Saturday, July 6

As we set out for the day our plan was to drive to Cleveland, go out to lunch, head to the 4 o'clock ball game where the Tigers were taking on the Indians, and then drive back to SJ hoping to arrive home before midnight. We arrived in Cleveland around 11:30 and ended up leaving Cleveland around 12:30...needless to say, we did not make it to the ball game. Some cities are just not made for RV parking, and this is one of them. We drove around quite a bit looking for what might work, then Jason visited the ticket office to see if they had any tips for us...they did not. Our internet research the night before did not offer much help either. So, we scratched the plans for the baseball game and decided we could easily make a weekend trip of that same experience with a lot less hassle. While much of Cleveland looked pretty rough and run down, there was a little district downtown that looked like it would be a good time...so we are going put that on the list of future weekend-long trips to make. As we were hitting the suburbs of Cleveland the kids spotted a sign for Buffalo Wild Wings...while we like to avoid chain restaurants as much as possible when we are on these road trips, sometimes the wings are just too much to resist. We enjoyed a nice lunch as we watched the Wimbledon doubles championship be won by the Bryan brothers. Jake's comment was, “this is the perfect 'last supper' for our summer trip”. The change in plans has us arriving home just before 6 pm, which works out well as we will be able to make it to a family dinner of steak, salad, corn on the cob and potatoes at mom and dad's where Matt, Shan and the boys will also be...so our summer 2013 family trip will end with a chance to catch up with our family back home, God is good and we certainly feel blessed.

Friday, July 5

By noon we had been in 4 different states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York & Pennsylvania. Aside from getting gas, our first major stop was in Williamsport, PA—home of the Little League World series. We took some time to tour the museum, which offered a fielding simulation game, a 3D simulation from the catching position and a timed run from home plate to first base, along with a lot of history and memorabilia. Outside of the museum was the actual ball park and living quarters for the world series. We all found it interesting that Little League pays for all of the player and coaches travel expenses for the world series, and houses them in their own dorms right next to the field. The living areas are closed to all fans and parents. It was a cool little stop along the way. After too many miles of HORRIBLE roads in Pennsylvania, we made it to the campus of Penn State. We parked outside the football stadium and took a foot tour around it. They do offer tours, but not on the day we were stopping. The capacity of the stadium is quite impressive, but it's overall appearance was nothing special. The creamery on campus was noteworthy however! Since this is where Ben & Jerry's got their ice cream making degree, we found it appropriate that we should stop in for a taste test! Jason ordered death by chocolate and the rest of us enjoyed a vanilla ice cream with chocolate and peanut butter rib boned throughout...they were creamy, tasty treats. As we were eating our ice cream we worked on finding a campground for the night...just when it was looking like it would be a Wal-mart parking lot, we found a spot at Gaslight campground in Emlenton, PA. It was a bit further along than we had planned to drive, but we were happy to find a place to plug in for the evening. We did have a little hiccup along the way, during our drive I noticed that our refrigerator kept clicking off, then as I tried to start the stove to make dinner I could not get it to light. I thought maybe we had run out of propane. We ate sandwiches as we made our way to our campground. Once there, Jason did a little investigating and found that the brass fitting for our gas line had broken—I guess that is our souvenir for the atrocious roads we drove on in Pennsylvania! Fortunately, we are winding down our trip so we will be able to survive a couple meals without an oven or stove. The night concluded with some showers and some more family games around the table—although we were tempted by the karaoke being offered in the pavilion of the campground :)

Thursday, July 4

Happy Independence Day! We enjoyed the leftover pizza for breakfast and hit the road after dropping off the Fiat 500 of at the airport on our way out of town. We drove a couple of hours before stopping in Freeport, ME to check out the “flagship store” of L.L. Bean. What we found is the store is downtown and is HUGE! The store has a giant boot outside the one entrance and has everything that the company sells in their catalogs inside. The kids were super excited because there is a small outlet shopping complex downtown as well which had their favorite store...Nike! We did a little shopping before hitting the highway again. Once on the highway Rachel got to work trying to find a place for us to stay tonight because the weather was gorgeous again and hot! One bank that we rolled by said it was 89 degrees. We definitely needed to find a place that had a pool and had electricity so that we could have air conditioning for the evening! She was successful in finding what was the last spot at a campground in Monson, Massachusetts. It turned out to be a great place that offered a pool and small circular pond with a beach all the way around. We spent some time cooling off around both before heading back to the motorhome for a night of games and trip planning for tomorrow. Tomorrow we hope to get to State College, PA, the home of Penn State University.   

Wednesday, July 3

Today the weather finally took a turn for the better! It was a gorgeous day with a high temp of about 80. We started out the day by moving our motorhome to the Oceanside KOA on the Northwest side of Mt. Desert (the Bar Harbor peninsula) and then headed to the Visitor Center at Acadia NP to get our car pass. From there we drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain which is about 1,528 feet. This provided a birds eye view of Bar Harbor and surrounding islands. From there we traveled south, to the southeast end of the island, taking in the beautiful ocean scenery before heading back to the motorhome for lunch. After lunch we ventured down to the Southwest side of the peninsula and made our way to the south to the lighthouse. Here we took a short trail down to the rocky shoreline. Brooke and Jake decided to get adventurous and made there way down to the rocks on the waters edge. Jake managed to slide off the rock and accidentally fell into the ocean....well part of him did. He got his shorts soaking wet and scraped his hand a little bit. We got some good pictures and good laughs at his expense. He then rode in the Fiat in his compression shorts wrapped in a towel. We then slowly made our way up the western shoreline and back to our campsite. On the way we stopped and bought a couple of bundles of wood from one of the many roadside stands that sell firewood. We rested for a short while before heading into Downtown Bar Harbor for dinner. We all were craving pizza so we went to a place we saw the other day called Rosalie's. We noticed this place the other day as we walked by and they were running the fresh dough through a wringer and then tossing it high in the air. We ordered a large pepperoni pizza (at Jake's request) and a large BBQ Chicken (at Brooke's request). We all loved the pizza and the craving was definitely satisfied with leftovers for tomorrow's breakfast. After dinner we took one last cruise through downtown and headed back to the motorhome to watch the sunset and have a campfire and make S'mores. We enjoyed the evening sitting around the fire and talking about the kids future education plans.

Tuesday, July 2

After another evening of good sleeping aided by cool temperatures and soft rain showers, we started our day with peanut butter & chocolate chip pancakes with a side of bacon...a breakfast of champions! While I prepared breakfast, Jason rode the bus to the airport and picked up a rental car. He came rolling back to camp in style in a 2-door, bronze, 2012 Fiat—the extreme opposite of the 31' motorhome we are accustomed to! Brooke and I took over the back seat as I didn't even want to witness Jake's attempt to get into the backseat of it. The best quote describing the car was my dad's “it looks like a pregnant roller skate.” It was a cool, drizzly day so we found some excursions that would accommodate the less than desirable weather conditions. We left the Bar Harbor area and headed to the little town of Prospect, Maine. Prospect has a bridge that was completed in 2006, and has an observatory built into one of the supporting towers of the suspension bridge. The bridge itself is quite pretty, in addition the 50 second elevator trip to the top of the 420' tower lead to a panoramic view of the river and surrounding area below. It is the only structure of its kind in the United States and the entire Western Hemisphere and holds the title of the tallest bridge observatory in the world. At the base of the bridge is Fort Knox. The fort, which is built from granite was completed in 1869 after 25 years of construction. The fort was open for all visitors to walk and climb throughout. Sample living quarters were set up, along with cannons and cannon balls complete with instructions on how to fire a cannon for all to read and take in. It was an impressive structure and interesting piece of history. The next thing on our agenda could not be completed much to our disappointment, a restaurant that our friend recommended was supposed to our lunch time destination, until we looked online and found out that it is closed on Tuesdays...seriously? As an alternative we stopped at a local joing called MacLeods. Jason and I had Penobscot River Reubens, which consisted of haddock, cole slaw and swiss cheese. They were delicious! The kids stuck with more traditional fare...a burger and pizza. Since the weather was still not good for much, we took a drive down a peninsula in the area to a town called Brooklin. In Brooklin we found a beach area where the tide was out. We spent some time walking and exploring the shore finding all sorts of shells. The evening hours were spent eating dinner and relaxing before we took a dusk tour of the area looking for a bull moose...a creature we have yet to see on our various trips. Night time was spent playing cards before turning in for the night, and praying for nicer weather for Wednesday!

Monday, July 1

Hadley's Point campground in Bar Harbor, Maine is where we landed today and where we will be for the next two nights. We were able to check into our campground early, eat lunch and hop on the bus system that runs throughout the Bar Harbor area. The system is free and makes stops at several campgrounds in the area, along with the Acadia National Park area, downtown Bar Harbor and the airport. Riding the bus was convenient and definitely gave us a solid introduction to the rough roads in the area! Our first ride on the bus was into the downtown Bar Harbor area. Since it was low tide, we walked down to Bridge street where we could access the land bridge formed out to Bar Island. It was a cool setting where we could see water on both sides and walk along this temporary dry land out to an island that is part of the Acadia National Park system. Next, we walked up and down the streets of downtown stopping into a few shops. We stopped in at an old school “soda fountain shop” in the Rex-all Pharmacy where we experienced our first true sodas—raspberry, root beer and cotton candy were the flavors of choice and they did not disappoint! Jake and Jason were particularly fond of “The Man Store” where Brooke and I were able cozy up in a nice chair while the boys shopped. After our touristy shopping excursion we hopped onto the bus system to take care of some serious business...lobster dinner! We stopped at a true seafood shack where Jason and I ordered lobster dinners, Jake a lobster roll and Brooke was real adventurous with chicken nuggets. This was Jason's first experience with eating a whole lobster and he enjoyed it despite the hard work that is involved—the “green stuff” on the inside of the lobster was less than appetizing, but we all got past it and enjoyed the treat. Jake was happy he went with the lobster roll, as he got to enjoy the yummy lobster flavors without the mess and effort of the full lobster meal! And sadly, Brooke learned the hard way that when you go to a seafood shack you best get seafood, because the chicken tenders were disgusting...even Jake turned his nose up to them after he tried a bite—oh well, live and learn! The bus ride back to the campground was uneventful and once we got home we spent some time at the pool. The kids enjoyed a swim and Jason and I enjoyed conversation with some fellow campers. Eventually the bugs won the battle and we turned in for the night. The day was wrapped up with a family game of “Apples to Apples” and lots of laughs!! We may have woken up some of our neighbors because we got to laughing so hard!

Sunday, June 30

We woke up this morning and headed to the AuSable Chasm in western NY. We paid about $70 to go on the hiking trails on the rim and down the side of the chasm. We got there shortly after it opened but there were a couple of buses that had just pulled in full of Japanese tourists. We quickly tried to get ahead of them and enjoy our time without the crowds. The chasm claims to be “The Grand Canyon of the East.” While it wasn't the Grand Canyon it was beautiful nonetheless. It was a river that has carved a chasm in the rock. You can see the many layers of rock that have been carved out of years of erosion. After an hour or so we took the shuttle back to the entrance and then drove a few miles to get in line for the ferry across Lake Champlain. The ferry cost us about $75 and was a peaceful hour trip across the lake to Burlington, VT. After arriving in Vermont we made our way to Waterbury, VT and the Ben and Jerry's Factory Tour. During the tour we learned about the process of making ice cream as well as how Ben and Jerry's became to be what it is today. At the end of the tour we got a taste of a new ice cream that doesn't have a name yet. It was a blueberry ice cream with chocolate shavings. They are having a naming contest for the ice cream flavor offering up a prize of free ice cream for a year. After our tasting we each got a single scoop of ice cream. Brooke and Rachel chose “Candy Bar Pie,” while Jake and I got the “Late Night Edition with Jimmy Fallon.” It has chocolate covered potato chips in it. We all liked our choice! From there we then traveled along Route 2. It is the same road that travels through the Upper Peninsula. This turned out to be a pleasant road that rolled through the hills of Vermont and New Hampshire. We traveled through numerous small towns that were in the valleys of the “mountains” before arriving at our campground in Canaan, Maine. We retired for the evening at the KOA. Here Brooke got to swim for the first time and we all were able to take showers, though the water was not quite warm.   

Saturday, June 29

Today we woke up late at 9:00AM. We managed to get around quickly and rolled out of camp at about 9:45AM. We drove about 5 miles to our first stop which was the hike up “Bald Mountain.” This 2 mile hike was a little strenuous at times but nothing like the “Grouse Grind” of last summer. At the top of the climb there is a fire tower that dates back to the early 1900s. It has recently been restored and you are allowed to climb to the top of the tower. At the top of the tower you have a panoramic view of the “Chain of Lakes” through the Adirondack Mountains in upstate NY. The weather was overcast and grey but you could still a long ways and take in some breathtaking scenery. After the hike we headed north to Lake Placid. Here we started out by pulling over and having lunch on the side of the road. We then found a couple of spots to park in the downtown area right in front of Lake Placid HS. We ventured into the Olympic Center which is home to two ice rinks, one from the 1932 Olympics and one from the site of the “Miracle on Ice” hockey game, USA vs. Russia in 1980. There was a large figure skating event for really young girls going on in both arenas. We then ventured for a stroll in downtown Lake Placid. We walked in and out of a few shops before we headed out to drive the Whiteface Mountain Memorial Road. We got to the toll booth to find out that there was zero visibility at the top and that it would not be worth the $30+ to drive to the top. From there we went back to High Falls Gorage area to find out that they were closing in 15 minutes and that this was not an option for us either. We called 4 different campgrounds to try to find a spot to stay for the evening all for them to tell is they were full. While we sat there trying to figure out what to do, one of them called us back and said that they did have a spot. We then ventured to the Iroquis Campground in Peru, NY. We are only a few miles away from Lake Champlain. Rachel and Jason went to the Recereation Hall at 7pm to play Bingo much to Jake and Brooke's laughter. We had a good time playing Bingo for only $4 total. Unfortunately we did not win though Jason was close in the last game...the big one! We then retied to the RV to play games with the kids. We are looking forward to our ferry ride with the RV across Lake Champlain and eventually to the Ben and Jerry's factory in Waterbury, VT.

Friday, June 28

The house on wheels rolled out of the KOA around 9 a.m. heading east towards the Finger Lakes area. While we originally planned to visit the area we felt that a lot of the cool stuff to see was on the south side of the lakes and that we would save it for our summer 2014 trip. We headed to Syracuse, where our first stop was Destiny USA...a mega mall that has 3 levels complete with an indoor rope climbing course, go kart track and of course every shop you could imagine. We spent a few hours wandering around and Jason of course bought a few more polos to add to his collection! Lunch was prepared and served in the parking lot before we headed to the campus of Syracuse University. Navigating a 31 foot motorhome on a college campus can be a challenge as we found out over spring break when we visited the beautiful campus of Duke. Syracuse offered narrow roads and steep inclines as the campus lays nestled in a very hilly region...add on the detour due to construction and we consider ourselves fortunate to have made it on and off campus with no major incidents. We found a large lot to park in right by the Carrier Dome, which is what we were hoping to visit. A short walk lead us to this monstrous building, and a little bit of luck landed us there on a day that a kid camp was being offered, so the facility was open for us to walk through. I don't think any of us realized the true magnitude of the dome. The Carrier Dome houses a wide variety athletic competitions including basketball, field hockey and football. The floor of the dome had 10 full-sized basketball courts set up on it for the camp! As we were walking around we came upon a diagram that shows how the facility is set up for basketball games—the single court is set up on the far end of the dome, and a set of portable bleachers is pulled up to the side of the court that is not surrounded by the permanent. The set up for the event only used up 1/3 of the entire facility...definitely not what you see when you watch it on TV. After the visit to Syracuse we made a quick stop at one of our favorite road trip destinations—Target! We pulled into the Old Forge Campground Resort around 6 pm, ate dinner and then rode our bikes into town to visit a few shops and take in the scenery. We rounded out the night with some showers and another round of our favorite, new game...buzzwords.

Thursday, June 27

We managed to roll out of our neighborhood earlier than anticipated until the “false start” horn sounded. A summer road trip would not be complete if I (Rachel) did not do something stupid, and this trip would be no different as I realized I never packed my wallet...so we made a turn around in Win-Mil-Farms and headed back for home. The good news is that was the only hiccup for the day! We made it into and out of Canada with no issues and no stops. We stopped in a shopping center somewhere in New York to eat dinner and then continued to Farmington, NY just outside of Rochester where we set up camp for the night at the Rochester/Canandaguia KOA. It was a rainy night, so we opened up a new game (Buzzwords) and had quite a few laughs.

2 days until we leave!

Today we decided that we needed to get serious and make our reservation for Bar Harbor being that is just before the 4th of July.  We called the one park and they had room for us for the first 2 nights but not the 3rd.  I booked them both.  I then called the more expensive place and managed to get a spot for the 3rd night that we will be in Bar Harbor.

We then focused on trying to find a place to stay on the 4th of July in Massachusetts, somewhere we could catch a fireworks show but not Boston.  (We are going to Boston next summer).   After calling 5 different places we are still looking.  Every place either was booked solid or had a 3 or 4 night minimum stay.  I think a Walmart parking lot is looking pretty good right now.  We are pretty much just going to stop somewhere and sleep before hitting the road on the 5th.

Tomorrow will be a big day as we get the motorhome prepped and loaded.  I need to get the propane tank filled and to fill the freshwater tank and make sure that all the systems are working and ready to roll.  We also will work on making a couple more reservations, one of which will hopefully be a "luge experience" in Lake Placid, NY.  I have a feeling we might strikeout on that one too but it is worth a shot.

We are all looking forward to getting on the road and on our vacation!