Our next adventure was to see again the world’s largest movable structure located in a ten mile radius called the “quiet zone” – no cell phones, no TV, no garage door openers, in fact. Want to guess where we might be? ___________________________________________________ We were at The Green Bank National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia, part of the National Science Foundation; there’s a second observatory in New Mexico. The Green Bank site has the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope and the world’s largest land-based movable structure. Even though it’s as large as two football fields, it can be moved by increments no wider than a hair. This telescope sits in the US National Radio Quiet Zone, a ten-mile radius in which no radio transmissions are allowed so that ... read more

Hello All – This first group of photos were taken at the Seal Cove Auto Museum on Mt. Desert Island, ME, which is home to most of Acadia National Park. If you look at a map of Mt. Desert, you’ll see that it’s about one-half the park and one-half privately owned land. There’s quite a story behind how this came to be, a little of which I shared with you in my last blog. The Seal Cove Auto Museum was on the map we were given by the NPS although there was no description and nothing written up in any of the literature we gathered. But since we were in the area, we decided to check it out. The Museum is a bit hard to find and is housed in a modest metal structure. But inside ... read more

Hi All -- Early this afternoon Bob and I left his sister Judy’s house and headed to Gettysburg where we are right now. But, since I’ve fallen behind on these blogs, the following photos are from our three-day stay last weekend in Acadia National Park, including a trip to Deer Isle nearby. We visited Acadia last fall for six days and found it to be irresistible. So we couldn’t resist coming again this year. This visit the weather was calm with not much wind so we don’t get the dramatic photos that we were able to take last year with huge plumes of water as the waves hit the rocks. But it’s an awesome and magnificent place even without the drama. Following is a description from the official government website of the interesting history of the ... read more

Hi, All – We’re now in PA visiting Bob’s sisters for a couple of days. Unfortunately, Bob now has a severe case of shingles which has been coming on for a couple of weeks. In fact, the doctor he saw this morning thinks he should be in the hospital right now getting some steroid shots to build up his immune system so that he can recover from this before permanent damage is done to his body. We have 10 days left before returning home. I just hope, for Bob’s sake, that these days are completely stress free. He’s in severe pain right now. Anyway, to continue with our trip . . . The following photos go back about a week, beginning with the day we left Grand Manan Island on a ferry and drove to St. ... read more

Hi, Friends – The next several photos are of Grand Manan Island. It was our first trip there, although we’d been to Campobello and Deer Islands before which are nearby. All three of these islands are considered part of New Brunswick and are quite close to Maine. We took an hour and a half ferry ride to get there and then, three days later, to return to the mainland. For the first two days, we had heavy fog and couldn’t see much, so the first day we had some good down time in our cozy camper with our fuzzy, warm travel cats and some good TV stations. The second day we went for 2-hour walk to see something called “Hole in the Wall” – a tough walk with a lot of climbing and slippery cliff tops. ... read more