Mixed up Easter Cactus

 August 31st Warm and Humid

We have spent the last couple of days working outside trying to catch up on some of our neglected yard work.  Lou has been trimming bushes and I have started cutting back perennials which is a never ending job.  I dread starting on the iris, as I have so many and they take forever to do, but it is something that needs to be done.

   I have peonies that need to be divided and I just read in my gardening magazine that all gardeners need to set aside the 15th of September to do that.  So Kris and I have done just that.  Yesterday I divided my Lamb's Ear and took some up to Kris, I usually start with my over flow to her as she is close by.

I spotted my cactus yesterday when I watered and the poor thing must be mixed up.  I usually put them outside in the summer in the shade to soak up the rays and the rain water and they flourish and this one surely did, it is just covered with buds.  This is a cactus that I think I have written about before, Michelle started it when she was in grade school and the poor thing has been broken off many time and we just keep repotting  it and it blooms and it seems this year, it decided to bloom at a different time.  I often miss when it blooms, and Kris gets to see it, as it occurs when we are in Florida.

I am so glad to see August come to an end.  I have started pulling apart my summer deck, want to get it scrubbed up and get out my fall decorations.  Want to get my house washed down.  I started my attack on the spiders last evening, always try to get them under control before I wash the house down.

Have had to change my plans, wanted to spray paint the barn before I started on the house; however, the electrician that is working on my new service hasn't finished the power to the barn, so have to wait for him to finish.  Change in plans.

Saga of King Dome Continues

August 27th - Tuesday - Warm and Humid

We were up early and headed off to Bath for Lou's appointment.  It is always such a pleasant experience to go to the VA, those folks are a delight to deal with.  You can tell that they enjoy their work and have a love for senior citizens.  The receptionists can not do enough for you.  The minute you walk into the door, someone greets you and is there to guide you to where ever it is you need to go.  Our own local hospitals and doctor's offices could take a lesson from them.  Lou's audiologist is a lovely person and she just can't do enough for him, she adjusted, cleaned and wanted to know all about us, what we had been doing since our last visit and wants us to come back before we go to Florida.  We will also go back up in October for Lou's yearly checkup and blood work.

After we left there we stopped at Bob Evans for breakfast and in the month while we have been away, they completely remodeled the restaurant, what a surprise.  We both love to eat there and certainly enjoyed our breakfast in the new environment.  We were back home by noon.

Changed our clothes and went to work.  I spent the afternoon in the RV still cleaning, I turned on the A/C, thankfully we have an outlet in the garage, so we can plug the RV in and have heat or A/C, which makes it really nice.  I have the inside all done with the exception of the floors and I will finish that tomorrow.

I had e-mailed King Dome on Monday telling them that our television was still not working properly and asked for suggestions and I got a reply back quickly and they stated they would have a technician call me when I was going to be available.  So this afternoon was the time; Pete, the tech. and I spent over an hour on the telephone and he has determined that when Camping World worked on the Dome they installed it to the auxiliary cable, instead of the main cable.  We need to take it back to Camping World and have them do it correctly.  Can you tell how happy this makes us???  We are awaiting an appointment with them.

We received a tiny bit of rain last evening, but we need much more.  Lou has been watering the garden to help the new things that we have planted get started.  Of course, my brother is painting his house, and he would like to finish it before it rains hard.  Denise is working hard outside and wants to finish so she can go away this weekend.  Everyone has different priorities.

Time to Look Around Home

August 26th - Monday - Warm and Humid

The phone started ringing before 8:00 AM and the first phone call was from Lou's dentist asking Lou if he would move up his annual appointment to this morning, so he was off to the dentist, which really worked well, as he wanted to stop at Steve's Body Shop to check on what to do about our car.  Donny called and was having trouble with his rototiller and he needed help.

While Lou was gone, I tackled the receipts and bills that had come in while we were away and got everything caught up on that end, while the washing machine and dryer purred.  We sat down and enjoyed a very late lunch together at 3:00 pm.

I cleaned out a couple of the compartments in the RV this afternoon and put some of the things back in that we will need for our trip south in January.  I had taken out a lot of our things to make room for Preston and I have sorted through those things and placed them back in the RV in their proper spots.  We have decided we are going to spend several weeks in South Carolina and then move on to Georgia for several weeks there before we travel into Florida, so we will need some warmer clothes; therefore, packing will be a bit different.  I always take along seasonal decorations for the holidays that we will be spending away from home, as I love to decorate our RV.

Lou pointed out to me that one of Al's favorite roses had re-bloomed.  When he was alive he loved to test grow roses for Jackson- Perkins and this is one that he tested and he was allowed to name it and he chose French Perfume, as it is highly fragrant..  Isn't it a beauty.

Tomorrow we are off to Bath, NY to see the audiologist, we were fortunate to get an appointment quickly, as they had a cancellation.  Promises to be a very busy week.

A Day of Visiting with Special Family and Friends after Church

End view of Travis and Noel's house

Their living room - fireplace

August 25th - Sunday   Beautiful - Sunny with a delightful breeze

Today we slept in a bit, as we had a really busy day, I spent the day unloading the motor home and doing laundry, cleaning cupboards, drawers and helping Lou dismantle the car from the hitch with a great deal of trouble.  We found that we can not get part of the hitch off, that there has been damage done to the hood and the car is going to need to have some body work done.  Towing is hard on the car, especially on some of the roads we traveled.  We were both more than ready for bed last evening.  It was about 7:00 when Lou finished cutting the grass.  Steve had kept it cut for us while we were away and if we had stayed away another day, he would have had it done for us again.

After our church service today, we enjoyed breakfast at Perkins then to Walmart for a few groceries and I wanted to pick up a small upright vacuum sweeper for the RV, I have always used a small canister that I get on my hands and knees and use, but with my hip problems this will be much easier to use.  I had used up all of the memory on my SD card in my camera and needed to pick up a new one.  Then we stopped at Lou's house and dropped off all of Preston's things that he left in the RV and then to Lou's sister's house to pick up things that she had for us and to leave all of the books that I had read while we were away.

Our mission was to go to my grandson's new house and see what progress they were making on their house.  He (the Marine) is leaving the Marines after 10 years in September and he and his wife have purchased a home in Stonyfork and are completely redoing it inside and out.  They tore off a garage, have put on new siding, new windows, doors and a new roof, cut down some trees.  Today they were working on some wiring inside.  Lou and I had been out before they tore down the garage and I didn't realize there was a fireplace and chimney and I was amazed at how beautiful it was.  We are really happy for them, and both of the grandsons are doing a great job on it, with help from their father.

After we left there I wanted to go and see my brother, as I hadn't seen him since we came back.  Krista told me that she doesn't see him much and I thought that was strange, as he is normally up and down the road many times a day.  I know he is having a rough time since his wife died, as I had talked to him every other day while we were away.  When we drove in his drive way, I understood why Kris hadn't been seeing as much of him.  He has been painting his house.  Joanne had told me that they had picked out new colors when I talked to her before we left.  He said it was easier to work outside than to be inside and all of us that have lost a spouse know what he is saying.  We had a nice talk and it ended with all of us in tears, but that is alright too, as that is all part of the mourning process.

We then visited with my good friends that had just lost their son in a tragic accident just before we left and we were unable to attend his service, and it was good to be able to share their grief with them also, as we have been through many of these sad times together and know each other so well that it is easy to talk with both of them and they have a deep love of God and that makes it easier to handle for all of us.

It was about 7:00 when we returned home and we changed our clothes and watered our flowers and garden a little.  Hopefully, the weatherman is right and we get some much needed rain this week.  Things are dry.

Home Again

August 24th - Sunny and Beautiful Blue Skies in North-central Pennsylvania

We returned home last evening at 8:00 pm.  We quickly passed through New Hampshire, Vermont and into New York State.  Made a quick stop at Camping World to report that our DISH is still not working and got a response from them that was not satisfactory as we thought would happen.  It will require at least two more visits back to them before bad weather........

Last evening we stopped at the Plaza to unhook and as we pulled in Maegan and her five little girls pulled in also so we got to see the new baby and what a little sweetie she is, and Lou and I think she looks like Izzie did when she was a little baby.  They had all just been shopping for the day, can you imagine taking five girls and going shopping....

We brought in what we had to last evening, and then went to Krista's to pick up our mail that she had been sorting for us, chatted with all of them, they had not seen us drive in so they were really surprised as we were a week early.  Matthew was really pleased to see his Grampa and Grama, he was having his snack getting ready for bed, and that was enough of that, he had to get down and get hugs and play.

We opened mail until 11:00 and did some laundry, so today we will unpack the motor home and do laundry.  We made plans at breakfast for our trip to Florida, have decided to leave here on the 17th of January and spend some time in South Carolina and Georgia before going on to Florida, as Lou and I both enjoy the cooler weather.

Now on to the fall jobs that Lou and I enjoy doing.  The tomatoes are from our garden and aren't they beautiful, not a blemish on them.  I planted green beans before we left and they look really nice along with lettuce, spinach and radishes, so now we can enjoy our new garden.

Hancock, New Hampshire

August 22nd - Thursday - Hot and Humid 89 degrees

This morning did not start out the best.  I was getting everything around and was just finishing the breakfast dishes and had the bathroom to finish up, had the shower all cleaned and had stored the items in the shower that travel in the shower when all of a sudden all of the holding tanks backed up into the shower and all of the items in the shower were floating in the dirty holding tank water.  YUCK!!  I had asked Lou and Preston two days ago if they had remembered to open the tanks, as we had full hook ups. You guess it, no they had not, what a mess I had.  I was not pleased and I shared my joy with both of them.  Two grown men doing the outside work and couldn't remember to open a valve.  So I had to take everything out of the shower, scrub everything up and clean the shower and reclean the bathroom, and they were upset because I wasn't ready to leave at the designated time.  Like I said it was not the best of days.

This being a travelling day,  I put on my earphone and my i-pod and read my new book of Danielle Steel - Friends Forever and I guess we traveled through Maine into New Hampshire.  Finally at 4:30 Lou suggested we find a place to spend the night, and the first place he chose and I called was full, so we finally ended up at Seven Maples Campground in Hancock, New Hampshire.  Was terribly hot and could not use the A/C and the microwave at the same time, so cooked dinner, then turned on the A/C to enjoy our dinner.  We have no television, but do have internet, so caught up on my e-mail and found a lovely e-mail from my granddaughter and a new picture of my new great granddaughter that she had written at 4:30 this morning.  Can you tell that she is a new mommy.  This is her fifth daughter.

I heard plans for the trip plan tomorrow and Syracuse mentioned, so guess we are on the way home.

Acadia National Park - Bar Harbor, Maine

August 21st - Wednesday - Hot 88 degrees and humid

I miss the cooler weather that we enjoyed in PEI; however, we set out for Acadia National  Park and enjoyed the sights there and once we got to the higher elevation, it was a bit cooler.  The ranger warning was for poor breathing conditions and you can see from the pictures there is a haze in some of the pictures.

Our first stop was at a Nature Center and a lovely labeled of Wild Gardens of Arcadia and I had to take pictures of some of the wild plants that were growing.  I guess I had never seen a Jack in the Pulpit when it went to seed.  I remember Krista bringing me one from our woods when she was a preteen and we planted it and it lived for a long time, but don't remember it going to seed.

Holly Berry Tree (was a tall tree)

Touch-me-nots

A view from Otter Cliff

Jordan Pond

After we finished one side of the park, we got off the planned route and searched for a place to have lunch and we decided to eat at Cafe Drydock and Inn in Southwest Harbor.  It was a delightful inn and a wonderful lunch was served to us with huge glasses of ice water and lemon.  It reminded me of the Golden Lamb in Lebanon, Ohio.  I had to take a couple pictures of the interior, as it was decorated in the same fashion as I have decorated my home and we felt right at home.

Dining Room where we ate

Another view of the dining room

Seawall

Lighthouse at Bass Harbor

Tomorrow we leave Maine and move further south on our way home.  Sounds like everyone is anxious to get back home.  We have to go to Syracuse, therefore returning the same way we came, as Preston has to pick up his car that he left at  Camping World in Syracuse.

Back in the USA

August 20th - Tuesday - Overcast and cooler

We bid farewell to Prince Edward Island this morning as we head over the Confederation Bridge.  They charged us $59.00 to cross over the bridge and that was for the motor home and the car being towed and that certainly was the best way to go.  We were not charged to take the ferry coming onto the Island and only charged taking the bridge off.  Something for all RV owners to remember.

We left at 10:00 this morning and made it all the way to Bar Harbor this evening at 8:00 pm.  It was longer than we normally drive, but everything was going well and we could not find a place that had a vacancy, so we kept on coming and found this place with a reservation about 4:00 pm.  It is huge and we will stay here for two nights at least.  It is called Timberland Acres and we were lucky to get a pull-thru site.

One thing I wanted to do while we were at PEI was to get ice cream at Cows.  When I was doing my research on the the trip it was suggested that a stop be made there.  Stating that it was Canada's most popular spot for ice cream.  It was a trip to the ice cream store unlike none I have ever had before.  The smell of fresh made waffle cones, either vanilla or chocolate lured you in through the door.  The ice cream is creatively name and delicious flavors like "gooey mooey" or "wowie cowie".  Lou and I certainly enjoyed our choices.  The store also sold t-shirts and humorous parodies of pop culture, such as cowy potter and the udder of the phoenix, to name a few.  It was a neat experience.

Tonight we enjoyed pot roast that I cooked in the crock pot yesterday, thankfully it was all prepared and all I had to do was fix a salad and warm everything up.  Lou has television tonight and has f ound a movie to enjoy and I finished a book and we have gained the hour back that we lost going into Canada, and everyone has cell service again.  Things are returning to normal.  I am amazed with Indigo, as I had service on my cell phone all the time we were away, as they told me I would have.

I thought the Canadian flag was pretty also and it waved very proudly at all locations.  Many times the American flag also flew.

Touring Prince Edward Island National Park - Lunch at Riverside Diner, Morell, PEI

August 19th - Monday - Another beautiful day - 78 degrees

We took the car and toured the National Park of Prince Edward Island.  From this picture you can see why they talk about the red cliffs of P.E.I.  The red sandstone is just beautiful and some different from the beaches that we see in the United States.

The water was actually very warm and the sand was wonderful way to get a pedicure 

We enjoyed wading in the water and picking up different shells from the ones that we have picked up in the south

Can you tell Lou enjoyed his lunch?

Our Cook at Riverside Diner

After driving all afternoon and missing lunch we started looking for a place to eat and we didn't come up with something that was suitable until we drove up to The Riverside Diner.  We almost missed the sign, Lou came to a quick stop and we found a place to park and went inside.  The specials were posted on a huge bulletin board and everything looked good.

Lou is very fond of seafood chowder and he ordered a bowl of that and it came with a biscuit, thinking that would not be enough for him, I ordered a bowl of chowder and asked them to create me a sandwich, as they advertised.  I ordered Montreal smoked meat, with cheese, tomato, lettuce and red onion on their homemade bread.  I forgot to mention it was a bakery also and smelled wonderful.  She came out later and asked me what kind of bread I would like and I asked for multi-grain and she asked it I would like it grilled and I thought that sounded great.

Well let me tell you when she brought our food, we both had a huge bowl of chowder and it was delicious, with plenty of fish, scallops, lobster, shrimp and clams, with a few potatoes, celery, onions and seasoned just perfectly.  Lou and I have ordered chowder every place we have eaten and this was the cheapest and the best of any we have had and the  homemade  biscuit was just like mother made.  The sandwich was delicious and generous with everything that was on it.  A meal that one would have expected to have been served in an upscale restaurant.

After we ate our meal, I asked the gal that fixed our food, if I could take her picture to post it on our blog and she happily consented.  She certainly earned the recognition.  It was a great meal.  It was the Riverside Diner - 7621 St. Peter/s Highway, Morell, PEI - Canada -  Lou brought cinnamon rolls to have with our breakfast tomorrow morning.

 You noted that I talked about the Red Cliffs of P.E.I., Well this "T" Shirt Company took advantage of the Red Dirt and makes shirts that are only suitable to PEI and I wanted to see how they were made, so Lou and I did the factory tour.

See the piles of the red dirt

The dirt is washed into the white shirts and then a special rinse put into the final rinse, to keep the color of the dirt into the fabric.
They recommend that the shirts be washed with your colored clothes on the first wash, but they do not wash out.  They are sold with packets of the red dirt from PEI

Tomorrow we say "goodbye to PEI and head back to the states.  Our first stop after we leave Canada is going to be Bar Harbor.  We expect to still be in Canada tomorrow night.

Worship Service at Cavendish Baptist Church

August 18th - Sunday - Beautiful Day 70's

In keeping with our Sunday tradition we attended church this morning and today was very special to me, we attended a Baptist church.  Those of you that know me personally know that I have been a Baptist most of my adult life and this was a wonderful opportunity for me.

The church that we attended was The Cavendish Baptist Church and it was constituted on July 14, 1869 with 22 members.  It is a part of the Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches and is a sister church in the Prince Edward Island Association of Baptist churches.  The early beginnings of this church are inseparably associated with three historic family names which were a part of the original settlement of Cavendish: Clark, MacNeill and Simpson.  These families were a nucleus of the membership of the original Cavendish Baptist Meeting House which was located on the Mayfield Road about 1/2 mile south of the present Cavendish Cemetery.  The present building was constructed in 1902 and has played a central role in the community ever since.

Our pastor today was  Rev. Chet Mac Phail, and he was orginally from P.E.I. and has a great love for this area and a love for today's youth.  A typical Baptist pastor, no set agenda, spoke from his heart, lots of music and special music, great singing from all, children's service, a very warm congregation and a service that went on for two hours.  We came away feeling like we were one of the church family.  Wish we were from this area, would love to attend this church.

Did find out the farmers in this area do not raise much corn for grain, as their growing season is not long enough to get the corn to ripen, before frost comes.  That is why we see so many acres of wheat, oats and potatoes.  I just can't get enough of the fields.

After church we went for a drive and to the grocery.  We are going to stay an extra day and tomorrow we are going to go the the National Park and also seek out the light houses.

Green Gables Heritage Place - Lucy Maud Montgomery

August 17th - Saturday - 75 degrees

We slept in a little this morning and after breakfast we drove up the road about  1/2 block to the immor talized home in Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables.  The site is affiliated with Prince Edward Island National Park.

The farm was the home of David and Margaret Macneill, cousins of Mongomery's grandfather.  The house is furnished in late 19th century style and outbuildings have been restored to the Victorian period.  The Haunted Woods and Balsam Hollow walking trails, as described in the book, are on the grounds.  For those of us that have read her books, it felt like we were right there, and it was hard to remember that it was not a true family.

A field of clover in the foreground with a field of oats in the back

Combination flower and vegetable garden

One of the bedrooms in the house

The flowers around the house were beautiful

The barn was full of farming equipment

Lou checking out the well house

After we finished at the house, we came back to the RV for lunch and then we took a ride down route 6 out of Cavendish to Summerside and did we ever see the countryside with huge fields, farmers were harvesting wheat and oats.  There were acres and acres of potatoes in the town of Kensington.  We saw processing plants in Cavendish with covered trucks taking produce into the plant, now we understand why so much of our produce comes from Prince Edward Island.

Grain Elevators

Processing Plant

Of course, while we were out  riding Lou spotted an airplane and had to investigate and guess what it was, it was a tribute to an Air Force Base that had been closed in 1993.  It was rather interesting and something that he had not seen before and that is rare!!

Field of soybeans

Prince Edward Island - Arrival

August 16th - Friday - Beautiful day 78 degrees

Today was moving day and this is a picture of us boarding the ferry with the motor home.  We had enough time waiting in line to have our lunch in the motor home.  The ferry ride was 75 minutes.  On the ferry we chose to read our book, however, you could eat a meal, have a snack, or gamble in the casino.  We thought we would sit on the upper deck, but there was a lot of fumes coming from the motor and decided that wouldn't be the best place to sit.

Once we were off the ferry, we drove to our camp site in the town of Cavendish.  It was across the Island and the drive was wonderful.  I was amazed at the huge field of wheat, clover, barley, buckwheat, hay, and fresh produce.  I snapped some pictures from the window of the RV and hopefully tomorrow we will closer views of what the Island has to offer.

This is a lovely campsite, tonight there was a hayride for the kids and many, many took advantage of that activity.  They have a huge jumping pillow for the kids to play on and we are next to Anne of Greene Gables.

Preston took all of our laundry to the laundry house to do while I got things settled and Lou put together our new camping grill and we grilled pork steaks.  I fixed a nice pasta salad to have for dinner tomorrow night and fixed a  home cooked dinner for tonight.  We have been eating out and enjoying the seafood, but thought it would be nice to have something here tonight and get caught up on neglected house hold duties.

Lou found that we couldn't get the satellite to work here and we had home to watch Cedar Cove tonight.

Straw being bailed

Field of buckwheat

A field of wheat

I had many more pictures to post, but the internet here is terrible and it has taken me over four hours to do this little bit.

Driving Tour of Cape Breton Highlands National Park

August 15th - Thursday - Very windy - 60's

We were up early and set out to drive around the perimeter of the National Park by taking Cabot Trail and it was a wonderful drive.  It took us all day long and we drove a total of 200 miles and I am just going to post some of the pictures that we took with a description of some that might need a description.

This is where we started and we we up and down and around

The ocean had some white caps today with the wind

A view across the Smokey Mountains

A shepherd's Shelter

View down the mountain to the ocean

Note how some of the trees are beginning to change

Rocks along the side of the road

We stopped and walked along a board walk that covered a bog area and viewed the different flowers that grew there

This told about some of the insect eating plants

A close up of the Pitcher Plant

Water lilies

I don't remember the name of this one 

Bog Orchid 

We actually walked on top of this mountain.

Beautiful isn't it?

Cotton Grass

Think you can agree from the pictures that I posted, we had a day that was wonderful for the eyes and the soul.  Tomorrow we pack up and move on to Prince Edward Island.  Hopefully, I will be able to post from there