Massachusetts

July 17th and still here! Arrived in Massachusetts today and we are still sampling the New England seafood and visiting friends and relatives. We are staying in Les’ brothers yard in Middleboro, which is awesome because we have a great view, electricity and water! Fred’s wife Jean is in Rome and France for the week
Leading a group of students from her school in a Spring trip that was re-scheduled until now due to volcanic action in Europe in April. She will be returning on Monday night and we are excited to hear all about the trip. We have spent quite a bit of the week visiting with Les’ family and Shirley’s friends as well as getting hair cuts and did I mention eating New England Seafood? We still have a few friends to catch up with locally and then we will head out to Maine, hopefully to see Dee Dee and “Owie Bear“. We want to get up to Acadia National Park so we can check that National Park off of our list! We are having a great time, but there isn’t too much to add for our public blog! One thing that Gramma wanted to mention was that she is officially out of the truffles that Jeffrey made here - talk about a hint! Maybe Jeff would send me the recipe via my email!

On a serious note, we were happy to be able to give out the first annual group of scholarship awards to four well deserving graduates of Braintree High School. I am posting a photo of the group, with one member missing. They were so happy to receive the awards - we hosted a luncheon for their parents and the Direction of Guidance and his wife. Of course Les was in his glory again eating out!

New Hampshire

July 16 - 17 we arrive in New Hampshire excited to see the new addition to the family, Lyla Conte. We were not disappointed as she was just a doll and a very good baby, so happy and playful. Liz and Jerrod are doing a great job and sharing baby duties. Grandpa and Gramma are in their glory having the family visit. They are headed to Pittsburgh to Jerrod’s family for a visit and Lyla’s christening. We spent the night and then headed out to Massachusetts on Saturday. I am posting a few photos. We couldn’t resist buying Lyla a Hershey Kiss bucket hat when we visited Hershey PA so of course that’s one of the photos.

Honesdale PA - Visit with the Minella Family

July 15 - we arrived at Keen Lake (Waymart PA) last night. Today we visited our friends from Long Island who now live in Honesdale PA. Bob was at work until 3 but Michele and the three boys (Nick, Tim and Tom) were awaiting our arrival this morning. How much fun it was to see my old friend and co-workers Michele. We had so much fun reminiscing about our Aetna Lake Success and Melville days! We last saw the family when they came to Orland when the twins (Tim and Tom) were 4. Nick is now 14 and the twins will be 12 this year! Wow how times flies. They all looked awesome and it was especially nice to see the kids. The house and property are like the Ponderosa (hmmm…they even have the three boys like the Cartwright’s). Bob and Michele recently put a pool in so we were lucky it was a great day for swimming, well probably playing would be a better description. Les and the boys practiced their back flips and then Tim and Pat teamed up to challenge Les and Tom to a game of HORSE in the pool basketball area! Not to brag but Tim and I beat the swim trunks off of the other two!

We had a nice lunch and luckily Bob came back from work in time for us to have a nice visit. They are the nicest family! I forgot to ask Michele is her dad was still putting hot sauce on his turkey! I’ll never forget the Thanksgiving we spent with them when he doused his turkey in that stuff - yucky!

I am taking the liberty of posting a few of the pool photos so the boys can see how well they were progressing with their back flips! We couldn't resist posting a photo of one of the family cats. Chevy was no doubt named by Bob who is a Chevy kinda guy! Off to New Hampshire tomorrow to see my sister, husband, niece and her husband their new daughter, Lyla.

Hershey Pennsylvania

July 13 - 14. We arrived in Hershey Pennsylvania on the 12th and planned to spend the next day in Chocolate World! We did a fair amount of relaxing at this campsite. In the morning we drove over to Chocolate World for a tour of a simulated factory processing plant. It was neat because it was a ride…you sat in the car (the wheelchair car had a ramp that Shirley was wheeled right onto the car) and went through the factory tour. It lasted about 10 minutes but it was cool. After the ride we exited via the gift shops and the candy shop - how convenient! We did buy a little Hershey Kisses bucket hat for Lyla (Elizabeth and Jerrod’s daughter) because it was so darned cute we couldn’t resist. Other that that we settled on the free samples given out after the ride.

The afternoon brought light to moderate rain showers followed by fairly heavy rain overnight. Our next stop will be at Keen Lake in Waymart PA.

Benton Casa in Pennsylvania

July 11 - 12. We arrived at Jeffrey (Les’ nephew) and Kathy Benton’s home this afternoon to spend an overnight. What a nice visit we had and all of the grandchildren and two great-grandchildren were on hand to greet us. We parked in Jeffrey’s driveway which was plenty large enough for the RV. A quick hook up to electricity and a leveling of the RV and were we all settled in. It was great to see the family and how the girls had grown into young women and Jeff and Kathy into loving grandparents. We had a great day reminiscing about Carol (Jeff’s mother and Les’ sister) and his early years before and during his military service. While it seemed like just the “other day” Jeff entered the Army and here he is retired after 22 years of devoted service. We were treated to an over the top steak dinner, cooked by Jeff on the grill. We were impressed by the teamwork that the 3 girls expended in order that Kathy could relax and visit with us. I am posting some photos for our family followers and ask for indulgence from our other friends who may not know Les’ relatives. On Monday Jeff and Les were off to Walmart and to the post office. It’s fun to have the men do errands for us! Later Monday we said a happy tear goodbye to them promising to make them a stop on our East Coast excursions - what great hosts! Jeffrey has business in Massachusetts in a couple of weeks and we hope that he will be able to connect with Joshua and Harris so they have a chance to catch up too. Gramma Deane had a great visit and was so happy that we made the stop. That just makes us smile.

Washington DC

July 7 - 10 Washington DC sights! Wednesday all three of us went to the White House for the tour. It was awesome and we all enjoyed it. Of course Shirley and Les were escorted by a Secret Service agent through the Presidents’ private kitchen into his private elevator so that they could get to the second floor of the tour. I waited on the second floor because the elevator only held them (yeah sure)…anyway it was a thrill for them and maybe even the highlight of the week….however Shirley was disappointed that the President wasn’t available to have coffee with her!

Thursday Les and I toured the Pentagon, really interesting and a little overwhelming. They employ 16000 employees so you can imagine that it is just like a small city. In the evening the three of us took a tour of DC at Night via bus. We were able to see the White House, Ellipse, Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam, Nurses, Korea and others at night, all illuminated, just beautiful.

Did I mention it was still hot, hot hot….as the week progressed the humidity increased so we were at least glad that our tour was a night and that Les and I had done most of the hoofing during the earlier part of the week, still hot, but not quite as humid.

Friday we drove over to Arlington National Cemetery on our way to Mount Vernon (Washington’s home). We toured the cemetery by “tour mobile” for a reasonable price and was shown various gravesites of famous people, including the Kennedy’s resting ground, Jack, Jackie, two children, Robert and most recently interred Teddy. All very emotional for us Yankees. We also made a stop at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and had the opportunity to see the changing of the guard. What a sight. After that tour we were off to lunch and Mount Vernon. It was quite warm and we decided to eat in the car so that Shirley didn’t have to get in and out ten times! So it was Five Guys Burgers and Fries in the car! Mount Vernon was a little less than 1 hour away and a pleasant drive. We toured Washington’s house and compared it to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello - could not have found two more diverse individuals. Washington’s real love was farming but both men were very much ahead of their time and inventive.

Saturday was our day of rest or at least no touring. Laundry day and total clean of the living spaces. We were leaving on Sunday to visit with Les’ nephew Jeffrey and his family in Pennsylvania and he wanted the RV to be super clean for them to see. Actually I think Les wanted to show Jeffrey that he was no longer the messy uncle that Jeff would remember!

Washington DC

July 5 - 6...okay this is weird…it’s 99 degrees here in Washington and I think only 85 in Florida! What is wrong with this picture. Monday Les and I set off to Washington DC early (7:00am) to beat the crowds and some of the heat. It takes about 20 minutes to take the bus to the Metro and then 1/2 hour from the Metro to our stop, We decided to do the museums that he was interested in today and leave the monuments for tomorrow. We ended up walking a little over 5 miles Monday before 1:00. We arrived back at camp in the early afternoon because we were a little concerned that our air conditioning would quit and Shirley would be baking. We haven’t had any problems but with the high demand for air it still worried us a little bit. But all was well and she had a nice day by herself - lots of postcards to be written.

Tuesday (today) we decided the earlier the better for us to get going so we were up about 5 am and off to take the first bus out and arrived about 7:15 in DC. Today we decided to get our memorial and monument sightseeing done as early as possible and since they are open air and don’t require admittance we were on a mission. I’m posting a few photos of the day, but it was so darn sunny and so hot the photos aren’t very good. We also decided to use the old point and shoot because with the heat it was too much to carry the bigger camera. Poor Les was already carrying the backpack with 5 bottles of water and glass cases, Kleenex and everything else you have to bring. Thank goodness he volunteered for that job! We actually were finished our touring and back to the campground about 11:45am, just it was hitting 100 degrees (again!). Today we did a little over 6 miles on the hoofs (or maybe hooves).

Tomorrow the White House (we’ll drive to that with Shirley) and Thursday the Pentagon and then a night bus tour of DC (we will all go on this one too). Friday will be our day for Arlington National Cemetery and Mt. Vernon. Saturday will be our day of rest and we leave Sunday for Jeffrey’s house in Pennsylvania.

July 1 - 4 Happy Fourth of July!

July 1 - 4. Happy Fourth of July! We are writing this note from Cherry Hill RV Resort in College Park, Maryland. We arrived here on Saturday and due to the Holiday we decided to lay low until tomorrow when we will make our first trip into Washington DC. It is hot here, 99 today, 99 tomorrow, 100 Wednesday - but hey the humidity is low! Nice campground, loaded with campers, perhaps 400 in all. It has a ton of amenities, including two pools. Today we all trekked to the pool for a couple of hours. Of course Shirley wanted ice cream for lunch, just like her brother Ray, who I am convinced told her it was okay to eat dessert first! Backing up a few days, we traveled thru the Blue Ridge Parkway and then after a two day stop in Walnut Hills VA we continued on to Luray VA settling there for a couple of relaxing days. I am posting a photo of the cows that were outside of our RV site with the caption “we won’t be home until the cows go home”. Nice campground but I think it was run by some type of drill sergeant! I borrowed a book from the community library, a paperback at that, and the woman promptly told me that I would have to leave a $2.00 cash deposit! Okay no problem, and then she proceeded to tell me the book would have to be back in her hand the next morning! What !!! I said sure, no problem….of course if you know me I kept it two days just to make her crazy - and then I marched down to the office ½ hour before we left and asked for my $2.00 back! We went to the Potato Chip Factory (Route 11 Chips) for a daytrip and some samples! On the way we took a short cut and happened upon this covered bridge, what a nice surprise, so fun - glad we had the car and not the RV!

Saturday morning we traveled up the Sky Line (part of the National Park in Shenandoah)…nice to have Shirley with us and an annual pass for the National Park System so we could ride it for free! What a Country we live in.

So that brings us up to date. Spent the evening planning our excursion tomorrow. We will go without Shirley Monday and Tuesday to scope out the lay of the land and also because I am concerned about the heat. On Wednesday we have a tour of the White House scheduled for 9:00 am so she will go with us by car that day. After that tour we will bring her to Arlington National Cemetery to see Kennedy’s Gravesite as well as some vehicle touring. Thursday Les and I will be going to a tour of the Pentagon and probably some other sites he might like to see. Thursday night we are planning a night bus tour of Washington and Shirley will join us on that, primarily because there isn’t a Red Sox game that night! I think we might just chill after that as we are scheduled to leave on Sunday. More pool time, a couple of cocktails and….well what else is there?