Bryce Canyon, Utah

Since we have not been summonsed to a service bay as yet, I am using the "down time" to catch up on my blogging.

This entry will cover our trip to and visit to Bryce Canyon, Utah. Last fall, we visited Zion National Park, about 50 miles south of Bryce Canyon. At that time, we felt that Bryce would be more of the same scenery we saw in Zion. Well, now I can say that that perception was totally wrong!
From Red Bay, Alabama - Friday, October 30thBryce Canyon National Park is even more spectacular than Zion! That is due to the fact that the views in Bryce are from the top of the canyon walls, while Zion takes you into the canyons from below.

Our "base camp" was a campground in Panguitch, Utah, which is about 23 miles from the entrance to Bryce Canyon. While in Panquitch, we stopped in to the local cafe for coffee after our visit to Bryce Canyon. While there, we got into a conversation with the waitress behind the counter. She told us about where she lived, on Panguitch Lake, about 15 miles south of town, and how beautiful the scenery and landscape was out there. She also told us about another spectacular canyon overlook, which was about another 15 miles, or so, beyond the lake. Since it was a beautiful afternoon, and we had plenty of daylight left, we decided to drive out to see this canyon overlook.

As we started out, we were excited and anxious to see this overlook. However, our excitement began to fade the further we drove. We were out in the middle of nowhere, without a clue as to what to expect. The further we drove, the more we felt that we had been duped into taking a "wild goose chase". Since I was driving, I insisted that we keep going "just a little farther along". Finally, we came to the end of the road, where we had to go right or left. The waitress had told us we would find this, and that we should go to the right, which we did. A bit further up the road, we came to the overlook. As we exited the car, we immediately felt the cold wind and we could see snow on the ground at the base of the overlook wall. Poor Charlie Burch! He was only wearing shorts and a tee shirt. Kathy and I were wearing jeans and fleece jackets, so we weren't feeling AS COLD! But it was well worth the trip and the cold! The views from up here were as spectacular, if not more so, as Bryce Canyon. The bonus was that the rock formations up here had snow on them. Our altitude up here was 11,000 feet! We were quite happy that we "stuck it out" and made it to this spot. We have some great pictures in the web album, so be sure to check them out.

The next morning, sadly, we headed south from Bryce, heading for Flagstaff, AZ, where the weather, we hoped, would be a little warmer. Check the next edition of the blog for that trip.

Here is the link to the web album for today's blog:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BryceCanyonUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCJew4t6H7b315gE&feat=directlink

Mesa Verde National Park, CO and Moab, UT

Thursday, October 29 - Red Bay, Alabama

We are currently located in Red Bay, Alabama, at the Tiffin Motor Home factory. We arrived here yesterday morning to have some warranty work done on our coach before heading to Florida. But, more on that in another blog.

I know that it's been a while since my last blog entry, but we are not able to get WiFi access every night, so I have to wait until we get to a spot where we are able to access the internet reliably. I have some catching up to do, so this blog will cover our visit to Mesa Verde National Park and our trip up to Moab, Utah from Colorado.

We had originally intended to travel west from Farmington, NM to Kanab, Utah to meet with Lol and Cal Hargreaves before they headed back to MA, and we headed up to Bryce Canyon N.P. However, after doing some research on the condition of the roads west, we decided to travel north through Colorado, stopping in Durango and Mesa Verde N.P., before heading into Utah toward Bryce. Had we not taken this route, we would have missed some spectacular scenery and sights. I've already mentioned Durango in my previous blog, so I'll start with Mesa Verde in this one.

Mesa Verde National Park is located in southwest Colorado, approximately 30 miles north of Durango. This park was once home to native Americans known as "the cliff dwellers". We got to see the "homes" they built into the sides of the cliffs in this rugged land. As we learned, at the top of the cliffs, the men would till and cultivate the land and grow crops. Each day, they would climb the sheer cliff walls to tend their fields, and to harvest the crops when the time came. One of the challenges they faced was knowing exactly WHEN to plant, and WHEN to harvest. It is thought that they built their homes in the cliffs to protect them from predators and enemies. Be sure to take a look at the pictures from Mesa Verde in the web album.

From Mesa Verde, we traveled into Utah and on to Moab, where we planned to visit both Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. Along the way into Moab, we got some great photos of the ever-changing landscape out here. We have been blessed with great weather since we left Albuquerque, but once we got to Moab, we did get rained upon for at least one afternoon. Fortunately, we had already been to Arches N.P., so we delayed going to Canyonlands until the next morning. Unfortunately, we had to leave the campground we were in and take the motor homes, since the management would not allow us to stay in the campground until early afternoon (they were going to charge us for another night's stay if we did). So, we left and drove to Arches, where we were able to park the motor homes and take a car to Canyonlands N.P. As I mentioned earlier, the scenery and landscape changes out here every time you go in a different direction. Canyonlands was NO EXCEPTION! Be sure to check out the pictures from here in the web album.

My next entry will be Bryce Canyon, and the trip there from Moab.

Here are the web album links from Mesa Verde and Moab:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/MesaVerdeNationalParkCO?authkey=Gv1sRgCIHFk6bYtfTnVw&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/OnToMoabUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCMX3vYSbpPDNqQE&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/ArchesNationalParkMoabUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCNaj3qvulcOCWQ&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/CanyonlandsNationalParkMoabUT?authkey=Gv1sRgCOCp_KnRls6B_gE&feat=directlink

Albuquerque to Farmington, NM

Tuesday, October 20 - Moab, UT

We finally have a WIFI connection here in Moab, so I will try to bring you up-to-date on our latest adventures. Since my last post was from the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, we will pick up from there. I will include pictures from the fireworks display on the last night of the fiesta in the web albums, below.

We left Albuquerque on Sunday morning, Oct. 11, heading for Santa Fe. Our traveling companions, the Burches, came along with us on our way to Farmington, NM, to lend a hand with our first RV show as vendors. Santa Fe is a beautiful city in northern New Mexico. It is the Capital City of New Mexico, and has lots of charm. Upon arrival, we parked our coaches in a WalMart parking lot and took a car into the city to scout around. After parking the car in town, we walked around a bit and decided to have lunch at a neat little cafe called "The Burrito Company". From there, we did a bit of shopping and sightseeing, and finally headed back to the coaches (after a quick stop at the local Dunkin' Donuts!). Since we could not park in the WalMart lot overnight, we left Santa Fe and headed for Espanola, NM, where the local WalMart did allow overnight parking.

On Monday morning, we departed for Farmington, where the Rocky Mountain Ramble RV show was to be held. Since we had originally scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, we decided to stay in a local RV park before heading over to the Fair Grounds to register for the show. After settling in, we took the car and scouted out various locations we would need to use during the show (bank, ice vendors). At the recommendation of our host at the RV park, we all went to dinner Monday evening at the local Red Lobster. If you've never been to a Red Lobster, you HAVE to go!! The food was excellent and plentiful. We will be sure to keep this on our list as a place to go for dinner.

Tuesday morning started with breakfast at another local establishment highly recommended by our host at the campground - Sonyas Country Cookin'. Again, an excellent choice. After breakfast, we returned to the campground and buttoned up the motor home and moved over to the Fair Grounds to register for the show. The Burch's came over once we were settled on our campsite to help us load up and transport everything over to the vendor building, where we then had to haul everything inside and set up the booth. This took us about 4 hours to accomplish, and we covered everything up before heading out for the afternoon. Kathy and I returned to the booth on Wednesday morning to finalize everything and make sure we had all we needed for the start of the show at 9AM Thursday morning.

The RV show was a great experience for us. This was our first show "on our own", and we had a great time. We met lots of other vendors, as well as attendees, who shared our avocation - motorhoming. Charlie and Kathy Burch were so very helpful to us throughout this show. We are forever indebted to them!! Also, in addition to having a wonderful time, we also made a little money!!

From Farmington, we headed north to Colorado to Visit Durango and Mesa Verde National Park. Details of that leg of our trip will be in the next edition of "the Journal". Here are the links to the web albums for this edition:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/DrivingToSantaFeNM?authkey=Gv1sRgCLCjorr7_6SVhQE&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/OnTheWayToFarmingtonNM?authkey=Gv1sRgCPjD07rC2O3cCQ&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/RockyMountainRambleFarmingtonNM?authkey=Gv1sRgCOPwv9WrvqqPsAE&feat=directlink

Albuquerque Balloon Festival, 2009

TOTALLY AWESOME!! That's the only way to describe this event.

We left our coach at 5AM and headed down to the launch field to witness what they describe here as a "Mass Ascension". What that means is that all of the balloons on the field take off one after another, or simultaneously if they're not too close together. What a sight to see!

Just as we arrived at the field, about 10 balloons launched - this was about 6AM. These first 10 are considered the lead flight, and they go up to test the winds. If all is in order, then the remaining balloons will launch within the next hour. It was still dark when the lead flight launched, so we did not get many pictures. You can only see them when they "light up" to rise, and then as they heat more air for lift. We stayed until every balloon had taken flight, around 8 - 8:30AM. This year, the mass ascension totaled approximately 550 balloons. One of the balloons we spotted appeared to be the same one that Kathy, Nancy Borsetti and Gail Dimaggio rode in up in New York some years ago (around 1998, or so). It was called "Amazing Grace". Other than that, we did not see a single familiar face among the thousands of people here.

Speaking of the numbers of people here, another thing we noticed was that the city of Albuquerque certainly has their "ducks in a row" for this festival. Despite the throngs of people, traffic and parking was very orderly and efficient. Add to that the fact that people (attendees) were not "gouged" for the tickets to get in ($6/person), less for kids, this was a very good take, and a real family value. Anyone who has wanted to see this festival, I urge you to make every effort to attend this event at some time. It is a "bucket list" MUST!

Here are the links to the web albums - enjoy the photos!

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BalloonFestival2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ-BxaCqi8rM5QE&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BalloonFestival2?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKQrc2ukpjKMQ&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BalloonFestival3?authkey=Gv1sRgCNHvrqz60L-JEw&feat=directlink

Chapter 3

Interesting title. Let me explain. Chapter 1, I suppose, would be our lives up to our retirement. Chapter 2 began with our retirement and trip west last fall. Chapter 3 represents a new phase in our lives, beginning with the acquisition of our "dream" motorhome, a 2009 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40QXP, and continuing with our newest venture. As most of you are aware, we have embarked upon a new business venture. We will be working as vendors at various RV trade shows selling dips, that's right, I said dips! We will be representing a company known as "Dip'n Good Dips" at these trade shows. We have decided to call ourselves "The 'DIP'lomats. Our first trade show takes place in Farmington, NM from October 14th thru the 17th. Our product line includes 15 flavors of dried dip mixes and 2 flavors of "sweet treats" (Pumpkin Spice and Raspberry). In addition, we will also be selling the "coolers" used to keep the dips cold while on display. We are anxiously looking forward to this first show, as it will serve as our "baptism of fire". We actually did work at this down in Nashville last July and August, to see if this was something we wanted to do. We had so much fun that we are now going for it!

OK! On to the good stuff! As I mentioned, we purchased a new motorhome in September and, as a result of having to arrange the insurance and registration by telephone/FAX/e-mail/snail mail, we were not able to get underway until Friday, October 2. Our first stop was in Chicago to pick up additional sales items from the couple who sponsored us for this distributorship, Steve and Sherry Metz. These are two of the hardest-working people we have met. They work about 40 - 45 shows per year, traveling far and wide to attend these shows. In addition, Steve has his own appliance repair business, and builds/restores vintage automobiles in his "spare time"! We spent Sunday afternoon and evening with Steve and Sherry, going over some important items regarding these shows.

On Monday morning we again got underway, heading for Albuquerque, NM, where we met up with Charlie and Kathy Burch on Wednesday at the Balloon Festival. The trip to NM was basically uneventful. Kathy did get to drive the new motorhome for a bit, and she really enjoyed it. She was quite nervous at first, since it is longer and much heavier than our Discovery was. However, she soon discovered how easily it drive and handles on the open road. We are truly impressed with the quietness and power of this coach. The interior is quite beautiful and spacious when all 4 slide-outs are extended. We will try to post photographs of the motorhome, exterior and interior, soon.

Today we ventured down to the balloon festival, where we got some very good pictures of some of the "shape" balloons, so called because they are in the shape of familiar things (see the photographs). We also visited a museum here which houses replicas of Nuclear devices, from weapons to medical instruments. Quite interesting and educational.

Tomorrow, we hope to be able to get more photos of the balloons closer up to them. We may even get to photograph them taking off and in flight. The weather through Saturday promises to be ideal for balloon launching. Be sure to check back for those photos. We will be in Albuquerque until Sunday. Then we will head up to Santa Fe to do some exploring along the "Turquoise Trail" before finally heading over to Farmington to get ready for the show. We will keep you posted via this blog.

Here's the link to the web album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/MovinWestAgain?authkey=Gv1sRgCKmVjZHVxYaoqgE&feat=directlink

Perhaps the Most Terrifying Day of Our Lives

Tuesday, August 4 - Flatwoods, Sutton, WV

Today had to have been perhaps the Most Terrifying day of our lives.

We arrived at a campground in Shepherdsville, KY, approximately 15 miles south of Louisville, on Monday afternoon. After getting the coach hooked up, we had dinner, then headed into Louisville to Churchill Downs to take a look around. We took photographs outside of the racetrack, since everything was closed by the time we arrived. We made a note of the opening time on Tuesday morning, and promised to be back in the morning. Next, we drove into downtown Louisville and did some driving around. While scouting about, we came across the Hellerich and Bradsby Bat Company, where the famous "Louisville Slugger" baseball bat is made. We got some pictures outside of the building, but we wanted to take the tour, so we promised to do that in the morning, as well.

We awoke early this morning (Tuesday, 8/4/09), got ready, and were out having breakfast by 7:30AM. The sky was cloudy, and looked like rain, but it was not raining yet. We headed into Louisville and stopped at Churchill Downs to visit the Kentucky Derby Museum. However, as we approached the Downs, the rain, which had started lightly before we got there, suddenly started coming down in torrents. We decided to wait in the car before attempting to get to the museum, since we had to walk across a huge parking lot to get to the building, and we did not bring an umbrella (duh!). We waited about 15 minutes and the rain continued to pelt down, so we decided to head downtown to the "bat factory".

As we began our trek into downtown Louisville, the sky opened up and rain came down in torrents! It was like sitting under a waterfall, with the water coming down on your head. Then, to top things off, it turned to hail!! We couldn't hear each other talk during the hail storm, so loud was the noise from the stones hitting the car. We were unable to see, so we pulled into a parking lot on the campus of the University of Louisville to wait it out. After a few minutes, the rain seemed to let up just a slight bit, so we ventured out again. Within a couple of blocks, the rain started again, with a vengeance! The streets turned into rivers, up to a foot deep in spots - deeper in others. Since it was almost impossible to make our way to the downtown area, we decided to head for I-65 South to return to the coach. We were thinking that the storm might be raging back at the coach, and Beasley gets very nervous in thunderstorms, so we wanted to get back as soon as possible.

Easier said than done, as we quickly found out. Most of the roads were blocked due to flooding. The GPS was going NUTS because we couldn't make any of the turns it was suggesting. It took us over 1 hour just to find an escape route to I-65, driving through water which covered the streets and reached almost to the bottom of the doors on the car. We were afraid to stop, for fear that we wouldn't be able to move if we did. So, we kept on moving through the rivers of water until we finally made it to the I-65 South ramp. The trip back to the coach was uneventful, as the rain subsided the further we got from Louisville. By the time we reached the motor home, it was STILL JUST CLOUDY!!!

After checking on and walking the dogs, we unhooked the motor home and got the hell out of Louisville in a hurry! Unfortunately, we were both too scared to even THINK about taking any photos during our ordeal! We did, however, get some pictures with our iPhones the evening before, when we first visited these venues.

Here's the link to the photo album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/Louisville?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-O1v_avpGPxgE&feat=directlink

LeAnn Rimes Concert

Tuesday, July 21 - Hamilton

Last Sunday evening, we attended the LeAnn Rimes concert at the South Shore Music Circus in Cohassett. If you remember, Sunday was warm and humid. If you've never been to the SSMC, especially on a warm, humid evening in summer, believe me when I say you haven't missed anything.

We arrived in Cohassett fairly early, so we went to dinner at the Blackstone Tavern, which is located on Rte. 3A, just before the turn to get to the Music Tent. Dinner was very good, and the tavern, itself, was very new. Every waitress/waiter had a trainee working with them. The tables were set with white linen cloths, and there was also a good-sized bar/lounge area. Prices were moderate, food was excellent and well presented. Since it was early, the tavern was fairly quiet, so we were able to have conversation while we ate.

After dinner, we made our way to the tent. We arrived at the parking lot at about 7PM, and waited in the car while we finished our Dunkin Donuts coffees (they would not allow you to bring in anything to eat/drink). Upon entering the venue, we walked around a bit, since it was still early. We purchased a bag of popcorn and a bottle of water before going to our seats, and waited outside in the shade for a few minutes. When we did finally enter the tent, it was warm inside. People already seated were fanning themselves with their programs to keep somewhat cool. I was thinking about how the performers were going to handle the mugginess.


At 7:30, the opening act, Chad Berman (who, incidentally, hails from Pepperell, MA) and his accompanist took the stage and performed for 30 minutes - to "warm up" the crowd. By the time they finished their set, both were sweating profusely! The announcer informed us that there would be a "short" intermission while the stage crew reset the stage for LeAnn. I should mention here that the time was now 8:00. By the time Miss Rimes took the stage, it was 8:39! The only good thing about the wait was that, by the time she did arrive on stage, they had managed to "cool down" the stage area a bit by blowing cold air down onto the stage from above.


As I said, LeAnn took the stage at 8:39PM to thunderous applause. She opened with one of her newer songs, and it was at that point that we realized that the sound tech had the mic amps set TOO HIGH! It was almost impossible to understand what she was saying, plus she was being drowned out by the volume of the music being played while she sang. This was a big turn-off for us, because we thought that we would really enjoy the concert in this smaller venue. We had seen both Anne Murray and Trish Yearwood in small concert halls (Lowell Memorial Auditorium and North Shore Music Theater, respectively), and enjoyed them immensely. But we could not say the same for the LeAnn Rimes concert in Cohassett. Her show ended exactly one hour after it began, at 9:39PM. After about 4 minutes of applause, she re-took the stage for an encore (one song, thankfully), then bid the audience good night, and left the stage for good!

The next day, Monday, I got an e-mail from Ticketmaster asking me to write a review of the concert, which I was only TOO HAPPY to do! The review I wrote was very critical of both the theater and the sound system. What I found out, as I tried to submit my review, was that plenty of other people felt the same way we did. How did I find this out, you ask? Simple. When you write a review, they ask you to enter a "nickname" instead of your real name (for obvious reasons). My first attempt at a nickname was "Feeling cheated", which was rejected - no spaces, max 25 characters. I then tried "NOTHappy", but that had already been used! Next, I tried "Disappointed", but that, also, had already been used! I also tried "Robbed", "fleeced", "Cheated" - but all of these had already been used. Finally, I typed in "Screwed" as a nickname, and that WAS accepted! Not many happy concert attendees on Sunday night, eh?

So, my advice to all is, if you wish to see a concert/performance at the South Shore Music Circus, do it on a COOL evening, and make sure the performer does not have a LOUD band!

To top off the evening, the "cape" traffic on Rte. 3 North was bumper-to-bumper at 10PM Sunday night on our way home. Didn't really break free until we got about half-way into Boston on the "expressway?!?". Great, freakin' great! I love Massachusetts in the summertime, especially the South Shore!

Our next adventure begins this coming Sunday, July 26th, as we head down to the Comcast Center to see Toby Keith in concert. We will take the motor home down, and we have reservations to stay at Normandy Farms Campground in Foxborough Sunday night. On Monday morning, we will begin our trip down to Nashville, Tennessee for the week. Be sure to check back next week for details of our "Anniversary" trip.

Until then, Vaya con Dios!

Owl Be Seeing You....Part II

Monday, July 13 - Hamilton

Once again we were graced by the owls hunting around our house this evening. What we came to understand is that these are Barred Owls courtesy of Google and Wikipedia.

Tonight, Jen was able to capture some amazing photographs of these beautiful creatures as they hunted for and consumed their prey. From her photographs, it appears that she was standing on top of the owls, but that is thanks to her amazing equipment and photographic skills. The amazing thing is that she was able to get as close as she did, and they were not spooked by her presence. They seemed to know that she was no threat to them as they went about their hunting.

I hope you enjoy these photographs. Here is the link to the web album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/BarredOwls?authkey=Gv1sRgCO27mb6L192u8AE&feat=directlink

Owl Be Seeing You....

 
Saturday, July 11 - Hamilton, MA

We had just finished eating dinner. I was at the sink, loading the dishes into the dishwasher. Kathy and Aaron were at the table drawing and coloring pictures. Suddenly, Kathy says to me "Come over here and see this! There is an owl in the yard! Quick, get the camera!" I walk over to the back door and look out just in time to see the owl fly from the grass into the birch tree in our front yard. He is huge!

Just then, we spot another one, a young one, sitting in another tree next to the birch tree. Before I could get a picture of it, another one flew onto the birch tree with the big one already sitting there. Imagine, a family of three owls right here in our yard! I took as many pictures as I could, but I could not get one shot of all of them together.

I followed them across the street to a neighbor's yard, where a fourth owl showed up, but I still could not get a shot of more than one at a time. They kept moving to different trees, or onto the grass in the front yard. Finally, they seemed to fly off.

I went out with the dogs, and as I was walking down the road, I spotted another one in the trees across the road. When I got back to the house, Kathy and Aaron were out in the side yard. There was another owl in a tree out back. I put the dogs on the porch and got the camera. We were only able to get one picture of this owl, as he flew and landed in our yard, right next to some of Aaron's toy dinosaurs. Maybe the owl thought they were small animals.

We are not sure if these were a family of four owls, or just four random owls, out hunting for dinner.

Here is the web album with the pictures I took:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/OwlSightingInHamilton?authkey=Gv1sRgCPjOh5uQneuDfA&feat=directlink

Au Canada - The Final Days - Gaspe, PQ

Tuesday, July 7 - Hamilton, MA

The Canada trip is completed and this is the final journal entry. I have several web albums to share with this entry, so be sure to check them out at the end.

We departed our campground in Gaspe on Friday morning in fog, under cloudy skies. As we made our way up to the northern coast of the Gaspe Peninsula, we encountered more rain and road construction (and mud!). However, later on in the morning the sun actually put in an appearance and the skies were bright blue. Unfortunately, the ground-level fog hung around to spoil our picture taking. We hope that you will be able to get some idea of the beauty and magnificence of this place from our pictures, despite the fog. We made a quick stop about mid-morning so Charlie could add oil to his engine. While there, K took photos of the churchyard and church, in whose parking lot we had pulled over. I also attempted to photograph my coach and Charlie's car, just to give you an idea of how dirty they got!

We made another stop for lunch in St. Anne des Monts, where we parked in a school lot in front of signs indicating that parking was for "Students Only". Of course, since the signs were in French, we ignored them. Charlie and I went down to a Subway shop in town to get sandwiches. Unfortunately, the shop employees only spoke French, so ordering lunch was an experience. The best part of ordering lunch at a Subway shop is that you can POINT AT what you want, and they will understand. The only part we really had trouble with was that we wanted OIL and VINEGAR on our sandwiches. I had no idea how to say OIL and VINEGAR in French. We were not able to point to these items, since they were not sitting out with the other dressings. In fact, what we now know is that they DO NOT even HAVE OIL and VINEGAR in their shops. We ended up settling for Italian dressing, because that was easy to tell them.

After lunch, we continued on and stopped again in Matane, which is a rather large city along the northern coast. We had hoped to reach Matane in time for lunch, but with the rain and construction along the way, we had to stop earlier. While in Matane, we stopped to fuel up so that we would have enough fuel to reach the States, since we would be spending one more night in Canada, at Rimouski, in a WalMart parking lot.

On Saturday morning, we departed Rimouski and headed for Maine. We stopped at the Visitor Information Center as we entered the Province of New Brunswick to ask where the best point to enter the US was. We were advised to travel down TransCanadian Highway 2 and cross into the US at Houlton, ME, where Canada Rte 95 meets I-95 in ME.
Turns out that that was very good advice, since our other choice was to travel from Van Buren, ME to Houlton on Rte 1, through desolate wilderness for most of the trip. The border crossing was uneventful. While one guard asked us the perfunctory questions, three others walked all around the coach with a mirror, which they used to look up under our coach for "stowaways". After their inspection, the guard who ws asking us questions asked the three other guards if they wanted to go into our coach to inspect further. One of the guards replied, "No. We're all set. They don't look the type, anyway."! So we were sent on our way. We stopped in Houlton to fill our tanks with CHEAP AMERICAN diesel fuel before continuing on our way down to Bangor, where we spent the night in another WalMart parking lot. We also went out to dinner, since this would be our last night together on the road. Where we had stopped in Bangor, there were many great restaurants to choose from. After some consideration, we decided to go to the Longhorn Steakhouse. We were pleasantly surprised at the good selections their menu offered. And the prices were reasonable.

On Sunday morning, we departed Bangor and headed for Portland, where we stopped to empty our holding tanks and have lunch. From there, we headed to Seabrook, NH for a last fuel stop, then we parted company. Kathy and I came home, while Charlie and Kathy Burch headed to Merrimack, MA to visit friends George and Leah Desmet.

Our next adventure will be later this month, as we travel down to Nashville for our anniversary. We will leave Hamilton on Monday, July 27. We will stay in Nashville until Monday morning, August 3. We are hopeful that we will get lots of interesting photos while we are there, so be sure to follow us on that journey. Mark the dates on your calendar.

Here are the links to final the web albums from the Canada trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaDay12TravelingToGaspe?authkey=Gv1sRgCP6TiI-J9LbByAE&feat=directlink


http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaDay13ToGaspePQ?authkey=Gv1sRgCMrrgfGV3dCboAE&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaTheFinalDaysTheGaspePeninsulaBackToTheUSA?authkey=Gv1sRgCOKO76y6hMrspwE&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaTheFinalDaysGaspePartII?authkey=Gv1sRgCOywnLS_gOqRXQ&feat=directlink

Au Canada - Days 9, 10 and 11 - on PEI

Thursday, July 2 - Gaspe, PQ

Days 9,10 and 11 were spent on Prince Edward Island, exploring and enjoying the local flavor and history. Charlottetown is a small, cosmopolitan city filled with historical landmarks, wonderful restaurants, and lots of shopping areas. In addition, the waterfront, which is on the Hillsborough River, has a scenic boardwalk lined with shops and cafes. We also discovered a Factory Outlet Mall, but it was nothing like the ones in the States.



After leaving Charlottetown on Day 10, we headed north to Cavendish, the location of the real Green Gables, where L. H. Montgomery lived and wrote the "Anne of ...." series. Just past Green Gables lies the village of Avonlea, where the "Anne of Green Gables" movie was filmed. We stopped in to visit Avonlea, but with the rainy weather (it was pouring), we decided to move on to other things, such as "shopping" (what else is there to do in the rain?). I managed to pick up a new hat for the rain (see pictures).

Day 11 started out to be another rainy day. In fact, the only really nice day we had was Day 8, when we had "the Lobster Feast". No matter. Our plan was to visit the PEI Potato Museum in the town of O'Leary, which was a drive of approximately 1-1/2 hours from Cavendish. This was a good take for a rainy day. We learned lots of interesting information about the origin of the potato. Did you know that the potato originated in South America? The soil on PEI is very good for growing potatoes. If you notice in the pictures we took, the soil looks reddish-brown. That is due to the fact that the soil here is rich in iron oxide, which, when exposed to air, turns rust-colored. As we drove around the island, we saw potato fields everywhere. They are preparing for the July harvest (the "early" harvest). The regular harvest happens in the fall, when most of the islands potato crop is harvested. Schools close for a week for this "event", so that the children can help harvest the crop. In addition to the history of the potato, the museum had lots of other interesting artifacts. You can see pictures of what we saw in the Day 10 album.

On the return trip from O'Leary, we stopped into Summerside, the other large city on PEI. There was nothing in Summerside to hold our attention, so we cruised the main streets and headed back to Cavendish.

Here are the links to the web albums:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaDay9CharlottetownPEI?authkey=Gv1sRgCNne2J-J3Yn2Vw&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaDay10CavendishPEI?authkey=Gv1sRgCIL21If9q6OFjAE&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaDay11OLearyPEI?authkey=Gv1sRgCNe43Kek2dzpqAE&feat=directlink

Au Canada - Day 8 - The Lobster Feast!

Thursday, July 2 - Gaspe, PQ

As I mentioned in my last entry, this entry will be totally dedicated to our "Lobster Feast". If you remember, I mentioned that we purchased these lobsters just prior to boarding the ferry to PEI. It was less than 6 hours later when we cooked them and absolutely devoured them! Talk about fresh! If you've never had lobster right off the boat, you can't know what you missed.

As I mentioned, these were 3-pound lobsters with extremely hard shells. We steamed them for 25 minutes in the pot, then served them with potato salad and cole slaw and plenty of beer/wine and melted butter! I can honestly say that I have never tasted a lobster as sweet and tender as these were! By the time we were finished, all that remained of our feast was a bowl FULL of shells and most of the potato salad and cole slaw (we were too busy eating lobster to worry about them)! This was the only way to enjoy, truly enjoy, a lobster dinner. We had thought about going out to a local restaurant for lobster several times, but decided to wait until we could buy them fresh and eat them outside at a picnic table, where we wouldn't have to worry about getting it all over ourselves, or looking like slobs devouring them. We had a beautiful evening for eating outside, with the city of Charlottetown across the river and the sun setting over the city, it was perfect! In addition to this being a wonderful feast, it was also a celebration of Kathy Burch's B'day. It was the ending to a wonderful day. Incidentally, this was one of two sunny days on this whole trip!!! But it did not prevent us from doing what we wanted to do and having lots of laughs! Guess we did not escape the rain by heading north.

Here's the link to the web album for "the lobster feast!":

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaDay8TheLobsterFeast?authkey=Gv1sRgCMSq982jq5mfQg&feat=directlink

Au Canada - Days 7 & 8

Thursday, July 2 - I am finally catching up.

After several days without a decent internet connection, I have finally gotten to a place where I can upload my pictures and create a blog. If possible, I will probably do 3 blogs tonight, just to catch up. We are currently in the town of Gaspe in the province of Quebec, at the Fort Ramsay campground. This blog entry will cover days 7 and 8 of our trip, which were spent traveling into the town of Sydney in Nova Scotia on Day 7, then traveling out to Prince Edward Island on Day 8.

I don't remember why, or who told me, but I was speaking to someone about taking this trip to the Maritime Provinces, and he asked me if we had ever visited the town of Sydney on Cape Breton. We were told that it was considered a small Halifax. On that information, we did make the 1 hour drive to Sydney from our campground. Prior to leaving Baddeck, we stopped in at a yarn shop so that the girls could check out the yarns. While there, Charlie and I were sitting out in the car watching the yarn shop owner's husband preparing to mow his lawn. After spending a few minutes walking around picking up sticks and twigs, he went into the shed, checked out the level of gas in the mower, and decided to fill the tank. He then stepped out of the shed, lit up a cigarette, spotted us in the car, and came over and struck up a conversation with a wise remark about husbands waiting for wives shopping. During the conversation, we asked him if there was anything we just HAD TO SEE in Sydney. He replied that he and his wife only go to Sydney to shop at the mall, so he knew nothing about the town. Great!

Eventually, the girls came out of the shop and we got underway. We took a few pictures along the way, which you will see in the album. As for the town of Sydney, we drove around the town and could find NOTHING of interest to us. We ended up at a Subway shop for lunch, then went over to the local WalMart to poke around. One depressing thing we realized when we got into Canada is that the ONLY place to purchase beer and/or wine is at the Provincial Liquor stores (much like the State Liquor stores in NH and Maine), and, they don't carry TISDALE!!! The moral to this tale is: If you ever get to travel to Cape Breton, don't go to Sydney.

On Day 8, we left Cape Breton and headed to Caribou to take the ferry over to Prince Edward Island. The trip to Caribou was pretty much routine. We arrived at the ferry terminal shortly after 11:30AM, with almost an hour to kill before the next ferry to PEI. As we took our places in line for boarding, Charlie spotted some fishing boats off the the right of the ferry dock, and asked me if we could get over to where they were. After walking the dogs, we ventured out to the docks where the fishing boats were tying up. We were anxious to see if we could purchase "lobstahs" right off the boat! One of the men on the dock told us we could probably get them for about $4.50 - 5.00/lb. We spotted a boat just tying up, so we walked over and waited for them to start unloading their catch. We asked about buying lobsters from him and he said we could. When we asked the price, his wife quoted us prices of $5.50/lb for chix, $6.00/lb for bigger ones. We bought 4 3-pounders for $66.00, bagged them up, then had to run to our coaches to get onto the ferry, as it had started boarding while we were buying our lobsters!

After driving the coaches onto the ferry, we went top-side to make the 75 minute trip across the Strait of Northumberland to PEI. See the web albums for pictures of the trip across. You'll have to wait for the next blog entry for details of the "Lobster Feast"!

Here are your links to the web albums for Days 7 & 8:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaDay7ToSydneyAndBack?authkey=Gv1sRgCPWOwbbF_Iif9QE&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaDay8TravelingToPrinceEdwardIsland?authkey=Gv1sRgCPuW0ZH5t-i-KQ&feat=directlink

Au Canada - Days 5 & 6 - Halifax to Cape Breton

Monday, June 29 - Cavendish, Prince Edward Island

Finally, I have enough of an internet connection to post a blog. This blog will contain links to the web albums, which took forever to upload with the connections and speed we have up here.

Day 5 - traveling from Halifax to Cape Breton Island. The trip was basically uneventful, with fairly decent weather and dry road conditions. Along the way, we crossed over the Strait of Canso onto Cape Breton Island. While crossing the Strait on the causeway, there were 3 Canadian Naval ships entering the locks, which allow passage from the North shore to the South shore of Nova Scotia. Additionally, there was also a freight train passing us on our right, going in the opposite direction. We tried to get photographs of everything going on around us, but weren't very successful. We finally arrived at the Cabot Trail campground around 2:30PM and got the motor homes set up. Next, we drove into the town of Baddeck to look around. The two K's were looking for a yarn shop in town, which we did find.

Day 6 - The Cabot Trail. After a quick breakfast, we loaded up the dogs and headed out to explore the Cabot Trail. The weather was "iffy", at best, with ground fog in low-lying areas. However, we did see some sunshine along the way. Our first stop was at the Clucking Hen Cafe and Bakery for coffee and a snack. From there, we continued our exploration of "the Trail". A lot of the pictures in the web album for Day 6 are of clouds and fog, since these were the most prevalent things we were able to see. We did, however, manage to get photos of some of the sights along the way. In all, our trip around the Cabot Trail, 195 miles, took us about 8 hours to complete. We returned to the campground around 4:30PM, and spent the rest of the day relaxing.

I attempted to add photographs to the blog, but the connection is too slow, and they will not load. Anyway, you can see all the photographs in the web albums. Here are the links:

http://picasaweb.google.ca/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaDay5HalifaxToBaddeckNS?authkey=Gv1sRgCOvJp-jKuoXe6QE&feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaDay6TheCabotTrail?authkey=Gv1sRgCKuWxqSlx5XJCg&feat=directlink

Au Canada - Days 2, 3, and 4

Wendesday, June 24 - Baddeck, NS

Here we are at the entrance to the Cabot Trail. I have finally gotten the opportunity to blog, so here goes! I will not attempt to place any pictures here on the blog itself, because once again, I have a spotty internet connection.

On Saturday, June 20, we visited Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy. This is the area in which the highest recorded tides occur. We arrived at the park at low tide, which you will see in the pictures taken here. We visited the mud flats, Diamond Rock and Flower Pot Rocks. If you look at the pictures we took here, you can imagine how high the water level rises at high tide. In fact, there are signs here warning visitors about when they can descend to and walk along the ocean floor here. The tide rises so rapidly in this area that a person could get stranded once the tides begin to rise.

Here are the photos from Hopewell Rocks:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaDay2HopewellRocksNB?authkey=Gv1sRgCNWRxfHnzObNIw&feat=directlink

On Sunday, we left Hopewell and headed into Nova Scotia, bound for Halifax. We arrived in Halifax late Sunday afternoon, and just relaxed after the long drive. On Monday morning, we headed into Halifax at 8AM in order to catch the 9AM Grey Line bus tour of the city. We took the "Deluxe" tour on a double-decker bus, which took us through the city of Halifax, hitting all the historic points. The second part of the tour took us through the area of the city which was destroyed by a horrific explosion in Halifax harbor. At 9:05 on the 6th of December 1917, a French munition ship exploded in Halifax harbor, (Nova Scotia, Canada). This explosion was so vast that it killed over 2,000 people and completely flattened two square kilometers of northern Halifax. This was the greatest explosion of the Great war, and the largest man-made explosion until the dropping of the bomb at Hiroshima in 1945. As a result of this disaster, when the area homes and businesses were rebuilt, every building was constructed using stone, cinder block or brick, so as to prevent any similar disaster from causing so much damage.

From here, we visited the cemetery where 209 of the bodies recovered from the Titanic disaster are buried. The gravestones here are arranged in the shape of the bow of a ship. Many of the stones have no names inscribed on them, because the bodies were never identified. Some of the identifications weren't made until 50 years after the Titanic sank, when DNA identification was available to match the victims to families. In all, our tour took 3 hours, and was very interesting and informative.

Here are the photographs from Halifax:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaDay3HalifaxNS?authkey=Gv1sRgCKPxtPWLyt_OvAE&feat=directlink

On Tuesday, we spent the day visiting Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg. On the way to Peggy's Cove, we stopped at the Memorial to the Swissair Flight 111 crash, which occurred about 7 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia on September 2, 1998. At Peggy's Cove, we were met by 8 tour buses, which had just let their passengers off to walk the streets of Peggy's Cove. There are only about 5 roads in Peggy's Cove, and we only drove on one - the one where all the bus passengers were walking. The buses let the passengers off at the Visitor's Center, and they walked up to the Light House parking lot, where the buses were waiting to pick them up. These people were like cattle being driven down the road - they would not move to the side of the road so that cars could pass. We practically had to run them down before they would move over.

From Peggy's Cove, we drove on to Lunenburg. This was quite a quaint town to visit. There are many little shops and lots of restaurants there, and the food was excellent at the little restaurant we chose for lunch. We all ate seafood, which tasted like it had just come off the boat. While sitting in the restaurant, I noticed a tall ship moored in the harbor named "Picton Castle". I photographed the ship because I recognized the name as the ship which a former Manchester High School student sailed on for about 6 months. His travels were chronicled in the Manchester Cricket, detailing his trip, similar to my blog!

Here are the pictures from Tuesday's travels:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaDay4PeggySCoveLunenburgNS?authkey=Gv1sRgCOLG_uvqxcHiDA&feat=directlink

This morning, Wednesday, we left the Halifax area and traveled on to Cape Breton Island and the Cabot Trail. We are staying in the town of Baddeck (pronounced b'deck), at the Cabot Trail Campground. Tomorrow morning, we will tour the Cabot Trail (all of it, 195 miles), so be sure to check back for the details.

So long for now!

Au Canada - Day 1 - Campobello Island, NB

Friday, June 19 - Calais, ME
Today is the first recorded day of our travels with Charlie and Kathy Burch. We traveled out to Campobello Island, the summer home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This is truly a beautiful place! It was easy to understand why FDR referred to Campobello as "my beloved island". His parents, John and Sarah Delano Roosevelt, first came to the island in 1880, and loved it so much that they purchased 4 acres of land and built their "cottage" on it. FDR first traveled out to Campobello at the age of 1, in 1883. As a boy growing up, he spent his summers here, watching the local fishermen and learning to sail with his father. As he grew older and married, he continued summering on the island with his family, eventually purchasing a cottage next door to his parents. This became known as the Roosevelt Cottage. As you will see in the pictures, they did not live ostentatiously. There was no electricity and no telephone service on the island. Water was stored in tanks in the attics of the cottages and gravity-fed to the bathrooms. The climate here in the summertime is very mild, and was a great way to escape the heat of Boston and New York, which is where the first American businessmen came from who bought and built up most of the land here in the mid-1880's.

FDR contracted "infantile paralysis" (polio) here in 1921, at the age of 39. After five weeks, he was transported on a stretcher, across the bay to Eastport, ME, and was transported to New York for treatment. He only returned to the island three more times after that, in 1933, 1936 and 1939.

From the cottage, we traveled out to the tip of the island to East Quoddy point, where there is a lighthouse. We took several pictures of this spot, since it was another great sight. We did not venture all the way out to the lighthouse, as the tide was rising, and, at the rate of 5 feet per hour, we did not want to get stranded out there until low tide.

Tomorrow, we will travel into New Brunswick at St. Stephen, then proceed along the south coast to Hopewell Cape. This is where the highest tides in North America are recorded. Be sure to check back for pictures tomorrow night, or Sunday morning.

That's it for today's adventures.

Here's the link to the photo album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AuCanadaDay1CampobelloIsland?authkey=Gv1sRgCIyd9JeHy-GmAg&feat=directlink

Potpourri

Tuesday, June 2 - random thoughts on a variety of topics

Since my last entry, things have been fairly busy around the new homestead. I've painted a couple more rooms, repaired an outside electrical outlet, helped wash windows and plant flowers in the window boxes we inherited, started to unpack boxes of stuff in the basement so that we can move down there, and also so we can find our tools! In addition, we've bought and hung several pictures, shopped for chairs to put in our living area (have not found anything, yet), and finished our list of address change notifications.

Today, I visited my urologist for my annual check-up, including the inevitable "prostate exam". Question - why do all male urologists have fingers like tree stumps? Yeowch! That was at 9AM this morning. This afternoon, I had a dentist appointment to fix a tooth I chipped a couple of weeks ago. Turns out I need to have two crowns done, so today, I spent 1-1/2 hours in the chair while he ground away at the two teeth needing crowns, plus the two teeth below those, which needed to be ground down to accomodate the crowns! Sheesh! He was drilling in there for 35 minutes! Thank goodness for novocaine! Here's a dental question: why do dentists start talking to you after giving you 4 shots of novocaine? Apparently, they've never tried to talk with a mouth full of novocaine. I mean, you can't move your lips, your tongue is numb so you can't form words that make any sense, and, even if you could, it's extremely difficult to talk when your mouth is full of devices like drills, suction tubes, gauze pads, fingers, etc. Add to that the fact that he had a dental student working in the office today, so he wanted her to observe and assist with the process. As a result, he spent so much time explaining the process to her, and why he was doing certain things, the novocaine started to wear off while he was drilling!!! Had to give me a couple more shots to finish up. I have to go back in a couple of weeks to get the permanent crowns put in. I can't wait!

Tomorrow, the dogs go to the groomer, K has a meeting at 8:30, and I WAS going for a haircut, but that will change. We will probably drive up to Kittery, ME to the Crate & Barrel outlet to look for a couple of items K wants for the house. It's supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon, so that should be an exciting drive.

Changing the subject, I've/we've become addicted to Subway! We are especially fond of the Spicy Italian footlong. At $5.00 a pop, you can't get a cheaper lunch for two that is both delicious and plenty to eat! Ours is loaded with pepperoni, Genoa salami, provolone cheese, and topped with lettuce, tomato, pickle and green pepper, then seasoned with oil and vinegar! Oh, yeah, I forgot the bread! We like the Italian herb and cheese bread, and we DO NOT get it TOASTED! I totally recommend this sandwich, or any $5.00 footlong at Subway. Great!!

That's it! I'm through rambling! The Sox are up 5 - 1 over the Tigers in the 7th and things are looking good tonight. Dice-K was his usual - walking batters, but then pitching his way out of jams. Look out, Yankees! Here we come!

We Are Moved!

Monday, May 25 - Memorial Day

Moving day has come and gone and we are happily ensconced in our new "digs" in Hamilton. Last week was an especially busy week for us. Chris took the week off to prepare for the move, while the rest of us continued the packing and moving of boxes to our new home. On Tuesday, the installers came and installed the hardwood flooring in our bedroom, and the carpeting in living/entertaining area in the downstairs. By Tuesday afternoon, we were able to start painting the downstairs area. We came in on Monday afternoon after the closing and primed some of the walls to get them ready to paint. C & K Painting was, once again for a short time, back in business. By Thursday afternoon, everything had been painted and was ready for the movers. On Friday morning, "Uncle Don" came in and installed a new door in the downstairs, and trimmed the other doors to fit after the carpeting was installed.

On Saturday morning the movers arrived to load the trucks and take everything over to the new house in Hamilton. Because Jen had done such a marvelous job of staging everything for this move, packing and labeling everything as to where, in the new house, it would go, the movers were able to do the whole job in 5 hours (which included 1 hour for lunch!). Once they were finished, all that remained was to unpack everything. We are still doing that!

Sunday was spent at the "old" homestead, cleaning and getting it ready for the "final walk-through" before the closing. This took most of Sunday to accomplish, but it was worth the effort.

Today, Memorial Day, was the day for the new owners of Ray Street to make their final walk-through before the close. I met them at 10AM this morning. I had dropped K off at Dunkin Donuts, where she met Aunt Gloria. They had coffee and then drove into Salem for a bit, waiting for a call from me to let them know that the walk-through was completed. That was done by 11:30AM, so K and AG returned to take some cuttings of perennials from our yard. AG wanted to do some planting at her condo in Revere, so we told her she was welcome to take some perennials from Ray St.

Finally, it was time for K and I to say goodbye to our home for the past 23 years. This was especially hard for K. Me, I've been ready to move on from here for the past 7 years, so I was psyched! I must say, though, that over the past few days I have been reflecting on the memories made on Ray Street. It's funny, but the good memories seem to be very easy to recall, whereas the "not-so-good" ones are really difficult to recall. In fact, I really can't say that I remember any of the "bad" memories. They seem to fade into insignificance over time, which is probably a good thing, eh? It's not good to dwell on the bad things or hard times.


So, tomorrow is the closing for Ray Street. The new owners seem truly excited to be taking ownership. They absolutely love the house, and I'm sure they will take good care of it during their tenure there. As for K and I, we, along with Chris, Jen and Aaron, are ready to start making new memories here in our new home, which, we hope, will become a FAMILY gathering place, just as 9 Ray Street was. We know we will be happy here. The house is beautifully restored; it has a great, big yard, and plenty of space for FAMILY gatherings.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for further updates from Hamilton. Also, K and I will be taking another trip to the Canadian Maritimes next month, so I will be blogging on that trip to keep you all informed.

Stay healthy! See you all on July 4th (if not before!).

Mother's Day, Moving, et al

Wednesday, May 13 - 10 days to "the move"!

It's been a while since my last post, eh? Things have been quite hectic here on Ray St. since then. This post will cover Mother's Day and a few miscellaneous items, so let's get started, shall we?

Mother's Day - We got the best surprise on Mother's Day from son and daughter-in-law, Mike and Lisa. I don't know if you can make out the cards on the right, here, but this is the card M & L gave Kathy for Mother's Day. The second picture, the open card, shows a "Pregnancy Test kit", which reads "Pregnant"! What a way to announce the coming arrival of our next grandchild! Leave it to Mike and Lisa to come up with this novel way to make "the announcement"! Lisa has an estimated time of arrival of Dec. 23, so it will be a Christmas present for all the family, that is, of course, assuming that the baby arrives as expected! Experience tells us that the birth of the first child rarely happens on the expected "due date". Anyway, we are all very happy for M & L, and Lisa's parents, Paul and Elaine, as this will be their first grandchild!

Next item on the agenda is "the move"! Ray Street is now officially a "disaster area", what with furniture and boxes stacked everywhere, ready for the movers to haul away to the "new house" in Hamilton.

It has been 23 years since we last moved, then from Salem to Beverly. Things have certainly changed over the years with regard to selling a house and moving into another one. For example, now the seller has to install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to code, then have the local Fire Prevention Bureau come in and inspect the premises to make sure that everything is "up to code". Did you know that if you have any smoke detectors 10 years old or older, they MUST BE replaced with new ones? I think I spent over $100 to purchase new smoke and CO detectors. The inspector came today, walked around and looked at the location of, and tested, every one of them. Then, he told me that the Certificate of Compliance was $50! Geez! Seems that every time I turn around, it costs me another $50 - 100. Oh well! It will certainly be nice to get into the "new" place. Actually, the "new house" is, in fact, 10 years OLDER than Ray Street. Some "new house", eh? But, it is in beautiful shape, well taken care of by the current owners. It also has a huge yard, fenced, and nicely landscaped. We are all so looking forward to the move.




Next week, C & J will take ownership at 2PM Monday. After that, we will start moving the tons of boxes we have into the house. The workers will arrive on Tuesday to begin installation of a hardwood floor in our "apartment", and wall-to-wall in our basement. The painter will be working in the main house in the living room, and in Jen's office on the 2nd floor. Meanwhile, K and I will be painting the walls in our bedroom and living room, once the workers have finished. Our move-in date is May 23rd. Hope everything goes as smoothly as we expect. Once we are moved in and settled, K and I will close on the Ray Street house on Tuesday, the 26th.

Check back in about 10 days or so. If I have any time, I will let you know how everything went with the move.

Back Home Again

Tuesday, April 28 - back in Beverly!

All good things must end, as the saying goes, and so it is with us. Our travels have finally brought us full-circle back to where it all began so many months ago. Be not disheartened, though, as the adventure continues. We will shortly be moving into a new "home" with son, Chris, daughter-in-law, Jen, and grandson, Aaron. This we are looking forward to with eager anticipation. K and I will have "our own space" in the new house, which is, in a word, gorgeous! At this time, we are all "busy beavers", getting the "old homestead" ready for the new owners, packing, trying to decide what to keep and where it will fit in the new house. Pretty exciting stuff. As another saying goes, "Life is good!"


Our return trip to Beverly brought is through some very interesting places, as you know (if you followed the "blog" regularly). I believe my last blog entry was from Tennessee, where we spent a couple of days. From there, we traveled east into North Carolina, stopping in Winston-Salem to visit an RV Dealer there. We next traveled to Virginia Beach to visit friends who own a B & B there (Barclay Cottage). On the way, we experienced a bit of difficulty with our "toad" (vehicle in tow). Actually, the problem was the tow bar. At one point, I looked in the left-side mirror and I could see my Odyssey!! That's NOT supposed to happen. As a result, we had to buy a new tow bar in Virginia Beach. We unhooked the Odyssey in Emporia, VA, and K drove it the rest of the way into Virginia Beach, while I drove the motor home (about 100 miles). Here's a picture of the new tow bar:


I may not have any new posts for a couple of weeks, due to the fact that we will be very busy preparing for the "move", which happens on May 23. After that, be sure to check back for news on the move, the new house, and/or anything else that comes up!

Weekend in Tennessee

Monday, April 20 - Winston-Salem, NC

We had a great weekend on Tennessee! We arrived at "The Dell" RV resort at about 12:30PM, and, after being led to our lots, settled in, then we all headed out to do some sightseeing. Little did we know that this was the first of two "Rod Runner" weekends in Eastern Tennessee. The traffic was horrendous! It took us about one hour to cover the two-mile trek down US 441 through Pigeon Forge! We did get to see quite a number of "vintage" automobiles, some beautifully restored, some in the process of being restored. We also got to see a few "home-made" vehicles, which were quite interesting, to say the least.

Once we made it through the traffic tie-up, we stopped in to the Gatlinburg Visitor's Center to get information on what to see and do in the area. We decided to take a short (11 mile) scenic loop, which would take us up into the Smokies, where we could see actual homes which date back into the late 1700s/early 1800s. See the web album for these photos.

The weather on Sunday was not very cooperative (rain most of the day). We started out by attending Mass at a local Catholic Church in Pigeon Forge, TN (the home of Dolly Parton). After Mass, we picked up the Burch's and Desmet's back at the resort, and headed down the road for breakfast before starting the days touring of the area. We breakfasted at the "Apple Barn", a noted restaurant, where they served us a basket of apple muffins and apple fritters, with a couple of dishes of apple butter - delicious! Immediately after breakfast, we again headed out into the traffic, which had subsided quite a bit since Saturday afternoon. This time we had decided to take a longer scenic route in the hopes of seeing some wild life along the way! However, all we managed to see was a couple of wild turkeys and a few Canadian Geese. It was a very scenic trip, though, and we all enjoyed the scenery despite the constant drizzle.

Upon returning to the resort, the girls decided to go shopping at the local "outlet mall", such as it was, while the guys stayed back to "nap"! Later on, we all got together at the Burch's coach for a wonderful, delicious dinner.

This morning, K and I packed up and left Tennessee, headed for Winston-Salem, NC, to visit an RV dealer in the area, whom we met in Perry, GA last month at the FMCA convention (www.billplemmonsrv.com). We arrived in Winston-Salem at about 2:45PM, met with the dealer and went over a few items, then we parked the coach and headed down into Winston-Salem to do some scouting of the area. We were not able to get any photographs in W-S, so don't look for any. Dinner back at the coach. Tomorrow morning we will head east to Virginia Beach, where we will visit with the LaFond's. On Wednesday morning we will begin the 13-hour trip north to MA. Don't know when we will arrive in Beverly - will either be late on Wednesday, or during the day on Thursday.

That's all for this entry. Be sure to check the web album.

Here's the link to today's web album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/WeekendInTennessee?feat=directlink

Visiting Asheville, NC and the Biltmore Estate

Friday, April 17 - Asheville, NC

We arrived here in Asheville, NC, after a short (2-1/2 hour) drive from Columbia, SC, at noon. We are staying at a local campground, which is located about 2-1/2 miles from the Biltmore Estate.

I have to say, right now, that this was one of the best attractions we have visited, other than the National Parks last fall. The Biltmore house and grounds are magnificent! The only regrettable thing about our visit was that we were not able to take any photos inside the house, and that is a crying shame! This house contains 255 rooms, including 43 bathroom, and is 7 stories tall, from basement (finished) to attic (not finished). The basement contains a very large indoor swimming pool with an adjoining weight room/shower room. Also found in the basement were several different food pantries, kitchens, and servant's quarters (there were also servant's quarters up on the fourth floor). Every room we saw was meticulously restored, with period wall coverings, draperies, furniture, etc.

The house construction began in 1889 and was completed in time for Christmas, 1895. George Vanderbilt, the original owner of the house, brought his new bride, Edith, to live at Biltmore in 1898. Their only child, a daughter, Cornelia, was born there a couple of years later. After George died, Edith and Cornelia lived there, alone, until Cornelia was married, in 1924, to a Mr. Cecil (I forgot his name). Cornelia Vanderbilt Cecil gave birth to two sons at Biltmore, one of which, William A. V. Cecil, is the current owner, and the person responsible for much of the restoration.

For additional information on Biltmore and, possibly, pictures of the interior, go to www.biltmore.com.

Tomorrow morning we will head out for Tennessee. We will be staying at an RV Resort in Sevierville, TN, which is a little southeast of Knoxville. Stay tuned for pictures and a blog entry on that adventure.

Here's the link to today's web album. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AshevilleNC?feat=directlink

On the Road Again - GA

Thursday, April 16 - on the road in Georgia

We departed the resort in St. Lucie West yesterday noon and drove up to St. Augustine, where we spent the night. We parked at a Camping World store parking lot, which is located in the immediate vicinity of two Outlet Malls, so the girls had some time for shopping, while the boys napped.

After breakfast, we left St. Augustine and headed north on I-95 into Georgia. Although we had not planned to, we decided to stop in Pooler, GA, which is a suburb of Savannah, where we visited the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, just off of the highway. We spent a couple of hours touring the museum and grounds before we headed out again. This is a museum which both Charlie and I had always wanted to see, since we pass it every time we come to Florida, or head home from Florida. Charlie, especially, is an "airplane museum" afficionado, and so he visits every aircraft museum he has an opportunity to visit. His knowledge of aircraft is phenominal, and I always learn so much from him on these visits. Be sure to check out the web album for all the photographs we took here. Lest I forget, both Kathys enjoyed the museum, as well.

Tomorrow morning we will again take to the road, destination Asheville, NC, where Kathy and I will visit the Biltmore Estate, since we have never been there before, and it is a "must see", so we have been told. Be sure to check the blog soon for photos of the "Biltmore".

It's late, and we have an early start tomorrow, so I'll sign off for today. Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think of our travels as you follow along in the blog.


Here's the link to today's web album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/OnTheRoadAgainGA?feat=directlink

Enjoy!

Happy Easter!

Sunday, April 12 - Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter to all from sunny, hot and humid Florida's Treasure Coast. Our Easter began with a Sunrise Service at 6AM at Tradition Field. Because of the fact that our local parish is in the process of building a new church next to the current church, there is no room on the property to hold the service outside there. The manager of operations at Tradition Field offered to let the church use the field for the Sunrise Service, and, on top of that, they even provided breakfast and FREE tickets to the St. Lucie Mets game today at noon. Pretty good of them to do that.

The service was very well done, and there were over 300 people in attendance. K and I went with Charlie and Kathy Burch, then, since there were so many people lined up for the free breakfast, we headed off for breakfast elsewhere (not FREE, of course). At about 12:45, we headed over to the Burch's coach for Easter dinner. We enjoyed a delicious, spiral-sliced ham, Charlie's "party potatoes", corn, carrots and a salad. For dessert, K brought strawberry shortcake, featuring biscuits made from scratch - everything was delicious!!

After dinner, we sat around for a while chatting and watching the Masters Tournament on TV. We (K, me and Charlie) finished the day at the pool, relaxing in the warm sunshine and cool afternoon breezes.

Hope you all enjoyed your Easter Sunday as well as we did!