Arches and Dinosaurs

Headed out of Durango for Moab Monday morning. Moab's high tourist season is on! Jack and I have been to Arches National Park a few times but it never fails to wow a person. This is where picture postcard moments are made or to quote a popular commercial "Nature Valley" moments.

We ended up staying at Spanish Trail RV park on the south side of Moab. The park was clean and spaces large but too close to RT 191 and a bit on the noisy side.

We got an early start the next day, we were on the trail by 8:00AM. We hiked to Delicate Arch, it is bit of climb and I could not even imagine doing this hike in the heat of the day. But that being said it was truly worth the effort. The views were incredible - I got my granola moment for sure.

By the time we left the park it was packed. So my advice is to get to the park early before the heat and crowds are stifling. We also took drive down highway 128 which follows the Colorado river. The rivers are very high and swift this year, it is great to see this much water after how dry New Mexico has been this year. Supposedly, there is a bike path that follows the river but the water was so high it was completely under water.

Next we headed to Vernal. Vernal is famous for it's fossils in particular Dinosaur fossils. They make the most of it, with giant plastic dinosaurs everywhere. The landscape is not as dramatic as Moab but still quite beautiful. The town has a natural history museum worth taking the time. Unfortunately, the quarry museum in Dinosaur National Monument is closed and will not be opened till sometime in the fall.

We stayed at Steinaker State Park just north of town. A few sites had full hookups. Nice park on the water. It was quiet during the week, but I suspect that might not be the case on the weekends. Headed out on Friday morning toward Flaming "George" Gorge.

From Moab

Part Two - North to Alaska, All Aboard to Durango.

Going North to Alaska! We have started our next big Biff adventure and time to start blogging. Few tips about the blog. Any time there is highligted word indicates a link to more information about the place or thing and if there is link under a picture that will take you to more photos of the area.

We left Tijeras on Friday June 10 with Durango as our first destination.

We were glad to leave the smoke. Albuquerque has been in the direct path from the fires burning in southeast Arizona. It has been surreal and apocalyptic. Maybe that crazy dude was right but just had the date wrong? Naw, safe to say Durango is smoke free and beautiful. Locals say a lot of folks have been escaping ABQ and heading up here. The weather has been perfect!

Our good friends Mike and Martha met us up in Durango and we spent the day taking the narrow gauge railroad up to Silverton. Something everyone should do once in their life.

From Durango 2011

Just spectacular. Jack was also quite creative with his translation of the whistle blows. Two -here we go, three - prairie dog on the track, four - elk ahead, five - drowned kayaker on the shore. The Animas River was swollen and swift from the snow melt off. Those kayakers had a death wish! However, I do recommend taking the bus back and not doing the train ride as a round trip. You do get little weary and the bus ride shows a different perspective of the surrounding mountains equally as beautiful.

I am also having good time riding my new bike. I took an early morning ride Sunday on a road the back side of the Alpen Rose RV park that paralleled 550 for awhile. The air was cool and crisp and very few cars. I turned around just about the time the road started veering to the left and climbing. Ok, I'm a wuss. I did all this while Jack worked on the trailer plumbing. Yup, ran into our first snaffoo on the road. Jack is truly a "jack of all trades". So good to have a man around the camp. I did kill a wasp when I got back to do my part.

Next stop Moab.

Till Next Time My Friends

Oh, yes I have been derelict in my duties. This will be the last post until the next big Biff trip which is already under discussion. Well anyway, after we left Sweet Carolina we headed to Georgia. We spent a few days in the Darien area. Very much like South Carolina - plenty of salt marshes and ocean. Went to Jekyll Island one day - very pretty. One day we ate a fun little place called MudCat Charlies - nothing fancy but the food was very good.

Next headed to Florida. We went through the pan handle area. Stayed right on the water at a little place. I like this part of Florida, not like the rest of the state. More laid back and less touristy.

After Florida headed toward Alabama and stayed near Bellingrath Gardens for a few days. Still hot. Then on to New Orleans. We were getting pretty tired of salt marshes by this time. However, the beaches are pretty with very white sand. The ocean here was very warm due to the summer of hot weather. There were signs of the horrible oil spill but most of it was cleaned up by the time we were in this area. Can't say we hung around the beaches too much because like I said we were ready for a change in scenery by this time.

What can one say about New Orleans? Other then it was a bit more odoriferous then I was expecting. Reminded me of Quebec City, maybe its poor cousin. It was a very mixed bag. We still saw a lot of evidence of hurricane Katrina destruction. We stayed at the KOA West and we were very happy with its location. It was in a safe neighborhood right near the great Mississippi river. Found a great place for poor boys - man were they good! And one more thing - everyone we met was very friendly and welcoming. All in all - I like New Orleans both the good, the bad, and the smelly. It has personality!

From New Orleans

This was the last leg of the trip. I flew out to Chicago from New Orleans for Emily's bridal shower east of the Mississippi. Jack continued on to Amarillo. I caught up with him there and we finished the last few hundred miles together to home sweet home Tijeras! The house looked good and I was quite pleased to see that my lilacs and roses survived without being watered all summer. It was a wonderful time and I hope everyone enjoyed the blog!

Carolina Connection

Headed down south to sweet, sweet South Carolina. First stop Columbia. We spent the next few days visiting with all the family of Jack's late sister Emillia. Jack's brother-in-law David graciously offered his drive way to park the Biff. We had big family get together and David cooked his famous Eisenhower steak - yum! Had a great time catching up with everyone and seeing all the new great grand kiddos. Also played some wicked games of Hearts with David and gal Jean. Oh and maybe a glass of wine or two. I also got to have some quality girl time with Jean Louise ( standing in for my daughter Emily). It amazes me how much the two of them are alike. I miss my sweet Emily.

We also decided to spend a few days at Lee State Park not too far away from Florence. Jack's parents spent a lot of time at this state park. Jack's father taught at Francis Marion College and helped found the Math department. We visited the campus and even met with a few professors who remembered his dad. The school had a framed picture of his dad on the walls. However, the first portrait was stolen ( maybe a disgruntled student??) Another of Jack's high school buds lives in nearby Lamar. We had a great time visiting with Allen and wife Sonja. We had nice cook-out at the Biff homestead. The next day Allen showed up with the top down and we did some cruising down memory lane and the town of Florence.

Now on to my favorite part of South Carolina beautiful Edisto Beach. Spent the next week enjoying the beach and nearby Charleston. However, the rip tides where fierce due to hurricane headed toward North Carolina. We have so many good memories here! David and Emillia built a wonderful beach house here. Jack and I spent quite few vacations enjoying the beach with them and their family. It is always bitter sweet to visit since it brings back so many memories of Emillia. Edisto is also where Jack proposed to me! And of coarse no trip to Edisto is complete with out a trip or two to the Piggly Wiggly ( heck even Wikipedia mentions it). The Pig is the only grocery store on the island and it is crammed packed with everything under the sun, tourist and some of the best fried chicken made by the locals. Due to the Labor Day weekend and being kicked out of the Edisto State Park, we decided to lay low and headed back to David's driveway. Had few more days visiting with David. We also went up to Greenville one day to Jean's neck of the woods. Very pretty town with a very nice down town area on the river. Ate some good pizza too. The next day was my birthday. Jack gave me flowers ( and a promise to buy me a new bike back home) David and Jean helped to make it special by making me a nice dinner and letting me kick butt playing Hearts. Never got around to eating the birthday cake so we had if for breakfast the next day.

All in all we spent close to three weeks in South Carolina but now it is time to leave. Missing the the shrimp and grits already.

Freedom isn't Free

We left Massachusetts and headed for historic Gettysburg. The weather turned very hot and humid and was quite stifling. Now imagine wearing a blue or silver wool uniform which was the case for all the brave souls that fought this historic battle in the heat of the summer of 1863. Jack and I took one of the guided tours through the battlefield and I highly recommend doing this if you come to Gettysburg. It really told the story and brought home the significance of this battle and the Civil War to me.

Another of Jack's old high school friends Wayne Croft lived about an hour away. He met us for lunch one of the days we were here. We had a very nice visit and ate lunch at a tavern in Gettysburg town. Next on to Harpers Ferry another historic site.

My nephew David, wife Stacey and family live in Virginia. The Harpers Ferry KOA was about the closest RV to his home. It was located in a pretty area but the weather continued to be extremely hot and humid so it was hard to do much of anything much outside. We spent the next few days visiting with them and their two adorable children Lauren and Kyle.
Kyle was getting his tonsils out and we stuck around few days to help out. Poor little guy.

Jack's cousin Arthur also lived about an hour away in Alexandria. We had wonderful visit with Arthur, his wife Sigrid and his mom Aunt Joanne. Always good to reconnect with family. Sigrid was quite the bookie ( having been librarian for Library of Congress) and gave me lots of books to take along. I have been enjoying them greatly.


We also decided to stay one more day and head into our nation's capital and spend a day touring the capital's historic monuments. Luckily, it had remained cloudy which helped to cool it off a bit. Would love to come back some day, I feel like we barely scratched the surface of Washington DC. So much to see!

Back to the Maine Land

We decided not to take the ferry from Nova Scotia back to the states and had to back track a bit through New Brunswick. That took us full day and we stayed at a RV park in transition right near the Canadian\US border. The park had new owners and they were hoping to get it back in shape. It was situated on nice spot but needed some work. I hope they make it!

We left bright and early the next day. Spent the last of our Canadian money on diesel fuel. Jack was happy that would be the last time he had to pump that much money into the tank. All in all Canada averaged about 25% higher for everything. We had good time with our Canadian neighbors but we were glad to get back into the good old USA. We crossed over on US 1. They had a brand new border crossing facility with a special bay for RVs and trucks. We were pretty much the only ones crossing which we thought was odd. The border patrol looked happy to have something to do. Turns out most of the local traffic use the old crossing.

Us 1 was slow going and needs some love and care. We were planning on staying in the Bar Harbor area and checking out Acadia NP but the area was a zoo! We headed on down the road a bit and stayed in a RV park just outside of Searsport. It was right on the water and had this mother earth funky granola vibe. They had goats and a garden and all sorts of fun things for the little ones but it was pricey. We really enjoyed the park and had a fun time exploring the area and local towns. Lots to do but after Canada the added traffic and crowds was a bit of an adjustment.
Next Jack and I went down memory lane. Both of us lived in Brunswick at one time years apart and we suspected that we may have lived in the same motor home park just outside of town. The town of Brunswick has grown a bit but we did find the park and it was the same place we both remembered. We have few of these type of almost meeting situations in our lives - guess we were just meant to be together!

The next leg of the trip is dedicated to visiting old friends and family. First stop Massachusetts and an old friend of Jack's -Russell Seegers.
The park we stayed in was nestled in the woods and had a family of wild turkeys roaming around and a wonderful farm stand \bakery across the road. Russell gave us tour of the area by car and boat. We met a few of Russel's friends Ray and Harriet and had a wonderful cookout at the Biff homestead of steak,lobster and fresh baked pecan pie courtesy of the farm stand. Good food and friends made for a wonderful time.

Super Nova Scotia

We crossed over from PEI on the ferry. It was a beautiful day and the crossing was very pleasant. Decided to stay near Peggy's Cove about 30 mile or so from Halifax. Very interesting area geographically - very pretty and if you go there on a foggy day it has a haunting charm. I could picture this area being the setting of a good mystery novel. However, it is a popular place and I would suggest seeing it early in the morning if you are looking to get pictures without people mulling around the area. We stayed at a little RV park on the water a few miles away. Very old but has all of this rustic charm. The owner was an older woman who was very sweet and proud that she owned and lived there for fifty years.

We spent a day in Halifax and checked out the Maritime Museum and Citadel Hill. Jack has been interested in Titanic history long before it became popular due to a certain movie. Halifax was involved in the body recovery effort. An interesting tidbit is that toe tags were first used by doctor who was charged with body identification task (or so our tour guide said at the museum). It was later used again by him in the great Halifax explosion. There is a cemetery near by that has remains of the unclaimed souls. We were going to visit it but the day was one of those hot and oppressive days and opted out.

Wodi (one of furry four legged traveling companions) was acting very odd for himself and I was concerned something was wrong. We ended up finding a vet near Halifax. Nothing was serious and we decided that he may have just hurt himself and needed a few days rest. Those short legs sometimes make it hard for him to get up stairs and I suspect he may have either strained something or his back was sore. He did get back to his prancing self in few days.

It was decision time. We had toyed with the idea of heading over to Newfoundland since the beginning of the trip. We looked into cost of taking the Biff on the ferry which is the only way to get there from here. Time and money became the deciding factor since we did have a rough deadline to get home by October for Emily and JR's wedding. We are already planning when we will come back to this area to see the Fall colors and Newfoundland. Plus we are told the Cape Brenton area of Nova Scotia is also something to see.

We headed over the north side of the island to see the Bay of Fundy and with the thought of taking the ferry back over to the mainland New Brunswick. It was going to be bit pricey and although it would have saved us driving time the cost ratio to justify it was not. We ended back tracking a bit and driving to New Brunswick.

From Nova Scotia

We did spend few days in the Bay of Fundy area, very cool to see how dramatic the tides are at the different times of the day. We stayed at the "Look Off" Rv park which has great views of the valley and bay. I ended up enjoying this area quite a bit. We found fun little winery in Blomidon. The name originally was "Blow Me Down " but over the years in morphed into Blomidon. Ended buying few bottles of wine which by the way seemed to have higher alcohol content ( ask Jack about that one). We also found restaurant "Between the Bushes" that was in the middle of blueberry and raspberry fields. The food was excellent. I commented on how loud the birds were in this area and turns out they were loud speakers of predatory birds to keep the other birds from eating the berries. Boy did I feel stupid :) JLS