Dateline August 25, 2011, Family Visits and Maine
We arrived in Pittsburgh from Indiana for a visit with our son James and his beautiful fiancée Mary Albin. First up was John and James going to the store to get a trap for our mouse. Yes, a mouse had jumped on board somewhere in the Midwest, we think Michigan. They came back with sticky paper rather than a traditional trap, and we set it up in the Roadtrek.
We had a wonderful afternoon and evening with them, drinking some wine and listening to their plans for the wedding. Chef James was in charge of dinner and made shrimp and beef shish kabobs that were terrific. Who would have guessed he could cook. They've done a great job on the house and have a never-ending list of more improvements ahead. Mary told us all about her job as a project manager for nuclear plants at Westinghouse. It was fascinating to hear about the small-footprint reactors they are developing as a possible replacement for coal plants. Very promising work.
The next morning we found that the mouse had almost been caught but had escaped, holding on to an electric cord to pull itself out of the sticky stuff. So off we went to find a proper trap.
We met James and Mary for breakfast at the Original Pancake House. We said our goodbyes, knowing we'd see them on Long Island over Labor Day weekend, and headed toward Clinton, New York, and the Thousand Islands.
We stopped that evening at Watkins Glen and watched the wave of RVs rolling in for the NASCAR race over the weekend. Lucky for us it was Wednesday night, because the KOA was fully booked starting Thursday. In the middle of the night we heard a SNAP, knew it had to be the mouse, but decided to deal with it in the morning.
Victory.
The next morning we drove on to Clinton, New York, where Janice's father grew up and where her cousin Bobbie still lives. We spent a few hours with Bobbie, catching up on both our families and pulling out stories from when Janice was a kid up here. The one that got the most laughter was about Bobbie's father's train collection in the attic, and how he had put a hole in the roof so the train could run out onto the roof and come back in. Wonderful memories for them both.
When we head up north, Clinton is a must-stop.
John had never seen the Saint Lawrence River, so we made for the Thousand Islands on the Canadian border. There were a few golf courses up there, of course we played one, and the weather was sensational. From there we drove to Massena, New York, and pulled into the Massena RV Park, a real pleasure. We met several couples from Canada and shared drinks after a good steak dinner on the grill. One fellow from Ontario suggested we play Potsdam Country Club about twenty miles away, which we did and enjoyed thoroughly.
Janice's brother Steve and his wife Marilyn met us at the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino for dinner and a few hours at the tables. It was Elvis Weekend. All the music was Elvis, and eight Elvis impersonators walked the rooms singing his songs. We arrived late and apparently missed the moment when a group of Elvises parachuted into the parking lot. Our apologies to everyone who has enjoyed Janice's photos through this trip; there are no Elvis pictures.
The following morning Steve followed us down to Long Lake to spend the day and evening with Steve's daughter Kim, her husband Tony, and the two lovely little girls, excuse us, young ladies, Stella and Daphne.
Fun was had by all. The girls fished with Daddy, the rest of us enjoyed a little (ha) rum and wine. A lot of pictures got taken. You can tell they are part of the Otis/Roberts clan. The ears.
In the morning we left with Steve and Marilyn to head back toward their home near Burlington, Vermont. We stopped for lunch in Saranac Lake at a place totally off the beaten path called The Meeting Place. We use Yelp to find these out-of-the-way gems. We thank John's sister-in-law Cathy Wilson every time we use it. If you haven't tried Yelp, please do. We had Polish sausage sandwiches and a couple of Reubens. The Reubens were better than the ones at the Carnegie Deli in New York City.
Back to Steve and Marilyn's for a few days, with the obligatory round at Steve's home course, Kwiniaska, in Shelburne. We've always loved that course.
After golf we walked around the center of Burlington and had burgers at one of the local taverns. The street entertainment was a lot of fun.
In the morning we said our goodbyes, twelve hours short of the fish rule, and headed for New Hampshire.
With the full day ahead of us we drove to Eastman Golf Links, where Janice used to play with her parents. We couldn't get on, so we made a reservation for 9:15 the next morning. Driving around we found a great cow-pasture course with a reasonable fee and played that instead. It was early afternoon so we drove on to Lake Sunapee, where Janice's parents had lived, and had a few beers at the Anchorage Restaurant overlooking the lake.
From there we went to the Eastman Cemetery for a few quiet moments with Janice's parents, Stanley and Jeanne. The tradition is to have a martini with them and salute them with our love.
There aren't many RV parks in the area, so we drove back to White River Junction for a hamburger and a good night's sleep. The round at Eastman the next morning was a pleasure. We were paired with a local couple, both retired from the Veterans Administration. The high point of all the places we visited this summer has been the wonderful people we have met. With the golf behind us we drove down to see Janice's sister Connie (ConCon) and her husband Lee in Derry. Lee's eighty-nine-year-old mother Doris was visiting from Florida, so it was a pleasure to see her again.
We set the RV up next to the house and settled in for a great weekend. On Saturday we visited Lee's cousins, which led to our now-annual stop at Park Lunch in Newburyport, Massachusetts, for fried clams and scallops. Magnificent, and not to be discussed with your doctor.
Connie works for one of the local GMC dealers, and we told her about the five months of bug splatter on the Roadtrek that we'd been dreading scrubbing off. Anyone on the road for long stretches knows the elbow grease that takes.
ConCon said no sweat. She brought some product back from the dealer. We sprayed the front of the RV with water, then the product, then more water with a light brushing, and the bugs all came off. A job we'd budgeted five hours for was done in the normal wash time. We're trying to figure out how to buy this product in something smaller than a 55-gallon drum. When we know, we'll pass it along.
Monday we played a fun round with Lee and Connie at the local course in town, said our goodbyes, and took off Tuesday morning for a few days in Maine.
We took a leisurely drive up the coast of New Hampshire and into Maine to Kennebunkport. The shoreline is sensational. We started looking for an RV park and settled into Sea-vu, where we stayed two nights.
Wednesday morning, an early start back into Kennebunkport. We drove around the beach area to Walker's Point, the home of George H.W. Bush, the 41st president.
What a beautiful home. It was fun seeing the boat that appears in so many pictures of him going out to fish. There is an Episcopal Church just down the beach from the house, with a large lawn that runs to the ocean. That lawn is the landing spot when he does his birthday skydive. The most recent was his 85th.
Back into Kennebunkport to park and walk the town. Park an RV, even a small one? No way. The town isn't set up for it, don't bother. We had a twilight tee time at the Cape Arundel Golf Club. They let us park.
Cape Arundel Golf Club was founded in 1896, when there were only 74 golf clubs in the entire country. The course is a wonderful links-style layout and a pleasure to play. George H.W. Bush is a member. The list of golfers who've played the course includes Nixon and Clinton, the Bushes, and a long roster of pros: Francis Ouimet, Snead, Palmer, Couples, Love, Leonard, Toms, Norman, and Phil Mickelson, who holds the course record at 60, nine under par. The course has also seen Babe Ruth, Luis Tiant, and Roger Clemens come through. Golf course history is always a fun part of the game.
The beauty of the course was caught as the sun was setting over the first hole.
We drove over to Wells Beach where a nice guy in charge of a local parking area let us park, even though we were technically supposed to drive to the end of the beach. We walked down the beach. How beautiful.
Janice was looking for more animals to photograph. Lo and behold, a gull obliged.
Thursday morning we drove toward Boston, following the coast through New Hampshire. The homes and the beaches were spectacular. We stopped in Rockport, Massachusetts, another beautiful old fishing village, and bought clams and a three-pound cooked lobster for dinner that night when we camped in Plymouth.
Wonderful dinner at the campsite with a nice bottle of wine. We started laughing about the fact that a small storm called Irene was supposed to be making its way up toward North Carolina and, by reports, was headed straight for Boston. Here we were, the experienced Florida hurricane couple who got hit once in Fort Lauderdale, all the way up in New England and worrying about a storm.
Friday morning we headed out to Cape Cod for the weekend with Janice's Uncle Bill, Jeanne's brother, and Aunt Margaret at their home in Harwich.
A lovely evening with them. Saturday morning we played golf with Uncle Bill at Cranberry Golf Course in their town of Harwich. We walked the course. The thrill of the day was Uncle Bill, at age 84, shooting 5 shots over his age. What a round. Bill and Margaret took us for a late lunch at the Outer Bar and Grille at the Wequassett Resort. Fantastic lobster rolls, the largest we've ever seen.
Back to the house. The winds were picking up for Irene. We checked the cone of the storm and it had shifted toward western Massachusetts, with only one to two inches of rain now forecast for Cape Cod. The house lost power about 7:30 Saturday evening. We woke up Sunday to a lot of wind but very little rain. The bulk of the storm had passed. No branches on the RV. We had dodged it.
We headed out to the beach to see the storm. Beautiful sights. A few trees down. The power still out, of course. That evening we ate at a local pizza place. Excellent food. As always, a wonderful visit with Bill and Margaret. Time to move on.
Off to visit with John's family. More to come.
