Three weeks of learning, visiting and numerous adventures in the motorhome!

 We left in Mid-September from Minot, ND and had a timeline to get to NY for family commitments. The beginning of the trip was a whirlwind of long days on the road. When we started this journey, we had agreed on traveling six hours in the RV, well we surpassed that a few days. 

First stop Bemidji, Minneseota which was just the right amount of time on the road. We were in a campground that was small, unfortunately our site was not very level. We even left the car hooked up because we were only going to be one night here.It is a good thing we have a menu and we were able to make dinner. We certainly won’t starve on this trip. Second stop was a short jaunt to Webster, Wisconsin for a couple of days to visit some friends from the Air Force. We were in a campground that is wooded and a river runs through it. It had only about 40 wooded sites, but it was beautiful . We had dinner out with them the first night and did lots of catching up. We caught up quite quickly as if no time had gone by and it had been over 20 years since we had seen them. During the morning, of the second day, I was outside and watching the river with a group of ducks playing their own games of tag. They were the quietest ducks, I have ever seen. This place was very tranquil and peaceful. We then spent time at our friends house for the majority of the day. We had spaghetti and meatballs with homemade bread and brownies for dessert. We are blessed beyond measure to have good friends to visit, a beautiful country to see and the ability to travel.  Third stop was after a long day on the road. We hit some very heavy traffic while going around Chicago. We had a route planned so we would not have to go through this huge city. We did take one wrong turn and added a out 40 minutes to our trip. We stopped in Sandwich, IL at the fairgrounds. It was a big field with electric and water access, but it was great for one night. We knew we had a long day of traveling ahead,so we again did not unhook the car. It was okay, but we had to catch up with the caretaker to pay for the evening. We got up and left before the sun was up for our long day to Vermillion, Ohio. There was a lot of constuction and too much traffic for my taste.The first two hours of this day were very stressful. The steps on the motorhome were moving in and out rather than staying in place, the traffic was horrible  and we bumped the mirror so Mark felt like he was driving blindly on his side. It took a while to find a rest area to correct the mirror situation. We stayed in a travel plaza on the toll highway with electrical service only and had dinner at the travel plaza’s restaurants. It was quieter than I thought it would be with all the truck traffic. Last stop before meeting up with family was another long day on the road, almost eight hours with traffic and construction. We have learned that when we set our route up after this, we will not travel three long days in a row. We will add an extra day and just make a pit stop even if we are not planning to see anything special. We also learned that after the six hours are up we both get cranky and short with each other. 

The next part of the trip was go, go go  to see all the relatives and friends we were able to fit in. Once we got settled at Herkimer Diamond Mine campground we contacted family to see what days we could get together. We tried to have a big family gathering here, but it ended up being lots of small gatherings at this section of the state. We had friends who were in our wedding party 41 years ago come to  visit us on the first  day we were there. That day was also a day to do some laundry, and  wash the car since it was filthy. The next day another member of the wedding party drove down from New Hampshire to visit in the morning and the afternoon was spent meeting my great nephew and visiting with one of my sisters, a niece and her husband. On the way home from this visit, it was pitch black on winding, curvy roads and we almost hit an Amish Buggy. Thank God, he was in the other lane, but it was really scary. We came around a corner and there was another buggy that had no caution triangle or any kind of light. The third day of being here and it has not stopped raining out, so everything is inside. This was also busy with a brother in law coming to visit and go through old photos during the day. In the evening, we had a full camper with Mark’s brother, his three grown children, Mark’s nephew and his little boy plus two foster kids. We had set up the awning and a table outside, but it was too wet to have dinner outside. We had a lot of laughs and chaos that evening. The following day Mark’s Aunt came over during the day and visited and caught up for a few hours.We went out to an Italian place for dinner and got up the next morning to head further North in NY state. We arrived at Lake Placid Volunteer Fire Dept in the late afternoon. If you know me at all, you know I Love Fall in the Adirondacks. The colors were peaking about two weeks earlier than usual, but I was in my own glory. It was so incredibly beautiful to see the mountains, trees and the colors! We set up and I was relaxing when this gentleman pulled in and asked if I had seen the bear. I asked what bear and he told me there was fresh  bear scat by his camper. I had not seen any bear. My sister met us and we walked on a section of the  Rail Trail. There were some incredible views and lots of people riding bike or walking this evening. We just kind of chilled the rest of the evening, since we had a huge family reunion the next day. The O ‘Neil, Howard , Woodruff family reunion was on Saturday with lots of folks showing up. I had asked my siblings to come early for a new family photo with all eight of us  since it has been a lot of years without a picture. Six of the eight showed up and I had to be of the mindset that I get what I get and I am happy with it.There was lots of food,photos and visiting. It was nice visiting with members of the extended family that I hadn’t seen in a long time. It was a fantastic day for indoor or outdoor activities. That evening, my sisters came out to the camper and we ate more and visited for quite a while. It was a success as far as I am concerned. The following day was church in Lake Placid and there was a baptism during mass. I haven’t ever been in this particular church and it was decorated with woven pack baskets with fall colors. I had a gathering of friends from high school and college in a local park by the lake. We had tons of laughter, and reminiscing as well as a few photos. When we were finished visiting, I decided to play tourist and went leaf peeping in a couple of spots where I knew the views would be great! After driving around the area and making a few stops to take photos, I headed back to the motorhome. Mark’s medicine went to Ashley’s house and she mailed them to an Aunt’s house and it required a signature, so we went to her house and waited for the Fed Ex driver. We were given a four hour window of when it would arrive.We went up and did stuff on the computer and checked the bills and the bank.We were surprised that it came within the first ten minutes of the scheduled time.We then went out to lunch with Kim’s Aunt. The following day was for nostalgia’s sake, We went to Plattsburgh to get a Michigan hot dog, to Banker’s Orchard to get some Macintosh apples that you can’t find in North Dakota. After the trip to the burg, I went up the gondola at the Olympic Ski Jump to see if I could get some good pictures of the fall colors, but they were already fading due to lack of moisture in the area. While there I met a couple from Oxford England which was about twenty minutes from where we were stationed for four years. I gave them some insight as a local who grew up there. I wanted to start singing It’s a small world! The next day was very slow pace, did some bills, reading and enjoying the beauty around here. The last day before we head to the big Apple was very busy. We went to lunch with three Aunts, packed the camper to move to a brothers yard,moved the camper to my brothers , went for another walk on the Rail Trail and then brought pizza back and had a campfire. It was a fabulous way to end my time with family. 

We got up early and started the almost three hour trip in the jeep to New York City. The RV was at one brother’s and the jeep was going to another brothers house. As we were almost at my brothers, I realized we didn’t have our passports to get on the cruise. We were scheduled to ride an Amtrak train another three hours to NYC. We changed our train reservation and headed back up North to get passports. What should have been a 3 hour car ride ended up almost nine hours because of my error. We got there and back safely and my brother took us to dinner and then to the train depot.We got into NYC about 11:00 PM, got a taxi for two miles and finally got to stretch out in the hotel. There is so much to do in NYC and we woke up and decided to do the Intreped Museum Tour. There was a lot of interesting things to see on this aircraft carrier.  We went to a diner for lunch, but it was a bit upscale from what we think of diners. The food was good, but it was too much. We made  plans to meet up with a niece for dinner.I put the address in my GPS and it said it was a 17 minute walk, but we goofed because there were multiple locations for this restaurant. My niece ended up coming to us and we had a great Detroit style pizza in NY. It was awesome to visit with more family. The next morning we got up and went to Church at St. Malachy’s The Actor’s Chapel near  Times Square. It was a lovely church, but the organ over powered the cantor’s voice. We then decided to walk where our tour would be and find lunch near Central Park. We did a two hour walking tour of Central Park. Although it is popular to see Central Park in a horse and buggy or pedal carriages where the one person pedals the machine, we chose to see it at a more reasonable price. I was amazed at the features in this place. There is serenity and peacefulness amongst the city. It is huge and is the home to two zoos, two ice skating rinks, a boathouse, carousel, baseball fields, a mall that is a walking path with vendors, trails, a castle, a military field for practicing marching and lots of statues. It was quite impressive! We saw the place where part of Home Alone was filmed. We walked almost seven miles today. What an opportunity to experience!

Wow, a lot has been crammed into a short time. We will be takng a 12 day cruise from here. I will write again in about a month. Enjoy each moment in your life and see all you can or are intersted in. We live in a pretty awesome world, find the good.