Where has the Summer Gone?

 

 

We can't believe that our last post was way back in  July....Sorry to those who are following our backyard adventures, but on the other hand we will not bore you with everything we did over the summer and try to hit some of the highlights.  Our summer trip east had a few hiccups with a couple problems with the motorhome and of course our ever changing plans.  We left Ohio and drove back to Tennessee to play a little more golf and to drive down to Kendra's to help with some projects around her house. Mission accomplished we headed the motorhome west and back to Colorado for a month with the family.

We made it in time to celebrate both Amy's birthday and Karsten's 4th birthday.  We also were challenged by Amy and Kris to do the "ALS ice bucket challenge".   Spending time with family is always the best part of coming back to Colorado.  With David and April expecting a little baby girl in December, playing with the Super Ks, having everyone over to the motorhome for campfires, and taking care of my maintenance treatments made this trip back especially nice for us.  Although we only stayed a little over a month, we managed to fill the 5# sack with 10#s of memories.

We left the family in early October and drove down to Dallas for a reunion with three of Pat's friends from her early days in the military.  It has been since the early 70s since she has seen Casey, Kathleen, Dawn and Mrs Case and the moment they saw each other it was like last week.  Isn't that the way it is with friends?  Pat was stationed with the sisters on different overseas tours and has always stayed in touch with Mrs Case(Casey &Kathleen's mother) via letters and Christmas cards.  Catching up was both informative for George and was great for the ladies even though they remembered some things differently (might have something to do with drinking an clouded memories).  After Dallas, we drove down to San Antonio for a brief visit with Bonnie Byrd Karr, our friend from our days in Germany.  It is always great to see Bonnie and she ensures that you do not leave hungry.  Although George did assist her with a computer problem (was it a case of the blind leading the blind?).  After San Antonio, we headed west to Tucson and our visit with Tom and Maryann Graue and their family.  Of course we also wanted to see that special young lady, Emme, who is now walking and all the way up to 15 pounds and 1 1/2 years old and her cousins: Molly, Samantha, and Kirsten who are growing up to be three very energetic young ladies.  We will be here in Tucson until we drive north for the holidays.  Hopefully, Carrie Graue will have a few projects to keep George and Tom busy at her house (hint: if we visit, keep George busy).

 

 

 

Our lovely Colorado sunset

Happy 4th Birthday Karsten

The ALS ice bucket challenge with Kasey helping Grandma and Grandpa -- Thanks Kris and Amy for the opportunity to get ice poured over our heads!

A day on the water with Grandma and the Super Ks

Kathleen and Pat after 40 years

Mrs Case (we missed her 90th birthday) and Casey (look at the next picture for an earlier picture of Kathleen)

 

The Air Force softball team in Taiwan - The tallest girl is Kathleen and Pat is the young lady on her immediate left).  That is 40 years between the pictures -- not much changed????

 

Can anyone believe that George is helping Bonnie with her computer???

This is our campsite at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio

 

 

 

And for comparison this is our campsite at Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson.  Both are pretty nice but way different!

Of course Pat has to play with Emme! 

 

Mom (Carrie) and Emme - sorry a little blurred - will do better next post!

Carrie, Samantha (peeking), Maryann with Emme, Kirsten (in the back), Molly and Pat at Tom and Maryann's traditional Sunday dinner for what seems to be anyone in Tucson.

 

This has nothing to do with our backyard adventures but it is football season and the Super Ks are Bronco fans and Mom took them to the tailgate for the Bronco vs San Diego game! Besides what would this blog be without a picture of Kasey and Karsten.

We started with a picture of sunset over Denver and end this post with a sunrise from our motorhome over Davis-Monthan AFB, pictures just do not do either picture justice!

 

We have started our fall backyard adventure.  Texas and Arizona with their warm sunny weather enables us to extend our summer, play a little golf and catch up with friends.  Yes, we were on the east coast with Tom and Maryann this summer, but like all of our friends - we always make new memories whenever we are fortunate enough to get together again! 

Tried to catch you up on the last part of our summer and early fall adventures and will try to post again before we leave Tucson and drive back for the holidays.  Our plans for the winter?  Remember, all plans are made in Jello but we hope to drive to the southeast after Christmas visiting family and friends in South Carolina and Florida.  If you are anywhere near our travel plans - watch out because we have no problem driving a little out of the way to see friends and family! 

Meeting Friends and Surviving Pennslyvania

We left New Jersey and the eastern seacoast to join friends in Pennsylvania.  Our first stop was in Cordus State Park in Hanford, near Gettysburg.  Doug and April Almond drove up from West Virginia to meet us in the beautiful wooded area of eastern Pennsylvania.  Beautiful weather and great friends made our four day stop feel like a totally new vacation.  We think we have enough pretzels to last until we get back to Colorado since we made two trips to their Hanford Pretzel factory  company store.  If you ever get to Hanford, a must stop should be the Amish outlets if for no other reason than to eat at their restaurant  -- the food was all hand made with fresh eggs, meat and bread, it was  delicious, and cheap.  We decided that we should try our hand at disc golf - it was fun but think we will stay with regular golf (no golf carts with disc golf), but now we can remove that from our bucket list.  The state park had many walking trails and we almost got lost trying to follow a map that we later found out was wrong - a special thanks goes out to the hikers we met in the deep woods  that steered us back towards our motorhome.    What a great time but it passed all too quickly and we headed to Karthaus to meet Tom and Maryann for the second time on our eastern swing.  Karthaus is near State College, home of Penn State.  As we were traveling down I-80 we heard a thunk in the motorhome but nothing happened so we kept going down the interstate.  Our campground was on top of very large hill with a 7 % grade on a very narrow road --- BAM!  Our motorhome started to make extremely loud noise and immediately overheated.  We were broke down on a very narrow road with gravel trucks barreling up and down the hill.  Long story, short--- we picked up something on I-80 (remember the thunk) and it took out our clutch fan and the surrounding shroud, the water pump and we were faced with getting the motorhome repaired before the July 4th holiday.  Thank goodness Tom and Maryann were about 35 miles away staying with her mom in Karthaus.  We had to order parts from Alabama (overnight shipping ($$$$) to beat the July 4th closing of repair shops) and we stayed at Maryann's mom's home while repairs would be made to our motorhome.  The good news was Maryann's mom is a wonderful young lady who invited us to share her home, Tom and Maryann were perfect hosts and drove us around the beautiful countryside and we had a wonderful time exploring the "strippins" and the "camps" in central Pennsylvania.  The repairs were completed about 5:00 on July 3rd and we were on our way early on July 4th.  Since we were close to Ohio at that point we changed our plans and drove to Ohio to have Pat's brother check out our motorhome before we went too much further.  All was OK and we got to see a great July 4th celebration at Chas and Sharon's house put on by their daughter and son in law, Christian and  Kelsey.  The fireworks show they put on was better than some county fair's shows lasting over 45 minutes.  We left their house and drove up to the Kenton area to see George's family, play a few rounds of golf with his brothers, and hook up with friends in the Kenton area.

 

 

 

Our home at Cordus State Park, PA

 

Our friends from West By God Virginia, Doug and April Almond

Pat throwing a disc during our disc golf outing

A beautiful start to a walk in the woods, yes we got lost but it is now another great memory

 

Ouch...you never want to see your motorhome hooked up to a tow truck but it is just another  story to tell to our friends --- no one injured so this was just another adventure on our road to see the backyards of America

Pat with Tom and Maryann - We wanted to visit with them not necessarily stay in their mom's house with them, but they made us feel like family - it was great that they were there for us and we hope we were not too much of an inconvenience..

O-H-I-O

Tom is an Arizona Wildcat fan but who can resist?  BTW isn't that a big truck?

 

We saw a lot of these big fellows while touring the "strippins" around Karthaus

Eat your heart out Kris!

. 

That little lady between Pat and George is Maryann's young mother who invited us to stay with her while the motorhome was in repair.

Another great picture of Tom and Maryann Graue -- They are truly like our family and it's never a dull moment with these two -- thanks for putting up with us in three different places this summer!

Only one of several hundred shots, each better than the previous.  You can not image 45 minutes of non stop fireworks in Chas and Sharon's backyard!

 

 

 

Pat barely got in the picture with George's family - l to r... sister Patsy and  Bob, Connie - Max's wife, Paula and brother Chuck, Karen and brother Dick relaxing before the big meal.  A night out for the Cannode family!

 

Aunt Martha and Pat...She is sharp as a tack and looks younger than her 96 years.

 

George, Bobbi Wiley, and Pat  

 Bobbi has been a friend for over 55 years .   Who else but a friend could put up with George for that long, except maybe Pat!!!!

 

Did we mention that David and April are going to have a baby girl?  Yippee!!! 

 

We are a little late posting this latest blog but with the change of plans, not having any cell phone or Internet service for about a month and just visiting and having fun have all taken a front seat to sitting down and recording our adventures.  Hope you all are having a wonderful summer.  We also hope you don't have any major disasters happening to you this year.  We have taken care of that  for you -- don't thank us, we are glad to handle that for you!!!

 

New York - New York,

We took a side trip to New York, it has been about 30 years since we have visited the Big Apple.  One of the first things that we noticed this time was ... were are old.  They say New York never sleeps, we know why --- it is very noisy, it is very busy, you can't drive in Manhattan, and there is so much scaffolding and building going on that if they don't work 24/7 nothing will get built or remodeled.   The city can't be graded on a one day visit...there is too much to see and enjoy but we were only taking a side trip so one day is what we decided on for the visit to America's largest city.  Our real purpose of going back to NYC was to view the 9/11 memorial and pay tribute to those who lost their lives that terrible day.  To really enjoy the sites, sounds and life of NYC it would take more than a cursory visit.    We also decided that the best way to get to NYC from New Jersey would be by water (seems we did that for Boston also), driving was out of the question; we could have taken the train for about a third of the cost but the train would not have allowed us to view the cityscape and enjoy the beautiful weather. 

 

 

Leaving New Jersey on our ferry to the Big Apple, best decision of the day!  What a beautify day for a day trip into the City.

We went under the Verzzarro Narrows bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world, which  spans the channel into New York harbor. 

Lady Liberty greeted us as we approach New York City just like she has done since she arrived in 1886, as a gift from France. 

Lower Manhattan skyline, probably the most recognized skyline in the world.  Walking through lower Manhattan is like walking down the canyons of the Rocky Mountains, except the canyon walls go straight up and are concrete.  The roads are clogged with delivery trucks, cabs, tour buses, a few hardy souls who have risked driving in this madhouse.

Times Square and it is not really busy at noon...we think all of New York eats between 10 and 2 because every restaurant we went into was crowded and there were people that were eating while  standing up since all the tables were full up and some even stepped outside of the restaurants to eat their meals...never seen that before!!!

Mid town fire station... they lost so much when the towers came down on 9/11.  As a former firefighter, I  grieve for the those who answered their final alarm.

Just a typical street scene -- The never ending hustle and bustle, noise, and energy make Manhattan the center of the New York and by some standards the center of the world. 

Empire State building is only the second tallest building in NYC now that Freedom Tower is topped off.

 

Freedom tower - any closer and you can not get a picture of the entire building.  We are a couple blocks away but if you stand at the 9/11 memorial and look up you can not see the top of the building.   The tower  appears to get smaller like the head of a needle -- Awesome!

9/11 memorial - one of the two water falls that were the twin towers footprints - they are still building at the site and only freedom tower and tower 4 are completed.  The museum is open and free but you need to have reservations well in advance to get into the museum -- hopefully when you come to NYC the newness will wear off and you will be able to secure ticket to see the museum.

Wall street is a very unremarkable 8 block long street (and dirty) and the New York Stock Exchange was really small on the outside and no tours since 9/11 - kind of disappointing!  The nicest building on Wall street is the Federal building where George Washington was sworn in as our country's first President. 

 

Leaving New York and the lower Manhattan skyline

 

Since we were close we thought a side trip to Atlantic City would be in order.  George's Mom and Dad took a trip to Atlantic City about 50 years ago and raved about the boardwalk.  We thought with the addition of gambling and the glitz of big casinos that it would be awesome!  Not so much... it does not compare to Las Vegas but does have its upside.  The beaches and boardwalk (which were there before the casinos are worth the trip if you are in the area, but the casinos are no match for their counterparts in Nevada.

A selfie...George needs a little practice!

The famous boardwalk with one of the old hotels in the background (they have a lot more character than the newer ones like the Trump Towers).

The dunes just off the boardwalk

 

We left the New Jersey, New York area to rendezvous with our friends, Doug and April in Pennsylvania.  They met us in a beautiful campground near Gettysburg.  We will spend the weekend with them relaxing, catching up and making new memories.  Again we are so blessed to have friends that will travel to other states just to spend a few days with us.  We want all our friends to have a wonderful summer, we will continue our family history next week and stop in to see our friends Tom and Maryann in Karthaus, Pa...we will keep you posted on our travels to the backyards of America.

 

American and Lawrence Family History

We left our beautiful Boston southshore campsite and drove northeast to the Concord and Lexington Massachusetts area, the hotbed of the American Revolution.  This is also were Pat's ancestors called home and (as we found out) participated in Concord's North Bridge battle with the British, " The Shot Heard Around the World", as Minutemen.  Is was interesting learning how her family and our nation's history was intertwined.  As Paul Revere rode through the countryside from Boston to Concord alerting the Minuteman of the British troops  moving toward Concord, Pat's ancestors were among those who answered the call.  As a side note, did anyone know that Paul Revere was actually captured by a British unit on his ride to Concord?  He was captured and released after the British heard the church bells ringing alerting the colonist of the British march, they thought there was no reason to keep him since their surprise was overtaken by events.  The Lawrences were involved throughout the revolution and fought many of the major battles in the Massachusetts Bay colony which included parts of New Hampshire and Connecticut.  We were in the area to verify family connections and dates but also enjoyed learning the history of the beginnings of our country.    

 

 

Our campsite at Hanscom AFB, just 4 miles from Concord.

Minuteman statue at the North Bridge, Concord, MA.  It was an amazing fact that over a 1000 colonist answered the first alert and call from well over 30 nearby villages, leaving their families in the middle of the night to ride and march to Concord and Lexington.  They were called Minutemen because they signed up to respond to the call for liberty at a minutes notice.  The colonist drove the British back to Boston from Concord starting the American Revolution.

The British lost two soldiers and the colonist lost 3 men at North Bridge.  The colonist took their dead back to their villages for burial but the two British soldiers are buried at the North Bridge site. 

Our reason for being here was to do family research and we were able to visit libraries and city halls in Groton, MA., Cambridge MA, and Killingly, Connecticut.  Spending hours reading books and going through land, marriage, birth and death records to ensure our facts are correct and that we are following the right ancestors.  Our search has resulted in yet another twist, we have to go to Luzerne county in Pennsylvania.  Another change of travels plans, we were going to drive south from Massachusetts but now we will go to New York City area (a backyard side trip)) then drive toward Pennsylvania before we eventually go south to visit family in South Carolina.  We may have to go back to Ohio/Indiana before driving south but that is the way it is as you following the genealogy of your family. 

Our next post will be of our side trip to the Big Apple!  It has been a long time since we visited New York City and really want to go by the World Trade Center memorial and  experience the hustle and bustle of the "City".  We are now staying in New Jersey and plan on taking the ferry across the harbor from New Jersey to Manhattan.  While we are in New Jersey we also want to visit the Jersey beaches and maybe drive down to Atlantic City, stay tuned for our next post, reporting to you our NYC and New Jersey experience!

Boston and the South Shore - Where American History Started!

We left the Cape and drove a short way up the coast to the sleepy seaside village of Marshfield located about an hour south of Boston by ferry.  It is located on  the tip of a narrow peninsula where we set up our motorhome and enjoyed  gorgeous views of the bay and the Atlantic from the windows of our little home on wheels.  The views by themselves were worth the trip but we had a backyard to explore and Boston and the south bay area did not disappoint.  This is where the history of America was written by our founding fathers.  We had planned to explore this backyard for the last two years but our plans seemed to change for one reason or another but not this year.  This year we will experience New England and learn about the birth of this great nation up close and personal.  As mentioned in the last blog posting, Tom and Maryann rented a cottage just around the curve from our motorhome spot at the 4th Cliff recreation area so we get to enjoy our friends for another week and make new memories together.  After we all set up for our stay at 4th Cliff (a WWII  Army seacoast artillery battery station) we took a ferry into Boston.  We could not have picked a better day, blue skies and  the temps in the mid 70s allowed us to walk the 2 1/2 mile freedom trail, enjoy Mike's Pastry shop, indulge our cravings for ice cream, tell a few New England Patriot fans how great the Denver Broncos are going to be this year and in general had a great day visiting the historic buildings in Boston.  After our walk on the freedom trail, we were a little tired so we took another ferry back across the Boston bay from Old Ironsides to Long Wharf and the center of old Boston.  After walking to Boston Commons we decided to take the MTA (Boston's famed subway) back to the Wharf but this time George's Bronco hat might have caused us a small problem.  It seems that we did not know exactly which train to catch so we asked an MTA employee for the best way back to the Wharf....he was probably a Patriot's fan and told us to take the train that left us about 3/4 of a mile away from the wharf and our ferry ride back to the South Boston bay area.  We barely made the ferry departure time but learned a valuable lesson...don't wear a Denver Bronco hat in Boston!  It is good for a laugh now but we were some tired old people when we finally made it on to the ferry for our return trip.  The next couple of days we drove around the South Bay area of Boston and absorbed the New England seaports and their quaint little shops and restaurants.  If you want great seafood, clam chowder and lobster this is really the place to plant yourself for a few days.  We ate a breakfast at restaurant called the Wildflower Café in the little town of Duxbury.  All the food was great but George had the biggest pancake we have ever seen (it filled a large dinner plate) and everything was made from scratch...just outstanding!!  Walking the beaches, shopping the mom and pop stores and eating great food was some of the highlights of this trip.  As always we like to take a few pictures to share with you just to give you a flavor of our Boston backyard adventures.

0800 hours and we are off to Boston on the ferry from Hingham, Ma.  The trip was made even more special because the Captain of the ferry was so friendly and since there were only a few passengers, he was able to tell us about the various islands in the bay and their history.

Boston from the ferry -- What a great city skyline!

 

Freedom Hall where the ideas of the American Revolution was debated and men like Daniel Webster, John Adams, Thomas Paine, Paul Revere and others incited others to join them in their quest for freedom from England and the King!

Paul Revere's house -- probably was not surrounded by four story apartment building back in 1776

The Old North Church - The British are coming, the British are coming!!!

The Constitution - Old Ironsides...it never lost a battle the entire time it was under sail for America!

It was getting really tired by the time we got to Boston Commons...we started to think that maybe we are getting a little old and out of shape!

Leave it to Tom to lighten up the mode on the MTA or was he so tired that his tongue was hanging out from exhaustion?

Just in case you have not heard... we took a picture of Georges island!  Wasn't it nice of them to post this sign so people would not be confused of the ownership of the island?

One of the few remaining active Merry go Rounds in the country is in the town of Hull on the South Bay area.  There was a restoration workshop near the carousel, where we saw the artists work on the hand carved horses and sleighs. 

Pat and George relaxing on the beach wall -- look how far those people are out into the water...low tide!!

Never a dull moment with Pat and Maryann

 

New and Old Friends!  l-r  Linda and Pete Walsh, Becky and Ellen, Tom and Maryann, Pat and George, Kenny and George...we all went out to dinner at a great seafood restaurant (would we eat anyplace else?) in Marshfield.  Great Lobster and fish plates with local friends of Pete, Linda, Tom and Maryann...and now us!

Looking over the bay from our motorhome at sunset...Priceless!!!!

 

Tom and Maryann left us today and drove back to the Cape for another week of visiting with Pete and Linda.  We will be heading northwest of Boston to investigate Pat's family history in the town of Groton, Mass where we hope to find written evidence of her ancestry past.  She has traced her family back to the 11th century but needs to have some documentation to ensure she is following the right line of ancestors...our work is never done but it is a lot of fun tracing our family history.  After we have exhausted our family history research in Massachusetts we will be driving down to just south of New York City and stay a week in New Jersey.  We will be taking the train into New York and maybe Philadelphia to explore their backyards.  We are also hoping to meet up with Doug and April Almond, friends from our camp hosting in Colorado, to catch up and make new memories with them.  This is the best part of traveling this great country, exploring and learning about this country, making new friends, and meeting up with old friends to make new memories - We are so blessed to enjoy this unique lifestyle and to be healthy enough to travel the backyards of America.  We hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our travels and hope you continue to stop in read about our travels and tribulations.