2011 Summer Trip to New England #4

Thursday, Jim and I went to Chatham, Cape Cod to visit the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center. The building Jim is standing in front of in the first pic above was built in 1914 by Guglielmo Marconi. It is still in excellent condition as well as the house were all the Morse Code technicians lived while working at this station. I'm not a technical person, but I did find this place quite interesting. Jim of course loved it. After visiting Wellfleet yesterday and seeing the sight of Marconi's first experimental station this was a nice follow up visit. At Wellfleet, Marconi proved for the first time that long distance from America to Europe communications were technically viable. Now at Chatham commercial Maritime radio became a reality on a very large scale. RCA (Radio Corporation of America) acquired the station in 1920. These early stations including one in Nova Scotia communicated with ships and averted many disasters. The stations are credited with sending the Ship Carpathia to save the Titanic survivors. It is interesting to note that David Sarnoff, a young Marconi telegrapher and the man who would later start RCA, took credit for receiving the Titanic SOS, but was found out later to be off duty at that time! Apparently, among his many other talents, Mr Sarnoff was excellent at self promotion! The station was used to great advantage during the war years to warn of German U-boat activity. Jim remembered some of the Morse Code characters and actually saw some test equipment and an early radio that he had personal experience with--I knew he was getting a little wrinkled, but didn't realize he was THAT old! Arrrgh! From there we went to Main Street in Chatham and had lunch at the Captain's Table. Again, I enjoyed some clam chowder and a salad and Jim stuck to his usual BLT. There were lots of little shops along Main Street and we both enjoyed browsing. Jim also found a geocache in town. From there we drove to Hyannis. We found a really nice beach and from there we could see the Kennedy compound. We were about a block away but as you can see, the main house is so big we did get a glimpse of it. On our way home we decided to explore the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory. It was pretty cool and we did buy enough potato chips to get us through our trip this summer.

2011 Summer Trip to New England #3

For the next two weeks we are staying at the Gateway to Cape Cod Outdoor World RV Resort located in Rochester, Ma. Today we drove to Provincetown, Cape Cod. Along the way we stopped in Yarmouthport, Ma. to eat lunch at Hallet's Store. This store was established in 1889 and has been in business for 123 years. It's a

very small store with all the original fixtures, a marble soda fountain, oak cabinets and a tin ceiling. Their ice cream is home made and they sell a variety of old-fashioned soda, frappes, root beer floats and malts. They also make sandwiches. They are known for their Clam Chowder and malts. So of course, I had to have their clam chowder and a chocolate malt. Not being a fish eater of any kind, Jim had a BLT and a chocolate malt. It was definitely a nice treat along our journey today. Our next stop was in Wellfleet to see the site of the very first wireless radio transmission from America to England by President Roosevelt and King Edward VII. Jim being an electrical engineer by trade was very interested in seeing this site. Guglielmo Marconi built this wireless transmission site in January 1903 on the sea cliffs of Wellfleet. When it was built, it consisted of 4 wooden towers 210 feet in height. The power requirements were tremendous. Kerosene-burning engines produced 2,200 volts. When fed to a Tesla transformer, the voltege was stepped up to 25,000 volts-the energy needed to transmit long-wave signals so far. The local residents had to endure the sounds of the crashing spark which could be heard for four miles downwind of the station. The sea cliff was eroding three feet each year threatening the eastern-most towers with collapse. The station was closed in 1917 and in 1920 it was scrapped. From Wellfleet we continued to Provincetown and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon going to all the little shops and watching the street performers. Looking forward to another day on the Cape tomorrow.

2011 Summer Trip to New England #2

Our next stop was Burlingame State Park, Charlestown, RI. There we met up with my cousin, Sherry and her family. My mother and sister also flew in to spend Friday and Saturday nights with us. We really had a good time. We had camp fires and cooked somemores at night. The weather was beautiful. My cousin Dusty and her husband Scott were also camping there. We all went down to the pond and some of the cousins did kayaking and some of us played with our dogs. I had 2 dogs, Sherry had one dog and Dusty had 3 dogs. All the dogs loved the water. But Sherry's dog, Ben was the star of the show. He went out the furthest, chased balls, followed the kayaks around. It was great fun. The second picture shows the difference in the size of dogs we had there. The big beautiful one is Ben and the littlest one was my Yorkie, Baxter. All the rest of the dogs were sized in between these two. It was definitely a family affair

2011 Summer Trip to New England

We are enjoying our RV trip to New England this summer; especially the cooler weather. Our first stop was in Hershey, PA. We stayed at a Thousand Trails RV Resort. It was a very nice resort. We spent our first day at the pool, reading and swimming. Very stressful NOT! One day we took a ride through the country side and I loved seeing all the Amish farms and horses and buggies. Those horse and buggys really clip along. I'd hate to pull out or step out in front on one because they are really fast.

We took a tour to the Hershey Museum. It was really interesting learning how Milton Hershey started the Hershey chocolate company as well as the town. The street lights on Chocolate Ave look like candy kisses. It is really cool. That same day we also toured the Hershey Chocolate Factory. Jim stocked up on lots of chocolate. So to say the least, Jim is in chocolate heaven on this trip. Our friends, Rita and Joe from our Winnebago club, also were camping at this same resort. We had lunch together at the Hershy Hotel restaurant. The hotel is a 5 star hotel and the restaurant was wonderful. After we ate, the guys sat in the lobby (girl watching) and Rita and I enjoyed shopping the wonderful shops in the hotel. Rita found a lovely Vera Bradly laptop cover and I found a wonderful beach hat for the pool. We really had fun shopping. We enjoyed happy hour visits with Rita and Joe and I cooked dinner for them one night. On our last day, Jim and I got pedicures and spent the afternoon at the pool. Life is good.

Summer Trip 2010 #7 Sturgis

Our final week in Sturgis was very busy and lots of fun. Mason, (Jim's brother) and his wife Judy came to Sturgis to camp with us and tour the Black Hills. They arrived on Saturday, the last day of bike week so we rode the camp bus into town to show them all the bikes and crazies. We did some T-shirt shopping and enjoyed the sights. That night, our friends from Fredericksburg had to leave early and gave us their concert tickets to see the Doobie Brothers at the Buffalo Chip. Again we rode the camp bus out to the Buffalo Chip. The concert was great but it got so cold we had to go and buy long sleeve t-shirts to put under our jackets. The next day we went to Deadwood and Judy and I tried our luck at gambling and the guys waited for us in the bars. I finally won a little so I was pretty happy. On another day we went to Custer State Park. We saw lots of wildlife; it was such a fun day. Our first encounter was a buffalo walking along the street. He was so close to our truck we could have reached out and patted him. We continued to see lots of buffalos and lots of buffalo babies. Then we came upon a white donkey. He came right up to the truck so Mason fed him a fig newton. He loved them so we ended up giving him the rest of the figs in the box. Needless to say he was Mason's buddy. Then we came upon some baby burros. They were so cute. I wanted to take the one above home but Jim said no way. What a party pooper. From there we went to Needles highway. It is a very curvy road with the most unusual rock structures. We went to 3 rock tunnels and they were very tight, so tight that Mason scraped his mirror going thru. One evening we had a cookout and our friends from Sturgis came. We had such a nice visit with them. Mason and Judy had met them on a previous trip so it was fun for all of us. On other trip, we went to yhe Broken Boot Gold Mine. It was really cool. Mason and Judy had never been inside a gold mine so it was a real treat for them. From there we drove through Spearfish Canyon. It is so beautiful and lots of streams and a neat waterfall. We all took our shoes off and soaked our feet. We ate lunch in a little town and decided to check out an antique store. Mason found a wall phone he couldn't live without and the lady sold it to him for half price. He was one happy camper. Every night, we played canasta with Mason and Judy and just had so much fun. We all departed Sturgis on Saturday. Mason and Judy got home to Tulsa on Sunday afternoon and Jim and I have made it as far as Iowa. We plan on getting home by Wednesday afternoon.

Summer Trip 2010 #6

Jim and I have had a wonderful time riding around the Black Hills. I have ridden nearly 500 miles on my bike since we got here! I've gotten so comfortable on my motorcycle and have really enjoyed the rides. Our longest ride was out to Crazy Horse. It is the largest mountain carving honoring the Indian hero, Crazy Horse and all North American Indians. The carving was started in 1947 and as you can see, only the face is done. The second picture is a replica of what it will look like when finished. We've ridden to Deadwood, a gambling western town. We rode out to Spearfish Canyon which is a beautiful ride and had lunch at the Spearfish Lodge. Along the way we stopped with other bikers at certain picture spots. Jim was really testing me as I had to back into narrow spots on hills and curves. I was sure I would tap a bike while backing in causing a domino effect of falling bikes, but I actually had no problem. Now pulling out from a hill on a curve with bikers coming from both directions was tricky but I actually had no problem. I really surprised myself. The third picture is of Main Street in Sturgis taken from a tower. Our friend took the picture and Jim and I are actually standing on the right hand side of the street about a fourth from the bottom. I actually parked my bike downtown in all that traffic too. We rode out to the famous Buffalo Chip Campground to see Credence Clearwater. What an awesome concert. It was wonderful. The traffic getting there was unbelievable. It took two hours to get there and it is normally a 20 minute ride when it is not bike week. The 2nd concert we went to out there was to see Bob Dylan and Kid Rock. We decided to take the campground bus to that concert and it still took 2 hours, but the bus driver did the driving not us. I loved the Kid Rock concert - he has so much energy and he had the crowd roaring. It was really fun being a part of the excitement.

The last few nights we have been going down to Main Street to watch all the people with our camping neighbors and our friend, Ed Steckler. It has been a hoot watching all the crazy people and seeing all the different bikes. Bike week ends Sunday morning, and tomorrow Jim's brother, Mason and his wife Judy are coming in. We plan on having a quiet week and doing some more touring around with them.

Summer Trip 2010 #5

We have been in Sturgis a week now and we have already done so much. Poor Jim, everywhere we go people crowd around my bike and they never acknowledge Jim's Harley. I even had a guy lay down on Main St. and look underneath my bike and taking all kinds of pictures. Friends here at the campground have been teasing Jim, letting him know he is only along for the ride with me. One evening the guys put my pink sheepskin on Jim's bike and told him maybe if he put the sheepskin on his bike people would look. I'm sure they would but for the wrong reasons! I have been getting a lot of good experience riding out here. Some of it not planned, like riding in the rain, and riding in the dark. But some of it planned like riding the Black Hills in the National Forest Park. Got lots of experience riding up and down hills and around curves. I was a little intimidated at first but quickly got comfortable. We have ridden about 300 miles since we got here. Our trip to Crazy Horse Monument tomorrow will be 130 miles round trip. We have had rain almost every night but most days are sunny but one, it rained during the day. That was the day we got caught in the rain. Thankfully, we were only two miles from the campground, but I tell you it was pretty scary for me, especially since 1 1/2 miles was on the freeway. Once we got back we watched the storm on the TV and the campground owner had his kids running around telling everyone hail was expected. We put quilts on our bikes then our covers and they did just fine. We had strong winds and pea size hail so we lucked out. But 20 miles away in Lead, SD they had 8 inches of golf ball size hail and they had to bring in plows to clean up the streets for the stranded bikers to get through. Our friend, Ed Steckler arrived this week. Him and Jim are happy right now because the scantily clothed ladies are coming into town.