Pro Football Hall of Fame

“ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?” - for those of you who don’t know me very well I am a huge football fan. When we arrived at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton I felt like a little kid. I never thought I would get to see it.

I learned a lot about the early years of football and even about the Boston team. It was interesting to see the first helmets which were not very protective and were made of leather. I saw the largest championship ring ever made (size is 19 ½). That’s a big ring! The Hall of Fame room holds all of the bronze busts of the inducted players and it was interesting to see some of the older players like YA Tittle and of course the 4 New England Patriots (Buoniconti, Hannah, Haynes, Tippet). Of course we saw Tom Brady’s MVP uniform and the newest display showing New England’s 21 game win streak. It shows footballs for each game with the opponents name and game score. For a fan it was terrific! Lastly there is a glass case that shows all of the Super Bowl Rings. Talk about BLING! I can’t imagine what they weigh. They were awesome…. OK enough football….

We got back to camp. Today was beautiful and sunny. We hope the weather holds so we can do some fishing on the lake. Ken decided he wanted Italian food tonight so we decided to go see what downtown Ravenna had to offer. We found a little place called Guido’s. They had pictures of the owners and family members going way back to the 1930’s. It was great homemade food. Where can you go for 2 Italian dinners for $15. Service was great.

We will have been on the road 2 weeks tomorrow and we are having a blast!

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

ROCK & ROLL!!! Today we headed for Cleveland and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Where we are staying is centrally located to a lot of sites and we are only 1.5 hours away from Cleveland. The hall is a beautiful glass modern building and sits right on Lake Erie. The place is huge. There are a lot of monitors with people like Smokey Robinson talking about the “legends” of rock and roll. We went into the theatre and watched two presentations on the roots of rock & roll (no it didn’t start with Elvis…). The place is full of glass cases with costumes from Elvis to the Supremes, to the 4 Tops and Temptations to Rolling Stone, KISS, and some current day bands. The place is pretty up to date so it’s not just all 50’s stuff. We saw the Lincoln that Elvis drove and then went to see the inductee theatre. This is a 63 minute presentation from 1986 which was the first year right through the 2009 inductees. It was really interesting and had film clips of concerts, interviews and TV shows. The first year inductee’s included Elvis, Ray Charles, and Buddy Holly. 2009 included Run DMC and Metallica. There is definitely something for all ages. We had lunch on the patio overlooking the lake.

Well it was time for us to head back to camp. Had another nice fire tonight and talked about the day.

West Branch State Park - Ravenna Ohio

Time to mosey out of PA. Left camp and crossed into Ohio about 10:30am. Today will be a short 2 hour drive on Rte 322 W to Rte 7 S and then onto Rte 5 W which took us right into Ravenna, Ohio. The routes took us through nice back country roads and it was pretty country. Lots of beautiful farms and the gardens are awesome. I had forgotten parts of Ohio were so pretty (I lived in Ohio for a short time years ago).

We will stay in West Branch State Park, Ravenna Ohio for the next few days as it is close to a lot of the places we want to visit. The park is beautiful and it is rated the #1 state park campground in the state. Finally the sun is out! Our site is nice and is on a cul-de-sac and across from the showers. It has some trees so it is nicely shaded. We took a ride around the park and found this other site that will be vacant tomorrow. It is right on the lake. We went back to the office and reserved it for Sun, Mon, Tues. The lake is huge and I think we can get access from our new campsite to launch our inflatable boat (Fold Cat).

We haven't seen much wildlife but we did see a deer as we pulled into the Ravenna area. The funny thing was it was standing behind the fence inside the Army Ammunitions Plant grounds. Hmmm..

Someone asked me what we are eating. We are eating just like we would at home. No it isn’t hamburgers and hot dogs every night. Tonight was pork chops with carrot salad. We do eat a lot healthier on the road than we do at home as the fridge is smaller and we can’t carry a lot of junk food.

Finally we can have our 1st campfire tonight. OK what were we thinking… the wood was wet (3 days of rain will do that) but we got it going finally. Sat down and just got comfortable and sure enough I looked up and the sky is pitch black. 5 minutes later we had a thunderstorm and a pretty good one too. The storm was so defined we could watch the front moving across the lake and we watched the lightening for a while.

Here's an interesting note: We drove through Newton Falls, Ohio today. Their zip code is 44444!

Jamestown PA Day 2

Yeah, partly sunny and we could have breakfast at our picnic table. Went for a 5 mile bike ride around the park. The roads wound by the lake and beach area and there wasn’t a lot of traffic. We haven’t done much biking lately so 5 miles was a good starter for us and it was pretty flat.

Well time to go hunt up a fishing license. I was really excited until they told me it would be $26.70 for a one day non-resident. I think my mouth hit the floor (most licenses are between $9 - $15). We nicely said “thanks but no thanks” and left. We went to do some errands and of course on the way back stopped at…. Ann Maries for ice cream (that helped with the disappointment).

The park is really pretty and I would recommend it but wait until they are fully open (end of June). A lot of the facilities weren’t fully open and they didn’t have their full cleaning crew on board. We used our own bath facilities while we were here (too many bugs).

We have decided we need to slow our travel pace down a little and stay in some places a little longer. We are both tired and feel right now like we are racing through our trip and we don’t want to do that. We haven’t learned yet how to just sit at the campsite , relax, listen to the birds, and smell the roses (or peonies which seems to be what everyone is growing out here).

Pymatuning State Park -Jamestown PA

On the road again. Decided to head for Jamestown, PA on Rte 62 out of Sheffield which is also a Scenic Byway and then onto Rte 322 NW to Pymatuning which is close to the Ohio border. We will stay at Pymatuning State Park. They have a good size lake there and the fishing is suppose to be good. (Still haven’t fished in PA, but it is close enough to home I can get it later.) It’s still cloudy and I think the weather is starting to work on us…isn’t there any sun?

We got a really nice site right on the lake. The lake is huge and hopefully we can get the Fold Cat out on it. We got the RV all set up and discovered that when we set up the Brake Buddy we didn’t turn off the automatic lights on the HHR. Of course when we went to unhook the car the battery was dead. Ken got out the jumper cables and we were back in business in no time.

Tip for new RV ers - use a checklist when you hook up your tow vehicle so you don’t forget the little things!).

There is no Wifi or cable in the park and there were too many trees for the satellite to work. Sat at our picnic table and just as we were ready to relax the wind came up and we had our 1st Thunderstorm. It was a good one too! After the storm went through we had a beautiful sunset as you can see in the picture.

Saw some fish jumping in the lake tonight. so we know they are there. We hope to ride our bikes through the park tomorrow.

Rainy days in Pennsylvannia

First rainy day, guess that’s part of camping too. Funny we went out this morning and found the wire for cable TV hanging in a tree next to the coach. Hooked it up and now we have a link to the outside world. Watched the weather to find out the next few days are going to be rainy too.
Went to check out the Kinzua Dam area. Again the visitor center was still closed, but we walked around (no rain is going to stop us!). Talked to a couple of guys who were fishing, but having no luck. Continued down scenic route 59 and stopped at the overlook to the dam. Nice view of the Allegheny Reservoir. Just a little way down the road we found the Longhouse Scenic Rd. Very pretty drive through the forest. Unfortunately didn’t see much wildlife today.

We stopped in Kane for Chinese food and met a group of local folks. They asked us where we were from and of course we told them of our plan for the next 2 years. She had been in Alaska 50 years ago with her husband. They went by van and camped in a tent. I can’t imagine what it would have been like up there back then. She doesn’t travel any more and was very excited for us!

Went back to camp, played cards ( I won) and got ready to head out tommorrow.

Allegheny National Forest PA

Leaving NY this morning and heading to Pennsylvania. Took Rte 89 South to Rte 14 towards Elmira and into Pennsylvania. It was a pretty drive. Once into PA we took Rte 6 W which is a scenic road. We had a long drive today through the Allegheny National Forest. Beautiful scenery and very hilly, windy, narrow roads. However, we wouldn’t have it any other way as we don’t like interstates!

We stopped in Sheffield PA which is in heart of the park. We stopped at several visitor centers and they were all closed (only open on weekends). There is suppose to be good fishing up near the Kinzua Dam, but we weren’t able to get any information.

After a long driving day we pulled into Whispering Winds Campground in Sheffield. We found it through our Passport America Directory. What a dump, don’t stay here! The campground has a trashy appearance, the sites are small and far from level! We booked 2 nights because we wanted to fish tommorrow. Played two handed Gin tonight (Ken won).

Went downtown to the grocery store. It was like stepping back into the 1950’s and it was really a cute place. Got what we needed for dinner as all of the restaurants are closed for the holiday.
Hopefully the fishing is good!

Gorge Trail Taughannock SP

Now we understand there are good campers and not so good campers. Loud music until 2AM but that’s part of the ups and downs… We got up late and went back to Taughannock Park and did the Gorge Trail (where Ken is standing). It is a really nice 1.5 mile trail that goes along the bottom of the gorge and ends at the bottom of the waterfall. Lots of families were playing in the water that runs through the gorge and they were having a great time. Had showers this morning but the sun came out!
After our hike we went across the street to the park that borders Cayuga Lake. We bought hamburgers at the snack bar, ate a t the picnic tables and watched all the boats. On the way back to the campground we stopped for ice cream at the Lake Cayuga Creamery . They make their own ice cream.
Got back to the campground and just relaxed. Listened to the radio and fell asleep in our camp chairs. It was a good day, but we are ready to move on.

Excursion to Watkins Glenn

Off for an excursion to Watkins Glen at the base of Seneca Lake. They advertise a Waterfront area but it’s not much of anything. It was cold and windy on the lake today. Not much here but a Walmart. We tried to find a new grill, seems ours developed mold (ick) during the winter. Took the road up the west side of Seneca Lake heading back to the campground. Low and behold more wineries! We stopped at Fox Run for lunch. It sits up on a hill with a porch overlooking the lake. Of course we did a wine tasting and found a red that we brought home with us…

Just chilled out the rest of the afternoon at camp. I worked on setting up our Blog site and should have it ready fairly soon. Ken used our electric fry pan for the first time and had pork chops and grilled asparagus for dinner tonight. (See it‘s not all hamburgers & hot dogs!) Everything came out really nice.

We are having fun!

Taughannock State Park & Cayuga Wine Trail

Took off this morning for Taughannock State Park just up the road from the campground. The park is beautiful and is famous for it’s gorge and waterfall. The gorge and falls have all been cut by glaciers. The 215 foot vertical waterfall is beautiful and the gorge walls are 400 feet high. We drove to the outlook for the waterfall and then decided to take a hike around the north and south rim. The trail is fairly flat and goes through the woods and has overlooks. Really pretty. The area is loaded with blooming honeysuckle and woodland flowers. There is another trail we may do later in the week.

Now we are really hungry and “thirsty”. So we decided to have lunch at the Americana Winery and Bistro. Nice lunch and the “Revolutionary Red” wine was very nice. Of course we had to go in for a tasting ($1 gets you a sampling of 6 wines from white to red). They were good, but nothing special… Next… Lucas Winery. Their white wines are fruity and Ken liked the sweet ones. Still none we really wanted…Next…Sheldrake Point was a pretty place, we tried the ‘reserves’ here and didn’t like any of them…Next...Thirsty Owl Winery. This was recommended by a nice young couple we met at the first winery. We found a white “Snowy Owl” wine. It’s fruity but has a smooth taste and we brought it home with us. (We did leave some wineries for the next time!)

It was a fun day. Now we are sitting in our comfy site watching all the campers come in for the holiday .

Cayuga Lake NY

On the road again. Heading for Ovid, NY in the Finger Lakes area of upstate NY. We will be in the Cayuga Lake area and will spend Memorial Day weekend here. This is the first reservations we’ve made. We have been without Wifi access since we left so it will be good to get connected with the family again.

Pulled in to Sned-Acres Campground on Rte 89 in Ovid. Rte 89 is a scenic route along the lake and a very nice drive. There was a mix up on our reservation and they treated us really well. It’s a great place and has a lot to offer. If you are in the area you should give them a try.

The area has a lot of attractions and we spent the night planning our next few days in the area. We discovered that Route 89 is the Cayuga Wine Trail and has wine tasting at all of the wineries! Don’t know where we will store more wine (ha), we’ll find a place.

Into Upstate NY

On our way again and another beautiful day. Heading into upstate NY which is very hilly and we went over some big ones today. Our goal is to stay off the interstates and travel the back roads. Some of the ones we were on today were very curvy and narrow but beautiful. Tough driving for Ken and we are staying more to the state routes. The coach was great and we had no problem getting up and down the hills. The “tow haul” works really well!

We plan to stop in a campground in Central Bridge, NY. This is close to Ken’s nephew John and his family in Scotia NY. We dropped in on John and Crystal and had a really nice visit (thanks for the Pizza!).

As ‘Big & Rich’ would say - Look out we may be coming to your citay (city)!

Arlington, Vermont

Beautiful sunny day. Arlington Vt. was the first capitol of the state in the 1700’s. It has kept the quaint New England look and has a beautiful inn right in the center of town. Went down to the local country store and got fishing licenses. The campground has great access to the river and we found a great place. Spent a couple hours on the river, but no luck. Sandi left a her favorite “wooley bugger” in a tree. (Hard to catch fish in trees….)

While we were fishing Ken spotted a beautiful Scarlet Tanager. The bird is a scarlet red with black wings. We had never seen one up close and it was a real treat.

Ken has decided he has a goal now… ice cream in every state so sure enough we went back to the Dairy Bar for ice cream.

The campground was nice and very quiet this time of year.

Here We Go

We got in the coach this morning and said “is this really happening”! Reality set in as we locked up the house, but we are excited. Our first stop is Arlington, Vermont where there is good fishing on the Battenkill River. As we drove from New Hampshire to Vermont we forget how pretty it is. Vermont is so much more open than New Hampshire. Being mid May everything is so green and all the spring trees and flowers are blooming.

Arrived in Arlington about 3PM and set up. Went into town to explore and found the local Dairy Bar, where we had dinner and celebrated our first day - WOW scallops for $9.95.

We are getting used to where everything is in the coach (Ken can’t find anything cause I packed it…) We are learning the process for how we get dressed etc in such close quarters. Believe it or not we need a routine. Almost like playing Twister!

Tip for new RVers - when traveling back roads with spring potholes be sure your TV is really secure. Ours came loose and took a little trip of it’s own. Fortunately there was no real damage to the coach’s wall. We put wedges underneath in order to keep it in the cabinet.