3 days at the old homeplace

August 5 2012

It has been 3 days since I have written to the blog, I don’t know why this stop has been different than all the rest, this whole trip I don’t think I’ve gone more than a day without posting something. To make matters worse I didn’t even take any pictures the last three days. I guess my only excuse is the only campsite I could secure is at least fifty miles from everyone we planned to visit, which made for some long days. I didn’t see everyone I had planned on seeing; here is a brief tour of our weekend.

We visited my friends Stan and Barbara Crisco. They are renovating an old log cabin in Kent County Delaware. They have it done enough that they have moved in, but have a long way to go before it’s finished.

Next we met some old boating friends (aka The River Rats) for dinner in North East Maryland. I had told my Brother in Law Rock to meet us there as he lives nearby. He brought his two daughters, Casey and Kiley, Caseys Husband Bill and several youngin’s. I must say I was a bit surprised that all these folks came to greet me, but it was good to see them, the are all good people.

The next day we went to my parent’s house in Newark Delaware. This Wednesday is my mothers 88th. Birthday so we had a cookout and cake in her honor. My son and his family, Sallie, my brother Dave and his family and Millie and I were there to sing to the birthday girl. Afterwards I gave Millie a tour of Newark, the town I grew up in.

On Sunday we drove to Rock Hall Maryland to visit my brother John and Sister in Law Sandy. They didn’t make it to my parents the previous day because John is laid up with a bad back. In the afternoon we had to meet my Daughter in Law Kristie and Granddaughter Delaney back at Killen’s Pond State Park. Delaney is riding with us for the rest of the trip and staying with me at the beach till school starts.

Tomorrow morning (Monday) we depart and point the bus toward home. We will stay overnight somewhere along the way and arrive in Myrtle Beach on Tuesday.

Killens Pond State Park, Delaware

August 2 2012

We have moved south again, we are now in Killen’s Pond State Park in Delaware. Delaware/Maryland is my old home place and the plan is to be here for three days. We will visit with a few folks and when we leave my granddaughter Delaney will travel with us on the last 500 miles of our journey.

For about the third or fourth time this trip we stopped at a Blue Beacon Truck wash and had the motorhome cleaned.

It was almost three months and 10,000 miles ago when we passed by here at the beginning of our road trip. It been a great vacation, and we’re a little sad to see it end. But going home isn’t so bad; we do live at the beach!

Harley Davidson Plant tour

August 1 2012

We are still in Hershey PA at the Thousand Trails Campground. Today we drove down to York and toured the Harley Davidson motorcycle plant. It was very reminiscent of the Chrysler factory I worked in for 36 years. They used a lot of the same processes that are used in the automotive industry. The big difference is the Harley plant is 250,000 square feet of manufacturing space and our plant was 2 million square feet.

I also purchased the part for the jeep; I installed the relay today and will run the jeep with the old fan and see how it goes. The fan shroud has four attachment bolts, one of which is very difficult to get to, I don't want to change it if I don't have to.

Tomorrow will be notable for two reasons, we will pass the 10,000 mile mark on this trip and we will close the loop we started when we passed thru Maryland back in May.

Hershey, PA

July 31 2012

This morning we moved to Hershey PA and will be here for two nights. The trip down from Milton was mostly along the banks of the Susquehanna River. It is still a free flowing river here above the dams and very scenic. After settling in we drove to Hershey and visited Chocolate World. While its target customers are kids, we took the simulated factory tour anyway and even learned a thing or two about refining chocolate. As usual you exit through the gift shop; this one was about as large as your average grocery store. It was teeming with kids, and parents in tow, buying small fortunes worth of chocolate stuff.

Later I did some troubleshooting on the Jeep and must now order parts to repair the overheating problem. I am going to replace the fan relay. It must be a fairly common failure as there are youtube video's detailing an easy way to access the relay.

The almost international incident

July 30 2012

On Sunday we traveled across the border to the Canadian town of Niagara Falls. The Canadian side is much nicer than the American side; it is clean with flower gardens and parks all along the road that runs along the gorge. We enjoyed the head on views of the falls, did a little souvenir shopping and had an excellent meal while over the boarder. We also visited a beautiful old park honoring the defenders of Queenston Heights who on 13 October 1812 defeated an invasion by some of those pesky Americans.

On our return to the homeland the intrigue of the almost international incident begins. As you are probably aware the US and Canada have tightened the security of their respective borders. Vehicles routinely back up for long distances at the security stations. We were well out onto the bridge between countries when I got a check gauges message. The engine temperature was pegged at 260 degrees. With vehicles all around me there was no escape from the bridge, I turned off the AC and opened the windows, no change in temperature. I started turning the engine off and started it only when the line moved forward. The radiator cap started bleeding of pressure and coolant. Just as we got to the international border marker at the center of the bridge, the motor was overheated to the point that I stopped using it to avoid any internal damage.

So here we sit in the middle of a bridge between two countries and I’m thinking, I wonder whose problem we are? Help would most likely have to come from behind, as there were cars all around us, would the Canuck’s drag us back to Canada, would there be a tow truck war between Canadian and US companies? Would the powers that be think we were mad bombers sitting in a powder keg at the apex of the bridge? Where they assembling the anti terrorist commando’s?

It seemed like it took a long time, I guess they were checking with the IRS to make sure I had paid my taxes, but rescue was launched by the US side. Did they send a tow truck? Cops with flashing lights? An assault team? No they sent two maintenance men on a golf cart. They got in line in front of us and towed us up to security and after we cleared customs, they moved us off to the side. International incident averted.

That’s enough about that email me if you want the mechanical details.

This morning we departed the wonderful New York State Park we have been staying in and started the march south. We are night camped in a nice campground in Milton, Pennsylvania.

Niagara Falls, New York

July 28 2012

Well, we have reached another cornerstone of our road trip; we are as far into the upper northeast as we will go, from here we turn south. We are camped at Four Mile Creek State Park in New York. It is located on one of the Great Lakes about 15 miles north of Niagara Falls. From the campground we can gaze upon Lake Ontario and it looks as vast as an ocean except we can see the skyline of Toronto Canada some 30 miles across the water.

Four mile Creek State Park campground is another gem we just lucked upon, it is a very nice campground. It is almost full as this is the weekend but the sites are spaced out and it doesn’t feel crowded at all. Most of the license plates are from New York or Ontario Canada.

After setting up and taking care of the dogs we drove down to Niagara Falls. Being early afternoon on a Saturday it was a sea of humanity. Like many of the popular tourist spots we have stopped at, we found ourselves being in the minority. I don’t mean as old people or southern, but as good old English speaking homogenized Americans. Lots of visitors from India at the falls today, plus several French speaking tour groups, and the usual mix of everyone else. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just different that’s all.

Tomorrow we are going to cross the border and visit the Canadian side of the falls. We could see long lines of cars at the border crossings today so we are going to leave early and hopefully have less traffic waiting at the bridge crossings.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

July 27 2012

I love it when a plan comes together! Our drive into downtown Cleveland with the motorhome and jeep went fairly well. We only had one unexpected construction detour to deal with.We just followed our instincts to get to the city parking lot. The boss who was aware we were coming pulled up just as we got to the ticket booth. He led us to an unused special events lot and said we could stay as long as we wanted at no cost. We parked under a row of trees for shade and opened the roof vents for the girls and walked to the Rock and Roll Museum.

Now I like listening to music, but I’ve never been obsessed with knowing anything about the musicians or even knowing the words in the lyrics, I am just a passive listener. I know that music is a big part of Millie’s life so I’m thinking I’ll be polite, follow her around and we would be there a couple hours. Six hours later we reluctantly left only because we were concerned about the dogs in the motorhome. The Hall of Fame is educational and very entertaining. It leaves you feeling you have been in the presence of greatness, even if it was just a Jimi Hendricks guitar or a Janis Choplin necklace.

The Rock and Roll hall of Fame and Museum should definitely be on your travel bucket list. I would suggest you allot at least one whole day in the museum, two days if you are a big Rock and Roll fan.

FYI: I’m sure most of you know Cleveland DJ Alan Freed coined the name for the new music that was emerging in the 50’s as Rock and Roll. Did you know “Rock and Roll” was used as a code word in Black Blues to avoid censure? And what was the synonym they were hiding from the sensors............intercourse!

We are night camped in Kinesse Lakes Campground. This is hands down the nicest Thousand Trails campground we have been in, ever. Unfortunately we will not be staying to enjoy it. Tomorrow we drive to Niagara Falls New York.

PS: No cameras allowed in museum so only have a few pictures from outside.