September Log

September 1 - Wednesday
Today we left Canada and headed for New Hampshire's White Mountains via Vermont. Our only complaint about Canada is their very bumpy roads. In a car they are bad, but in an RV they are dish rattling awful. Other than that, we love Canada. Their cities are clean and safe. A murder anywhere in the country makes headline news because there aren't that many murders. Though we have no statistics to confirm it, it appears that their family farms are not in the state of decline that we see in the U.S. We aren't sure why. It could be partly due to the tight development restrictions in agricultural areas and the seeming absence of corporate farms. We thought crossing the border in the US with the RV might be a hassle but it was incredibly easy. The unexpected thing was that the Canadian border patrol stopped us on our way out of Canada and asked us multiple questions before we reached the US customs station. We couldn't quite figure out why. We fueled up just over the border in Vermont, drove to New Hampshire, and pulled into a KOA outside of Twin Mountain for the night. We had cable TV here and found out that Hurricane Frances seemed to be on a direct path to our house! Our concern is for our house sitter who graciously plans to take our cat with her when she evacuates. We can't do any prep so we'll just have to deal with whatever the aftermath will be.

September 2 - Thursday
Bill has always wanted to climb Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast. In college, he hiked up part way to Glen Boulder with Gordon, a college roommate. Today, more than 20 years later, he returned to Mt. Washington with Becca to hike the whole thing. They successfully reached the summit in about 5 hours and before they hiked back down were met at the top by the rest of the family who drove up on the Auto Road. Becca made friends on both the hike up and the hike down. She hiked down with 4 men from Maine who work at a hospital in Waterville and were on a team building retreat. The weather was a little cool in the morning but otherwise a perfect hiking day with 360 degree visibility at the top of the mountain.

While Bill and Becca spent the day getting fit, Sandra joked that she, Laura, and Alex were going to spend it getting fat by starting the day with a wonderful breakfast at Polly's Pancake House and following that up later in the day with scoops of Bishop's ice cream. They also explored some of the country side including some covered bridges.

September 3 - Friday
Today we headed for Concord, NH to spend labor day weekend with Cathy, Sandra's best friend from her childhood in CT. Cathy was also Sandra's college roommate and maid of honor.

We packed up and left Twin Mountain, stopped in Concord to replenish the pantry, and settled in to our campsite in Webster, NH.

We then went over to Cathy and Mark's to enjoy the evening with their family.

September 4 - Saturday
Today we joined our friends for a visit to the Hopkinton Fair. There are 13 of us all together so we split up with the Dads taking the older kids and the Moms taking the younger kids for the rides. After burning through our ride tickets in record time, we went to check out some or the animal barns. On the way we stopped at a demonstration of border collies herding sheep. We visited the small animal barn, the goat barn, and the petting zoo. We topped it all off with fried dough and ice cream.

While we were eating ice cream, a man noticed Laura in her wheelchair, came over and gave her a large stuffed dog.

We returned to Cathy and Mark's house for dinner and a depressing update on Hurricane Frances showing our house taking a fairly direct hit. There was video footage of a gas station a few miles from our house whose roof had blown off.

September 5 - Sunday
We joined Cathy, Mark, and their family at their church in Contoocook this morning followed by their traditional after church lunch at a local sub and pizza shop. In the afternoon, Bill, Mark, and a few of the kids went to a used bookstore while Sandra, Cathy, and the other kids walked to the river and picked blackberries.

In the evening, we recruited the pastor of the church and his wife to watch our 9 children while we enjoyed a nice child free evening (our first since Houston in March) at the Millstone restaurant in New London.

We still have no word on our home in Florida although the pictures of West Palm Beach on CNN didn't show much structural damage so we're optimistic.

September 6 - Monday (Labor Day)
Since we have invaded their house for the past several days, on this Labor Day holiday, we will have Cathy, Mark, and their kids over to the campground for lunch. Later, we went back to their place so the kids could swim.

This afternoon, we got a call from a friend in Florida who had driven by our house. He said there appeared to be no damage and would check more thoroughly tomorrow.

September 7 - Tuesday
When we started the trip, we looked forward to visiting friends and family around the country. One thing that has been great that we did not anticipate was connecting with family members that we had never met before. In Mississippi, we met cousin Kathy's husband and children for the first time. In Seattle, we crashed cousin John's birthday party and met him and his wife Nancy for the first time. Also in Seattle, we met cousin Don's wife and family for the first time. In Concord New Hampshire today, we had a wonderful time lunching with and getting to know cousin Bob and his friend Doreen who we had not met before. We have been emailing back and forth for several days to select a place and time to meet. We had lunch at Chili's and since Doreen knew of Laura's butterfly interest from reading our website, she came prepared with some information off the internet about Karner Blues, an endangered butterfly that has been re-introduced in an area on the outskirts of Concord. After some driving around, we managed to find the Concord Pine Barrens and walked around the trail there. We saw several butterflies but no Karner Blues.

Before and after lunch, Sandra went to various NH state offices to do genealogy research.

We got messages via voice mail on our cell phone from several people in FL today letting us know the status of our house. The trees and fence took some damage but the house is thankfully unscathed. More importantly, our friends in Florida were unharmed.

September 8 - Wednesday
Today we reached the Atlantic Ocean again. We hadn't seen it since January in Florida. We drove from Webster, NH to a state park in Hampton Beach, NH right on the beach. We thought that since it was mid-week and after Labor Day that we might have a chance at getting into a beachfront campground without a reservation. We did get in but we got the last site. We may not get to enjoy the beach much since the remnants of Hurricane Frances are now raining on us.

We spent the afternoon doing indoor things like schoolwork and watching videos.

September 9 - Thursday
We visited Sandra's brother Jim today at his house in Canton, MA.

September 10 - Friday
This morning the rain stopped and we were able to briefly enjoy the beach before packing up and leaving our oceanfront campground. Today we met up with Bill's brother Dan and his family from Connecticut and caravanned north to Millinocket Maine. We camped just outside Baxter State Park.

September 11 - Saturday
Today we embarked on "Operation Find a Moose". Dan's wife Portia from Alabama had never seen a moose and was becoming skeptical about whether there were actually any moose in Maine. In the morning we drove to several ponds in Baxter State Park but there were no moose. Bill thought that our best shot was to hike to Sandy Stream Pond around dusk where he has had good luck spotting moose in the past. We saw a cow moose with 2 calves so our quest was successful.

September 12 - Sunday
We left Millinocket late in the morning and headed for Acadia National Park about 2 hours away. We parked the RV in the Walmart parking lot in Ellsworth and drove the car up Mount Cadillac. After enjoying the views from the top of the mountain, we drove over to Sandy Beach. In the rocks along the beach was a garter snake enjoying a lunch of frog legs (attached to the rest of the frog). It seemed strange that a snake and a frog would both be that close to the salt water since neither are usually seen in that habitat. Next we checked out the Thunderhole which is a place where the seawater comes into a rock formation and makes a loud noise and sprays high into the air when the tide and wave conditions are right. We got there at low tide and the waves were small so the noise and spray were fairly low.

After ice cream we headed south on route 1. We arrived late at Bill's mother's house in Rockport, Maine.

September 13 - Monday
We hiked up Mount Battie in Camden this morning. After lunch, Aunt Portia watched Alex while he napped. Sandra and the girls went birthday shopping for Alex. Bill went Harley riding with his brother Dan. Dan has 2 Harleys and brought them on a trailer to Maine from Connecticut so we could go riding here. It was a gorgeous, sunny, late summer day, perfect for motorcycle riding. After dinner we had an early birthday cake for Alex.

September 14 - Tuesday
Alex turned 3 today. In the morning, he got to drive a bulldozer. When he was alive, Bill's father enjoyed giving all the grandchildren rides on his bulldozer. Since the bulldozer is still around, Uncle Dan saw to it that Alex got to take part in the bulldozer tradition. Alex then surprised Uncle Dan by lowering the dump bucket while Dan was standing in it trying to take a picture!

After lunch, we went to the rocky shoreline at Camden Hills State Park to look for crabs in the tide pools. Unfortunately, it was high tide but the kids had a great time climbing on the rocks. After the park, Bill's brother Dan, his wife Portia, and their boys Gene and Sam headed back to their home in Connecticut. Later, more aunts, uncles, and cousins arrived for dinner and another round of birthday cake. Alex was delighted with every present he received (his sister also enjoyed 'helping' him play with them). In all, our kids saw 19 relatives in the last 2 days.

September 15 - Wednesday
Today we headed back to New Hampshire to have some repairs done on the RV. If you ever need RV service in New England go to Complete RV in Kingston, NH. In a matter of minutes, Kenny Mills diagnosed the issues and told us how to fix several problems and didn't charge

a dime. We were expecting to have to leave the RV for several days for repairs. Not knowing how long the repairs would take, we had not made any other plans. Now we have to get out the calendar and plan the rest of September. We decided to stop at the campground at Salisbury Beach State Reservation for tonight.

September 16 - Thursday
Bill worked hard in the morning to straighten out some minor problems on the RV while the rest of the family had a leisurely morning before diving into school work.

In the afternoon, we drove to Atkinson, NH to look for some of Sandra's relatives. We found the gravesite of her great great grandparents. Becca put some wildflowers and pine cones on their headstone while Laura kept watch over Alex who was napping in the car. We then went to Newburyport, MA to look for more ancestors but the historical society and the library archives closed before we got there. We wandered around the old cemetery in town where we found lots of stones with the family names but not an exact match.

After dinner, we drove to Essex, MA to scope out a possible campsite for tomorrow. We finished the day with ice cream at White's Farm in Ipswich which we discovered is listed as one of the top 10 ice cream places in New England. The 'kiddie' cones are a massive scoop of ice cream (it is possible to get a half a kiddie cone).

September 17 - Friday
Sandra resumed her search for Essex County ancestors while Bill and the kids checked out the interpretive center at the state park before we left the campground. Tonight we had dinner with Gordon, one of Bill's college roommates. He and his wife Ellyn have a daughter, Sarah, who is right between Laura and Becca in age. They always have a good time playing together. Having lived in the Boston area for about 10 years, we have many people that we would like to see in the next few days.

September 18 - Saturday
We went back to our friends home in Lynnfield. After the rain let up late in the afternoon, we went over to the Saugus Iron Works. It is a re-creation (on the original foundations) of the first iron works in America. This free national historic site was very interesting and the kids enjoyed the buildings and waterwheels.

September 19 - Sunday
The day dawned crisp and bright. We attended Church at Grace Chapel in Lexington. In the afternoon Bill and Gordon took the kids hiking at Braveheart Reservation in Wakefield.

September 20 - Monday
Since traffic was very heavy, we stopped in Wakefield to order glasses for Becca. Since we will be in this area for a while, we can finally get her glasses. It takes 7-10 days to get the lenses. The eyeglass store didn't have the frames Becca wanted in her size so we will have to come back tomorrow to check the frames before ordering the lenses.

Bill and the kids hunted down Lori, a former co-worker of Bill's, and her husband Phil in Lexington. Phil is a pilot, so luckily both he and Lori were home with their youngest son. Their other boys, who were in school, are the same age as Laura and Becca, so we made plans to hook up again when we could visit with the whole family.

After visiting friends, we did a Revolutionary War history lesson by visiting the Lexington and Concord historical sites. We learned that in the first shootings in Lexington the British regulars outnumbered the militia 700 to 70. When reinforcements arrived on both sides in the afternoon, the American militia numbered about 4000 to the British 1700 as the British were chased back to Boston under fire.

September 21 - Tuesday
This morning it was time to find a laundromat. The hampers were overflowing again. After lunch we returned to the eyeglass store since the frames Becca ordered had come in. Then we headed to the North Shore and checked tire prices for the car, wandered around the North Shore Mall, and headed for Essex. Bill's friend Jim, who was also the best man at our wedding, recently bought a house in Essex. He has a large driveway, so we will probably move the RV up there tomorrow

September 22 - Wednesday
The wastewater tanks are full and the diesel and propane tanks are nearly empty. We emptied the former, filled the latter, and headed for Essex. Jim wasn't home when we arrived so parked the RV and took the car to Ipswich to do some genealogy research. At the historical society in Ipswich there is a map of the original land grants in the area showing many of the surnames of Sandra's ancestors. We then went to the library where the kids could read while Mom looked for ancestors. Later in the evening, Bill had dinner with Jim and his wife Maureen at Periwinkles in Essex which is conveniently within walking distance of Jim and Maureen's new house.

September 23 - Thursday
The weather was nice today so we took a ride on Jim's sailboat. We sailed from Gloucester Harbor around Gloucester and Rockport to the mouth of the Essex River. On the way, we saw 5 lighthouses along the coast. We passed a few lobster boats and fishing boats.

After comparing her records with the ones she got from the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, Sandra found that our children are ninth cousins twice removed to Laura Ingalls Wilder. Edmund Ingalls came to Salem, MA in 1628 on the ship Abigail from England.

For dinner, Jim picked up some pizza and ice cream. We ate and watched the Red Sox lose to the Orioles in their perennial fall collapse.

September 24 - Friday
At long last, Becca got her glasses. She can now read road signs again and see things at a distance. While Bill and the kids were picking up glasses and mail, Sandra returned to the library in Ipswich for more research.

In the evening, we met our friends Larry and Lianne for Italian food in Saugus.

September 25 - Saturday
Today we went to the annual clam festival in Essex with Jim and Maureen. It is a one day event, the highlight of which is the clam chowder competition between the local restaurants. For 5 bucks, you get to sample about 10 different clam chowders. For the kids, they had games and prizes. Becca won a Sony Walkman in a drawing. We got back to the house just in time to watch Boston College lose to Wake Forest in football.

Later, we got Chinese takeout for dinner and went to "the cow", also known as Whites Farm for ice cream. There is a large cow on their sign and a large plastic cow on the roof.

While watching the Red Sox beat the Yankees 12-5 we flipped back and forth to the weather channel to watch yet another hurricane bearing down on our house in Florida.

September 26 - Sunday
We went to church in Revere, where we attended after we were married until we moved to Florida. We haven't been here for 14 years, but many people we know are still here. In the "that makes me feel old" department, one of our former jr. high youth group has graduated college, married, and is expecting her fourth child. Another of our youth group kids and his wife have been the youth group leaders for several years.

In the afternoon, we moved back to Harold Parker State Park.

September 27 - Monday
This morning was laundry day again. At least this time we already knew where the laundromat in this area was. The girls did schoolwork while Bill took Alex to the playground.

In the evening, Gordon, Ellyn, and Sarah came to the campground for dinner.

September 28 - Tuesday
Bill had tires put on the car this morning while the girls did schoolwork. Bill and Becca went to the library while Sandra took Laura and Alex to the grocery store.

September 29 - Wednesday
We met up with Sandra's brother Jim at the campground in the morning. Becca drew Uncle Jim a picture. Bill took the kids shopping for camping equipment.

September 30 - Thursday
Bill took a break from months of camping to go ... camping. He went back to Maine this morning to hike and camp for 3 days in the northern Maine woods with Gordon, a roommate from college. Today they hiked up White Cap, a mountain 15-20 miles from Mount Katahdin. After hiking White Cap, they drove to Baxter State Park where luckily there was still a leanto available at Roaring Brook campground. They wanted to begin tomorrow's hike up Mount Katahdin from here. White Cap was supposed to be a 1.6 mile hike each way but we had to hike nearly that amount to get to the start of the trail so it ended up being about double the distance we originally planned. From the top we got great views of Mount Katahdin in one direction and the Bigelow Range in the other.