Our Road Trips

7/4/2015

6/26/2015

The next morning, we broke camp and started our drive to Augusta, NJ for the Rock, Ribs & Ridges music festival. We are also meeting a group of friends from our cruises and also 3 of the couples we went to Alaska with last summer…should be a heck of a fun weekend, as long as the weather holds. It is about a 4 hour drive, so we broke it in half and had sandwiches & a break along the way. The traffic was pretty light until we got onto I-287 & I-80. But we made it about 4 and got set up next to Chance & Terry Eaton from Phoenix. They were having problems with both their truck and electric, so we are thankful. They towed away their truck and an electrician found the issues with their electric, so all is well until Monday. Also, Bud & Helen Jensen from Lansing, NY and their friends Mary Ellen & Ray Frederick, and Bill Beggs & Pat Chinn from Baltimore as well as about 50 friends from Simpleman Cruises were there, about 20 of which were camping near us, so it was going to be a heck of a fun weekend. The fun started early Friday evening with an acoustic set by Stolen Rhodes for just the campers…then back to the campground for partying until after 1 am. The guys from Stolen Rhodes even joined in.

Sat morning was visiting and getting ready for the first full day of music. The music started about noon and went all afternoon…Farmer Phil Band, Pat Travers Band, Preacher Stone, Blue Oyster Cult, & Lou Gramm (voice of Foreigner). It rained all afternoon, but our foresight made it a fun day, we had reserved a table for 10 inside a tent close to the stage. So while a lot of people were having a miserable day, we were sitting at a table with waitress service for both beer & food and dry as a bone…nice. The music was great, the company great, plenty of beer & 2 included BBQ dinners from the BBQ outfits at the show…what a great day!! After the music died, we all made our way back to camp and an evening of partying with our camp frynds and even a couple of the band members. It was a day to remember.

Sunday morning broke brighter, no rain but still cloudy. We ate some breakfast and got ready for day 2. Because it wasn’t raining, they had a table set up for us outside the tent…J. The music started late because the first band came an hour late. But they were pretty good, so the crowd got into the music and that it wasn’t raining, the day went well…Gary Douglas Band, Stolen Rhodes, Artimus Pyle Band, Marshall Tucker Band, and Charlie Daniels Band. Stolen Rhodes had a great set and got the crowd jumping…Artimus Pyle kept the crowd on their feet the whole set…it was a very fun afternoon. The rain held off all afternoon until we were walking back to the camper. We sat and talked for a couple of hours and as folks called it a night, Barb & I moved to the next party. We finally went to bed about 1 am and got some sleep…it was an amazingly fun weekend.

Monday morning, the sun is out and it is time to say our goodbyes. We have had a great time reacquainting with old friends and making new ones. We are headed to Vermont, Bud & Helen to NY, Bill & Pat to Baltimore, & Chance & Terry are staying put and waiting for their truck to get a new transmission…yikes $$$!! Our drive to Vermont was fine until the last mile, made a wrong turn and had to unhook the car & turn around…not good. But we got it done and pulled into Winhall Brook Army Corps of Engineers Park in Jamaica, VT. We will be here for 8 nights with a rushing brook that makes enough noise for me to hear, but with no TV or Internet…may do more traveling than we planned. It is July 4^th weekend coming up, this place and everywhere else will be full…we will play it by ear. Stay tuned.

Steve & Barb Larson

Chance's weekend off to a bad start

Electrical problems too

Karen & Jerry are going to try to sleep in a tent? Maybe!

Our group from our Alaska trip telling stories

Add in a bunch from our cruises...lots of friends there

Stolen Rhodes gave us an acoustic private concert

Then it was party time back at the campground

Our table inside the tent had a special sign

Our Alaska group nice & dry

Farmer Phil Band

Barb got to meet Pat Travers

Preacher Stone in the rain

Blue Oyster Cult

Lou Gramm (voice of Foreigner)

Jeremy Graham playing for us in one of the campers

Gary Douglas Band

Stolen Rhodes put on a great show

Love me some Sax music

Giving it his all...crowd loving it

Girls having a ball

Doug Gray of the Marshall Tucker Band

Charlie Daniels Band

Charlie giving it heck at 79 years old

The sun even tried to peak out...almost made it

7/4/2015

The next morning we broke camp and headed north, Clarksboro, NJ our destination. We arrived at the Timberline Campground about 12, $51 dollars poorer after the tolls between south Baltimore & Clarksboro. The same storm that went through DC on Tuesday evening had spawned tornadoes here, lots of trees down, power poles broken, campers damaged, but nobody hurt. We hooked up our camper, thankful we had electricity, and got ready to drive into Philadelphia. We left at 330 and the drive was actually easier than we anticipated and found our parking spot very easily. There are 3 venues (Eagles, Phillies, 76ers, Flyers & Soul) in one area and they share parking, so there is plenty. We walked over to Xfinity Live close by and sat at the bar in the PBR and had cool beers & nachos and waited for our friends to arrive and the Rush concert. Helge Hagen & his friend Per-Jan Stervik form Norway and Clare & Joe DiPhillipo (Frynds from Simpleman cruises) arrived at 530 and we tried to talk, but the place had filled up and gotten quite noisy. About 10 to 7, we left for our walk across the parking lots to our seats in the Wells Fargo Center…great seats. Rush came on at 735 and played until 9, took a 25 minute break and came back and played until almost 11…great show, great band. We got back to the camper about midnight.

Rush are talking about quitting, so this may be our last opportunity to see them, glad we made the effort. A lot of the bands from our era are getting ready to quit…that point in their lives. We saw YES a little over a year ago, the bass player died this past Friday, you just never know. We might be old, but we have seen a lot of really great bands. And our trip has just begun…stay tuned, more to come.

Steve & Barb Larson

Key Bridge on I-695 SE Baltimore

Bridge over the Delaware River

Some of the tornado damage in Clarksboro, NJ

Philadelphia

Two kids having a very fun time

The Vikings from Norway have arrived

Rush at the Wells Fargo Center...great show!

7/4/2015

We have been very busy since we left home on June 18. We have also had a lot of fun. I have been writing the dialogue but our poor Wi-Fi has made it hard. We are in Bernardston, Ma dealing with more rain, so this is a great opportunity to catch up on this.

We left home on June 18 after spending the evening before celebrating our son Mark’s 40^th B-day with the family at Mellow Mushroom in Orlando…guess that’s a sign we aren’t really the kids we feel like. It was a fun evening and the pizza was great. We also got a good picture of the 3 generations that participated in the Rolling Stones concert 5 days earlier.

We left around noon and made it as far as Santee, SC and stopped at Palmetto Shores RV Resort on Lake Marion, a reservoir behind the Santee Dam. It is called a Resort for reasons we couldn’t quite figure out, but we guessed that the owners call it that so they can charge big prices, $46 for a pull thru with 50 amps and no cable, on a Thursday night…yikes! We did a walk around, took a few pictures and went back to the camper…not a ‘resort’ in our eyes, just a place to sleep for the night. Moving on!!

The next morning we were back on the road fairly early so we missed morning traffic through Richmond, VA and afternoon traffic in DC. I-95 was not real busy so the drive wasn’t too bad. The GPS took us right through the heart of DC, so we saw all the monuments, The Capitol, Nationals Park & RFK Stadium from the road. Never been that way before so it was sort of fun, given that traffic was pretty light. We arrived in College Park at the Cherry Hill CG, nice park close to everything in DC. We had a pull through, all hook-ups including WI-FI and cable that is actually pretty good. It is only $18/night more than the joint we were the night before…crazy. We got a shower and drove to my cousin’s place 8 miles south into DC. We visited a bit and then John drove us to Bethesda, MD to the Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club and an evening of great food, a few bottles of wine & 2 sets of music by Daryl Davis Band and singing by Angela Hill. Very fun evening and the perfect way to start our trip out. We went back to John & Bev’s after and had some snacks, etc. and talked…we got back to the camper at 1 AM. Very fun evening. John & Bev are such great people to visit with…we really enjoy those folks.

The next morning we drove west to Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport, part of the Smithsonian system. The Space Shuttle Discovery and lots of other cool planes are displayed there. It was a fun visit. We stopped for lunch on our way back to DC via I-66, lots of traffic. We found a parking spot close to the Vietnam Wall and spent an hour or so looking up the names of folks we knew from Red Wing on the wall. There was also a group from west-central Florida as part of an Honor Flight tour. It was a very special time. We also walked over to the Lincoln Memorial next door…lots of kids there on their summer DC visits. It being a very hot afternoon, we decided to get back to John & Bev’s and get out of the heat. We visited a while and decided to head back to the camper because our awning was out and an ugly looking storm was moving in. On the way, traffic got bad and it started raining hard. Luckily, when we got back our awning was OK. We sat outside and watched the clouds and all the lights of the DC area…interesting place. Wish the government worked as good as it looks.

The next morning, we drove back to John & Bev's house and we all drove to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home on the Potomac River in Virginia south of DC. The drive down is real pretty, along a parkway that follows the Potomac the whole way. We stopped at a sailboat center on the west bank and there were lots of folks out sailing…really pretty with all the colorful sails and the skyline of DC in the background. We finished the drive to Mount Vernon, bought our tickets and made arrangements for a tour through the mansion and then had lunch at an outdoor restaurant at Mt Vernon. It was then time for our tour…much different than I remember from my other visit in 1962. My perspective of this tour was much different as an adult who spent most of his working life as a builder. As soon as the tour was complete, we walked down to the Potomac and just made the final boat tour…an hour north on the river and back to Mt Vernon…pretty day for a river tour. The storm last night lowered the temps by maybe 15-18 degrees and left the skies crystal clear. Very nice day for this adventure. Barb really enjoyed it, as she had never been there. We then walked the grounds and visited the learning center and museum…lots to see & read. They kicked us out at 5 pm so we got back to the car as one of the few still there…we got our money’s worth out of those tickets. Then we drove back to the city and went to John & Bev's for one of John’s famous dinners…slow-cooked beef over fresh pasta, fresh green beans and 2 flavors of red wine…holy cow was it good. I endeavor to be as good a cook as John. I asked him for what was in with the beef & he shared with me…yes! We drove back to the camper, stopped at the store on the way and went back and got some sleep…busy time ahead. It has been a very fun stop in Our Nation’s Capital, and our hosts have been great…time to move north.

Steve & Barb Larson