Segway Tour

Today Nan and I took a tour of Guilford, Ct on Segways. It took about 10 minutes to get used to them and then we were able to zip along. Included in the tour was the oldest house in New England and the marina. Nan and I are always interested in real estate values. One person we talked to has a 600 sq foot cabin on the water in Guilford. It's worth $600,000, and real estate taxes are $11,000 per year. Not exactly like the Cleveland market.

Mystic Seaport, Connecticut

Yesterday we went to Mystic Seaport in Conn. It’s an outdoor sea museum. There is a replica of the ship Amistad that was used for slave trade. Also, they had a small bank that was basically used to hold valuables and issue it’s own bank notes. No checking or savings accounts in the early 1800's. On the way home I took a picture of a stone fence. Each state seems to have something unique. Conn has a lot of these stone fences along the roads. Even the campground where we are staying has one around one campground site. It seems like a lot of work since some of these fences stretch several hundred yards and are 2 to 3 feet thick.
I got in my first disagreement with a campground owner while checking in. I paid for a weekly rate ($150), and unlike almost any other campground in the world they consider a week to be 6 nights here. I was always pretty good at math, and tried to explain that a week is 7 days and nights, but finally I was told - "That’s the rules. If you don’t like it you can leave". After about a 5 hour drive I decided to stay. I did some quick math and I’m out about $21.43. On a related note, there is a nice website called http://www.campgroundreviews.com/ People that stay in campgrounds can write their reviews in this website giving positive and negative feedback. Look for my review in about a week for Lake Williams Campground, Lebanon, CT. Because of them there’s some poor poker player at Foxwoods Casino that wasn’t able to win another $21.43 from me.

Visit with a coworker on Sebago Lake

Yesterday we visited a former coworker, Doug, and his wife Linda. Doug inherited a cabin from his father in Raymond, Maine right on Sebago Lake. I attached a picture of his beautiful view from the back deck. He has set up an account at the local bank if anyone would like to make a contribution to help him pay his real estate taxes. Doug also has a problem similar to Pinocchio, he has a wood pecker. You can see the tree that has several large holes. Another one in their back yard snapped in half from the damage done by the bird. After seeing their house we went to a local seafood restaurant and (of course) Nan and I got some lobster.

Bath Maritime Museum

Yesterday we went to Fort Popham by Popham Beach State Park in Maine. We tried to get in the State Park, but no dogs allowed this time of year. The ranger said we can walk the dogs by the fort on the beach if we keep her on a leash. We went there, and were one of the few people that kept our dog on a leash. It’s not that we were being responsible dog owners. We just know from past experience that Roxy would start swimming to her mother land (Newfoundland) if we let her off the leash.
Today we went to the Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine. There was a picture in the museum of local fisherman that I included in this blog. Apparently some of the fisherman had quite a crack problem. The museum included a fishing boat built in 1942 that we toured. Also I included a picture of the dry dock that is currently used at the Bath Boatworks facility. Once boats are completed they are put into this dry dock that is then pulled into the river. The dry dock is then sunk so the boat can float out.

Maine Lobster

Yesterday we drove from Mass. To Phippsburg, Maine. We found this campground in Maine that is a member of Passport America. It’s a club you join for about $50 per year, and you can get a site for half off. A lot of these campgrounds have restrictions like no discount on weekends, or maybe it’s only good for one or 2 nights. This campground didn’t have any restrictions like that so we were able to stay for a week for around $140 rather than $280.
The drive yesterday took about 5 hours. We are still trying to find what works best for us. Nan doesn’t like driving that long in one day. She would rather drive about 3 hours. But on the other hand, Nan would rather get to a place and stay for about a week rather than doing short trips each day. So if we could get those 2 people to agree on how to travel I think things would go a little smoother. Actually, now that we are here for a week and eating lobster she is in good spirits. When Momma is happy, everybody is happy.
The campground cooks a lobster dinner for you if you want. The lobster is $5.99 per pound. You can also get sides like potato, corn, clams, butter, for a little extra. We had a couple lobsters each for dinner last night. Today we went to where the campground buys it’s lobster. We paid $3.75/lb. We bought 8 lobster and brought them back to the trailer to cook ourselves. We have plenty of meat left over, so I’ll make either a lobster salad or spicy lobster salad tomorrow. It was kind of funny - We went to Wal Mart to buy some things and they had live lobster for close to $10.00/lb.
It seems like when we spend a couple days driving, when we get to our destination we spend the next day just hanging around the trailer, getting things organized, doing laundry, and relaxing. In the week we are in Maine we plan on doing more than just hanging around the campground and eating lobster, but so far that has been the highlight.

Left for Turning Stone Casino

We spent a couple days visiting with Nan's Aunt and Uncle. We were able to fit in their driveway which was nice. I wonder what the Amish thought when they drove their buggies past this residential driveway with a semi parked in it. We left this morning and ended up close to Turning Stone Casino. We'll spend a couple of days here and then continue on to New England.

You can see a picture of us in their driveway, plus a video of me driving the Smart Car up the ramps onto the semi.

Heading for New York State

We are finishing up our visit with Nan's Mom tonight, and tomorrow we head for the finger lake region of New York (by Watkins Glenn race track) to visit her Aunt and Uncle for a couple days. The trailer is packed up and ready to go. I had Nan take a video of me loading the Smart Car on the semi. I'll try to upload that video to the blog in a couple of days.

While at Nan's Mom's house I came across a video of Nan as a baby. When we were looking for a trailer I wanted one with a pocket door that separated the living room from the rest of the trailer. That way I could close the pocket door and watch my movies in piece while Nan sewed or whatever in the kitchen area. Take a look at Nan's baby video below and you'll see why I insisted on this privacy door.

http://rock103.com/pages/crew/twisted/play.html?filename=borntobabble.wmv

We left Elkhart.

We waited until Wed for the counter top repair specialist to show up. He arrive about noon on Wed and said "Oh, you have granite, not Corian. I can’t repair that." So that was a waste of 3 days. Thursday we left for Nan’s Mom’s house. We’ll stay here a few days and then off to New England. Yesterday I received the $1,000 check from the Chinese tire company to cover my deductible on the damage. The insurance company covered the remaining $1,700. Nan and I took all this in stride this time, but if we have to go through it again then one of us will break down in tears. I’m not sure how Nan will react.

Today (Sat), I went to Mountaineer Casino in Chester WV with Nan's Mom and her 2 friends Jim and Shirley. I play limit hold em poker. They only had $2.00/$4.00. I prefer a higher stakes but that's all they had. I played about 4 hours and lost $20. I can't wait to go to Foxwoods Casino in Conn where they have real poker.