Brattleboro, Vermont

Last night it rained ALL night. I mean it poured most of the night! And this morning, we were all set to just dig in our heels and stay another night, since we didn't feel like driving in the rain and on possibly flooded roads. But the campground had other plans for us. It turned out that this campground was ordered to evacuate, because the river was expected to overflow its banks. It's level was supposed to exceed the level it reached one year when the whole campground was under water!

So, in the pouring rain once again, we unhooked the utilities and hooked up the car and off we went again. The rain was not horrible -- just a light rain -- and there was none of the promised wind, to our relief.

We drove to Brattleboro, Vermont, arriving at about 3:30. We're at the KOA here -- a very nice campground.

And, it's NOT raining now! Moreover, it has not rained for a few hours. We drove into town when it was still raining, parking and walking down the hill into the artsy community for the Art Gallery Prowl, an event which they hold the first Friday evening of every month. Lucky us!

The Prowl was good fun, with all the downtown stores open, lots of galleries, nice music being played at several of the venues. We enjoyed a really fine time!

On our way home, we found a grocery store and restocked our fridge. We'd had to get rid of lots of food, which had frozen. The ruined stuff included all our fruits and vegetables. :/ But now we have new food. :)

The Herkimer-Amsterdam Passage

Dona, I rather like the idea of filling the fridge with ice cream, since it was freezing everything, but that's not what we did! Instead, we went down the road to Amsterdam's Camping World (Alpin Haus RV) where they diagnosed and finally fixed our problem. It was a little wire affair which cost only $130 to diagnose and install.

While they were doing this, we shopped at the CW store, laying in some supplies. Then we went to Subway for a bite of lunch. To my horror, I discovered that my credit card, the one I always use, was missing from its usual place in my pouch! We quickly retraced our financial steps, recalling that the last place I used my card was Applebee's in Herkimer. I had the receipt so I called and they HAD it! Happy!

So, after paying for the job and our stuff with another card, we hopped into the car and drove the hour on the toll road ($1.80 each leg, since it was just the car!) back to Herkimer and got the card. Could you feel the change in atmospheric pressure when I heaved that sigh of relief?

Back to Herkimer, we hooked up the car and headed on down the road. We made it to Glenville, NY. And did I mention that it's still raining? It rained this entire day! But we're keeping our spirits up and remaining optimistic that the clouds will clear, revealing that beautiful blue sky that we KNOW is hiding up there!

Herkimer, NY

We awoke today in Niagara Falls, Ontario, discovering that, while the sky was gray, there seemed to be... no rain! We took advantage of this, emptying our tanks, unhooking the utilities, hooking up the car, and getting down the road! We went on the tollroad -- 90 -- stopping for lunch at an oasis Tim Horton's.

Here's something funny that happened. We ordered a sandwich to split, a cup of soup, and a bottle of water. Then, after she had rung up the sale, I decided that I wanted a chocolate chip muffin, too. So I asked her if it would be too late to add one to our order. "No problem," she said, and she just gave it to us! We took the opportunity to get fuel, too, and we were on our way.

We arrived about 4:30 at the Herkimer KOA, and it's lovely! Our site is right on the river, a fast-flowing stream which reminds me a bit of home! After a short break, we took off in the car to the town, in search of dinner. We found an Applebee's and that won. I got the cheese-filled meatballs with fettucini and Jack got a steak. His steak was tough but tasty, and mine was mushy and not tasty.

In fact, when the server asked me if I wanted a take-home box, I said, "No, it wasn't that good." The manager was there, too, wanting to know if I had liked the dish, which is a new one for the chain. He said that many people were giving them the same review, and he told me that he was taking it off our bill. Well ok, that's fair, but I would rather that they would take the bad stuff off the menu to start with!

We are averaging about 14.5 miles per gallon on this trip, towing the car behind the RV. The only problems we've had with anything are low tires on the car, which Jack aired up, and our refrigerator, which is FREEZING everything! We are going to Amsterdam's Camping World tomorrow for a 9:30 appointment to check up on that.

Another Day at Niagara Falls

Actually, we just spent part of the day here. We awoke to a driving rain -- too much to drive in! So we opted to stay here another day and try to find some indoor things to do. Well, by the time we finished our leisurely breakfast, it was actually SUNNY out! So off we went to Fort Erie, to visit the fort there and get the history.

It was a short drive -- probably less than 20 miles -- and a pretty drive. It didn't rain on our way, but it did get cloudy again. We went first to the Fort Erie History Museum in downtown Fort Erie. This museum is small, and dedicated to the memory of the small battle there which started Canada into its process of becoming a country.

We had to drive a bit further to get to the actual Fort Erie. This is a quite nicely restored stone fort with lots of authentic accoutrements of the day, including some fine cannons! While it rained during some of our tour, we also enjoyed a few dry minutes where the sky was gray, heavy, and threatening.

We drove back on up to Niagara Falls and parked at the Fallsview Casino. We enjoyed a walk around in the *smokefree* casino before hitting the Grand Buffet. It was... GRAND... and we feasted on many delicious foods.

Niagara Falls

We've had a fun few days, despite the weather. On Sunday, we went to church in London, Ontario. Jack did his research online, finding us a UCC church, and we ended up in a United Church of Canada! Their outlook is just like ours, though, so we found ourselves quite at home. Not only that, but the folks were very friendly.

After church, we hooked the car up and drove on up the road to Niagara Falls, Ontario. Having arrived at our campground (Holiday Trav-L-Park) at a reasonable time, we unhooked and took the car into town for a look-about. The clouds were thickening and we did get some rain as we looked at the falls. It was still magnificent, and we got enough dry moments to grab a photo or two.

We stopped at the Red Lobster, split an Admiral's Feast, and then finished off our evening at the DQ! Hey.. it was Sunday!

Today we went into town a bit earlier, parking at a $5 a day lot and then walking all over the place. We arrived at the Skylon tower in time for lunch, and it was great! We split a burger and a dish of penne Alfredo as we watched the city spin around below us. Thank goodness the weather held out and afforded us some pleasing views. Yes, it was cloudy and gray all day, but at least the rain was limited to sprinkles.

We came back home for some of Jack's soup which we'd frozen, and it was delish! Now it's pouring rain!

London, Ontario

Yes, we're heading EAST, on our way west! We decided that there are people and things that need to be visited before we go to AZ for our winter.

Tonight we're in London, Ontario. We've spent the past two days exploring London, visiting the Covent Market, which we loved, and the Museum London, which was... eh... not so great. It was exhibiting some contemporary art which we neither particularly enjoyed nor understood. I personally think that, when artists write about their work, they at least should have a *real* writer proofread for them.

We came home and enjoyed a fabulous dinner of chicken a la king on asiago cheese bread, fresh corn on the cob, and delicious date bars. Great day, even though the weather has been less-than-perfect, with excessive wind, cold (50!), and some rain. We are hoping that the rain gets by us and leaves us alone for awhile! :)

We're having fun and getting along well.

Lansing

Jack and I arrived in Ruby towing Fred (LOL) yesterday afternoon. We had worked till nearly 3pm getting my house and his house ready to go, getting our stuff ready to go, getting the RV cleaned out well, loading up, hooking up, and running some last-minute Big Rapids errands.

The drive was fun, with lovely scenery all the way. The trees are really showing their colors early and are quite beautiful right now here.

Today we went to the Michigan State University campus, drove around a bit, and then visited some museums. Our favorite was the Art Museum.

After a quick trip back here to the Cottonwood Campground to turn on the AC for Eddie, we headed back out, cameras in hand, this time to the State Capital. As soon as I get Photoshop installed on this new computer, I'll get started with posting my capital photos. :)

Rain in the Rapids

Yeah... and we're still here! Although we both worked like maniacs today, with me getting just about all of my things into the RV, we didn't make it out of town. I'm planning to sleep in it tonight, because all of my stuff is out there! Not sure what Jack's planning.

Still getting ready

Well... Tuesday's tomorrow! The goal is to leave tomorrow for our journey, but ... I'm hopeful that we are ready enough to make the break to get out of town. While Tuesday is the goal, there are no rules about how early we have to leave or how far we have to go!

I was hopeful that I'd have my computer all set up with my programs and files, but the Seagate, while it did work, has proven to be a slow way to migrate my files. I got a USB wire thing today and I'll try that, but, because this has not been done yet, I'll be dragging along BOTH computers. Sheesh. And, after a few days of the little mouse working perfectly on this new computer, this evening, it's not working at all.

The Big Rapids stuff is winding down. Today we did recycling from both our houses, and then went to Dianne's and took back the wood that didn't get used for her project. We went and got our kayaks from Harold's house and stored them. And we went to a party Harold had for the Tucson folks. Good fun!

Jack's done some nifty building projects in the past few days. He built me a knife block for my drawer, and it's neat! He made a support for the bed to make it more substantial, and he is working on a little headboard. It's just about done.

The RV and car have been serviced, the mail's been handled, the trash has been stopped at both of our houses. We've done some laundry, and have a bit more to do, including towels. We have yet to do all of the shoving of things into the RV, and that's really just about it.

New Computer

I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a new computer. The old one was blue-screening me repeatedly upon boot-up and it drove me crazy. It was also getting very slow and I thought it was just time, after 4 years (or maybe 3) to upgrade. And, after owning the thing for a couple of weeks, I finally came up with the time and energy to open it and give it a try.

My new machine is a Toshiba Satellite with Windows 7. While I have not noticed anything different about Windows 7, at least nothing that I like, I have noticed some new things about this computer, almost none of which I like, either.

First of all, the thing won't wake up from "sleep" mode. The screen lights up, with whatever I had on there last, but the pointer won't move. So I have to do a cold reboot. I know that this isn't good, but I don't know what to do about it.

Also, the touchpad is so fiddly that it's driving me nuts. I keep accidentally zooming the browser window. I wish that I knew of a way to lock its size at 100%.

And the buttons that I click are LOUD. Do I need to mention that this drives me nuts, too?

I have been religiously backing up my old computer with my Seagate Replica, so it should be easy to just plug the Seagate into this computer and get my stuff. But many of the folders don't move, or they move empty. And I can't tell if they really are in the Seagate or not. I have to investigate this further, but not today.

Things that I like make a shorter list. The computer does seem to be more "in touch" with the internet, losing its connection less frequently than the other one did. But that may just be a function of the weather. I'm using Verizon's MiFi card.

I rather like Toshiba's Bulletin Board program. I can sort of customize it with my own stuff, and I think that it could be fun and/or useful.

I am hopeful that I'll get used to it and come to like the computer.

I've been busy with many pursuits. Jack and I finished the porch project for Diane, and then built a set of magnificent herringbone steps for her back door. These are similar to the ones we made for Donna and Al, and for Annette and Steve's deck.

As we were finishing the job, Jack's brother Ken arrived. He and Jack stayed with me for a week. While the weather was mostly gray when it wasn't actually dumping rain in buckets, we had a good time, nevertheless. We went to the Art Fair on Labor Day, entertained other brother Doug and Debbie, and ate good food.

One of the special things that we ate was the peach pie that I made yesterday. Yummy!