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Posts Tagged ‘Road Trip’

Kennebunk Beach

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At the beach in Kennebunk

We spent a good part of Tuesday at the beach, stopping first at the tourist trap known as Kennebunkport. You might remember this as President Bush’s summer retreat. It was called Walker Point when I lived in the area. Walker is where the “W” in Bush’s name comes from. I never liked the tourists this town depends on and who now come by the bus load to shop and look at the autumn foliage after the summer season. Yesterday I was a tourist and it was painful.

The weather was windy, cold and cloudy and the blue-haired leaf peepers stayed in the shops and off the beach. We did run into a young couple from Nebraska who wanted me to take their picture with the ocean in the background. Resisting the temptation to crack wise about the long drive to the beach, I took their photo and they took ours.

As we slowly cruised south toward Parson’s Beach, Gerda took pictures of the ridiculously expensive houses along the way. Maine was once part of Massachusetts, and the good citizens of Boston looked on it as a backwater to be plundered for the tall timber. Many of these homes are owned by folks from Massachusetts. Not much has changed, except the 300 foot pines are gone.

Kennebunk-Beach

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DSC_0037Getting ready to leave Pennsylvania today. Dave called on his way home from work (don’t you just hate morning watch?) and said to grab the camera and he’d take me down to the lake. Good call, as this was a nice scene and one I will long remember.

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The Hideout

Roaming Wood Lake

Roaming Wood Lake

We are chillin’ at the Hideout, that is to say in Hamlin (Lake Ariel) with the Mrad family. Good to see them all. Dave and Aaron (yes, this is the correct spelling) haven’t changed a bit. However . . . the kids have. Dave says regular feedings and plenty of water made them grow so big.

We took a walk down to one of the lakes this morning and it was pretty cold and windy. Not used to this kind of weather but now the sun is out and the sky is clear as a bell, which is a welcome change from yesterday’s rain.

Dave in all his glory

Dave in all his glory

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IMG_6468-1Gerda took this picture (unedited) of the Blue Ridge Parkway our first day out. It’s typical of the scenery encountered around every curve in the road. Driving the Parkway was like watching a National Geographic special in an IMAX theater, only better. Toward evening, you welcome the dimming light as relief from color overload.

We started out on the Parkway just north of Roanoke, VA. I thought we would make it all the way to the end the first day, see the Sky Line Drive the next and be in West Virginia by dinner time. I suppose it would have been possible to push on and do just that, but each overlook was too inviting. Pretty soon in the day we realized we would want to spend more time relaxing and enjoying the trip so we did just that.

We hadn’t covered a lot of miles by the end of the day . . . but everyone one of them was beautiful.

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Near the end of the day.

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Let's-Go!

Let's go!!!

We finally got on the road around noon today. I wanted to leave at 10:00, then realized this wasn’t going to be possible. And when you are retired, any time is on time. We said our final good-bye’s to the neighbors who became like family to us, and headed on down the road.

After a quick stop in Abingdon for coffee to go and to drop off the modem and cancel our internet, we got back onto I-81 north. Had a quick break in Pulaski, then decided to push on to Roanoke. It wasn’t really much further, and traffic wasn’t a problem at all.

We are spending the night at a newly opened Holiday Inn Express, and the place in great. I managed to break the chain on my pocket watch, but they had the tools to fix it at the front desk. High speed internet in all the rooms, wired or wireless. Huge room, very nicely appointed and all that. Gerda loves it.

Dinner at the Cracker Barrel right across the street. Lesson learned – don’t order a burger at a country cooking restaurant, order country cooking. Gerda did and it worked out better for her. Anyway . . .

In the morning, we just head down the road (no more Interstate for a while) a little bit and jump onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. Really want to get an early start but won’t sweat it if we don’t.

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