New Orleans, LA

The Natchez Trace Pkwy was an easy ride, and probably would have been fun for us to explore, if it hadn’t rained all day the day we were driving it. We did stop at one museum along the way, but that was about it. We also took one wrong turn which was a big mistake. Most of the museums, trails, and scenic views require you to turn into a parking area that isn’t totally visible from the main road. No problem, except, after we made this particular turn into the road to the parking lot there was a sign that said “No RV Turn around”. It would have been more effective if the sign had been visible before the turn off. 30 minutes and many frayed nerves later, Paul finished his 20 point turn and we got out of there. That pretty much soured us on taking any more turns off the main road. We did spend the night at the free campground on the Pkwy and it worked out awesome for us. It was our first FREE night, with no fee! Once we arrived at New Orleans, we were immediately happy with our decision to pay more to stay within walking distance of the French Quarter. The RV Park is the nicest one we’ve been in, with great sites for parking, a great hot tub and pool, and we were greeted by a guy wearing a SUIT! Hahaha. More upscale than we needed but it served our purpose well. Our first night we decided to walk to the French Quarter, just to check it out. Many hours later we staggered back home. We tried a “Hurricane” which is one of the strongest drinks around. Bourbon Street is one of my new favorite places. Similar in spirit to Duval Street in Key West. So much music coming from so many venues! People everywhere, walking down the street with drinks in their hands, wandering from one club to the next. Its so Alive! The weather was perfect for it- in the high 70s. The next day, during the daylight hours we walked to the river front- almost took the ferry over to Algiers, but decided at the last minute to not do it. We walked Canal street, ate lunch at a restaurant in the French Quarter, and headed home to rest up for night time. This time our plan was to walk down to Frenchman Street where most of the Jazz music is played. I don’t know, maybe we were just in the wrong mood, but it was so quiet there, we lost interest after a while, and headed back to Bourbon Street, for another lively evening. Halloween in New Orleans is similar to Mardi Gras, but on a smaller scale. The buildings are decorated, the bars are decorated, there are parades, music, you name it. Eminem performed last night and tonight KISS is performing live downtown. Yesterday we moved to our new park, just outside the city- we’ll take their shuttle into town, then have to take a cab back. We washed the Everest yesterday- took us a loooong time. I have no idea how it got so dirty! Most RV parks won’t let you wash the RV, so we took advantage of the fact that this one does. Today is Halloween so we are headed into town for an early dinner, hopefully we’ll be in time to see the parade…..

Nashville, TN

Nashville is only about 100 miles south of Mammoth Cave, so we had time that day to do some shopping. We didn't buy much, but did get a couple of things for the Everest that Paul has been wanting. One is a special Level that you can mount on the Trailer so its easier to find out if its level, before you actually get out of the truck. I learned a lesson with this Nashville portion of our trip. If we are going to want tickets to something that is popular, we need to either plan far enough in advance to get good seats, or be content if we get lousy seats, or no seats at all. It all worked out fine, but next time I will know to pay more attention.I wanted to go to the Grand Ole Opry while in Nashville, but didn't realize that not only would Trace Adkins be performing that night, but also Montgomery Gentry and The Oak Ridge Boys.Tickets were hard to come by- we ended up in the second to last row, but luckily the acoustics are great there, and there really isn't a bad seat in the house. We attended the concert Saturday night- the late show, which didn't start until 9:30. The way this show works is that there are many acts, and the three I mentioned were only 3 out of about 12 performers. Each of them played a couple of songs, although since the Oak Ridge Boys were last, they did a couple of extra songs, and ended with "Elvira". The other tour I wanted to go on was the "NashTrash" Tour. According to Tripadvisor, its the #1 rated attraction in Nashville. Its sold out for over a month, so the only way to get on the tour is to go where the bus loads and wait for "standby".So, we started our adventure in Nashville by waiting at 9 am on a Saturday, to see if we could get on Standby. We couldn't, because everyone showed up who was scheduled to take the "tour". As it turns out, it was Tennessee History Weekend. That was great for us.... especially since it takes place at the park we wanted to check out. Bicentennial Mall Park in Nashville, is an incredible park. There are granite posts and walls all around the park that have the history of Tennessee engraved in the granite, starting with a billion years ago (which interestingly enough, mentioned God, and not evolution). There is also a map of Tennessee engraved in granite that is probably 25 feet by 75 ft. A lot of towns and rivers are shown on the map. Really awesome. There is a farmer market there every weekend.Since it is History weekend, there are people dressed in period costumes for the time periods that include wars. So there are people from the 1700s, up through the vietnam war. At different times during the day, they have a variety of re-enactments, including a civil war battle, a world war II battle, and speeches from Daniel Boone and Abe Lincoln. It's a great day in Nashville! After walking through the "timeline" and seeing the exhibits, we wander over to see if we can get on the 2 pm Nashtrash Tour. This time we made it. I think the performers ( two sisters) felt bad for us, since we had been there since the morning. The tour is actually a comedy show, that does a little touring of the town. These two are hysterically funny! They spent the first 20 minutes learning the names of all the people on the bus (33 people), and teasing then about where they are from, etc. They are originally from Michigan so when they heard we are from there, they made many wisecracks about the state and what part of the “hand” they are from etc. We had a blast! They also allow people to bring their own booze, and if you didn't think of it, like us, they make a stop at the Country Music Hall of Fame, and you can buy a drink and bring it back to the bus. Too funny! Sunday was regroup day for us- we did laundry, went food shopping, hung around and in general did nothing much. We were going to go bar hopping Sunday night, but Paul wasn't in the mood, so we skipped it. Monday we drove out to Franklin, TN, to explore the town that was pivotal during the civil war. It was pushed into the limelight by the book "Widow of the South" which is based on the true story of Carrie McGavock of Franklin TN.On November 30, 1864, a major battle took place in Franklin, right outside the home owned the Carter family. The Carters, and several of their neighbors, hid in the basement of the house while the battle raged for 5 hours. They all survived, but in those five hours there were almost 10,000 Union and Confederate soldiers killed or wounded. The Carters' son was a lieutenant for the south who was mortally wounded in that battle. One of their outbuildings had so many bullet holes, apparently it ranks as the “most bullet-ridden” building in existence in this country today.Nearby, Carrie's McGavock’s house was used as a hospital, and she, instead of hiding away, helped the surgeons and the soldiers the best she could. Two years after the battle, she dedicated 2 acres of her own land so that the confederate soldiers, who had been hastily buried after the battle,. could be properly buried. After an early dinner, we hit the bars in downtown Nashville. We started at Coyote Ugly, and despite the constant urgings of the bartenders (all women), I did not get up on the bar and dance with them. We also didn’t do body shots, although it was tempting…from there we just meandered in and out of the tons of bars in the area, listening to live country bands. It was fun, more for me than Paul, who was driving, of course. In New Orleans, he really wants to stay at a campground that’s walking distance to the French Quarter, so he can relax and not drive. At this moment, we are driving the Natchez Trace Parkway. We have left Tennessee and are in Alabama. We hope to spend the night in one of the free campgrounds along the parkway.

Mammoth Cave, KY

October 20, 2009

 Driving through KY to Cave City, I was looking at the map and realizing that there is so much to see in Kentucky, most of which we’ll have to do some other time. We only have a couple of days here before we move on to Nashville. We got up early Tuesday morning and headed to Diamond Caverns- so named because the boy they lowered into the opening they found so many years ago, yelled back up that it looked like the cave was full of diamonds. Very disappointing for them to find out that it wasn’t really diamonds, but glittering stalagtites. The tour in that cavern was about an hour long, and I thought it was pretty cool, with great lighting. This whole area is full of caves- some are privately owned, some are in the national park. There was a landmark case years ago when a neighbor found out that the cave tours given by the people down the street went under his property. He sued, to get a share of the income. Many, many years later, he won, but he died before the decision was made, so his estate got the money. The court decision said that property owners own rights to whatever is under their property. Now there are rocks lined up inside the cave that mark the property line. Right from that cave we went to the national park to see what tours we might be interested in taking.

 We decided to take the Great Onyx Cave lantern tour that afternoon. Paul also signed up to take a 4 hr/4 mile hike called the Grand Avenue Tour, the following day. I am not wild about caves to begin with and really wasn’t interested in spending 4 hours under the ground, so he’ll do that one on his own. The Onyx tour was even better than the Diamond Cavern. The whole tour is done by lantern, no electrical lights at all. This tour is only open to the public 2 months of the year, for groups of only 38 people per tour/day. That’s because its not cost effective to do this tour in the height of the tourist season when they need their resources for other tours that can accommodate over 100 people. Because so few people walk through this cave, the formations are in pristine condition, and more varied than the Diamond Cavern. We met a nice couple from Florida on this tour, and pretty much went through the tour with them. Wednesday Paul went on his adventure, and I stayed home and caught up on some cleaning, organizing, and phone calls. Before I knew it, Paul was back, and he brought the couple from Florida with him. We all sat outside and had a drink and traded life stories for a bit before they left to go home. Our last day here we spent above ground. We walked a 2 mile trail that was supposed to go to a spring, which it did, but there was nothing of interest there, so it was disappointing. We decided to walk the “Collie Ridge Trail” thinking it might have a view at the end. The trail was over 4 miles each way. Along the path we met a bicyclist, and chatted for a few minutes. He said the trail we are on is “pretty”. We also saw a small, but very old cemetery. After reading the gravestones, we realized that almost all of the graves were children- mostly very young ones. I looked around on the web and couldn’t find any information on it. I may try again when I have more time. Anyway, after hiking the 4 miles to the end of the trail, there was nothing of interest there. No ridge, no view, just an equestrian campsite. Sooo, we turned around after eating our lunch, and walked back 4 miles the other way. It was a nice walk but really, its nicer when there is something to see somewhere along the way. When we sat down that night to look at our itinerary for the next week or so, we decided to make some changes. Halloween in New Orleans is apparently almost as big of a deal as Mardi Gras, so we can't get a reservation near the French Quarter that weekend. I don't want to skip New Orleans, so we are skipping Chatanooga, and getting to New Orleans early. We want to spend one night actually in the city, so we can walk to and from the French quarter, and the rest of the time we will stay just outside the city. The rates for the one in the city are high!

Ball State University-Muncie, IN

We spent 3 days on the road, getting to Muncie. We arrived here Thursday, and had dinner with Jess and her friends, including her boyfriend, who we met for the first time. Friday, after her last class, we had lunch and she came back to the RV with us for the day. She can’t spend the night with us, since she is on duty this weekend (she has a Resident Hall Assistant position). We did some errands and had dinner at the campground. Saturday we drove down to Indianapolis and had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, with her boyfriend and his parents. They seem like very nice people. Sunday morning was “Watermelon Bust” a fundraising event held by one of the fraternities. There were many teams that competed at games like tug of war and an obstacle course/relay race. Jess and her sorority sisters had 3 teams competing. They didn’t win, but had fun anyway! The weather was REALLY cold when the sun wasn’t out. After all the events, We took Jess, her boyfriend David, and her friend Ashley, back to the RV for a homecooked meal. They all had a 7 pm staff meeting, so we had to bring them back to the dorm early. It was so great seeing Jess and meeting her friends. Its hard to say goodbye- the only thing that makes it easier is that we’ll see her in a month. Today we are on the road, driving 260 miles to Mammoth Caves National Park in KY. We’ll stop at the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln on the way.

Strasburg, PA

10-7-09 Strasburg PA Strasburg is in Lancaster county, home of the 2nd largest Amish population in the US. Since its Columbus Day weekend, its mobbed here. We got our feet wet by doing some shopping in downtown Intercourse, PA. There are tons of little shops, with handmade items. Lucky for us we have no where to put anything. We drove around the countryside a little bit, and found a bakery, Bird in Hand Bakery, in Bird in Hand, PA. The food was delicious. One of the favorite pies around here is Shoofly Pie, so we bought one to try it. Its molasses based- very good. Different from anything we have had before. We sat outside on a glider that has a table between 2 benches, and the table glides with the benches. After that stop, we went to a Mennonite Visitors Center to learn more about the Amish and Mennonites. Once upon a time they were of very similar religious beliefs, but they split a long time ago- one of their differences is that Mennonites use modern conveniences, like electricity and cars, and the Amish don’t. Mennonites interact with outsiders (the “English”) and the Amish don’t, at least not very much. A lot of my preconceived ideas of the Amish were changed this weekend. I always thought they didn’t use things like cars because it is “against their religion”, but that isn’t really it. They don’t use modern conveniences if they think it will take away from the quality of the time they spend with their family and community and God, but they use car batteries to run sewing machines because it makes practical sense to do it. We learned a lot about them, and there is obviously so much more we don’t know. . We made it an early day but when we got back there was a “Live Jam session” scheduled in the campground store. Turns out there is a room, like a large living room, off to the side where about 8-12 men were jamming with their guitars, fiddles, bass, etc. What a great time we had! So much fun to hear them play! I am going to try to post a short video. Most places are closed on Sunday around here, so it was off to Hershey for us!!! I admit that I went to Hershey with only one thing in mind. Chocolate. I came away with a much better understanding about who Milton Hershey was (and also, a lot of chocolate!). We did the usual "factory tour" which in this case was more like an amusement park ride at your local travelling carnival- not the same quality as a Disney ride, for sure. It doesn't go through the factory, just a cartoonish version of the factory, but it was short, so thats ok. The real deal here was the trolley tour, and I am so glad we decided to do it.... our tour guide was fabulous, obviously passionate about Milton Hershey and what he has done. The short version is that Milton Hershey started his company at the turn of the 20th century, right around the time Henry Ford started his. The similarities are striking. Both men went bankrupt several times, both were innovators, both ended up making their fortune by creating a way to mass produce their product. Milton and his wife could not have children and decided to help orphans instead. They started the Milton Hershey School to educate those children who had no one looking out for them. Today the school has 1800 students, Kindergarten through high school. Its a boarding school for kids whose parents are either deceased, not available, or who are otherwise incapable of caring for their kids financially and otherwise. All of the children who are successful at the high school level, are awarded an $80,000 grant to attend college.The school is run by a Trust, and the Trust owns over 80% of the Hershey Co. stock, ensuring its longevity. In fact, before his death, Milton Hershey turned over his entire fortune to the trust. Part of the reason our tour guide is so passionate is that he was an administrator at the school for over 30 years before he retired. He gives the tours in his leisure time because he enjoys it so much. Today we went to explore a restored Amish farmhouse. We were going to take a bus tour around the countryside, but decided it wasn’t worth the price and the 2 hours it would take. The farmhouse was interesting, and again, we learned a lot. Our tour guide loves this area and it shows. He is a taxi driver for the Amish, since they can’t drive cars but they can ride in them. Because the Amish population is growing so fast, doubling every 10 years or so, there aren’t enough farms available for them to farm, so some of them have taken jobs as carpenters, plumbers etc. and need rides to get to work, since its too far to travel by horse. We ate dinner tonight at the “Plain and Fancy” restaurant, which is typical Amish food, served family style, to a table of 10 people. So, obviously we sat with people we don’t know, and had great conversations with all of them. One guy is doing something similar to us. He is single and quit his job to go tenting around the country. Turns out the last 3 places where he stopped were places we were at too. Tomorrow we drive. We aren’t sure where we will stop but we are headed towards Muncie (Yay!).

Scranton, PA

There is no shortage of excursions in Scranton that interest Paul and I. There is Steamtown, a trolley museum, a corn maze, and a coal mine tour among other things. Scranton has one of the largest deposits of Anthracite coal in the world. Because of that there was an incredible infrastructure put in place for the railroad, in the early half of the 20th century, and the town boomed. Sometime in the middle of the 1900s, people began to use natural gas and oil to heat their homes, instead of coal, which reduced the demand for coal, causing the shutdown of the mines, a mass exodus of the population ( which has still not recovered) and a decreased need for the railroad. Since we had most of the afternoon available the day we arrived, we went to Steamtown, which is a railroad hub that has been turned into a national Historic Landmark/Park. I have seen trains before of course, but never in such a high concentration, with miles of tracks that are still active. We were also able to go inside rail cars, Pullman cars, a caboose, etc. That was a different experience for me. Afterwards we stopped at Manning Farms to get an ice cream. The Mannings are in control of the entire ice cream process-they grow the feed for the cows, milk the cows, sell the milk, and make ice cream. Delicious… The campground we are staying in is Lackawanna State Park. We saw several deer our first night here, plus some groundhogs. We went for a walk around the lake and came to a field with 4 deer grazing in it. There was a bird blind nearby so we slowly walked over to it, sat down and watched the deer graze for a while. They did notice us but just kept an eye on us while they ate. While we were walking there were several hundred migrating birds in the trees above us, making quite a racket. As we got closer, they went silent and we heard a noise that sounded like a car driving on gravel, but actually was the sound of hundreds of birds wings flapping, as they all took flight at the same time. It happened twice more. Very eerie!

Thursday we were both looking forward to the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour and we were not disappointed. We learned so much about coal mines and the lives of the coal miners and their families. The lives they lived were so incredibly hard, its difficult to imagine. 12 hours a day in the mine, in a tunnel 2 feet high, not allowed to come out for anything. Each worker rented their tools on a daily basis, and in order to get paid, had to cart 18 tons of coal a day. If he only got 16 tons, he received no pay for the day, but still had to pay for the tools. Our tour guide is from a family of mine workers. He told us that at the beginning of each shift, each mine worker puts a peg into the “in” slot with their name, so the foreman knows they are in the mine. When they leave for the day, they move the peg to the “out” slot, so he’ll know they are gone. If they forget to do it, they are immediately fired. In general if someone is still “in” at the end of the day, its because he died in the mine. The foreman takes his body, brings it up, puts it on a wagon, and drives to the man’s house. He puts the body on the porch, and leaves. He doesn’t bother to knock, or speak to the family. 3 days later, someone from management comes to the house- all houses are rented from the mine owner- and if there is no one to take the worker’s place in the mine, the family is evicted immediately. Boys as young as 5 can take their fathers spot- taking on other, smaller tasks in the mine. They leave school and begin full time work. Tony, our guide, said that his mother opened her door one day and found the body of her father, with no explanation. The tour actually goes down into the mine. We got on a type of cable car, and rode down 250 feet to what is now the bottom of the mine. Our guide showed us through some tunnels and explained all about the different jobs, and the work the mine workers did. Fascinating information. One interesting note…in hindsight it makes sense, but …most of the movies I have seen show coal mines with the wooden beams that always seemed like they were supporting the ceiling and wall…I guess it never dawned on me that it doesn’t make sense. As our guide said….we are 250 ft below the surface. There is no way that wood beams could hold up that weight. He said instead, the beams were an early warning system. If the beams started to “snap, crackle or pop” then the miners knew the ground had shifted and they better get out fast. There was also a movie with news footage from several mining accidents over the years. This mine was closed in 1966 due to lack of demand for Anthracite coal, and the costs associated with keeping water out of the mine. That tour was one of the most interesting and informative things we have done this trip. After the tour we ate lunch in the car and then went to Miller Farms to see the corn maze. I have never been in a corn maze and its one of the things I wanted to do. It was fun, we must have walked about 2 miles trying to get out!

Last night we booked a month stay in San Diego for Christmas, and decided that we are going to Lancaster PA tomorrow for 4 nights, before we head to Muncie. Neither of us was all that interested in going back to Ohio, so even though it will be a short trip to Lancaster, hopefully it will be enough.

Lake Durant, Adirondacks, NY

Saturday it was time to move on, and we headed out, not too far, to Lake Durant, a state park campground in the Adirondacks, near Blue Mountain Lake. This is our first venture at having a campsite with no hookup-including electric. We will be using the generator to recharge the batteries and do things like make coffee. You can’t use it before 9 am- so we had to make coffee the day before and just heat it up in the morning. By 9 am we have usually showered, eaten and are gone for the day, so it’s a little late to start making the coffee. We arrived early enough to head to the Adirondack Museum, which is, without a doubt, one of the best museums we have ever seen. Its huge, and has many separate buildings, with information arranged in a way that its fun to learn, and not at all boring. Lots of things for adults and kids of all ages. Definitely worth the price of admittance! We had arranged to meet up with Joe and Judi, but had no specific time or place, so we just headed over to their lodge, and they showed up 10 minutes later. Perfect timing! We had gotten a slow start that morning, since we were up half the night. Dozer was busy earning his keep all night. Somehow, a mouse got in the trailer during the night. We heard loud noises (the cat running around) and when we came to check it out, the cat was playing “cat and mouse” with a live mouse. He was purring so loud you could hear it across the room. This was one happy cat! He was playing catch and release. He would let the mouse go, then catch it again. We were not very thrilled with this, and tried to egg him on to dispose of the mouse, to no avail. We couldn’t get close to the cat, since he growled like I have never heard before, every time we approached. There was no way he was going to let us take his toy away. After a while, we had no idea what to do, so we went to bed ( I told Paul it was his job to get up first in the morning). For the next two hours we heard him running around, chasing the mouse. Ewwww.. When we got up, after searching high and low, there was no mouse to be found. Anyway, after meeting up with Joe and Judi, we took off for one of the trails in the area. After about a 2 mile hike, we found the most spectacular view! We were overlooking Blue Mountain Lake, and the fall colors were in full swing. After hanging around at the peak for a bit, we decided that if we hurried, we may make the 2 pm boat trip that cruises around the lake. We actually didn’t quite make it, but we had a great time sitting on the porch of the lodge, sipping on wine and eating cheese and crackers etc. We stayed at the Lodge for dinner that night, then headed home. The next morning we woke up to rain. Again. Our plan had been to go for another hike with Joe and Judi, but the weather was definitely not cooperating. We ended up going to a fairly new museum, The Wild Side, for the afternoon. It was good, but no where near the caliber of The Adirondack Museum. We spent most of the day there, stopped at a local waterfall on the way back, dropped Joe and Judi off, then headed for home. Paul has been a little antsy about the generator the whole time we have been here. Its working fine, but we only have one battery, which is definitely not enough to spend a couple of nights without power. Just the refrigerator and hot water heater’s electronic ignition are enough to drain the battery in a few hours. When we got back the battery had died again, hopefully not causing permanent damage to it,since its our only one. Although we will probably not spend lots of nights without hookup, we do plan to “dry camp” sometimes, so I am guessing new batteries are in our future. Lake Durant is pretty remote, as is this whole area, which makes it a very peaceful place to be. The view out the back window is what I envisioned that I would want to see every morning. Nothing but trees and a view of the lake.Very different from Lake George, which is beautiful, but touristy. The fall colors are spectacular right now. I think someone said we are right at peak. I keep taking a million pictures, but they don’t do it justice. If only the sun would come out for more than 12 seconds, the pictures would be so much better! Spending time with Joe and Judi was an absolute blast, and we are both really looking forward to meeting up with them again. The similarities between us were amazing. They are very easy going and it was very comfortable hanging out with them for a couple of days! Today (Tuesday) we got on the road and drove several hundred miles, stopping just outside Scranton PA- the weather is 10 degrees warmer, and the sun is out! We decided to stay here for a couple of nights, then maybe head to Lancaster PA instead of Ohio

Lake George, NY 10-3-09

Wednesday we headed out to drive around Lake George, weaving in and out of small towns, and ending at Fort Ticonderoga. I am not a huge history buff, but I must admit I am enjoying learning about the different eras of American history. Fort Ticonderoga has been inhabited by the French, the British, and the Americans, at various times in its past. The worst battle here was between the French and British (us) during the French and Indian War- 1758. Unfortunately, even though the French, who had possession of the fort at that time, were severely outnumbered by us, we did not capture the fort, and suffered heavy losses. Eventually, at some point, the French blew the fort up and left it in ruins, as they abandoned it. The fort was reconstructed as a tourist attraction in the early 1900s. The way they chose to do it is different from other forts that we’ve seen. There are no rooms set up here that show what life was like back then, its more set up to just teach the history of the battles that took place. I have learned interesting things such as, in the 1700s the rifle the Brown Bess was introduced. It was the first rifle that had uniform parts and was uniformly sized. Before that, if you bought a rifle in North Carolina, and it broke, you had to go back to North Carolina to get the parts for it. The Brown Bess was made of three distinct parts, the lock, the stock and the barrel. If your barrel broke, you could then just replace the barrel, etc. which made it much more cost effective. Army personnel were responsible for paying for any weapons that they lost during the war, so if they went to the supply room and said they needed a completely new rifle, they needed “lock, stock and barrel”- hence the term we use when we mean “everything”- lock, stock and barrel. I thought that was really neat information. The following day the weather was not very cooperative again- no downpours, but very iffy. We set out in a southerly direction to do some exploring. When we got to the town of Glens Falls, we started seeing signs for “Coopers Cave”. Sounded interesting, so we followed the signs. The cave is really barely a cave. In the 1800s and 1900s they had steps leading to it. Its actually on an island in the middle of the river, which happens to be the Hudson River. (The Hudson River winds all around this area- everywhere you go, you see the Hudson River). Apparently years ago they decided it was too dangerous to go out that far, near the falls, so they put up a fence and now you can see the “cave” from the fenced in area. The claim to fame in this area is that James Cooper, who was the first author who was considered a “best selling novelist” lived here. One of his friends suggested that he use the cave as a setting in one of his novels, so he did. This is the cave that is featured in “The Last Of The Mohicans”. They didn’t use the actual cave, just the idea of the cave. So, that was cool. Now I need to watch the movie again, after learning all about James Cooper. We are really paying the price for having great weather for so long. For the last week, its been cold and damp with rain on and off. Friday we drove in a different direction, and landed in the town of Warrensburg, again. We recognized it from the day we arrived in this area. We needed fuel that day, so we got off the highway in Warrensburg because we could see the gas stations from the highway. We were towing the Everest though, so not only did we have to check to see if they have diesel, we had to see if we could even fit in the parking lot. We picked the station closest to us, on the right, and chose wrong. Couldn’t get the Everest into the lot. Now we were committed to this direction, and the road got more and more narrow and crowded. We ended up turning into a parking lot, going in the exit and out the entrance, since it’s the only way we could get the trailer in to make the turn. So this Friday we recognized the town, coming from the opposite direction, and were just glad we only had the truck. As we approached the town, the traffic was incredible. It turns out that it was the weekend of Warrensburg’s annual Townwide Garage Sale. It is billed as the Worlds Biggest Garage Sale and apparently even made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. We didn’t bother to stop since it was too crowded to park our huge truck.