Niagara Falls, Ontario

We finally arrived at our first major destination, Niagara Falls, Ontario. The American Falls are on the left of the picture above, the Canadian on the right. This is a closeup of the Canadian, or Horseshoe Falls. One can view the Falls from either side, but the Canadian shore provides the best view of both. This was Roger's first trip here; Meg, Jon and Geri having seen the Falls earlier in life. We set up camp at Windmill Point, a lovely campground in nearby Fort Erie, Ontario. The first evening we went to the Falls and enjoyed a show of illumination and fireworks. The next day we took the tour, riding the river on the "Maid of the Mist", which gets you as close to the Falls as you care to ever be! We walked along the gorge below the Falls and also visited the Butterfly Conservatory, similar to other butterfly houses in the States but always a joy! So much beauty!

Finally, we took the tour of Old Fort Erie, which figured prominently in the War of 1812. Reenactors provide interesting demonstrations of life in the fort.

The director, Peter Martin, shown here , gave us hours of personal time, teaching us about the war and regaling us with his knowledge of the military in general. Thanks, Peter.

To the Adirondacks

Our days are often spent on the highways where we ride along for hours at a time. Roger does the driving, while Meg navigates and entertains, keeping the water and snacks coming. The Bruces and Simms stop daily for a picnic at a rest area or, as here, in Jon and Geri's new RV, getting its first major workout on this trip.


On Thursday 21 June we spent a day circling through the lower part of Adirondacks State Park, the largest SP in the US, comprising almost a fourth of New York State. This is Blue Mountain Lake, where we hiked part of the day. It is beautiful, scenic and covered with trees and lakes. We found this little fellow, an eastern red-spotted newt, on the ground in the forest. We spent part of the time geocaching in the park, logging four finds.There are, of course, DNFs ("did not finds") and this was one of them. :( We've introduced Jon and Geri to the sport and they're having successes, too. It's a great add-on to our travels.

Amish Country

If someone had asked me where the largest concentration of Amish is in the US, I would have probably answered Pennsylvania or Indiana, and I'd have been wrong! It's Ohio, with Penn second and Indiana third. Discovering this fact, we adjusted our schedule to include a two night stop in Holmes County, Ohio at the Scenic Hills RV Park. The Amish are a very interesting subculture of America, with a strong sense of family values and morality. We thoroughly enjoyed our visits with them while there. The cooking is world-famous, and we took full advantage of it, eating at two of the better Amish eateries. Driving through Amish Country is a challenge for a 40-foot motorhome to avoid horse-and-buggies conveying families to and fro. The Amish adhere to "the old ways" of doing everything and even they have trouble distingushing whether it is a matter of social tradition, religious persuasion or both. In any case, there is much of value in their appreciation of family closeness and simplicity. Those of us "on the outside" can learn much. Their settlement in this area dates back to the earliest parts of the 19th century.
The Amish-Mennonite Heritage Center in Berlin, Ohio is well-equipped to teach visitors the history and relationship and differences between the two similar groups. The director, Paul Miller, a family relation of a good friend of ours in San Antonio, is shown here at the Center giving us some directions for our drive around Amish Country which provided us with a wonderful view of the area. Thanks, Paul!

Of course, exploring a new area always allows time for geocaching and we found a couple in Berlin.

It makes a very pleasant way to learn new and interesting facts about our wonderful land!

On Through Arkansas

We drove the next day to Hope, Arkansas, where we camped at the local fairgrounds. After a good night's rest we moved on to Marion, AR, just across the Mighty Mississippi from Memphis. After setting up, we drove on to Memphis and visited the National Ornamental Metal Museum, a showcase for artists who work with everything from iron to gold. It's an interesting unique museum that is worth an hour of your time. From there it was downtown to Beale Street and the Blues City Cafe. Good southern cookin'! We had ribs and shrimp; mmmmmmm!

Northward to Nova Sotia!

Well, it's finally here! After 2 years of thinking about it and many months of planning, the traveling teams of Rog and Meg and the Simms, Jon and Geri, are ready to leave for the summer in the Northeast! On Monday June 11 we both pulled our rigs into the Camping World north of New Braunfels, TX to begin the trek. After a few last minute purchases we drove the 250+ miles to Wylie, TX where we camped overnight at the Corps of Engineers campground.


A very nice place and a good stop as we try to "get out of Texas", which you can really rarely do on the first day!

Our Journey Back to the Lone Star State!

We left Florida on March 30 and began the journey "home." That word, "home", is becoming more and more vague, as we continue our travels. Our home is truly our motorhome, where we sleep, visit and share nearly every day. In fact, we have to keep reminding ourselves that we are not ON a trip; our life IS a trip! We're AT home most of the time; the real variable is WHERE that home is parked! Quite an interesting concept to wrap yourself around!

The first night out from Stacey's our home was a beautiful rest stop on I-10 near Tallahassee. We rested, searched out a geocache, and prepped for the next day. After a few miles in the AM, we stopped at Florida Caverns State Park. A beautiful place which we hadn't planned on visiting until we learned about it the night before. Another perk in this journey of ours!

We traveled next to Mobile, AL where we stayed at a nice RV park, which had free wi-fi. That is a feature that makes many parks more attractive than others. Since we do much of our communicating, shopping and all of our finances on the internet, these parks get more of our business than others without it. We geocached the neighborhood around the park, slept well that night, and pressed on the next day, Sunday, for New Orleans.

The devastation of Katrina is still much in evidence as you drive into the city. Many trailers, broken trees lining the streets, and hundreds of unoccupied dwellings bear silent witness to the awesome power of natural disasters. The French Quarter is alive and well, though, and we had a delightful dinner there with our friend, MAJ Sandi Parriott, an Army veterinarian. She is a student there at Tulane. We introduced Sandi to geocaching, found a few caches in the area and finished off a great evening with cafe au lait and beignets at the famous Cafe du Monde. Wonderful!

The next day found us in Beaumont, TX where we spent a pleasant evening. Another fulltime RV couple came over and introduced themselves: Rita and Henry Leuner. They are a very special set of new friends, originally from Switzerland, now from Florida. They are on their way to central Texas, just as we are. We had drinks and chips and chatted for a couple of hours about the joys of full-timing.

We then drove on to San Antonio and Fort Sam Houston RV Park, where we remained for several days. That gave us time to get through some unfinished business in the San Antonio area, as well as to attend the Bluebonnet Ball, our annual Scottish Country Dancing special event. This was our 10th Anniversary Ball and very special! Ryan and Cali McKasson performed for us, and we jigged and reeled through about 4 hours on Saturday afternoon.

We then moved over to The Summit RV Resort where we have a membership. In the Hill Country on the Guadalupe River, just west of New Braunfels, it gives us easy access to Meg's folks, Carl and Marilyn. Also better access to some of the best Mexican food in the country! Mamacita's in New Braunfels, Tomatillo's in San Antone....mmmmmmm!

On the 28th of April we "lived" in Schulenburg, TX for a couple of days, where we attended a Scottish afternoon ball. Wonderful dancing to more live music! Our friends, Jon and Geri, new to the ranks of RV owners, brought their new fifth-wheel along on its maiden "voyage." We camped together, danced together and went on a tour in the morning to the Painted Churches of the area. They are beautiful century-old churches lovingly constructed and decorated by Bohemian, Moravian and German pioneer settlers in the area. A must-see if you're ever there!

Right now we're writing from our home in Lockhart State Park. We've been visiting with our friends, Bob and Lois Hahn, pastors of First United Methodist Church and their family. We're also just enjoying another Texas "small town", great for nice, friendly people and good barbecue!
A little birding today netted a painted bunting, one of the most beautiful birds America has. Tomorrow we head back to San Antonio, then on to the Hill Country and the Summit.
Until then, thanks for reading. May your trails always be pleasant!

Our Trip South... to Warmth!!

It's been far too cold up here in the northland. Much colder than we remember it during our 13 years in Lincoln. Not sure what happened but we don't like it much anymore! We want to say a great big THANK YOU to Fred Smith. He and Janet not only hosted us in Lincoln on their property, not only looked out for our motorhome while we were away from Lincoln for two months; Fred literally had to blast us out of the snow and ice in his yard before we could start our southward journey. The RV jacks were imbedded over six inches in ice! We warmed them with hairdryers, and Fred pried them loose with a crowbar, which he could only get under the jacks after drilling holes in the ice. Unbelievable! Thank you, Fred and Janet!

We started our trip south in early February, saying a reluctant goodbye to Andrea and family. Spent our first night in Scott AFB FamCamp in Illinois, still too cold! The pipes in the campground were frozen, but we hooked up to one that was working. Got a good night's sleep and moved on to Chattanooga, TN where we overnighted in the parking area of a TA (Travel America) truckstop. Had dinner and breakfast with the truckers and pressed on to the home of our good friends, David and Karen Crippen, in Wildwood, GA. We've known them since the day they welcomed us as "baby" missionaries to Kenya, E.Africa in 1969! David now pastors the nearby Episcopal church, and he and Karen raise, train and show rough collies.
We spent the next day reminiscing and catching-up on our two families which have spread out over the country. Great to be together again, even if it's only a few hours at a time! Thanks for your hospitality, Karen and David!
We moved on to Augusta, GA where we were stationed for six years. Our best friends there, Mike and Susie Felz, welcomed us warmly as usual and we talked non-stop for the next 24 hours! Fun!
The next day we went further south, the length of the state, and spent the night at Eagle Hammock RV Park, on the navy sub base at King's Bay, GA. Very nice park! The following day we finished our trek at the new home of our daughter Stacey and her family in Hernando, FL.
They built a concrete RV pad and hookups for us behind their home, and it was perfect! A place of our own, but only a few steps away to their backdoor. We loved it! And at last we began to thaw!!!
One of our main reasons behind this lifestyle we've chosen is the opportunity it gives to be with our kids, and especially our grandkids, as they're growing and experiencing so much of life. Our distances have been a problem and we've had the chance to "catch up" a little. We want to know all of them so much better than we've been able to in the past.Here's Ashley at her honor student breakfast which we were able to attend. And here's Nathaniel, receiving his Cub Scout awards at his Blue and Gold banquet. We're so thankful we could be a part of these things for the six weeks we were there!

Darren's parents, Darry and Lynn Griffis, live nearby and we really enjoyed their company, getting to eat out together several times as well as attend a fun play one evening. Here we're enjoying a feast at Enrico's, one of their favorite spots in nearby Inverness. Of course, we spent lots of days geocaching with the family. They love it as much as we do.Here we've just found a virtual cache in DisneyWorld! What fun!

We left for San Antonio on March 30. More on that the next time. Thanks for reading.

Roger and Meg

Steamboat Springs, CO-January 2007

We had a GREAT January! For the first time ever we were able to spend an entire month in Colorado during ski season. We stayed in a couple of very nice timeshare resorts, Thunder Mountain Condos and Celebrity Resorts. Sabrina visited with us there from her home in LA. We also spent some wonderful moments with our good friend Bonnie from Denver, who both visited us there, and hosted us both coming and going in her Denver home. We skied about every other day, and hiked or geocached when we weren't skiing.

A couple of interesting stories:

We left our ski jackets in Lincoln (it was that warm the day we left for Colorado!) on Thursday. On Friday the Smith's mailed them to us. They arrived in Steamboat Springs on Saturday evening. On Sunday we went by the post office to find out their hours and met "Debbie" who just happened to be working. She checked, found our box of coats and "delivered" it to us on a Sunday afternoon!

We went walking in a park near sunset, got back to our car and found that Roger had lost the car keys out of his pocket. Had to call a locksmith to open the car for us. It was dark and it took over an hour in frigid air to get into our car, and an "angel" named Madelyn who lives in Steamboat was out walking her dog and stayed with us until we were on our way. God bless her! The next day we prayed, returned to the scene, put one shovel into the snow and found the missing keys. God is sooooo good! All the time!

We found a wonderful Christian fellowship there, Steamboat Christian Center, where the Bible is preached and Jesus' Name is lifted up! Visit them when you're there!


Our good friends, Dana and Pam Baker, (Pam here with Meg in our kitchen working on something special) joined us for four days of skiing and fellowship during our last week there. We had a wonderful time together renewing old friendship, sharing books and ideas, and, of course, the slopes.

After the month in the mountains (we were TIRED of the cold!!) we are picking up our motorhome from its winter home at the Smith's house in Lincoln and heading south. All about that part of our journey the next blog. Thanks for reading.