Tuesday, October 14 - Day 27

On the way to Canton

We had a nice dinner last night of shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad with optional shrimp and shrimp and grits. My first try at the shrimp and grits and it turned out pretty good. I will do it again with more experimentation.

We left right after the nephews went to school. Decided to drive up thru Vermont to peep at the leaves in the mountains. Still colorful thru Massachusetts and in the lowlands of VT but the mountains were mostly brown. We crossed via the ferry over Lake Champlain and met up with another nephew, Gordon, in Plattsburgh. We ate lunch at Five Guys and had delicious big hamburgers, the first meat we have had in weeks. We stopped at Lisa's folks and picked up our voluminous mail and got to our home about 4:30.

Thanks to Lisa and Will, Paul and Jeanine, Peter, Joan and Larry and Mo and Ron for hosting us and for all the relatives who took the trouble to meet up with us. Thanks especially to Peg and Karl for looking after the house while we were away. I don't know if Edd White also was called into action but he also serves who stands and waits. Thanks Edd.

This is Lisa – Just wanted to thank everyone for following us on this journey. It was a great trip and enjoyed reading your comments.

END STATS: We drove 4,939.5 miles, 27 days, 19 States, and approximately 10 dozen oysters. 

AND A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL! THE END.

Photos: 1 - colors at Spencer and Tommy' school; 2-7 - fall colors and mountain views in Massachusetts, Vermont and New York; 8 - witch in Vermont; 9 - Gordon and Lisa; 10 - Lisa with her mom and dad; 11 - Dave's artichoke plant; 12 - Oreo - the other Halliwell cat

 

Monday, October 13 - Day 26

 

Columbus Day at Leominster.

Started out nice and sunny but got gray. Chilly all day. Just hanging around. I think we are going for a hike on Wachusett Mtn and then buy seafood for dinner. I am going to make shrimp and grits for the family.

Got back from the hike thru some beautiful Fall woods, lots of leaves and colors and smells. Drove to the top of Wachusett Mtn, great view and could see all the way to Boston, probably 50 miles. Stopped at the local brewery and got drink and at the local food store and got food. Ready to make dinner.

Photos: 1- trees by the house; 2-3 - Spencer and Tommy at Leominster State Forest; 4 - Ron, Maureen, Spencer and Tommy; 5 -Dave and Lisa; 6 - Lisa coming out of porta-potty (dave wanted this photo in the blog); 7- Mt. Wachusett ski area; 8 - In the distance is Boston, 9 - Wachusett Brewing; 10 - Maureen and her new kitty Missy; 11 - Spencer and his trebuchet for boy scouts; 12; shrimp and grits; 13 - shrimp cocktail

 4

 

Sunday, October 12 - Day 25

Salem, CT to Leominster, MA (Silly New Englander misspelling of Lemonster.)

We had a wonderful evening last night with many of Lisa's relatives attending dinner at Lisa's aunt and uncle's house. Lots of laughter and good cheer and good food with good people. I went to bed at my usual 10pm but some stayed up till 2am and felt it this morning. We had breakfast and left about 11am today for Lisa's sister and brother in law's home in Leominster. Watched their two sons in a baseball game and had our last seafood feast for awhile: two dozen oysters which Ron and I learned to open by watching a youtube video. I had seen enough shuckers working during this trip that I felt confident that I knew how to do it but the video was insurance. It was harder than I thought it would be but we did a passable job shucking. The oysters were followed by grilled cajun shrimp on skewers with the dynamite cocktail sauce Ron made and that we had earlier used on the oysters. We next dined on Maureen's silky clam chowder, very succulent. We finished the smorgasbord with shrimp pizza. Dessert was chocolate ice cream. I got so confident about shucking oysters that I am going to see if I can find fresh ones in the North Country. There used to be a fish truck that came once a week from Maine but I haven't see it in awhile. (Later) I did a google search and found that the fish truck owner retired and has not yet found someone to take over the business.

We are staying another day, Monday, with Ron and Mo and will drive to Canton on Tuesday.

Photos: 1 - Tommy up to bat; 2 - Tommy pitching; 3-5 - Spencer up to bat; 6 - Spencer and Tommy after the game; 7 - Oysters - good job shucking Dave and Ron; 8 - Oyster monster Ron

Spencer and Tommy ofter the game

 

Saturday, October 11 - Day 24

Leesburg to Salem, Conn

Peter was asleep on the couch when I went to bed and we did not wake him when we left the house this morning. He really needed to rest and sleep. We hit 4000 miles yesterday and we drove 399 miles in 7 ½ hours of rainy, crowded, stop and go traffic on I 95. Avoid it if at all possible. It was terrible around Wash DC and NY City and on the Conn coast northbound. Lots of family coming here for dinner after Mass this evening.

Photos: 1 - sunset in Salem, CT; 2- fall colors; 3 - fallen leaves; 4 - my grand-nephew Kamrin and aunt Terry; 5 - aunt Joan, Uncle Larry and Dave celebrating her birthday; 6 - dinner crew with delicious soup and salad

standing: Aunt Terry, Uncle Larry, brother Jerry, sister Linda, niece Hannah, her friend Rachel,

 sitting: Aunt Joan and Lisa

 

 

Friday, October 10 - Day 23

Stop and go at Leesburg, VA

What a tiring but great day. Mostly driving. Lisa did not sleep on the balcony but she did go for an ocean dip before we left the hotel. We drove about 7 ½ hours thru heavy, slow traffic to get to the house of my youngest brother, Peter. He had had neck surgery earlier that day and looked like the star of a zombie movie with his head wrapped up. We talked for a long time to catch up on family. We went for a brief walk, ate lasagna dinner and went to bed. Another long drive tomorrow. Hopefully all the Columbus Weekend vacationers have already left and arrived. Traffic was terrible today around Wash DC.

On to Salem, Connecticut tomorrow!

 

Photos: 1-5 - sunrise - notice how much calmer and organized the waves are from yesterday to today - my uncle Larry called the waves yesterday King tide high tide; 6 - time for fishing; 7 - Dave and his brother, Peter

 

Thursday, October 9 - Day 22

Wifes Head... Oops I meant Nags Head, lapsa lingua

 

What a great day! I don't know if it was the full moon or a storm at sea but the waves were very close together and continuously breaking and roaring when I awoke and they have not abated all day. It is now 4:30pm and Lisa is reluctantly coming in from the beach. It was intimidating this morning. The waves were furious and huge for here. It was also very cool and overcast. We decided to go to Kill Devil Hills/Kitty Hawk to see the site of the first flight.

KDH now is what used to be called KH. The site is a National Monument as it should be. It was a moving experience for me to be on the exact place where the world changed forever in 12 seconds. There is a large boulder on the exact spot where the Wright's plane lifted off under its own power for the first flight and flew for 120 feet, less than the distance of a modern passenger jet's wingspan. They flew 4 times that day, the last flight of 852 ft. There are small boulders placed at the spots where the four landing occurred. I was impressed with the simplicity of how the site has been portrayed and preserved and overwhelmed by the simplicity in contrast to the effect of that day, Dec 17, 1903. Every person on the face of the earth has been affected by what they did that day. How can you not be stunned by that? 66 years later two men walked on the moon because of them. Measure your accomplishments by that standard and bow your head. It is among the greatest technological accomplishments of all time: controlled fire, the wheel, the atlatl, scuba, controlled flight, distillation.

We spent most of the pm on the beach enjoying but with the buried thoughts of this our last day on the beach for a long time. Tomorrow we start the homeward journey with several stops at relatives so we can continue this journey for as long as possible.

We did have an amazing dinner tonight. We finally tried she-crab soup which is advertised in every seafood eatery along this coast. It's New England crab chowder without the potatoes. Lisa had broiled sea food combo: crab cake (excellent), large scallops perfectly sauteed, large shrimp and flounder, with very good sides. I had blackened redfish taco, not as simple as it sounds. Very good. We split a house made peanut butter pie for dessert.

Lisa may sleep on the balcony tonight.

Happy Birthday Joan!

 

Photos: 1 - line of trucks on the beach for fishing - they arrived at 7:30 am and left at 4:15 pm; 2 - Wright Brother's National Memorial; 3 - beginning point for the first four flights; 4 - plaque on the boulder; 5 - photo of first flight; 6 - distance from 1st marker to 4th; 7 - marker 1 - first flight - 12 seconds - 120 ft; 8 - marker 2 - second flight - 12 seconds - 175 ft; 9 - marker 3 - third flight - 15 seconds - 200 ft; 10 - marker 4 - fourth flight 59 seconds - 852 ft; 11 - replica that people can climb on with  Dave flying; 12 - Lisa flying with her BFF Orville; 13 - trying to replicate 1st flight photo; 14 - Monument to the Wright Brothers; 15 - restaurant that says "Eat and get the hell out."; 16 - Dave on boogie board; 17 - corner hotel room; 18 - crazy waves - they were coming in normally but also coming sideways too; 19 - Dave's dinner; 20 - Lisa's dinner; 21 - sunset; 22-23 - moonrise; 24 - moon reflecting on ocean