San Diego Weekend - 10/08 to 10/10

We make a trip over to San Diego to watch Mary's granddaughter play volleyball at Point Loma University

The Home Stretch - IL to Arizona - 09/21 to 09/26

Ready or not 

Here We Come!

We made it pretty much a straight shot heading for home.  For the most part we stuck to the freeways to make time and stayed in more or less commercial RV parks, many times not even un-hooking the truck & trailer.  We stayed at the Meramec Valley Campground in Cuba, MO; the Riverview RV Park in Sand Springs, OK (Tulsa); the Overnite RV Park in Amarillo, TX; the Enchanted Trails RV Park in Albuquerque, NM and finally the Desert Drums RV Resort in Camp Verde, AZ.

Making the last stop in Camp Verde, we made it Home about 10:00 in the morning and had plenty of time to start the unloading process, pick up the accumulated mail (mostly junk) and get the RV safely stowed back beside the house.

Great to be back at home ... but ... already missing the excitement over what the next stop will bring.
Can't wait for the next adventure!

The Map below attempts to show the entire trip in one place.  What a gas!
Left Phoenix on May 20 and got back Sep 26.  Grand total = 12,530 miles

PA to Illinois - 09/16 to 09/18

Seriously starting to head towards home with a planned stop in Illinois to do a mini-reunion of sorts with some of Mary's family.

First stop was a really nice State Park outside of Springfield, OH.  Then a small private park on the north side of Champaign, IL where we linked up with John's cousins Andy and John Geissal.  They actually brought dinner out to our campsite - what a treat and thanks much.  It was a really nice evening.

And finally a campground near the town of Hopedale, IL where one of Mary's brothers is currently staying.  They are now full time RVers so it made great sense for everyone to meet up there.  We went out to a birthday dinner for Marge Starr on Friday and then Sunday is scheduled to be a mini-reunion with a whole bunch of the Illinois family showing up.

Fallingwater, PA - 09/15

Today we made our way a bit further west from Gettysburg to a town called Rockwood where we dropped the trailer and continued on to Mill Run, PA.

Our target was the famous Frank Lloyd Wright home called Fallingwater designed in 1935.  It was built directly over a spring fed creek and waterfall.

No doubt about it - for us this was well worth the stop.

We really like Frank Lloyd Wright's work but this one tops them all!

Gettysburg, PA - 09/13 to 09/14

We're now really starting to head west as we leave New Jersey and pass through Delaware and Maryland on the way over to Gettysburg.

Going all the way down to Baltimore seemed strange but believe it or not there was not a more direct route.
Travelling in the East we have become super sensitive to low hanging bridges with our beast of an RV.  It only took one close call and a big detour in New York state to make us believers.

Neither Mary or I had been to Gettysburg before but it seemed like a reasonable stop.  Neither one of us are particularly Civil War buffs so our expectations were not so high.

Big surprise - this place is really impressive.
Never realized or understood how pivotal this one engagement was to the entire future of our country.


We walked all through the Soldiers's National Cemetery and it really brings home the tremendous losses that occurred here

This is the Monument to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.  Kind of a moving experience to be standing right where it all happened.




The Soldier's National Monument is pretty impressive.

As is the Monument to General George Meade

The number of monuments to specific state units all over the battlefield is amazing.
And the area over which the battle was fought is incredible.



We took the 2 hour tour bus and learned way more than we ever expected.
The tour guide was great and really put it all into perspective.

The Films (about six) and the Cyclorama at the Visitor's Center are really impressive.  The Cyclorama is a 360 degree oil painting that is 42 ft high by 377 ft around, painted by French artist Paul Philippoteaux completed in 1883 depicting Pickett's Charge, the climatic Confederate attack on Union forces on July 3, 1863.  The attack failed and cost the Confederacy over 5,000 soldiers in one hour, effectively spelling the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.  Robert E. Lee acknowledged afterwards that it was one of the biggest mistakes of the war.
A few shots of the Cyclorama are below.
It really puts you right in the middle of the battle and brings home the extent of the devastation that happened here.

Philadelphia, PA - 09/11 to 09/12

We make our way around New York City and down to the closest place to camp with an RV near Philadelphia (which happens to be in New Jersey).

This stop was added late in our planning so we only have one day to see what should take at least three days.

So it goes - We'll do what we can.



We center our activities at the Independence National Historical Park.
First up is a guided tour of Independence Hall which is where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were debated, approved and signed.

Mary had just completed the book 1776 and it was very cool to be visiting all of the places she had just read about

This is the actual room where the debates on our independence took place.  The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were both created and signed right here.

The Liberty Bell has become the international symbol of freedom and it was a moving experience to be able to stand right next to the real deal.

The Visitors center had two movies showing and Mary was able to compare all that they were emphasizing to the recent book.


We were able to tour the actual buildings where the first House of Representatives, Senate and Supreme Court held their sessions.  Also Ben Franklin's home and offices.  All very thought provoking.

At Mike's suggestion (he travels to Philadelphia on a regular basis for work), we had lunch at the nearby Reading Terminal Market which was a real hoot.  It's a cross between a Farmer's Market and a wild collection of food booths and is simply a total circus.

Mystic, CT - 08/07 to 09/10

We make the fairly short and easy move over to the shore at Mystic Connecticut and get checked into a close by RV Park.

Then we headed over to Mystic Seaport - an item on John's must see list.

It bills itself as the "Museum of America and the Sea" and it does a pretty good job of that though the emphasis is on sailboats.

The Seaport itself is a re-created 19th century seafaring village of historic buildings.

But the crown jewel is the Charles W. Morgan.  She is the last of the great American whaling fleet.  She was built and launched in 1841 in New Bedford, MA (where we were just last week) and had quite the 80 year career.

She is now America's oldest commercial ship still afloat - only the USS Constitution is older (and we just recently saw that in Boston).

Dinner was overlooking the harbor at the small town of Noank, CT.

John remembers sailing out of Noank harbor on weekends when he was here for Submarine School in the 70s.

And we found this on the way to dinner - it was simply meant to be ....

Wednesday found us at the Submarine Force Museum & Library in Groton - the home of the U.S. Submarine Force.
This was where John did his initial Sub training and then later a six months advanced Sub school.

FYI - The small circle is the USS Holland SS-1 and the large one is today's USS Ohio SSBN-726.

The museum is now the home of the first Nuclear Submarine - the USS Nautilus SSN-571.

We had a good tour that even Mary enjoyed.  It's an interesting mix of technology from the older diesel subs and today's nuclear subs.

The displays both inside and outside the museum were really well done and pretty well covered the evolution of US submarines from start to today.

Three separate movies really explained things in depth (pun intended).

and Yes

He even bought the
tee shirt
...

Westport, MA - 09/04 to 09/06

We make an easy shift from Plymouth, MA down to Westport, MA.  This puts us within easy striking distance of Newport, RI and also the whaling town of New Bedford, MA.


We made the 20 minute drive to New Bedford on the first day and were surprised to discover what a cool town it is and that there is a New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park.

It was a pretty quick visit but we enjoyed the New Bedford Whaling Museum.  Boy these things are big!

It was the home of Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick and also a major center for the underground railroad in the Civil War days.  It was a sanctuary city where all were safe.

Day two we made our way down to Newport, Rhode Island and signed up to visit two of the nine mansions that are open for tours.
The first was The Breakers, summer cottage of Cornelius Vanderbilt II who made his fortune with the New York Central Railroad.  He was worth some $200 Million in the early 1900s - imagine what that is in today's dollars.

The amount of gold leaf and fantastic art in this beast is just unbelievably over the top.


Unfortunately no inside photographs allowed ...
but maybe that was a good thing ...

Next was The Elms

This was the summer retreat of coal magnate Edward Berwind.








A much more reasonable level of stupidly over the top excess ....


Simply amazing how much money was just wasted by all these guys.








On our final day here we decide to stick closer to camp and visit the actual town of Westport which turned out to be another very cool area,

Based on a recommendation from the campground hosts we have lunch at The Back Eddy restaurant.

Their concept is that a 'back eddy' runs counter to the main stream and that defines their restaurant.  It has a really good menu in a great location right on the water.

Also their location is right where the incoming tide meets a river which results in lots of eddies right in front with lots of kayaks in action.

Finally the campground held one of their special bonfires for all of the campers.
It was pretty impressive and we figured it was our version of the Burning Man event.

Plymouth, MA - 08/30 to 09/03

We make the drive way out and around Boston and set up in Plymouth, MA.

Time to visit John's Pilgrim ancestors.

A visit to Plimoth Plantation takes us back to the 17th Century.

This is a recreated village with folks walking around that really do a good job of playing their parts.  No responses to current day questions at all!

Then to take a look at Plymouth Rock.
Not much to look at ....

The Mayflower II was better.  It was built in England and actually sailed across the Atlantic along a similar route of the original ship.

The old Plymouth Grist Mill was actually a pretty good tour.

And the Pilgrim Hall Museum had lots of the original possessions from the Pilgrims.

Lot's of John's ancestors are buried here.

It was interesting to walk among the really really old stones

On our final day in these parts we made the drive to Provincetown all the way out on the tip of Cape Cod.  Pretty much just a tourist town but it was interesting and now we've been there.

We also visited the Cape Cod National Seashore run by the National Park Service - a whole lot of protected sand dunes.

But at the Highland Coast Guard Beach we were finally able to locate a nice sandy public beach