The Simple Life

When we told family and friends that when we retired we wanted to be full time Rvers, we got a lot of shocked looks and I'm sure a few comments wondering if we were crazy. (Some of them may still think we are crazy!!) Most people couldn't believe that we were going to sell our house, get rid of most of our personal belongings and hit the road. For us this represents a simpler life. For over two years now, we have made our 40 foot fifth wheel home. Of course, we still have air conditioning, a microwave oven, two flat screen tv's and a king size bed.

This week we spent a day in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. This area has one of the largest Amish populations in the country. It is these people that really have a simpler life. They live their lives with no electricity, no automobiles and without many of the modern conveniences that most of us couldn't imagine living without.

We started our tour taking a buggy ride through the area and visited a working dairy farm.

Yes Jen, we saw lots of cows!!

As we arrived at the barn, several of the children ran in and started climbing the haystacks. They were of course dressed in the simple manner of the Amish. I was surprised that they didn't mind having their pictures taken. I was under the impression that this was forbidden, but no one told us not to, so we took some pictures of them.




Our Amish guide explained how the farm worked and showed us the tools they use to milk the cows. It was here that I started to become a skeptic about the Amish life style. They don't believe in using electricity or drive automobiles, however, they have no problem using a milking machine that is run by a diesel generator... They also store the milk in a large cooling tank again run with the diesel generator.

We saw the plow that is being pulled by four to six horses to plow their fields. But then we saw the rolled bales of hay wrapped in plastic. It seems that they hire someone outside of their community to do this for them in the fall....





Not being timid, I did question our guide about this. It seems that while they do try to keep with the simpler way of life, they are not opposed to embracing some things that will make their lives easier. Basically it comes down to how quickly will they embrace changes. Where most of us in mainstream America are excited about trying out the newest gadgets as soon as they hit the market, the Amish are slow to make changes in their lifestyle. Something that may have been considered taboo to do twenty five years ago, may start to be accepted by the Amish people today. They will ride in cars, just not drive them. They have indoor plumbing. They heat their houses and have hot water by using propane. They'll use a phone if it's for business or an emergency. They just take life in the slow, slow, slow lane.

There is a peace and serenity when you see the Amish living their lives.  Watching the farmers leading their team of horses while plowing the fields.  Seeing two young Amish boys race their horse and buggy around a track. The memories of childhood when everyone hung their wash on the line to dry.





The smell of fresh air while gazing across the well kept farms and rolling hills. I'm sure we all can remember a time in our lives when the clock ticked a little bit slower. Maybe that's really not such a bad thing.

Next stop Florida...

We have finally reached the point in our travels that we have to turn west and head back to Chicago. Of course, we have made a few stops along the way. From Massachusetts, we headed to Florida....Florida New York that is. Its a very nice area about 50 miles northeast of New York City. It is nestled in the Hudson River Valley. Again, we were surprised to see how many trees and open fields there were in this area. I can understand why people who work in the city would want to leave out here. The hills and trees are beautiful.

Probably one of the most important places in the Hudson River Valley is West Point Military Academy. We were lucky that we arrived there on Tuesday. Graduation was on the Saturday before and I'm sure the place was extremely busy then.

We did see groups of student/soldiers waiting on the parade grounds to board buses for either home or to their next training location. It was weird seeing them with guns on their shoulders.

We took a two hour narrated bus trip around the campus. Security here is very strict. You have to show a picture ID at two different security points prior to gaining access to the campus. One which has armed military police!. Our tour guide was very informative.

During the American Revolutionary war, George Washington had defended this area from the British. It's location on the Hudson River was an ideal place for a fort. As you can see the weather was still gray and raining. Luckily during the tour the rain stayed away for the most part.







The buildings are all constructed in the Greek Military fashion. It was hard to tell which buildings were over a hundred years old and which ones were fairly new. They are all maintained so nicely. This is a picture of some of the dormitories.

Behind the buildings are the courtyards where the cadets who receive demerits most walk the square in full combat attire (pack and gun) as punishment for an indiscretions.

This is a statue of Sylvanus Thayer who is considered the Father of West Point. Legend has it that if a cadet spins his spurs at midnight the night before final exams, he will pass his tests. Fred is trying his hand at spinning the spurs.







Probably the most interesting thing we saw at West Point was the cemetery. (Are you seeing a common thread here!!) It is a military cemetery and for the most part, in order to be buried here, you have had to either gone to school here, taught or worked here or been a very prominent citizens of the town of West Point. The gravestones were very interesting.

There were the standard government issued stone that you see at a National Cemetery and  like the ones surrounding the monument shown above and then there are some very elaborate ones like these. However, after these were built, they realized that they take up so much space that they'd run out of room in the cemetery, so now you can't have giant monuments any more.





It still amazes me that I am so lucky to be able to travel throughout the United States and see all of these wonderful places. It also makes me stop and think..  There are many times when we gripe and complain about our government, but in the end, there is no other place that I'd rather be than the United States of America.

History Lessons in New England

Some people think that this life style is easy and stress free. Well, for the most part it is. That is until you take a 40 foot fifth wheel around New York City!!! Of course it was a Monday morning too! For the most part the drive up the New Jersey coast went well. We planned our trip so that morning rush hour would be over. But I guess that around a city the size of New York, it's always rush hour. As we made our way past Newark, this is what we had imagined that all of New Jersey looked like. Lots of commercial activities and highways crisscrossing back and forth like a bowl of spaghetti.

We crossed the New Jersey/New York border over the Hudson River by way of the George Washington Bridge. Like all of the roads in and around New York/New Jersey, it is a toll bridge. I know cars cost $13, I imagine that the RV and truck cost more, but we used our IPass so I won't know the exact cost until I check my account.  Since our rig is so big, we had to use the upper level of the bridge. We weren't surprised to see a back up into the toll booth, however, once we were on the bridge, we expected traffic to move along. But it didn't... When you hear about bridges collapsing in Washington, and you are sitting with hundreds of cars, tractor trailers and trucks, in makes you a bit nervous when you are sitting there stuck in traffic!!! Despite the traffic jam, the bridge held and we slowly made our way on the Cross Bronx Expressway.  Looking at the endless high rise apartment buildings, I can't imagine having to live there. City life is not for me.

Like so many people that work in New York, they live in Connecticut...we also opted to stay in Connecticut. We stayed at a really pretty campground called Riverdale Farms Campground. It was in a beautiful rural setting and the staff was so friendly.

We started our history lesson with a geocache in Old Saybrooke along the Connecticut River. We learned about the Dutch who first lived in the area and the British who forced them out. There were also wonderful views of Long Island Sound. We could see some of the big houses and imaging what life must be like for the rich and not so famous. We took a walk along the newly repaired marina.

They had sustained some significant damage last October during Hurricane Sandy. Another geocache lead us to a marsh area where we saw a family of ospreys taking care of there new babies.

Our second history lesson was at the Connecticut River Museum in Essex. This area was a busy port in the early 1800's. During the war of 1812, the British came into the harbor and burned and sunk fifteen ships that were in the harbor.







From Connecticut we traveled a bit further north into Rhode Island. We are currently working on completing two bucket list quests. Rving in all fifty states and geocaching in all 50 states. So we spent a night in Rhode Island and checked that state off our lists. It was a short easy drive, so once we were set up in the campground we headed out for our geocaches.

We have found some of the most interesting caches in cemeteries, and this was no different. This cemetery was so old that you couldn't even read the names or dates on most of the tombstones.

The neatest part though, was the crypt that was open. Luckily, I didn't see any bones in there!

Something that we noticed as we were driving throughout the area was how green and lush everything was. We were both surprised to see so many areas thick with trees.

They other thing was the stone walls that you could see winding through the woods and along the sides of the roads. Oh if only they could talk, what they must have seen and experienced over the centuries.

We had a very interesting dinner at a haunted tavern. The tavern has been in use since before the American Revolution. Fred had a very weird experience while we were there. He got up to use the bathroom and as he approached it, he saw the door closing ahead of him. He went in, and did his business and hearing someone else doing their business in the next stall...However, when he looked around, he realized that he was alone....

The next state on our list was Massachusetts. We again took advantage of our Thousand Trails membership and stayed at the preserve in Sturbridge. We planned our stay so that we arrived on the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend so that we could get a decent site. The campground is ok. We've noticed with most of the TT campgrounds that they all need some TLC. This one was no different. The sites are usually back-ins and at times just fit our big rig. We were glad we got there early, because I think we got one of the last sites. The calendar may have said that summer was starting, the weather however did not get the memo. It was cold (45-50) and raining (record rains for that time of year) the whole weekend while we were here. Thank goodness for heated seats in the truck ("heat seaters") and fleece blankets in the RV!.

Since the weather was so unfavorable, we didn't want to do much outdoors activities. While driving we saw a brown sign for Blackstone River Valley National Corridor. I grabbed my iPhone and googled it. It's a National Park with four Visitors Centers...  We headed for the nearest one which happened to be the Museum of Work and Culture in Woonstocket MA. We found out that it was along the Blackstone River that the Industrial Revolution in America was born. It was here that the United States moved from a farming country to an industrial country. We learned all about the textile industries throughout this region. I wish I had taken a picture of the homes in the area. Many of the older homes, were built by "the company" to house the workers. They were three story houses all of similar design with porches on each floor. One family would occupy each floor, with three families per building.

The next day we took a ride back into Rhode Island so that Fred could go to the Quonset Air Museum. They are only open on weekends, so it didn't fit into our schedule while we were there earlier in the week. They advertised that they had Nike equipment, so Fred wanted to see what they had and if he could get a lead on some more equipment for the Nike site at Everglades National Park. Unfortunately, all they had was one Ajax missile and no information as to where that came from. But since we were there, we did look at some of the air planes that they have or are restoring.

We then continued our education on the history of manufacturing in the Blackstone River Valley. This time we went to the Slater Mill in Pawtucket Rhode Island

Samuel Slater was the gentleman credited with being the father of the Industrialization of America. Back in the late 1700's, England had already developed machines for the textile industry, but they wanted to have a monopoly on this technology. So they made it unlawful for anyone working in the mills to leave the country. Samuel Slater had worked his way up through the ranks in a mill until he had learned the trade and was one of the chief engineers there. He told his boss that he was taking a few days off, dressing as a member of the lower class, he booked passage on a ship to the US. When he arrived in New York, he was talking to a ships captain from Pawtucket and told him what he did. The captain knew of a man back home who was trying to build a machine that would spin cotton into threads.

This is exactly what Slater knew how to do. So he went to Pawtucket and within a year he had successfully built the machine. He would become a very successful business man. They say that when he died he was worth over $10 million!

The museum had several different pieces of machinery that were used in this process. The cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney, which separated out the seeds from the cotton. The machine that combed the cotton into soft threads and finally the machine that Slater built that spun the cotton into threads. It was so interesting to see how the process works.

Here is Fred beside the water wheel that powered the equipment in the mill.

As part of the museum, they also had a homestead that showed how some of the more affluent workers lived. I never knew where linen came from... Its actually from a plant! The workers would grow flax in their gardens.  We saw how by hand they would break the outer layer of the plant to get the soft flax threads from inside. They then combed the flax until it was nice and soft and then they would spin it into treads on their spinning wheel. Most people back then would wait for the weaver to come into town with his portable loom where he would weave the threads into cloth. I'm not sure if we learned this stuff in school, but I can tell you that if we did, it sure wasn't as interesting as seeing it done in person.

New Jersey, New York and a Turtle

We are getting real good at these ferry crossings. . Again we decided to save gas money and take a ferry from Lewe, Delaware to Cape May, New Jersey. We made arrangements to take the 12:45 crossing, but got there just as the 11:30 one was ready to leave.

So they quickly got us on board and we were on our way. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the sunshine and ocean breeze.










 We were pleasantly surprised at the scenery in southeastern New Jersey. We understand now why it is called the Garden State. I wish I knew all the names of the trees that were in bloom. There were some beautiful purple trees, that almost looked like lilac bushes and also some red flowering trees lining the Garden State Parkway. The down side of all the flowering trees is the pollen. In the morning it looked like it had snowed on our vehicle. It was thick with yellow "Fairy Dust". It also put my allergies in high gear.

We visited a cute town called Smithville. They have a quaint historic village with lots of unique little shops. I'm sure Fred may be having second thoughts of going there, because I did a good amount of shopping. But now I have almost finished decorating the inside of the RV!!

It was a pleasant day to go to Atlantic City. We haven't had any luck gambling this week. We didn't win the Powerball or at the slot machines in the Trump Casino.

We did see some of the damage done by Hurricane Sandy last October, but for the most part, the Boardwalk looks good. We decided that we liked the Broadway at Ocean City better. It had the feel of a down to earth  fun place where as Atlantic City was a bit hootie tootie for our taste.





Fred wanted to see the 9/11 Memorial in New York City while we were in the area, but we had no desire to drive into the city on our own.  We were able to drive about 30 miles north of us to Tom's River NJ and take an express bus into the Port Authority in Manhattan. From there we took a subway to lower Manhattan. They definitely have a system for getting people into the Memorial. First we waited about 30 minutes in line so that we could get tickets. The tickets are free. You can get them on line ahead of time, but we didn't know that. Once you have your tickets, its a six block walk over to ground zero. There it took us about 40 minutes to go through the security line. You have to have purses, backpacks etc. go through the x-ray machines like at the airport. We had to go through a metal detector. Once inside the memorial, the first thing that I saw was the BIGGEST rat, running through the construction site next door. I figured that this was  typical for New York.

The Memorial itself if very nice. There are two infinity like pools. Each one in the foot print of the two World Trade Center buildings. The pools are four sided with a waterfall flowing from all four sides, with another four sided waterfall in the middle that gives you the impression that it has no bottom. The names of the people killed in the February 1993 bombing are on the north pool and the victims from the 9/11 bombing on the south pool. Eventually, there will be a museum there.

We also saw the Survivor Tree. After the bombing, this tree was damaged, however, someone decided that it should be saved and it's the only tree that was in the area back then that did survive.













We were also able to see the new buildings going up in the area. (There were a total of nine buildings torn down in the area after 9/11). This building is now the tallest building in the United States.

While the 9/11 Memorial was interesting and it gave you a humbling feeling seeing and imaging what took place here, I still did not like New York. Too many people and too much noise for me.

The most exciting part of this area was trying to leave the campground this morning... When we went out to hook up the truck we found one of the biggest snapping turtles relaxing under our vehicle.

The picture doesn't do him any justice, because he had to be 16 - 18 inches across. I'm sure that Fred and I looked hilarious, trying to get this guy out of the way. First I had to push it under the truck a bit so that Fred could move the truck.

Then Fred and I equipped with walking sticks and the garden hose tried to encourage him to move. Needless to say, he did not like this. He was hissing and snapping at us. And the nails this guy had!! Boy, he could have done some serious damage to a finger. We finally succeeded into flipping him over and scooting him across the ground on his back. Once we got him out of the way so we could hook up the RV, he walked over and settled under someone else's rig. If anyone had taken a video of us, I think it could have one a prize on America's Funniest Videos.

Happy Anniversary!

It was 50 years ago today, that my dad married Jean, and I got a new mom.

 Wishing them many more years of happiness. Love to both of you.

The Eastern Shore

I have always prided myself on being a brave and adventurous person, but something has happened as I have gotten older. I have developed a fear of heights. It's not just being on a ladder, it's also crossing over anything that's not close to the ground, like bridges. When leaving Williamsburg we had the choice of driving 340 miles by land or 107 miles including the bridge..we took the bridge. The 20 mile ride over the Chesapeake Bay was an experience!! This included three bridges and two tunnels.

In this case it wasn't so much the bridges that were scary, it was looking off into the distance and realizing that the road seemed to stop ahead of us. And I have to admit, it really wasn't that bad.





The Eastern Shore is what they call the northern part of Virginia that is under Maryland, it also includes the part of Maryland that is south of Delaware. It is a beautiful place! It's mostly old fishing towns and surprisingly farmland.

Perdue Farms (as in Jim Perdue and his chickens) has their corporate headquarters in Salisbury Maryland and several processing plants in the area. Tyson Foods also has processing plants here too. So most of the produce including fields of marigolds are used to feed the chickens. Of course there are also lots of chicken farmers in the area. The winds were favorable most of the time, but I'm sure the neighbors don't always appreciate the chicken farmers!!

We spent parts of two days enjoying the wild horses of Asseteague. One day we went to the south portion of the Asseteague National Seashore and the Island of Chincoteague. The town itself is charming and we had a wonderful seafood lunch there. The drive over the causeway is something else. As you approach the causeway, you see beautiful marshland on both sides of the road. We saw numerous different kinds of birds, from egrets to gulls. As you round the crest of the first bridge and you look to the north...and all you see are billboards.... It's so sad, that they felt the need to ruin such a beautiful view with dozens of billboards.

We did stop at the State Park's Visitor Center and learned how the Fire Department of Chincoteague have been taking care of the wild horses for years. There are two stories as to where these horses came from: they are either descendants of Spanish horses that swam ashore from a ship wrecked galleon, or they are descendants from colonial times, when the colonists put their horses on the island to graze in order to avoid paying a livestock tax.


In order to control the population of horses at the south end of the island. The Chincoteague Fire Department holds a roundup every year in July called the Pony Penning. They swim the horses across the water from Asseteague Island to Chincoteague Island and then auction off some of the horses.

They try to keep the herd at 150 horses. Unfortunately here, you can't get up close to the horses.

In addition, there are wonderful trails around the island where we saw the rare Delmarva fox squirell. We were hoping to see the Sitka elk, but maybe next time.

And what day would be complete without a geocache at the lighthouse. So far we have thirteen straight days of caching!!







Another day we drove up to the northern part of Asseteague Island and saw some of the horses that the National Park maintains.

Here we were able to see a few of the horses up close.

They have several campgrounds on the island, so we talked to a ranger and a volunteer couple about being hosts.

Always planning ahead. I would love to spend a few months here, watching the horses and walking the beaches.










A trip to the Eastern Shore is not complete without going to Ocean City Maryland. We have never been to a place like this before... It was a carnival atmosphere on the beach.

We never saw so many hot dog stands, funnel cake shops, and t shirt stands. We were going to eat some good fresh seafood, but the temptation was to much.  Let's just say it wasn't a healthy lunch! They were still doing some repairs and clean up from Hurricane Sandy, but I'm sure things will be hopping come Memorial Day weekend.





 One thing that we enjoy about our travels is visiting with old friends. I have a high school friend who now lives in Salisbury Maryland. Unfortunately, she was back in Kenosha visiting her sister, but Fred and I were able to spend an evening with her husband.

The campground that we stayed at was in the middle of nowhere. It was almost ten miles from the nearest town, but it was so peaceful. There were very few other campers, so it was very quiet. We spent a quiet day relaxing, doing laundry, some minor household chores, reading and wandering along the marsh.

Life doesn't get any better than this!

History Lessons in Virginia

I never cared for the career that I ended up in.  As my family knows, for years I would say "When I grow up I want to be a Park Ranger." Well the other career that I would have liked to have was a history teacher.  However, those that know me also know that I have no patience for that. But to this day I still love to learn more about United States history and there is no better place to do that then on the East coast.

We had a picture perfect day for travelling from the Outer Banks NC to Williamsburg VA.  Along the way we stopped at the Great Dismal Swamp. (For those of you who have read the Diana Galbadon's Outlander series, William gets lost in this swamp!)

George Washington was the surveyor, who surveyed this area so that the canal could be dug for the inland waterway.

We stopped at the Great Dismal Swamp State Park and had a nice lunch in the RV and then took a short walk on the nature trail. There is one advantage of visiting this area early in May..no mosquitoes yet.



The good weather only lasted long enough for us to arrive at the campground and then the heavens opened up on us. But we have gotten really good at setting up the RV, so it wasn't too bad. We again stayed at a Thousand Trails campground. It was a muddy mess when we arrived, but quickly drained and dried up once it quit raining.

Our first history lesson was Jamestown. The first colony settled in the United States in 1607. We thought we'd stay a few hours here, but it was so fascinating that we spent the whole day.  There is actually two sections to seeing Jamestown. The first is a recreation of the original colony, it is a short distance away from where the original colony was located.

 The village has been recreated to look like it did back in 1607.  It was nice, but if you've seen other recreated towns, it doesn't look that different.







 The real interesting part was the archaeology site. This is located where the original colony was located. We went on a very interesting talk that lasted about an hour. The young man leading the tour was excellent. He did a great job of explaining why they picked the site that they did.  How they interacted with the Native Americans. And what went wrong. Or at least what they think went wrong. Through the archaeology research they are still learning what happened back then.

Just last week, it was confirmed that the colonists had to resort to cannibalism in order to survive. We were able to see the ongoing dig where they found the remains of "Jane" the young girl who was eaten.

They also had several "tall" ships that were reproductions of the types of ships that would have been in use during the early 1600's. When you actually see how small those ships were, it's a wonder anyone made it safely across the ocean.

We also learned that not everything you see in a movie these days is accurate. If you've ever watched the Disney movie Pocahontas, you would know that she married John Smith. Wrong. She actually married a colonists named John Rolfe. She went back to England with him and died within two years. Not the  feel good story that Disney portrays.




The second history lesson that we had was at Colonial Williamsburg. This is another town that has been recreated.

The Royal Governor's Palace

There are over 100 buildings in the town that are either the original buildings or have been reproduced to look like the original buildings that stood there during the American Revolution. There are people portraying characters that would have lived in the village during this period.

A local merchant

Depending on who is being portrayed, they tell you their story either from a Loyalist or a Patriots point of view. Walking in the village, you may encounter the Royal Governor, Patrick Henry, the local blacksmith or the owner of the local tavern.

 The most interesting person that we encountered was a man portraying a slave on a nearby plantation. He explained that he didn't want to give you the impression of a typical slave, but wanted us to realize that the majority of the people standing in the slave cabin with him probably were not descendants of upper class people. Most of the early settlers that came to America came here to find a better life for themselves and for their families. This meant that most of our ancestors struggled to survive. They experienced more hardship in one a day, a week, a month  than most of us will experience in our life time. And that most of them started out as farmers, laborers or poor tradesmen living in a dirt floor shack just like the one that a typical slave lived in.

It was an interesting analogy that neither Fred nor I had ever considered. It gave me a lot more respect for my  great great great (etc) grandfather who I have traced back to what is now Maine back in 1680.

I have to admit that Colonial Williamsburg was not quite what I expected it to be. I thought that there would have been more interaction with colonists in the streets. More merchants and town folks walking around, or maybe a group of soldiers drilling in the parade grounds in front of the Governor's Mansion.  But this could have been that we were there the second week of May and the real season does not start until Memorial Day. But overall, it was an interesting place to visit. We also did some interesting virtual geocaches in the town.

The last historical site that we went to was Yorktown. It was the least impressive of the sites that we've seen, but historically it was the most important place. This was the site of the determining battle during the American Revolutionary War. It was here that George Washington, Lafayette and thousands of soldiers eventually defeated Cornwallis forcing him to surrender. This was the turning point in the war that culminated in the formation of the United States of America!!

Fred trying out a musket, it is long and heavy

Re-Enactors shooting off the cannon

Victory Memorial

We listened to another wonderful talk by a National Park Service Ranger. There isn't much to see at Yorktown, except for the field where the battle took place. But the talk was so good, that if you closed your eyes, you could envision that battle that took place, smell the gunpowder in the air, feel the ground tremble with each cannon blast. It was very moving.



The old village of Yorktown is now filled with shops and restaurants and a very nice river walk. We had a quiet lunch on the shores of the York River, and of course, found a few geocaches in the area as well.