Category: State Park

World of Zoo the Living Desert Museum and Zoo

World of Zoo the Living Desert Museum and Zoo

By |

To my fellow animal lovers, I bring you my second Zoo post, and this time it’s in Carlsbad, NM. Now, the Living Desert Museum and Zoo was really neat since all the animals were found within the state park. I’ve been to a LOT of zoos but I have never been to one that is also a state park… how cool is that?!

I liked the views from the zoo, it was pretty neat!

They’ve got two Mexican wolves, sadly they are really rare, but they look amazing!

They’ve got various birds like the golden eagle, which was watching us very closely.

The horned owls took quite a while to find and were very neat, can you find them?

The last bird I’m going to share is a blue jay, isn’t it so pretty?!

The prairie dogs were probably my favorite part of this zoo. It’s hilarious to see their little tails wag when they run! It looked like they just got some food too!

The javelina decided to say hello and came right up to the fence! It’s nose was working trying to sniff out some food.

The black bear they have looked very sleepy. Not only was the bear sleepy,

but the grey fox found a patch of sun and decided to take a nap too! It looked very comfortable!

We must have come during nap time because the porcupine was sleeping too!

Although the mountain lions were not happy with us making an appearance and kept going back where we couldn’t see them,

the bobcats decided to pose for us! It looks like it’s smiling at us! Neat!

Walking around you could find some pretty flowers, you could also find some gypsum! We’ve been to some sand dunes made of gypsum, White Sands NP was awesome.

There is a nocturnal area where you can see some rattlesnakes, it gave me the heebee jeebees. I don’t like danger noodles.

Then you walk around the corner and BAM! Giant bat head! Kinda startled me it’s hidden until you round the corner!

They have a plant area which when you go inside, prepare to take off your jacket because it is warm in there! That area has some plants from all over the world!

It had barrel cactus, some neat trees and pretty flowers.

The tortoise was a fair size and was on the move.

The bison were just lazin’ around like bison do.

The mule deer weren’t doing much either, but look at those antlers!

The entrance had a neat little museum with a touch table and the coolest part of the museum, in my opinion, was the fact that it shows you what the area looked like a really, really long time ago! The area was under a sea!

Based on the variety of animals and how the animals were all happy and healthy, I give the Living Desert museum and zoo a 5 star review.

I’ll see y’all at the zoo!!

Written by Nicholas

The Grand Canyon Of Texas

The Grand Canyon Of Texas

By |

Hey Guys! The whole reason we stopped in the Amarillo area was to explore the Palo Duro Canyon State Park! We spent as much time there as we could in the two weeks we had in the Amarillo area.

Palo Duro Canyon is known as the Grand Canyon of Texas and is the second largest canyon in North America. Palo Duro Canyon State Park measures in at 27,173 acres…so, there’s plenty of space to explore and some pretty epic vistas!

The CCC sent seven companies of young men and military veterans to work on developing roads, a visitor center, trails, bridges and a way to get down to the canyon floor. You can see what’s left of their camp in the pic above. The CCC worked here from 1933 to 1937 and the park officially opened in 1934.

I think the structure in the pic above is called Cathedral Rock. That’s what another hiker told us. And…it does seem to fit that name. If you look closely you can see the boys standing in the mouth of the cave.

We only did a few hikes in Palo Duro State Park due to time. My favorite hike was the Lighthouse Rock hike. We started out as soon as the park opened at 8am and had the parking area and trail pretty much to ourselves. We’d driven by the trail head parking area the day before and it was packed. The Lighthouse Rock trail is right around 6 miles round trip and takes you by some fantastic rock structures!

This was our first glimpse at Lighthouse Rock. You can just barely make it out on the right side of the pic above about mid way up. Nicholas was waiting for me to take the picture…he didn’t know he was going to be in the picture. He’s always my hiking buddy…we both have short legs.

The trail officially ends and there’s no view of the famous rock you’ve hiked all that way to see. No view. At all. But, you can scramble up about a quarter mile of this (bottom right picture) to get to the real view. The scrambling was difficult in a few places (especially with a camera around my neck). We scrambled and slipped and slid our way that last quarter mile, but we made it!!

For those who are adventurous enough, you can scramble up onto Lighthouse Rock! It was sooo incredibly windy!!! So windy! But, Guys…check out that view! So worth all of the scrambling and slipping.

It’s always hard to get a good perspective on how big things are in photos. Here’s a pic of Alex standing near Lighthouse Rock. We had the place pretty much to ourselves. There were maybe three other people there and none of them stuck around long.

It wasn’t until we were on our way off of Lighthouse Rock that other hikers started to show up. We didn’t see too many other hikers until we were almost back to our car. The empty parking area had filled up and people were waiting for places to park. We were home by lunch and ready to head off on another adventure!

We did find a couple of pretties! I love the vivid purples and I’m always a sucker for the wispy wild-hair pretties!

Here’s a little video of all of our Amarillo area explorations!

See y’all down the road!

#grandwesternloop

America’s Dairyland

America’s Dairyland

By |

Hey Guys!!

Welcome to Wisconsin! Where even the vending machines have cheese curds!

We spent two very wet weeks in “America’s Dairyland”!

Let’s get the foodie things out of the way. We went to the Carr Valley Factory Store where we learned how Carr Valley makes their cheeses. They actually make the cheese curds first and then they press those curds into the round cheese forms you see above.

We felt like we had to get some cheese curds while we were in Wisconsin. They were the best things we got at any of the restaurants we went to.

OK…so let me say here…we were extremely disappointed with the foodies in the area of Wisconsin we were in. We went to four different places…all of them had amazing reviews…and they ranged from almost inedible to just meh. It would come out looking very promising, but fall short on taste. We don’t usually eat out that much, but we felt like maybe we’d picked the wrong place to eat so we would try a different place…and nope. We were so tired of bland, bleh food we ended up back at a Pizza Ranch. It was a long two weeks. Now, the area we were in was very touristy. So, maybe that’s why? I’m sure there are some excellent foodies somewhere in WI!

The best thing we did while in Wisconsin is go horseback riding! The day we went we had amazing weather. We went to Bighorn Ranch Horseback Riding. Four of us had never been on a horse before so we were total rookies. They gave us all a quick lesson and then took us out on an hour long guided tour. Our tour guides, Katie and her dad, Bob, were great! They took it at a pace that we could easily keep up with and they made sure we all stayed together. All of the horses we saw seemed to be healthy and happy and well taken care of. We had a great experience! I think everyone’s favorite part was when we would splash through some small streams. I will add here that my horse didn’t seem to really want to have me on it’s back…it tried to scrape me off it and onto a big tree. My foot was super bruised! But, I’d still do it again. Ha! Stubborn horse and all! If you’re ever near the Wisconsin Dells, we highly recommend a trail ride with Bighorn Ranch!

 We also found some excellent hiking opportunities at Devil’s Lake State Park. It felt great to get outside in the sunshine and get some miles in! And…the view wasn’t bad either.

We made it to the State Capitol Building in Madison. We’d been looking forward to this one ever since we’d been told that the Wisconsin SCB is considered to be the best SCB in the US. I think we were in Nebraska the first time we heard that. Nebraska was our second SCB.

You’re looking at the biggest dome in the US. It looks very impressive! The inside of the dome was pretty…and big! Very big!

There were definitely some neat things about the Wisconsin SCB that stick out to me. Y’all know I love a good staircase…and I loved the way you could see the staircase through the arch in the pic above.

There was a set of these doors for the House and Senate Chambers. I love the look of the black iron over the glass. Both of the House and Senate Chambers were just ok for us. Don’t get me wrong…they were nice, but we wouldn’t put them near the top of our list. Each of the Chambers had a stained glass dome. Neither one of them was very ornate, but they let in some great natural light.

We were very impressed with the huge mosaics! They were very well done.

The Governor’s Reception Room looked like it belonged in one of the Newport Mansions. Lots of gold paint. Lots of frescoes. Definitely Newport Mansion worthy. Check out the size of that fireplace. Huge!

Wisconsin is the Badger State. They love their badgers! Can you see the badger on the statue that sits atop the Wisconsin SCB dome?

I don’t know, Guys…we talked about it and none of us would put the Wisconsin SCB in our top 15. Maybe we built it up in our minds because we’d heard from so many other people how wonderful it was? Madison is a very neat town. We really enjoyed the square around the SCB. One of the days we went, there was a farmer’s market so they blocked off traffic to the square. We walked around looking at all the fruits, veggies, and artisan foods, but couldn’t buy any because we had plans and an hour drive to get back to the RV.

I did find a couple of pretties!! We spent the last two weeks of April in the Baraboo area of Wisconsin, so Spring was starting to show herself. Most of the pretties were just beginning to wake up.

 “There is a place where the sidewalk ends and before the street begins, and there the grass grows soft and white, and there the sun burns crimson bright…” I found these street signs in Madison and couldn’t resist snapping a picture of them. I’ve loved the poem by Shel Silverstein ever since Mrs. Havely read it to my fifth grade class. If you’re going to Wisconsin, go find the places “before the street begins”. Those are, in my opinion, the best parts of Wisconsin. And the cheese. The cheese was pretty great too.

See y’all down the road!

#minieasternloop2017

Lake Louisa State Park

Lake Louisa State Park

By |

Hey Guys!! We stayed at the Lake Louisa State Park in the Orlando area for one week.

Guys…this park…

There are three lakes that make up this park. There’s a beach on one of them with a swimming area. I’m not sure I would swim there…there are gator signs all over the place, but there’s also a great playground and picnic area.

There are docks that you can fish off of. We walked to this one often. There are stairs that lead down into the water, but again…gators.

There are some very nice sized sites at Lake Louisa State Park. We had to site hop throughout the week because the place was booked and we stayed here spur-of-the-moment. This park books up a year in advance. If you’re going to go to Disney or Universal…this is a great place to stay. At only around $30 a night it’s quite a bit cheaper than staying in a hotel. And if you plan ahead, you can get a site that has full hook-ups!

There are tons of tangerine trees around the park. We went on a walk and passed a couple of guys who had bags full of tangerines so we thought we’d be cool and grab some tangerines for ourselves…they were so sour…we spit them out. I couldn’t keep it in my mouth! Bleh!!! I don’t know what those two guys were doing with all of the ones they picked. Maybe they knew which ones to pick and we got ones that weren’t ready?

One of the coolest things about this park is that you can rent canoes. We took the opportunity to teach the boys how to paddle a canoe. I kept an eye out for any weird looking logs…aka…gators. I didn’t see any, but we avoided the areas we thought they would most likely be during that time of the day. I did take my camera out on the canoe to get a shot of the cypress trees in the water.

We found an awesome pizza place right down the road. Nicholas told you all about it in his last Pizza Street post. If you missed it go check it out here.

We didn’t really do much the week we were there. It’s rare that we have a week to just relax. We hung out around the lake, had pizza, and stopped by an RV Dealer to check out what was new. We’re not in the market for a new RV, we just like to keep up on all the changes.

Seriously Guys…if you’re in the Orlando area for any reason check out Lake Louisa State Park. We will definitely stay there again!

See y’all down the road!

Foodies, Friends, and Forts

Foodies, Friends, and Forts

By |

We stayed in South New Jersey for a week so we could see the Delaware State Capitol Building. We struggled with connectivity here too.

The Delaware State Capitol Building looks more like a building you might find on a small University campus somewhere. It’s very small and sparsely decorated. It didn’t take us long to stroll through the entire building.

Right across the street from the Capitol Building is this really cool Compass Rose. It took us longer to look at this than it did the building itself.

 The plan was to visit Fort Delaware, but when we got to the ferry crossing we discovered Fort Mott. We also discovered that we’d just missed the ferry and would have to wait an hour or so for the next one. Bummer. So, we strolled around Fort Mott. It’s a pretty neat fort. There were some great info signs and some great views…but it was super hot and the boys were starting to make some noise about eating so we left before we got to see Fort Delaware.

The best thing about this stay was meeting up with my friend Nicole and her family for some burgers! *waves at Nicole* Nicole and I have been Facebook friends for over ten years, but we’d never met face-to-face. It was so fun to finally get to sit and chat with her!!

We had some great burgers at a place called Burger 21. And…I found my new ice cream obsession. Crème Brûlée Shake.

So. Stinkin’. Good!!

We also found a really good Mexican place! We were so shocked! Y’all know we’ve been to our fare share of unfortunate Mexican restaurants. We really don’t even try them anymore, but we were wanting something spicy so we threw caution to the wind and tried one. We were not disappointed!

See y’all down the road!!

#easterloop2016

Connecticut

Connecticut

By |

We spent one week in Connecticut mainly to visit the State Capitol Building.

The Connecticut State Capitol Building looks impressive!

The dome was beautiful. You know I’m a sucker for a good dome and I love this one!

The architecture throughout the building was interesting. I’m also a sucker for a good staircase. There were stained glass windows and richly painted walls.

It’s called the Charter Oak Chair, but our tour guide called it The Wish Chair. The boys all sat in it and made a wish…There’s a story behind it and please forgive me, but I don’t remember it well enough to tell you. I struggled with connectivity issues so several weeks have passed since we were there. I’m sure you could find the story online if you’re curious about the story of The Wish Chair.

The CT State Capitol Building made it on to our list top ten SCBs! There was so much we loved about this one!

We caught a view of the blue onion dome on our way out of Hartford. We didn’t stop or get out of the car because it wasn’t in a safe neighborhood and we were on our way somewhere. It was cool to see though.

The only other thing we did in CT was visit Gillette State Park to see the “castle”.

We enjoyed touring this castle just as much as we did the Newport Mansions. They had nothing in common. The castle had a very rustic, DIY feel to it where the Newport Mansions were all about showing off as much luxury as they could. There were 42 doors and all of them were different…and very cool. The light switches were carved from wood too.

If you look closely, you’ll notice the chair in the bottom picture is on rails to keep from scratching the floor. There was even a library in the castle! Sadly, they had to add the wooden bars in front of the books because people kept trying to walk off with them. I don’t understand why some people have to do things like that. If it’s not yours…don’t touch it.

Gillette loved trains so much he built his own train depot and track on his property.

You might recognize Gillette’s name if you’re a Sherlock fan. William Hooker Gillette was a play writer. Arthur Conan Doyle approached Gillette in the mid 1890s to see if he was interested in writing an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. Not only did Gillette write the play, he also stared in it as Holmes. Gillette gave the iconic character some of the symbols we’ve come to associate Sherlock Holmes with…the deerstalker cap, the pipe, and the catch phrase “Oh this is elementary, my dear fellow”. The phrase eventually developed into the “Elementary, my dear Watson” that we all know.

We didn’t do much in CT. We had zero cell service which made it impossible to work or do any research for things to see. And we didn’t really care for the RV park we stayed at. It was a long week of doing nothing and it kind of dragged by for us. I’m sure there are some very lovely and wonderful areas of CT, but we didn’t stay near them.

See y’all down the road!

#easterloop2016

Hampton Falls Area

Hampton Falls Area

By |

We used Hampton Falls, NH as our base camp to explore the area. We spent two weeks in NH bouncing around between Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. I usually break these kinds of posts up, but I’m going to smash it all into one this time!

We spent a day in Salem, MA. Salem is a place I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. The whole witch trial thing always fascinated me. Salem is kind of what you would expect. It’s filled with all things witchy…new and old.

There’s so much history in the North East. We made it by the Lyceum Hall where Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call. Extra points if you know what he said!

The Old Town Hall was in a movie you might have seen…Hocus Pocus! I geeked out just a bit here as we walked by. It’s always fun to walk by places that you’ve seen on the big screen…or small screen!

We stopped by the oldest grave yard in Salem. The Witch Trails are such a sad part of our history. It bothered us how touristy Salem is…we feel like they’re being a little disrespectful to what really happened there. I’m not going to go into a history lesson here…we all know what happened. Real people died in some horrific ways here…maybe tone down the touristy vibes a bit.

We made it to the Salem Maritime National Historic Site where the boys earned another Junior Ranger badge! And that was the end of our time in Salem!

We spent a day in Boston, MA walking the Freedom Trail! I love Boston! I’m just going to throw that out there right from the start. I loved it way more than I thought I would…you know, since it’s a big urban area!

Let’s start with the Capitol Building. It’s gorgeous! Look at that golden dome! The inside didn’t disappoint either. We did a guided tour at this SCB and on it we met a lovely family from England! It was interesting to hear their take on the building and America.  When we got to the inside of the dome, we stood there with our mouths open for a minute. Look at that stained glass!! All thirteen original colonies are represented in this stained glass. Love it! I couldn’t leave out the tile floor. It’s so pretty! This Capitol Building is high up on our favorites list. It didn’t disappoint at all. I could do an entire post about it, but we’re leaving the Hampton Falls area tomorrow and I’m not sure I’ll have cell service at our next spot so I’m trying to get all caught up on my posts. If you’re in the area though…make time to visit this SCB!

We found our way to the Paul Revere House and strolled through. It’s a self-guided tour with interpreters around to answer any questions you might have. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside. I think it’s kind of weird not to allow photos of this place as long as you don’t use flash…but, it is what it is. The Paul Revere House is the oldest house in Boston. Looks pretty good for its age.

Another stop on the Freedom Trail is the Old North Church where the two lanterns were hung on April 18, 1775. You can go in and look around. We’d never been to a church where the pews were boxed off like this. Apparently, back when the church was first built, you would purchase your own box. I guess people were very particular about who that sat next to.

 We stopped by one of the graveyards on the Freedom Trail. The one in the pictures above is called Copp’s Hill Burying Ground. One of the things we noticed about the gravestones in both Salem and Boston are that they’re a lot thinner than what we’re used to seeing. Quite a few of the headstones were decorated with the skull and cross bone symbols or a skull with wings. The symbols were supposed to be a reminder to the Puritans of the mortality of the body.

I love the mixture of old and new buildings in Boston!

I may have geeked out a bit here too. I mean, it’s Cheers! Where everybody knows your name! We went in and had some burgers. No, the inside doesn’t look like it does on the show. I was a little disappointed with that. It was a long hot day of walking though and that air conditioned seat felt wonderful! It might not have looked like the Cheers on the television, but there was a wall dedicated to the show!

I had to stop by the Make Way For The Ducks sculpture. Nicholas helped me by standing next to the duck so we could get a size comparison. Super cute! (the duck and the kiddo)

Ok. One more picture of Boston. This is Swan Pond. How lovely is it? We didn’t stick around long here because we were all so tired and ready to be back in the car. I have to take a minute to brag about the boys. It was so hot while we were in Boston and we walked so so many miles…the boys didn’t complain or whine at all They were such troopers!

We snuck out one afternoon to explore Halibut Point State Park. This state park used to be a quarry and you can see the “pond” mining the area made in the bottom right picture above. We saw this pretty little bird while we were heading back to our car. It let me get really close!

Not far from where we stayed was a farm where you can pick your own blueberries! I’m pretty sure some of us (I’m sure you can guess which of us) ate more blueberries than what they put in the baskets. Ha!

We explored the ruins of Fort Constitution. There wasn’t much there. Most of it looked like the picture on the left. I’m not sure the tunnel on the right was part of the original Fort…it was right next to it.

We went to see the Nubble Lighthouse! It was a gorgeous day! We checked out some of the tidal pools at the lighthouse…but there wasn’t too much in them. The boys still had fun looking in them though!

Best of all…we got to meet up with one of my friends! Hey Anne Marie!! One of the things I like the most about our nomadic lifestyle is that I get to go visit friends!

Are you ready for some flowers? I loved seeing the purple and blue ones all over the place…so pretty! I don’t think the purple flowers in the bottom middle picture is fireweed, but it’s really close. There’s sumac all over the place here! The flower in the bottom left picture is called Queen Anne’s Lace and when it’s all bloomed out it’s a really pretty white flower. I know it’s a weed, but it’s so pretty I wanted to include it.

These were in our RV Park! You can’t tell from the picture on the right, but this bush was well over six feet tall!

I think that’s it! We fit quite a bit into the two weeks we had in this area!

See y’all down the road!

#easterloop2016

The Niagara Falls Area

The Niagara Falls Area

By |

We spent a week in the Niagara Falls area of New York. The weather was hit and miss…a few days it was more like summer, but mostly it was cool, windy, and rainy.

Our RV park was only half an hour away from Buffalo…and since Jerl and the boys love Buffalo wings so much…we had to have some Buffalo Wings in Buffalo. We found Anchor Bar which claims to be the creator of the Buffalo chicken wings and we couldn’t pass up the chance to try the originals. I kind of wish we’d passed. The place was a dive and was super expensive. Our waitress…I’m pretty sure she was high on life (or something). My friend (hey Dawn!) suggested Duff’s Famous Wings. We gave them a try the next night. I didn’t get any photos…but it was a much better experience! The wings were great, the service was great and best of all…the place was clean!!

While we were in Buffalo, we took a small side trip to the Erie Basin Marina and Gardens so we could poke Erie Lake. We have to touch the water or I can’t put the sticker on our map. 

I’m conflicted about the Junior Ranger book here. It’s the Niagara State Park, but there’s a National Park Junior Ranger booklet…but it’s for the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area. This is the first time in almost fifty badges that we’ve encounter a Junior Ranger booklet that required us to travel so far from the park and pay admission to several different places in order to complete the booklet. Sure, they give you the nifty lanyard…and they’re supposed to give you the pins as you visit the places (not every place gave us one)…but, this was the hardest, most involved booklet the boys have done so far. Now, having said my piece about all of that…the booklet pointed us to a few places we wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Hence, the conflicted feelings…

Old Fort Niagara is a place you could easily spend an entire day exploring. We got there right before a storm blew in across Lake Ontario and toward the end of the day so we rushed our visit. The building above is the French Castle built in 1726.

Old Fort Niagara has a history that spans more than 300 years. The area was originally used by Native Americans. Most of the buildings are open and you can freely explore the grounds. The site has been occupied by the French, British, and American forces through the years.

Old Fort Niagara was restored between 1926 and 1934. The rooms have been made to look like they might have during the time when Old Fort Niagara was in use. They fire off the canons and guns at certain times throughout the day. Unfortunately, because due to the downpours of rain and the timing we missed seeing all of the firing times. We did hear it though. The boys just about came unglued the first time. Ha! They’d been chattering and joking around and when the canon fired they stopped and looked around. We chuckled. They chuckled…but continued to look around for threats. I wish I’d gotten a shot of all of their faces that first time. Jerl and I will never forget it!

We made our way to Lockport where the Erie Canal Locks 34 & 35 are. We shimmied in to the Erie Canal Discovery Center about half an hour before they closed. There was a great little museum that explained the history, the building, and the local life of the Erie Canal. Right across the street from the Discovery Center is the actual Erie Canal. We were able to walk up and down some of the locks and really get a good look at them.

We would have completely missed the New York Power Vista if it hadn’t been in the Junior Ranger booklet. Which would have been a huge bummer…it was such a cool place! When you walk in they issue you a Power Portal ID. You have to register it in their computer and then you head to the museum to earn points by completing tasks. When you’re done with everything you can print out your avatar and the amount of points (watts) you earned (generated). Not everything earned you points. Some things were just for exploration and learning. We were geeking out hard here. We love experiments and places that let our inner nerd shine through.

 Some of the displays were more high tech. The one above really made the boys problem solve and think outside the box while they put together everything they’d learned about electricity and circuits. I want to point out the adult lady watching Charles in the left photo. This wasn’t an easy activity. Several of the adults couldn’t figure it out. The object of this exercise was to make a stable electrical grid. There were different pieces you could put on the digital table that would react with the other pieces as well as the environmental elements represented. Get it wrong and your grid blows up. Get it right and you get your points for this activity! We played with this one for a while. One of the coolest things about our nomadic lifestyle is the hands on learning. We don’t have to just read about things in books…and the boys learn so much better by seeing and doing these things.

 The New York Vista isn’t just a museum, it’s a working facility that produces clean energy.

On our first night in the Niagara Falls area we went to see the falls all lit up on the American side. It was our first time seeing the falls and we were all extremely underwhelmed by the view. There were a few hundred people there all trying to cram into the one small area where you could actually see anything of the falls.

On our last day in the area we crossed the border into Ontario. We, of course, had to find a burger place. And I wanted to try poutine. We found a place called The Works where we were able to get both burgers and poutine! We were able to walk there from the American side of Niagara. Guys, this place…it’s officially on our top ten. Everything we had was amazing. Everyone there was super nice. We’re already wanting to go back!!

I told you how underwhelmed we were with the view from the American side of Niagara…well, the view got incredibly better as we were walking across the bridge to the Canadian side of Niagara. The shot above is from the bridge.

All of my Canadian friends told me the view of the falls is better from the Canadian side. They were right. We’d walked over to Luna Island a few days before to try and get a better look at things. It was something altogether different seeing the falls from the other side of the river. There’s a wonderful park with nice walkways all along the river on the Canadian side of Niagara. This was our first good view of Horseshoe Falls. Each side of the river has their own touristy things. On the American side you’ve got The Maid of the Mist boats and while on the Canadian side you’ve got The Hornblower boats. In the bottom left pic above you can see one of the Hornblower boats as it got close to the falls. The Maid of the Mist boats stop giving rides by 5PM but the Hornblower boats continue to give rides well after dark. The rainbows changed shape, size, and number depending on where you were standing.

I know, I know…I usually save the flowers for the end…but I wanted to end with a surprise. These purple flowers were on both sides of the Niagara River. I couldn’t get enough of them! There were some wildflowers here and there too on both sides of Niagara.

On the Canadian side you can walk right up to the side of Horseshoe Falls. The American side was under construction so we couldn’t get close at all. We got a slight sense of vertigo as we stood and watched the water pour over the edge. It was trippy.

We stopped at a Tim Horton’s while we waited for the sun to completely set. The temps dropped quickly outside so we welcomed the opportunity to get out of the cold breeze and mist from the falls.

When it got closer to 10PM we made our way back to the Rainbow Bridge to watch the fireworks. We wanted to get out of the press of people and wanted to be a little farther away from the show so we could get some better pics. There weren’t very many people on the bridge. We had our choice of places to stand…and the view was gorgeous! We ooo-ed and ahhh-ed along with everyone else on the bridge.

Because, who doesn’t love a good fireworks show?

See y’all down the road!

#easterloop2016

Clifftop, WV

Clifftop, WV

By |

We stayed at Babcock State Park while we were in Clifftop for our two weeks of exploration of the area and it was wonderful!

Our first day in the area was pretty cold and misty. We’d heard about the grist mill so we went to check it out. It’s a gorgeous area. I mean, just look at the Glade Creek Grist Mill!

We walked in thinking we would take a look around and move on, but when we found the Miller there…well, one thing led to another and suddenly we had plans to come back after lunch so the boys could help grind some corn. The Miller was a wealth of knowledge. He explained the process and actually put the boys to work. In the left picture you can see Alex and the Miller as the Miller explained some of the grinding process.

Each boy took part in each job. They scooped the corn kernels into the hopper. The Miller explained about the phrase “nose to the grind stone”. When you’re grinding corn (or whatever you might be grinding) the stones will get hot. You don’t want them too hot or they’ll ruin whatever your grinding so you have to smell around the grindstone to make sure you’re not going too fast and getting too hot. As the ground corn comes out of the meal spout it lands on a big wire mesh screen where it needs to be sifted. You get corn flour, corn meal, corn grit, and then the waste which was used to feed the animals. Nothing was thrown away. You can see Nicholas sifting through some of the grain in the left picture.

 I’m watering down the details here. There’s more to it than this, but I’m not a miller and I don’t remember all of the technical jargon. In the right picture, Charlie holds some freshly ground corn meal. In the jars in the left picture you can see the different products that could come out of a grist mill.

For their effort, they were each given a certificate and we got to keep a bag of the corn meal they’d just ground! We’ve got some plans for this corn meal!! Freshly ground corn meal is so different from what you’ll get at the store. So much better!

We pretty much had the campground to ourselves…except for all of the wildlife. We counted nine deer grazing outside our front door one afternoon. The cats were very interested!

We were fairly close to the New River Gorge Bridge so we took the opportunity to go check it out. The boys snagged a badge and a patch there. It’s called New River, but it’s actually one of the oldest rivers in the world. It’s older than the Appalachian Mountains. At 876 feet, New River Bridge is the third highest bridge in the country.

While you’re at the visitor center you can walk down the hundreds of stairs to get an ok view of the bridge. Don’t get me wrong…it’s a nice view…but, I’d heard about a hike you can do to get a better view. The hike is called Long Point Hike for anyone interested. It’s a bit strenuous, but not terrible. I definitely earned the burger I had after that. We ended up hiking a total of around four miles round trip. It was so worth it! Check out the view from Long Point in the photo above! You come out on this point and you’re looking straight at the bridge and you’re far enough away that you can get the whole bridge with the river below it in your shot! Just watch out for the red wasps. It’s a long way down if you fall off the edge as you’re dodging the wasps… We had to talk Nicholas into going out there because he doesn’t like red wasps at all.

We also made it to Cathedral Falls! I don’t really know anything about Cathedral Falls except its super easy to get to. It’s always hard to judge how big something is in a picture unless you’re given a size comparison. If you look closely in the left picture, you’ll see Jerl and Alex checking out some tadpoles just to the left of the falls.

We only had time for one more place so we hit Nuttallburg. It is impressive!

In the 1870s John Nuttal wanted to take advantage of the rich coal deposits along the New River gorge and began buying up the land around it. By the turn of the century, Nuttallburg was a pretty busy mining community, but after his death it didn’t do so well. In the 1920s Henry Ford leased the town’s mines to provide for his company’s steel mills. He spent $100,000 to build the “button and rope” conveyor system you can see heading up the hill. Ultimately, his plan failed when he couldn’t control or buy the railroad, he needed to carry the coal form the mine to his mills and he sold his interests in the Nuttallburg mines in 1928.

There was an entire community at Nuttallburg. Homes, stores, schools…  In the two photos above, you can see the same plot of land then and now. The ruins of the home in the info sign are still visible. It’s amazing how different the area looked back when the house was new.

The row of coke ovens are still there. You can see where the Company Store was. You’ve heard the song 16 Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford? “I owe my soul to the company store…” wasn’t far from the truth. Miners worked long hours in dangerous conditions to earn their pay. When the only store around was owned by the mining company…well, prices weren’t fair and miners usually ended up owing the Company Store more money than they made each week.

Yup, that’s coal! We saw it everywhere while we were exploring the Nuttallburg ruins. The only other place we’ve seen it so easily available is in Alaska.

We took advantage of the fire pit and had roasted hot dogs and s’mores several nights. You might be surprised to know that most of the RV Parks we go to don’t have a fire pit and don’t allow fires at the campsites. So…we indulged and took advantage of the fire pit while we stayed at Babcock State Park!

Flower report! The dogwood trees were everywhere and in full bloom!! I thought the blooms & butterfly in the tree in the bottom right picture with its delicate pink blooms on it were so pretty! These purple flowering trees you can see in the bottom left picture were growing all along rivers, railroads, and roads. We were told by a Ranger that they came over on trains from China. She also told us the name of the tree, but for the life of me I can’t remember. They were super pretty though!

We loved West Virginia more than we expected to! One of our favorite things to do as we move around is talk to the locals of each area. You really get a feel for an area when you chat with the people who live there. West Virginia is filled with hard working, genuinely nice folks that are trying to make ends meat in a dying state. Every time a mine is closed it’s taking jobs and livelihoods away from an entire community. I encourage everyone to take a trip to West Virginia this summer. Go explore and support the small towns and communities that depend on tourism to stay alive.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016

Springfield, IL

Springfield, IL

By |

We’re making our way to the Eastern states for this year’s loop. There will be a few states that we just kind of skim through on the way there and Illinois is one of those skim states this year. We only stayed for a week and we only hit one city. Springfield. We do have several other places on our list and we will definitely hit those during a different loop!

  The Illinois State Capitol Building is impressive, right? Notice the statue in front? That would be Abraham Lincoln.

The dome is one of the most vivid and beautiful State Capitol domes I’ve seen so far. You can get a better view of the top of the dome in the right photo. I love all of the bright colors and the stained glass at the very tippy-top!

The rest of the Illinois State Capitol Building was just as opulent. The only bad thing I can say, is that we felt like it didn’t really reflect the city. It was almost too much. So very, very pretty, but not reflective of what we saw in the rest of Springfield.

Welcome to the Land of Lincoln! Springfield is just a little bit proud of it’s connection to Abraham Lincoln and I can’t say that I blame them. He’s one of my favorite Presidents too. We took a guided tour of Lincoln’s Home when we visited the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. The tours are free, but you have to be on a guided tour to get inside.

One of my favorite things about Lincoln is the fact that he was mostly self-taught. I think that speaks volumes about him…really about anyone who has enough gumption and wits to teach themselves. We were told that on the first level of the house most of the stuff we saw was original or period. I meant to ask if the hat and shawl really belonged to the Lincolns, but I forgot to…I still like the picture though. Ok…so everything you see in the right picture belonged to the Lincolns except for the chair in the bottom right. The rest of it is original. So, now you see why the tours are guided. We were given a list of rules and warned that if we stepped off of the magic blue carpet the National Park system installed throughout the house, then bad things would happen. Bad as in kicked out and possibly thrown in jail if anything was damaged. Funny story…A guy in our tour made a phone call during the tour…the guide took it badly and threatened to call security if he did it again. No joke. Our guide wasn’t putting up with any tomfoolery at all.

We stopped in at the Old Capitol Building. They’ve got the inside set up the way it would have been during the time the Old State Capitol Building was in use. It was very cool and definitely worth a stop.

Right outside the Old Capitol Building is the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices where Abraham Lincoln practiced law. It’s a museum of sorts…we didn’t get to go inside because it was closed.

We also visited the Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site. The Lincoln Tomb is 117 feet tall and constructed of granite. The bronze sculptures on the terrace are cast from sixty-five cannons donated by the United States Government.

The tomb is open to the public. You’ll find some smaller sculptures of Lincoln throughout his life and some plaques with his more memorable speeches on them. There’s also a park attendant who’s keeping track of everyone coming and going and where they’re from. The monument holds the remains of the Sixteenth President, his wife, and three of their four sons.

I don’t post much about the RV parks we stay in, but this one is worth mentioning. They had mini golf, a pool (which was closed because it was too cold), and several other yard games…all free!

You didn’t think I was going to leave out the food, did you? We ate at a place called Obed & Isaac’s Microbrewery and Eatery. The restaurant is in an old house that’s been redone. Charles got the burger you see above. It’s called the Stinger Burger and yes, those are onion rings you see sitting atop the bacon. What you’re looking at in the right photo looks like a hot mess… It’s called The Horseshoe and it’s an open-faced sandwich with corned beef smothered in their special cheese sauce (that was stinkin’ good!!) and fries sitting on top of thick toasted bread (also known as Texas toast).  It’s not pretty, but boy…let me tell you…it was amazingly good!! I could eat a shoe if it was drenched in that cheese sauce.

Illinois…we’ll be back!

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016