Travels

Boston

Steph

I was looking forward to Boston!! One of my cousins lives there and I was overdue for some Courtney time! And I remember enjoying the Freedom Trail. We did that on a family trip when I was in middle school I think.

We have been running like crazy and are starting to wear out, so I was actually happy it was going to rain our first full day in Boston. The trip from NYC was long – I’m not even driving and I was worn out. I needed to tackle the laundry and get groceries. Turns out they are not the same direction from Wompatuck State Park. So that was my afternoon. But we all enjoyed a “day off.” It’s amazing how much work site seeing is! 😉

I was so excited to spend the evening with cousin Courtney and her husband Ty at their cute house!It was definitely the best part of Boston! I wish we could have hung out more, but I’m soooo thankful we got there before they had to leave for their trips! Ty made us an amazing Taco Tuesday spread! Court made us the yummiest strawberry rhubarb crisp – yumm!! A big taste of KS right there! And I got 2 more loads of laundry done! That was the most fun I’ve had doing laundry in the last 4+ months! 🙂 The kids were in heaven – they got to see Court and Ty, play with 2 dogs and watch TV! The only part we did wrong? – we didn’t get a pic with Ty!! Grrrr – next time!

The kids loved the train rides in and out of the city. Huck covers all of that very well in his posts.

The Freedom Trail was mostly fun. Since we are sloooowing down and we were staying quite a ways out of Boston (but still the closest possible in an RV) we decided to do the Freedom Trail over the course of 2 days instead of cramming it into one long day. It worked for us!

We were disappointed by a couple of things. 1. Because of graduations, etc. we couldn’t see the big main hall in Fanueil Hall. That was very disappointing. And because we weren’t there on a weekend there weren’t the colonial characters out and about that we had expected. Oh well. The Paul Revere House was of course the highlight for that day.

The second day we started up at the Old North Church. We had good timing and a good time there! We just happened to be there when a volunteer was giving a presentation. He did a great job and added facts that we would have missed otherwise. At the Battle of Bunker Hill we climbed up to the top of the Monument. We also got a private presentation as a school group didn’t show up on time, so the ranger talked to us instead. This was super helpful as we needed to get going over to the USS Constitution and get home early to pick up Ava’s new leg from the UPS Store. We enjoyed the USS Constitution. Dacen really wanted to tour the WWII Destroyer as well, but we had already toured one in Texas and we needed to get going.

The only other thing I really wish we had done was go to the Charlesbank Park and Esplanade. Well, I guess there is always next time! I think I need to go visit my cousin sooner rather than later! 🙂

Leg sling, dump disaster and new records

Huck

It was a perfect day for driving.  We were laying down the miles singing some songs together, reading together and laughing at each other’s jokes when I look in the mirror and see an epic display of sparks spraying from the trailer.  Parts start ripping off the side and leaving a trail of debris behind.  I’m putting everything I can into the brake and it won’t stop.  Then I woke up!!  That was the dream I had the night we moved from Phillie to NYC.  You see, Ava’s leg was broke.  Basically there is a threaded part that stripped out.  It still had a little bite but not much.  So there was nothing really to hold the leg in position….down or up.  So when hitched up the leg could just drop out to the ground and start dragging and that is exactly where my subconscience went in that dream.  How we made it from Philadelphia to NYC on those bumpy roads without that actually happening…well, had to be an angel holding the leg up the whole way.

Our time in NYC was up and with a long day ahead of us we wanted to get on the road by 10:00 which meant we should be hooked up by 9:30 and heading to the dump station.  And we were on track to do that but retracting Ava’s leg revealed an issue!  The exact issue I had dreamed about.   Fortunately, when we retracted the good leg Ava’s bad leg just continued to hang down like a sad broken leg should.  I got some cord and fashioned a sling for her and all this set us back about 30 minutes.

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The Big Pear

Huck

I already titled a post The Big Apple so I used a relative of the apple for this post.  Today the target was the Empire State Building.   The rain was gone and the forecast was clear skies and sunny!  We walked down to the subway station, got our tickets (again, one at a time) and hopped on for a ride to 33rd street station.  For a Sunday morning I guess I was expecting the subway to not be very busy…I guessed wrong.
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Neck Cramps

Caden

I don’t know about you, but I really thought that New York would have more traffic and people but maybe not. I can only count a few worms in the big apple. One was the subway system pay machines. We couldn’t pay for more than one ticket at a time which for a family of five was annoying and the credit card slots weren’t working. Also the campground we stayed at was over $100.00 a night and was pretty much a parking lot for RVs. At least we had a view of the statue of Liberty. Oh yeah, Lady Liberty. (She needs a name. Someone give her a name.) Let’s call her… Ima. Ima Green Statue. She was even more awesome from a long way away than I thought. Then when we got closer Ima looked enormous. Ellis island was also bigger than I thought. I thought that the immigrants just stood in a line, but no, they go through the whole process of- well, go check out Dacen’s post. He probably has a ten page essay on it. Those islands were fun. We took the ferry back and guess what we saw? A prezel stand. And Mom had a hankerin’ for one so we split a few so we could say we ate a New York prezel. Then we meandered around, saw some monuments, (I’ve had enough o’  those to last me a lifetime) we saw a church that played a part in the post 9/11 cleanup. That was it for the day so we headed home and crashed- not the subway, into our beds. The next day we headed out and went to the top of the empire state building. The veiw was amazing. After that we went to Times Square. I liked times square the most because I could watch the endless flows of people and the ads and commercials which is really the only way I see commercials.

Caden’s friend Bob: Caden have you seen the commercial-

Caden: No.

Bob: How about the one-

Caden: No

Bob: Maybe the one with-

Caden: YES!

Bob: Really!?

Caden: No.

Mom, Dacen, and I walked to Rockefeller Center. We saw so many TV places like SNL, TTS, TTS, (that’s the tonight show, and then today show.) We saw where they put the Christmas tree and where the ice rink goes. Then we wrapped it up (not the tree) and went home. That night we went to a place to see the skyline all lit up. It was amazing! Next morning it’s off to Boston Massa-a-a-chusetts! Bless me!

Over and out,

Caden

The Big Apple

Huck

I once had a business trip to New Jersey and had planned to go to New York City one evening to explore, but the colleague I was visiting talk me out of it saying it was too crazy and dangerous.  I should have went.  Well, now is my chance and I get to go with my whole family!

I had read about the Liberty Harbor RV Park long before we even left on our trip so I was pretty well prepared for the prices and that it was more of a parking lot than a park.  The reviews are all pretty bad.  But the few decent reviews say its all about the location.  I think it was good that I read so many bad reviews as it set my expectations really low.  But it wasn’t so bad.  Absolutely nothing fancy about the place at all and the only green at the RV “park” were a few pads of astro turf for tent campers.  But it had what we needed: electric, water and a dump station.  The staff was nice, helpful and quickly took care of us by finding a place to park the truck since it didn’t fit in our site.  We had nice French speaking neighbors from Quebec who had a dog, Pica, that the kids adored and they also shared with us a little tidbit on a walking path out to a nice view of Manhattan.  I thought for sure it would be hard to sleep with all the city noise but it was quiet.  With a nice nights sleep under our belt, let’s go see the sites!
Liberty Harbor RV Park(inglot)
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In a New York State of Mind

Steph

I was excited to get to The Big Apple! I remember our trip when I was around Dacen’s age. My grandparents lived in Queens – Astoria, NY. I loved the escalators, seeing the fountain where the dancers from Fame did their twirls across the plaza, watching the Nutcracker Ballet, riding the ferry by the Statue of Liberty (she was closed for repairs) and eating a pretzel from a street vendor. I wonder what will stand out to them years from now?

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Ava breaks a leg

Huck

Our stay in Philadelphia was short but we had reservations at Liberty Harbor in Jersey City for our NYC visit so we had to move on.  We were all packed up and were just raising the front end of Ava with the landing gear to get her hitched up to the Beast when Caden stopped and said, “Uh….Papa….its making that weird sound again”.  The weird sound he was referring to was first heard all the way back in Fort Davis TX when we’d sheared a pin off the shaft that runs to the follow leg of the landing gear.  I opened the hatch to check the pins and found them in tact.  But to be safe I decided to crank Ava up by hand again.  I had only made a couple of revolutions with the crank when CLUNK…Ava’s right leg gives out and the whole camper drops several inches on that side.  Caden assessed the situation correctly, “hmmmm, that doesn’t seem good”.
Yup...that's bad!

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Enrique

Huck

While we were in Philadelphia Steph and the kids spent some time in the Ben Franklin museum.  I found a shaded bench and took a little time to get some work done.  While I was working an older gentleman in a suit came over and asked if I would share the bench.  “Of course!”  I told him and moved all our backpacks and water bottle out of the way so he could sit.  He parked his camera bag and cane down next to himself to “give the legs a little rest”.  I could tell Enrique was attending a conference as he had his name badge hanging on a lanyard around his neck.

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Phillie in a day

Huck

Our buddy Anthony who we met back in Shenendoah National Park had emailed us a recommendation for Timberlane Campground in New Jersey but just 30 minutes from Philadelphia.  So we made a reservation for 2 nights as a basecamp for a full day to explore Phillie.  The campground was nice and quiet and Brielle found two girls, Naomi and Kaylin, about her age who she played with every free moment we had at home.  These two sisters raced BMX bikes and so Brielle raced around the campground with them on her pretty pink bike and princess helmet.
Naomi, Brielle and Kaylin
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