50th Anniversary Trip, Sept. 28- Oct. 16, 2023, Updated 10-13-23

 Sept. 28

Jud and Cathy came to our house and we were loaded and on the road at 4:03pm.  We drove to Phillipsburg, Kansas for the night. Jud had fixed Wraps that we ate while driving so that we got in by 8:15 and were able to settle down for an early night. The night sky was lit by a beautiful, nearly full moon.

Sept. 29

Started with the motel breakfast and were on the road by 6:45. The moon hadn't set, and the sun wasn't up, but there was soon a beautiful sunrise.

               
                                                Just ignore the bug spots on the windshield!

Spotted a bunch of the painted squirrels as we drove through Marysville. According to fokelore, a carnival came through town in 1912 with one of the exhibits being a cage of black squirrels. One off the town youngsters felt sorry for them and let them loose in the city park. The black squirrel became the town mascot and there are now 51 fiberglass statues scatterred around the town. This one was by the bowling alley.

David was looking at the map as Jud was driving and saw a St. Mary's Catholic Church about 3 miles north of Seneca, Kansas. We weren't sure what the significance was, but decided to check it out. It turned out to be a huge and beautifully ornate church. The first church at this location was started in 1859. We didn't find a lot of information about just when this church was built but we were really impressed with our visit.

Daily Roseries during World War ll and noone from this parish died in the war!

Reading that gave me goose bumps!

We drove on to Hannibal Missouri, visited Mark Twain's boyhood home, museum and some of the other sites connected to his childhood. We had a yummy supper at a Mexican restaurant and then took a walk along the Mississipi River. 

Original Norman Rockwell paintings that he did for the Tom Sawyer book.

This was a Mark Twain impersonator who was very entertaining.

Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse.

Sept. 30, 2023-Hannibal MO, to Dayton, OH

We stopped in Springfield, IL to visit the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. This is an amazing museum and I would highy recommend visiting, if you ever have the chance. David and I stopped about 4 years ago but we enjoyed it even more this visit. Besides the exhibits, be sure to watch the two theater presentations. They are both excellent.

Depection of the log cabin where Lincoln lived with his father, stepmother and 5 siblings. Three girls slept on the trundle bed with the red blanket while the three boys slept in the loft.

I don't remember the red lighting on this exhibit when we visited before, but this is a powerful depection of a slave family being seperated at an auction. It brings goose bumps and tears!

Lincoln wasn't a successful shop keeper.

Courting Mary Todd

The Lincoln boys were apparently well loved by both parents.

Mrs. Lincoln getting ready for a state dinner. She worked hard to make improvements for the White House. They had already lost one son and lost another during their time in the in the White House. There was a depection of President and Mrs. Lincoln visiting their son during a state dinner. He died a few days afterward. That was another powerful exhibit for this mama/grandma!

Oct. 1-We got to Nora and Bernies about 9:15 last night. We visited for a while before getting to bed. Today David, Cathy and I went to church with Nora. We came back to the house, fixed a brunch and moved to the back yard to visit. Greg and Christine (Nora and Bernie's son and wife), and Josh and Olivia (Gerg and Christine's son and his fiance) came and spent a couple hours visiting. Bernie is quite a storyteller and they all had stories to share. We spent a very pleasant afternoon snacking and laughing in their beautiful back yard. Nora fixed a lovely a delicious supper.and we visited some more!

Josh and Olivia

Greg and Christine

Nora and Bernie

Oct. 2 2023-Dayton OH-Niagara Falls, NY

We left Nora and Bernie's at about 6:30 this morning and headed for Canton, OH and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  We are seeing some color in the trees as we are headed northeast. We've traveled some back highways and seen lovely old barns and homesteads. 

Cathy and I dropped Jud and David off and we went to the Canton Garden Center. The gardens were a bit smaller than I had pictured they would be and, of course, there were plants that weren't in bloom as it is at the end of the growing season. However, the weather (sunny with no wind) and temperature (68 degrees) were perfect for a stroll through the gardens with few people around. We went from the gardens to the Fannie May Chocolate Factory. We weren't able to do take the tour because of time, but we did indulge in some chocolate! Did I tell you about the gigantic bags of popcorn that both Cathy and I bought back in Missouri? I got buttered and Cathy got Kettle corn. These are the largest bags of popped popcorn that I have ever seen! 

Now, the popcorn has been tasty (at least the butter, we haven't tried the kettle corn yet) but did I mention that we bought two/2/TWO! bags! Our car was already full and Cathy and I have been juggleing these bags since the middle of Missouri! We'll have to be very careful in selecting any souvenirs that we might actually want to get home with!

Here are some pictures from the garden center.

I obviously need to work on my selfies.

Loved this idea. The picture didn't take very well and the blues were almost gone.

Carillon Bell Tower. Beautiful chimes!

The shear size and varitety of trees in places where there is rain and humidity always amazes me.

Grandma Sprinkles

The guys seemed to enjoy the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but I'll let David tell you about it.

 

  We were in awe of the history of the NFL. The bust of the early stars like Jim Thorpe, to John Elway and Peyton Manning. It was like a step back in time to the stars I grew up with. We really enjoyed looking at all the championship rings, from Super Bowl 1 to present, from .05 caret to 16.1 carets.

 

From Canton, we journied on to Niagara Falls.

The many colors of the falls at night.

Fireworks over the falls

Oct. 3, 2023-Niagara Falls to Poultney VT with a stop in Herkiner, NY

We left Niagara Falls about 7:45 this morning and traveled to Herkiner, NY. There were some spots of brilliant color as we traveled along. I didn't get many pictures, but you are probably thankful for that, as you already know how I am with flowers, etc.! We got on a boat to take a cruise along a piece of the Erie Canal. It was interesting as we leaarned a lot more about the history of it. The current one is actually the third canal. 

Leaving Niagara Falls

On board the Lil' Diamond

This is a place where they can drop the gillotine type piece on right to prevent flooding and messing up  the canal.

This is the "old" Fort Herkimer Church. It is also known and The Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of German Flatts.The boat stopped so that we could snap a picture. It is a two story church, but we only see the second story and cupola here because of thhe trees. It was built in 1767 and is now only used at Easter and Christmas.

We went through Lock 18 going and coming on the trip. Going they closed the gates and dropped the water level by 20 feet. Coming back, they raised it by 20 ft. It only took 8-10 minutes each time.

Office next to the Lock

Another view of the "gillotine" to bloc the water. This time it's on the left.

There is a power plant in the building on the left. It isn't in operation any longer, but supposedly could be put back in service pretty quickly if there was an emergency.

We were obviously a good distance away, but got to see a bald eagle.

This shows the water line when the lock has drained the 20 feet to exit the lock going westt.

This shows the water coming through the doors of the lock when the lock is down. this is on purpose to keep the doors from failing under the water pressure.

Here are the doors closed in the down stream side. They are in a "V" shape. Leonardo daVinci came up with this design still being used. Other designs failed in a short amount of time as they couldn't withstand the water pressure over extended periods.

We followed along the canal for a distance as we traveled toward Vermont.

Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023

We had a lovely day heading south toward Bennington VT. There was a lot more color in the trees. It was a little warm, but no wind and comfortable unless you were standing in the sun.

Our biggest excitement for the day was seeing a mama black bear with her two cubs. There was a car stopped in front of us on the highway and as we were trying to figure out why it was stopped, Cathy squeaked, "Bears, bears, bears!" they were in a yard to our left and ran across the road in front of the stopped car and into the woods on the other side. Of course, by the time we grabbed our phones, we weren't able to get good pictures, but they were beautiful!

We saw 6 covered bridges today and got pictures of 5 of them. I don't have the name of this bridge, but we call it the Norman Rockwell bridge because he lived for a number of years just beyond it.

This is the Arlington Community Church and is in

between the bridge and the Rockwell house.

We stopped at a little out-of-the-way store called the Chocolatorium and bought some yummy chocolate and jellies and visited with a feisty older lady. This is a stream just across the street from the shop.

The Bennington Battle Monument commerates a battle against the British in the Revolutionary War. The battle actually took place ten miles northwest of this site in New York State.

The monument is 306 feet 4 1/2 inches tall and is the tallest structure in Vermont.

A couple of views from the top of the monument.

A diorama of the battle.

View from just outside the monument. There is and elevator to go up to the observation deck!

There are several moose statues and a bunch of panther statues throughout Bennington.

Silk Road Bridge

Paper Mill Bridge

Henry Bridge

We had lunch at a lovely park in Bennington. There were a ton of duck and squirrels that entertained us while we ate.

Scott Bridge, the longest in Vermont. (there is a longer one, but half on it is in New Hampshire as it is over the river dividing the two states,

Our final stop before heading back to Poultney was at the Vermont Country Store. It is a fun store carrying a lot of yummy things to eat as well as a huge supply of retro items that stir up a lot of memories. I bought an expensive pair of socks (that have a lifetime warrenty!). David bought a Maple whoopie pie that he shared with all of us and we all bought crackers, cheese, and sausage that we brought home and had for supper.

Thurdsay, Oct. 5, 2023

We left Poultney this morning and headed east, then north along Vermont Highway 100. It's one of the most traveled highways in the state for scenery and it did not disappoint! The colors were vibrant today! You are lucky that the road was so heavily traveled that There weren't many safe places to pull off to take pictures! As it is, you get pictures taken from the car, cause I just couldn't stop myself. One of our first stops was at the Country Store in Pittsfield. We got some yummy sandwiches from their deli for our lunch. 

We stopped at Thungering Brook Falls. There was a nice boardwalk for much of the way to the falls.  We were on the Appalachian Trail for this short walk!

Cathy and I went on south on the AT for a little bit while the guys stayed behind.

I have no idea what these fuzzy seeds are. They were on a vine climbing up a willow and were just too funky to ignore.

Did I mention that the colors were great today?

Our next stop was Moss Glen Falls

We stopped at Ben and Jerry's. We couldn't get on a tour. We walked to the graveyard of the dearly

de-pinted ice cream flavors that have been discontinued. there were some clever epitaphs. The line was long to get into buy some ice cream, so we decided to move on.

The next stop was at the Cabot Annex. They had samples of several of their cheeses and was a fun stop. Just a bit up the road was the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. They weren't making any cider today, but they were making cider donuts. There was a big store with all kinds of tempting stuff, but we contained ourselves and just bought some cold cider and fresh donuts.

People take Halloween seriously in this part of the country! We have seen MANY porches and yards decorated with pumpkins and mums but many more deacorated with all kinds of blow up and other kinds of ghosts, gobblins, witches and zombies. Many of these have been 10-12 feet tall! This guy was waiting patiently in the car while the driver was inside getting some cider and donuts!

Smuggler's Notch was georgous, but there wasn't anywhere to pull off to enjoy the scenery or take better pictures.

This bridge is known by Canyon, Grist Mill, or Bryan Bridge. I guess it depends on who you ask.

I got my foot wet getting this shot!

If this doesn't make you want to take a stroll down that tree-lined path then we can't be friends anymore!

As we were winding up our trip to our stop for the night in Williston, VT we happened by a farmer's market. We walked around to the different vendors and bought a few things (one would think we were starving by the amount of food that we've bought).

Our home for the night is in a carriage barn built in 1825. It along with the house that the airbnb owners live in, was built by Thomas Chittenden, the first govener of Vermont. The owners have made it into a unique and lovely place to stay. There are fresh flowers, a best wishes note on our anniversaries, pancake mix and maple syrup, 4 little cupcakes, milk and cream in the frig as well as eggs from their chickens.

Friday, Oct. 6, 2023

After a breakfast of apple cider donuts, we packed up and headed west for a bit. We went through Burlington to the east shore of Lake Champlain. We walked along a boardwalk for a ways watching the boats in the harbor.

We decided to check out the islands in Lake Champlain. There are four large ones that you can drive to or a couple of places where you can take a ferry. I was expecting them to be very touristy with fancy hotels, lots of cabins for rent and lots of eating places. It turned out that they were very ordinary with average houses, farm fields, schools, etc. Somehow, I liked this a lot better seeing that it was just ordinary people earning a living on islands in the middle of a big lake. When we came out at the north end in New York, we could see the customs facility for people coming into the US from Canada.

The bridge from the last island over to New York. All the islands are a part of Vermont.

Customs

We went south on the New York side of the lake. For quite a ways the scenery wasn't very pretty, but there was a short, but beautiful stretch. There wasn't any place to get off the road, so these are taken through the windows while the car was moving.

Our main destination for today was Fort Ticonderoga. The location has been used to defend terrritories fsince 1609 and has through the centuries been claimed by the French, British, Americans, and, of course the Native Americans. The current fort is a recreation that was started in 1909. We got to see a demonstration of all the steps that went into firing a cannon. They fired it twice.

After touring the fort we took a boat cruise on the south part of Lake Champlain and learned a lot more about the history of the fort.

This is from the top of Mount Defient, a lookout spot.

This barn, turned house, was built in the late 1800's from stone salvaged from the then defunct and abandoned Fort Ticonderoga.

Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023

We got a late start today. I kinda "hit a wall" and had trouble getting motivated this morning. We were a little late getting to our tour of the Baird Farm near Chittenden, VT. It was a free tour. They took us down to the trees (they tap 14000 of them!) and explained how the tapping and all the vaccuum lines that go from tree to tree work. We saw a shed where the vaccuum pumps were (they have three differnt sheds and lines burried from the sheds to their sugar house), and then the sugar house and all the machinery that they use to process the Maple syrup. After that, we sampled 4 different grades (colors) of maple syrup and 4 different types of infused syrups. The infused syrups were spruce tip, mint, sumac and birch bark. I found those "interesting". They then served rosemary waffles with Cabot butter and their syrup. We also got to see them bottling syrup. We bought some to bring home, of course. This was a free tour and one of our most enjoyable stops so far.

One of these drums holds 40 gallons of sap and it takes about 50 gallons to make one gallon of syrup!

After leaving Baird Farm, we found four covered bridges and some pretty, but muted, hillsides.

This short one is the Depot Bridge

The Hammond Bridge is one of four that belong to Vermont. This one you couldn't drive over. In case you can't tell from the pictures, there was light rain for most of the day.

The two above are the Cooley Bridge.

These two pics are of the Gafton Bridge.

We drove through a beautiful country road to get the the Hubbarton Battlefield Monument. It is the site of the only Revolutionary War battle fought on Vermont soil. (see the Bennington Battle Monument above). Because of the rain, we didn't get to tour the actual battlefield, but the little museum was interesting.

Some diaromas from the museum.

The greens are so vibrant here. This leaf is obvioiusly upside down, but the contrast was so vibrant that I felt it was worth it's own picture.

Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023

This was a travel day getting from Poutlney, VT to Glenburn, ME so I wasn't expecting to have many pictures, but....

We drove through some pretty color again today. Lots of yellows and oranges.

This is Howe Bridge. We took a slightly slower route by several more covered bridges, made even slower as Cathy and I jumped out for pictures at each one.

I can't remember the name of this short bridge.

This is the Cilley Bridge, 1853.

This is the Mill Bridge. You can see the old mill in the background of the second picture.

There was a Dodge PowerWagon by the old mill. I'm not 100% sure of the attraction, but this is something that David would love to own.

The Larkin Covered Bridge, 1902

The Moxie Covered Bridge, 1883

Little smooch on a country lane.

Flint Bridge, 1845

Cool Spider Web

Bath Bridge, 1832 in New Hampshire

We stopped in Littleton, NH at Chutters Candy Shop. They claim to have the world's longest candy counter. It was indead impressive at 112 feet long!

I mentioned about how a good number of people go all out decorating for Halloween here in the eastern part of the country. We got a few pictures today. 

This was a window display in the shop next to the candy shop. We saw two skeletons on bicycles today, but didn't get a pic of either.

These were all at the same house. Some of them are 10-12 ft. tall.

This is the house across the street with the lighted skulls on the walkway between the two sides of the porch.

This Jeep was outside a dog grooming business. Note the dog skeleton riding shot-gun. We passed by a farm with a life sized horse skeleton as part of their display!

And finally, here is a picture from the balcony of the lake house where we will be for the next 5 nights.

Monday, Oct. 9, 2023

Today was a surprise. I'd heard so much about Acadia National Park that I was epecting to be blown away by it. We got there and had to wait in line to get our entrance pass. The only thing about that that surprised us was that we are used to being in a line of cars to get up the the kiosk to get the pass. At Acadia you had to find a parking place, walk a good distance (at least from where we had to park), climb 53 stairs and then wait in line. Ok, different system, no problem. But the park was CROWDED! We went past the first several viewing points as there was no place to park. Jud did eventually find a couple of places to park and at the first one, the sea pounding on the rocks was magnificant! The second was less stunning. We went on a bit and had to wait in a long line to go through a kiosk to have our pass scanned a second time so that we could continue in the park. By this time we were looking for a restroom. We found two without a place to park or a safe place to get off the road. We circled around and went into Bar Harbor because it is supposed to be such a fun town. It was crowded as well. The streets were narrow with cars parked on both sides of the road. We decided that we'd had enough of the crowds and heavy traffic and headed back off the island. This was supposed to be a much less busy time to visit than July and August. I can't imagine how many more cars you could put on those roads.

View from cabin balcony this morning

The colors haven't been as vibrant here in Maine, but there are a few pretty spots.

The waves crash over these huge rocks and leave waterfalls cascading off of them until the next wave comes along.

Our second stop

Beautiful cove just outside the park

Half of our first lobster roll. It was tasty but expensive!

The Penobscot Narrows Bridge

See those windows way up there? That is the observatory. You take an elevator up 40 stories and walk up stairs another 2 stories!

.

Looking across the bridge from the observation tower. It was amazing (and a little scary).

The bridge is right next to Fort Knox (NOT the one with all the money!). It was quite impressive.

That slit for one of the musket ports

The rust stains on the walls are from the steel "shutters" that were hooked to the cannons. When the cannons were loaded and ready to fire, they pushed the shutters open. When they pulled the cannons back inside to reload, the shutters were pulled closed as the cannon came back.

Besides the impressive cannons, there were many "barrel" ceilings of brick. It would have taken a lot of back-breaking work to have built this fort!

And finally, our nearly identical view of the lake this evening.

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023

With a little later start today, we went south to Rockland to the Maine Lighthouse Museum. It was an interesting and impressive collection. According to the man who was telling us about the museum when we entered, 90% of the exhibits were collected by one man who was obviously passionate about lighthouses! There were a lot of beautiful lenses in the museum which still belong to the Coast Guard. There are no "manned" lighthouses any more and those still in use are serviced by the Coast Guard. The lenses are often acrylic now and everything is automated.

Our cottage from the dock

This was tucked behind the neighbors mailbox, so it naturally became a photo op!

Huge lobster across the street from the lighthouse museum.

This would have taken a lot of time and patience collecting the different kinds and colors of shells and creating this picture. The shells for the ship and lighthouse were smaller than grains of rice.

To the left is a picture of Matinicus Rock Lighthouse. In 1856 the lighthouse keeper left his family to get supplies. He had to row 5 miles to a different island. A huge storm came up preventing him from returning. Abbie Burgess, the 16 year old daughter of the lighthouse keeper moved her ill mother and younger sisters from the frame house to a stone building closer to the lighthouse. She brought a bag of corn meal and then rescued her chickens. She kept her family alive on the cornmeal and chicken eggs for 20 days until her father was able to return, all the while manning the lighthouse which required winding an apparatus every 4 hours to keep the light turning. 

The article above gives more details, but for those of you who don't take the time to read things when visiting a museum, fell free to scroll on.

However, even though it's a little hard to read, I recommend reading about the Flying Santa below:

We aren't very good at this "post a picture of your food" thing because we have it half eaten before we remember. We lucked out with this restaurant called Archer's On the Pier. Our food was scrumptious! A sampler plate with crab cakes, hot lobster dip and bacon-wrapped scallops, Seafood ravioli, and potato wedges with lobster and melted swiss cheese. That potato wedge dish had a clever name that I can't remember!

Fun chairs out of lobster traps outside the restaurant.

We walked along the beach for a bit after lunch.

Being the Girl Scout geek that I am, I had to share this Beach Toy Library placed here by a Girl Scout Troop. It's the same idea as a Little Free Library, but with beach toys instead of books.

A sphere made with railroad spikes.

We made a stop at the Sail Power and Steam Museum. It was another impressive collection put together by one man. This Foucault pendulum thing some how proves that the earth is rotating by knocking over a pin every 38 minutes. I'm going to take them at their word, as I didn't have the brain capacity it understand it.

Our last stop for the day was a two hour sail on the Lazy Jack II Schooner. This was my very frist sail and something that I've wanted to experience for a long time. It was a little chilly out of the water, but we were prepared and I think everyone enjoyed it.

Some people cleaning or painting the top of these masts on a boat docked and shrink wrapped in the harbor.

On the left is a sailing yacht that our crew mate estimated cost at least $750,000. We could hear the bell in the bouy ringing as we left the harbor and again as we came back in.

Another schooner taking visitors on a sail.

Curtis Island Lighthouse

An hour and a half drive back to the lake house with the heated seats on (at least for Cathy and me) and another lovely day comes to an end.

Wednesday, Oct.11, 2023

Three little loons playing by the neighbors dock.

I had been hoping to canoe or kayak since we were right on the lake, but wasn't brave enough to go out in the chilly water in the kayak. David convinced me that he really didn't mind going out with me, so we took the canoe for a spin. It was wonderful! When we came back in, Cathy got in and she and I took a trip.

Another loon. We didn't hear them call. I'm thinking that they only call in the summer while they are raising their families?

That guy in back really loves me!

Our cabin from the water

A neighbor's float plane.

Clouds reflected in the water

We decided to splurge for one more seafood meal before we leave the coast. We found a little hole-in-the-wall place with good reviews. We still can't remember to take a picture BEFORE we start eating, but this was another great meal. Jud and Cathy each had a lobster roll and David and I shared a Seafood platter with fried shrimp, crab, scallops, and haddock with french fries and cole slaw. What is showing on the platter is only about 1/3 of what we started with!

Tiny little place with lots of locals, a couple gents from Georgia and the Halls and Ledets from Colorado.

We haven't seen as many highly decorated Halloween lawns here in Maine and we saw in Vermont. Most that we have seen are the blow-up kind like above. I have to admit that I've never shopped for Halloween blow-ups, but I had NO idea that there were so many!

All the pictures below are from ONE yard. This was more like what we saw in many yards in Vermont.

There was also some kind of monster in a baby stroller, but I didn't get a picture of it!

After lunch and taking the Halloween pics, we went to the Cole Land Transportation Museum. It was put together by the Cole family who owned and operated a trucking company for many years. I was pretty sure the guys would enjoy the museum, but was plesantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It is really well done and worth the time to visit.

Love this quote

A snow roller pulled by horses. Problem was that the compacted snow became a sheet of ice and when it finally melted, mud for weeks.

So many huge, impressive snow plows!

This baby had a 100 gallon gas tank but used 4 gallons per mile! It could only clear 25 miles before it needed another 100 gallons of gas. Ouch!

And there were fire trucks.

Can you imagine climbing that ladder?

The original "Glamper"

I had no idea that there were traveling dentists. 

Dr. Mansfield graduated from the Philadelphia Dental College in 1890. practiced for over 70 years before retiring at age 92. Again, I know not everyone witll take the time to read about him, but I find that the wedding ring that he was so proud of is kinda gross. But you'll have to read to find our more!

After leaving the Cole Land Transportation Museum, we went to the Orono Bog Boardwalk. There are several trails, but the actual boardwalk over the bog is just a little over a mile. This was a beautiful walk today, but I bet it would be miserable in the summer with humidity and bugs. I think it was the first time being in a bog for all of us.

A mushroom and Red Peat Moss

Getting a tiny bit better with the selfies...

These oak looking leaves were only about an inch long.

The needles on the tree to the right looked like they would be stiff and prickly, but they were very soft to the touch.

Tussock cotton-grass. They were about 18 inches high and on such a tiny stem (which was acutally hollow to collect oxygen to carry to nurture the roots which were in the bog water) that they looked like they were floating above the bog.

We're spending tomorrow at the cabin, or at least that is what the plan is as of this evening. We leave for home on Friday so we'll wash some clothes, repack, rest and get ready for an early start on Friday. It's been a great trip with lots of new experiences.

Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023

Having a quiet day doing laundry, taking a walk, reading, consolidating snacks and things we've purchased (mostly food!) to get packed to come back home and there may be a nap later in the day. Foggy this morning and now overcast and cool. Certainly sounds nicer here than the high winds at home!

An old stone house that I think would be fun to remodel.

Glad we don't have to worry about moss growing on our roofs at home. 

View looking straight up from the hammock in the yard. I didn't stay very long because the ropes were damp!

We're going to miss the colors. We met a couple from California a couple days ago who are traveling in their motorhome. By the time they get back home, they will have been on the road for nine months. We are all in agreement that nine months is too long for us! I think we are all ready to head back west.

Glorious last night at our little lake house!

Friday, Oct. 13, 2023

Our sunrise this morning as we were getting on the road.

We viered off our straight shot west to see the Portland Head Lighthouse since it was one we hadn't seen and it's one of the most popular and most photographed. This little doll house looking structure was on a tiny island on a lake in a park in Portland, ME

Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse

Portland Head Lighthouse

The hydrangeas have been beautiful!

Bug Light

Seeing more spots of color in the trees today. Maine apparently had a wet spring and summer, causing the leaves to turn later than usual.

Biggest cruise ship I've ever seen!

This little tug was towing a Saildrone. It's an unmanned remote controlled craft that can record all kinds of data. They are rented from the company in California that builds them for about $2500 per day. They send data back to a cell phone with information like water temperature, salinity, wind speed. They can be used to gather information from a hurricane or can be used to study how ocean

 conditions are affecting fish populations or even follow a specific animal such as a fur seal to learn mor about them. Gotta love Google!

Next to the Bug Lighthouse was an exhibit dedicated to the shipyards and all the Liberty Ships that were built here in World War II.

Spring Point Lighthouse

After our several days in Maine where the GPS directions were,"In 900 ft. turn left on......, in 1/4 mile turn right on......, in 3/4 mile turn right on.....  It didn't matter what road she told you to turn on as over half of them didn't have a name posted. We put in the home address and at the point that we got on the interstate and she said, " in 1710 miles turn left on US Highway 36" we all had to laugh! We opted to not make reservations for on the way home and just get a motel when we decded we were ready to stop for the night. Turns out that we had to search for a about an hour to find one that fit our budget that we weren't afraid to spend the night at. We'll be back up by Niagara Falls again tonight. Whether or not we go to the falls again or not remains to be seen as we are still an hour and a half away and will have been on the road for 12 1/2 hours counting our lighthouse stops.

Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023

We've had a full day of driving and we're still on the road. It has been raining for most of the day, so pretty dreary. The trees were beautiful in New York, Pennsylvania, and eastern Ohio. We didn't get many pictures because we were driving and it was raining-duh. I suggested we stop and let the rain pass so that we could enjoy the trees more, but noone took me seriously.

We were excited to see some cheaper gas and stopped to top off our tank in Ohio before crossing the state line. This is the cheapest we've seen.

David bought Cathy and me each a rose (from a gas station) for putting up with Jud and him. 50 years and the romance is still alive and well. We are blessed!