Nazareth, PA

This was a two stop day - both with surprises. Our first stop was the C. F. Martin & Company guitar manufacturing plant in Nazareth, PA. We took the free, hour-long guided factory tour where we saw all aspects of manufacturing some of the finest guitars in the world (according to some of my musical friends). Some of the more interesting things seen was the largest guitar in the world and watching a giant robotic arm pick up and polish guitar bodies with style and grace. Then we toured the Martin Guitar Museum which contained many interesting instruments including the One Millionth Martin guitar made in 2004.

When we first arrived, Susan had asked someone in the gift shop about buying some strings for her new dulcimer (she broke a string last night). They checked but none were in stock or could be found anywhere. Our surprise came at the end of the tour when a gentleman approached the tour group and asked who the dulcimer player was. He then gave Susan a complete set of Martin dulcimer strings at no charge. That was so nice!

Then we went a few miles down the road to Easton, PA to take a tour of the Crayola Factory. Our surprise here was that the Crayola Factory wasn't a real factory but was a place where kids of all ages could play with Crayolas. Oh well, you can't win em all.

Stockbridge, MA

This morning, we drove back into Massachusetts to see the Norman Rockwell Museum. On display was the complete collection (about 45 years worth) of Saturday Evening Post covers that he had painted plus a large number of his original paintings that covered everything from his early years with the Boy Scouts through the 1960's political art. Each piece had an interesting story to tell. Before leaving, we visited his studio where much of his later work was done. Fascinating...

Then we went to Pittsfield, MA where we toured the Hancock Shaker Village. The Shakers built this village back in the 1770's and, while they no longer exist, have become well-known for their beautiful handmade furniture, chairs, baskets, wooden boxes and other craft items still made by local craftsmen. As we walked the grounds, there were people working in the various shops, fields and barns who answered questions and even encouraged visitors to use some of the tools and machines they use. Another fascinating place.

Presidents in New York

This was a historic day for us - we visited not one, but two, Presidential Historic Sites. Our first stop was in Hyde Park, NY where we visited the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. As proof, here's a picture of Susan with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt relaxing in the fresh air. We also toured Springwood, home of FDR. The tour was most interesting and, besides the usual home stuff, we saw some of the things FDR used to hide his disability (he contracted Polio at age 29 and was paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life). His major contribution to us was Social Security - for which we'll be forever grateful since, without it, we wouldn't be here now.

Then we drove up to Kinderhook, NY to visit the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site. There we toured Lindenwald, where Van Buren lived after being our eighth President. Here is a picture of Susan with another dead President - this one was taken in downtown Kinderhook.

Plymouth, Mass.

We awoke this morning to see the sun after five rainy days. Being such a good birth of our day, we took this as an omen to go see the birth of our country in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Mayflower II was on display at the dock but we didn't take the tour. Instead, we took a stern-wheel boat tour of Plymouth Harbor which gave us a nice overview of the area. Then we walked over to see the actual Plymouth Rock, where our ancestors first set foot on American soil.

Then we went to Plimoth Plantation (that is not a misspelling, just one of the ways the English spelled the place). This interesting walking tour took us to a recreated Wampanoag Homestead where Native American docents explained their life before and after the Pilgrims arrived. Then we walked to a 1627 English Village where costumed role players demonstrated how life for the Pilgrims was back then, from building homes to explaining daily life. All of the people in these villages welcomed questions and gave informative answers. It was fun going back in time.

Hartford, CT

Since most of the rain was east of us, we decided to head west to Hartford and visit the Mark Twain House & Museum. In the lobby was a life-sized statue of Mark Twain (the pen name of Samuel Clemens) made entirely out of Legos. I'm going to break tradition here, and perhaps start a new trend, with a picture of Susan with a dead Author. We took a guided tour of the house where he lived from 1874 to 1891 and wrote so many of his classic tales. Photography was not allowed inside which is a real shame since the place was very beautiful and unique compared with most of the other homes we've toured in the past. This picture of the outside should give you a good idea of the overall architecture. Oh yes, we actually saw the sun for the first time in 4 days when we exited the house. Wow!

Tiverton, R.I.

A good friend of ours recently introduced us to software designed to trace our family trees. In my research of the Fried/Cook family before this trip, I found out that a lot of my relatives (from my grandfather's side of the family) had connections to Tiverton, Rhode Island so, despite the continuing rain, we went there to see what we could find. Their local library was a great resource of information that I will use to help complete my family tree. We went to see the house that belonged to my 9th great-grandfather but it was no longer in existence. We then visited the local cemetery and saw the many grave markers of my family (one dating back to 1812) plus one for the last occupant of the now-missing house who passed away in 1998. We assume that the house was dismantled after her death (the foundation shows on Google Maps). All in all, a most informative day.

Mystic Seaport, CT

A short drive south on a rainy day and we're in Mystic, CT to see the famous Mystic Seaport. Fortunately, the rain lessened as we approached the town so it was only a little misty in Mystic. ;-) What a neat place - especially for people who love ships (like us). We spent the whole day exploring the area. We explored the restoration of an old ship, the Charles W. Morgan, originally built in 1841, walked through a shipyard (where various ship parts were being built from old logs), toured four ships from tall masted to a fishing schooner. We explored a 19th century seafaring village that had many small buildings showing all aspects of seaport life like lobster and clam shacks, a print shop, a nautical instrument shop, a cooperage, a shipsmith shop and so much more. There were also museums covering everything from figureheads to scrimshaw. Almost too much to see in one day.

Salem, Mass.

Today's destination was Salem, Mass. We took the Salem Trolley tour of the town and learned some of its history. One of the biggest tourist attractions there is witches. There were a lot of witch-related stores, museums and tarot readers but we stayed away from them. Then we walked to the dock area and toured one of the tall ships on display. A few block further down was the famous House of The Seven Gables - the inspiration and setting for Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel built in 1668. Of course, we had to take the tour which was very interesting and even had us walking up and down some very tight, secret staircases.

Coast of Maine

Yesterday, we drove up to Bangor, Maine where we rested overnight before exploring the Maine coastal area. This morning, we drove out to Bar Harbor and visited the beautiful Acadia National Park. We began by going to the top of Cadillac Mountain which, at 1530 feet, is the highest point on the US Atlantic Coast. Behind us is the town of Bar Harbor (which we never did get into). Then we spent the rest of the day working our way south along scenic US-1 visiting sites like Sand Beach (Acadia's only sandy beach - the sand is made of crushed shells), Thunder Hole (where the waves crash into a small area - but there were no waves when we were there) and having lunch in the town of Belfast overlooking their scenic harbor.

Lebanon, Maine

We relocated to southern Maine yesterday and will explore the state by car from here for a while. Today we visited the Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Calling this a museum is a bit of a misnomer. It is more of a collection of old restored homes from the early days of this area's history - each furnished and/or decorated in different times from the late 1700's through the 1950's.

From there we drove out to New Castle Island and visited Fort Constitution State Park. This site commemorates the first victory of the American Revolution on December 14-15, 1774. There isn't much there but it is indeed a very historic place in our history.



We finished our day by taking a tour of Red Hook Brewery back in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The tour was interesting and the beer tasting afterwords was fun.

Quechee, VT - Day 2

Our first stop today was at Simon Pearce Glass in Quechee, VT. Other than selling somewhat pricey, but nice, glass objects and other art, they have a place where you can view the glass makers at work. Alongside the building was a beautiful waterfall just upstream from the covered bridge that we drove our RV through on our way to the campground.

Then it was on to Windsor, VT where we visited the American Precision Museum. On display here was a large collection of old machinery that was designed back as early as the 1830's to automate the manufacture of all sorts of goods from rifles to wood screws. One of the machines - a Bridgeport Milling Machine - was one I used at my first job after leaving the Navy in the early 60's. They even had a display of miniature machine models (notice the quarter in the lower left for a size comparison) that actually worked!

From there, we decided to have lunch at the Harpoon Brewery just down the road. Tours weren't available on Monday but the brewery was operating at full tilt so we watched the operations for a while before hunger took over. Lunch was good and their Octoberfest beer was a nice accent.

Quechee, VT

We're now in Eastern Vermont working our way towards Maine. Once we settled in at the campground, we drove over to visit nearby Quechee Gorge that claims to be Vermont's Grand Canyon. While it has a long way to go before becoming anywhere near that large, it is an interesting place to visit. We walked from the waterfalls of the dam at one end of the gorge to the far end of the gorge where the Ottauquechee River slows down. It was a beautiful, scenic walk through the woods about 150 feet above the river in temperatures of about 72 degrees. What a nice way to spend an afternoon in August!

Vermont - Day 2

More of Vermont to explore. Our first stop of the day  was at the Long Trail Brewing Company in Bridgewater Corners, VT. We toured the brewery (like most others) and sampled some of their beers. Fortunately, we got a late start so it was afternoon before we sipped the beer (after all, it's 5 o'clock somewhere).

Then we happened upon the Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth Notch, VT. We visited the house where he was born and the house where he was sworn in as President after the unexpected death of President Harding. In case you didn't know, he was sworn in by his father, a notary public, at 2:47 a.m. on August 3, 1923. To keep the blog tradition going, here is another picture of Susan with a dead President.

From there, we went to Weston, VT to see the Vermont Country Store. This place is a lot like the Mast General Store in Valle Cruces, NC. They have all kinds of products from the past for sale like Buster Brown shoes, Tinkertoys, Bosco chocolate, plus various household gadgets you don't normally see in stores any more like bread boxes and pants stretchers. A very unique store indeed.

Vermont - Day 1

Our first stop of the day was at the Vermont Marble Museum in Proctor, VT. This place claims to be the world's largest marble exhibit and has everything from marble busts of our 40 past Presidents to examples of the various types of marble known to man.

On the way to our next stop, we passed by, and sometimes through, four old covered bridges - all built in the early 1840's using what is called town lattice construction. It is amazing that some of these bridges are still in use today.

Our last stop of the day was at the New England Maple Museum in Pittsford, VT - supposedly the sweetest story ever told! This place traces the history of maple syrup from the time the Indians discovered that maple sap cooked over an open fire produces a sweet syrup through how it is now harvested and refined into what we enjoy today. And, yes, we got hooked on the samples and bought some to take with us to use on our pancakes. Yum!

Whitehall, NY

This afternoon, we arrived at the Whitehall Marina & RV Park in NY. This is the same place where, last year, we had decided to cut our trip short and return home to address my back pain. We thought it would be appropriate to continue exploring New England from here. Out of curiosity, I checked to see when we stayed here last year. To my total surprise, it was on the exact same weekend and same nights as this year! Scary but appropriate, eh?

Antietam & Harpers Ferry

We've been camping in Gettysburg, PA (where we stayed last August) as a base for exploring some new historical sites. This morning, we drove down to Maryland to visit the Antietam National Battlefield where the bloodiest one-day battle of the Civil War occurred on September 12, 1862. Another decisive battle occurred at the Lower Bridge (also called Burnside Bridge) on September 17, 1862.

From there, we went over to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park which is located right where Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland meet. We spent most of our time there looking around the Lower Town and enjoying the scenic views along where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers meet. We even walked along the famous Appalachian Trail . . . for about a 1/2 mile or so. It was about 100 degrees, so we decided that was enough walking for one day.