Greetings from Aroostook State Park in
Maine!
Brian again. We are about to
cross over into Canada this morning, after taking care of some
last-minute things. Many of you know that we will be there for a few
weeks. After Saturday, when we have campground reservations near
Moncton, New Brunswick (so we can attend a Geocaching Event with
about 500 people attending), we have no plans or schedule! We want
to see New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and
Newfoundland, and will give each one at least a week. If you do the
math, we will be back in the Good Old USA after Labor Day. By that
time, it will have sunk in that we are both retired!
Since our last report, we have
traveled some extraordinary country, and at a leisurely pace. In
Pennsylvania, we stopped for a panoramic view of the Cumberland
valley at a place called The Pulpit. It has a jump-off platform for
parasailers, and it was awesome.
The Pulpit view
After camping at Promised Land
State Park, we were headed to New York, when I saw a sign for
Steamhouse National Historical Site. Who could resist? We took a
short, unplanned, side trip, and found a restored roundhouse and
trains. Since it wasn't a planned stop, we were only able to spend
about 2 ½ hours, but we got to take a short train ride in an old
train. Our car was about 100 years old. What fun! I'd like to come
back on the way home and see them demonstration of the turntable.
We'll see.
The roundhouse
All aboard!
Good advice - not only on a steam train
After leaving PA, we wandered
around NY for the day, and ended up at Glimmerglass State Park.
Isn't that a wonderful name? It was the name of a lake in J.F.
Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales. It is near Cooperstown [get the
connection?]. When I saw Cooperstown on the map, I thought how
much some of my friends would LOVE to be there to see the museum. I
don't care about sports, so I thought to myself that at least it is
during baseball season, so nothing will be going on. What do I know? It was Hall of Fame Induction weekend! We found an overflow camping
site, and got out as soon as possible. If we had wanted, we could
have parked on someone's front lawn for only $20.00. Several people
had signs.
The Adirondacks are one of our
favorite places, so we drove through part of them. Our campsite was
right by a river, so we were able to sleep with the back end up, and
had to get into our sleeping bags because of the chill (in July!)
The river provided a very soothing background noise, which is a LOT
better than listening to a CD!
My second cousin, Travis, and his
wife Jen, just had a baby last month. They usually attend the
Luther reunion, but couldn't make it this year. We were able to
stop by and see Nora, the newest Luther. I think she is my second
cousin, once removed. It doesn't matter, because she is CUTE! We
were able to visit a while, and Travis asked if I wanted to go try
to find a Geocache that is less than a mile from his house --yes HE
asked ME ! It would have been rude to say no, so we gave it a try.
Luckily, we got it after a half-mile hike. It hadn't been visited
since last October.
When we got back to his house, he
discovered that the water pump had stopped working. So much for
showers! He made some phone calls, and decided to wait until
morning's light to try to fix it. We had some bottled water in the
truck, so we donated it to the cause, and we all headed to bed.
Luckily, at last report, it was only some bad wires, so I don't think
it was an expensive problem to fix.
After a foggy ferry ride across
Lake Champlain to Vermont, we took some more scenic drives through
the country. We found another place we want to return to in a month
or two, named Smuggler's Notch. The only drawback would be that if
this trip was any indication, the traffic would be impossible when
the leaves are changing colors.
I've mentioned barns and covered
bridges already. Another thing that I enjoy seeing is churches. You
see some quaint, clapboard country churches {try saying that quickly
3 times}and ornate gothic style marvels in many small towns. Many of
the country churches make me wonder where the people that attend
them live. There is often nothing around to indicate that there
would be enough people around to support a church.
Another frequent stop for us is waterfalls. We've seen quite a few nice ones! I'll put sone pictures her. Let me know if you want to know the names.
We ran into another quirky place, The Museum of Everyday Life. It was just a old barn in the country with displays of pencils, dust, paper clips, toothbrushes, etc. Strange.
Northern New Hampshire and Maine were new territories too. We didn't spend as much time as we would like there, so we may return in a month or so. The highlight of Maine was seeing Mount Katahdin. Kris has always wanted to go there, but we didn't have time. The best we could do was see it from an overlook on the Interstate.
Kris has been reading to me from her Roadside Geology of .... books that she got as a retirement gift. To summarize what I have learned, there are a lot of rocks here, and glaciers helped form the mountains and valleys.
Well, it is time to head off on the Canadian part of our journey! Adieu for now.