Month: November 2016

Gear

Going Home

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November 2, 2016

We talked about our favorite parts of the trip were as we drove 83 to 695 to 70 west to Leesburg, then picking up 15 south to Culpeper and Orange. Rt. 15 from Culpeper through Orange and Keswick to Charlottesville is one of the top scenic drives in America. I love this road and have driven it many times, but after seeing so many beautiful places, it makes you appreciate it even more. 

Arriving back home was weird. It seemed strange to be unloading the trailer. Our little house seemed so elegant and big! We unloaded a lot of things, then put the Airstream in the parking lot. Tomorrow I will start cleaning, reorganizing and catching up on things. I’ll try to change some things to make the next trip more efficient. It will be a while before Martha will be ready to go again, but I can’t wait to get back out there!

A special thanks for so many gifts that worked so well:

The doormat Leslie gave us was perfect.

The woven basket Georgette made never moved and held all the essential little things.

Museum Putty works incredibly well to hold things like the basket in place. It never moved!

I’m going to wear out the blue Columbia shirt Pam gave me. It’s light, dries quickly, washes easily, and it looks good.

The Coleman thermos Amy gave me is just the best. It will keep tea hot all day.

We have used Tara’s bear bell and whistle so many times, and we have never been attacked!

The leather box Martha gave me holds the remotes and is tacked down with Museum Putty

Ben gave me an iPhone 6, and I don’t know how I would have managed without it. I had to learn how to manage my data as I almost ran out twice.

Kelly gave us a lighter I used every day and some decorative lights I just never had time to hang

The wine Glenda gave me was great and helped sooth the tensions of the day.

I know I have forgotten some things.

Things I’m glad I bought:

The air pump saves so much trouble. Love it!

The tire monitoring system gives great peace of mind.

The little music cube by Armor Mine bluetooth speaker, http://armormine.com

The Executioner is an indispensable tool! Makes flies and mosquitoes fun to have inside.

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On to Baltimore

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31℉ at 6:00

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

We drove country roads to Merry Meadows Campground north of Baltimore. It is a campground with great ideas, but in need of serious updates. It suits our needs of visiting my sister in Baltimore. After riding in the car all morning, we took a short bike ride on the Northern Central Railroad Trail that connects with York County Heritage Trail. We got on in Gunpowder Creek State Park (an 18,000 acre park). The part we rode north is very pretty, and still has railroad tracks on parts of it. On the York County Trail, a steam engine does tours using the same trail, which I think adds some character to it. 

We went into Baltimore to see Gayle. It shocked me to see her deterioration since I saw her last six weeks ago. Chronic Progressive Aphasia is a rare, but devastating disease. I just wanted to take her home and “fix” her, but the reality is there is no “fix”. So sad! Martha read her the two cards next to her bed, one from Mazzie and one from Harriette and Cary Fishburn. Her friend, Janet Hurd came in to visit. I missed the name of another lady who also came to see her. Of course Saints Laura and Willy were there as always.

Laura, Willy, Martha and I then went to the Baltimore Museum Restaurant for dinner. The wine and great company helped. This is a great restaurant, with Tuesday night specials and $20/bottle wines. I had the best catfish dinner ever with the best grits ever and kale. Fried chicken and crab cakes were also great. We exchanged stories of Laura’s hikes in Great Britain, our trip and Willy’s upcoming cruise on the Danube Thursday. 

We will return home tomorrow. Martha is quite happy to get back to flush toilets, her own shower and laundry and bed. She is anxious to see her friends. I look forward to cleaning everything, reorganizing, updating some things, taking care of some business and getting to the duck marsh. It has been a great trip, and we have seen many things and great places. We have met some very nice people I hope we will meet again. We look forward to getting together with Eddie and Roberta and Randy and Xan to exchange Airstream travel stories. With so many places to go, I look forward to the next trip.

I would love to list the top 10 places we have seen, but I can’t. Every one had its own special things. In general, if it’s a true national park, it is a very special place. What Quebec lists as national parks are really provincial parks, but we loved every one of those too. For me, I like remote places so I still like Faunique Mauricie even with its rough gravel road in. Martha liked Lac St. Jean because of the variety of things to do. It has a national park – Point Tallion, great biking, maybe the world’s best blueberries and ice cream, cute towns and boulangeries. So many cool people we met, but Frèderick takes the prize. We loved the kayak guys who gave Martha all the advice of where to kayak in Mont Tremblant, and Page and Jeremy with the little camper Jeremy made in Lancaster County. I certainly prefer remote places and camping in provincial or national parks, but in a tight campground you meet and talk to more people, all of whom are doing the same thing. This makes it almost like a club. People are ready to give advice on where to go, where to eat, what you must see, what is the best hike or bike ride, where is the next best campground. Your next tip might be in the bathroom or at the gas station. 

We aren’t in great shape, but certainly better than when we left. A two-three-hour hike or bike ride seems to be the limit for us. Sometimes we can do two exercises in a day, but its nice to have one be a bike ride. When Kelly and I were on our fishing trip, at least when we were into the good fishing part, we were walking up trout streams all day, and then you walk back, and many of those streams were rivers with heavy currents. 

Martha has done great! She has done great with cooking in a variety of circumstances and methods. She hiked some rough trails, camped in remote places and biked a lot of places. She navigates well, although tensions can be high when you have to make split-second decisions on which way to go while pulling a trailer. We have been very fortunate not to have any dings, scrapes or tire issues. I can’t wait to go again!

Biking, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Lancaster County Bike Ride

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41℉ at 5:00, high of 64℉

Monday, October 31, 2016

I went to Nissan in Lancaster to have a pinion seal replaced. Suddenly I was just like everyone else, rushing to get somewhere. At 6:15 in the morning, there was a lot of traffic. I wasn’t expecting that at that time of day. I wouldn’t have made it without the GPS telling me where to go.  It was nice to catch up on posting with their great WIFI. As I drove back I saw Martha walking home from shopping. She had seen some good things, so we went back. I needed a snack, so we went to the pretzel shop on Main Street. A young Amish girl greeted us, and we asked for two whole wheat pretzels. She suggested we sit outside while she made them, and she would bring them out. I got a freshly squeezed lemonade and we sat outside. Fifteen little chickadees knew the routine. Sitting on the railing, in a bush and on the deck, they watched our every move. Once the pretzels came, they really got excited. The pretzel was so good, hot, soft, but I should have requested massive amounts of salt. Otherwise, it was a perfect pretzel.  I saved a few crumbs for the birds. 

There is a great jam and jelly store, where they make everything right there. I watched them for a while cooking and stirring, and loading jars. There were several cool things about this store. One, you could watch them making it, so you know that part is authentic. Two, you can taste everything with sampling jars and chips or crackers all around. Three, there are some concoctions I have never heard of. I wanted to try them all! 

On the way back, we passed a beautiful Vis-a-Vis carriage. Two young ladies were removing the gear from two beautiful Percherons. They had come to take a disabled girl for a carriage ride. I wish I had seen all of this in action, but we had a nice chat as I imagined driving this beautiful rig.

After lunch Martha took me for the bike ride she had done yesterday, along the Scenic Road, along Ridge Road and to the ice cream store on one of the farms. This was a good ride through beautiful country. Little children were happily walking home with their bright yellow alert vests on. We turned into Lapp Valley Farm, up the drive and past the house. Across from the barn where someone was feeding the milk cows was an ice cream store. A porch surrounded it with tables and chairs arranged around it. I pretty kitty cat greeted us from the railing. Three young Amish girls greeted us. As she scooped our chocolate and raspberry ice cream, I looked around the store. There was a window behind the counter, and realized people were driving around back to order from their cars. There was a pretty steady line. A gentleman walked out with a bag of pints of ice cream. They don’t take credit cards, so there was a handy ATM machine to the side. Two tall rotating racks were filled with Amish books. I thought several would be interesting reading. We headed out tot he porch in the sun and sat down. The kitty followed and soon was crawling down Martha’s arm to get a taste of our ice cream. Her twin followed. I politely put them on the ground several times. Surely the girls would be watching, and they were very cute cats. We had turned out backs to the table, trying to protect our prize. When we finished I held the cup shoulder level. Both kitties put their feet on my shoulder and put their heads into the cup, quickly cleaning it. 

Riding back over the hill and turning along a ridge, a buggy turned out behind us. I could hear the lovely clip clop trot behind me. On level ground he was catching me. I love that sound! I looked at my bike speedometer that registered 11mph. That’s a fast trot! When I was eventing horses, I used to say a horse walk was 4 mph, trot 8mph and canter 12mph. Of course a racehorse can run 40mph. This trotter behind me had to be doing 12mph, which is a fast trot. We came to a down hill stretch where I coasted at 15mph, putting some unwanted distance between us. I will miss seeing the horses on the roads, in the barns and working the fields. 

We went back to Kauffman’s for some sausage to go with the sauerkraut. Then I went to a couple of antique stores looking for campfire tools, but couldn’t find any. I have been so amazed by the tracks and  grooves the buggies leave, I took some pictures. On one, you can see the wheel tracks that are rimmed with steel, but the other amazing thing is the deep groove the horses make in the paved road.

Wear of the road outside Intercourse where the horses trot along

Biking, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Museums

Biking Lititz in Lancaster County

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59℉ at 6:00 am with high of 82

Sunday, October 30, 2016

We have enjoyed our neighbors so much. A young couple from Alabama, Page and Jeremy. They were packing up to leave, so we visited some more and said our goodbyes. Then we loaded Martha’s bike to go for a bike ride in Lititz. While waiting for Martha to get ready, I talked with gentleman hooking up a Nissan Titan to his giant trailer. He was in the horse business and used to haul horses all over, driving diesel dually trucks. I said I was worried about my transmission since I downshift so much on big hills, but he said it is a lot harder on the truck if you don’t downshift. Like me, he was worried about it being enough truck to pull the trailer that weighs 7,600 pounds, but he said it does great. He hardly knows the trailer is there, and he loves the engine. He said he measured his gas mileage at 19.5! I don’t measure mine very often, but it’s more like 15. 

We drove through the cute little town of Lititz, where a lot of shops were open on Sunday, and it was pretty busy when we drove in. I thought we were biking in a park, but Martha handed me a piece of paper with 28 turns on it and the mileage between turns – Sheez! We rode right up main street with cars parked on both sides and traffic coming through. A few turns later the route carried us along a pretty stream and past beautiful farms and some very expensive houses. Then it came out on a busy highway with a narrow bike lane. I wasn’t happy. Then through neighborhoods and back down main street. I felt like the Amish driving their buggies – fortunate to have survived. 

Then we drove across the county to the Toy Train Museum, which is very cool. It is built and maintained by toy train enthusiasts. Built like a train station, it seems to be in the middle of farm country. We chatted with the nice lady behind the desk before paying the senior rate with a AAA discount, of $5 each. There were maybe 21 different exhibits or setups, some with small trains and some with large. Pushing buttons, you could activate a train or equipment. A little boy was telling his mom all the details of what was going on in an exhibit. He was so excited. A bent old gentleman was doing the same with his patient wife. The lady at the front said once a year there is a toy train convention. People come from all over the world, bringing the same enthusiasm, trading and buying cars and accessories. 

Next to the museum is a caboose hotel where you can stay in one of a whole bunch of cabooses. What a cool idea. As we drove through to the far end, we heard a train whistle. There is a little train station there, but this train didn’t stop today. It was a sightseeing train with many cars and a lot of people touring Amish country. This would be a great way to see it. 

It was supposed to rain today, but it hadn’t come when we got back. I wanted to go out to the ridge road at sunset and take some pictures, but by the time we showered, the rains came in hard with a lot of wind. We settled in with a glass of wine and listened to one of the Neil Young CD’s I bought from Ken.

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