Mystic – Old Sturbridge Village – Maine

My job in the morning when we are traveling is to go get coffee and bring it back to the room. On my trip this morning, I was riding in the elevator with a guy on temporary assignment from Boston. At first, I thought he was from a foreign country. We were able to communicate but it was a struggle for me. I am sure if he was blogging he would have some things to say about me. When we got to Sturbridge Village, the lady at the ticket counter started talking and I must have had a strange look on my face. She said, “You need me to slow down don’t you”. I told her it would be greatly appreciated. These people talk funny. Old Sturbridge Village is a recreation of an 1830 village.

All of the people were in full dress costume. We stopped and talked to guy working in a garden for a long time. We had a great discussion about squash and insects that kill the plants. We had a real problem with them this year, so thanks to our new BFF, next year I will dig a place to plant them and fill the hole with hot soapy water to kill the eggs. Maybe next year we will have another bumper crop of squash. He had a beautiful copy of beets and carrots going. He was getting paid to do what he loved. Just how cool is that?

They were having a competition of Drum and Fife Corps today. It was a lot of fun for a while but after several hours of listing to drums, it was beginning to wear on me. I have some nice video clips from our camera. I tried to upload it but failed. I may try again when I can get a high speed connection.

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Sturbridge was to see the furniture. The furniture was featured in several “New Yankee Workshop” programs. I have lots of photos of different pieces of furniture to use for inspiration.

It was about three hours on to Maine. It is hard to judge distances here by looking at maps if you are used to looking at Alabama’s state map. We were in four different states today. The whole area is small and when you look at a map it may only be 20 miles between points. That being said, you can find a traffic backup every now and again. So far we have been lucky and only been slowed up a couple of times and not for long.

Tomorrow we will be on to get on the Mary Day (www.schoonermaryday.com) for a week of cruising. I am not sure if we will have internet connections until we get back next Saturday. If the blogs stop, you will know why.

Mystic Seaport

Our first visit to Mystic Seaport was 34 years ago. We were on our way to see the Tall Ships come into Newport in 1976 and we saw it off the interstate. We drove back down for the day and had a great time. Little did I understand the significance that it would have on the Wooden Boat movement over the next 30 years. I doubt they knew either. The curator for the museum was a guy named John Gardner. He wrote several books (I have all of them) and documented many of the wooden boats still in existence. They have been able to obtain all the designs of many of the deceased wooden boat designers. Many of the designs have never been cataloged. I have purchased a couple of plans that I found out they had by accident. Many of the designed are listed on line but if you may just have to call them to get what you are looking to find.

Ok I am going to reveal a character fault. I love plans. Just like a good book, you can read plans and mentally escape to another place. I have purchased and studied plans of boats I will never build. It so interesting to visualize what the designer intends. And then to visualize how the builder will build the design. It must be an engineer thing.

There have been a long list of people who worked and studied here. Today we met one very interesting man. He started to work here 52 years ago today. He worked re-caulking the Charles W Morgan in 1974, which was the last time it had major work done on it. We talked to him for about 30 minutes. He knows many of the people I have met thru the years at the Wooden Boat School. He was one of those random people that you come across that make your life more interesting.

For those of you who are don’t have a clue, Mystic is a historical recreation of an early whaling community. Like a Williamsburg for us sailors. It is the home of the Charles W. Morgan the last surviving whaling ship. Currently the ship is out of the water for about a five year restoration project. They are using some volunteer labor, some paid labor, and even with the volunteers, the cost for the work is over six million dollars.


We spend most of the day in the seaport before heading out to see what else we could find. We found a lobster pound. Carole’s favorite food “LOBSTER”!! She is soooooo happy.

Hershey – Hyde Park – Mystic

It is about a four-hour drive from Hershey to Hyde Park. We didn’t have a clue so we were surprise when the trip went right thru the mountains. There are almost no evergreen trees so give it a few more weeks and it should be beautiful.


We cross the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie and head to FDR home. Well you know that FDR is the holy father of all Democrats, so Carole is making a trip to Mecca. I was able to get her photo sitting beside FDR and Eleanor. I know it may be the high point of her life.

The house is OK, nothing to write home about. It is 22,000 sq ft with lots of little rooms. It is nearly 200 years old and was remodeled and added on to several times mostly by FDR. Actually, the house is not in very good shape. There are some foundation issues that reflect thru the house, probably due to adding a third floor without modifying the foundations. I started to give them a business card and tell call me. The grounds are nice and there is a great rose garden where FDR is buried along with Eleanor and his two dogs.

Maybe if we hadn’t just visited one of Jefferson’s homes it would have been more impressive. I still suggest if you get a chance to visit it, do so. The park service did a good job of portraying FDR and his Presidency. He was a very interesting person and charismatic leader. He apparently really enjoyed people and made each of them feel special. They talked a lot about how he managed a public life after developing Polio.

Then back in the car for three more hours to Mystic. It was good to see the ocean again. We had started taking it and eating seafood for granted. The oil spill has limited our access to the to both we are looking forward to floating again on Surprise.

It is very different traveling in September as compared with traveling in the summer. There are no crowds and no kids. The crowd is much older. Our tour groups have been small and I have only seen a couple of kids at any of the stops. Now I am trying to decide if is better to deal with kids or a bunch of old farts who can’t get around and slow down the tour group.

Traveling this time has also been very different. We have the GPS that tells us where to go. You don’t have to worry about missing a road sign and winding up on some dead end road. We also have the Ipad with a wireless network in the vehicle. Those of you who know Carole well know that she likes to ask lots of questions. On one trip with Tony and Kaye we limited her to three questions a day. So on this trip when she asks a question I just say, “Why don’t you Google that and see”. We have asked Google about a lot of stuff as we ride along. We also have our satellite radio so we can enjoy the same radio station all day. Of course, we both have full time access to email and phone calls thru our Blackberries. Does this mean we really are high tech rednecks? Actually, the only issue is keeping everything charged up. We had to go to Wal-Mart and buy a plug strip to have enough plugs in our hotel rooms.

Roanoke – Popular Forest – Hershey

Out on the road by 8:30, now that is really 7:30 Alabama time, so Ms. Carole is struggling. As it turns out that was too early. We arrived at Popular Forest before it opens and have to find a parking lot to sit in for about 15 minutes.

Popular Forest was Thomas Jefferson’s private retreat. It was placed on a hill overlooking a 5,000 acre plantation. Lots of money is a wonderful thing. You can Google it and find out all sorts of information. It was almost lost to commercial development but thanks to some dedicated people, it was saved. The building had been remodeled several times so it had lost most of the character Jefferson had designed. It hasn’t been opened very long and is still going thru renovation. They had to tear down much of the renovations before they could start back. It is typical Jefferson, very planned, greatly thought out and perfectly detailed. The building is sited to take advantage of the sun. You can imagine Jefferson sitting looking over the estate enjoying a good book. If you get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it. Actually, Carole and I are planning to go back in a few years to see how they are progressing with the preservation.

The way in is a dirt road and you come up over a knoll and get a just a glimpse of the roof. See then photo. They did a great job with the entrance the only way it could have been better is to have made you ride a horse in. The other photo is the front view of the building.


I love the details in these buildings. The details of the door, window and trim are; well you just have to see them in person to appreciate the details. I would like to be able to spend more time seeing how they ingrate the details into the buildings. I think it would have been fun to have been a finish carpenter and build the details with hand planes. OK I know I am really weird.

Then it on to Hershey, PA. The Hershey Hotel is really something. No we aren’t staying there it was way too expensive for this trip. Maybe we can make the trip when we leave our 5,000 acre for a fortnight. Sorry no photos it was after dark before we arrived.

Pell City to Roanoke

I wasn’t planning on blogging this trip but several people asked me to. I think there is a contest going on to see how many grammatical mistakes I can make during the trip. So, you will have to find out who is in charge of pool to get in the mix.

Today was a pretty boring day. Just lots of windshield time. We have a couple of days like this but most of the other days will be at least a few hours of seeing something and then on the road.

OK there are always a couple of moment. We did see a car that belongs in white trash repairs. See the attached photo. I think I will submit it to the site and see if gets published. I don’t know if you can read the tag number but the last three digits are SOS. There just has to be some irony there.

Then there was buying gas. We stop at a Shell station and I use the credit card reader and start pumping gas. It pumps a couple of gallons and quits. Then this Indian (dot not feather) comes running out accusing me of stealing gas. I think that stealing gas was two of the twenty words of English he knew. I finally get that I owe $5.00. I ask if I give him my credit card can I fill up. No! $5.00!! OK dude here is $5.00 in cash. I drive across the street and put in $75.00 of gas. I would join one of those ultra right wing groups that says, if you don’t speak English go home, but my English isn’t exactly perfect. I figure he will abuse enough customers that market place will take care of his business and he will go back to working in tech support for Dell.