Thanatopsis

When I made this image, I wondered why it touched me. Janee's most recent post told me. They are in the late stages of a heroic battle with Michael's brain tumor. Now the time has come to settle in for sundown. Too soon one chair will be empty.

Michael has willed many to love Janee and support her in her twilight of loss. We will.

Live Free or Die

Beauty and Beast

Steam engine in North Conway

Locals enjoying the river.

Early leaf.

We will be back in the White Mountains of New Hampshire by late September.

I love New Hampshire's state slogan. It no doubt means different things to different people; therein lies its' genius. They seem a bit laid back. We got to the Welcome Center coming in from Vermont in late afternoon, our preferred stopping time, and wanted to spend the night. We parked beside two big rigs settled in for the night. A very friendly Virginian, delivering Honda generators in the north country, told us he parks there weekly without problem. Claire hinted we wanted to stay to the Welcome Center staff, and he told her lots of people sleep there, even in cars. No worries. I remember traveling the East in college days, in my 1958 VW and (being both young and short), slept in the back seat in all kinds of places, some not so wise, like inner city Washington, D.C., but never had a problem. There is something undeniably pleasurable about sleeping in a public place; I'm sure it's not so fun for people who have no other choice, or without the nice motorhome, but it's fun for us.

The North Conway Chamber of Commerce visitors center was predictably more stuffy: "Definitely not." was the answer about parking near the center-of-town playground/park. We did anyway, tucked in beside a 60's hippie bus there for a craft fair the next day. Sometimes you just have to live free, despite the snooty minority.

The town of North Conway is chock-a-block with tourists, but we could tell there is a real town with real people raising families there. They came out on a hot Saturday in droves to splash in the innovative fountain pool and played tether ball and touch football. I thought of Moab Utah, the main street awash in tourist overload, but with quiet trails and parks and ball fields, and bucolic neighborhoods, tucked away from the noise and confusion, and as often the case with such towns, a fabulous library paid for with tourist taxes. Ah justice.

The Chamber of Commerce visitor center stirred up a topic: We have found in around 90,000 miles of away-from-home-base surface travel (bike and motorhome) in North America, that the state or provincial visitors centers are always very open and helpful, but the Chamber or Visitors and Convention Bureaus etc. seem to be only interested in directing you to their own members; any alternative or non-member queries are met with barely disguised disdain. The attitude makes us move on to a more friendly environment. It's just business I guess; In my business, I worked on the premise that good business is being open and helpful to potential customers (everybody is a potential customer!) whether they appear to be immediately interested or not. I suppose I'm old-fashioned that way. It worked for me.

I have noticed that Wal*Mart associates are quick to tell you where to find a product that they don't carry. That also applies to quite a few large stores like Ace Hardware. I think they have learned from Mom and Pop. The Chambers should give it a try.

Vermont

An evening on Joe's Pond with Jim and Sue Paulsen.

We met Jim and Sue tandem touring in Nova Scotia in 1999. They had dinner with us in Turtle One several years ago in Tucson. We visited them in South Burlington, where we managed to get in two parties, and a bicycle ride that included a ferry ride, bicycles only. A day later, after we'd test driven and photographed a Roadtrek, we met them at the family camp on Joe's Pond, VT, for dinner, a short paddle and after breakfast, a sun warmed morning on the porch, watching loons and comparing world-travel stories. They showed up at the library in St. Johnsbury, where we were desperately in need of a break, and we enjoyed tomato sandwiches with them on the front lawn. We were jealous that they could ride off into the sunshine, while we went back to the computers.

Two Bicycle ferries passing on Lake Champlain.

Jim and Sue at home in South Burlington

Vermont grown. Vermonters fly the flag more than any place we've been.

A foggy morning at Cold Hollow Cider Mill. A wonderful boondock (ask first). Watching the very early stages of the process at Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory.

Library in St. Johnsbury, VT

Adirondacks and A Major Change of Plans

Our first Adirondack pond.

Tweedy pair out for a woodsy stroll.

Ice cream stop, and father and son doing a "carry."

Snake eating frog, or is that frog eating snake? (double click for enlarged view)

Claire catching blueberries, fisherman catching nothing.

Northeast Shore features at Whiteface Ski Area.

Nice view for the road cyclist. The river's not bad either.

What kind of chairs are these?

Adirondack guide boat.

Bobsledding on concrete?

I don't think we've found a more friendly part of America than upstate New York. There is an idea abroad that New Yorkers are brusque, even rude; but that is New York City, and they're not so much rude as just surviving. But upstate New York, particularly the Adirondacks is friendly to a fault:

Coming in from the Northwest, down from the St. Lawrence, we stopped at the Adirondack Visitor's Center and peppered Lydia with questions of all sorts, so we could get as much out of our week in the park as possible. As we talked we discovered she had once lived in Beijing and loved travel as much as we do, and the bonding was off and running. One of our questions was where we could boondock, like we do almost all the time on federal lands in the west. She understood, and directed us to a Jones pond spot, that we were later to discover was pretty much a locals secret. A ranger stopped by one night and asked us where we'd heard about Jones Pond. We played dumb.

As the light dimmed, after dinner in our cozy little spot beside Jones Pond, Lydia and Porgy, Park volunteer and friend, and neighbor to us on Jones Pond, paddled up for a visit. Porgy even offered us kayaks to paddle the pond anytime we wanted. We unfortunately were too busy with work to do much but get in a hard bike ride the next day. We spent most of two days in the Paul Smith library, one the the best we have found so far, with a fabulous, and distracting, view of another pond. Our final day in the NE section of the park found us back at the Visitors Center and, by now in need of water for our shower tank; Lydia and Porgy to the rescue again: moved cars and found us a hose bib around the back of the center; this allowed us several more days in the Park for photographing and gathering material.

We had hot and humid weather for a few days, but the nights were cool if damp, then as we left the park, thunderstorms ahead of a cold front (bad ones for here) cleared and cooled the air. We are now in Vermont, another story.

Change of plans:

Claire recently received a request from one of her magazine editors to about quadruple her output for them. (me too, I do her photos). It was quite a dilemma for us, as we had already planned a trip to South America this winter, and it would not be possible to keep up even her current load with them while abroad. We decided the opportunity was too good to pass up.

Claire continues to get rave reviews for her work from all the editors she writes for, and even though our vagabond lifestyle will be altered, I think it is important for her to be able to pursue her writing. She's only 43! We will just have to figure out how to do fewer and shorter overseas trips, like most travelers. We've been spoiled, and we took full advantage of it. We will still travel extensively by RV throughout North America, thanks to the many libraries that now have wi fi and wall plugs, we'll just have to work a little more than play.

We still will not be returning to Tucson until early April; we have work to do all the way to Florida and Texas.

weather.com - Fall Foliage

According to the Weather Channel web site, the fall leaves have already peaked! Must have done it while I slept! weather.com - Fall Foliage

Two Fun Boondocks

These are two nice boondocks (free parking overnight) in upstate New York. The first is at a state highway rest area overlooking the St. Lawrence River which blessed us with a glorious sunset and rain during the night (the sound of rain on a motorhome roof is rad, and sleep inducing.

After we visited Edwina Dale (see her great new blog - link at right) we stopped at a roadside stand to buy fresh sweet corn. We asked him about a place to park overnight and he pointed to a large blue metal building about a quarter of a mile away.

"You can back right into that tool shed to get out of the sun. Then you can come back here after 6:30 when I close, or stay there, either one. I'll tell my brother you're there." He sounded more Canadian than US, but then the border is close, he probably has relatives in Canada. He was just one of many very friendly folks we've met so far in upstate New York. They got out of their way for strangers. More about friendly locals when I post from the Adirondacks.

We watched the bats leave the equipment shed at dusk, and slept soundly after a thrashing meal of corn and tomatoes

Sackets Harbor

One the morning of August 4th, our 17th anniversary, we drove to the War of 1812 battlefield site and found a parking place beside the mouth of the harbor. There was an encampment of reenactors close by and we wandered among their canvas tents admiring their period clothing, muskets, canons and uniforms. I was particularly interested in the iron pot of beef stew on the cooking fire. We talked to several of the friendly folks and learned a good bit about the War of 1812 that we hadn't know before. Foster, Lai Lai, Pbear and Claire watching the regatta. We were placing bets, and I thrashed Claire and Pbear; he's a bad looser and smashed me in the nose; fortunately polyester fluff doesn't pack much of a punch.

Late morning we noticed a flotilla of sailboats coming out of the harbor, and waiting for them, a committee boat and markers; we were about to be treated to the annual fund raising regatta for Hospice. We had crewed for a Hospice race in Sequim, Washington once, and were looking forward to seeing this one. It was much bigger than the Sequim race, and some very, very fast looking boats. We crawled through the handy skylight on Turtle and set up to watch both events from our house roof. Lots of people were jealous of our high position!

In the middle of the racing, two reenactor longboats, one American and one British, maneuvered clumsily and shot cannon at each other. No casualties were observed. This was the prelude to the land battle reenactment to follow.

Connon blast at sunset

After a full day of watching the regatta, a sea and land battle, we walked to the marina to get a better look at the fast boats and enjoy the drunken sailors getting their trophies. Then it was back to the American camp for colors, which consisted of the firing of a large canon at sunset. It was a fitting ending to a full day.

We decided to risk having to move during the night, and stayed in our parking place, watched the stars through our skylight and slept soundly and undisturbed, cooled by the breeze off the lake. We decided it was a perfect end to our anniversary.