Uh! Oh!

When we left one morning heading south, the motorhome kept cutting off.  Alan would pull off the road and wait a minute and it would start up and go.  This happened once the day before, but we never had any more trouble that day so didn't think much about it.....until it happened again.  However, we drove on for about 125 miles and it did it again.  He pulled over, waited and then off we went.  We knew at this point that something was wrong.  We just hoped that it would keeping running until we got to the next campground.....or at least off the road.  Nope....it started cutting off every few miles. 


Alan was in the middle of changing one of the fuel filters when I spotted the Road Ranger that had stopped to help.

He stayed with us until we were back on the road again.  Unfortunately, it didn't fix the problem, but we were able to make it to the next campground.

 

 

 

 

 

We ended up having to get a part the next day and the problem seems to be fixed!

 

We are headed for home now, so I will sign off the blog.  We had a great vacation, but it's always so good to get back home!

 

Cape Cod

The day after our visit to Boston, we decided to take a drive out to Cape Cod.  It would be a driving tour in an air conditioned vehicle!  It was a beautiful day with lots of sun and warm temperatures.  It took a little less than an hour to reach the cape.  We drove along the main road through the cape and stopped at a few places along the way. Since the roads going through the cape to the tip of the island are mostly inland, we had to take roads out to the water when we saw a sign for a beach. 

Below is the bridge leading over to the cape.

 

 

A greeting in shrubs!

 

 

 

Our first stop was Falmouth.  It was gorgeous.  Lots of water, boats and....

 

 

cape cod style houses!

 

 

 

Below is a small park we stopped at. 

 

 

Then on down the road....lots of gorgeous dunes in this area.

 

 

 

 

In this picture we were just coming into Provincetown.

 

 

As we turned and drove down toward the ocean, the roads became much narrower.

 It finally became difficult to dodge other cars (parked or moving) plus people walking and/or biking!

 

All kinds of shops and restaurants!

 

 

 

 

Yep, it took me a minute to see the leg!

 

 

 

 

Bikes seem to be the mode of transportation for all of the employees in the shops and restaurants.  These bikes were in a alley between two restaurants.

 

 

 

We ate lunch at the "Lobster Pot" restaurant.  It was a very narrow building, but went all the way out to the beach.

 

 

This was the back.....

 

 

 

Plus a great view of the water.

 

 

Our lunch was good, but the clam chowder that Alan started with was probably the best we had EVER eaten! 

 

 

I saw this fun looking "thing" of old buoys.....

 

 

 

 

When we walked around to the other side, it turns out to be a bench!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below is another park we stopped along the Cape Cod National Seashore.

When we walked out on the boardwalk, we had no idea that it was so far down to the water.

 

 

 

Lots of steps.....This was the only way down to the beach in this area....

  

 

 

You can see how steep it was in the pictures below. 

 It was really different, but very pretty.

 

 

We had a wonderful day on Cape Cod. 

 

 

Boston

We are working our way south and our next stop is Boston. 
We decided since we would be so close to the city we should take a day or so to look around.  We stayed in Foxborough, MA which is only 25 miles (as the crow flies) from downtown Boston.  It is also where the New England Patriots (Tom Brady) play their home games at the Gillette Stadium.  The campground we were staying at was less than 3 miles from the stadium.  We happened to be there Thursday night when the NE Patriots played their season opening game.  We could hear the fireworks from the campground, but there were a lot of fans in the campground cheering, so we couldn't hear the fans in the stadium.





We received instructions from the campground office on how to get to the subway/train station to go into Boston.  From the campground we had to drive over an hour to get to the subway/train station in Newton, MA (which is 25 miles from campground in a westerly direction).  The traffic was stop and go the whole trip.  Once on the train, it took 40 minutes to go 9 miles (in  an easterly direction) due to all the stops we had to make to pick up or let off passengers along the way.  So, it took us almost 2 hours to go 35 miles.  We finally arrived at Boston Commons where the map said there would be a visitor center.  It had closed and a new one was across the street.  Therefore, once in the city it only took us another 20 minutes to find the visitor center and a bathroom! :(
We had hoped to take a "Duck Tour" of the city and harbor....unfortunately, when we got to the ticket stand, they had already sold out for the day.  We opted for (you guessed it) a boat cruise of the harbor.

 It was a gorgeous view of the city from the boat.  We cruised around the harbor for approximately 45 minutes.  Our tour guide pointed out places of interest and talked about the old harbor history.

Our tour guide narrator.

 

 

We cruised by the Boston Logan Airport and it looks like a Jet Blue plane on the tarmac.

 

 

 

The USS Constitution is the U.S. Navy's oldest commissioned warship and is currently in dry dock for a three year renovation.  We were not able to see the entire ship from our tour boat, however we could see the three distinctive masts on the ship. 

 

You can see the masts on the USS Constitution just above the woman's head in the picture below.

 

 

 

 

The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge was designed after the ships masts.  This bridge was part of the Big Dig Project in Boston and it is the widest cable-stayed bridge in the world.

 

 

 

There is not a lot of residential property along the Boston waterfront, but you can pick up a nice condominium on the water for a little over 3 million dollars.  See picture below.  The good thing about these apartments is that they come with their own parking space.  It is said that you are really buying a parking space with a condo thrown in. 

 

 

 

Below are some of the buildings we passed along our walk through the city.

 

 

 

 

We walked through the famous Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall.

 

 

 

 

So many wonderful smells!

The Kilvert and Forbes Bakeshop was originally created in 1976 when Quincy Market first opened it's doors as the famous food colonnade.  At the time,  John Kerry was practicing law, which he found to be "quite predictable and very boring".  So the chocolate lover and his friend and business partner K. Dunn Gifford opened the bakery and named it after their mothers.  They later sold the business, but John still goes back for one of his famous cookies. 

Lots of people (tourists) in the city.   Boston was in the middle of a September heat wave when we were there.  The temperature in the city reached 97 the day we were there.  That broke a 32 year record for that date.

It was really unbearable!  I almost got sick.  We stopped to eat lunch, then walked around a little more and headed back to the train station.  We did see a lot more than I have to report on my blog.  Just wasn't up to documenting more. :(

 

 

 

 

The people in the picture below knew the right way to tour the city.......  Looked like fun.....and cooler!

 

 

 

We decided that we will have to come back to this great city.  I suggest flying and staying in the city!  What fun!

Lakes Region of New Hampshire

Over the Labor Day Weekend we stayed at a campground located just south of the White Mountains near a large lake called Lake Winnipesaukee.  It is located in an area called the Lakes Region of New Hampshire.

It is New Hampshire's largest lake covering 72 square miles (44,000 acres) of sparkling clean water due to being mainly spring fed and surrounded by mountain ranges and is some of the most spectacular scenery in New England.  The lake was formed by glaciers and contains more than 240 habitable islands.  The average depth is 35 feet with the deepest point exceeding 200 feet.

We took a drive to Weirs Beach located on the lakeshore not far from the town of Meredith.  It's a big tourist area offering boat cruises of the lake and islands, a larger boat that offered a Dinner/Dance cruise on the week-ends, and you could even take a train ride.  It also had a "beach" on the lake for swimmers.

The "beach area" below is much larger than it looks in this picture.

 

The building in the picture below is where you buy your tickets for boat trips and train rides.  It was built to look like a train depot and also has a gift shop! :)

Take a ride on the train shown below and you can enjoy a scenic and nostalgic ride along the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee on tracks that brought vacationers to New Hampshire Lakes Region beginning in 1890. 

 

 

 

Boat cruises.....

We decided to take the Dinner/Dance cruise that was scheduled for the next evening.   It's a sunset cruise with dinner and dancing to live music. Each weekend is a themed cruise.  They were having a "Lobster Fest" this particular weekend......they also offered Prime Rib for us land lovers :).  It also had a full salad bar and buffet including dessert.

Below is a picture of the Motor Ship Mount Washington.  It has a long history dating back to the Steamship Mount Washington, launched in Alton Bay in 1872.  Today's Mount Washington is 230 feet with a steel superstructure on 4 levels with 3 dance floors and a capacity of 1250 passengers.  The evening we went they had live entertainment in two of the three dance floors. 

In the picture below you can see a line of boats....there was a constant line of boats going through a canal to another part of the lake.  We saw a couple of Law Enforcement boats that would cruise up and down the line to keep people from butting in line.  It was Labor Day weekend and there were hundred of boats around.

 

 

There were several smaller tour boats like the one below (on left).  There is also a "mail" boat that delivers mail to many of the islands in which you can also tour the islands in.

 

 

It took a little while to board the ship.  They had a photographer at the front of the line to take your picture and a security guard that searched purses and bags.   We decided there had to be several hundred people that sailed that evening.

Our "selfie" after we boarded the Dinner Cruise.

The dinner was delicious!

 

 

 

Alan said this may have been the best tasting lobster yet!  He said that about all of them though! :)

Carving the Prime Rib!

 

 

After getting your food you could sit in any of the dining rooms (like the dining area in the background of above picture) or take it outside to the front or back of the ship.  There were plenty of tables set up outside if you preferred to eat there. 

Inside there was live entertainment and dancing in two locations aboard the ship!

 

 

 

Some of the houses we passed along the shore were spectacular....and huge!

 

 

 Some not so big....but quaint.

 

 

 

 Beautiful shoreline with mountains in the background.

 

 

 

 

Some of the many islands.

 

 

 

 

 

A beautiful sunset!

 

 

 

 A wonderful dinner cruise.