Chuck and Naomi Adventures in RV Land

Technically, of course, we have already been in Missouri (since we have been visiting St. Louis). However, we were camped in Illinois. The boundary is the Mississippi.

Leaving St. Louis, we need to head northwest to get to Denver.  We noticed that there is a route that takes us partly along the west shore of the Mississippi, and then to Hannibal, childhood some of Mark Twain and setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

After crossing St. Louis, we missed a few relevant northward turns, but finally got back to the river at Clarksville, MO, a small port town.  Clarksville is probably quite lovely usually, with a large park at the base of shipping lock 24.

However, the Mississippi has been in flood since March. Poor Clarksville — the downtown is heavily sandbagged.  Although the waters have receded, there are huge piles of silty mud that have been plowed off the street and sidewalk.  All of the downtown businesses are closed.  The waterside park is now dry enough to use, and a few hardy souls were fishing.

We met the owner of an antique shop, who told us that the antiques emporium where she usually sold had been closed since March.  Although most of her merchandise was safe, the parking lot had been inaccessible until a couple of weeks ago.  She decided to rent a shop on higher ground so that she could generate some income until things dried out in the emporium.  She was able to carry out some smaller items by hand-carrying them over boards laid over the wettest spots, and was finally able to get a van in to retrieve some of the furniture.  She had treated some items with peroxide to kill mold.  It sounded quite miserable.  It was not clear if any other tourist shops in town were open.  If not, it might be hard to convince people to stop to shop.

She also said that the local church had been open for several weeks to feed up to a hundred sandbaggers, coming from the local prison, National Guard, etc.  All in all, not a good time for the town of Clarksville.

She also directed us a few yards out of town, to barge Lock 24.  There we were able to watch a tug push a convoy of 15 huge barges (3 wide by 5 long) into the lock.  Since the lock can handle only 3×3 convoys, the barges were decoupled and put through the lock in 2 groups.  Since the tugboat (which should be called a pushboat) goes into the lock with the 2nd group, it is not clear to us how the first set of barges gets released — possibly using winches.  These barges are mostly transporting cement and gravel.  A 15 barge convoy carries the equivalent of 1000 tractor trailer trucks or 225 freight cars.  Barges are much safer in terms of both accidents involving injuries and spills, and a quite a bit cheaper.  However, obviously they can only move on the river.

Since everything in Clarksville was closed, we went upstream to the town of Louisianna for lunch.  Louisianna sits on higher ground, and seems to have suffered only minor flooding.  Everything was open and we had lunch at an excellent Mexican restaurant.  Besides the good food, we really like the benches, imported from Mexico.

From there we moved on to Hannibal, where we camped at the RV park by the Mark Twain Cave, the cave that inspired the cave scene in Tom Sawyer.  We did not visit the cave, but just for the record, unlike the depiction in the book, it does not have stalactites and stalagmites.   Needless to say, in the cute historic downtown, almost everything refers to Twain, Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn.  We also noted that while Hannibal has a substantial levee, there were another 3 or 4 feet of sandbags stacked on top of it.

The next day we toured the Mark Twain Museum, which consisted of his childhood home, a museum with a lot of quotes from his books, and a number of restored buildings that included his father’s office and the homes of the childhood friends he said were models for Huckleberry Finn and Becky Thatcher.  Twain grew up poor (although not “dirt poor”) and had to quit school after 5th grade when his father died. 

He had a varied career before he started writing: printer’s assistant, steamboat pilot, silver miner and journalist.  He was quite a success as a journalist, which led to his being commissioned to write a travelog about Hawaii (which was very successful both in print and as a lecture series) and to go on one of the first sightseeing cruises — a trip through the Mediterranean and the Holy Land.  Like his father, he was not very successful in business, so despite the great success of his literary career, he continually had to scramble to stay solvent.  He also had a number of personal setbacks.  He did a remarkable amount of traveling for his time, living in Missouri, Nevada, California and Connecticut and of course his journalistic travels.  He left a huge literary opus, and many notable quotes.  One which seems very relevant for our times: ” Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” OK, this is individually unfair — it is the game of politics that ends up with this outcome.

We took the dinner cruise on the Mark Twain Riverboat.  The meal was good and the cruise was very nice.  We learned a few things about shipping on the river and the relationship between the railroad bridges and the river shipping.  (The draw and swing bridges are required to open for boats, but they are operated by the rail companies.) It was a very pleasant evening.

On Tuesday we left for Kansas City, stopping in Macon, MO for lunch.  There is not much to Macon, but I felt an affinity for the town, as we had spent time in Macon, GA on our previous RV trip.  One thing it does have, however, is a quilting store.  Hannibal has two quilting stores.  I guess quilting is a popular past-time in this part of the country.

We selected a campground in Independence, MO, just a few miles from downtown Kansas City.  What we did not realize until we arrived, is that Independence is of interest in its own right.  In the 1830s it was pretty much the most westerly spot in the US.  Reachable by steamboat on the Missouri, it was the eastern terminus of the great pioneer trails: the Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, the Mormon Trail and the California Gold Rush trails.  Not having had the advantage of playing “Oregon Trail” in history class, Chuck and I were previously unaware of this. 

The first hint we had that something was going on in Independence was the sight of this unusual building as we drove into the campground.  It is the world headquarters of the Community of Christ, a branch of the Mormon (LDS) Church.  It is in Independence because Joseph Smith was inspired to purchase land at the western edge of the US (which was Independence at the time).  I don’t completely understand the history here, (but thanks to my friend Ephraim for helping me fill in the details) however after the death of Joseph Smith, there was a schism in the church, with the main branch following Brigham Young on the Mormon Trail to establish Salt Lake City, while the Community of Christ stayed in Independence as well as some of the early sites for the LDS in Illinois and Ohio.

In any case, in the morning, after the end of a torrential rainfall, we set off to see the building, which is both unusual and beautiful.  Our tour guide, Wendel, showed us some of the artwork and the interesting spiral architecture of the building.  We also visited the main sanctuary.  However, this sanctuary is used only for meetings and special occasions — worship is done in smaller congregations.  This denomination also seems to be more liberal than mainstream LDS on some issues, such as the ordination of women and people of color.

After visiting the church and lunch in town, we went to the National Frontier Trails Museum.  This museum explained the various trails and had many excerpts from pioneer diaries, as well as artifacts from the settlers.  Among the interesting things we learned were that, despite the many hardships of the trek, about 90% of the settlers actually made it to their destinations.  On the other hand, once they reached the mountains they often found that they needed to discard everything except those items actually needed for the trek, so that the trail was littered with cast-off items (not to mention dead oxen, mules and livestock) and the settlers often arrived destitute.  The Oregon Trail started in the early 1830s. 

In 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, reducing what had been an arduous 5 month trek to 5 days of rail and ferry travel.  To complete our history lesson, we watched a documentary about the Oregon Trail on TV.  (I guess we should have tried the game, too.)

Independence also has its own local soft drink, Polly Pop. The bottling operation can be viewed through the front window.

On Thursday we drove to Kansas City and parked in a downtown lot.  From there we walked to the City Market a fairly substantial and not very interesting trek which we could have avoided by either parking near the Market (lots of space) or taking the free KC trolley, which runs between Union Station and the Market.  It is still a novelty to us to be able to park our RV almost anywhere. (Although to be fair, KC has RV parking suitable for large RVs at the City Market — if you are up for driving the RV into town.)

We first noticed these in St. Louis, but they appear to be popular everywhere in MO — scooter shares. In downtown St. Louis they are everywhere, and people seem to drop them wherever they are, rather than at regular stands. It is pretty common to see a couple sharing a scooter, too. We did not try these out.

Our first stop was the Steamship Arabia Museum, which we found very interesting. Steamships were the preferred mode of travel from 1819 until the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Due to the meandering nature of the river and increased erosion of the banks which were deforested to provide fuel for the steamship boilers, creating lots of snags and stumps, over 150 steamers are known to have sunk on the Missouri.  The average lifespan of a Missouri steamship was less than 5 years.

Since the Missouri river bottom is sandy in most places, the rapid current pulled sand out from beneath the wrecks, which were then essentially buried in the river bottom.  However, due to the meanders, the course of the river changed a lot over the years and was only stabilized when the Army Corps of Engineers was tasked with creating a permanent channel.  As a result, many of the wrecks are now not under the river, but under fields. 

The steamship Arabia sank in 1856 when a submerged stump stove its hull.  The impact was abrupt.  Fortunately, the only casualty was a mule that was left tied to the ship.  The passengers even managed to bring much of their baggage off the boat — unfortunately for them much of it was stolen.  The cargo, however, went down with the ship.

In 1987, 5 men from Independence decided to try to excavate the wreck of the Steamship Arabia, which was known to be located in a field.  A previous attempt to excavate the wreck to recover several hundred barrels of whiskey was terminated when the recovery crew found only boots and other dry goods.  The 1987 dig was a major effort that took place over a single winter when the field was not needed for crops and freezing weather helped stabilize the walls of the excavation.  They put down probes that found the outline of the ship and starting digging.  The ship was about 40 feet down, but the water table was only 10 feet.  They used a lot of pumps, and worked wet despite the cold weather.  It turned out that the cold had another advantage, though — it helped maintain the integrity of the artifacts.

The first cargo that they found was a barrel filled with fine china.  This spurred their efforts.  It turned out that the hold was filled with barrels of trade goods, from glass trade beads to jars of pickles.  Anaerobic conditions in the Missouri mud had preserved almost everything except cotton.  Leather boots fell apart due to the lack of cotton stitching, but the leather stayed intact. 

The original intention had been to sell the cargo, but when the wealth of goods was revealed they decided to open a museum instead.  This turned out to be fortunate, because according to our tour guide, some of the goods were in such pristine condition that they would have been flagged as fakes by dealers. 

The families, all amateurs at archeology, contacted museums in the US and Canada to learn how to clean, preserve and display the artifacts.  Fortunately, one of the men had owned a restaurant chain that had a large number of freezers in which they used to store their meat.  Everything that needed special handling was placed in the freezer (in Independence) until it could be processed.  In particular, wooden items needed to have the water replaced by a plasticizing agent.  All of the cargo, one of the paddle wheels, some of the hull and decking and the stump were recovered.  The rest was reburied in time to use the field for spring planting.

Everything that has been cleaned and restored is in the museum — no matter how many duplicates, etc.  As well, the restoration lab is in the museum.  The owners are often present and are happy to chat about the recovery and restoration.  They are now planning to dig up another steamer.

The Steamship Arabia Museum is in one of the buildings for the Central Market.  On a weekday, only the restaurants and a few ethnic food stores are open.  We had lunch at a Brazilian place and then walked to a spot where you get a view over the Missouri.

We had hoped to take a walking tour of downtown, but noticed rather late that it was not offered that day.  As a result, we also missed our opportunity to take a trolley tour.  Instead, we walked downtown towards the old train station.  Part way there we found the tourist information center.  They told us about the free downtown trolley, and since it was very hot and humid, we hopped on for a ride to Union Station.  The station looks much like train stations of similar era in the east, i.e. majestic.  However, the vast majority of train traffic is freight and so there is little need for a passenger station right now.  The space has been converted into shops, a science museum and an event venue. 

Across the road in one direction is the monumental WWI memorial.  It was still very hot, so we did not climb up to get a closer view.  Instead, we took the glassed in pedestrian walkway that crossed two streets to a large hotel and mall complex.  It was rather like walking through an oven.  The complex includes an aquarium, Legoland and the Hallmark Museum.  These were all closed due to the hour, although the shops were open.  As well, the hotel offered a cool atrium with a 2 storey waterfall.

We hopped on the trolley and got off near our parking spot.  There was an open-air concert in a restaurant area.  It seemed very peasant, except that the volume made us want to sit several blocks away.  We opted instead to return to the campground  We were amused to note that our parking lot, which was $7 for all day parking, was charging $15 for event parking.  I am sure everyone looking was a parking space was glad to see us go — although it took a traffic cop and the lot attendant to get us out and back on the street due to all the congestion in the lot and the signage that was blocking the exit.

I am giving 2 talks at the Joint Statistical Meetings at the end of the month and was getting a bit frantic about preparing them.  So, on Friday we stayed at the campground in Independence.  I worked most of the day, and Chuck rested.  However, I could not leave Independence without seeing its most unique museum: Leila’s Hair Museum.

Leila is a hair dresser, beautician … She was out shopping in 1957 when she spotted a hair wreath.  Since then she has collected dozens of wreaths and many other hair items such as jewelry. This is a craft that was popular in the mid to late 1800’s.  I associated it with Queen Victoria using the hair of her deceased but beloved husband Albert in jewelry.  However, it turns out that hair art was a popular way to commemorate events, a popular gift from wife to husband, and even just a way to make apparel.  Hair is durable. 

It can be braided to make watch fobs, necklaces, rings etc.  Combined with wire, it can be crocheted into flowers and leaves.  Lacquered it can be cut and used for decoupage.  It can even be powdered and mixed with paint.  And of course locks of hair can be added to photos or enclosed in a locket.  For the last 60 years, Leila has been collecting examples, some very intricate, of hair art and displaying it in her museum.  I have to say that a couple of examples would have been fascinating — in such bulk it was overwhelming.  Since we were escorted by a guide (a woman whose roots are in Tyrone, PA) I stayed for the entire tour.

Here are a couple of interesting factoids, though. Hair wreaths were always open at the top to keep good luck in. And the frames, which are deep and often lined with silk or other luxurious fabrics, were often made by the local coffin manufacturer.

After the museum, I went back to the RV to work and ended the day with both talks more or less planned out.

We spent a nice day kayaking on the Salt Forks Lake.  It was very, very hot.  Our spirits were dampened by the news that a young child had drowned on the lake the previous evening, when he fell from his parents’ boat without a life jacket.  Very sad.

We decided to start off again on Tuesday.  We learned from experience that we need a reservation for the long weekend.  We decided to stay the weekend in St. Louis, which is about a 7 hour drive from Salt Forks.  With 3 driving days to get there, we felt there was still time to meander around and visit some towns along Route 40.

Route 40 was one of the first coast-to-coast American highways.  It has been more or less replaced by I70.  In this part of the country, the two roads are parallel.  I70 is the fast and boring route.  Rte 40 meanders through many towns where it often runs through the town center.  It follows an even older road called Zane’s Trace, which ran through eastern Ohio in the late 1700’s and was constructed by Ebenezer Zane. 

We started off mid-morning and visited Cambridge, OH, which has a very nice downtown.  Cambridge has a thriving glass industry.  We had hoped to visit The National Museum of Cambridge Glass, but like many museums in this area it is  closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, as is the National Road and Zane Grey Museum.  Instead, we are visiting downtowns and bicycle routes.

After lunch in Cambridge, we went to Zaneville, which has a very nice bicycle trail along the Muskingum River.  It also has a huge park with lots of athletic facilities, including a fitness trail geared to the disabled.  It seems to be quite a small town, but a good place to live if you like to be active.

These activities brought us almost to 5:00.  Chuck did not want to try driving through Columbus, OH during rush hour, so we stayed at a KOA east of the city.  There was a short but intense downpour, during which a large branch crashed onto our roof.  Fortunately, we brought a folding ladder so we could inspect the roof in case of incident.  Also fortunately, the branch missed the antenna, fan, air conditioner and solar panels.  In fact, despite the resounding crash it made when it hit, we did not even find a scratch.

Tuesday’s  travels brought us only about 30 minutes closer to St. Louis.  So on Wednesday we scooted along I70 ending up to the west of Indianapolis.  Thunderstorms and periods of intense rain are accompanying us.   The area has been very wet.  The fields are absolutely bare of crops.

On Thursday we had a bit more time.  We were intrigued by a highway advertisement for Casey, IL the town with “the world’s biggest”: golf tee, pitchfork, rocking chair, wind chimes, mailbox, teetertotter ….”  We pulled off the highway and into downtown, just in time to catch the remnants of the town’s 4th of July parade.  As everyone else streamed out of town, we walked into town.

Pretty soon our attention as caught by what appeared to be the back of a large chair, looming over the top of a building.  Making our way in that direction, we came across “the world’s largest rocking chair” a whopping 56.5  feet tall.  (We posed with the chair, but this long shot gives a better idea of the size.) It is across the road from “the world’s largest wind chimes” and “the world’s largest teetertotter”.  I should add that the chair no longer rocks, but the teetertotter will soon teeter and totter.  We also saw “the world’s largest mailbox” (which is big enough to walk in), the “world’s largest knitting needles” (and the longest piece of knitting made with them) and the “world’s largest crochet hook”. 

Some of the other “world’s largest” items were a distance away, and we decided not to travel out to see them.  However, the downtown also featured an extremely big ruler, pencil, child’s top (above), and bird cage.  We thought it was a very clever idea for attracting tourists to the town and enjoyed the whimsy of it.

We then continued on to our campsite in east St. Louis.

With several thunderstorms predicted, we debated whether we wanted to go into St. Louis for the 4th of July fireworks.  We also wondered about parking in the city, especially with the van.  In the end, we opted to have dinner at the campsite, and took a Uber to the Gateway Arch for the fireworks.  I was quite worried about finding an Uber or other transportation to take us back – a correct concern as it happened (although we did make it home, of course).

It was a very good fireworks display, made even more special by being framed by the Gateway Arch.  It had one of the best finales I have seen in a fireworks show.

The 5th started out hot and humid, and got hotter and more humid, broken by very intense thunderstorms.  Before the rain, we got a lot of practical things done around the RV – minor improvements, cleaning, etc.  However, the rain put an end to this and we spent the remainder of the day reading.

On the 6th we headed into St. Louis in the van.  We parked in Forest Park, a large urban park similar to Central Park (NYC) or High Park (Toronto) with many trails, a lake, several museums, a zoo and a theatre.  We started with lunch at the Boathouse, a nice restaurant on the edge of a spidery lake.  Kayaks, paddle boards and pedal boats are all for rent, but the hot humid weather discouraged us from wanting to be out on the water with no shade.

After lunch we bicycled around the park, taking a break at the Art Museum to see their Impressionist collection and cool off.  After a pleasant afternoon biking, we headed back to the campground, stopping for more supplies en route.

We now have quite a collection of hooks and small shelves on most of the available spaces. including a shoe rack.  This adds a bit of storage, but mostly it adds convenience as we do not need to dig through our tightly packed compartments as often.

The Vista was easy to keep clean, due to the small number of surfaces that could collect dirt and the necessity of cleaning before bringing in the slideout each time we moved.  The Travato can be packed up without cleaning up.  But it is so small that it is difficult to clean unless we can put things outside.  There is absolutely no room to move things so we can clean under or around them.  In fact, we have 2 laundry bins — one with laundry and the other with miscellaneous stuff we want to reach without opening cabinets — that sit on the bed during the day and in the cab at night.  So even in daily use, we are constantly moving things around.

Chuck has been making “van buddies”.  We met a couple with a slightly larger van.  They are doing a lot of driving.  We also met a man who has been living in a van with his dog for several years. So far we have not met anyone in a Travato.

Heading out at last – June 26 -30

4:00 p.m. The RV was packed. The kitchen and all food areas of the house were clean. And then, unbelievably, we were off!  We went to Bald Eagle State Park, which is our favorite local kayaking spot.  We shared the driving, stopped at our local shopping center for a late lunch and to pick up some items for dinner, and arrived just in time to start cooking.

We immediately discovered another advantage of the Travato.  Because it has 2 outside electrical sockets, we were able to cook outside.  Chuck made his marvellous Instant Pot chicken and we enjoyed ice cream from our freezer.

We fired up the TV to watch the first round of Democratic presidential candidate debates.

It was a spectacularly clear night.  Even though we are close to many towns, it was clear enough to see the Milky Way.  As well, the fireflies were in full display.

Whether it was the memory foam or the long day, we slept extremely well!

Our first real day of camping in the Travato!  After breakfast, we played with the water heater until we had hot water for dishes, but had our showers in the campground bathrooms. 

After breakfast, we assembled the bikes and road around this part of the park, which is on a penninsula sticking into Ayers Lake (a man-made lake).   Although we come to the park several times each summer, we have usually just launched our kayaks from the other side of the lake.  This side not only has the campgrounds and beach, it also has a very nice hotel with  great views over the lake, a good beach, a marina that hosts mostly small pontoon boats and which rents bikes and many types of small watercraft.  Our fold-up bikes proved themselves on the hills and were quite comfortable.

Our plan was that after lunch we would pack up and get groceries (as we already ran out of some items) and then head out to a boat launch site.  We went to the little town of Beech Creek to pick up groceries at a local Pennsylvania Dutch grocery store.  (These stores are amazing both for their locally “canned” (actually bottled) goods as well as unusual bulk goods such as jello (top shelf, colored packages), cereal and other things you don’t get as bulk items at regular supermarkets.)  

At the boat launch site we realized that the day had turned extremely hot – well over 90F.  It did not seem like good weather for kayaking.  We are not really beach types.  So we decided to return to the campsite where we could plug in, turn on the air-conditioning and enjoy nature through our windshield.  (Such are the advantages of RV life.)  With the heat steady throughout the daylight hours, we decided to delay the kayak debut to the next morning.

Chuck’s chicken dinner makes 4 – 6 servings (it was more like 5 this time) so dinner prep was simple.  I made a salad and cut up a lot of vegetables to be prepared in the microwave. 

The next morning, by the time we cooked our weekly portion of steel cut oats for breakfast and broke camp, the temperature was already well over 90F.  But, we definitely wanted to test out the kayaks, so we took a brief paddle in Ayers Lake.  The kayaks handle well, although they are a bit slow. 

We then headed back to State College to shop for items we wanted for the RV, pick up a few small items from home, and drop off a few things we felt we could live without.

We spent the night near DuBois at a KOA in Treasure Lake, a gated community.  The KOA is very large and the campsites are well-covered with trees.  It is quite pleasant.  We ended our day by taking a bicycle ride around the campground, and then working on “updates” to the RV.

Our main updates are 2 tension rods, one in the bathroom to hold caddies that can hold our toiletries and hooks to hold towels, wet clothes, etc.  The other rod will hold a curtain to separate the bedroom and bathroom from the rest of the RV, to give us some privacy in the evening and morning.  We also found some small shelves which I hope to tape to the bedroom wall so that I have a place for a box of tissues, my phone and glasses, and possibly even a book.  We also found some hooks that attach to the wall with adhesive strong enough to hold sweaters, etc.  These small items really make a difference to the liveability of the RV.

On Saturday we decided to start taking advantage of the good road handling of this vehicle, and got off the freeway and on to secondary highways.  Although we have often traveled east of State College en route to  Toronto, Pittsburgh or Northeast, we have never done any sightseeing.  This trip we took the time to visit a few towns.

Our first stop was DuBois, home of Penn State DuBois.  It proved to be quite small, with a tiny main street.  We were delighted, however, to learn that our former neighbor is working at the Italian restaurant there, where her brother (who we did not really know) is the cook.  Our lunch there was really good (and provided enough left-overs so making dinner was a cinch).

Our next stop was Punxutawney of Groundhog Day fame.

  It just happened that they were celebrating the “Groundhog Festival” with a fireman’s parade and fair.  The parade was classic small-town America (although with many more fire trucks than usual) — school marching bands, drill teams, baton twirlers, school sports champions and local clubs. Although we are in the heart of Trump country, one of the local clubs was the local Pride club, led by the middle-aged baton-twirler in the photo.  As far as I could see, he was the best twirler in the parade and was applauded appropriately.   I had to admire the man’s nerve as well as his twirling skills. The local groundhog celebrity, Punxutawney Phil also made an appearance.

Based on the number of large and elaborate homes we saw near downtown Punxutawney, it must have been very prosperous at one time.  Several of the mansions had very unique architecture, so I imagine that there must have been a local architect, or style, at the time they were built.  We were impressed, however, at how inexpensive homes were there – we priced a couple of these mansions at under $120K, which would not get you a parking space in downtown State College.

With thunderstorms threatening, we did not stay for the fair, but drove on to Indiana PA, home of Indiana University of PA.  This is by far the largest of the 3 towns, with a thriving downtown.  Fortunately, by the time we arrived, the rain had stopped and we were able to enjoy our walk.

We ended our day at a campground just a few miles to the west. 

The next day, we drove the short distance to the cute town of Kittanning on the Allegheny River.  Not only does Kittaning have a lovely riverside park and which makes a T with their downtown, it also has a long stretch of rail-trail that parallels the river. 

Like most rail-trails, it goes through backyards and industrial developments, but it if mostly very wooded, with great views over the river.

We spent the afternoon driving to Salt Forks State Park in Ohio.  Although Google maps thought this was just a 2 hour drive, a long and windy detour added an hour to the trip.  Admittedly, this is pretty country-side.

We found that another advantage to the van is that we were able to stop for groceries en route – a definite time-saver.  We checked in to Salt Forks for 2 nights.

Packing up – June 23 – 26

Packing the Vista the first time was relatively easy.  First we loaded in everything we thought we might need, which was basically everything in the house except the kitchen sink.  (The Vista had a perfectly good kitchen sink or we would have packed that as well.)  Then Chuck started worrying about weight, and we took out all the duplicates.  Since we had sleeping space for 8 (or 10 if you get serious) we took bedding, towels and plates for 8. 

Packing the Vista the second time was even easier.  We looked at what was in it at the end of the trip, and took out whatever we had not used, including half of the bedding and towels.

Packing the Travato is another matter entirely.  We have a fraction of the space, and the kayaks and bikes are inside, instead of on the car.  Since we won’t be towing a car, we need to cram everything into the RV.  And it needs to be done in such a way that if we want to drive out of the campsite (e.g. to go kayaking, sightseeing or shopping) we can pack up quickly.  In short, we needed to plan carefully.

Besides this, we need to adjust to our new kitchen, which does not have an oven (the appliance I use most often).  I decided that I need a mini Instant Pot (to cook steel cut oats, at minimum) and an electric frying pan.  Fortunately, the electric kettle can still be stashed in the Instant Pot but we are substituting the automatic coffee maker for a tiny French press.  The electric frying pan, which is primarily going to be used to make supper, is going to live in the Pizza Oven storage over the cab.  Fortunately, all the dinner plates can fit inside the frying pan.  (As a former tent camper, I can hardly believe that all this cooking gear is “necessary” but I never camped for more than a couple of weeks, either.)  Finally, the soup and dessert bowls are going to live in the microwave along with a collapsible microwave popcorn popper.  On top of all this, we need to plan for nights when we do not have electricity, so we packed a steamer pot.

Unbelievably, once all this stuff was packed, the kitchen cabinet was empty.  The spices all fit on a ledge behind the kitchen counter or a built-in rack by the sink.  So there is lots of room for cereal, soup, tea, etc. 

Meanwhile, Chuck was trying to find space for the important mechanical equipment — the electrical cord, water hose and sewer hose.  After considering how to install hooks for these, he decided just to coil the clean items up in a closet, and get a bin to store the sewer hose.  He also cut an opening into the enclosed storage under the bed, so that it can be accessed when the back doors are open.  Otherwise, we need to take out the bikes and kayaks to get into it.  That space holds extra electrical cords and water hoses.  We also decided to put the folding stadium chairs there, and pack the patio rugs with the bikes and kayaks..

We also needed to sanitize our drinking water tank.  This is done by filling the tank with a weak bleach solution and letting it sit.  After a few hours, the water is released and the tank is refilled and released to rinse.  This was much easier in our driveway in the summer than it was at a campsite in mid-winter.  However, it still had some challenges.  Firstly, I slipped with the bleach in hand, dumping 3/4 of a cup of pure bleach over the two of us (to the detriment of one of my favorite T-shirts).  Then it turned out that the water tank, which was supposed to be almost empty on delivery, was already full, so the bleach just ran out of the tank onto the driveway.  After the tank was emptied, we were able to proceed.  Luckily we started with a full bottle of bleach.

My next mission was to make the bedroom and kitchen more convenient by adding small shelves.  Unfortunately, both rooms have only thin partitions separating them from things like the outside of the van, wires, pipes, etc.  So putting in screws is out of the question.  I visited Walmart, Staples, Lowes and Ace Hardware looking for options and came home with an assortment of small bins and shelves.  I then went back to Ace twice trying out magnets and suction cups.  My final trip of the day was returning to all 4 stores to return everything, as none of it worked for our purpose.  However, the invaluable Travato Facebook Group has suggestions and we will work on these as we go along. 

We spent Tuesday morning with friends, and then completed our packing in the afternoon.  To our astonishment, we actually had some empty space.  As well, there are several locations where there is space to build extra storage (with instructions from the Facebook group) which we will do next winter.  These extra storage areas are partially filled with wiring and pipes, so we cannot just dump stuff in there, in case we dislodge something.  But it looks pretty easy to install bins that hang above the delicate items.  (By this I mean that I could do it myself, if necessary.  However, Chuck does a much more professional job, so I will just provide encouragement.)

We spent Wednesday packing up the last few things and then doing a thorough housecleaning of our home kitchen and dining areas.  The place is still piled up with boxes and things we have not packed from the Vista.  But we wanted to be sure that no critters move in while we are away. 

And then, unbelievably, we were off to Bald Eagle State Park to have our first night of camping and “shake down” our equipment.

June 15 and we are still waiting for the repairs to the RV.  In the interim, we have been supporting the US economy!

After much discussion about racks, we decided that we will try to travel with nothing hanging off the back of the van.  This keeps the total length at 21 ft, which means we can park anywhere that a car can — including parallel parking on the street.  Essentially, we are a panel van (although we have some windows instead of solid sides).  To make this possible, we now have a collapsible ladder (to reach the roof when necessary) folding bikes and

blow-up kayaks.  We are looking into how to attach the sails to the kayaks, although probably we will not be bringing the sails with us on this trip.

I am also reading the Facebook Group for Travato owners.  It seems lots of people are busy making modifications to increase storage, reduce noise, add solar panels, etc.  The Travato is not only an RV, it is a project for tinkerers.  The bad news, though, is it is not any more reliable than the Vista (recall that we named the Vista, “John Lemon”).  On the other hand, it has fewer parts that would immobilize us if they fail.  (If you followed us on our last trip, you will know that we had a lot of problems.  However, none of them were in the actual truck – they were all the RV, built on a Ford truck chassis.  Similarly, the Travato is built on a Promaster RAM van, which can be served at any RAM repair shop.)

On Tuesday Chuck convinced me that we should pick up the unrepaired RV with the replacement part, and pay the folks taking it as a trade-in to do the repair.  It was quite a bit of money, so we were happy to learn during our drive to Northeast, that the repair had been done and that we could pick up the RV after supper.   We were home just before midnight. 

Although I am sure that we are making the right decision by downsizing to a van, once back in the Vista, I have been nostalgic.  It was very comfortable and I shall miss the space and the option of bringing anything we want.

For comparison, here are the old 31 ft Vista and the new 21 ft. Travato.  Note that with the Vista we also towed a car, which carried our bikes and kayaks.  With the Travato we are not towing and we are going to put everything inside.

We spent Wednesday afternoon emptying out the Vista.  It really was like moving house – clothes, bedding, electronics, cooking gear, food, lawn chairs, bike and kayak accessories … As well, Chuck needed to dismantle some of our add-ons, such as the towing gear, tire pressure monitors, etc.  The Vista now looks pretty much as it did when we bought it, ignoring a few scratches on the wood. 

We also had a bit of excitement very early Wednesday.  We decided to better protect our house while away with a complete alarm system – burglar, fire and water.  Around 4 a.m. the fire alarm went off.  This led to two calls from the alarm company’s response team and an half-hour of ear-piercing alarms until Chuck found and removed the alarm battery.  Fortunately, despite the ungodly hour, Chuck remembered the password, so the alarm company did not call 911.  This is lucky, as I totally forgot we even have a password.  We still have to determine how to re-arm the alarm without setting it off.

On Thursday we headed to Souderton to pick up the Travato.  Everything went smoothly despite some torrential rain. 

We decided to test out the Travato by camping locally at the Tohickon Family Campground on the banks of Tohickon Creek.  Little did we know that the recent rains had turned the creek into a raging river.  The campground has its visiting sites on the river bank, and the permanent sites uphill. 

3 rows of visiting sites were under water and as the manager said, we had a waterside campsite.  However, the Canada geese, the fireflies and the incredibly loud grey tree frogs were all very happy with the weather.  The campground is right beside a historic covered bridge (which we drove through twice — never could have done it with the Vista) and historic grist mill. 

Except for the fear of the creek rising even more and our finding ourselves boating instead of RVing, we spent a pleasant enough evening.  It was quite hot and humid, so we tried out the air-conditioning.  As we have heard from the Facebook group, it is extremely noisy (although we could certainly sleep through it).  At some point we decided to turn off the air conditioning, open a window and turn on the fan.  The temperature immediately plummeted and I ended up grabbing the quilt.

In the morning, in the interest of trying out all of the RV systems, we took our showers in the RV.  The RV has a sophisticated water heater that can use electricity, propane or both.  It took us a while to figure out how to turn it on.  However, we were pleasantly surprised that since it is a continuous flow system, once the water was hot we were both able to shower with no break between.  On the other hand, in the condensed space, the bathroom IS the shower stall, so having a shower on board means that anything in the bathroom that is not in the waterproof cabinets gets soaked.  Still, it was a better experience than I expected.

Since we did not take any cooking utensils or food with us, we broke camp and drove to Quakertown for breakfast.  In the Vista, this would have meant stopping at a truck stop.  In the Travato, we just parked on a side street and walked to the main street.  We had a nice breakfast at a diner.

As we had never visited Quakertown before, I was surprised that many store fronts advertised Mexican goods, food or other supplies.  The breakfast specials at the dinner all had Mexican (or at least Tex-Mex) themes. 

Chuck noticed that our license plate was hanging off the van, so we headed for the local 5 & 10 to do some shopping.  (For those readers in the younger set, the Walmart equivalents of my youth were called 5 & 10s because they sold most goods for 5 or 10 cents.  They usually had some type of lunch counter (if you know civil rights history, think of the Greensboro Sit In) and several departments such as housewares, sewing, snacks, clothing, etc.  Woolworth’s and Kresge’s are two chains that come to mind.) 

Sine’s 5 and 10 had much of the look of these old stores (although it is now 5 and 10 dollars) with an eclectic set of departments, including a Christmas shop, candy store, knitting and sewing section, dishes, games, hobby shop and an authentic old-style lunch counter.  The owner was clearly a collector, as well.  One huge display window was devoted to model airplanes (enough for a museum) and there were more models, as well as a model Zeppelin in the hobby section. 

There were collections of old cameras, bottles, even rulers (which were much more interesting en masse than they would have been individually).  We did our bit to keep the place in business by purchasing a screwdriver and a few sewing items.

Then we headed for home and dinner with friends as well as our first RV “showing”.

On Saturday we started getting organized for the trip.  Quite a few of our neighbors came by to see the Travato and the bikes.  I took a bicycle out for a test run down to our local hardware store, to pick up duck tape for some projects.

Chuck worked on his do-list (which is extensive) and getting the appropriate EZ-pass (for toll roads) while I worked on the bedroom and kitchen.  For the bedroom, I cut some memory foam to fit the odd-shaped mattress, and worked on getting some of our old sheets to fit the same odd shape and thickness. 

The bed has a weird FROLI bedspring system that consists of a bunch of springy plastic pieces that are tacked to the plywood bed.  The springs are actually quite comfortable, but unfortunately they tend to get stuck in the mattress and pull loose, to the detriment of both the springs and the mattress.   I cut an old flat sheet to fit over these and used my duck tape to keep it down.  We then dumped the mattress supplemented with memory foam over this and we now have a much improved bed that still can be folded up to reach the storage beneath.

We also confirmed that 2 folding bikes, 2 blow-up kayaks and 2 stadium chairs can be stowed under the bed.  That pretty much uses up our main storage so everything else needs to be stashed into our tiny cabinets and the very narrow space over the cab affectionately called the “Pizza Oven”.

In the Vista we had a microwave, stove top, small oven, and lots of room for coffee pots, toaster ovens, etc.  Most days I used the oven to roast our dinner.  In the Travato we have a microwave, very small stove top, no oven and no room to store appliances.  So, again we are helping the economy by shopping. 

The hardware store had a tiny one-cup coffee press.  I also got the smallest size Instant Pot (our current one would not fit anywhere except under the bed – space already filled with our toys), a collapsible microwave hot air popper and an electric frying pan.  The frying pan is too large to store any place but the Pizza Oven, but it did a great facsimile of my roasted veggies with salmon this evening, and can even be used to make brownies.  I think it will be worth the hassle of bringing it (and our dinner plates can be stored inside).  We will also bring a pot that can be put on the propane burners, in case we camp without an electric hook-up.  And that is it for the kitchen. 

Meanwhile, we finally got the correct pump to blow-up the kayaks, and Chuck tested them out.  In our living room, they seem fine.

I entertained hope that we could leave on the weekend, but organizing our packing has been more challenging than expected.

Home June 8 – 14

We are still at home, but things are slowly progressing. 

Chuck is working on making a rack for the new RV that will hold 2 kayaks and 2 bicycles.  I have joined a Facebook group that has lots of good advice for Travato owners, but most people with both kayaks and bikes are either using roof racks for the kayaks (quite a lift as the vehicle is 9 ft. tall) or folding kayaks (unlikely we can mount the hardware for the sails).  There is a commercial carrier available but besides the $2k cost, I don’t think the rear doors of the RV can open with the rack mounted.  Although he is not very interested in routine repairs, Chuck can be very inventive and handy when confronted with a design challenge.

Meanwhile, we are seeing friends, walking, working, reading and playing on-line bridge.  My garden has been remarkably productive, given that we were not even supposed to be here to harvest: lettuce, kale, dill, asparagus, chives, onion greens and now sugar snaps;  some “volunteer” potato, tomato, bean and squash plants are popping up so there might be something to harvest in the fall, too.  I have also been enjoying my flowers.

We have also been raising small mammals in our garden — lots of baby rabbits, gray and red squirrels and chipmunks.  In fact, our bird feeders were a favorite of one of our chipmunks, who will undoubtedly do well in life as he or she even managed to fend off the squirrels. (It is on the green feeder, with its head inside.)

On Tuesday we arranged to go to Souderton, near Philly, to check out the Travato RV on which we have put a deposit.  For some reason, we both woke up quite early, and so we decided to make good on our new travel mode and stop somewhere interesting en route.  That was Lancaster, PA, a historic town that we have often bypassed.

We only had an hour in Lancaster, but we will definitely want to return.  We were lucky enough to be there on a market day, and thoroughly enjoyed their indoor “farmer’s market” for its abundance of local goods and foods.  This is the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish and Mennonite) country, and there were lots of stalls with baked goods, sausage, etc.  Lancaster also has a rich history with many historic buildings still standing.

The RV we selected has everything we want, and only one enhancement (a retractable step) that we don’t.  When purchasing an RV off the lot, you usually have to take something you don’t want, so that is pretty good.  We also discovered that the cab curtains, which we did want but were not included on this RV, are not that great — they do not provide full blackout.  So, all in all we are happy with this vehicle and put down a down payment.  We cannot do the actual purchase until the other RV is repaired.  We hope this will happen soon.

We spent the afternoon measuring storage (small) and trying to determine if Chuck’s bike/kayak rack design will work.  I am a bit worried about having 10 foot long kayaks attached vertically to the hitch with support only at the bottom.  I think there is plenty of opportunity for the entire thing to rotate.   There is plenty of space under the bed (which is about 3 feet off the floor) for things like chairs, the kayak sails, etc.  but this is only 77 inches long, so the kayaks cannot go there. 

The fridge and freezer are actually at least as big as in our current RV, and I think the space for kitchen gadgets is also comparable. The problem will be smaller things like toiletries.  Also, it is hard to see where to put a garbage can and laundry basket. (Entire Facebook discussions are devoted to the question of where to place a garbage can.)   I suspect we will not make much use of the tiny shower and the shower stall will likely be the place for these.

We spent 7 hours of driving to check out the vehicle, do a short test drive and put down our deposit.  We still have to look forward to driving to Northeast and back to pick up the old RV, and then back to Souderton to pick up the new one.  We are doing a lot of driving considering that we have not yet started our trip!

On Wednesday Chuck put in many hours trying to get the bugs out of his bike/kayak rack.  However, in the end we decided that we cannot carry our kayaks on the back of the RV.  Instead, we are going to do what many people suggested – get “blow-up” kayaks that fold up for packing and can be placed in our storage space.  We will get a bicycle rack that flips down so we can open the rear doors of the RV without taking off the rack.  Although we initially thought that the sails could not be attached to these inflatables, some web searching showed that some people have done this without destroying the integrity of the kayaks.  I am sure Chuck will put his ingenuity to work once the kayaks arrive.

The parts manufacturer sent out the replacement motor on Monday, so we were quite surprised when our service guy said it had not arrived on Wednesday.  Frustratingly enough, this was yet another mistake on their part, as UPS shows Wednesday delivery.  Late Friday afternoon, we finally got the news that the service department has the part.  But of course they don’t work on the weekend, so this entails several more days of delay.  When I complain to a neighbor that I don’t mind unavoidable problems but hate problems due to human error, she points out that human error IS an unavoidable problem.   

June 1 – Still in State College

On Friday we got bad news from our RV dealer — the manufacturer is using a new mechanism for the large slideouts and no longer carries a part we require.  We are waiting to hear what their solution will be, while worrying that the value of our motor home, both to us and as a trade-in, has been dramatically reduced.

Chuck has been researching other RV designs, and on Monday we went to Altoona to look at some camper vans.  These are much, much smaller than our RV — about the size of a Ford truck and drive much like a regular van.  They get at least double the mileage of the RV.  But most important, they can be parked in a regular street or supermarket parking lot, so we would not need to tow the car and we could stop en route if we see an interesting spot.

One thing we realized is that during the day, even when we are not driving, we do not really use that much space in the RV.  Typically, Chuck sits at our table and I sit in the passenger front seat, which has a desk.  The camper van we liked best had similar living space – the table is the same length, although narrower, and it has a leaf that can be used from the passenger front seat. 

Of course, the van is much smaller.  While the RV sleeps 8, the van sleeps 4 — assuming 2 couples.  (The dining room table drops down and various pieces are added to make a double bed.) The bathroom is tiny (but there is a bathroom and shower).  Most of the difference, however, is in storage space.  There is no outside storage, no clothes or coat closet, and the cupboard space is tight.  The master bedroom has a double bed, rather than queen size.  However, now that we know how to pack, much of the storage space in the RV is not being used.  The van has room for the essentials, including the kayak and bicycle equipment and folding chairs that can be reached when the back door is open.  We will need to be well organized to avoid having to lift the bed to get to the cabinets below.

By better use of space, the kitchen actually has more counter space than the RV.  However, there is no oven.  I think I can adjust, though, to using the stove top, microwave and perhaps a toaster oven and slow cooker. 

As the week progresses, we get more information about the part needed for the RV.  Finally we realize that the part is available.  The slideout motor actually has 2 parts which fit together.  Due to a recent redesign, both parts need to be reinstalled.  However, when they did the repair, they only replaced one of the parts, which broke the other part.  The delay was not due to availability of the parts, but due to the heavy volume of calls to the parts factory, which required being on hold.  Due to the vagaries of how the dealership handles its service phones, the technician could afford the time to be on hold. 

It took until Thursday to figure this out.  On Thursday, I got on the phone to the Winnebago main factory and the motor manufacturer.  A very nice parts technician at the motor manufacturer (Lippert Component Industries) offered to call the RV technician to discuss the issue.  After some misdirected emails (my fault) we had new parts on order to be shipped Monday.  As an added bonus, the Lippert technician determined that the newly installed motor should be covered by warrantee and is not charging for the new motor. 

Also at the end of the week, we settled on our new RV and put a hold on it.  We will go to Philadelphia next Tuesday to look at the vehicle on the lot.  Chuck also wants to take measurements, as he has designed a dual bicycle/kayak rack to fit on the RV.  Also, the RV does not have blackout curtains, so I need to take measurements to make curtains for the cab windows.  I am not making predictions on when we will actually get on the road.

Meanwhile, we are still seeing friends and doing things locally.  On Friday is the downtown farmer’s market.  On Saturday, State College had a downtown music festival and also our annual ice cream festival.  However, we opted to go to Bellefonte where the PSU Science Policy Club is hosting “Science Brew” and informal talk in a local coffee shop.  (I think it used to be held at a local pub.) 

The topic is the geological evidence in the Yucatan for the weeks immediately following the asteroid impact that caused the dinosaur extinction.  According to the speaker, the angle and location of the impact were just bad luck for the dinosaurs, throwing up a lot more debris in the form of sulfur compounds than would have happened at other angles or locations and thus causing a heavy smog for several months. 

We both go for a long walk every day.  Chuck prefers a downtown loop, while I usually head for the hills (literally).  On Wednesday I did a very nice hike with my friend Becky up through Musser Gap.  (The photos in this section are hers.

There were lots of wild flowers, and at the top of the ridge the mountain laurel was making a wonderful display.  It has been raining most days, and the ridge was also full of puddles in which there were thousands of tadpoles.  I hope they are quick to mature, because a lot of the puddles look very transient.

The Statistics Department summer picnic was Thursday, and we enjoyed that as well.  I now have a substantial bruise on my wrist from playing volleyball.  Fortunately, the game was not played for points, as whatever skills I had seem to have deteriorated in the 3 years since I last played.

I have also been reading a lot of novels.  I have “discovered” Fredrik Backman, Celeste Ng and Lisa See, as well as a number of mystery and thriller writers that are new to me.  Between audiobooks, e-books and actual books, I am reading a novel just about every day.

Chuck has done a bit of work, and I still have quite a lot of statistics work to deal with.  I am finishing things up, but new items continue to arrive.  And I have not yet started working on my 2 talks for JSM.

And we are both still working on our bridge games.  We are probably ready to play with another couple – as long as they are not too serious.

May 19 – 21

After a family breakfast in Durham, we delivered Elisabeth back to the train and then packed up to go.  En route, we are able to contact our RV dealer, who asks us to bring the RV back to Northeast ASAP to check the part that is shedding the metal fragments.  He points out that the Memorial Day Weekend is coming up fast and as a result of this traditional first day of camping, they are crazy busy.  We agree to drop the RV off on May 21 so they can take a look (and hopefully get us back on the road) before the weekend.

This gives us 2 driving days to get back to Northeast, but it has some advantages.  We planned to be back home May 22-24 in any case, and if we can get back on May 21 we can vote in the PA special election.  (It turns out that although we got absentee ballots, they arrived too late for us to return them on time.)  Fortunately, the campground in 1000 Islands agrees to a full refund.

Chuck picked the Walker Island Campground for the first night.  This is a pretty little campground on Walker Creek, off route 20.  This is a lovely part of the country.  We pulled off the interstate near Easthampton, but took a different out.  I ended up being the driver for 30 miles on route 20, a secondary highway that winds its way through the hills and small towns.  I prefer this to highway driving, but I am sure there were many cursing drivers, as I did not feel comfortable going over 45 mph even when the speed limit was 55.  I tried to pull over to let others pass when this was possible, but at several points I was the head of an entourage. 

The weather was nice after we set, and we took a long walk through the campground, which spans both sides of Walker Creek.  I would love to go back a stay a few days when we have time.

The campground also has good internet, which is important because this is the evening of the Game of Thrones finale.  Yes, it was a big disappointment, but we were happy that we saw it before all the spoilers came in.

The next morning it poured and poured — until we were finished packing up.  After Chuck was thoroughly soaked it turned into a beautiful day. 

Chuck drove the remaining distance on route 20 and we then got back on the interstate to Canandaigua.  We stayed at Canandaigua KOA on our previous trip, and visited Montezuma Wildlife Reserve.  On this occasion, we had a long drive to get there and hoped for an early start the next day, so we just set up camp and hunkered down.  The wind was so fierce that we decided to bring the slide in — not to preserve the slide, but to preserve the slide topper, a small awning that prevents rain from getting between the slide and the RV. 

We narrowly missed hitting a large snapping turtle on the road into the campground.  Another large snapper was sitting in the tiny creek near the campsite.  It must be mating season.  We recall how some really big turtles lived in the quite small drainage ditches in Ithaca, and were often injured crossing the road at this time of year — presumably looking for mates.

We managed to get a good start in the morning.  The wind persisted, but was not quite so gusty.  Given the wind and the relatively short drive to Northeast, Chuck drove the RV.

After dropping off the RV, we saw that we could return home in plenty of time to vote and even to have dinner with friends. 

May 17 – 19 – Durham, NH

From Westhampton to Durham is a fairly short drive, although it does include the Boston ring road,which I drove.  Fortunately traffic was light, but there were still a lot of merging cars.  Also fortunately, I am getting more used to driving our rig.

The sides of the road have great stretches of what look like snow drifts, which prove to be the result of masses of this tiny wildflower.  If you look closely in the photo, you can see the penny that I put in for scale.  These flowers also grow in my yard, but they are a pale blue color in PA.

Chuck’s sister Karen is both the mother of the new graduate and the family organizer.  In preparation for this trip, she visited the campground and picked out 3 adjacent sites for herself, us and Chuck’s parents.  Due to the wet weather, the campground moved us, but kept us together. This was convenient for meals, campfires and celebrations.

I got the good news that my doctor appointment in State College had been moved up to May 23.  This made me quite happy, as the original date was May 30, which meant we would not be able to head out to the main part of our trip until June 1.  We promptly made a reservation to camp on the Canadian side of Thousand Islands from May 21 through the end of the Memorial Day Weekend.  It is only a 5 hour drive (excluding border crossing) to State College, so we will drive home on the 22nd and back on the 24th.  And then the real adventure will begin.

Elisabeth was the first to arrive, by train from Boston.  After we set up camp, we picked her up from the station and brought her to the RV.  This was her 3rd time RVing with us, so she knows the routine.

Chuck’s parents showed up next, followed by Karen, her significant other, Ed, her son, Jake (whose graduation we attended on our last trip) and Annie, best friend of the graduate, Jill. 

A fire was built in the fire pit, pizza was ordered and too much pizza and S’mores were consumed until the fire died down.  Remarkably, no rain fell and the black flies, which were plentiful, were not biting.

Graduation day dawned with blue skies and warmth (both of which have been rare on the trip to date).  We headed off with the family (joined by sister-in-law Michelle and her son Sam) to the UNH football stadium for the graduation ceremony. 

Every school does things differently — the main wisdom seems to be that even the happy families cannot be expected to sit for more than 90 minutes.  In the case of UNH, there is only one ceremony for everyone (with the possible exception of the professional schools).  This is a lot of students, so they compensate by calling names only for Ph.D. graduates.  Otherwise, the degrees were conferred en mass. 

The commencement address was given by columnist and political pundit David Brooks.  Both his jokes and his theme (bringing people together) were better than most of these talks. 

After the formal graduation, we met up with Jill’s boyfriend, Jordan and walked across the pretty UNH campus to Engineering for a brief reception.  Then back to the campsite for more partying, BBQ, campfire and family time, along with Jordan’s mother, Debra.

The next morning, Karen made breakfast for us all and we all headed out.  Just before we pull the slide in, we always do a through cleaning of the RV.  We noticed a small pile of metal shavings near the repair site.  There had also been shavings the first day of our trip but we assumed that was due to poor cleanup on the part of the repair folks.  Now that it has happened again, we cannot discount the idea that some part is getting destroyed each time we use the slide.  Since it is Sunday, we cannot call the RV service department.  After much discussion, we decide that our best option is to retrace our path (the quickest way back to the dealer with Thousand Islands accessible en route) rather than taking the alternative route (the quickest way to Thousand Islands) and call the dealer in the morning.