Back "Home"

Our new map

Ah, so good to be back "home" after 3 weeks on the road. We journeyed through thirteen states, five Canadian provinces, and paid over $100 in highway tolls in that time; 4,670.4 miles in all.

So much traffic - lots of big trucks

Saw some amazingly beautiful country. Of all our travels my favorite spots were Prince Edward Island, northern Maine, and Illinois/Missouri. I love the open farmland in Illinois.

Mya and Otis in "travel mode".

I never realized how much of the US is agricultural land, lots and lots of cornfields. Except for visiting Washington DC this will probably be our last foray into the eastern part of the US. The traffic is unbelievable. We only retraced our steps once on the way back and that was through St. Louis. Got to see the Arch from a different viewpoint. Got home just as the skies were opening up but it cooled everything off nicely.

Now we are waiting on the boat. The folks who have had it since we left (to fix the trailer wheel/tire) must be procrastinators because it's not fixed yet. Mya and I took Otis down to the lake yesterday for a swim and he headed right for the boat dock. He loves going out on the boat and swimming with us. He had to be satisfied with fetching sticks and swimming from the shore. He's pretty new at this whole swimming thing and he seemed to have forgotten how. But after a little practice he got the hang of it again. We are hoping the boat is ready Tuesday. We'll see. Jeff is missing his fishing time.

Hanging out on a Sunday afternoon.

Jade has started using my kayak. I'm glad she's getting out of the RV more this summer. We walked up the hill to the big pool this morning and swam laps. It was like the tortoise and the hare. She was swimming freestyle and I was doing my breast stroke. Hey, it's all good exercise. Also noticed on the way up the hill that they have put in a dog park here. Yay! Now we can let Otis run without worrying about him running off. 

Tomorrow we are going to go on an adventure and try to find the movie theater in Branson. The girls want to go see The Secret Life of Pets. The only drawback to our location here in the sticks is that it takes about an hour to get to Branson which is on the other side of the lake and the closest "big" (about 10,000 people) town. It's 20 miles one way to get groceries but it takes longer to get there because the roads are narrow and winding. Makes for a peaceful, secluded place but not exactly convenient. You can't have it both ways - lol!

Probably won't have a lot to share about in the blog as we will just be hanging out here for awhile. Looking forward to getting some reading in. Right now I'm reading a biography on the life of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormon faith - interesting, to say the least.

Happy Sunday all!

Heading "Home"

So peaceful - and inexpensive!

We have stopped for the night at Maple Lane RV Park. It’s full hookup and only $35.00; and we are in a pull-through in a beautiful open field in the southwestern part of New York state. It’s amazing the wide range of prices we pay for our “accommodations”. The most expensive so far was $86 a night plus they charged us $10 per girl on top of that. So crazy.

Confederation Bridge- get your money out!

We left Nova Scotia on Thursday amid foggy skies and made our way to Prince Edward Island. The island is accessible only by traversing the Confederation Bridge.

View as we approach PEI

It’s 8 miles long and cost $1.3 billion to build. We are pretty sure they are paying for it with the toll one must pay to get off the island. We paid $61.00. Ouch! The east coast is full of toll roads. We’re pretty sure we’ve paid over $100 in tolls in the last few days. It would be nice if they actually used the money to make the roads driveable. New York roads are horrible.

Jeff and the girls - Northumberland Strait behind them

Prince Edward Island is idyllic; something right out of a storybook. It probably doesn’t hurt that everywhere we’ve gone the weather has been fabulous. But PEI is just miles and miles of rolling hills and everything is so green. Again, like so much of what we’ve seen, the island has a lot of agricultural land and most of PEI is planted in potato fields. We made a point to put our toes in the ocean; actually it was the Northumberland Strait. And it was COLD! Got some pretty shells as souvenirs.

In trying to make our way back to Arkansas, we couldn’t decide if we should go inland or stick to the coast. We just hoped we could find something on the 4^th of July weekend. I had had my eye on place in southern Maine on the coast, a tiny town called Wells. It is the 3^rd oldest city in Maine. On the off chance they’d have a spot I called them and they did! We booked 2 nights (the 2^nd and 3^rd) so we didn’t have to worry

Fox checking us out on PEI

Coast of PEI

about finding a spot somewhere else on a holiday weekend. Such a cute little town but UGH!, the traffic. Thank goodness they have a trolley that takes people around the area and to the beach. We were just a mile from the beach on the Atlantic Ocean. The girls and I rode the trolley down there but it was funny. For the thousands of people that were in the area, there were only about 20 in the water. Lots of folks with sunburns because the air and water are cold but the sun is still blazing. I remember that from Alaska. You don’t realize you are getting burned because it isn’t that hot. The trolley took us into Kennebunk which is right next to Kennebunkport.  Isn't that where the Kennedys spent their summers? I can only imagine the cost of owning one of these little beach houses. I'd like to see the area when it's not a holiday weekend. Probably a lot more pleasant and calm. Jeff found a little doughnut shop he could walk to and bought the biggest, tastiest homemade doughnuts for us.  I never eat that kind of stuff but I couldn't resist.  Blueberry filled power doughnut - yum!!!

Crowded little town on 4th of July - Wells, Maine

Trying to get out of Maine is a trick if you want to go west. The roads in New Hampshire and Vermont, at least the major ones, all run North/South. Driving the scenic routes are great but after a while you just want to put on some mileage. We breezed through New Hampshire and had reservations in a tiny place called Woodford, VT. I’m so glad we found this place. I’m tired of the masses of humanity and this place was tucked away in the woods next to a state park. It was fabulous. Otis got to take a swim in the pond and wear off some of his never-ending energy. It was so nice to have some space to walk around and just be surrounded by nature, not people. The folks that own the place are really sweet. They are fortunate to have this place to call home.

Little pond right in front of our camping spot in
 Woodford, VT. 

We headed out early this morning on a 300+ mile day of travel. I'm getting tired of moving all the time. Yesterday I broke down in tears because Otis was being a dope and jumping at me and biting me. He just wanted to play but I wasn't in the mood. I think I've had enough of the road stuff. I just want to go back to Arkansas and swim and kayak. I remember two years ago when we did the East Coast thing. It's stressful because the roads are so crappy and so busy. Jeff has decided that Massachusetts drivers are the rudest drivers on the road. 

We are slowly filling in our
new map on this RV.

I just want to get back to some peace and quiet. We have about 3 more nights on the road. We have reservations just north of Columbus, Ohio for tomorrow night. Then it should take us about two more nights before we get back to our spot in Arkansas. As I sit here typing, I'm sitting by the open window and can smell the clean, cool air wafting in the window. That I will miss. We are heading back into the heat and will have to contend with that with only the two air conditioners. We need to find a fan blade to replace the one that broke a few weeks ago so we can use the air conditioner in our bedroom area. 

Time for bed. Got a long day again tomorrow but I'm looking forward to seeing Ohio. We only got to see the northernmost area last time we passed through. I think we even go into Pennsylvania briefly as we head south. 

The adventure continues.