May 21, 2018 Cape Ann Island

May 21, 2018

We woke up to blue skies today, for a change! So, we decided to do a little sightseeing. The little peninsula we are on, has an island at the end of it. Looking at the map of the area, it’s difficult to see that, but that’s where we headed today.

The island, as best as we can tell, is called Cape Ann. The minute we crossed over on the bridge, the roads became extremely narrow! The telephone polls are just barely off the road, and for privacy, the home owners have planted their bushes right against the road pavement, which means that when the bushes grow, they are actually growing out into the road way. Keep in mind that our only vehicle is the very big, very wide truck that we tow the rig with. These roads would barely be wide enough for two SMART cars to pass without pulling the side mirrors in. That was a little stressful.

If you have ever been to southern California, and tried to go to the beach, you know it’s almost impossible to get to the public beaches because the extremely well-to-do have signs everywhere to lead you to believe that the property is private and you have no business being there. Well, it’s just like that here, only the houses are bigger and older and the roads are narrower.

Never let it be said that Phil is intimidated by anyone, or any sign for that matter. He takes it into his head that he wants to go somewhere, he is going.

 This is Annisquan Lighthouse, still opperated by the Coast Guard and buried in a ritzy housing development that has signs everywhere that we didn't belong there.

 This statue was a monument to the men of the island that had lost their lives in the Civil War. Behind it was a cemetery that we drove through. In some places the road was not as wide as the truck!!

We stopped for lunch at a little hole in the wall seafood place that was right on the water. Note the cute little lobsters on the roof!!

We shared our first lobster of this trip, little bit overcooked, but very good!! We got to talking to the manager, who was sitting at the table next to ours doing some paperwork. She was more than happy to put that aside and chat with us as we finished our lunch. A disposable plastic lobster bib was included in our lunch, which I was not embarrassed to use. As I was taking mine off, I ask her if she might have enough of them that I could buy 44 of them, as I wanted to add them to the tote bags we have for our members on the caravan. She went to get them and when she came back, she wouldn’t let me pay for them.  There are still nice people out there.

Check out the chimney

Landscape or no landscape? Across the street from these homes was the bay. Tough!!

This is the Eastern Point Light. Again, we had to drive through a ritzy housing area with the usual signs.

The keeper's house, a little larger than the usual keeper's house. A kid walking his dog told Phil that the house has been vacent for a couple of years. So, I told him to use his connections (??) and get it for us for one summer. 

I tried to get a picture today of the signs for what we call a traffic circle. Here they are called a ‘Rotary’. For all the narrow roads on the island, the traffic circles as you go on & off the island are big enough to drive a big rig around them without running the back wheels on the curbs. We were impressed!!

This is the ROTARY sign, I was trying to take a zoomed in picture while Phil was driving, not the best picture I have ever taken!!!

May 6th through May 19, 2018

May 6, 2018

We left Pine Crest campground today and headed to MA via Highway 2. This is called the Mohawk Trail and I think originally it was a deer trail, then maybe the Indians used it, then years later I think some genius came along and paved it…and widened it…a little. It’s called a scenic route, and it is. But, it’s not the kind of road that you want to do with a 38’ rig behind you.

Not even any 

warning from the GPS. 

It’s hard enough to pull a steep mountain road but add switch backs and you have a potential crisis! Fortunately, traffic was light, and we didn’t meet anyone coming from the opposite direction on the switch backs.

Our destination was Country Aire Campground in Shelburne Falls, MA. Once we were down off of the mountain the scenery was beautiful, trees are budding out, flowers, green grass and (for a change), blue sky’s!! The campground is very nice, large sites with full hook ups. Still early in the season, so we were not jammed in.

We are here because Phil’s Taylor ancestors lived here for awhile, in Ashville, just a little ways from where we are camped. We walked a couple of cemeteries together, then he went off and hiked through a few others on his own.

We took a day to walk through one of the little towns close to the campground, Shelburne Falls. This is an old town, very well kept up. It’s like an artist colony, little shops everywhere with handmade items. Unfortunately, it was a week end and most of them were closed.

The town has tuned the old trolley bridge into a bridge of flowers, and it was beautiful!! It was the obvious that it was the work of many, to plant and keep up with. Some were still waiting to see if spring was serious about sticking around, the wisteria for one. Or three or four, they were wrapped around anything they could find, and had been provided with additional things to crawl on, so that they made arches all along the bridge. I bet they were lovely when they bloomed, arched across the bridge the way they were.

From there we walked down the hill to the Glacier Pot Holes. This caught our interest. Multicolored rock at the base of the falls, which is actually caused as the water from the river comes out of the power plant. The rock surface has been smoothed as if a glacier has receded over it, but the pot holes don’t look to me to be a result of the water from the falls.

The pictures of the rocks really don't do them justice. They are an orange-tan color, swirled with grey and white, even dry. When the water touches them, the color really comes out

Just up from the falls is a small sandwich shop and bakery where we had a bite to eat. Humm, Humm good!!

We went to the little store up the block to pick up a few items we needed. Remember the grocery stores from when we were kids, they weren’t huge buildings, but on the bottom floor of an old 2 or 3 story building. This was the store in Shelburne Falls, little nicks and cranny’s where it might have been added on to at one time or another. Like a blast from the past.

May 7-8, 2018

Phil has spent the week meeting with a lady from the Ashfield Historical Society about the Taylor’s that settled here, mucking through sopping wet cemeteries and taking hundreds of pictures. He has been having a blast!!

The weather has been cool and the rain seems to be following us around.

I have stayed busy tying up loose ends for the Maritime Caravan and trying to get points settled for the Alaska Caravan. Keeping them straight presents a bit of a challenge.

May 13, 2018

Turns out we had a little glitch in our reservations for the next campground out on Cape Cod. We were supposed to go out there today, but the reservations got made to go in tomorrow. It worked out well though because Phil has a cousin he met through DNA that lives near New Bedford, MA. So, we found a campground near there and arranged to meet up with him and his girlfriend, and his daughter and her boyfriend. They had tickets for us to go through the Whale Museum, which was very interesting. Then we walked down the street to a brewery for dinner.

Phil took one of the extra DNA kits we had for his cousin, Geoffrey. Phil had his computer with him, so he dug right in and started  to build Geoff’s tree.

Our campground is Gateway to Cape Cod, in Rochester, MA

May 14, 2018

We were only about an hour from our campground, so it was a very short drive for us today. We are in the Old Chathan Road RV Park. We picked this park because of it’s location in relation to the Taylor/Bray Farm, the reason we are here. Of course, there are more wet, squishy cemeteries to walk through. And hundreds of more pictures to take.

We have been to the Cape before and so have done most of the touristy things, so while Phil was off exploring, I stayed home, washed, and of course, worked on the caravans. Might have taken a nap or two as well.

May 18, 2018

Yesterday we moved up the coast, north of Boston and out on the little peninsula east of Boston, our campground is Cape Ann Camp sites. The mailing address is Gloucester, MA.

Having grown up on the west coast, California in particular, you have to drive forever to get anywhere. Here, in these small states like MA and CT, it takes no time at all to get from one point of the state to another. It’s really amazing!!

Today we drove over to Ipswich where our history abounds!!! This is the area where it all started, Boston and it’s surrounds. Ipswich claims to have the most surviving homes from the early 1700’s, and they are all in excellent condition, and being lived in!

We wanted to go to the Museum today, but in spite of being advertised as open, they weren’t. So we went to the visitor’s center and the lady there told us that we were a little early, things wouldn’t really be open until Memorial Day Weekend.

So, we went to the library to see what they had in the way of a Genealogy section. What a disappointment!!  They had a few books on Ipswich early history and vital records from the early years, but not as much as we thought they would have. But we did spend a few hours going through the few books they had. Phil found lots of Boardman’s and a few Taylor’s. I found lots of Baker’s, but they are all prior to what I have on my tree, so I’m going to have to research backwards to see if any of those Baker’s are connected to my line.

When we came out of the library it was raining…again…surprise!!! It has rained most of the afternoon and into the evening. Temps today topped out at about 57.

Mohawk Trail

May 6, 2018

We left Pine Crest campground today and headed to MA via Highway 2. This is called the Mohawk Trail and I think originally it was a deer trail, then maybe the Indians used it, then years later I think some genius came along and paved it…and widened it…a little. It’s called a scenic route, and it is. But, it’s not the kind of road that you want to do with a 38’ rig behind you. It’s hard enough to pull a steep mountain road but add switch backs and you have a potential crisis! Fortunately, traffic was light, and we didn’t meet anyone coming from the opposite direction on the switch backs.

Our destination was Country Aire Campground in Shelburne Falls, MA. Once we were down off of the mountain the scenery was beautiful, trees are budding out, flowers, green grass and (for a change), blue sky’s!! The campground is very nice, large sites with full hook ups. Still early in the season, so we were not jammed in.

We are here because Phil’s Taylor ancestors lived here for awhile, in Ashville, just a little ways from where we are camped. We walked a couple of cemeteries together, then he went off and hiked through a few others on his own.

We took a day to walk through one of the little towns close to the campground, Shelburne Falls. This is an old town, very well kept up. It’s like an artist colony, little shops everywhere with handmade items. Unfortunately, it was a week end and most of them were closed.

The town has tuned the old trolley bridge into a bridge of flowers, and it was beautiful!! It was the obvious that it was the work of many, to plant and keep up with. Some were still waiting to see if spring was serious about sticking around, the wisteria for one. Or three or four, they were wrapped around anything they could find, and had been provided with additional things to crawl on, so that they made arches all along the bridge. I bet they were lovely when they bloomed, arched across the bridge the way they were.

From there we walked down the hill to the Glacier Pot Holes. This caught our interest. Multicolored rock at the base of the falls, which is actually caused as the water from the river comes out of the power plant. The rock surface has been smoothed as if a glacier has receded over it, but the pot holes don’t look to me to be a result of the water from the falls.

Just up from the falls is a small sandwich shop and bakery where we had a bite to eat. Humm, Humm good!!

We went to the little store up the block to pick up a few items we needed. Remember the grocery stores from when we were kids, they weren’t huge buildings, but on the bottom floor of an old 2 or 3 story building. This was the store in Shelburne Falls, little nicks and cranny’s where it might have been added on to at one time or another. Like a blast from the past.

May 5, 2018

Another catchup here, but at least I should get points for trying uh?

On April 29^th, we took the rig back to Cross RV Repair so that they could remove the outer shell in preparation for the welding crew to arrive on the 30^th to get this play in the tongue fixed. The repair shop measured it and it came out with a 3-4” play.

So, we had to leave the shop and go to a hotel for the night. One bad thing about staying in Amish Country on a Sunday is that there is nothing open to go out to eat, so we ended up going to Sturgis, Michigan for dinner.

So, we fast forward to Monday, April 30^th, after a quick breakfast at the hotel, we are back to our places in the shops waiting room. The guys from Lippert finally showed up about 8:30 (they were suppose to be there at 7:30). After they got through inspecting the damage, they found cracks in the cross beam that supported the entire front end of the rig, cracks in the tongue piece and in the welding seams where the two connected. It’s a wonder we didn’t lose the rig going down the road a long time ago!!

Anyway, it took them more than 8 hours to cut out the old pieces and put in the new. Then the guys in the shop had to put the outside shell back on the rig, get it all glued and screwed, which took another 2-3 hours. Phil pulled the finished product out of the shop bay just before dark, and we spent the night hooked up along side the shop.

May 1, 2019

We said our goodbyes to the staff of the shop, paid our bill and we are on the road again!!!

Since we got a later start than usual (and everyone knows we are not early birds), we made it a short day. Even at that I think Phil had his eyes in the rearview mirror most of the day and he kept saying, ‘it’s not moving, it’s not moving!!’

We only traveled 151 miles, but, we made it out of Indiana!! Our campground for the night is Milan RV Park, Milan, Ohio. The weather has warmed a bit, it was sunny all day and topped out at 79*.

May 2, 2018

From Milan we continued our travels east on I-90, the main thoroughfare along the north coast of Ohio. This route took us though the very north west corner of Pennsylvania, where we left the 90 to catch the 86, which took us into New York. This part of New York is mountainous and very different from the New York that I think of in my mind, which is the mass of people in New York City.

Spring is slow to make its appearance this year, just last week the last major snow storm of the year, dumped on this area, then two days later the temp hit 80*. The melt off was fast and swift, swelling already swollen rivers to overflow their banks. The evidence is along the banks and at every turn, trees pulled up by the roots, tangled with debris from the shore. The trees along the mountains are getting that faint green tint that comes at the first blush of spring, but for now we mostly see the winter gray fighting to hold its grip.

Just after the city of Jamestown is a little burb called Kennedy, it was here we left the interstate for the night.  Our campground tonight is called Bella Vista Campground, which is funny because we have a Bella Vista in Arkansas. Phil was so impressed he bought another coffee cup for his collection!

We traveled 209 miles today and it was a very muggy 80* when we parked the rig!

May 3, 2018

Back on the 86, traveling east, we skirted the base of the Allegany State Park, its cloudy today, can’t see the very top of the mountain. The 86 kind of wanders all over the place to avoid the worst of the mountains and passes through some very pretty, little valleys where we find small little towns, and wonder, what brought these people here to start with, what industry, what factory??

Weirdest name for a town today goes to Horseheads, just north of the 86 and the town of Elmira. What were they thinking??

Just as we were getting close to the exit off of the 86, the GPS got it’s wires crossed, took us past the exit we should have gotten off of, to the next exit. I told Phil I thought we should go back, as I was looking at the old-fashioned atlas that I always refer to hundreds of times a day. He thought we should see if there wasn’t a bridge to go over the Susquehanna River that was on our right and should have been on our left. He finally believed me when the voice blurted out that there was a dirt road ahead. Not a lot of places to turn this big truck and rig around on these narrow two-lane roads. We did find a place to turn around and managed to do it before anyone came at us from either direction.

We finally did find our campground for the next three nights. We are at Pinecrest Campground. The mailing address is Windsor, NY, we are about 3 miles from the NY/PA state line. We drove 241 miles today and managed to miss and dodge 2 different lines of heavy rain.

From our back window we can watch the Susquehanna River flow past the campground.

May 4, 2018

The reason we came to this neck of the woods was to explore the town of Harmony, which is now Oakland. Oakland is located just across the border of PA. This is the area where Isaac Hale (1763-1839), my Patriot for my induction into the DAR, had settled with his wife, Elizabeth Lewis (1767-1842). Before we left on this trip I did some research into the town of Oakland, I called the Historic Society and in talking to the lady she told me I needed to visit the restoration site that the Mormon Church had worked on. Why would the Mormon Church be interested in this little backwoods town??? Because Emma Hale, Isaac’s daughter was married to Joseph Smith, one of the founders of the Mormon Religion.

So, we drove down to the site, and we were both amazed at what the church had put into the site. We met two very nice people who were very happy to just guide us through the history of the site, the background of who Isaac was, what he did for a living, how he interacted with Joseph Smith and Emma. They understood that we were not there for the church’s sake and didn’t try to force it on us. They were excited to see us, they have had a few visitors that could trace their linage back to Isaac, or Joseph, but not many.

Included on this site is the reconstructed house of Isaac and Elizabeth, plus the reconstructed house of Joseph and Emma. Isaac had sold some of his acreage to Joseph. Our guides walked down the hill to the site of the houses and we got to walk through them. Afterwards, we went to explore the cemetery and our guides left us.

The cemetery was a gold mine of my ancestors, Hales, Skinners, Wards, lots of them unreadable for the most part. The cemetery is still being used, so it is kept up and damage has been kept to a minimum.

Isaac was not originally buried in the cemetery, but in the garden plot, per his request. But, when the railroad came through, it wanted to go right over the garden, so they then moved Isaac to the cemetery and placed him next to his wife, Elizabeth.

 Isaac was a hunter, this was one of his sources of income. This was the type of 'long gun' he would have used.

 The house from the back.

 Joseph and Emma's house, just down the road

 Emma Hale

Joseph Hale

Nightmares of Rig Repair

April 14, 2018 – April 20, 2018

HA!! Sunny today they said! Clear today, they said. No snow today, they said! Lies, all lies!! One again, we had blowing snow on and off all day, and freezing temps! In spite of all of that, we did manage to make it to the Cross RV Repair Shop.

We had everything set to have the seals around all the slides, and the slide toppers replaced. Also, we were supposed to have the refer replaced, and everything went well up to that point. Turns out the new refer isn’t plumbed for an ice maker. After much discussion back and forth, we decided to just swap the doors out. So, they did that, then moved the rig back outside so we could stay in it overnight. At that point, we had to put everything back into the freezer and refer. It was all in freezer bags all day, but seemed to be mostly frozen, or cold as the case may be. By this time, the refer is reading 54* and we couldn’t get the electric or propane selections to work. We are NOT happy!! Fortunately, the guys are still there, moving rigs around. They came out and worked on it for about another hour and finally got it fixed. My happy customer meter is slowly falling.

The next day, the rig goes back into the bay to finish the seals and toppers. That only took a couple of hours. In the meantime, they have confirmed Phil’s fears that the hitch bar, the piece at the front end of the rig that connects to the receiver in the bed of the truck, has up to 5” of flex in it. This is a welded piece of steel that shouldn’t be moving at all. Since the frame is made by a company called Lippert, it is decided that Lippert is who should be welding this back together. BUT, Lippert can’t get a guy out to work on it until April 30^th!! Thank God we have built time for repairs into our schedule or we would be in real trouble now. To add to our stress, it turns out that the front cap of the rig will have to be removed for the welding guy to have access to what he needs. That means that we will have to spend the night of the 29^th in a motel. This repair must be done or it could eventually come apart while we are going down the road.

So, we have found a new Mobile Home Park here in LaGrange that has 5 RV spots set aside. Here is where we will stay for the next 10 or so days.

After we are all set up and settled in for the night, we discover that the furnace isn’t working! Supposed to be 28* overnight and we have no furnace?? Can you believe this. We do have the fireplace that does a decent job at keeping the rig warm but does nothing for the underbelly where the holding tanks are. So, we called the shop this morning and they set up an appointment with a heat and air guy, but he wouldn’t come here, we had to unhook and go back to the shop. Turns out it was a little control board, took about half an hour and we were back on the road to the MH Park.

So, here we will sit, with fingers and toes crossed that nothing else breaks. We have decided that this will be a good opportunity to work on the Alaska Caravan that we are leading in 2019. Are we crazy or what?????? If you can believe the weather people, it is supposed to warm up, so maybe Spring is on it’s way up here.

Lebanon, TN

April 9, 2018

We got a good start this morning…for us…left the campground at 10:00 this morning. Temperature was about 42 with bright sunshine.

Almost as soon as we got back onto I-40 we ran into heavy traffic, the GPS and my WAZE app both said there would be a delay due to an accident. We came upon the accident site after most of the vehicle was towed away, but it was obvious that it was an 18-wheeler, because the tractor back wheels were still on the site, as was the clean up crew. We guessed that the tractor must have been sheered off by the line of trees by the force of the impact. A few miles down the road we passed two tow trucks, one towing the trailer, with top and side panels flapping in the wind, the other with just the chassis of the tractor. It didn’t look like a survivable accident. When you spend as much time on the road traveling as we do, we have seen lots of these types of sites. Always gives us pause, and for awhile, Phil is good and behaves himself, but that quickly passes.

On a lighter side, how would you like to live in Bucksnort?? We passed it today!

We arrived safely at the Agri Center in Lebanon, TN about 3:00 this afternoon. We will be here for a week for the South Central Regional Muster for our SMART organization. We always enjoy these events as they give us the opportunity to catch up with old friends.

April 12, 2018

We have had a busy couple of days, out and about, and here in the campground.

On Tuesday, we headed into Nashville as we had tickets to board the General Jackson steam paddle boat for a short cruise down the river. Well, we got there only to find out the boat had a fuel leak and they couldn’t figure out where it was. So, we decided that we didn’t want to sit at the pier and listen to a band, so we went to lunch.

Right across the street from the General Jackson is the Nashville Mills Mall, and there we found a highly recommended German Restaurant, so that’s where we decided to go. It was very good, and we spent at least an hour or so there, as other SMART friends came in right after we did.

Wednesday was the official opening of the Muster, so we had opening ceremonies and then a catered dinner, which wasn’t bad. After that Phil went back to the rig and I played cards with some of the girls.

Today (Thursday) we had luncheons for the ladies and the guys. Afterwards we had our Hand and Foot Tournament (This is a card game that all of us SMART people love playing). The cards were not in my universe today, I think I may win the prize for lowest score. Oh well.

We went to dinner tonight with three other couples, good food and had a great time visiting. Tonight we are vegging in the rig with our feet up.

2018 Taylor Travels

April 8, 2018

We are on the road again!! On our way to Lebanon, TN for a SMART Regional Muster.

We started the day with the finishing touches on packing the rig…it was sleeting!!! And cold!! Spring was just popping up around Little Rock, but I’m sure the freeze we had last night made quick work of that!

We managed to get on the road by 11:00, but we only had to go as far as Millington, TN, so it wasn’t a long day, tonight we are camped at the NAS Mid-South, Midway RV Park. This use to be a mobile home park, so the spaces have some distance to them, with nice level pads.

Tomorrow we head out for Lebanon.