Category Archives: Geocaching

Geocaching

Sept 1, 2016 Adirondacks, NY

After a month in Maine it was time to head south. We had a long travel day as we left Maine and passed through New Hampshire and Vermont before entering New York State. As soon as we entered New York I started sneezing. We are thinking either oak trees or goldenrod is bothering me. Despite the long day the miles went by quickly and before we knew it we arrived at our Lake George campsite for a week. We were glad to get checked in and settled before the bombardment of Labor Day campers arrived on Friday for the three day weekend.
Lake George is a 32 mile long lake located at the foot of the Adirondack Mountains. It drains into Lake Champlain and the St Lawrence River basin. The village of Lake George has a yearly population of around 900 which swells to over 50,000 residents during the summer season. In 1755 British colonial forces occupied the region during the French and Indian War and the lake was named Lake George for King George II. On May 31, 1791, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to his daughter saying, “Lake George is without comparison, the most beautiful water I ever saw; formed by a contour of mountains into a basin….finely interspersed with islands, its waters limpid as crystal, and the mountain sides covered with rich groves“.
After the long travel day on Thursday and with Labor Day traffic building we stayed close to home Friday and Saturday. It was amazing to watch the campground swell to full capacity with campers setting up, kids on bikes and pedestrians everywhere.
Sunday we decided to take a scenic drive through the Adirondack Mountains. The Adirondack Park encompasses two thirds of upstate New York with over six million acres of private and state (40%) land. Nearly half the land is wilderness. There are 46 mountains that exceed an elevation of 4,000 feet. The Adirondack Park includes more than 2,000 miles of hiking trails, 3,000 lakes and ponds, more than 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, 1,100 miles of highway and 120 miles of railroad. It was named after the Algonquin Indians. The Iroquois called the Algonquins “Ha-De-Ron-Dah” or “bark eaters” because they ate certain kinds of tree bark. After the Civil War the area became a summer retreat for the wealthy.
We followed one of several scenic byways which took us from Lake George to the Canadian border. We passed beautiful Indian Lake, Blue Mountain Lake and Tupper Lake to name just a few. We stopped along the way finding geocaches, including one less than five miles from the Canadian border. We could see the border crossing checkpoint which didn’t seem too busy considering the holiday weekend. As we headed back south towards home we entered the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Reservation. We stopped and bought gas which was about 15 cents cheaper per gallon on the reservation.
We stopped by Saranac Lake to see the Robert Louis Stevenson cottage. The cottage was closed but we did get a picture of the outside. Stevenson lived here during the winter of 1887-1888 and the cottage has a large collection of Stevenson memorabilia. The librarian in me was glad to see it!
By now it was getting late. We reached gorgeous Lake Placid as daylight was fading. We snapped a couple shots of the lake and grabbed a late dinner. There is so much to see in Lake Placid, site of the 1932 and 1980 winter Olympics. It is on our list of places to return to someday. We arrived home late in the evening after an eleven hour sightseeing adventure.
The next day we decided to take advantage of the Labor Day holiday (therefore no city workers) and drive to Albany to see the state capitol. One goal we have is to try to see the state capitol building of every state we visit. We decided to drive first to the small town of Kinderhook to visit the home of Martin Van Buren, the 8th President of the United States. Near the house was was a tiny “Visitors Center” located in a trailer where we saw a short film on his life. Van Buren purchased his home and 130 acres of land in 1839 while President. He named the estate Lindenwald after the linden trees lining the road in front of the home. He returned here after his presidency ended. He died here in 1862.
Van Buren was president from 1837 to 1841. As president he was blamed for the depression of 1837, one of the worst depressions in U.S. history, with hostile newspapers calling him “Martin Van Ruin”. He also had problems with foreign affairs, denying Texas’ application for admission to the Union because he didn’t want to upset the balance of free and slave states.
In 1840 he was voted out of office when Whig candidate William Henry Harrison won the election. Van Buren tried to make a comeback in 1844 when he tried to win the Democratic nomination but lost to James Polk who went on to win the election. In 1848 he ran for president yet again as a third party candidate with the Free-Soil party, a group opposing extending slavery. His defeat in that election ended his political career.
Before leaving Kinderhook we visited his birthplace (the Van Buren family tavern where he was born burned long ago, no longer stands and is merely noted with a marker) and then his gravesite at the Dutch Reformed Church.

Van Buren’s wife Hannah died in 1819 after twelve years of marriage.
He is buried with her.
He never remarried.
They had four sons.

Next was Albany, capital of New York. The traffic was light and we had no problem finding parking. Albany was chartered in 1686. Robert Fulton’s steamboat made the first successful steamboat run from New York to Albany in 1807. The opening of the Erie Canal between Buffalo and Albany in 1825 caused the city to flourish. Over the years Presidents Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt all lived at one time in Albany.
The state capitol building was built in the late 1800’s.
We walked to the Governor Nelson Rockefeller Empire State Plaza, a huge government complex. This was a massive urban renewal project initiated by then Governor Rockefeller. It was started in the 1960’s and not completed until 1978. We found some geocaches in the area, including one at the Egg, a performing arts center. The plaza’s 96 acres includes more than 90 abstract impressionist paintings, sculptures and tapestries as well as the tallest building in New York state except those in New York City. The plaza also has several memorials honoring women veterans, fallen firefighters, MIA’s and Vietnam veterans.

August 25, 2016 Wells, Maine

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We had a wonderful week in Bar Harbor but now it was time to head south. We have been in Maine for three weeks and we were now headed to the small town of Wells for our last week in Maine. We are really enjoying our time along the Maine coast. If you measure the coast of Maine DIRECTLY it is only 228 miles. BUT, Maine’s SHORELINE is 3,478 miles, which is longer than California’s. Three fourths of all visitors to Maine stay along the coastline.
We had a pleasant drive except for some roadwork which they DO need. We settled into our campground and started planning our week. The week in Bar Harbor had been quite intense and busy, so we decided to make this week more laid back and relaxing, along with catching up on paperwork and the blog. Even life on the road has paperwork and cleaning and laundry that needs to be done and it sure piles up fast!
Nevertheless we did find time to explore the area. On Saturday we drove to Mount Agamenticus where we were promised a fantastic view of the White Mountains of New Hampshire to the west and far out to sea in the east. At 692 feet it is not a very big mountain as mountains go, but since it was a beautiful day we decided it was worth the drive. The view at the top was nice but as summer views often are, it was too hazy to get a great view or picture.

Monday we drove up to Kennebunkport, a popular summer resort and location of one of the homes of the President George Bush family. Kennebunkport is a small touristy town but we loved the view along the beach where we could see the Bush residence. The home is located on a peninsula called Walkers Point. We took pictures from the closest point allowed. At this viewpoint an anchor was placed in honor of George H. W. Bush.

During our time in the area we spent time in the various little coastal towns of Wells, Kennebunkport and York. The beautiful homes and picturesque views along the water were in my opinion prettier than Martha’s Vineyard.
Next we leave Maine and head to the Adirondacks in New York.

August 23, 2016 Bar Harbor & Acadia N. P. Part 2

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We spent most of our time in Acadia National Park but we did go into Bar Harbor a couple times. Bar Harbor was originally incorporated in 1763 and named Eden after Sir Richard Eden, an English statesman. It was renamed Bar Harbor in 1918 because of a sand bar that is visible at low tide. In the 1800’s tourists were attracted to Bar Harbor by the writings of Henry David Thoreau and paintings showing the Maine landscapes by famous painters. The area attracted families such as the Astors, Fords, Morgans, Rockefellers and Vanderbilts. The Great Fire of 1947 destroyed nearly half of the eastern side of Mount Desert Island. Sixty-seven of the 222 palatial summer homes and five grand hotels were destroyed in addition to 170 year round homes. The town’s business district survived the fire. More than 10,000 acres of Acadia National Park was destroyed.
Parking in Bar Harbor is scarce so a free shuttle bus called the “Island Explorer” is available to residents and tourists. The shuttle stops at several campgrounds near Bar Harbor, including ours. There are also shuttle buses that travel throughout Acadia National Park to encourage people not to drive. The shuttle buses are all free and funded by local, state and federal tax dollars, including a sizable donation from L. L. Bean whose flagship store is located in Freeport, Maine.
We usually don’t do many activities geared to tourists because they tend to be expensive, but two activities caught our eye. The first was a horse drawn carriage ride along one of the carriage roads in the park. John D Rockefeller Jr was one of the main contributors of Acadia National Park, donating about a third of the park’s land. In his efforts to preserve the park he had over 45 miles of crushed stone roads built between 1913 and 1940. The roads are sixteen feet wide with crowns that provide drainage. The roads are considered the best example of broken stone roads in the United States. Local workers quarried granite from the island to build the roads and seventeen stone bridges. No motor vehicle traffic is allowed on the carriage roads throughout the park, allowing for a safe and peaceful roadway for hikers, bikers and horses.
We decided to take a one hour carriage ride on a carriage road and made a reservation with Wildwood Stables located in the park. The morning of our ride we arrived early enough to see some of the horses having a morning bath. I must say I have been opposed to horses being used in places like Central Park where they spend hours each day pulling people around in carriages in all kinds of weather. I was very glad to hear that there are 26 horses and only three tours conducted each day. The horses work no more than four hours a day, twice a week. They also only work five months of the year. We were assured they really have an easy life and are very well cared for. There were three families on the tour with us with children ranging in age from twelve years to thirteen months. They were all very well behaved. We really enjoyed our ride along the tree lined shaded road with occasional views of the ocean shimmering in the morning sun.
Our second activity was a two hour excursion on a sailboat. Bill had mentioned he would really like to go on a sailboat while in Bar Harbor, so we were excited to find the 151 foot Margaret Todd, the first four masted schooner to sail the New England waters in over half a century. We knew parking in the afternoon would be hard to find so we took the shuttle bus from the campground into Bar Harbor and then back home after our cruise. So convenient! Our voyage took us around Frenchman’s Bay with beautiful views of Acadia National Park. We saw lobster boats, many many lobster pots, a porpoise and several seals. They are so quick it is impossible to get a picture. We loved our time on the boat!

All these floats are connected to lobster traps

The view of Cadillac Mountain from Bar Harbor and our ship

Our last day in Bar Harbor we decided to drive around the “quiet” side of the island. This part of the island is less visited by tourists and is more like what the island was like before Bar Harbor became so touristy. We enjoyed riding through the small villages finding geocaches and taking a picture of the most photographed bridge in Maine. We took our last hike of the visit on the Wonderland Trail. It was an easy trail and we were rewarded with a beautiful ocean view at the end. On the way home we stopped at a restaurant where Bill had a lobster dinner. We left the camera in the car so I missed getting a picture of him with the lobster bib!

Bar Harbor Facts:

Bar Harbor and two other Mount Desert towns have light ordinances to protect the quality of the night skies.
Bar Harbor was the birthplace of vice president Nelson Rockefeller.
The Bar Harbor area was used for naval practices during World War II when nearby Bald Porcupine Island was fired upon by live torpedoes from the submarine USS Piper.
President William Howard Taft enjoyed playing golf in Bar Harbor.
Current residents include Martha Stewart and Roxanne Quincy, the co-founder and CEO of Burt’s Bees.

August 18, 2016 Bar Harbor & Acadia National Park, Maine

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On August 18th we left the easternmost area of the United States and headed south to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. I have mentioned before how bad the roads are in Maine, and this trip was no better. The roads do not seem that bad in a car, but in a large vehicle it is a bumpy and rocky trip. By the time we reached the campground the cap on our exhaust pipe had once again worked loose.
Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park are both located on Mount Desert Island. There are no fast food restaurants, box stores or large grocery stores on the island, so just before crossing the Trenton Bridge we stopped at a Walmart Supercenter and stocked up. Before leaving New Hampshire three weeks ago we planned ahead and bought a month’s worth of any drinks that come in bottles and cans because Maine has deposits on all of them. We also liked New Hampshire’s no state sales tax and stocked up on paper products, canned goods etc, keeping in mind we only have so much room in the pantry and freezer.
We then crossed Trenton Bridge onto Mount Desert Island. The views were amazing. Mount Desert Island is the third largest island on the eastern seaboard and the largest rock based island on the Atlantic coast. It is 108 square miles; sixteen miles wide and thirteen miles long. It also has “Some Sound”, the only national fjord on the east coast.
Our major reason for coming to this area was to visit Acadia National Park. We had so much to see and do, we hit the ground running the next day. We stopped by the Visitors Center first and bought an audio tape tour of the park to listen to as we drove around the Park Loop Road. Unlike most parks, they did not have a free list of hiking trails so we bought a book on hiking trails in the park that listed details such as length and difficulty.
Acadia National Park is the second most visited national park in the country with over two million visitors a year (Smoky Mountain is the most visited) and one of the smallest. It covers over 2/5 of Mount Desert Island and is 35,000 acres in area with 41 miles of spectacular coastline. Established in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson, it is the oldest American national park east of the Mississippi River, the only national park in the northeast, and the first park where land was donated to the federal government (most notable being 11,000 acres by John D Rockefeller, Jr). The park has a diverse landscape with glacial mountain ridges, rivers, lakes and streams carved from receding glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age, woodland forests and miles of dramatic rocky coastline.
French explorer Samuel Champlain documented the first European record of this area in 1604. Attempts were made to settle the island after his visit but 150 years of war between the French and British made the area unsafe for habitation until 1761 when English colonists established a permanent settlement. Colonists farmed, fished, quarried granite and engaged in shipping. When tourists began to arrive in the mid 1800’s, tourism became a new and important source of income. The small farming and fishing villages were transformed with hotels and large extravagant summer cottages for wealthy summer residents.
This first day our plan was to drive the 27 mile Park Loop Road and listen to the audio tour.

Two Beaver Lodges are across the lake they made

This took pretty much all day because of all the overlooks where we passed some beaver lodges and admired the magnificent beauty of the park.

Bar Harbor is located on the left

Our last stop of the day was on Cadillac Mountain which at 1,530 feet is the highest point on the eastern seaboard north of Rio de Janeiro. Bill and I spent two days in Acadia back in 2011. It was rainy and foggy and we couldn’t see a thing from Cadillac Mountain. What a difference today was! We had a 360° view of Bar Harbor, Frenchman Bay and Cranberry Isles (see our video below). One bit of drama was I left my cell phone in the restroom. Thirty minutes later as we were getting ready to leave I remembered. Fortunately some kind person has turned it in to the gift shop personnel.
We knew we wanted to do some hiking and with 120 miles of hiking trails in the park we had several to choose from. Our first choice was the Ocean Path Trail which we started at Sand Beach, a popular spot in the park. In order to get a parking spot this time of year you have to arrive no later than 10:00 A.M. The trail was an easy hike along the cliff with views of Sand Beach and the coastline.
Sunday was our one foggy day and we drove past a harbor and hiked up 200 primitive rock steps and along a trail to find two geocaches. What we thought was going to be an easy walk turned into a longer hike along a rocky trail with big tree roots in the path. But we found two geocaches!
On Wednesday we hiked the popular Jordan Pond Trail which took us around the beautiful peaceful pond where we saw kayakers.
In the next blog we will talk about Bar Harbor and a couple special activities!
Maine Facts:

Maine has 3,500 miles of coastline. That is all the way across the United States and halfway back.
There are over 3,000 islands along Maine’s coast.
Maine’s coastline has so many deep harbors, it could provide anchorage for all the navy fleets in the world.
Smoking is prohibited in a motor vehicle by the driver or passenger when a person under the age of 16 is present.

Our Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEi7pWtz3nk

August 11, 2016 Eastport, Maine

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We left Millinocket and traveled to Eastport, our most easterly location in 2016. This area of Maine is the first place in the United States to see the sunrise each day. As before, the roads were in bad shape from frost heaves and we rocked and bounced our way along.
We arrived at our campground in Eastport with a view from our campsite of Canada across the water. The weather until now had been hot and dry, but some cooler, wet weather was settling in for our week here.
We spent some time on 2017 planning and enjoyed the cooler temperatures. Sunday we drove into the small downtown area to find some geocaches. We loved the small library geocache and took some pictures of a fisherman and Bill flirting with a local mermaid.
Tuesday we drove to the tiny town of Machias and had lunch at Helen’s Restaurant. Bill had a lobster roll and we shared a huge slice of blueberry pie. While in Machias we found a couple geocaches including a neat one inside a small lighthouse.
Wednesday we drove to Lubec and Quoddy Head State Park, the easternmost point of the United States. The views were beautiful at the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, which in 1808 became the easternmost lighthouse in the country. Its light and fog cannon warned seamen of the dangerous cliffs and rocks. It was among the first lighthouses to use a fog bell and later a steam powered foghorn. Today its automated light still shines and is monitored and serviced by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Across the water we could see Campobello Island in Canada. The strong tidal currents between West Quoddy Head and Campobello Island are the cause of the largest whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere.
We found a geocache in the park and enjoyed finding several more on the way home. It was lots of fun but the mosquitoes were really biting!
Next stop:. Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park
Maine Facts:

Approximately 40 million pounds of lobster (nearly 90% of the country’s supply) are caught off the coast of Maine.
90% of the nation’s toothpick supply is produced in Maine.
L. L. Bean’s flagship store is located in Freeport and is the first retail clothier to be open 24/7/365.

July 18, 2016 Contoocook and Hanover, New Hampshire

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We left our campground in Brookline, New Hampshire and drove a short distance to Contoocook. Along the way we drove through quaint small towns with Main Streets lined with American flags and stores and homes adorned with red, white and blue bunting from July 4th.
It was hot and we were glad to get settled into our campground. The friendly camp hosts helped us find just the right spot.
Monday we drove to nearby Hillsboro-ugh to visit the Franklin Pierce Homestead National Historic Landmark, the boyhood home of the 14th president. Even though it is a national landmark, it is maintained by the New Hampshire state parks. Along with the 1804 restored mansion, there was a very small Visitors Center/gift shop. The workers in the gift shop really tried to talk us into taking the admission fee tour of the home, but we are not fond of old home tours where you walk down a hallway peaking into roped off rooms. The Visitors Center had a small bust of Pierce and his sleigh. I remarked that Pierce was one of the least liked Presidents which seemed to slightly offend one of the workers, so I quickly added he was one of the least known. Perhaps he is one of the least known because he was the least popular?? Some historians say he is one of the worst presidents but I didn’t want to say something that negative to the workers. Regardless, we have the goal of learning as much as we can about all our presidents in our travels.
Franklin Pierce was president from 1853 to 1857. He was a Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a threat to national unity. At first the Democrats saw him as a good compromise candidate who could unite northern and southern interests. However while president some felt his policies helped push the United States into Civil War. The downfall of his presidency is attributed to his championing and signing the Kansas-Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. The Kansas-Nebraska Act opened the territories to settlement and railroad building and repealed the ban on slavery in Kansas mandated by the 1820 Missouri Compromise which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30′. This new bill gave the citizens of each territory, not Congress, the right to choose whether to allow slavery and infuriated northerners. His enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act confused people and he was seen as someone who couldn’t make up his mind and he became very unpopular. All of this confusion led antislavery Democrats and Whigs to form the new Republican party. Kansas soon became a battleground of tensions over sectional slavery. Because of what became known as “Bleeding Kansas”, Pierce was denied the Democratic presidential nomination in 1856. Instead it went to James Buchanan.
Until Kennedy, Franklin Pierce was the youngest president ever elected. His family life was tragic. He married Jane Appleton who was devoutly religious, constantly ill and despised politics which created tension in the marriage. They had three sons, all of whom died in childhood. Their youngest son died at the age of eleven when he was killed in a train accident while traveling with his parents from Boston shortly after Pierce was elected president. According to wikipedia, both Franklin and his wife suffered from severe depression after the accident which most likely affected Pierce’s performance as president. His wife avoided social functions for the first two years of his presidency. She did not attend the inauguration. Pierce chose to affirm his oath of office on a law book rather than swear it on a bible.
In his later years both his wife and author Nathaniel Hawthorne, his close friend died. Pierce drank heavily and died from severe cirrhosis of the liver in 1869 at the age of 64 with no family present.
After leaving the Pierce Homestead we explored the area, enjoying the beautiful stone and covered bridges and finding a couple geocaches.
Tuesday we drove to Concord, capital of New Hampshire since 1808. We like to visit state capitals wherever we go, however this one was a bit of a disappoint-ment because the roof was covered with scaffolding. This state house is the country’s oldest state house in which the legislature continues to meet in the original chambers.

The Memorial Arch was built in 1891 to honor New Hampshire’s soldiers and sailors.
Next we drove to the Franklin Pierce grave site in Old North Cemetery. With no directions as to where to find his grave, we wandered around a bit. Suddenly a lady hustled up the cemetery road and said she noticed us wandering around from the window of her house and wanted to know if she could help. She led us to his grave site, eagerly giving us a history of various citizens interred in the cemetery. She was very kind and helpful and we would have surely wandered for quite awhile before eventually finding his grave site in a more remote section of the cemetery.

On Wednesday we moved a short distance to Hanover, New Hampshire. We are on our way to an RV rally in Vermont and this was a convenient p!ace to stay for a couple days on the way. Hanover is the home of Dartmouth College. Founded in 1769, Dartmouth is the ninth oldest college in the country and the northernmost of the eight Ivy League schools. We drove around some areas of the beautiful campus.

On Thursday we drove to Windsor, Vermont to see the Windsor-Cornish Covered Bridge. Along the way we passed through a small corner of Vermont. Windsor is in Vermont and on the other side of the bridge is New Hampshire. Windsor is nicknamed “The Birthplace of Vermont” and is where the state constitution was written and adopted on July 8, 1777. The general assembly met in Windsor until 1805 when Montpelier became the permanent capital. In the 19th century Windsor was the center of invention, including firearms, the hydraulic pump, the coffee percolator and the sewing machine. We enjoyed driving through this small, picturesque town.

Built in 1866 at a cost of $9,000, the Windsor-Cornish Bridge spans the Connecti-cut River between Windsor, Vermont and Corning, New Hampshire. It is the longest WOODEN covered bridge in the United States and is the longest two span covered bridge in the world. The bridge was a toll bridge until 1943. It is featured on many New England postcards.

July 8, 2016 Cape Cod, Mass. Part 2

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“A man may stand there and put all America behind him.” Henry David Thoreau
After seven days in Sandwich we moved further east in Cape Cod to Nickerson State Park in the town of Orleans. We only reserved two nights at this park since it was dry camping.
We had a lot to see in this area and a short time so we had no time to waste. Bill wanted to visit the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center in nearby Chatham. Here numerous exhibits and short films tells the story of Marconi’s role in the history of wireless communication.

Marconi’s original 1914 TransAtlantic Wireless Receiving Station where telegrams were sent from ship to shore was on display. Exhibits showed how the U.S. Navy used the station during WWII as well as displaying a highly classified Enigma cypher machine used by the German Navy for communications.
On Saturday we had a busy day exploring the Cape Cod National Seashore Park and the small towns and villages in the upper part of Cape Cod.
Cape Cod National Seashore has two Visitors Centers at each end of the park and we stopped at both of them. At the first center we toured the museum about the history of Cape Cod and saw a movie detailing how the it was formed. Cape Cod is a glacial deposit always undergoing natural changes as water and wind move sand along the shoreline, tearing away some places and building up others. The harsh North Atlantic winters contributes to these changes which can quickly take place. Native people began living on Cape Cod about 10,000 years ago. The Pilgrims arrived here in 1620 and briefly stayed before sailing across the bay to Plymouth.
We then stopped at the first Marconi Station Site where the first transatlantic wireless communication was sent from President Theodore Roosevelt to King Edward VII of England. Marconi built his first towers here in 1901. As just described, the forces of nature has eroded much of this high cliff to the extent that the towers and station had to be removed. We visited the plaques and exhibits now placed a safe distance from the edge of the cliffs.
Next we drove to Provincetown at the end of Cape Cod. Here we found a Pilgrim Tower to commemorate the first landing of the Pilgrims. We then went to First Landing Park where the Pilgrims first set foot on American soil. (No, it wasn’t at Plymouth Rock). The area wasn’t to their liking so after a short time on the cape they sailed across the bay to Plymouth.
Afterwards we drove back towards home, stopping at three more historic places. At Corn Hill there is a plaque commem-orating the place where starving Pilgrims stumbled across a stockpile of corn the Indians had left for later use. The plaque says the Pilgrims said they didn’t know what would have become of them if they had not found the corn. I am sure hungry Indians were not happy to find the corn missing and we read that the Pilgrims later paid restitution to the Native Americans.
Next was Encounter Beach. Here a plaque commemorates the place where the Pilgrims and Native Americans first encountered each other. Bill and I both love historical places like this.
Our last stop of the day, very close to home was Nauset Beach. It is here at Nauset Beach in Orleans, Mass. that a German submarine fired on a tug, four unarmed barges and sank them during WWI.

Nauset Beach is the only place on American soil attacked during WWI.
At several of the historical sites we visited today we found geocaches. What fun!
I mentioned in an earlier blog about meeting Bob and Sue during our trip to Europe and the wonderful afternoon we spent at a cookout at their house. Our good luck continued since it turned out Sue’s mother and stepfather live 5 minutes from Nickerson State Park where we were staying. So Friday night we went to Earl and Bea’s house and had a delicious dinner and were able to spend more time with Bob and Sue. A great time was had by all! We could get use to this!
Next stop: Boston area. Can’t wait for more history coming up!!

July 6, 2016 Martha’s Vineyard, Mass

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Visiting Martha’s Vineyard is an all day under-taking (and not cheap), so we left home at 7:00 AM to catch the ferry at nearby Woods Hole. We left the car at the parking lot provided by the ferry company ( for $15 a day) and were taken by shuttle bus to the ferry. Due to the high cost of taking a car on the ferry, we decided to take public transportation on the island. Ferry tickets are $17 per person round trip so we bought the tickets and boarded the ferry which we discovered was brand new. We enjoyed the 45 minutes across Nantucket Sound and arrived at the town of Oak Bluffs. We bought a day pass for the public bus around the island for $8.00 per person, quite a bit cheaper than the almost $100 to bring the car.
Martha’s Vineyard is 100 square miles of mostly wooded land with six small villages made up of pricey homes, shops and restaurants. A third of the island is undeveloped conservation land. Approximately 17,000 people live year round on Martha’s Vineyard with the population swelling to more than 100,000 during the summer. There are no traffic lights, no fast food restaurants and no chain stores. Outdoor lighting is kept to a minimum to better enjoy the night sky. The homes of the rich and famous are behind gated compounds and not visible to tourists. The beaches are the most popular feature of Martha’s Vineyard. It is interesting to note that Massachusetts allows private ownership of beaches so not all beaches are public.
We first explored Oak Bluffs, built between 1867 and 1872 after its first beginnings amid the oak trees as a Methodist revival meeting place. It is the first island town to have electricity, movies, a skating rink, a carousel, a bowling alley, a dance hall, telephones, cars and airplanes. While exploring Oak Bluffs we found Flying Horses, a carousel built in 1876 and moved from Coney Island to Martha’s Vineyard in 1884, making it the oldest operating platform carousel in the country. It is registered as a National Historical Landmark. There are 22 wooden horses with real horsehair tails. We then found a geocache and while headed to the bus stop we came across a small park with a statue of a Union Civil War soldier placed by a Confederate soldier from Virginia who settled on Martha’s Vineyard after the war. At first he was shunned by the locals for being a Confederate soldier but later was accepted and became an active member of the community. He placed this statue to show his support for the United States.

We waited in line for the bus to the next town. The temper-ature was climbing and waiting in lines in the hot sun was starting to get to us. We found the buses to and from Oak Bluffs were very crowded with people often having to stand. Making it even more uncom-fortable was the fact the buses were not air con-ditioned and the windows could not be fully opened. Along the way we passed the popular Jaws Bridge where scenes were filmed for the movie “Jaws”.
Our next stop was Edgartown, the island’s oldest European settlement and once an important whaling center. Edgartown and nearby Vineyard Haven are the principal commercial centers of the island. Edgartown was founded in 1642 and underwent a building boom from 1830 to 1845, the golden era of whaling, when profits from whaling and trade with China brought huge fortunes to the island. We learned many roofs of homes in this area have platforms known as widow walks which were really used as perches from which to pour sand down chimneys in case of fire.

After lunch we decided to continue exploring the outer reaches of the island by bus. We ended up in Aquinnah on the far tip of the island. Knowing how long the bus ride would be back to the ferry, we decided to head back. We had hoped to stop at a cemetery to see the grave of John Belushi, but if we got off the bus we would have to wait an hour for the next bus and we decided we didn’t have the time. John Belushi loved Martha’s Vineyard so much his family decided to bury him there.
We had to change buses in the town of Vineyard Haven and by the time the bus reached us, it was standing room only and very crowded. It was further complicated by roadwork on a bridge which slowed the bus down to one lane. We finally reached Oak Bluffs where the line waiting for the 3:15 ferry seemed endless. We went in the ferry office to buy our return ticket back to Woods Hole. The ticket seller told us the 3:15 ferry was sold out AND because of a ferry accident there would be no more ferries leaving Oak Bluffs the rest of the day. Our only choice was to catch the bus back to Vineyard Haven and hope to get on the 5:00 ferry to Woods Hole. So we went back outside and waited in the hot sun in the long line for the standing room only bus down the one lane road in heavy traffic back to Vineyard Haven. Thankfully we were able to get two tickets to Woods Hole and not wanting to take any chances on not getting on the ferry, we took our place in line early. We stood an hour in the blazing July sun for the ferry. By the time the ferry began loading, the line stretched far in the distance and a loud speaker was telling people beginning to get impatient not to worry, that it was a large capacity ferry and everyone would get on.
We had an uneventful trip back to Woods Hole. Now all we had to do was find a shuttle bus back to our car. Us and hundreds of other tired, hot people. Luckily we made it on the first bus though once again we had to stand. A minor rant here. I don’t consider myself too old and thankfully not handicapped, but it did surprise me that on the four buses where I had to stand and in some cases really had to hang on for some distances, there were many teenagers and young people who never once offered me their seat. I must say it surprised and disappointed me, both for the young people who didn’t know better or didn’t care, and the parents who sat there and didn’t teach their children more respect. Only one gentleman who appeared to be in his 50’s offered me his seat which I declined after thanking him.
We finally made it back to the car, tired, hot and dehydrated. In spite of it all we enjoyed our day on Martha’s Vineyard and were glad we went. However next time I think we will visit Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard in the fall when it is cooler and the crowds have left!

July 1, 2016 Cape Cod, Mass. Part 1

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We left Sturbridge, Massachusetts and headed to our campground at Sandwich, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. We knew it was the Friday of a long holiday weekend so we left Sturbridge early to beat the traffic. All was good until we were about two miles from the Sagamore Bridge from the mainland onto the Cape. It took us an hour in stop and go traffic to get across the bridge. We were glad to arrive at our campground in Sandwich and get set up.
Sandwich was incorpo-rated in 1638 and is the oldest town on Cape Cod. While in Sandwich we visited the Cape Cod Canal Visitors Center. The canal is an artificial waterway connecting Cape Cod Bay to Buzzards Bay and is part of the Atlantic Intra-coastal Waterway. The seven mile long canal moves along the narrow neck of land joining Cape Cod to the mainland. It is approximately 480 feet wide and 32 feet deep, cutting off 65-166 miles of coastal travel around the tip of the Cape. Another benefit of the canal was no longer having to sail around the treacherous outer shores of Cape Cod. At the height of the commercial shipping era from 1880 to 1900 there was nearly one shipwreck every week. Approximately 14,000 people use the canal yearly.
It was interesting to learn that in1623, Miles Standish of the Plymouth Colony scouted the land for a potential canal route but the idea was too much for the settlers to consider. Then in 1697 the General Court of Massachusetts considered the first formal proposal to build a canal but no action was taken. More energetic planning with surveys took place in 1776 with George Washington but none of these actions was completed.
Commercial construction began in 1909, it was first open to vessel traffic in 1914, and has been operated by the Army Corps of Engineers since 1928. It is designed to be a sea level waterway and is operated 24 hours a day, toll free. There are no locks even though it connects two bays with very different tidal cycles and ranges. Two highway bridges and one railway bridge cross the canal from the mainland to the Cape. During World War I the canal was used to move shipments when German sub-marines were off the coast of Cape Cod. We enjoyed touring the Visitors Center with their friendly volunteer, movie about the building of the Canal, and numerous exhibits. As a side note, Bill met and talked with some people later in the day who grew up and live on the Cape and they think the canal is too expensive to maintain and keep running and it should be filled in.

On our trip to Europe a couple months ago we met Bob and Sue, a couple who live near Cape Cod. When they learned we would be visiting their area this summer, they invited us to stop by and visit. On Sunday we were invited to a cookout at their home. We had a great time meeting Sue’s mom and step-father, some of their friends and neighbors and of course their adorable bulldog Stella. Thanks Bob and Sue!!

Another day we drove 34 miles along beautiful, scenic Route 6A (Old King’s Highway), passing through quaint towns and villages. Centuries ago the Route was a Native American Trail and then as Colonial settlements grew, this route became an extension of the Plymouth Colony and later a major route for Cape Cod. Route 6A ranks among the top scenic byways in the country. One thing that struck us was how patriotic all of Cape Cod looked for the Fourth of July holiday with so many homes and businesses displaying red, white and blue buntings and flags. Back in the days of the early settlers the wealthy merchants and sea captains did not covet waterfront property like people do today, so most of the older homes are along this highway rather than the shoreline. Needless to say the area has strict town codes and many efforts have been made to preserve these old homes. It is the newer homes you see along the waterfront.
Cape Cod is divided into fifteen towns, and within those towns are villages. For example Hyannis is a village in the town of Barnstable.
We stopped in the village of Hyannis to visit the JFK Hyannis Museum. This is not the Kennedy Presidential Library but a small museum focusing on the Kennedy family and their time on Cape Cod.
We stopped by the JFK Memorial at Veteran’s Beach. While there we looked for a geocache at the nearby Korean Memorial. We quickly discovered a young couple from Germany were also hunting for the same geocache so we had fun finding it together!
We took pictures in picturesque Wychmere Harbor, one of the most photographed places on the Cape.
The town of Yarmouth is the Cape’s second oldest town with more than 600 buildings of historic architectural significance. At one time more than fifty sea captains had homes in Yarmouth and a one mile stretch of road was known as Captain’s Row. In South Yarmouth we found an eight sided windmill. The windmill was built in 1791 in North Dennis on Cape Cod by Judah Baker to grind corn. In 1886 it was moved to South Yarmouth. Since 1953 the town of Yarmouth has been responsible for the windmill. It has undergone extensive restoration but still contains the original mechanical equipment. It is located in a beautiful setting near the Bass River adjacent to Nantucket Sound.

Our next blog posting will be about our day on Martha’s Vineyard.

January 16, 2016 Everglades N.P.

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First, a quick catch up. Since our last posting we have really been on the go.
We spent eight days in Jacksonville at Kathryn Hanna City Park. While in Jacksonville we visited my Uncle Bill and Aunt Peggy and were able to spend time with their daughters, granddaughter and three adorable great grandchildren. It is always a real treat to visit my Jacksonville family. They are always so gracious, welcoming and fun. You haven’t truly lived until you experience one of their Sunday family dinners.
Bill grew up in Jacksonville Beach so while we were there we were able to catch up with several of his good friends. Old friends are such a treasure! We enjoyed some of the area Christmas decorations.
It was hard to leave family and friends behind but our next stop was St Augustine for a short stay. The Spaniards created the City of St Augustine 450 years ago (1565), making it the oldest settlement in America, not to be confused with the settlement of Jamestown (1607), the oldest English settlement in America. We didn’t have enough time to explore and do the town justice so it is on our list of places to visit again. Since it was December we were able to enjoy all the white lights and Christmas decorations, especially beautiful at night! We enjoyed dinner with Bill’s ex boss Robert and his lovely wife Donna.
Flagler Beach was next on the list where we stayed at Gamble Rogers State Park. Wow we loved this park on the Atlantic Ocean. The state park has done a nice job of providing several boardwalks leading down to the water. We enjoyed walking on the beach. We can never get too much beach time!!
After a short stay in Titusville we arrived in Vero Beach for a week long stay over Christmas. We were so happy to spend time with Bill’s son Sean and his girlfriend Cathy. We enjoyed some beach time on Christmas Day. Notice Santa relaxing on the beach after a busy night. He was still wearing his Santa hat!
New Years found us in Clearwater, the area we lived in before beginning our grand adventure. We caught up with friends and some of Bill’s former coworkers. We were thrilled to spend New Years Eve with our friends Ben, Anne, Denise and Ralph at their annual party. During the party we launched Chinese lanterns after making New Years wishes. Yes, good friends are truly a treasure!
January found us in southwest Florida in Fort Myers. What a beautiful area along the Gulf of Mexico! We liked our RV park even though it was crowded and tight. We had great neighbors and hope to return next year to the same spot. The beaches are beautiful and there is a trolley which you can ride from the campground to the beach for 75 cents. What a bargain, especially considering parking at the beach is expensive and limited. While there we had a bad storm and our cell phones shrieked with weather alerts of tornado warnings. Bill monitored the storm on the local TV station. The weatherman I used to watch for years on the local tv station in Charlottesville is now the chief senior weatherman in Fort Myers. We found out the next day that a tornado touched down about four miles from our campground. This weather is unusual for Florida in January. Thanks a lot El Nino! While in Fort Myers we drove north to meet Bill’s cousin Shirley, her husband Jim, and two of their friends for dinner.
We reluctantly left Fort Myers and headed to a campground near Miami. Our main reason for stopping here was to visit my cousin Duane. We hadn’t seen each other in almost five years and I was beyond excited to see him. We made the short drive to Coral Gables to meet him for dinner. The time went by much too quickly. There is never enough time to spend with family and friends!
Well, you are caught up on our travels and now on to the subject of this blog, Everglades National Park. We had reservations at Flamingo Campground at the very tip end of the park. Once you enter the park entrance it is 37 miles to the campground. From the time we left Miami until we reached the campground we drove through torrential rain with poor visibility. Thanks again, El Nino!
We stopped at the Visitors Center at the entrance of the park. We put on our rain gear and splashed our way to the door. They had nice displays and we saw a movie about the park. Our national park system throughout the United States sure has great and informational movies. We always come away impressed!
The movie said many people think of the Everglades as looking like a swamp, and I was one of them. It is actually mostly grasslands along with jungle like tropical hardwood hammock, massive mahogany trees, mangrove trees and subtropical pine forest. It is the only place in the world where both alligators and crocodiles live. The park was established in 1934 to protect the fragile ecosystem and was dedicated by President Truman in 1947. At 1.5 million acres it is the third largest national park, the largest tropical wilderness in the U.S. and the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere. It is the most significant breeding ground for tropical wading birds in North America and home to 36 threatened or protected species including the Florida panther, the American crocodile and the West Indian manatee.
With the heavy rain we were glad to arrive at our campsite. Once we left the Visitors Center near the park entrance we lost all cell phone service. Flamingo Campground has electric sites but no water or sewer at each site.
Since neither of us had ever seen a crocodile in its natural habitat, we were biting at the bit to see one. The Ranger told us there were “over a million alligators in the Everglades but only about four thousand crocodiles”. We didn’t think our odds of seeing one was very good but we got a tip that there were two over behind the marina store. So we hopped in the car and made the short drive to check it out. First we saw some manatees near the parking lot in a little docking area of the marina. They sure are shy, quick and hard to photograph. It didn’t help that the water was murky. We were still on a crocodile hunt. We saw a huge osprey nest with one lone bird peeking out of the top. We walked around the back of the marina store looking in the water but saw nothing. Suddenly we glanced on the bank and there were two huge crocodiles basking in the sun. What joy! The area near them was blocked off so we had to settle for some long distance shots and help from the zoom lens.
Another day we drove almost back to the park entrance to walk the Anhinga Trail which we were told was the best place to see alligators. We only saw four, including this beauty who was completely oblivious to the people around him. He appeared to be sleeping with his eyes open or playing possum, waiting to pounce when someone turned their back. One older lady near me commented on how cute he was. I would have to agree!
We were told that usually winter in the Everglades is the dry season and it is usually possible to see alligators by the dozens on the banks and even in the roadways. Thanks to El Nino it has been a very cool, wet winter and alligator sightings are way down. Sigh.
One fear I had when in the Everglades was encountering snakes. Bill can’t understand why I have no fear of alligators but am terrified of snakes. I have read stories of people who buy pythons for pets and when they get too big or they tire of caring for them, they release them in the Everglades. It has become a real problem and hunters come to hunt them. I have seen the pictures of the 200+ pound pythons in the Everglades. I am happy to report I left the Everglades without seeing a single snake. But boy was I careful where I walked!
One surprise was to discover that Everglades National Park houses one of the best preserved relics of the Cold War in Florida. The historic Nike Hercules Missile Base, dubbed HM-69, remains virtually the same as when its use was terminated in 1979. The missile base was built by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1964 at the height of the Cold War, immediately following the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The United States Army chose this strategic site within Everglades National Park because of its location 160 miles from the Cuban coast.
The missile site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Bill took a 90 minute tour of the site conducted by a park ranger. Since we arrived in Florida the mosquitoes and especially the no-see-ums have just about eaten me alive. Bill found a solution at the Everglades gift shop.
Our next stop is a week long stay at Big Pine Key, about thirty miles north of Key West.