Tuesday - September 21, 2021
We left home at 8:00 am on our 5 1/2 week trip to New England, Acadia, and Virginia. We were pulling our travel trailer and camping except when we were in Virginia visiting Scott and family. I got up at 5:30 am because I was feeling the effects of the flu vaccine and Covid booster vaccine that I had gotten at the doctor's office on Monday. The Covid booster made my arm really sore and made me achey all over. I took a Tylenol and that made it better. We drove to Sam A Baker State Park in Missouri. It was misty raining and cool. We took a short walk around the campground and a stray dog started following us. It was not threatening, but was dirty. We would have called someone to report the dog (it had a collar), but we had no cell service. We ended up going inside to get away from the dog.
 |
| Traditional beginning of trip selfie |
 |
| Campsite at Sam A Baker |
We had leftover chicken noodle soup for dinner - good on a cool night. This was a good travel day and a nice start to our long trip.
Wednesday - September 22, 2021 Happy Fall, Y'all!
Nice beginning of the first day of fall. We left camp at 8:00 am. It was a cool, cloudy, and windy day - okay for travel except for the wind. While on I24, a truck was stopped by the side of the road and the driver was working on the truck. I slowed down, but couldn't pull into the left lane because of traffic. The trucker jumped out in the right lane waving at me to pull into the left lane. I slammed on my brakes and a car in the left lane slowed down to let me pull over. That was really nerve racking. While we were driving through Louisville on our way to camp, a school kid almost stepped in front of our car, but looked up and stopped just in time. Mike was driving when this happened, so we both had a scary incident while we were driving. We stayed at the Louisville South KOA in Shepherdsville, KY. There were several campers waiting to check in when we got there, but it didn't take long for us to get shown to our campsite. This is a nice KOA and we may stay here again.
 |
| Campsite at Louisville South KOA |
It was raining so we couldn't walk or sit outside. There was a time change to Eastern time and road work slowed us down so it was dinner time when we got to the campsite. We had leftovers again and had an early night.
Thursday - September 23, 2021
We left camp at 9:30 am, taking I71 from Louisville, Kentucky to Streetsboro, Ohio. It was still misty rainy and cool with temperatures in the 50's, but not as windy. There were no problems as we traveled. We arrived at the Streetsboro/Cleveland KOA by 5:00 pm. This was a nice KOA with brand new, nice showers and bathrooms.
 |
| Campsite at Streetsboro/Cleveland KOA |
I fixed chili for dinner, then we sat out relaxing until bedtime.
Friday - September 24, 2021 Cuyahoga National Park
We left camp about 10:00 am after we had breakfast and took showers. We drove to the Boston Mill Visitor Center of Cuyahoga National Park. We got information about hiking and other things to do from a very helpful park worker. At all of the national parks there is a canopy set up outside for information so that visitors don't go inside because of Covid. We drove to the Canal Exploration Center and toured the museum learning about the canal systems in New York and Ohio. The canal here is the Erie-Ohio Canal. It was very interesting learning about this time in history.
 |
| At Boston Mill |
 |
| Canal Exploration Center |
 |
| Statue depicting type of mule used at canal |
 |
| A portion of the Erie Ohio Canal System |
Next we drove down Tinkers Creek Road next to the Tinkers Creek Gorge to the Bridal Veil Falls trailhead. We took a short hike to the falls and back. These are pretty falls and it was easy to see why they are named Bridal Veil Falls. We tried to find the trailhead for the Great Falls but had no success so we drove to the Breckville Nature Center. We walked around inside the center but it had just a small amount of nature information so wasn't very interesting. When finished at the center we drove to the Brandywine Falls trailhead where we ate a light lunch in our car. We hiked the one mile trail to the overlook for the falls. Following that we went to the Beaver Marsh area where we hiked on the boardwalk over the marsh. While on this hike we saw a great blue heron, two snapping turtles, five midland painted turtles, numerous fish, and a bald eagle. We ended the day in the park by stopping by the Everett Covered Bridge. This is a replica of the original bridge which was destroyed in a flood in 1975. Local citizens raised money to have the replica built by the national park system.
 |
| Bridalveil Falls |
 |
| Brandywine Falls |
 |
| Mike on the boardwalk at the Beaver Marsh |
 |
| Mary and Mike in front of the Everett Covered Bridge |
We stopped at Lager and Vine restaurant in Streetsboro on our way back to camp for dinner. We each got a hamburger and fries and it was pretty good. We got back to camp around 6:30 pm. The weather was beautiful and sunny today. We really enjoyed our day in Cuyahoga National Park.
Saturday - September 25, 2021
We left Streetsboro/Cleveland KOA at 9:00 am. We drove north and east on I90. When we got to the Ohio - Pennsylvania border we exited onto highway 5 so that we could drive close to Lake Erie. It was a pretty drive, but there were no views of the lake. We got back onto I90 at Erie, Pennsylvania, and had good views of the lake so we really didn't need to take the side trip. We got on I86 then several side roads on the way to Letchworth State Park in New York. When we were on I86 we stopped at the Welcome Center rest stop and ate lunch. This is a really nice rest stop with pretty views. Google's directions to the state park took us to a side area of the park. We didn't have cell service there so couldn't find the correct way to the campground. Luckily, a couple of park workers drove by and gave us the correct directions to the main part of the park. We got to our campsite early in the afternoon. Letchworth State Park is a nice park, but the campsites only had electric hookups - no water or sewer.
 |
| Our campsite |
 |
| Another view of our site |
After getting camp set up we cooked hotdogs and had hot dogs with chili and fritos for dinner. We sat out for a while then called it a night.
Sunday - September 26, 2021 Letchworth State Park, New York
I cooked egg with sausage, potato, and cheese for breakfast. It was nice having a cooked breakfast for a change. We left camp at 9:30 and drove to the visitor center to get information. This park has the Genesee River Gorge running through the middle. The gorge is called the "Grand Canyon of the East". The park is about 17 miles long following the course of the river. We went to the nature center first and looked at all of the exhibits. It was good with interesting displays. Next we went to the museum which had displays about the history of the park and the area and had a mastodon skull on display. The museum was very interesting and we spent about an hour there. We ate lunch in the car because it was too cool and windy to eat outside. After lunch we drove about 5 miles into Portageville, got gas, and a twist ice cream cone. The ice cream was yummy. From there we drove through the park on the way back to the campground, stopping at several places to hike and view the canyon. The first stop was at the upper falls. It was a short hike to the falls. Next we stopped at the middle falls and did a short hike to the viewing area. We stopped at the lower falls and hiked about a mile when we decided to turn around before seeing the falls. We didn't want to walk the 100+ steps down to the falls and then back up. We had already hiked about 4 miles total this day. We stopped at several more overlooks of the canyon before heading back to camp.
 |
| Upper Falls |
 |
| Middle Falls |
 |
| Mike at one of the overlooks |
 |
| Mary at the same spot |
 |
View of the Genessee River with the upper
and middle falls |
 |
| A final view of the canyon |
At camp we built a campfire and roasted hot dogs to go with our remaining left over chili. This was a nice, if chilly, day. We really enjoyed this park. There are quite a few hiking trails that a person could do if they wanted to spend more time here. Two days was all the time we had, but was enjoyable all the same.
Monday - September 27, 2021
We left camp at 7:00 am because we had a long 8 hour day of traveling ahead of us. As we were leaving the park we saw a few deer. It rained for about an hour while we were driving toward Lake Placid. The leaves on the trees were pretty in the Adirondacks. The first good fall foliage that we had seen. We also saw some wild turkeys while in the Adirondacks. We got to the Lake Placid/Whiteface Mountain KOA about 3:30 pm; the same time as 7 other campers. The workers at the KOA were good at handling the crowd, they directed you to the campsite then let you walk to the office to check in. This is a nice, pretty KOA. We stayed here three years ago when we were on our way to Canada from Acadia.
 |
| Drive through Adirondacks |
 |
| Pretty trees while driving |
It was cold out, the coldest evening so far. We were glad to have a heater for our trailer. We had leftovers for dinner then just sat in the trailer until time for bed.
Tuesday - September 28, 2021 Lake Placid Area, New York
We slept in today after the long day of driving. I cooked eggs with sausage, potatoes, and cheese again for breakfast. After breakfast we both took showers. The facilities here were nice. Each shower/bathroom was a separate room which made it nicer. They were also very clean. After our showers we hiked a trail that was on the outside edge of the KOA. It was hard to find the trail at first, but when we did it had a nice view of the Ausable River. This is a pretty stream running alongside the highway to the KOA. The river and trees along the trail were very pretty. We were able to see some falls and a flume next to the trail. The trail got very narrow, steep, and treacherous so we turned around to head back to camp.
 |
| Small falls under the bridge of the highway |
 |
| Flume |
 |
| Pretty river and trees |
 |
| Mary by the river |
 |
| Another pretty view of the river |
 |
| Mike sitting by the trail |
After getting back to camp we drove to Wilmington to get groceries, but had no luck finding a grocery store. As a result, I fixed chicken alfredo from a mix with canned chicken and green peas for dinner. This is our go to meal when we don't have fresh meat and vegetables to cook. This was a nice, relaxing day. We were glad to be staying here for three nights.
Wednesday - September 29, 2021
We slept in again. After washing dishes, we drove to Lake Placid to buy groceries at Price Chopper. We planned to eat lunch in town and drove around looking for someplace to get pizza and for a place to park. There was a lot of road construction in town so it was hard to find any place to park. Finally we found a place about 1/2 mile from the area with restaurants. There was a pizza place we wanted to try, but it didn't open until 4:00 pm because they couldn't hire enough workers. We settled on the restaurant at High Peaks Resort on the corner of the main street. We shared a garlic and romano cheese pizza. It was pretty good. When we left town we drove north to the Cobble Lookout Trail. This was an out and back trail that was a total of about 3 miles. It led up a mountain on an easy trail to a lookout of the surrounding mountains. Because of the fall foliage the views were beautiful.
 |
| Mirror Lake in Lake Placid |
 |
| Cobble Lookout Trail |
 |
| View at Cobble Lookout |
 |
| Mary and Mike at the lookout |
After the hike we went back to camp where we had leftovers for dinner. This was a cool, but nice day while we were in town and hiking. It rained in the evening after we returned to camp. We enjoyed our stay in the Lake Placid area.
Thursday - September 30, 2021
We left camp at 8:50 am and drove mainly state highways around Lake Champlain and through Vermont. We saw 8 turkeys and 4 pheasants in New York. It rained on and off all day. We stopped at a diner, kind of in the middle of no where near Groton, Vermont. We both got a burger and it was good. We got to camp at the Lincoln/Woodstock KOA in New Hampshire in the middle of the afternoon. After we set up camp, I washed clothes.
 |
| The drive around Lake Champlain in Vermont |
 |
| Campsite at Lincoln/Woodstock KOA |
This was a nice KOA with a good laundromat. The weather was cool and damp.
Friday - October 1, 2021 Franconia Notch State Park, New Hampshire
We slept in today. After breakfast we walked a trail behind the camp to a small pond and next to the Pemigewasset River (called the Pemi River by locals). After that we drove 9 miles to the Franconia Notch State Park visitor's center. We got hiking information (not good information though) then drove to Boise Rock and ate lunch. Franconia Notch Park is on either side of I95 next to the Pemi River with several pull outs for hiking trails, campgrounds, and lakes. There was a good view of Cannon Cliff from the Boise Rock turnout. Boise Rock is a place where a local farmer in the 1800's had to take refuge during a snowstorm. He killed his horse and used the hide to wrap up in under the shelter of the large boulder.
 |
| Mike next to the pond by the KOA |
 |
| Pemigewasset River |
 |
| Cannon Cliff |
 |
| Another view of Cannon Cliff |
After lunch we drove through the park and turned around so that we could take some of the turnouts going back south. We stopped at a trail head by Cannon Lake and walked a mile. Then we drove to the Basin Trailhead and hiked to Basin Cascade and back. This was a nice hike and the person at the visitor's center didn't even mention it. We hiked a total of 3 1/2 miles even though it was cool, windy, and cloudy most of the day.
 |
| Cannon Lake |
 |
| Trail from Cannon Lake |
 |
| Mike and Mary by the Pemi River |
 |
| View of a small cascade on the river |
 |
| Mike by the Basin Cascade |
 |
| Mary in front of the Basin Cascade |
When we got back to camp we both took showers. The facilities at this park are really nice and clean. After that we sat in the trailer the rest of the day because of the cool weather. We had finished the first leg of our trip and were ready to head on to Acadia National Park.
