Sharron Grodzinsky Author

HOT AND HUMID!

Our new sun shade: I love it.

Kayaking on the Sound

I could stop there with just hot and humid, but there is a lot more to the Outer Banks than just the weather.  The Outer Banks are a long stretch of barrier islands and sand dunes that separate the Atlantic from the coast and the Pamlico Sound.  They are almost 200 miles long.   You can find wild mustangs near Corolla, fishing, crabbing, sailing, kayaking, kite sailing, wind surfing, dolphins, whales, off-roading on beaches and sand dunes, Light Houses, the Wright Brothers Memorial, the North Carolina Aquarium, swimming, hang gliding on famous Jockey Ridge, and Cape Hatteras National park.  We didn’t do all of those activities, but did see quite a lot of the Cape Hatteras area and Ocracoke Island.

We camped at Frisco Woods Camping for RV’s and tents.  It was a nice campground, but so crowded during Labor…

During our travels, we have had the privilege to run into all types of people with backgrounds, jobs and history different from our own.  That has been what has made our journey so much more interesting than just seeing the country… although that has been pretty spectacular.  We have met Alaskan natives, Harley riders, crab and lobster fishermen, truck drivers, environmentalists, shop owners, bicycle riders, beach goers, mountain climbers, pot smokers, campers and of course RV’ers. Among the most different and kindest were the Amish in Pennsylvania.

We stopped in a suburb of Lancaster, PA right in the middle of Amish farming country, next to the small community of Bird in Hand.  The farms were beautifully manicured for miles around the towns, and each farm had a huge variety of flowers in their yards.  The Amish drove their horse drawn carriages along the roads and shopped in the local stores.  That gave us the opportunity…

Before heading down towards Portland and Boston, we stopped for the night in Rockland, Maine.  The nearby town of Rockport has a quaint downtown shopping area and a breakwater path built out into the bay about a mile.  At the end of the breakwater there is a lovely lighthouse.  A walk along this in the early evening was just the ticket to wind down.

While in Rockport, I was able to meet and buy a book from a local author, Carl Howe Hansen.  His book, Destiny, is the story of two brothers who have been brought up in the area to appreciate sustainability on nearby Pine Island.  When one of them creates a bacteria to dissolve oil spills and the other comes home after years of dropping out, the story comes together in a crisis of monumental proportions.  You will love this story set on Maine’s coast.  His characters are…

We took the scenic route towards Maine through Vermont.  Unfortunately, we took one wrong turn and ended up on a road that had a 10 foot covered bridge.  Yes, we had to unhook and backtrack about five miles.  I don’t need to repeat some of the language my husband uttered.

No it didn’t come to this…yet!

We spent the first night at Camping on the Battenkill, which was a lovely, forested campground. The second night we stayed at Alpine Mountain RV Park.  The water there was contaminated so we did not hookup.  Our winding mountain route took us through small towns like Woodstock, Manchester and Bridgewater, where everyone seemed to be having a garage sale.

We arrived in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, at the Desert Narrows Encore RV Resort by early afternoon on the third day. I had booked a space facing the bay and it was a stunning…

Arriving in Buffalo, we pulled into the KOA on Grand Island.  What a great camping spot with ponds, a lease-free dog park, and a little creek running through the camp.  After two days of regrouping, we took a short trip to downtown Buffalo to see the new Canalside Park.  It is a redevelopment area next to the Military Remembrance Park.  It was hot, but we managed to cool down with a few minutes sitting in the shade and a beer. The next day we took the RV in to get the back air conditioner repaired.  While it was being worked on we went to Lewistown.

Lewiston is a historical village and the site of the first European settlement in Western New York.  It was also the site from which the US invaded Canada in the first major battle of the War of 1812.  It sits just across the Niagara River…

As I said in an earlier blog, Lennard jokes that I am a slave driver, making him drive hundreds of miles across country. But in reality, he is participating in the decisions…it’s just that he forgets he said, “Oh sure, lets drive four hundred miles tomorrow.”

So we are now only driving, not sightseeing, so we can get to Buffalo, New York and meet up with my cousins, Darlene, Rick and Doreen, as well as our dear friends from Las Vegas, Jim and Joanne. We will be seeing Niagara Falls and staying at the Grand Island KOA. We would like to have a day or so “down time” before we start sightseeing again.

During all our travels, I have booked some Passport America RV Parks, some KOA RV Parks and some Good Sam RV Parks. All of them have turned out to be great and have adhered to their advertising…

Okay, I admit it. Maybe I did schedule a little too far to drive. We drove from Spokane to Billings Montana in one day. About 508 miles. Stayed in Walmart parking lot again, but then who doesn’t?

Our neighbors in the RV Park bikes. George and Debra and JR and Tina were the best.

The next day we arrived just outside Sturgis, South Dakota at the Rush No More RV Park. It is in a lovely setting in the woods. Our aim was to be near Mt. Rushmore, but we found out we had arrived the week before the 75^th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. How lucky was that? Now we don’t know much about motorcycles, but we learned a lot there. That night there was a Jam session at the RV Park meeting room. About ten local musicians showed up to jam. Bluegrass was the basic theme. What a nice…

It’s great to be back in the USA again. As beautiful as Canada was, we are happy to be home. We will be changing our trip route to stay in the US the rest of the time, so we have our phone and internet service.

Entering the US

We met our good friends, Tim and Jan, from the Sun City Anthem RV club along with their dog, Star at the Spokane, Washington KOA. It felt like home to meet up with friends.

Since Bella and Gypsy were literally “dirty dogs” we took them to PetSmart for grooming and when we picked them up we hardly recognized them they looked so good. I almost thought we got different dogs back.

Lennard’s great neighbors from his old neighborhood, Tom and Joanne, live in Coeur d’Alene, which is only 30 miles from Spokane. They invited us over to their home for a barbeque…