We have achieved our two goals for this trip, simple as they may be.  That was to get all the way to Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, and to feel the butter drip down our fingers as we ate fresh lobster at the pound.  Mission accomplished!  But it’s time to make a beeline for home and see our family there.  We will be pounding long days on the highway and will be too tired to even keep this journal going.  Thanks for coming along and being electronic passengers with us.  This United States of America is so beautiful that it takes our breath away at times.  We saw more things on this trip than ever before; it has been a terrific trip and well worth the time and expense.  We moved with ease to and through all these destinations and saw things we would never have been able to see except by camping. 

Millions of Americans are doing this all the time (some fulltime), and it’s available to everyone, from Harleys to popup campers, to fifth wheels to motor homes.  There is something affordable and available to everyone, and we love to see the families camping, because the kids are the next generation of campers in this beautiful country.  We had a kiddie playground right outside our window at the last campground, and we listened as they used their imaginations on two play structures that were boats.  They had their rubber knives and plastic guns, and they were capturing pirates on the way to China.  We were quite entertained by their many adventures even in the rain.  Great memories were being made in a safe and fun environment while their parents enjoyed sitting around the campfire, then the kids could run back for s’mores.  The fires burn long into the night at these campgrounds, and the lifestyle is one that has been going on since communities gathered around fires to sing, hug, tell stories, and pass traditions down to their kids.  It’s still going on in America, and it’s a wonderful thing. So for now, we say happy camping and have a wonderful summer.  We’ll see you next time when we open up the journal to more travel adventures on this most beautiful nation on God’s green earth!

An average difference in temperature of only nine degrees meant the difference between 10,000 feet of ice and today’s average temperatures!  In the past 2400 years, some of the best periods of civilizations have corresponded to the warmer periods.  The Golden Age of Greece, the height of the Romans, the Cathedral era in Europe, etc., were periods of warmer average temperatures.  The colder periods drove the Vikings south and put us into the darker ages.   It’s incredible to see the correlation between climate and events that affected the rise and fall of civilizations.  I had never connected those dots as a significant factor in history.  It’s also interesting that cultural achievements were highest during global warming trends!

So, why are we talking about climate change in the Adirondacks?  Because it’s here that scientists can read climate change in one of the few remaining land masses that were part of a one time, pre-historic, massive continent.  Beluga whales once swam in these waters.  All of this was in the exhibits in The Wild Center, plus several beautiful videos.  One is so beautiful and moving, it brings tears to some peoples’ eyes.  It’s a series of beautiful still shots by an artist accompanied by specially composed music, and it’s a stunning combination of sight and sound.  Some of the pictures were taken from the same spot showing the different seasons, something we have never seen before.  Even the way they designed this museum of natural history to fit into the environment tells the story of this pristine area.  This area is full of streams that support an almost infinite variety of life, as well as the many lakes, ponds, springs, rills, and swamps.  It’s an amazing area, similar in idyllic beauty to Yellowstone Park, and we would love to come back here some day and stay for a summer and watch the colors change at the end of the summer.  The rivers look like they were designed for canoes.  All in all, this is one of the prettiest areas we have ever seen.  Like a favorite summer drink, the Adirondacks are wet, wild, and wonderful!

After seeing the village and lake, we headed for some more scenic driving and ended up at the entrance to the Whiteface Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway.  It’s an eight mile climb to the peak of Whiteface Mountain, which we drove, and and then it’s a choice between climbing another 300 feet up a narrow rocky trail with sheer vertical drops on both sides or an elevator.  Jan chose the path, and I chose the elevator.  We met at the top, took pictures of the 360 degree view, and waited to take the elevator down.  Then it got interesting.  After we crowded into the elevator, we had to step back out after it malfunctioned and jumped its track!  People stood around for a while, but the men were no elevator experts, and couldn’t fix it, so, eventually, most of the people braced themselves for the scary descent except for eight of us, including a woman in a wheelchair.  Well, eventually four more descended on the path, holding hands and scared to death, while Jan and I waited with the woman in the wheelchair and her companion to see what would happen.  It was starting to get toward dusk, and the park was past closing time. 

The elevator guys were having no luck.  Finally, after listening to their situation, I made a suggestion they shut off all the power and reset whatever.  They said they had already done that but would try again, and this time it worked!  (I’m sure it needed to cool down after running all day, and we thought it probably had an electronic reset.)  So, we were the last ones do get down, and we beat the four who finally braved the walk down.  They were still up there, and men were hurrying up to see if they were okay.  My mother had called earlier, and we had discussed my birth day 63 years ago.  She said I was almost born in the elevator.  So, I have finally figured it out.  I need to stay away from elevators of all kinds on my birthday! 

Canoes, kayaks and camps decorate the beautiful rivers here.  The classic image here in the Adirondacks is of canoes and kayaks on these idyllically scenic rivers, while the cabins and cottages are called “camps.”  The rivers are clear, and one can see the bottoms of the shallow rivers all the way across.  The beautiful birch, spruce, and hemlock trees are reflected in these rivers where men are fly fishing and canoes drift lazily downstream.

We saw the small towns and country roads by taking Hwy 2, and Vermont has to be one of our most beautiful states.  Driving through the small towns is like seeing a Norman Rockwell painting come to life.  It is our 49th state in population, and even the capitol of Montpelier is a small town nestled into the side of the green hills.  It is the Green Mountain State.  The wind is whipping up on Lake Champlain, but the breeze feels good on a humid evening.  This evening we had dinner with a childhood friend of mine, whom I haven’t seen for about 46 years.  Ken and his wife, Lee, moved to Vermont to get away from it all right after college, and they are now comfortably retired on a forty acre farm which they carved out of the wilderness.  It was just a kick to see my old childhood friend with whom I had many interesting adventures.  We were young, mischievous, and usually in trouble, but we had great times in the suburbs of Detroit in the early 1960’s.  It’s an amazing experience to connect again after 46 years and fill in the blanks of our lives.  It was a great dinner at a resort on the shores of Lake Champlain and great fun to talk about our lives.

For several months I have been trying to figure out the best way around Lake Champlain, and there is a twelve minute ferry ride several miles from here that takes us straight across, and it’s RV friendly.  Lake Champlain is a gorgeous body of fresh water with world class fishing.  My friend here does a lot of water and ice boarding on the lake and makes his own boards.  Tomorrow we are headed into the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York.  We plan to camp near Lake Placid for a couple nights before driving on west through this giant state park. 

I think we probably hit the two most popular areas in New Hampshire in our two days here, the Auto Road to the top of Mt. Washington, and the Kancamagus Highway.  We will be leaving New Hampshire and taking Highway 2 into Vermont tomorrow, driving through Montpelier to Waterbury (Ben and Jerry’s here we come), and then on to the Burlington area where we’ll camp on Grand Isle in Lake Champlain.

Can you imagine driving up 5,000 feet at fifteen miles per hour on a lane where you need to stop at times to let the other car through and with sheer dropoffs for thousands of feet on either side?  Forget Afghanistan, we have Mt. Washington!  The summit is at 6288 feet, and the winds there have been measured at 231 mph!  The car rocked back and forth in the wind as we inched along, just inches from the side from which there would be no return!  I’m not exaggerating!  It was a white knuckle ride up.  The wind there was roaring at 65 mph, and the summit was clouded over, and the temperature was 36 and felt like about 10 above zero.  It is the highest peak in the northeast U.S.  We were completely relaxed on the way back down, because once the unknown is known, the fear vanishes, and it’s a lot of fun.  Jan took a lot of photos.  We have been on some great mountain one-laners, like “Going to the Sun” in Glacier National Park, but this drive tops them all as far as I’m concerned.