Whaddaya Mean No Internet!!

Accord, NY, is nestled between two mountain ranges, one of which is the Catskill Mountains. It is a beautiful area, and we enjoyed the tranquility offered by this stop. Though the campground had internet access that could be purchased for $5/day, it didn’t reach out to the area where our site was, and there was no Verizon service so we weren’t able to use our air card. This also meant our Verizon phone didn’t work either. Each day we’d drive 7 miles down the road to an old strip mall parking lot where our Verizon card worked so we could quickly check our e-mails for anything important. Just a few years ago not having internet access was no big deal. Now we’re lost without it! We had both planned to do some internet research this week but so much for the best laid plans. That big Verizon network they brag about in all their commercials is definitely not in DeFuniak Springs, FL, or Accord, NY.

No internet service meant we had more time to catch up on some projects like re-staining the spice rack, and visit more with folks. About 9 a.m. our first morning at Rondout Valley Camping Resort we were outside, and Monty from next door saw our FL plates and stopped by to ask what part of FL we were from. Turns out he’s from Hollywood, FL, and as we chatted Tom from a couple sites down came over and introduced himself. We all sat at the picnic table getting acquainted and soon Richie (Tom’s neighbor) joined us. Monty is a retired dentist, Tom a semi-retired truck driver, and Richie a retired elevator construction technician….all very interesting people. In no time at all, it was noon, and we hadn’t eaten any breakfast!

The next week was going to take us to Frosty Acres Campground outside of Schenectady, but Tom told us it wasn’t a very desirable campground, very muddy and hilly. In fact he suggested we talk to Vince a couple sites on the other side of us since they had just come from there and arrived with their wheels covered in mud. Around 5 p.m. we left to take the dogs for a walk and found Vince and Leslie sitting outside so we stopped to chat. They showed us the Frosty Acres campground map and gave us suggestions on the best location. It had poured while they were there, and they said if it didn’t rain, we’d be fine. Before we knew it, two hours had past! Shortly thereafter Tom stopped by to invite us to bring our drinks and sit around the campfire he was building. So Leslie, Vince, Monty, Tom, Russ, and I spent the next couple hours doing what we had read about before starting this grand adventure that so many folks do in this lifestyle….sitting around a blazing campfire on a starry night sharing drinks, stories, and experiences.

About 45 miles from Accord is the West Point Military Academy (http://www.usma.edu/), and that is where we headed on Fri. morning. Driving the back roads took us through part of the Catskill Mountains….beautiful scenery and very winding roads.













We arrived in time for the 2 hour tour, and while we waited for the tour to begin, we viewed many of the displays at the visitor’s center. Unlike Annapolis, this tour was primarily by bus with only a couple stops. The first stop was at Trophy Point, a beautiful view overlooking the Hudson River. Here our tour guide, Ed, gave us some history on the area as we viewed the tall granite monument dedicated to those Union soldiers who fought and died during the Civil War.

We walked across the street to the parade grounds where each year the graduating cadets parade before faculty, family, and friends and is said to be quite a moving experience. The incoming class of 2012 had arrived 2 weeks earlier to begin their training so not only did we see some of the cadets marching around the perimeter of the field, but across the street other cadets were working on maneuvers. Evidently they haven’t been issued guns yet as you can see in the photos!



















The next stop was a walking tour of the cemetery. Only West Point graduates or those who have served in the Army can be buried here along with their wives and dependent children, though on occasion exceptions have been made. One of those exceptions was the women’s basketball coach who died suddenly at the age of 28. You’ll notice the stones on top of her headstone as well as on others in the cemetery. Ed explained that it is typically a Jewish tradition that has been picked up by many others as well. Flowers wilt and die, but stones last forever. The football-shaped headstone belongs to Earl "Red" Blaik, head football coach 1941-1958 and Dir. of Athletics from 1948 until his death in 1959.

As we entered the cemetery, immediately to our left were the graves of those who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq including the first women from West Point killed in those skirmishes. Really brings the war close to home.









We stopped near the gravesite of Gen. Westmoreland and as Ed spoke about him and some of the surrounding graves (i.e. astronaut Lt. Col. Ed White who was one of three killed on the launch pad), one man from our group, unseen by most, walked over to the general’s grave, placed a stone on top, stepped back, and saluted. A very touching and moving sight.

Also buried at West Point is Gen. George Custer. Well, at least we think he’s buried there. Ed explained that Gen. Custer had been buried in a mass grave at Little Big Horn, but when it was decided to re-inter him at West Point, they dug up what they believe was Custer’s body and delivered it here but no one seems 100% certain it’s his! On either side of the headstone is a goat’s head sculpture which signifies he was last in his class at West Point. It’s not that he wasn’t smart, just that he preferred to pursue other interests more than study. The tradition of the last in the class being called the goat continues today as does the tradition of everyone else in the class giving “the goat” $1 on the day of graduation in thanks for them not being last. With a class size of over 900 that can be quite a nice little sum!

The last grave we stopped at before re-boarding the bus was that of Martin “Marty” Maher and his wife, Mary, who gave many years of service to West Point and on whom the movie The Long Gray Line was based. We had just watched that movie a couples weeks ago on TNT, and if you haven’t seen it, it’s an excellent movie and well worth watching.

The final stop on our tour was the Cadet Chapel on top of the hill, another beautiful church. As you can see in the photo below left, the fact that it is a military operation is evidenced by the bibles and hymnals being perfectly aligned all the way down to the front of the church! It is home to the world’s largest church organ, and as in Annapolis, one pew is set aside for the POWs and MIAs with a large candle that is lit everyday, and no one may sit in this pew.

As at Annapolis, only a Bachelor of Science degree is offered, and graduating cadets are required to give 5 years of service in exchange for their four years of school, and any student who furthers their education is required to give additional years. For example, a cadet who completes medical school is required to give 12 years of service. Some famous graduates besides those already mentioned include Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George Patton, Omar Bradley, Douglas MacArthur, astronauts Frank Borman and Buzz Aldrin, and Norman Schwarzkopf.

Once back at the visitor’s center, we briefly walked through the West Point Museum located next door. Though a beautiful campus and filled with tradition, Russ and I both felt we enjoyed the tour at Annapolis more. Perhaps because it seemed more personal, and we were able to go into so many more buildings. We could have even gone back to any of those areas we had toured whereas at West Point we could not have gotten back past the security gate.

Located not far from the campground is Kelder’s Farms, and twice a week they drive a tractor to the campground pulling their produce wagon behind, driving up and down the rows of campers with fresh vegetables from their farm for folks to buy. Since we had stocked up before leaving NJ, we didn’t need any produce when they came by on Sat., but what a great idea.

We saw Monty nearly everyday we were there and finally met his wife Elaine Sat. night. Though not fulltimers, they have traveled many years and are on their 5th RV. Monty is full of knowledge about RVing, and he and Russ spent many hours talking. He’s also a computer whiz and shared a couple programs with us on mapping trips and photo organization. Elaine used to sing but has nodes on her throat and is unable to now, but we chatted for some time about our love for music and me filling her in on Sweet Adelines. Though having heard of it, of course, she never realized what an “organization” it was and said she learned something new. They left a couple days before us and will only be about 8 miles down the road from us in Schenectady, so we plan to get together for lunch or dinner one day. As it turns out, Vince and Leslie will be about 18 miles away so will try to get together with them, too.

Mon. morning we decided to take a drive about 45 minutes away to the quaint little town of Woodstock as seen on the left. In one sense it's sort of a tourist trap, and though not where the concert was actually held (or even near the location), it’s still a cool town with lots of groovy shops.

Yesterday (Wed.) we arrived at Frosty Acres Camping Resort outside of Schenectady arriving about 1 p.m. Seems to be an interesting place, nothing fancy, definitely hilly, and you can see where parts of it could be quite a quagmire if it pours. Hopefully we won’t get stuck!

From here we’ll head to Cooperstown to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame, another on the list of things to see before I die. Since we will be there the day of the 2008 induction ceremonies, we may take the opportunity to attend. We then head to Niagara Falls, a place neither of us has ever been, and then continue on our way to St. Louis.

Chillin' on the 4th

Can you believe the year is half over?! Time sure does fly when you’re having fun! This last week at Bill and Terri’s has definitely flown by with no big plans just plenty of relaxin', eatin', and drinkin'.

Wed. night Matthew (aka Boo) and Taylor had us over to their new house for dinner along with Bill and Terri. Boo grilled hamburgers and hot dogs while Taylor whipped up a salad and a delicious Italian zucchini dish. After dinner, Boo and Russ retired to the game room (appropriately decorated with St. Louis Cardinals décor!) for a few games of pool.


Bill’s sister, Connie, and her 13-year-old grandson, Justin, arrived from St. Louis on the 4th of July. All the kids came over as did Bill’s brother, Mike, his wife, Mary Ellen, and their daughter, Andrea, who was in town and whom we hadn’t seen since she was about 3 or 4 years old. She’s grown into a lovely young woman. BBQ was on the agenda for the day complete with ribs, chicken, wings, plenty of dips, baked beans, potato salad, tossed salad, corn on the cob, brownies, and chocolate covered banana cake. Plus there was plenty of soda, beer, and mojitos to go around! The pool was open and even Russ got in playing with Will! Russ’ mom seemed to enjoy the day watching the kids play and taking in all the hub-bub. Some of the group went to the nearby town of Berlin to watch fireworks while the rest of us stayed to party on. Someone in the neighborhood had some fireworkds going off so we didn't totally miss out.

Nothing special happened over the next few days. The days were overcast quite a bit so not much more swimming went on. We picked up lobster at the grocery store one day (on sale for $5.99/lb.!), ate leftovers, got takeout, and just visited and chatted. Seems there’s always company coming by so days and evenings are never dull.

Tomorrow (Wed.) we leave for Accord, NY, to continue on our journey.

Family....Old and New

When we arrived at Leisure Point RV Resort in Millsboro, DE, on Sat. (6/21), we had to wait for the 2pm check-in time. It wasn't that “our” spot was occupied, they just have a very strict rule that no RVs are allowed in until the check-in time. Evidently members had complained about RVs coming in early. So for 1 hr. 15 min. our motorhome sat outside their guard gate until we could go in. Seems to us that a 39 ft. motorhome (no matter how nice) and car sitting at the entry for over an hour would be worse than letting it in, but hey, what do we know!

Anyway, once we got settled, I drove to my sister's house 20 min. away in Rehoboth Beach. After all the hellos, being amazed at the length of Julie's hair (longest she's ever had it!, etc., etc., we headed off to one of the local Mexican restaurants where we shared a huge plate of nachos and a carafe of homemade Sangria! Yummm!!! After some shopping, we stopped at Friendly’s Restaurant (where she currently works) and shared a scrumptious dish of 4 different flavors of ice cream accompanied with brownies, whipped cream, and cherries…double yummm!!

Since Julie had never seen the RV or "the kids", she picked me up Sun. morning in her convertible. The plan was to head for the beach driving down U.S. 1 with the top down. On the way back towards Rehoboth Beach, Julie called her good friend, George, since he had told her he was looking forward to meeting me. George has lived here all his 62 years as did his pappy and his grandpappy, so he’s full of historical information on the area. He insisted on buying us lunch and then took us on a drive. The first place we visited was Cape Henlopen State Park (www.destateparks.com/chsp/chsp.htm) just a few miles down the road in Lewes, DE. There are several beaches but unknown (and sometimes unseen) to most visitors is a lot of WWII history. With the onset of World War II, the U.S. Army established a military base at Cape Henlopen in 1941. Bunkers and gun emplacements were camouflaged among the dunes, and concrete observation towers were built along the coast to spot enemy ships. There were 11 of these towers built between 1939 and 1942, and Julie and I climbed to the top of one of the observation towers. The views were incredible, and if you look straight down, you could see symbols and sayings created in dirt below.

George drove us from one end of the Cape to the other, sharing historical knowledge and pointing out several “points of interest”. We passed the lightship Overfalls (www.overfalls.org/), also located in Lewes and built in 1938. It’s been on the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal since 1973 and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Further down the road we passed the salt marshes and several platforms designed specifically for the Osprey (Fish Hawk) to nest. Some were flying, and we even saw one sitting in the nest! We spent a good 4 hours with George, and a good time it was. He’s an interesting and fun man chock full of information.

Once we got back to Julie’s car, we decided it was too late to set out on our adventure in the convertible so opted instead to stop for a glass of wine, and then drove down the street to the local discount movie theater and watched Leatherheads starring George Clooney and Renee Zellweger. Cute movie but glad we didn’t pay full price to see it.

The next day I drove to her house, and even though isolated thunderstorms were predicted, again our plan was to try the drive down the highway in the convertible. But after running a couple errands, her husband called and needed the car, so we returned it to her house and took off in the Saturn. Hey, at least it’s got a sunroof! Before we left town, we stopped for a quick bite at Crabby Dick’s (www.crabby-dicks.com/home.htm), the home of double entendres plastered all over the wall and the menu! They’ve got the best Cream of Crab soup, and we shared a Crab Pretzel appetizer, a huge baked pretzel with a cheesy crab topping. It was really tasty but just a little too much “bread”.

We continued our drive stopping in Bethany, another small resort town, full of little shops and restaurants (otherwise known as a tourist trap J). At the entrance to the main street is a large totem pole, which has been a landmark there since 1976. Known as Whispering Giants, these totem poles were created by Peter Wolf Toth, a humanitarian who wanted to give thanks to the U.S. He has donated a sculpture to each U.S. state and Canadian province plus a few outside of North America. We walked down to the beach, which was crowded, and sat for awhile enjoying the scenery….and the lifeguards. Tee hee!

Back in the car, we continued driving and shortly were in Ocean City, MD…I hadn’t realized just how short a distance it was! Before I arrived, we had talked about going to a place called Fager’s Island (http://www.fagers.com/), a restaurant/bar in Ocean City that has a very special event called Sunsets by Tchaikovsky. Every night the William Tell Overture plays over the loudspeakers timed perfectly to the setting sun. It is supposed to be spectacular, but since the sun wasn’t setting until late, we decided we’d have to skip it for this trip. We had planned to have a drink there, but Julie wasn’t feeling too good (think the heat was getting to her), so we left and stopped at a pizza place on the way back. Back at her house, I said my good-byes to her kitties, her husband, and to her. Though short, we had a really good visit.

Tues. morning Russ and I took off for his sister’s in Atco, NJ, for a 2 week visit. The day before Terri’s daughter-in-law delivered her 2nd son, Josh, and on Thurs. morning I went to the hospital with Terri and “big brother” Will to meet my new grand nephew…what a doll! Grandpa Bill showed up, too, and I got a sweet picture of the grandparents with their new grandbaby.



Another new addition to the family is niece Kristi’s new puppy, Xena. Though only an 8 month old Rottweiler, she weighs more than Mikey and is a typically goofy puppy. When we arrived, Barney and Rambo (Terri and Bill’s Scottish Terriers) seemed to remember Mikey and Abby…at least there wasn’t the scuffle like when we arrived last year, as you may recall. Kristi was a little apprehensive about how Xena would get along with our dogs, but everything was fine. Abby has nearly the same energy level as Xena so they were a great match.

Russ’ mom turned 90 this year and is doing well other than the Alzheimer’s has progressed even more. Most of the time she’s not sure who anyone is but has moments of lucidity, and still maintains her sense of humor at times. She seems to sleep a lot more and rarely changes out of her pajamas, but when you get to be that age, you can pretty much do what you want!

Sat. we took Bill and Terri to dinner at Outback, and on Sun. all the family came over for a barbecue to celebrate Taylor’s birthday. (Taylor is Matthew’s girlfriend.) Billy and Maggie brought Will and the baby, Kristi brought Xena, and some good friends of Bill and Terri’s from down the street joined the fun. While waiting to eat, Terri snapped a pic of Russ and Will relaxing on the couch watching their favorite movie, Cars. Even though it was Taylor’s birthday, Will helped blow out the candles. After dinner nearly everyone got in the pool, and we worked on teaching Xena how to swim and how to carefully get in/out of the pool using the steps. Bill and I decided we needed to work with her when there weren’t so many people around!











Mon. Bill and Terri took us to dinner at a place called Crab Trap (www.thecrabtrap.com/) near the Jersey shore, across the bay from Ocean City, NJ. What a great meal, and after stuffing ourselves, they drove across the bridge to give us a quick tour of Ocean City. Of course, this time of year it was packed with tourists so we headed back home. They said they enjoy coming down during the winter months when no one is around and stay at a friend’s place.