Airstream Time

Martha wants this one!

osprey

A little statue with a sign that says, “Welcome to serenity”

It’s nice to have bikes to explore a campground and that’s what we did this morning. It is a nice park with everything you can think of – marina, boat launch, great playgrounds, beach, store and a nature center. While Martha fixed a nice salad for lunch, I inflated the tires with a pump I bought for the trip. Tires were such an issue on our previous trip, I am trying to cover all the bases and do the right things. I still need to alter the hitch now that we have it fully loaded. We are putting too much pressure on the back tires of the truck. After lunch I worked on the blog while Martha read a book. 

At 4:00 we went into Clayton, having to cross that bridge again, but this time Martha drove and was totally unconcerned. Clayton is a cute little town on the St. Lawrence. We were scheduled for a sunset cruise on the Clayton Islands Cruise at 6:30, but Martha wanted to go to the library to get WIFI and pay bills. Unfortunately the library was closed so we went to a little restaurant, sat at the bar and had a beer and appetizers. Matt was sitting next to us and we struck up a conversation. After much discussion, it turns out he lived in Ft. Mill, South Carolina where our friends Karen and Nathan live! 

The cruise was nice, although it doesn’t threaten the top 10. There are very cool houses on islands and along the shoreline that are very cool. It always amazes me when you travel any shoreline, how many people have such boats and vacation houses. You would have to ice skate to these most of the year! I liked the one shaped like a steamboat the best while Martha liked the one that looked like an Italian villa – not doubt a nice one! We saw an osprey, an eagle, a loon, lots of cormorants and a blue heron. The sunset was gorgeous, so all-in-all a good trip.

Tomorrow we must get some groceries, do some laundry and pay bills because Friday we cross the border and go to Mont-Tremblant National Park for a week.

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It’s good to have bikes to explore a campground and that’s what we did this morning. It is a nice park with everything you can think of – marina, boat launch, great playgrounds, beach, store and a nature center. While Martha fixed a nice salad for lunch, I inflated the tires with a pump I bought for the trip. Tires were such an issue on our previous trip, I am trying to cover all the bases and do the right things. I still need to alter the hitch now that we have it fully loaded. We are putting too much pressure on the back tires of the truck. After lunch I worked on the blog while Martha read a book. 

At 4:00 we went into Clayton, having to cross that bridge again, but this time Martha drove and was totally unconcerned. Clayton is a cute little town on the St. Lawrence. We were scheduled for a sunset cruise on the Clayton Islands Cruise at 6:30, but Martha wanted to go to the library to get WIFI and pay bills. Unfortunately the library was closed so we went to a little restaurant, sat at the bar and had a beer and appetizers. Matt was sitting next to us and we struck up a conversation. After much discussion, it turns out he lived in Ft. Mill, South Carolina where our friends Karen and Nathan live! 

The cruise was nice, although it doesn’t threaten the top 10. There are very cool houses on islands and along the shore. It always amazes me when you travel any shoreline, for example Smith Mountain Lake, how many people have such boats and vacation houses, but you would have to ice skate to these most of the year! I liked the one shaped like a steamboat the best while Martha liked the one that looked like an Italian villa – not doubt a nice one! We saw an osprey, an eagle, a loon, lots of cormorants and a blue heron. The sunset was gorgeous, so all-in-all a good trip.

Tomorrow we must get some groceries, do some laundry and pay bills because Friday we cross the border and go to Mont-Tremblant National Park for a week.

I can’t remember the last time I slept 8 hours, but I think I got 8 1/2 last night. Still groggy, we enjoyed a relaxing morning and a nice breakfast. Martha did yoga with a video she brought. Off in the distance we heard a lot of children making a lot of noise. As I walked up to the bathroom, I saw a lot of cars parked through the trees. Someone on a microphone was yelling out instructions and what sounded like 100 kids were shouting back replies. It sounded like a drill sergeant from my VMI days, but the kids were obviously having fun, and it was obviously a big, popular event. Then there was music played on the loudspeaker. I wanted to go over there to see, but we needed to get on the road. We didn’t see much of this park, but it’s a huge lake with a nice campground and beautiful fields. 

We got on the road at 10:00, winding along small country roads and small towns along Pennsylvania countryside until getting on I83. With heavy truck traffic, it is much like I81, which we eventually got on. It takes a while to get through Pennsylvania, and we were glad to finally cross into New York. I was surprised when a warning light came on. “Gas cap is loose”. Never having seen that before, I looked in the side mirror, there it was dangling by it’s little cord. Geez! 81 is no easy place to stop, but found a weigh station that was closed and put the gas cap back on. Now how the heck to you rested that alert? By the time we go to Syracuse, it was rush hour and were diverted by the GPS to avoid traffic. Sometimes you feel like you just shouldn’t pay attention to that thing, because they are often wrong and will take you on some screwy routes, but this time, it worked great. My big rule is to be in camp by 5:00, but we still had a ways to go. Now I was getting tired and grumpy, but tried to hold it together. Finally arriving at Delta Lake State Park at 6:00, we checked in, found our campsite, backed in, leveled the trailer and unhooked. It rained a little while we were doing this, but just as we finished, it poured. I was happy not to be in a tent. 

Martha had said she didn’t want to become an alcoholic on this trip, having seen how Kelly and I had cocktail hour every night on our trip three years ago, but after driving on I83 and 81 in heavy traffic all day, you need a drink!! She had made some ratatouille before we left and we had some leftover steak from a nice dinner with our neighbors, Danis and Reetie. Adding some potatoes, we had a nice dinner. By then the rain had stopped, so we walked out the back of our campsite to the lake to see a beautiful sunset. Nice and cool, we opened the windows and finally enjoyed a cool breeze.

I meant to get a picture of all our great neighbors in front of the Airstream before we left. Everyone came out to say goodbye at different times, but I had too many things on my mind, and it was so hot! August in Virginia is my least favorite month, and this one has been  really hot. What makes it worse is the high humidity. Anyway, we will just have to have a street party when we return. After a long morning of loading groceries and some odds and ends, we finally took off about 1:00, driving up Rt 29 north to Gordonsville, where we remembered to turn off the water pump. Then pressing on to Orange, when the tire monitor said our tires were low. I had already set these two days before, but took the truck to change the oil and they changed the tire pressure to 37, but we need full pressure of 44. Sheetz has a nice air compressor with good access with the trailer, so we took care of that. Just past Leesburg on Rt. 15, we got into a big rainstorm and could only go about 30 miles an hour. Thankfully it didn’t last all day. The farmland along there is beautiful. Then on to Codurus State Park outside Hanover, Pennsylvania. This is a nice park with a huge lake, but we got in about 5:15 and I was exhausted. I didn’t sleep much the night before and with all the preparation details, I was spent. A glass of wine and I felt better. Martha fixed a nice salad with grilled chicken. It was still hot, very hot, so we were glad to have air conditioning, and we were soon in bed. 

We are taking off about noon today on a grand adventure exploring Eastern Canada. Martha has planned two stops along the way before getting to 1000 Islands National Park on Tuesday. It’s crazy how many friends we have talked to who are going to the same region. The truck is gassed up and the oil changed. I need to put the bikes in the back of the truck and try to cover them with a tarp, then put Martha’s kayak on. Come along with us as we explore Canada’s national and provincial parks and points in between.

Martha here.

Greg has asked to me to write a few of my thoughts about our upcoming trip.  So I will try to do that now.  This will probably be the one and only time you will hear from me.  Unless it is to correct something he said about me in his blogging or to remove an unflattering picture.

First, let me say that I am very excited about the trip and am looking forward to getting started.

But sometimes I wonder if Greg and I are taking the same trip.  Greg has taken an intense, 2-day outdoor wilderness first aid course.  He has a first aid kit that would make any EMT proud:  splints for every possible kind of broken bone, sutures, bandages, water purification stuff, emergency sleeping bag, emergency tent, and on and on and on.

When I informed Greg that I needed to get a haircut and a pedicure every four weeks I got the eye roll.  So you see what I mean about being on the same trip.

We just now decided to not go to Newfoundland, at least on this trip, too far north and east.  It would be a lot of long driving and kind of expensive to take the RV on the ferry.  I think we are both relieved to have made that decision.

I’m also still trying to convince Greg that it will be cold in Canada from the end of September on and maybe we need to be back in the US by November.  I guess we will just have to play that one by ear.

Well, I’m hoping this is a very boring blog.  I really do not want any controversial border crossings.  You remember from the www.fishacrosscanada.com blog, right?  “Hand me your keys and step away from your vehicle.”  Also, I’m hoping for no flat tires and no empty gas tanks.  I do hope that Greg takes plenty of awesome pictures and you can enjoy what we are seeing and doing.

Please come along with us and enjoy our adventure.

Of course I am very excited to get on the road and launch a new adventure, but we are leaving in seven days and there is a lot to do. I need to go to work today and Wednesday and hopefully finish up some important things. Thursday we are meeting Bobby and Sally, Martha’s brother and his wife, in Williamsburg for the day. That leaves three days to get things done. We are so lucky to have great neighbors and a great helper, Lenore, who are looking after the house. Martha has set up the bills for either automatic payment or email notices. I want to install a rear view camera on the trailer, but I need to order a couple of parts this morning. I want to put a shelf in the front storage compartment of the Airstream. I would like to finish cleaning the garage. I have finished about ¾ of it, but I need a morning and it is VERY hot this week! I know there are a few things in that garage I need, but I can’t find them, as it is such a mess. Saturday we will finish packing and begin loading the trailer. We will turn on the refrigerator Friday evening. I need to go by Verizon and do whatever you have to do to use the phone in Canada. Now the adrenaline is flowing!

Starting a new adventure, we bought a beautiful 2014 25′ Airstream Flying Cloud. My name is Greg and my wife is Martha. At this point I am much more anxious to get going and I could stay on the road for a very long time. Martha is more cautious, but has given us two years to travel. The first trip begins the end of the month, and the plan is to explore eastern Canada. There are eleven national parks in that area and eight drives listed in National Geographic’s Drives of a Lifetime. Martha has given us about four months for this trip, so we will return home for Thanksgiving, and hopefully we will get back on the road in February. She told me a little break would be OK, since that will be duck hunting season.

There are many things to do to get ready. I’m sure when we leave, we will discover things we forgot to do or things we didn’t take along. In 2013 my best friend, Kelly, and I bought a 2005 30′ Classic and drove across Canada for four months on an incredible fishing trip. It was a great adventure, and we wrote a blog at http://www.fishacrosscanada.com. Kelly has written a book about it, called If the Fish are Bitin‘,which will be published soon. We had a few essential things we don’t have on this trip, the main one being solar power. Three awnings to shade the windows and keep the rain out were nice. Five more feet doesn’t sound like much, but it’s all storage. What we gained is better maneuverability and not so much weight to pull.

I could go on, but you probably aren’t interested in the details. I hope you will come along and join us for the ride. I’ll try to take some good pictures and show you some beautiful sights and interesting places. I love the comments people made on our previous blog. Don’t be shy, we would all love to hear your thoughts and quips, or if nothing else just to know you are there, and I’m not just talking to myself.