My husband and I are in our 50's and retired a year ago. We have a 2007 Dakota 5th wheel trailer and along with our 2
dogs, travel whenever possible. We are currently awaiting the births of our 2nd and 3rd grandchildren so have stayed put this
winter.
Click this link and check out some of our past travels.
Since I filled the alotted space, I have started this new web page which I will update when babies are born and our travels
once again begin. So join us as armchair travellers. . . you never know where we will take you!
UPDATE: Our daughter Andrea, son-in-law Paul and grandson Owen have added
to the family with the arrival of Emersyn Marlene. As well, our son Tim & daughter-in-law Stephanie have given us a second
beautiful grandson, Liam Stephen. 2008 has been a busy year!
READ ABOUT OUR TRIPS TO:
SYRACUSE, NY area ** NEW **
PENNSYLVANIA ** NEW **
FLORIDA staying at:
Collier-Seminole State Park ** COMING SOON
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park ** COMING SOON
Oscar Scherer State Park ** COMING SOON
Highlands Hammock State Park ** COMING SOON
Little Manatee River State Park ** COMING SOON
Sebastian Inlet State Park ** COMING SOON
Wekiwa Springs State Park ** COMING SOON
Anastasia State Park ** COMING SOON
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GREEN LAKES STATE PARK & WHETSTONE GULF STATE PARK
Friday, May 30 - We left home around 10:30. Gas has risen drastically. It was $1.27/litre when
we left. We have purchased a Garmin GPS so this is our first outing using it as our navigator. We sailed right through Customs
without being asked anything about what food, etc. we had brought with us. Guess it was because we were lucky enough to have
a young fellow and not another crotchey old fart. Tim and Steph plan to visit us at the campground tomorrow to do some shopping
in Syracuse. We had reserved Campsite #116, but when we arrived they assigned us #10. Not a great park. The sites are fairly
close together with nothing (trees, shrubs, etc) between. The campground was busy on the weekend but emptied right out on
Sunday..... that is of course except for the trailer of very noisy people next to us!
Saturday, May 31 - Cloudy with sunny periods today. A good day for shopping. Tim and Steph arrived around
noon and we headed out. We had problems with the navigation today… but we did manage to find a Walmart, Kmart, Dick's.
The kids bought a playpen, mobile, picture for the nursery and a few other small items. Stephen and I will head back into
town tomorrow so we can pick up something for their shower from us and Andrea & Paul. They stayed for spaghetti supper
and then headed home around 9 pm. It was a nice day.
Sunday, June 1 - Navigation was much better today. We were able to find a Babies R Us, Camping World,
Target and a Walmart Supercentre. We got the kids a 3 in 1 swing and a booster highchair. This will be the gifts from the
4 of us. Nanny & Poppa also got the baby a couple of outfits and a pair of Winnie slippers. Needless to say we also got
a few things for Owen and Emersyn -- small doll, Mickey binoculars -- both of which I will keep in the trailer and hopefully
they will someday visit us and Owen will have his binoculars to use.
Monday, June 2 - Today was spent at the campground. We did the Green Lake and Round Lake hikes for a
total of over 3 miles. Green Lake is absolutely beautiful. . . it is the colour of the Caribbean! It was a beautiful
sunny day, but with a breeze around the Lake area which made for a nice hiking day.
Tuesday, June 3 - Did a bit more shopping in town at the Carousel Mall and of course Camping World once
again. I bought outfits for the new baby, Disney PJs for Christmas presents, an outfit for Emersyn's birthday and another
outfit for her for now. It was a cloudy day today. We head out tomorrow for Whetstone Gulf State Park.
Wednesday, June 4 - We left around 10:30 and arrived at Whetstone Gulf State Park around 12:30. It was
a very nice drive, but Stephen would have preferred to be driving an Interstate highway rather than the back roads we took
to get here. We are on Site #16. It was called a pull-through site on ReserveAmerica but to be a pull-through you would either
have to have a tent trailer or a very tiny trailer! The park is more to our liking with several tall pine trees so it looks
like getting a satellite signal is unlikely. Site #16 is ok, but right beside the main road coming in so if coming here again
we would reserve another site -- the only reason we chose this one, knowing that it was near the main road was because it
was supposed to be a pull-through. I only saw one other trailer and a tent here as we drove to our site. Looks like we will
finally have some peace and quiet. Thank goodness we are away from the yahoos that were camped next to us at Green Lakes.
Sunday, June 8 - We have enjoyed our stay at Whetstone Gulf. We took the gorge rim hike and it was the
most strenuous hike we have ever taken…. Perhaps the "dangerous" signs should have been our first clue. But we
got to the top, made it to the viewing platform and thought that the view was nice but definitely not "best view east of the
Rockies"!!
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| THE CLIMB . . . . . |
| THE VIEW |
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Andrea, Paul, Owen and Emersyn arrived at the campground on the afternoon following our hike. We walked to the beach/playground
area where Owen and I had a great time playing in the water. We had supper before they headed home. It was a really nice afternoon.
| FEEDING CHIPMUNKS |
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We shopped in Watertown on the following day (Friday) and relaxed on Saturday. There has only been 2 trailers here until
Friday when a few more arrived and left today so we are back to having almost the whole campground to ourselves. We went for
a bike ride today.... uphill all the way, so returning to the trailer was a great ride! During the ride we stopped beside
a stream and looked for fossils for Owen and Stephen spotted a turkey in the trees so we wandered over and she wouldn't leave
the area. My hunter dude explained that she probably had a nest nearby and that was why she was not taking off, so we looked
around, didn't see a nest, but 2 baby turkeys! It has been a very pleasant, quiet stay here, but not a lot to do in the area
and a 40 minute drive to Watertown. We head home tomorrow.
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PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH COUNTRY
Sept. 2 - We left home just before 7 am and were on the 401 around 7:30. It's a beautiful sunny day
without a cloud in the sky. We had absolutely no trouble going through customs with a young officer who only asked us
if we had any alcohol or tobacco. This continues to prove my theory that the old officers are grumpy and always give you a
hard time, so look for the line with a young officer.
We have reserved site #43 at Codorus State Park in Pennsylvania for 10 days with plans to see Gettysburgh, Hershey and
the York Country Fair. The campsite with electricy cost us $237 U.S. including taxes and reservation fee. Compare this, if
you will, to our site which I've booked at Algonquin Park costing $200 for only 5 days!!
It is noon and we have stopped to fill up just before Binghamton, NY and gas is $3.73/gallon. We have made 2 pit stops
at rest areas so far. The Garmin GPS says we should arrive at campground around 4 pm, but that is with no pit stops.
Well we did make additional pit stops and therefore arrived at the campground around 5:30. We have a very nice large
site and the campground is pretty deserted. We set up and finally bbq'd a couple of hot dogs around 8 pm. It was very hot
work setting up so we sat for a bit and had a cold beer even though alcohol is banned from this park and all Pennsylvania
parks. I put the beers in plastic Disney mugs so who's to know that we weren't drinking gingerale? We have decided tomorrow
will be a relax at the campground day.
Sept. 4 - It is Thursday and we are touring the Gettysburg Battlefields. We bought a CD, well actually
it is 2 CDs, which tour us in our own vehicle throughout the battlefield. We have now been on this CD tour for 3 hours. .
. will it ever end??? Stephen is fascinated and I have resorted to updating the trip journal during the tour. The 2 CDs and
small tour book cost us $19.99 plus tax. I hope I can get something for it on E-Bay! When this is finally over we will take
a winery tour... now we're talking!!
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| The highlight of the trip for Stephen! |
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| How long can one look at guns?? Where's a bench!!?? |
Sept. 5 - Nearby York is touted as the Factory Tour capitol of the world! We went through the literature
that we had picked up and chose 3 tours -- Stauffers Cookies, Wolfgang Candy & Pfaltzgraff. We called the 1-800 numbers
to get the times for each tour only to find out that the Stauffers factory did not give tours anymore and the Pfaltzgraff
factory had been closed for several years. I think it is about time that York updated their tourist information books! We
did manage to take in the Wolfgang Candy tour and bought our once German (now a full-fledged Canadian) daughter-in-law a box
of German heritage chocolates for her birthday on Sept. 13th.
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| Let's make chocolate! |
The factory tour was at 2 pm so prior to the tour we headed to Dick's Sports Store . . . and I thought Gettysburg was
boring! While shopping in Dicks I overheard a man talking about the Gander store across the street, so being the considerate
wife that I am, I told Stephen about this and off we went. Hallelujah. . . Gander is in a mall along with Macy's!! I was dropped
off at Macy's and an hour or so later Stephen was done at Gander and retrieved me and my parcels which consisted of a pair
of pants and shoes for me and several kid's outfits. Amazing kids' clothing deals . . . $1.99 until 1 pm. It has always been
a good day when I put parcels in the truck.
Sept. 6 - We had decided to remain at the trailer today and it proved to be excellent planning. Severe
thunderstorms and torrential downpours. . . remnants of Hurricane Hannah. Towns around here were reporting 4 to 5 inches of
rainfall.
Sept. 7 - Today we visited a large Farmer's & Flea Market just outside York. I bought a couple of
books for 50 cents each and that was about all they had worth buying.
Sept. 8 - Time to visit the oldest fair in the U.S. so we headed off to York once again. It cost us
$6 each to get in and $6 for parking. It was your typical fair. We checked out all the livestock, fruit & veggie and craft
exhibits. And now I must tell you about the new game I took part in. It resembled the Bingo tents they have at the fairs at
home. The game was called Got It. It cost 50 cents a game and was a combination of skeet ball and bingo. The 'caller' would
tell us to toss our first ball, second ball and on and on until someone got 5 balls in a row at which time you were to yell
"Got It" but, as those of you who know me know how excited I get during competitions, when my balls lined up I yelled "Bingo"!
Needless to say once again I created a bit of a scene! But I got to choose a prize for my newest grandchild. Stephen played
for a bit and of course didn't win so he decided his money would be better spent on fair food. He had a $12 Philly Cheese
Steak sandwich and moaned and groaned about how bad his stomach felt. He will never learn to stay away from fair food. It
was a fun day since we hadn't been to a fair in years.
Sept. 9 - Happy 79th Birthday to my Mom! Today was a day to relax at the trailer. I still reign at Skip
Bo, finished my second book and got caught up on my beauty regime (legs shaved, nails manicured, etc.)
Sept. 10 - Off to Hershey and of course Chocolate World. We went directly to the Hershey Chocolate Factory
and took the tour which reminded me of a Disney ride. We got into little cars which took us on a tour of a 'make believe'
factory. Following this so-called factory tour you end up in their little shops of course. This whole experience was disappointing.
We expected to actually see the factory at least and also thought they would have broken chocolate, etc. for sale at factory
reduced prices, but no... regular chocolate and I don't think the prices were that great, but we don't buy a great deal of
chocolate so I couldn't accurately compare prices. They also had all kinds of other items for sale like pricey t-shirts, sweatshirts,
tins, key chains, knick-knacks and all the usual souvenir junk. We didn't spend a lot of time here at all, but we did see
the Hershey Kisses street lights. During our trip home I routed us to a Burlington Coat Factory and once again got some cute
outfits for Liam, our new 3 week old grandson.
Sept. 11 - Yesterday we received emailed shopping lists from both kids so today we are off to try to
find their requests, but first I wanted to go to the Shrewsbury Markets near Glen Rock. Our Garmin GPS took us through a lot
of back roads to get to this market and it was a really nice drive with one stop to allow a gaggle of Canada geese to cross
the road.
The market was great and spotlessly (is this a word?) clean. That is one thing I didn't like about the Farmers Flea Market
we had visited earlier. . . it was not very clean at all. This Shrewsbury Market is a 'must visit' if you are in the area.
It is open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and possibly Sunday but not sure. It is run primarily by Amish people and I think this
accounts for the cleanliness. One section of the building is home decor, crafts, etc. another section is food and another
section furniture. We did not hesistate in buying the food because the booths and people were clean and well-kempt. We bought
some fresh baked apple fritters for our breakfast-on-the-run tomorrow morning as well as buns so fresh they were steaming
in the bag. There were samples of food galore and some great homemade stew in one booth was really hot and tasty. I also bought
a birdhouse. Then it was on to find Toys R Us and a Walmart. Andrea was talking to Santa who asked her to get a particular
toy for Owen so we checked it out at Toys R Us but it was the same price as home so on to Walmart where we did find it cheaper
as well as a couple of the accessories for it. Tim wanted several printer ink cartridges and we also found these at considerably
cheaper prices. Kids shopping list taken care of and back to the trailer to pack up for our trip home in the morning. It has
been a great trip with beautiful hot weather with the exception of only one day. The campground was great -- clean and quiet
even on the weekend.
Sept. 12 - The perfect day to head home. It has been raining steadily. We left the campground around
8:30 am and it is now 10:30 and Stephen has just now noticed that the truck indicators say that my door is ajar!! Here we
are going high up a mountain and my door is open and of course there is nowhere to stop and I'm sure not going to open and
close it! So if you never hear the end of this story, you will know that I have rolled down the side of a mountain.
UPDATE: I did not roll down the mountain so you can look for stories of our
next trip to Algonquin Park!
ALGONQUIN PARK - CANISBAY CAMPGROUND
Oct. 5: We left home at 9 am. It is a beautiful sunny day and the predictions are that it will remain like this for at
least 3 or 4 days. We have reserved site #185. Once we arrive at the park, the plans are to check the first come, first served
sites and if we like one of them better we will switch. The 5 nights camping with electricity costs almost $200.
Oct. 6: We switched to site #238. Although #185 was nice, this site is surrounded by trees and private. We went on the
Hemlock Bluff Trail today. It was 3.5 km and rated moderate. It was a good hike, but a bit boring since the only real site
to view was an overlook of the lake once you reached the top of the bluff. The information said to allow 2 hours for the hike,
but it took us approx. 1.5 hours. It has been another perfect day weatherwise. I have been feeding 2 chipmunks at the campsite.
Once is very tame and climbs onto my lap to get a peanut. We expect Mom & Dad to arrive tomorrow. They have made reservations
at the Holiday Inn Express in Huntsville (about 1 hr. away) for Tues. and Wed. nights and will spend time at the park with
us during the day. The park is very quiet as expected. The lady at the gate did tell us that the campground was full on the
weekend. Most campers left Sunday and several more left on Monday. The colours of the leaves are phenomonal. We have picked
the perfect time to visit Algonquin!
Oct. 7: Mom and Dad arrived today along with another beautiful, warm sunny day. We went for a walk around the campground
loop, sat around the fire and after supper they headed to their hotel.
Oct. 8: It is a cloudy with sunny periods day. We visited the Visitors' Center today. The view from the rear balcony
is spectular. We returned to the campsite for lunch. I made them cook their own . . . hot dogs over the fire with marshmallows
for dessert. After lunch Mom, Stephen and I went on the spruce Bog Hike while Dad tended the fire and the puppies and did
some reading. The hike was rated easy and was 1.5 km long. At the beginning of each hiking trail, books are provided which
guide you along the trail with information posts marked for referencing in the books. It was Mom's job to be the guide and
read the appropriate pages in the book as we got to the guide posts. At the end of the hike you are to return the book or
leave a donation if you would like to keep the book. Just a note here: My mother owes Algonquin Park some money!
We returned to the campsite as it started to rain. Talk about timing! Following supper Mom and Dad headed back to their
hotel. They really enjoyed their time pretending that they were camping.
Oct. 9: It is a cloudy, cool day today. I don't anticipate doing a heck of a lot other than doing this update and reading.
We head home tomorrow to unpack the trailer, winterize it and in a bit start packing it for Florida. I'm counting the days.
Oct. 10: It turned out to be much too beautiful a day to leave, so we paid for one more day and then we MUST go home.
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