Renfrew, ON: Here we get into the trailer park, the Renfrew KOA at about 4pm, unhook the trailer, setup and then jump in the lake. Hooray! a lake that is shallow for about 20 feet and then over our heads! What beautiful water too! Such a nice lake. Small but nice. Well until I see a head pop out of the water, fish? turtle? Hmmm maybe this is why I like to swim laps in a pool.
Next day we swim in the morning, rent a canoe and paddle around the lake into a swamp and get stuck. We saw two loons. Then that afternoon we head to town for some shopping, gas and encounter a HUGE lightning and thunder storm! HUGE HUGE HUGE. Nothing like California lightning and thunder. It just did not stop. And the rain came down in buckets!

August 26, 2007

Sturgeon Falls: ON: AKA Lake Nipissing (accent on the first three letters please. It was a beautiful drive, but long so I took over driving after our picnic at a "Roadside Park". Kind of like a rest stop in the US, but seem to be prettier. We met a couple moving to New Brunswick who had stopped to let their two cats out for exercise on leashes!
We stayed at the Glencove Trailer Park on Lake Nipissing. Very pretty lake, but just like Michigamme it is shallow for what seem to be miles. Very hard to swim in a body of water only 2.5 feet deep.
There was a family with 3 daughters and a telescope next to us, so Jack was happy pointing out the stars and constellations. One of the daughters was named Miriam and they called her Mir! Just like my daughter!

August 24, 2007

Sault Ste. Marie, ON:
Saturday, August 25: Here we went on a boat tour of the Locks on both the US and Canadian sides of the river that connects Lake Superior and Lake Huron. There is a discrepancy of altitude of 61 feet, so ships have to enter a lock and in our case add water to reach the level of Lake Superior then out to the lake and back through the Canadian Locks to lose the 61 feet of altitude so we could go back to the St. Mary River (the level of Lake Huron) and back to the dock. It was beautiful and so interesting as the lock was filling or emptying of water.
Ate at an Italian restaurant (of which there seem to be many in Sault Ste. Marie) for dinner.

August 22, 2007

Lake Michigamme, MI: Lots 'o Lakes in this part of the country. This one is very pretty. The sand is red from all the iron in the ground, so the water looks red when you are swimming. Where we stayed is a very low part of the lake, only a few feet deep for a long long way off. When we arrived it was hot and somewhat dry so we dove in! Very refreshing, but the dive was more of a walk in and scrunch down rather than swim. I can see why people come to the upper penninsula for vacations. It is beautiful here. So many lakes and so many trees! Some are already starting to turn color.
Next morning we walked to the Peshekee River. A few mosquitos were waiting for us. Went to town for provisions. Visited Champion, Ishpeming (yes that is where the National Ski Hall of Fame is) and Negaunee. Another Brew Pub for lunch; Jasper Ridge Brewery. This time the reverse: Beer good, food not so good. How can any restaurant so close to Wisconsin use squirt cheese?

August 21, 2007

Ashland, WI: evidently states that start with a "W" only get one stop. Political statement?
Rainy still. The Keher Trailer park is right on Lake Superior under an ore dock. Seems trains used to drive on to the dock and release their ore from the land into the holds of large ships. Dock is closed now and rotting, but the town cannot remove it as the high school refers to themselves as the ore dockers. We went out to a brew pub for dinner. Unfortunately jack's beer was too sweet and not hoppy enough. Food was good though. There are several great murals in town painted by the local high school art teacher.