New York and the NE quarter 2012

 Travel Costs for RV Trip
 Trip Itinerary

Trip Index                                                                   Links to our RV Travels and RV Information

1.      New York                                                            Buying or Renting a Motorhome in America

2.      Atlanta to Washington                                      Across the South by RV - LA to Miami, 2011

3.      Washington to Boston                                       Panama Canal Cruise, 2011

4.      Boston to Newfoundland                                   30 USA National Parks & Monuments, 2010

5.      Newfoundland to Quebec                                  Alaska & The Rockies by RV from LA, 2009

6.      Quebec to Detroit

7.      Detroit to Chicago

8.      Chicago to Ocean City

9.      Ocean City to Atlanta

1      New York

      This trip is set for 11 weeks, 30th March to 17th June 2012.   however, before we pick up the RV in Atlanta, we have planned 5 days in New York and after doing the planning we find we are going to run out of time, there is just so much that should be seen. The Pennsylvania Hotel is a medium budget hotel in a good central location, directly opposite Penn Station and a block away from the Empire State. Our main pre-planning was to book in for a concert at Carnegie Hall and another at the Lincoln Centre for the NY Philharmonic. Also it was necessary to pre-book for the Word Trade Centre Memorial. Our time in NY is just before Easter, March 31 to April 5th.

    The Qantas sardine class was the go again, Melbourne to LA, a good flight over, but a bit of a rush to clear customs at LA, transfer our luggage and ourselves to another flight 1hour 55m was the supposed time but as we were stuck taxiing to the terminal for 30 mins, then immigration, collect the baggage and queue for customs we were on the run, just made it.  A four & half hour flight to New York, transfers and we were eventually checked into the Pennsylvania hotel by 8.00pm.
We had asked the travel agent to book a 3 star close to the action. However our first reaction to room 774 was that it was one grade up from sleeping on the street, the king bed had such a dip in the middle, it looked like an Aunty Milly’s Chocolate slice. It was an effort to sleep, we managed to learn to grip the edge of the mattress while going to sleep, but there was not much rest.  The next morning we dismantled the bed, to find that two of the supports beneath were broken, The Room Service attendant arranged for another room, 1040, yep this one is OK and yep 3 star. They assured us that they were not going to blame us for the damage. “man, she said, yo is too old to cause that sort of damage”.  It  had us worried as another tenant told us he was going to report that his room had been broken into, but then he realised that it was the norm. Another worry had come to mind from when I was checking in, I had noticed that there was a clause in the fine print, that allowed them to charge $50 if you checked out before your scheduled date. When we saw the first room, we understood why the clause was there.                                                                    Actually the Pennsylvania Hotel is the 4^th largest hotel in NY, with some 1770 rooms. In 1919 when it was built, it was the largest hotel in the world until 1927 and was the first to offer high rise elevators. The hotel was immortalised by Glenn Miller in 1938 with their hit Pennsylvania 6-5000.  That was and still, is the hotels phone number.   Gotta say though, it is showing it’s age, but hey, if you want to see New York, you can’t do it from inside the hotel, 3 star we wanted and got.(eventually). And we are only a block away from the Empire State Building, right on the Penn station and opposite Madison Square Garden.  The hotel has four Ballrooms on the 18^th floor, and one on the Mezzanine level, we must try to check them out.
Day one and we collected our GreyLine Hop On / Hop Off tickets and took the Uptown one first. A great tour, enhanced by the guide being a local resident and gave a lot of detail about the New York rent stabilisation program and local issues, plenty of opportunities to get pics from the top deck, we were all issued with white plastic hooded ponchos as there was a bit of misty rain about, we must have looked like a bus load of KKK.  We had gone through the hassle of getting a couple of 7 day passes for the subway so we stayed out and used the subway to get us to the Lincoln Centre, to catch the concert of the New York Philharmonic before it heads off on a world tour, The celebrated violinist Peter Zimmermann is the artist-in- residence and was incredible.

    Day two saw us take the Downtown tour, it made us appreciate the first tour guide as it was difficult to hear what this guy was saying.  We certainly saw a lot of the city until we were all unloaded at the Battery Park, Gave us the opportunity to walk back to Wall St and being Sunday, it was a day of rest for the stock exchange and all the financial hangers on, so it was full of tourists instead.  One of the icons of the Wall St sector is the Bull of Wall St, a serious huge bronze statue in an traffic island in the street. For some obscure reason there were barricades all around the stature, which prevented anyone from getting a decent photo of it, a police car stationary just in front of it and a cop standing there to stop anyone from getting close enough to photograph it. Just seemed odd.  Back on another bus to complete the circuit, however we stopped at Times Square to soak up the atmosphere and a chilly dog for lunch. Caught a subway shuttle to Grand Central Rail Terminal, an incredible building built in 1913, a real showpiece, on the lower level a great food court, a pity, we had not long had lunch, this certainly would have been a better option.  Back on the shuttle to Times square and a walk up 7^th Ave to Lindy’s on 53^rd for their famous New York Cheesecake, an early dinner. A little further up the hill to Carnegie Hall, where we had booked for an afternoon concert of the New York Chamber Orchestra. The subway back for an early night.

    There are some twenty four subway lines, operating 24hrs per day that shift nearly 4 million passengers around the city daily. We noted three line levels at one station. It seems much of the subway was built using the cut and shut method as the roof of the train is less than ten feet below the roadway in some places, There is very little clearance above the train in the subway, aided by the fact that there is no overhead electrical gantry, it seems be connect via a third rail. This method allows for the tunnel to be excavated as an open cut, the tracks laid, steel girders place over the top, concrete slabs and then the roadway laid on top. It seems that most of the subway lines are directly beneath the roadway.  We noted a poster in a train today advising that a major addition to the subway system was under way, called East Side Access. It also stated that this is the first extension to the system for over 100 years.

    Day three and we were out early, onto the subway, uptown to check out Cathedral of St John the Divine.  Built in 1892 the size of the interior is such that the Statue of Liberty would fit inside.  Whilst anchored in Episcopal and Anglican traditions, the Cathedral is open and encourages ideas and liturgies from other faiths. Priests, Rabbis, Monks and Imams, have shared the pulpit here. They have an annual Blessing of the Bicycles and on The Feast of St Francis all sorts of animals are brought in to be blessed.  A truly rare place of worship, with an interior structure that equals many of the fine cathedrals of England.  The subway back a few stops and we ventured into Central Park, starting at Strawberry Fields, the memorial to John Lennon, who was shot entering his home at opposite the park.  Originally a swamp area, Central Park was set aside for the people, as the development of New York was so packed that there were no areas for recreation for the families. Whilst there are areas of the local bedrock showing through, basically the park was shaped by the dumping of materials, excavated whilst building the city. Today the park has it’s own police precinct and is maintained by a dedicated Park Management body. The park has many specialty areas in it’s many acres, the was a lake where you could hire a row boat, a pond withy remote controlled yachts, another pond where you could rent a fishing rod and catch a fish, only problem is, you have to put it back. There is even a beach, albeit only 50ft wide, a Children’s Zoo, where adults can only enter if accompanied by a child. And so the list goes on. It seems to cater for every one and testimonial to that is the number the frequent the park.    We exited the park onto 5^th Avenue and had a fair walk to the Guggenheim Museum, where it became very clear that we are both art ignorant. What was one of our must see features in New York ended in 40 minutes and we were out of there, the building was an architectural masterpiece, but cameras were not allowed.
    Bloomingdales a very up market department store was on the way to Grand Central Terminal where we checked out the Oyster Bar Restaurant for a late lunch. Then the subway downtown to the 9/11 Memorial, certainly a sobering sight, looking at the two pools that are set in the footprints of the original twin towers, these pools have 30 ft high waterfalls cascading into pools then a further drop into a centre void. Around the perimeter bronze parapets have the names of the victims of the attack inscribed.

    Day four, we were at the Empire State Building by 8.30am, only 2 blocks walk from our hotel. The New York Skyride was set up on the 2^nd level, a visual experience of flying over and through Manhattan, then it was up to the 88^th floor for the observation deck. A perfect day for it, clear skies, with visibility 26 miles. Lots of photos. Back on earth and a cab to Pier 83 for the Circle Line 3hr cruise around Manhattan Island. The last people we knew who took a three hour cruise was Gilligan & Co, so we were hoping for the best.  The cruise started from the area of the Hudson River where the passenger jet made a crash landing after a flock of Canadian Geese took out the engines, our cruise ship was a direct part of the passenger rescue operation. The cruise was well narrated, inside was warm, but braved the cold for  few shots we couldn’t get from inside. An interesting sight was the Hell’s Gate Bridge, which is a miniature of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, it is claimed that the authorities in Australia sent a team over to take details of the bridge in New York before replicating the design on a much larger scale in Australia. Another one was Pier 54, the site prepared for the docking of the Titanic 100 years ago this year. The pier has an iron arch at the end of the pier set there to welcome the passengers.  From pier 83, the Water Taxi then down to South St, checked out the cheap ticket outlet, but the shows that we were prepared to see were not on offer so the subway back to the hotel. The hotel has a theatre booking desk, we checked there for tickets but at $245 each we declined the offer, they deal through a broker (read that as Scalper) who bought the tickets for $150 and was offering them for $245.

    Day five, a one block walk to Macy’s, the largest department store in the world, most interesting was their annual flower show, set up in a large tent pavilion outside their Broadway frontage.  A subway on the D line gave us an hour ride to Coney Island and Brighton Beach. The Coney Island amusement park was in seasonal maintenance mode, so there was not much action but still quite a spectacle, a lengthy boardwalk between the beach and the amusement park was well in use. Melbourne’s Luna Park entrance was supposedly a copy from Coney Island, however there was nothing like it there now. A light lunch saw us at “Nathans” famous hot dog outlet, the site of the “International Hot Dog Eating Contest”   After our return trip on the subway we felt we have by now qualified as cavers, given that we have spent so much time underground these past five days.  A few other observations on the subway here, when we stopped at the end of the line at Coney Island, 10am, we exited what we had remarked on as a very clean carriage, however a team of cleaners were on hand and went into each of the ten carriages on the train. The layout of the carriages had the seating all hanging from the walls and ceiling so the floor was totally clear, making them easy to clean. Ticketing, there does not appear to be any sections, a seven day MetroCard ticket, cost $29, allowed us to travel anywhere on the 24 subway lines and 468 stations as well as the MTA buses. Stations are remarkably clean, given the volume of passengers. Many of the stations seem to have resident buskers, entertaining the commuters, many of the buskers were really great.  
    A few hour rest at the hotel and we were off to see the “Top of the Rock” which is the observation level at the top of the Rockefeller Building, best to be done at night as the NY Night skyline is quite a spectacle and it also give a great view of the Empire State Building, Before venturing up to the top we took in the action at the Rockefeller Plaza, they have a large area set up as an outdoor ice skating rink, the trees in the surroundings are fitted with fairy lights all over.  The night capped off a wonderful 5 days, we were up at the crack of dawn to catch our flight to Atlanta.   Photos : New York


Map of Entire Route. 

Map Atlanta to Washington 

2      Atlanta Georgia  to  Washington DC

We collected the RV from Storage, moved it to a park site and set about settling in with our baggage, topped up the fuel & water and took advantage of a laundry to clean up our gear after a hectic 5 days in New York. After a good sleep in our own bed we were ready for the road by 11, did the obligatory shop at Wal-Mart . Amazed at some of the low prices compared to Australia. (2 lts Orange Juice $2.15 compared to $5.45),  filled the larder and moved out, negotiating the freeways through the centre of Atlanta to head north to Blue Ridge where we settled in at a small RV park close to town. Blue Ridge is the start of the Mountain Country here in North Georgia, actually we are at the southern edge of the Smoky Mountains National Park, in the Appalachia mountains, the landscape is very hilly and heavily wooded with trees just coming out and getting their new leaves after what has been a mild winter for the area. However, we are told they are expecting snow next week. Must look a picture here in autumn, by the number of deciduous trees.    The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway was up and running and being Easter Saturday, they have “Hidden” 5000 Easter Eggs in a field a few miles up the track. The afternoon run was booked out with 460 eager passengers, the little tackers each carrying a basket to gather the eggs. We took the morning train which follows the Toccoa River all the way  through to McCaysville/Copperhill, these are twin towns on the border between Georgia and Tennessee, in fact, there is a blue line painted through the carpark at the IGA supermarket which defines the actual border. Not long after leaving Blue Ridge it was announced that we had attained cruising speed of 15 miles per hour. The area being noted as a mecca for trout fishing we saw several out with their fly rods along the way. The countryside was dotted with white and pink Dogwood trees, out in full blossom, as were several orange wild Azaleas   After leaving the train, we headed north towards Sweetwater, Tennessee.

After a roadside camp 30 miles from Sweetwater, we were in time for the first tour of the Lost Sea in the Great Craighead Cave. At the bottom of the cave is a lake almost 3 football fields in size and 70 ft deep at one end. It is now called the Lost Sea Cave, referring to the fact that the lake was first discovered in 1905, by a 13 year old, but flooding prevented access to the lake section until the 1970s. In the upper sections of the cave there are remnants of the cave being used by confederate soldiers, the date 1863 was burned into the ceiling by a soldier’s torch. Further along is a hopper that was used to make gunpowder during the war.  An old moonshine still was also found in the cave and is on display there. The lake was stocked with trout as an experiment, but they need to be fed daily as there is no natural food for them, nor can they breed there.  An interesting stop. We drove through to Maryville, a very appealing town, some attractive buildings and housing, on to the Smoky Mountains National Park and picturesque drive alongside a fast flowing stream until we rose up to a pass at Clingmans Dome, on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. The 520,000 acre Smoky Mountains National Park was created in the 1920 & 30s When The State Governments of Tennessee and North Carolina put up $7million and J.D.Rockefeller Trust  tipped in $5million to buy out the 6000 landowners and then donate the land to the Federal Government to establish a National Park. The NP Smokemont campground gave us restful stop for the night.  That was needed after Lorraine had us traipsing over a Nature Trail, imitating mountain goats, we had to test the new hip didn’t we. Obviously not satisfied with the strenuous jaunt down the cave earlier in the day.

The Cherokee Indian Reservation and the town of Cherokee is the southern starting point for the Blue Ridge Parkway, a tourist route, also a National Park, which extends 470 miles along the crests of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and links the Shenandoah and Smoky Mountains National Parks.  That equates to traveling from Melbourne to Adelaide on the top of a mountain ridge.

The road is one lane each way, double lines almost the entire trip. There are no cross roads, no commercial vehicles and no shops. So you go over normal roads and freeways on bridges. The principal and layout is similar to that of the Natchez Trace, only this one has views. The only hassle is the road is not very wide and there is no shoulder. In places the rock walls and trees hang very close, in fact at times they overhang . The colours of the trees are at times quite spectacular, but being early spring, many of the trees have yet to develop their foliage. At times we see whites, pinks, reds and orange scattered through the green .  There are some 450 “Overlooks” where you can pull in and click away with the camera. The views across the mountain tops is awesome, the ridge is generally at about 4500 ft, the highest point being 6480ft which we went through today.  We would compare the views, with those from Mt Buller or Mt Hotham and they just keep coming.

The drive would be even more spectacular in September and October when the autumn foliage would be at it peak.   At Linville Falls campground we met up with “Camp Hosts” Jack & Martha, volunteers who had just opened the campground last weekend for the season and were settling in to look after the park until 31^st October. We checked out the falls before heading north, another 1.6 mile hike, so the new hip is getting a workout,  now seeking an exit from the Parkway to get some fuel, that’s’ right no gas stations either.  Found a pleasant little town of Blowing Rock, just off the Parkway so topped up with fuel and back on again, until our bliss was shattered by a detour, some road works on the Parkway, the detour sent us through Sparta, North Carolina, it would have to be the Christmas tree growing capital of the free world, all shapes and sizes, some have been worked on as topiary, in spirals, some perfect little conical trees, and some just little trees, we reckon Macey’s get the spiral ones and Walmart the also rans.     They have an interesting system on some road works sites, where you stop at the flagman’s stop sign and wait for an escort vehicle to come along, he has “Follow Me” on his tailgate, so like little sheep, we all follow him until he pulls off to the side after clearing the road works and waves us through, The strange thing about our first encounter with the “Escort Car” was that the length of the road works was only 100 yards. The escort car took more time turning around to escort the cars back the other way than it did driving through the road works. Still, he is employed so it creates work.  We think that one of the big employers seems to be that of religion, there are so many different denominations, often churches are, side by side, some are beautiful buildings, They each must have a Pastor to tend the flock. Another fascination is the banks, in Australia the banks are pretty well just a shop in the strip or shopping centre, but here we often see the bank as a stand alone building, albeit looking very much like a mansion with columned fronts, car parks on all sides. They give the appearance of very expensive properties.

Our second day on the parkway started off with the same spectacular scenery as the first, but as we went on the elevation dropped to around 2500ft and we were winding along with farms either side. After we entered Virginia, some small roads did cross the parkway, although we had precedence at all times. Stopped off at Mabry Mill, a restored water mill on the parkway, to check it out.  There seems to be an abundance of rhododendrons throughout the mountains, at least the foliage is the same but we must be a bit early for the flowering. Some sections of the parkway have the 10ft high rhododendrons lining both sides of the road. Towards the end of the day we found we were back up on a high ridge with panoramic views to the left and right and settled at Peaks of Otter Picnic ground for the night. Official camp sites still closed for the winter season.

After the 470 Miles on the parkway the road connects to the Shenandoah National Park and the feature of that NP is the 105mile Skyline Drive, which effectively makes it 575 miles winding along mountain ridges, by far the first 250 miles was the most impressive, but there were always new panoramas to gaze at, and often on both sides at the same time. We experienced some light snow along the way at about 2500ft, it came in patches and looked quite heavy at one stage, but not enough to stay on the road. we came down to earth at Front Royal, which is 72 miles west of Washington, in Virginia.  We dived into the peak hour traffic on the freeways and found our RV Park “Cherry Tree Park” by 6pm. Now to look around Washington over the next couple of days. We noted that gas prices have gone from $3.89 to $4.15 as we crossed the state border into Maryland.    Photos

Route Map : Washington to Boston 
 

3      Washington DC  to  Boston MS

We found Cherry Tree Park had all you could want for an RV park close to a major city, apart from the fact that the freeway is right alongside and there is not much let up over night.  The local Metro bus has a scheduled stop inside the park, which connects to the rail system. The park also takes bookings for several tour companies, however “Grayline” pick up from inside the park for guests booking with their tours.  Grayline got the gig for us and we booked a 9hr “DC in a Day Tour”  DC is like Canberra, it is not a state it is only 69 square miles in area, with a population of about 500,000.  A square section taken out of Maryland, on the border of Virginia. DC actually stands for “District of Columbia”.  Because they are not a state, locals have a beef, that they pay their taxes but have no representation.

The Day tour took us to the Capital Building, where we joined the throng lined up for a guided tour of this magnificent building. School groups galore, all being shunted around by their teachers, it was great to see and an obvious lead in to the patriotism that is so evident in USA. Other places we visited were the Jefferson Memorial, The White House, pictures through the front fence was as close as anyone can get. The World War 2 Memorial, The Lincoln Memorial, from a distance, The Washington Monument, Dr Martin Luther King Memorial, The Smithsonian Institute Air & Space Museum and the Smithsonian Institute American History Museum. There are many other buildings and places of interest, but we reckon we have seen the heart of Washington so we plan a rest day and then hit the road.

Rather than get onto the freeway system, we chose to follow Route 1 north from Washington, that way we get to see the housing, and being Saturday there was a park full of kids playing Lacrosse in Baltimore, so we watched their antics over lunch. Trying to follow a specific route means you do not rely on the GPS, it always heads off to the freeway, and while you can give it a via option that does not allow you to follow a route. We found an RV park at Jackson, looked more like a construction site, they wanted $44 for a night, eventually knocked off $20 for us being a first time camper there. At $44 I was ready to walk on principle. As much as we tried to stay off the freeways, we did end up on the New Jersey Turnpike , which is a Tollway, which reminded me that we should get a E-ZPass as it works in 14 states in this quarter of the US and we will be around them a lot.      Next day, our plan was to take the freeway on to Staten Island, then off to Jersey City, somewhere along the way the turnoff to Jersey City got lost so we ended up driving over the Narrows Bridge under the end of the Brooklyn Bridge, then under the end of the Manhattan Bridge and along an expressway through the areas of Queens and the Bronx and on to Rye, just before the state border to Connecticut. It was a pretty hairy drive, the expressway lanes are so narrow and the road surface leaves a lot to be desired.  Our first shock was when we got to the toll booth off the Narrows Bridge, $26.   Then a further $10 spread over another 4 booths before we cleared the tolling sections.  We tried on a couple of occasions, to avoid the freeways, and just follow the original highway 1, but kept getting tangled and it was so slow. A couple of our chosen campsite options were still closed for the season which lead us on to Old Mystic, near New London, Connecticut,  250 miles for the day, all rather strenuous. Still we got some extra shots of New York from a different angle on the way.  Speed limits on the freeways seem to be taken in the same manner as red lights are for pedestrians in New York, it is considered that they are a “Suggestion” One New York guide stated that one way they can tell a tourist, apart from the camera around their neck, is that they wait for the green light before crossing.  Off the freeways you do get a better chance to study the housing, lots of small, square, two story houses, mainly weatherboard appearance, however there does not seem to be any timber weather boards used, they seem to be the vinyl imitation type.  By far the majority of roof covering is imitation slate or imitation shingle.  The material is bitumen impregnated malthoid which is laid in strips of about 4ft x 1ft on top of a layer of plywood over the rafters. Done well, it looks great, but a check into the material indicates that it has a 15 to 25 year life span, depending on the severity of the weather changes. This seem to be born out by checking the older houses and they can look pretty chatty, so unless you are prepared to re-roof every 15 years, I would look for another option.  Fences do not seem to be of much priority, sure, the inner suburban houses have them, but in other areas often there are none.

We noted many businesses closed and buildings left vacant, as we drove up through New Jersey and into Connecticut.  Houses too, several vacant and boarded up to prevent vandalism.  On a few occasions we noticed houses  that had passed their use by date were just left, to gradually decay and fall apart.

Moving through to Rhode Island and what a difference, as soon as we came across the border into Westerly the housing changed there was a feeling of prosperity that was not evident very much since we left Washington, not many house for sale, well not until we moved away from the more affluent areas, then they started to appear, keeping away from the motorways we were able to duck down to the coastal towns, a lot of very nice housing.  The use of wooden shingles on the external walls seems to be a feature for some houses, the timber is left to weather and goes a dark brown, most  roofs are still the same malthoid imitation slate. Still a lot with the white weatherboard look, but generally real timber narrow weatherboards. not only private homes, even large buildings, 4 & 5 stories high.

Managed to pick up an E-ZPass for the toll system, to save chasing cash.   Jamestown on Conancut Island, was fist settled in 1636 and named after King James,  Newport on neighbouring Rhode Island, famous for it’s hosting of the America’s Cup Yacht race, is also home to several wealthy estates on Bellevue Avenue “Marble House”, built by W.K Vanderbilt which cost $11m in 1892 to build, it has 500,000 cubic feet of marble in it.  Just down the road, or I should say around the cliff is “The Breakers” built by Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1895, There are at least a dozen other mansions of the same ilk, that are all in the same area.    Newport itself has some very tight, narrow one way streets that made navigation in the RV a bit tricky.  A tour trolley was the go, we were given an excellent tour of Newport and past the mansions on the cliffs, the guide knew his stuff, rattling off the names of the owners and where they got their wealth, one of the surprises was the Lee & Perin fortune which came from “Worcestershire Sauce” Apart from the dozen or so of the mega rich from the Rail & Shipping of the Vanderbilts, to Banking, Steel, Coal. There were loads of others who made it from the start of the Industrial Revolution, and created an elite set in the Newport area.      Membership of the “400 club” was the key invitations to the social gatherings, parties etc.  Mrs Astor, controlled the 400 club, and was of the opinion that one needed to be of the third generation in Newport to qualify, causing a lot of one up-manship to make points.  Society of the day had their sights on the European Nobility and groomed their daughters to marry into it. They reasoned that Europe had the nobility and titles but they were strapped for cash, whereas the American elite had the money, but not the titles.  Power was the driving force.  One example is American heiress Jenny Jerome, who married Lord Randolph Churchill in 1874, their son was of course, Sir Winston Churchill.   From its roots as one of the three most important ports in Colonial America during the 1700's, Newport grew to become the summer playground for several hundred families who possessed between them, more than 80% of America's wealth during the late Victorian period.      Still, we are left today with thirty of these magnificent buildings, being maintained and serviced by the Preservation Society of Newport.  In the 65 years that the society has been saving these buildings from the wreckers ball, more than 30 million visitors have passed though their gates.  Many of the less significant properties have been taken over by the University, as the annual taxes to maintain the properties became untenable.  Washington Square in Newport was the scene of much of the action in Steven Spielberg’s 1997 film “Amistad” The ugly power poles in the square were removed and replaced with gas street lanterns, these are still there and functional, thanks to Spielberg.

After an overnight camp at Rochester MA we headed down to Woods Hole and arranged passage on the ferry to the island of Martha’s Vineyard, a sightseeing bus was waiting to meet the ferry, so we were immediately off on a 23/4 hour narrated tour of the island and narrated it was, the driver/guide did not stop talking for the entire trip, rattling off the names of the past and current home owners, from James Cagney, Dianna Ross, Carley Simon, Jackie Onassis, plus a heap of other performers and politicians, Clinton spent his summers here whilst president, together with 240 security guards. Obama has spent a couple of holidays and the list goes on.  I suppose it could be looked on as the Rhode Island of the 1900’s and while some of the housing are rather expensive, nothing as ornate and over the top as Newport. The building material is nearly all timber and the majority of the houses are clad with Cedar shingles.  The entire timber frame is covered with a plywood skin, then the shingles are fixed to it. Thinking it was a local material preference, I quizzed the guide, who advised that they want that look, but all the shingles come from Canada.  The island itself is fairly flat, 20 miles long and about 4 miles wide, with some 300 miles of stone fencing, originally the stone was gathered from the island, left there by the glaciers of the last ice age, however as they want to maintain that colonial look and there are no more stones to gather, they now bring the stones over by ferry from the mainland. The permanent population of the island is 16,000 but that swells to 100,000 for summer. Obviously many of the houses were vacant at the time we visited. The island was named after one of the early settler’s daughter, who had a wild grape vineyard. A commercial vineyard ran for about 40 years, but they were unsuccessful in getting a good wine grape to grow.  Two of the early settlers from England each carried a gene which caused deafness, as a result of local breeding, it was not long before a large number of children were born with hearing problems, resulting in sign language being developed on the island.  Steven Spielberg was busy here also, with a couple of films, the most famous being “Jaws”. The houses used in the 1975 film were pointed out on the tour.  Our tour finished and we were just in time to catch the ferry back to Woods Hole, a shuttle bus then transports travelers to the carpark which is 4 miles from the wharf.  Things are pretty tight in Woods Hole.  We continued our drive up along the southern and eastern edges of Cape Cod, settling in for the night by a pond near Wellfleet. Cape Cod has many such freshwater ponds, with no seeming inlet or outlet.  The houses on Cape Cod are similar to those on Martha’s Vineyard most asking to be photographed. One feature is that they are all a bit different, no standard designs, apart from the holiday beach huts.  We headed into Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod, stopping on the way to see that Cape Cod Light, it was built in 1797 on 10 acres of land allocated to it, in 1996 it was shifted about 450 feet inland as the continual pounding of the waves on the cliffs had eroded away 6 acres of the land . Provincetown was where the Pilgrims landed in 1620 to colonise the country.  The town is reminiscent of small English villages along the Cornish coast, very narrow streets, winding in all directions, our biggest problem was finding somewhere to park the RV. Most public parking areas did not permit RVs or anything with dual rear wheels.  We managed to sneak a short time, enough to have a look around and get some snaps.  There is a very large tower, a 252 ft monument to the Pilgrims, it does look a bit out of place and in fact it is described in the local guide as  “What better way to herald a 20^th century Portuguese fishing village, of 18^th century Yankee heritage, a landfall for 17^th century English immigrants, than with a tower out of 14^th century Tuscany”.  We moved back around the inside coast of the cape to Plymouth, where again it is claimed the Pilgrims landed and they have Plymouth Rock there tucked away under a multi column canopy. It is stated that the rock is symbolic only, it is not proven that the Pilgrims did first set foot on the rock, a replica of the Mayflower is moored a short distance away and looks very impressive.  There is a monument to those who died from that first arrival. Of the 104 passengers who came over on the Mayflower 48 died in Plymouth during the first year.  They buried their dead under the dark of night and leveled the ground, so the Indians did not know how many were left. A side trip, in looking for a campsite,  ended up at Scituate on the coast, where a group of Irish immigrants who had gone to become fishermen in 1847, One of them recognised the algae growing on the rocks  as “Irish Moss” or Carrageen. Being familiar with it’s market potential they set up an industry that lasted 140 years, Carrageen is used as an emulsifier in chocolate and cosmetics.  

Into Boston and we get the rest of the story, to refresh our knowledge of American history, in 1630, 10 years after the arrival of the pilgrims, a fleet of 16 ships brought over 1000 Puritans to the Boston area. So this is where the boost to the population came from, it also had it’s problems, with the strict religious zeal of the puritans, sending other believers out of the area to allow them the freedom to practice their religion, that was the start of the Rhode Island habitation.

Today, Boston is proud of it’s heritage, from Paul Revere riding between the towns, sounding the warnings of the British approach, the rebellion creating the Boston Tea party, by tipping crates of tea into the bay, in general, their starting the revolt against the British, which eventually resulted in the independence of the USA. There are “walking tour” guides in period costume, leading groups around the historic areas.   Equally, they are proud of their education facilities, Harvard University has turned out 8 Presidents of the USA. Also there were some notable “dropouts” from Harvard, including Bill Gates of Microsoft Fame,  Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook  and  Edwin Land, one of the great inventors of our time, he invented the Polaroid camera , as well he had 535 other patents registered  to him.   We found Boston a fascinating city, interesting are the cemeteries dotted throughout, we inspected the one where Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin’s parents are buried.

The city has many churches, each with it’s own character, One large church with a very tall steeple is in it’s third building, an inscription is engraved on a tablet.  “First House of Worship occupied in 1670”,  “Second House occupied in 1730” , “This House occupied in 1875”  It appears that as the church tower was leaning about 20 degrees, it was felt unsafe and  was demolished to make way for this existing building.   Apparently much of the Boston City was built on a reclaimed swamp.      Photos


Route Map Boston to St Johns

4      Boston, MS  to St. Johns, Newfoundland

On leaving Salisbury, the weather had broken, our three weeks of sunshine had now gone into a misty rain, that was to follow us up the coast,. Much of the beach is hidden buy housing and obviously there is mainly private access, you felt for the poor buggers living on the other side of the road, as they would have to walk quite a distance up the road to find an access track between the houses.  Over the border and past the coastal houses of New Hampshire.  Some wonderful homes along there. Such a change from those on the Massachusetts side of the border.  The coastline for New Hampshire only goes for about 30 miles and then we are into Maine. Well known for it’s seafood, which was evident by the number of lobster restaurants along the way, we found the Maine Coast very attractive, again you had to battle to get down to the coast through the narrow winding streets, but there were some real gems of places, particularly around Ogunquit.  A surprise when we entered Portsmouth, the sign said “Settled in 1603” Now we had just gone through the saga of the first settlers being the Pilgrims in 1620 and the next lot the Puritans in 1630. Given that 50% of the Pilgrims died in the first year, now we find that Martin Pring first wrote about the area in 1603, However, Martin must have been a tourist in an RV, as the city was not settled until 1630 and after that, it became a haven for exiled Puritans from Massachusetts.   Along with Newport, Portsmouth became involved in the infamous “Triangle Trade” that made substantial profits from slavery.  Ships would leave their American port, laden with produce, sail to the West Coast of Africa , where they would sell or trade the produce in return for slaves, the slaves would be then shipped to the Caribbean, where they would be traded for sugar or molasses , the sugar or molasses, would end up in New England and turned into Rum. The ships would take 12 weeks to complete the triangular trade run.  On and up the coast of Maine, there are still many picturesque little harbours and villages along this rugged Maine coast. The area around the Acadia National Park and Bar Harbour was a great visit. We ventured down to Lubec near Quoddy Head to cross into Canada onto Campobello Island then ferry it to Deer Island and then another ferry to mainland Canada, over the bridge and into the arms of Canadian Border Control, but it all didn’t last long.  It appears the ferry has not run for a long time, so we had to backtrack, so within a half an hour we were back over the bridge and into the arms of the US Border Control, they were a lot more inquisitive, thorough, I suppose.  Unfortunately this neck of the woods is a blight on the appearance and building standards of the lower Maine areas, the good houses seem well built, but the others, and there are too many of them seem jerry built. Apart from the housing condition, the roadsides are frequently covered with litter, lots of foam coffee cups, a sight not prevalent further south.  We spent a night being buffeted by freakish winds and rain but as we moved on it began to clear.  We took the opportunity to fill with petrol before leaving US, at $3.949/gal, over the border in St. Stephen, Canada $1.39/lt  (C$5.26/gal).  As we crossed into Canada at St Stephens, in New Brunswick, we were picked out for a “Random Vehicle Inspection”, so a 20 min rest in the patrol office while our RV was gone over by three officers, a quota job we suspect.  Picked up some Canadian $ and headed for Saint John to check out the “Reversing Falls”

A rocky gorge on the Saint John River at the edge of town is the meeting place for the dramatic tides of the Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tides in the world, around 36ft. The rising tide pushes back the waters of the Saint John River, making the river flow backwards.  The effect goes back 60 miles upstream, according to a resident from up there, he claimed the river rose 3 to 4 inches on the high tide.  At the high water slack, everything at the gorge is calm, then the tide starts to go out, over the next 6 hours the water drops to it’s low level creating a massive flow through the gorge, whirlpools and rapids are revealed. This all starts over again, as the tide turns and comes in.  There are several vantage points to witness the tide movements, here at the reversing falls, Hopewell Rocks and the Tidal Bore at Moncton are two other areas we hope to visit after Newfoundland.

Saint John was one of the earliest towns settled in Canada, in fact there were 15,500 loyalists, who were expelled from the US during and after the revolution, 14,000 of them came to Canada under refugee status, settled in Saint John, New Brunswick, and established a prosperous logging industry, the other 1500 went to Nova Scotia and settled at Digby

Booked the ferry for the 9am sailing for Digby the following day, set the alarm, woke early but decided to go to the wharf early rather than hang around. We were settled on the ship and were amazed that they were actually setting sail at 8.00am. Guess who didn’t realize there is such a time zone as “Atlantic Time”.

Met up with an interesting character from Nova Scotia while waiting to be loaded, Doug Mein, Doug and his wife were returning home to Nova Scotia to open their Campground at Church Point, for the coming tourist season, after spending the winter in Florida, to escape the severe winter here, as well as sharing their time with their family who are all in the Florida area. Doug filled us in on a few happenings with Nova Scotia, the loss of labour to the oil fields out west has drained the schools of pupils and left many houses empty, One school dropped from 500 students to 30 over five years.  Fishing is the main industry, lobster and scallops, in particular.

The loss of two ferries from Yarmouth, capable of transporting trucks and RVs has decimated the tourist industry in the south and left the lobster fishermen with an extra 12 hours transport for their catch.

As we go around the coast, anticlockwise from Digby, we pass through village after village. Housing is again 99% all timber, weatherboard mainly, but still some shingles, also, we find that the tides are becoming less extreme. It appears that the area of water between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, called the “Bay of Fundy” is the peak tide area and the further up the bay, the more extreme the tide difference.  In the extreme areas, the fishermen slip a cradle under the boat when they moor it, so that when the tide goes out the boat will remain upright in the cradle. You can walk around on the sand between the boats tied up at the wharf, while the tide is out.

Our first and second days on Nova Scotia we inspected the wharves, spoke to fishermen, who were all coming in with good catches of lobster.  School boys and retired folk were getting some pocket money,  fishing from the wharf for bait fish for the lobster traps, they are paid $1 per pound. The particular fish they were catching were similar to a flathead in appearance, but more ugly and with 2 poisonous spikes. 

We encountered a strange looking field, we had noticed them before and guessed that they were Cranberries, they were, it is actually called a “cranberry bog”  the bushes if you can call them that, grow only 2 to 3 inches high, the berries are virtually underneath the foliage, which really looks like a ground cover, to harvest the cranberries they flood the field with 6 -8 inches of water and gather the floating berries.

The coastline on the southern section of Nova Scotia is pretty tame, no cliffs, in fact there were only a few hills on the road, but not much. Once we got to Peggies Cove Lighthouse it was a different scene, very rocky with great granite boulders that the waves were crashing on to. We moved on to Halifax, after enjoying a lobster meal at the Sou Westerly restaurant beside the lighthouse. Still we find that most RV parks are not open, so we have enjoyed the hospitality of Wal-Mart on a couple of occasions.

2012 being the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, Halifax has set up some special displays at the Marine Heritage Museum.  Halifax sent out the Mackay Bennett, an ocean trans-cable repair ship, to recover the bodies from the ocean, those that were unsuitable for embalming were buried at sea and the other 209 bodies were taken to Halifax, 59 of those were identified by relatives and taken home for burial, the other 150 were buried between the 4 local cemeteries, each cemetery has a Titanic section, clearly marked  One of the funeral parlours that was used as a morgue for some Titanic victims is now a popular seafood restaurant, “Five Fishermen” with many ghost stories.  The 705 survivors of the disaster we picked up out of the lifeboats by the ship “Carpathia” which was 58 miles away when it received the distress signal but by the time it arrived it was too late for those in the icy water. The survivors were taken directly to New York on the Carpathia.  It is also claimed that another ship the “California” passed the stricken passengers but was unaware of the disaster, their radio room had closed for the night, before the signal was sent from the Titanic.  It is claimed that more than 1500 people died on the Titanic, but only 209 bodies were recovered

Even in death, there was class distinction, 1^st class passengers were taken off the Mackay-Bennett in coffins, 2^nd & 3^rd class passengers in canvas bags, and crew members on open stretchers. Prior to this, while collecting the bodies from the sea, as they were running low on embalming fluid, 1^st class were given preference while others were buried at sea.

 An interesting co-incidence or call it what you will, but apparently in 1898, 10 years before the keel of the Titanic was laid, American author Morgan Robertson published the novel ”Futility”, The novel was of a British passenger liner “Titan” that hit an iceberg in April in the North Atlantic and sank on her maiden voyage, without enough lifeboats.  The fictional ship was eerily similar to the future Titanic in size, speed, equipment, numbers of passengers (both rich and poor) and those lost.  The book, also known as “The Wreck of the Titan” is still in print

Five years after the Titanic, Halifax was to use the procedures they developed for the recovery of the victims from the sea, when in 1917 a local disaster, known as the ”Halifax Explosion “ when a French Munition Boat “Mont Blanc” collided with a Belgian Relief Ship in the harbour. The collision caused an explosion that flattened all of Northend Halifax killing 1600 people in an instant, windows were shattered for 50 miles. The Mont Blanc was obliterated, it’s half ton anchor went two miles in one direction, whilst one of it’s gun barrels was thrown 3 miles in the opposite direction. A total of 2000 were killed in the tragedy.

We traveled on, up the east coast from Halifax, passing the small fishing villages, mostly veiled in a cloud of fog, but light enough for us to appreciate the coastal landscape, settling in at Spanish Ship Bay for the night. A booking for the ferry to Newfoundland was possible for the following night sailing so we enjoyed a leisurely run up to North Sydney to the ferry terminal, an interesting historic site on the way was the house on Alexander Graham Bell at Baddeck on Cape Breton Island.   Photos

Route Map : St Johns to Quebec
 

5      St. John’s, Newfoundland  to  Quebec, Quebec

The ferry trip from North Sydney to Port aux Basques on Newfoundland took 8.5 hours and was quite smooth, mind you, we were both sleeping in a cabin for pretty much the whole time, so we did not see a lot of the ship.  An earlier check showed it was very well appointed.  We were greeted with a dusting of snow when we arrived, and the dock and all waiting vehicles were nicely white. A quick drive around the town showed it to be very quiet, but then, what would you expect for 8.30 Sunday morning. Spread out around a small bay, the smallish timber houses were separated by narrow winding streets, quite attractive with the covering of snow on the roofs and cars.  We set off on the Trans Canada Highway to the Capital City, St. John’s, which was reminiscent of driving the Alaska Highway from Whitehorse to Tok.  550 miles of open highway, similar scenery, only the mountains not as high and imposing. There are many lakes along the way, which seems to be well taken advantage of, with the production of Hydro –Electricity, much of which is fed into the Quebec power grid. The town of Gander professes to be the mecca for Telemark skiing, and a little along the way is Gambo, boasting their feature as a fisherman’s paradise, very big on Salmon over here.

 No wild life ventured out of the trees for us to dodge, although there were several signs, warning of the dangers of moose being present, and in fact one area had just installed an extensive length of “Moose Fencing” on both sides of the highway.  Again we find that the RV parks do not open until June, so we have now given up on them and just find our own spot to bed down, but need to find a Laundromat from time to time.

The terrain in Newfoundland is very wet, an enormous number of lakes and wherever there is a depression in the ground there is a pond, at any elevation there is a pond.  You would not dare to drive off a formed road or track, as the basic ground is so boggy and swampy. The 2^nd day on the road started off in full sunshine, by the time we were approaching St. Johns the clouds had darkened and looked very bleak. A four inch dump of snow had hit St. Johns just before we got there, it was quite a picture with everything  covered in a white blanket. Then the sun came out, we never actually saw any snow falling for the day.  After a drive around the city and waterfront we headed off to travel around the perimeter of the Avalon Peninsular, that is the small almost H shaped outcrop on the South Eastern end of the Island. The Peninsular is home to 50% of Newfoundland’s population.  The small coastal village of Brigus was a delightful example of the early years of settlement. We walked the streets and docks and spoke to some locals. Further up the coast we were confronted with a large iceberg floating not far off the coast, found our way to the cliffs for some photographs. As we left and turned the corner there were more and more of these white monoliths in the water. We found a cliff top position at Lower Island Cove for the night, with a view of at least 4 icebergs. The other side of the peninsular was also dotted with small coves and fishing villages, we have gone through Queensland, Melbourne, Chelsea, Victoria, don’t know where they pinch these names from.  After booking our passage on the return ferry we took a detour to have a look at Jackson’s Arm, which is on the Eastern side of the Northern Peninsular. To our surprise we were confronted with snow, frozen lakes and  people off on their skidoos making the most of the disappearing snow.

Jackson’s Arm is a small fishing and timber village, however the sea freezes over and locks the fishing boats in for 4 to 5 months of each year. Asked what they do in the winter when they can’t fish, the reply was they have some great winter activities and they love their snow-mobiles.

The harbour was still half covered with an ice flow, and the boats were preparing to make a start for the season. Some small icebergs were floating in White Bay, it was all quite a spectacle. We made it to Port aux Basque well in time for the 11,45 departure of the ferry, a good opportunity to catch up with the local laundr-o-mat  and freshen up our gear. Another very calm voyage, three out of three. Off the ship by 8,30 and we headed for the Cabot Trail, a 300km, well publicised tourist trail, looping around the peninsular of Cape Breton Island, “World Famous” so they say, however our early impressions were more focused on the quality of the road  than the views, after about 40 km the road improved and although it slipped back on occasions, the trail was certainly worth the effort. Some stunning views of the coastline to The Gulf of St Lawrence as the trail wound around a couple of very high mountains.  Spoke to some fishermen who were unloading ten crates of fish,  their two days catch, into a cool room, a look over their crates showed some huge Halibut about 50lbs in weight, they showed us another frozen from an earlier catch which was about 100lb they claimed their largest to be 150lb. most of the other fish were Hake.  We settled at Inverness, right on the beach, for a windy night. This whole area was settled by the Scots in 1803 and the effects are still very evident, A very large Gaelic College just as we started on the trail and references all along the way. A sign outside one building states “If it’s nay Scotch it’s crap”  All the clans are well represented and the names of the streets and towns are straight out of Scotland. There is of course New Glasgow among the list. In one area a large official looking notice advised “The Site of the New Scotland” On approaching one town a sign stated “The home of the Rankins”  a few miles further along and there was a turnoff to Rankinville.  We stopped for a cuppa and got chatting to a couple, yep he was a Rankin.  Called in at post office to mail some letters the three staff were chatting together and I am sure it was Gaelic they were speaking.

We moved on down the coast and worked our way around to Moncton, New Brunswick, with the hope of seeing the Tidal Bore, This is the area where the massive tides of Nova Scotia are most noticeable as the tide change in the Bay of Fundy forces its way up the Petitcodiac River at Moncton. The river is also known as “The Chocolate River” and for very obvious reasons. If you were to think Melbourne’s Yarra River is muddy, boy you haven’t seen this one. Twice a day the tide drains the river to almost dry, the herons and seagulls gather to pick their meals out of the shallow river, just before the tide changes and then the tidal bore surges up, reversing the flow of the river, as we watched the bore approach with a wave that appeared about 1 1/2  feet high, as soon as it had passed, the river had risen by almost 3 ft. Within an hour and a half of the bore passing, the river has risen a further 20 ft.  All this backwards and forwards flowing, rips the soil from the banks and keeps it in suspension as the muddiest water ever.  As it was too dark for photos, we returned to the same spot the following morning. We had been talking to local, a keen photographer and I mean keen, he had given us the time for the bore’s arrival for both the night and the following morning. Mother Nature was right on time, on both occasions, so we were in position for some snaps in a better light by the scheduled 9.40am.  Hopwell Rocks is another featured viewing location for the effects of the tide, so after witnessing the bore pass through at Moncton, we skedaddled down to Hopwell Rocks, where the tide had just reached it’s peak and was now on the way out. The viewing area was officially closed for the season. We have learned three French words  Arret = Stop,  Ferme = Closed and  Sortie = Exit. Anyway we pleaded ignorance and proceeded to the viewing area, we reckoned Mother Nature wouldn’t stop the tide just because there is a “Ferme” sign there.  We photographed just after the high tide and hung around until just before the low to have a comparison. A lot of other people kept coming in as well.

After seeing the World’s Highest tides in action here, which are noted as one of Nova Scotia’s features, it is interesting that all of the featured viewing points are actually in New Brunswick. One side of the Bay of Fundy is Nova Scotia, where it is difficult to get to the water as it seems to be private land. New Brunswick, on the other side of the bay have made a feature of it and provided access points. However I must throw in, that the most dramatic tide effects that we have seen are in Broome, Derby and Port Headland, Australia, maybe a tad lower, but certainly more dramatic, the advantage here is that you can drive right up to it at St Johns, Hopwell Rocks and Moncton, whereas in Australia it is in the remote North West.  Likewise the Reversing falls at St Johns, is not a patch on the “Horizontal Waterfall” in Northern Western Australia, but the cost to get in to see them is a lot different.  

We turned our sights to Prince Edward Island, the home of “Anne of Green Gables” fame, and headed across the massive 13km long concrete bridge, it looks almost like the old Roman Aqueducts the way it is constructed, it is a toll bridge, but they let you come over and enjoy yourselves for free and hit you with a bill for the return trip.  We were quite surprised with the amount of agriculture on the island, we have seen more ploughed fields here in a couple of hours than we have seen since we got off the plane five weeks ago. In an attempt to link with our kindred spirits, we toured the island looking for a suitable resting place for the night, as the RV parks are still on their sabbatical, eventually we scored a nice spot.  Called in at the National Park at Green Gables and checked it out, it was very well done. Impressive farming communities all around the Island, by our standard they are small farms, but probably highly productive, we noticed a large McCain’s factory there to process the produce and another larger one, Cavendish Farm Products.  We followed the

coastline around the north west of the island and headed back to the bridge. We solaced ourselves with the fact that the $44 toll to cross both ways was cheaper than the alternative, (particularly as there is none). Off the Island we turned west toward Miramichi, found the coast road, promoted as The Arcadian Coastal Route, a lot of it was not much more than a goat track, you really feel for the poor RV when subjecting it to that sort of abuse and for what you see of the coast, It’s not worth it.  We will stick to the main drag, at least until we clear New Brunswick, and hope that the road works in Quebec are a bit better.
Photos 

The highway got us to Campbellton, crossed the Restigouche River into Quebec and hey presto the roads were better.  Being in Quebec we find that English is not necessarily even a second language, more like “it might come in handy sometime”. Until now, in Canada the road signs are written in both English  with the French equivalent written below, most other signage is done in both languages, it can be confusing trying to read them as you drive by and find yourself struggling with trying to read the French as part of the English sign. We don’t have that problem in Quebec, here the signs are only in French. Now there is a problem, the extent of my French came from the “Pepe Le Pew” cartoons and “Allo, Allo”  oh and Marcel Marcau, but as he was into mime, he did not speak, so he is of no help. Lorraine on the other hand, had done French in High School, but as that was 60 years ago thought that all was forgotten. Not quite, as we drive along Lorraine is continually trying to read the signs and it is gradually coming back. Sign language came into play when I went in to book into an RV park at Pabos Mills for the night, the problem was they open on 15^th May and it is now 7^th May, but a foot in the door is a distinct advantage. He asked if I spoke French, as he spoke very little English. We had to make do with his very little.

Our other surprise here on the Gaspe Peninsular, is that we were expecting it to be a virtual wilderness area. Not so, there are town after town along the coast, well, we have done 80 miles of it and we can see houses as far as you can see around the coast.  The other surprise is that the towns seem more alive and affluent, the standard of housing has improved immensely we are noticing about 10% of houses are brick as are nearly all public buildings. A lot of churches are also masonry. Many houses have gardens and in general they look more cared for, no where near as many houses in a state of disrepair and or, in need of a coat of paint, as we have noticed previously on our drive here. It certainly has been a scenic drive so far.

There is a Canada Rail tourist train which runs along the Eastern Coast of the Peninsular, we think finishes at Gaspe, it would be a spectacular trip for any train buff. The scenery continued through to Gaspe and the Western side of the peninsular was even more spectacular with the mountains running along the water’s edge, the road dipping down into each cove to reveal a different village. No longer is white the predominant house colour, but a array of brightly coloured ones gives a fresh appearance.

There was one stretch, where the highway was built 15ft above the water, with the mountains a shear rise on the other side, apart from a few occasions when the road went inland a little before dropping down to another seaside village, the highway went for about 50 miles on that same level, winding around the mountain bases.  We rate this Gaspe Peninsular scenic drive to be much better than the (world famous) Cabot Trail. And the road 100% better.

There are ample Camping Parks and Motels along this route, however, still deep into the French Only language territory.

In our last 250 kms drive into Quebec we frequently took the tourist drive that went through the heart of the old towns, whereas the coast highway detoured and skirted around the back of them. They were all different. In some villages the houses were built almost right onto the street, making driving an RV through a bit daunting, in another village, hedges were all the go, the houses here were set well back, they had front lawns and the hedge gave them privacy from the street. Still another had the front lawn but they had fences, fences of all types. One village we passed through seemed to be a haven for artisans, their work on display throughout the village and galleries promoting their display.

One of our thoughts as we drove through was that we could not recognise any of the local food shops, Restaurants, not a problem, lots of them, fish shops, were also well signed, but where’s the corner store.   Photos

Route Map Quebec to Detroit
            6       Quebec, Quebec  to  Detroit, Michigan

We arrived in Quebec and found a campground with the internet and a very obliging but little English speaking hostess, on a misty Wednesday and booked in for a city tour the next day.

We tested the route to the ferry, the night before, and just as well, as the directions were a bit vague and following signage through narrow streets that are being remade, made it all the more difficult.

The ferry trip was only 10 mins and there was a ferry every 30 mins so no big dramas. Our tour coach picked us up at the ferry for the Morning “Old Quebec Tour” A fascinating history to the city. After being settled in 1608 it fast became the hub of the fur industry. After a 3 month siege of the City, the French were ousted by the British in a 20 minute battle. This apparently ended the 7 years of war with England in 1759. England later gave the city back to the French as it really only wanted to control the access of the St Lawrence River. However the English established a ship building industry and over a 5 year period built over 2000 large wooden ships.

The City is built high on a hill overlooking the narrowest part of the river, The Chateau Frontenac is a major standout of the city skyline, positioned right on top of the hill. The Chateau was built in 1893 by the Canadian Pacific Railway in their continuing bid to attract wealthy tourists. The Chateau is one of a chain, such as we saw in Victoria on Vancouver Island, Banff Springs and Lake Louise in the Rockies. These hotels are all massive structures built in the style of a French Chateau.

Quebec’s location gives it 10 ft of snow each year. They do not clear the snow from the roads through the parks on the hill, they groom them for telemark skiing. However, they do clear the roads to make access for cars and because of the steepness of many of the roads they use 600,000 tonnes of salt each year to remove the snow.  Some two miles of the St Lawrence River freezes over to a depth of six feet in winter, ice breakers are used to keep the shipping lanes open.  Ten foot tides are another of the features of the river.

The city is in several sections. The old “walled city” with the early French wall, then there is the more robust English wall, there are many houses still in use that were build in the 1700s, really was a great city to tour. The Afternoon tour took us to the Island of Orleans a large island in the river, a short distance from the city. The island has been protected from development, no industry, supermarkets fast food outlets etc. It is prime agricultural land and it is intended that it remain that way. On to the 270 ft Montmorency Falls, we were there at the time of maximum flow. Winter time and the falls freeze and it is a mecca for ice climbers, along a few miles and we visited the Shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre, a massive church which attracts a pilgrimage each year on July 26^th, St Anne’s Day. Over a period of 12 months it attracts 2.5 million visitors.

Quebec seems to have the major production of products from the Red Maple tree, in fact they supply 75% of the world market.  They tap the trees in a similar fashion to how a rubber tree is tapped.  A long blue plastic hose is linked to a series of trees and the maple sap runs through it and collected in a pail at the bottom of the hill. The sap is processed, by heating, the temperature of the process defines what product will emerge, at one temperature Maple Syrup is produced, at another temperature Maple Butter is the product. Each tree can produce 35 to 50 litres of sap per 4 – 8 week season during Spring, as the sap rises to develop it’s new growth. Only about 7% of the tree’s sap is removed.

The City is 98% Roman Catholic, but apparently the wheels have fallen off as the birth rate is 1.6 per family.  Also there is 15% unemployment, but it doesn’t show, there seems to be more new construction going on than we have seen since we got off the plane.

The day was great, even though it was a bit drizzly all day, restricting photos.  We found Quebec a most welcoming city, we were heartily assisted by all who were approached.

Moved on to Montreal, still in Quebec, straight into an RV park and booked a similar tour for the following day with Grayline, by this time the weather has cleared, so we can look forward to a good day’s sightseeing. The tour lived up to the Grayline standard, it was great, we saw all of the features of Montreal, just a pity the open top double decker bus was not operating, that starts in a week. From the enclosed bus you see the buildings and land marks as they are pointed out but, not possible to get many photos.  The city of Montreal like Quebec is predominantly French language, the difference being, that here English is taught as a second language. Like Quebec the city has a fantastic array of old buildings, originally there was a walled section, but that is no more,  The Basilica of Notre Dame and St Joseph’s Oratory being the largest and most impressive, The dome of St. Joseph’s is second in size to St. Peter’s in Rome. One of the largest landmarks is Olympic Park where the huge dome and it’s 45 degree inclined tower created for the 1976 Summer Olympics is 574 ft high. It has been a source of trouble and embarrassment since it was started. It was not completed until 1988 when it was then possible to retract the roof, however that was a problem and had to be removed, it now has a fixed Kevlar roof. Bits of concrete had fallen over the time and as recent as 4^th March 2012 a slab 24ft x 36ft fell from the roof of the underground parking facility.   Financially is has been a disaster, an estimated $134m in 1970 has ended up at $1.61b. A special 8% tobacco tax was introduced in 1976 to pay for the dome. It was eventually paid off in 2006.  There have been calls for the structure to be demolished, but as it has a subway line beneath, they cannot implode the building. It is estimated it would take years and cost $700m to demolish. The use of the building has also been an embarrassment, with it’s 78,000 capacity it does not get many gigs and as a concert venue, the acoustics are not good.  This White Elephant, should perhaps be named Myki, it cost the same and the overrun was about the same as our botched ticketing system.

Another feature of Montreal is the “Underground City” which is made up of 20 miles of tunnels incorporating shops, food courts etc, it links up to 7 subway stations as well as shopping malls, banks etc, covering 12 sq kilometres. The benefit of course is to counter the effect of the severe winters and snow depths of 6 to 10 ft. and let businesses go on as normal.

The city of Montréal is on Montreal Island between the Ottawa and St Laurence Rivers.

The tour guide went on to praise the medicare system, they have, the hospitals are free, but we do pay 50% tax to fund it.  He also claimed there is 15% unemployment. Hey, why work if you have to pay 50% tax,   The subway system seemed very efficient, surprised to notice rubber wheels on the trains, however the ride was a bit more bumpy than we expected, figured the rubber allowed a bit of bounce.  Like the New York Subway, they have different colours for each line, makes it easier to follow, fares are constant irrespective of distance traveled.

An early start saw us in Ottawa, the capital of Canada by 12.30, as it was Sunday, we booked into an RV park, drove off and parked at a Wal Mart close to the city, and got transport in to meet up with the hop on, hop off tour bus. We took in the sights of the city and then spent some time in the market place, where we were tempted to try an apple/cinnamon “Beaver Tail”, Boy they could become a habit.  Came across a guy busking in the market playing the didgeridoo. He was claiming to be from Australia. Sorry mate, your accent does not cut it.  There are some great Chateau style buildings in the city, One hotel claimed it’s manager of the day went down on the Titanic.

Being the nation’s capital, of course it had all of the International Embassy’s, the tour bus guide pointed them all out.  Ottawa is on the banks of the Ottawa River, the northern bank is in Quebec, while the southern is in Ontario. Portion of the city is on the Quebec side which has some of the museums.

Smiths Falls just south of Ottawa, we checked out the Rideau waterway with its canals and locks that connect Ottawa to Kingston over 126 miles and with 47 locks. After the war of 1812, which was started when the Americans declared war on England, in response to a trade embargo preventing America from trading with France, as well as the feeling they were insulted over some other issue. The canal system was built, between 1826 and 1832 to provide the British Army with a safe route for transporting supplies to their garrisons away from the St Lawrence River, which was exposed to the American forces.  It has now become a major recreation facility.  The Chaffey Lock also has an Australian connection. The locks were named after Brothers Ben and Samuel Chaffey , however some 60 years later Victorian Government minister, (and later Prime Minister) Alfred Deakin came to Ontario to investigate the Chaffey irrigation system, Brothers George and William Chaffey, sons of the earlier family were enticed to come to Australia in 1887 where they installed the irrigation system in Mildura, Victoria. 

Kingston is situated on Lake Ontario, at the start of the St. Lawrence River, just along from Kingston is Gananoque where we took a boat cruise of the “Thousand Islands”. Here in the St Lawrence River is a group of islands actually over 1800 of them, many, really most of them with holiday homes on them. As we traveled down through the island the homes became more lavish, to the point where “Millionaires Row” has some incredible “Holiday” mansions, the cream of them is the 127 room Boldt Castle, which was built by George Boldt  from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel empire. Although it was never lived in by Boldt, as his wife Louise died before it was completed, and he abandoned the construction. It was later completed by the 1000 Islands Council and is available for tourists to visit in season.

We moved on to Peterborough to check out the highest hydraulic lift locks in the world. We were fortunate that we arrived just in time to witness the first operation of the locks for the 2012 season.

The locks resemble two huge bath tubs each on a central lift ram, one lock is down in the lower canal, with one end open allowing boats to drive into the lock, the end gate is closed and the lock complete with water and the boats, rise up to the level of the upper canal 19.8 metres above the lower canal. As the lock ascends the other lock descends to the lower level.  When at the top the other end of the lock opens and allows the boats to drive out onto the upper canal.  It was all quite a sight, particularly as it is 108 years old, having been completed in 1904.    Photos

Toronto, the financial hub of Canada is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario, at the western end. A sprawling city, with massive freeways, 8 lanes each way, took a bit of getting used to, getting in and out of the transition section. We found downtown a very vibrant city, very multi-cultural. The Dundas Square where we picked up the tour was a mini Times Square, with lights and lots of activity going on.

The city planners have certainly made the most of being on the waterfront and as it was Saturday of a long weekend (Victoria Day) the docks were in full swing with stage acts and performers, lots of activities for the kids. We took an open top bus tour of the city, which included an island cruise. The Rogers Center, home of the Blue Jays, the only Canadian Baseball team to make the major league, was abuzz with action, fans streaming in for a game, hoping the team can follow through from their win over the New York Yankees a day or so earlier. We had traveled into town on the subway and were fortunate to get the new train “The Rocket” on both journeys. It appears that the Federal, State and Local bodies have combined to fund this venture. A most impressive train, the major safety feature for the traveling public is that the whole train is open from one end to the other, 5 or 6 carriages. The opening between the carriages is 6 – 7 ft wide giving a clear view for the whole train, another feature is that, like the New York system they do not have an electrical gantry on top and therefore save a lot of space with tunneling. Perhaps a worthwhile junket for some aspiring pollie to get the facts.   Photos

Niagara Falls was our next stopover, we arrived in town late, checked in to an RV park and went and sussed out the location of the falls and what parking was available.  An out of town parking area with a free shuttle to the falls was available for RV parking so we headed there the following morning. The falls are amazing, the amount of water going over is mind boggling. The falls are on the Niagara River, which is the outlet from Lake Erie and flows 36 miles through to Lake Ontario.

The water plunges 176ft over the falls, however as Lake Erie is 328ft higher above sea level than Lake Ontario there is another 152 ft of falling before the water reaches Lake Ontario, this accounts for the series of rapids before the falls and again further down stream where there is a tourist aerial tramway that crosses the gorge. Another interesting fact is that Lake Ontario’s deepest point is 800 ft deep, Lake Erie’s deepest point is 60ft.

We managed to be at the falls on the Sunday of a long weekend, so it was teeming with people, we sort out as many vantage points for photos as we could, even ventured to the top of the Skylon Tower and got a mild dose of sunburn over the day.   Photos

Leaving Niagara Falls we followed the Niagara Boulevard along the gorge, from the falls to Lake Ontario at Niagara on the Lake before turning towards Detroit.  We followed the shoreline of the lake as best we could, but again you do not get to the lake as it seems to be private property down to the waters edge,  The region is all food production, vineyards and wineries in the Niagara on the Lake area  then it went to corn, potatoes, soya bean, tobacco and a lot of crops that we did not recognise, but the farmers were out ploughing and sowing and praying for rain.  There were an amazing number of wind turbines, scattered all over the farms. Before we had traveled the 100 miles to the USA border the farmers’ prayers had been answered, but somehow we think they overdid it with the praying, as the amount of rain we got, would have washed their newly planted crops away.  After a 40 min grilling at the USA immigration/customs we were set to go and made it to an RV park at the Wayne County Fairgrounds for a couple of days.    Photos

 Route Map : Detroit to Chicago
 

7       Detroit, Michigan  to  Chicago, Illinois

Whilst Detroit and Chicago are only 283 miles apart we have chosen to go up along Lake Huron, along a stretch of the lower shores of Lake Superior then down the west cost of Lake Michigan, to Chicago, which will stretch the journey out to 1180 miles

Known of course, for being the hub of the US Automobile industry, Detroit is on the Detroit River, which runs approx 28 miles, joining Lake St Clair, the smallest of the lakes in the group and Lake Erie.

Detroit was a strange city, firstly we could not find any tours of the city, nor could we locate a public transport system. There is a People Mover on an elevated track which does a circuit around the city, but does not extend to any of the suburbs. We made inquiries and were advised not to use the bus, and not to drive in as there is no parking and if you value your possessions it is not worth the risk. All sounded a bit daunting., Whist at Wal-Mart in Dearborn we arranged with a roving security guard to keep his eye on the RV while we took a taxi into Detroit and have a look around. Had to wait for an hour before the taxi arrived, however it was only a $20 fare in to the city.  Our second surprise was that there was very little traffic in and around the city, we are talking 5pm, on a weekday, The people Mover was great, all automated, no driver and 75 cents to ride, but virtually no passengers on it, we stayed for a complete circuit and there would not have been more than 6 people, including us in the carriage at any one time.

A taxi rank at the bottom of a station, we had noted always had a taxi or two in the line, so we had no difficulty in getting a cab back to Dearborn.

The city itself has quite a lot of modern buildings, but it seems  they are all commercial, no department stores, no apartment buildings. No one lives in the city, is what our advisor told us.

Prior to our venture into the city we visited the Henry Ford Museum and the Greenfield Village which is located at the Dearborn Ford complex. The Ford proving ground was opposite and that was apparently built on the site of the original air strip, laid down by Henry in his earlier years and in fact, it was the first paved airstrip in the world. The visit to the museum showed us sides of Henry Ford that we had not previously been aware. Henry had first set up a company called “The Henry Ford Company”, but he quit soon after, following disagreements with other management and he the started “The Ford Motor Company”.   His involvement in the aircraft industry in the early stages of flight. Ford had built and sold small planes but never turned a profit from it, rather he suffered a $5.5m loss from the venture and after the tragic loss of his test pilot, Harry Brooks, at age 25, who he had treated as a son, Henry abandoned his activities with aircraft. Henry also had a passion for Steam trains and collected quite a few which are on display, including the “Allegheny Locomotive” the largest ever built.

In the collection of cars, are four Presidential vehicles, including the Lincoln in which President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  Catering for the many school children who were there with their teachers, there were areas where you could work on the construction of a Model “T”, all of the parts were there and a couple of attendants assisted as the car was being pieced together. Another area had a conveyor belt where they had school kids on each side assembling model cars.

The Greenfield Village, alongside the museum, has a fully operating steam railroad which takes passengers around the perimeter of the park. Model “T” Fords are whizzing around taking people for rides, as is an old bus and a horse drawn omnibus.  A tribute to Thomas Edison with many of his works on display,  an antique carousel and a working farm, growing crops etc.

We moved North to Saginaw and up along the West coast of Lake Huron to the Tawas Point State Park, where we camped on the shore of Lake Huron. Our next move was West, across the peninsular to the Sleeping Bear Dunes State Park, On the drive across we went through some interesting farmland, through an area signed to watch for Amish people in their horse drawn jinkers, not that we saw any, we suspect they would stay off the main roads where possible, but obviously there are some in the area. Lakes Houghton and Crystal, both large Michigan inland lakes, were among the many that we passed. At Sleeping Bear Dunes SP we inspected the park and from a viewing platform 450 ft above Lake Michigan , where the sand dunes plummeted down to the lake for miles either side. Around a bit further there was dunes area where you could climb the dunes, if you have the energy to spare, we took photographs instead. Further up the coast we found a gem of a State Park, nice and quiet and right on the waterfront. Fisherman’s Island SP.

The coast from Charlevoix to Petoskey was very appealing, looks like a nice place to live, if you could stand the winters.  We moved on to cross the Mackinac Bridge into the Upper Peninsular of Michigan. Wow that was some bridge, It took 5 years to build and has enough steel cable in it to go around the world 1.5 times. With it’s 8,614 ft span, it is the third longest suspension bridge in the world.   After crossing the bridge we could have turned right to Sault Ste. Marie, where the largest locks in the world are located. The Soo Locks operate in the St. Mary’s River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.  The locks pass an average of 10, 000 ships per year over the 21ft height difference between the lakes. The locks can accommodate the 1,000 ft freighters built for use on the lakes. 

Instead we adjusted our schedule to travel north on the peninsular, to see the Tahquamenon Falls, near Paradise. We ran into a thick cloud of smoke blanketing the area, it turned out to be a forest later found that the fire that has been going for 3 days and has burned out 30,000 acres so far. We fire had continued to burn and in fact they closed the park the following day. The falls were good and all the smoke gave them quite an eerie look. Moving on, we finished the day at a lakeside site at the Munising RV Tourist Park. It is the Memorial Day long weekend and whilst the guy next to us had booked his site 7 months ago, he could not believe we could get one on a walk in.   We booked a boat tour of the “Pictured Rocks” for the following morning.  The boat tour was certainly worth the effort, it took us about 15 miles around the edge of Lake Superior, to view the cliffs, which are in fact the “Pictured Rocks”, so without the boat cruise you cannot see much of them at all. The cliffs ranges from 200 to 400 ft high with varying colours streaking through them, caused by the weather as well as the minerals leaching through the sandstone. It was a particularly calm day which being a lake I expected, however that is not necessarily the case, there have been many shipwrecks in the lake, due to the sudden changes in the conditions, apparently it is not uncommon to have 10ft waves. Another tour operator has glass bottomed boats and takes tours over the sunken wrecks, the water clarity is such that good views of wrecks up to 60ft down can be seen. Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes and has a maximum depth of over 1000ft. It is claimed that the lake holds enough water to cover the entire USA to a depth of 5ft .

Munising in winter is a different ball game, they get about 250inches (20ft) of snow each year and the harbour freezes over, so ice hole fishing is one of the winter sports. A local paper mill is the major employer for the 2000 odd residents.   After checking out the local fare of smoked fish and fresh baked pasties, we traveled along the southern coast of lake Superior for 50 miles to Marquette and shortly after turned South heading towards Milwaukee, once in Wisconsin we found a site by the Smalley Falls, for the night and settled back. Our peace was interrupted by a couple of Park Rangers, suggesting that we really shouldn’t be here, but as we were only staying overnight, they showed us the way to other falls nearby for the following morning and they bid us a good evening and to stay safe. We think also that being a couple of old farts from Australia also helped.   Well the earth moved for us that night, the thunder rolled on and on, actually shook the RV, the lightening was so bright, even half asleep with our eyes closed we could see the brightness of it, of course the rain accompanied it all, we were fortunate that we had stayed on the road metal surface, so no big dramas moving off in the morning, We half expected our guardian angels from the parks dept, to call and check that we were ok. Next morning we checked out the Long Slide Falls as was recommended, however with the rain as it was we would venture no further on the track than the top of the falls. As we drove on South we came across a marker alerting us that we were exactly half way between the Equator and the North Pole 3107.47 miles each way, we decided not to change course and moved on to Manitowoc, stopped and went over the dockyards on Lake Michigan.    Photos
We then moved down to Milwaukee, our first stop was the Harley Davidson Museum, which did not disappoint, they have been making motor cycles since 1903 and a specimen of pretty well all models since was on display. As well a history of the company and its trials and tribulations, they merges with the international corporate company AMF in 1960 and eventually bought their way out of it in 1980.  At that time it was almost a coin flip between bankruptcy and a new beginning.  They have since become a public company and at last all seems well, after having to prove their worth against the Japanese imports. The loyalty of their customers and agents being a major factor in their success.

Milwaukee was also under a cloud of smoke, whether from the forest fires near Paradise 300 miles away, or not we do not know, or is it smog.

The State Fair Grounds have an RV park less than 6 miles from the city, so that was a good option. Even on Sunday of the Memorial Day weekend we were able to get a site.  

The Pabst Mansion in Wisconsin Avenue was worth a visit, we were given a 1.5 hr tour of this magnificent display of America’s Golden age of wealth, Built in the 1890s by Beer Baron Capt. Frederick Pabst. The mansion is the last of 60 or so such mansions built on, then Grand Avenue, however this is the only one left that is able to be restored, most have given way to progressive development. This one almost went the same way, it had been used for 60 years as the residence for the Catholic Archbishop and a gathering of nuns and priests, it was then sold and was to be torn down and a multi story car park built in it’s place. The preservation Society was able to have it retained for a period while they amassed sufficient funds and loans to buy the property. Much of the furnishings have been returned to the mansion by family members, as well, a lot had been put into storage during it’s time as a Catholic Seminary. Gradually the building is being restored to it’s original state.  The St. Joseph’s Basilica was our next stop, but unfortunately it was closed, so an inside inspection was not possible and external pics will have to suffice.  Chicago is only 100 miles south so we set our sights there, we wound through some coastal roads, past some pristine residential properties along the way.    Photos
 As we entered Chicago, Monday 4.00pm holiday weekend and 90 degrees temperature, the beaches were packed, it looked like Bondi at Christmas. All sorts of watercraft, zipping around on Lake Michigan. We eventually found our way to our targeted stopping place in Chicago, taking 31^st St. exit  to The McCormick Truck Marshaling Yards, just South of the McCormick Convention Centre by Soldiers Field , home to the Chicago Bears, Our thanks to Lea & David for putting us on to that one. This is in the shadow of the city skyscrapers, a train line for a neighbour and several buses and long haul trucks to keep us company, but as all other options are 25-30 miles out, this is a good one.  Mind you, it was a hot night and the tour buses and long haul trucks that were there nearly all had their engines running to keep their air-cons working. We moved during the night to a more deserted area and away from the rail line, that gave us the opportunity for a good sleep. The following morning we found we were surrounded by trucks that had come in overnight, but we slept through all that movement.

A short taxi ride to the centre of town next morning, we headed for the Sears Tower, oops, it is now officially called the Willis Tower as the major tenant of the building is the Willis Insurance group from UK. The observation deck was on the 103^rd floor, all glassed in, but some great viewing. There is also the Sky Walk on a glass floor 1353 ft above the Chicago River. Unbelievable, but we BOTH went out and had a photo taken to prove it. At 1730ft the tower is the highest in North America and the 8^th highest in the world.

Chicago was quite a surprise to us, we found it a clean city lots of fresh new buildings, and a wide range of architecture. Actually it is a wonder that they didn’t rename it Phoenix, after the devastating fire of 1871, 300 died and 90,000 left homeless when 17,500 buildings were destroyed and 2.5 square miles of the city was totally flattened. A possible contributor was in the fact that at the time there were 50 miles of timber roadway and most buildings were of timber construction.  In clearing away the debris from the fire, it was used as landfill and created a large area on the shore of Lake Michigan, now used as a great public park.

As in the famed Phoenix, the city rose from the ashes and became a for-runner in modern architectural design. There are many tours of the architecture conducted by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Inside their building is a complete scale model of the entire city.

The elevated train loop that goes through and around the city is pretty much the only relic of the past, it’s steel structure along some streets is a bit of an eyesore, the city stations on it, almost look temporary, there are wooden steps leading up from the street, wooden flooring on the walkways and the platforms. However the trains themselves were efficient and frequent, obviously doing the job of shifting people in and out of the city. Another relic in the city is that it is the start of the “Route 66”, the original Mother Road from Chicago to Los Angeles, as we boarded the city tour bus we noted the “Route 66” sign on the post.  Navy Pier, another attraction of the city was a vibrant hub, right on the edge of the city, with all the offerings and rides such as Ferris Wheel, harbour cruises, sailing ship cruises, theatres and museums.

There are many interesting buildings in Chicago, and many of them have stories to tell. One such is 35 East Wacker Drive, known as the Jeweler’s Building. When the 40 story building was built in 1926, the lower 23 floors had car parking and a car lift installed in the centre of the building, to facilitate the Jewellery merchants to safely transport their jewels to their office. In the Al Capone days of prohibition, the dome penthouse of the building was a speakeasy, often frequented by Capone. Needless to say the building has been remodeled since then.

So it’s another night in the truck marshaling yard, then off to Indianapolis.      Photos

Route Map : Chicago to Ocean City

8       Chicago, Illinois  to  Ocean City, Maryland

200 miles South East of Chicago and we arrive at the Indianapolis Speedway in the next state, Indiana. In time to participate in a tour of the Race Track and the museum.  The 2.5 mile track was built in 1909, primarily as a testing track for the fledgling auto industry, so they could push the cars to their limits, to find their weaknesses. As the public roads at the time were little more than dirt tracks, they needed a surface more substantial.

In 1911 the first Indianapolis 500 auto race was run on the track with a surface of tar and dirt, It was not very successful , so over the next 12 months 2.5 million bricks were brought in and laid on a sand base for the new track. The name “The Brickyard” was coined and has stuck, even though the only remaining bricks that can be seen are a 3ft wide strip across the track, which is the “Finish Line”. Most of the original brickwork is still there, but is now covered with several layers of asphalt. 

The winning car from that first race in 1911 was taken out of the museum, dusted down and used as the lead car for the introduction of the 2011 race. Now both winning cars are on display side by side.  On the track tour we actually did a lap of the track, albeit in a bus and not quite as fast as the speedway cars.  There are 5 race events at the track each year, including, Nascar, The Formula 1 Grand Prix and the Motorcycle GT.  After getting into an Indi car for a photo opportunity, it became clear as to why most racing drivers are not much bigger than jockeys. For a while, I had my doubts as to how I was going to get out. After a couple of changes of ownership and a hiccup during WW2 the 96^th running of the race was held on 27^th May 2012. Whilst we missed the race by 3 days we had the opportunity of the track tour.  Photos

The nearby Fairgrounds, offers camping facilities and as a side benefit a horse show was set to start that night, so that was a pleasant addition.

What we saw of the horse show was mainly dressage, with riders and horses competing in an indoor arena. In dressage the horse obeys commands with several moves and gaits, in time with music, often high stepping with its front legs, One breed of horse there was the Friesian, a rare old breed that was almost wiped out before WW1.  At the fairgrounds, we also clashed with the local college having their end of year graduation ceremony in the huge facility.

Further to the East , where we traveled on Highway 40, which coincided with the Historic National Road (SR40) Yard Sale held between May 30 and June 3^rd this year.  We were not aware of the festival at the time but were intrigued by the number of “Yard Sales, Barn Sales, Rummage Sales, Garage Sales” that were along the road, over 130 miles of the road between both states of Indiana and Ohio, there were literally hundreds of “Sales”, some quite professional with tents and trestles, others just spread out on the front lawn. There was every conceivable item on offer, cars boats lawnmowers, toys, clothing and of course all the general bric a brac that makes up a garage sale.  We continued on past Columbus, the capital of Ohio and settled for a couple of days at Buckeye Lake.

Talking with some other campers we got a bit of an insight into the “gun” culture in the US. The couple were heading to Canada and are aware that they cannot enter Canada with their firearms, rifles and shotguns are ok, they will let them passed, but hand guns are a no no. they are able to hand in their handguns at the border and have them posted either to their home address or to the border control post where they intend to cross back into the US, that way they can be comfortable as soon as they get back. The couple are both in their late 70s and each has their own hand gun in the RV. We were thankful that they were in the RV, as the dear lady was well on the way to being shickered as they worked their way through a slab of beer and this was 11am..

Route 40, we find is one of the original Federal Highways from 1926 and went from Atlantic City to San Francisco a distance of 2285 miles.  The entire highway is inundated with yard sales, for the four days, to day we saw motorcycles, horse drawn buggies, skidoos and everything else you could think of for sale.  A couple of times we had to dodge an Amish horse drawn buggy on the road.  We bypassed Pittsburgh and took the tollway through to Harrisburg and settled in for the night at the Hershey Conewago Camping Ground. Yes, it is linked to the Hershey Chocolate Dynasty, although at $44 per night, for a basic site, perhaps they are looking at getting out of the chocolate business. After checking out the toilet facilities, they should stay in chocolate. One look inside and I lost the urge.

Highway 40 continues on to Atlantic City, although there are a few gaps, The Yard Sale bug had not seen to have arrived in New Jersey, what presented to us on the 40 in New Jersey was a daunting picture of the state, whilst there was only one yard sale, there were heaps of houses, businesses closed and “available” as well as cars marked for sale, quite depressing. On to Atlantic City, obviously on the Atlantic Ocean, about  90 miles South of New York City. The city is a mecca for gamblers with casinos all along the beach front, it was like Las Vegas, but instead of the “Strip” as in Vegas, they are set on the famous “Boardwalk” which runs all along the foreshore. With its 12 casinos, it is in fact recognised as the second largest gambling market in the nation, behind Las Vegas. The latest addition is the $2.4billion, 47 story Revel casino/resort.

Whilst the foreshore and boardwalk are all glitter and gold two blocks behind and the housing was deserted, falling down, boarded up or just cleared leaving empty spaces. Again a very depressing view of New Jersey. However as we moved South from Atlantic City, the neighbouring town of Ventnor City and the housing situation changed dramatically.  From there the standard of housing was fantastic, in fact the area going down to Cape May on Delaware Bay could be likened to the Miami Keys, a series of islands linked with toll bridges (very narrow bridges), and some seriously gorgeous housing onto the waterways, the Atlantic Ocean on the left and the inland waters on the right. At the bottom is Cape May which can also be likened to Key West with it’s narrow streets and old buildings. All very summery and touristy.   Photos

We took the ferry from Cape May, New Jersey to Lewes, Delaware, a ninety minute trip, then proceeded down to Ocean City, again we are on a narrow peninsular between the Ocean and the inland waterway. Although with only one casino, Ocean City is a huge development, which we likened to the Gold Coast in Queensland, great multi story units, built right on the beach edge, a real holiday atmosphere, it looks like it is schoolies week, with youths tearing around the streets on hired motor scooters. We noted an advertisement “Hire Scooters $5hr” and thought no wonder the kids are into them. However had cause to walk past the sign and there was a very small 3^rd , hand written before the hr.  We have no idea how much they actually cost to hire (apart from the 3^rd hr being $5)

10 miles South of Ocean City we booked into the Assateague Sate Park for the night.  The park is on Assateague Island and is famous for it’s wild horses, there are about 120 wild horses on the Maryland half of the island and apparently 150 or so on the lower Virginian half, they are called Chincoteague Ponies. A fence at the State Border separates them. It is thought that they originated from 17^th century mainland farmers, bringing them over to the island to avoid fencing laws and taxation of livestock. They are now feral and have learned to survive on the sparse vegetation and harsh weather on the island. They just wander along the beach and sand dunes among the tourists.

The Chincoteague Ponies are now “Officially Owned” by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Brigade. As a fund raiser they round up the new foals each year and auction them off.   Photos

 Route Map : Ocean City to Atlanta
 

9       Ocean City, Maryland   To  Atlanta, Georgia

Moving on down the coast, where we intended to have a look at the islands and the peninsular leading down the to Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel, The problem is again you cannot get close to the water, so might as well drive straight down the highway.  The area is heavily into corn growing, and some parts are very depressing with houses just falling apart. Quite possibly the farms have been merged and people displaced as a result, one small town we drove through had probably half of the houses deserted and falling down, vines growing through the openings. You would not feel very secure if you were still living in the town.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel is a real eye-opener, it is 17 miles in total, however the first six miles are in the form of a two parallel bridges running 30 – 40 ft above the water, then they merge and enter a tunnel for one mile, which goes under the bottom of the bay, comes up onto a man-made island and separates into another pair of parallel bridges again for the next four miles, at another man-made island another tunnel for another mile, then up onto another pair of parallel bridges for the last four miles to the other shore.  The two tunnels are under the two shipping channels into Chesapeake Bay and allow uninterrupted flow of both shipping and vehicles.  Sounds like it would be a great option for Port Phillip Bay.  The toll was $17 each way
Shortly after leaving the bridge, a notice giving direction to the Fort Story Lighthouse at Cape Henry caught our eye so we made a quick turn and before we knew it we were lined up to enter an Army Base, (which surrounds the lighthouse). We could not back out or do a U turn, we were stuck and had to queue up while the police checked our insurance, registration and  driver’s licence before they then had all of the compartments of the RV opened for inspection. Eventually we were cleared and proceeded down with a great list of dos and don’t, you may photograph the lighthouse, but nothing else, which we did and got out of there.
Further down in North Carolina we crossed over onto the “Outer Banks”, which is a narrow strip of land encompassing Pamlico Sound. With Cape Hatteras at it’s most Eastern point.  At the top of the strip is Kitty Hawk and seven miles south Kill Devil Hills.  It was here where the Wright Brothers made their first powered flight in 1903. There is a memorial to the Wright Bros., and a visitor centre houses a replica of the Wright Flyer as well as other flight memorabilia.  Kitty Hawk has as its salute, a Monument to a Century of Flight
The town of Kitty Hawk was chosen as the site for their testing after getting a list of the windiest sites in USA, Kitty Hawk came in 6th but had the added advantages of sand dunes for soft landings. The brothers had a bicycle shop and they used their equipment and knowledge from that to fund their passion of flight, They had determined that there were three main obstacles that need to be solved, Lift, Thrust and Control. They used kites and gliders over three years to test and prove their theories before attempting the powered flight, On the 17th Dec 1903 Orvil made the first flight which lasted 12 seconds and traveled 120ft, on the same day they repeated the test with three more flights, the last flight went for 59 seconds and traveled 852 ft.  In their excitement of the achievement, their celebrations caused them to forget to tie the “Flyer” down, a gust of wind rolled it over and damaged it beyond easy repair. It was interesting to find, that a piece of the original “Flyer” was taken to the moon by Neil Armstrong on his historic flight.
The National Parks Service has done a great job in maintaining the site and the volume of visitors is a testimony to that.  A duplicate of the 1902 Glider and the 1903 Flyer are on display in a purpose built auditorium, a museum of their lives and the processes they undertook to achieve their goal is all on display.  Outside, the grass runway used on the 17th Dec 1903 is maintained and has stone markers for the start and finish of each of the four flights undertaken on that day. Even the timber sheds that they erected to work on the site have been faithfully reproduced.  Another two building containing further displays were unavailable on the day we were there, as they were recovering from a deluge of 9” of rain in one day, seven days earlier.
This upper section of the “Outer Banks” of  North Carolina is all very touristy and obviously a favourite beach holiday area. Most of the houses are three story, timber, with lots of balconies. Mini Golf and fun parks for family entertainment abound. They seem to love their Mini Golf, there are some very elaborate set-ups mostly around the “Pirate” theme.  We were to find out later that the “Outer Banks” were a favourite base for pirates in the early 1700s.
Back at the visitor’s centre at Kitty Hawk and we caught up with their Monument to a Century of Flight, which itemized all of the major developments in the history of flight
Traveling down the coast road on the outer banks we crossed onto Pea Island, most of which is a wildlife refuge, the housing had stopped and we had sand dunes both sides of the road. There must be problems at times as a front end loader was on standby near the heavy dune area, the couple of towns that cropped up before we reached Cape Hatteras, were both pretty tacky.
Pamlico Sound, the inside waters to the outer banks is a  haven for Kite Surfers, by the crowds and the number of kites in the air, there must have been a competition going on as we drove through.
The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse built in 1870, is the tallest lighthouse on the USA mainland at 200ft, there are 247 steps to reach the top, I know, I counted them.  The view was great from the top.
The lighthouse was featured in the series “Monster Moves” because in 1999 it was decided to move the lighthouse with it’s 1 million + bricks, hollus bolus, 2870 ft inland from the eroding shoreline. The move was obviously successful.
Whilst on top of the lighthouse I was talking to a ranger, he asked if I had any questions about the lighthouse. I said well yes, Why is it so far from the shore?, he gave me a great lot of detail as to why it is there, he could tell me that there was a smaller light built in the early1800s which came down in a hurricane, but, he obviously had no knowledge of the big move 13 years ago. (neither did I at the time).
Traveling South from Cape Hatteras there is a forty minute ferry ride to Ocracoke Island, the ferry is run by the North Carolina Highways and is no charge. Once on to the Island the town of Ocracoke is at the lower end, it is a hive of tourist activity, with very narrow winding streets and lanes between the houses, heavily timbered, often right to the edge of the road. The favoured form of transport in the town is “Golf Carts” all unregistered, you can hire them all over town, they seemed to be flying everywhere. If we weren’t dodging the golf carts it was pushbikes, the second most rented thing in town. We had 2 1/2 hrs wait for the next ferry to take us to Cedar Island, a walk around town and lunch soon filled the time. Whilst sitting at an ice cream shop we noted a sign on a surfboard standing up outside the shop it stated “Come In” “Snacks, Knives, Kid Stuff, Candy, Guy Stuff”. A bit puzzling, how knives fit into the ice cream scene. Our Ferry to Cedar Island would take 2 ¼  hours and cost $30, cheap, cheap, cheap. We reckon we would have used more than $30 worth of fuel traveling the same distance, a pedestrian passenger for the same trip is charged $1. Again, the ferry is operated by the North Carolina Transport. This was the last of our ferry trips, it is bridges from now on down the coast.  Cedar Island is very flat and marshy, looks like it would be a great area for the Air Boats as in the Florida Everglades, however we did not see any. Fortunately we are not here in Summer, the mozzies would be horrific. On through Moorhead City and Jacksonville to Myrtle Beach ,where we planned to spend a couple of nights.
Some signs are a bit strange, one store had a huge sign across the front “Hams, Fireworks, Peanuts” seemed a strange combination. And a another “Hams, Knives & Liquor”
Another that we don’t think would last long in Australia, “I got my crabs from Dirty Dicks” after seeing that sign several times we eventually passed Dirty Dicks Seafood House.
The best thing about Myrtle Beach was, petrol was down from $3.49 at our last buy to $3.08. The RV park we had selected was on the beach, however you would need to pack a cut lunch to get there. We decided to have a look around at a few of the sights and move on down to Charleston and spend the extra time there.  Myrtle Beach is split into three distinct areas. North, Central and South, all very touristy, with Restaurants, Dinner Shows and all sorts of entertainment. Greg Norman even has a Steakhouse restaurant there on the strip, understandably, as the whole area here in South Carolina and well up into North Carolina is one golf course after another. A new touristy development called “Broadway” is built around a lake, (full of catfish), in Central Myrtle Beach, with several night club venues and Hard Rock  on the edge if it, as does Planet Hollywood, Ripley’s also have an Aquarium on site, it was good for a walk around.   Photos
We made it to Charleston, South Carolina by 7pm. The main street in Charleston “Meeting Street” has the Museum Mile as part of it. The next day we walked the last few blocks down to the waterfront ,and went a bit camera happy snapping all of the old mansions along the way. We took a tour of Calhoun Mansion, which unfortunately was more of a museum of collected art objects from around the world, it was chock a block in every room, however the building itself was interesting. 
We then visited the Chalmers Street “Old Slave Mart,” where until 1863 slaves were auctioned daily. It was quite an eye opener to read and listen to stories of some who lived through that period. The importing of slaves from Africa was banned in 1807, however the trade continued dealing in local born slaves.
A tour of Fort Sumter was a great way to conclude our visit to Charleston. The tour takes you by ferry to the fort which is at the entrance to Charleston Harbour and it was here that the first shot of the Civil War occurred on April 12 1861.
The fort was one of a series built along the coast, after the War of 1812.  After Lincoln was elected president with no support from the southern states, South Carolina delegates voted unanimously to secede from the Federal Union. Upon the secession it was decided that the state would reclaim all government facilities into state control. Fort Sumter was under the control of Major Anderson, who refused to surrender control of the fort. A shot from a cannon which exploded above the fort, became the opening volley of the Civil War. Over the following 10 days of siege and bombardment the fort was taken by the South Carolina troops.  After two years of holding the fort in defiance of the northern assaults the fort was reduced to rubble with the top half, systematically blown away by the naval guns, the fort was returned to the control of the North.
Charleston  is steeped in its history revolving around the civil war and of it’s slave markets that were central to the local economy. Before the Civil War, ships approaching or leaving the Charleston harbour were continually harassed by pirates.
Edward Teach was known as the infamous “Blackbeard” and was the most feared of the pirates, during a battle he was known to have woven wicks laced with gunpowder into his full face beard and light them, for effect. He had a huge frame, and wore a crimson coat, two swords and bandoliers stuffed with pistols and knives. He worked hard to create the menacing appearance.   In the battle with the British at Ocracoke in 1718, it took 5 musket balls and 20 sword lacerations to kill the man.   Photos
100 miles to the South is Savannah, just over the border into Georgia.
Savannah was settled by the British in 1733, The British feared the presence of the Spanish, as they controlled what is now Florida from their capital of St. Augustine. The intention was to have a defence force between Charleston and St Augustine. The city was laid out with four town squares, with the housing surrounding the squares similar to military barracks, the squares were there to provide the colonists space for military exercises. Today however they are cherished for their aesthetic value with their huge Live Oak trees, (live oaks do not lose their leaves). As the city grew, the original pattern was continued, until there were 24 town Squares, 21 still remain and contribute to the charm of this interesting city. Many old building are there as they were 200 years ago. The oldest building in Georgia is the Pirate House on East Broad St. It is now a Bar & Restaurant, similar to it’s roll in 1754. However, at that time it was a place to be avoided by the general public.  It served as a watering hole for sailors and pirates. It is said that many a drunken sailor was shanghaied from there, taken through an underground tunnel from the bar to the wharf, to make up crew numbers on other ships. The Pirates House boasts as being included in Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 novel, Treasure Island and that one of the main characters, Captain Flint, stayed there.
Apart from the Trolley Tour and dinner at the Pirates House, the town certainly deserves more time than we are able to afford, as our date with Qantas draws closer.
Another day and we are back at Atlanta, sorting and packing for the return flight.   Photos

The statistics of our trip are:  We had 5 days in New York, then 71 days in the RV. We traveled 10,919 miles (17, 572kms), We free camped 25 nights, 7 in National or State Parks and the other 39 RV parks, spent $5107 on gas (petrol) and $1464 on RV Parks, which works out to $92.56 per day, for travel and accommodation, for the two of us.