We kept going straight and ended up in a grocery store parking lot. That was easy enough to get out of and we waited a moment for the GPS to give us an alternative route. We ended up in that neighbor again, albeit on a different street, a very narrow passage with endless cars lining both sides. I remember passing the freeway at one point, going right under it, and wondering why the GPS was sending us a different way. It was a Saturday and there were lots of people outside enjoying the weather. There were also lots of junk cars, tattoo parlors, liquor stores, and other unsavory things that made us start to feel a bit nervous. At one point, men got out of two cars right in front of us, blocking traffic. They each went to houses on different sides of the street. We had no choice but to stop and wait. I heard a woman yell outside, “Leon, move your (BLEEP!) car!”

Leon was nice and went back to his car, whistling for his friend, who also went back to his own car. They moved out of our way.

We kept driving and the GPS wasn’t leading us toward any highway or freeway that we could see on the screen. At one point, I think I remember Richard calling the GPS the same name the shouting lady had used with Leon.

People were standing outside and staring at us, obviously wondering what this huge RV was doing in their very crowded neighborhood. We breathed a sigh of relief when the GPS not only led us to a two-lane road, but a police car also pulled in front of us. A few seconds later, he turned and we were once again feeling quite a bit alone and vulnerable. The neighborhood got even more imposing and, I’ll admit it, I was scared.

A few blocks later, I saw a man dressed like the Statue of Liberty. I whipped out my camera and took his picture. When he saw my camera, he made a rather rude gesture to me with his fingers. I was more discreet with my camera after that and I triple checked that the RV door was locked.

I’ve pixelated the fingers…

All our worry was for naught, though. We somehow ended up on the expressway and on our way toward the George Washington Bridge.

George Washington Bridge

I worked for a few hours while Richard drove. We were going to see the boys’ Godfathers, Doug and Raul, and Max and Mason were so excited we had a hard time keeping them still and entertained. We arrived at the campground and the boys were happy to see grass and a playground.

Doug and Raul came to pick us up about an hour later and, much to our delight, had chosen Mystic Pizza II for dinner. It was DELICIOUS!!!

Mason’s Dessert at Mystic Pizza II

The next day, a Sunday, Raul and Richard took Max to the YMCA to go swimming and Doug and I stayed in the RV with Mason, talking shop. I LOVE to talk shop with Doug, who’s a New York Times bestselling author. He has amazing creative ideas for book marketing and he is SUCH a talented writer. I just finished his book, Neverland. I couldn’t put it down! Doug has an incredibly entertaining blog. You can subscribe HERE.

That night, we went to HUGE diner, Equinox, and had a really fun meal. After dinner, we returned to the RV and the boys enjoying spending more time with Doug and Raul. We’d planned to stay an extra day but Doug caught a cold/flu bug so we started for home the next morning, knowing we’d be back in May anyway. Mason was noticeably upset and Max cried.

On Monday morning, we packed up the RV for the last time on our “No More Snow!” trip and started the long drive back to Bangor. I’m sure God was laughing when Ali called to let us know it was 36 degrees in Bangor…and snowing. Forty-eight hours after we got home, it snowed again. Honestly, after the snow we had the first three days of the trip, and the 15 inches we had when we got to Virginia, and the additional four inches we got on the beach in South Carolina, we weren’t surprised.

On the way home, we did what we always do, reminisced about the best parts of the trip while also making a list of all the stuff we broke in the RV…so we’d have that when we took it to the shop. We made it home in plenty of time for Easter, which was our goal, and on Easter Sunday in Bangor, Maine it was almost 80 degrees! It was the warmest Easter, by far, we’d ever experienced in Maine and it was absolutely perfect!

One funny thing happened on this trip that I forgot to mention in earlier posts. After we left home, I realized we hadn’t brought along the bathroom scale. It’s very important to weigh yourself daily when you are eating out so much because you might get home and realize you’ve gained far more weight than you knew. So, early on in the trip, we bought a new, very cheap bathroom scale for the RV.

We’d only been gone for a few days when we bought it so I was stunned when I stepped on it the first time in our little RV potty room and discovered I’d gained seven pounds. SEVEN POUNDS!!!! Why did my jeans still fit?! Richard said he’d gained weight, too (more than me), and so had Max (though less than we had). Hmm… Not good! A few days later, Max was in the potty room in the morning and I asked him to hand me the scale. I put it on the floor near the bathroom sink and was thrilled to discover I’d lost those seven pounds….in one day! Of course, I instantly knew what had happened. The RV was not quite level at that campground. In the potty room, the scale had been facing uphill. When I put it on the floor by the sink, it was facing downhill. I had a good laugh with Richard about it and, let me tell you, we was facing downhill for the rest of that trip!

I hope you’ve enjoyed coming along for the ride on our “2010 No More Snow!” trip.

Join us again in just two weeks when we head to Wisconsin!

I’ve posted many,  many more pictures of our trip HERE.

PREVIOUS POSTS FROM THIS TRIP:

Braised Shoulder of Lamb; Heirloom Beans, Black Olives and Parsnips at Gramercy Tavern

Lightly Smoked Artic Char; Savoy Cabbage, Sunchokes and Mussels at Gramercy Tavern

Need I say more? There are more pictures from our delicious meal HERE. The boys were stunned when the discovered the towels in the bathroom were REAL towels! After use, they get tossed in a basket under the sink. We have nothing like that in Bangor, Maine!

After lunch, we took a looooooong walk through the city to the Empire State Building. Max had been waiting weeks for this and he was not disappointed! We must have been there on a slow day, during the slow season, because we didn’t have to wait in any lines. The weather was, once again, perfect and the view was breathtaking. Max took lots of videos of the visit, even taping himself as the narrator. Of course, we had to stop by the gift shop so Max could buy a tiny statue of the building. Mason was also excited about visiting the “Pirate State Building.”

We took another marathon trek through the city after that, walking to the Apple Store and the toy store, FAO Schwarz. Richard and Scott went to the Apple store while I took the boys into the toy store. When we walked in, I realized Mason was holding Big Bird, a gift Scott had given him the day before. I quickly tucked him under a jacket on top of the stroller so nobody would think we stole him. Sure enough, we saw identical Big Birds in the store!

We were limited on how much we could carry (I mean, on how much we could hang on the stroller) so I told the boys they could only choose small items. Max chose some Star Wars action figures. He wanted specific characters and light sabers but the characters he wanted didn’t have light sabers so he had to buy Jedi’s that did have light sabers….and he must have spent 20 minutes standing there, trying to make up his mind. That was okay. There were plenty of other things to look at, like this life-size statue of Chewy made out of Legos.

Mason was surrounded by every toy imaginable, and many he didn’t even know existed…but he still wanted another Thomas the Train character (sigh). Richard and Scott caught up with us and, before we left, we bought some interesting candy for the loved ones back home. As we left, I was thinking about Big Bird, hidden in the jackets hanging on the stroller, wondering if some alarm would go off as we walked out. So, I turned to Scott and said, “You wanna push Mason?” Heh…

I’d whispered the Big Bird quandary to the guys at the register so he knew what he was up against when he bravely agreed to push Mason through the double doors. We all pretended not to heave a sigh of relief when no alarms sounded and no men in dark blue jackets gave chase.

We walked a bit more and then caught a cab to the hotel. We dropped off our goodies and then took a stroll to a small Italian restaurant for dinner. A famous author was eating there alone. I didn’t even notice him but Scott did. Apparently he eats out in that area a lot. I won’t mention his name to respect his privacy but I thought it was funny that we were sitting right next to a celebrity and I didn’t even notice. I was too busy trying to get tiny Mason to eat something (anything!) nutritious for dinner. In case you don’t know, Mason is the pickiest eater on earth. The restaurant didn’t have anything he was interested in. They were good sports, making him some homemade macaroni and cheese but he wouldn’t touch that, either. He was very happy with the bread basket, however, and I think he may have eaten five pieces.

After dinner, we stopped by a tiny grocery store and bought Mason some milk and cereal so he would at least get some vitamins that evening. We already had juice in the hotel room.

On Thursday morning, Scott arrived with chocolate cookies, much to the delight of the boys. We told them they had to save them for after dinner because we were heading to an organic restaurant, Josie’s, for lunch. The food was delicious!

Lemon Ribbon Ice Cream Pie – graham cracker crust with layers of lemon curd and vanilla bean ice cream topped with meringue at Josie’s in NYC

Organic Warm Chocolate Chip Cookie Plate served with organic milk for dunking at Josie’s in NYC

After lunch, we took a taxi to the Intrepid, an aircraft carrier that’s been turned into a museum. Max had been studying flight and air travel for a few weeks and this was an exciting field trip for him. He even got to see a real Blue Angel airplane! While we were there, Scott, Max and I rode a 4D ride.

The movie part was a roller coaster. Max really enjoyed that! After we left, it was rush hour and finding a cab proved to be quite a challenge. I’d wanted to go to Soho that day and we were far, far away from that part of town. So, we walked and we walked and we walked some more. We found ourselves outside of Macys – the one you see in the Thanksgiving Day parade. On that block, during rush hour, I saw more people than I’ve ever seen on any city block in my life. It was amazing and the energy from all those people was invigorating! I felt quite exhilarated and I usually don’t like crowds. Max’s homeschooling got even more well-rounded a bit later when he was one man sleeping on the sidewalk and another man getting arrested. I could tell we’d somehow moved from one part of town to another but Max wasn’t afraid or nervous. He was far more interested in taking pictures of graffiti.

Beauty is in the eye of…

Shortly thereafter, we finally found an empty cab, and headed for Soho.

In Soho, we did some window shopping. There seemed to be lots of designer stores but I really don’t like shopping for clothes. However, the window displays in the clothing stores were amazing.

I mainly wanted to find some goodies for the loved ones back home. We did find one store, The Evolution Store, which looked interesting. And, boy oh boy, was it! Downstairs, they had fossils and stuffed critters galore. Frank, who loves geology and has a large collection, would have been in heaven! I chose a beautiful freshwater pearl for him and a 4 million year old chunk of amber with insects in it. Earlier in the week, Richard said there was a human body exhibit, BODIES: THE EXHIBITION, in New York. We decided Max was too young to be looking at real, dead human bodies. Seeing a wrapped dummy is one thing. Seeing a real body or bones…well, that would be too much for him. Why am I telling you this? Well, because we went upstairs in The Evolution Store and there was an entire glass case of human skeletons, from an adult, to children, and right on down to a fetus, with the skull still noticeably unfused. I wasn’t happy seeing that because adults have the opportunity to donate their bodies to “science” if they want. The children and babies who previously inhabited those skeletons obviously did not. Max was a bit upset but I think I was far more so. We went downstairs and left.

I wasn’t going to let that ruin our evening, and wanted to get Max’s mind off it, too. So, I quickly changed the subject to, “What does everybody want for dinner?!” We found a small French restaurant, Felix Bar & Restaurant, with all the doors open. So, even if you sat inside, it was like sitting outside. It was very loud and the evening air was cool and perfect. The people all seemed to be on a collective high from the Spring weather and there was much merriment and laughter. The atmosphere was great!

On Friday, we got up early and Richard went out for Starbucks. Mason drank a good bit of his Frappuccino, and was jumping all over the place so we decided to take a walk before meeting Scott for lunch. I was looking for a new backpack purse because mine had a broken zipper. I’ve been carrying the same purse for about a decade, and I was looking for one that looked just like mine, and around the same size, and I hadn’t been having any luck. I finally found one store that had more purses than I’d ever seen. I found four backpack purses that would have worked quite nicely. Problem was, they ranged from $365 to $425. Call me cheap but I’m not going to spend more than $20 or so for a small black backpack! I gave up and we went to meet Scott for lunch. The restaurant where we’d planned to eat was small, and didn’t have any tables large enough to accommodate us, so we walked around the corner to an Italian restaurant we’d seen, the Arte Cafe. We ate a very nice lunch, outside, in the still-gorgeous Spring weather.

After lunch, we took a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Max had been waiting for this homeschooling field trip for weeks! We looked at the medieval outfits first, chainmail, suits of armor, etc. Max had recently studied medieval times and was really enjoying seeing real armor and other protective clothing that people wore back then. He also thought the real swords and other weapons, laden with gems, were pretty cool.

He was having a great time! Mason, on the other hand, was bored out of his mind. He likes museums but he wanted to see some trains…and he kept asking about trains, over and over again. I figured out a way to placate him. I told him, “They have lots of paintings here, Mason. Let’s hunt for a train painting!”

That seemed to work. Now, admittedly, I was sure we would NOT find a train painting but hunting for one would keep Mason busy until we got to the gift shop, at which time he would most certainly forget all about trains. But, we didn’t plan on visiting the gift shop until the end of the day.

This is NOT a train painting.

As we were leaving the medieval display and moving to another, Mason was once again saying, “Where’s the train painting? I wanna find the train painting.”

I said, “Keep looking, honey.”

At that moment, a nosy man with a kid in tow leaned down to Mason, sticking his nose into OUR business, and said, “I’m sorry to disappoint you, young man, but there are no paintings of trains in this museum.”

You should have seen Mason’s face. It was like the man told him there was no such thing as fairies. Mason went from frown to public meltdown. I wanted to have a meltdown, too. I mean, the guy had a kid. He must have known I was trying to divert Mason’s attention for a few hours. I wanted to throttle that man!!! Mason was very cranky the rest of the day…until the gift shop, of course, and it was all that nosy, inconsiderate stranger’s fault!

Anyway, Max got to see mummies (wrapped or in tombs, of course, not the actual bodies) and Roman sculptures. He really seemed to enjoy those. And, of course, the paintings. Sooooo many paintings! Max loved drawing and painting and he was as impressed as we were with the beautiful artwork. I could have walked those rooms for days, gazing in awe at the beauty…but Mason would have none of that!

I kept hoping Mason would get tired and take a nap in his stroller. That didn’t happen. We finally made it to the gift shop, which is actually the museum bookstore, and Mason seemed more happy that it was time to go than he was about buying something. Just before we left, a toddler wandered into the gift shop alone. I realized instantly that she appeared to be lost. I also knew, from instinct, that you don’t pick up a lost child. You try to talk to them and keep them safe while you summon help but you don’t touch them for two reason. One: the child may panic. Two: if the parent arrives, you may be accused of attempted kidnapping. Another woman was standing by me and she did the same thing. We both stood on both sides of her, asking her what her name was, where her mommy was, etc. She continued to ignore us. I summoned one of the cashiers, who quickly came over as well. The little girl looked up at me again, but still didn’t say a word. Then, she reached into a display of magnets, grabbed one, and darted out of the store. I burst out laughing and said, “Shoplifter!!” The other women laughed, too.

I was about to follow her but saw the little girl run right into a woman, obviously her mother, who made her come back into the store and put the magnet back on the display. I said, “I’m sure glad you’re here! We all thought she was lost.”

The woman ignored me, didn’t even look at me, but started speaking to her daughter instead…in French. That certainly explained why neither one would respond to us!

We finally left, to Mason’s delight, and went walking to find a place for dinner. We ended up at a Turkish restaurant, A La Turka, and we had SO MUCH FUN! It was long and loud and awesome! We ate and ate and ate some more, all new, interesting dishes we’d never tried before, like lamb flat bread pizza, cigar fingers (made with lamb, not tobacco), swordfish, steak and lamb kabobs and much more. And dessert! Oh, the dessert! We had the sweetest custard we’d ever tasted and cheese baked in coconut and swimming in honey. My mouth is watering just remembering that awesome night.

There was a table next to ours, separated by a glass partition. Mason was flirting with the woman on the other side of the glass. He even leaned over and kissed the glass when we left. His first crush! We obviously need to talk to him about sticking to his own age group…

On Saturday, we had to pack our bags. It was our last day in New York City and we’d only be there until early afternoon. We were all very sad. We left our bags with the Maître d’ and walked to lunch with Scott. We had brunch at Isabella’s. My meal was great but the
dessert was the most beautiful one we’d seen during our trip.

Dark Chocolate Bag filled with which fresh raspberry mousse, and topped with a variety of fresh berries and whipped cream at Isabella’s in New York City

After lunch, we had some time to visit before our hired car arrived. By hired car, I mean a black car that isn’t a limo. The hotel had helped us find a company that agreed to drive us to New Jersey because the ferry we’d taken in didn’t run that route on Saturdays. The day before, Scott had brought the boys some wind-up chicks. We sat on a bench while the boys wound up one of the chicks and made it hop on the sidewalk as people walked by. It was pretty funny watching all sets of eyeballs watching that small toy as they strolled along. Some people snickered while others smiled but Max and Mason were giggling up a storm!

We finally had to walk back to our hotel and arrived just as the car did. We all shared hugs and Max got very sad and sniffly. Max and Mason both watched Scott walking away through the car’s rear window.

During our drive to New Jersey, we were entertained by the driver’s logical explanation of plural marriage. No kidding! He was a very nice guy, with one wife only (so far) and children. He’d grown up in another state and he was also explaining the difference between the size of “homes” in New York City versus his home state. After staying in the tiniest hotel room ever, we knew exactly what he was talking about. He also talked to us more about his religion but he wasn’t pushy at all. He was very kind and quite entertaining!

When we got back to the Liberty Harbor RV Park, we decided to pack up the RV and drive to Connecticut right then instead of waiting until the next day. It was a beautiful day for a drive, once again sunny and in the 70’s, and the excitement about seeing their Godfathers, Doug and Raul, made Max and Mason start hopping all over the RV. Little did we know, we’d end up in the ghetto…

I’ve posted many,  many more pictures of our trip HERE.

PREVIOUS POSTS FROM THIS TRIP:

Liberty Harbor RV Park isn’t anything like a campground. It’s a line of large parking spaces – an RV parking lot, all in a row. You can see the Statue of Liberty from select places there and you can hear the “clang, clang” of the sailboat rigging…but that’s about it as far as aesthetic appeal is concerned. Oh, and the subway/train passes by frequently, too, though I did manage to tune that out at bedtime.  The parking area is just cement and gravel so we didn’t even bother putting Mason’s gates outside.  The boys played inside that night. However, if you want to park your RV and take a trek into the city, this the place to do it. We drove to the Brownstone Diner & Pancake Factory in Jersey City, NJ for dinner. It has been featured on the Food Network on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives but we didn’t know that at the time.

The portions were HUGE and delicious! For example, we ordered “dollar pancakes” for Mason (age 3). They brought out an enormous platter of regular-sized pancakes! There were so many that we got them to go and put them in the freezer in the RV. Mason ate them for the next week and a half.

The smothered fries were oh-so-good, swimming in bacon and cheese and a delicious sauce. Even Max (age 8), who hesitates to try new things, couldn’t get enough of them.

I got a California omelet and it was the biggest omelet I’ve ever had. We got so full that we ended up getting our dessert to go. They had an endless assortment of pies and cakes to choose from, as well as ice cream sundaes. We were delightfully stuffed when we rolled ourselves out of there that night. The service was amazing!

It was the dinner rush but you’d never know it from the way our waiter hovered.

After dinner, I accidentally tipped a bag of leftovers, causing a spill, and he ran to the kitchen for another to-go box and bag for me. The manager was extremely polite and gave us huge smiles as well. We’ll definitely be back.

The next morning, after some initial confusion about where to buy ferry tickets (the ticket office closes during the day), we were on board and heading for the city. It was a beautiful, clear day and the boys only needed light jackets. We had a distant but clear view of the Statue of Liberty from the water.

The ferry ride was short and we were the only passengers on board, much to the delight of Max and Mason.

After the ferry, we hailed a cab and headed for the hotel. We checked in right on schedule and called Scott to tell him we’d arrived. The boys were SO excited about spending a few days with their buddy!

The hotel room was small, and I mean TINY. When we unfolded the small sofa at night, we could only get to the bathroom by walking sideways at the end of it. It made our RV look like a castle in comparison. But, it was very clean, nicely decorated, and pretty quiet, too! We would definitely stay there again.

Scott only lived a few blocks from our hotel so he arrived in no time. And, he brought gifts – Sesame Street characters! The boys were thrilled! Mason ended up taking Big Bird with him everywhere we went that week.

The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. It was around 70 degrees and sunny. We took a walk through Central Park. At one point, the boys took a swing break and Scott took a pull-up break. I was impressed. I couldn’t even do one of those!

The sun started to set so we headed to dinner. Scott has made reservations at Calle Ocho, a Cuban restaurant. Our stomachs were all stretched out from the night before so we had no trouble putting away another huge meal. Here are just some of the goodies we had that night.

Ceviche Sampler at Calle Ocho NYC – March, 2010

Gallitos – Platter of Traditional Costa Rican Soft Tacos with Grilled Beef, Salsa Verde Shrimp & Chipotle Chicken (serves two) at Calle Ocho – March, 2010

Vaca Frita al Caballo – Cuban Skirt Steak, Latin Fried Rice, Tomato Escabeche, Avocado at Calle Ocho NYC – March, 2010

We give Calle Ocho five stars! Mason tried his hardest to stay awake but he conked out before dessert. Luckily, we were sitting in a booth so he was quite comfy.

On Tuesday, we walked about five miles and had many more adventures! More on our whirlwind tour of NYC next week.

I’ve posted more pictures of our trip HERE.

PREVIOUS POSTS FROM THIS TRIP:

Richard pulled out his laptop and Mapquested the distance between our location in New Jersey and Bangor, Maine. It was about 11 hours. I thought I could drive another four hours that night, arriving at our sleeping destination just before dark. Richard decided a hotel would be best because he wasn’t up to unpacking/packing the RV and doing the sewer/water/electric hook-ups. I don’t mind driving after dark, but I have a very difficult time seeing the road after dark when it’s raining. And, yes, it WAS raining AGAIN!

We hit some New Jersey traffic just outside of Newark, which slowed us down. We stopped at a diner where Mason and I had breakfast for dinner while Richard and Max had…dinner for dinner.

We got back on the road and saw a highway sign that said “New England” and directed us to two major

interstates. Richard said the GPS was telling us to go a different way that would cut an hour off our trip. So, we did what the GPS lady said. Big mistake…

It was quickly getting dark and it was pouring. We ended up on a parkway somewhere. It was pitch black and I could barely see the white stripes on the road because of sheets of rain coming down. Somebody honked at me at one point. I didn’t know why…at the time. Richard got up to go to the bathroom at one point. After he got up, I noticed an underpass looming within just a few feet. It was REALLY low. Oh my God. I didn’t think we’d clear it. It sloped down in the right-hand side. It all happened so fast that I didn’t even have time to scream. I instinctively ducked in my seat, expecting the instant impact. We cleared it!!!

I started freaking out. A dozen thoughts went through my head at the same time. If we’d hit that bridge, we’d have all been severely injured or killed, especially Richard because he was in the bathroom and not buckled in. I started looking for trucks. None. How many times are you on a busy highway and can’t see a truck? Never! I was looking on our lanes and the oncoming lanes. NO TRUCKS!!! WE WERE ON A CARS-ONLY HIGHWAY!! OH MY GOD!!!!! Another underpass could come at any second. I slowed down dramatically. Richard came back from the bathroom and had to listen to my dozen thoughts in a stream of frantic,  high-pitched babbling. We found an exit pretty quickly, got off, breathed two huge sighs of relief. Sure enough, there on the entrance ramp (by the exit ramp) was a sign that showed trucks weren’t permitted on the road. Of course, in the pouring-down rain and in the dark, we hadn’t seen the sign when we’d gotten on earlier. And, the GPS didn’t warn us, either. Richard says we need a new one.

We found ourselves in a dark, pretty darned swank neighborhood somewhere in New Jersey / New
York. I’m really not quite sure where we were. It was dark, still pouring, and there were no street lights. The road was a VERY winding road. I was crawling in the RV at about 10 mph, around and around the trees that hugged each curve. The branches were high enough. I thanked heaven for companies like UPS that drive high vehicles on obscure neighborhood streets, keeping the clearance high for the rest of us. We drove for about half an hour without ever passing another car. I felt like we were going in circles, passing one huge mansion after another, each set far back from the road, with almost no light to lead our way.  Richard was using the GPS to guide us through those back roads to an Interstate. It took about an hour to find our way out of that maze.

We finally got back on an Interstate and were relieved to once again be cruising with our trucker friends (truckers are very kind to RVers). I told Richard I didn’t want to drive another hour in the dark and rain to get to that hotel he’d called. I told him to find the nearest hotel with the GPS and we’d just pray they had a room. I had to drive another 15 miles or so but we found a Marriot that had plenty of rooms and lots of space in their parking lot for the RV.

I can’t even describe the relief of turning off the engine that night. What an, um, adventure our day and night had been! After bathing Mason, who had Cheetohs in his hair, the boys crawled into bed and I
was finally able to check my email. There were no emergencies so I posted an emergency note to our
website for our authors, stating I’d be offline all day Friday, and I tried to get some sleep. It wasn’t easy because I was still worrying about Richard.

Two mornings ago, we were woken up by somebody’s dog who had the most annoying, high pitched, screeching bark. This morning, one of the campground employees turned on a chainsaw just a few feet from our RV. I was NOT happy.

Max and Mason made a new friend last night, Lucas. He’d come to the playground when we were there, shyly shuffling his feet. Mason immediately said, “What’s your name?!” They all three played together for the next two hours and had a grand time. Lucas was six and had a walkie talkie on him, which he was using to talk to his dad, who was in their RV. I have no idea why any parent would allow a six-year-old to walk unsupervised through a campground. We’ve read that lots of child molestors live in campgrounds when they can’t find a place to live in towns, which regulate how close they can live to schools and such. We never let Max and Mason out of our sight. The world just isn’t what it was when we were young.

Anyway, we got some big news from home this morning! We recently adopted a stray cat that had moved into the hayloft above our garage (which used to be a barn). Frank and Ali took “Mollie” to the vet. They ran several tests. Mollie does not have heart worms, lieukemia or feline herpes. And, “Mollie” has been neutered. So, “Mollie” is now “Ollie.” Ollie is very friendly so we knew he’d had a previous home. We wonder if somebody had to dump him because of the economy. We’re happy to take him in.

We just crossed the Connecticut / New York state line. The country roads in Connecticut are beautiful! The farms are so large and well manicured. There are flowers everywhere right now. The corn looks a bit short for this time of year. Maybe they’ve been having too much rain, too. I sure wish we’d had more time to do some poking around in the small towns we passed through. But, Richard has us on a schedule and, since the wifi at the last campground didn’t work, we have to get to the next one so I can catch up on some work. Hey, gotta keep making money to pay for this gas guzzler!

UPDATE – After Midnight: We’re in New Jersey. The wifi at this campground is horrible. It cuts in and out and even disconnects you once an hour to make you log back in. Ridiculous. I spent most of the day switching back and forth between their wifi and the AT&T card, which isn’t great here, either. In fact, I spent more time wrestling with the connection than I did getting actual work done.

Richard fixed homemade pizza for dinner. That was a TREAT! At 8:00 p.m., we took Max and Mason to the pavilion to paint ceramics. You have to buy the figurines and the paint but it was super cheap and the boys had a great time.  They both picked trucks to paint and, miraculously, neither truck had broken by the time they went to bed tonight.

We also took them to the playground (Mason laughed SOOOO much on the swings!) and to see the farm animals that reside here. We walked around the campground just before dark and there were fireflies everywhere! The boys were thrilled!

This is a really nice campground. If the wifi worked, we might even be tempted to stay an extra day. I’m on the AT&T card right now. I have the best connection that I’ve had all day, probably because there’s less demand for the service right now. Richard would have to explain it. When it comes to electronics, I only know two things – either it works, or it doesn’t. Richard knows the the ifs, ands, hows and whys of it all. Sometimes he tries to explain it to me. I look at him and smile but all I can hear coming from his mouth is, “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah….”

You can see our photostream from this trip (and past ones) here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94822774@N00/

Have you ever been to a beach town and seen a motel several blocks from the beach named something like “Oceanview Inn” or “Rooms on the Dunes”?

Well, the children were disappointed to learn that a place called “Beachcomber Camping Resort” was nowhere near the beach. It was only a couple of miles away, but the streets are far too congested to ride your bike there.

Beachcomber is big, densely wooded, and very, very quiet. It’s also quite clean and has a huge playground and a big lake with a nice beach. The pool and jacuzzi were open, but it was too cold for the children to swim.

Max had fun on the playground each day and there’s a huge population of squirrels and birds there. Max had a great time chatting it up with the squirrels and birds. He kept yelling, “Hey, bird! Hey, squirrel!”…over and over again. He said that so many times yesterday morning that, had there been more people there, I bet we’d have gotten some complaints about the noise.

There’s a small airport nearby and several small planes seemed to skim the trees on their way over the campground, much to Max’s delight. He called this campground “The Airport Stay.”

If you come here, you absolutely MUST go to one of the restaurants that advertise a view of the sunset! We went to Harpoon Henry’s (Beach Drive and Browning in North Cape May) and boy-oh-boy, did they deliver on that sunset their ad promised! It was the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen in my life. There was an entire line of their patrons standing up, snapping photos of God’s show!

I was going to give this campground four marshmallows out of five, but we’re still disappointed that the name made us think they were on the beach. The wifi connection was excellent and we had no trouble getting online.

Oh yeah, you have to feed a new quarter into the shower every five minutes or so to keep the water running…but the first minute or so of your paid shower is completely cold. I think making campers pay quarters for their shower is pretty cheap.

Three out of five marshmallows.

Beachcomber Camping Resort
462 Seashore Road
Cape May, NJ 08204
800/233-0150
info (at) beachcombercamp.com
http://www.beachcombercamp.com/index.html

Angela and family of gypsies! Being the gypsy type I am, when I saw that you had taken your family on this grand adventure, I had to check it out.

Last year my husband (we’re 58 and 61) ran away from home, too. We took our old 27′ motorhome and sold at markets all the way across Canada to pay for the adventure. It was the most fun thing we’ve ever done.

Her letter reminded me that, when I was a little girl, I’d wanted to a be a writer, a gypsy or a circus worker. I reminisced out loud to Richard and the children. Richard asked, “Why a gypsy?”

I replied, “Well, because of that Cher song, of course! Remember it? Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves? It seemed like such a romantic lifestyle…”

Richard cocked his eyebrow at me, grinned, and headed out for his shower. Ali asked about the song so I logged onto my itunes.com account and downloaded it instantly (ah, I LOVE wireless Internet!!) I then turned up the volume so the children could listen to the song. However, I was shocked to realized I’d forgotten most of the lyrics! Surely I didn’t understand what Cher was singing about when I was so young and humming along to her music? The children and I listened to Cher’s lyrics about the men laying their money down and her, being 16 years old, getting pregnant by a 21-year-old guy and being abandoned. I quickly turned down the song and looked at the children, happy to realize that the curious looks on their faces meant they didn’t understand what she’s singing about, just as I hadn’t at that age. Shwew!

We’re waking up very early tomorrow and heading to the Cape May Ferry. It’ll be a 1 1/2 hour ride through the Atlantic and then we’ll be driving south to Virginia Beach, VA.

Our schedule of waking up, doing our work (and the children doing their schoolwork) and then having family time in the late afternoon and evening is working out really well. It’s so quiet at the campgrounds this time of year and the temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s couldn’t be more comfortable. Right now, Ali and Frank are sitting outside painting and Max is running his trains through the dirt.

We’ve put a new map on the site showing our stops and our current location. Click HERE to see where we are today.

See ya in Virginia Beach!

Here is a picture of me standing at the phone booth calling into their radio show this morning.

We had a bit of a setback today, as the campground we planned to stay in this weekend is full (lesson learned – call ahead for weekends stays, no matter what the time of year). That means we can’t go to the Renaissance Faire in Maryland. So instead, we are heading down to Virginia.

On the upside, my new toy is working great. I built a home-brew antenna package.

One problem I discovered on the last trip is that some campgrounds seem to only have one access point for their WiFi, usually in the campground office. KOA/Hotspotzz in particular is guilty of this.

So I took a Hawking Technology Hi-Gain antenna, a wireless Ethernet bridge, and a power-over-Ethernet adapter, packaged it all inside a Tupperware container to keep the elements off the electronics, and then mounted the whole package on to a camera tripod.

I then bought 100′ of Ethernet cable so I could basically position the antenna package anywhere outside the RV that I needed to.

I’ll run the Ethernet into a wireless router inside the RV, which lets me convert the connection back into a wireless signal inside the RV.

It lets us get a more consistent signal inside the RV, and allows us to share the connection more easily, since this trip out the kids are in school and we need to let 4 computers share the connection.

I’m still testing it. When I’m finished, I’ll post pictures, a materials list and details on operating it in case anyone out there wants to build one.

Our cross-country, summer trek was so much fun that we’ve taken our children and business on the open road again! We departed Bangor, Maine on Sunday with our laptops and the kiddos and started driving south. During our last trip, we were sensible (say boring). We had a firm itinerary and had made all our reservations in advance. However, that kind of traveling was kind of a drag because we couldn’t stay longer at the places we liked (and had already prepaid for the bad places even when we wanted to leave early). So, this time, we did the non-sensible thing and left home with an itinerary, but no reservations.

Our first stop was meant to curb our intense culinary craving for smoked turkey legs and sausage. We arrived at King Richard’s Faire in Massachusetts and quickly changed clothes. We’d invested heavily in Renaissance costumes for the entire family since the children are studying the Renaissance Period in their homeschooling and since we’d planned to attend three festivals on our trip. Max looked quite dapper in his little king’s costume (with ruffles!) and turned quite a few heads. Frank looked very intimidating as an executioner (the huge ax looks real, but it’s plastic) and Ali is a gorgeous lady-in-waiting (and I almost cold-cocked a man for ogling her that afternoon).

Richard was happy that his costume didn’t include tights (which I made him wear to the Renaissance Festival in Texas one year) and my wench costume has three layers, so I wasn’t freezing like many of the women appeared to be on Sunday. It was quite chilly!

Our first lesson in “winging-it’ (not having reservations) was learned on Sunday when the campground we were heading to told us via cell phone that we couldn’t stay there if we arrived after 6:00 p.m. We sat at a rest area and searched for about an hour for another campground in that area with wi-fi. No luck. So, after staying at only one campground on this trip, we had to walk, with our tails between our legs, into a Marriott in Poughkeepsie, New York. They had high-speed Internet access so at least we were able to get our work done after being on the road all day. Much of western Massachusetts and eastern New York state are pretty remote and our T-Mobile connection was non-existent there.

However, the unexpected detour we took on 22 South from Pittsfield, MA to Poughkeepsie, NY was absolutely and stunningly breathtaking. In my opinion, that drive made all the headaches of our afternoon worth it. Not only were we blessed with rolling hills of brilliant fall foliage, but we were also treated to dozens of geese formations, honking happily on their way south. The drive was magical, almost surreal in its beauty, and I knew then that we were destined to end up in Poughkeepsie just to experience nature’s awesome Fall show!

If you find yourself on 22 / 44 South heading toward Poughkeepsie, don’t miss the Arlington Diner (805 Dutchess Turnpike / 845-452-1554 )! The food was excellent, the staff was incredibly friendly (they made us an “Egg Cream” just so we could all taste it) and the cost was unbelievably low, considering we stuffed ourselves silly and had enough leftovers for a small army.

We’ll be under our thick quilts tonight. We’re in New Jersey right now and it’s pretty c-c-c-cold!