A Long and Winding Road!

Home Sweet Home, with Grandson, Jonah, snoozing on the picnic table, in Golden, Colorado, July 2013

Okay, as of Monday (Oct 28th), we've now been on the road for 4 months, and the stats (hey, I'll always have a little bit of "Accountant" in me) are, well, staggering, if I must say so myself!

States and Provinces we've been in (so far) -  19 states and 2 provinces (Ontario and New Brunswick)

RV Parks we've stayed in during this time -  18

Different license plates observed on RV's in those 18  parks - All 50 States, including, YES, even a Motorhome from Hawaii!... plus 9 Provinces, including the remote "Yukon"!

Miles on the old Chevy diesel... as of Oct 28th, and.since pulling out of Eugene on June 29th - 12,256 and still chugging along as strong as ever.  This is one righteous truck and tow vehicle!

Point to Point miles for the 5th Wheel trailer in going from park to park - 5,640

Miles to go before we return - who knows?

 Dollars spent on diesel fuel to keep the workhouse Chevy going -  Don't want to go there, I'm sure  it's  pretty ugly; but hey, who needs those retirement savings anyhow?... well, WE DO, but that's another story!..

Synopsis:

We took off from Eugene on Saturday, June 29th; and, as of Monday, October 28th, we are presently in Canton, Ohio, planning to head a bit South this weekend. Our travel between these two points has been interesting, to say the least!

Here's my take on the good, the bad, the oft-times wonderful, and sometimes ugly, about every state/province we've touched so far... and we've still got a long ways to go until we make it HOME, wherever that may be these days.  But, it's been a wonderful ride overall, 4 months of "vacation", and no real end to this "endless vacation gig" in sight.
 
States and Provinces we've been in so far, in order:

Oregon - I think this, more particularly Eugene, will always be OUR HOME, even though we sold our house there before departing on our long journey; but we retain priceless memories, loved and loving family, great friends, and deeply implanted roots there!

Bucky Fever, one of our "neighbors" from back in the "hood" (our former home in SW Eugene)

 Maybe the best views anywhere on the "long and winding road" were those gliding along the beautiful McKenzie followed by the stunning Cascade vistas from near Sisters of (count em, North to South) Jefferson, 3 Fingered Jack, Washington, Broken Top, the Sisters, Bachelor; in a word, STUNNING!


Less stunning is the drive from Bend to Burns, capped, in this particular instance, by the infamous "olive oil" spill in the parking lot adjacent to the "slowest  McDonalds on Earth", also, perhaps not coincidentally, in Burns (see our respective takes on this in our earlier blog posts).

Idaho -  We over-nighted in Boise our first night out on the road... The KOA campground there is serviceable, if nothing special, and it was sweltering hot that night... Best thing about Idaho?  Well it AIN'T Wyoming.  Worst? the aforementioned stifling heat and humidity when we over-nighted there.

Utah -  Just a brief dash through the NE portion of the state this time, but past visits have revealed the stunning beauty in the Southern National Parks. My personal fave, from a 2011 visit, is Capital Reef.  Worst part?  Well, it's hard to get any kind of BOOZE, even a beer, without a struggle! Hey, that's important stuff, too, when you're on the road!

Wyoming -  Okay, the journey ain't always special, as we discovered when over-nighting in the "ugliest KOA Kampground on Earth", a gravel parking lot set amidst Oil and Gas tanks, near Green River, WY.  Best part about Wyoming?  Well, probably the herd of Antelope we spotted while driving through a high mountain pass (also quite scenic) between Laramie and Cheyenne.

Colorado -  Finally the promised land, for us at least, as we arrived on July 1st, just before Grandson, Jonah Patrick Blass, was introduced to the world on the 4th of July.  Sharing the first two months of his life with Jonah and his parents was the best part of Colorado for sure; but there were other good moments as well: 1) the stunning grandeur of the Rocky Mountains; 2) a beautiful RV Park in Golden Colorado; 3) Saturday and Farmer's markets in Louisville, Boulder, and Loveland; 4) beautiful old town Fort Collins, for several examples.


 Downers?... Few, but sitting through a "Tornado Watch, followed in short order by a full-fledged "Tornado Warning", in Loveland one night, was not the most comfortable feeling.

South Dakota -  Before we arrived here, we made another trek through the Eastern part of one of our "favorite" states (NOT), Wyoming, and, suffice it to say, the most "exciting" part of that repeat journey was backing up the 5th wheel a distance of about 100 yards from a dead-end motel parking lot... don't even ask how or why we got into that predicament1

South Dakota itself, or most of it, was much better.  Highlight, for sure, was the trip through the "Badlands". Lowlight?  Well probably the over-hyped "Wall Drug Store", booked as the largest drug store anywhere; in reality it was just a a gigantic tourist trap. 

North Dakota - Hey, this weren't as bad as I'd feared... think a dead frozen body in the wastelands of Fargo... a scene from one of my favorite cult films of the same name... the drive up to "frozen body" land was scenic enough, well, to be kind,  not drab; and we kind of sped through the eastern fringe of Fargo itself... Darn, I wanted to explore it more; or possibly not!.. No matter, we were soon done with the Northern half of the Dakotas and heading to____

Minnesota -  This was another fairly brief journey through a  not too "sexy" state, a one-night stopover in a lonely little town called Bemidji way up in Northern Lake Country.  Best part of this slice of the state for me was the visit to the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca.  Can't think of any really bad things here, save the fact that is was pretty isolated up there in the Northern Country.  

 Ontario, Canada -  Talk about isolated, and lonely!  Ontario, or the greater part of it, particularly in the Western parts, is vast and often beautiful, with endless ponds and small lakes along the way, not to mention sweeping vistas of gigantic Lake Superior to the South.  But, many times it seemed like we were the only vehicle foolish enough to traverse it's vast wilderness. We spent 3 nights and the better parts of 3 days in this province, but left not really that anxious for a repeat visit.

New York (our first visit) -  We were to touch down on 3 different occasions and in 3 widespread RV parks in this great state, and all were equally enjoyable.  I'm sure NY has it's down spots, but on this trip we mostly saw only the "highs", starting with Niagara Falls, an unforgettable experience. More on this state later. 


Vermont -  On our quick trek through the Green Mountains of Vermont, we traveled through several picture-perfect little villages you always think about with regards to "New England".  And then we stayed overnight in a lovely little park out in the middle of nowhere.  No complaints there.

New Hampshire - Didn't unhitch the 5th wheel at all in this state, but did enjoy its natural beauty and other amenities, not the least of which was its (almost) lack of any sales tax..

Maine -   We completed our Eastward trek when we arrived here in a nice quiet RV park near Acadia National Park.   Maine coast was not as striking as Oregon's, but it did hold one special treat, namely LOBSTER, definitely a highlight of the State in my opinion.

And, albeit late in our one week stay, we discovered some of the well hidden charms of "Down East Maine" in quaint little seaside villages north of Portland (no, not THAT one!).  Still, Maine did not call to us strongly for a repeat visit!

New Brunswick - We took a day trip up to this 2nd Canadian Province for a nice bay side lunch, before returning to our Maine camp site.  It's way out of the way, up on top of already remote Northeastern Maine; and we likely won't visit there again anytime soon; but a fun half day trip nevertheless.

Massachusetts -  History, history, and more history, family and otherwise, marked our one week stay here.  Both of us had ancient ancestors from Coastal Massachusetts dating to the early 1600's; and then there was Boston, a great city we only briefly explored on a day trip, but would love to visit again more extensively.  And an interesting side-trip, for me, was to Fall River, a Portuguese enclave SW of Boston where the language of choice was Portuguese, and the food was a throwback to our wonderful one week visit to the Azores in 2008.

 Downers in this state?  Not many, but the drivers were truly lunatics at times, bustling around, cutting into traffic from side streets with little regard to oncoming traffic.  And "Plymouth Rock" was a  bit of a dud.  I've seen many more impressive rocks all over Oregon... for instance!

Cameo appearance in Rhode Island - drove across a small slice of this small state on the way "home" from a day trip to Fall River, MA.

(Back to) New York - We spent quality time in the beautiful Adirondacks, moving on from there to Cooperstown.  Highlights - the sheer grandeur of the mountains, fall foliage, and lovely waterways in the Adirondacks, righteous family history in the Counties surrounding Cooperstown; a beautiful campground and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown... Lowlights?  -  Few, but NO WiFi and a weak, if often non-existent, cell signal in the remote Adirondacks were two; and we weren't at all thrilled by being in the middle of the biggest garage sale in the world while parked in the Adirondacks.

Autumn colors in Adirondack State Park, Upstate NY

Pennsylvania  -  Our campground near Quakertown, PA in the Northeast section of the state was not only very picturesque and quiet, but also offered a convenient pushing off point for forays into New York City (subject of a previous blog entry), Philadelphia, Amish Country near Lancaster, and Gettysburg; all quite enjoyable.  Not so enjoyable were the aging and bumpy freeways in this state, probably the worst we've experienced during our 4 months on the road.

Cameo appearance in New Jersey - Parked the Chevy near Newark International Airport while visiting NYC

Maryland - Another brief stop, so not much to say about this state. The Western half of this oddly shaped state is very hilly, also very scenic, as we climbed through the Alleghany Mountains. Another oddity, not necessarily "bad", was pulling around a bend on a dry road and suddenly finding frost and traces of snow everywhere in a little town called, appropriately enough, Frostburg.  This was at about 2500 feet elevation as I recall, a "tremendous height" out here in the Eastern part of the country.

West Virginia - Little to say here as we just scooted across the narrow Northern edge of the state on the way to Ohio.  Land here was scenic mountains and hills, much like Western Maryland. One plus is they have the prettiest "Welcome to (insert your state name)" SIGN we've seen so far.

Ohio (after a short trek across SW corner of Pennsylvania) - We've been here in NE section of the state near Canton for  almost a week now and will be leaving this Saturday (Nov. 2nd) for a few days in the SW part of the state before moving on to other states and other adventures.  Best part of Ohio, so far, is the surprisingly hilly, rolling countryside we've seen around these parts;  on the not so best list are the smokestacks of industrial cities, like Canton, for instance!

 That's all for now.  Enjoying the road!

Jonah Patrick Blass, our Grandson, born on the 4th of July (and the main reason I moved my retirement date up to June 2013)

New York, New York!

New World Trade Center Building being rebuilt at "Ground Zero"

On a recent Friday (Oct 11th) we met our friends, Connie and Addison, at the Newark Airport... they'd flown in from Eugene the night before, while we had just relocated to Quakertown, PA, which put us a lot closer to the major metropolitan areas of New York and Pennsylvania.  The occasion was a 3 day weekend trip into the "Big Apple", New York City, in part to celebrate Connie's birthday on Saturday, also to just mutually explore the City and take in some of its well known attractions.

Our collective previous experience with the big city was minimal; Connie had a friend that lived/lives in NYC, and had been here before;  this was a first visit ever for Addison; Elaine had driven through on the freeways a decade ago during a college visitation trip with our youngest daughter, Emily; and my one and only previous visit was for just a day with my family when I was a high school kid; that was, well, a "few" (dozen) years back.

Even though we were all relative "newbies" from the "sticks", we knew enough about the Big City to NOT try to drive any personal vehicle into Manhattan, much less the big Chevy diesel of ours.  So it remained in long-term parking at Newark International while the four of us purchased tickets for the NJ Transit line that had an express train right into Penn Station in Mid-Town Manhattan.  The train ride was routine, and fast; and the fun was just beginning, starting with a mad dash in a yellow cab to our hotel further uptown, through busy traffic that, we noted then, consisted mostly of other yellow cabs, delivery vehicles and city and tour buses.

When cabbies, truck and bus drivers get in too frequent traffic jams in Manhattan, they automatically go to the horn, so the whole experience, whether in the cab dodging other vehicles, or walking on the sidewalk watching it all, was an adrenaline rush of honking horns, scurrying vehicles and general mayhem;, and pedestrian beware!  For that matter, the many New Yorkers on foot generally just cross the busy streets when there's the slightest opening, cross-walk signals be damned!  All such fun (?)!  It seems like not too many New Yorkers are foolish enough to drive on their own in this City.

Anyhow, we'd reserved rooms in a nice little boutique style hotel just four blocks from Central Park and a dozen or so short blocks to Times Square, the Theater District, all that Good Stuff. And right away, after checking in, we headed on foot to Central Park.  The Park, or at least the very southern part that we briefly explored, was as good as advertised, a peaceful retreat from the hustle and bustle of Midtown Manhattan.

We dined at a nearby small Italian restaurant that first afternoon, then headed down to Times Square in the evening to soak in the vibes and ambiance of this dynamic big city. I can honestly say it was a totally different environment than... say Portland... for us Oregonians, an electric, high energy atmosphere unlike anything I'd ever experienced before.

Next day, Saturday, was mostly spent on a prepaid double decker bus tour of Lower, Midtown, and Uptown Manhattan, plus a jaunt out to the Bronx and Yankee stadium.  I had to lower my usual high standards to spend much time in "YankeeVille", as I really am a "damnYank" hater; not vicious hate, mind you, just extreme distaste for the team and franchise; but I compromised my principles to pay a cursory visit.  Hey, it's baseball after all, and even "damnYank" baseball is better than no baseball at all.  Besides, Connie is a big Derek Jeter fan; so she, at least, got a kick out of "YankeeVille!"  Better, for me, than Yankee Stadium was a brief view of the Apollo Theater in Harlem, where many noted black singers over the years got their start.  Our tour guide mentioned, for instance, Ella Fitzgerald and the Jackson Five.   And I remember a scene from the "Buddy Holly Story", where 50's rocker, Buddy, and his band, from Texas, appeared at the Apollo as well! 

We saved some of the grander adventures for our last full day in the Big Apple, Sunday (Oct 13), namely riding the subways in order to visit the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. Oh YES, the SUBWAYS!  We found our way down to a nearby subway station in Midtown Manhattan that morning easily enough... on FOOT.... four "big city rubes" diligently perusing the schedules and subway routes, our GOAL Battery Park at the South End of Manhattan, the pushing off point for Lady Liberty tours.  Addison talked to what looked like a couple "locals", two young men also heading to Battery Park, as to how to get there.  They said something like "take this train... it should put you within a few blocks of Battery Park".  Sounded good enough for us.  We boarded, NOT with the two other gentlemen anywhere in sight, mind you... I'm sure they were just in another car... and off we went, "Battery Park or Bust!"

As we dashed through the dark underground of Manhattan, I kept looking for our ultimate destination to pop up on the electronic reader board flashing across the side of the car as to upcoming stations; only mild alarm occurred when the expected stops were replaced by other, totally unfamiliar, station names.  Then suddenly we popped out of the underground and were racing across water on a bridge!  Turns out we weren't heading for Lower Manhattan, but rather Brooklyn, across the East River!  Nothing against Brooklyn, but it wasn't on our current itinerary.  We hurriedly looked at subway maps to see where we went wrong in our diligent planning;  ultimately decided to get out at the first Brooklyn station, walk up and across to the tracks going the other way (ie back to Manhattan)... all of this underground, mind you, and headed back; transferred to another train, which route ended abruptly still short of our intended destination; then on to Train #4... would we ever see the light of day again, short of another quick trip over the water to Brooklyn? 

 YES, we would, finally emerging, staring bleary-eyed at the the unfamiliar sunlight;  and we were relatively close to Battery Park!

We'd survived the great Subway mis-adventure!  And we were soon off on our next adventure out to Lady Liberty.  By a stroke of good fortune, the State of New York had agreed, just the day before, to pick up the daily operating costs of the National Statue of Liberty Site, recently closed due to the Federal shutdown; and Lady Liberty tours were on again.  So there we were with a whole bunch of other tourists crowded on to a "Liberty Ferry" and heading to the small Island on which Lady Liberty rests.

I'd been there years before ... during that teenaged visit with family a "few dozen" years ago, actually climbing the equivalent of twenty some "building stories" to the crown then.  This time, we couldn't get tickets to go inside.... perhaps saving this old guy a heart attack on the way up... but marveled at the monument from just outside, with stunning views as well over the Hudson to Ellis Island, where many 19th century and early 20th century immigrants, including one of my grandfathers, first stepped foot in the US; and then there was the magnificent Manhattan skyline back across the Hudson.

 

Soon it was back to lower Manhattan on the return ferry, and another subway trip... no unplanned detours to other boroughs this time; HEY, we were seasoned New York commuters by now!... to the Empire State Building.  And up, up, UP we went, 102 floors to the highest observation point available to those who aren't pigeons or other wildfowl, and/or Cell Phone or Radio/Television technicians.  The view, needless to say, was simply spectacular!  It was a great way to end our last full day in NY City!

And as far as a lasting impression of NYC for me? Reducing it to one, well two, words, VIBRANTLY ALIVE; whether it be the omnipresent Yellow Cabbies, street vendors everywhere, many of the food carts open well into the evening,  crowds of people on the sidewalks and streets, and the hustle and bustle of restaurants and shops everywhere; yes, it's a totally unique experience full of life! 

Busiest street vendor stand in Midtown Manhattan, working into the evening darkness

The "Bull" near Wall Street -  apparently, people like to flock around it for good "fortune"

I'd like to go back some day, but not to a "damnYank" game... well, okay, it's baseball after all, so maybe even a Yankee game! 

Baseball Hall of Fame (and a bit of shame!)

 

The HAMMER!

After fleeing the beautiful, but somewhat isolated, Adirondacks early (hey, folks have to have their WiFi, don't they?... and there wasn't any up there in the wooded hills for crying out loud!), we headed downstate, though still in largely rural "Upstate New York", this past Sunday, Oct 6th, to a beautiful family campground near the Village of Cooperstown, called appropriately enough, Cooperstown Family Campground. We've been to a lot of parks and campgrounds during our cross-country travels these past 3+ months, many very nice and in beautiful settings, a few admittedly not so nice; but this one takes the cake, so far, for pure beauty; set in a pastoral rural area, with two ponds in the park, and surrounded by scenic hills, trees and farm pastures. This was the view greeting us just yesterday, as an example, as the sun reflected on the pond across from our site.

PLUS, it's not only close to more family history (Elaine has ancestors who lived in the County just to the East, some of my ancestors were just West of here), but it also has the BASEBALL HALL OF FAME just a few miles away in Cooperstown Village.  Those of you who know me well probably also know that I've been a Fantasy Baseball Junkie for some time; tried "Recovery" on a couple occasions, but still have the addiction.  Anyhow, the Fantasy Baseball stuff started "fairly recently", relatively speaking, back in 1988; but some 30+ years before that (yes, I'm THAT OLD..., why do you think I'm retired?), I became a TRUE baseball fan when "Hammerin" Hank Aaron and the, then, Milwaukee Braves beat the damn Yanks ( the damnYanks are NOT my favorite team, then or now) in the 57 World Series; and Hank became my all-time favorite ballplayer right then and there; and remains so today.

Anyhow, there I was this past Monday (Oct 7) in the hallowed halls of Baseball's Hall of Fame.  I'd been there before, albeit briefly, a half dozen or so years ago, during a short trip to this part of New York; but on this second tour I took enough time to soak it all in.  Just walking through the baseball exhibits, many of them featuring ballplayers, like Hank, who I grew up avidly following in the papers and on TV (no personal computers, much less internet, then), gave me goose bumps!  And I was also amazed at how small the actual room displaying bronzed plaques of all the Hall inductees really was.This is indeed a very select group! 

There, among the exhibits, was Stan "the Man" Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals, who died just within the past year or so at the ripe old age of "90 something", who, if he was Catholic (and I'm not sure he wasn't) would probably be heading for Sainthood in the Church soon enough; for not only was he a great ballplayer, but also a great, gracious, and much beloved, human being and humanitarian right up until the day he died.

 

Also on display were the "Dominican Dandy," Juan Marichal, and Gaylord Perry, two pitchers enshrined in the Hall, who came up together on the San Francisco Giant farm teams of the early 60's.  I, already a baseball fan (but not yet a "junkie") then, thanks to Hank and the 57 Braves, spent several afternoons and evenings as a "very young" youth at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, Washington, home of the Tacoma Giants, the big league Giant's AAA farm team, watching not only Marichal and Perry, who dominated the league that one year they were there together, but also another future Hall-of-Famer, Willie McCovey, and a handful of other young guys who would ultimately have long, productive major league careers of their own.  Those are priceless memories to this day; and the Giants remain, after my beloved Braves,  my second favorite major league team.

There also, displayed at Cooperstown, take it any way you want, but it was reality back then, was this example of many signs/threats Jackie Robinson, the first Black ballplayer in the major leagues, faced in the late 40's when he broke in with the, then, Brooklyn Dodgers.

  
Yes, racism raised it's ugly head then (this is the "shame" part alluded to in the title to this blog..  but koodoos to the Hall for keeping this in the public consciousness), and it was slow to go away, if it has fully gone away at that.  When my man, Hammerin' Hank, was chasing the all-time HR record in the early 70's, he received many of the same racists slurs and threats that Jackie Robinson endured some 25 years before.  Attitudes change, if grudgingly, in some respects.
 
But enough said about that, and I'm getting off my "high horse" to offer a closing tribute to my all-time baseball hero, Hank Aaron.  He was and remains one of the greatest ballplayers in history.  Mickey Mantle, the Yankee Great, a Hall of Famer, and a contemporary of Hank's during the 50's and 60's, had this to say (in part) about Mr. Aaron, when both were still active in the game:

"As far as I'm concerned, Aaron is the best baseball player of my era.... He's never received the credit he's due."

Hank, himself, remains, like Stan "the Man" Musial was, a model citizen in retirement.  He has been a champion of charities for under-privileged youth, putting his name to several notable charitable organizations in the Atlanta area, where Hank has also become a top executive with the team he played on for so many years.

Several years ago, I bought  a hard back copy of Hank's autobiography, "I Had a Hammer"; and I sent the book to the offices of the Atlanta Braves, addressed to Mr. Aaron, asking if he'd put his autograph on the book, and offering to pay for that autograph.  I didn't want to make any profit by ultimately selling the autographed book; I JUST WANTED his autograph.  Several weeks later I received the book back, unsigned, but with a note, signed by Hank Aaron himself, very politely saying that if I donated to one of his charities, he'd sign the book.  He didn't ask for a specific amount, and nothing for himself; just a simple request that I contribute to one of his charities.  I did so gladly, sent the book back, and soon enough received Hank's signature, which I cherish to this day. Hank, like Stan Musial, was, and is, "THE MAN!"

 And here's one in closing for the Oregon folks.  Amidst all the hoopla about guys like Mantle,  (Willie) Mays, (Duke) Snider, Aaron, Musial, et al, some of the the superstars of my era, there is a bronzed plaque in the Hall, awarded in 1986 on his induction, to one Robert "Bobby" Doerr, superb second baseman for the Boston Red Sox from the mid 30's to the early 50's.  That era was, believe it or not, actually before my time as a baseball fan (hey, I ain't THAT old!), so I only really knew about Bobby Doerr, the star baseball player, way after the fact.

Bobby eventually came to my attention somewhere around the mid 80's because I learned he was a long-time resident of Junction City, Oregon, just up Hwy 99 from Eugene, my adopted home, he was being considered for the Hall of Fame, of course, AND his last name was eerily familiar.  Turns out I had known his only child, Don Doerr, for many years as a fellow CPA in Eugene, though Don, during all this time, never mentioned that his Dad was a famous Boston Red Sox 2nd baseman.  I don't think Don, who played collegiate baseball at the UO, but never went beyond that as far as I know, was jealous of his Dad's greater baseball accomplishments; I just think Don is, like his Dad, a very humble person; like Father, like Son, you might say.  So he never found it necessary to dredge up his famous baseball connection.

 Bobby, indeed, as far as I can tell, is one of the most humble and likeable Hall of Famers (right up there, in my own opinion, with the likes of Stan the Man and Hammerin' Hank).  And he's also currently the OLDEST living Hall of Fame member, 95 years old and counting as I write this.

 

Well, that day at the Hall was mostly fun and all that good stuff that goes beyond ugly racist threats (or the effects of performance enhancing drugs... see Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, et al, for example)!  Here's to Hammerin' Hank, a great "Man",  Stan "the other Man", Bobby, yet another great, and humble, "Man", as well as the  Duke, "Say Hey" Willie, the Mick, Spahnie (Warren Spahn, a hall of fame pitcher for the Braves in the 40's and 50's), Marichal, Perry,  et al for all the great memories!

New England Wrap-up

Now that we have moved inland, all the way to Upstate New York, I must reflect back on our two week stay on the upper Atlantic Coast.  Our first week was spent in Trenton, Maine, in a very nice, quiet RV Park near Acadia National Park on the Central Maine Coast.  They call this area “Downeast Maine”.  WE called it, initially, the “Lonely Maine Coast”, or something like that.  It took us awhile to discover the hidden charms of Downeast  Maine.

 

Still, in a Coast vs. Coast comparison, Oregon easily wins for pure natural beauty, ENUFF SAID! Instead, what I think about most with regards to Maine is LOBSTER!  Yes, it’s front and center and all around!  And I learned to LOVE it during our week-long stay in this state.  Always before, back in our former life as lifelong West-Coast residents, I’d passed on lobster tail served in local restaurants as being too extravagantly priced. Yet here, you could eat lobster without emptying your bank account.  And, after a “lazy lobster lunch” (live baked lobster with the meat stripped out and laid on the plate ) and a lobster roll lunch (lobster meat rolled into a hot dog bun with mayo and other needless crap, somehow considered a Maine staple),  I was ready for the MAIN EVENT, namely  a whole lobster boiled live and delivered to the table in shell, beaded eyes staring at us accusingly.

Elaine, bless her heart, and even though she is NOT A SHELLFISH aficionado, unless we’re talking shrimp or crab, joined in that historic first "whole lobster day"with one of her own, and on they came.   I was hooked; Lobster rolls were a poor imitation of the real thing; and the “real thing” was pretty darn good!  

A week after we arrived in Maine we moved down to NE Massachusetts.  We were still on the Coast, but a world apart from the relative isolation of “Downeast” Maine.  Here we had people, and their cars, everywhere; so much so that I got a little paranoid about those “beasts”.  I mean we could be on the loneliest country or beach road imaginable, poking along, enjoying the sights, only to look into the rear view mirror and discover one, maybe two or more, cars bearing down on us.  Close tail-gating was pretty much a given fact, other, more erratic, driving behavior, an all too familiar scene.  

 On our first foray into an otherwise quiet and serene small coastal town, we quickly discovered what I soon came to label the “Massachusetts Shuffle”; that is we would be proceeding through an intersection only to have a car from a side street turn directly in front of us.  Most times this was a rolling stop on their part; they would pull up, still moving forward, and just roll out in front of oncoming cars, regardless how close the through traffic was.  I honked a few times at the “offenders” (though never resorting to a “friendly” one-finger salute), but really I don’t think they cared a bit about my take on their offensive driving.  Maybe I should have expressed my feeling more emphatically!

Despite the traffic travails, we had a terrific time in Massachusetts, and enjoyed great weather throughout; and there was so much history here, family and historic, that we agreed we could easily spend a month or more in the area at some future time exploring everything in more depth.  

We moved on to the Adirondacks in upstate New York on Thursday, October 3^rd, tracing a lovely route through Autumn foliage in New Hampshire and Vermont on the way; and were ready for new adventures and discoveries as we continued our retirement travels.