Philadelphia - Take One

 I will get around to writing about our travels through New England and Canada but since I’m here at Kelly’s house in Pennsylvania I will start out with this day. Turns out the Media Farmer’s Market is not in business this summer so I ended up going to the Giant supermarket for vegatables for the Moussaka with Onion Nut Sauce. The recipe said that it would take 2 ½ hours so I thought that I had time to make it before the Silver Sneakers Yoga class at the Y. It took me 4 hours so I missed the class. It’s taking me a while to get to my point. Kelly and Jason have this fancy device that you can talk to and it just does what you want. Like I say, “Computer, play NPR.” It says, “All right, WHYY out of Philadelphia.” I say, “Computer, Play louder.” And it turns up the volume. So, when I decided to just do my own yoga routine, I said, “Computer, play yoga music.” It said, “OK, maybe you would like John Prine radio.” Perfect.

The Moussaka is out of the oven, I’ve done some yoga, WeeChee, Jason’s little dog went wee and now it’s time to think about where we’ve been and what we’ve done. I wrote down all our stops in my last post. Here, I will describe some of the highlights of that trip. 

Philadelphia  - Memorial Day

We drove the camper into Philadelphia on the Friday before Memorial Day and parked at Campus Park and Ride in downtown Philadelphia. This really is just a parking lot but they have RV sites backing up to an old warehouse from which you can hook up to water and electricity. It was the closest and most convenient place in relation to Kelly’s new house in Media, PA. She and Jason had just moved in 2 weeks before we arrived. We did not see the Liberty Bell or any of the other things for which Philadelphia is famous. We hung out with the two of them at their house, went out to dinner once and met Jason’s parents at a family dinner hosted in the new house. For the life of me, I can’t recall any touristy thing that we did while we were here for 4 days. 

 Connecticut

We have almost completed one of my goals which was to visit with all of the friends we’ve made over the years that moved to far flung places. I have to say that some of the most enjoyable times we’ve had have been when we spend time with our old friends. Tom and Mary Vandermeid lived in Springfield back in the 80’s and shared leadership roles in the Parent Teacher Club at Hazel Dell School and helped coach softball for a couple of years. Tom is a minister for the Covenant Church and Mary is a teacher until she retired last year. They moved to West Hartford Connecticut sometime in the 80’s and that is where they live today. They have 3 children close in age to ours. So, on our way north we gave them a call and Tom invited us to park the camper in the parking lot at Covenant Congregational Church. He even provided electricity. We enjoyed a bike ride on one of the beautiful bike trails in the area and spent a day going to visit Gillette Castle which is a unique and somewhat strange place built by actor William Gillette who was famous for portraying Sherlock Holmes back at the turn of the last century. We also took a tour of Mark Twain’s house in Hartford. 

RI-MA-NH

While we were stopped in Rhode Island, we took a trip up to Providence to see the State Capitol. We took a long car trip the next day to see Plymouth Rock and then drive around Cape Cod. Plymouth Rock is surrounded by sand bags to keep the ocean back. I’m guessing that the ocean is a little higher than it was when the pilgrims landed in 1620. Two plaques erected not far from each other juxtapose two themes in American history. One commemorates the burial ground for the passengers of the Mayflower. “….History records no nobler venture for faith and freedom than that of this pilgrim band. In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and cold, they laid the foundations of a state wherein every man through countless ages should have liberty to worship God in his own way. May their example inspire thee to do thy part in perpetuating and spreading the lofty ideals of our republic throughout the world.”

The other, erected much more recently, marks The National Day of Mourning. “Since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Coles Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. To them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands and the relentless assault on their culture….”

Is our challenge maybe, to hold these two truths or realities together in our heart? This is our history and it’s all true. One does not negate the other just as in the South the reality of the horror of slavery does not negate the reality of the civil war and the destruction of a way of life. Is the story of the United States about growing up enough to be able to handle it all? It’s not one or the other. It’s both/and.

Bah Hahbah and Acadia National Park

Mount Desert Island on the coast of Maine is the home of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. We spent a few days at the Bar Harbor Campground just down the road from Bar Harbor. We enjoyed hiking around the park and drove up Cadillac Mountain to see the views. One day we went down to one of the lobster pounds (C-Ray) along the roadside near the campground and were served a box with a couple pounds of mussels, a fresh whole lobster, an ear of corn and boiled potatoes with melted butter. We brought our own bottle of white wine and sat at a picnic table provided by the host. This was the best lobster that we had in our travels. I found a turquoise hoody to replace the one that I lost last year. I needed it to keep warm.

We spent 2 nights in Calais, Maine, taking a day to drive around and check out the border crossings and get a preview of Canada. We had some time so we drove over to St. Andrews and drove across to Minister’s Island while the tide was down. We hiked around the island and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon. The next day, we brought the camper into Canada and headed for St. John where we celebrated my birthday with another lobster dinner in a fancy restaurant. Twice as expensive and half as good as lobster from the pound. 

Bah Hahbah and Acadia National Park

Mount Desert Island on the coast of Maine is the home of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. We spent a few days at the Bar Harbor Campground just down the road from Bar Harbor. We enjoyed hiking around the park and drove up Cadillac Mountain to see the views. One day we went down to one of the lobster pounds (C-Ray) along the roadside near the campground and were served a box with a couple pounds of mussels, a fresh whole lobster, an ear of corn and boiled potatoes with melted butter. We brought our own bottle of white wine and sat at a picnic table provided by the host. This was the best lobster that we had in our travels. I found a turquoise hoody to replace the one that I lost last year. I needed it to keep warm. We spent 2 nights in Calais, Maine, taking a day to drive around and check out the border crossings and get a preview of Canada. We had some time so we drove over to St. Andrews and drove across to Minister’s Island while the tide was down. We hiked around the island and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon. The next day, we brought the camper into Canada and headed for St. John where we celebrated my birthday with another lobster dinner in a fancy restaurant. Twice as expensive and half as good as lobster from the pound.

Fundy National Park and Alma

We camped for 3 nights in Fundy National Park and got to know the amazing Fundy Bay tides. Here the ocean rises and falls 40 feet a couple of times each day. When we first drove into Alma, boats were sitting on the bottom of the ocean with piers sitting high above them. The beach was at least a half a mile out from the rocky shore. The next morning, the boats were floating next to the piers and the ocean was pounding on the rocks. I read somewhere that the amount of water flowing into and out of Fundy Bay each day is more water volume than all the rivers in the world. It must be true. We left the park and drove up to Moncton along the Peticodiac River, also known as the Chocolate River because of  it’s color. 

The waterfalls at Fund

In search of a moose at Fundy National Park

 Moncton: The friendliest city of them all

We drove into Moncton figuring that we would find a tourist information center to find a place to stay for one night. We crossed the river and I directed Don to take a right turn which took us into the city. A sign warned us of a 12 ½’ clearance so we took a quick left turn and had no idea where we were headed. The first opportunity to pull off the road happened to be a parking lot next to Bowen Hardwood & Stairs (www.bowenhardwood.ca/). When we explained to the two men working there our problem, the went to their computer and began looking up places for camping near Moncton. They provided us with a map of Moncton and gave us directions to Casino New Brunswick where we found a nice level place to park for the night. The battery on Don’s watch went out and we really became aware that our phones were useless in Canada except for taking pictures. The clock didn’t update to Atlantic time. We stopped in at Magnetic Hill Home Hardware Building where a nice young man spent about 15 minutes helping Don remove his old watch battery and replace it with a new one. We went into the Casino hotel and the concierge there let us use the phone to call a campground in Shediak, NB to reserve a campsite. At Costco, the worker at the phone kiosk explained what our cell phone options were while we were in Canada. We decided to settle for having cameras and when we had Wi-Fi available we would communicate with people back in the States. And we used real paper maps. We were set to continue our journey.

Parlee Beach

 Parlee Beach and Shediac “The Lobster Capital”

Shediac

About 100 miles from ice cold Fundy Bay on the other side of Nova Scotia the Gulf of St. Lawrence has much more reasonable tides and is warm enough for swimming in June. There we found Parlee Beach which stretches for kilometers and has shallow warm water for wading and swimming. We stayed for a couple of days in Shediac and took one day to cross the Confederation Bridge, the world’s longest bridge that crosses from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island. There we visited the House at Green Gables and walked along the ocean. We stopped at the capital in Charlottetown on our way back where the idea of creating the Canadian confederacy first took place. We were there for Canada Day, July 1 when the country celebrated their 150^th anniversary. Every town we visited was planning a big celebration for the day. 

Confederation Bridge to PEI

The House with Green Gables 

The cliffs at PEI

On the beach PEI

 Nova Scotia.

Campfire with our new friends 

Grand Pre National Historic Site
Nova Scotia

Looking for the elusive moose.

Old Quebec City

In Montreal

With Dennis and Marilyn

Oh Canada!

Sudbury, Ontario

Back in the USA

Family in Duluth - Pam, Thomas and Rowan

Family - Alex, Deb, Rob and Ben

Whoa! Back in Philadelphia

Here I am back in Philadelphia. Like always, I took the long route…. Through Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. That took a couple of months. Then Philadelphia. That took less than 3 hours.

I’m here to make myself useful. Kelly’s partner, Jason had a microdiscectomy on his L2 last Thursday and is spending a couple of weeks in rehab before coming home. They had spent 2 weeks with extreme pain and the loss of his legs before finally getting medical treatment. She had to take an unplanned week off from work to deal with that crises. So, I am here as chief cook and bottle washer until I am no longer needed or get released from duty. I suspect that they wouldn’t mind making this a permanent full time gig especially when baby girl arrives in September though I doubt I will be available for that.

I have all my notes back in the camper as to our route and the places we’ve been but I’ll try to reconstruct our route and make corrections when I know better.

5/26-29 Campus Park and Ride, Philadelphia PA

5/30-6/1 – Foxwood Family Campground -  East Stroudsburg PA

6/2-6/4 Covenant Congregational Church parking lot, West Hartford CT

6/5-8 Ashaway RV Resort, Bradford, RI

6/9 – 12   Tuxbury Pond RV Resort, South Hampton, NH

6/13 – Walmart, Thomaston, ME

6/14 – 17  – Bar Harbor Campground, Bar Harbor, ME

6/18 – 19 Hilltop Campground, Robbinston, ME

6/20 - St. John, NB

6/21 – 23 Fundy National Park, NB

6/24 – Casino -Moncton, NB

6/25 – 26 Camping Parasol,  Shediak, NB

6/27-29 Wayside Campbround, Peggy’s Cove, NS

6/30  -  Casino, Moncton, NB

7/1- Walmart, Edmonton, NB (Canada Day)

7/2 -  Walmart, Levis, QB

7/3 – RV Park, Levis, QB

7/4 – 5 Saint Phillipe, QB

7/6  - Serenity Hills RV Park, Renfrew, ON

7/7 - Wal Mart, Sudbury, ON

7/8  -  Kewadin Casino, Sault Ste. Marie, MI

7/9 – 10 Ojibwe Casino, Marquette, MI

7/11 - Thompson West End Campground, Washburn, WI

7/12 - Black Bear Casino, Carlton MN

7/13 – present -  Jean and Mark’s farm, Daggett Brook, MN

I did it with the aid of my pictures, calendar, google maps and RV Parky. I was able to retrace the places that we parked the camper. I think this is mostly right.

I am working as a vegetarian cook for a third trimester pregnant woman. So far, I think that I am doing pretty well. I scrounged up ingredients for fusilli with parmesan cheese (a fancy version of mac & cheese) with sautéed vegetables the first night. Unfortunately, the cheese turned out to be moldy so it might have been light on protein. What with the crises the last couple of weeks, keeping fresh groceries kind of went by the wayside. So, I’ve made a couple of shopping trips to correct that and today will hit the local farmer’s market here in Media. I found a pound of black beans and cooked them up, freezing 3 portions for later use and using one portion for dinner on Tuesday night. Yesterday was grilled cheese sandwiches along with some of the leftover bean dish. Today, I’m making a batch of granola. I’m looking for vegetarian recipes to make up and fill the freezer so that when I leave, there will be a selection of food ready to heat and eat. I’m hoping to get back for the Minnesota Blue Grass and Old Time Music Festival on August 10.

It has been a very long time since I wrote about our travels and I need to get to that. But first, I will bring you up to date on what we’ve been up to since we got back to Minnesota. We hurried across Quebec

and Ontario so that we could get back to Minnesota in time for Edie’s 5 ½ year summer birthday party. Her brave parents allowed her to invite 15 of her friends. They filled a pool with water in the back yard and invited parents to stick around for hamburgers and hot dogs in the middle of the day.Minnesota cooperated by providing a very warm sunny day for the event. Peggy and Greg provided a minimum amount of structure and limited it to 3 hours. I couldn’t have done it but the children all seemed to enjoy themselves and Edie did a magnificent job as a hostess.

The week after that, Don and I made a road trip in our car to Springfield, IL to attend the wedding of our dear friend’s daughter. So, on a beautiful, sweltering 102 degree day, overlooking the corn and soybeans at a winery we witnessed the union.
Fortunately, it was short and we all repaired into the winery to celebrate with the couple who are now on a 3 week journey to California, Seattle with an Alaskan Cruise returning to Illinois through Montana and South Dakota. They are young. It would take us 6 months to complete that trip but they have to get back in August to teach school.

About 3 weeks ago, Kelly informed daughter-in-law Peggy that she planned to come to Minnesota for the last weekend of July. When I suggested that we give her a shower, Peggy, who hadn’t had time to recover from the birthday party, went to work inviting all of DOM plus a couple of Kelly’s friends to her house on July 29. DOM, for those of you who don’t know, stands for Daughters of Marjorie. Marjorie is my mother. DOM includes all of her women descendants plus the women who have married her male descendants. About 15 of us were able to assemble on short notice so once more Minnesota weather cooperated and we met in Peggy’s back yard to shower Kelly with presents. Not many things can make me happier than an event such as this.

Jason, showing us why Kelly chose him as a partner, insisted that Kelly complete her planned trip even though he was in the hospital in Pennsylvania recovering from surgery. Meanwhile, when Don was driving to Minneapolis on Friday, he was second from the front in a 4 car pile-up on I-94 in the construction just west of the tunnel. Fortunately, no one was hurt but the car sustained significant damage to both the front and back end.

Kelly has asked me the week before if I would come back to Pennsylvania with her to lend a hand. I was glad to do that and it does feel good to be a little useful now. I will bring our travel adventures up to date in my next post.