On Things Along the Way 4

For Photos:  http://willemcoetzee.blogspot.com/2013/11/fotos-7.html

Aiming for Ithaca, New York, and with Wi-Fi functioning the last afternoon at North Pole, we wanted to secure a camp site, only to discover none was available for the upcoming weekend. Back to the drawing board, we decided to omit Ithaca, extend Old Forge by a day and secured a reservation for 2 days at the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, before heading to State College for 9 days.

The Old Forge campground was some 8 miles west of town. The trip from North Pole, NY went through beautiful Adirondack countryside and passing lake upon lake. We stopped for sandwiches where the road crossed a narrow section of Long Lake. The scene was really stunning, with seaplanes docked by the road side, a number of picnic tables around and an elderly gentleman sitting all by himself on a largish camping chair, reading a novel. And then on to Old Forge, which appeared quiet and surprisingly charming, although somewhat touristy. Having paid and had a camp site assigned to us, Fickie and Stella returned from their own exploration while the former negotiation was going on and asked if we could perhaps switch to another site. The owner fortunately agreed and by late afternoon we were in place. The next morning we returned to Old Forge for groceries and a second look at the village. It was much more appealing than the day before and the tourist information center broadened our outlook. Although still rather quiet, the lakefront was pretty and the general appearance was of economic stability. Back at camp, we had time to digest some of the newly acquired paper materials, indicating the existence of a ski slope close by, where lifts were operating and one could get to the top of the mountain for sightseeing.

The reservation problem encountered a couple of days before prompted Willem to want to take Fickie and Stella to the ski lift the next morning, where hopefully, his AT&T signal would be strong enough for the personal hotspot to facilitate Wi-Fi. Susan wanted to stay in camp, so Willem succeeded with what he set out to do, while Fickie and Stella went up the mountain. This resulted in blog-updating and success with a reservation for Virginia Beach, when Willem learned that only 9 spots were still available for our date of November 5. Attempts at reservations for Washington, DC and Emerald Island, North Carolina, backfired on account of the political stalemate in Washington, incapacitating anything related to the National Park Service and other Federal Land camping facilities. Fortunately other unreserved sites en route to Florida are with State Parks and Willem could verify that there were plenty vacancies, which obviated a need for reserving. Meanwhile, Old Forge was abuzz with tourists – completely transformed from the previous two days! We drove east to the next village of Inlet and followed a southern return past Old Forge to our camp ground and were again impressed by the water richness of the Adirondacks and in this part the folks seemed tohave run out of names and resorted to numbers for lakes strung out along the way!

The next morning called for rising early for the longest trip yet to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Fortunately we could mostly stick to highways, resulting in a 7-hour trip. We were surprised by how much beautiful foliage was still visible and the picture got better toward Pennsylvania. Having moved with peak conditions since New Hampshire, through Vermont and New York, the show was more or less over after North Pole, we thought. Yet, the Canyon was a stunner. For the last part in getting there, we decided to take route 6, indicated as a scenic route, rather than sticking to the highway for the last hour or so. This was truly rewarding and it was only later that we learned National Geographic Magazine has named it one of the most scenic routes in the United States!

From our camp site we took a 30 minute hike one way to the eastern outlook point over the canyon and upon returning, after catching our breath over a lunch snack, took a road trip of some 20 miles or so to get to the same on the western side and returned via the village of Wellsboro. We shared the conclusion that this area is very definitely worth visiting and that our unintended doing so, was a change for the better.

Finally, we were on our way after almost 11 weeks to State College for 9 days to regroup, repack, leave some things we should not have taken and take things we had not, but should have, in addition to numerous appointments, including vehicle service, medical, dental, friends, etc.

Our time in State College was busy but very pleasant. We got to meet and visit with Marc and Michiko, the folks who bought our house and it was comforting to learn how much they liked the place. We saw friends we couldn’t reach before we left for Canada and could formally say good bye, as we were to leave State College permanently in a few days. We rubbed shoulders with church folk we’ve known for a long time; we had numerous medically related appointments and had our truck serviced, etc. And before we knew it, it was time to depart from Kuhns’ Tree Farm, where Larry once again provided a spot to park the RV and access to facilities indoors.

The Thursday trip went well to Stowe, Pennsylvania, where we left the RV to be serviced, while we continued to Hans, Liz and their kids, Liam and Anna, in Malvern, PA. It was great to stay with them and enjoy the kids. Hans took leave on Friday and Monday and was of great help to us in acquiring and getting a portable satellite TV receiving system to work.

We visited Longwood Gardens, an always stunning experience, although this time mostly confined to the indoors on account of a relatively low temperature outdoors. We enjoyed a dinner visit to Liz’s parents, Chuck and Anne Marie, where their culinary prowess was once again appreciably on display. Hans took Fickie and Stella on a sightseeing trip to downtown Philadelphia, while Willem and Susan attended to administrative matters, grand children; Susan adding bulbs to the garden and Willem helping out a bit with a significant paint job in the basement, which Hans and Liz are in the process of finishing with a new bathroom, bedroom, den and living room.

Having returned to Stowe, we hooked up the RV on Tuesday morning and were on our way to Washington, DC. We bypassed Philadelphia but the closer we got to Baltimore, the busier the traffic got. Beltways are a great help but even so, at Washington it proved to be merely a patch on a more significant and cumbersome roadway phenomenon. However, we reached our campground safely and in good time and were most pleased with what we got at the Travel Trailer Village in Prince William Forest Park, some 30 miles south of Washington, off Interstate 95. This camp ground is highly recommendable. Wednesday had us resupplying, staying in camp, attending to various matters and mostly avoiding road congestion. Thursday saw us at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, west of Washington. This is a must see attraction which requires a whole day to sample some of the world’s great space exploration history. Our visit included two IMAX shows, one on the Hubble telescope and the other on the Space Shuttle program. In addition, the display of the Discovery shuttle and authentic aircraft, such as the Enola Gay and Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird -- both of historical significance, are certainly memorable. In summary, if ordinary mortals are so impressed, real aviation connoisseurs could easily spend days in the place and probably feel like returning again soon!

On Friday November 1 at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, the California State Park Reservation System opened for May 2014 reservations and we had 4 computers focused there simultaneously to secure camp sites. We succeeded with Silver Strand and Leo Carillo, but missed out on South Carlsbad. But we could substitute with San Onofre, close by, although a little away from the ocean. Our next challenge will be on December 1, for California sites for June 2014, which will be high season and probably more difficult to secure! More work on our new TV technology and screening photographs for blog placement kept us busy and on Saturday morning we left early for Washington DC, where Susan spent time in the various art galleries and the American Indian Museum; Fickie and Stella in the National Museum of Natural History where he could realize an ambition to see the Hope Diamond, while Willem tended to parking considerations and found his way into the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum on the Mall. He concluded that the two museums on the subject weren’t redundant and brought complementary aspects to life. After lunch in Union Station, we drove to the other end of the Mall to see the World War II, Vietnam War and Korean War memorials, in addition to the Lincoln Monument. Meanwhile, it seemed that the foliage peak was reached in Washington that weekend. We are ready to take it along as we move further south on Tuesday.

After church on Sunday, we visited the plantation home of George Washington, the first president of the United States at Mount Vernon and it was quite an experience. We learned a great deal about the Washington family and left after some four hours with a much elevated view of this standard setter for the office. Unfortunate that it was often not upheld by later incumbents.

Monday started out chilly and Willem cranked up the heating real early, while the others were slower to rise on a day we wanted to get more housekeeping done in preparation for our moving on to Virginia Beach. We deemed our Washington experience very successful in all respects but looked forward to making progress southward and ultimately getting to warmer shores!