The Catskill Mts in up state New York

trees-smallThe trees had been putting on their autumn colors starting about Acadia NP in Maine, but nothing like we saw here. We stayed in Wurtsboro, New York, about 90 miles northwest of New York City  in the Catskill Mountains. This seasonal display was awesome and it was astonishing how  you could see the same tree change every day. There wasn’t anything particularly  we wanted to see here and were looking for a bit of relaxation. We met one of our neighbors,  and found out they were from Rocklin, Ca. and their camping membership home park was Canyon Creek Resort in Winters,  Ca.,  which was the very  first stop of  our trip. They also gave us a heads up  on how we should visit WOODSTOCK.  We didn’t realize that it was that close, but they said it was well worth the visit.

Yes, we walked the hallowed grounds of the 1960’s  Woodstock,  the three days in August that is said to have defined a generation. It is also said, “if you remember Woodstock you weren’t really tbus-smallhere”.  For those whose memory may be a little fuzzy, Woodstock was a music & art festival held in upstate New York,  August 15th ,16th and 17th,  1969,  where iconic musicians like The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Santana, Joan Baez, Jefferson Airplane and Arlo Guthrie, to name a few, played for three days and nights rain or shine.

Woodstock festival did not take place at Woodstock because it became too small to hold the 100,000 or so crowd that was expected to attend. They found a spot in Middletown, N.Y., but permits were revoked 30 days beforemonument-small the event.  Frantically, they looked for another venue and were told about a “bowl-shaped alfalfa field in Bethel, N.Y., owned by Max Yasgur. They negotiated the deal and began setting up for the concert. The crowds started showing up two days before the event,  and

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The flat area on the left was the stage. This was the main area but the crowds extended toward and right of this spot.

the fences and ticket booths were not complete,  so folks just made themselves comfortable in front of the stage.  They were unable to control the crowds as more and more started showing up, swelling the crowd to almost a half a million,  so the promoters decided to make it a free concert. The four guys that put on the show lost millions of dollars in the deal,  but were able to recuperate all but $100,000 from the movie that followed. Whether this was a life changing event, or just simply a muddy, disorganized debacle, facilitating almost half a million people for three days with food, medical, sanitation and other necessities was quite a feat. Just a side note: 2 people died, one was run over by a tractor on the road and the other from a fall…probably drug induced. There is a museum dedicated to the Woodstock festival in what has become a massive complex with music and performing arts stages and amphitheaters.

As we were exiting the museum and gift store, who do we run into but Richard Walters and richard-smallDiane, members at Bass Lake RV Resort.  Three thousand miles away, both of us on vacation, what were the chances!  I had to do a double take to make sure.   It turns out Richard was from the area, so they had come for a visit,  and Diane wanted to see Woodstock.  It’s a small world, that’s for sure.

The feast of St. Francis was celebrated while we were in Wurtsboro, and the St. Joseph blessing-smallParish happened to be doing the blessing of the animals while we were there. Cody is not always known to play nicely with larger dogs (at previous blessings, we always stood way in the  back), but this time he was truly a little prince, and we were right in the middle.  There was this giant collie that kept barking and stirring up the other animals, but Cody was just silent.  Maybe the blessings are finally working!!

Next stop, Philadelphia.

Boston area in Massacusetts

We stayed a Pinewood Lodge Campground in Plymouth about 3 miles from the harbor. It was a good convenient location to visit Cape Cod, Lexington, Concord,  and to visit some friends in Providence Rhode Island. The park was not dog friendly.  There was a five dollar a day charge for Cody and we were restricted to specific areas only.   From the getgo Arline said the place had bad “feng shui”. It was a nice enough place, very foresty and there was a lake and beach area (which we never saw)  Also, it was another repair stop. The hydraulic cylinder that operates the living room slide-out started leaking badly. had to order one and replace it while we were there.

American history  sometimes mixes facts with a little creative enhancement. This is true

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Plymouth Rock Monument

with the “history” of the landing of the Mayflower.  102 pilgrims and 30 crew stuffed into a ship 100 feet lone and 25 feet wide, that is 2500 square feet! They originally landed on the tip of Cape Cod, then a month later they moved they moved to Plymount harbor to escape the elements. I think the general impression upon seeing  Plymouth Rock is “underwhelmed”.  It’s a boulder sunk in the sand about 5 feet below the walkway with a

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The ROCK

Romanistic looking temple over it. The

 

Pilgrim museum also had a piece of the rock that you could touch. Nice little town with a great cemetary where William Bradford (the leader of the pilgrims) is buried.

Having seen Boston on a previous cruise, we opted to go see where the revolutionary war started, in Lexington and Concord. But first…what does Concord have to do with peanut butter sandwich? Well the Concord grape was originaly grown in Concord and is the most used grape in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

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Boston home of Paul Revere

Eveyone has heard of Paul Revere and the midnight ride…the lanterns in the north church…one, if by land, two,  if by sea..but why were the British  coming? Where were they were going? And,

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Old North Church, Boston

why it was important how they got there as indicated by the lanterns in the church? Loosly put, April 19, 1775 the Brits where going out of Boston to  capture Sam Adams and John Hancock in Lexington,and then on to Concord to destroy a warehouse of colonial arms.  How soon they  would get there was dependent on whether they walked around Boston Bay or ferry the troops across the bay, hence the “one if by land, two if by sea.” BTW, Paul Revere didn’t yell out ” the British are coming” because at the time, most of the colonists concidered themselves British so it would have made no sense.

 

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Battle Green in Lexington

Expecting trouble the local militia met the Brits on the green in Lexington where the Brits fired at the line of 70 colonist killing 7. Not finding Sam or John they moved onto Lexington. They were met by 1,700 colonists and at the famed North Bridge, where 73 British regulars died and 173 wounded.

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Old North Bridge, Concord

During the entire day , the British lost  19 officers and 250 soldiers,  while the Colonists suffered casualties estimated at below 90. The battle continued from Concord all the way back to boston.

We drove out to  Old Cape Cod to see the Cape Cod National Seashore. Many old towns and houses, narrow roads lead to seculded beaches and it was on one of these roads we found a little beach with a indoor/outdoor cafe serving…you guessed it, Lobster Rolls! It was a pictureque last day at Plymouth.

About 25 years ago,  Arline and I met Don and Ann, some friends of Gigi’s that had come to

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Don, Ann, Arline, Craig

visit her in California.  They stayed with us the weekend,  and we haven’t seen them since, but they have prayed for us every single day, by name for the last 25 years.  How is that for good friends!  We arranged to meet halfway between Plymouth and Providence,  Rhode Island.  We just picked up right where we left off 25 years ago.  Don lost his eyesight in 2005 after cataract surgery and then lost his other following a detached retina a few years later.  It was a memorable visit.

Next,  a laid-back stop in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York at the Catskills Adventure Resort.

Maine – Acadia NP, Bar Harbor and Old Ochard Beach

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK & BAR HARBOR

This stop takes us to the farthest point away from home of the entire trip!  And, what a stop it is. We have visited  Redwood NP, Olympic NP, Glacier NP, The Great Smoky Mountain NP and now Acadia. (Niagara Falls is a state park if you’re wondering).

Trip stats: Total miles 12,081, Towing miles 6063, non-towing 6018

We’re staying at “The Narrows Too Resort” in Trenton which is just off Desert Island where Bar Harbor and the park are located. The island  itself is about 30 miles long and 30 miles wide. The main part of Acadia NP takes up 1/2 the island but includes other parts of the island like ponds, lakes and lighthouses that are under park control. The park was on the water and our site wasn’t far from the beach.

img_7980-smallOver the week we visited Bar Harbor a few times. During the day we visited the local shops and ice cream parlors. We found a great place for ice cream and ended up going back twice…on different days! There were cruise ships in the harbor most days, dropping their cargo of humanity on this tiny little town.

Acadia National Park has a road that circles the park andbar-harbor1-small gave us a chance to see the popular spots. It  was raining the first day we acadia-smallgot there,  so we drove the route and found spots we wanted to go back on another day. We found Jordan Pond about 3/4s of the way around the loop road and took a little while to check it out. It is a crystal clear lake that provides drinking water to the locals  and has a trail that goes around it. We ended the day by up going to the top of Cadillac Mountain. This is a 1530 foot

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view from Cadillac Mt.

“mountain” and is the highest point in the eastern continental U.S. so it enjoys being the first place in the country to get the first rays of sunrise. Unfortunately, since it was stormy and overcast,  we only got a fleeting glimpse of the surrounding area and sunset.

Returning to the park a couple of days later,  we hiked around Jordan Pond and took Cody with us.  The first part of the trail was a nice level shaded walk,  mostly through forested coastline. The trail then changed as it went through what looked like a significant rock fall and became bolder hopping. Cody didn’t have a problem,  but it slow us old folks boardwalk-at-the-lake-smalldown some. The last third of the trail was elevated on wooden planks so as not to disturb the forest floor. This presented a balancing act to a degree and even Cody missed a step or two. We ended the hike at a restaurant/snack bar and rewarded ourselves with blueberry soda.

Arline’s bucket list included hearing the call of a loon.  Apparently they are particular loon1about where they live. They rarely come on land except to nes, t and require pretty pristine

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Jordan Pond

conditions.  Not only did we hear them, we actually saw a pair close to shore.  It was an amazing experience.  Now she can scatch that one off her list.

You can’t go to Maine and not have lobster. There were dozens of  Lobster Pounds all over the place.

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At the Lobster feast

We decided on a place that was right on the water.  It was a nice evening and warm enough to sit out on the patio with a view of the ocean right in front of us.  Arline decided she didn’t want to fight to get to her lobster, so she ordered the Lazy Man’s Lobster,  and I went for the Halibut.  We rounded off the day with another visit to our favorite ice cream place.

Next stop,  Old Orchard Beach.


OLD ORCHARD BEACH, MAINE

A hidden gem just south of Portland Maine, Orchard Beach is small beach community and quite famous as an Atlantic beach resort. We chose it because it was the right amount of miles and driving time,  but soon found it was one of the better places we have been. farriswheel-smallSometimes refered to as the “Coney Island of Maine” the Old Orchard Beach Pier is the main attraction, orchard-beach-pier-smallbuilt in 1898 and in its heyday featured entertainment of Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman and Guy Lombardo. Although it was pretty much closed for the season, the pier and beach were still fun. Just up the coast is the famous home of George H.W. Bush in Kennebunkport. Not a bad piece of beach

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George Bush compound

property. We heard that old George was visiting the local L.L. Bean store just before we got there. The little village of Kennebunk is an old New England coastal town and  looks like it’s

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Arline’s photo of Kennebunk

right out of “Murder She Wrote”. It’s also where Arline finally met up with a Lobster Roll!

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Lobster Roll!

It was nice just to walk along the beach and Cody orchardbeach-smalljust loved it. Lucky dog has romped on the beaches of both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans

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