April - May, 2008
Articles are posted chronologically from most recent to oldest

May:
 
1-4  5-6   7   8-11  12-14  15-16   17-18  19-27      April:  24-27   24   

Enjoy!
May 30 - 31
We traveled to St. Andre campground outside Montreal in the city of St. Nicholas which was on the other side of the St. Lawrence Seaway.  The campground required a minimum stay of 3 nights so we set up camp for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The next day would be a very busy day.  In the morning we tour the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.  seeing mainly 14th & 15th century European Art viewing a few great pieces.  We particularly like the sculpture and painting pictured below.  After the museum, we headed for St. Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral.  They were having confirmation at the time so we waited and then took pictures.  The cathedral is very impressive on it's attempt to create a scale model of St. Peters Basilica in Rome.  In the afternoon we visited the L'Oratoire of St. Joseph.   This magnificent structure was envisioned by Bro. Andre, CSC and was built to replace a small stone chapel he himself built near the site.  While parked in the handicapped spot in the courtyard, we were entertained by the carillon, playing some familiar tunes.  Immediately upon entering the crypt of the church one is transported into a dark, serene prayerful mileu.  There are large banks of votive candles everywhere along with a 20 foot high stack of canes and crutches from grateful of devotees of St. Joseph and Blessed Bro. Andre.  We attended Mass in French at 4:30 and then started our tour of the basilica.  The views from several levels of the basilica would have been spectacular were it not for fog, rain and low clouds.  There are three levels to the Basilica, we started in the crypt and then went to the third floor to learn about Blessed Bro. Andre. There is an exhibition, depicting his life and works along with his heart.  We then proceeded to the middle floor which was the church proper.  We actually had trouble finding it due to a series of elevators and escalators.  The basilica's architecture is very modern, stark, angular with it's pillarless
interior volume creating a feeling of human insignificance and the grandeur of God.  After several pictures we returned to our campground, stopping for a pizza at a french restaurant.  Continued in the June section.



Fine Art Museum


Fine Art Museum


St Mary Queen of the World


St. Mary Queen of the World
Baldachino

St. Mary Queen of the World
Baldachino



Fine Art Museum


Renoir


St. Joseph Crypt


Altar Cross
 St. Joseph Oratoire


St. Joseph Oratoire
Inside Basilica



May 28 -29

We finally left Buffalo, on Wednesday, after waiting for a DHL delivery the previous day.  The package was sitting in the DHL area from Friday and got delivered about 4:30 PM on Tuesday.  They promised 3 PM delivery.  When I questioned the driver about this, his remark was "you are lucky you even got it today." When I asked to sign for the package to verify delivery time he refused.  So much for DHL, never again.  I'll use Big Brown in the future.  We decided to take the scenic route called the "Seaway Trail" a national scenic byway along the St. Lawrence Seaway.  There are several lighthouses along the way and we stopped at two of them. (see pictures below).  We spent the night at Bedford Creek Marina and Campground in Sacket, NY. The next morning we took off for Canada, traveling through the 1000 islands in the St. Lawrence Seaway and finally crossing at the International Bridge.   That evening we spent at the Summer's Nest campground in Casselman, ON.  The campground had great facilities and was run by a couple who wintered in Florida.  The sunset was spectacular! (see photo below).  On Thursday we set off for Ottawa to see the House of Parliament and the many sites.  However it was not to be.  Parliament was blocked off from every directions by police.  We drove round and round with Garmina (our GPS) shouting, "recalculating recalculating"  We never did see the house of parliament but I got a great shot of it in my outside mirror.  We were so discussed that we just left town and headed for a campground near Montreal.


Charolette Genesee


Sodus Lighthouse

Sodus Lighthouse


Summer's Nest
Casselman, ON

Parliament


May 19 - 27
We spent 9 days with Sue's Aunt Adelaid Harvey, in Buffalo, NY.  She has 9 children and far too many grandchildren for us to keep track of.  We had a spectacular time with her visiting several attractions near Buffalo.  We visited Bill and Donna Stevens (Sue's cousin Donna May) and received a visit from Doug Harvey and his fiancee Sue. 
George was cold all the time with overnight temperatures in the love 40s.  Although we were cold we had warm and wonderful good times as follows: Our first stop was the Kazoo Factory, in Eden NY.  We took a factory tour and learned how they create Kazoos from metal pieces.  Everything in the factory is done on machines that date back to 1916.  Adelaid, George and Sue make their own Kazoos using a hand driven machine.  What a treat.!


Kazoo Factory


Douglas Harvey and
fiancee Sue


Donna May and
Bill Stevens


Theresa and Joe Weiss
with  Adelaid

Mildred Harvey


Joseph Harvey


We took a day and went to the QRS Piano Roll manufacturing company in Buffalo, NY.  Our began with a video, giving the history of QRS and the factory facilities.  Our tour guide, escorted us into the factory where we stopped at each process in the making of a piano roll.  See the pictures and captions below.  It was fascinating to see where the famous artists, like Zez Conffrey who wrote "Kitten on the Keys" (1930) and George Gershwin who composed "American in Paris" sat while "cutting" the master roll.  We saw every stage in the process ending up with the packaged QRS role.  The plant still produces and sells over 10,000 rolls a year.  Note in the pictures below that they are still using Apple IIes  I couldn't believe my eyes, but I guess they have a program and interface that works so why change it!



Composer Piano


Creation of the master


Making 8 roles at a time


Imprinting words on rolls

Apple IIe

Finally we took a tour of Our Lady of Victory Basilica (OLV) in Lackawanna, NY.  We attended Sunday Mass at the Basilica.  OLVwas the dream of Msgr. Nelson Baker, V.G.
who also founded Fr. Bakers school for boys which at its peak housed over 1500 orphan boys.  (see photos below).



The only problem we had was it was s-o-o-o-o-o cold, with night time lows in the 40's 
  George was cold all the time. 
We left Adelaid cheering the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Detroit Red Wings vying for the Stanley Cup.

May 17 - 18
We followed I-80 West to Brooksville, PA where we spent the night at the flying J.  Next morning we took off for Punxsutawney, Pa. where we went on a hunt for the the famous groundhog Punxsatawney Phil.  We located him  and his consort living in a "condominium" inside the public library.  We then drove to Knob Nook where Phil makes his annual prophetic pronouncement on Feb. 7th.  Seeing his shadow there will be 7 more weeks of winter, which was the case this year.





May 15 & 16th
Thursday and Friday we spent parked in front of Kenny Barber's home.  We attended a memorial service for Margaret Barber, Kenny's mother at St. Edward's the Confessor  church.  What a lovely service.  One of Kenny's friends sang several selections, including the Ave Marie.  The homily, preached by Fr.  Donald H. Lemay
, was outstanding.  He had interview Ken and from his notes composed a gracious tribute to Margaret.  The service was followed by a brunch in the atrium of the church, with lots of goodies to eat.  We returned to Kenny's house and spent the night in SAGORA, taking off the next morning Pennsylvania.

May 12th - 14th
We spent the next two days at Small Country Campground about 30 miles  NE of Charlottesville, VA. During the day we visited the home of Thomas Jefferson in Monticello, Va.   What a terrific day touring the house, the gardens and Mulberry Ln, where over 150 slaves lived on Jefferson's plantation.  If you have been following us via our calendar ( http://calendar.yahoo.com/sue_spahn ) you will realize that we are not on our way to Logan, OH to attend the Class B rally.  We received notice from Kenny Barber that George's sister's memorial will be held on Friday, May 16th.  We have altered our plans and are going to Richmond, VA for the memorial.  The Class B rally will have to wait for another year.  Keep watching for updates to our calendar. 




May 8th - 11th
We traveled to North Bend SP in West Virginia to attend a Bluegrass Festival.  Arriving mid-afternoon, a day earlier than planned,  we were assigned site 11 near the river.  The weather was overcast and cold for Thursday and Friday.  On Saturday the sky cleared and we had lots of sunshine for the day long bluegrass marathon.  Every hour there was a different band on stage.  By about 2 pm we had our fill of Bluegrass and retired to our campground.  Saturday evening we had a great campfire.  Note the campfire ring in the first picture and then the campfire "ring" in the second picture.  We had a slight problem.  When we went to build the campfire, the ring was rusted out and went tumbling down the embankment into the river.  After alerting the ranger to our problem, he came, looked at the ring in the river, and said he didn't think he could fish it out.  About 1/2 hour later we had a new square "ring" and a wonderful campfire.  Early Sunday morning we broke camp and headed for Mass at St. Mary's in Marietta, OH.  From there we toured both Fenton Glass and Blenko glass factories before settling down for the night at a Cracker Barrel.


ST. Mary's - Marietta, OH

Windows in St. Mary's

Fenton Glass - WV

Blenko Glass - WV

Campsite - North Bend SP

Bluegrass-North Bend

River and campsite

Campfire



May 7th

We started off from Blackwater S.P. heading West towards Grafton, WV.  We had heard about something called the "Mother's Day Shrine" and thought it might be interesting.  Well it took us over 3 hours to go about 60 miles up and down the hills with 8-9% grades.  What fun!!!
We finally arrived at the shrine, had lunch in front of the shrine and then went in for a tour.  This is where the Mother's Day holiday started in 1908 by a woman named Ann Marie Jarvis.  We arrived on the 100 year anniversary.  They were having all kinds of celebrations, the governor's wife had just left and there was a gourmet chef coming to prepare an invitation only meal.  (We were not invited!)  We spent the night in Wal-mart parking lot.


Inside of shrine, a former
Methodist/Episcopal church


Marquee on shrine

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May 5th & 6th Blackwater State Park - WV
Monday and Tuesday was spent at the beautiful Blackwaters State Park in West Virginia in the middle of the Monogahela Forest. Our campsite was in an area that had lots of open space, yet lots of trees.  After a good nights sleep we started out the next morning for a brief hike and photography session.  The Blackwater falls was magnificent and we snapped several good pictures of the trees, falls and the surrounding gorge and river bed.


A stroll in the Forest

Moss on tree trunk

Gorge in Blackwater SP - WV

Blackwater Falls - WV


May 1st - May 4th - Blue Ridge LTV Rally
From Highland Hammock we went back south to Ft. Meyers to stay Monday night with Marsha Burmeister in her new home.  What a lovely place she has and her dogs just love to run through the house chasing each other.  We tested the height of Marsha's roof to see if SAGORA would fit under it.  It just made it!!!  Tuesday morning we were off to Edinburg, VA, Creekside campground to attend the Blue Ridge LTV Rally.  We enjoyed renewing old acquaintances from our trip 2 years ago.  They are a special group of people all of them a lot of fun to be with. George took a tumble off his scooter on the way to dinner on Thursday night.  Thank God he fell on the grass but he received some minor cuts on his face from his glasses.  He had a headache, which went away the next day, but otherwise he was just fine.  We spent the days eating and chatting. We watched the Kentucky Derby and  I won third place for my Kentucky Derby hat.  We left Creekside Monday morning and headed for Falling Waters SP in West Virginia. 



Our Friends from Blue-Ridge LTV

April 24th - 27th  FLAMINGLES Leisure Travel Van Rally
We had a great group of 29 people who enjoyed an old fashion hot dog roast, a pot luck dinner, the Highland Hammock Tram ride, Sour Orange Ice Cream and the most memorable campfires.  Thank goodness for such a great group of hard working people who help raise the Big Top Tent loaned for our use by Bessie and Dave Foster. Everyone enjoyed talking and sharing ideas about their rigs and their travels.
Visit the Flamingles web page for pictures

April 24th - Our Journey Began
Our journey began April 24, 2008 from Sunrise, Fl.   We had breakfast with our All Saints group at Strathmores. 


We will miss all of you.
Email us soon!

At about 2:30 PM which was 2.5 hours later than we had planned, we were finally starting our 6 month journey.  Heading straight up Route 27 we arrived at Highland Hammock SP for the Leisure Travel Van Flamingles rally.