Quote of the Week

This quote was posted in the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake (a great place to visit).  Thankfully we have not been greatly affected by such varmints.

"Blackflies, Mosquitoes and Punkies: a cosmopolitan police, detailed by Divine Providence to guard the great hunting park of the Republic from the incursions of cockney poachers and murderers of deer in summer.  Long may they wave!"

North Woods Walton Club toast, 1858

Photo of the Week

They apparently don't run cable TV to beaver huts in the Adirondacks

Rally Time on Lake Ontario Pulaski NY

When we decided we would not go to Alaska this year, a rally hosted by the Diesel RV Club in Pulaski NY, became our primary destination on our route to our traditional canoe trip in the Boundary Waters in Minnesota.  But NY is not on the way to MN from NC you say?  But of course it is, if you also want to visit the Adirondacks, Ottawa, Algonquin Provincial Park and the Canadian Shield north of the Great Lakes.

Welcome to New York  (photo taken with my new Garmin Dash Cam)

We departed PA and headed to Brennan Beach RV Resort on the eastern edge of Lake Ontario in Pulaski NY.  Although Pulaski is named after General Casimir Pulaski (pə-las-kee), area residents have traditionally pronounced it with a long "i" (pə-las-sky). Go figure.  Brennan Beach is huge, with over 1500 units.  Most are seasonal sites, meaning they are rented out for the whole year.  There are about 100 transient sites for gypsies like us.

Our home for 5 nights

It is significantly cooler here.  We're a bit farther north, at a higher elevation and on the shore of Lake Ontario.  Highs have been in the mid 80s, while lows have plummeted into the 60s.  A far site from the historic heat dome covering most of the country.

A nice place to park

My friend Wayne always marvels at a "sincere wood pile"

A sincere wood pile

The rally is hosted by the Diesel RV Club, a chapter of the Family Motor Coach Association.  The stated mission of the DRVC is:

The purpose of the Diesel RV Club is to serve all Family Motor Coach Association members with an interest in diesel powered motorhomes and coaches – whether Type A, B or C – in how to maintain them, how to get maximum performance, and how to keep repair costs to a minimum. The Chapter will host rallies which combine social and technical programs for the purpose of:

• Exchanging information on how to keep diesel coach repair costs to a minimum, how to maintain them and how to get maximum performance,
• Helping promote diesel engines in all RV Types and help our fellow RVrs,
• Providing opportunities for fun and fellowship, and
• Supporting FMCA activities such as rallies and engagement at international conventions.

Anyone is eligible to visit one of our events as a guest prior to joining. We look forward to making your acquaintance.

There were a number of very knowledgeable folks in attendance and 9 hours of seminars on technical topics.  There were fine meals and social hours.

On the last afternoon before the rally ended I changed the serpentine belt and the air conditioner drive belt on my engine.  I had plenty of knowledgeable help and the use of many tools.

On one of our outings we went to Old McDonalds Farm, which is a large outdoor petting zoo and a working dairy.



  We took the dairy tour and watched the automatic milking process.  They milk 16 cows on each side with automatic equipment.  They have almost 1000 heifers.  Each one is milked 3 times per day and produces about three gallons of milk per milking.   Moooooooo ....

Milking the heifers

All cows have electronic chips to keep track of them.  In the nursery, where week old calves are housed, they go to a milk feeding station whenever they are hungry, where each on is identified and given just the right amount of milk dependent on their age and when and how much they ate last.  Old man McDonald's come a long way.

Strutting his stuff

We took another outing to Boldt Castle on Heart Island in the St. Lawrence River in the Thousand Islands area of NY.

Dorcas on the boat to Boldt Castle

George C. Boldt was a self-made restaurateur and hotelier during the turn of the 20th century.  He built Boldt Castle for his beloved wife Louise.  Unfortunately Louise died in 1904, before the castle was completed.  Boldt immediately stopped construction and never returned to the island.  For 73 years, the castle and various stone structures were left to the mercy of the wind, rain, ice, snow and vandals. When the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority acquired the property in 1977, it was decided that through the use of all net revenues from the castle operation it would be preserved for the enjoyment of future generations.

The Power House

Graffiti on the 4th level

Dorcas on the rooftop

Boldt Castle on high

More graffiti 

Looking down on the main foyer

Lunch snack anyone?

This guy had a 1500 HP Packard airplane engine

The Children's Playhouse

The Yacht House

The rally theme was "The Lake & the Lighthouse".  Unfortunately we visited neither.

Next stop: The Adirondacks!

Gettysburg

Gettysburg National Military Park has a lot in common with Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.  Both have a lot of history and both are very hot.  The heat wave continues, even as we head northward.

Again, we found a shady parking space in the RV parking lot and felt good about leaving Matilda there while we visited the Visitor Center.  When we did the auto tour through the battlefields, we could take her with us.

Abe and me

There is no admission charge to get into the park, but there is a charge for EVERYTHING in the Museum & Visitors Center.   And there are long lines to get tickets for the movie, cyclorama and museum.

I hate lines

Dorcas photographing NC emblems, belt buckles and buttons

Even after you get your tickets there are long lines to get into the attractions.  A friend of mine once said "The biggest problem with public parks is they let the public in."

More lines

I played a bit with the panoramic function on my iPhone while viewing the Gettysburg Cyclorama The painting is the work of French artist Paul Dominique Philippoteaux. It depicts Pickett's Charge, the failed infantry assault that was the climax of the Battle of Gettysburg. The painting is 42' high and 377' in circumference.

A portion of the Cyclorama

We finally left the the visitor facilities and headed out into the battlefields for an auto tour.  There is a designated auto tour with marked stops that is 27+ miles long.  Gettysburg is big.  We took some short cuts.  There are thousands of monuments throughout the park.

There were lots of cannons

The Soldiers Cemetery 

Most (all?) states have a major memorial dedicated to the soldiers from their state who fought in the battle.  States also established lesser monuments dedicated to individual regiments, divisions and so forth.

The North Carolina monument was sculpted by Gutzon Borglum, who also carved Mt. Rushmore and the monument at Stone Mt. GA.

The North Carolina Monument

One could spend many days exploring the history and analyzing the maneuvers at Gettysburg.  We spent most of one day and then headed north for a rendezous with our next Walmart.

Harpers Ferry WV

Leaving the high elevation on the Shenandoah mountains (3500') and entering the Shenandoah valley (300'?) was quite a shock.  When we arrived at Harper's Ferry, at the confluence of the Shenandoah River and the Potomac River the temperature was over 90 degrees.  That left us with a dilemma.  There is essentially no parking in the lower town.  Visitors must park at the Visitor's Center and take a shuttle bus to the lower town.  We have a dog.  No dogs are allowed on the bus.  It is a 2 mile walk to town.  Matilda says "What am I going to do?"  Luckily we found a shady place at the Visitor Center where we could park.  We opened all the vents and windows for maximum ventilation.  It seldom gets hot enough in a shaded ventilated motor home to reach dangerous temperatures.  We left Matilda in the coach and headed for the bus.  Spoiler alert:  Matilda was fine.

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is very, ... well... historic. The confluence of the rivers and the railroads made it very important for commerce and military strategy.  There was an arms production plant here and much civil war history was here.

The obligatory Visitor Center

Our first stop was Bolivar Heights a ridge outside town where cannons protected the town.

Dorcas at Bolivar Heights

Cannon at Bolivar Heights

In the lower town there were many period-styled shops that served as mini-museums.

The Quartermaster's office

The General Store

Lock 33 on the C&O Canal

A view from High Street

We stopped into one gift shop on High Street that had some beverages in their cooler, including some beers from a West Virginia craft brewery.  It wasn't a bar; there was no seating, but you could sip some suds while browsing their items.  As you might expect, I had a cool one.

John Brown's Fort

View downstream on the Potomac

The Appalachian Trail passes through HF and also follows the C&O Canal for a while

Crossing the Potomac the easy way

We caught the shuttle back to the coach, were we found Matilda in fine shape, as reported earlier.  We departed Harper's Ferry sometime after 6:00 headed to Frederick MD where we had reservations at the Walmart Supercenter RV Resort.  All is good as we continue our trek northward.

Shenandoah National Park Part Deux

We left Loft Mt CG on Tuesday about 11:00 and headed north on the Skyline Drive. We only had about 30 miles to our next destination, so we took it easy and stopped at several overlooks. We quickly learned that overlooks on the west side of the road tended to have a good internet signal, likely because they had good line-of-sight to the Shenandoah Valley and I-81. We pulled off at one nice spot and did some internet chores.

Eventually we arrived at Big Meadows CG, EL ~3550'. We had site F-199 reserved, but we soon discovered it was not very attractive. We went back to the ranger and asked if there was a better site available, particularly one that had open sky for good solar gain. He said all of the sites in C Loop were non-reservable (meaning we could pick any vacant site, without the risk of someone reserving it and having to move later), and were very open to the sky. C-137 was perfect, so we set up for our 3 night stay.

C-137.  Our home for 3 nights

The Big Meadows area is about half way up the Skyline Drive and is a very popular spot. It is characterized by a big meadow (duh!) that is about 138 acres in area. The meadow used to be larger, but the woods have encroached over time. Presently, the NPS maintains the meadow, mowing 1/3, burning 1/3 and leaving fallow 1/3, each year, so it is not likely to change much in the future.

The Big Meadow

A curious but cautious fellow

We are still in a fairly sedentary mode. There are tons of good trails, here but my knee hurts just walking on flat pavement, and I don't really want to go hiking on rocks and roots just yet.

I wish our coach were powered by Tesla

We have attended a few ranger talks: 1) The eastern coyote 2) Raptors, specifically owls and 3) Fungi.  Dorcas took a ranger-led evening meadow walk.

This talk was about birds of prey, but specifically the Eastern Screech Owl

A cute little guy

There is fungus among us

We drove north a few miles to the Skyland area, the site of historic resort homes prior to the establishment of the park in 1935. On the way we saw a black bear off in the woods: Unfortunately, it was a poor photo op. They say there are a lot of bears out this year, and I overheard several people say they saw one.

The CCC was crucial in developing the Skyline Drive and the park facilities.

A memorial to the CCC boys

The weather continues to be fantastic. The days have been warm but pleasant, and the nights have been in the 60s. There have been a few light evening thunder showers. I will hate coming off the mountain.

On Friday we checked out at Big Meadows and headed north on Skyline Drive.  The weather was very cool, in the mid sixties.  When we got to Front Royal, the northern terminus of the Skyline Drive, the temperature was in the mid-eighties.  We continued north towards Harper's Ferry as the temps rose into the nineties.  We sure have been spoiled by this cool mountain weather.

A view from Skyline Drive

Check out this video for a real white knuckle thrill ride.  Click here.

We love our Honda Element.  We would buy another one in a minute if they still made them.

The final reason I hate leaving the Shenandoah National Park is I have finally learned how to spell “Shenandoah”.