August 23, 2008

August 23, 2008

When we are on the road full time, our awareness of the news suffers. The little bit we get always seems to be about the upcoming election. A little time-off lets us catch up on other news. One thing Aimee found was the collapse of Wall arch in Utah’s Arches National Park. A shame, but I am glad it didn’t happen while I was standing under it!

August 22, 2008

August 22, 2008

We have a long drive ahead of us today. But before we embark, we take a short break in Fremont, OH to see the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center. Hayes was a former governor of Ohio and Civil War general. He was elected president in 1876 even though he lost the popular vote. There were some ballot box irregularities in Florida and other southern states that caused the election outcome to be delayed for months. Sounds eerily familiar! It is thought he got the Presidency by making a deal with southern leaders to end Reconstruction and pull out the Army. Hayes was notably honest and worked to overturn patronage politics, something the country wanted in the wake of the scandal-tainted Grant administration. Hayes voluntarily served only one term. The museum has lots of artifacts but is not organized very well. It could use the help of the National Park System. Aimee got a two-fer today. The museum had a special quilt exhibition.

From Fremont we drive west all day, ending in Itasca, IL at Aimee’s mom’s home. Aimee and I are both in need of a long overdue vacation.

August 21, 2008

August 21, 2008

From Akron, OH we drove a bit north to Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The Park is long and narrow and sits on either side of the Cuyahoga River that flows north into Cleveland. The Cuyahoga became infamous in the sixties when it was so polluted it actually caught on fire, fueling the environmental movement. We drive into the park thru little towns looking for the Visitor Center. From the park map we know it is here but signs are nonexistent. Finally we park the RV and walk around till we find the right building. A ranger gives us the lowdown on the park. The centerpiece is a bike and walking path that runs along the Cuyahoga. It used to be the mule towpath for an 1831 canal that connected the Ohio River with Lake Erie. We unhitch the bikes and give it a go. The bike path is nice, relaxing, and popular. Alongside the towpath you can see the depression where the canal once ran. After a good workout we return to the RV and prepare to head on. Cuyahoga Valley was a National Recreation Area until its promotion to National Park in 2000. In my opinion it doesn’t deserve it. I think the distinction of National Park should be reserved for places of special beauty. Not for a nice suburban bike path. Oh, by the way, don’t go to this National Park for peace and quiet either. The close-knit farms lining the bike path use loud air cannons to keep the birds away from the crops.

Leaving Cuyahoga Valley we drive to Mentor, OH to visit James Garfield National Historic Site. Aimee and I like the presidential National Historic sites. They usually are very well done and give us historical tidbits that allow us to remember the presidents in order. This site doesn’t let us down. We start with a tour of this Victorian Mansion but are reminded that it was substantially enlarged after Garfield’s death to house his papers and memorabilia. Garfield was a Civil War hero and elected president in 1880. He was famous for having been born in poverty and pulling himself up with his bootstraps. Unfortunately he was assassinated by an upset office seeker and died having only served 200 days with most of it spent lingering on his deathbed.

We drive west of Cleveland and stay in a park near Milan, OH.

August 20, 2008

August 20, 2008

The morning is spent traveling thru Pennsylvania into Ohio. The trip is made longer by a wrong turn that causes us to go pretty far down the Penn Turnpike till we can find an exit and turn around. Wrong turns get expensive with $4 gas driving a gas-sucking motorhome. After lunch we roll into Canton, OH finding the First Ladies National Historic Site. It turns out to be a big ball of worthless fluff. They have an old house that was a former home of Mrs. William McKinley. We pass on the home tour as it is one more old house. We proceed over to the Educational Center for a two-minute guided tour of nothing. They have a tiny collection; a few dresses, a handful of presidential plates, some campaign buttons, and as a special traveling exhibit, several papier-mâché presidential pets. I figured ahead of time it was going to bore me, but even Aimee thought it useless. They don’t even have a list of all the First Ladies. A sorry excuse for a national park site.

The only redeeming benefit is we learned William McKinley was from Canton. Directions in hand we drove across town to his Memorial. It is huge and vaguely familiar, looking like a slightly smaller version of Grant’s Tomb. McKinley, former governor of Ohio was elected president in 1896. Shortly after the start of his second term, he was assassinated in Buffalo by an anarchist and succeeded by his VP, Teddy Roosevelt.

We spend the night at a park outside Akron, OH.

August 19, 2008

August 19, 2008

We spend the morning driving west across Pennsylvania. Our first stop is the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site. After the opening of New York’s Erie Canal, Philadelphia rapidly lost shipping business to New York City. Pennsylvania was in a hard spot. The steep Allegheny Mountains stood in the way of them building a canal across their state. As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. In response the Pennsylvanians devised a series of stationary steam engines to hoist canal boats on a rail track up and over the steep Allegheny Mountains. After watching the Visitor Center’s movie, we walk out to the reconstructed power plant that sat on the peak.

Our next stop is the Johnstown Flood National Memorial. Johnstown, a former steel town, sits on a flood plain at the bottom of a steep valley. Upstream in 1899 sat a resort lake held back by an old and poorly maintained dam. After a very rainy May, the dam burst channeling the floodwater down the valley straight to Johnstown. It was wiped off the map killing over 2200 people. We watch a very moving film about the tragedy and then walk out to view the remains of the dam. In the aftermath, the millionaire owners of the resort were sued for negligence, but the court ruled that it was an Act of God. My how times have changed.

Our last stop is the Flight 93 Memorial. On September 11, 2001, after planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, a fourth plane was headed directly for our Capitol building. The forty passengers and crew of this United flight rebelled and retook the hijacked plane but not before it was crashed into this central Pennsylvania farm field. This temporary memorial consists of several rows of park benches stenciled with the victims names surrounded by lots of sentimental items left by mourners. A volunteer ranger gives a group of us a chilling review of that day’s events.

We spend the evening at a park outside Pittsburgh, PA.

August 18, 2008

August 18, 2008

Our target today is Scranton, PA and its Steamtown National Historic Site. Aimee groans as we pull in, seeing all the trains around. From the Visitor Center we quickly catch up to a Ranger talk that started five minutes ago. The historic site is on the location of an old railroad roundhouse. The elderly volunteer docent takes us thru this huge rail maintenance yard. He talks a lot but doesn’t say much. It is very boring, probably the worst we have experienced. Aimee is groaning louder now. What it did make me realize is how complicated it is to maintain a giant steam locomotive. A lost art, now only practiced by a few people.

Finished with the tour we work our way thru the Technology Museum. It is well done with lots of videos and mockups covering all aspects of railroading. From there it is on to the History Museum. It is nice but includes too much of the local history for me. But it does reinforce how important railroads were to the growth of the US and what an integral part of the economy they were. At the peak two million people were employed by the railroads. With the advent of less labor-intensive diesel locomotives and the deregulation of the industry by President Carter, railroading is now once again a growth industry.

Besides the museum, there are plenty of trains and cars to walk thru and even a train ride. We forgo the ride, as steam locomotives are too dirty and noisy for Aimee.

From Scranton we head west and spend the evening in Bloomberg, PA.

August 17, 2008

August 17, 2008

We are away from the Big City now and its early-rise commuting requirement. In other words, we slept late today. It felt good. Late in the morning we make our way to Morristown National Historic Park. Morristown, NJ was the site of George Washington’s winter encampment on two occasions during the Revolution. Washington camped here because the area was easily defended, yet close enough to the British occupying New York City to keep an eye on them. His troops spent most of the winters trying to stay warm and fending off starvation. Any free time was used to harass British foraging parties. Although the area is picturesque, a site of winter encampment is not historically exciting to me. Nor do the movie or the drive around add anything of relevance. A few miles away in the actual town of Morristown we stop and take a guided tour of the Ford House, where George had his office. It is a little more interesting but not much.

From Morristown we head west past the scenic Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. The Water Gap is where the Delaware River has carved a canyon thru the local mountain range. We spend the evening just over the border in the Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains.

August 16, 2008

August 16, 2008

From southern New York, we wake early yet again and make our way into New Jersey stopping at Liberty State Park on the Hudson. This is the less crowded of the two ports where you can take a ferry to Ellis and Liberty Islands. The ferry’s first stop is Ellis Island, where the nation’s largest Immigration center was located. On its busiest day, it would process over 11,000 aliens. Ellis Island consists of 33 buildings but only the main receiving hall has been restored. Inside is a Museum devoted to immigration. The exhibits are extensive and very well done. We breeze thru it but would have liked to spend more time. Unfortunately, we want to see Liberty Island too and waiting for and taking the ferry wastes a lot of time. Apparently needlessly so. To my surprise, there is a small bridge spanning the 200 yards from the Jersey shore for employees. Tourists, however, are required to take the ferry. A ranger suggests government bureaucracy is preventing public use, but I suspect the losing of millions of dollars of ferry fees is the real culprit.

Seeing the large crowd now waiting to board the ferry, we end our visit at Ellis and join the line for our next stop, Liberty Island. Liberty Island was another one of the War of 1812 forts guarding New York harbor. The star-shaped fort is still there, with the addition of a monumental green copper statue of a woman atop of it. Affectionately known as the Statue of Liberty, she is a sight to behold. She is very beautiful and full of meaning for our country. She symbolizes everything good about us. Every American should see her up close at least once. No doubt she brought a tear to the eye of every immigrant who passed by on their way to Ellis Island. We walk around Liberty’s fortress base taking lots of pictures. Unfortunately that is as close as we get. The hollow statue has been closed to visitors since 9-11. The pedestal and museum is still open but with limited access. To get inside, you have to book a specific time, days or weeks before. In retrospect I was lucky to have climbed inside her on my first visit to New York in 1980.

From Liberty Island, we board the ferry back to the Jersey shore and drive west to an RV park in Flanders, NJ. Along the way we stop at the Edison National Historic Site in East Orange, NJ. Edison’s lab is closed for renovation but his home is open. We are too late for a tour so we settle for a brief walk around the exterior of this large Victorian brick house.

August 15, 2008

August 15, 2008

Who is buried in Grants Tomb? That is what we set out to find today by heading via subway to Harlem to see the General Grant Memorial. It is the largest tomb in America. I am surprised at how nice it looks. I had always read that it had been allowed to deteriorate badly. I guess the National Park System has money for maintenance now. Inside the massive round mausoleum sit two, yes two, pink granite sarcophagi containing Ulysses Grant and his wife Julia. Now you know the real answer! The tomb also contains some exhibits on Grant’s life. After Grant retired from his Presidency, he moved to New York City to live near his son, and made an unwise Wall Street investment losing his entire savings. He soon discovered he had terminal throat cancer. Hoping to provide for his family, he spent the last days of his life writing his memoirs, with Mark Twain as editor. He died a week after finishing, but the autobiography was an instant success.

From the Grant Memorial we return south to Midtown Manhattan and take a nice stroll across the southern end of Central Park. At the eastern end we are pleasantly surprised to encounter a Saint-Gaudens memorial statue of General Sherman of Civil War fame. The statue is well done but the gold leaf coating is peeling badly.

After enjoying lunch near Fifth Avenue we take the subway south to the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site. TR was born in this NYC brownstone, surprisingly the only president from NYC. We get a guided tour of this 1840’s vintage property by an excellent guide who brings the history alive. The basement has an extensive biography of TR’s life along with amazing artifacts. The Roosevelts were big time pack rats to have kept all this. I now understand why TR is on Mt. Rushmore. He was an amazing character. Born sickly and asthmatic, he exercised hard to overcome his afflictions and became an avid outdoorsman. Early in life he became famous as an adventurer, cowboy, hunter, and prolific author. In politics, as NYC Police Commissioner and NY state governor he was an ardent reformer and corruption buster. The NY Republican machine got him nominated as VP to get him out of the state. When President William McKinley was fatally shot, TR became our youngest President ever. He had unlimited energy. For example, when Congress had gone into recess, TR went to his summer home and wrote a biography of Oliver Cromwell.

This is our last day traveling into NYC proper. It has been a good visit but we are looking forward to sleeping late. Aimee and I have been pleasantly surprised how friendly the natives have been, especially in comparison to the stuffed shirts of New England. New Yorkers don’t deserve their brash reputation.

August 14, 2008

August 14, 2008

From Florida, NY we leave bright and early for the two-hour drive/commuter rail/subway journey into Manhattan. We arrive at the World Trade Center facing the hole where the Twin Towers once stood. It just looks like a big construction site now; NYC must be starting the replacement building. From the World Trade Center we walk along the Hudson riverfront past monstrous hibiscus flowers to Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan. In the center is Castle Clinton National Monument. Not wanting a repeat of the Revolution when the British easily captured New York, before the War of 1812, our young nation built a series of forts around the harbor. Castle Clinton was one of these. It used to be offshore, but when they dug the Subway, they used the debris to landfill Manhattan’s tip.

Just east of Battery Park is the ferry to Governors Island. We take it to attend a guided tour of this National Monument. The 90-minute walking tour is very interesting. The story starts with the initial founding of New Amsterdam by the Dutch on Governors Island in 1624. The British didn’t want a foreign colony in their midst so in 1674 they sailed in, took control, and renamed it New York. As a result Dutch settlers like the van Rosenvelts changed their name to Roosevelt. Governors Island started with a fort that later became a notorious Civil War POW camp. In the late 20th century Governors Island became the eastern headquarters for the Army and beautiful accommodations in a campus setting were built. They remain today but apparently in limbo. The National Park owns the forts, while the city and state own the barracks and houses. They are all empty yet meticulously maintained. Prime housing minutes away from Wall Street sitting vacant! I am guessing the three governments can’t decide how to share the kickbacks from renting or selling the real estate.

After returning to Manhattan we walk up Broad Street past the heavily guarded New York Stock Exchange to Wall Street and Federal Hall National Monument. This former customs house sits on the site of the Inauguration of our first president, George Washington in 1789. New York was the capital until Washington DC was built.

From Wall Street we walk up Broadway to the African Burial Ground National Monument. In 1992 during excavation for a new Federal office building, a huge slave graveyard was discovered. A film in the Visitor Center highlights the fact that slavery was alive and vibrant in the north before the Revolution.

Our next journey is a walk east to the Brooklyn Bridge. This suspension bridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn was a marvel of engineering in 1875. Right down the center is a bike and pedestrian path. We take it to the halfway point getting a great view of the east side and this magnificent bridge.

Our feet are getting tired so we head back to the Trade Center for our long journey back to Florida, NY.

August 13, 2008

August 13, 2008

From Fishkill, NY, we drove the half hour southwest to West Point, NY, the home of the US Military Academy. Our first stop is the Visitor Center where we sign up for a one-hour bus tour of the campus. Since 9-11 the campus has been closed, (something we hear a lot!) The bus tour is nice and the narrator is very informative. We learn a lot about the demanding life of an army cadet. Our main stops are the Protestant Chapel and the Parade Ground. West Point is a beautiful campus with gray stone gothic-style buildings set on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River. Back at the Visitor Center we learn about the entry process and some of the more famous graduates of the school. In my past, I have hired several West Point grads, all of outstanding quality. I have always felt our military is in good hands with West Point providing the leadership.

Behind the Visitor Center is the West Point Museum. The Museum is outstanding with sections on the history of the Academy, the history of warfare, and the history of American Wars. Definitely a place I could see again.

West Point was famous before the Academy was founded here in 1802. During the Revolutionary War, West Point was strategic in preventing the British from cutting off New England. The Hudson River makes a hilly S-curve here making it easily defended. Two forts were built here and a massive iron chain was stretched across the river to prevent British warships from passing. West Point was the coveted prize that hero-turned-traitor Benedict Arnold was going to pass to the British in 1780. Fortunately that plan was thwarted.

We spend the night in a nice park west of here in Florida, NY.

August 12, 2008

August 12, 2008

From Fishkill, NY we make the half-hour drive north to Hyde Park, once known as Millionaires Row for the mansions lining the Hudson River bluffs. Two mansions are maintained by the National Park System. The first is the Home of Franklin Roosevelt National Historic Site. We take the hour-long tour of the house. We have seen lots of old mansions but this one is special because FDR left it in his will to the gov’t. It is simply decorated and looks just like it was when he last slept here.

Next door to the FDR home is his Presidential Library and Museum. It is also very interesting. FDR had a very unusual life and Presidency. He grew up an only child of very rich and doting parents. His political success was a combination of skill and lucky timing. Incredibly he became New York governor and President after coming down with a debilitating case of infantile polio at the mature age of 39. The paralysis should have killed his career aspirations. FDR went on to become president at the height of America’s worst economic time. Without his leadership we could have easily descended into anarchy, dictatorship, or communism. FDR brought hope. Lucky for me he also brought back beer with the repeal of Prohibition. Unfortunately he instituted an alphabet soup of intrusive gov’t programs. Intended to be only temporary many have lasted beyond the economic emergency. For example, over seventy years later we are still paying farmers not to plant crops. FDR’s biggest legacy is probably his success at bringing home victory during WWII. In addition to ridding the world of two terrible regimes, the war finally ended the Great Depression.

The second Mansion in Hyde Park is the Vanderbilt Historical Site. A neighbor of FDR, the home was given to the gov’t after the owner couldn’t find a buyer for the property at the asking price of a mere $200,000 during the Great Depression. We take a tour of this very large mansion. Like FDR’s home it is special because it also has not changed since the 30’s. But unlike the Roosevelts, the Vanderbilt meant to flaunt their wealth and it is a prime example of gilded age décor.

Before leaving Hyde Park we visit the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site. There we take a short tour of this cottage that Eleanor stayed in. The “big house” belonged to FDR’s mother until her death in 1941. Eleanor did not get along with her mother-in-law and had this large but simple cottage built a few miles away. There is nothing special about it and it seems more like somebody’s pet project that the NPS has gotten stuck with.

Aimee and I went through all these Hyde Park sites in whirlwind fashion. It wasn’t our choice, but like Connecticut, this area has no RV parks close. Late in the day we make our way back to Fishkill for the night.

August 11, 2008

August 11, 2008

It rained all night and into the morning. Again! Every time it looks like it is going to let up, a downpour erupts. Finally when the Internet connection went bad we packed up and headed west into Connecticut to New Haven. New Haven is the home of Yale University. Our nephew, Ryan is going to school here, but he unfortunately hasn’t returned from his summer dig in Peru. So we are on our own. We stop at the Peabody Natural History Museum. Yale is known for some of the more famous archeologists (eg Hiram Bingham of Macchu Pichu fame) and paleontologists (eg Louis Leakey). We have run across Yale several times on our trips. On more than one occasion, we have been told Yale did the initial dig, only to be told the artifacts were packed up and sent to Yale for storage. We are here to see these artifacts at the Peabody Museum. I tried to use our nephew’s name for free entry…. unsuccessfully. The Peabody is a nice museum where we could spend most of the day. Unfortunately we are at a two-hour max street meter and it is raining so that is our deadline. We focus on the dinosaur bones and the Macchu Pichu artifacts and then take ten minutes to breeze thru the rest. We will have to come back when we can stay longer. To add to our wet misery, Connecticut has almost no RV parks, so we need to keep moving. I guess CT doesn’t like our kind.

We continue west stopping at Weir Farm National Historic Site. The farm is the former summer home of artist Julian Weir. Weir was one of the first American Impressionist painters. He had seen this new style in Paris in 1877 but dismissed it as a horrifying fad. He later joined the club. We arrive late in the day only to find it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Unaware we knock on the door and the off duty ranger lets us watch the film. We didn’t give the place its due but this place seems to be a stretch for a national park. I think it is another play for a government handout.

We spend the night in Fishkill, NY where we see the new Batman film, “Dark Night”. To our surprise, it was filmed in Chicago.

August 10, 2008

August 10, 2008

We say good-bye to our home of the past week in Mansfield, MA and work our way southwest to Newport, RI. Newport was one of the early settlements of Rhode Island, a haven for people looking for religious freedom. Newport grew as a trading port. Its main export was rum distilled here from sugar and molasses shipped in from the West Indies. We learn that history in the Newport Historical Society Museum. We also take a tour of the Touro Synagogue National Historic Site. This is my first visit to a synagogue. It is small but quite beautiful and is the oldest synagogue in the US.

During the Revolution, the British occupied Newport forcing locals to evacuate. Newport never recovered and eventually tourism took hold. At the turn of the century, Newport was the social center of the gilded age. The ultra-rich all had summer homes here. We tour the largest, The Breakers, built by the Vanderbilts. It is a huge 128,000 square foot house, ornately decorated, overlooking the bay. The main hall and entry staircase are something else. Incredibly it was only occupied for six weeks during the summer social season. The only house we have seen bigger and more elegant is North Carolina’s Biltmore, another Vanderbilt mansion. Aimee is fascinated by the tour, not by the mansion, but by the Vanderbilt family. By the end she knows who married who, and how many kids, grandkids they had and their names. Amazing!

There are several more mansions owned by the local Preservation Society open for touring. We randomly choose the Rosecliff, a few doors down, and much tinier at only 28,000 sq. ft. You can tell this was built for efficient partying. Downstairs is one monster ballroom while upstairs has a dozen bedrooms. The ballroom starred in the opening scenes of Arnold Schwarzennegger’s movie True Lies. It is a gorgeous sunny day, so from Rosecliff we stroll along the Cliff Walk following the rocky coastline back to the Breakers parking lot and the RV. We spend the evening at an RV park on the western edge of Rhode Island.

August 9, 2008

August 9, 2008

We spend our last day in Massachusetts driving south to the coast and visiting the New Bedford Whaling National Historic Site. In the mid 19th century New Bedford with its deep-water port became the center of the whaling industry. Whales were hunted for their oil, which was used to light the pre-petroleum world. It made New Bedford the richest city in the world for a while. At the Visitor Center we watch a film and then take a walking tour of the historic district. Whaling was a tough industry with round-the-world voyages lasting 3-5 years! Aimee and I get tired of traveling after only a month! Herman Melville shipped out of New Bedford on a whaler looking for adventure. He jumped shipped halfway, returned stateside, and wrote the definitive whaling novel, Moby Dick. We see several of the buildings that inspired him. We walk down to the port where dozens of modern fishing boats are moored. New Bedford is still New England’s fishing capital; the new money-fish are now sole, flounder, and scallops. New Bedford was also a hot spot for the Underground Railroad. Besides being a hotbed for Abolitionists who aided runaway slaves, four-year whaling cruises were a great way for runaways to “escape” for several years.

Before returning back to the RV Park, we make a brief detour into Providence, RI to stop at the Roger Williams National Memorial. Roger Williams was a Massachusetts Puritan who was jailed for promoting the separation of church and state. He escaped to the present Rhode Island area where he established a British colony founded on freedom of religion. Prior to Williams, it was natural for government to mandate religious practices. If it weren’t for Rhode Island refusing to ratify the constitution, we might not have the Bill of Rights and freedom of religion. The Memorial is a small park where Williams had his first house. At the Visitor Center we peruse the exhibits. There are only two other people with us and they turn out to also be from the western suburbs of Chicago. One of them also happens to be married to a descendent of Roger Williams.

Back at the RV Park, the campers are entertained with a local “pro” wrestling tournament. We watch the first couple bouts. It is pretty hokey, nevertheless I end up having to pull Aimee away so she can make me dinner.

August 8, 2008

August 8, 2008

Today is our last trip back into Boston. We are visiting the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The museum is very well done, with lots of video clips, reminding us not only of Kennedy but the whole 60’s era as well. The museum works well for both Aimee and I. There is enough history to keep me interested, and lots of human interest for Aimee to read about. The museum follows the Kennedy family, JFK’s presidential campaign, and his Camelot administration. Kennedy gave some good speeches and had the right attitude, e.g. “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” He even lowered taxes in order to increase revenue. Kennedy must have been a closet Republican. I was also surprised to learn how good a writer JFK was. He penned his first successful book right out of college. Is really was a shame his life was cut short so early.

From the library, we take the subway downtown for a late lunch of Clam Chowder before heading back to the RV Park.

August 7, 2008

August 7, 2008

We took public transportation to Salem, MA. We should have driven. The commuter rail system is meant for travel downtown not across town. It ended up taking all morning to get to Salem, most of it waiting for the next legs of the trip to arrive. Once at Salem we walked to the port to visit the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. Colonial Salem merchants were obscenely rich from trading with the world. When the British imposed trading restrictions, Salem merchants yelled the loudest for independence. Ironically these same merchants profited enormously from the Revolutionary War acting as privateers (gov’t sanctioned pirates) preying on British trade ships. Success didn’t last long though. Salem soon lost out to harbor towns with deeper ports and better transportation links. We give ourselves a tour of the historic area. One of the restored buildings is the original Customs House. It was a major revenue source for our early country. Before the implementation of the Income Tax in 1913, import duties provided 90% of US revenue. Unfortunately the historic site turns out to be pretty much of a bore making me surprised it has been a national park site since 1938.

Salem, MA is most famous (or infamous) for the witch trials of 1692. During that turbulent 10-month period nineteen innocent souls were hanged for witchcraft. We visited the memorial to the victims, (appropriately next door to the graveyard), but there is little physical history remaining. That hasn’t stopped the local merchants. There are a dozen different commercial witch museums in Salem. We pass on all of them. New Englanders are big on their connections with their colonial past. Apparently this causes problems in Salem as descendents of the victims and of the oppressors both still live in the town.

August 6, 2008

August 6, 2008

We took the “T” to Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA and walked to the Longfellow National Historic Site. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the foremost poet of the country in the 19th century. During our travels we have run across his poems several times, especially “Evangeline”, the epic poem about the Acadians. More recently we learned he also wrote “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”. We arrive at the site and catch up with a tour of Longfellow’s mansion. It is a very nice house with expensive appointments. Although he earned well as Harvard professor and best-selling poet, he made most of his money the old fashioned way…. by marrying it. It turns out Longfellow’s mansion is equally famous for being George Washington’s headquarters in 1775 when he takes command of the Continental Army and supervises the siege of British-held Boston after the battle of Bunker Hill.


From the Longfellow house, we walk back to Harvard Square where we meet up with a couple of Aimee’s old workmates for lunch at Uno’s Pizzeria. I enjoy the pizza while listening to the three of them tell lots of tales from life at Power Trends.

After lunch I give Aimee the grand tour of Harvard. Even though it was my stomping ground for eighteen months, the memory fog of 24 years has taken its toll. Some things look familiar but yet different. It also doesn’t help that I have to give the tour in pouring rain. We are beginning to loathe New England maritime weather.

August 5, 2008

August 5, 2008

It is back to Boston again for another round of history. This time we start with a guided ranger walk of the Boston African American National Historic Site. It starts at the Shaw Memorial on the Boston Commons. Aimee and I recognize this sculpture. We saw a copy of this Augustus Saint-Gaudens masterpiece last week at the artist’s summer studio in Cornish, NH. (If you see enough historic sites, eventually they start to interact!). The Boston African American National Historic Site is about the free black community that lived on Beacon Hill here and their “social revolution” movement. Appropriately the Shaw Memorial is devoted to the Massachusetts 54th, the first black regiment of the Civil War. Their exploits were the basis of the movie “Glory” with Denzel Washinton and Matthew Broderick. From the Memorial we walk up through now trendy Beacon Hill (passing John Kerry’s house). From the efforts of the free blacks that used to live here, Massachusetts became the first state to prohibit slavery in 1789 (peacefully via the courts). They also were instrumental in pioneering the abolitionist movement and school desegregation.

In the afternoon we take the subway to the south suburb of Quincy to visit the Adams National Historic Park. At the minimal Visitor Center we sign up for a trolley tour of the local birthplaces of John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, the 2nd and 6th presidents of the US. We also tour John Adams’ adult home. All three are yawners except for the stand-alone one-room library of John Quincy Adams. Besides being beautiful, it was the first-ever Presidential Library. The best part of the tour, unfortunately, was the PBS movie “John Adams” that we watched in the Visitor Center while waiting for our tour to start. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had a long-standing feud that ended only when they both reached old age. Amazingly, both of these early Patriots died on the same day, July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after they both signed the Declaration of Independence.

August 4, 2008

August 4, 2008

We are ready now to hit the historic sights in central Boston. Boston is no place to drive a car let alone an RV. There is not a straight road in the town plus Boston has more complicated intersections than the rest of the country combined. Driving in Boston would drive my navigator nuts. Fortunately Boston has a great mass transit system and there is a local RV park that will limo us to the train station. So this morning we take the Commuter Rail to the Subway station and then make the short trip downtown.

Our first stop is the Visitor Center for the Boston National Historic Park. There are tons of historical sites in central Boston and they are all within walking distance of each other. Boston has a red line in the sidewalk (the Freedom Trail) connecting them all making it very visitor-friendly. We visit the “Old North” church where “one if by land, two if by sea” was signaled, Paul Revere’s house, the site of the Boston Massacre, and the graveyard where Sam Adams, John Hancock, and Revere are buried. The trail then crosses the Charles River to the Charlestown Navy Yard where the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) is moored. This undefeated warship built in 1797 was instrumental in the Barbary War and the War of 1812. Uphill from the yard is the Bunker Hill Monument. A tall obelisk commemorates this first major battle of the Revolutionary War. We walk up to the top for a view of Boston but the 294 steps are a killer.

In the afternoon we take the subway west to the boyhood home of John F. Kennedy. Unfortunately it is closed on Mondays. Nevertheless we can see it is a very modest house. I guess Joe Sr. had not yet made his millions. Our feet are tired so we return downtown, take a relaxing stroll thru the Boston Commons (city park) and sit for a beer in the “Cheers” bar. I take Norm’s spot and Aimee sits on Cliff’s stool.

August 3, 2008

August 3, 2008

The Boston area has a dozen national park sites reflecting the huge amount of history that occurred here. The last few days we covered the industrial revolution; today we are moving to the American Revolution. We start at Lexington and Concord with the Minuteman National Historic Park. In 1775, Boston was the hotbed of dissent (e.g. Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party) causing the British to station an army in the city and close the port. In retaliation the colonists started stockpiling guns and ammunition. On April 19, 1775, the British marched from Boston intent on capturing this cache of arms in Concord. Spies discovered the plan and Paul Revere made his famous midnight ride to alert the militia. The “minutemen” militia confronted the redcoats, shots broke out, and the Revolution was on.

The park mostly consists of the old road that connected Lexington and Concord. We stop at the Visitor Center for the movie, then follow the route stopping at wayside exhibits along the way. It was anticlimactic: I guess because I had too high expectations for the park. One unexpected highlight was a tour of a house that once was the childhood home of Louisa May Alcott (of Little Women fame) and later Nathaniel Hawthorne (Scarlet Letter). It turns out Concord in the mid 1800’s was the hub of American literary power. Other local author friends were Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Walden Pond is just a mile away. Now I have some motivation to read some of those early American classics.

August 2, 2008

August 2, 2008

Northeast of Boston is the Saugus Ironworks National Historic Site. On this site in 1620 was the first iron production in North America. Intended to make the Puritans self-sufficient from England they built a complete mill with blast furnace, stamping mill and rod mill. An amazing operation for this area in that time period. Unfortunately it was too much, too soon for the frontier. It went bankrupt after twenty years. We learn a little about iron making in the museum and then take a tour of the restored site. Pretty impressive and not terribly different from modern mills of today.

Our next stop is the Lowell National Historic Site. Lowell, MA was the site of the nation’s first large-scale textile factory. After pilfering the secrets of automated weaving from England, wealthy Boston investors built a water-powered factory here in the 1820’s. It was an instant success and many more mills were built, thriving on cheap cotton grown in the South. But all good things come to an end. In the early twentieth century, the mills could not compete with inexpensive southern labor and all the factories were shuttered killing the city. Not knowing what to do with the area they had the National Park Service turn it into a museum. A costumed ranger gives us a brief walking tour, past the water canals that supplied the power wheels, to the Boote Factory, now a textile museum. There they have a large room full of weaving machines in action. They are noisy! What lousy conditions for these first assembly line workers toiling thirteen hours a day, six days a week for peanuts. We have it so much better today.

August 1, 2008

August 1, 2008

Continuing south along the Vermont/New Hampshire border we follow the Connecticut River into Massachusetts stopping at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site. The US government had its own gun factory on this site for 174 years. All the buildings still exist but most have been redeveloped for other uses. The main building now holds a museum to this enterprise. After watching the obligatory movie (pretty good). We look at the exhibits. One half is devoted to the technological development of the rifle from flintlock to percussion cap to breechloader to semiautomatic. Every type was made here over the years. The most famous were the 1903 Springfield (WWI) and the M-1 (WWII). The other half of the museum is devoted to arms manufacturing technology. Gunsmithing was one of the leading technologies of the 19th century and spurred the industrial revolution in the Connecticut River valley. On display is an original lathe invented here in the 1820’s that automatically duplicated wooden gunstocks.

From Springfield we head east towards Boston stopping in Brimfield, MA for the night.

July 31, 2008

July 31, 2008

We had another terrific lightning and rainstorm last night. We got a late start waiting for the rain to finally quit. When it does we head south following the border of Vermont and New Hampshire thru rolling hillsides and quite a few covered bridges. We stopped to visit two National Park sites. The first, in Woodstock, VT is Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park. The farm located on a hill overlooking a picturesque river was once the home of three different men. The common bond between the owners was their passion for environmental activism. The pastoral landscape here must have inspired them to action. In addition to preserving this estate, the park is a memorial to the conservation movement and the preservation of our natural and cultural heritage. We watch the movie but pass on the mansion tour.

Across the border in Cornish, NH is the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. Augustus Saint-Gaudens was America’s leading sculptor in the late 19th century. Coming into his own after the Civil War he sculpted many of the finer memorials to that war gracing city parks including the “Standing Lincoln” in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. He also worked with the US Mint carving the design of our early gold coins. The site was Saint-Gaudens summer home and studio and contains some of his famous works. A “sculptor-in-residence” gives us a half-hour tour and art lesson. Since I like sculpture I wish we had had more time to look around but the late hour and more rain caused us to leave prematurely.

We spend the evening at a private park in nearby Ascutney, VT.