Mon., Sept 27 and Tues., Sept 28-Headed Home

Bill and I decided we were ready to go home so we started driving this morning. We drove about 200 miles to Erie, PA and spent the night in a nice little RV park. We got up Tues. AM and drove the rest of the way, about 270 miles. We got home around 5 PM and the place looked great. Now comes the "download". That bed slept so good! It is good to be at home.

Corning, NY-Corning Museum of Glass, Sun., Sept. 26, 2010

After the wineries, we had a tough act to follow. Bill scoured the brochures and maps and found The Corning Museum of Glass. We had nothing else to do so we decided to go for it. The drive over was worth the trip. The soy bean fields were brilliant yellow with a back drop of trees that were every color imaginable. From Ash trees with their subtle color variance to bright red sumac and oak. The maple trees had red tipped green leaves.

We pulled up to a very small triangular shaped building with a huge parking lot. My thoughts were---we'll be back at the RV in plenty of time for Bill to watch the 2nd race in the NASCAR Chase. The young many pointed us in the direction of a shuttle bus that took us around the corner! Were we wrong!!! It was a HUGE museum with any and everything to do with glass. From kitchen items (Corning Ware and glasses) to art glass to antique glass (Tiffany and Frank Loyd Wright). It was the perfect place for Bill and me. He enjoyed the technical part of it and I enjoyed the artistic. We both enjoyed the beauty. We saw a demonstration on glass blowing.

We saw a demonstration on the way different forms of glass break and why. We saw an artist making glass items using a torch. He made a dog while we watched. One section was all about vessels and they had displayed Corning Ware casseroles as a piece of art! Each of the areas was lined with interactive spots where you could find out more about that area. There were educational videos in each area too.

Then Bill watched a demo on fiber optics and I browsed the gift shop, if you can call it a gift shop. It was the size of a small department store. We picked up some wine glasses and Christmas gifts and went from there to see the immense collection of art glass. It was amazing. The alligator head was so whimsical. It was hollow on the inside like it could be used as a vase or umbrella stand.

The glass dress is life-sized. The fruit is so colorful. The largest piece is about the size of a beach ball.

One of the other pieces of art we enjoyed were bowls fused with colored fibers. They were beautiful.

The place was amazing. This country of ours is full of surprises. Something for everyone. But no less enjoyable was our campfire and glass of wine back at the RV after NASCAR, of course.

Friday and Saturday, Sept 24 & 25

Friday: Bill and I drove from Vermont to New York. We stayed in Montezuma, NY, overnight. We drove about 220 miles. We decided to treat ourselves to a nice steak on the grill for dinner. We are still eating potatoes and onions from our garden at home.

map of New York finger lakes wine country

Saturday: We drove to the finger lakes of New York. At Lake Seneca  we headed south on 14. We stopped at 3 wineries and had a hamburger at a little hot dog place. They made their own patties from fresh beef and cut the potatoes for french fries. It was really good. They had ice cream but we decided we had indulged enough. The wineries were very nice. We actually planned to visit the wineries because Bill really enjoys good wine. At each location they give you a couple of ounces of 5-6 different wines. I chose all fruity wines and Bill chose all dry wines to taste. We shared and got "two for the money".  I enjoyed most of the sweet wines but none of the dry wines. I'm not really a wine lover but sure had a good time---must have been the company.



White Springs Winery

Prejean Winery

We found our RV park and settled in for the night. Due to our lunch we decided to snack tonight. I watched poker tonight and Bill read with his eyes closed! Tomorrow we are going to a place where they hand blow glass and get back to the RV so Bill can watch NASCAR.

Fort Ticonderoga-Sept. 23, 2010

Bill and I went north of King George to Ticonderoga to visit Fort Ticonderoga. It is a fort built in 1755 by the French in their attempt to defeat the English. It was captured by the British and ultimately by the Americans at the beginning of The Revolutionary War (1775). It was a fascinating and historic place. It had been nearly destroyed and then abandoned to ruin before it was bought by an individual and restored to the condition it is today. It had an collection of Revolutionary War memorabilia and artifacts, from dishes to cannons. We watched a couple of live demos.

Demonstrator of muskets

Entry to the fort

Officer's barracks

Cannon over the wall facing Lake Champlain

Diorama in one of the many display cases.

We saw the King's Garden where part of the food for the soldiers was raised. Now there is a complete vegetable and herb garden with topiaries. We were there all day and had a nice lunch. We closed them down!

Tues., Sept 21 and Wed., Sept 22 On The Move!

Tues: We left Hanover, NH, and traveled across New Hampshire and most of Vermont to Colchester, VT (Lone Pine RV Park). Along the way we only made one stop other than to have lunch. And that was at Ben and Jerry's Icre Cream Factory in Waterbury,Vermont. It was interesting. We took a tour of the facility and they gave away free ice cream! Mmmmmm. They have a very interesting story.  They were elementary classmates and both were overweight and didn't do well in school. They decided they would make theirr living making people happy and doing good deeds. They were eventually bought out by a big corporation.

Wed. Today we left Hanover, VT, and kept driving. We stopped along the way at Shelborne Museum in Shelborne, VT. We hadn't planned to stop but saw this museum and pulled in. It was very neat. It was a collection of old restored buildings. They housed many interesting items. Some of the buildings had quilts, ceramics, old tools, a train, a ship, stuffed real animals, fox hunting video and paintings and on and on. Not only were the items old but the buildings too. They were grouped in a villagelike atmosphere (similar to Williamsburg, VA but they weren't dressed up or working).  In the round barn was a quilt show dedicated to people with Alzheimer's disease as well as a floor displaying ceramics of VT artists and carousel animals on the 3rd floor. They were beautiful. In the lodge the first room had stuffed animals that had been hunted and killed by the family that donated the land for this museum. It was also built with the materials from their real hunting lodge. The train was used by a couple of presidents (original Air Force One) to travel around the country. There was a steamboat that carried people and merchandise up and down Lake Champlain. There were a couple of art galleries, one dedicated to the family that donated the property and the other was a painter originally from the area. One of the buildings was a circus museum and another was a shaker museum that housed tools, baskets, iron works, kitchen utensils and housewares. There was also a printers shop where they demonstrated numerous old printing presses. There was a textile museum that housed numerous antique quilts and furniture. And that is just naming a few. We had to drag ourselves away.

Round Barn

We had lunch in their cafe and then kept browsing. There were two very nice gift shops. I'm trying to stay out of them but not having much luck. We finally left about 2:30 and went to a very nice campground in Lake George, NY. Can't wait to see what all they have around here.

Sun, Sept 19 and Mon., Sept 20

Sunday: After breakfast we decided to get a quick spin in and scope out what we would like to see tomorrow because Bill wanted to be back to the RV in time to watch the first race of NASCAR' s Chase. So we took off and drove part of a scenic loop and ended up at Walmart in Gorham, NH, for a little shopping. I don't know where these people grocery shop. We saw a beautiful lake that looked like glass. We also saw a sign that gave us a laugh. We came back and Bill watched The Chase and I played poker.

Monday: The trees are just beginning to change. The talk is that next week is the big week and that is early. Normally about 2 weeks is peak leaf changing time. But you can see a difference everyday and they are beautiful. It is heavily populated with birch trees. We drove on a car tour stopping at different points of interest and hiking trails. The first stop was a beautiful water fall in Grafton Notch State Park called Screw Auger Falls. Rojo loved it. He was just beside himself with the water.

The next stop on the driving tour was Mother Walker Falls.

After leaving Mother Walker Falls we drove a few miles until crossed over into New Hampshire. We entered Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge. It centered around the Umbagog Lake. We began hiking a trail that turned out to be straight up! It went from 1500 ft to 2300 ft. in a short distance. We decided to walk until we got tired and turn around. Needless to say I got tired before Bill so he and the dogs hiked on a while and I went back to the Jeep. It was a beautiful woods with "bridges" that were made of two 2"X6"s mounted side by side on top of 2"X4"s placed sideways. It was shaky at best. The dogs couldn't fit on it with us so they walked in the mud and water. That didn't bother them but we knew there was a clean up when we got back to the Jeep.

We decided to head back to the RV and went back the way we came. We had had lunch in the small town of Errol, NH, and we went back through it. We stopped and made some pictures of a fisherman on the river. He flew away when we approached him. Then we made our way home.

Fisherman on the river

Last Day at Acadia National Park, Fri, Sept 17 and Sat. Sept 18

Friday: We started our day visiting with a salesman of Prevost RVs. They are outstanding and EXPENSIVE RVs. We looked at 2 used units that were absolutely beautiful but walked away satisfied we were in the right RV. When you have to spend $6000 to replace the tires and have 6 batteries to replace and the mileage is 5 1/2 mpg then you better be able to afford to own the vehicle. Our RV park is in a beautiful location. It is right on the water. Below are 2 pictures of the same scene; one at low tide and one at high tide.



Low tide at Narrows Too

High tide at Narrows Too



We fixed lunch and gathered up our little family (Dixie, Dolly and Rojo) and went back to Acadia Park for the 3rd time. We took the rest of the park loop we had started but never completed. First we visited a wild flower garden and then walked on a boardwalk through the marsh.

We went from there to Thunder Hole. The shorelines are all made of granite and aren't easily worn away by the water. Thunder Hole is a hole in the granite that is an undercut and when the water rushes in it makes a loud pop that sounds like thunder. The worse the weather and waves the louder the noise. It was beautiful the way the water rushed in the narrow isle in the granite.

The vistas on either side of Thunder Hole were gorgeous too.

                                                                               

We went back to the RV and Bill built a fire and we sat around it for a while then had dinner and watched a movie.    

Sat.: Saturday was a day of mostly driving. We left the Bar Harbor area and traveled west to the New Hampshire border. We camped in a small campground (Stony Brook) in Hanover, ME. One good thing that occurred is that we got our cell coverage back. Yea! The drive was beautiful. We traveled on Rt. 2 across Maine. Rt 2 is a two-lane road through the countryside.                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Another Day in Bar Harbor area and Acadia National Park

Oceanarium and Lobster Hatchery

The first place Bill and I visited today was what appeared to be an uninspiring Oceanarium. From the road there was just a little sign that said Oceanarium and Lobster Hatchery and museum. We saw the sign yesterday and couldn't imagine but it sounded interesting so we thought we would check it out. At the hatchery a marine biologist supervises the raising of lobster in a laboratory environment and releases them back to the wild. She was educated  at Southern Mississippi University. They don't sell the babies to make money. There is no longer government supplement for hatcheries so all the hatcheries in the US except this one have closed. They depend on ticket sales and donations. When we arrived there were only a few people but while listening to the fisherman's talk a tour bus from a cruise ship unloaded and filled the place up. They also had a lobster boat in the museum where an x-lobster fisherman talked for about 40 minutes about lobster fishing. Then we saw a indoor tide pool where the demonstrator picked up each ocean animal and told us all about it. (star fish, sea urchin, sea snail, horseshoe crab and a regular crab)

From the lobster museum we went to a local potter's studio. He was quite impressive. He fired to the same cone I do but made his on clay and glazes. The glazes were lovely. http://www.rockymann.com/

Then we stopped for lunch at a local log cabin restaurant. We had lobster rolls. It was OK.

We went back to the RV and picked up the dogs and went back to Acadia National Park. We first saw Somes Sound. It was beautiful and peaceful. There were lobster pots dotted all through the sound. They are visible by their bouy floating on the water.

We drove on south on Rt. 3 and stopped at Hadlock Pond Trail. We walked that trail for a mile to a mile and 1/2 and never found the pond but it was a beautiful hike. The scenary was so serene and the dogs had a ball.

Hadlock Pond Stream

Hadlock Pond Bridge

Hadlock Pond trail

After a beautiful hike we stopped for groceries and came to the RV and sat by a fire for awhile until it got too cool.

Acadia National Park-Bar Harbor, ME

After cleaning house! Bill and I loaded up the dogs and made our way to Acadia National Park. We stopped at the visitors center which was up SEVERAL flights of steps. We found a "park loop" that gives visitors a good overview of the main park and allows stopping at the major points of interest and doing a little hiking. So our first stop was at the summit of Cadillac Mountain. It was an unbelievable view of The Atlantic Ocean, Frenchman's Bay and Bar Harbor, ME. This area was formed by volcanic activity over an ocean floor so the rock is granite. You can almost see that it once was lava.

We moved on to the next point of interest and it was a beautiful, peaceful lake. (Bubble Lake). We took the dogs on a hike along the edge of the lake. They had a ball. I use the term "they" loosely, I should say Rojo had a ball. Dixie and Dolly went along. He played in the water's edge, jumped from rock to rock, ate horse poop, pawed the water and carried sea weed with him all in the name of good fun. The lake was breathtaking. Cadillac Mountain had so many people it was hard to get a picture without a stranger in it but the lake only had a few cyclists and hikers.

By this time it was 2:00 and we were starved so we decided to drive into Bar Harbor for lunch. We found what appeared to be a nice local restaurant. Unfortunately, we were not completely right. The food was average at best so to make up for that we eased on down to an ice cream parlor and had something REALLY good- but only 1 scoop. Bar Harbor is strictly a tourist town. It had the cutest shops and narrow streets filled with throngs of people and this is off season. One of the shop owners said summer and when the cruise ships dock was their busiest times.

Then we picked up where we had left off on the park loop. Our first stop after lunch was Jordan Pond. Bill took Rojo down to the pond and I visited the visitors center and gift shop! What we didn't realize was that there was a restaurant there. Wish we had known that before going to Bar Harbor but then we would have missed the ice cream. Mixed emotions! From there we took the dogs to a local beach. Once again Rojo had a ball and the girls tolerated it.

We decided we were ready to go back to the RV and drove by way of Bar Harbor to pick up Bill a cigar. We saw a sign of a local potter and tried to visit him but he was closed so we made a mental note to revisit. Since we had such a late lunch & over did the ice cream we skipped dinner. We worked on a jig saw puzzle and had some pop corn. As a side note: A Prevost rally is starting at this RV park tomorrow so they rolled in today and they are gorgeous RVs. Once again---RV envy!