Atlanta

We have located our RV in a campground about 20 minutes from Erin and Brett in a town called Norcross,GA. Jones RV Park will be our home for the next couple of months. We had a great time at the the Childrens Home but Erin is due any minute and we want to be closer by. We will return to the Home for a week in November when other friends will be there as well. We are helping Erin and Brett with a remodeling of an upstairs bedroom/bathroom. As Erin says all you have to do is look around and you will find something to do. We like the neighborhood and are beginning to be able to find our way around, especially to Lowes and Home Depot. Emily is 2-1/2 going on 13. She and Erin were buying link sausage at the grocery store the other day and she says" Mommy, those look like boy parts". Where do they learn so much so fast! She now goes to pre-school 2 days a week and is a shining star( of course)!

Emily and Atlanta

I was going to write about what happened between June 25th and today but that sounded like an elementary language arts first day assignment so lets say it just came and went! Our first week-end with Emily is far more important. As you can see from the pictures, Erin wanted a few shrubs removed from her yard and Emily was right in the middle of the job. She was such a great help...Love those grandchildren!

 

 

 

Rocking and drinking coffee

We are sitting on the porch drinking coffee at the cabin.. Everything here looks good and the bugs are not too bad..We are without internet for a week or so so will update further when we are hooked up.

 

 

 

 

Benson, AZ friends show us their life-long home.

Our second tour guides were Gail and Mike Lenney, "rolling home" friends who grew up in North Tonawanda, north of Buffalo. They made sure that we got to experience the Erie Barge Canal System, Niagra Falls from underneath the frothing torrent, Beef on Wick and Good Guys Tray Pizza. What more could you ask for!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buffalo, New York with a long-time friend leading the way

It's always wonderful to see a new place through the eyes of the local folks who love it dearly. That's exactly how we got to see and fall "dead in love" with Buffalo, New York. Our first tour guide was Patty Ann Corcoran Hayes, better known as Officer Pat Hayes of the New York State Police. Seven years ago I was completing an 8-week stint as Camp Store Manager for my sister's family business Offense-Defense Football Camps. The last week of camp for me was to be held at the Buffalo State College campus. I had lived and breathed football with the men and boys long enough and I was determined to have a girl's moment or two at an art gallery or a museum. Since I had arrived early from the last camp up on a mountain top in West Virginia, I struck out that evening to get the lay of the land. [Enter Officer Pat, assigned to the college campus.] She spotted me, the lone woman, hiking around the edges of campus unchaperoned and red flags went up in her mind. She would do nothing less than escort me in her State Police SUV safely back to my dorm, but not before she had treated me to an hour-long tour of the highlights of her city of Buffalo. Before the week was over, we had eaten Buffalo-made Sahlen's hotdogs, Weber's mustard, freshly picked corn-on-the-cob and potato salad together at the State Police barracks on campus. I also had a jug of Chiavetta's Marianade, famous at all Buffalo area chicken barbeques, tucked in my travel bag. Needless to say, we two kindred spirits had become best friends. The next year Wally joined me on the football camp trail, and Pat introduced us to her husband Micheal and son Brian during a supper visit at her home. Since then we have kept in touch with our family news...we are both grand-mothers now! A few weeks ago we received an e-mail from Pat asking if we were getting close to Buffalo. She not only had us park our riglet on her property, but she showed off "her city" in grand style. We ate fish and chips that featured the best haddock ever, foot-long hot dogs from the Red Top Stand that's been serving delighted locals forever. As the day came to a close, we squeezed out every bit of daylight driving past the astounding architectural delights of downtown. Among them was the Buffalo's Roman Catholic Basilica, one of the elaborate churches that has been granted ceremonial rights and privileges by the Pope. Inside and outside, it was a spiritual event. Pat's Irish upbringing has made her a strong supporter of all things Buffalo and we dearly love her for that fierce spirit.

 

 

 

 

Lake Superior is a big one...so is Lake Huron

It took a full day of driving to get around the north shore of Lake Superior from Thunder Bay to Sault Ste. Marie. The view out the windshield was mostly water with no end in sight or forests with no end in sight. This was Day 59 of our travels and endless views of water and forests were making us feel a bit weary. It took another day to drive around Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay from Sault Ste. Marie to Sudbury and then past Lake Ontario to Toronto and Hamilton. We had seen a Greyhound Bus pulling a cargo trailer make its delivery of passengers and parcels in Jasper Town Site back in the Canadian Rockies. We regretted that we didn't have a camera at hand to capture the moment. While we were still in the rural part of Ontario, we spotted another one. What a good use of the well-known "people mover" to get packages back into the boonies. We also got a big kick out of the moving van the passed us with the last of the belongings lashed to the back. Guess it just couldn't be squeezed inside!

 

 

 

 

Rendezvous Times on the Great Lakes ; 1803 and 1815

Just as we were about to cross the border into Ontario,Canada, Wally and I saw a sign for the Grand Portage Heritage Center. Since we were only traveling about 35 more miles to Thunder Bay, we decided to check it out. The North West Company in 1803: Chief Director Simon McTavish, voyageurs who paddle far into the wilderness to swap exotic items for mostly beaver pelts, native peoples who participate in the international fur trade, and a fur trade depot inside a fort on the north shore of Lake Superior that becomes the largest in the heart of the continent. Why wouldn't this be the perfect place for everyone connected with "The Company" to rendezvous and celebrate their good fortunes in the easy weather of July?

Beaver pelts were the raw materials for making the felted top hats so highly prized by the upperclass men in England and France. Beaver fur adorned women's clothing as collars, trim and muffs. From 1784 until the mid-1800's, every beaver that could be trapped was trapped...and sold to The North West Company.

When the U.S. border was established, The North West Company felt that their business would be better off under British rule, so their depot/fort was moved 35 miles up the shore of Lake Superior. That site is called Thunder Bay, Canada today. There we found Fort William Historical Park telling the story of The North West Company's trade under the leadership of Chief Director William McGillivray in 1815. The local Ojibwe tribal people share their culture with traditional villages, an annual Pow Wow, and the building of birchbark canoes. Daily life is shown through artisans of the period at work, a farm of mixed livestock and crops being tended, and the business of The Company being carried in 42 authentic buildings.

We spent four hours at Fort William chatting with the artisans, sampling the fare from the wood-fired ovens and hearths, dancing on the main square to fiddle music, cuddling the new-born lambs and imagining those times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

North House Folk School

As many of you know Darcy and I spent several falls volunteering at the John C Campbell Folk School in Brasstown,NC. It was probably some of the most enjoyable times of our travels. How could one not enjoy learning a new craft from a top knotch instructor, in a beautiful location, with a community of like minds. Our travels have led us to another such place, The North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN. Its mission tells it all. Enriching lives and building community by teaching traditional northern crafts in a student-centered learning environment that inspires the hands, the heart and the mind. After spending time at John C Campbell Folk School I started looking on the net for other Folk Schools and found North House. It has taken several years for us to find it however once we walked into the office it was like we had always been there. We felt like we were at home. A course in Scandinavian Style Flat Plane Carving was going on but the results of many other courses were around. Boats of all kinds,skis,snowshoes,caskets-yes caskets,timber framing,blacksmithing were just a few.Check them out at www.northhouse.org. A better vacation you can't find. We will definately be back.

 

 

 

 

"Where in the World is Ely, MN"

If you would have asked me last year where Ely,Mn was I wouldn't have had a clue! If it weren't for Bonnie and Charles, friends from Benson,AZ, we wouldn't know where it was today. It is a beautiful community, the gateway to the "Boundary Waters Canoe Area,a two million acre designated wilderness with a network of portage trails between pristine lakes", in northern MN surrounded by lakes of all sizes. It looks very much like many parts of Maine. The area often has the lowest recorded cold temperatures in the winter. There are therefore many summer-only residents. Bonnie and Charles have a beautiful home on Shagawa lake. They fed us a feed of Walleye,a fish unknown to us, but very delicious along with many other delictable items. My diet went to the wind while here. While in Ely we had the opportunity to visit the International Wolf Center. The center follow many wolves via radio collar in MN. Since reintroduction the wolf population in MN has grown to 3000 many located in the areas around Ely. I was surprised to find that they were only fed once a week to simulate their feast or famine feeding cycle in the wild. Saturday nights they get a deer or maybe a few beaver that have been given by local trappers. They are truly a beautiful animal.