Travels with Gunther and Kara

Wow, been almost a week since I was able to post. I blame it on Neil…he’s just been too darn busy hiking and taking all these pictures to open the laptop so I can post. His new Mountain Lion operating system for his MacBook Pro has this dictation thing that works perfectly for doing the text of the post; but my darn paws are just too clumsy to get the laptop open and type in the password. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Anyhoo; since my last posting on Sunday we’ve done plenty of hiking, searched high and low in NY for a barber shop since Neil was getting kinda of shaggy, had date nite, met the town drunk, had some pretty good beer and just generally been going all day.

Monday we headed off to the Borden Pond Preserve for our first hike. This was a nice hike through the woods featuring some small brooks and a very nice overlook of the valley from the top of the ridge. Total was about 2 miles but there was 300 or so feet of elevation change in the first .3 miles to get up most of the ridge.

After that we headed off to our second hike which was to be at Drowned Land Preserve. Unfortunately that hike lasted about 3 minutes as you almost needed a shotgun to ward off the flocks of mosquitos. After battling their way back to the car the adults asked themselves what to do next. Neil remembered that a neighbor in the park had suggested Bish Bash Falls nearby in MA. A quick google revealed that it was only about 5 miles from Drowned Land so away we go.

After first trying to go to the scenic overlook…which turned out to be more like rock climbing to get over to the edge of the gorge containing the falls only to be able to see…nothing; they headed down the trail toward the bottom of the falls. They quickly re-learned the first rule of hiking…always take your hiking sticks no matter how short the trail signs claim the trail is. This was a seriously steep climb down; over 300 feet in .3 miles and they really wished they had brought the sticks so as to make the footing better. Oh well, lesson learned. Eventually they got to the bottom and discovered a very nice falls about 160 feet or so tall into a nice pool. Big “No Swimming” signs all around so what do they see in the pool? Swimmers of course with nary a park ranger to run them off. No matter; the view was nice as you can see from the picture and short video below.

Here is a short movie of the Bish Bash Falls

After sitting for awhile at the falls they made the steep trek back up to the car and headed home. Very nice day although a bit tiring

Wednesday it was off to Olana; the home of (as the sign said) “Famous Hudson River Valley Landscape Artist Frederic Edwin Church”. Nobody in this family has ever heard of him but what they heck; it was a pretty nice house as you can see. What was really cool was the very irregular stonework the walls are made from as you can see in the closeup and the bench that Kara is sitting on.

They also searched high and low for a barber shop for Neil. Both of the ones close to the park in Red Hook and Rheinbeck were closed permanently. They found one on the way from Olana to the Shaker Museum but the guy said he had an appointment in 20 minutes and we would have to come back later even though the shop was empty. Heck with that…they headed down the road and about a mile away found a place named Sal’s Barber Shop…gotta be a good barber with a name like that. Sure enough (as proven by the 4 person waiting line) Sal was up to the task and 90 minutes they left with a fine trim. They continued on to the Shaker Museum (sorry, nothing worth taking a picture of there) and spent about an hour looking around before heading home for dinner.

I think I’ll stop here and post this in two parts so as to keep the upload size a little smaller…these picture and video intensive posts get big pretty quickly.

Cyas in a few.

We arrived here at Brook-N-Wood campground yesterday after an easy hookup in NJ and a relatively straightforward drive of about 120 miles. Joe and Vanessa, the campground owners, are super nice; Joe got us parked in site 12 in a single try and headed back to the office. We ended up pulling forward about 5 feet to make sure we had DirecTV satellite visibility, hooked up utilities and were done about 1600. Neil went on a run down to Buckwheat Road and back and they had some Parmesan Noodles mixed with leftover leftover chicken for dinner. By this morning it was about to rain so they went off for a nail manicurpor and refill, to buy some Diesel Exhaust Fluid for BAT, and get Neil a haircut. All was successful but the haircut, Manny’s Barber Shop closed 10 days ago after 61 years due to a rent increase. Neil went on another run, we had grilled ham and cheese for lunch, and are now sitting in the laundromat won a rainy afternoon doing laundry. Fun times abound  when you’re a full timer. I will make sure Neil gets a snapshot of our site when it stops raining.

Brook-N-Wood is a pretty nice park, we would stay here again. Tomorrow is the Saint Saens concert at the Bard Music Festival and Connie is working as we type on the rest o’ the plan. I have no idea yet what she will decide; but Neil picked out Italian Sausage for Dinner. Yummy.

Cyas.

We spent the last two days going on a kayak trip on Lake Hopatcong and then visiting the home and laboratories of America’s foremost inventor…Thomas Edison.

After driving over to the lake yesterday; we looked around awhile hunting for a free place to launch. No sense paying 20 bucks just to drop the kayak in the water. We finally found a nice little beach with a parking area, pumped up the kayak, and launched into the lake. Since it was our first time out we took it kind of easy; total trip length was about 2 hours and maybe 2 miles…we paddled across the lake to a country club then returned to the launch point. After pulling out of the water, drying and folding the kayak we stopped by a hot dog stand for a quick lunch then headed back to the rig. Stopped on the way back at Lowes for some project stuff and got back around 1400. Connie spent a couple of hours working while Neil built a rack for the ladder to hang up wet clothes on to dry (gym stuff, air dry clothes, etc). Just a simple lever type arrangement to give them a place to air things out. They also got a piece of steel and some glue to mount on the roof to mount a magnetic mount antenna they’re ordering for their cell phone booster…as Neil suspected the fixed mount fiberglass antenna didn’t survive the first low branch we encountered. They originally ordered a mag mount antenna but the fixed one was already bolted to the side when they arrived so against his better judgement he didn’t insist on what they had ordered.

Today we went over to Thomas Edison’s laboratory and home in West Orange, NJ. He started his invention career down at Menlo Park but moved up here in 1886, married his second wife after the first one died, and spent the last 44 years of his live in the West Orange area. After building his laboratory he purchased the Glenmont mansion as a wedding present for his wife Mina and within 2 years wired it for electricity running up from the laboratory (about ½ mile away).

The mansion was pretty ornate; unfortunately no pictures were allowed inside but here is one of the outside.

Glenmont House

The lab was really pretty cool. We toured the chemistry lab

Antique Chemicals in Lab

and the music room where several early phonograph models are displayed and where the first recordings were done.

Edison Phonograph and competitors from Columbia and RCA.

Original Phonograph and Smaller version

as part of organized tours and then wandered through the rest of the lab seeing his camera, the pattern shop that made molds for the foundry to use in producing metal parts, and the machine shop with a series of large metal working machinery.

Bellows Camera

Pattern Shop

Machine Shop

Following that it was back to the rig; loading up the bikes and outside gear for tomorrow’s move, filling BAT and the car with fuel and this great chicken salad recipe Connie found for dinner. It combined chicken, peaches, onions, pecans, and cheese on a bed of lettuce with a dressing made of balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, olive oil, and maple syrup. Yum.

That’s about it for today…we head off to Elizaville, NY tomorrow for 2 weeks at the BrookNWood Campground. We have an Organ Symphony concert on Saturday night, laundry/haircut/nail salon on Friday, and Connie is still working on the rest of the plan while we’re there.

Cyas.

We arrived here in Flanders NJ Saturday afternoon after an uneventful travel day. I think the adults are getting the hang of breakdown, moving, and setup as things went pretty well during the day. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop right over the border into NJ then proceeded up to the camp site. The only issue we had was that we needed to make a U-turn in order to get into the campground entrance road…the truck GPS had us make 3 rights in a row and then we got back up to the main road where it wanted us to turn left. Unfortunately there was a no left turn sign posted there so we had to regroup, turn right again, and loop through a gas station in order to get going back the way we needed to go. We had an easy dinner of leftovers after getting parked and setup then watched TV and went to bed.

Sunday we hosted some new friends…we’ll call them L&E for now. L&E are about 2 years behind Neil and Connie in the retire/fulltimer process and are seriously looking at a New Horizons 5ver about the same size as our rig. They were really happy to see a rig the size they’re looking for so they can manage expectations for storage, room and the like. You always see larger units at RV shows and a 43 footer looks considerably different inside than a 39 footer does even though it’s only 4  feet longer. Neil and Connie passed along the good and bad of a New Horizons; what went well and what didn’t during the ordering, delivery, and break-in process. L&E brought beer, steaks, and wine for dinner…they chatted and talked about RV stuff from 1PM until about 4:30. Then Neil and E fired up the grill (hey, men burn stuff…it’s what they do) and grilled up the steaks. Connie made this really scrumptious potato casserole (how can you go wrong with potatoes, bacon, cream and cheese) and they ate and continued discussions RV related and otherwise. Topping off they dinner with some Boston Creme Pie from WalMart they talked some more and L&E left about 8PM. They invited Neil and Connie to get in touch with them on the way south after their visit to Cape Cod and Maine and promised to get in touch as they have more questions. They were also really happy to meet me and Kara although we were banished to the bedroom for the duration of the visit…but I say we are innocent and were banished without doing anything wrong. That’s what happens when you ain’t people though. Pooter.

Today Neil and Connie drove over to the Revolutionary War winter encampment at Morristown, NJ. The Continental Army stayed here the winter of 1779-1780; the year after they wintered at Valley Forge. Turns out that the winter at Morristown was actually much worse weather wise but fewer soldiers died during the winter since they didn’t have the disease breakout like they did the previous winter at Valley Forge. They visited the Ford Mansion which was used by General Washington as his headquarters during the winter. The owner of the house and her 4 children lived in 2 rooms of the house while the remaining 9 were rented out to General Washington and his staff. Overall this encampment is much less famous than Valley Forge, it’s a lot smaller, and there has been much less renovation and restoration to period condition than Valley Forge. Still; there are a lot of things that are very similar. Valley Forge was chosen because it was 2 days march outside of Philadelphia and guarded by mountains so the Continental Army could keep tabs on the British Army. Similarly, Morristown was chosen because it is 2 days march from New York, guarded by the Watchung Mountains, and General Washington could keep tabs on the British in New York. There are watchtowers on the mountains to the south that were garrisoned and provided the ability to monitor things going on in New York.

That’s about it for today. Tomorrow the adults are going kayaking and Wednesday they’re going down to see Thomas Edison’s laboratory.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Long Mansion and the huts occupied by the Pennsylvania Brigade during the winter.

Cyas.

Ford Mansion – Washington HQ Morristown Encampment 1779-1780

Jockey Hollow Pennsylvania Brigade Morristown Encampment

Today was our last day in Elverson, PA and Connie picked out a nice hike for us to go on. We stayed within the boundaries of French Creek State Park. First stop was the Hopewell Forge National Historic Site…this is a reconstructed iron forge from the late 1700’s. It produced pig iron all the way up through the Civil War and provided a good deal of war material for the Union side. Very similar in layout, construction, and purpose as the Catoctin Forge we visited last week but Hopewell has been rebuilt a lot more and has working charcoal kilns as well as a rehabilitated iron master’s house, cooling shed, and other forge buildings. Here are photos of the house, cooling shed, forge, and kiln areas.

Iron Masters House

Pig Iron Cooling Sheds

Forge

Charcoal Kiln

Next stop was Hopewell Lake itself. Neil had ridden the bike by it a couple times this week and it was all downhill from the forge area; about 700 feet drop total from the campsite. They sat by the lake and ate a picnic lunch then headed back around the lake to the dam to head back to the campsite. On the way Connie took a picture of some lily pads in the lake right next to the hiking path.

Hopewell Lake Lily Pads

After crossing the damn back to the north side of the lake it was all uphill back to the campsite. With the grade and temps in the 90’s Connie was sucking wind pretty badly on the way back…but Neil took it easy on her and stopped a couple of times for her to catch her breath and get a drink (he didn’t tell her that he was happy they had a break as well). Got back to the rig with a total hike length of almost 4 miles. They sat around in the rig for a few then went up and had a shower at the bath house. The remainder of the day was spent running out to WalMart for groceries, filling BAT with diesel for tomorrow’s tow, eating a NY Strip steak for dinner and then Olympics on the TV.

Yesterdaty they picked up the car after the repairs were complete. Turns out the battery was cracked as well so they had to go by Sears and get it replaced under warranty. They have no idea whether it was damaged in the deer collision or cracked on it’s own but Sears was happy to replace it so they’re good. They stopped by the mall and bought a couple new pairs of shorts each then went to an Italian restaurant named Inn at Saint Peters. It’s in a little (like 10 houses little) village named Saint Peters Village. There’s the Inn, a quarry full of water that you can swim in, and a nice little brook running by the Inn. They sat on the veranda and ate seafood pasta…with leftovers they’re keeping for tomorrow night’s dinner after the travel day…they’ve learned already to make sure they have a simple dinner on travel days if at all possible.

Tomorrow we head off for Flanders, NJ for a 5 night stay at Fla-Net Park. Plans are to host Lynn and Ed (prospective New Horizons owners) for lunch on Sunday (they’re bringing steaks and wine, Neil is making side dishes and dessert) for a tour and discussion on things to do and not to do when ordering from New Horizons. Side trips next week will likely include Menlo Park to visit the Thomas Edison Laboratory, maybe a trip into NY for lunch, and whatever else comes to mind. Neil says they should go hike up the First Wachung Mountain…after all he’s heard about it he might as well go and see it he says.

Wow, it’s been 10 days since I was able to post. Part of that was just being too darned busy, part was having some slow internet issues at the last park we were camped at, and part was having to resolve some car difficulties.

After leaving Bull Run we journeyed up to Little Bennet Campground in Gaithersburg. The plan was to visit the Monocacy and Antietam Battlefields. The former is located near Frederick and was the scene of Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of the Union; he wanted to win a battle on Union soil to help generate public discontent with the war in the Union and affect the 1862 mid-term elections. He won the battle but did not try to really occupy any ground; after the battle he returned back across the Potomac to Virginia. The picture below is of the Worthington House which was the headquarters of the Confederate army during the battle.

Worthington House Monocacy Battlefield

Upon returning from the battlefield the adults started eating dinner and a tremendous rainstorm came up. During the storm the turn signals on their Mazda came on solid and after the rain the key fobs would no longer open the door. Troubleshooting, discussions with the Mazda dealer in Gaithersburg, MD, and discussions with USAA Insurance revealed that the Body Control Module was bad and it had been shorted out by a leak that led back to the deer collision last September. The original body shop that repaired the car forgot a grommet which allowed water to run into the interior. Add to that our scheduled transit from Gaithersburg up to Elverson, PA near Valley Forge and the ended up with another USAA insurance adjuster and another Mazda dealer being involved  to finish the repairs. USAA came through though…and the original body shop in Johnstown, PA is paying for the repairs; hopefully they will get the car back tomorrow.

While the repair evaluation was going on they adults went ahead and journeyed over to the battlefield at Antietam. This was the bloodiest single day in the Civil War with over 23,000 casualties. Over 8000 of these were inflicted in just 90 minutes at an area called The Cornfield which is about a mile east of Antietam Creek. The Cornfield changed hands 3 times during that 90 minutes and was continually being raked by both Union and Confederate fire from essentially all four sides. Later in the day the climax of the battle was at what is now known as the Burnside Bridge over Antietam creek. There were 600 Confederate soldiers on the bluffs overlooking the bridge and they held off 8,000 Union soldiers for 4 hours until they were low on ammo at which point they withdrew to the top of the ridge rejoining the remainder of the Confederate lines and allowing Burnside the occupy the bridge. Antietam occurred during General Lee’s third invasion of the Union and was an attempt to influence the 1864 Presidential election by threatening Washington DC. Again; the Confederate side won the battle but was unable to influence the election so ended up returning to Virginia. You can see from the two pictures below showing the Burnside Bridge from both sides how 600 were able to hold off 8,000…the bluffs are 200 or so feet tall and go straight up from the creek.

Burnside Bridge from bluffs on Confederate side

Burnside Bridge from Union side. Confederate Troops were on the bluffs above

After the visit to Antietam we moved up into PA and are now camped at French Creek State Park in Elverson, PA. The park is actually pretty decent overall…well located for our playing tourist but it does have a few drawbacks. There is no sewer hookup at the campsites so that means showers at the bath house…and the bath house is pretty bleak to put it mildly. Connie hates it…Neil is a little more tolerant. They also had a heck of a time backing into their site as the roads are narrow, the sites are treelined, it was raining while they were backing in, and there were numerous not so nice people who were unhappy that they were blocking the road. They also had an issue with the circuit breaker for their 50 amp power pole; but the maintenance guys fixed that today so we’ll have air conditioning on Friday when it gets hot.

Yesterday they went over to Valley Forge and toured around. It was pretty cool. There were about 12,000 soldiers wintering over during the Revolutionary War at Valley Forge and while most people think that all they were doing was trying to not freeze to death the encampment also gave General Von Steuben a chance to train the army and turn them from a pretty rag tag group into a well trained and professionally acting unit. Emerging in the spring the Continental Army was able to take the battle to the British resulting in the eventual surrender of Cornwalis at Yorktown and the end of the Revolutionary War.  Pictured below are Washington’s Headquarters and the outer lines of defense of the encampment.

George Washington HQ at Valley Forge Winter Encampment

Valley Forge Outer Defense Line facing towards Philadelphia

Tomorrow they’re going out about 40 miles northwest to the County Fair…time for Corndogs, Deep Fried Twinkies, Pretzels, and Ice Cream. Friday they have a hike scheduled and Saturday we’re moving over to Flanders, NJ as we continue our journeys north towards upstate New York for the Bard Music Festival.

The adults were remarking yesterday that they don’t know how they got everything done while they were employed…this retirement stuff is turning out to be pretty busy for them.

That’s about it; hopefully we’ll continue to have better internet so I can post more often.

Cyas.

I’m sure glad Connie is coming back from LA tonight (not half as glad as Neil I’m sure but then he’s one of those humans and he’s had her longer than Kara and I have had her so I guess that’s ok).

Anyhoo; last weekend before she left they wanted to do something. Neil discovered that she had never been down to Arlington Cemetery despite living in the DC area for 25 years. He’s run through there many times of course while working at the Pentagon and in Crystal City but decided to go visit with her. They drove down and parked at Fort Myer where you can take the back gate into the cemetery.

Arlington House – Robert E. Lee House

JFK Gravesite

Tomb of the Unknowns

They wandered around for awhile and visited JFK’s grave site, wandered through Arlington House which was the home of Robert E Lee’s family, visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier then were wandering through the amphitheater behind the Tomb of the Unknowns when they spotted all these generals gathered around like they were waiting on somebody important. Pretty soon a couple of limos and a charter bus pulled up. Connie grabbed Neil and said “Isn’t that a basketball coach?” He took a look and sure enough it was Coach K from Duke who also coaches the USA Olympic team. They gathered near where the generals were standing and pretty soon the mens Olympic Basketball team members walked by; I recognize Kobe Bryant in the picture but did not recognize anybody else. Oh well, guess that’s what I  get for not following the NBA.

Mens USA Olympic Basketball Team

After that excitement; they headed on home so Connie could pack. Neil dropped her off at Dulles the next morning and she flew off for her convention. Neil stayed around the park the rest of the week; went running, went biking, had some wine coolers, went to the Irish Pub and cleaned up and stowed the rig some more. They’re still in the process of getting all moved in and getting everything in it’s place. He’s been kinda bored the last couple of days as it’s been raining just about nonstop since Thursday night. The area needs the rain but it does kinda put a damper on things. He said at least it was cool running yesterday and today; only about 75 instead of the 90’s it’s been earlier in the week.

That’s about all for now; they’re headed off tomorrow for Little Bennet Campground up near Damascus, MD for a week. They’ll have electric hookups but no water or sewer so they’ll have to be frugal for showering I guess.

Cyas.

Well, the adults got all moved into the RV and were ready to move out to Lake Fairfax campground on July 2. Unfortunately the line of severe thunderstorms that came through last Friday really did a number on the power grid here in Northern Virginia and the campground has no power. So; we’re still at the old house on Blue Coat Drive…albeit we’re camping in the house since everything is moved into the RV. Unfortunately the RV doesn’t have enough power via the extension cord to run the A/C units so we’re pretty much living in the house but running out to the RV whenever they need anything from the fridge.

On the bright side; they sold a few more items on Craigs LIst, got the last AmVets pickup scheduled, and are otherwise just trying to keep cool…it’s really hot here this week.

Supposedly the power at the RV park will be back tomorrow which means they may be able to move over there by Friday.

Connie is really, really unhappy about still being here at the old house.