Northeast United States 2006

Debarking the ferry, clearing inspections, and studying the map to get out of town, we found hiway 295 and were on the road again headed towards Booth Bay Maine on September 17th.  Leaving Nova Scotia that morning, It had been a very long day but finally arrived at our destination.

Our campground in Booth Bay Maine U.S.

The next day our new son's in law parents came to the campground and we spent the day together getting acquainted.  Wehad lunch on the harbor and toured the area.

Harbor at Booth Bay

Booth Bay back cove

We all agreed that it was no wonder our kids" found each other, as the four of us immediately hit it off feeling like we had known each other for years.....  We had dinner with them on the next evening to say goodbye then we took off for Gorham New Hampshire to meet up with our traveling buddies again.   We met them at the campground by Gorham, on the 22nd.  It was a mutual decision to plan on spending 3 full days to allow all of us time to rest and tour the area.

As planned back in the early spring before leaving home, we hit the beautiful fall colors in the NE states at just the right time......  As it turned out New Hampshire beat them all with the colors being at their peak.   Coming from Colorado where our only tree bragging right goes to the Aspen, our eyes could hardly absorb the beautiful colors we seen around us.  

Soaking up the colors

On one of our day's drives we visited "Grafton's Notch" state park on the Appalachian trail and seen many of the old covered wooden bridges along the  way.

Below Screw Augar Falls at Grafton Notch

Reflection in one of the water puddles

A view under the bridge

We also took a day's drive to the top of Mt. Washington which has the world's WORST weather.  It holds the record for the highest wind speed ever recorded at 231 miles per hour

Compliments to the observatory for the use of this picture.
The day we visited it started snowing on the way up
and by the time we got to the top you couldn't see your hand in front of
you face for the blowing ice with horrible winds.


"the Arch at the "The Balsams" at Dixville Notch, New Hampshire

Leaving our campground in Gorham NH a few days later, we had reservations at a campground in Bellingham Mass. about 20 miles from Boston,  we took the train into the city twice for tours.  Starting first with short bus tour that took us to a ferry ride across the harbor to the U.S.S. Constitution.

Boston Harbor

Old Ironsides

We then took a cab to the beginning of the 

Boston Freedom walking tour 

We visited the Paul Revere house, the old north church, the Italian district, the cemetery, the site of the "tea party", the Boston commons park, and totally soaked in our American history.

"Ye Old North Church"

Jim in front of the restored Paul Revere house

Boston commons park

And ended the day with a visit to "Cheers"

Back to the camper on the train that night we prepared for a visit to Rhode Island the following day

The mansions of Rhode Island are a sight to behold, we took the full tour and visited 8 of them but there is not room to show all of the beauty in detail.  It truly was an era of self indulgence and opulence  

Gate at "The Breakers"

The Grand Staircase at "Rosecliff"

Front lawn of "The Elms"

Returning to the campers at Bellingham we had some good laughs about the different lifestyles in compareson from the way we're living to what we had seen that day.

The following day we took the train to Boston again to visit the JFK memorial library and museum

A wonderful preservation of his life.  If you ever have a chance to visit it is well worth your time

John's beloved sailboat which has not been in the water since his death but is preserved for viewing 

outside the library

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We had a wonderful stay in Bellingham, the people were inviting and friendly and we found a little Italian restaurant/sports bar there that served great food!  

Time to move on down the road we hitched up and drove to Vermont staying in "Williamstown" which was central to the areas we wanted to visit.  Arriving on October 2nd 

and staying until the 8th we went a lot of places and seen a lot of things but every mile we were reminded

of why this was such a special area, below I will share random pictures of beautiful Vermont

We also visited the "Trapp family home" near Stowe Vermont.   We took a gondola ride into the hills near there and put on our own performance of "The Sound Of Music"

Braggs Maple Farm

Syrup AND Apple cider

This is NOT Maple Syrup!

Ben & Jerry's home

Color, Color, Color Everywhere!

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This was the last stop with our travlin buddies, they are great friends and we've truly enjoyed our time with them seeing the great land of Canada and the Northeast United States.

They are taking a different route home going to southern PA and we'll be going through northern PA

The night before we left we had a farewell dinner at "The Chef's Table" in Montpeiler Vermont

The next morning we said our goodbye's and each headed out of the campground a different direction.  Our destination that night was Benghamton NY.  It was strange being on our own as we had been with them for 4 months.  We didn't have any problems and found a nice campground for the night.   Up early the next morning we hit the road again for Titusville PA.

Being forced to take a detour we came upon a bridge that gave us reason to pull over and study before we crossed.  Clearance was only 12 ft. 9 inches and our camper is 12 ft. 6 inches.  Finally along came another camper with a local tag and just went on through.  We went ahead and eased forward and sighed a big sigh of relief when we didn't hear any metal scraping.

We got to Titusville and found our campground about five miles on the other side.  It was out in the country by a river and very beautiful.   We spent three days touring the area which concerns everything associated with the early days of the oil field.

The first day we spent about 5 hours just tourning the museum, most of it being outside but you can go inside many of the exhibts and are able to get up close and personal with all of the equipment

The Drake Well as seen today

Picture in the museum of the original Drake Well

Jim and Mary in front of the well

The next day we took the train along side "Oil Creek" riding it to "Pit Hole City, a boom town of several thousand in 1868, now a ghost town they have turned into a memorial park with markers of where many of the old buildings stood.   Through time and God's hand the area has been beautifully restored.  

Main Street of "Pithole City" taken in early 1865

Click to read text

Pit Hole City as seen today

The next day we took a drive to "Oil City' went to a nice museum, and came home the back way through the woods, passing through some of the area we had visited the day before on the train.   It was a beautiful drive and allowed us view the Titusville area in all it's glory.

Taken on our drive to Pit hole

Along the banks of Oil Creek

Hitching up to pull out on the road the next morning we drove on to Canton Ohio

where we tourned the "Football Hall of Fame" and some fo the Amish communities

Since we're Denver Bronco fans, we spent a lot of time at John Elway's exhibit 

However, we spent the entire day at the hall of fame enjoying many of our favorite players histories and the wonderful displays they have on the beginnings and advances in professional football.

Passing one of the beautiful farms in the Amish countryside

We left Canton Ohio on October 16th and drove to Remington, Indiana 

The next day we got as far as Des Moines Iowa

and the next day we made it to North Platte Nebraska, actually going thru a storm with some snow in Omaha Nebraska.  We had been making 400 plus mile days, so we decided to stay in North Platte an extra day to get some rest and straighten up the camper.  Jim washed the pickup and I cleaned and repacked some the "treasures" we had brought home with us and just organized things so it wouldn't be so hard to start unloading.   With only a 5 hour day ahead we got home by early afternoon

We had been gone 117 days, stayed in 43 different campgrounds and put 11,314 miles on the pickup

Getting closer to home it looked pretty good