Travels with Gunther and Kara

Wednesday morning we started moving about 0830…it was misting, cold, and dreary…and finally got underway from Shore Hills CG for our 259 mile trip over to Eastport. It was a much longer day than we anticipated…we thought it was only on the order of 175 miles but that was the short distance way along the coast on itty bitty roads. The longer, partly freeway route that Big Red’s GPS took us on was a bit longer.

Fortunately…about halfway through the trip the rain dried up and it remained partly sunny to mostly cloudy off an on the rest of the drive and we eventually drove the last 25 miles on US-1 down onto the peninsula…well Moose Island actually…where Eastport and the Seaview Campground is located.

We quickly got puled into site S-11…a nice pull through site and as the photos below show the place is. aptly named. We are about 50 feet from the water and a mile or so from open water in the Bay of Fundy. Our reasons for stopping here are three…one more lobstah roll before we finish up our sampling and judge a winner, it’s just about 30 miles from Calais ME/Saint Stephen NB where we’ll cross the border into Canuckistan tomorrow which was too far to our first stop in Saint John NB from Boothbay to really do it in one day and include the border crossing and any associated delays with that. So we planned on a short day tomorrow…only 100 miles and the border crossing, and we wanted to see the tidal eddy located here…more about that below. We’ll spend the weekend in Saint John NB…there’s a reversing falls we want to see and we need to do laundry…before heading onward farther into the Maritimes.

A few shots Connie got while Neil was cooking dinner…she wandered ‘round the lower portion of the campground a bit.

A shot of the rig parked in site S-11…taken from the wharf in the second shot above.

Neil took a pano showing our site and the wharf…really a pretty nice spot…and we even have the view out of our curb side windows.

Thursday’s Fun Stuff© was a drive down the Bold Coast…which turned out to be pretty much a bust as far as seeing the coast went. It was in and out of clouds and fog and every time we got near the coastline the fog picked up so there was basically zero visibility.  We did get a few photos along the way though.

The lighthouse at Quoddy Bay State Park…you can see how foggy it was…strangely enough when you got 2 miles inland from the shore it was clear and blue skies…very, very strange.

Osprey nest…we almost caught the male bringing a stick to his mate who is roosting on the eggs. Trust me…she’s in there but it was windy and she wasn’t coming up for air…probably doing her best to keep the eggs warm as it was only in the 50s and the wind was 25+ knots.

After our drive and fuel stops…we headed down to the Eastport Whirlpool…also known as The Old Sow. Eastport which is on Moose Island and nearby Canadian territory Deer Island basically sit in the mouth of the Bay of Fundy…that of the famous really large tidal range. When it gets close to high tide…there’s a whirlpool between the northeast coast of Moose Island and the south tip of Deer Island…we got some shots but it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as one might think. It was a circular-ish eddy with some strong currents, but probably not worth visiting unless you were here anyway…which we were. That’s Deer Island which is Canadian in the background. Supposedly…this is one of only 5 “significant” whirlpools worldwide…although I guess it all depends on how you define significant. According to wikipedia…sometimes depressions in the water surface up to 17 feet deep occur…we didn’t see any of those today and although it was worth seeing if you’re here…don’t make a special trip for it.

Overall though…Eastport is a pretty nice and laid back little town. It’s far enough from the beaten path that tourists take that even in season it’s probably not too crowded…I could see us spending a couple of weeks here eating lobster and drinking at the Happy Crab and several other local drinking establishments.

Afterwards we headed home, filled up both Big and Little Red with fuel then headed off to the Quoddy Bay Lobster Market for dinner…we had a good+ lobstah roll…still working on my overall evaluation of all the ones we tried…then stopped by the Happy Crab where she enjoyed…although enjoyed is a word I would use advisedly based on her choice…a Stella Artois. Neil chose…wisely as the old gray knight would say…and had a couple of Goslings Rum, ginger ale and limes…pretty close to a perfect cocktail ya know.

Seriously…Frontier National Bank? In Maine? Is there any actual frontier here?

Sculpture honoring the fishermen of Eastport at the commercial fishing boat pier just north of the Happy Crab.

OK…on to interesting things found on the net…just a couple of quickies today as there’s a bar in the campground named Fin’s that we clearly need to go and visit.

We had a nice visit up to Fins…it was uphill about 300 yards and 100 feet vertical but we persevered and had a nice chat with the young ladies running the joint. On the way back we…well, Connie actually had the idea but Neil took the photo…anyways we grabbed a shot of the rig set against the water and Canuckistan’s Deer Island to the northeast.

We really, really could spend a couple of weeks here…or even a month…but later in the summer so it’s a tad warmer. Might be on our plate one of these years…who knows? This place really has the “It” factor going for it…both the campground and the town.

Funny how this works…ain’t it?

You know what this is…doncha?

Sure ya can’t figger it out?

Try harder.

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Why…it’s World Peas of course.

Gotta be from Alaska…or maybe the Yukon.

Most interesting cat in the world…assuming such an abomination actually exists.

Cyas.

Yup…another one of those double towns that started off way back when with a slightly inland and protected town with a separate port area…then the port area became a resort kinda place.

We took our time the other day getting ready to leave Kennebunkport and then Red Apple Campground…although our next destination at Shore Hills Campground in Boothbay ME told us that we could check in anytime after 0800…since it was not even 100 miles there. We discovered on the way…again…that the maps in your GPS up here in the northeast are…well, less than fully satisfactory. We basically came up the freeway aways then got off onto US-1 and them ME-27…but rather than turn directly onto ME-27 the RV GPS tried to take us on a couple of other roads for maybe 4 miles total around the intersection of the two highways. The first one wasn’t too bad…but then we got to where we were supposed to turn onto Dodge Road. Connie turned right as did Neil…and immediately we saw on Middle Road a sign that said 6 Ton Weight Limit. So Neil stopped about halfway around the turn and sent Connie ahead to scout the 2 miles or so of road back to ME-27. She came back and reported that it looked fine, no bridges that were marked and no height issues…but they decided that discretion was the better part of valor as one would say. So Connie parked and helped him back ‘round back onto Dodge Road heading back the way we had come in so we could return to US-1 and then turn on ME-27 directly where it seemed like we shoulda done in the first place. We made it back out just fine and proceeded down to Boothbay 5 miles or so then pulled into Shore Hills where we quickly got checked in and backed into site 146 for our 5 day stay. We have a nice view out the back of the rig to the woods and are out in the open where satellite visibility is fine.

On Saturday we decided to head down to Boothbay Harbor to take a looksee ‘round the place…Connie’s mom and dad lived here at 10 West Street back in the late ‘40s and her older sister Cindy remembers the town…her dad worked at Marine Services which we passed as we drove around the town.

First stop was the Historical Society where we looked at a bunch of old photos of the town back in the late 1800s to early 1900s…then we headed on down to the harbor to catch the views.

Lobstah boat.

Our Lady Queen of Peace church where Connie’s sister had her First Communion and where both her parents as well as we attended Mass.

Lobstah trap storage…there are numerous traps out throughout the harbor…the white buoys are mooring buoys for boats but the smaller orange and black ones mark pots. There’s some sort of system for identifying and ‘owning’ a particular territory for lobstermen but I don’t know any of the details. This is the inner harbor section looking roughly southeast.

About 90 degrees to the right from the above is the outer harbor area with the entrance just out of frame to the left. This lobstermen is coming back from his bow area…as he headed out we heard a clunk and he stopped and backed away from the trap storage float you can see…dunno how he managed to run into it, guess he was texting instead of paying attention to where he was going.

Another 90 degrees to the right from the above shot we spotted this small harbor cottage being rehabilitated.

Sunday we headed down to Mass then after a couple of hours of lazing around headed out to our next Lobstah Roll establishment…this is Red’s Eats up in Wiscasset about 8 miles north of Shore Hills. Again…and as per usual…it was pretty good, we took notes and there will be a grand Lobstah Roll Eat-off post later on.

Here’s a shot of a lobstah roll from their menu…I’ll get a better actual photo for ya at one of our stops…we keep fergetting to get one.

Today (Monday) and tomorrow it’s supposed to rain a lot and it’s only in the mid 50s…so we are just staying home today and making some crock pot pulled pork…then tomorrow when it’s a little better forecast we’ll head off for our last roll before moving on and to get some groceries. Wednesday we’re off to Eastport ME which is as far up the coast as you can go before crossing the border…after 2 nights there we’ll cross the border at Calais ME/St. Stephen NB and spend the weekend at St. John before heading on into Canuckistan for the net couple of months.

Interesting things found on the net.

First up…not a picture but a link to an article Neil found quite interesting…How Identity Politics is Harming the Sciences.

Now this article was written by a conservative…but Ms. Macdonald is not your typical tea partier…she’s a right of center political commentator who has consistently pointed out that talk radio criticism of President Obama was overdone and unnecessary. No matter her politics though…the article cites several instances when political correctness run amuck has and is continuing to damage the educational system’s ability to turn out properly trained scientists in the interest of achieving diversity. Frankly…we’ve been concerned ‘round our household for years that although diversity is probably inherently a good thing achieving it by admitting marginal candidates and then lowering standards for graduation is probably not a good thing. Changing testing methodologies in mathematics or science so getting the correct answer is not the way to advance anything…and changing from using the MCAT (a test similar to the GRE for determining readiness and qualification for medical school admission) to using a “holistic approach” is no way either. Anyways…go read the article if you’ve a mind to…I don’t want to get too far down into the weeds as this ain’t really a political blog…no sireee…it’s a Fun Stuff© blog.

I kinda like this guy in Milwaukee…

Our friend Adrienne sent us this one.

Truth.

Darn those Japanese train drivers.

There’s actually a lot of truth to that last one. Subways and trains are the primary means of transportation in Japan…train stations are as common as bus stops and taxi stands here in the US of A…and the trains run on a specific timetable that is typically followed to the second…if it’s supposed to stop in a staton for 35 seconds then they’ve done a time/motion study and determined that 35 seconds is the most efficient length of that stop. The doors close when it’s time…and they don’t open and close repeatedly as they do here in our country with continuous announcements to “please stand clear of the doors”. Japanese commuters are polite enough to just wait for the next train if necessary…no worries as it will be along in 3 or 4 minutes anyway. The trains there are incredibly crowded…if you’ve ever been on the DC Metro or the T in Boston at rush hour those trains would only be moderately full compared to most Japanese trains. They have people pusher station agents…uniform, a hat like a marching band member would have, white gloves, and a padded 2×4 piece of lumber to physically push the crowds onto the train with polite apologies for doing so so that the train can leave on time. If you’re on the train…you need to get up and start moving to the door 2 stops before you want to get off or else you’re probably not going to be able to get there while the doors are open. It seems like a madhouse initially…but after you’ve been on a couple of dozen trains you realize they have the most efficient people moving system in the world.

Real world example…while Neil was there years ago he took the train from Yokusuka up to Yokahama to see the Yomiuri Giants (the NY Yankees of Japanese baseball) play…the stadium seated probably 40,000 people and was pretty full…but there are no parking lots to be found…rather there’s a train station right across the street with a normal schedule of a 3 car train every 8 or 9 minutes. However…the JNR knows pretty much when the game will be over…so 5 minutes after the last out just about the time the platform starts to get full…a 6 car train pulls in for 40 seconds then leaves…followed by another 6 car train every 2 minutes for the next 12 or 14 minutes…and the entire crowd of 40,000 people are just gone. Amazing I tell ya. And the trains are the cleanest train cars you’ve ever seen…but then just about the entire country is as clean as Disney World.

Huh?

More truth.

Cyas.

This post covers Memorial Day itself and our visit with our friend from back at the University of Miami days Pat Balzarini…our subsequent transit to Arundel ME just north of Kennebunkport and Fun Stuff© in Kennebunkport.

There’s some strange towns up here in Maine…there are a lot of very close together towns…one inland slightly and the other on the coast itself…with similar names. Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor…it’s almost like they built a small town originally down on the coast for the fishing vessels and the main part of town inland and protected a bit…then the port town…they all have port or harbor in the name…grew up as recreation became a bigger thing. The fishing vessels are still there…but in amongst them at the port there are scads of yachts, eateries, pubs, antique stores, and gift shops.

On Monday…Memorial Day…Pat showed up about 1300 with a package of Italian sausage…and Neil had brined some chicken thighs and breasts with a plan of grilling all of that. Connie made a salad and we had a bag of chips and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies for dessert.

A good time was had by all…we chatted for several hours before Neil grilled and then another hour or so afterwards…Pat left early enough to get home by dark as she’s not very familiar with the south Boston area even though she grew up in Dedham just outside the city.

Neil took the tripod out of Little Red and grabbed an usie for us…

After Pat left we got ready for our transit day on Tuesday.

We were up early and on the road right about 1000 for the 146 mile transit…the only real way to go is on the toll road and…as we expected…they raped us. We paid a total of 16 bucks for the 14 miles through NH on I-95 and another 10 for the portion of the ME Turnpike that we were on until we exited at US-1 just north of Arundel. 

We quickly got to the Red Apple Campground and settled into site B-41…then almost immediately headed out to the local Doc-in-a-box to get Connie taken care of. She was coming down with a bladder infection and was feeling pretty poorly…normally she would have waited a bit longer to see if forcing a lot of fluids would clear it up but with our impending crossing of the border into Canuckistan next week she decided to go ahead and get it done. Her sample showed no white cells but some red cells…normally there are both but the Doc went ahead and gave her an antibiotic for the likely infection as well as some Pyridium for symptomatic relief. On the way home from the Urgent Care place we stopped by the Lobster Shack right on the water on Point Elizabeth for our first scheduled lobstah roll dinner. It was pretty decent tasting when we finally got home to eat it…it was too cool and windy for us to sit on the picnic tables outside the Shack and eat.

I’ll do another post later with all the gory details on our Lobstah Roll Tour…we’re keeping notes and will describe and rate them all at once later on.

Wednesday we mostly stayed at home…Connie was feeling poorly. We did head over to the pharmacy to pick up her antibiotic from the evening before and a refill on her heartburn medication…she got the doctor down in Fort Myers to give her a 90 day supply so she’s now got enough to make it through our Canuckistan travels as it’s hard to get a refill up there for a US prescription.

Thursday we headed off for another Lobstah Roll in downtown Kennebunkport and a walk along the Cliff Walk from downtown out to the compound where President George H. W. Bush lives during the summers.

The Crab Shack…where we had our Lobstah Roll lunch.

A tall ship that goes out on day cruises, moored right to the left of the Crab Shack in the shot above.

There’s a Best of Everything in Kennebunkport…one of Connie’s favorite places to shop down in Bonita Springs during the winters…here she is doing her best Vanna White impression.

The quintessential Maine photo…a double ender small boat.

One of the aforementioned yachts…he’s coming almost due north headed for the Kennebunkport breakwater which is just out of frame to the right. Obviously an older, wooden hulled sailboat although he did have a self furling jib as nobody went forward to lower it and a gaff rigged mainsail.

They furled the jib and turned into the wind to lower the main…then did a U-turn and headed into port through the breakwater.

St. Anne’s Episcopal Church…supposed to be really pretty inside but it was unfortunately closed so we couldn’t go see…only a bunch of workmen and their trucks in the parking lot.

Waves crashing on a rock about 100 yards offshore right past the church.

If it was a Roman Catholic Church this would be the rectory…but the Episcopalians call it a manse instead. Nice house…and obviously since it’s lived in year round by the minister and his family it’s well insulated…and probably would cost 10 million with that view.

A sumner home we passed…pretty nice I think.

President Bush’s home…taken from about 1/4 mile across from the point. We could have walked all the way to his entrance gate…but Neil’s ankle was getting a little sore…he twisted it last week when we were taking the laundry out to Little Red while in Mansfield…it’s feeling better but still not completely over being injured.

Looking southward and seaward from the Kennebunkport jetty…our walk was along the shore to the left out of frame. The green entrance buoy is about in the center of the jetty opening…that’s the port (left) side buoy when returning to port so there must be some rocks out past the right hand jetty that prevent an easy entrance. The yacht above did his turn about 300 yards past the jetties and just out of frame to the left…he came in on engines alone as a gaff rigged sailboat doesn’t have much helm control going straight downwind which he needed to do to get into the jetty opening and it’s only about 50 yards wide.

Looking the other direction from the base of the jetties into the harbor.

After our walk we hopped back into Little Red and set off for our final destination of the day…the Corner Irish Pub. Unfortunately it was only about 1330 and they didn’t open until 1500…so our second choice was the Federal Jack’s Brewpub where we had a brew before heading home. Neil had Bluefin Stout and Connie had Old Thumper which was an Extra Special Strong Bitter. Both were pretty good.

Interesting things found on the net this week.

First up…a few more Memorial Day finds.

It is the VETERAN, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion. 

It is the VETERAN, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the VETERAN, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
  
It is the VETERAN, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble. 

    
It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.  

It is the VETERAN, not the politician, Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the VETERAN who salutes the Flag,

It is the VETERAN who serves under the Flag,
 

Neil is proud to have served…and even prouder of his fellow countrymen and countrywomen who served.

Sorry…no funnies today…decided they really don’t fit with the Memorial Day thoughts.

Cyas.

Let me start this post on a somber note with something that is actually important…we’ll get to the Fun Stuff©, hikes, photos, and interesting things found on the net in a bit.

First and foremost…let’s consider and remember what this weekend is and what it means.

It’s Memorial Day on Monday and despite all of the kids running amuck in the RV park, the parades with the Boy Scouts and the fire engines in them, and all the campfires, fireworks, and grilling going on around the country…that’s not what it’s about.

Let’s all stop…and think for a moment about those brave men and women who gave their lives for this country so that the rest of us would have the freedom to let our kids run amuck and to grill…and thank God for their sacrifice. Right after that…let’s offer up our gratitude and prayers for those who they left behind…our country is a better place thanks to the sacrifices of your loved ones.

Ok…on to something more uplifting…but keep thinking about the above paragraphs as you grill today.

Man…Ima ;’ ya…the drivers in MA are the worst drivers in the world. Neil says the ones in Rome Italy are worse…and that he can tell ya some stories about them…I never been to Italy so Ima not gonna disagree with him…but these are the worst I’ve seen. Here’s a sample of the things they do up here…each of these has happened repeatedly and we’ve only been here 3 days.

• Stop signs…they’re just a guide. Nobody…I’m talking nobody…actually stops at one unless proceeding would result in a collision. Even the ones that do stop don’t bother to wait to pull out into the intersecting road until there’s a gap…as soon as there’s a slightly larger than average gap they pull out…even if it’s not enough gap to actually pull out and get up to speed. If they’re turning left…then they just pull out into the lane they’re crossing as soon as there’s a slightly larger than average gap on that side of the road…and then the buttheads just sit there blocking one lane until they can pull out into the lane going left and cut off whoever’s there.
• Speed limits…again…they’re just a guide, nobody up here pays attention to them. We were on 95 at 67 in a 65 zone and most of the traffic was passing us going 80+. We tried going 57 when the limit was 55…but were forced to get up to 67 in the 55 zones just to keep from getting run over…and most of the traffic was still passing us at 80+.
• On roads with dedicated left turn lanes but no dedicated left turn arrows on the traffic lights…if you’re the first person in line to go straight…do not go when the light turns green. With no dedicated turn lane signal…one would think that the cars going in the opposite direction would wait for an opening before turning left in front of you…but the first person in line invariably and the second person in line mostly jumps the light as soon as it turns green and turns in front of you.
• People get in front of you after making any of the above poor decisions…and if they’re not going 80 then they’re going 20 miles under the limit for no reason whatsoever.
• Turn signals…all I can say is that blinker fluid must be really expensive in these parts…because we’ve only seen a couple of signals since we’ve been here…and one of those was a guy in the left hand lane of a 4 lane freeway with his left blinker on in pretty heavy traffic…and he then cut across 3 lanes to get to an exit sometime after we passed the Exit in 1/4 mile sign…all the while with his left turn signal blinkin’ away.

Crazy Ima tellin’ ya…crazy.

Anyways…enough of that stuff. Connie thinks that the drivers here are the worst too…but then she’s never been to Rome and traveling on city streets either…she was there but we were on the tour bus with Claudio the bus magician.

Yesterday…we headed off in the morning to the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge for a hike on the Dike and Edge Trails…its located on the banks of the Assabet River near Concord. We’ve been to all the Revolutionary War related sites near Concord…the bridge where the first battle was fought and all that jazz…so we opted for the NWR instead.

We had a nice hike along the way…although the bird selection was somewhat limited…one Great Blue Heron, some cowbirds that we could never get a shot of, a couple of swans, and the free world supply of Red Winged Blackbirds.

The Great Blue Heron is colored differently from the ones we see down in Florida…much lighter looking in the neck area then is usual.

Red Winged Blackbird…we took this one from the observation tower at the start of the hike.

A pair of swans.

We couldn’t decide whether this was a beaver lodge, a muskrat lodge, or just a pile of trash. It’s much more earth covered than a beaver lodge would be…but looks too large for a muskrat lodge.

One gaggle of Canadian Geese flew over us…Neil had to swing around quickly and take a burst of shots…only this one came out in focus as they were almost overhead and flying by fast.

The stare-down.

Connie spotted this flower but couldn’t get close enough for decent shot so Neil got it for her as he had the bird lens on.

A pair of Canada Geese on their nest.

Connie got a couple of overview shots of the marsh.

And some more flowers she liked.

Right near the overflow from the pond into the river there was a shallow spot with some fish in it…Connie caught one at the surface right in the middle of this shot.

These ferns present a strange moire like effect as you look at them…they’re actually in focus but like the spruce trees you see up in Canada the foliage causes some strange looking optical effects.

Fiddlehead ferns.

With that we headed home for a shower and a nap…and some seared tuna with rice for dinner.

Sunday we went to Mass at St. Mary’s just about 3 miles from the campground then came home and did laundry. We had pulled out some venison steaks since we need to finish them up before we get to the Canadian border…they cost way too much to have the border guards confiscate them. We were originally going to grill them…but the high temperature for the day of 59 was reached at 0700 before we left for Mass…so we regrouped. Neil has some mushrooms and a red pepper in the fridge…so decided to make Buck Au Vin…that’s very close to Coq Au Vin which is a French chicken stew with mushrooms, peppers, wine, balsamic vinegar and rosemary in it. All of that spice mixture will go quite nicely with venison as well…the Coq in the recipe is for cock since this is a hearty recipe designed to braise tough roosters before you eat them…we’ll just cook the venison since it’s backstrap (the good stuff…like the tenderloin on a cow) then cut it up and toss in right before serving the dish so it won’t get overdone and tough.

It’s supposed to be a little nicer tomorrow…and our friend from our University of Miami days Pat Balzarini who spends the summers here in her hometown Boston and her winters in Miami is coming over for dinner. Neil is brining some chicken thighs and breast and Pat is bringing some Italian sausage…we’ll grill all of that with some home made Italian dressing mixture for a glaze. Connie is going to make a Caesar salad to go along with it along with some chips…and Neil bought some White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies for dessert.

Sunday we went to Mass and then had a great afternoon with our friend Pat Balzarini…we had grilled Italian chicken and she brought some Italian sausage to go along with it. We also had salad, cookies, and wine…all was good and we talked about a bunch of our old friends from our college days before she headed home and we headed for our recliners.

Interesting things found on the net.

A happier Memorial Day image.

Show this one to your gun hating liberal friends…we need to ban this dangerous weapon.

Somehow…I don’t think the Second Coming will be in a Nissan.

How true.

Hold my beer and watch this…there are rednecks up north too.

This is how genetics works.

Mae…105 year old Mae…is my kinda woman…

Cyas.

Ok…it’s about time to report on some Fun Stuff©…which is the whole reason for this RV lifestyle and “move about the country” as the Alamo Car Rental Agency’s ads say…so let’s get to it.

We’re here in the Boston area over the Memorial Day weekend…arriving Wednesday and leaving Tuesday after the holiday. We planned for some activities in the Fun Stuff© category Thursday, Friday, and Saturday…and then we’ll spend Sunday and Memorial Day hunkered down at the campground doing laundry and having our old college friend Pat Balzarini over for a bbq on Monday…that way she gets to drive in the traffic and not us…as it turned out by 1400 on Friday afternoon the highways were already jammed as we discovered on our way home from Salem…but Ima getting a bit ahead of myself so let’s rewind slightly to the beginning.

Thursday we had dinner planned at Rabia’s downtown but before that we decided to head in to the city and tour the Sam Adams Brewery…it’s the local brand up here and although it’s a major player and provider of beer around the country now it started back in the 80s as a craft brewery. We drove up there and scored a primo parking place right by the door…we got lucky as parking in Boston is hard to come by. Our tour was run by Andrew and Jack…who were actually pretty funny guys to listen to…they didn’t waste a whole lot of time on describing the brewing process…about 10 minutes talking ingredients and then a quick explanation for another 10 minutes or so in the research brewery attached to the main offices of the company…after that we spent another half hour or so sampling the brews. First up was their most popular one…Sam Adams Boston Lager…we just got a small sample of that as it’s pretty hoppy and we don’t really care for hoppy beers much. After that we sampled their 76 which was outstanding and also the 26.2…which was brewed in honor of the Boston Marathon…ya know that foot race that takes place every April up here…anyways a marathon is 26.2 miles long (actually 26 miles, 285 yards…but who’s really going to nitpick)…the 26.2 is almost a light beer with a lower alcohol content than most so it’s just the ticket after finishing the race.

Speaking of a marathon…any idea why it’s that distance. Well…everybody knows that the Marathon is named after the famous runner (they didn’t have radios back during the Athenian and Spartan days ya know) who…according to the legend anyway…ran home to Athens from Marathon…which is a pass through the mountains…and gasped out that the Athenians had defeated the enemy at Marathon with his dying breath. Well…that’s the story…and as far as it goes it’s basically true but is sort of short on details. What actually happened when you look into it is that the Athenians went out to Marathon in 490BC during the first Persian attempt to conquer Greece. The Athenian army got out to the pass and discovered they were outnumbered…so decided to send for reinforcements. The Greek General called for a runner…Pheidippides…to go to Sparta and get help. This he did…running some 140 miles there to ask for reinforcements. The Spartans basically told him that there was a festival going on and they couldn’t come…so naturally he did what runners did and ran the 140 miles back to tell the General that we were on our own. Since the General needed every soldier…poor Pheidippides grabbed his shield and spear and fought all day with the Greeks routing the Persians. Then the General needed to send word some 25 miles back to Athens…and naturally again called on Pheidippides who ran home, told the city leaders that the Greeks had won, and then died. Now you know the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say.

When the ancient Greek Olympics tradition was reconstituted in 1896 the organizers instituted the marathon race…which was originally just a long foot race. By the time of the 1908 Olympics the race was standardized at “about 25 miles” and then a course was laid out which turned out to be almost 26 miles in length plus the single lap around the track in the stadium for the current distance of 26.2 miles.

There is a legend that it was originally 26 miles but that the finished was moved to be in front of the Queen Mother’s bedroom…but since that’s in Buckingham Palace and the race ended in White City Stadium in front of the Royal Box…as far as I can figure out that’s just a legend.

Anyways…Sam Adams now has a beer in honor of the race which was the first famous marathon and until the 50s or 60s there just weren’t very many marathon races outside of the Olympics.

Here are Andrew and Jack (he’s the one behind the bar) at our tasting.

From the brewery we drove over to the nearby T station (that’s the subway in Boston) with the intent of parking Little Red and taking the train downtown…but the parking lot we were planning on using was gone and there’s some sort of construction going on. After a few minutes we decided to drive up to the Ruggles station since it had a parking garage…which it did…and it cost us $28 to park for about 4 hours. Another $5.55 each for round trip T tickets and we were quickly off 6 stops north to the old part of town…and we had about 2 hours to kill before dinner.

First on our agenda was picking up some cannoli’s for later…we knew about Mikes Pastry Stop and were going there but at the Elks Lodge down in Florida a visiting member from Boston told us we should also try Modern Pastry which is about 2 blocks away. Naturally…we decided to get some from both places and have a Taste-Off later on.

After grabbing our 6 test samples…we decided that it was 5 o’clock in Tel Aviv as one of our RVing buddies would say…and looked for a drinking establishment. We could only find a couple down near the pastry shops…and both of them were about as lively as a funeral parlor so we passed them up and headed up towards the restaurant. We also chose to skip the Wine and Cigar Emporium that we passed but luckily right across from the restaurant we spotted Vito’s Tavern so we stopped in there and sampled a couple of pints of Sam Adams Brick Red…they were mighty good.

From there we moved across the street for our dinner at Rabia’s…the real reason we included Boston in this year’s travels…we were going by anyway and it’s almost the best Italian place we’ve eaten at. We quickly got settled into our requested table right by the front window and ordered a couple glasses of vino.

We had some really outstanding bread…very chewy crust, soft interior…and then ordered dinner…the Lobster Risotto for Connie and Lobster Ravioli for Neil. The risotto was basically mushroom risotto with several types of mushrooms toped with the meat from a 1.25 pound lobster…expensive but worth it. The ravioli came in a serving of 5 about 3 inches square stuffed with lobster, basil, and cheese and covered with a sauce made with more lobster, lobster roe to give it the nice coral color, and champagne instead of wine. Both were really outstanding…well worth the trip into town and the $28 parking fee at the garage…and Connie brought home enough for dinner leftovers the next night. Several passers by looked longingly at our dinners but Neil had his fork ready to defend them from any marauders.

After dinner we headed home and after out tummies being stuffed eased a bit sampled 1 each of Mike’s and Modern’s pastry…we split a caramel pecan one from Mikes and a ricotta pistachio one from Modern. The verdict…Mikes by a landslide. They’re larger and tastier. We’ll try again tonight…the second one we brought from Modern we got filled with vanilla custard instead of the usual ricotta cheese mixture…we’ll see if that makes a difference.

Friday we headed north to Salem…home of the famous witch trials back in 1693 to visit the house owned by Judge Jonathan Corwin who was the judge in charge of the trials. We skipped the Disney like creations since that sort of thing just isn’t our thing. What actually happened was that the young daughter and niece if Reverend Samuel Parris came down with what the record describes as “fits beyond the power of natural disease” and someone claimed that there were 3 women who had bewitched them…Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and and a black Caribbean slave woman named Tituba. Eventually 25 People were tried and executed for witchcraft…it’s thought today that some sort of inter family feud was likely behind the original accusations. A total of 150 people were originally arrested and the trials only stopped when the governor’s wife was accused and he put a stop to it.

The Witch House as it is known today was built between 1620 and 1642 and was a virtual mansion for the time…about 3500 square feet over 3 floors plus an attic. It’s the only still existing structure in Salem that has direct ties to the trials. We looked at it more as a historical reference into how they lived back in the late 1600s in Salem and really didn’t concentrate much on the trials part.

One thing we did find out was the human fat was frequently used back then as a base for applying ointments and such…and that fat from executed criminals was considered to be the finest sort of human fat to use for this…it was usually sold afterwards by the executioners of the time. There were numerous exhibits of 1600s medicine and an amazing number of them involved parts of human beings.

Front view of the house…we entered through the gift shop in the rear…the doors are only about 5.5 feet tall…Neil had to duck to enter.

Main dining table in the kitchen with the stove/fireplace/oven in the left rear.

One of the medical exhibits…apparently if you had epilepsy you could cure it by taking the brains as well as various other body parts of a young man who died a violent death…pureeing it, mixing it with wine, and drinking it. Who knew?

Loom in the second story of the house.

Spinning wheel.

The upscale bed they slept on…a rope hammock in a frame with a mattress stuffed with straw…or likely feathers for a rich man like Judge Corwin.

Stairwell…very narrow and steep.

After the Witch House we headed over to the Lobster Shanty for lunch…couple of pints of Guinness and a couple of crab cakes…mighty tasty and we met a couple of characters whilst sitting at the bar. Like Neil always says…you meet a much better class of bum when sitting at the bar.

After lunch we gave up on any more stops where we needed to park…because we were out of quarters. We did drive by the old Custom House that Nathanial Hawthorne used when he was the Custom Agent…before he went on to write “The Scarlet Letter”.

Across from the Custom House you can see the tall ship Friendship of Salem…or at least you could if it wasn’t off getting rebuilt. It’s actually not an old ship but a replica. The original Friendship was built in 1797 and served as an East Indiamen trading vessel until it was seized by the British during the War of 1812. A second Friendship was built by the original owners in the 1815 and served in the pepper trade until it was seized by Malay pirates in 1831. A full rigged scale model was built in 1804 by the original ship’s carpenter on a voyage to China and presented to the owners…this model was used to built a 171 foot replica in 2000. It stays stationary most of the year but sails occasionally.

An photo of the wharf used by the Historical Site from the late 1800s…both Friendships were gone by then but this is a very similar 3 masted square rigged vessel.

On to interesting things found on the net.

Cyas.

Well…this is another mostly filler post just so ya’ll will know we’re still alive…but the good news is that the “commitments” portion of the summer is done and we’re finally ready for some Fun Stuff©.

We left Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield VA as scheduled and made the 120 mile or so drive up to the DC ‘burbs and settled into our usual site113 at Bull Run Regional Park…this is one of the few sites there that actually had satellite visibility. Alas…the trees have grown up since our last visit and there’s no visibility anymore…which means no Direct TV…which means no recordings…which means unhappy Connie. The good news is that we completely watched and deleted our backlog of recorded shows.

We were in the DC area almost exclusively for commitments…the first day there we had dental cleanings and a couple cavities filled along with a meeting with our financial folks from Cassaday and Company. All is well on both fronts. 

We spent the rest of our time catching up on a few more things we needed to do…and it rained…and rained…and rained…and rained. Every stinkin’ day…it rained. And not your pleasant April showers either…downpours. It was so bad that for 2 days the main area of the Bull Run Regional Park was flooded by overflow from Bull Run…and the campground had to open an emergency exit through the back of the campground out by the shooting center to the park access road.

The only bright spot was Neil’s birthday (64) while we were there. We headed over to the Renaissance Cafe…one of our favorite high class (i.e., expensive) eateries…we’ve probably eaten there 20 or 25 times over the years. It’s a French-Italian place…and naturally being such dinner takes 2 to 3 hours. We had a Lobster Ravioli and Potato Gnocchi appetizer to split, Connie had salmon and Neil had Veal Picatta…then since it was his birthday they brought our a dessert plate for us…fudge, creme brulee, mocha ice cream, and a slice of cake sorta like tiramisu. We managed to force all of it down but were both pretty full…in fact Neil went to bed early as he wasn’t feeling well (overstuffed) after we got home.

Next morning…we got up early to start the transit to Boston…and you guessed it…it was raining. We had a 380 mile trip up I-81 to Harpursville NY for an overnight stop at Belden Campground…and the whole day we were in and out of heavy rain and fog. And the road…I gotta tell ya…I-81 in PA is probably the worst road we’ve ever been on.

Last nite…it rained hard again overnight but by this morning it was mostly just cloudy. We had a couple of leaks from slide seals we had to mop…since it was an overnight stop we didn’t unhitch Big Red…which meant that we weren’t level either fore and aft or side to side…with our 1.5 degree list to starboard (passenger side) the rain that would normally run right off the slide top instead ran over to the seal, back to the rear of the slide, and in through the seal there to puddle on the floor. We’ve got some wet towels we’ll lay out in the sun tomorrow to dry out…not the first time it’s happened and probably won’t be the last either.

The weather was nice today for the last 300 miles over to Mansfield MA just south of Boston…it sprinkled a couple of times but was mostly just miles moving…although it got pretty rough on the road surface (albeit not as bad as 81 in PA was)…and the traffic  got pretty crappy by the time we were within 100 miles of Boston.

We pulled in and got settled…in one of the 2 or 3 sites in Canoe River Campground here that has satellite visibility and were able to sync up…although we had to shift from multi-sat to single sat on bird 101 to do so…luckily 101 is all you really need. Connie’s setup the batch of recordings she’s saved up the last 2 weeks .

We touched base with our old college buddy Patricia Balzarini…she lives in Miami in the winter and comes back north to Dedham MA near Boston for the summers and lives in the house she inherited from her parents. We’re planning on getting together Memorial Day for some grilling with her here at the park.

We’ve got some Fun Stuff© scheduled for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday including dinner at Rabia’s Italian Restaurant in Boston…one of the best we’ve eaten at…but I’ll talk about all that stuff in my next post…which I promise should have some Fun Stuff© and photos in it.

Just a couple quickie things from the net this week…

They wanted to provide disabled access up this stairway I guess.

If pets could talk.

Cyas.

Can’t really report much…or rather, any…Fun Stuff© this week except for grand baby Alex time…so just a quick catch up post today.

Wed May 9 we departed Savannah GA and with an overnight stop at Fayetteville RV in Wade NC just north of the city for an easy in/out pull through no unhitching required. We headed out to a local place Scrub Oak Grill and Pub for dinner…Neil had a cheese steak and Connie had a scallop salad along with a couple of pints. The food was OK but nothing to really rave about…but it was the only place close.

Next morning…Connie headed out really early about 0700 so that she could get to the Richmond area in time for the Mother/Grandmother Day thing at Alex’s pre-school…Neil followed her an hour or two later and parked in the check in area at Pocahontas State Park for 30 minutes or so as he made better time than he thought he would. Connie got there and we got quickly backed into our reserved site 109…and almost immediately found that the trees had grown and we had no satellite visibility…Neil even tried going to single satellite 101 as that’s really the only one you need but the dish wouldn’t lock on. We were supposed to be in 109 again in the fall…so that evening Neil called and got our reservation changed to 108 which does allow peeking past the trees for satellite visibility.

Dinner that night was leftovers…and we headed over to the human kids the next morning…and spent pretty much every day visiting the kids and Alex. Most of the time we went over there…and we took the kids out to the Japanese Steak House for dinner…unfortunately Yamato has gone way downhill since the last time we ate there 8 or 9 years ago…so we won’t be eating there again. Service was lousy, they did away with the show at the Teppanyaki Grill that the chefs used to do, and the whole experience and menu has been cheapened to the point that it’s not really worth the price anymore.

The next to last night here…the kids came over after Jen got off of work and we had pulled pork Neil made in the crockpot…it musta been good as there were no leftovers…then we had some carrot cake for later. Alex had a sleepover and after watching some cartoons and such…grandparents are s’posed to spoil them ya know…went down about 2000 for the night on his mattress up in the bedroom in the rig. Shortly after that we had a pretty good rainstorm and although it wasn’t too windy or hail-ey in the park there were about 32,000 power outages as a result…including the park. No worries for us…we turned off the A/C, opened the windows as it had cooled off but was pretty humid, and put the fans on for ventilation. Neil got up to recycle beer at 0239 and the power was back on by then…we had moved Alex’s mattress out to in front of the TV when we went to bed and he slept straight through until 0530.

After breakfast of English Muffins and coffee we headed over to the kids house as Alex had pre-school…after the we visited with Alex and Bryan until he headed off to work. Jen came home from school an hour or so later and after another hour or so visiting we said our “until next times”, invited Alex for another sleepover in October…5 months as he counted up on the calendar…and headed home. Dinner was leftovers from Yamato the other night.

Tomorrow we’re off on a 125 mile trip to northern VA…we’ll be in site 113 at Bull Run Regional Park again…there are only a few sites there that have satellite visibility so we always try to get 113 if it’s available. While in the area…we’ve got dental appointments (cleanings), a meeting with Nick our financial guy, an oil change for Big Red, and Neil’s birthday. Nothing else really planned although we might eat at our favorite sushi place one night if we feel like braving the traffic to get there.

Interesting things found on the net.

Well, we didn’t actually find this one on the net…here’s Alex and Jen.

In a lot of households…there’s an ongoing argument about which way the toilet paper should be installed on the roll…does it feed off the top or the bottom? Well…going back to the original patent application in 1891…there is a definitive answer. Clearly…the patent applicant never had a cat…because those damn things will just paw at it until the whole roll is on the floor.

Standards.

Truisms.

We’ve often been asked what retirement is like…we usually reply by saying we’re so busy that we wonder how we ever got by when we had to work too…then I saw this which perfectly illustrates our goal in life now…although for us it’s rum, draft craft beer, and merlot.

Damned autocorrect.

And finally…DumDum.

Cyas.

Well…the concert yesterday afternoon was excellent…Connie really enjoyed it as it was all Renaissance music mostly by Italian composers…Neil thought it was OK but at least he didn’t not like it. The concert lasted about an hour and then we headed off 10 or 12 miles southeast to a place called The Wyld Dock…it was right on the marsh and is a bar/seafood place.

Dinner was good…at least the food part was. Service was less than stellar and the overall ambiance was something less than we thought it would be…Connie had worn a dress and heels to the concert so we were way, way overdressed for this place…although we did see women in outfits with skirts they were mostly either sun dresses or bathing suit coverups. In addition…the noseeums were out so Connie got sort of ate on…Neil is pretty much immune to biting bugs as long as Connie is around…he calls her his ‘skeeter magnet since she has A blood and he has B hers is a lot sweeter than his.

We stayed long enough to have an order of scallop corn fritters and a bowl each of crab chowder…food was good. Connie had a Victoria Amber (a Mexican brew) and Neil a Suitcase…which was some concoction of Goslings rum, juice, bitters and nutmeg…it was too frou-frou and was basically a waste of perfectly good Goslings rum. Afterwards…we thought about another drink…but it was getting on to sunset and the bugs were getting worse so we headed home and drank our own beer.

Alexandillo tweeted a nice photo last night…that’s grand baby Alex’s twitter handle.

Connie looked so happy at the concert that Neil decided to take a picture of her.

Unfortunately…by the time he took the picture she opened her eyes and looked around and the above “what the heck are you doing” look is not the smiling, happy face she was displaying milliseconds before he snapped this shot.

She also took a shot of the view from The Wyld…the view was nice and they had a drive up dock for boaters who wanted to stop and have some eats or drinks.

Monday morning after breakfast we headed off for…you guessed it…more Fun Stuff©. Today’s adventure was a trip about 12 miles north into the southern portion of South Carolina to visit the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge…it had been reported to us that it was an outstanding place to visit. We stopped on the way to get some gas and more bug repellent…we were considering a mile hike around the pond after we did the 4 mile loop drive…but by the time we were done it was hot and we were hungry so we skipped the hike and headed home…grabbing a couple of cheeseburgers from the Golden Arches on the way back. While we were out…the lady that owns the campground called us…apologized profusely for the noise last Saturday night, and told us she credited one nights stay back to our credit card. There’s a barn on the property of Red Gate CG that’s used for weddings. Saturday night they had music going on until about 2230…it wasn’t that loud but when the party broke up there was a lot of whooping and hollering, engines being raced, and general debauchery going on…at least the way she told the story. We actually didn’t think it was too bad and by 2245 when we went to bed it had quieted down…would not have bothered Neil anyway as his auditory enablers get removed when he goes to bed. Still…the owner said that wasn’t the way they wanted to do business…apologized again and insisted on giving us 1 night credit back. We also asked her if we could break out the pressure washer long enough to wash the dead love bugs off the front of the rig…she said that was fine so after our burgers Neil went out and spent 20 minutes or so blasting them off.

Ok…let’s get on to the photos.

The first thing I can tell you is…the wildlife in southern SC is pretty much the same as the wildlife in SW FL…but then the climate and ecosystems are pretty much the same…Savannah is a relatively swampy area so there’s your normal complement of wading birds, water fowl, and gators. We weren’t all that impressed with seeing gators being as we’re from deep in the heart of gator country now…but the visitors we ran into from San Diego were mightily impressed with the…and you need to read this next part with that deep voice that the guy on Swamp People uses…”Massive Leviathans”.

The Savannah NWR is located just north of the Savannah River over on the SC side…and is in an area that…back in the day…was composed solely of rice plantations. The 4 mile loop drive basically goes along the top of some of the dikes that separated the rice paddies which have been allowed to go back to the nature wanted them to be.

As usual…all photos and plant life shots are Connie’s as Neil isn’t interested much in them. As we started off from the visitor center…Neil went ahead and mounted the bird lens on the camera and put his “normal walking around lens” 18-300mm lens on Connie’s camera instead of her usual wide angle to normal 18-55mm lens…that way she has a little more reach for things that are out a bit farther.

This Great Blue Heron had a fish for breakfast then promptly started looking for his second course.

Brown Headed Cowbird.

Breeding American Pipit…Connie identified this for us with Peterson’s as she’s got more patience than he does.

‘Chute him.

Red Wing Blackbird…this was a pretty outstanding pose for this species…normally all you can see of them is the next shot.

American Coots.

Dragonfly.

Great Egret.

Snowy Egret…only about 2/3 the height of the Great Egret above…and one of the shots that Connie was able to get using Neil’s longer lens than her short one. He’s offered to get her a longer range zoom…but she doesn’t want to carry that much weight.

View of the moss covered road down the dike.

Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay…wasting time.

Another Red Wing Blackbird sitting on a fence post.

With that our tour of the Savannah NWR was finished…although we did stop back by the visitor center to complete our second geocache. This one required gathering info from 4 different spots along the drive and from within the visitor center…the 4 digits recovered are the combination to the the lockbox containing the cache. We successfully completed that as well and logged the find.

I have to give mucho credit to Connie…she picked an excellent dinner recipe tonight. Sure…Neil cooked it but she found this chicken recipe with a honey/orange/hot pepper sauce that was really, really good…so good that we save the rest of the sauce for something else later. Had some noodles and Parmigiano-Reggiano to go along with it…it was outstanding.

Next up…Tuesday’s trip to the home of the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum…but it wasn’t actually an Air Force at the time…it’s official name was the VIII Bomber Command and it was responsible for the bombing campaign targeted against German forces in Europe during WW-II. VIII Bomber Command was established in January 1942 in Savannah GA…hence the museum is located here. It deployed aircraft to England through the spring and summer and initiated operations in August 1942, attacking the railroad marshaling yards in Rouen-Sotteville France.. Early missions suffered heavy losses as the Luftwaffe was more experienced at the time and training was limited before operations began. Experience quickly overcome the early losses and by the end of the war the unit was sending missions up up to 1,000 bombers escorted by 800 fighters. Forces of this command were principally responsible for the destruction of German military equipment factories, oil industry facilities, air bases, and transportation.

Restored B-17 “City of Savannah”…the B-17 Flying Fortress was one of two bombers operated by the command capable of a maximum payload of 6,000 pounds of bombs although this was usually restricted to 4,000 at the ranges required for targets in Nazi controlled areas. The other was the B-24 Liberator which was built Consolidated Aircraft…the company known today as General Dynamics. The B-24 was faster and had an 8,000 pound payload which was restricted to 6,000 pounds at the mission ranges required but the B-17 was a far tougher aircraft to attack and shoot down due to more defensive armament and a much tougher airframe…hence it’s name Flying Fortress. These bomb loads were large for the time but by the of the war the B-29 (which dropped the atomic bombs on Japan) had increased the payload to 16,000 pounds. Contrast this with current bombers…the F/A-18 single seat fighter bomber has a payload of 13,700 pounds and the B-52 bomber payload is around 70,000 pounds. A B-52 pilot Neil talked to in the officers club back in the day told him that with 1000 pound bombs the aircraft ran out of places to hang them before it ran out of payload. 

The belly turret on the B-17…it’s operator was lucky as he could enter the turret from inside the aircraft…the tail turret required the gunner to enter it from his own exterior hatch before takeoff…with essentially no real access to the tail turret from inside the remainder of the aircraft.

Scale model of a B-24 Liberator.

Restored Boeing-Stearman Model 75 Kaydet training aircraft.

As I said up above…the B-17 was pretty hard to bring down. This photo…sorry it’s a lousy image but it’s a photo of a photo…shows a B-17 that successfully returned to base after having it’s nose shot off over Germany…take a look at the shots of the whole plane above and you can see that the antiaircraft flak shell blew off everything forward of the cockpit…killing the bombardier who sits in the clear plexiglass nose…although the shell didn’t break anything vital and the aircraft remained flying for 3 or 4 hours to return to it’s base.

Open bomb bay doors on the B-17.

Vietnam era F-4C Phantom…the workhorse of the air war there in both fighter and bomber roles…and proof positive that if you put large enough engines on it you can make a brick fly…it’s the world’s faster converter of high quality jet fuel to black smoke. This is the same kind of aircraft that resulted in Neil’s meeting the mayor of Auburn AL back during his NROTC tour at Auburn University…I’ll put the long version of the story in the blog on another day when I don’t have much to say…but long story short he got a couple of these to do a flyover for a commissioning ceremony at the ROTC programs. Turns out that Auburn AL has some rules about aircraft over city limits…500 foot minimum altitude, no afterburners, and no supersonic speeds…unfortunately (and unbeknownst to him) the weekend warrior pilots who flew the flyover violated each of these. The participants and attendees of the commissioning ceremony were duly and mightily impressed…the mayor not so much…hence Neil getting invited to her office to ‘splain himself as he was responsible for them being there.

Soviet MIG-17…a Korean era daylight only fighter…which although developed didn’t see service during the war as production was concentrated on the MIG-15 instead. IT was still in use in the early part of the Vietnam War.

With that…our tour of the museum was done so we headed home via Walmart to pick up some groceries. Not sure if we’re eating in or going out tonight…it’s still under what we call “dynamic observation” at this point. Tomorrow we’re heading off northwards…an overnight stop near Fayetteville NC before arriving in the Richmond VA area to see grand baby Alex on Thursday…we’ll stay again at Pocahontas State Park while we’re there for 6 nights before continuing on up to the Fairfax VA area for a few days.

Interesting things found on the net.

I wonder what happened to the first one?

That’s dark…note the portrait of Dad on the wall..

Couple of interesting RVs.

Cyas.

Saturday was another day for Fun Stuff©. After coffee and some cottage cheese and blueberries that Connie made…we packed up and headed out about 0930 for our destination for the day…a hike at Skidaway Island State Park.

Skidaway Island State Park is…strangely enough…located on Skidaway Island…which is separated from the mainland by the Skidaway River. Now I’m not quite understanding how if it’s a river that makes it an island…but I took a gander at the map and I guess it all comes down to what you call a river, what you call an island, and the whole swampy coastline round the Savannah area. 

Farthest north is the Savannah River which flows inland along the GA/SC border…in fact it is the border…to the city of Savannah. South of the Savannah River there’s a whole passle of tributary rivers, creeks, channels, and such…and most of them act like regular rivers heading inland with sort of peninsula like parts of land between them…among these are the Ogeechee, Little Ogeechee, Vernon, and Wilmington Rivers. In between the Vernon and Wilmington rivers running basically parallel to the coast is a single piece of water that separates the mainland on the west from Skidaway Island to the east…this river is either the Skidaway or Moon Rivers or Shipyard Creek depending on which of the names on the map you choose to believe. But to be fair it does completely separate Skidaway Island from the mainland…but I digress too much into geographic minutia I believe.

Connie wanted me to tell ya ‘bout the frog incident…last Tuesday evening we discovered a stowaway…he was just a sitting there right in front of our fridge…one of the itty bitty tree frogs that we found a lot down in North Fort Myers…well, apparently he decided to head north for the summer and hitched a ride. Neil evicted him straightaway…put it out in the grass at Meera’s RV…thats as far north as he’s getting with us. He didn’t have a passport so we clearly needed to not be complicit in his illegal immigration to Canuckistan later on next month.

This morning we found out that one of the hard drives on our file server died…luckily Neil had ordered another couple to be delivered to the human kids house this week and his backup routines made sure that we didn’t lose any data. He’ll have to figure out how to get it replaced under warranty I guess.

Ok…on to Skidaway Island State Park. We got to the entrance and Connie went in to pay our $5 per car entry fee and it turned out that retired military only have to pay $3.75. She didn’t have her ID on her and offered to go out and have Neil come in but the lady at the desk took her word for it and we got ourselves parked. Our hike for the day was a combination of four trails…we started on the Sandpiper Trail Loop, switched over to the Avian Loop, then the Connector Trail and ended up on the Big Ferry Trail back to the parking lot…essentially a large clockwise loop of about 3 miles. It took us just under 1 hour and 7 minutes including our stops…it was a pretty flat and easy trail with boardwalks over portions that are submerged at high tide.

This turned out to be a pretty decent walk in the woods…but it was kinda minimal as wildlife sightings went…but you can only photograph what you see I guess.

First up were some Fiddler Crabs…a single one on a dry section of the salt marsh and a rumble of them a bit farther down the boardwalk in a wet section.

We spotted a female cardinal.

And passed through some old Confederate fortification trenches…these were originally setup to defend the island but were abandoned when their forces were about to be cut off by the Union Navy and the forces retreated to Fort Pulaski as I discussed the other day.

Passed some flowering prickly pears.

We stopped along the Skidaway River for a water break.

Connie heard and then spotted…and Neil re-spotted him when he flew to another tree…a Pileated Woodpecker…of Woody Woodpecker fame. Sorry ‘bout the not so great photo…but he flew away before Neil could get the bird lens out…but as I said you do the best you can.

At the observation tower…located about the 2 mile mark on the above map at the far north end of our loop…this dragonfly was sitting about 15 feet away on top of a tree.

And Connie got some general overview shots from the tower.

We met a couple of nice middle aged ladies on a walk with their dog at the observation tower before heading the last mile back to the car and heading home for lunch. Neil wanted to stop for a Margarita…it was Cinco de Mayo…but we decided to go have lunch instead. We completely ignored the Kentucky Derby later on in the afternoon and had Carne Asada Tacos for dinner

Sunday morning we headed off to Mass then afterwards Neil made an omelet out of leftover quesadilla from the other night at the pub and black beans and rice we had left over ourselves. This afternoon we’re off to an organ/voice recital at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist…then off to dinner but I’ll report on that in my next missive.

Interesting things found on the net.

It finally happened.

Cyas.