RV There Yet? » Travel sights

Finding Texoma

steph — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 03:56:27 +0000

Once again we are in a area that is known by a morph or portmanteau (a combination of two words). Remember Ark-La-Tex? Well, we’re are in a area known as Texoma. Get it? Texas and Oklahoma. Here it is on a map -

See the squiggly line through the middle? That’s the Red River, and it’s the border between Texas and Oklahoma. And we figured since we had never been in this area before we needed to take some time to Find Texoma!
We set out from Charis Hills, just outside of Sunset, and headed towards Muenster.

Along the way we passed a lot of these -

Oil? Natural Gas?
lots of these-

a fair number of these -

and many varieties of these -

Big ol’ Texas style gates!
Mostly the road looked like this -

and

(does it look like it only rains on one side of the road? Don’t know what that’s all about since we didn’t see any signs of traditional irrigation……)
And look – it’s almost a hill……

Eventually we came to Muenster, population 1544. And why did we want to go to Muenster? We’d heard about a wonderful supermarket there – Fischer’s Thriftway and Meat Market.

The operative word there is Meat Market!

I know I should have taken a picture of their amazing fresh meats, but there was always a crowd standing around so I settled for a shot of this sample table (you call it samples, I call it lunch) and the smoked sausage and cheese display.

We were also delighted to discover that there was some kind of fancy car festival going on!

I “get” the first three cars in this row – roadsters, fancy sports car of some unknown origin, and then a late model Chevy Truck. Really? We didn’t research this anomaly – just noticed it when I was reviewing my pictures. Go figure!
But we enjoyed a little street music -

and some great mural work as we were pulling out of town.

This sweet little town certainly was working hard to put it’s best German foot forward!
But onward – Lake Nocona was calling us. (When I mentioned this morning to our hosts (who have lived in this area for 3 years) that we checked out Lake Nocona, they confessed they had never even heard of it!) But look – we found it!

OK, I can check that little lake of the bucket list. Next stop – OKLAHOMA! I had hoped we could make it all the way to Duncan, home to a The Chisholm Trail Heritage Center, but it was just a little too far north for us to do on this Saturday. But still, we got to cross the Mighty Red River…..

Yes, I suppose it has seen some mightier days – especially when all those cattle were being taken to market in Kansas!

We made it all the way to Terral, where we tried unsuccessfully to find an historical site that had been promised on a roadside sign.

Oh well, we did take a little tour through town (pop. 350 so it was a very little tour….), and I did manage to take one of my favorite pictures of the day -

I liked it so well, I played with it a little bit with my editing program ….

But I digress…..
From Terral it was a straight shot back to Bowie (the closest “real” town to our SOWER project, with not only a Walmart but also a Tractor Supply and several restaurants over and above the DQ and Sonic! No Lowes or Home Depot, but really for the area, it’s quite a hub!) This was as close as I got to a Chisholm Trail Historic site -

and this

right in Bowie. Go figure!

All in all, a beautiful day for a drive, filled with quiet beauty and just a little bit of history. My kind of day!
If you’d like to learn more about the Chisholm Trail and the millions of cattle that were driven north to market, check out this link – The Chisholm Trail.
And if you’d like to see some more pictures of Texoma – You can find the entire set HERE!
Yep, I think we found Texoma!

The Vermont Bite

steph — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 04:14:47 +0000

So, Vermont.

I could have easily done multiple posts about our time in Vermont, but my life is promising to get pretty busy again starting Friday, so I’m putting together a Reader’s Digest Version.

The Preface
We had a quick afternoon at the cabin before we drove to Lancaster, PA to meet our new grandson, Weston. My nephew and his family were just settling in at the cabin for the week, and we were delighted to be able to join them (along with my sister and hubby) for a quick lunch after church.

Not seen in the picture is Mike’s wife (she’s behind the camera) who is expecting twins any time now. I think they did their first vacation at the Cabin (since the kids) just in time!

Chapter One – The Projects
No Cabin visit for us would be complete with Gary tackling a variety of projects. Let’s face it, I’m content to sit in front of the fire with my coffee until 10AM, do up the breakfast dishes, make a sandwich for lunch, read a couple of chapters of my book, take a nap, put together a salad for dinner, pull out the book again and then call it a night. On a sunny day, you might find me wandering down by the pond or suggesting a ride into town for ice cream. Gary, on the other hand, starts every day with a list. This year he was concentrating on doing some ground work for the shed rebuild next summer.

Since he was replacing some supports, he decided to do some improvement to our outdoor shower.

First of all, let me say that I LOVE this outdoor shower. I marvel at the miracle of a hot shower at the cabin every time I use it! And now, we can use it without getting our feet muddy coming and going!

He did a little additional shed organization/cleaning -

and worked on replacing some rotting supports on the cabin and porch.

So, it’s safe to say that Gary was having a great time at the cabin. And he even got to pull out a giant rock or two!
(lucky for you, I can’t find that video!).

Chapter Two – The Friends!
We delighted that friends joined us for the last part of our Cabin time.

Gord and Mar had driven all the way from Western Michigan, so we had a great time showing off the beauty of both Vermont and New Hampshire. From the Trappe Family Lodge (think “Sound of Music”)

to the Dwinell Homestead in East Calais

to covered bridges

to scenic waterfalls

to the top of Mount Washington -

to evenings enjoyed by the fire playing cards, it was a GREAT way to wrap up our time at the cabin!

Chapter Three – The Beauty of it All!

Conclusion – A Wonderful Time Was Had by All!

It was a pretty perfect couple of weeks at the Cabin. I’ve skipped over the chapter about my quilting day with my buddy Lynne, and the mini family reunion with my brother and his family, my sister & hubby, and my niece and her kids, or the lovely afternoon shared with the ladies’ fellowship from my sister’s church. All 30+ of them!
Needless to say, there are lot more pictures that pertain to our time at the Cabin and our drives through the countryside. If you’d like, please check them out for the “rest of the story”.

Cabin Projects
Fun with Gord and Mar
Vermont Sky
Mount Washington
ALL the Cabin – Sept. 2011 pictures!

Thanks for hanging in for this (not so very) condensed version of our time at the Cabin! I know it’s been fun for me just to review what a special time those two weeks were!

Campobello Island

steph — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 03:02:51 +0000

Raise your hand if you knew that Franklin D. Roosevelt had a summer home on a Canadian Island. Did I miss that when I changed schools when I was in 3rd grade? Well, it turns out that just off the coast of the Easternmost city of the US (that would be Lubec, ME – you knew that, right?) is the beautiful Campobello Island and that….”(f)or many years, Franklin D. Roosevelt summered on Campobello Island. As an adult, he shared with his family the same active pursuits he enjoyed on the island as child. Although he visited less frequently after contracting polio, Campobello remained important to FDR. Today Roosevelt Campobello International Park serves as a memorial to FDR and a symbol of cooperation between the U.S. and Canada.“ (thank you, National Park Service).

Since this lovely island was only a couple of hours south of here (and there were three couples to share the fuel expense) we set out to do some ‘sploring on Saturday morning.

We knew we were in for a great day when the view just crossing the bridge was wonderful!

We stopped at the first overlook -

for a view of the harbor….

Wait a minute – what are those big round things in the water?

Turns out those are part of New Brunswick salmon fish farming industry. Inquiring minds want to know. (You did want to know too, didn’t you?)
After a lovely picnic lunch, we continued on to FDR’s summer cottage -

We thoroughly enjoyed the self-guided tour through the modestly furnished “cottage”,

strolled around to the back

and ended our visit with a walk to the beach.

FDR was on an extended vacation at this cottage in 1921 when he contracted polio. In the years to follow he would only return three times, although Eleanor and his children continued to vacation there. Along with the National Park website, here is another site which has much more information about FDR and his connection to Campobello Island.

But FDR’s summer cottage is not the only point of interest on Campobello Island. We continued up the island

to Head Harbour and the East Quoddy Lighthouse.

We noticed several boats in the harbor, and thinking they might be whale watching boats we hung around for a while to see what we could see. Sure enough, we spotted a school of harbor porpoises and then to our delight a whale surfaced in front of us! We saw him twice as he made his way across the harbor, and never with the camera ready of course, but we were thrilled nonetheless! This fellow popped up long enough for me to take his picture – in fact, he seemed to be waiting for me to take his picture.

The lighthouse is unreachable for most of the day. Since this is located on the Bay of Fundy (remember those huge tidal shifts from the Hopewell Rocks?), it also experiences those extreme high and low tides.

Can you make out the iron stairs on the left side of the island? There’s a matching set of steps where we were standing, and (at your own risk) you can cross the channel at low tide each day. Needless to say, we were just watching the water rushing through the channel – there would be no walking on the ocean floor for us that day!
But all around it was so beautiful

that we were quite content to stay on dry ground and just soak it all in.
It was a great day, but we did have a 2 1/2 hour drive home, so after a stop for some fortification (ice cream), we headed off the island. But I couldn’t resist a photo of the Mulholland Lighthouse on the southern tip of the island (photo taken while waiting to clear customs), and then one of Lubec, ME waterfront.

We also spotted this interesting dwelling as we were waiting our turn at the border -

Gotta love American ingenuity!

Thanks for coming along on our little history/scenic jaunt back into New Brunswick. I’ll leave you with one last photo that really could have been taken just about anywhere, but was indeed taken in the gardens of FDR’s summer cottage on Campobello Island.

Ah, the perfection of creation!

Hope you had a good weekend, everyone! We sure did!

Behind the scenes…..

steph — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 02:43:30 +0000

Because we, the Conrads, and our traveling buddies, the Stoners, are essentially ~~cheap~~ thrifty, we decided to take just one RV (theirs) and one truck (also theirs) for our week in the Maritimes. It turned out to be a great plan – the savings on meals and accommodations more than out-weighed the extra expense of driving an 8 MPG vehicle. And it made for some unusual shots.

Like Gary in the passenger seat.
John did most of the driving -

he seemed pretty relaxed, dontcha think? Ah, the blessing of cruise control!
Rosie and I enjoyed stretching out in the back.

I know, I know, we should have dug out the seat belts from under the sofas, but I have to tell you, we were pretty darn comfortable as we sped down the highway!
Another bonus of traveling with friends is that you have help in composing some of your pictures.

I wanted to get a close up of this flower, but right in the background was a big ol’ factory. Here is Rosie giving me a hand with repositioning its location.

Of course, John wanted to help too!
Although most of the time I was photographing the scenery, occasionally we did see a little action.
We had pulled over to the side of the road so I could get this shot-

Suddenly Gary was out of the truck and walking down the road trying to get my attention.

“Look, it’s a fox. I’ll try to flush him out!”
I knew the chances of my actually pointing my camera in the right spot in that potato field was pretty slim, but I kept pointing and clicking and pointing and clicking. And I was sorta kinda successful on one of them -

Can you spot him? Over there on the right? I’m quite the wildlife photographer, eh?
Speaking of wildlife – while we were at Victoria by the Sea

we took a stroll down the wharf and saw bubble rising out of the water.

I don’t think this crab had anything to do with the bubbles (nor did I really get any more of an answer than it was just some type of chemical reaction on the bottom of the sea floor?) but I thought it was a pretty cool picture.
And while we’re on the subject of Victoria by the Sea – I wonder just what this fellow is doing (or even just what he’s supposed to be?)

Hmmmm….a giant Abraham Lincoln puppet heading to the lighthouse? That will be another unsolved mystery from our time on PEI!
Then there were these guys on this odd boat, floating in the midst of these bouys.

This picture is pretty zoomed in – mussel harvesting, maybe?

Moving on…..
There are two ways to get onto PEI – via the 8 mile Confederation Bridge (from New Brunswick) or the ferry that goes between PEI and Nova Scotia. Both of them are free to get ON the island.

We looked at both options carefully, and finally decided that the 8 mile bridge @ $60.00 to get off the island made more sense that the $115.00 ferry ride.

Remember, we were being ~~cheap~~ thrifty.

Since tomorrow we are planning on a little jaunt “down state” to visit Campobello Island, where for many years Franklin Roosevelt spent summers, this might just be my last post regarding our wonderful Atlantic Maritime vacation. Thanks for coming along with my “after the fact” posts. It’s been grand reliving it with you! There are (of course) a couple more photos than what I’ve posted here, and I’ve tried to break them down by groups. Here goes -

PEI-Behind the scenes

PEI – Lighthouses

PEI – Green Gables

Prince Edward Island - most of the above three sets are in this one

Hopewell Rocks - New Brunswick

Reversing Falls – St. John, New Brunswick

New Brunswick - The Falls, the Rocks, our Friends, and miscellaneous other NB shots

Atlantic Maritimes – the whole bunch of them all together!

Better get those passports out again - Campobello Island is back in Canada!

Odds and Ends

steph — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 11:48:47 +0000

Are you tired of PEI yet? I’m not!
Since we were only there three days, I know we barely scratched the surface of this “gentle island”, but I thought I’d share some random shots taken during our drives around the island.
We did not have the most beautiful weather, but somehow the beauty of the island continued to shine through.

Whether we were driving through the interior

with its patchwork fields

or skimming along the coast

finding colorful villages dotting the shore

we were never disappointed with the beauty that is Prince Edward Island.

We located the largest tree on the island

(not that it was missing, mind you!)
and were delighted to find that the fireweed we fell in love with in Alaska was at home here in PEI too!

There were walks on the beach

and we even managed to get our picture taken at the last lighthouse we visited!

Our evenings were pretty quiet (after all, we were having an Anne of Green Gables movie-a-thon), but Wednesday evening we ventured out to the Brackley Beach Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee for those of you non-Gaelic types). Our New Brunswick friends had heartily recommend this evening of live entertainment with a very talented fiddler, Cynthia MacLeod and singer/songwriter Jon Matthews (with a couple of other “friends” thrown in a couple of times!).

It was OUTSTANDING!!! The energy up on that stage was incredible!

If you have a minute – here is just a brief part of their performance -

Probably the best $10.00 we’ve spent in a long time!

Uh-oh – I just found some more pictures…….

Stay tuned…..

PEI Lighthouses

steph — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 03:05:20 +0000

Prince Edward Island is home to the highest concentration of lighthouses in any Canadian province or state in North America. In fact, there are a total of 63 lighthouses and rangelight buildings dotted along its 1,100 miles of coastline. We did not find them all. In fact we didn’t even come close, but we did have a good time tracking down as many as we could as we toured around the island. Some were open to the public, some were privately owned, and some were just plain too hard to get close to! Ready?

North Rustico Lighthouse -near that disappointing lobster roll lunch.

Point Prim Lighthouse – the oldest on the island (in service since 1845) and one of the few round brick (though it is now covered with wooden shingles) construction lighthouses in Canada.

Woods Island Lighthouse – built in 1876 and located on the southern most point of PEI.

Cape Bear Lighthouse – Built in 1881, it was the first to receive the Titanic’s distress signal as it sank off of Newfoundland.

Panmure Head Lighthouse – built in 1853, it was PEI’s first wooden lighthouse.

When we spotted this one we decided it was just a lighthouse wannabe since it was on a lovely estate (with a big NO TRESPASSING sign), but as I was doing some research it turns out that it IS an old lighthouse – the Georgetown Range Front and has been converted into an apartment.

This one is the the Georgetown Range Rear – on private property and I think it’s been decommissioned.

Can’t remember where this one was found, so I can’t locate the name. Sorry.

Haven’t a clue where we found this one – and we obviously couldn’t get too close! I’m pretty sure, though, that there is water on the other side of the lighthouse!

Ah, now this one I know! It’s at Victoria by the Sea, and was beautifully kept (as was the entire seaport, actually!)

This is the Blockhouse Point Lighthouse – that’s Charlottetown across the inlet.

And finally, this is the Covehead Harbour Lighthouse on Brackley Beach. Our last lighthouse of our days in PEI, and it was a spectacular evening!

Thanks for coming along on this little lighthouse tour! If you’d like to know more about the many lighthouses on Prince Edward Island, I found this great little website – Lighthousefriends.com- that was very helpful to me! Check it out!

Still sorting through pictures, so stop back tomorrow for more of The Gentle Island – PEI!

Green Gables and Happy Endings

steph — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 02:42:29 +0000

It’s hard not to think of Anne of Green Gables when you think of Prince Edward Island. And PEI has done its best to capitalize on this precious commodity! There’s Avonlea - a Disney like experience where you can interact with your favorite “Anne” characters and be charmed by vignettes throughout the village. If we had had some grand-girls with us, I know we would have taken that in. There are entire theatre productions – Anne of Green Gables – the Musical or Anne and Gilbert – the Musical to fill your evenings. If we’d had a couple more nights in town, we might have gone to one of those shows. But we chose to go the “purest” route (also, I must confess, the easiest on the budget route), with a visit to the actual Green Gables house, where cousins of L.M. Montgomery lived and was in truth the inspiration for the location of the original story.

The house and surrounding area are part of the Provincial Parks System and are beautifully maintained. We got to walk through the Haunted Woods, -

wander around the grounds

and through the house

and be charmed by any number of little girls with straw hats and long red braids.

We resisted the urge to purchase our OWN straw hats with braids, but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as we imagined Anne and Marilla and Matthew here in this place. Of course, it helped that we had watched the entire PBS “Anne of Green Gables” the night before and were more than ready to imagine the White Way of Delight and the Lake of Shining Waters! (And it’s very possible that Rosie and I were doing a little bit more imagining than John and Gary!)
After Green Gables we went in search of Rosie’s Birthday Treat – a Lobster Roll lunch. I can’t say we found the best lobster roll on the island, but the waiter did direct us to a free beach and we always love things with the word “free” attached. (Not too much of that “free” stuff on PEI!).
While Rosie and I took a walk down the beach

the guys checked out a crumbling jetty.

I mean REALLY crumbling!
It was a full day and we ended with a stop for some Cows Ice Cream, because, really, isn’t every day excursion better with a dish of ice cream in it?

Plus it made up for that somewhat disappointing lobster roll at lunch!

We made it back to the campground with plenty of time for a home cooked dinner and our viewing of Anne of Avonlea – the Sequel. The guys were so pleased! Well, about the dinner part anyway.

Flowerpots

steph — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 02:46:00 +0000

Now, where were we? Oh, right – that beautiful Monday morning-

The lake was so calm, I couldn’t resist another quick walk to the beach.

But we had a full day planned, so off we went. Our next destination – the Flowerpots (or Hopewell Rocks) of the Bay of Fundy.
So, just what do you know about the Bay of Fundy? Here’s what I knew. It’s really big. It separates New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. And it’s really big. Here’s what I’ve learned – the Bay of Fundy has the one of the highest vertical tides in the world – which means it has a really, really low tide and then a really, really high tide. Sometimes with over 50 feet difference from low to high tide. We made it a point to get there during low tide because that’s when you can actually walk “on the ocean floor” among the amazing sculptures (called flowerpots) formed by those twice daily tides.

We spent a couple of hours exploring the floor of the bay (there’s about a six hour window when the tide is out) and I was pretty busy with the camera -

If we had waited around long enough, we could have taken a kayak trip through the rocks during high tide-

(photographer’s note – this is a picture of a picture taken at the visitors’ center )
but since we had other places to get to (like Prince Edward Island) this was as close as we got to kayaking….

It was a great stop – very informative and quite out of the ordinary! And guess what? There are more pictures HERE!

By the end of the day we were crossing the 8 mile Confederation Bridge,

ready to start the Prince Edward Island part of the trip.

Be prepared – Green Gables tomorrow!

************************
On a slightly different note, today, August 1, marks our 7th anniversary of life on the road! Seven years. Here’s my post from that day in 2004 -

It’s 7AM and it’s raining. But the RV is packed and we’re headed out at 8AM to begin this awesome (and sometimes overwhelming) adventure. Lots of family here to send us off – and we’re planning on going to Church and then leaving from there. I know we will need a LOT OF PRAYER over these next months (and years?). Feel free to jump in at any time!
Lots of last minute items to wrap up (like finding the coffee), so I’m off and running!
RV there yet?

For those of you who have been reading all along – thank you so much for sticking with us on our journey. If you’ve just hopped on board at this little blog – welcome to our life! We can only give God the Glory for these amazing years – and pray that we will continue to go where He leads us, work as He directs us, and listen as He shows us the way.

Seven years. Whooda thunk it!

Let’s start at the very beginning……

steph — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 01:46:40 +0000

New Brunswick.

Maine’s closest Canadian neighbor. And quite a beautiful one at that!

Our destination for the day was the home of SOWER friends, Arch and Marg, who live near Hampton, NB.

(Sorry for the scratchy writing. Have you ever tried to write with your mouse? If you’d like to see the actual Google map of the area, here’s a link for that – it might be easier than trying to figure out what I’m trying to make note of on this!)
But I digress.

It was a lovely drive getting there and we even managed a quick stop (and walk around town) in Fredericton, New Brunswick’s capital city.

As is the case everywhere, it seems, there is ALWAYS construction to contend with -

Ah, sweet memories of Alaska!

Arch and Marg live right on beautiful Belleisle Bay, and getting there necessitated taking a rather small (though thankfully free) ferry. Gulp.

Guess we’ll wait patiently for the next one. Who’s in a hurry, anyway?

Our turn – at least we got on first as opposed to finding a spot between the rest of the vehicles!

We wound our way along the bay and arrived in time for a lovely dinner, some R&R on the deck

and beautiful sunset.

A wonderful finish to the first day of our Maritime Adventure!

Do you have time for the second day?
OK -
We started off with worship at a sweet little church right around the corner from our friends’ house -

and then proceeded to have our own tour of St. John and especially the famous Reversing Rapids - where the St. John River actually changes direction twice a day!

Aside from viewing the rapids/falls (which unfortunately were not at their most dramatic stage, I’m afraid!), we could have taken a jet boat ride

or even done a five level zipline.

But can you guess what we did?

Yeah, we watched!
There were beautiful wildflowers all along the observation area

and you know I couldn’t resist a couple of close-ups!

After a little more sightseeing in the downtown and a little more after-dinner lounging on the deck

we girls walked down to the waterfront-

and enjoyed sweet fellowship (and I got to play with the camera) while we waited for another beautiful sunset!

Oh, right – the sunset…..

Enough for tonight. Next post will be about our continued drive up the coast of New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island.
But before I go – just to give you a taste of how beautiful that day is going to be, here is the view from the deck that morning -

Stay tuned, more beautiful New Brunswick coming soon!

Anyone still checking in?

steph — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 02:09:29 +0000

Tap…tap….tap….testing…one…two…three….

You still there?

Sorry for the long delay between posts! We’ve returned from our wonderful jaunt into the beautiful Atlantic Maritimes (well, a couple of them anyway), but between getting settled in at our August SOWER project – Living Waters Camp in Weston, Maine – and working my way through the 652 pictures I took over the last week (really, that’s pretty calm for me – just over 100 a day!) I just haven’t had the time to put into words the wonderful time we had. From start to finish, it was a grand adventure, so please bear with me over the next several days as I process it into a couple of posts.
So here is just a taste to whet your appetite! I hope you’ll stop back soon!

See you soon!