Made it to Maine

Next Stops:  Wales, MA and Holtwood, PA

We made it to Portland, ME on Thursday 9/28 and immediately met up wit Johnny's nephew Kevin Sloan who has recently started working here.

Cate recommended that we spend some time in Portsmouth, NH so we met our old friend MJ Hotaling, wife of my Inland Steel buddy PFH,  for lunch there.  What a treat!

 We walked around this quintessential New England town for most of the afternoon.  After we toured the downtown a bit we walked toward the waterfront.

It was a perfect fall day.

We drove through Kennebunkport on the way back to the RV campsite to see how the other half lives.  I tried to take a couple of pictures but there were so many people I couldn't get a good shot.  There is a beautiful harbor that was full of sailboats and the homes were gorgeous.

Hot Vermont!

Next Stops: Portland, ME (we are there now), Massachusetts, outside Philly

Vermont experienced some cooler weather earlier in the month, but by late September it was back to summer, like other parts of the country.  One resident told us they hadn't experienced this type of heat in late September in the Manchester area since 1937.  Unfortunately, the weather slowed the process of leaves changing color. Lots of trees are still green, but also still beautiful.
So the Keefes sally forth!
Our first night we went to Ye Olde Tavern that dates back to 1790.  It had many lives as various hotels, but was fully restored in 1976 and opened as a restaurant.  As you can see, the outside was really cool, including the coach house in the back.  I didn't take any photos of the inside (people were eating for goodness sake), but there were many small rooms, creaky wood floors and some original artwork.  The atmosphere was definitely Colonial America. And the food was good!

The following morning we opted for an early morning hike to the Lye Brook Falls in the Green Mountains.  4.6 miles round trip.  This was no nature walk, people.  This was a real hike.  Gorgeous.

We climbed on and over rocks and crossed a couple of streams.

This photo reminds me of the Avenue at Saint Mary's College.

We finally made it to the Falls.  Worth every step.

I loved the way the sun hit the forest here.

It has been 4 days and we are still recovering from this one!  The Hiking Girls would be so proud.

The following day we went to Hildene, the summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln (Abe's son).  It reignited my childhood interest in our 16th President and his family.  The last direct decedent passed away in 1975, so the community of Manchester VT has taken over fundraising and management of the huge property which includes the home, gardens, and a small working farm with 12 miles of trails.  Quite impressive!  I loved the gardens.

Robert Todd Lincoln was President of the Pullman company so there is a restored Pullman car on the property.

 I thought the stained glass was particularly breathtaking.

Off one of the trails, but not part of the grounds, is a stone silo that predates Vermont as a state.  Old stuff is cool cause it's old.

After we finished touring Hildene, we took the Jeep to the top of Mount Equinox to get a 200 mile view.  Johnny snapped this photo.  I can't get over Nature.

So, a bit disappointed that we didn't see more evidence of Autumn but still awestruck at the wonder of our country.

Full Disclosure

Leaving for Portland, ME tomorrow!

Are you thinking that Johnny and I are just having fun all the time?  Well, let me give you some insight into the not-so-glamorous and some of the challenging things from the road.

1.  Truck Stops - we have to get in line with all the 18 wheelers to fill our motorhome with diesel fuel.  They don't appreciate us being there and are not afraid to show or tell us!
2.  Sitting in a camp shower in Chautauqua, NY waiting for Garnier 63.5 (light golden brown) to work its magic on my gray roots.
3.  Coordinating with 3 suppliers (Directv, Winnebago and the antenna manufacturer) to figure out why we can't get our satellite receivers to work.  We are missing our sports! We can get over the air antenna in bigger cities, but not the Bears games.  Yet.
4.  Our inverter is not charging our coach batteries correctly.  Most things run on electric, but the lights run on coach batteries so we turn them on as little as possible.  While this might sound romantic to some, when you already can't see well, it's just a pain.  Hope to resolve this in Portland.
5.  The Boston area is very popular for RV parks over the Columbus Day weekend.  We can't find any place to stay Saturday night that's on our route.  We are going to wing it - part of the adventure, right?

All in all, these things are pretty minor.   I love what we're doing and we are having a blast - I feel very blessed.  But I want to share some of the craziness too.  Part of the journey is figuring all of this out!

More pictures in the next post!

RV folk

NEXT STOPS: In Vermont now, Portland, ME;  Wales, MA (SW of Boston)  and Holtwood, PA (W of Philly)

So we've heard that people who RV are very nice and helpful - and we have found that to be true.  We met Mike and Marcia McNamara at an RV park in  Sylvan Lake, NY.  They told us about a boat race on Saturday morning in that little town.  We decided to check it out and saw this:

There are hundreds of speed boats racing to various points on Oneida Lake.  They eventually all meet back at the starting point and party together.  It was a neat little beach community event.

That night  Mike invited us to a campfire at their spot.  We told stories, shared a cocktail or two and laughed a lot.  While Mike was setting the fire up, Johnny told him about our challenge to build a fire at Camp Chautauqua - we just didn't have enough kindling.  I finally went into the woods there to collect enough little sticks to get it going.  It turned out to be a beautiful fire.

The next morning when we came out of our RV, Mike and Marcia were gone, but Mike left a bag of all of his leftover kindling for us.  We couldn't even thank them!

We took off for Syracuse to do the Canal Walk in downtown Syracuse.  It starts at Armory Square, a revitalized part of Syracuse that has an artsy feel.  We learned about the history of this manufacturing city and how it, like so many places, has had to reinvent itself.  There were several cool old buildings and bridges.  These bridges were among my favorites (left side of photo).

The day continued by watching the Bears pull it out in OT over the Steelers.  Bear Down!

Every girl's dream

NEXT STOPS: Dorset, VT and Portland, ME

We packed up the camper and moved on to Oneida Lake just outside of Syracuse on Thursday.  We're moving East quickly as we are trying to get to Maine by early October.

Isn't it every girl's dream to spend a wedding anniversary at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown?  Well, it was mine!
Many of you know that Johnny has played baseball for the DuPage Plowboys for several years.  They follow the antebellum rules.  So he was particularly interested in the history of baseball in America - the players, the equipment, and the leagues that developed.   We saw a glove that looked like the one my dad used for the many years he played baseball.

I enjoyed the exhibition on women's leagues unknown until the movie "A League of Their Own".

As we moved onto the Hall of Fame Gallery, we realized where Johnny's baseball skills came from!

In case you were worried that the celebration ended there, we did have a pre-dinner toast.

And onto a years long dream of ours: dinner at the original Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse New York.  It was every bit as good as we had imagined, although we need more practice at selfies!

Discoveries

We left Cleveland and headed to an RV park south of Buffalo New York on Tuesday September 19.  The rv park was on beautiful Chautauqua Lake.  We decided to explore the Panama Rocks as it looked like an interesting nature walk that we could get through in just a couple of hours. The rock formations were amazing.  They were formed over 300 million years ago when most of North America was an inland sea.   They were reshaped in the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago.

The owner of Panama Rocks encouraged us to check out the Chautauqua Institution.  And we were glad we did! It's one of those unique places in America that we were hoping to discover on our journey.  The Institution was started in the late 1800's as a summer academic program.  This is the square where the educational programs still take place.

Subsequently, a resort town grew around the Institution!  The streets are very narrow and cars are not allowed in the village during the busy summer season.  The houses and hotels are from the early 1900's and are just stunning.

Who knew that this quiet little area of New York, that we randomly chose, would have such cool places to explore?

Best. Breakfast. Ever.

I have been waiting for 5 months to have the best breakfast I ever had in my life.  And it did not disappoint.  The West Side Market Cafe in Ohio City has a cornbread waffle and breaded chicken cutlet that, while it may not look like much, is to die for.  Michael and Johnny had food envy.

The Cafe is attached to an open air market with vendors selling fresh food, flowers and crafts.  And it was crowded on a Sunday morning!

There's a first time for everything

So we had several road "firsts" while we were in Cleveland:

1.  First stay in a county campground
2.  First visitor (our son Michael doesn't count - he had to visit!)
3.  First sewer disaster - it could have been worse
4.  First Sunday Mass on the road
5.  First bike ride
6.  First National Park
7.  First bike ride in a National Park!
8.  First surprise visitor

We stayed at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds in Berea to be close to work for Michael.  Had several good meals with him (and watched the Browns lose their first road game of 2017).

Our very first visitor on the road was my college friend Monica Graffeo.  She drove from Granville, OH to take the grand tour of our new home.  Thank you Monica!

I don't have any pics of the sewer disaster, but I did snap a quick one of the beautiful bell tower at St. Bart's in Middleburg Heights just down the road from the Fairgrounds.

We decided to stay an extra day at the Fairgrounds and that gave us the opportunity to visit the Cuyahoga National Park. The bike ride (thank you Kevin and Marianne for helping us get our bike rack on the car!) along the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath trail was so cool.  The day was just perfect and I was able to live in the moment and enjoy!

Johnny's love of history kicked in and we learned how crucial the canals were to transportation in the 1800's.  Eventually the railroads were built right next to the canals and took over as the main mode of  transportation.  Train Station in Peninsula, Ohio below.

That afternoon we visited Johnny's aunt, Sr. Margaret, who is a Notre Dame sister.   I love the first line on the wall behind Johnny and Sister - "We witness God's Goodness"

Finally, as we were getting ready to leave Cleveland on Tuesday morning, we got a text that my cousin Terry Uhl was close by - a surprise visitor!  He took a quick tour of our home and bid us farewell.

We are now headed toward upstate New York where you will hear from me soon.

Background "notes"

So some of you may be wondering about the title of our blog "Into the Mystic".   It's a favorite song of ours by Van Morrison.  We danced to it at our wedding 16 years ago!
Although it references sailing, the spirit of going on a journey is pertinent to us, especially this year.
When the foghorn blows, we will be coming home!


Also, we attended a seminar in Tennessee last May to learn about living in an RV full time.  We met some really cool people there, one of which was David Rasmussen and his wife Sharon.  David played a song for us that really describes how and why many people choose to hit the road in an RV.  If you are so inclined, take a listen and get a sense of our motivation to pursue our new life.

We're Off - finally!

Hey Everyone!

As promised I am finally starting a travel blog, otherwise known as "what stupid thing did we do today?"  

It's Sunday night and we have officially been on the road 4 days.  

But first, we had a fun RV tailgater in our driveway to say good bye to friends and family.

And a neighborhood send off...trailer park style

We closed on our house on September 13th and spent our first nite (9/14) at the RV Hall of Fame, naturally, in Elkhart, IN.  We got a prime spot in their parking lot!

We've been in Cleveland for a couple of days, but more on that in the next post.
So far, so good.  We miss you all!