Canada

We entered Canada about 10am on Friday. The customs inspection went smoothly. No unreasonable delays, no food confiscations. By noon we were in St. Jacobs "camped" in the city park along the river. Carol & I took a walk around town being sure to stop in the Stone Crock Bakery. Free wi-fi and great apple strudel.
That night we treated ourselves to dinner out; a rare event in our travels. Bakeries, yes, but rarely restaurants. We are at Jacks Family Restaurant; an excellent choice. Jack's also had free wi-fi; a real benefit when traveling in Canada. The VZ roaming charges can kill you.

On Saturday we were at the St. Jacobs Market Place by about 8am. The place was already crowded. It's billed as Canada's largest year-round farmers market.  Carol & I always enjoy these markets, you get to see so many different, and interesting, things peculiar to the region.
We had the most amazing apple fritters ever. You start with a whole apple then core, peel it, then slice it into about 1/4" think pieces that now resemble a donut. Dip the apple "donut" into a batter. I suspect pancake batter would work well. Fry in hot oil then roll in a mixture of cinnamon & sugar. This entire process takes place while you're watching your order being made fresh.  Now that's an apple fritter!!
Because of the heat, we decided to continue on to Michigan  and the comfort of a campground with electricity(A/C). We passed through US customs at Port Huron. About a 20 minute wait. Nothing confiscated. They were looking for citrus of any kind and mangos.
We're at the Lakeport State Park just north of Lakeport,MI on Lake Huron. No water view but neither did we expect one. In fact, pulling in on a Saturday afternoon, we were glad there was an empty site. There were two. This is a real family campground. Two to three kids and a dog or two per site. :-) Our campsite is one of the main walking streets in the campground; great for people watching. Until it started to thunder, Carol & I were sitting at the picnic table, playing Rummicube and watching the people parade.

I bought the annual state park entry pass for $29. The regular out-of-state entry fee is $8. On our last trips to MI, we rarely actually camped in the SP's but would use them as a source of water & a dump station.
The weather is supposed to start cooling off some; starting Monday.

About an hour ago we had a huge rainstorm. Some of the camping areas are very low. This couple near us pitched their tent in a very low area. Everything they own is spread out to dry.
On the other hand, the kids are having a ball. Riding their bikes through the puddles, using tarps as a slip-&-slide, zipping around on skim boards, chasing after the dogs, on & on. I suspect they think the is a lot more fun then the tenters.

Niagara Falls Area continued

Another hot one but with a decent breeze off the lake.
Two people stopped by today to admire the Lazy Daze. They are rarely seen this far east. The campground host asked if he could take pictures. Every RV he had ever seen was either white with some streaks on the sides or some shade of brown or grey. His son is always asking why all RV's have to be white/brown/grey. He's sending him the picture to show that some RV's are different. Like our pretty, blue Lazy Daze.

All our neighbors are Canadian. I'm keeping my eye on them. You just never know. ;-)

Information about Lake Ontario

Gopher got to cool off in the lake.

Thursday, 10:24am. 95* already. The forecast heat index is 110*. Today we stay inside and enjoy the A/C.

Last time we were up this way, we did the tourist thing. Viewed the falls, took some tours, etc. This time the goal is to stay cool until this heat wave passes by.

In the morning, we head to St. Jacobs. http://www.stjacobs.com/  We stumbled across this town the last time we were in Ontario. Everything about it screams "cute".There is a city park downtown right on a small river with a few RV spaces lined off. That's where we will stay Friday and Saturday night. The park is an easy walk from the main street in town. Since we don't tow a car, being within walking distance to things is a real advantage to us.

On Saturday, we'll go to the huge Farmers Market. St. Jacobs Market

But today, we mostly stay inside. Do some cleaning & a load of laundry.
Ted & I are making great progress on his public campground database. 16,000 campgrounds is within reach.
That will be my project for today. Carol's reading books and playing games on her iPad.

Niagara Falls Area

On Sunday we drove to the Four Mile Creek SP near Lewiston/Niagara Falls, taking the scenic roads along Lake Ontario whenever possible.
This part of New York is a major fruit and wine producing area. Apples (As in the Rome & Cortland varieties named after NY cities), but also cherries and plums. There were roadside stands everywhere plus u-pick cherries and blueberries.
The original plan was to stay here two nights then move on to Canada. There is a heat wave heading this way, and extending well into Ontario, with record breaking high temperatures expected by tomorrow. The places we would be camping in Ontario have no utility connections. They're simply parking areas. :-) So,we decided to stay put and enjoy the electrical connection (A/C) until Friday.
This is a nice campground. We've been here twice before. It's right on Lake Ontario. On a really clear day, which unfortunately is quite rare, you can see the skyline of Toronto across the lake. The cause of the low visibility, is the same as in the Susquehanna Valley in PA; the coal fired factories and utilities.
About half of the campers here are from Ontario. The US/CA exchange rate is favorable to the Canadians and things simply cost less in the US then in CA. We see the same thing when we camp in Vermont; lots of Canadians enjoying the States.
This morning we went into Lewiston to get Carols quarterly blood tests done. We use Quest Labs. They do the tests then fax the results to Dr. Hood. Next week his nurse will call and review the results with Carol. We've done this time & again during our travels.
After the blood work, we went to the Art Park for breakfast.
The National Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima is in Lewiston. We've been there before. After the Art Park we went again. Per the brochure "A spectacular glass dome basilica dominates fifteen acres of gardens and 150 life size bronze and marble statues".

Sculpture in the Art Park

Carol just checked the weather. The only cool place is in Washington State; way too far to drive tomorrow. Fort Pierce is actually cooler then Niagara Falls. Not what we had hoped but such is life. Actually it's quite pleasant here. There is a nice breeze blowing off the lake. Doesn't feel like 95* when you're sitting under the shade tree.

Cayuga Lake Area, New York

Our improvised campground worked out very well yesterday. It was fun watching the fisherman & kayakers. This is a very popular park. I always enjoy seeing the families doing things together. Too often life just gets way to busy it seems to take out time for family fun.

Todays destination is the Cayuga Lake State Park. We just had to find someplace to dump the tanks after being at the beach house for a week. The back country roads took us through Ithaca, NY; the home of Cornell University. Carol saw a sign about a Sunday Farmers Market so in we went. What a nice find. There were lots of very different food vendors not your run-of-the-mill stuff(luckily, I suppose, we had just finished breakfast), organic farmers, artisan bread makers, etc. We poked around for the better part of an hour then found a nearby park where we could share a sticky bun three ways. Gopher gets all the bread on the bottom; we get the gooey stuff on top. She never complains about her share.
The drive from Ithaca to the Cayuga Lake SP is along a "scenic byway". Didn't strike us as very scenic; we could rarely even catch a glimpse of the water. This is a major wine producing area. We must have passed a dozen wineries most of which offered tastings. We don't drink wine, but if someone did, they could get drunk driving on the Scenic Byway.
Todays drive was almost entirely through agricultural lands. New York has some large dairy farms in addition to the usual corn, soy beans, etc. A pretty drive.

Tomorrow we head to the Niagara Falls area. Slowly working our way to the Upper Peninsula of MI.

A little bit about Cayuga Lake. Formed by glaciers, the most recent being about 10,000 years ago. It's over 38 miles long and 435' at its deepest. Originally it was the home of the Cayuga Indians, one of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). The Iroquois Nation sided with the British during the American Revolution. After the war, General John Sullivan was charged with "subduing" the Iroquois Nation to make it safe for European American settlers to move in and begin harvesting the timber and farming the land.

Heading north or don't bump your head.

We left the Penn Lake house this morning about 9am. What a wonderful week it was. Stopped by a Wal-Mart and Wegman's to replenish our supplies. Last week, the camper was the supply closet for all sorts of things.
Our camping destination was the Upper Lisle camping area just north of Whitney Point, NY. The road leading to the campground is a very narrow, windy one. Around a bend, you abruptly come to a steel bridge. The 10'4" clearance sign grabbed my attention. I suppose that caused me to not see the 3 ton weight limit sign. At any rate, I climbed up on the roof and satisfied myself I had plenty of clearance to cross the bridge. The actual clearance is closer to 11'; maybe a tad more. After crossing the bridge, I saw the 3 tom limit sign in my rear view mirror. I know by my test, the actual weight limit of the bridge is something in excess of 7 tons. Both signs lied. However, on the way out, I'll not try my luck again. I'll find a different road.
The saga continues. After searching here & there and finding no campground, I stopped and asked a fisherman. He said the campground closed years ago. Strange because just last night I researched this site and everything looked OK. Tonight we're "camped" next to the bridge boat ramp.
It's all part of the adventure.

It's just us once again.

Signs, signs, everywhere signs
Messin' up the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign

No. I guess I can't.

Penn Lake Family Get Together, July 9-16,2011 2nd post

Another series of wonderful days. The kids went swimming, played badmitten, soccer, frisbee, on & on. I didn't think they would ever wear out. Britta's fishing luck improved somewhat. She caught one nice bass and a number of smaller pan fish. All catch & release in Penn Lake. I gave Britta a case of hand-tied flys that Johnny made. They worked!!
Each night was a campfire & marshmallow roast.
The kids have a nice family tradition. At dinner, everyone takes turns telling their favorite thing about that day. A very nice way to engage everyone in the dinner conversation. My favorite was all the wonderful dinners and I didn't have to do all the cooking and cleaning up.

Nana having her nails done by Teagan(T)

Saturday we continue our trip to the UP of Michigan where we plan on spending the rest of the summer.

Penn Lake Family Get Together, July 9-16,2011

Saturday morning we left the Green Dragon "campsite" and made a final shopping trip to our favorite grocery store, Shady Maple in East Earl then to WalMart. We stopped at the Hickory Run State Park to dump the tanks before getting to Penn Lake where we rented a lakeside house for a week.
Most every year we make a point of it to get together someplace. It's important that the cousins, our four grandchildren, keep in touch with one another and, of course, we very much enjoy catching up with the girls.

Gopher patiently waiting for a piece of a smore to come her way. She knows Carol's a soft touch.

This is why we're here!

Oliver & Finn

The Green Dragon Farmer's Market & Auction

Here is where we spent the day.


Green Dragon

About 7 am, the trucks loaded with hay started rolling in. The hay auction is conducted at 9:00. There were a dozen or so trucks of all sizes, and perhaps a dozen bidders. The bidders are, I suspect, from the many dairy farms in the area. When the bidding is over, the buyers empty truck, or wagon, pulls up to the loaded truck and the hay is transferred by hand, bale by bale.

There are hundreds of vendors here selling things like locally grown sweet corn, blueberries, cabbage, tomatoes, etc., beautiful hand made furniture, delicious prepared foods,homemade pickles, soft pretzels (my personal favorite), every kind of homemade canned goods you can imagine, on & on. We thoroughly enjoyed the day. At least we did until early afternoon when the storms moved in. It's been raining steady since then. Not much of a day for all the vendors who were set up outside.

Starting at 6:30, there is a small animal auction. I saw goats, sheep, chickens, caged birds, rabbits, & pigeons being sold. A sign says no dogs or cats can be auctioned.  I wonder why you can auction a rabbit but not your neighbors nasty cat?  The sellers & buyers seemed to be exclusively Amish.

Our grandson, Finn, is collecting the "state" series of quarters. There is a coin collector at the market. He sells the state quarters for fifty cents each. I was able to get almost all the quarters Finn's missing, except for Maine. He didn't have any Maine quarters. I bought him the book for the new national park series of quarters which began production in 2010 and will run through 2021 as well as the first four quarters. That will give him something else to collect. When I was a kid, I collected stamps. A few years ago I gave Alex the stamp collection for when Finn gets a little older.

The bidders are the guys wearing the  straw hats & dark pants.

The parking lot for the Amish horses.

The VW is from California. Where else?


We're staying here tonight then heading to the house we rented for a week on Penn Lake to meet up with our three daughters & families.


Penn Lake rental

Fireflys

After the storm passed by, mostly south of us, the weather cooled off and we all sat outside until about 9:00 just chatting about this & that and watching the fireflys. We remembered how, as kids, we would catch fireflys in a jar. We were wondering what Gopher thinks about all this traveling. Her life is much more varied and interesting then your typical dog. I let her run loose this evening and threw her ball for her for a while. In her own way, she contributes a lot to our travels.

By the time the mosquitoes drove us inside, there were ten RV's camped here.

This is a picture of our campsite. We're tucked into a nice group of shade trees with a run just behind the trees.

A run, crick or stream? A gap, notch or saddle? Which is it?

We're parked next to the Red Run at the moment. That got me to thinking about the difference between a run, creek, stream, etc. The following is from Wikipedia. Now I know. Mostly it's a regional difference in what such things are called.

"Kill in southern New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey comes from a Dutch language word meaning "riverbed" or "water channel", and can also be used for the UK meaning of 'creek'.
Run in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, or Virginia can be the name of a stream.
Branch, fork, or prong can refer to tributaries or distributaries that share the same name as the main stream, generally with the addition of a cardinal direction.
Branch is also used to name streams in Maryland and Virginia.
Falls is also used to name streams in Maryland. Little Gunpowder Falls and The Jones Falls are actually rivers named in this manner, unique to Maryland.
Stream and brook are used in Midwestern states, Mid-Atlantic states and New England.
Crick is used in some parts of the United States."

Earlier on this trip we passed through both gaps & notches. I was wondering about that as well. Here again is Wikipedia.

"There are many words for pass in the English-speaking world. In the United States, pass is very common in the West, the word gap is common in the southern Appalachians, notch in parts of New England, and saddle in northern Idaho."

Yesterday & earlier today we just poked around here & there. Stopped by a roadside stand and bought some zucchini and sweet corn for next weeks family get-together.
Took a look at an old covered bridge that is being refurbished. Right now, we're "camped" in a field by the Green Dragon Farmers Market & Auction. We've been here before. It's one of those places we enjoy returning to time & again. You can pull onto their site anytime after noon on Thursday and stay until noon, Saturday. No charge. Right now it's us and one other RV. We'll be heading out first thing Saturday to meet up with the girls.
I have a weather alert app. on my iPhone. I keep getting these Air Quality Alerts. Code Orange means that "air pollution concentrations within the region may be unhealthy for sensitive groups including children, people suffering from asthma, heart disease or other lung diseases and the elderly." The main recommendation is to not breath any more then necessary, don't exercise, etc. Mostly this comes from coal fired plants in PA & WV. A truly clear day in the Susquehanna Valley is quite rare.
Just now I got a severe weather & flood watch warning for this area. Hopefully, it will pass us by. We're parked in the shade next to a small run/stream/brook, or whatever. If it starts to rise, there is some nearby high ground we can move to. Right now, the MyRadar app., shows the majority of the storm to the south but the thunder is very noticeable.
iPhones & such can get addictive real quick. A year ago I couldn't imagine what I would do with one if I had it. Now it's become a valuable travel tool.

Another nice day. As long as we don't get washed away.

On to Lancaster,PA

Independence Day was slow; not much happening in the park. The guy finished painting the house, a few fellows blasted away at the firing range, but not much else.
There is a lumber mill just outside the back gate of the park. At one end are several huge piles of logs, at the other stacks of finished lumber bring air dried. There are a number of State and National Forests in the general area. That tends to be the source of a lot of the logs. A common sign seen upon entering a national forest says "A land of many uses". The Allegheny NF contains over 600 operating oil wells. As you drive around the park, you would never know it. Never saw even one. Oil was first discovered in this part of PA. Today I learned that Pennsylvania means Penn's (as in William) Woods.

In the mid-70's I was the manager of a lumber yard.

Years ago it was very common for farmers to rent a side of their barn for advertising. Hadn't seen one in years.

Tonight we're staying at the Old Mill Stream Campground just outside of Lancaster. $45/night. This is the first, and most likely the last, commercial campground we'll stay at on this trip. Mostly we avoid them but there are no reasonably convenient public campgrounds around here. We were here about five or so, years ago. When we pulled in we saw another Lazy Daze. Turned out to be our friends Paul & Helen Huyser from Vermont. Paul & Helen are two uncommonly nice people. The sort of company we enjoy. Paul doesn't have much to say but Helen can talk the ears off a brass monkey. As the day wore on another LD pulled in, they yet another. Quite amazing really. After all, this isn't the Southwest, it's PA. We all went out to dinner together at the Good & Plenty Restaurant. Seating is family style on very long tables with benches. Dinner was fried chicken, mashed potatoes and several different types of veggies. All served on platters set down on the table. Just like at home, you just asked someone to please pass the corn or whatever. A fun way to have dinner.
Did a load of laundry and cooked a big batch of apple/pear/cranberry/pecan crisp; our favorite desert.Every night after dinner we have a small bowl of fruit crisp topped with a scoop of yogurt. A healthy, low calorie desert.
We enjoy PA Dutch Country. Tomorrow we're just going to poke around here & there.

Sunday, July 3rd

Not much activity in the park today. One guy showed up to paint the house and one guy was blasting away with a 22 at the firing range. I talked to the painter about the house. It was built about 1880 by the farmer who owned the property where the fairgrounds is today.
The campground hostess walked down to say hello. When I called last week to see if there was room in the campground over the 4th, she answered the phone. After she had spoken, I said, "You're not from PA are you". She answered, "No sir, I'm from Mississippi". No surprise there. I enjoy hearing the southern accent; it reminds me of home. As we travel the Country, we're always running into the different regional accents. Sometimes I need to listen real carefully to understand what's being said but have no problem understanding Mississippi. A year of so ago, we were in Canada. I was talking to a Canadian camping neighbor and said I was still brushing up on my Canadian. Eh? He said the "Eh?" was actually a very localized expression. It almost surely meant the speaker was from Ontario and probably not far from Toronto. Interesting.

The American Nomad


I asked the campground lady what brought her to PA. Her husband is a Cherokee Indian and they have a house in Oklahoma. By trade, he's a truck driver and she's a secretary. Not much work where they live in OK so they work on pipeline construction projects all across the country. Right now there is a natural gas line being built nearby. The park is being used as a staging/supply/living area. She works part time for the pipeline company and part time as the campground hostess. In return for hosting, they get a free campsite.
Later in the day, a couple from Georgia stopped by to chat. He saw my Florida Gator license plate when we drove in. He's also working the pipeline. He said in GA, it's not easy to find a job that pays much above minimum wage so they go where the good jobs are. This job should last until next summer. Neither he nor his wife, have ever lived in a cold & snowy place and are sort of excited but also apprehensive about it.
Last year we were in South Dakota and ran into the same thing. There is an oil boom in the Dakotas. People from all over the country head there for work.
One benefit of high oil & natural gas prices is the large number of good paying jobs created.

Today was cleaning & maintenance day. I even gave the camper a bath to get off most of the bugs & road grime. The washing turned out to be a double edged sword. The camper's clean, but the water is so hard, it left water spots everywhere as it dried. When we get home, the polish will remove the spots. When we're traveling, once a week everything gets cleaned & all mechanical and automotive systems inspected.


Another wonderful day, including the weather.

Alparon Community Park, Saturday

It was a very busy day in the park. The three of us took a walk all around the park this morning. A group of volunteers were scraping the paint from a very old house getting it ready for paint. There was a skeet shoot and picnic going on. Gopher generally doesn't like sharp, loud noises but she did OK. Pepper Auction company was conducting a big estate sale auction. The place was packed. Most of the stuff was flea market quality, but there were some nice hunting rifles and a very impressive assortment of old Lionel trains in their original boxes. There is a small museum on site as well as a few old buildings relocated to the park. The Farmers Market was somewhat disappointing after the one we have at home and others we've seen on our travels.
Once again, we're the only ones in the "overnight" section of the campground. At the other end of the park there are perhaps 20 seasonal sites. Not much really. Just RV's jammed together. Our end is much nicer.
The original travel plan was to leave here on Monday, the 4th. After thinking about it, we decided there would be too much traffic, and too many drunks out on the 4th. We'll continue south on Tuesday.
Plus this really is a nice place. I wonder what will be going on for the 4th? Fireworks maybe?

This is our view towards the fairgrounds.