May 11-12 – Embden, ME – Alberta Philpot

My grandfather came from a family of 9 kids. We’ve got to know many of them over the years at family reunions. The only one still living is Aunt Alberta. She and her extended family live near the town of Embden in Central Maine. Nancy and I had been to Maine for a family reunion 11 years ago but we didn’t get a chance to visit Embden. Aunt Alberta and her family were great hosts. We saw the sights around their small town and the entire family came over for dinner and a campfire on Saturday evening. We dined on several Maine delicacies - red hot dogs (our North Carolina family had earlier claimed that their red hot dogs were unique), fiddleheads (these are shoots picked from ostrich ferns in the springtime – the ones we had were harvested by cousin Randy), brown bread (a sweet bread made with molasses) and Moxie soda (yep – Maine has its own soda). Believe it or not the fiddleheads were excellent – they tasted like a combination of artichoke and spinach. We enjoyed all of the Maine eats. The family also brought along some extras and stocked our cupboards prior to sending us on our way.

Nancy and I in the Maine woods

Luke and Zach playing on the gravel pile - they spent hours here

Randy, Tara and their family

The kids

Isabella enjoying smores by the campfire

Rob and Rebecca

Aunt Alberta

Betsy, Connie, Rob and Zach

May 10 – Portland, ME – Walmart

Today was a travel day as we headed north to Maine to visit family over the weekend. We did make a stop for dinner near Boston to enjoy a local delicacy – Lobster Rolls!

May 9 – New York City – Liberty Harbor RV Park

We set out for New York City early in the day but timed it right for a lunch stop in Philadelphia. We ended up winding our way through the streets of the City of Brotherly Love to Geno’s Steaks and Pat’s King of Steaks. These two eateries have been featured on TV and claim to have the best cheesesteak in the city. We wanted to judge for ourselves so we grabbed four cheesesteaks from each place and ate! When the votes were tallied, it was a tie. Pat’s was great because they chopped the steak and it mixed with the cheese whiz, onions, etc nicely. Those that liked Geno’s enjoyed the extra cheese whiz – very tasty. Both sandwiches were excellent. Pat’s provided ordering instructions– for example you order ‘wit’ or ‘witout’ onions J We all enjoyed this experience.

We arrived at our campsite in northern New Jersey in the evening and immediately walked the five blocks to the subway station. About 20 minutes and two transfers later we were in the middle of Times Square. The kids loved all the bright lights. We did some shopping and dined on reuben sandwiches at a deli. We decided to call it a day around 12:30 at night and got a ride in a Hummer limo down to lower Manhattan where we caught the subway back to NJ. Good times. The next morning we rode the subway back to lower Manhattan and visited the 9/11 memorial. It was a beautiful tribute to the lives lost there. The names of the deceased are engraved in a bronze plaque that surrounds the original footprint of each tower. Inside the footprint are two separate waterfalls – you can see the memorial in the pictures below. We located the names of the victims that Nancy and the kids did memorial artwork for – their work was included in a 10^th anniversary tribute in New York last summer. We concluded out visit with a walk around downtown visiting Wall Street and Battery Park with its great view out toward the Statue of Liberty. As with Washington, DC, we barely scratched the surface here leaving plenty to see the next time around.

Kids in Times Square

Hummer limo ride

9/11 Memorial

Statue of Liberty as seen from Battery Park

Eve next to Kelly Ann Booms' name. Eve did a memorial plaque for her last summer.

May 6-8 – Washington DC – Cherry Hill RV Park

We’ve been anticipating a visit to Washington DC since we left home. There’s so much to see and do here and a lot of it ties directly to the kid’s studies. We stayed at a great campground with bus service to the subway so we could get our gang of nine back and forth to the city with ease. In addition, we arranged to have a dog sitter stop by the RV and walk the dogs twice a day. Believe it or not our new dog, Buddy, has proven to be very well mannered.  We can leave both dogs in the RV for several hours with no problems at all. This was one of my primary concerns when we “adopted” him a few weeks back.

We spent 2 long days in the city. We visited the Capitol Building and got the guided tour. We also got a chance to set in on the House while they were in session. I was excited to see some lawmaking first hand. We were there for about 30 minutes and almost the entire time was spent introducing and then discussing a bill to allow soapbox derby racing in the Capitol city. Yep – you read that right. Evidently these races have happened for 72 years in a row which means, presumably, that there has been 72 times that congress has “approved” it. What a joke…  To say that it was a disappointment seeing our elected representatives spend their time and our money dealing with such nonsense is an understatement. It left me to wonder how much time they spend on pointless legislation. I was not impressed. Another thing that struck me is the amount of public works projects going on around the city. There was construction everywhere. Almost the entire National Mall from the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial was under construction as where many of the buildings that lined the mall. Part of this work involved digging up huge swaths of lawn to install a new “green” drainage system to reduce the amount of irrigation required. There were huge piles of dirt and pipe everywhere and tons of heavy equipment. The costs for this project alone had to be astronomical – I bet the payback is measured in millennia. Of course there were American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signs up on all the projects. Again – not impressed. The good news is that should be very easy for Congress to identify some discretionary spending that can be cut from the budget because they see it on a daily basis!!

We visited the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of American History. The kids enjoyed the animals and Jim, Nancy and I enjoyed the pop-culture memorabilia. We also visited Arlington National Cemetery and saw the eternal flame at JFK’s grave, the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Robert E Lee House that sits atop the hill there. The Lee house has always been my favorite spot in DC. The history of the site and how it came to be a national cemetery is fascinating and the view overlooking the city is amazing. Incidentally and not surprisingly, the Lee house is also undergoing renovations. We also visited the Lincoln Memorial which ties in nicely with some of the Civil War history we’ve been learning about. Our two days in DC left us feeling like we barely scratched the surface of all the history here. We definitely left plenty to see and do the next time we’re in town.

Jim and kids in front of the White House

Kids standing on the white star marking the geographical center of DC. It is located in the middle of the Capitol building.

Bronze of Ronald Reagan in the Captol rotunda

JFK's grave and the eternal flame looking up at the Lee House in Arlington National Cemetery

My girls

View out over DC from the Lee House. In the foreground is the grave of Pierre Charles L'Enfant - the man who layed out the city of Washington DC.

Capitol Building

May 5 – Williamsburg, VA – Mall Parking Lot

Nex
t up we set our sights on Williamsburg, Virginia. The colonial-era history here is a big draw as the kids have been studying early American history. Our first stop was Jamestown – site of the first permanent English settlement in the US with 104 settlers arriving from England in the spring of 1607. Although nothing remains of the original wood fort, archeologists discovered its exact site in the 1990’s and the fort walls and a few buildings have been reconstructed so you can get a sense for what it was like. Evidently the site was only found in recent years because most people assumed that it had been washed away by the river many years ago. Active archeological work continues at the site so there will no doubt be more information gathered over time. The National Park Service oversees the park and we got a great tour by one of the volunteer park rangers. There is also a private museum nearby that displays many of the items found in the excavations and has interesting profiles of some of the settlers buried there. Interesting stuff…

About 20 miles away from Jamestown is Yorktown. This is the site of the last major battle of the Revolutionary War. It is here that Lord Cornwallis surrendered his troops to George Washington, leader of the Allied Forces – American and French - effectively ending the Revolutionary War. It was 2 years later that the Treaty of Paris was signed which formally established America as an independent nation. Yorktown today is very much like it was during colonial times – perhaps a bit smaller as many of the homes and buildings were destroyed during the Revolutionary and later the Civil War. It was fun to walk the town and see many of the historic buildings. One thing that I found interesting – there was a huge memorial commemorating the battle here and the independence that followed. Although the memorial was authorized by congress shortly after the British surrendered the monument wasn’t actually built until 100 years later. Why?? Evidently the government didn’t have the money to pay for it. Novel concept…

Lucas and Pocohantas



Jamestown fort - excavation work in the foreground and the fort wall in the background. The fort wall surrounded an area about 1 acre in size.



Jamestown fort - reconstructed shelter with fort wall behind and the river in the background

Monument at Yorktown commemorating the final surrender of British forces

Close up of the inscription on the Yorktown monument

Yorktown

Yorktown house of a prominent citizen and patriot dating to colonial times

May 4 – Raleigh, NC - Billy and Dianne Mitchell

We met up with our North Carolina family today. In addition to the Mitchell’s, Ray and Teresa Shrum, Robert and Amy Wellbrook and daughter Kiersten and Rebecca Mitchell joined us. We see this part of our family every 2 years at family reunions so reuniting with them in an off year was great. They fed us well introducing us to a North Carolina delicacy – the red hotdog - and we had a great time catching up. Billy had a new concrete driveway poured – a long, sloping one no less - a month before so the kids had a blast riding their scooters. The kids also happened to find ticks in the woods next to Billy’s house. Nancy had to pick 8 ticks off of them at day’s end. Usually they are mesmerized by new and strange creatures – not this time. They didn’t even ask to add one to their collection of bugs being amassed in the back of the motorhome.

Robert, Amy and Kiersten

Billy and Diane with the range targets that were hanging next to their front door. Southern hospitality??

Ray and Teresa Shrum

May 2-3 – Myrtle Beach, SC – Ocean Lakes Family Campground

The kids have definitely had their fill of old forts. They keep asking if they can bring their scooters along on our walks through these old places. You’d think they would be told no a few times, figure it out and stop asking – they don’t. Maybe the national park service is missing an opportunity here - they could put skate parks in the national parks and monuments, allow the kids to bring their scooters in and everyone would be happy.

We had previously planned to head inland at this point to visit the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. With lots of historical sites still planned in the days ahead and our move north taking us quickly out of the warmer Atlantic waters we decided to stick to the coast and make a stop in Myrtle Beach. A check of the RV forums led us to a campground called Ocean Lakes. It’s the largest campground on the east coast with 1 mile of beachfront, 900 campsites and another 2500 sites on annual leases. We got a prime spot about 20 yards from the pool complex and 100 yards from the ocean. We really enjoyed our time here. All of us got to spend some time swimming and bodysurfing in the ocean and the kids also enjoyed the pool.  The kids collected live starfish, jellyfish and crab that were washing ashore. The highlight for Nancy and I was walking the dogs on the beach at mid-night. This was Buddy’s first opportunity to really cut loose and he took advantage of it.



You think Elizabeth is having fun?



Isabella rides a wave to the beach

Lucas with a couple jelly fish

James and Isabella heading into the surf while Eve looks on

May 1 – Savannah, GA - Walmart

Savannah is a beautiful, old city right on the coast. Like many east coast towns it has lots of colorful history and architecture dating back to the 1700’s. While here, we took the opportunity to take in a bit of Civil War history visiting Fort Pulaski. This fort was part of a series of fortifications built along the Atlantic coast in the early to mid 19th century after the war of 1812. Interestingly, when South Carolina succeeded from the Union near the end of 1860 the fort was not quite completed and still unmanned. The federal fort was seized by the state of Georgia and handed over to the Confederate States of America a few weeks later when Georgia succeeded from the Union. The fort was largely considered among the most invincible in the world at the time due to its then state of the art construction which featured 7 foot thick brick walls and space for 140 cannons. Interestingly it took less than 2 days of artillery fire by the Union Army in the spring of 1862 to force the confederates to surrender the fort. The effectiveness of the artillery fire was due solely to the use of experimental rifled cannons which significantly increased the range and accuracy of the artillery used previously. We toured the fort and were able to see where one of these cannon shots landed inside the fort and ricocheted off a series of walls finally lodging in the brick wall adjacent to the door to what they call the powder magazine. At the time, the powder magazine housed 40,000 pounds of gunpowder. Evidently the surrender came quickly after that near miss. Fort Pulaski was also the place where Robert E. Lee launched his military career. He was stationed there after graduating West Point and oversaw some of the construction at the fort.

Upper level of fort with series of spots for cannons

Moat surrounding fort - we saw an alligator in here

Inside the fort

April 30 – Daytona Beach, FL – Walmart

After finishing up our second day at Busch Gardens we jumped in the RV and headed east through Orlando to Daytona Beach. We spent the night at Walmart just down the road from Daytona International Speedway. We did make the drive by and around the racetrack although we didn’t do the track tour. The next morning we headed to Daytona Beach. It was Tuesday morning and we largely had the beach and stores along the boardwalk to ourselves. This turned out to be the best beach we have visited thus far. The kids had a blast swimming in the Atlantic and the beaches had really fine, soft, white sand that we all enjoyed.  Incidentally, this is the second location that Nancy felt the need to collect sand from because of its unusual quality.  The first place was White Sands Monument in New Mexico. To underscore how white the sand was, it wasn’t a couple days after collecting it that Nancy caught Jim spooning it into his coffee and wondering why he couldn’t taste the sweetner.

We continued our drive north right along the coast and spent the afternoon in St. Augustine. St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied city in what is modern day America. It was originally settled by the Spanish in 1565 when Florida was a Spanish possession, several decades before the English arrived at Jamestown and Plymouth Rock. While here we walked through the downtown area and visited Castillo de San Marco. Completed in 1695, this masonry fort commissioned and paid for by the Spanish was built to protect the Spanish outpost from invasion by pirates and the English. The coast of Florida was an important strategic asset for the Spanish as it allowed them to protect the Spanish treasure fleet as they made their way back to Europe following the gulf stream north by Florida carrying bounty from Central America. For something that dates back over 300 years the fort is in excellent condition and it was interesting to learn about the engineering and design features that were incorporated. As I recall, the townspeople had to move into the fort 2 different times over the years to protect themselves from invasion. Both times the fort proved invincible and protected its inhabitants allowing them to retain their city. Modern day St. Augustine was the perfect blend of old world history and complimentary, modern conveniences needed to meet the needs of this small coastal community. Our visit was enhanced by 90 degree weather which we are quickly growing accustomed to J.

Lucas with one of the park volunteers

Looking down inside the fort from the upper level

Looking out into the harbor off of St. Augustine

April 28-29 – Tampa, FL – Lazydays RV Campground

After making our way up the gulf coast of Florida we arrived at Lazydays Campground in Tampa. Lazydays is the largest RV dealer in the world and their location in Tampa has Camping World, Cracker Barrell, Flying J and a huge campground, among other things, on site. The place was loaded with amenities, the price was right at $35/night and it was only 15 minutes to Busch Gardens. We all loved the awesome pool they had which was surrounded by an immense screened building that covered the whole pool area. Presumably this was all to keep the bugs away although there weren’t any to be found when we were there – I think they must have ALL migrated south to the Trail Lakes Campground (see the post for April 27^th).

We spent the next two days at Busch Gardens and the whole family had a blast. The park is a combination zoo and amusement park and both aspects of it were executed beautifully. The zoo contained a collection of animals that would equal or exceed that of the best municipal zoos in the country and the habitats were all world class. I was pretty surprised as I expected that the zoo would take a back seat to the rides. One of our favorite aspects of the park was the train ride through the savannah exhibit with giraffes, wildebeests, zebra and rhino among others. The gorilla, lion and flamingo exhibits were awesome as well. The zoo was nice but in our mind the main attraction here were the roller coasters. They had 6 major coasters that were all a blast. One of them took you upside down 7 times in the course of one ride. Another suspended the coaster for a few seconds at the top of a huge vertical drop. Their newest coaster – Cheetah Hunt – used a magnetic drive system to propel the coaster to 65 mph at the start of the ride – so cool. We did face one challenge in the park – all of the big coasters had height requirements. As it turned out Elizabeth, Zach and Eve all fell just shy of the mark on a few of the coasters. Not a problem – the next day instead of flip flops we shod the kids in tennis shoes complete with extra cushioning under the insoles in the shoes. When we got to the rides we also had them take off their socks and stuff them under their heels inside the shoes. Problem solved! This park takes their height restrictions pretty seriously – Zach actually got measured 4 times on one ride alone because the attendants didn’t think he looked tall enough to ride J All of us loved the rides and we were fortunate that one of our days in the park fell on a Monday which allowed us to ride our favorites several times in a row.

Cheetah Hunt

April 27 – The Everglades, FL – Trail Lakes Campground/Skunk Ape Research Headquarters

We’ve been contemplating hitting another theme park while on the eastern portion of our trip and we finally decided on Busch Gardens in Tampa. It was recommended by some friends and everything we’ve read about it makes it seem like a sure bet. With that destination in mind, we headed north towards Miami and west on Highway 41 through the Everglades – another place we wanted to check out. The Everglades is large – comprising a good chunk of southern Florida. It was interesting to see the landscape – a combination of forest - not of the northwest type obviously, grassland and swamp. The kids enjoyed seeing alligators in the wild along the side of the road as we drove.

We followed our typical routine of waiting until late in the afternoon and getting a feel for where we would end the day before searching for a camp spot. In this case, we needed a campground as the state park we were in the past couple of days didn’t have laundry facilities. There were surprisingly few campgrounds around – we were in the middle of the everglades so I guess it kinda makes sense – so we went with Trail Lakes in Ochopee, FL pulling in right at dusk. Jim pulled up to the night managers spot and I hop out of the passenger seat to talk to the guy and I’m immediately attacked by bugs. I’m not sure if they were mosquitoes or black flies or some evil combination but they were aggressive and there were tons of them. The night manger apologized for the bugs and quickly pointed me to a campsite. As I turn around Jim and Nancy, who had remained in the RV, are laughing hysterically. I was literally surrounded by a cloud of bugs. Needless to say we armed ourselves for battle with mosquito repellant – the kind with deet not the greenie, organic stuff - and bug spray before heading to the laundry. Nancy said that you know conditions are bad when you have to RAID spray the laundry room before you can put a load in and then hit the dogs with it before they come back in the RV.

As it turns out, this place had more to offer than the RV park.  It was the epitome of the quirky roadside attraction. It had a “zoo” of sorts which amounted to a old, metal pole building with a combination of swamp animals – snakes, turtles, gators and birds of all sorts – that his place had taken in over the years. The centerpiece was a 20’ python – thankfully it remained caged although the guy showing us around offered to take it out for us. No thanks!! This place also serves as headquarters of sorts for skunk ape research. One of the guys here has made it his life’s work to pursue and document this phantom creature which is basically the everglades version of sasquatch. If you think I’m making this up you can check it out for yourself at www.skunkape.info. The whole deal was really odd. Not surprisingly I took a little heat for the choice as Nancy wasn’t totally satisfied with the accommodations.

Camping in the Everglades



Everglades landscape