Stop & Dropping our Way to President Roosevelt AND the "Snatch and Grab"

We said good by to Belfast and the lobsters Sunday morning and began our day with a "climb" (by elevator) to the top of a great bridge in Maine.  It was sort of surprise, and that they put observation windows in it was amazing.  We could see several small towns and Fort Knox, an historical granite fort, but not THE Fort Knox.

Fort Knox, but not THE Fort Knox

From above

From Below

We then worked our way to Camden.  It had been described as an “artsy” town and I had high hopes but with only one or two exceptions, most the shops were just chotsky t-shirt places.  Keith told us that the inns in Bar Harbor had a buying cooperative for tableware, linens, etc.. I think the chostsky shops must have a buying co-op too… they all have the same thing!  The one gallery owner told me that most of the artists were moving to Rockland (darn).  As it was, we were late leaving for the Boston area, so another town was not in the picture, and I was about shopped out.

We barely got to Foxboro before dark.  We had decided to go back to Normandy Farms since it was so nice and it was ½ way to our next stop.  Traffic on I-95 removed all hope for the hot tub after supper, but we did get laundry done.  When you’re out for a month, sometimes you just have to take care of business!  With a 2 pm checkout the next morning, we were able to get some shopping and other chores done.

From there it was a long ride to Hyde Park, NY.  Thankfully this would be a 2 night stop and even more thankfully the KOA was one of the nicest we’ve ever seen.  KOA’s tend to be like Bojangles: you usually know what you’re going to get, but they can vary more than McDonalds.  And KOA’s usually cram as many sites onto the land as they can.  So it was a pleasant surprise to find a wide and deep heavily shaded lot.  In fact, it was so shaded; we had to turn our lights on by 6:30… quite a change from the late sunsets and early sunrises of Maine.  One should not have to wake up to full sun at 4:45 am!!!  After 2 days of “stop and drops” we excitedly planned our day in Hyde Park, NY.

We spent the morning touring President Roosevelt’s and Eleanor Roosevelt’s houses.  And yes, for those of you who have seen the movie, we saw the room where the King and Queen of England stayed and the menu for the “hot dog” party (they also served Virginia ham and turkey).  The Park Service Docent said that was about the only thing the movie got right and then told us about many of the inaccuracies.  The President’s house was really his mother’s and was an opulent “retreat”.  Roosevelt used the dumb waiter in the servant’s wing to haul himself up to the 2^nd floor and several ramps were added to the house to accommodate him.  Eleanor’s “cottage” was more than a mile away.  She really wanted to get away and have something on her own. And when you realized that her bedroom in the “big house” had a door that opened into her mother in law’s bedroom, it was easy to understand!!  The park ranger pointed out several similarities between the Roosevelt’s and the Clintons, the main difference being that Hillary has many more options open to her and Bill’s dalliances are out in the open.  Supposedly the Presidential Library contains many letters from Roosevelt’s “dalliances”, since it was revamped a few years ago.  We did not do the research.  What is it about Presidents?  Glad I'm not married to one!!

In Eleanor's Cottage... she had a chair to suit every size person on purpose!

Note the wheel chair on the left

We weren't successful getting a reservation at the CIA (Culinary Institute) so we settled for a family diner instead and then started driving to the Storm King Art Center which is a large sculpture park with amazing sculptures…. Unfortunately we found out about ½ way there (I was looking it up for the 2^nd time on the internet to give Dave some statistics.) that they were closed on Tuesdays… bummer!

This is one of the sculptures we missed!  Go to Storm King Art Center on Google!

  We regrouped in a parking lot and after plugging in the address of a brewery that Dave wanted to  try, we decided except for the Roosevelts, nearly ½ the town closed up on Mondays and Tuesdays!  I thought that was a Southern small town “thing”!  So we punted to plan C and went to Orange County Choppers to check out Paul Sr.’s new digs.  I’ll have to admit, it was impressive.  A huge building, it housed a huge store, bowling alley and café with a stage for bands.  Around the edge of the store were many of his super-custom motorcycles and they were even more impressive in person.  My favorite was one that was green and covered with “spider webs” for a super hero show.  But I’ll have to admit the 911 bike was moving and Dave liked the FBI bike:  the gas tank had hinged compartments “concealing” a gun and handcuffs! 

Dave's favorite...

The 911 Bike... note all the Fireman's patches on the wall

Deb's Favorite... note the lack of a gas tank (Its in front of the rear tire)

We meandered back to the campsite, and I cut out 3 more outfits for the girls and Dave built a wonderful campfire.  We met an interesting couple next door who were traveling on a motorcycle with a custom trailer from St. John’s in Canada.  They plan to follow the Ohio River until their vacation time was over.  It made a convincing argument to Dave for dumping the RV for a motorcycle… I agreed as long as Diane and I are following in a convertible!!

Wednesday morning we packed up and headed for one more “stop and drop” in Harrisburg, PA.  The drive was all interstate, but it felt like the bumpy road back in Maine with all of the construction, or lack there of!!  We settled into the campsite by about 2 and after a quick lunch decided to take the segways into town and ride them on their linear park by the Susquehanna River.  They have put their AA baseball stadium on an island in the middle of the river.  A pedestrian and bike bridge goes out there (along with a separate car bridge).  We parked on the island and took the bridge to the linear park.  We didn’t do the whole park, for there were threatening clouds, but we saw the Capitol building and a little bit of downtown. 

On the bridge in the middle of the Susquehanna!

Then we visited a brewery Clay had suggested and I’m becoming a real fan of barley wine… it was excellent.  I also liked their lager.  Dave bought an IPA and a barley wine. 

The "Snatch and Grab"

Again, we began to meander home, stopping at Camping World for a replacement part to the shower (they didn't have it) and finding the Croc’s I've been wanting at Gander Mountain, while Dave was looking for a 6 gallon replacement gas can. (We left one in a gas station somewhere in Maine… was it my fault or Daves?... that is still in dispute.)  The rain was beginning so we headed for “home”… but some gas cans in the window of a Harbor Freight Tools caught our eye… 5 minutes later, and NO gas can, we go out to our car and the window is smashed.  My purse, Dave’s wallet (he just took in his ID and credit card, so at least we have those!), and the GPS were taken.  The inventory of my purse included my bank cards, ID and cell phone.  (So don’t try to call my number!!)  The police were really nice and we couldn't believe the attention they were giving us.  They dusted for fingerprints, took our information, and tried to get Verizon to ping my phone (but they wouldn’t without a court order). David has his phone registered with Carbonite, and my old phone was.  We had failed to update the Carbonite account with my new phone:  lesson learned the hard way! We spent about 2 hours with the police, and one of the detectives had just placed a surveillance camera in the parking lot and they have the whole 30 seconds on tape and are hopeful they will catch the guy, as they believe he has performed 18 similar “snatch and grab’s” in the past few weeks.  While they are hopeful they will catch him, they are not hopeful that any of our stuff will be recovered as he has probably already sold it for drugs.  As I write this, David is cancelling all of his cards.  I did mine while  he was talking to the police. And we are both wondering what we have forgotten to cancel.  The hassle of getting new licenses, Costco cards, health insurance cards, etc. will begin when we get back to Charlotte.

Tomorrow will begin with a trip to the auto glass place about ½ mile from the campground to have the window replaced.  Then it’s on to Ohiopyle and the Frank Lloyd Wright houses.  We aren’t going to let a “snatch and grab” keep us down.  Dave still has the essentials:  his ID, credit card, Senior Park Pass, and cell phone, so we will survive... and the robber  didn't take my new shoes!!