As we crossed over the border into Maine from New Hampshire on Monday, we honked the airhorns on the Winnebago to celebrate filling in our map. We have now driven through all of the lower 48 states. We have traveled 60,412 mile so far. 

We have spent at least one night in the RV in all but 5 of them, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Oklahoma. 

While living full time in the motorhome, we did fly to Hawaii for a week long cruise. We did not make it to Alaska as many full timers do but we did spend 6 weeks there in 1999 while camping in our van. That was a rough trip and we did not want to subject the old RV to that kind of abuse.

We made it to only 3 of the Canadian Provinces and had planned to visit the Maritime Provinces but Covid got in the way. If our plans change and we do not buy a home this coming year, we may make it there yet. 

It has been a great Journey!

We visited Burlington, Vermont 25 years ago and decided to come back and see what we might have missed. On our first visit, we toured the Shelburne Museum, took the Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream Factory Tour, and attended a Vermont Expos minor league game.  We also toured the new, at that time, Vermont Teddy Bear Factory, which gave way to the idea of the popular Build A Bear franchise. 

We first celebrated Josie's birthday with a dinner cruise on the Spirit of Ethan Allen out on Lake Champlain. We were treated to the best weather of our stay with calm waters and a beautiful sunset over the Adirondack Mountains in New York and moon rise over the Green Mountains of Vermont. We toasted with champaign and even got out on the dance floor a few times.

Two days later we kept the party going with a Railroad dinner trip on the Green Mountain Railroad. The three hour trip started off along the shores of Lake Champlain, went through a narrow area that was cut out of the rocks and then over a river on a 100 foot trestle. Along the way we were treated to champagne and an outstanding four course meal.  

We saw more rain in Burlington than we had seen on our whole trip north this year. When we did get a good day we walked the Colchester Causeway trail, an old converted rail line that goes out into Lake Champlain. It was very busy with many bikers so not that enjoyable having to dodge the Tour De France wannabes. 

​We later went to the Church Street Market Place and enjoyed the street entertainers. From there we visited a few of the local micro-breweries, where we tasted a few great beers and had a fantastic meal at the Burlington Beer Company.  Along the way we felt fortunate we did not have to be here when they have so much snow that they have three foot markers on the fire hydrants. 

One oddity we found, was what most people call the world's tallest filling cabinet. It is made up of 38 individual cabinets stacked on top of each other and then welded together. It's called ART?  

I got up early one morning to bird a local lake. The three mile hike around the lake was a little more challenging than I anticipated but I made it all the same. The birding was fair and I did get a few good birds for the year but not many good pictures. I decided to search for a few geocaches that were along the trail and found three including one called "A Shady Cache" which was full of sunglasses. Very creative cache, wish I would have had a pair of glasses to leave. 

Seven years ago, we spent two weeks attending the races at Saratoga. We had such a good time we decided to go back and enjoy them again.

Before the races started, we visited our friend Millie at her beautiful farm, just outside of Saratoga Springs. We attend Yoga classes with Millie in Boca Raton during the winter. When she heard we were coming to Saratoga she invited us out to her farm and she served us a lunch with all of dishes coming from her garden. She then took Josie on a ride around her property on her ATV. As you can see Josie loved it. We look forward to seeing Millie back in Boca this winter season.

​We spent the next five days at the track enjoying the atmosphere of Saratoga. It's not just about the horse races. The wagering, pageantry, food and entertainment, not to mention the people watching are all part of what makes this a fun thing to do. On our first day at the track Lynn and Hutch joined us for a while, as they were in the area. It was their last day before they heading farther south. Wish they could have been around longer. 

We did our best to pick the winners in just about all the races but this year we came out on the short end overall. We still enjoyed seeing all the best horses, jockeys and trainers in the country. 

It was also neat to see the announcers we see on TV when watching the races.

Of all the food items available, the lobster rolls were by far our favorite. I am also very partial to the Carnegie Deli's Black and White Cookies.  

We moved up to Burlington, Vermont today and will stay here for a week. 

We started off our stay in the Finger Lakes region with a visit to the Corning Museum of Glass.  We had both been here before, Josie many years ago and I had visited it with my navy buddy Tom Ney on a New York minor league baseball stadium tour in 2011. We enjoyed the glass blowing demonstrations the most. We then had a nice lunch near the town square. 

We hiked the Watkins Glen Trail one morning with a few hundred of our closest friends. Despite the trail being very crowded and many people jams at spots in the trail that were very narrow, we enjoyed the beautiful gorge. 

While in the area we decided to visit the Watkins Glen International Race Course. I attended the US Grand Prix here 53 years ago, right after getting back from a West Pac Cruise while in the Navy. I have included two pictures from that race in 69 at the end of this section. We discovered you could drive your own car for three laps around the track and we had a blast doing it. Josie was our camera lady and did a great job. We did not set any speed records but I tried to test the limits of the Jeep on a few of the turns. We cannot upload video on the blog, but we did post it on Josies Facebook page. 

For my birthday, Josie treated me to a dinner cruise on Seneca Lake aboard the Seneca Legacy. We had a nice dinner while enjoying the scenic shore line of the lake. 

On our last day in town, we met up with my cousin Mike's daughter, Erica and her husband Chris, who live in nearby Ithaca, at a local airfield where Erica is a member of a skydiving club. We enjoyed watching her prep for a jump and then seeing her make a perfect landing right in front of us. Afterwards we stopped a Two Goats Brewery, overlooking Seneca Lake and enjoyed the view while trying one of their beers. 

We are now in Saratoga Springs for a week of horse races. 

We had visited Erie many years ago on one of our summer trips in the van, but we stayed only one night to see an Erie Seawolf's baseball game. Since Josie's son-in-law, Scott is from this area we decided to visit for a few days. One of our first stops was the Bicentennial Tower which gave us a nice view of the downtown area and the waterfront. A few days later we had Rum Runners at the restaurant by the same name in the shadow of the tower. While having diner Captain Jack Sparrow came by in his dingy  with a water cannon to spray the kids at the restaurant, they really enjoyed it. 

We then visited the Erie Land Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse on the great lakes built in 1818. From there we drove to Presque Isle State Park. Presque Isle means almost an island in French. We took in both of the lighthouses in the park along with the monument honoring Commodore Perry, a Naval hero in the War of 1812. We were surprised to see a floating house community in a cove at the park. On the way out of the park I saw a lady with a camera like mine standing on the side of the road taking pictures of something in the trees. Turned out to be a gray morph Eastern Screech Owl. 

Scott had told us we had to visit Sara's Dinner during our visit. Sara's is just outside the park entrance and it was packed. We lucked out and found a parking space and put in our order for a hotdog, hamburger and onion rings. Despite four lines of at least 6 people in each line we were in and out in less than 30 minutes. We like it so much we went back the next day and this time ordered the Orange Vanilla Twist ice-cream cone. Delicious!  

We spent one afternoon at Presque Isle Downs betting on the horse races. We had a lucky day and won money in all 7 races we made wagers on, coming away with $135 dollars in winnings. 

On another day we visited Schaefer's Auto Art, which is home to a variety of sculptures made from recycled metal and auto parts. Josie was happy to see an old Nash Rambler, which was the first car she ever owned. On our way back to the RV Park we stopped at another of Scotts recommended places, Romolo Chocolates. We did not leave empty handed. 

We arrived in Lake Orion just in time for "Flare Night" a tradition where the home owners all around the lake set off flares on the shore the night before the Fourth of July fireworks. It is very beautiful and Michael, Josies son, had plenty of them to line his shore line. On the fireworks night, which was on the 2nd this year, everyone went out in their boats to watch the fireworks, which are shot from a barge in the middle of the lake. The lights from the boats along with the fireworks, make for a beautiful sight from the shore where Josie and I watched them.

On the 4th of July, Josie and I went into Detroit to see the Tigers take on the Guardians. It was a great day for a ball game and the Tigers won!

We spent some time around the lake with Josies family. Cathy and Scott were in from Florida as well as their father, Jim and Aunt Gail. Cathy tried her skill at riding the paddle board, and was able to get up and around  the lake. Josie's grand-daughters, Abby and Anne were very adept on the paddle boards and scooted all over the lake.  We had a few nice dinners together and one evening played a lively game of beer pong. We also had a bourbon tasting one evening that proved that no matter how much you pay for a bottle of bourbon sometimes the cheaper ones taste better. 

We spent a few hours one day at the Oakland County Fair. It was the first day of the fair so many of the livestock exhibits were not open yet, but we did see the pig races, and the chainsaw artist carving an owl. Josie got to feed the cows and goats. She even tried her hand at milking an artificial cow which she was very good at having milked a real cow once at the Purina Farm in Missouri. Of course, what would a fair be with out eating fried food, and we  shared a fried snickers bar, sooooo good!

We have been having a lot of fun finding Geocaches here in Lake Orion. We found all of them in the park where we were staying and even repaired one of them that had cracked open. We found one of them inside of a sign in a cemetery and we found one in a small birdhouse. Another interesting cache was located near the grave of Minour Yamasaki, the designer of the World Trade Center in New York. Odd that he and his wife are buried in such an out of the way cemetery in Lakeville, Michigan. We leave golf tees in the caches that are big enough to hold them. We got that idea from Mike Weirich, who got us started on this treasure hunt. We also are unable to find a few of the caches, which makes it frustrating.  

One evening we had dinner and dessert at the two of oldest and highest rated restaurants in Rochester, Michigan. Lipuma's Coney Island, where we feasted on Coney dogs and French fries by the river. Then we walked up the street to Sander's Chocolate and Ice Cream Shoppe, where we split their famous Cream Puff Sundae, A cream puff split in half with ice cream added between the halves and then covered with chocolate and caramel sauce. 

I played the Old Course at Indianwood with Glen and then a few days later we played at the Flint Country Club, both courses were in top shape. The Old Course is a Links Course and the Flint course was lined with beautiful trees. The next week I played with Russ, one of our fulltime RV friends. We played the Hadley Acres Golf Course with a front nine made up of tight fairways and very small greens and a back nine with larger fairways and much bigger greens. 

Once again Aaron let us park the RV in the side drive of his lake house on Bugg's Island Lake near Clarksville, Virginia. We started off our visit with two nights of Oyster Mania. We slurped some raw, we roasted some with toppings of blue cheese, shallots and bacon and then finished them off with    Aaron's oyster stew. We enjoyed our meals from the new deck that he had built last year. During our stay we were entertained daily by the many deer who have free reign throughout the neighborhood. They are fun to watch but they wreak havoc on Aaron's bird feeder and flower garden.  When we arrived one of Aaron's 3 bluebird nest boxes had a nest in it but no eggs yet. By the time we left they had laid 4 eggs and the day before we left the eggs hatched. 

Missy drove down from DC a day before we left for our golf trip to Pinehurst, North Carolina and we played a quick 9 holes at the Donald Ross course just up the road from the lake house. That evening we had a nice dinner at the local Buggs Island Brewery, where the sign to the bathroom there said it all. 

Missy, Aaron and I drove down to Pinehurst, North Carolina where we met up with Missy's friend and business collogue Charley, who flew down from Boston. We checked into the Carolina Hotel, our home for the next two nights. We had just enough time to look over the major championship trophies in the lobby of the clubhouse and a quick lunch before teeing off on Course #1. After our round on #1 we played the 18-hole Thistle Dew putting course, which prepared us for the diabolical greens of Pinehurst #2 the next day.

With the help of our caddy, Kade, we made our way around the famous Pinehurst #2.  A strong test of golf with waste areas on either side of most fairways and elevated turtleback greens that were very fast. But in the end, we were all smiles, having played one of the top courses in the US and the site of numerous championships. We then played the Cradle, a 9-hole par three course, which they suggested we play barefooted. After walking so much on #2 going barefoot felt good. All of the tee boxes were marked with drink stands, which we took full advantage of.  

We went back to the hotel, cleaned up and sat out on the porch for drinks before dinner. We had two evenings of 3 course gourmet meals and 2 days of the best breakfast buffets anywhere. We needed to keep our strength up for our final round on Sunday at Pinehurst #7. A completely different course with hills and water hazards.  

We then said goodbye to Charley and made the 2-hour drive back to Aarons. But the golf was not over for Missy. She drove back to DC where she teed off at 9am Monday morning at Congressional Country Club, where the LPGA Championship had just finished up the day before.  
 
On Monday morning, we said our goodbyes to Aaron and are now parked for the night at an RV park in West Virginia heading north toward Michigan. 

We have spent the past three weeks in our home town of Virginia Beach, catching up with friends and it seems like we were always on the go.  One evening Lynn and Hutch had a few of the ole gang over for drinks and Lynn's killer wings. We met up with them a few days later at the Ice House for dinner and then listened to a fantastic singer at a parking lot party out back of the restaurant. 

We met Leon and Laura for dinner one evening at the new Location of Zia Marias, a favorite Italian place that has been around for many years. Afterward Laura treated us to homemade strawberry shortcake with berries she has just picked that afternoon. A week or so later we met Bob, Kathy and Aaron for another dinner at Zia Marias. A few days earlier we visited with Bob and Cathy at their home and sat pool side as their grand-daughters enjoyed the pool.

One evening Aaron, Will and Lindsey came to our campsite and we pigged out on Blue Crabs and Lindsey's corn on the cob and Will's potato salad. A week earlier we had all met at the Cajun Festival at Waterside in Norfolk where we ate our share of huge crawfish. 

Josie spent a lot of time visiting with the Haddad family, whom she was a nanny for many years. Eli, and Livi are both in college now and Alex is a special ed teacher with the Virginia Beach Public Schools.
 
One evening Shannon and Wick had us over to their home on the bay for Wicks excellent smoked salmon. We heard about the recent wedding of their daughter Halley and also her graduation from Law School. Their son Sam also just graduated from UVA.  We marveled at their new 61-foot catamaran, that now that they are retired, they will sail to the Caribbean later this year. 

We were also fortunate to find that all the Nopper boys were in town. Josie was also their nanny for a few years. Brooks and Will are both working in the area and Michael is home for the summer from UVA. Their mother and father Linda and Don also joined us for dinner at the Whisky Kitchen.

Mike took me canoeing on West Neck Creek and we searched for Geocaches. You use GPS coordinates to find caches that other people place in some easy to find places and others that are very difficult to find. Later that evening Josie and I searched for a few near our campground. We found 3, one of which was a tube that held a plastic mouse followed by a plastic snake. Looks like we may have discovered a new hobby.

I managed to attend three Tides baseball game and caught up with Leon and Kenny who I had not seen in a while. Aaron and I went to a night game and then Mike, Leon Hoots and I attended another day game. 

Hutch, Leon and I played a round of golf at Stumpy Lake and then Missy came into town and we played once at Red Wing and then again at Cypress Point. 

Our final night in town we had dinner at Famous Uncle Al's Hotdogs. A must for us whenever we visit. 

Our first stop after leaving Florida was Jekyll Island, Georgia. It was our first visit here and we liked it it a lot. Right across from our campsite was Driftwood Beach. The beach erosion has encroached on the wooded area and the trees have died from the salt water making for an eerie beachscape. Across the East River you could see the St Simon's Island Lighthouse.

One evening we had dinner at the Wharf Restaurant at the Jekyll Island Club. On the drive in, we saw a few of the older beach houses of the rich and famous from years past. We had a nice evening starting with drinks, followed by an entrée of Shrimp and Grits and Lobster Mac an Cheese. We  finished it off with  Key Lime and Reese's Cup pie, while listening to live music by a very good band. 

We drove over the Lanier Bridge to Brunswick one afternoon and took a tour of the Richland Rum Distillery. After an informative talk on how rum was made, we were treated to a rum tasting. It was all the same rum but because of the barrel aging process there were at least 7 distinctive flavors. 

​The Birding on the Island was fantastic. I walked an almost deserted beach early one morning and found numerous shorebirds. Love was in the air and the Royal Terns were busy mating. Across from our campsite a pair of Brown Thrashers were busy feeding their young. I have never seen so many Painted Buntings in one location. As you can see, they are one of, if not the most colorful bird in the USA. I also found a family of Clapper Rails with dad out hunting and mom protecting the chick until dad comes along with a nice crab to eat. 

Our second stop heading north, was Richmond Hill, Georgia, for a visit with Josie's brother Patrick. We had a nice two-day visit with lots of catching up and reminiscing involved. 

Our next stop was Charleston, South Carolina. We had visited Charleston a few times before we had the RV, but we had never taken the tour to Fort Sumter. It was a pleasant ride on the ferry out to the Fort and the rangers gave several very informative talks about the significance of the first shots of the Civil War. At one time the fort had over 3 million bricks but more them two thirds were destroyed during the various battles. They did show us the fingerprints on one of the bricks that they believe was from the slave who made the brick. 

On our last night in town, we took the Charleston Spirit Dinner Cruise. The boat left from the dock that was behind the new Patriot Point Navel & Maritime Museum, which features the USS Yorktown. We chose a nice bottle of Prosecco to start off with and then ate a fantastic four course dinner of She-Crab soup, salad, Shrimp and Grits and cheesecake for dessert  We cruised out past the Ravenal Bridge and then along the Charleston Waterfront.  As the sun set, we then floated under the bridge, which made for a fantastic picture.   

We are in the small town of Pollocksville , North Carolina tonight and will drive the 200 miles into Virginia Beach tomorrow. We are looking forward to getting back and visiting with our hometown friends.

March started out with a visit to Gulfstream Race Park for the Fountain Of Youth Stakes, a grade 2 race with the winner gaining a spot in the Kentucky Derby. We reserved a table at the Ten Palms Restaurant which included an all you can eat buffet. Josie was overwhelmed by the dessert table. Scott and I won a few and lost a few of our bets, but had a lot of fun doing it. 

Josie and I went out to the Palm Beach Equestrian Center for another night of horse jumping and had a great evening. Besides seeing the best horse jumpers in the world, we feasted on good food and were entertained by a fantastic band and circus type entertainers. It was a very nice way to spend a Saturday evening. 

We spend many evenings playing Mah Jongg at Cathy and Scotts. Many of those nights they cook up a feast for dinner. On St Pats Day they had corn beef with all the fixings and Josie made a  Grasshopper pie. Scott received a mixed drink kit from his employer and Cathy served as our bar tender mixing up three nights of tequila-based cocktails. 

For Easter Cathy and Scott made up Easter Baskets for us and Josie crafted a twinkie car with a rabbit Peep driver. Scott cooked a fantastic prime rib, Cathy made delicious green beans with mushrooms and the greatest deviled eggs in the world. Josie added in Boursin potatoes and a grape and apple salad. We finished it off with Scott's pineapple upside down cake with a bourbon brown sugar glaze.

We went to the Dubliner Irish Pub in Boca almost every Tuesday night for Trivia. The host is a middle school teacher who moonlights as a trivia comedian. He is so much fun and the prizes he hands out range from a $100 dollar gift certificate to cans of vegetables. We have been very happy to have won boxes of Whoppers and Twix. We have also won a few boobie prizes, like cans of corn and mac and cheese. Josie even picked up a pregnancy test one evening.  But we also have won the $100 gift certificate first prize, which we used for a gourmet meal at Dada, another very whimsical restaurant by the same owner.  We go out a lot in Boca and we have a few favorites. The happy hour at the Loch Bar is one of our favorites, and the food at Kapow is always tasty. We love going to Papa's Raw Bar in Pompano. A fun trio plays on the weekend and the Oysters and Stone Crab Claws are always cold and delicious.
​
We also have two favorite Breweries that we like to visit. NOBO in Boynton Beach and Funky Buddah in Ft. Lauderdale. Both have a great variety of beers and plenty of tasty bar food to go along with the beer. Funky Buddha also has cornhole and basketball games that we enjoy. 

We spent one Saturday afternoon at the Wellington Bourbon and Bacon Fest.  Scott and I sipped a few different bourbons and we all ate our share of Bacon, mostly on a stick. 

Spring Training finally got underway, so we spent a busy week going up to West Palm Beach for Washington Nationals baseball games. Josie and I went on Senior day and had seats right behind the dugout. Later in the week Missy came into town with two friends and she treated us all to a game, since she now works for the Nationals. We had a great time at the game and capped it all off with  dinner at E.R. Bradley's on the West Palm Beach waterfront. On another evening Scott and I attended a sold out Savannah Banana's Game. The Bananas are the Harlem Globetrotters of Baseball. Google them if you have not seen them yet. 

A few weeks later I flew to DC and spent a few days with Missy and her cat Emma. We saw three games and a I got to see Missy's office and meet many of her fantastic co-workers. While Missy worked on Friday, I played tourist and visited the Capital Mall and a few exhibits at the Smithsonian. Two of interest were Julia Child's Kitchen and an exhibit with and old travel trailer from the thirties era with a placard describing the "Trailer Problem" where many people who were homeless lived in trailers during the depression. A lot like us now. 

We left Delray Beach on Sunday May 1st and are now parked on Jekyll Island Georgia, for the next 8 days.