Our Travel Blog

Another cool day, but clear skies.

There is at least one untamed annoyance in the trailer and that is caused by the power converter. All the lighting in the trailer, plus the furnace fan and water pump run on 12v so that they can be used when camping in the middle of nowhere. The power converter takes the 110v from the site plug in (if available) and changes it to 12v for the lights etc, as well as charging the battery. In the process of this conversion heat is generated and there are two cooling fans to help dissipate it. Some bright spark of an engineer decided it would be a good idea to control the speed of the fan relative to the heat produced. Good idea in theory, but when the heat produced is right on the threshold of requiring the cooling of the fans, they pulse on and off about once a second . Very annoying. Time to get the meter and soldering iron out, methinks!!

Today’s trip was a  country drive to the Winsor Dam.

Yet again beautiful scenery on the drive, all the houses along the route appeared to be late 19th or early 20th century, and almost without exception were well maintained with well kept property.

The dam was completed in 1940 to provide a water supply for Boston and other parts of the state. The dam itself appears to be of earth and stone, with no sign of poured concrete. Now for the trivial facts I seem to be able to recall from memory, even when I can’t remember the basic information most of the time. The dam is 2640ft long (exactly 1/2 mile), the reservoir created by the dam is the Quabbin resevoir with a capacity of 442 billion gallons. On an average day Boston sucks 330 million gallons out of the reservoir. The deepest point is 157ft with an average depth of 58ft and a coastline of 118miles. Stupid facts committed to memory mode off!

Looking along the reservoir was just like looking along many Scottish lochs.

Quabbin Resevoir, MA

On the way home we just set the GPS to Shortest Route and meandered through the countryside. Shortest Route will often drag you off the beaten track and take you on interesting routings.

Bye Lizzie, have a safe flight.

Cool again this morning, and will be for the next few mornings. I think the hardest thing I did all day was to setup the thermostat so the place will warm up before we get up tomorrow.

Other than a stroll around the campsite we just lounged around all day, busy doing nothing!!!

Well, for only the second time this summer I wore long pants for the whole day. The furnace got its first work out and performed flawlessly. We woke up to an inside temperature of 48F (9C), but with the furnace on the temperature climbed to 65F (18C) by the time we had finished breakfast.

Outside the temperature was a little lower, with clear blue skies.

We decided to go to a local State Park that had some hiking trails. The first park we wanted to try was closed following extensive damage from the tornado. The next park was Wells State Park, about 20 miles east of here. On the way there we passed through a small town called Brimfield, which must have had  close to 200 marquees in various states of  construction. In fact the number of marquees far outweighed the number of houses in the town. It turns out that there was a massive antiues fair in town, unfortunately ( 🙂 ) it finished last week-end!

We found the Park and spent a while following a trail through the forest, yesterdays rain had left it quite wet in places, but not impassable.

On the way back we followed a side road off to Brimfield Dam, this is a small dam built at the end of a holding pool of 9,400,000,000 gallons (funny how I could remember the capacity, but had to ask Lyn the name of the Dam!!) which, I believe, is used to contol the level of a reservoir further downstream. The whole area was very picturesque, but the site of a couple of groups of red trees was a little disturbing…. winter is coming!

Brimfield Dam

I guess the cooler weather has scared some of the locals off, the number of people moving in for the weekend is way down compared to last week.

The day started warm, around 70F (20C), and as the day wore on the temperature dropped down to around 53F (11C). Together with the dropping temperature was a darkening of the sky, followed by rain! Seems the next few nights will be cool at around 40F (5C), hopefully the furnace will work!

Given the weather the day was given over to grocery shopping, computing and radio (knitting and sewing for Lyn). No phone calls from the debt collector, perhaps she read the blog!

Today was a stay at home day. A number of people I have spoken to seem surprised that we aren’t out exploring everyday; although we plan to see a lot of attractions in the areas we stay, we don’t intend to be on the move everyday. Many days we will just hang around the campsite doing odd jobs that arise, much like being at home. Besides going out everyday would bankrupt us pretty quick!

Today I decided to make a start on the outside of the trailer, it has been parked about 2 miles back from the main runway at Ottawa Airport since we came back in early April, so had got a fair bit of grime on it from the aircraft. Unfortunately this place (like many others) does not allow washing of trailers or vehicles, so it has been a case of sneaking around cleaning off the worst of the black stuff with a wet sponge and cloth. If you recall last time I cleaned the trailer, even with the help of a hose pipe, I managed to drag out the process over a couple of weeks.

Somehow the cellphone I have for the States has a number that has been previously used by a landscaping firm in Texas. Unfortunately said firm seems to have not paid its bills, and I get daily calls from a collection agency. The calls are pre-recorded and start off with If you are not xxxxx landscaping company hang up now. It then goes on about how I have no right to listen to the call (on my own phone I might add) if I am not xxxx and get another chance to hangup, it then goes on to explain that the caller is a debt collector and invites me, xxxxx to call them at 1-800-123-4567. Busy trying to think how to follow through with this one, there must be some fun to be had somewhere.

After lunch we headed out for a walk around the campground, which is about 60% full of trailers, but probably only about 10% are occupied. Following this rigorous exercise, I fixed a leaking drain point under the trailer and called it a day.

Life can be tough some days!

The weather so far has been pretty good after the two days of rain that welcomed us. Blue skies and temperatures in the low 80’s (27C). Today we decided to head south to a small town Lyn remembered from her days of working in the States…. Mystic Seaport. This is a small reconstructed working seaside village on the coast of Connecticut.

The GPS took us on yet another root out of the campground, and once again we saw more of the damage caused by the tornado. I find it amazing that there is such a well defined path of almost total destruction, then within yards either side of that path there is no visible damage.

About 6 miles into the journey we crossed the State line into Connecticut, a new State for me and former home State for Lyn. The scenery remained fantastic, rolling hills climbing up about 700ft, and densely wooded. After about 90 minutes we arrived at Mystic Seaport, the name comes from the fact that the village is located at the mouth of the Mystic River.

The village has a number of working stores and workshops, one of the projects they are working on is restoring a 19th century wooden whaling boat to seaworthy condition to be launched in 2014. There was also a number of “tall ships” moored around the village, one being the Joseph Conrad, a training ship launched in Denmark in 1882

Training Ship Joseph Conrad

There was also a coal fired steam boat giving cruises along the river front. There were a number of the buildings in the village that had “workers” present who were all willing to describe life as it was a couple of hundred years ago. Some of the buildings were the cable store where they had all the machinery for making the old hemp ropes, there was a candle factory, a coopers store where they showed how the old wooden barrels were made, a print shop with a variety of presses plus a multitude of houses and stores that had been restored.

We planned on doing a number of other things whilst in the area, but were so impressed with this place we ran out of time. We did however manage to sneak in a trip to the coast which provided a welcome break from the heat. At the point of the coast we went to 3 States met just off shore, NY, RI,CT.

A great day out.

After the excitement and exhaustion of yesterdays mountaineering, we felt it prudent to spend a quiet day at the site. I put up a shortwave antenna so that I could play around with the Ham Radio setup. I was pleasantly surprised to hear stations from Europe coming through. In the meantime Lyn was amusing herself at the launderette!

We had a quick trip out to the store in the afternoon. On the last trip in January we were so well organised, I don’t think we left anything off our packing list. This trip a number of articles have been left behind. I suspect sub-consciously we were thinking “it’s only a 4 week trip………” We are now trying to put together a list of what stays with the trailer and what has to come from home.

During the shopping trip we saw more of the damage caused by the tornado in June, it was far more widespread than we first thought. Although there was a lot of property damage, there was no loss of life.

After the hectic pace of the week-end the campground has returned to its peaceful self as everyone heads back to work!!

Have to go check and see if we packed the bucket and spade, we’re off to the coast tomorrow.

Today was the first of our trips away. We decided to go mountain climbing (in the truck). About 40miles away is a mountain called Sugar-Loaf Mountain which is a US State Area and also the location where part of a Mel Gibson film (Edge of Darkness) was shot.

We decided to splash out on the toll charge and took the Mass Turnpike part way. The toll charge….. .45c! The countryside around here is all wooded rolling hills, very picturesque.

As we approached the area we started looking for signs of the mountain….. nothing! We followed the directions to the State Area, still no mountain. Finally arrived there, paid our $2 to allow us to drive up the (wherever it may be hiding) mountain and up we went. To be fair there was one switchback, and we did climb. The top was at 674ft!, the campsite is over 700ft, hence the title. Anyway it was one of the taller lumps around, and we did have a great view from the top. Once we had seen the views and the mighty Connecticut River we left the dizzy height of the mountain and drove down to the old village of Historic Deerfield.

On the way we “happened” (mustn’t let Lyn navigate too often) to drive past the Yankee Candle company store. Evidently Yankee candles are well known among candle officianados . I have to admit the store was amazing, very large and full of candles of every scent you could imagine (and quite a few that you couldn’t). Not only were there candles there was also a large area given over to a Bavarian Village, all decked out with Bavarian Christmas decorations. The final part of the store featured old country style children’s toys.

Back on the road again, we reached Deerfield. The village was part preserved houses open as museums or for public viewing and part lived in houses. The village dates back to the mid 1600’s, old for the USA I guess. Below is the village Post Office

Deerfield, MA Post Office

To save the outlandish toll charges we took the cross country route home. Again it was all wooded rolling hills, there was no sign of any large communities, just houses along the road or the occasional small villages.

A good day out, with lots of good scenery.

Having finally got everything setup and working, it was a day for rest, relaxation and exploring.

The campsite is located on the site of an old farm which has long since ceased operation and has become naturally wooded. As a result most individual sites are nestled in the trees. The site map shows some walking trails so it was time to exercise. As we left the trailer we noticed a hole in the ground near the picnic bench, not wanting to catch a foot in it, I filled it up with small stones.

We headed off to the trails, through the now busy campsite. Friday night saw the arrival of many weekend campers, most of who have trailers set up permanently. The trails wandered off through the woods, but were not very well defined, not surprising really as the majority of campers here rely on golf carts to get them from A to B, when the distance A to B is greater than 20yards!

After about half hour walking we got back to the site, only yo discover that the whole I had filled in had been partially excavated. Not wanting to have some evil creature living on the site, the hole was again filled in.

Later in the day Lyn was sitting at the table and saw a very unhappy chipmunk hurling stones out of the hole. This time I left the hole open!!

Due to unforeseen technical problems (I forgot) there is no blog for today.