Oops, I did it again!

This happened last year when we came to Knoxville for an extended stay.  I forget to post on my blog.  This happens because instead of exploring new places, taking pictures and sightseeing we are spending time with two of our daughters and my nephew’s family.  I seem to lose track of time and do not end up posting on the great and fun things we are doing while we are in Knoxville. 
Since we now have many family members in Knoxville it has become our home base for medical purposes.  This means at least a once a year stop over for a few weeks to have of our annual checkups.  We enjoy staying up in the Smokies as it not very far from our family and the RV park has a great monthly rate, although their internet service can be a little lacking.  We may try another park that I found on our next stop.  This time of year is a great time to come because the humidity has subsided but the days are still warm with cool evenings.  Although our first week here was very hot and humid!
Ok, so let me get you caught up on what we have been doing here other than going to doctor appointments.  We arrived just before Labor Day weekend.  First activity was a University of Tennessee football game.  My nephew and his friends have season tickets, with parking passes, to the games and they put on a huge tailgate party.  This time we even made it an official tailgate as we used our truck, with a tailgate,  to haul all the stuff to the stadium parking lot.  I even added a tech touch by setting up satellite TV for the tailgate.  The tailgate comprised 4 parking spaces, two tents, two flat screen TV’s (one with DirecTV), bistro tables, catered food, cooling fans, and as much Tennessee orange as you can stand (and then some).  We were just yards from the stadium so we got to see all the pre-game festivities (band and players walk).  The only downside was the heat and humidity, it was the south at its best!  Tennessee was playing a much smaller team so it was a very lopsided score and those that went to the game left just after half time.  Our plan was to continue to tailgate and watch other football games but a rapidly developing thunderstorm made us pack up and leave very quickly. 
Next event was the fireworks display for the annual Knoxville Boomday celebration.  This is a downtown festival which is capped by a huge fireworks display on a bridge over the river in downtown Knoxville.  My nephew kept saying how great the fireworks were and was really excited for us to see them.  He owns a boat and last year drove his boat to see the fireworks from the river (below the bridge).  This was the plan for this year but the thunderstorms kept hanging around so it appeared we would have to drive and walk to see the display.  At the last minute the clouds cleared and my nephew went into quick planning mode, which he excels at, and we were on the boat in less than an hour and on our way to the fireworks.  OK, he was right, this was the most spectacular fireworks display that Fran or I have ever seen.  We were probably about a tenth of a mile from the bridge where they shoot them off, so our vantage point was just great.  The display is timed to music playing over the radio and was amazing.  The best display was when they shot off a falling stream of fireworks from the bridge.  It looked a waterfall was flowing from the entire bridge!  The whole display was amazing.
Following the fireworks we now had to drive back in the boat, on a dark river, about 20 miles to where our cars were.  At first it was not too bad because you are in with a very large group of boats and are being escorted by police boats to keep the speed down.  But once you hit open water it is a little scary as it is hard to pick out reference points and see other boats.  Fortunately my nephew noticed a boat that was using a GPS with a pre-planned route so he stayed close to them and allowed us to move faster.  Kudos to my nephew for this!
The following weekend we drove to Nashville to visit with our friends, the Sherwood’s.  Fran was renting a car in Nashville and driving to Kansas City to visit with her family and I was staying behind.  We had a great time visiting with our friends and Fran had a great time seeing her two sisters, brother, aunt, cousin and nephews. 
Since those first two weeks we have settled more into a routine of visiting with our family and doing our routine chores.  We did have a lot of packages waiting for us when we arrived and this kept me busy for a few days.  This included a new toilet to replace the one with the broken food pedal and a new TV to replace the one in our living area.  In addition I used this extended stay to work on getting rid of the oxidization that had appeared on the front fiberglass cap of our RV.  A local boat shop recommended some stuff and it worked great.  The front cap shines beautiful now so I went ahead and waxed the entire trailer, and paid the price the next day!
We are here for another couple of weeks then head to Memphis for a two week stop at our favorite park on the Mississippi River where we will meet up with our friends from Idaho, who now have their own RV.  Following that we will begin a two week trek to Southern California, arriving in mid-November, to sit out the winter.

East Coast Swing Ends

We have officially ended our East Coast tour as we have now arrived in Knoxville (sort of our home base).  Before I go into the summary for the trip let me get you caught up on our activities since my last post.

When I last posted we were in Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania.  What I did not mention about that stop was the two ladies we met, Dee Dee and Linda, who were in the space next to us.  They were from Florida and are on a 3 month trip up to Niagara Falls then to South Dakota on back to Florida.  They are doing this in an 18 foot travel trailer.  They were a hoot to talk with.

From Lake Ariel we made a stop in Falling Waters, West Virginia.  Mainly this was done to add West Virginia as a state visited with the RV (more on that later).  Following that we stopped in Charlottesville, Virginia for a couple of days so we could go see Monticello (Thomas Jefferson’s home).  I had always heard this was neat place to visit and it was worth the side trip from our route.  His home was sold to settle his debts when he died in the 1800’s.  What is really neat is that the person who bought the home did it to preserve it for historical purposes.  He kept the home until it was taken over by a non-profit organization who maintain it and provide tours through it.  The house is original to when Jefferson lived in it and about 60% of the furnishings were his.  It is a beautiful home and plantation sitting on top of hill overlooking Charlottesville.

Back of the house

Front of the house

His grave

Fran with Jefferson

Following Charlottesville we made an overnight stop in Wytheville, Virginia and then on into Knoxville arriving yesterday.  Our plan is to be here until Mid-October when we will begin working our way west.

Now for the summary of our east coast trip.  It officially started at the beginning of the year when we left Nashville.  From there we went east and south and ended up spending 6 weeks in Savannah until Spring arrived when we began to go north.  In those 8 months we have traveled around 6,000 miles, visited 16 states and 4 Canadian provinces.  Most stops were a week in length with a few a little longer and only a couple at the end were shorter.  

On this trip we quickly realized that we could not follow our usual plan of just showing up at an RV park, without a reservation, and making our route as we went.  The RV parks on the east coast are primarily for seasonal users.  That leaves very few spaces left for those that are traveling through.  So, to avoid not being able to stop in an area, we planned out the entire route in advance and had reservations all along the way.  This was disappointing in that there were places where we probably would have left early and other places we would have stayed longer.  However, the good from this is we now have highlighted places we want to go back to and explore more.  The one area we did not have enough time for was Nova Scotia. I had read that Truro was a great place to stop and the tidal bore was something to see.   The town was OK, but the tidal bore was really nothing.  As we traveled through Canada we spoke with people who had been in Nova Scotia and everyone said the place to go is to the north, Cabot Trail area, and to take the ferry over to Newfoundland.  This is now on our list of places to go.

With this RV we bought a US state sticker map and a Canadian province map.  You see these on many RV’s to show where they have been.  This is the first one we have ever bought for an RV we owned and this map is just for this RV to show where we have been in it.  When we change RV’s the map will start fresh.  With that in mind, our trip up the east coast was planned so that we would have a stop in as many states as we could to fill up the map.  At times this meant we only had to go 75 miles to the next stop.  The only state we fudged on was Rhode Island as we could not find a decent park in the state to stay at.  We did stay near the border and went into the state to visit family, and the RV did go through the state.

Here is the map as of today

If you cannot see it closely we have the following states still to go:

Louisiana, Michigan, Indiana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and Alaska (We are not taking the RV to Hawaii!).

New York–Pennsylvania

We left Vermont and took a little detour to go to Lake George, New York.  This is located in the Adirondacks mountains and is a tourist destination.  Yes, IT IS A TOURIST DESTINATION!  The traffic was unbelievable.  We arrived on Thursday at a very nice RV park located about 5 miles outside Lake George Village.  The park was large and the majority of spaces were for seasonals, but the sites were huge and were in a large forest of pine trees.  This park is one of the nicest we have ever stayed at.

After we arrived we were checking out the tourist books to see what was going on and discovered that during the summer the town shoots off fireworks over the lake every Thursday night.  After dinner we headed into town to take a look at the town and to watch the fireworks.  We made it to the town limits and the traffic stopped because of all the tourists.  We quickly found a parking lot that would hold our truck and decided to walk the town instead of driving through it.  A great decision as the traffic barely moved through the town.  The town is right on the lake and has many shops, restaurants, nightly entertainment and water activities.  We had a nice walk through the town and then waited for the fireworks to start at 9:30pm.  We found a place to sit near the water and the show was spectacular.  A very nice show put on by the town.  Fortunately it was not hard to get back out of town and to our RV park.

On Friday we decided to take a boat cruise on the lake.  It was  2 hour cruise that takes you 10 miles up the lake to the next town and returns.  The cruise takes you by the old millionaire mansions (those that remain) and by the famous hotel, The Sagamore.  We first had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the water which was neat as we got to watch the parasailers.  The weather was great so the cruise was very pleasant and informative. 

Parasailing

Our cruise ship

A view of the lake standing on the dock in town

One of the remaining millionaire mansions.  These are from the 1920’s when the rich from New York City would come to Lake George during the summer.

The Sagamore hotel

After Lake George we headed south and stopped in Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania, where we are as I write this.  This is near Scranton.  The park is mainly for seasonals and had only a handful of spaces for transients.  It is on a lake but none of the spaces available for transients are on the lake (disappointed).  Nice place to stop for a night or two.  We did go out exploring yesterday and ended up at Bushkill Falls.  This is a privately owned park that has eight waterfalls with trails to walk throughout the park and see the falls.  This was some exercise walking up hundreds of steps and walking over 3 miles to see the falls, but the scenery was beautiful.

The main falls

Another one

Just a sample of the one set of stairs we walked

And another waterfall

We are off tomorrow, Friday, for a weekend stopover in West Virginia.  We then are on to Charlottesville, Virginia to see Thomas Jefferson’s house, then a stop in southern Virginia for our anniversary and then into Knoxville on Thursday.

Vermont

If you have been following the blog you would have read sometime back that Fran and I have a goal of having been in all 50 states.  This trip up the east coast was, in part, to help meet that goal.  We are now in Vermont so that completes our 49th state and with that we have set a plan in motion to take a family trip to Hawaii next year to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary.  Our 50th state!

Let’s get you caught up.  We left Montreal and were excited about getting back into the United States so we could use our cell phones and catch up with family and friends.  Well it just so happened that the park I picked in New Hampshire was a little off the beaten path and had no Verizon cell phone service.  In addition they had the worst internet service that we have encountered in a park.  To make and receive phone calls we had to drive 4 miles to the Lowe’s and sit in their parking lot.  It made for an interesting week.  A great attraction in New Hampshire is no sales tax.  We took advantage of this to stock up our wine cellar and buy a new computer.  The state capitalizes on this no sales tax by placing state run wine/liquor stores near the interstate and near the state lines.  The store had a great selection, great prices and no tax!

In New Hampshire we stayed in Littleton which is in the white mountains.  The scenery is just beautiful for the area.  We drove around the area with plans to take the drive to the top of Mount Washington for which they charge $30 per car to do, but we were turned away because our truck was to big for the narrow road.  The option would have been to take a guided tour at $30 per person to go to the top of a 6,000 foot mountain, we passed!

We did end up in Waterbury, Vermont, the home to Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.  They have a factory tour along with a gift shop and a scoop shop.  They actually charge you $4 per person for a tour that encompasses seeing a movie on the history of the company then going into a room that overlooks the plant floor and then getting a small sample of one of their ice creams.  I am sorry, but why charge.  They make a ton of money at the scoop shop that is on the premises.  The lines were huge at the shop.  The fun part was seeing the flavor graveyard.  They have put markers in a cemetery setting for the flavors that did not make it or have been retired.  They put the dates along with a cute rhyme about the flavor.

While in New Hampshire our big TV in the RV finally gave out.  It has been acting up so I contacted our dealership to see what to do under the extended warranty.  They filed a claim for us and they had a check in the mail to us the same day to buy a new TV.  So far I have been pleased with the mechanical portion of the extended warranty. 

We moved onto Vermont at the beginning of the week so we could say we actually stayed in the state (49th state plus a sticker on our USA RV map, woo hoo!).  We have accelerated our schedule a little to get us into Knoxville just before Labor Day.  This means shorter stays at our next few stops.  Up next is Lake George, New York, which is in the Adirondacks, then onto Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania (just outside Scranton), Romney, West Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia then into Knoxville for six weeks.

Montreal

We left Quebec City last week and moved to Montreal.  Actually we are staying in a little town called Saint-Phillippe, which is about 20 miles outside Montreal.  It has been a little more difficult here in the Montreal area as everything is in French and everyone speaks French.  In the city we did find that many people were bilingual.  I found myself at the self serve pump at the gas station just pushing any button to get the darn thing to pump gas.  I could recognize some French words but then got lost.  Finally I pushed the right button and was able to get gas but at a cost of $5.70 a gallon.

It is a beautiful area and the city of Montreal is interesting to explore.  We ended up taking a double decker, hop on, hop off, bus tour so we could see the highlights of the city.  We then went back the next day and did some walking around.  Mainly it is all about the churches.  The two main church attractions are Notre Dame Basilica and St. John’s Oratory.  First, St. John’s.

St. John’s Oratory sits on the top of a hill overlooking the city.  It is built into the mountain and has a spectacular dome that can be seen from all over the city. 

Panoramic view of the city from the church terrace.

Inside the church.

The jewel of the churches in the city is the Notre Dame Basilica.  I have to admit this is probably the most beautiful church I have ever seen.  The woodwork and painting on the inside are just amazing.  I did not use flash on the pictures but hopefully you can see what I am talking about.

Front of the church

Inside looking towards the alter. On the sides are two sets of balconies.

A wooden spiral staircase in the middle of the church that leads to a pulpit. 

Carving of the last supper in the alter.

This is a smaller chapel adjacent to the main church.  This is looking towards the front of the chapel.

This is the rear of the chapel.

We took a walk through The Village.  Here they have a street blocked off so people can walk.  The street has many restaurants, with outdoor seating, and shops.  

There are pink balls strung across the street.  This is a part of town where the gay population congregates.

The tour bus took us to Mont Royal park which offers a great view of the city on the side where the Olympic stadium is.

We took a walk through the Old City.  This is where Montreal started and it has the feel of a Europe.

This finishes up a 5 week tour of eastern Canada.  On Monday we leave for central New Hampshire.

Bonjour!

We have made it to Quebec City, Quebec, our next to last stop before heading back to the states.  It is French first here.  Signs are all in French and generally everyone is speaking French, but most who cater to tourists also speak English.  We are staying in St. Nicolas which is a few miles outside of Quebec City.  We are at KOA campground and it is very busy.  It is off the main highway so it fills up every night and each morning there is a long parade of RV’s leaving. 

Our first adventure was into Quebec City via a shuttle bus from the RV park.  This took us to the heart of Old Quebec City where we went on a 2 1/2 hour guided walking tour.  We then added our own walking tour so that we pretty much saw the upper and lower portions of Old Quebec City.  It was a busy day in the city as Paul McCartney was in town to do a concert that evening.  We even ran into his entourage at his hotel but did not get to see him as his cars moved to another location to let him out.

The old part of the city, which is behind the original walls built to guard the city, feels just like being in a European city, like Paris.  The buildings are very old but nicely restored.  Streets are narrow and very clean.  Businesses are restricted to just a small hanging sign and almost all the café’s have outdoor seating.  What is really neat is the view of the St. Lawrence river from the upper portion of the city. 

Here are some pictures

Le Chateau Frontenac, famous hotel in the old city.

One of the streets in the old city

This is the gate to the Citadel, the military base for the old city.  This is only original gate in size, the others were all widened to accommodate modern vehicles.  The Citadel is still an active military base but they have guided tours.  Note the guards on either side of the gate.  They stand rigid for two hour shifts.

View of the river from the Citadel.  The yacht (very large) in the picture was anchored there all day. 

This is another of the original gates but was widened.

Our next adventure was to Montmorency Falls which were nearby.  A smaller version, in width, than Niagara Falls but they are actually higher.

They have a gondola that takes you back and forth to the top of the falls or you can walk via a 485 foot staircase.  We took the gondola up and walked down. Once at the top you walk along the cliff then cross over the falls via a suspension bridge.  The trail gave you great views of the falls from all angles.

View from the suspension bridge

View of Quebec City from above the falls

Staircase we walked down.  Note the rainbow from the falls

The staircase

Fran took this picture from the visitors center at the falls.  The small speck towards the bottom is a fly fisherman.

We leave on Monday for Montreal.

Still in Canada

We have now moved to Quebec City, Quebec but let me get you caught up with our past week.

We left Prince Edward Island and drove over to Truro, Nova Scotia.  In our trip planning I put this stop in to say we had stopped in Nova Scotia, since it was so close, and to check out the tidal bore at Truro.  Since Truro is at the end of the Bay of Fundy it is supposed to have a big tidal shift that was worth seeing.  WRONG.  Not sure if it is because of the time of year but you could barely notice the “wave” coming in the bay in Truro.  The water level did increase at a rapid speed, but nothing like what I had read.  The area was nice and Truro has nice park, Victoria Park, that we hiked in.  Here are some pictures from the park.

The trail wound all around the park, with many stairs and elevated walkways.

From talking with other travellers it appears the place to visit in Nova Scotia is more north, the towns of Sydney and Baddeck.  This is the Cape Breton area which has the Cabot Trail.  From there you can take a ferry and visit New Foundland.  Should we make it back to this area I think we will focus our attention on that area.

We spent just a few days in Truro and then started west towards Quebec City and Montreal.  In planning this leg of the trip the halfway point was a little town called Woodstock in New Brunswick.  There were a couple of RV parks in the town, one being a Jellystone Park, which we generally avoid (geared towards families and kids).  The other was a small campground that was part of a small motel.  What a find.  Most of the spaces were very near the river and had fantastic views.  Other than fast internet the park really had no amenities but the view was just great. 

This was our view from our patio.

We spent the weekend in Woodstock and left yesterday for Quebec City.