Durham. NH to Archbold, OH August 6 - 10, 2015

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THE BASICS

We have traveled 898 miles in five days. Even slower than our usual rate... We are embarked on a nearly three-month trip west, and will leave the car and RV somewhere out there, probably in the Phoenix area, to fly home for the holidays and then back in January. This is a limited itinerary: Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.

THE FLUFF

Mike and Jill had a beautiful wedding on August 1, and then we scurried to get the RV packed and the house ready for its respite. On the first day, after way too many stops, (201 miles in 8 1/2 hours), we got to a campground on a lovely site next to the Mohawk River in Schenectady, NY. I was proud of navigating successfully from Bennington, VT, to there, because we still find getting through the Albany area challenging. We did want to watch the Republican candidates' first debate, and patient John finally managed to activate the cable. In the old RV, we could just plug in the cable. In this newer RV, you have to adjust all sorts of gizmos to get to a channel you want. This is progress??

The next morning, we decided we would go to Cooperstown to the Baseball Hall of Fame on our way. The weather was perfect, and the museum has so many artifacts that you could spend days absorbing it all. We visited the Pedro Martinez exhibit in the New Inductees' area - the induction was just two weeks ago - and the main thing I gawked at was Randy (The Big Unit) Johnson's sneakers. Huge. Because a few years back, 100,000 people descended on the small town for an induction (the usual was about half that) the town had built three peripheral parking lots to accommodate the flood of cars, with trolleys into town. Well, a nice idea, but waiting and riding added about two hours to our visit there.

We had numerous phone calls that second day to arrange to meet our friends Lynn and Jon Glase for supper somewhere between their home near Ithaca and our camp spot in Owego. We ended up at Jim's Chicken Barbecue, which had picnic tables outside so their dog Moxie could be nearby. Jim was so appreciative of our visit, the food was fine, and the visit too. That was our third time to visit with Jon and Lynn this year, a record-shattering event, and perhaps we'll rendezvous out west in the next few months.

Next day our first glitch arose. I woke up with crusty eyes, and knew I had to get pink eye treated. We found a clinic and got diagnosed and medicated quite efficiently, but the morning was "shot." The doctor thinks I could have picked it up from one of the hundreds of kids thronging in Cooperstown, which would be okay with me since I am glad to see youngun's appreciating baseball. Anyway, after all of 145 miles, we pulled into a Good Sam campground a bunch of miles from Route 86. It was quite rustic, but had a nice central lawn where kids frolicked and squealed and played catch. The showers required 25 cents to activate, and that always strikes a sour note for me. We had passed Newtown Battlefield, and when John remembered to google it, he discovered that it was the only campaign involving General Sullivan! General Sullivan lived in Durham, a bridge there is named after him, etc. etc.

The next day, we got pretty tired of interstate driving. We decided not to get off in Cleveland to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because we couldn't get information on where to park the RV, but we did drive through city streets in western Cleveland and then somewhat close to Lake Erie, and that was a relief. Nice campground on the Huron River, and we watched lots of people hauling their small boats out of the water to trail home until their next weekend.

Yesterday was the best yet. i.e. no interstate driving. We have now seen our fill of flat fields with corn and soybeans. Oh, you mean there will be more between here and Colorado? Oh, well. We got back to one of our favorite road trip activities - we stopped in a college town, Bowling Green OH, and visited a coffee shop. And it was in a huge used-book store! I found four from my lists, although I doubt that I will tackle Middlemarch first... And the town even had a yarn store! We do like taking our walks in small, lively towns. We also went to Grand Rapids, OH, a tiny spot full of antique shops, on a canal. Another pleasure. We are now at the Sauder RV park, and I was right when I guessed that Sauder referred to the furniture company from which we long ago bought - and assembled - a couple of bookcases. Wow, is it flat here!

Today is John's birthday. A year ago, for his birthday, we camped in our tent in a favorite park above the city of St. John, New Brunswick. Today we are headed to the RV Museum in Elkhart, Indiana. Such a life.

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Comments

[Carol Atwood-lyon]

Hi
Good to hear from you and to know you're finally underway . Happy Birthday, John. Keep on finding those college towns and coffee shops!