Stratford Point Lighthouse - In Stratford, Connecticut on the western side of the mouth of the Housatonic River which flows into Long Island Sound
We spent the
winter months in the Texas area mostly in the Houston/Galveston area – with a
trip (in a rental car) to the Denver area over Christmas to be with our son and
his wife, and Jan’s brothers. Our trip
to Denver was “a little exciting” when we drove north of Amarillo thru Oklahoma
and southeastern Colorado where a blizzard had just come thru the day
before. We were on one of the few open main roads
and were stuck for hours in traffic stacked up miles behind an accident. Night came upon us and the melted snow on the
road turned to ice. Finally we slowly drove on
and finally made it to our motel after 10 PM (fortunately we had reservations).
In late February, we traveled to
McKinney, TX (north of Dallas) to spend some time with our daughter and family. On March 28, we packed up and set out on our
2012 exploring trip heading to Kansas, then meandered to New Hampshire where we
are now camped.
In Kansas we
went to the New Horizons factory where we had our custom 5th wheel trailer made
in 2002. We have been traveling fulltime
in our 32 ft 5th wheel for almost 9 years now and it is still in great
condition. Over the years we have talked
about getting a new 5th wheel but decided that what we have is just fine. It is our home and we have become ‘attached’
to it. We did look at all of the new
options that are now available and decided to get the Big Foot automatic
leveling system installed this year.
Instead of driving up on multiple boards to try to level the trailer
each time we stop for the night, all we do now is unhook from the truck and
press a button. The system automatically
lowers the 4 hydraulic legs (feet) and levels the trailer. What an improvement!
After Kansas
we visited relatives in Missouri, Indiana, and Ohio. While in Indiana, we had our suspension system
checked and aligned to make sure that the two MorRyde Independent Suspension axles
that Jan had replaced during our travels last year were still doing well.
In our
travels so far this year we have visited 15 more National Park Service sites - from
Lincoln’s Boyhood Home in Indiana, and the newly dedicated Flight 93 Memorial
Plaza in Pennsylvania, to the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller mansion in
Vermont. One of the most unusual sites
was the Allegheny Portage Railroad Historic Site. In the early 1800's the state of Pennsylvania built a canal
system from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, but could not go
over what is known as the Allegheny Mountain Ridge. The solution decided upon was to build a
series of inclines on both sides of the ridge, then load specially built canal
boats onto rail cars and pull these cars up the inclines via multiple stationary steam
engines using a rope (which broke a few times with disastrous results) and
later a steel cable. This method was
used for about 20 years until being replaced by the Pennsylvania Railroad built
thru the mountains including the historic 220 degree Horseshoe Curve and
Gallitzin tunnel. Both the Curve and the
tunnel are still heavily in use today and we watched the trains go by (a
pastime for rail buffs known as railfanning).
One interesting note is that in the 90’s, they had to lower the railbed
in the Gallitzin tunnel to accommodate double high stacked semi truck trailers.
In addition,
we have photographed 11 additional lighthouses on the Detroit River in
Michigan, Toledo Harbor in Ohio, on Lake Oneida in New York (used as part of
the New York Canal System), and in Connecticut on Long Island Sound. We are rapidly approaching the 925 lighthouse
mark. Fortunately, there are lots of
lighthouses in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia where we are headed and so reaching
more than 1,000 this year is within easy reach.
Also in our
travels, we have visited and added 17 more stamps to our National Wildlife
Refuge (NWR) Passport Book (for a total of over 85 now). One of the most unusual refuges we visited
was the Ohio River Islands NWR in northern West Virginia. This refuge encompasses 22 islands in the Ohio
River and 3 land tracts from Pittsburg down the Ohio River for 362 miles (needless
to say we did not see/visit all of these islands). One of the primary efforts of the refuge is
to protect 40 species of freshwater mussels, including at least two endangered
species. These fascinating mollusks, some among the most imperiled wildlife in
the country today, require fish hosts in their life cycles. It is estimated that at one time there were
over 80 species of freshwater mussels in the Ohio River, but due to pollution this
number was greatly reduced. Progress is
being made and the number remaining has stabilized.
One other
theme we have added to our places to see is visiting Presidential Libraries, Museums,
and Homes. We have visited some before (such
as the Clinton Museum in Little Rock and the Carter Museum in Atlanta). So, this year while we passed thru the Midwest
and northeast we visited the Dwight Eisenhower Museum in Abilene, KS; the
Grouseland Home of William Henry Harrison in Vincennes, IN; the Rutherford B.
Hayes Museum in Fremont, OH; the McKinley Museum in Canton, OH; and the Calvin
Coolidge Museum in Northampton, MA. The
one in Northampton is next to Smith College and almost downtown. We decided to stop by with our trailer in tow
before knowing what we getting into. If
we had turned one way, there was a railroad bridge that was too low for us to
go under. Fortunately, our GPS system
had us turn the other way and we found multiple parking meters in a row in
which to park. It felt funny putting
quarters into multiple meters in a row.
Of course
while being in New England, we are in covered bridge country and we cannot go
thru any of them with our trailer (and not even with our truck in most cases). This means that we have to stick to the main
roads unless we know what is out there.
Our trucker GPS system even would take us thru some of them if we
followed it. Fortunately, the directions
we received from the campground where we are now were very specific on what
route to take to get there since there are at least 2 bridges in the way. Note: We have not gotten carried away trying
to see all of the covered bridges up here, but have managed to drive thru (with
a rental car, of course) ten of them.
In our previous
travels we had not gained an appreciation for the Allegheny Mountains in
Pennsylvania, the Berkshire Mountains in western Massachusetts, and the Green
Mountains in Vermont. These may be
smaller mountains than the Rockies, but there are many long up and down
grades. The side roads are loaded with
curves and it is hard to find a straight road.
They have done a superb job with the Interstate Roads (especially in New
Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts) where they are lined with very green beautiful
trees even in heavily populated areas.
To make it also feel like driving thru forests, there are trees in the
median for miles and it looks like you are driving on a single road. There may be a lot of hype about the fall
colors, but the spring green colors this year are spectacular.
Tomorrow we
are moving on to the Boston area for week where there are numerous historical
places to visit, lighthouses to see, and even a couple of wildlife refuges to
visit. Fortunately, we have friends that
have offered their driveway to park in during this time (their home is 15 miles
closer to downtown Boston than the nearest campground). After visiting Boston, it is time to head
north to Canada and take the ferry from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. If all
goes well, we plan to spend almost 2 months in Newfoundland and then a month in
Nova Scotia (and maybe even a week back in Prince Edward Island) before heading
back to the States.
Hope this
update finds you all doing well
Red Winged Blackbird in Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in Ohio near Lake Erie
Turtle sunning itself in Clarence Cannon National Wildlife Refuge near the Mississippi River near St. Louis
Ashuelot Covered Bridge - Winchester, New Hampshire - Built in 1864
Conway (Burkeville) Covered Bridge - Conway, MA - Built in 1870 - Restored in 2005
Weir Farm National Historic Site - Wilton, Connecticut. In 1882, painter J. Alden Weir came here and found a refuge away from Manhattan that is only 50 miles away. This remains to today as a refuge for artists.
Fayerweather Island (Black Rock Harbor) Lighthouse in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The Bridgeport ferry to Long Island is passing by.
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