Friday, June 29,2007

We will leave here today and head out for Boston, Massachusetts, so I got up about 7:00 AM. We reentered the U.S. about 9:40 AM. It took forever to get through customs as there was so much traffic! We stopped at Scottsville Service Area for gas and restrooms. Gas is $3.12 a gallon here. We had been paying from $2.89--$2.99, so it has come up. We stopped at the Port Byron Service Area for lunch in the RV, then again at India's Castle rest area outside Little Falls, NY. There are more vineyards here than I have ever seen in my life. The Mohawk River goes along the highway here. The Adirondack Mountains are on our left. We turned off I-90 into I-87 at Albany and the Catskill Mountains are on our right. We went onto the Massachusetts turnpike at 4:45PM and passed over the Castleton on the Hudson River Bridge. WOW!!! It's huge and so is the river! We have traveled from the Canadian border, clear across the northern part of New York State and into Massachusetts in one day. We drove through the Taconic Mountains and then crossed into Mass. at 5:15 PM. We stopped at McDonald's for supper after gassing up the truck and were back on the road at 6:15. Deanna called Denise and I called Rosetta on the cell phone the kids got for me. We reached the KOA RV Park and got set up about 9:30 PM. This KOA turned out to be WAY more than we wanted and was expensive too. If you want to take your kids and pets somewhere to keep them entertained without you having to be involved then this is the place for you!! I never saw so many unattended kids and dogs in an RV park in my life. They put us in a pull through that looked like the deep woods and you would have sworn the road was fresh cut from the stumps. The setup turned out to be real job since the site was horribly bumpy and a long way from level. We are all very tired. The staff was customer oriented though and refunded a days charge when we left early.

Canada to USA

Saturday, June 30, 2007

We are in Middleboro, Mass. The trailers running lights quit working on the way in last night so we will try to find a repair shop. I didn't sleep well as the smoke alarm batteries got low and they started beeping around 4:00 AM. Dave had to get up and change the batteries so we could all sleep. The Ira Smith repair shop sent out a man and he found the trouble with the lights and repaired them in about an hour. We left camp about 11:30 to go to Wal-Mart for some supplies and to get my cholesterol prescriptions filled. We did all that then gassed up the truck and went back to the RV for lunch. We then drove to Lakeville to check the train schedule. We had to go to a Country Mart store to pick up the schedule and found the next train didn't leave till after 4:00 PM, so we decided to go to Plymouth today instead, and go to Boston on the train tomorrow. We reached Plymouth about 3:00 PM and drove down Leyden Street, which is the oldest street in America. We found Plymouth Bay and Deanna and I went down to the water and played in it. We picked up rocks along the beach and washed them off in the water of the Atlantic Ocean. We toured the Mayflower 2, saw Plymouth Rock, and I bought a model of the ship for Sam and Geneva and some postcards. We left about 5:30 and drove southeast looking for lighthouses along the shore. We noticed most of the houses are three stories tall and constructed almost alike, just painted different colors. We didn't find any lighthouses so went back to camp to have supper. After supper, Deanna and I did laundry and got done about 10:00 PM. I took a shower and we went to bed about 11:30.

My Sweetie

Boston KOA

Plymouth

The Mayflower 2

South Station

Massachusetts State House

The Mayflower 2

South Station

The Granery

Sunday, July 1,2007

 We got up about 7:00AM to get ready for the train ride into Boston. We had scrambled eggs, bacon, English muffins, and coffee for breakfast. It was sure good. We left camp a little after 9:00AM, drove to the Middleboro station and hopped on the 9:46 AM train to Boston South Station. When we got to South Station there was an Acela high speed train at the platform. We heard they ran 150 miles per hour.  After we arrived at the Boston "South Station" Dave was videoing inside the station and was reprimanded. Seem no videos are allowed in the station since 9/11. We bought subway tickets, rode to Park Street and walked to Boston Common. Boston Common is the oldest national park in the US and the start of the Freedom Trail tour. On the far side of the Common is the gold domed Massachusetts State House. Across the street from the State House is a large brass memorial to the first black Union regiment, the 54th Massachusetts. We toured Granary Cemetery where Paul Revere, Mother Goose, and some of Ben Franklin's family are buried. We went to see Faneuil Hall Market Place where inspiring speeches by Samuel Adams and other patriots were given that eventually led to independence from the British. There were some black men doing break dancing in the square to make a little extra money. After that we took a trolley tour around Boston. The tour guide was really good and we saw many historical sites. We even crossed the Charles River and went into Cambridge. On the way back we saw the pub that was used for the TV series "Cheers". We got back on the subway to go to the train station, but took one wrong one, then had to backtrack. We finally made it to the South Station and left at 5:40 PM. We reached Middleboro at 6:45 and decided to leave a day early for Washington, DC. Deanna and Dave stopped at the KOA office to ask about a refund for the last day since we will leave early and we got back to the RV about 7:00 PM and had our supper.

54th Massachusetts

Monday, July2, 2007

We got up fairly early and got ready to leave camp after breakfast. We had to stop at the dump station then pulled out about 9:45 AM. We drove through Pawtucket and Providence, Rhode Island and saw the capital building from the highway. We got into Connecticut about 11:15 and stopped at the Welcome Center. A really great visitors center staff gave us a short cut that would take us over the Tappan Zee bridge and around New York City. Boy were we appreciative! Then we drove on across Connecticut going south toward New York. We crossed the Thames River outside New Haven, then stopped for gas at the Travel Center and ate lunch in the RV. The temperature is 76 degrees and the Atlantic Ocean is to our left. We passed through Bridgeport, Westport, Norwalk, and entered New York at 2:25 PM. We crossed the Tappan Zee Bridge which crosses the Hudson River and saw New York City off in the distance. We saw a neat lighthouse on the river and entered New Jersey where we passed through a lot of towns on the Garden State Parkway. We also crossed the Passaic River, where the traffic was really bad. Deanna's computer/GPS talks to her and tells us how to get to the New Jersey turnpike. We stopped for gas and rest room break then went through the toll booth at 5:30 PM. We got to Delaware and crossed the Delaware River on the Delaware Bridge. There were ambulances that slowed us down but we didn't see any accidents, so I guess they turned off the turnpike. Entered Maryland about 6:00 PM and crossed the Susquehanna River with Chesapeake Bay on our left. We had another toll booth then drove under the Bay through a tunnel. WOW!!! We got to Baltimore and saw big ships in the Bay . We got to Cherry Hill RV Park at College Park, MD about 7:30 and were set up by 8:15 PM.

Connecticut

Tappan Zee Bridge

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

We left the RV Park about 9:00 AM for the trip to DC. We had to take a bus to College Park Station, then take the subway to get where we wanted to go. We saw the WW2 monument, the Washington monument, the Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial, the capital building and the Jefferson Memorial in the distance. We spent several hours in the Smithsonian then caught the bus back to Cherry Hill RV Park about 9:00 PM. My right ankle has broken out in a deep red rash and we don't know what has caused this, unless it was so much walking in the heat. We are going back tomorrow anyway.

College Park Station

WW2 Memorial

"The Wall"

Nurses Memorial

Jenetta and Gettysburg Address