The Finger Lakes and The National Womans Historical Park - May 9th

Pulled out of the bog that was the campground and drove into Seneca Falls, and visited the National Womans Historical Park, which back in the 1840's was the site of the first "Womans Rights Conference", where they presented a document, demanding equal rights for ALL people - regardless of race or gender. Ironic that a hundred years later, we are still short of that on many fronts. Barbara interviewed a few of the rangers and took copious notes and pictures for one of the web sites that she contributes to - in this case a womans news channel, which will incorporate the audio as a "pod-cast" (sort of like a radio program for portable media players, for those not in the know of these things). A moving and meaningful place.

Then, we had a New York Pizza lunch, and went over to one of the finger lakes, which we drove along for a while, and later stopped at a park to play with D for a while. Very picturesque. From there, just drove up near Niagara falls to camp for the night, prior to seeing the falls tomorrow. KOA here charges $60 for the night - ouch! - and they aren't even all the way open - only one restroom building (which is a long walk from the open sections of the park), and the main playground is only open 9AM to 5PM. At least the laundry was open - and another $10.50 later, we have clean clothes...

Weather has been very nice - been in the 80s for several days now, clear skies and not too humid. It is supposed to rain tonight, but clear up later tomorrow. Very pleasant traveling in general, even our physical maladies have mostly gone; the coughing, sore throats, wounded toe, and puffy eyes are mostly things of the past now - replaced only slightly with a few mosquito bites from last night.

There is a pond here, and the bull frogs are going to town. Walking along the pond you hear splashes just a little too late to see what made it. I suppose the water is still too cold to harbor too many amphibians, but interesting to have their chorus if only for a while.

Tomorrow, on to the actual falls, then probably an express run for the boarder.

Out of Canada, in to Vermont and New York - May 7th and 8th

Broke camp in Quebec, packed all our good back into the RV, and off we went. My parents long ago drove the AlCan (Alaska/Canada highway), and my mom had commented that she "never thought she could get sick of seeing trees". We have a similar experience here.
Drove around the outskirts of Montreal and got stuck in our first Canadian traffic jam, and to the boarder. The US agent was one of those very professional guys, no smile, just the standard questions and we were back in the US in under two minutes (as it should be). First into New York, then took a Ferry over to Vermont (narrowly realizing that we had skirted around it without visiting - mon du!) and camped for the night.


On the 8th, took the ferry back over from Vermont to NY, and started driving the Adirondacks. A very pretty drive, but disappointed that neither of the museums that we were hoping to visit were open - one was closed on Tuesdays - Friday, and another still closed for the season. So rather frustrated there. Then, trying to get to the finger lakes, there was a major accident on one freeway, so diverted to another, only to find huge construction backups (stuck for hours).

B had a conference call, and I had a pre-arranged game night, so had to pull in early. The faites smiled on us though, and at least I was able to easily connect to the sat. Campground is also a marina, and is on some body of water that is a larval breading ground for all manner of bugs - ranging from things so small they can almost fit through the screen, to bug moths and mosquito hawks. Some of them of course got in (small hatch for handle access to the door left open), and the cat attempted to make good sport of catching them. Finally doing SOMETHING to earn her keep... I played late into the night, then worked for a bit while B worked on one of her many web sites.

Today, on to a museum of womans history, the finger lakes, and niagra, and early camping for our next bunch of laundering. Man, we do go through the laundry, even wearing things longer than we normally would...

Quebec - May 6th

We had a very nice dinner at a "Vietnamese/Thai" place here last night. Food was very food quality, fresh and plentiful enough that we ended up taking left overs back to the fridge in the RV for another day.

Had a nice tour of the city, and saw many of the spectacular sites around. Quebec is a remarkable and beautiful city. It has a very European feeling to it, and is the convergence of French and English cultures, in the new world. Distilling down the history from the tours, the basic story is that "Quebec is local Indian for 'Where the river narrows'. Since this river is the outlet of the great lakes, it is of strategic significance. Further, there is a large rock along the water that makes for a great natural defense. When Champlaigne saw the location, he realized its strategic significance, and defensibility, and so had a fort and then city built here. Later, the English invaded, and took it from the French by discovering a secret path up the rock."

The only complications with the tour were that we managed to forget to bring the camera (so had to buy a disposable one for picts, which obviously won't be blogged), and the other complication was that Delilah had finally gotten to the end of her rope with lack of sleep, and had a meltdown in a cafe. The good news is we were able to take her out, let her wale it out for a while, then once she got it out of her system, all was well again.


We left the tour in the uptown old city, and walked back, then swam in the pool here (indoor, and somewhat heated), and then hired a baby sitter for the evening. B and I then wandered back to the old town, and had a romantic dinner at a Moroccan place - another great meal. Picture of B dining - note that little tea pot has a pot holder on the handle with a mans face and fez on his head. Cute touch.

Quebec has been a beautiful and very enjoyable place, which we will return to some day - but between all the eating out, and hotelling, and perhaps a bit of shopping, it has been a budget buster (as if we actually had some sort of budget). That said, considering travel is our vice, we could have much worse vices...

Tomorrow, on the road again. We will need to replace the spare tire at some point, and hope to get in to New York for the Adirondacks area and museums.

On to Quebec - May 5th

Canada is big, and at least on this end, pretty homogeneous. The forests go on as far as they can, until they hit a river or lake, then continue on the other side. Occasionally, some one will come along a put down a berg – a few houses, farms, maybe an overpriced gas station, but the forests know that they will win… The day got warmer than it has been, as we simultaneously went north into areas that apparently had a recent snow fall. There were areas with significant snow cover around, and one lake in particular with areas still frozen solid, with snowy flurries on top of the ice as pictured above.


Driving on towards Quebec, had our second tire issue – in this case, the outer ply of the tire completely delaminated from the tire, leaving only steel belts holding the next layer in. Made for a heck of a noise for a few seconds as I pulled over, until the ply ejected completely. We drove slowly to the next exit (which fortunately wasn’t far) and called AAA to help with changing the tire for the spare. For those not in the know, changing a tire on an RV isn’t a matter of whipping out the jack. In fact, most RVs don’t even come with jacks, because the RVs are so heavy, you need a “super duty” jack to lift it, and need an impact wrench to free up the lugs… Being that by this time we were in the province of Quebec, French is the language spoken. Barbara had to do most of the conversing, and after several calls, a fellow showed up, which we followed back to his shop a few miles further. He was able to change the tire, and we were on the road again in about an hour. AAA (or more accurately in this case, CAA) to the rescue. In the mean time, Delilah and Barbara played in the RV (including taking the above cute picture) while Dave fretted with the paperwork, etc.

Got in to Quebec and decided to stay for a few days. The old city has very small streets, so parking is a problem. B was able to find a hotel downtown that actually has an above ground lot between a few buildings, a block or so from the hotel. A bellman guided us there, stopped traffic, moved an abandoned sofa out of the way, and helped us back in to the spot. We decided to stay for two nights, so that we can have time to tour the city tomorrow, as well as go out on our long overdue "date night" (parents only) tomorrow.

Further Into Canada; Bay of Fundy and Prince Edward Island – May 4th

After another late start (even later, since we are on Atlantic time – which is yet another hour past eastern time, or 4 hours less Pacific time), we tootled up the coast, caught a glimpse of the Bay of Fundy (famous for the worlds most extreme tidal bore), and then drove briefly into Nova Scotia, and on to Prince Edward Island (PEI as they call it).

Unfortunately, the travel information that we had failed to mention that PEI has its sidewalks rolled up until mid June, so after a fascinating drive over the inter-costal bridge (14km long) that connects the island to mainland, the only thing there was to do was play at a very cold swing set for a while, get some validation from the visitor center that infact, as tourists, wewere pretty much screwed, and then turn back around and drive across the bridge. The good news about the bridge is that it was only toll one direction, the bad news was the toll was $46 Canadian…

The big highlight of the day was eating a nice Acadian/French dinner at the place in the picture above. We actually passed by it on the way out to PEI, while B needed to make a call and D and were exploring. We made the most of our misadventure and had a very nice dinner there. We brought along the Leapfrog computer game that Delilah loves, and she amused her self for the entire dinner. Won high praise both from the waitress and a guest.

Trucked along in to the night, heading towards Quebec where we are hoping to spend a few days. Actually tried to have Delilah sleep in the bunk above the cab while driving for a while. As a kid, I would have loved that – I remember on one of our trips in the station wagon, being tucked around my moms feet at night while dad was possessed to get somewhere. The heater was blowing gently, and I could occasionally see the full moon through the windshield as I looked up. I’m sure it wasn’t too comfortable for my mom, but it was great for me. In any event, Delilah didn’t like being up there at all, and just monkied around. We crept along, stopping at what few exits there are in Canada that claimed to have either a campground or hotel. Unfortunately in Canada, though they are good at having icons on the exit signs for what is available from that exit, they fail to mention the distance to said endpoint. So, we would get off the highway, drive for miles, down some desolate road, and finally give up without a clue as to where this thing was supposed to be. We finally stopped at a place that was called out as a hotel, but also had a campground, and camped for the night.

Acadia – May 3rd

Continued the drive up Maine, from the small family run campground here, and headed over to Acadia National Park. Along the way, we of course ended up finding a much nice camp ground then the one that we stayed at, but c’est la vie…

Acadia is one of the “sleeper” parks – was the first National Park East of the Mississippi, and the Only park donated completely to the government by individuals – even including roads made just for the space. Around the turn of the last century, the then financial powers of the East coast (such as Rockefeller and Getty) saw Acadia area (and particularly the island, known as Desert Island) as a bastion of beauty and solitude. They bought up the land, groomed it for usage, and gifted it to the nation.

For a number of years, it became a hang out for the wealthy, but after a fire burned down most of the mansions and posh hotels that had been built to house the influx of tourists, it suddenly became less accessible to the “comfort class” and so returned to a more pristine mode.

Beautiful space – vistas, beaches, forest, places to climb, hike and walk. More of a “personal space” park – find solitude, or explore some spaces. Delilah had a great time playing in the sand, and made a “butterfly” and I helped her with a castle, Barbara got some quality meditation time in on the shore.

An interesting bit of trivia about the area – the impoverished French peoples that inhabited the area in the 1700s weren’t well treated by the English and German immigrants in the area, and some of them decided to move down to Louisiana area, and try their hand there. Once there, the Acadian’s made a way of life, and their heritage was slowly slurred to be “Cadians” and then later “Cajuns”…

Drove north to the Canadian boarder. Interesting that the crossing was no problem for the cat (rabies documents, transport papers, etc), but they made us march out of the RV, and go through an immigration screening. This was by far the longest boarder crossing interview that we have ever had. We decided that the guy was board, and mostly just liked to talk – but kid you not, we were in there for 20 minutes.

We assumed that finding a camp site would be a problem, so instead opted for a hotel which had an internet connection, but problems on my laptop (still unresolved) didn't allow me to post to blogger using wireless - so we are several days behind now, and using B's laptop.

Up the coast to Maine - May 1st and 2nd

We loaded us back in to the RV, and managed once again to finally get going about 11. The first priority was to find a place for an oil change which we finally located - hung out in their lobby and watched some TV which they fixed it up. Then, tried to bypass as much of the Boston traffic as possible, then got back on the I-95, and meandered through New Hampshire (for all of the 16 miles or so that the route passes), and then into Maine.
Immediately upon entering Maine, Barbara was taken by a strange compulsion to immediately find and eat as much lobster as possible. We pulled off into a tourist information center about 5:30, and found the center closed, and all of the information locked up behind bars which we though very strange, since I can't imagine there is a huge black market for tourist pamphlets. Looking around, we found a button with a sign "For after hours information, press this button"... We pushed it, a bell rang, and a minute later the janitor wandered out of the bathroom, gloves on hand - "Can I help ya?" We told him about wanting lobster, and needing a place to camp, and he wandered off, then returned with a few maps held in his still gloved hand. We were a little worried about what things might be on the maps he handed us, but it was the best info we could find. Baby wipes are good things.
Started questing for both lobster and camping. After stopping at a few restaurants, we discovered that it is a little early in the season for lobsters - and in fact it would turn out we are early in the season for everything. Maine's tourist industry is highly seasonal, and we aren't in the season yet. After a while, managed to find a tavern that had Lobster, and we proceeded to feast - with the best lobster that either of us have ever had.
Then we started questing for camping. There are HUNDREDS of camp grounds in Maine, but most of them don't open until mid to late May - a few weeks off yet. We pulled into one place that seemed like it might have been open - since at least the shower lights were on. We drove through the park, and found that even the other trailers in there were dark - not a light any where. Spooky feeling place - we decided to just move on, and eventually found a KOA that had just opened.

On the 2nd, we continued up the coast, again looking for a camping place that was open. As we went further up, we found the opening dates of camp grounds moving even further out to early June. Even the KOAs that we had considered a safe haven weren't open yet. We thought that we would have to find one of the few hotels that had opened yet, but through a fortuitous series of events, we found not only a camp ground, but one that accepted one of the discount cards that we have - making it the cheapest night of camping yet. Much pretty country. Today, on to Acadia National Park.