Rolling along in Minnesota

Sunset at Badlands National Park in South Dakota

After completing our extensive trip last year to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, & the northeastern states, it was time for us to take it easy for a while.  So, this year we are just traveling around Texas & then to Wyoming and upper Michigan (with a short visit to Thunder Bay, Ontario), before heading back to Texas again.

We wintered again in the Houston/Galveston area (with annual doctor visits etc.).  Then in February, we make a short trip in eastern Texas & Southeastern Louisiana to visit some more National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs).  In March we went to visit our grandkids in the north Texas area for a few weeks. 

Then we set out on a 5-week round-trip thru west Texas & eastern New Mexico camping in 9 Texas State parks (including Caprock Canyons, Palo Duro Canyon, Seminole Canyon, & Dinosaur Valley).  Our favorite was Palo Duro Canyon (the 2nd largest canyon in the US).  Of course, we had to see and photograph the most prominent rock formation in the park – Lighthouse Rock.  On this trip we also visited the International UFO Museum & Research Center in Roswell, NM (however, we missed seeing any UFO’s), and camped in Guadalupe National Park.  I (Jan) decided to hike to the top of Guadalupe Peak & back (an 8 mile RT hike with 3,000 elevation gain to the top).  I had done this before with Boy Scouts about 30 years ago, but did not remember it being so difficult (I wonder if age has anything to do with it?).

The primary destination on our trip in West Texas was to attend the New Horizon RV Owners Group Rally in Kerrville where we visited with many old friends and made new ones.  This rally (with people that have a New Horizon RV - either a 5th wheel or travel trailer) is held every 18 months (alternating spring & fall) in various places in the US.  We have managed to attend 8 consecutive ones & are planning on being at the one next year in Iowa in the fall.

After this trip we stayed around the Dallas area to attend Brynne’s (our oldest granddaughter’s) high school graduation and also to attend my (Jan’s) 50th college reunion at Austin College in Sherman, Texas.  Since the college mascot is the kangaroos, I am now the proud owner of a ‘Golden Roo’ medallion.  We, of course, will have to be back here in 3 years so that Cathy can get her very own ‘Golden Roo’ medallion.

We decided to make one major change this year & traded in our 2003 blue F450 truck.  It was becoming not very dependable, had 145,000 miles on it, & there have been many major improvements made in new trucks in the last 10 years.  We wanted to get another blue Ford F450, but the blue color they offered didn’t even come close to what we wanted – so we ordered a white one instead (at least it matches our 5th wheel & we may even get some blue stripes put on later).  We are still very happy with our 2002 New Horizons 5th wheel RV and have no plans to replace it.

In early June, we were ready to start our extended summer/fall journey.  We headed to the Kansas City area to spend a couple of days with one of Jan’s brothers & then headed up thru Iowa to South Dakota & camped in the Badlands National Park.  This was our 5th time in the Black Hills area and did not revisit many of the places (such as Mt. Rushmore).  We did, however, revisit Wall Drug (a major tourist attraction near the Badlands) and Custer State Park. 

Then we headed to Gillette, Wyoming for the annual Escapade - this is the big annual rally of members of the Escapees RV Club (the top RV Club for fulltime RVs).  We are members and our permanent mailing address is at the Escapees headquarters in Livingston, Texas.  This was only the 4th Escapade that we have attended (since most of them have been in the summer when we have been in Canada & cannot attend them).   We had a great time in learning new things, visiting with people, and hearing good entertainment.  We also, finally bought and replaced our light bulbs (including the fluorescent ones) with LED lights which are by far more energy efficient & not as hot.  We really like them.

We then headed north to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota where we camped a few nights & attended the well-known Medora Outdoor Musical (a fun evening).  Then we headed to the Enchanted Highway – a side country road off of I94 where some fascinating very large scrap metal sculptures are built.  Just as we started down the highway we saw smoke coming out of the rear of the RV & immediately pulled over.  To make a long story short, one of the  wheel bearings disintegrated & the tire rubbed against the frame causing the smoke (fortunately, there was no fire).  Sometimes I wonder what we are doing wrong.  We have now had 5 times when we have seen smoke out the back of the RV.  Two times when an independent suspension axle broke, 2 times when wheel bearings disintegrated, and once when the trailer brakes locked up & one of the tires caught fire on Vancouver Island.   Even with all of these troubles, we have not had to make any “plastic surgery” repairs on the trailer and are not discouraged and are determined to keep traveling onward.

When we had this current wheel bearings problem there were no shoulders to pull off onto, so after quickly removing the tire, we drove on 3 trailer wheels to one of the few houses along this road & backed into the driveway (where we spent 6 nights waiting for parts to come in from Ft. Worth).  The owner of the house was more than gracious in letting us stay parked in front of her house.  She even offered for us to use her shower etc. if needed.  North Dakota is known as the friendliest state in the nation & we now definitely agree with this.   

After I installed the new parts, we rolled north & visited many NWRs along the way (North Dakota has more refuges than any other state). Eventually we made it to the International Peace Gardens (on the North Dakota/Manitoba border) for a few days of rest.  The flowers were beautiful, the park was very peaceful to walk thru, and there is a 9-11 Memorial (completed since our last visit in 2005).  There is also a great International Music School in the summer and the faculty & students give concerts on Fridays & Saturdays.  We thoroughly enjoyed listening to great jazz musicians.

It seems like this is the year for us to see bison (buffalos).  We have seen them at Caprock Canyon State Park (TX), Custer State Park (SD), Theodore Roosevelt National Park (ND), Sullys Hill Game Preserve (ND), and many other places along the highway.  Plus, we saw bighorn sheep in Badlands National Park, prairie dog towns, & of course pronghorn antelope on the plains.

We are now in Minnesota heading northeast to Thunder Bay, Ontario to have an air ride system installed on the truck.  Then we head to Grand Portage in the US to catch a ferry out to Isle Royal National Park in Lake Superior.

Hope all of you are doing well.

Roseate Spoonbill in Anahuac National Refuge in Texas

 Cypress swamp area in Trinity National Wildlife Refuge in Texas

 

Resting crocodile in Cameron Prairie National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana

Lighthouse Rock in Palo Duro Canyon State Park - Texas

Aliens display in International UFO Museum & Research Center - New Mexico

Jan's hiking pal Blackie on top of Guadalupe Peak in Guadalupe National Park - Texas

View of El Capitan from top of Guadalupe Peak - Texas

Petroglyphs in Seminole Canyon State Park - Texas

 

A female cardinal that was unhappy that we parked close to her nest in Lake Brownwood State Park - Texas.  She & her mate pecked at our truck & trailer windows numerous times until we left.

One of many painted bison in downtown Custer, South Dakota.  This one titled "Provider of the Lakota People" by artist Evans Flammond, Sr. depicts 3 horses used in bison hunts and a blue moon symbolizing a great feast

 Our campsite in Comanche National Forest near Custer, South Dakota

"The Tin Family" - a very large scrap metal sculpture by Gary Greff along "The Enchanted Highway" in South Dakota.  Notice Jan standing at the bottom of pitchfork



"Pheasants on the Prairie" - a very large scrap metal sculpture by Gary Greff along "The Enchanted Highway" in South Dakota.  Notice Cathy standing by the front pheasant.

Resting bison (buffalo) in Sullys Hill Game Preserve in North Dakota

Flowers in The International Peace Garden (North Dakota/Manitoba) border

Sunken Garden in The International Peace Garden

Our 2012 Travels Wrap Up

New York City skyline in the afternoon sun.  The large building being built to the left is One World trade Center - to be completed this year (2013) and will be the largest building in the Western Hemisphere at a height of 1776 ft.

Last year we completed our most ambitious year in our 10 years of extensive RVing and are now taking a much needed rest during the winter in Dickinson, Texas (a small community between Houston & Galveston).  First of all, here are some photos left over from our visit in the New York area and some highlights of the last part of our travels (our trip after leaving New York City on our way back to Texas).

• Camping in Greenbelt Park in Washington, DC.  This is a very large wilderness type park that is one of the National Park Service sites, is just a few miles from downtown, and cost only $8 per night.  It was nice to come back to our RV in such a quiet setting each night after being in the very busy DC area.

• Visiting all of the main monuments/memorials in DC and admiring the new ones that we had not seen before: the extensive FDR Memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, the National World War II Memorial, the Women in Vietnam Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence Memorial in the Constitution Gardens.

• Going to the top of the Old Post Office Tower to get a great view of DC from a different place.

• Visiting the Ford Theater and the house across the street (the Petersen Boarding house) where Lincoln died. 

• In Virginia, enjoying  visits to the historic Jamestowne site (especially the glass blowing demo), Jefferson’s Monticello, and Patrick Henry’s Red Hill.  We, however, thought that Williamsburg was too commercialized.

• We were very glad to complete our visiting of so many of the U.S. Civil War Battlefields that are part of the National park Service.  Over & over we were reminded of the overwhelming devastating loss of lives there were in all of the numerous battles (a recent estimate now puts it at 750,000 died (half from disease or lingering wounds).

• And finally, many refreshing visits at National Wildlife Refuges in Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, & Oklahoma on our way back to Texas – especially the Patuxent National Research Center in Maryland where they have an extensive project to raise young Whooping Crane chicks and then teach them to migrate with ultra light aircraft.

During our travels in 2012 we reached three of our long time goals that we had set for ourselves during our travels in the United States & Canada. 

1. The first major goal was to complete extensively visiting all of the Canadian Provinces and territories (except Nunavut which is in the far northeast and is very difficult to reach only by airplane or boat trip).  We completed this goal when we spent 2 wonderful months in Newfoundland and 1 month in the part of Nova Scotia that we had not previously visited.  What a wonderful and beautiful country Canada is!  We will be back again – especially to Newfoundland & British Columbia in the coming years.
2. The second major goal was to photo all of the lighthouses that are easy to reach (or at least can be seen to take a photo) in Canada & the United States.  We completed traveling thru the last 3 remaining places that we had left (Newfoundland, most of Nova Scotia, and the East Coast (from Virginia thru Massachusetts).   All in all, we took photos of 300 additional lighthouses in 2012 to bring our overall total to over 1,210.  There are still well over 100 lighthouse left in the US and Canada, but most of these are on islands far from shore, require a very long hike to get to it, or is in inaccessible places like nuclear power plants.  This does not mean that we are going to stop our lighthouse quest.  Instead, we will just plan to take an occasional special boat trip etc. to see them 1 at a time instead of many of them in a day.
3. The third major goal we reached this year was to visit and collect passport stamps at all of the 360 National Park Service sites in the continental United States.  These sites (National Parks, National Monuments, Civil War Battlefields, and other Historic places) are found in all 48 states and cover from the northwest (San Juan Island National Historic Park in Washington State) to the southeast (Dry Tortugas National Park (60 miles west of Key West, FL); and from the northeast( Saint Croix Island International Historic site (between Maine and Canada to the southwest (Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego, CA); and from the south (Palo Alto Battlefield in Brownsville, TX)  to the north (Voyageurs National Park in Northern Minnesota).  We feel so fortunate to have experienced such natural beauty and to learn so much history of the United States along the way.  

This does not, however, complete our overall journey to visit all of the National Park Service Sites.   There are now 398 total sites, which leaves 27 left to go (we have already visited 11 of the 22 sites in Alaska).   The remaining ones are:  11 in Alaska, 7 in Hawaii, 1 in Guam, 1 in America Samoa, 1 in Puerto Rico, 3 in the Virgin Islands, and a brand new one recently added in California (Cesar Chavez National Monument).   Since many of these are remote and expensive to get to, we think that we will concentrate on the ones in Hawaii, a couple of the Alaska ones, the new one in California, and then just maybe the ones in the Virgin Islands.

So now you ask, what is there left to do now that you have taken photos of most of the lighthouses in Canada & the US plus visited most of the National Park Service sites?  Well, we still have over 400 possible National Wildlife Refuges to visit & we want to revisit many of the National Parks (especially in the west).  We plan to cut back on our traveling (especially extensive side trips to see lighthouses etc.) and are planning to volunteer at State Parks, National Parks, or National Wildlife Refuges.

We hope that you will have a great year in 2013.

New London Ledge lighthouse - near New London, CT harbor

Montauk Point lighthouse - southeastern tip of Long Island

Fire Island lighthouse - In Fire Island National Seashore on Long Island

View of Statue of Liberty from Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island.  Note: The light at the top of the statue is an aid to navigation & is therefore a lighthouse.

Seven Foot Knoll lighthouse in Baltimore harbor - originally built in Chesapeake Bay on the Seven Foot Shoals near the mouth of the Patapsco River near Baltimore.

Chesapeake lightship in Baltimore harbor

Cascading fountains in Meridian Park in northern Washington, DC

Fountains in the National World War II Memorial in Washington, DC

View of the U.S. Capitol building from the top of the Old Post Office Tower

The 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence Memorial in Constitution Gardens with the Washington Monument in the distance

Cathy shaking the hand of Pocahantas in the Historic Jamestowne Settlement in Williamsburg, VA

Jefferson's Monticello home in Charlottesville, VA

Our campsite in the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park - The final National Park Service site visited to complete the continential U.S.

 

Lighthouses and More Lighthouses

 Cape Forchu Lighthouse (also called the Apple Core Lighthouse) - Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

After a few hectic days in New York City, we are now in Maryland taking a few days of much needed rest in the heavily forested and VERY QUIET almost deserted Tuckahoe State Park.  During the last 2 months we have been on a rather tight schedule to get everything done that we wanted to this year.  And to think that retirement is just taking life at an easy pace!    We set up our tight schedule for the following reasons:

1. Two years ago, Canada declared that most of their lighthouses were surplus and asked for bids to be submitted for each of the ones being surplused.  The hope was that historical groups would get the lighthouses and restore them.  However, it looks like expensive insurance will be required and most groups do not have those kinds of funds.  So – we wanted to see as many of the lighthouses as possible before some of them are purchased by private individuals and moved, torn down, or just left to deteriorate.
2. We wanted to take the extended Boston Harbor boat tour to see many of the lighthouses up close and the boat tour is only offered once a month - so we needed to be in Boston by September 1st.
3. As the summer turns into fall, some of the National park Service Sites start of close up for the season and we wanted to visit Governors Island in New York City which closed just this past weekend.
4. And finally, we are not great fans of traveling in the northeast with all of the traffic, many parkways with low bridges, and not as many camping places as in the rest of the country.  We like to travel in the west and in most of Canada where there are more open spaces, fewer people, and less congestion.  So we were trying to complete the items we have had on our bucket list especially, in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, & New York. 

And we can report that when all is said and done, we have managed to successfully complete all that we had hoped for and even more and the really great weather we enjoyed most of the time really helped.  Here are some of highlights of our recent travels:

• For most of the month of August, we went around the coastline of the mainland part of Nova Scotia (we had already done most of Cape Breton Island previously) and were very successful in seeing over 80 lighthouses.   The weather cooperated most of the time (except around Halifax where it was foggy every day that we were there).  We even managed to photo the famous Peggy’s Cove lighthouse (the fog lifted just before we got there).   It was very crowded on the rocks around the lighthouse with busloads of people there (quite different from most of the lighthouses that we visit). 
• While in Halifax, we went on tours of Province House & Government House to continue our tradition of visiting Canadian provincial & territorial centers of government (with only Yukon & Nunavut left to visit).  We also camped in one of the two National Parks in Nova Scotia (Kejimkujik – referred to as Keji (keh-gee)).  A few years back we had driven the Cabot Trail and camped in Cape Breton Highland National Park.
• After completing Nova Scotia, we took the ferry to Prince Edward Island to enjoy a few evenings of music gatherings called Ceilidhs, a couple of nights of bluegrass , and one night of Highland bagpiping, Scottish-style drumming, Highland dancing, and island step dancing.
• Then it was time to head to Boston for the LH boat tour & to visit additional places like The Longfellow House and Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Sites.  The weather and the boat ride were perfect which made our stay in Boston really special. 
• After Boston, we headed down to the Cape Cod area.  On the way, we did have a glitch when the truck would not start after stopping at a small pull-off on a very busy highway when it was raining.  We had to call a tow truck & luckily were on our way by noon the next day with a new alternator.
• After touring around Cape Cod a couple of days, we rode a passenger ferry to Nantucket Island and went on a very good bus tour of the island.  We really enjoyed this relatively small island and even managed to take photos of 5 lighthouses.
• A couple of days later, we rode another passenger ferry to Martha’s Vineyard Island.  This island is much larger than Nantucket & so we rented a car in order to see the lighthouses around the island.  While there, we parked the car and rode on “Chappy” - the shortest ferry we have ever taken (only 542 feet from shore to shore) to get across the channel to Chappaquiddick island.  We were met there & went on a tour over the sandy coastline to the Cape Poge lighthouse at the northern tip of the island.
• After our visit in the Cape Cod area, we drove to the Fishermen’s Memorial State Park in Rhode Island for a week.  While there, we took a boat tour to see 10 lighthouses in lower Narragansett Bay, rode a ferry out to Block Island to visit a couple of great LHs, drove along part of the Connecticut coastline for more lighthouses, and then around in the Providence, RI area.   While in New Bedford, CT we arrived by chance when the New Bedford Whaling Historic Site was celebrating their 15th year anniversary and so we enjoyed some cupcakes & a special dancing group performance.
• After seeing all of the lighthouses there are in Rhode Island, it was time to take our 5th wheel on a ferry from New London Connecticut to Long Island where we stayed at the very nice Wildwood State Park.  We took a few day trips to photo most of the lighthouses on Long Island and to visit National Park Service sites such as Fire Island National Seashore and Sagamore Hills National Historic Site (Theodore Roosevelt’s Home).
• Then it was time to tackle the New York City area with an RV.  We had been there in a small VW Bug in 1965 during the World’s Fair and had seen many of the popular sites, and this time we just wanted to see a few selected sites.  So we decided to head to Liberty Harbor RV Park in Jersey City, New Jersey (a park that is quite expensive, but has great access to Manhattan).   After studying the routes thru and around Manhattan we decided to take the southern route.  For some reason on the way, our trucker GPS told us to take an exit due to a low overpass and before we knew it we were driving over the Manhattan Bridge right into lower Manhattan – thru Manhattan on the very busy Canal Street & finally going thru the Lincoln Tunnel.  When we got to the tunnel, there was a sign posted that said campers with propane tanks were prohibited, and with no place to turn around, we had no choice but to go thru the tunnel.  Fortunately, we made it safely to the RV Park.  What made the trip even more stressful was that the roads had lots of potholes and bumps along the way & we were really hoping that we didn’t have a flat or a breakdown on the way.
• After recovering from the drive and settling into the RV Park, we rode a ferry over to Ellis Island & the Statue of Liberty.  The next day, we only had to walk 1 block to catch the NY Waterway commuter ferry right over to the dock at Wall Street (note: this ferry only runs on weekdays).  It was interesting to ride with so many people dressed in suits & carrying briefcases.  We then visited 4 National Park Service sites on Manhattan (including Theodore Roosevelt’s Birthplace and Federal Hall (where Washington was inaugurated & the first congress met)).  Then we rode the free Staten Island ferry roundtrip to photo another LH (note: This ferry system carries more than 60,000 people daily between Staten Island & Manhattan).  Then it was time to catch the commuter ferry back to the RV Park.  Note: We decided to take the taxi a couple of times while in Manhattan and it was not as expensive as you might think and was much faster.
• After a day of rest while it rained, we walked a half mile and rode the PATH subway train to the World Trade Center station.  In Manhattan we went on a very well narrated 3 hour boat tour completely around Manhattan Island and under 20 bridges.  On the way we photographed 3 lighthouses including the ‘Lightship Frying Pan’ and the very special one – ‘Jeffrey’s Hook’ (also known as The Little Red Lighthouse under one end of the George Washington Bridge).   Not only was this our 1,200th lighthouse, but our son’s name is Jeffrey.  After the boat tour we rode the ferry to Governors Island for a breath of fresh air (great place for picnics, hiking, and riding bicycles on weekends in the summer thru September).  On the way back to the PATH subway, we were moved when we passed the firehouse next to the WTC site and one of the retired firefighters was polishing the large plaque dedicated to the fallen firefighters.

Since lighthouses have been our main theme recently, you will notice that most of the following photos are of lighthouses.  We did manage to detour slightly and photo the longest covered bridge in the world in New Brunswick.  Since we have been so busy, we have only processed our photos thru Rhode Island – so we will include the rest of them in our next update (including the great Fire Island & Montauk lighthouses on Long Island)

Tomorrow we head to Greenbelt Park (part of the National Park Service & within 2 miles of Washington, DC Metro station).   While there, we plan to visit numerous monuments, places, & parks and even take a couple of day trips to eastern Maryland & Baltimore to photo some more lighthouses and see Fort McHenry, Jamestown, etc.  And finally, we will head back to Texas for the winter months and really take time to rest, read, process photos, visit our doctors, and spend time with family and friends.

We hope that this update finds you all doing well.

Grandique Point Lighthouse - Nova Scotia

 

Queensport (Rook Island) Lighthouse - Nova Scotia

 

Peggy's Cove Lighthouse - Nova Scotia

Steeple of the largest & tallest wooden building in North America - Eglise Sainte Marie - In Church Point, Nova Scotia.  The steeple from the floor to the top of the cross is 190 feet.  It was built in 1903 by a master carpenter with the help of 1,500 parishoners.
 

The 'Theodore Too' tugboat comes in out of the fog in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Wood Island Lighthouse on southern coast of Prince Edward Island (with the red dirt that PEI is known for).  This is where the ferry lands coming from Nova Scotia.

Hartland, New Brunswick Covered Bridge - Longest Covered Bridge in the world - measuring 1,283 feet long.  It crosses the Saint John River.

Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site in Cambridge, MA.  It was used by George Washington as his first offical headquarters of the Continental Army and later Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lived in it for almost 50 years.
 

Cape Ann (Thatcher Island) Twin Lighthouses - Northeast of Boston Harbor - Sailors could distinctly identify the two lights as a pair to help guide them.

 

Dog Bar Breakwater Lighthouse - Entrance to Glouchester , MA harbor.

 

Graves Lighthouse - Boston Harbor

 

Nantucket Lightship WLV112 in Boston Harbor - Just newly refurbished this summer.  Three of the eleven commisioned Nantucket lightships that were built are still in existence (one in Boston, one in Wareham, MA, & the other travels around).  These ships marked the hazardous Nantucket Shoals south of Nantucket Island.  The lightship that rtavels around was remodeled inside to be a luxury yacht for rent.  We just happened to see it when it was in Newport, RI

 

Sankaty Head Lighthouse - Nantucket Island

 

Brant Point Lighthouse - Nantucket Island

 

Nobska Point Lighthouse - Woods Harbor, MA

 

Edgartown Lighthouse - Along the channel between Martha's Vineyard Island & Chappaquiddick Island

 

Block Island North Lighthouse - Block Island, RI

 

Block Island Southeast Lighthouse - Block Island, RI