We arrived in Pittsburgh from Indiana for a visit with our son James and his beautiful fiance Mary Albin. First up was John and James going to the store to get a trap for our mouse, yes, a mouse jumped on board somewhere in the mid-west, we think Michigan. They came back with sticky paper and not a traditional trap so it was set up in the RT.
We had a wonderful afternoon and evening with them drinking some wine and listening to their plans for marriage. Chef James was in charge of dinner and fixed shrimp and beef shish kabobs, they were terrific who would have guessed he could cook! They have done a great job on fixing up their home and have a never-ending list of more improvements. Mary told us all about her job as a project manager for nuclear plants for Westinghouse. It was fascinating to hear about small footprint plants that can produce the right amount of kilowatts to become a replacement alternative for coal plants, seems very promising. The next morning we found that the mouse had almost been caught but got away holding on to an electric cord to pull itself out of the sticky stuff..so we headed to purchase a real trap.
We met James and Mary for breakfast at the Original Pancake Restaurant. We all said goodby, knowing we would see them in Long Island over Labor Day weekend. We started heading towards Clinton NY and the Thousand Island region of New York.
Our stop was in Watkins Glen that evening and we enjoyed the flux of people arriving in their RVs for the NASCAR race that was being held over the weekend. Good thing for us that it was Wednesday night as the KOA (Kampground of America) facility was booked for the weekend starting Thursday. In the middle of the night we heard a “SNAP”
we knew it must be the mouse trap but left it to the next day. When we woke up victory!
The next morning we drove to Clinton, New York, where Janice’s father grew up and her cousin Bobbie still lives. We spend a few hours with
Bobbie catching up on both our families and talked about things that happened when we were young in Clinton, the one that created the most laughter was Bobbie’s fathers’ train collection in the attic and when her father put a hole in the roof so the train could go out on the roof and back in..wonderful memories for both Janice and Bobbie. It was a great pleasure to visit her, when up north we make Clinton an important stopping point.
John had never been along the Saint Lawrence River so we headed for the Thousand Island area on the Canadian Border. There were a few golf courses in the Thousand Islands so of course we played one of the courses. The weather was sensational and we had a brilliant day. We then drove to Mesena New York and stayed at the Mesena RV Park, what a pleasure. We met several people from Canada and had a fun evening sharing drinks after a good steak dinner cooked on the grill. One gentleman from Ontario suggested that we play golf at the Potsdam Country Club about 20 miles away, which we did and enjoyed the course very much. Janice’s Brother Steve and his wife Marilyn then meet us at the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino for dinner and a few hours at the tables. It was Elvis Weekend and all the music was Elvis and they had 8 Elvis impersonators walking the rooms and singing his songs, We understand our arriving late cheated us out of seeing a bunch of Elvis-es parachuting into the parking lot!! We apologize to all of you that have enjoyed the pictures Janice has taken, that there are no Elvis pictures.
The following morning Steve followed us down to Long Lake to spend the day and evening
with Steve’s daughter Kim, husband Tony and the two lovely little girls, excuse us, young ladies, Stella and Daphne.
Fun was had by all as the girls fished with Daddy and the rest of us enjoyed a little (ha ha) rum and wine. A lot of pictures. You can tell they are part of the Otis/Roberts clan..the ears..
We left later in the morning along with Steve and Marilyn to return to their home near Burlington, VT. We decided to stop for lunch in Saranac Lake at a place totally off the beaten path called the Meeting Place. We use YELP on the computer to find great, out-of-the-way, places to eat. We thank John’s sister-in-law, Cathy Wilson, every time we use YELP. If you haven’t tried it, please do! YELP.com. We had a few Polish Sausage Sandwiches and two Rubens. The Rubens were better than the Carnegie Deli in New York City!
Back to Steve and Marilyn’s for a few days and of course some golf at Steve’s course, Kwiniaska, in Shelburne, which we have always enjoyed.
After golf we walked the center of Burlington and enjoyed a burger at one of the local taverns. The street entertainment was a lot of fun.
In the morning we bid our goodbyes, being 12 hours short of the “fish time” and headed for New Hampshire.
With the full day ahead of us we went to Eastman Golf Links where Janice had played golf with her parents, couldn’t get on so made a reservation for 9:15 the next morning. Driving around we found a great cow pasture that had a reasonable golf fee and played. It was early afternoon so we drove to Lake Sunapee where Janice’s parents had lived and had a few beers at the Anchorage Restaurant overlooking the lake. We then went to the Eastman Cemetery for a few quiet moments with Janice’s parents Stanley and Jeanne. Tradition was to have a martini and salute them with our love. Not a lot of RV parks in the area so we drove back to White River Junction and enjoyed a hamburger and good nights sleep. Our Round of Golf at Eastman Golf Links was a pleasure as we were paired up with a local couple that had both retired from the Veterans Administration. The high point of these many places that we visited this summer, had do do with the wonderful people that we have met. With the golf behind us we drove on down to see Janice’s sister Connie (ConCon) and her husband Lee in Derry. Lee’s 89 year old mother Doris was visiting from Florida, so it was a pleasure to see her again.
We set the RV up next to the house and settled in for a great weekend. Saturday we visited Lee’s cousins which led to our, what seems like an annual event, trip to Park Lunch in Newburyport, MA for fried clams and scallops!! They are great and not to be discussed with your doctor! Connie works for one of the local GMC dealers and we told her about the buildup, five months of bugs on the Road Trek that we had to remove. All of us, especially those of us that are on the ROAD for long periods know the amount of elbow grease to remove these buggers.
ConCon says no sweat. She bought some stuff from the dealer, we sprayed the front of the RV with water and then the spray, then more water with a light brushing and they all came off!!! What we thought would be a 5 hour job was reduced to the normal time to clean the vehicle. We are trying to get the name of the product and how to buy it in less than a 55 gallon drum. When we do, we will let you know what it is! Monday we played a fun round of golf with Lee and Connie at the local course in town, said our goodbyes and took of Tuesday morning for a few days in Maine.
We took a leisurely drive up the coast of New Hampshire into Maine driving to Kennebunkport. The shoreline is sensational. We started looking for n RV park and settled into Sea-vu which was two nights of pleasure. Wednesday morning we got an early start back to Kennebunkport and drove around the beach area to Walker Point, the home of GHW Bush, or 41.
What a beautiful home and it was fun seeing his boat that appears in so many pictures of him going out to fish. There is an Episcopal Church just down the beach from his home which has a large lawn on the ocean and is the landing spot for him when he does his birthday skydive, the last one on his 85thbirthday.
Back into Kennebunkport to park and walk the town. Park an RV, even a small one, NO WAY!! It just doesn’t have any parking for an RV, do not apply! We had set a twilight tee time at the Cape Arundel Golf Club in Kennebunkport, they did let us park!
Cape Arundel Golf Club was founded in 1896 when there were only 74 golf clubs in the country. The course is a wonderful “links” stile course and a pleasure to play.
George HW Bush is a member and the list of players that have played the course include Nixon, Clinton, the Bush’s and many famous pro legends from all sports, including Francis Ouimet, Snead, Palmer, Couples Love, Leonard, Toms, Norman and Phil Mickelson
whom holds the course record shooting a 60, 9 under par. The course has also been played by Babe Ruth, Louis Tiant and Roger Clemens. Golf course history is always a fun part of the game.
The beauty of the course is caught as the sun was setting over the first hole.
We drove over to wells beach and found a nice guy that was in charge of a local parking area that let us park..yea..we were suppose to drive to the end of the beach to park. We walked down the beach how beautiful.
Janice was looking for more animals to take pictures of and low and behold a gull flew by.
Thursday morning we drove towards Boston following the coast through New Hampshire. The homes and beaches were spectacular. We stopped in Rockport, MA, another beautiful old fishing village and order clams and a 3 pound cooked lobster to have for dinner that evening when we camped in Plymouth, MA. We had the wonderful dinner at our campsite along with a nice bottle of wine. We started laughing about the fact that there was a small storm called Irene that was making its way to North Carolina and according to reports was headed directly at Boston. Here we are, the experienced Florida hurricane couple that got hit once in Fort Lauderdale, all the way in New England and worried about the storm.
Friday morning we headed out to Uncle Bill and Aunt Margret’s home for the weekend.
We enjoyed a lovely evening and played golf Saturday morning with Uncle Bill at Cranberry Golf Course in their town of Harwich. We walked the course and the thrill of the day was for Uncle Bill to shot 5 shots over his age of 84, what a great round. Bill and Margaret took u for a late lunch at the Outer Bar and Grille in the Wequassett Resort. We enjoyed fantastic Lobster Rolls, the largest we have seen. We headed back to the house and the winds were picking up for Irene. We were able to check the “cone” of the storm and it was now heading towards western Massachusetts with only 1 to 2 inches of rain forecasted for Cape Code. The house lost power about 7:30 Saturday evening. Waking up Sunday there was still a lot of wind, very little rain, but the majority of the storm had passed. The good news for us, was that there were no branches on the RV and we had escaped the storm.
We took off and went to the beach to see the storm..What beautiful sights, some trees down and of course the power..oh well..That evening we went to eat at a local pizza restaurant the food was excellent!! As usual we had such a pleasant visit with Bill and Margaret. But it was time to move on.
Time to visit with John’s family..more to come..