1998 Travels......

This will be the last update on this page until after Christmas. We are now in O'Fallon MO until after Christmas to visit with family and friends here, get Aimee's quilt done, finish the Access program and do some maintenance on Access programs we developed which are being used in this area, build bunk beds for Becca and Aimee, finish Christmas presents and shopping, etc., etc.......We found some genealogy information in PA and our two stops in OH and now need time to get it all in the computer!!! I have a feeling that our time here will go extremely quickly!

We were invaded by hundreds of lady bugs in State college PA and encountered them again at both stops in OH and at the campground in IN and are still finding them hiding out in the warmth of the trailer! YUK!!!

We didn't find much genealogy information in Geneva, but got a little and had some time at home to work on computer program and quilt. We had clouds and drizzle on the way down to Lewisburg PA where we did some more genealogy research and came up with no new information. The trees in NY were getting really pretty, we are about two weeks too early for the really pretty colors here in PA, although it is getting quite colorful. We are in Bellefonte/State College PA this weekend visiting with the Gish's - dear friends from our college days back in Boulder CO. We will head to western PA from here on Tuesday to try to do some genealogy work on Don's family; we were working on Bev's in NY and eastern PA.

We spent a great two weeks on Mount Desert Island and the Bar Harbor area. We took hikes along the coastline and drives around the island. We had tea at Jordon Pond, lobster dinners at the Log Cabin Restaurant and went on a whale watching cruise (and about froze!!!... but we did see a whale...). The two weeks went by really quickly!!

Friday, September 25th, we saw many trees beginning to show their fall colors on the drive to Hampton NH, a short distance from Don's nephew and family who live in Manchester. We spent an enjoyable day with them on Saturday, attending Colin's soccer game, sightseeing around town and on the drive up to an apple orchard to pick apples and just visiting with them at home. Sunday, we attended a Baptist church (a beautiful white church with a great steeple!) in Hampton Falls and then went for the drive along the NH seashore (almost all 18 miles of it!) and enjoyed our last views of the ocean until we get to FL in January.

Monday morning we drove across MA to our campground at Austerlitz, NY, in the Berkshires, where we will spend just one night and then go on to Geneva NY to work on some genealogy research. We had a beautiful drive; the trees are getting really pretty with their fall colors! The Catskills and Berkshires will be gorgeous in another week or so!!

September 18, 1998:

After spending a few more days touring wonderful PEI, we returned to Sussex NB on Sept. 9 for two more nights and stayed at the same CG we were at before Prince Edward Island. We took our one day touring the more southern part of Fundy Bay around St. Martins. It was rough and narrow winding through some beautiful mountains. There were several areas having color starting to show; fall is definitely trying to make its appearance. The colors were mainly in the ground cover but there were some maples that had turned a pretty red. St. Martin's is a neat little village lying at the foot of the mountains along the edge of the bay. We ate a seafood chowder lunch at a little cafe on the beach overlooking some caves. These caves are accessible when the tide is out and half full when the tide is in. At the time we ate lunch, it was an hour or so after low tide so the caves were "dry" but by the time we finished, water was lapping at their mouth.

The lady at the information area at St. Martin's suggested that we take a new drive along the bay's edge. Everything looked quite new and then we found that it had been officially dedicated only two weeks earlier. It was real nice with numerous places to stop and look at the scenery. By the time we got back to the caves, it was almost high tide and the caves were well in the water. It is amazing how much difference there is between high and low tides on this bay. Earlier there were several boats lying on the bottom of the river entering the bay, now they were up and it looked "normal". It is interesting to see the highest tides in the world.

The next day, Sept. 11, took us back to the States; we had been in Canada since July 25. We are now at Spruce Valley Campground on Mount Desert Island, near Bar Harbor ME. One day, we took the Acadia National Park loop drive and saw lots of beautiful coastline and the mountains here on the island. There are, I believe, 15 mountains in the park including Cadillac Mountain which is the highest mountain in the eastern US - from the top you can almost see forever! The trees are beginning to show some fall colors and it should be really pretty here in another week or so. Every once in awhile you run across a maple which has already turned red! We are enjoying touring this area - yesterday we went on a drive along the western part of the island and enjoyed a 1.3 mile walk along one of the points. Down East Main is beautiful with its quaint fishing villages along the shores and the inland mountains, lakes and valleys.

Thursday, August 26, we took a drive out in the country near Sussex and saw lots of pretty farmland and several covered bridges. We stopped at a dairy and bought some yummy cheese, at a meat market and got some delicious locally made bratwurst, and at a fruit stand for some more of their wonderful corn.

We arrived on Prince Edward Island Friday about noon. It is a really pretty area with lots of farmland (wheat, strawberry clover and potatoes mainly), red soil and many trees in between the farms. The coastline is really gorgeous with the red sand and the blue water. Saturday, we drove north to the coast and walked the beach for awhile. The red sand and blue water makes quite a beautiful sight. The first area we stopped was alive with several kinds of sandpipers. There was seaweed washed up on the shore where they were feeding. There were so many that it looked like the whole beach was moving in some areas. In this area, there were also piles of mussels washed ashore; they seem to be very plentiful in this area and seem to be a favorite food in the Atlantic Provinces.

Monday we drove up to Cavendish to visit the House of Green Gables. It was really interesting as they had quite a bit of information about Lucy Maude Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables books. We walked in the "Haunted Woods" and toured the house. We then went up to the Cavendish beach area and drove along it. There were some beautiful overlooks where the red cliffs met the blue waters of the bay.

Tuesday we took the Hills & Harbours drive around the southwestern side of the island. There we saw more farmland with the golden wheat and pink strawberry clover and the green of the potatoes interspersed with the spruce forests running right up to the seacoast where the red cliffs and beaches meet the blue sea - gorgeous!!. We ate dinner at a pretty restaurant overlooking the Montague River.

Wednesday we took the Charlotte's Shore drive along the western side of the island and saw more lighthouses, beautiful hills, seashore and farmland. We stopped at Victoria, a quaint village on the seashore and then went on to Summerside and then back home along the northern edge of Charlotte's Shore section of the island.

We are enjoying this area and have decided to skip Nova Scotia - for this trip - and spend a few more days here on the island and then head back to the states. There we can again get our mail and make phone calls at a reasonable rate.

Monday, Aug. 17, we moved on to St. Leonard, New Brunswick, where we were in a really pretty campground next to the St. John River. The sites were large and plenty of trees. We only stayed two nights there, but would have liked to stay longer. From there, we went back into the states to pick up our mail at Van Buren ME - just across the river from St. Leonard.

Wednesday, we arrived in Sussex, NB and have a nice shady spot in a very nice campground here. Thursday, we went down to the cost to see the Bay of Fundy, where there are 30+' tides. This day it was 36'. We were there at both high and low tides and got some pictures. It is quite a sight and hard to believe the difference! We found a cute little restaurant nearby and had some great seafood chowder for lunch while we were waiting for the tide to go out. Friday was grocery shopping and laundry day. Saturday we spent relaxing around the campground. Sunday, we found a United Baptist church near here and worshiped with them. A couple from Denver went with us and we went out for dinner afterward and had some wonderful seafood.

Monday, August 24, we drove 100 miles in fog to ME to pick up our mail and make some phone calls (much cheaper to call the US from the US than from Canada!! We did a little sightseeing on the way back, after the fog lifted a bit, at St. Andrews by the Sea; a quaint NB resort village. But, by St. John, the fog was back for quite a bit of the trip, although it was more patchy by this time of the day. We found a little fruit stand along the highway where we got some wonderful wild blueberries which we enjoyed on waffles Tuesday morning. Tuesday was clean house and do computer work day.

We left the US on Saturday July 25th staying that night in Sudbury, Ontario. We found some pretty rough highways in Canada; even the main ones are quite rough and difficult to safely maintain the speed limit. The two lane highway's limit is 90 km/h and the four lane 100 km/h. On these highways, things do get shaken up in the trailer. But, we have had only one small dish get broken and a couple of mugs chipped. After two nights in Sudbury we headed for Pembroke Ontario. (The highways were a bit better quality than what we had west of Sudbury.) The Ontario countryside is very pretty and, close to Pembroke, quite mountainous. On the way to Pembroke we followed along the Ottawa River which is large and quite pretty. Also, this part of Ontario is covered with lakes, some of which are quite large. A couple of them we could not even see the other side in some places. In Pembroke, we stayed two nights at Riverside Park which is only a couple of hundred yards from the Ottawa River. The park was nice and has a lot of big pine trees which smell so good. And, it was wonderful to hear the wind blowing gently in the trees. This is the kind of park in which we could easily spend several days and not get tired of it. But, we had to move on to Ottawa.

After getting set up at Recreationland CG (at Cumberland which is a few miles east of Ottawa, Ont.) we went into in Rockland, about 3 miles east. There we found a farmer's market where we bought a few veggies: wonderful corn, wild blueberries, and some cherries. All across Canada we have continued to get wonderful fruit and veggies, most of which is grown locally. There is a lot of farm land in Eastern Canada. Somehow it does not seem right since we are so far north, we would not have expected that they would have warm enough summers. Saturday, August 1st, we spent the day touring Ottawa. We arrived at the Parliament parade grounds just as they started the changing of the guard ceremony. We learned later that these "guards" are mostly young people and it is a summer job for them. Nevertheless, it is a difficult position to obtain and requires a lot of training and discipline. It was quite colorful with lots of pomp! We also were in time to see the changing of the guards at the Prime Minister's home. We spent the rest of the afternoon touring the Sparks Street Mall which was very interesting. Several blocks of the street are filled with restaurants, shops, and entertainers: music, clowns, etc. (The weekend was the "Busker Festival" - meaning street entertainment.) We ate lunch at one of the little sidewalk cafes. The restaurants in Canada have been very good and the prices are somewhat less than in the states. The menu prices are about the same but with the currency exchange rate at about $1.00 US to $1.45 Canadian, it makes eating out less expensive. On the other hand, after all conversions, fuel prices are about $1.30 to $1.40 per gallon. This make the miles cost a bit more.

Sunday we visited a small Baptist church near Cumberland where the members gave us a very friendly welcome. On Monday we took a double decker bus tour which allowed us to get on and off as desired. We made our first stop at the Museum of Civilization which we had been told not to miss. The bottom line is that we needed 2-3 days to see more that a sample of the museum! We did stay about 3 hours and ate lunch in the restaurant in the museum. In that time, we explored most of the Native American section and a good part of the Canadian history section. But there were at least two other areas we never got into and did not see the IMAX films. The museum was wonderful, very well depicting early Canadian life with many life-sized exhibits of many aspects of their history. On Tuesday, we went into Ottawa for a last time, to the Byward market. It was really something else, blocks and blocks of sidewalk cafes, sidewalk shops and fruit & vegetable stands!

Wednesday, we moved on to Montreal. Thursday we visited the Cosmodome in Laval. It is a Space Science Centre for Canada. They have a multitude of exhibits depicting various aspects of space exploration. A number of the exhibits are "hands on" similar to the Science Center in St. Louis. Part of the centre is a space camp for young people similar to the one we have in Houston. Also there is a neat multimedia presentation called "Reach for the Stars" which depicts man's interest in the stars from prehistoric times to the present. The audience is seated on a moveable platform which rotates and tilts. All wear headphones to facilitate hearing the presentation in English or French. It was well worth seeing. Saturday, we went down to the old section of Montreal and took a horse-drawn carriage tour. There are many beautiful old buildings here and lots of fun shops. Sunday, we visited a small Bible Church in Laval. On Tuesday evening, we were able to spend some time visiting with the pastor, his family and a deacon and his family. Monday, we had to take a run back into the states for a "snail mail" pickup (We discovered that it doesn't work well to try to have it delivered in Canada!).

Wednesday, Aug. 12, we came on to Quebec City. We are at a nice campground near Levis. We took a bus tour of Quebec City on Thursday (the bus came to the campground to pick us up, we had a 2-hr tour of the city, the afternoon to tour the upper city on foot, and then bus picked us up at 5:30 to return to the campground - it was great!). Friday we drove to Levis and left the truck at the ferry dock. We then took the ferry across the St Lawrence River to Quebec City old town and had fun touring the lower city. They are having an re-enactment this weekend of a 20 minute French-English battle and there were people wandering all over the area in period costumes. We found more tourist here than anywhere we have been so far - it was really crowded! Tomorrow we head for the Atlantic Provinces.

We enjoyed visiting the Amana Colonies and especially the Amish restaurants there! They had bad storms in the area a week or so before we arrived and there was much tree and roof damage and the river at Amana was still out of its banks. From there, we went to Spring Green WI to see the "House on the Rock" which was quite a sight! The displays there have grown from just the house to an enormous collection of pneumatically operated musical instruments, the world's largest carousel, collections of dolls, doll houses, boat and ship models, circus models, and many more. We spent 5 hours touring it and could have spent more but we wore out!!!

Then we went on to Devil's River Campground near Manitowoc WI for a week. We met Pam, Tracy & Jonathon (our daughter & her husband & son) in Manitowoc so they could show us around. They are in the process of trying to buy a dental practice there and were up from IL for the weekend. We spent a couple of days with them and then they had to return home. We then toured Door County, north of Manitowoc, and enjoyed some of their wonderful cherries which were in season and very plentiful. The whole area up there is very green and the farms are beautiful. WI is a very clean and beautiful state!

We are now on the north shore of Lake Michigan at Driftwood Shores Campground, Thompson, MI. It is nice and cool - lower 70's yesterday and 60's today!! This morning, we went out to see Kitch-iti-kipi (The Big Spring) at Palms Book State Park. The water bubbles up from the numerous underground springs at a rate of 16,000 gallons per minute! It is quite a sight!! A beautiful emerald green lake with some very large trout swimming around in it. Tomorrow we head to Canada for several weeks....

We spent a relaxing evening at Lake Eufala OK July 3rd and then on to Carthage MO for the 4th of July weekend. We went to the city's fireworks on the 4th and enjoyed them. On the 5th we went to the light and water show at the Precious Moments facility. The show was great! They play praise music with the show and it is a wonderful testimony for the Lord!! It is well worth seeing! We came up to Eagleville, in northwestern MO, on Monday and are doing some genealogy work. The Genealogy Society in nearby Bethany has a multitude of newspaper clippings in numerous scrapbooks donated to the library. We have found quite a bit of new information there on Bev's ancestors who lived in the area!

Saturday, we will leave here on and head up into east central IA to the Amana Colonies for a few days and then on to WI. The manager of the campground in Maribel, WI said that we will not have to use the air conditioner! Sounds great!!

We came back to HOT Dallas on the 23rd. The Growing Families Leadership Conference was Thursday evening through Saturday and was great! There were over 850 leaders here from all over the United States and many foreign countries. It was good to have the opportunity to get to know a few more GFI leaders and renew numerous friendships from previous years. We have had time to do some visiting here as well as getting some of the usual things done: grocery shopping, pictures developed, laundry, etc. We will leave here Friday morning and begin our trek north to, hopefully, some cooler weather. By the end of July, we will be somewhere in southern Ontario.

See the bottom of this page for some new pictures of our home.

The first day here at Grove, OK, on the shores of the Grand Lake of the Cherokees, was beautiful, but then the heat and humidity set in! We have done some sightseeing anyway and especially enjoyed Har-Ber Village. It is a large and wonderful collection of log cabins, artifacts, and collections depicting times past. The Village was created by Harvey and Bernice Jones (Jones Trucking Line) to "preserve for future generations the way of life as experienced by our forefathers who carved out of the wilderness this wonderful country we know and enjoy." We would highly recommend visiting it - it is well worth a trip here just to see these displays! And, it's free!

The only good thing about the weather, besides not having tornados, is that it has forced us to stayed inside part of the time and get some computer work done.

Tracy's graduation went well, now he has to finish some clinical work and hopes to finish up by mid-July. Now they have the big job of deciding where to set up practice!! They have been up to WI to look at a practice there for sale and this weekend are going to CO to look over one there

After a few day's delay, waiting for new contacts to come in, we left the St. Charles area on Thursday, June 11, and came down to Don's brother's in southeastern KS. We are having a good visit with Ken & Ann and doing some local genealogy work.