Almost Heaven except for Irene

A quiet week but a remarkable week also. We moved to Belle Isle State Park, a lovely quiet area on the Northern Neck, One of the necks as the four Peninsulas separated by the great rivers of the James, York, Rappahannock and Potomac are called. It is an ex plantation. A plantation is one of those old estates like in Gone with the Wind that traditionally grew tobacco in the older days. These days it is sorghum and soya.

We were relaxing in the afternoon when all of a sudden the fifth wheel started a rockin and a rollin. We looked at each other and simultaneously said "earthquake". It lasted for about 20 secs. Turns out to have been centered about 30 miles away. The biggest Eastern Earthquake in a hundred years or so they say. Probably haven't lived in NZ or California!

The next day we went on a drive around Northern Neck to the quaint seaside village of Reedsville. Lovely merchant's house dotted along a smaller river leading to Chesapeake Bay. Skipjack yachts used to carry cargoes around the bay, line the river bank.




We wandered around the lovely trails in the park, many overlooking he Rappahannock River. All these rivers are HUGE, many miles wide where they meet the main bay as you can see below.




We were due to head up to Washington DC on Friday but Hurricane Irene forced us to evacuate Belle Isle State Park as the eye of the storm was due to pass right over it, so we moved on to just outside Washingtin where we though we would be safe. But alas that park was also closing so we decided to miss Washington for now and headed another 70 miles up into the Appalachian Mountains where we hid in the Shenandoah Valley until the storm passed on. It was not as bad as everyone thought it would be.

Today we moved again a few miles down the road to the Shenandoah River State Park where are camping down by the river in a lovely setting on the border of West Virginia. Amost Heaven as John Denver sang.




This afternoon we went for a long walk through the park and along the river bank where many Civil War battles were fought. The storm has passed and the skies are blue and the air very clear.




This week we will explore the Shenandoah River and the famous Skyline Drive before heading south on to the Blue Ridge Parkway that winds it way along the Blue Ridge Mountains for some 400 miles. Mountain Momma here we come.

Location:T-Bird Dr,Front Royal,United States

Chesapeake

This week we have been exploring the southern part of Chesapeake Bay. The bay is huge stretching some 300 km along one side and 20 km or so across. Say the size of Northland from Auckland. The rivers on the western side are huge. The James River must be 3 miles across and the other rivers like the York and the Potomac are also huge.

We stopped for 4 days on the eastern shore in southern Maryland, a part they call Delmarva. It is a peninsular comprising The State of Delaware and parts of Maryland and Virginia, hence the name. We stayed in Jane Island State Park, a beautiful park near the crab capital of the world in Crisfield.

We had a great spot just feet from the bay.





It is a quiet sleepy area, but there the waters teem with Blue Swimmer Crabs and the kids at the park spent hours with their chicken necks and nets catching lots of crabs on the jettys.

The sunsets were lovely as we faced west over the bay. It's too wide to see the other shore.





We didn't do very much except small trips to the town and other nearby villages to buy some crab meat for some delicious home made crab cakes. One day we went on a long kayak around the island. We stayed on the mainland and the island is separated by a small channel. There are numerous reed island and water trails to explore.





It was the nicest camping spot we had had anywhere. But alas it was time to head on, so we headed south down the peninsular and over the border in to Virginia. We reached the cape at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay and crossed the most impressive 18 mile bridge and tunnel spanning the entrance to the bay. Not once but twice the bridge dips into the water and dives into a tunnel under the bay allowing the huge aircraft carriers and battleships of the American Atlantic fleet based in Norfolk unrestricted access to the open sea.

When we reached the other side it was all smoggy which we put down to pollution but in fact it was smoke drifting from a huge fire in The Great Dismal Swamp. (great name!)

South of Chesapeake the climate was noticeably different. It was becoming sub tropical with lush greenery, tropical flowers and a hot sun. It is in fact the same degree of latitude north as Auckland is south (37 degrees) and it seemed very similar with the lushness and humidity.

We stopped the night in Williamsburg, heart of the Historic Triangle of the early settlers. When we arrived at the campground the ground start to shake and with a huge whoosh a fast train roared by just feet from where we were due to camp. We asked for a different spot so they put us on the other side of the campground just feet from a busy main road. So we checked out the next day and went to a lovely state park at the confluence of the Chicahominy river and the James River. Another quiet lovely spot.

Yesterday we visited a recreation on the site of the town of Williamsburg where they have people dressed as they would have been in 1699 and houses in that style.





To go in the houses costs $40 but to wander round costs nothing so we settled on the latter and saw recreations of famous events, sword fighting and pipe and band marches by British Soldiers.





Some of the buildings are very grand like the Governors Palace above and others much more modest.

In the evening we went to Captain Georges Seafood buffet and dined on all you could eat crab and shrimp amongst other delicacies.


That's an Alaskan King crab legs, and a Blue crab in the picture.
Williamsburg is a very pretty town and area, with lots of trees and parks and water everywhere. One of the top tourist destinations in the US.

Today we drove to Jamestown, home of the first English settlement in America. There were recreations of the original sailing ships that brought the first settlers to the country.




It was well presented if not very authentic. The original settlement has long since decayed and nothing remains of it, so recreations like the original fort are the only way to display what it was like.





This afternoon we have been to Yorktown scene of the famous last battle of the American war of Independence in which the British under General Cornwallis surrendered to the army of George Washington effectively ending the war. Not much to see now days but it has been well preserved.

This week we continue our circumnavigation of the Chesapeake and spend most of the week further North at The Belle Isle State Park. The weather continues fine and very hot.

Location:John Tyler Hwy,Williamsburg,United States

The Finger Lakes

We arrived in Ovid in the Finger Lakes, New York State after a long drive over the Adirondacks. There are many classical names in the Finger Lakes after an early surveyor. Names like Seneca, Romulus, Ovid, Aurelius, Ithaca. The lakes  are long and thin and spread out like the fingers on a hand- hence the name. Formed by retreating glaciers in the last ice-age dumping glacial rocks in the river valleys. For the past few months since we left Quebec we had become used to the countryside being soft rolling wooded hills or tall wooded mountains, but here in the Finger Lakes we arrived into fertile farmland and the centre of the Eastern USA wine district.

Lovely barns dot the countryside and we spent a day touring round Lakes Cayuga, Seneca, Skaneateles and Owasco.

Corning, home of Corning Glass is also nearby and we drove to their museum of glass and spent a day watching exhibits of the history of glass and seeing demonstrations of Glassblowing.

There were some lovely exhibits of modern day glass designs that took our eye. It was a lovely day and the museum is very well managed and easy to walk around with lots of demonstrations from optical fibre to smashing glass.

On the way back we stopped at Watkins Glen State Park and walked down a chasm following a narrow path carved into the sides of the walls. For a State Park it was fantastic. It was only 12000 years old so goodness knows what it will be like in another 12000 years.

There are 800 steps along the path so thank goodness we had read that there is a car park at the top and a shuttle bus at the bottom to take us back to our car. Watkins Glen was about to host its annual NASCAR car racing days when sports car race around the town. But the gorge was more than enough for u.

Next day we took the car in for its first service. It has done 9000 miles or 15000km on one oil change so that was excellent. We got a service special whereby the garage paid for the 10 qts of oil so that was a great saving. On the way home we called into Taughannock State Park where there was an another amazing waterfall – taller than Niagara but alas not as wide.

That afternoon we went wine tasting along the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail tasting some nice wines and some rather average ones. We discovered many different grape varieties developed at Cornell University which is situated nearby. Names like Pasta, Marechal Foch, Melody and Noiret.  Niceish.

Then it was time to keep heading south and after another long drive we arrived at The Artillery Ridge  Campground in Gettysburg, scene of the great Civil war battle and Lincoln’s famous address.

We were planning on spending a few days touring the area but alas fate played another card. I had been experiencing atrial fibrillation for some days now and it was getting worse, so we decided it was time to go to the ER at nearby Gettysburg Hospital. I was admitted very efficiently. I though they would be more interested in the colour of my credit card than the colour of my blood. But they didn’t wait to get those details and wheeled me into the ER room and I went through a series of ECGs, blood tests, X-Rays and examinations over the next few hours. The end result being that late that night I was discharged with a diagnosis of Hyperthyroidism, a condition that amongst other things can cause heart palpitations. I had to go back next day for more tests and eventually we agreed that we would treat it with some medication before leaving it to the specialists in NZ to sort out on our return.

I have been feeling better since the medication kicked in so here is hoping that they got it right as they admitted that they were not used to treating this condition. We have managed to tour the famous Gettysburg Battlefield in a marked automobile discovery route that takes you over the 48 square miles that the battle was fought in. It was very interesting see the sites of the various fights that made up the Battle of Gettysburg.

The picture show the view of the battlefield from Small Round Top being the Union lines with the Confederate Lines in the trees beyond. It will be 150 years since the battle in 2013 and all around the US there are commemorations happening at the scores of battle sites where fighting started after the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. We weren’t able to do as much as wanted. We had hoped to go to another famous battleground in Antietam but alas.

Tomorrow we hear south again and into Maryland where we are staying at a lovely State Park on the very edge of the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay at Crisfield. It’s the Crab capital of the world, so they say. So Maryland Crab Cakes here we come!

The Adirondacks

On our first day in the Adirondack Mountains we drove into the High Peaks region and drove up one of the highest mountains in the area called Whiteface Mountain. We parked near the top and took a lift in the heart of the mountain up 28 floors to the summit where we had panoramic views. Down below we could see the H shaped Lake Placid.

We drove down to the lake which hosted the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Winter Games. We couldn’t get to the lake edge as it is all private property but the town of Lake Placid was bustling and full of reminders of its Olympic heritage.

We stopped for a picnic on a smaller lake nearby, by a long pontoon and watched all the owners of holiday homes without road access cruise up to do their shopping.

Then on another day we walked into the Ausable Chasm, one of the oldest tourist spots in the States, but certainly a long way off the best. Expensive, with staff that saw visitors as fodder and not the basis of their pay. Still it was a nice walk from the Rainbow Falls where the chasm starts deeper into the gorge.

As chasms go it is pretty minor but on a hot day it was relief from the sun as we hiked along the paths fastened to the steep sides of the chasm with Ausable River tumbling over rocks below us. Most visitors then paid another $10 on top of the $16 they had paid already (all plus 10% taxes) and went on a short anaemic raft trip at the end of the chasm. We walked in peace along the rim and watched them float gently in the current below us.

Afterwards we went to a small museum that highlighted the local Underground Railroad, that escaped slaves used to escape to Canada (we are only 40 miles from the border here). It’s not a railroad and it’s not underground but a route with safe houses and kind helpers who passed the escapees on from one house to the next until they were safe in Canada where slavery had been outlawed in 1824.

Yesterday we took the ferry from New York State over Lake Champlain to Burlington in Vermont.  Burlington is the largest city in Vermont and nicely situated on Lake Champlain, which is the biggest fresh water lake in the USA other than the Great Lakes. About 100 miles long by 8 miles wide. It was a beautiful day.

Behind Burlington we could see the Green Mountains of Vermont and in the other direction the high peaks of the Adirondacks. It was the annual Festival of Fools in Burlington and free entertainment all over the place from slapstick to acrobats. We had a wood fired pizza for lunch at an outdoor cafe on the main street while listened to some slapstick comedians balance a goblet of wine on their heads. It was very hot.

This week we start heading South again with a four day visit to the Finger Lakes in South East New York State, and then onto Gettysburg in Pennsylvania to take part in the 150^th year commemoration of the start of the American Civil War in 1861.