On the first day of summer we played tourist and spent the day on the "Freedom Trail" in Boston. Maya, Maureen and I took the commuter train from Beverly to Boston and had a great day. We started at the Visitor Center on Boston Common where a new season of tourists is in full bloom. We hoped to pick up one of the free maps of the Trail but the building was so crowded that we didn't want to waste our time. The trail is clearly marked so we just followed the red line on the side walk. We could see [View Full Entry]

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HOME!!! The cats are waiting to be fed, Maya has gone to the Riverview to pick up pizza. Tonight we sleep in our own bed. Our Excellent Adventure, a summary: 9,265 miles 326.2 gallons of gas 28.4 mpg 23 states + the District of Columbia 1 Canadian Province Accommodations: Family - Jane and Billy Friends - Andrea and Jim Inns - Old Faithful Inn Moffat Inn 3 B & B's Bent Mountain Lodge, Copper Hill, VA Aberdeen Inn, Asheville NC Cali Conchitta, Moab UT 5 Hotels 7 Motels 3 underground elevators Chimney [View Full Entry]

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You can't pass the Falls without stopping. We have both seen the falls from the US side so a stop on the Canadian side seemed logical. Many people say this is a better view and as you look across you do have a great panoramic view of both falls. This is the height of the tourist season so after picture taking we got in the car headed across the border to Syracuse to visit Maxanne. [View Full Entry]

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Saturday September 1, 2007. The last day!! Breakfast with Maxanne and then we head for home. No actually we have one more place to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown NY. Labor Day Weekend the place is crowded as expected. (this is another place to visit during the week and after school opens) It was worth the price of admission. We took in the exhibits but didn't linger. They really should put together an audio tour. It was about 3pm when we left and decided to find a place to eat so we didn't have to eat fast food [View Full Entry]

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Friday August 31, we arrive in Syracuse it's been one month on the road. After seeing Maxanne and her dorm room it's off to look for a hotel room. How hard can that be? There are so many hotels in the local area. Who knew the Syracuse football team was playing Washington State on national TV that evening and the state fair was in town. It took about six stops before we got the last room at The Holiday Inn. We took Maxane and three of her friends out to dinner and then headed back to the hotel exhausted but with [View Full Entry]

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Another long day's drive. We drove across the top of lake Huron and down Northern Manitoulin Island. Took the Main Channel ferry across Lake Huron to Bruce Peninsula and on to Niagara on th Lake. Arrived without reservations but we were able to get a reasonable rate at The Moffat Inn, a precious place, but then again the whole town is very precious. Designated the prettiest town in Ontario it does live up to the title. What strikes you first are the incredible flower gardens, public and private, that are everywhere. I've seen some big hanging baskets but none bigger than [View Full Entry]

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Tuesday August 28th, travel day 2. Crossing Wisconsin on Route 8 more farms and trees mostly trees in fact it could be Kansas with trees. We had a great lunch in Rhinelander WI the biggest town we saw in Wisconsin. The Rhinelander Cafe is the local place to eat and has fantastic cream pies. We had parked in the center of town and on leaving the restaurant we couldn't find the car!! Stolen in middle America? Stranded here with nothing!!! Sylvan had convinced me it must have been stolen and just before my rising panic caused me to lose my [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday August 29, sightseeing day. Wake up call 6:15 and we're off to take the Agawa Canyon train 114 miles north into the wilderness of the Canadian Shield. The only way to get to this park is by train. Pristine northern lakes, wetlands, ponds, remote cabins and logging crews were the views we saw from our window. Actually most of the views were on the return trip since we left in a rather thick fog. During foliage season the train will sometimes have one thousand passengers, thankfully it wasn't crowded the day we went. We had breakfast in the dining [View Full Entry]

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Monday August 27, 2007, Travel Day. Leaving the Badlands behind we crossed South Dakota and Minnesota. Not much to see from the highway. Crossing the Missouri River we stopped to take in the view. More farms and giant windmill turbines dotted the scenery, quite a sight there must have been at least one hundred of them. That night we found the Dalles House Motel on Highway 8, it had everything we needed a clean bed, restaurant next door and a laundry room. [View Full Entry]

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After a REALLY bad roast beef sandwiches at Arby's that we couldn't eat we were off to the Badlands. We arrived just before sunset with a full moon rising. Perfect timing the colors were unbelievable. The landscape takes your breath away, around every turn another spectacular view. At the far end of the park there's a lodge and restaurant we were lucky, although they didn't have any vacancies there the receptionist called the other lodge a mile away just outside the park and they had one room left! How lucky can you get. The cows were in the pasture next [View Full Entry]

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