Back to Blacksburg

After 9.5 weeks and 11, 463 miles we arrived back in Blacksburg.  I really can't say I am "back home" since Rick and I are not actually staying at our house.   Our friends were out of town and graciously allowed us stay at their house while we were in town for a few days.   Now we are in Durham with Lauren and Josh. We figured it is not fair to our house sitter to crash and disrupt her routine.

Our last 11 days on the road had us leaving family in Wyoming and recrossing the plains.  We also decided to take our time and not try to rush to Chicago.  The first night saw us in Kearney, Nebraska and we found a very nice park to take a walk with Kona before hitting the road the following morning. Good thing we had a nice relaxing walk to start the day, because driving across Iowa gave us a jarring headache.  200 and some miles of terrible road and my head bobbing like a bobble head doll made for a long day! It seems so short sighted for any state to decide that roads are not a priority.  I much rather pay more for gas and have the gas tax used to maintain the roads.  Iowa may have had fairly low gas prices, but the interstate was probably one of the worse stretch of road we experienced on our trip.
We spent the night in Davenport and once again found a surprising nice park in the morning to spend and hour or so.  Chicago was a short drive and we had another long walk once we got to our hotel located on the McDonald campus, right next door to Hamburger University. We had a nice dinner with Paul Daly and his wife Lisa...not at McDonald's. Notice I keep talking about walks, trying to keep that weight off is not easy when you are on the road.

We had decided since neither one of us had ever been to Niagara Falls and we were going to be fairly close this was our chance to see the falls.  We stayed at a lovely state park about an hour from the falls and was able to spend a couple of hours on the American side before heading to Cooperstown, NY. I decided I was tired of interstate driving so we took Hwy 20 for part of the way to Cooperstown.  We went through beautiful villages, picked up corn and tomatoes at farm stands and visited a winery near Geneva, NY.  For the next 3 nights we camped at Glimmerglass State Park outside of Cooperstown and although we had rain, we were able to enjoy ourselves.  We visited the Baseball Hall of Fame, Ommegang Brewery, Cooperstown Distillery, Fenimore Art Museum, a cider mill and another small winery. The highlight, when Rick's bridge fell out and I had to look at his "gap".  I kept calling him Elmer Fudd, because of his lisp...it was funny in a way, but he was pretty embarrassed people who see his gap.  Fortunately, it is now fixed.

We spent the last few days of our trip in Clayton, NY visiting long time friends Larry and Nancy Gustke.  We met Larry and Nancy in 1977 at Texas A&M University.  Larry and Rick were office mates, both working on a PhD.  We lived next door to each other for 3 years.   They were there when we had Nick, we celebrated holidays together, birthdays and we have stayed friends.  We see them often when we go to Durham to see Lauren and Josh since they live in NC during the winter, but they now summer in Clayton.  We had a good time seeing the Thousand Island area of NY.  It is so beautiful.  We visited the Antique Boat Museum, Nancy gives guided tours several days a week.  We took a boat ride on a wooden motor boat, visited Boldt Castle on Heart Island and even saw the operetta Pirates of Penzance at the renovated Clayton Opera House.

 Niagara Falls from the American side, Maid of the Mist on the river.  Love the rainbows created by the falls.  We decided to stay on the American side due to limited time.

 Kona was impressed with the falls and river

 Covered bridge at Glimmerglass State Park, oldest in NY and one of the oldest in the US.
This crosses Shadow Creek, which is mentioned in James Fenimore Leatherstocking tales.

 Yet another photo of Kona swimming.

 We visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.  I grew up in southern Ohio and a Cincinnati Reds fan.   In fact Rick lost a bet with me in 1976 when the Reds swept the Phillies and Yankees to win the NLCS and World Series.  Over the years I have lost interest in baseball, except for the occasional minor league game or going to a Rockies game if we are in Denver. I could not even tell you who is leading the various divisions.  But going to the Hall of Fame was fun and I especially liked the display from the Big Red Machine days.  This is Joe Morgan's glove, one of my favorite players and I was amazed at the size of his glove.

 Now we are in Clayton, NY and Nancy gave us a tour of the houseboat La Duchesse that was owned by the Boldts and then later the McNally family.

 This is the living room in the houseboat.  There were several needlepoint pillows with maps. (Rand McNally)

 Larry and Rick riding on the wooden speed boat.

 So this is the small craft section of the Antique Boat Museum.  The racing shell hanging from the ceiling was made by George Pocock.  I read about his racing shells in the fabulous book called Boys in the Boat.

 Nancy, Larry and Rick at the Boldt Castle on Heart Island

 A big ship was coming down the river.

 Boldt Castle.  Interesting story about how he was having the castle built for his wife and she died toward the end of construction. He had the workers leave the construction site, so it was never completely finished or furnished.  It is being renovated and they are doing a very nice job.

This is taken from the front yard of Larry and Nancy's cottage.  Love the sailboat and the sky.

Now we are about to depart on our next adventure, we leave for Europe in a matter of days.  We are in Durham with Lauren and Josh this week, taking care of last minute things, helping them with their new house and I have a new camera to learn to use.  I will post some photos before I go from the new camera.