The long long drive...1703 miles in four days

We left Branson on Tuesday, refreshed and ready to venture west towards the homes of our parents. When we were younger we rented horse down in Ocean shores. They let you ride them on the beach so our two kids and I took our horses down the beach plodding along. Since we were warned about not being late or we would be charged an extra hour we turned the horses around towards the stable at exactly 30 minutes. The horses who hardly walked on our way out broke into a trot back getting us to the stable in half the time. We rode around in circles until the hour was up. Why am I telling you this? Well first, it's my blog so I can. But the family also used this as an expression about how much faster the trip home is than the trip to any other destination. We refer to it as the horses of Ocean shores return. We traveled from Branson to Vista. We arrived in Vista at 4pm on Friday. Four driving days, 1703 miles. This included a quick overnight stop at Steve's mom and Dad's house in Surprise AZ on Thursday afternoon.

The motorhome and sue will be at the ranch for the month of June. Steve will go back to spend time with his mom and dad in Arizona, and return to the ranch on June 21. Our grandson Joshua (16)will accompany us back to Washington. The final leg of the Adventure will be our trip to HOME with an anticipated arrival in early July. It will be the first time we will live in our house in over two years.

Early next week we will both contribute our last comments on the trip. We hope that you have enjoyed this adventure as much as we have.

Branson, MO

We arrived in Branson Missouri late Thursday afternoon and set up the Coach. Traffic in the City was busy and after a quick self guided tour we came to the conclusion that our preconceived vision of Branson was far from reality. We were expecting a compact town with rows of theaters lined along the main street. Instead, we found four separate "routes" winding through the hilly country surrounding the original "main" street. Huge theaters are interspersed with old and new buildings, commercial areas, real estate offices, discount ticket stands, and lots of vacant property for sale. There is possibly every type of entertainment one might be interested. It is family friendly with activities for kids and parents.

We returned home that evening and began planning our weekend. On Friday Sue got hit with a minor case of flu. It slowed her down and we stayed close to home. On Saturday she felt better and we ventured out that evening to see a GREAT play at an outstanding Theater. The play, Noah,was put on by a Christian group in a huge theater. While we have seen some Broadway Plays with better scripting, we have not seen a more elaborate sets. The theater held 2000 people and the Ark took up both sides and the center. It had hundreds of animated electronic animals on three levels of the ark. I wish I had a picture, but alas, no photography in the theater.

On Sunday Steve went to Church at the College of the Ozarks. It is an amazing four year College that is better know as "Hard Work U". The college was established by a minister who realized that a large portion of the children in the Ozark area did not have an opportunity to attend high school. A group of business men built a residential high school that eventually ended up becoming a college. Tuition was impossible for most of the graduates so the college designed a program that allowed the students to pay tuition by working 20 hours per week at the school. Students are also allowed to work during the summer to defer room and board during the school year. It is an interesting story you can find on the internet. The campus is beautiful, and kept up by the students. They also were involved in the building of the "Chapel" which looks a lot more like a Cathedral.

On Sunday night we went to the Oak Ridge Boys show which was a combination of news songs, gospel music, songs recognizing and honoring our men and women in the arm forces, and Elvira, the signature song. Interesting enough, the four guys have been together since the 60's and two joined the group in the 70's. They are not the "original" Oak Ridge Boys as the group began in the 1940's (when Frank was just a Kid) as entertainment for the workers sequestered in Tennessee while working on the Manhattan Project.

Monday we went up to the site of "The Shepard of the Hills" which became famous after the writing of the book of the same name, and the movie starring John Wayne. We took a tour of the grounds, went up in a tower that overlook much of the valley, and bought tickets for the outdoor theater show tonight. Sue energy level is picking up so the ten mile hike tomorrow may still be on. (NOT).





We leave in the morning headed west towards California. We are certain that adventure is awaiting us as we travel.

Sues Contribution to the Blog

Hi, this is Sue doing the blog tonight. We are at a rest stop somewhere north of St Louis. Steve is sitting here with his eyes glazed over. We are stopped at a rest stop somewhere north of St. Louis. We had quite a day driving. We left Milwaukee this morning. A man who worked on the motor home yesterday suggested a “non freeway/ non toll way” to Branson and printed us mapquest directions. What I shouldn’t have done was turn on Hillary (our infamous GPS) and also be looking at the map. Well the three didn’t coincide. We traveled for about 2 ½ hour over pretty, but very country roads, detours, etc. Finally we reached the freeway we would have gone on. We turned south, but we happened to look at the northbound sign and it said “Milwaukee—37 miles”!!!! Oh well, the drive was pretty. We headed south and ended up in Springfield, Illinois (that’s the capitol isn’t it?) about 5 PM and in an impressive thunder storm! However we are settled for the night and have about 4 hours to go until we reach Branson tomorrow. We have tickets to see a new musical, “Noah, the Musical” and to see the Oak Ridge Boys. Well I better go see if Steve is still alive. I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear from him tomorrow.

Milwaukee

Our trip from the Falls (Niagara) to Milwaukee was basically uneventful other than the toll booths.They charge by the axle in most cases. I felt sorry for our plight until I saw the truck carrying 8 new cars on it's trailer. That had to be expensive! (Just joking). We are settled down at the State Fair Grounds outside of Milwaukee. It is a large parking lot with full hookups and very level parking spots. We have been here three days, and will leave tomorrow.
We drove back to northern Illinois to visit Steve's Cousin who he had not seen for 40 years. She lives in a cute cottage on one of many little lakes in Lake County. The address was a little challenging as there are many streets around many lakes with the same names. Our final, and by far best GPS was a phone call to her and street by street directions. Much nicer, and never telling us to "recalculate". The we had a great time, and talked for hours about family and old memories of the time we spent together at family gathering.

Yesterday we had a great time with Sue's cousin in Milwaukee. We started the day with a great cup of coffee from a shop next to the Lake that had been a big pump house at the turn of the century. We then visited the Dead Scroll Exhibit at the Milwaukee Museum. It is not the touring exhibit that is traveling throughout the US. but a private collection of a number of different people and institutions. It was extremely interesting covering the discovery, the initial buying and selling of the artifacts, and the continued history of the Bible throughout history. The exhibit started with the question "What is the Bible" and featured a Gideon Bible Display.

After the Exhibit we went to Copps to have lunch. No, they didn't have coffee and doughnuts. Custard is a favorite desert and this was one of the best places to get it. We then went to a huge Botanical Park and enjoyed the walk and sites.

We ended our day with a wonderful dinner and evening with our friends. It was a great day, and hard to say goodbye to our family and friends.

We are head south to Branson, and then west. We anxiously await the continuation of this wonderful adventure.

Cape Cod to Niagara Falls and THE FALLS

We left Cape Cod early Tuesday morning to have the water reserve tank replaced in Boston. A small crack in the tank developed into a small hole causing water/coolant to escape. The part had to be special ordered and was fairly costly considering the size of the part. When we arrived at the truck repair shop in the middle of nowhere Boston, we discovered that they had ordered the wrong part and wanted us to stay another day so they could air express the correct part. A long discussion occurred which resulted in us leaving without the repair, and ultimately a patch job done 9by steve)until we could get the repair at our next stop. The patch appears to have worked so far, but we are carrying extra coolant until we get to the next available shop in Milwaukee.

By the time we finished the discussion in Boston, it was noon. Steve (me) set the GPS to avoid toll roads and major highways and the result was driving through downtown suburbs of Boston. The streets in places were extremely narrow, and some of the turns with our car behind us very challenging. We survived with no damage except frayed nerves. I think there were a lot of people wondering what we were doing driving down residential streets with the coach and car, and so where we. As we traveled out of the suburbs, and into the country the roads were two lane and very pretty. We wandered for miles through wooded hills, very small villages, farm areas, rivers, streams and school buses dropping off kids every three blocks. We arrived in Easthampton where our overnight stop was scheduled. It appeared that we were slated to go through downtown. We had been successful earlier in the day so we headed into town. About a block before going onto main street we noticed a bridge ahead with 10' clearance. Since the coach is 12'6" it didn't look like a good idea. We turned into a neighborhood and tr aveled parallel to main street looking for a way back to the main street finding that every road had a railroad overpass 10 feet or less. After some exploring, we back tracked and found a freeway entrance and headed east several miles until we were beyond the town. The GPS guided us to the campsite, and no bridges!! We reprogrammed the GPS allowing toll ways, and freeways for future travels when necessary. Other than that, the trip was uneventful.

We left early Wednesday morning and headed for I-90. After a hour of scenic country, small villages, and school bus picking up children for school, we found the on ramp to I-90. The lions share of travel was on I9 0, a toll way and unexceptional. When we finally turned off of I90 in Buffalo NY, the toll master looked up and said, 45.50. I was hoping he was showing me he could count in fives. No luck, that was the cost for traveling across the fine State of New York.

We traveled up to the campground on Grand Island, about 7 miles from the Falls. We are about a week ahead of the busy season, so the campground was relatively empty. We settled in and than took a quick trip to the falls for some reconnaissance. Most of the "features" were closed for the day, so we hike

d a little, and saw the falls from above, and returned back to the campsite awaiting a full day on Thursday.

And a full day it was!!

We arrived at the Falls around 10am, as our plan was to stay the entire day, and watch the lights at 9pm before we journeyed back to camp. We bought the passes that allow access to five of the most popular attractions including a IMax history show, The Maid of the Mist, The Falls Cave walk at the base of the American Falls, the aquarium, a cable car tour around the different sites in the park,and a natural history museum(that is only open on the weekend). The boat ride, and the caves are great opportunities to get up close and soaked. They do provide you with a plastic poncho and shower slippers. The weather was great, so the mist and water actually felt good.

To say that the falls were spectacular is like comparing the Grand Canyon to a draining ditch. Never have I experience the raw power of water cascading over the ledge. While it is not as high as Snoqualmie Falls, the shear volume is awesome. We walked on the trail at the base of the American Falls, took the boat next to Horse Shoe Falls (Canadian), and found tons of picture perfect views.

We walked across the bridge to Canada around 4pm to view the Falls from the Canadian Side, get dinner, and see the Falls lit up at night. We were not disappointed (except for dinner). We walked up a street just above the falls that was one of the most interesting, glitzy, touristy Streets we have seen thus far on this trip. As if the falls aren't enough, shops and attractions are in every building.

At 9ish, Canadian time huge spot lights from the Canadian side lit up the three falls. Initially it was just bright white pot lights, than the colors changed. Over the day Steve shot 600 pictures, a few of which are posted on the blog. Digital is so great. Shoot and sort.

We saw just about everything, and are now headed for Milwaukee to see a couple of cousins. It is great visiting with family, some of which we haven't seen for years. Another drive, another tollway, but a great adventure awaits us.

Scargo Lake and Tower, Cape Cod National Seashore, Provincetown, MA

Today was exercise day with a Lobster incentive. We started off with a short jaunt to the Scargo Tower above the Scargo Lake. I have included the legend to go with the pictures. It sounds a little fishy, but it adds to the ambiance.

"Once, the beautiful Princess Scargo, lived along the Dennis shores. She was part of the Bobuset tribe, lead by her father Sagem. One day, a brave young runner from a faraway tribe happened to espy the Princess. At once, the two fell madly in love.

To show his devotion, the brave gave the Princess a beautifully carved pumpkin, which he had hollowed out and filled with water. Four small silvery fish were inside. He promised to return to the Princess before the fish had fully grown.

The Princess adored her gift. She hollowed out a small pond in a clearing and returned every day. As the fish grew, the time apart from her beloved diminished. My Princess ->

The summer was long and dry, though. One morning, when she arrived at the pond, she found it dry. Three of the fish were dead. As she wept uncontrollably, her tears kept the one remaining fish alive.

Her grief greatly distressed her father. Sagem called a meeting at which it was decided a lake was needed for Princesses' fish. The strongest and most skilled brave was instructed to shoot an arrow. When it fell, the spot was marked. The brave shot 3 more arrows to mark the remaining boundaries for the lake. Then, squaws, using clam shells as shovels, dug a hole within the boundaries, which was then filled by fall rains.

The fish thrived in the lake and Princess Scargo resumed her wait for her lover. As promised, he returned before the fish had matured, and they were married soon after. They continued to live along the shore of Scargo Lake, where the descendants of the silvery fish-a token of love-still swim."

We walked the thirty some steps to the top of the tower and had a great view. Getting our exercise for the day, we felt much better and headed north towards Provincetown (at the tip of Cape Cod.

We found a secondary highway and traveled through a number of small towns. Our next stop was at the Cape Cod National Seashore. We bought a Season Pass, and try not to miss any of the National Parks. The park included several trails that you could hike including a 1.3 mile salt marsh pond. Apparently we turned left instead of right and treated ourselves to a little longer hike, but a very pretty view of the marshes , and the Ocean. Close to the finish of the trail was a shorter trail set up for visually impaired visitors that had a post and rope rail with a wooden stopper on the rope at a number of exhibits. The placards had braille encouraging the hikers to stop, listen, and touch a display. This was a unique project that I had never seen before in a park. We ended up walking 2 to 3 miles, but it was basically flat, and very pretty and we got some more exercise.

We continued up the coast arriving at Provincetown at 1pm. In town there was a huge Pilgrim memorial tower. The pilgrims on the Mayflower first landed at Provincetown BEFORE they travel to Plymouth Rock. It was not a planned stop, but one that was the result of the winds and a storm. They looked for a place to settle, and stayed for a short time before finishing their journey. They did encounter native americans and had a brief skirmish where they traded gunshots and arrows, but there were no recorded injuries as the marksmen and archers missed each other. The settlers eventually settled away from the camps, and later left the "island" because of weather. The first constitution was written at Provincetown in 1620 (called the Mayflower Compact).

In 1910 the community built a memorial and a tower to commemorate the first landing of the pilgrims in Provincetown. The tower is 252 feet high, and has 116 steps and 60 ramps in the interior that allows visitors a 360 degree view of Provincetown and the adjacent communities (including Boston some 45 miles across the bay). Advertised as an easy 10 minute hike we decided that we would hike up to the top. The view was worth our third hike in the same day. Returning down in to the main part of town Sue received her reward (bribe) of a lobster wrap at the wharf. The exercise didn't stop the stroll through the quaint downtown for people with every taste, and in some cases with no taste at all.

We finished our trip with a stop at a live lobster and fish market picking up one last lobster to go. They steamed it, and Steve cracked it at home. We will have a treat sometime today on our way out of Boston and headed west towards Niagara. Our legs feel better this morning.

Nantucket, MA

Our car is sitting in a Honda Dealership waiting for a tire replacement. We had to cancel the trip to spend the weekend with our family in New Hampshire. We decided to find our way down to the ferry to Nantucket and spend the day on the Island.

The hour boat ride was very relaxing and beautiful. The ferry was a catamaran and quickly got us to the island. It is a walkable quaint town so we opted for the self guided 4 mile walk of which we completed about 3 miles before we found a short cut back to down town. Many of the streets are cobblestone, nearly all the homes are big and old. The town was at one time the largest whaling village in the world.

Main Street had a mixture of art galleries, jewelers, seafood restaurants, and tourist shops. We treated our self to seafood that hadn't been frozen. Buildings and homes dated back into the 1700's, there were large churches, and parks. Many homes reflected the nautical background of the town and had "widow walks" on the roof. A tradition was to name the house with a placard above the door way. My favorite was "No Vu" on a house that was located behind a larger house.

It was a great day and other then the aching legs, we had a wonderful time. Tomorrow we pick up the car, and get ready for our westward journey starting on Tuesday.