Happy Halloween!

Terri called today from Salem, MA, scene of a giant Halloween festival, where she and Blake and Molly were exploring the haunted happenings and enjoying the costumes of fellow revelers. We had a much tamer celebration, with a lasagna buffet, costume party, and dj dance at the clubhouse. We didn't stay long, partly because of the many people smoking indoors.

Spooky aliens, watch out!

We played some Rummikub, with Ken winning one and me the other.
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Rematch

The rain seems to have let up, fortunately. We went shopping and got some orange tee-shirts with black alien faces to wear for Halloween, since the campground where we are staying has a Halloween party planned. I also got some canvas to use for a project: making shoe pockets to put along the side of the bed.

That's our Qube with the lake in the background

We played Upwords again, and this time I won both games, so we are now even.

Today has been pretty rough for me. I gathered all of Sweetie's things and cleaned them up and did a load of laundry. So now there's an empty space where Sweetie used to be, in the trailer and in my heart.

I took the opportunity of a letup in the rain to clean the bug remains from the endcap. I wish someone would invent an efficient, nontoxic bug dissolver. This job always involves lots of scrubbing.
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Sad Day

Today is a very sad day for me. My friend and companion of the last 15 years has passed on. Sweetie was 17, which is pretty old in dog years, and she had been going downhill for a while. It is very hard to say goodbye to her.

We are camped in the middle of a sea of puddles. It's been raining pretty much all day, sometimes hard. Unfortunately, our leaks are back. It's an altogether depressing day.

We played some Upwords today. Ken won both games. I'll have to demand a rematch tomorrow.
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Fingers Crossed

We climbed up on the roof today to see if we could find the source of our living room leak. We discovered that the weather boot on the coax leading out of the TV antenna had slipped off, so we replaced it. We also lubricated the TV antenna as directed with silicone spray (partly to make it operate more smoothly and partly to help insure that the rubber ring inside doesn't dry up and cause a future leak).

We also replaced the duct tape on the bed slide. It's raining now, and we're supposed to have a "gully washer" tomorrow according to one of the locals, so we'll have a good test of our repair measures. Here's hoping we have our fingers in the right holes in the dike...

It was supposed to be sunny today, and we did see the sun this morning, but the rest of the day was overcast with scattered drizzle. It was warm, though, so that's one good thing. We took a brief walk and found the mosquitoes or some sort of biting bugs.
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Move to Porter

We've headed a bit farther south--in search of some warmer, dryer weather. Today we actually saw the sun, and the high was near 70. We're camped overlooking a 12-acre lake. As usual, there's freeway noise, and a train, but it's still rather peaceful, with egrets stalking about on the lake.




We had a day without rain, so things have had a chance to start drying. Tomorrow is forecast to be mostly sunny and warmer. We'll have a week here and plan to get some chores done and just relax.
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Rainy Day Blues

We had a good old-fashioned East Texas thunderstorm today, with lots of rain. I was enjoying it until we realized that we had leaks again. First Ken noticed that our old leak in the bed slide was back--possibly because the duct tape we had put over the suspect area had been abraded when the slide went in and out. Then I noticed that the front of the couch had a large wet spot. Water was dripping from the edge of the ceiling overhead. And to cap it all off, water appeared in the seam alongside my computer. Bad news.

We'll wait until things dry up (it's not supposed to rain the next couple of days) and then check the roof to see if we can find any obvious problems with the sealant around our openings.

Chris and Annie have reservations to fly to West Yellowstone next July. I'm really looking forward to exploring Yellowstone and maybe Grand Teton National Park with them. Annie will go to school tomorrow, since her fever has been gone for nearly 48 hours and her cough has improved.
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We're Home!

We are staying tonight at Rainbow's End in Livingston, Texas. It felt quite strange as we approached today to be coming "home"--our legal address is here, in a file folder in the mail forwarding building, but we've only been here once before. That was April, 2008, when we were here to become Texas residents, register our vehicles, and get our driver licenses. We recognize familiar landmarks, and we also recognize that we have learned a lot since we arrived here as "newbies" at fulltime RVing.


Our next-site neighbors own a New Horizons fifth wheel, a brand we are very interested in, so we struck up a conversation and ended up touring their custom designed rig. Jim and Sally were in the construction business and had had a Country Coach motorhome, so they knew just what they wanted. One of the features we really appreciate is the light maple cabinetry and woodwork. Smart design along with high quality materials and work are evident throughout, along with luxuries like the double-door refrigerator, dishwasher and washer/dryer. New Horizons has made their floorplan one of the standards available, as the F34RLTSS711.

Jim and Sally Bonsall

As we chatted over wine and munchies, we realized that we will be winter neighbors, since Jim and Sally are square dancers and stay at Tip of Texas in Pharr, where we regularly dance to Joe Saltel. (They are plus dancers, which is why we didn't meet them last winter.) On the wall in their rig is a plaque with the inscription "Friends are like seashells we collect along the way," a saying we found especially appropriate for RVers. We meet such interesting and friendly people along the way.

Speaking of friends, we had lunch today at Mazzio's in Nacogdoches with Loretta and John Dahmus, whom we hadn't seen since our visit in May 2008. We parked the rig on Raguet St. and left Sweetie there. Loretta drove us to the restaurant in their minivan, with nifty automatic passenger doors. Loretta was driving back to Austin this afternoon to stay with their daughter Teresa and grandson Joseph, so we didn't have a very long visit, but it was really nice to see old friends and have a chance to talk.

Lee with Loretta and John

Today was a lovely warm sunny day--beats the northern chill.
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Legal Texans

As planned, we entered Texas today for the first time since last February 11, when we crossed into New Mexico. Our safety inspection stickers had expired during that time, and we arranged to go to a place in Texarkana we found on the Internet, called Dick's Texas Big. We chose it because they could inspect both the truck and Venture. We had some trepidation when we arrived to find the business looking rather seedy. It turned out that one old retired gent spends his time there doing inspections and working on classic cars. We were his only customers, and he thanked us profusely several times for coming to him.

Once we had our new stickers, we headed down to Nacogdoches, stopping at a roadside rest area along the way to eat lunch at a picnic table in the sun. It was cool but pleasant, and several butterflies were flitting about among the flowers.



We are staying overnight at the Walmart parking lot in Nacogdoches. This is our second stay in a Walmart parking lot since we've been on the road. We haven't been able to find anywhere else decent to stay nearby. Of course if you're a Foretravel owner, or contemplating becoming one, you can stay at the Foretravel plant in Nac.
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Travel to Arkadelphia

An uneventful trip today--we left Jackson around 9 and drove to Arkadelphia, AR, arriving about 3:30. We filled up with diesel just after leaving the campground this morning and again just before arriving tonight, so I can tell you it cost 28 gallons of diesel to drive the 289 miles, at a total cost of $77.24. We know that fuel costs are part of our lifestyle, but we don't usually notice so directly.

After dinner we did our laundry at the park laundromat--one of the nicest we've seen, and very convenient.
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Flat Tire in Tennesee

We left the Mammoth Cave area this morning and were driving south on I-65 when we saw a Camping World sign. That's kind of like a magnet for RVers like us, so we turned off the interstate to get a couple of things on our shopping list. Somewhere north of $100 later we emerged with a new aluminum folding step to replace the wooden one that has served us well but has been deteriorating. We also got a new silicone lube disk for the king pin and an atlas cover to protect our truckers atlas (essential for finding truck routes and low clearances) and a couple of other things.

At Nashville we turned onto I-40 west and headed for Jackson, TN, where we had reservations, but a few miles down the road a car pulling a travel trailer honked, flashed lights, and pointed, making it obvious that we had a problem. We pulled off at the next exit, about 1/4 mile up the road and came to a stop on the edge of the ramp. The problem was immediately obvious: we had a flat tire on the curb side, so we called our emergency road service

They contacted a facility in Nashville and told us to expect help in about 1 hour 15 minutes. A lady from the repair facility called us to discuss our options. She didn't want to send her husband out on a long trip unnecessarily, and she told us that right at the end of the ramp we were on was a truck tire shop. We walked down and talked with the folks there and came to the conclusion that it would be better to pay for the work ourselves and get back on the road quicker.

An hour after our first phone call, we were back on the road, with our spare mounted in place of the ruined tire and a good looking used tire for a spare, all for under $50, so all in all we are considering ourselves lucky.

By the time we arrived at our campsite at 6 p.m., it was beginning to get dark and we were ready to be home. We were fortunate to be able to set up before the forecast rainfall. It's nice to be snug and cozy inside when it's raining outside (only, heck, just remembered I have to take Sweetie out.)

Sweetie looks rather skeptical about her raincoat

We plan to come back to Kentucky and Tennessee another time when we have more time to stop. Our friends Jack and Jill recommended a tour of the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, KY, and we'd like to explore the Land Between the Lakes and check out the country music scene in Tennessee..... So much to see and do--so little time.

We have a long travel day tomorrow, nearly 300 miles to Arkadelphia. That's more than we usually like to travel, but we need to get to the State Inspection Station in Texarkana before noon on Saturday. We've been out of Texas since mid-February, and our stickers expired the end of March, so we have to get them renewed as soon as possible after crossing the Texas state line.
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Mammoth Cave New Entrance Tour

This morning we took another tour of Mammoth, this one through the "New Entrance," a man-made entrance created by an entrepreneur who saw an opportunity to make tourist dollars by offering tours to the part of Mammoth Cave under his land. Since this is not a natural opening, the NPS has installed an airlock to minimize ecological effects of surface air entering the cave. The tour begins with a descent of 280 steps, to an area 250 feet below the surface.

Bus ride to the New Entrance

Narrow passages, low ceilings are par for the course

We were in a smaller group today and stayed at the front with Ranger Dave. He shared a great deal of geological knowledge about the cave with us. He started at the park as an archeologist, and told us that the tour guides are encouraged to do their own research and develop their own talks to share with visitors.

Also, the FFA group on this tour was well behaved and not nearly as noisy as the kids on yesterday's tour. We discovered that the reason for so many FFA groups is that there's a national FFA convention starting today in Indianapolis, and groups are stopping here on their way to Indiana.

Wow!

More wows

Today's tour was both informative and another awe-inspiring experience. It included the Frozen Niagara area of the cave, which is where most of the stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, soda straws, draperies, and other formations are found. We also saw a cave cricket, a surprisingly large insect. Crickets are described as "trogloxenes"--cave visitors--since they leave the cave at night to find food. It seemed amazing to us that the cricket could find its way out of the cave from deep within where we saw it.



We spent the afternoon doing research and making calls and reservations to set up the next few weeks of our trip. We are disappointed that we will not get to see Mia and the rest of the Sampietro family this trip--they've just had company and are feeling like another visit would be too much, especially since Mia is working after school and on Saturdays. Fortunately we will be able to see John and Loretta--we're taking them to Mazzio's Sunday for lunch. Loretta is in Austin being a nanny for their grandson, Joseph, but is coming to Nac for the weekend, though she may return later Sunday.
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Mammoth Cave National Park

We moved to Singing Hills RV Park in Cave City, a pleasant little rural park, very convenient to visit Mammoth Cave. Besides, it's an Escapees 50% off park, which means we pay only $14 a day, with hookups.

After lunch we went over to the Visitor Center to get tickets for the two tours we wanted to do. The Historic Tour was today at 2:00 p.m., and the New Entrance Tour is tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. Each is about 2 hours. We had some time before our tour began, so we hiked one of the short trails near the Visitor Center.

Now, that's what we call a trail....

Walking into Mammoth Cave through the Historic Entrance into the giant Rotunda Room, even with 100 other people, is an awe-inspiring experience. The cave is very different from Kartchner Caverns, the last cave we visited. It is extremely extensive and has been open to visitors for nearly 200 years. Some efforts are being made now to restore the cave ecosystem to encourage the bat population, but the encroachments of people on the cave are clear. Remnants of the saltpeter mining operation, developed mainly to provide gunpowder for the War of 1812,are especially evident in the big entrance room. Other signs of human passage can be found deeper in the cave, including some from native Americans who explored the cave 4000 years ago and some more recent, like the initials and names lettered on the rock by soot and carving.

Black letters created by soot from oil lamps or candles

Bottomless hole?

During the course of the tour, we walked through large open rooms, up and down many steps, through low passageways that require bending over, and through "Fat Man's Misery," a section of very narrow passageway that forces you to turn sideways to slide through. Our tour-guide ranger joked that some, like him, being a bit larger would polish the rocks more on their way through.

We're looking forward to another tour in the morning.
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On to Kentucky

We left southern Ohio this morning and headed to Kentucky. As we drove south, the fall color became more and more spotty. We made it to Grandma's RV Park just south of Louisville. It's clean and very close to the freeway (but of course that means freeway noise), but basically a parking lot. That's convenient for an overnight. In a field across the street, two llamas were grazing.





Tomorrow we plan to move to Mammoth Cave and take one of the cave tours in the afternoon.
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Sunday Drive

Today we drove to Bainbridge and to Pike Lake State Park to check out the fall color and to revisit some happy memories of times past. Bainbridge is nestled in Paint Valley, so called because of the spectacular display of fall leaves. This weekend was the annual Fall Festival of Leaves in Bainbridge. The weather cooperated: it was mostly sunny, and the high actually hit 50°.

Welcome

Peaceful lake

We drove the Pike Lake Loop and stopped at the campground and lake. It was as lovely and as peaceful as I remember it from many years of family camping when my family lived in nearby Cincinnati. On the way home we stopped at the Seip Mound State Memorial Park and hiked back to view the large mound built by the Hopewell Indians.

Tonight we watched a Nature program on the rhinoceros and an Inspector Lewis Masterpiece Mystery episode. It was a bit disconcerting that we were watching them on DTV-air, not on DirecTV, so we couldn't use the TIVO pause and rewind features. We do appreciate having closed captioning available on the British shows, since the accent often makes it difficult for us to keep up with fast paced dialogue.
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A.W. Marion State Park

We pulled out of Willow Lake Park this morning, glad to be away from the mud and foul tasting water, and headed south on I-71. We wanted to camp near Bainbridge, but couldn't find anything very close--all the campgrounds were full because of the Fall Festival of Leaves. We decided to try A.W. Marion State Park in Circleville, about 45 miles northeast of Bainbridge.

Our first challenge was finding the campground, since the signage is not very clear. A county sheriff kindly led us to the campground after we stopped to ask directions, and the way in was quite winding. Our GPS doesn't seem to have much info on the park.

The campground had lots of empty sites when we arrived (it turns out that Circleville's Pumpkin Festival is next weekend, so this park is fully booked then). It's an older campground, but several sites were large enough for Venture. The park is wooded and attractive, with nice fall color. The electric service is 50 amp, but there's no water at the sites, so first we had to put water in our freshwater tank. It took several minutes of running the kitchen tap to clear out the brown water from our previous campsite, and then we were in business.

Sweetie explores Marion State Park

We were happy to have leftover chicken and dumplings to warm us up, along with the electric heaters, since it was supposed to go down near freezing.
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Happy Birthday, Aunt Helene!

Today was my Aunt Helene's 89th birthday. She is my dad's older sister, and the one remaining of my dad's three siblings. For a proud 89-year-old, she is doing very well, though she does have some trouble hearing. She still ushers for her parish's Saturday evening mass and lives on her own.

She and Peggy came over for dinner tonight at Kathy's to celebrate and visit. Last night Kathy set the table and prepared a meatloaf, which I put in the oven this afternoon along with some baking potatoes, since she was working today as a Clinique freelancer at Macy's gift event.

Peggy and Helene drove over in the rain from Mentor and were delayed a bit by traffic. They arrived just before Kathy got home. We relaxed for a few minutes before dinner around a cheery fireplace.

Kathy set a lovely dinner table

Singing Happy Birthday

Peggy brought a nice salad with cheese, and for dessert, we had Aunt Helene's signature Goop recipe with blueberry topping. We sang Happy Birthday and she blew out the candle (we didn't want a conflagration of 89 candles) before we all dug in. Everyone said it was great.

Helene will be moving soon to a condo nearer to Peggy and to the church, which will be more convenient for everyone.

During the afternoon, while Kathy was at work, besides the dinner prep, we also took showers and washed clothes and the dog. It was really nice to have the opportunity to get everything and everyone clean.
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More Visiting

My niece Stephanie was off work today, so we got a chance to visit with her. Kathy fixed lunch, and afterwards we played some games (Rummikub and Phaze 10). It was fun to play, and great to have a chance to talk and joke and catch up. Unfortunately Todd wasn't able to join us (darn work anyway!).

This evening we watched an American Masters program on Joan Baez. For many years, I have both enjoyed her singing and appreciated her efforts for peace and justice, and we found the program both interesting and informative. We saw her in person at the Greek Theater in LA in September, 1998, along with Michael Doucet with Beausoleil (Cajun zydeco) and Bela Fleck (banjo) and the Flecktones.

It's been cold and rainy since we got to Cleveland and the forecast calls for more rain tomorrow and a high of 40° (way colder than we like), so even though we are enjoying our visit, we're also looking forward to heading south. The high tomorrow in Flower Mound is forecast to be 70°.

I made chicken and dumplings for supper tonight--tummy warming goodness. Haven't had it for a long time.
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Cold in Cleveland

Well, actually we are staying at a campground in Medina, Willow Lake Park, where we stayed last August, and visiting my sister-in-law Kathy in Strongsville, but neither one of those is alliterative with "cold"--and it is most definitely cold. Kathy says it's 15 degrees below normal for this time of year--brrrr. We drove from Emlenton to Medina and got set up, then called Kathy. She said come on over, the soup is hot--an offer we couldn't resist. The trip over afforded some spectacular scenery, especially the fall color, although the day was mostly gray and overcast.

Great fall color looking out our window

Tonight was the night we had to visit with my nephew, Jeff, since he'll be working the rest of the time we're here. He's a manager of a pool company and says we timed our visit almost right--he's off next week starting Wednesday. Better luck next time.

Jeff, Kathy, and Ken (and Sammie the dog under the chair)

We had a great visit with Kathy and Jeff, and a tasty dinner of vegetable bean soup, kielbasa, red potatoes, and green beans. The piece de resistance was an apple pie made with local apples by a recipe from Kathy's Aunt Irene that was really something special.

We also did a couple of loads of laundry while we were there, especially important since Sweetie was sick in her bed this morning.... Everything is clean and sweet smelling now. Chris and Annie called to say hi. Chris will be going to Seattle next week for a meeting.
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Port Jervis, NY, to Emlenton, PA

Travel day today--we decided to just head out and figure out where to stay when we were ready to quit driving for the day. We were oohing and ahhing over the fall color in the trees along the route, especially when the sun came out now and then. Our trip took us across the Hudson River and the Susquehanna River, through valleys and across the Appalachian Mountains.


We ended up at a campground in Emlenton, PA, just off the interstate, but reasonably quiet. Traveling in this part of the country in October means having to check whether campgrounds are open, because many close in mid-October for the season.

We got a grassy pull-thru, okay but quite unlevel. At least it was daytime when we set up, and Ken put the Qube out so we could watch Nova--an episode about repairing the Hubble space telescope.
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Hitting the Road

Well, more like slowly rolling out...we didn't get underway until nearly 1 p.m., after some delays with filling the tires with the little air compressor and eating lunch while waiting in line for the dump station. Once we got on the highway, we ran into more delays at every turn. Our route took us through Scituate, RI--very slowly, since the annual Scituate Art Festival was underway. Evidently there's no adequate parking facilities and traffic control, so we sat in line for a crawling hour to get through this small town.

Our GPS unit ("Rosie") sent us on a couple of wild goose chases (at least partially our fault, since we've vowed before to go over the route together the night before). We did get to see some nice fall color along the way. All in all we didn't get to the Port Jervis Elks Lodge until after dark.

The bartender was a nice fellow. He turned on the back lights for us, to help us find our way to the pavilion where the electric hookups are. It was still inky black back in the field behind the lodge, and we had to walk the "path" with flashlights to find the way to drive back. Trees and bushes lined the grassy path on both sides, and as we drove through, Ken quipped "At least we'll have symmetrical scratches...." A year ago we wouldn't even have attempted this drive, but we could see some tire marks in the grass ahead of us, so we drove on. We spent some time trying to find a level spot, then used all our leveling boards to get some semblance of level.

The electric was 20 amp, so of course we blew a circuit when I forgot and turned on the microwave at the same time as the little electric heater. Fortunately Ken was able to find a breaker box and we were back in business. We had leftover meatloaf and baked potato with veggies and salad for dinner, then enjoyed the French Apple Tart Terri had sent home with us from the day before. All told, more of an adventure than we like to have in one day.
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Final Day in Rhode Island

For our last day we decided to go to the Norman Bird Sanctuary, a 300 acre wildlife sanctuary on the east side of Aquidneck Island (where Newport is located). We hiked out a ridge line along the Hanging Rock Trail. Once again our definition of "trail" has been extended: part of the way was really rock scrambling--and interesting rocks at that. Glaciers here created Purgatory Conglomerate, also known as "Puddingstone"--rather lumpy pudding, for sure. The Hanging Rock gives spectacular views overlooking the Sakonnet River, and we were surprised to see some windsurfers in the whitecaps below.

Rock walls abound in New England, but what is this one doing in the middle of the sanctuary?

Small pond where we saw some mallards and maybe an Eastern Phoebe

Trail??? Or rock scramble?

Ken braves the "trail"

We were up there on Hanging Rock

Lots of elongated rocks in this pudding

We enjoyed the hike but saw few birds. A group of male mallards with their shiny green heads were feeding in the distance on a pond. Just as Ken said, "Where are all the birds?" a cute little one landed on a bridge post nearby and posed for us for a while. Looking at the bird book, I'm guessing it might have been an Eastern Phoebe.

Than we drove along a scenic drive along Bellevue Avenue where many of the mansions are located and continuing on Ocean Drive, past beaches, yacht clubs, and more mansions and castles.

We went to visit Terri and Blake and Molly one last time. Terri made a wonderful dinner of beef tenderloin (which Blake grilled) with a special herb sauce, cauliflower, and a fantastic butternut squash salad (recipe from the Barefoot Contessa), and for dessert, a delicious French Apple Tart.

We were sorry to say goodbye, since we don't know when we'll see them again, but it was a wonderful visit, and we're so glad we got to spend some time with them.

We'll be leaving tomorrow, headed towards the Cleveland area to visit and hoping to see some nice fall color.
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Lobstah!

We wouldn't have considered a visit to New England complete without partaking of a lobster dinner. Originally Terri had made plans for us to go on a cruise of the bay with an on-shore lobster boil, but the weather has not cooperated. So last night we went to Anthony's Seafood--a retail and wholesale outlet for fresh local seafood as well as a casual restaurant. Ken and I shared lobster and steamers and mussels with boiled potatoes, corn, and onions. I'm sure we looked cute in our lobster bibs!

Cute family!

Cute lobster bibs!

I finally finished the bicycle cover. It looks really good, so the final test will be traveling Monday. We'll see how it handles the wind and road debris.

Custom bike cover, finally!

We decided to take a different route south, going through Cleveland, since the fall color has not been what we hoped here and we don't want to drive too far north. Ohio has some good color now--if we can just catch some sunshine. I sent a message to Kathy and Steph and Jeff to see about visiting them, and they'll try to make arrangements for us to see Peggy and Helene too.
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Visit

We went over to visit with Terri and Molly today. They made a special dessert: strawberry canoli parfaits, which involved whipped cream and ricotta and strawberries and blueberries marinated in amaretto, which turned out both delicious and attractive. Blake went to meet with fellow students to work on school projects.

After dinner Terri and Ken and I played Coloretto. Ken had never played before, so of course he won most of the rounds.

Typical scene: Blake at work on the computer and Terri on the phone

Halloween decorations are mementos of Kelley and Molly's earlier years.

We also did some laundry, and I made more progress on my sewing projects. When we got home, I installed the curtains over the printer area. I still have a couple of tweaks to do, and then I'll post some photos.

This morning I taped up the suspect leak area in the bedroom slide and tested by hosing it down. Apparently we've isolated the leak, so now all we have to do is figure out how to deal with it (duct tape won't be a long term solution). While I had the hose out, I sprayed down the half of the truck I could reach and wiped it down, so now one side of the truck is a bit cleaner than the other.
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East Bay Bike Path

We loaded the bikes in the truck and headed to Independence Park in Bristol, where the East Bay Bike Path has its southern terminus. We rode north along the Narragansett Bay.

After a few miles we came to the Rhode Island Audubon Society's Environmental Education Center. We stopped to walk around the small Wildlife Refuge and to visit the exhibits at the Education Center. The exhibits focused on the habitats outside, from the bay, to tidepools, saltgrass marsh, freshwater pool, and meadows. One of the denizens of the tidepool was a blue lobster.

Boardwalk leads to the bay

Meadow

We ate our sandwiches on the wildlife observation deck overlooking the bay. We learned a new word: "wrack zone" from a dedication marker by the water's edge. The wrack zone is the area just above high tide where kelp and other detritus is deposited. We also got to take part in the Audubon Society project to monitor the health and growth of plants in the refuge and the status of invasive species. A "picture post" gave precise directions for taking photos in 8 directions from the top of the post and then sending them in for the study. Ken was happy to do this.

Grasshopper in the meadow

Picture post

As we rode north along the trail, we passed ponds and inlets. On one we watched a great blue heron and some white egrets fishing, along with some cormorants and a pair of mallards. We also saw some majestic white swans.

Lunch at the wildlife lookout over Narragansett Bay

Water birds stalk about mud flats

The path goes north to Providence, 14.3 miles total, but we stopped after 10 miles and returned to the truck, technically in violation of the 5-hour parking limit.

This morning I stubbed my little toe on the 10 lb. weight I keep under the bed--ouch.

I made meatloaf and baked white and sweet potatoes for dinner--hit the spot after a lovely, but somewhat chilly and windy, day. We caught the end of House and were a bit surprised to find "girl on girl action" talked about and depicted in more detail than we would have expected in primetime. Guess times are changing.
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The Breakers

Today we went with Terri to tour the grandest of the Newport Mansions: the Breakers, built in the 1890s by Cornelius Vanderbilt II. It's a 70-room Italian Renaissance-style palazzo and reminded us in scale and magnificence of the Doge's Palace in Venice.

We toured on our own, guided by the best audio tour I've ever encountered, entitled "The Breakers Revealed!" It pointed out and described features of the architecture and decor, but also placed the mansion in historical and personal context. In each room after the main part of the tour, we had an option to listen to more detailed or additional information. The voices of people who lived and worked in the mansion described their experiences. A staff of 40 servants was required to keep the household running smoothly.






I fixed enchiladas, calabacitas (Mexican squash and corn with onions and cheese), and taco rice for dinner. Everything turned out pretty spicy, which is how we like it, but Terri and Blake might have appreciated a more toned down version. For dessert I made cherry clafoutis, with some of the cherries we picked in Door County (still have a couple of bags in the freezer).

I worked some more on the bike cover and started on making a curtain to hide the printer and stuff out of the extra couch fabric we bought.
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