Falling for Niagara

After we left the wedding and the good times spent with family, we headed to the western end of New York to see the famous Niagara Falls. Now, I had suggested this detour as somewhat of a ruse in order to extend our family trip and keep GoJoe out on the road for a bit longer. I had grown weary of seeing it parked forlornly in the driveway. I was pleased when my family all seemed up for a visit to the storied place where water drops off a cliff, but I was secretly just happy to have somewhere to go.

So when we arrived at the Falls late in the afternoon and peered over the precipice, I was totally unprepared for what turned out to be an utter fascination for this natural wonder. Immediately upon seeing all that water tumble over the edge and into a raging gorge, I was a major fan. Couldn't get enough.

We spent two days looking down at, walking beneath, and boating under these tumultuous waters.

Here the water is about to slide off into oblivion ...
(Click photos for, as they say, "full effect")


And then ...

From below on a rickety catwalk ...

Eric, Malina, and Tracey ...


Eric and Malina getting soaked ...


Approaching the American Falls aboard the Maid of the Mist. As the boat moved into the waters raging beneath the horseshoe-shaped Canadian Falls, it was useless to try to take pictures. Water was flying everywhere. It was an exhilarating - and soaking - experience, however.


Eric and Malina. Rainbow bridge in the background. We walked over the bridge into Canada several times. The buildings in the distance are on the Canadian side. Lots of things to see and do over there.

Canadian Falls at dusk ...

GoJoe Rides Again!

The Blanton family has just returned from a five-day trip to the north. Tracey, Eric, Malina, and I attended the wedding of our niece/cousin in upstate New York. Then we headed to the western end of the state for our first visit to the famed Niagara Falls.

We stayed at state parks and RV campgrounds, sleeping and preparing our meals in GoJoe. It was interesting for four adults to share a relatively small space, but it worked out great. While on the road, I drove as the others played cards, watched movies, napped or watched the scenery go by.

The wedding was held outdoors in the beautiful Wayne Myers gardens south of Ithaca. The weather was picture perfect and the setting was exquisite. Bride Emily and groom Tim had a glorious day.







A few shots of the gardens ...








Eric and Malina relax in a gazebo ...



and stroll down a path ...



Mr. and Mrs. B. I'm sure that behind the beard I was not scowling! :)



The reception was held at an inn in Ithaca. Here are some photos of the festivities and the grounds just outside the reception room ...

The newlyweds ...


Bride Emily and Dad Walt ...


Tracey, sister Tina, and daughter-in-law Malina kick it up ...


Grandpa Walt dances with grandaughter Jessica ...





Brother of the bride Walter IV with Walter V ...


Bride's family's home. I've always enjoyed the peace and tranquility of this place.




Sittin' on the porch ...


That hair regrowth potion is starting to kick in! ...

Feeling Wobbly?

We all know that the earth spins on it's axis, an imaginary line that goes through the North and South Poles. What a lot of us may not know is that our planet "wobbles" a tiny bit on this axis, much like a spinning top that's slowing down. Just over a hundred years ago, scientists decided it was time to figure out just how much "wobble" was there.

Back in 1899, the International Geodetic Association established six small observatories around the world, all on the same latitude -- 38 degrees, 6 minutes North. Their assignment was to keep an eye on certain stars in the sky. Comparing information from different locations on the earth would help to make calculations about the latitude line and, thus, the wobble. I've always been intrigued that one of these observatories is here in my hometown of Gaithersburg, Maryland. The others were in Cincinnati, Ohio; Ukiah, California; Mizusawa, Japan; Charjui in Russian Turkestan; and Carloforte, Sardina, Italy. The Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory, a tiny wooden building, was in use from 1899 until 1982, with a break from 1915 until 1932 for economic reasons. In its working years, the roof would slide back to allow the telescope an open view of the sky. The observatory has been preserved as a National Historic Landmark.

Here it is today:




The small building sits in a field in a residential area surrounded by a fence looking like a tool shed. There are no signs or markings and I would imagine that few people know of its significance. You can read more about it here.

Good to be Home!

I've been home for just over a week now and it occurred to me that I should mention this on the blog! GoJoe's road test is over and it's great to be back at home with the family.

I was waiting to post until I could get a picture of Tracey, Eric, Malina and myself standing by the RV. But weather and schedules haven't cooperated, so that'll have to wait. In the meantime, I've returned to "civilian" life here with the added task of mowing the lawn now that spring is in full force. The first few days back I unloaded GoJoe, washed and waxed it, cleaned the windows and tires, etc. I'm sure the neighbors thought I'd gone over the edge with all the attention I was giving my RV. Many of them have stopped by and wanted to know about the trip. I enjoy inviting them in to GoJoe's lounge and regaling them with stories of the road.



A few stats from the trip:

- Days on the road: 50
- Miles traveled: 7,751
- States visited: 12
- Sights seen: Mountains, forests, deserts, lakes, rivers, gardens, parks, a gulf(of Mexico), an ocean (Pacific), historical sites, factories, and on and on.
- Great people met: Too many to count
- Value of experience: Priceless

Tracey and I have been thinking of short trips to take in the next few months in GoJoe. Virginia Beach and the Adirondacks seem to be calling. And a niece is getting married in upstate New York in August. Eric and Malina will go with us to the wedding and we'll test GoJoe's capacity to house four people for a few days.

Stay tuned for the future adventures of GoJoe. And now I'm off to mow the grass. :)

Heading Home!

This past Monday morning, I woke up at my campsite at Silverwood Lake State Park northeast of Los Angeles. I'd been as far west as I could go. Going north sounded intriguing, but it was still cold in that direction. Besides, I was really missing my family. Driving north on I-15, I came to the cutoff for the beginning of I-40. It starts at Barstow, California, and goes east all the way across the country. A sign at the cutoff says "Wilmington, North Carolina 2,550 miles." I took that sign as a sign.

Six days of hard driving later, I sit here on Saturday night at my campsite in eastern Tennessee in the foothills of the Smokies. Tomorrow I continue over the mountains and on to Charlotte where I'll see my mother, my sister and brother-in-law, and my niece and her new baby, who was born while I was out west. In a few more days, I'll be back in Maryland, very happy to see Tracey. Eric and Malina, too.

Tracey and I have talked on the phone every day, usually three or four times. So in a sense, she's been on the trip with me. She's kept up with my locations and has a map on the wall plotting my course.

It took me nearly six weeks to reach the West Coast, and just six days to get almost back. This is the first time I've essentially crossed the whole country in one swoop. It really lets you appreciate how things "unfold" as you move eastward. The California coast gives way fairly quickly to a series of hefty mountain ranges. Western mountains are for the most part treeless and seem newly-made and "toothy" with their craggy projections. Downright fangy, some of them. Others look just like gigantic rock piles. I don't know how they stay assembled. I thought of the Joad family in "The Grapes of Wrath" and how they spent weeks crossing these mountains in their old truck on their way west from Oklahoma. And here I was just zipping over them in a couple of days. Then you get to Arizona and New Mexico where everything flattens out into desert with distant views of barren mountains. The Texas panhandle is a bleached white expanse of flatness. At the Oklahoma border, things start to green up. Halfway through that state and on in to Arkansas and Tennessee, it just gets greener and greener. The distant western vistas shrink as the foliage encroaches. By eastern Arkansas, trees have essentially blocked the view. But the trees are a welcome sight and I don't begrudge their encroachment. In fact, they are like a cool and soothing balm after weeks in the dry and brown west, not that the desert doesn't have it's many merits.

I have really enjoyed this trip. Amazingly (and here I'm looking for some wood to knock on), there have been no real problems. In fact, all has gone extremely smoothly. GoJoe has performed like a charm and has proven to be an excellent home on wheels. The weather - well, I just can't believe the weather. Aside from a few days of cold and rain in Texas, I've basked in 70 and 80 degree sunny weather the whole time. Of course, in the desert west, the temps drop like a lead balloon at night, but that's OK. That's what cozy RVs are for.

I'm grateful that I was able to travel with no particular itinerary or time limit. I found that I was just fine with whatever materialized each day. Maybe because there were no expectations, there were no disappointments. I particularly liked the long drives that gave the opportunity to look long and hard at the ever-changing scenery. And the people in the campgrounds were invariably enjoyable. Most RVers are curious about where you're from, where you're going. And you're curious about them.

I'll have lots of memories to savor over the coming months and years. Getting used to driving GoJoe and then realizing that I'm now whizzing around like I'm driving a Volkswagen. Living it up at Betty's RV Park in the Cajun country of Louisiana. Seeing how Tabasco Sauce and Taylor guitars and Lazy Daze RVs are made. Walking around LBJ's ranch. Being awestruck and feeling small and away from everything at Big Bend. Enjoying the absence of humidity in the western air. Being dazzled by a zillion stars in the sky. Meeting a man who built a mountain. Scooting over the desert on an off-road four-wheeler. Standing on a bluff watching the Pacific waves crash on the beach below. And best of all seeing and enjoying and spending time with old friends and meeting new ones.

All these things add up to one great experience. I consider myself very lucky to have had it. And the cool thing is -- there'll be more down the road.

Takin' It Easy

I was standin' on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, when I noticed this fellow with a guitar. He seemed to be waiting for something.

Fans of the Eagles will recognize this scenario from the song "Take it Easy." Winslow has immortalized it with this statue and the mural on the wall. Note the eagle on the window ledge. They've even parked a real flatbed Ford truck at the curb. "It's a girl, my lord, in flatbed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me."

My brother-in-law John told me about this statue and when I saw the cutoff for Winslow, I just had to stop. This one's for you, John!

Lazy Daze!

Well, I couldn't come to the LA area and not visit the home of Lazy Daze RVs, GoJoe's birth place. Known affectionately as the "Mother Ship" to legions of Lazy Daze owners, the factory is a surprisingly low-key place in an industrial part of Montclair, east of Los Angeles.

I showed up there last Saturday afternoon when the production line was closed for the weekend. I encountered one employee who appeared to be running the whole show. I'm sorry I didn't get her name, but she was very friendly and down-home. We chatted a bit about my cross-country trip and she invited me to look around and check out the Lazy Daze models in the showroom including one of the first ones ever built. As I was doing that, another employee ambled out munching a plate of nachos. He offered to turn on the lights in the RVs. We, too, chatted for a bit and then I asked, "Are you Steve?" When he nodded (still munching nachos) I realized that this was the owner of the place. This is one of the most informal business settings you can imagine. Steve and I talked about Lazy Dazes for the next half hour or so. He told me about the company's history - his uncle and father started the business - and his own 30-year career there. He patiently answered all the questions that had popped into my mind about my RV over the past weeks.

Neither Steve nor the other employee wanted to be photographed and I could understand. It seemed fitting for this low-key company. No splash, no razzle-dazzle. Just a good, quality, timeless product. I left feeling better than ever about GoJoe.

Judy and Bert

I did something I wouldn't have thought possible a month ago: I drove GoJoe on the Los Angeles Freeways. I did this so I could go see old friend Judy Crown and her husband Bert, who live in the northern fringes of LA. But I drove first to their picture framing store in Sherman Oaks and that took some city driving.

Judy is a retired film industry hairdresser. For thirty years she worked on the sets of such TV shows as CSI, Seinfeld, Dallas, Moonlighting, Designing Women and many others. She won two emmy awards for her work and she has great stories of Hollywood stars. Her favorite was Gregory Peck. For years Judy would go to Mr. Peck's home and cut his hair. Early on, Mr. Peck encouraged her to bring along her dog, who would frolic with the Peck pooch while Judy cut hair. Some years ago on a visit to LA, she took me to a taping of Seinfeld. It was great fun to see how one of these shows is put together.

Judy and Bert live in a very cool house in the hills in the far north of LA. It's like a mini-ranch, replete with horses, even though technically it's within the Los Angeles city limits. Judy is a major animal lover, so the five dogs and two cats have the run of the house. The two horses and goat live outside.