Sunday, May 7, 2017

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

Brattleboro, VT

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Don't want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
There's gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
That's right friends and readers....the times they are a changing. We've been preparing for our summer job volunteering in New Hampshire's White Mountain National Forest. After 5 months in Florida we're on the road again. We've arrived in Vermont at our last stop before we report to work in Lincoln, NH next week.
Out With the Old.....


We've made some changes to how we roll! Joan decided it was time to Let it Go and sold her 2005 Harley deluxe. She had the bike for 10 years and put 35K miles on it. Lots of memories on that bike that she'll hold on to.



....In With the New

And we decided to try something else a little different....Joan is actually going to ride 'in' the motorhome for a change. For the last 5 years she's had the pleasure of following or leading me while driving our car. I've always towed a 7'x12' trailer containing our motorcycles with the motorhome. But we sold that trailer and purchased a new Pace 8.5'x24' trailer that will carry our car and '08 Streetglide motorcycle. We're both a little bit anxious about the length and size of our rig, but we think it will be OK. And Joan gets to relax and enjoy the view while we travel (at least she will once she gets used to the tractor trailers being so close to her window)

We've spent quite a bit of time getting the trailer ready......

.....The trailer was ordered with a 48" front ramp for the bike and full-size dove-tail rear ramp for the jeep.  We also had to add 6" of height for the jeep to clear the rear entrance......


We added shelves for storage.......and made sure everything we are carrying is secured.....



...and I installed a 'wired' camera on the rear of the trailer so I could see what was behind me...




We hit the road the beginning of April, allowing 5 weeks to travel to New Hampshire. Lots of stops along the way to visit with family and friends. Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio to see family. Golf with friends in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. My mom traveled with us to Alabama and Georgia and we were able to take her to Talladega to tour the track and museum.




We've seen the Brewers beat the Reds in Cincinnati.......







....the Indians beat the Tigers in Cleveland.....











.....and watched the Pirates win over the Yankees in Pittsburgh .








Frontier Feild, Rochester, NY
We also stopped in Rochester, NY and watched the Twins Redwings AAA team play the Reds Lousiville Bats AAA team.



We camped at the Kentucky Horse Park and visited with Joyce and Jack, fellow workampers we met in Colorado 4 years ago who volunteered at Horse park this summer. We bet on some horse races during the opening day of nearby Keeneland Race Track...






...no longshot winners, but we had a great time!









While in Cleveland we visited the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.





L-R Susan, Sherry & Joan

We stopped in New York and Joan caught up with her childhood friends and neighbors Susan and her sister Sherry. Susan and her husband Don were great hosts and we spent lots of time with them; shopping, sightseeing, golfing and teaching each other new card and board games. They'll be visiting us in NH in June and we'll be looking forward to it.....




Lots of driving around and sight seeing on the back roads. Joan and Deb ran across several covered bridges on one such drive.......









There were lots of Amish along the back roads as well.......










Joan really enjoyed the farm houses with the laundry on the line...







While we were in NY we stopped over near Cooperstown and visited the Baseball Hall of Fame. While checking out recent inductees I noticed a few of my Braves....Smoltz, Glavine, Maddux and Bobby Cox...altogether in the 2014-2016 alcove along with Joe Torre who coached the Braves in 82-84.





A little further in I noticed all of them but Torre have their numbers retired.







We stopped at the GM Corvette factory in Bowling Green, KY and took the factory tour. Very interesting! We also stopped in Hershey, PA and checked out the Hershey Chocolate tour and trolley ride through town. The trolley ride was excellent and well worth the cost. The conductors did a great job of entertaining and informing the trolley riders about the history of the town and Hershey family during the hour long ride..






In Atlanta we drove past a KFC that was remodeling.....wonder who came up with the new mascot?????? I mean really? Is a 3 story chicken really necessary?












We drove to Niagra Falls and visited on the Canadian side....it was raining really hard and we resisted getting out of the car. But Deb decided she just had to get a closer look.....






A little adventure at one of our stops....the only time I had to disconnect the trailer during our entire trip.....new owners of the campground had added some improved and longer sites over the winter. We were the first to use the sites. Due to the heavy rains and tight curving driveway into the site the RV and trailer tires slipped off the edge of the gravel into the mud. It looked worse than it was....I disconnected the trailer and the RV pulled out of the soft ground easily and we moved to another site (the new power service was not working at the remodeled site). Then used the jeep to pull the trailer out. All's well that ends well..

We'll be moving to Lincoln, NH tomorrow to park for the summer. The weather forecast is for rain and snow over the next couple of days, so we'll see what we'll see.

That's it for now. Stay Tuned. More to Come!

12 comments:

  1. Fun adventures for you guys! Love New Hampshire, Lake Winnipesaukee is one of our favorite places.

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    1. We'll be staying at Russell Pond campground and Joan already has plans for the kayak.

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  2. Good to hear from you guys! The new trailer looks great and we are looking forward to readying your adventures in volunteering this summer.

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    1. Congrats on the new homestead. We've already had a bloggable adventure just setting up in our summer campsite....I'm sure I'll be posting about it soon.

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  3. Glad to see the trailer is working out and you are finding spots long enough for both. Good that you were able to get out of the mud. It looked terrible. You hit lots of really neat spots as you headed north. Didn't you love smelling the chocolate as you road around the town of Hershey! When I was little, the tours were in the actually factory and we walked right around the large vats of melted chocolate. Loved the Corvette factory!! Looking forward to hearing about your new job. NH is beautiful!!

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    1. We were a little disappointed in the Chocolate tour....it was kinda' like Disney's It's a Small world....we were hoping for a factory tour. But the trolley was great!

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  4. I need a rest after reading(Jim this is the correct spelling) all of your adventures. Looks like lots of fun times.

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    1. This from a fighter pilot? Looking forward to the next time we get together.

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  5. Have fun with your new job this summer. You sure packed a lot of fun adventures into your 5 week trip!

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    1. This is our 1st workamping in the northeast and we're really excited about it.

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  6. Great to see you writing again! FYI, Joan's cycle is getting a lot of use...up to 1500 new miles! Everybody that sees it comments on what a great looking bike it is...especially with the new wheels! :)

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  7. That really is a lot of changes. I've caught up on my blog but am way behind on reading some of my favorites. You really saw some cool things on this trip up to NH. Glad you were able to get out of the mud so easily. Steve would love to see more ball games. We used to live near Rochester, NY.

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