Wednesday, October 1-08
We drove all day then made our campsite in Newburgh, New York in the Hudson Valley—very pretty. In the campsite where we were staying, Liz went out for a walk after dark with the dog. She came back very excited and got us to come and see something--the biggest rat you have ever seen. We wondered if it was a small possum but it wasn’t the right colour or shape, so we are pretty sure it was a rat! She wanted to catch it. I don’t know what I would have done if she had!
Thursday, October 2-08
We stayed around the campsite in the morning just chilling out. In the afternoon we went to an outlet mall which we later discovered was the biggest and most exclusive in the area. So we found stores like Saks 5th Ave. (off 5th), Chanel, Gucci, and many other high end stores. We didn’t even feel like we could go into most of them. There were some other stores as well and John found some clothes for work and Liz found a lovely purse. Her goal was to buy a purse in New York so she found what she was looking for. I bought shoes.
Friday, October 3-08
Today we toured New York. We caught a bus tour with the KOA we were staying at. Our first stop was the Statue of Liberty. We were walking along the wharf on our way to the boat to take us to Liberty Island, when somehow I ran into a stantion, tried to recover by grabbing it and then fell on my knee—all in slow motion. I was not particularly hurt although I got a nasty bruise. When Liz stopped laughing, we continued onto the boat. The statue of Liberty is much bigger and more impressive than I had imagined. She really is quite imposing. Unfortunately since 911 they don’t let people up to the headpiece anymore. The day was lovely and cool and we had a good time taking pictures and walking around.
Next we toured Manhattan from the comfort of our bus. You really get an impression of large & busy everywhere you go. I don’t know how the bus driver maneuvered around those streets. John was really glad we didn’t try to do this ourselves. We then went up to the top of the Empire State Building. The first elevator only takes you up 80 floors so you need to take another one to the top--a worker told us that the elev
ator to the very top would be a twenty minute wait, so we elected to do the stairs—6 flights of stairs—6 flights of very long stairs—6 flights of stairs is a really lot of stairs. I was fairly out of breath by the top, but I did make it. We took the elevator down. Although it’s not as tall as the Sears tower in Chicago, I thought it was more impressive, probably because it was daytime and also because you are outside you really feel the wind.
Our last stop was Times Square. If you want to see glitz, advertisements and a lot of tacky stores that is the place to go. Liz and I both found purses (knockoffs of I don’t know what) from a street vendor for $10 each. There were a lot of good deals there. We all had a New York hot dog—good--not sure if it was because it was from New York or we were so hungry by that time.
We headed back to Newburg (where the campsite was) but after a few blocks we weren’t moving. The Lincoln Tunnel, which by the way was really impressive, was blocked due to an accident and we found out later a bomb scare, so we went the long way around, though Harlem and the Bronx which I found interesting. We arrived at the KOA 2 ½ hours behind schedule. It was a good day and we met some people and really enjoyed our guide. He is a native New Yorker so made the day an interesting one.
Saturday, October 4-08
After a sleep-in we hit the road. We stopped in Philadelphia in the afternoon to see what we could see. Drove around looking for parking and discovered street parking would work so we finally found a spot and when we got out we were right behind Independence Hall. We walked around the town, the day was sunny and warm and extremely pleasant. The buildings in the historical district are really interesting. They were small, usually 2 story, very thin with the openings into the basements directly on the sidewalks like a root cellar. Liz wasn’t feeling well that day so we didn’t stay. We headed off in the direction of Washington DC and found ourselves in downtown Baltimore because we found we couldn’t go through the tunnel with our propane. We found a campsite near the capital.
Sunday, October 5-08
We went into Washington DC earlyish in the morning. We found parking on the street that was free (John loves that
) and found we were a block and a half from the White House. All the buildings in Washington are large, not tall just large usually taking up most of the block. I overheard a Grandmother telling her granddaughter that Washington is all about the buildings--so true. We walked over to the White House (which is one of the smaller ones by the way) then decided that there was a long way between monuments so we got out our bikes and rode around. We saw the Washington Monumen
t, which is waaaaay bigger than I thought it would be; the war memorial, which was a large fountain surrounded by 50 granite stones each with a name of a state on them. I can see why Americans are proud of their country as they seem to be able to celebrate the good stuff. The Lincoln Memorial was also way bigger than I had imagined. I read the inscription of the speech he gave at his inauguration and appreciated for the first time what a great man he must have been. Wow.
So where the buildings in Philadelphia are small and compact, Washington’s are large and imposing and New York’s are all tall--quite a contrast.
Well after we had enough biking we decided to find some lunch, but as it was Sunday, most of downtown is closed so we ended up eating at Wendy’s on the way out of town. Stopped at a campsite in the middle of Virginia and did 8 loads of laundry, long overdue. Liz met some guys fishing off the dock and has a good time fishing with them. She said the turtles would take bites out of the fish as you pulled it in. She learned how to gut & clean fish from a guy from Alabama with a really strong accent w
hich she picked up and used all the next day.
Monday, October 6-08
Traveled to Savannah, GA got in really late to a State Park.
Tuesday, October 7-08
Spent the morning biking around the area. The trees are mostly large oaks that are dripping with Spanish moss. At least that’s how it looks. The moss is really quite dry. The day was really muggy and in the afternoon a system moved in. We went to the historical district of Savannah in the afternoon & evening. The rains started about 3 and it poured and poured. The weird thing is that it is so warm while it is raining; in fact it almost gets hotter. We toured the waterfront area and did some shopping. I got to see my graveyard finally (I have a thing for graveyards). The Savannah graveyard is really old; now a city park. We had dinner back at the waterfront in an old cotton warehouse.
Wednesday October 8-08
Travelled all the way to Key Largo, John was on a mission! We found the state campsite closed at dusk, it was now 10 pm so we found a weird little campsite that would take us. It was really very nice but more like a mobile home park with permanent sites than a campground.
Thursday, October 9-08
Headed over to the John Penneman Coral Reef state park soon after breakfast. Spent the day biking and snorkeling and swimming. It was really hot and humid. We were parked by a mangrove swamp which sounds really romantic till you realize that swamps support lots of life because there are lots of bugs. We had to eat dinner in the camper with the air conditioner on
full (oh, how I love air conditioners!) The highlight of the day was when a huge iguana walked into our campsite and started chopping on the grass. We got some good pictures as lizards love to pose! We started to see them all over the park when we started looking. John enjoyed the snorkeling; I’m not so good at it. But it was lovely to float in the ocean cause it is so buoyant.
Friday, October 10-08
We woke up and debated staying another night or moving on to find somewhere less buggy & less humid. Moving on won, so we travelled to Sugarloaf Key to a KOA campsite with a not bad beach and a really nice pool. We have discovered that Liz does not like the deep water in the ocean. This is the girl that wanted to catch a rat!! Spent the rest of the day floating in the pool. By the way it is a lot less buggy and a lot less humid. We are hoping for a really good wind to blow away the noseeums(sp?).
We wanted hot and we have got hot! Well our plan is to stay around the Keys for a few weeks—We’ll see…
Saturday, October 11-08
Still stayed around the campsite, swimming in the ocean and the pool and sleeping and reading and doing Sudoku puzzles and spider solitaire. Liz found some friends to hang with.
Sunday, October 12-08
Same as above, except Liz’s friends left. We are on island time, mon
Monday, October 13-08
Moved on down to Key West. Staying at a really nice campsite. Spent the day bicycling around the town. Hot and muggy so within 5 minutes we were soaking wet. Key West is a really interesting place. We stopped twice to look at the map and both times someone stopped and asked if we were lost. I found the area that Mom and me walked around when we were on our cruise 15 years ago. All in all we were biking for about 4 hours (which I think should count for about 8 Curves workouts!) I don’t want to sit on my bike for a couple of days
Well that's all for now more to come...
We drove all day then made our campsite in Newburgh, New York in the Hudson Valley—very pretty. In the campsite where we were staying, Liz went out for a walk after dark with the dog. She came back very excited and got us to come and see something--the biggest rat you have ever seen. We wondered if it was a small possum but it wasn’t the right colour or shape, so we are pretty sure it was a rat! She wanted to catch it. I don’t know what I would have done if she had!
Thursday, October 2-08
We stayed around the campsite in the morning just chilling out. In the afternoon we went to an outlet mall which we later discovered was the biggest and most exclusive in the area. So we found stores like Saks 5th Ave. (off 5th), Chanel, Gucci, and many other high end stores. We didn’t even feel like we could go into most of them. There were some other stores as well and John found some clothes for work and Liz found a lovely purse. Her goal was to buy a purse in New York so she found what she was looking for. I bought shoes.
Friday, October 3-08
Today we toured New York. We caught a bus tour with the KOA we were staying at. Our first stop was the Statue of Liberty. We were walking along the wharf on our way to the boat to take us to Liberty Island, when somehow I ran into a stantion, tried to recover by grabbing it and then fell on my knee—all in slow motion. I was not particularly hurt although I got a nasty bruise. When Liz stopped laughing, we continued onto the boat. The statue of Liberty is much bigger and more impressive than I had imagined. She really is quite imposing. Unfortunately since 911 they don’t let people up to the headpiece anymore. The day was lovely and cool and we had a good time taking pictures and walking around.
Next we toured Manhattan from the comfort of our bus. You really get an impression of large & busy everywhere you go. I don’t know how the bus driver maneuvered around those streets. John was really glad we didn’t try to do this ourselves. We then went up to the top of the Empire State Building. The first elevator only takes you up 80 floors so you need to take another one to the top--a worker told us that the elev
ator to the very top would be a twenty minute wait, so we elected to do the stairs—6 flights of stairs—6 flights of very long stairs—6 flights of stairs is a really lot of stairs. I was fairly out of breath by the top, but I did make it. We took the elevator down. Although it’s not as tall as the Sears tower in Chicago, I thought it was more impressive, probably because it was daytime and also because you are outside you really feel the wind.Our last stop was Times Square. If you want to see glitz, advertisements and a lot of tacky stores that is the place to go. Liz and I both found purses (knockoffs of I don’t know what) from a street vendor for $10 each. There were a lot of good deals there. We all had a New York hot dog—good--not sure if it was because it was from New York or we were so hungry by that time.
We headed back to Newburg (where the campsite was) but after a few blocks we weren’t moving. The Lincoln Tunnel, which by the way was really impressive, was blocked due to an accident and we found out later a bomb scare, so we went the long way around, though Harlem and the Bronx which I found interesting. We arrived at the KOA 2 ½ hours behind schedule. It was a good day and we met some people and really enjoyed our guide. He is a native New Yorker so made the day an interesting one.
Saturday, October 4-08
After a sleep-in we hit the road. We stopped in Philadelphia in the afternoon to see what we could see. Drove around looking for parking and discovered street parking would work so we finally found a spot and when we got out we were right behind Independence Hall. We walked around the town, the day was sunny and warm and extremely pleasant. The buildings in the historical district are really interesting. They were small, usually 2 story, very thin with the openings into the basements directly on the sidewalks like a root cellar. Liz wasn’t feeling well that day so we didn’t stay. We headed off in the direction of Washington DC and found ourselves in downtown Baltimore because we found we couldn’t go through the tunnel with our propane. We found a campsite near the capital.
Sunday, October 5-08
We went into Washington DC earlyish in the morning. We found parking on the street that was free (John loves that
) and found we were a block and a half from the White House. All the buildings in Washington are large, not tall just large usually taking up most of the block. I overheard a Grandmother telling her granddaughter that Washington is all about the buildings--so true. We walked over to the White House (which is one of the smaller ones by the way) then decided that there was a long way between monuments so we got out our bikes and rode around. We saw the Washington Monumen
t, which is waaaaay bigger than I thought it would be; the war memorial, which was a large fountain surrounded by 50 granite stones each with a name of a state on them. I can see why Americans are proud of their country as they seem to be able to celebrate the good stuff. The Lincoln Memorial was also way bigger than I had imagined. I read the inscription of the speech he gave at his inauguration and appreciated for the first time what a great man he must have been. Wow.So where the buildings in Philadelphia are small and compact, Washington’s are large and imposing and New York’s are all tall--quite a contrast.
Well after we had enough biking we decided to find some lunch, but as it was Sunday, most of downtown is closed so we ended up eating at Wendy’s on the way out of town. Stopped at a campsite in the middle of Virginia and did 8 loads of laundry, long overdue. Liz met some guys fishing off the dock and has a good time fishing with them. She said the turtles would take bites out of the fish as you pulled it in. She learned how to gut & clean fish from a guy from Alabama with a really strong accent w
hich she picked up and used all the next day.Monday, October 6-08
Traveled to Savannah, GA got in really late to a State Park.
Tuesday, October 7-08
Spent the morning biking around the area. The trees are mostly large oaks that are dripping with Spanish moss. At least that’s how it looks. The moss is really quite dry. The day was really muggy and in the afternoon a system moved in. We went to the historical district of Savannah in the afternoon & evening. The rains started about 3 and it poured and poured. The weird thing is that it is so warm while it is raining; in fact it almost gets hotter. We toured the waterfront area and did some shopping. I got to see my graveyard finally (I have a thing for graveyards). The Savannah graveyard is really old; now a city park. We had dinner back at the waterfront in an old cotton warehouse.
Wednesday October 8-08
Travelled all the way to Key Largo, John was on a mission! We found the state campsite closed at dusk, it was now 10 pm so we found a weird little campsite that would take us. It was really very nice but more like a mobile home park with permanent sites than a campground.
Thursday, October 9-08
Headed over to the John Penneman Coral Reef state park soon after breakfast. Spent the day biking and snorkeling and swimming. It was really hot and humid. We were parked by a mangrove swamp which sounds really romantic till you realize that swamps support lots of life because there are lots of bugs. We had to eat dinner in the camper with the air conditioner on
full (oh, how I love air conditioners!) The highlight of the day was when a huge iguana walked into our campsite and started chopping on the grass. We got some good pictures as lizards love to pose! We started to see them all over the park when we started looking. John enjoyed the snorkeling; I’m not so good at it. But it was lovely to float in the ocean cause it is so buoyant.Friday, October 10-08
We woke up and debated staying another night or moving on to find somewhere less buggy & less humid. Moving on won, so we travelled to Sugarloaf Key to a KOA campsite with a not bad beach and a really nice pool. We have discovered that Liz does not like the deep water in the ocean. This is the girl that wanted to catch a rat!! Spent the rest of the day floating in the pool. By the way it is a lot less buggy and a lot less humid. We are hoping for a really good wind to blow away the noseeums(sp?).
We wanted hot and we have got hot! Well our plan is to stay around the Keys for a few weeks—We’ll see…
Saturday, October 11-08
Still stayed around the campsite, swimming in the ocean and the pool and sleeping and reading and doing Sudoku puzzles and spider solitaire. Liz found some friends to hang with.
Sunday, October 12-08
Same as above, except Liz’s friends left. We are on island time, mon
Monday, October 13-08
Moved on down to Key West. Staying at a really nice campsite. Spent the day bicycling around the town. Hot and muggy so within 5 minutes we were soaking wet. Key West is a really interesting place. We stopped twice to look at the map and both times someone stopped and asked if we were lost. I found the area that Mom and me walked around when we were on our cruise 15 years ago. All in all we were biking for about 4 hours (which I think should count for about 8 Curves workouts!) I don’t want to sit on my bike for a couple of days
Well that's all for now more to come...
1 comment:
I can just imagine the slow motion falling and Liz laughing....hope your knee is doing OK! Enjoyed the way you described the buildings in Washington DC with comparisons to Philadelphia and New York. Now if you could just find the "hot" without the "muggy" that would be perfect!
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