July 16, 2008

July 16, 2008

From Baddeck, NS we begin our drive up the western shore of the Cabot Trail. Our first stop is the Acadian town of Cheticamp. Acadia was what the French first called this part of New France. When England conquered the area in the 1700’s, they renamed it New Scotland and exiled the Acadian French citizens to faraway places like Louisiana, where the name corrupted into Cajun. A few hid out in the mountains here, later settling towns on the coast. Cheticamp is one such French enclave in Nova Scotia. We stop at Les Trois Pignons to let Aimee visit the Museum of Rug Hooking while I take a nap in the RV. Across the street we have lunch at a French café overlooking the ocean. We give the lobster a try again, this time warm with melted butter. Much better.

From Cheticamp we drive north into the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Here the terrain suddenly takes a vertical leap skyward with cliffs that plunge down to the sea. The road follows the perimeter of the park up and down steep hills. Awesome scenery! This is why Cape Breton was recently named one of the premier island destinations in the world.

Along the way we stop at several viewpoints and for a short walk on the Bog Trail around several ponds filled with lilypads. We spot our first carnivorous Pitcher Plant. We finish with a short hike on the Macintosh Brook Trail to a waterfall. While taking long-exposure photos, I have to share the spot with a fisherman. It is ok, because he lends me his fly rod for a few casts and a bit of instruction on using a streamer fly.

Halfway through the Cabot Trail drive we exit the park to stay at a campground in Dingwall, NS with a site on a cliff overlooking an ocean inlet. Among our fellow campers we meet a Swiss gentleman who has been traveling full-time for eight years and a North Carolina family preparing some live Snow Crabs for dinner. Hungry, we stop at the camp store and buy a pre-cooked Snow Crab for ourselves. Very tasty! Aimee and I have decided we like Snow crab better than lobster.

July 15, 2008

July 15, 2008

We are on the road early this morning to catch the ferry off Prince Edward Island. After a 70-minute ride we land in Nova Scotia or New Scotland. We stop at a tourist office and then drive north onto Cape Breton Island toward Baddeck, NS and the Alexander Graham Bell Historic Site. Bell was born in Scotland, moved to the US as a teen and invented the telephone in 1876 after many years of teaching the deaf to speak. With his new fortune he built a castle-size summer home here in Baddeck. The museum gives a brief account of his life, and then recalls all the inventive tinkering he did here later in life. His two main foci were the airplane (too little, too late) and the hydrofoil (before his time). Although interesting I was disappointed on how little there was on the telephone, but I guess that was invented while in the US.

We spend the night at a private park just south of Baddeck, NS

July 14, 2008

July 14, 2008

Prince Edward Island is a crescent-shaped island. This morning we drove around the center past innumerable potato farms and occasional fishing villages. It seemed to me like the modern North American version of Ireland complete with the requisite drizzling rain. On the north shore we pass PEI’s most popular attraction, the home of Anne of Green Gables. Since neither of us read this book about a redheaded orphan girl, we pass it by. Interestingly one of our nieces is a spitting image of Anne.

Our drive ends in the PEI capital, Charlottetown. There we visit Founders Hall, sort of the Independence Hall of Canada. This high-tech museum tells the history of Canada’s confederation movement. It was designed for the attention-deficit disordered audience combining video snippets with jokes. Since we are virtually the only ones here, I am guessing this doesn’t get a lot of interest from Canadians. Interestingly though that blasé attitude reflects Canada’s accidental confederation history exactly. In 1864, politicians representing three of the eastern colonies of British North America were meeting here to consider a Maritime unification. The colony of Canada (now Quebec and Ontario) fearing invasion from the US, crashed the party and pushed for a larger colonial confederation. After a few drinks, 3 of the 4 thought it might be a good idea and after working out the details, convinced Britain to pass a law approving it on July 1, 1867. Canada was born. Shortly afterwards the rest of the provinces and territories joined the party. Interestingly, Canada was still a colony of Britain, and independence occurred gradually over many more years. From Founders Hall we walk down the street to Province Hall National Historic Site where the original 1864 Charlottetown Conference actually took place. Since I knew nothing of Canada’s history I found the story fascinating although the American in me was expecting a more emotional and dramatic nation-building history.

As a bonus, on leaving Founders Hall, we run into a demo on lobster fishing. Aimee and I learn that the lobster season is only two months long, ending here just two weeks ago. The speaker told us that lobsters are then “stored” in holding tubes in cold seawater to provide fresh lobster throughout the year.

We spend the night at a no frills RV park just east of Charlottetown high on a wet hill overlooking the bay.

July 13, 2008

July 13, 2008

From the RV park in Shediac, NB we walk downtown to the weekly Farmer’s Market. There we browse the craft and food booths while listening to wonderful Peruvian flute music…..performed by a real Peruvian band. They get around. We have been running into Peruvian music in the strangest places.

From Shediac we drive to Prince Edward Island via the 8.5-mile Confederation Bridge, the longest one over icy waters. Before this bridge was built in 1997, the only access to PEI was by ferry. I finally found an English language paper so we spend the rest of the afternoon reading it and doing the Sunday crossword at the first RV park we reach. The campground turns out to be a gem. The snowbird owners are musicians and put on bluegrass concerts most nights. And the husband does an awesome Hank Williams rendition!

July 12, 2008

July 12, 2008

From Charlo, NB we drive south across New Brunswick through boring pine forests. But at least it is sunny. After three hours we arrive at the town of Shediac, self-proclaimed Lobster capital of New Brunswick. We stop at the Visitor Center and take a photo of their iconic Lobster sculpture.

At the town wharf we buy two boiled lobsters to eat for lunch. They are cold and I almost send them back. Apparently that is how they eat them in New Brunswick, so we give it a try. They are delicious but a little chewy. Lobster gets tough when over cooked. We spend the rest of the afternoon at a local RV park talking to our Ontario neighbor (the only one who speaks English!)

July 11, 2008

July 11, 2008

From Perce, QC, we drove most of the day around the southern half of the Gaspesie Peninsula. The sun is out today making the seaside scenery gorgeous. I have to admit Aimee and I are really sun lovers.

By 2pm we are most of the way around but needing a break so we stop at Quebec’s Miguasha Provincial Park. The park is a preservation of the sea cliff here where unique fish fossils have been found. During the late Devonian period some 380 million years ago, this area was at the bottom of a brackish water estuary containing myriad varieties of fish. Miguasha is famous for fossils of fish that developed lungs and bony fins allowing them to creep out of the water onto land; the missing link between fish and the first land animals, amphibians and reptiles! No wonder it is also a World Heritage Site. We got a guided tour of the park’s awesome museum of fish fossils. Afterwards our guide took us out to the cliff wall where paleontologists are still excavating new fossils.

From Miguasha, we skip across the border into New Brunswick finally leaving the Gaspesie and the Francophones behind. We stop at the NB tourist center to find northern NB is still mostly French and we have lost an hour going to Atlantic Time. We arrive late to a private park in Charlo, NB.

July 10, 2008

July 10, 2008

We woke early today to try and put some speed into our travel around the Gaspesie peninsula of Quebec. While trying to make coffee, Aimee noticed the power was out. Must have been the rain last night. After unhooking I hit the switch to retract the stairs and….nothing. Uh-oh! When the campground electricity went off it must have surged and fried the stair motor. After checking the fuses I spent the next hour under the RV on the cold wet grass trying to manually retract the stairs. They won’t budge. Finally after removing all the bolts and screws I could loosen, I was able to pull the motor and push the stairs back in. But now with the stairs retracted, I can’t put everything back together! On a lark I hooked the motor to the engine battery and it worked. Hmmm, a wiring problem! So I reinstalled the motor and used a set of jumper cables to electrically retract the stairs. Eventually I need to find the wiring problem but that can wait for a warmer drier day. For now we are on the road again.

Finally we make it to the tip of the Gaspe peninsula at Forillon National Park. We drove days and hundred of miles only to see fog covering the sea cliffs here. Oh well time for some exercise. First we climb the Cap-des-Rosiers lighthouse, tallest in Canada. We then hike the two-mile Cap-Bon-Ami trail uphill to the Mt St Alban lookout tower atop the sea cliff above us. Exhausting, we are so out of shape. Luckily by the time we get to the top to our surprise the fog has mostly lifted. We can get some photos after all.

From Forillon we continue around the peninsula to the town of Gaspe, where we stop at an unimpressive memorial to explorer Jacques Cartier who set foot here in 1534 claiming Canada for France.

Our next stop is Perce, a small touristy town with towering sea cliffs. Its fame is its Rocher (Rock), a huge sea cliff separated from the mainland. After eating dinner in town, we take a stroll down the pier and squeeze in between some fisherman to take some photos of this Provincial Park of Quebec. We spend the evening in town with our RV facing the sea and the Rock of Perce.

July 9, 2008

July 9, 2008

We awake to heavy fog in Matane, Quebec. Undeterred we drive east toward the Gaspesie peninsula with the St Lawrence on our left. Along the way we stop at Eole Cap-Chat, a huge windmill farm with 76 turbines, including the tallest in the world. At least that was what we were told. The fog is so thick we can only make out the base of two on the hill above us. We pass on the expensive tour. I am guessing we would lose a lot of the value with the low visibility.

We continue east and gradually the scenery improves. The coastline starts to rise in height. By the time we hit the Gaspesie peninsula we are driving next to soaring sea cliffs. Beautiful scenery! And free! One of the very few things the Quebeckers don’t or can’t charge tourists to see.

Unfortunately the fog isn’t letting up much and it is mixed with rain. Aimee is cursing the guidebook with its beautiful sunny photos. She thinks they took them on the one sunny day each year. She is in a surly mood. As we were driving downhill from the La Martre lighthouse we hit a big dip in the road and our dishes bounced up and out of an upper cabinet and on to the floor. It was the perfect storm of road bumps. I guess we didn’t realize Corelle dinnerware was glass. The set seemed like a nice step up from the plastic camp plates I had wanted. When the Corelle hit the ground they shattered into a million (no exaggeration!) very sharp pieces.

With the poor weather we are making very slow progress and we stop well short of our goal at a private park in the picturesque town of Grande-Vallee, QC. Our RV (VR as they say in Quebec French) sits with two of the windows facing the sea….. thru the rain.

July 8, 2008

July 8, 2008

From Quebec City we are driving northeast along the south shore of the St. Lawrence Seaway. It is mostly a boring drive through farm country in foggy drizzling cool weather. Maybe the East coast version of the Pacific Northwest. The air is also thick with the sea smell. The shoreline is mostly sheet rock, exposed probably because of low tide. I think this bedrock is very close to the surface in all of northeastern Canada because during the numerous Ice Ages, the glaciers bulldozed away the soil.

In Matane, QC we stop for the evening at a private park. Next to our RV is a decrepit old schooner sitting high and dry on the grass.

July 7, 2008

July 7, 2008

A couple miles from our campground is a ferry that takes us across the St Lawrence into Old Quebec. We park the RV and ride across getting a good view of the old city as we approach. Old Quebec is a walled city sitting high on the bluff at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. It was the gateway to the interior of New France (Canada) and the lucrative fur trade. Both France and England coveted it. Charles Dickens called Quebec City the Gibraltar of America. The World Heritage Old Quebec City is towered over by the gigantic Chateau Frontenac, a turn of the century hotel resembling a castle-home of France. It is one of the grand hotels built by the Canadian Pacific Railroad to promote tourism.

I think it is the most beautiful city I have ever seen. It is super clean and most of the buildings look straight out of the 1700’s, so much so that some areas looks like a movie set. All the buildings are made of stone, decorated with flowers, and set on narrow cobble stoned streets. Even the local McDonalds is housed in a stone building.

We give ourselves a walking tour of the city, first climbing up the steep stairs from the old port to the city center. We stop for photos in Montmorency Park National Historic Site. This old battlement was once the administrative center of Lower Canada.  From there we walk past Chateau Frontenac and a monument to founder Samuel Champlain to the western city wall. We eat lunch at an outdoor café. The best part about visiting a “French” city is eating awesome French cooking. Unfortunately French entrees are few and far between. Italian is by far the most popular. Go Figure!

West of the city wall along the river is the large Battlefield Park. Known as the “Plains of Abraham” in 1759, it was the site of a decisive battle during the French and Indian War. Intent on taking Quebec, the English under Wolfe spent most of the summer fruitlessly attacking the city from the east. Finally in September, they sailed upstream past the Quebec City cannon and later, during the night, came back, scaled the cliff to assemble on the Plains. Instead of staying behind protection, the French under Montcalm came out to do battle. The French were routed and the city surrendered a few days later. With this defeat England took New France (Canada).
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In 1820 a large citadel was built into the wall to better protect Quebec City from attack by…. the USA!! And with good reason, we tried to take Quebec (unsuccessfully) during both the Revolution and the War of 1812! We watched a changing of the guard. On the walk back to the ferry, we window-shopped along the cute and historic Rue du Petit-Champlain.

July 6, 2008

July 6, 2008

We drove into Quebec City, QC and explored one of the sites on the outskirts of the city. Quebec City sits at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River where the river is lined with tall cliffs. On the eastern end a river cascades down this cliff forming Montmorency Falls. This waterfall is taller than Niagara but considerably narrower, but impressive nonetheless. We walk around the park surrounding it to take photos at several vantage points. On our way to our new campground in Levis, QC we pass another large waterfall (Chaudiere) cascading from the opposite side of the river. No wonder Quebec has so many aluminum plants; they are blessed with abundant hydroelectric power.

July 5, 2008

July 5, 2008

From Montreal we drove three hours down the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City and stayed at a very large and crowded park thirty minutes from the city. The campground is filled with permanently parked RVs that pass for weekend summer homes for the local residents. I guess when you only have a couple months of summer weather you have to take every advantage available.

Samuel Champlain Monument
Quebec City

July 3rd was the 400th birthday of Quebec City’s founding by Samuel de Champlain in 1608. According to the news the celebration was marred by rain and protests. Quebecans are fiercely protective of their French language and heritage and consider themselves to be an independent nation within the Canada confederation. A large minority is pushing for Separation. Unlike the bilingual signs in the rest of Canada, in Quebec everything is French only… by law. Although I think it is cool to have this bastion of European culture in our midst, I am deeply suspicious of any language, religion, or idea that needs to bar free speech in order to survive. But I am a walking ambassador for the conversion of the world to my common language. All I have to do is say one word in French (Bonjour) and everybody immediately responds in English. Aimee says I shouldn’t take that as a compliment.

July 4, 2008

July 4, 2008

We spent the July 4th holiday having lunch and walking around the old city of Montreal. We didn’t find anything exciting so we walked to the Jazz Festival. I listened to the music while Aimee shopped at a nearby mall.

July 3, 2008

July 3, 2008

We tried to stay another night at this RV park in Westport, NY but it is booked up for the July 4th weekend. Since it is looking difficult to find a place to stay in NY without a reservation we decide to hop across the border to Montreal, Canada. We find a spot at a campground just outside the city. Montreal is hosting a Jazz Festival so we take the subway downtown just in time to watch a small Mardi Gras-like parade.

Aimee and I are not Jazz fans, (yet) but we are interested in acquiring the taste. I usually listen to more harmonious music. Montreal’s Jazz Festival is set on a dozen different stages scattered around the circumference of a downtown block. We walk around enjoying several of the groups while dining on crepes made at a sidewalk cafe. Delicious! Unlike our visit to Chicago’s Blues Fest, this event doesn’t have the crushing crowds. Overall it is pretty nice but many of the locals seem to speak some strange tongue.

July 2, 2008

July 2, 2008

The city of Lake George, NY is on the southern end of a long narrow lake of the same name. We follow the western shoreline north to where it flows into Lake Champlain. We stop and hike a section of the River Walk Trail along the waterfall-filled La Chute River that connects the two lakes.

Lake Champlain is bordered on both sides by heavily forested hills. Situated on a peninsula at the southern end of the lake is Fort Ticonderoga. Lying on the major water route from New York to Montreal, the fort played pivotal roles in the French and Indian war as well as the Revolution. Three weeks after the Revolution started and before the news spread, Ethan Allen led a surprise attack capturing the fort. George Washington had the large cannons dragged in winter over the mountains to Boston, forcing the British to vacate the city.

The fort is owned by a private group and has a stiff admission fee. We walk the reconstructed fort and peruse the museum. Although the history side is weak, the museum has tons of 18th century artifacts, especially decorated powder horns. After leaving the fort we drive up to the top of nearby Mt. Defiance for an awesome aerial view of the fort and surrounding lake.

From Ticonderoga, we follow Lake Champlain north, spending the night at a private park in Westport, NY.

July 1, 2008

July 1, 2008

We spend most of the morning in Averill Park, NY doing laundry and getting caught up on admin work. At noon we drive north along the Hudson River to Saratoga National Historical Park. Saratoga was the site of a pivotal battle in the Revolutionary War. In 1777 the Revolution looked doomed. New York City had been lost and Washington was on the run. With a decisive northern campaign the British intended to take control of the Hudson Valley, cutting off and isolating the rebellious New England states. General Burgoyne was going to march down the Hudson from Canada, Howe was to sail north from NYC, and St Leger was to cross New York from the west. A great plan, poorly implemented. Howe decided to attack Philadelphia instead, St Leger stopped to siege heavily fortified Fort Stanwix and was repulsed, leaving Burgoyne a long way from safety, running short on supplies. Patriot militias rushed in from all over and dug in here at Saratoga cutting off the British Advance. Eventually Burgoyne surrendered. With the huge victory, France joined the conflict, providing badly needed supplies, and declaring war on Britain.

At the Visitor Center, we watch the movie, peruse the battlefield light map, then take the driving tour around the park. The battle site is a beautiful mostly forested bluff along the idyllic Hudson River. Hard to believe two major battles took place here.

After the tour we follow the Hudson eight miles north to Schuylerville where a huge decorated obelisk marks the spot to where Burgoyne retreated and surrendered. Retracing Burgoyne’s advance in reverse we drive north to Lake George where we spend the night at a private park already very busy in anticipation of the holiday weekend.

June 30, 2008

June 30, 2008

Cooperstown, NY is a small town with a very popular tourist draw, the Baseball Hall of Fame. As a result the small city has a parking problem and we have to park outside town and take a trolley in. We arrive early to find there is already a crowd waiting, including a group of little leaguers. Besides the small room with all the Hall of Fame plaques, most of the facility is devoted to the history of baseball. The Hall of Fame is located in Cooperstown because Abner Doubleday is supposed to have invented the game here in 1839. It is probably untrue, more of a fable attributed to a local Civil War hero by the influential Hall of Fame founder, Albert Spalding. What is true is that American Baseball is very old and was very popular by the Civil War. We move pretty quickly throu the museum. I can’t say I am much of a baseball fan anymore. I mostly just follow my St. Louis Cardinals who incidentally are the second most winning team in baseball with ten World Series Championships and 17 NL Pennants.

Afterwards we drive east to the Albany area and visit the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site in Kinderhook, NY. There we watch a film about his life and then tour his house. Van Buren, our eighth president, was the first born as an American. This stop actually was interesting and goes a long way to helping Aimee and I remember the chronology of presidents.

We spend the night at a private park in Averill Park, NY.

June 29, 2008

June 29, 2008

From Auburn, NY we drove east thru the cute town of Skaneateles to Syracuse where we caught the New York State Thruway. In no time we are at the Fort Stanwix National Monument. This reconstructed colonial fort sits at the “Carry” connecting the Mohawk River and Lake Oneida. This short portage was the vital link in the trade route that connected the Hudson River with Lake Ontario. As a result both the French and British vied for control of it during the French and Indian War. It was also the site of a crucial battle during the Revolution. In 1777, American patriots withstood a siege by the British who were trying to separate New England from the rest of the colonies. After looking at the exhibits and touring the fort we continue south to Cooperstown, NY where we spend the night at a private park.

June 28, 2008

June 28, 2008

I never thought of New York as the waterfall capital of the US but it sure seems so and not just because of Niagara, although clearly that helps. The last RV park owner recommended coming here to Watkins Glen State Park and I am glad we did. From a trailhead not far from the campground we took a hike along the Gorge Trail and was it pretty. The gorge is a narrow ravine carved out of the multi-layered sedimentary rock by a smallish stream. The water tumbles so quickly down the gorge it forms a reported nineteen waterfalls along its mile length. (I think there are many more but the park got tired of counting.)

The last Ice Age must have really scoured Lake Ontario and the land north of here. As a result the rivers and streams flowing north cascade out of the higher Allegany Plateau. The Ice Age scars can be seen in the Finger Lakes to the immediate north. These dozen parallel lakes are the remnants of the glaciers fingers. From Watkins Glen we head north along the eastern ridge of the largest, Lake Seneca.

At the north end of Cayuga Lake, we stop at the town of Seneca Falls to visit the Women’s Rights National Historic Park. In 1848, the first women’s rights convention was held here led by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Stanton. The park is a big disappointment and not up to the caliber of most we have visited. The movie was average and the exhibits disorganized. Plus the focus was just on the 1848 event and little was mentioned of why it took until 1920 for the right to vote. Although I suspect it had something to do with the women’s movement being allied with the temperance campaigns. I too would have opposed women trying to take my beer away. In my younger days I was all for bra burning but now I am not so convinced. Aimee tells me if I want dinner tonight, I better believe. Yes ma’am!

We spend the night at a private park west of Auburn, NY.

June 27, 2008

June 27, 2008

From Campbell, NY it is only fifteen minutes to Corning, NY. Corning is the home of its namesake glass company and the famous Corning Glass Museum. The museum starts out with modern glass artwork and then heads deep into the history of glass. Glass is one of the oldest of crafts first practiced around 1500 BC. For most of history glass making was a labor-intensive art making it reserved mostly for the wealthy. The history exhibits are amazingly extensive and moving too slow even for me, so I know Aimee is bored. I am thinking it was a mistake to have driven out of our way for this place. Fortunately Aimee is moving faster thru the museum and comes back to report there are some demonstrations going on up ahead. We take a break from glass history and watch several live demonstrations on glass making, blowing and breaking. All quite fascinating. Also past the history section are exhibits on glass chemistry, and newer technologies like fiber optics, lenses, Pyrex, and safety glass. Much more interesting for me. There are also exhibits on how manufacturing evolved from hand made to mass-produced. Glass is now such a useful and ubiquitous product but it wasn’t until the last fifty years that glass production (especially flat window glass) was automated.

From Corning we drive a half hour north to Watkins Glen State Park and get the last campsite with electricity.

June 26, 2008

June 26, 2008

By accident we are at Letchworth State Park. I had never heard of the place until yesterday. A picture of the park was gracing a brochure I had picked up to read while waiting for the canal boat. It is billed as the “Grand Canyon of the East”. How could we pass this up?

Unfortunately it is drizzling and foggy this morning so I am afraid we are going to have a poor impression. I guess that it is the breaks. The park is long and thin and runs along a length of the Genesee River. From the first overlook we can see that the winding river has carved a pretty steep canyon thru the hills here. Impressive for the eastern US. A few more overlooks later and we are hiking to the first of three large waterfalls on the river. Between the drizzling rain and the falls overspray, it is a challenge to take a picture without water droplets covering the camera lens. While taking a break to eat lunch our friend the sun finally makes an appearance. Losing the raincoats we make our way to the middle and upper falls. In the sunshine they are beautiful. Although much smaller than Niagara, these falls make up for it with a much nicer forest ambience. We are surprised this park doesn’t get more press. A true hidden gem!

From Letchworth we drive southeast and stay at a nice private park in Campbell, NY.

June 25, 2008

June 25, 2008

After dinner last night, we took the shuttle back to the Niagara Falls for the night view. After dark they light the Falls with multicolored spotlights. The Falls are pretty at night but nothing to write home to mom about.

This morning we drove to the Niagara River at a point below the Falls where the river makes a hard turn. Here the boiling river forms an immense whirlpool. The Niagara River connects the higher Lake Erie with Lake Ontario. Below the Falls the river is at the bottom of a steep gorge. Thousands of years ago the Falls were in this area but the power of the water continually cut the rock moving the location upstream. Niagara Falls no longer erodes upstream as most of the flow is now diverted to drive hydroelectric plants. They only spill enough water over the falls to keep tourist dollars coming in.

After viewing the whirlpool we cross over the river into the US and head east to Lockport, NY. Lockport is a city along the historic Erie Canal that connects New York City and the Hudson River with the Great Lakes. When it opened in 1825, New York City quickly replaced Philadelphia as the nation’s largest port and center of commerce. At Lockport the Erie Canal has to climb up the steep Niagara escarpment. Originally a double set of five locks raised canal boats the sixty feet. When the canal was widened in the 1900’s one of the sets was replaced with two very large locks. After taking an interpretative walk around the locks we decide to take a two-hour cruise on the canal. Most of the cruise time is spent passing up the two locks and later passing back down the same locks. It is a nice relaxing ride on a beautiful sunny day.

From Lockport we head southeast and spend the night at Letchworth State Park.

June 24, 2008

June 24, 2008

After leaving the Ford Museum last night we drove into downtown Detroit to cross the bridge into Ontario, Canada. We missed the bridge exit and had to take the tunnel instead, but not before getting stuck in bumper to bumper traffic heading to watch fireworks on the river. We spent last night in a resort park just east of Windsor, Ontario.

We spent most of today traveling across southern Ontario towards Niagara Falls. At Niagara Falls we got a site at an RV park on the Canadian side and took the shuttle to the falls. Many years ago, I had seen Niagara from the American side but the Canadian view is much better. The Niagara River makes a 90 degree turn at the falls, with the Canadian shoreline facing the falls. From the US you only can glance at the side. In addition the rivers splits in two here forming two sets of waterfalls, the American and Horseshoe Falls. From the US you can’t even tell there are two. Horseshoe Falls is the more dramatic but it is obscured in the huge cloud of mist churned up by the drop. Niagara is an impressive set of waterfalls but you can’t stare at them forever. We pass on the Maid of the Mist boat ride and the staircase along the side of the falls. Both require you to get totally drenched. Instead we shuttle back to the RV for dinner.

June 23, 2008

June 23, 2008

We are back in Dearborn, MI this morning to see the Henry Ford Museum. Greenfield Village was Ford’s collection of houses and buildings. The museum is his collection of everything else. It is impressive, unbelievably large and impossible to do real justice in a single day. Not surprisingly automobiles are a large part. The museum seems to have one illustrating every single step of the evolution from horse carriage to modern car. They also have all the presidential vehicles, including the one Kennedy was shot in. They even have a Model T that they take completely apart every day and let kids assemble throughout the day. Of course I helped, installing the radiator. The Model T is a surprisingly simple compact design. I would like to get one myself. Don’t mention this to Aimee but restored versions sell on E-bay for only $8000.

Beyond cars, the museum has a collection of airplanes, trains, carriages, steam engines, farm equipment, and household goods. The central theme is the innovation that drove industrialization. If that wasn’t enough (it really is too much), the museum has a special exhibit on the history of chocolate and a large exhibit on American freedom. This last section unbelievably covers the original Independence movement, the Civil War and slave freedom, the Civil Rights movement, and Women’s right to vote. I could have spent all day in this one section. We breezed through it mostly just to see Rosa Park’s bus and the chair Lincoln was shot in.

Henry Ford is famous for his use of the assembly line to mass-produce affordable cars. He ought really to be known as an insatiable collector. But he is a man of my own heart. It turns out he also explored the country in an RV with his buddies Tom Edison and Harvey Firestone. And I bet Mrs. Edison didn’t complain about their RV either!

June 22, 2008

June 22, 2008

Just west of Detroit is Dearborn, MI and the site of Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village. You can spend all day here and we did. It is the late 19th century version of Virginia’s Williamsburg. Opened in 1929, this huge complex contains an eclectic collection of buildings that inspired or merely interested Ford. Aiming for authenticity, he bought the actual buildings and their entire contents and moved them to this sprawling complex. Greenfield contains everything from his early home, his jobsite as Chief Engineer of an electricity generating plant, Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory, the Wright Brothers home and bike shop, homes from famous men of his day, to dozens of buildings from across the nation that represent Americana at the turn of the century.

Like Williamsburg the whole complex is teaming with very knowledgeable docents in period costume, working at crafts. I now know more than I ever wanted to about weaving machines! All the while we are surrounded by the sights and sounds of early industrial America, coal burning steam locomotives, horse drawn carriages, bicycles, and lots of Model T’s. (Model T’s are actually very quiet!) It really is the Disneyland version though. In the real one we would have been walking down dirt roads, stepping over smelly horse manure, while coughing from the thick haze of coal fires and tired from working six long days a week. Greenfield Village is a testament to how far we have come and how different life was only a hundred years ago.

June 21, 2008

June 21, 2008

Before leaving Warren Dunes State Park, we drive to the beach for a morning stroll. Driving sure beats the safari desert crossing. We have the whole beach to ourselves, if you don’t count the few thousand sea gulls.

Afterwards we head east across Michigan, stopping once to restock the refrigerator and once in Battle Creek to check out Kellogg’s Cereal City. Tony the Tiger must not work weekends so we push on. Outside Detroit we stop for the evening at a public campground. The adjoining fairground is hosting a dog show so we walk over to it. We always like looking at the variety of dogs. Unfortunately it is a show just for American Bulldogs and Pit Bulls. Not our favorite dogs. Not surprisingly the owners are not your typical pet owner. The star attraction is a cement block sled-pull to crown “Iron Dog”.

June 20, 2008

June 20, 2008

We are in the money!! Even without any earned income or Social Security, Uncle Sam saw fit to send Stimulus Checks to both Aimee and me. Thank you George Bush. We are ready to do our bit for the economy and spend it. Our checks are going to the Saudis for enough gas to get us from here to Maine. In the meantime we sold a few more pieces of furniture from storage to pay for the return trip. With gas money in hand we wave good-bye to Aimee’s mom and point the RV southeast around Lake Michigan. With traffic and construction, it is slow going. We try stopping at Indiana Dunes State Park but it is completely booked. Continuing on into Michigan we luck out and get a spot at Warren Dunes State Park. It is crowded and for the first time we are greatly outnumbered by families and tents.

It is still early so we decide to walk the mile path to the beach for a stroll along Lake Michigan’s eastern shore. A hundred yards into the walk and we are staring at the tallest steepest sand dune I have ever seen. A dozen steps up and we are wishing we had worked out during our month off. It is one step up and slide down a couple. What keeps these insanely steep dunes in place? I would think they would blow flat in no time. After a big struggle we make it to the top and we are rewarded with a wonderful view. Unfortunately we are still a mile of undulating sand dunes away from the beach. (I am now wondering how those Arab caravans in movies can possibly travel hundreds of miles across the Sahara??) By the time we make it to the lake we are exhausted and have no desire to do the beach stroll. On the return trip we get smarter and find a trail that skirts the dunes instead of up and over. (Maybe that is the Arab secret!)

June 17, 2008

June 17, 2008

For the past week or so we have been in the Chicago area, staying with Aimee’s mom. (That is payback for her winter visits to Tucson.) Sticking with our desire to see something new every visit, we spend today exploring part of the I & M Canal National Heritage Corridor. We start at the Visitor Center in Lockport, IL where we watch a movie about the canal history. It turns out instead to be a very interesting story of early Chicago. It starts with Father Marquette and Louis Joliet, who on their return from exploring the Mississippi River system, used the two-mile Chicago Portage to return to the Great Lakes. Starting with Joliet, people dreamed of a canal connecting the Illinois and Chicago Rivers to provide an uninterrupted water route to the Midwest. In 1804 the US built Fort Dearborn to secure the portage. Finally in 1848, after bankrupting Illinois once and with the help of thousands of low-paid Irish immigrants, the 96-mile canal opened, making Chicago an instant transportation and manufacturing hub. Initially hugely successful, the canal was soon obsoleted with the laying of rail lines, but not before fueling Chicago to the position of “fastest growing city in history”. By the end of the Civil War, Chicago was the biggest US port, larger than the next six combined! In 1870 the canal hump at Summit, IL was deepened reversing the flow of the Chicago River ridding the city of its sanitary waste down the Illinois River. In the 1900’s the canal was replaced totally by the wider and deeper Sanitary and Ship Canal. After the movie, we peruse the exhibits and walk along the old canal. 

From Lockport, we drive north along the corridor to the Isle a la Cache Museum. This park sits on an island in the Des Plaines River. The museum is dedicated to the fur trade business that the Chicago Portage funneled through the area. It was an ideal location for a Rendezvous, a trade fair for the local Potowatomi Indians to exchange beaver pelts for manufactured goods from the French Canadian voyageurs.

June 3, 2008

June 3, 2008

Aimee and I are on somewhat of a quest to see most of the National Park Systems’ sites. We didn’t start out that way, but the more we have seen the more we want to see. In general all the sites are interesting and well done, although a few I suspect the result of a politician’s deal to get federal government money. The NPS holdings have ballooned to almost 400 locations and rising. So in that spirit, we took a break from our vacation and drove into St. Louis to see the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site. I had assumed I had seen it as a kid on the almost yearly school trips to Grant’s Farm, but that Anheuser Busch-owned venue is separate and next-door. Both were originally part of the once-larger Dent plantation.

After graduating West Point in 1843, Grant was stationed at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis. That is where he met Julia Dent, whom he married in 1848. At the site we join a guided tour of the bright green plantation house and then peruse exhibits and a film on Grant’s life. Grant was an ardent anti-slavery advocate who married into a slave-owning plantation family resulting in frequent heated arguments with his father-in-law in the years leading up to the Civil War. This history brought alive why Grant was so successful as a general. He was cause-driven, whereas most of his failed predecessors were closet southern sympathizers who weren’t committed to winning the war.

On the way back to Godfrey, we stopped at the St. Louis Zoo to see the animals that we missed on our visit last Christmas. I am a little worried about gas prices. Despite the high price, the roads are still packed in the middle of a weekday. Prices apparently are going to have to rise considerably higher before we really reduce consumption. And our RV is not helping the situation either!!