Ohio and West Virginia

Lazy Dog Campground, Ohio

Linda's motto

We left Indiana on August 28th.  It was not our intention when planning this trip to go to Ohio or West Virginia but we decided at the last minute to travel a portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway up to Washington D.C.  We stayed the first night in Galloway, Ohio which is very close to Columbus.  Columbus is where Pete was born and he states that after he was born, they made it the state capital, by way of proclamation.  Our campground was very noisy so we weren't sorry to leave.  Our next campground was in Jackson, Ohio.  It was much better, noise wise and a very pretty setting.  It was called the Lazy Dog Campground however no pets were allowed.  We had a view of a little lake and were able to watch the fish feeding at dusk.  It also had a cute saying on the shed in front of us which I have posted here. 

Ohio River

As we headed southeast, we crossed the Ohio River,  much wider than our rivers in California, and entered into a wooded area that our National Geographic map states is the Appalachian Plateau.  We crossed the plateau into West Virginia.

West Virginia State Capital, Charleston

Kawawha River, WV

I can see why John Denver sang about West Virginia being almost heaven....with the exception of the roads which were like California's.  The tree covered cliffs alongside the freeway and the beautiful, wide rivers were incredible.  We traveled through the Appalachian Mountains and are now on the eastern side in the state of Virginia.  Tomorrow we will begin our journey on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Cheers!

Indiana-family style

August 28, 2010

Linda with Earl and Kathy Hackett

We spent Wednesday, the 25th with Pete's cousin Earl Hackett and his wife, Kathy and Thursday and Friday with his cousin Nancy Wean and her husband, John.  Pete had not seen Earl in 50 plus years and Nancy for over 10 years.  Both of them are from Pete's mother's side of the family.  Earl and his wife helped us search cemeteries so that we could record dates regarding family members on the Hackett side of the family.  We even found an old Civil War era cemetery with the help of Pete's brother Dan and his amazing Google maps.  We parted promising we would meet before another 50 years had passed.

Civil War era cemetery

John and Nancy's RV park

On Thursday, we drove to Muncie, Indiana to visit with Pete's cousin Nancy Wean.  She and her husband John were very gracious in allowing us to camp in their driveway.

Pete with Nancy and John Wean

They showed us Ball State University as well as some of the best produce markets we have seen so far.  We came away with some wonderful peaches.  Nancy and John are both retired school administrators, but we didn't talk shop...much.  Nancy was also able to fill in information regarding the Hackett family.  It meant a lot to Pete to be able to renew family friendships with Earl and Nancy and to relive wonderful memories of time spent in Indiana as a child.  We are now headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway by way of Ohio and West Virginia. Cheers!

Northern Indiana-Amish country

August 24, 2010

Amish buggy

Amish Quilt Garden

The first part of our visit in Indiana introduced us to the RV Hall of Fame and Museum and the Amish country.  As we entered the state, we found we had to share the road with horse drawn black buggies.  It was Sunday and the buggies were full of families, possibly coming home from church.  We had to slow down several times before we could pass.  It was an interesting sight.  The Amish people don't use cars.   Their main mode of transportation is either the buggy or a bicycle.  They also don't allow their pictures to be taken and will turn away if you try.  It is against their religion.  We spent a day exploring their towns with names like Middlebury, Shipshewana and Napanee.  We enjoyed an Amish style meal at a place called Essenhaus, in Middlebury.  It is served family style and is all you can eat of fried chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy etc.  It was delicious but we didn't do it justice.  They did allow us to take our pie home and that was dinner that night.  We also explored some of the shops in the area and came away with treasures we couldn't live without.

1913 trailer with Model T Ford

Our second day was spent at the RV Hall of Fame and Museum in Elkhart.  It is the 100th anniversary of the RV industry and something we really wanted to see.  We were not disappointed.  They had on display a 1913 Earl trailer and Model T Ford and a 1928 Weidman camper, among many others.  They even had a motorhome belonging to Mae West.

Weidman camper

In the afternoon, we searched old cemeteries for Keeslar family grave sites and explored the countryside for signs of old Keeslar family farms. Our search was guided by using maps that brother Dan provided from his research into the Keeslar and Hackett families.

Old Pete and older Peter

Tomorrow, we plan to visit with Pete's cousin, whom he hasn't seen in over 50 years.
Cheers!

Michigan

Our new favorite past-time

We were in Shelby Michigan 8/19-8/22.  Shelby is on the west side of Michigan, about 5 miles from Lake Michigan.  It is about halfway up the state.  The towns here are called townships or villages and they are quaint little places.  We stayed at the home of our friends, Roger and Sharon.  We first met them in Bryce Canyon while on a trip a few years ago and have stayed in touch ever since.  While there, they took us kayaking on a little lake near their home.  What a wonderful experience!  We are now hooked and looking for kayaks.  The lake was small and we were able to paddle all the way around it in a couple of hours.  Beautiful homes dotted the shoreline. 

Dipping our toes

We were also able to 'dip our toes' in Lake Michigan.  The beach looks just like one of the beaches in Southern California and the lake looks like the Pacific Ocean without the smell of saltwater.  It even has the sea gulls begging for food!  The lake is so big, our friend Sharon said it takes a high speed ferry boat 3 hours to get across it to Milwaukee, WI.

Pete at Lake Michigan

Roger and Sharon took us on a tour up the coastline of the lake as well.  Lots of places to stop to view the lake and we even stopped at a Farmer's Market.  So much fresh produce for sale up here.  The quaint little fishing villages remind us of our north coast.

Lake Michigan overlook

We truly enjoyed Roger and Sharon's Michigan hospitality and they went out of their way to make us feel at home.  It was hard to leave but we may hook up with them again in Arizona next year. 

Our next stop will be northern Indiana where Pete has roots.  Cheers!

Wisconsin and Illinois

Well, we're back.  We just spent three wonderful days with friends in Michigan and didn't have any time for blogging.  More on our visit with them in the next post.  We left Minnesota on 8/18/10 and drove across the Mississippi River into Wisconsin.  We weren't able to spend as much time in Wisconsin as we would have liked, however we did go through the Wisconsin Dells and have to say we were very disappointed.  The town itself was a major tourist trap with T-shirt vendors lined up on the sidewalks, small eating places and theme parks all over the place.  The main street was very narrow and we had a hard time maneuvering Tumbleweed through the streets because of all the vehicle and foot traffic.  We took a couple of quick pictures out of the window and moved on.  We found a Wisconsin cheese shop in Lake Delton and had to unhook the car due to navigator error (RV'ers will understand that, I'm afraid).  Anyway, because we had the car unhooked, we took a short ride to an area where we could get a better view of the Dells.  The cheese that we bought was worth the trouble.

Wisconsin Dells

The Dells, Wisconsin

We had our first experience with toll roads as we entered the state of Illinois.  There were two lanes as we approached the toll area.  One was for cash and one for the I-pass.  In all the confusion caused by heavy truck traffic, Pete got in the wrong lane and we blew through the toll booth in the wrong lane!  We were so afraid a State trooper was going to stop us that I went online to see what to do.  Apparently it is pretty common and they offered a way of paying online so I did....all of $2.85.  Anyway we continued on our way south toward I-80 as we wanted to avoid as much of Chicago traffic as we could.  We found a very nice campground called the Hickory Hollow in Utica, Illinois right off the interstate.  FYI, to Bob and Pink, they take Good Sam and it was a very clean, quiet park.  From Utica, we drove northeast on I-80 toward Michigan. I-80 through Illinois is just as rough as I-80 in California. Both states were very green with lots of lakes, rivers and corn.  See you in the next post.  Cheers!

South Dakota and Minnesota

8/18/2010

Sturgis Rally

We spent 6 days in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Our visit coincided with the 70th anniversary of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally so we shared the road with approximately 700,000 motorcycles!  Since we have visited this area before, we didn't see a lot of the tourist attractions but instead focused on family.  We spent our first 3 nights in the Deadwood area with Linda's uncle and aunt.   We visited Spearfish Canyon which is lush and green with beautiful waterfalls.  We also visited the Mt. Roosevelt monument which was built by Seth Bullock, the sheriff of Deadwood during the wild west days, as a tribute to his good friend, Teddy Roosevelt.  We did a lot of hiking that day...in sandals I might add!  We also went to to Sturgis to see the rally and that was an experience!  While the bikers were throughout the Black Hills, the main area was Sturgis.  There were motorcycles of every shape and size. 

Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park

From Deadwood, we drove to Rapid City and spent 3 nights with a different aunt and uncle.  While there, we visited Wall Drug and the Badlands National Park.  Wall Drug was just a tourist trap and very disappointing but the Badlands park was beautiful.  It is a huge natural barrier, 100 miles long that has been sculpted into fantastic pinnacles and gullies by the forces of water.  Lots of prehistoric fossils and wildlife in the area as well.  Well worth seeing, even for Linda's uncle who has lived here for over 60 years and never been...until now.  He went back to his restaurant the next day and told all of his customers how wonderful it was!  Most of them hadn't been there either.  Sunday the 15th of August, Linda celebrated her birthday with her aunt (same birthday) and we left for Minnesota on Monday. 

Birthday girls

Corn Palace

On our way to Minnesota, we stopped in Mitchell, S.D. to see the Corn Palace.  It is the only building in the world decorated with corn.  They redo it each year in a different theme.  According to Pete, it's a lot of corn!

In Minnesota we had our first view of the Mississippi River and our first experience with humidity.  Everything is green and clean here.  The houses and yards are immaculate.  We stayed in a campground on the river last night and followed the river up to Red Wing, MN.  Very cute little town with lots of unique shops (Pink, I need my shopping buddy).  Great Mexican restaurant too.

Mississippi River

We are on our way to Wisconsin which is just across the river.  Cheers!

 
* This is our first post using our new Verizon broadband.  It has been a challenge trying to find WIFI spots.  Now we don't need them.  I can work on it going down the road.  Life is good.

Grand Teton National Park

8/9/2010

Jenny Lake

We have left the Grand Teton National Park and are in Caspar, WY.

What a beautiful park it was.  We stayed two night at the Gros Ventre campground.  Gros Ventre is French for big stomach.  We were treated to an early morning visit from a bull and a cow moose.  They weren't the least bit interested in us however they had quite a big fan club!  We also saw several bison cross the road in front of our car.  We had to stop and wait for them as they were bigger than us.  At one point Pete got out of the car to get a better picture and one of the bison was snorting and acting aggressive toward him.  Scared me to death!

We took a driving tour around the park and stopped at Jackson Lake Lodge where they served Huckleberry margaritas.  Of course I had to try one.  Delicious.  They were served on the patio overlooking Jackson Lake and Mt. Moran.  The view was spectacular!  We did find, however that the best way to eat on a budget in the park is to bring your own food!

Cheers!

The entire Teton's are beautiful and my favorite mountain range.  We wish we'd had more time as we didn't get to do any of the hiking we wanted to do.  We did enjoy the wildlife and scenery though and will have to come back.

We are staying in an RV park in Caspar and I have nothing good to say about this place so I won't say anything  On to Deadwood South Dakota tomorrow.  Can't wait!  Cheers!

We're on our way

Larry, Julie and Kya

After months of planning and preparation, we finally left Rocklin on Monday, August 2nd at 8:45 pm. We arrived in Fernley, NV at 12:30 am and 'camped out' in the Walmart parking lot. What a relief to get off the California highways. Smooth sailing since then.

We arrived in Boise ID on August 3rd around 6 pm. Daughter, Julie and son-in-law, Larry had a wonderful meal waiting for us along with a great bottle of wine. They graciously allowed us to park in their driveway for the duration of our visit and I think it must have been made for our motor home. We fit perfectly, although the kids had to keep their bedroom shade closed or we would have been able to watch them sleep!

Larry and Julie's home was the perfect place to begin our journey. Very low key. Lots of 'catching up', hikes in the foothills, and relaxing. Larry and Julie presented us with a wonderful journal to record our trip memories. Thanks you two...oops three (sorry Kya) for a wonderful beginning for our trip.

While in Boise, we were also able to have a nice lunch with Marcia and Tim O'Keeffe of Bliss, ID and Florida. Marcia was Pete's administrative secretary (and boss) when he was principal at Weimar Hills Middle School. Great to see Marcia and to meet Tim.

We are now truly on our way. Next stop...Grand Teton National Park. Cheers!