Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park – Cass River Walk

After looking at the petroglyphs, we spent about an hour walking the 1.5 mile track that follows parts of the Cass River through the Historic State Park. It seemed for the most part eerily devoid of wildlife – apart from tiny flies and mosquitos!!!!!

The occasional Lobelia cardinalis – the Cardinal Flower – brightened the forest, and a few fungii on the trees and forest floor provided contrast to the greens we saw along the way.

(click any thumbnail to open a slideshow)

Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park – Petroglyphs

Lisa wanted to visit the Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park, so we set off on Wednesday to go over to the “thumb” area to see the Petroglyphs – quite a drive from Grand Rapids – 200 miles, plus afterwards another 150 miles down to Saline to stay the night with Lisa’s Mum!!

I was a bit underwhelmed by it, but it was interesting to see it. We also took the 1 hour walk around the track through the State Park.

(click any thumbnail to open a slideshow)

Carriage Roads by Bicycle

Friday was a nice sunny day, so after some “getting ready for Murder Mystery Dinner on Saturday” chores in the morning, Steve, Don, Lisa and I set out to rent some bicycles and then ride them around some of the carriage roads in Acadia National Park on Friday afternoon.

We picked up the bikes and loaded them into Steve’s Honda Ridgeline truck for the ride out to a car park at the north end of Eagle Lake. From there we set out south along Eagle Lake, and then Jordan Pond to Jordan Pond House for Popovers, then back north on different roads to the east side of Eagle Lake, and back to the car park.

Roger poses beside the bicycle with Eagle Lake in the background.

Eagle Lake

Seal Cove Auto Emblems

Thursday was supposed to be “ride a bicycle around some of the Carriage Road” day, but it rained pretty much all day, so that idea got put on hold (or probably actually cancelled for 2010). The afternoon saw us heading off to see the Seal Cove Auto Museum – “The Brass with the Class”.

We had been before in 2008 (I think it was), just as they were getting ready to sell a sizable portion of the collection in order to be able to settle the estate of the founder of the museum who had died.

While there we took the opportunity to become “Charter Members” of the museum.

Firestone Wheel

White Wheel

Read the rest of this entry »

Sargent Mountain Ramblings

Our first day on Mount Desert Island we decided we would take a hike up Giant Slide Trail to Sargent Mountain, then back to the car we had pre-positioned at the car park near Upper Hadlock Pond. There were lots of wildflowers and lots of rocks and lots of trees and some great scenery.

Lady Slipper Orchid - Frauenschuh - Sehr Schön

A photogallery of images from the day’s walk is below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hartford, CT – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

After we left Rochester, New York, our next destination was Hartford, Connecticut, so that we could go to the Connecticut State Library and Archives to try and find some information on Otto Salewski, a brother of one of Lisa’s great grandmothers.

We arrived in Hartford on Memorial Day Monday evening, and pulled off the highway where Lisa had found there was a Super 8 motel for $50. As we were heading to that, a large sign for America’s Best Value Inn advertising $45 for a night caught her eye, so we went there. We didn’t have much to do in Hartford, so went out to eat dinner, then returned to the Inn to sleep, then Tuesday morning headed off to the Connecticut State Library and Archives. Read the rest of this entry »

Travelling Companions…

So what does one do when faced with long journeys in a car?

For the last several long road trips away the silence has been filled by playing PodCasts from my iPod through the car stereo using an adapter that feeds the output from the iPod into the AUX button on the car stereo. (A GM9-AUX is what is needed for GM Cars from 1995-2003 like our 2002 Camaro. MUCH better than the iTrip I’d used previously to broadcast an FM signal to the car radio). Read the rest of this entry »

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggedy Jig…

So we’re home after the trip out east to Newark, Delaware and Bar Harbor, Maine…

Travel Days were:

• 24 May pm – Caledonia to New Stanton, Pennsylvania – abt 440 miles;
• 25 May am – New Stanton, PA to Newark, Delaware – abt 245 miles;
• 27 May all day – Newark, DE to Bar Harbor, Maine – abt 625 miles in 12 1/2 hours;
• 2 June am –  Bar Harbor, ME  to the Mount Washington Cog Railway 255 miles in abt 5 1/2 hours, then to the summit of Mt Washington and back by Cog Railway;
• 2 June pm Mt Washington Cog Railway to Latham, New York (very near to Albany, New York) 216 miles in about 5 1/2 hours – a very long day!!!!!!;
• 3 June all day – Latham, NY to Bowling Green, Ohio – abt 620 miles in 10 1/2 hours;
• 4 June pm – after 7 1/2 hours in the Jerome Library on genealogy research – abt 200 miles back to Caledonia in abt 3 /12 hours.

Total travelling about 2,650 miles.

We spent 26 May in Newark, and then 28 May to 1 May in Bar Harbor where we did some local travelling around to Deer Island, Schoodic Head, and Cadillac Mountain and Acadia National Park which added another 270 or so miles.

Total mileage run 2,916, which used 105 gallons of fuel, which ranged in price/gallon from $2.22 in New Jersey to $2.96 back home in Caledonia.

So the number Don is waiting for is 27.76 mpg. Best run was 445 miles from somewhere in New York state back to Caledonia – 30.1 mpg. Worst run was all the mileage run around Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park – 24.3 mpg.

A day trip to Deer Island, Maine

Our first day in Bar Harbor started gray and drizzly – at least it wasn’t as rainy as when we’d arrived the night before. Late morning Don suggested we go explore Deer Island, which is west of Mount Desert Island where Bar Harbor is, but requires quite a long circuitous route to get to.

So Don and Mindy, Lisa and Roger set off in the red Camaro for the day’s trip.

Looking South - the Wider View

The image above is a panorama looking south from mainland Maine (Maineland I guess??) towards Deer Island. Read the rest of this entry »

Photogallery of the Deer Island Trip

The following is a photo gallery of the trip to Deer Island. Read the rest of this entry »