Marty's Multi-Modal Day

good to the last drop

waffle w/ chocolate syrup

Sunday, October 30th.  We started the day in a very special way.  Marty prepared breakfast of waffles and dope.  For those not familiar, dope is not an illegal substance.  It is a wonderful chocolate syrup, home made, that has come down to us through the Brastrom family.  Our mom made it for us all while we were growing up.  Marty has the recipe and it is the best thing to ever go on a waffle.  Sooo good!!!

Buster wanted to go too

We then went to Costco to replenish the liquor supply for the motor home.  We then went to the airport to see Marty's airplane.  It just had a new interior done and it looked very nice.  The engine was out of the plane as it was being rebuilt.  But it's a beautiful plane and I'm looking forward to a ride when we come back to Tallahassee.  We went back to Marty's and prepared to take a 'bike' ride.  Oh yeah, Marty has a beautiful Harley Davidson motorcycle.  We got dressed to go and took off for an exciting fifteen minute ride.  I had never been on a motorcycle before (except for a Honda 90 back in the late 60's).  It was exhilerating!!!  The wind in my face awesome noise the bike made were like nothing I've ever experienced before.  It was very fun!!

We then went to a great seafood restaurant where we started with plate of fresh-caught oysters and then moved on to a great Grouper dinner.  What a wonderful end to a great weekend.  It was great to see Marty and a true pleasure to meet Jan.  She's a true southern belle and taught us it's possible to swear without using swear words.  She's precious (and I mean that in a good way) and a great partner for Marty.

Tallahassee Tour I

Marty and Jan...aren't they precious

Marty's house

living room into dining room

Saturday, October 29th.  Game day.  There were FSU flags waving all over town.  Most of the other campers in the campground were fans in town to go to the game.  The campground hosted a breakfast that morning and it was nice to meet many of the other campers.  We then went to Marty's house to begin our day of sightseeing.  Marty and Jan drove us around the downtown and then through the FSU campus.  A very pretty campus.  We saw Jan's Sorority house and the house where the 4 girls lived who were killed by Ted Bundy.

We then drove down to St. Mark's Island, which is a wildlife sanctuary and the site of a lighthouse.  Besides lots of birds (and alligators) this was a stopping point for Monarch Butterflies.  There were literally thousands of them.  The sand on the beach was that very fine (like sugar) white white sand.  Marty said we would see more of that when we get to Destin.

We then went back to Marty's for a great steak fry.  Marty introduced me to his 'secret sauce' to marinate the steaks.  It was delicious.  We also had some of the best asparagus I've ever had.  Then Marty and Jan's friends, Mark and Candy came over for dessert.  Very nice folks.  Mark introduced Marty to Harley driving and has been a good friend since Marty moved to Tallahassee.  Candy made us a delicious batch of Chocolate Chip cookies and they will be accompanying us on our trip to Arizona.  It was a great day.

South to Tallahassee

Friday, October 28th.  We had about a 5-hour drive to get to Tallahassee.  Marty met us at the I-10 off ramp and accompanied us to the campground.  We got settled in and then Marty took us to his home, where we met Jan and saw David for the first time since he was a young teenager.  His home is very nice and beautifully decorated.  It's in a nice new neighborhood in Tallahassee.

This was a home football weekend for the Florida State Seminoles so lots of people were in town for the game and parents weekend.  Marty and Jan took us to a downtown street fair which is held every Friday night when there's a home football game.  It's called the Downtown Git Down.  There's a number of food booths and two band stages.  There were thousands of people there on a very nice evening.  Lots of fun.  They then took us to Cracker Barrel restaurant for some genuine southern cooking.  It was very good.  We'll definitely go to one of those again.  It's nice to be in Tallahassee with Marty and to finally meet Jan.  We're looking forward to a great weekend.

Savannah II

typical historic home

Gen. Sherman's hdqtrs during Civ.War

moss in the trees typical

a homeless person pandering for gas $

Thursday, October 27th.  Another nice day today.  In the low 80's.  We went back to Savannah to walk the downtown and see all of the squares.  There are about 19 such squares in the town with most having a statue or a fountain.  Most feature very old Live Oak Trees draped with Spanish Moss.   We were told that the moss is not a parasite so it doesn't harm the host tree.  It is very beautiful.  Each of the squares is named after a nationally or locally important person.  The folks that live around a square relate their location to the square...i.e.  the Madison neighborhood or the Lafayette neighborhood.  The architecture is beautiful.  But it's hard to photograph because the darned trees get in the way of the houses.  Savannah has to be one of the most beautiful cities in the nation.  We will definitely come back here again.

Savannah/Paula Dean's

mmmm good

Wednesday, October 26th.  We had a 3 hour drive down to Savannah.  Our campground was on Skidaway Island, south of the City.  The campground was beautiful with lots of old live oak trees draped with Spanish moss.  After getting set up we drove into the city, got our bearings and started searching for a restaurant for dinner.  We went to Paula Dean's restaurant, The Lady and her Sons, to see how long the wait would be to eat there.  Surprisingly, we only had a 10 minute wait.  So we enjoyed a wonderful classic southern meal.  It was awesome.  After dinner we explored the downtown briefly and then headed back to the campground.  We're looking forward to seeing the town more thoroughly tomorrow.

Myrtle Beach

Thursday, October 20th thru Tuesday, October 25th.  Myrtle Beach was beautiful and the campground was very nice.  We were supposed to leave on Saturday.  We got all packed up and when we tried to close the living room slideout on the motorhome, it wouldn't close.  Since it was Saturday, we couldn't find a repair person to come out until Monday.  So we were 'stuck' in Myrtle Beach.  We can't complain...the weather was beautiful and our neighbors in the campground were very nice.  On Monday the technician said it needed a new motor.  They found that it would take 7 days to get a new motor delivered.  So we decided to manually close the slide and leave it closed until Arizona, where we'll have more time get it taken care of.  So on Tuesday, we bid our neighbors farewell and hit the road for Charleston, SC.

It was about a 2 hour drive to Charleston.  The campground was south of town.  It was a very nice campground.  Because of our schedule and how it was impacted by the delay in Myrtle Beach, we passed on spending time in Charleston.  But we will definitely be back to the campground and to the Charleston area.

South to Myrtle Beach

Wednesday, October 19th.  It rained hard last night.  We awoke to a cloudy sky, but with promises for clearing.  We packed up and left at about 11:00.  It was a 3 hour drive to Myrtle Beach and the sun came out as we headed south.  It's a nice campground, but very tight in terms of getting into our site.  With skilled driving on my part and good directions on Diane's part we got into the site and got set up.  The campground fronts on the intercoastal waterway so we occasionally see boats going up and down (not bobbing in the water, but going north and south).  Even tho it wasn't raining, it was quite windy and continued to be windy throughout the night.  

Surf City II

Nice beach and water wasnt' real cold

Tuesday, October 18th.  This morning was a cleaning day.  I washed the motorhome while Diane did laundry and other indoor cleaning.  In the afternoon we went to the beach and had a great walk.  For dinner we went to Batt's Diner.  It's kind of a marginal looking place.  But the parking lot is full...and it's mostly locals.  Their menu offers breakfast items including a ham and cheese omelet with grits and toast for $3.95.  And they have good seafood.  Diane had clam strips.  I had shrimp and flounder.  They were both served with hush puppies.  I'm not sure what hush puppies are made of, but they were good.  I'm still waiting to have good southern fried chicken on this trip.

Surf City, North Carolina

View from our site-intercoastal waterway

Monday, October 17th.  It was about a five hour drive to Ocean City.  It is located on Topsail Island, an extension of the Outer Banks.  It's a small town.  But during tourist time, the population goes way up.  The campground is privately owned and the sites are very close together.  We have a great site, right on the water.  Its' the intercoastal waterway that allows boats to move up and down along the coast while being in protected water.  It's very beautiful.  We had to turn on our air conditioner for the first time in several weeks.  Hopefully we'll continue to have warm weather for a while.

Virginia Beach

  Sunday, October 16th.  A sunny day.  Where the campground had been full the day before for the Halloween festivities, folks were clearing out and heading home.  We took Buster to the beach.  Virginia Beach has a great boardwalk that extends for about 13 miles along the beach.  The walkway is about 30 feet wide located right at the beach wall.  There intermittent stairs going down to the beautiful sand beach.  On the back side of the walkway, there's lots of benches and street art.  Also, lots of restaurants and watering holes along the walkway.  There is a separate 15 foot wide bike path for bikes, skateboards, and push scooters.  There's bike rentals for single bikes and up to 6 passenger bike carts.  It's a very fun atmosphere.  The one downer was that they were dredging sand from off-shore and pumping a sand slurry back to the beach to make a bigger beach.  The slurry was full of mud as well as the sand, resulting in muddy water washing up on the beach.  But it was still a great day.

The campground is right in the flightpath of the Oceana Naval Air Station.  We didn't hear much compared to other times.  But when they went over (mostly take-offs) you couldn't carry on a conversation.  The Sound of Freedon!!!

Headed to Virginia Beach

Saturday, October 15th.  We awoke to a sunny clear day.  We headed out for Virginia Beach.  All along the freeway heading east, we saw cars with Virginia or West Virginia flags on them.  Folks take their college football very seriously.  The whole Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Hampton area is very urban with roads crossing over and under the Chesapeake Bay.  We went thru a long tunnel with narrow lanes...pretty intense.  We made it to our campground, which is about a quarter mile from the beach.  It's a very nice campground and huge.  They take halloween very seriously here.  They had decorations all over the place and the other campers have their rigs all decorated with halloween stuff.  They had a haunted house and played loud, 'scary' music til 11, which is when quiet time begins in most of these places.  It was fun to see all the decorations and the kids in their costumes.

The Blue Ridge Parkway

Friday, October 14th.  It rained quite a bit last night.  But when we got up, the rain had quit and there was a little bit of clearing going on.  By the time we hit the road we could see sun in the south and heavy clouds to the north.  Fortunately, we were heading south on the pkwy.  The Blue Ridge Pkwy is about a 430+ mile road along the spine of the Blue Ridge mountains.  It starts in the Waynesboro area and extends south thru Virginia and into North Carolina.  There's lots of twists and turns to the road and lots of pull-offs to see vistas.  So the traffic is moving in the 35-45 mph range.  Fortunately there wasn't much traffic.  But I can imagine it would be quite heavy in the summer.  Actually fall is definitely the time to go because of color changes to the leaves, both up close and in distant views.

We visited a demonstration farm that shows how the original settlers, mostly Scottish, Irish and German, survived in the mountains.  These are the folks I have come to know as 'hillbillies'.  Very ingenious and adaptive to survive and make due with very little that they couldn't grow or make for themselves.  Buster was interested in making friends with a hillybilly chicken.  They mostly settled in flat  areas between peaks.  Those were called hollows or 'hollers'.

We took a side trip to Glasgow, VA to see a natural bridge.  What a rip-off!!!  It was privately owned and they charged $18 per person to see this thing that was no more phenominal than the natural bridge that is up by Payson, AZ.  It's like the biggest ball of string or the corn palace.

It was a great day...well worth getting thru the rainy days.  We took lots of pictures so it's hard to pick just a few for the blog.  I would highly recommend this road trip for anyone in the future.

Appomattox Courthouse

the McLean residence

artist's depiction of the meeting

Thursday, October 13th.  It was still heavily overcast and too foggy to see anything on the Blue Ridge Pkwy drive.  So we drove to Appomattox, the site of the General Lee's formal surrender to General Grant in April of 1865.  The town's actual name then was Appomattox Courthouse because it's the location of the county courthouse.  The actual surrender was done after a final major loss of a battle which resulted in Confederate troops being cut off from all supply lines.  Lee notified Grant that he wanted to discuss surrender.  They met at the McLean residence to discuss the terms of surrender.  As directed by President Lincoln, Grant called for a very humane, 'gentlemanly' surrender.  The southern troops were to be granted paroles and allowed to return to their homes.  Grant ordered that there would be no 'in your face' celebrations by the union troops and that all would be treated with respect.  At the conclusion of their meeting, they shook hands and left it to their aides to finalize the conditions of surrender.  Grants staff also started printing parole documents for each confederate soldier...some 21,000... that were present at Appomattox.  The next day the formal surrender occurred.  The union troops were lined up on either side of the road and Lee, his generals and thousands of his troops passed thru them.  There was a great deal of mutual respect displayed that day.  The healing of the nation began then.

Monticello in the Rain

Wednesday, October 12th.  It rained most of last night and we were still getting bombarded by acorns.  It was quite overcast when we got up and both the parkways were in thick fog.  So we drove to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.  Monticello is located just outside of Charlottesville, a beautiful old city.

Jefferson originally had 8000 acres and it took him almost 40 years to complete the house as we see it today.  It's about 6100 square feet and is very well appointed.  Lots of unique finishing touches that Jefferson thought of himself.  He has a huge library and most of the books are in one of the 6 other languages he spoke besides English.  His wife died during childbirth in 1779.  They had two daughters.  One of them never lived at Monticello.  The other had 11 children and the whole brood moved to the estate.  Jefferson died in 1826.  There is a family cemetary on the property.  Anyone that is a documented decendent of Jefferson can be buried there.  There are currently 2000 such people living today.

The home was designed to take advantage of the great views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  But you could barely see beyond the parking lot today.

Goodbye Pennsylvania

Tuesday, October 11th.  This morning we got up and said goodbye to Gettysburg and Pennsylvania.  We headed south into Virginia.   Our drive was along the western border of the state and we actually visited 4 states today...Penn., Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.   Our destination was a campground near Waynesboro.  After we set up, we went into Waynesboro to do some grocery shopping (they had a Kroger's store).  The town itself seems to be quite distressed.  Things seemed quite old and runned down.  A very sad tone to the town.  But it's at the gateway to the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Pkwy, two of the most beautiful drives in the country.  We look forward to seeing them this week.

Touring Gettysburg II

Monday, October 10th.  In the morning we continued and concluded our tour of the battlefield.  On our way back to the campground we came across a fruit stand that had apples.  We told them we were from Washington and knew good apples.  We continued that thus far on the trip we have not found a decent apple (mushy and tart).  They offered us a Winesap, a variety that we haven't seen in Washington.  The apple was just what we liked, both in crispiness and tartness.  We bought a small bushel to accompany us as we continue our trip.

historic street scene minus traffic signal

Pennsylvania monument, the largest

note bulletholes...over 100

In the afternoon we walked around downtown Gettysburg.  Many of the buildings  were there during the battle.  You can see the marks in the walls from bullets.  Confederate troops occupied many buildings and their sharpshooters were able to shoot at union troops.  At some times there was fighting in the streets and remarkably only one civilian was killed.  A young woman named Jenny Wade, who was baking bread in her kitchen when a stray bullet came thru the window.  It's hard to imagine that such things happened in a small town in the USA.

Lancaster to Hershey

Sunday, October 9th.  We awoke again to a beautiful, sunny day.  Because it was a holiday weekend and Gettysburg was so crowded, we decided to visit Lancaster (Amish country) and Hershey (chocolate country).

A wall mural in Intercourse

There are a group of small towns in the area of Lancaster where Amish folks live.  Two of those are Intercourse, PA and Bird-in-Hand, PA.  Unfortunately, because it was Sunday, many of the Amish owned stores were closed.  But we saw their handiwork in beautiful quilts, weavings and knitting.  We also saw Amish men driving horse-drawn carriages down the roadways.  A very unusual and interesting sight.

We then drove to Hershey, PA.  It's a very nice town and appears to be a modern day 'company town'.  Besides the huge factory, there's a museum, a visitors' center where they explain how chocolate is made and a full fledged amusement park.  And those are all facilities for tourists.  Hershey has also done many improvements for the community in the form of parks, public works and other community facilities.

We were amazed to find that Hershey makes so many varieties of candy beyond the chocolate we grew up with.  The visitor center includes a giant candy store featuring all the different types of candy and in all different sizes.  It was a quite fun and a sweet ending to the day.

Touring Gettysburg I

N. Carolina tribute monument

Saturday, October 8th.  As I described yesterday, there's so much Civil War information to see and digest all around Gettysburg...both in the city and around it.  We started out by going to the Visitor's Center to see what were the best ways to see all the sights.  We ended up purchasing a self guiding CD that takes you to all the high points of the 3-day battle.  It was interesting to see the locations where all the different troops were located and the strategy for moving to various locations.  There's so many monuments of different designs documenting the men from the various states who were there.  It was extremely sobering and awe-inspiring to see how many men were wounded and lost their lives

Troops 'manning' the cannons

We got about half way thru the CD tour and called it quits for the day and went back to the campground.  It was quite a day.

Traversing Pennsylvania

Friday, October 7th.  As we drove thru Penn. on our way to Gettysburg, we were impressed with the beauty of Pennsylvania.  Lots of rolling hills, farmland and changing colors on the trees.  As we approached Harrisburg, the capital, traffic became quite heavy.  We had to negotiate a beltway around the city to get to the correct road for Gettysburg.  We got to our Gettysburg exit at about 3 in the afternoon.  As we're driving on Taneytown Road to the campground, we saw many signs of the battle.  There were many monuments along the road indicating the location of troops from various states.  Also, signs documented many of the old farmhouses as being hospitals during and immediately after the battle.  Gettysburg was a town of about 2400 people at the time and they had to deal with about 25,000 wounded in the war.  That's on top of the 51,000+ that were killed during the battle.  But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

It turns out that this is Columbus Day weekend.  While that was not generally a holiday in Arizona or Washington, it sure is here.  The campground was 100% full and the City of Gettysburg was packed.  It turns out that this is the first sunny weekend after 4 rainy weekends in a row.  So everyone was enjoying the sunshine.  And we did too.

Leaving New England

Thursday, September 6th.    We awoke to windy, cloudy skies and took off for our trip around New York, making a wide circle to avoid New York City traffic.  For the most part traffic wasn't too bad.  We made it to Waldon, NY, which is the site of Waldon Pond inspiration.  A pretty area of small towns and rolling hills.  We're half way to Gettysburg.

Touring Cape Cod

Wednesday, October 5th.  We awoke to another sunny morning.  It was windy last night, but no rain.  Our campsite is amongst these large scrub oak trees and you couldn't help but wonder if limb come down in the wind...But they didn't.  After breakfast we began our tour of Cape Cod.  The main road goes right up the spine of the cape and frankly we couldn't tell if we were on a backroad in Michigan, or Vermont or Maine. But it's what's eminating off that spine road that's interesting.  There are many beautiful beaches, light houses and little towns.  I'm sure the towns are packed in the summer.  But now that schools back in the tourist population is lighter and with lots of europeans.  Even the Ben & Jerry's is closing for the season.  The main town is Provincetown at the very northern tip of the cape.  It has a historic, Key West feel to it.  Very artsy, lots of shops, galleries, small restaurants and B &B's.  P-Town, as they call it is the site where the Pilgrims first touched foot on north american soil.

Enjoying the National Seashore

Cape Code hosts a National Seashore designation.  And the beaches are pretty.  But aren't any nicer than Lake Michigan beaches...and those are fresh water.  All in all, Cape Cod was very nice, but it's not on our list of places to return to.

Brewster, MA; Cape Cod

Tuesday, October 4th.  We've experienced our first "Nor'easter".  It blew so hard last night and into the morning that the motorhome was shaking.  And Rain...now we're from Seattle and we've seen lots of rain...But this rain last night was amazing.  It was so hard and so horizontal.  When we got up there were deep puddles all over the place (and this is sandy soil).  We waited all morning, waiting for the rain to subside.  But it didn't.  So we packed up in the rain (again) and took off for Cape Cod.

To get there we had to go thru Boston.  We actually drove thru "the Big Dig", which is a freeway (6 lanes) that goes under downtown Boston.  The tunnel goes literally for miles and it's deep enough to drive a motorhome thru.  It was pretty amazing.

We got to Brewster mid afternoon.  It was a sunny day down here and we enjoyed 'drying out'.  We look forward to exploring the Cape tomorrow.

Rainy Sunday/Sunny Monday

Monday, Oct. 3rd.   We packed up the motor home, hooked up the car and drove down to Salisbury Beach in the rain.  Have I said how not fun it is to be doing all the disconnecting/connecting in the rain?  Well, it's not.  The drive was in very heavy traffic.  Lots of folks returning from a weekend in Maine back to Boston and New York.

Our campground in Salisbury Beach is a Massachusetts state park.  It's located right where the Merrimac River dumps into the Atlantic.  It wasn't really raining as we set up there...just a light mist.  On the recommendation of a neighbor, we had dinner at the Hungry Traveler restaurant.  Diane had a wonderful shrimp and crab in a lobster sauce casserole and I had prime rib and stuffed shrimp.  Very good restaurant!

Presbyterian church

George Washington statue 

This morning we awoke to mixed sun and clouds.  But the clouds soon gave way to a beautiful sunny day. We took a drive over to Newburyport, just across the Merrimac from Salisbury.  Newburyport is full of history.  It was the first port established...before Boston.  It is also where the Coast Guard began.  We took a walking tour around the town.  Lots of houses have been preserved in their 1600's and 1700's style.  And lots of old churches.  The downtown had lots of shops, restaurants, galleries and museums.

We came back to the campground and took Buster to the beach for a sunny, relaxing afternoon.

Kennebunkport

Saturday, Oct. 1st.  It rained most of the night and was raining this morning.  We drove down the coast about 30 miles to Kennebunkport.  The town has some beautiful old homes dating to the late 1700's Although the Bush's weren't in town that day, they were at their compound.  Barbara Bush had been honored with a sculpture in a bay-side park.  The town was very crowded with tour buses and other tourists (like us).  We walked around while it rained on and off and then had lunch where we had the best lobster we've had on the trip.  We also had very good clam chowder.  We returned to the motorhome and took Buster for a rainy walk on the beach (we're from Seattle...we're used to it).

The Nott House now a museum

Congregational church

Old Orchard Beach

Friday, Sept. 30th.  It rained last night...hard!!  We took Buster out for his evening 'constitutional' between cloudbursts.  As I was picking up his 'constitutional results' the sky opened up and we got soaked as we ran back to the motorhome.

The next morning the rain and all clouds were gone.  We had a two hour drive down to Old Orchard Beach.  Once we got settled into our campsite, we took Buster to the Beach.  It's a beautiful sandy beach which stretches for several miles.  Nobody was swimming because the water is very cold...55.

Di w/ L.L.Bean

Yes, this is a McDonalds

We took Buster back to the motorhome and went to Freeport, Maine, about 20 miles north of our campground.  Freeport is the home of L.L. Bean.  And there's outlets for dozens of other companies.  The L.L.Bean store(s) complex is huge with a clothing store, camping store, home store and a restaurant.  Even the McDonalds in Freeport was the most unique I have ever seen.  We finished the day with a wonderful baked Haddock dinner at a tavern in an 1800's era hotel.