Next time I'm buying a tent....

that is machine washable

Getting Badger cleaned up and ready to sell we've spent all day cleaning inside - haven't worked this hard since we left mycenae rd. I know we've been a bit slovenly over the summer, partly as it was too hot to do anything, partly as we were travelling a lot, partly as we were putting it off until now, but its amazing how much crap the aircon and insects spread across the ceiling, dashboard, vinyl and pretty much everywhere. Now I realise why most RVs have a dark colour scheme....

Fruits of the sea

We've been eating lots of seafood over the past few days. Fresh scallops lightly fried in butter and lemon juice, mussels mariniere

And as lobster season started last week, today we bought the smallest one at the seafood market across from the RV park.

He put up a bit of a fight as Mark put him in the pot but we got there in the end, and it was very tasty  

Tomorrow, we're back on sausages... 

Niagara to Quebec

From Philadelphia we headed north into New York State. We met our friends Blair and Cheryl for dinner at Niagara Falls and even though it was a very brief visit, it was great to see them. They came across from Canada and hadn't seen the falls from this side. They are still impressive but to be honest, the view from the Canadian side is much more spectacular

From Niagara we headed across the top of New York state and crossed over into Quebec. It was a small back road and I think we interrupted the border guard’s morning tea and had no problem getting into Canada. All road signs were now in French and the majority of local people don’t speak English. Our campground was 30kms down the road and with a combination of my very bad French, their bad/non existent English and lots of sign language, we made ourselves understood. This was to be the way of things for the next week. The small grocery store in the tiny hamlet was an eye opener though. Some triple cream brie, herby goats cheese, a couple of bottles of red wine to accompany the charcoal grilled rib eye steak and some tawny port by Offley (Mark’s favourite label and one that we’ve not seen much of outside Portugal) and we were set for a very nice evening! We even set up the screen on the side of Badger and watched a movie outside for the first time this summer (it’s been way too hot down south for this). We bypassed Montreal as we visited it two years ago, and followed the waterway to a small village of Nicolet.  For those of you who remember the 1980’s BBC TV series Hi-de-hi! (based on a fictional holiday camp), I definitely had one of those moments. At 7.15pm, three notes rang out across the campground, a voice came over the tannoy then people from all over descended on the petanque area in front of our site. They all had their boules bags and magnetic pickup sticks and a number of games were played, all at very high volume!

We carried on north east along the river to Levis which is across the river from Quebec City. Each day we caught the ferry across and explored the city.

The old town with cobbled streets and a citadel were all very quaint.

Parliament building and fountain

Joan of Arc statue and gardens 

Notre Dame Cathedral 

On the Saturday night, they put on a firework display which was the best we had seen in years. Even though it was pouring with rain, we sat out in our plastic ponchos (souvenirs from a previous open top bus tour) and watched the display and listened to the music that played along in sync.

After a lovely city break we continued on route 132 along the St Lawrence River and through lots of small villages. The river widened out so much that we couldn’t see the other side and the views were spectacular

We continued around the Gaspe Peninsula as the St Lawrence River became the Gulf of St Lawrence, then travelled west along the coast. Route 132 is the longest road in Quebec at 1,002 miles (approx 1,600 kms) and we toured most of it. 

We are now in New Brunswick and will be touring this province, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia over the next two weeks before crossing back into the US for the Labor Day bank holiday weekend.

Washington D.C., Gettysburg and Philadelphia

After a horrendous journey where it took us 7 hours to cover 200 miles, we finally arrived at the RV park which was to be our base for the next 3 days as we toured Washington.

As it was unseasonable hot, we decided to do the open bus tours in the morning (to get the lay of the land) then hide in the air-conditioned Smithsonian museums in the afternoon.

 Washington Monument

 Thomas Jefferson Memorial

The White House

US Capitol building

Lincoln memorial

 World War II memorial

Iwo Jima statue

The Smithsonian Air and Space museum was really interesting and included exhibits on the history of flight including the original Wright Flyer

Amelia Earhart and her Lockheed 5B Vega which she flew it alone across  the Atlantic then non stop across the US in 1932

the Apollo 11 command module Columbia and lunar suits

to the model of the starship Enterprise that was used in the original TV series of Star Trek

We also spent a day at the National air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center which is where they keep all the big toys like the Enola Gay

The Discovery space shuttle which was the last one to fly

and lots of German and Japanese planes that we hadn't see before. We barely scratched the surface and will have to return again another day.

Next, on to Gettysburg. The Battle of Gettysburg was fought in July 1863 and was a Union victory that stopped the Confederates second invasion of the North. More than 50,000 men fell as casualties during the 3 day battle, making it the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. It is where Lincoln gave his famous "Four score and seven years ago..." speech. 

Next stop - Philadelphia. Its here that Americans began their quest for freedom and independence and where the United States was born. The Liberty Bell is an international symbol of freedom and hung in the State House in 1753 and summoned the Pennsylvania Assembly to work.

The Pennsylvania State House is now called Independence Hall and is where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution was created.

We have learnt lots about the Revolutionary War and the road to nationhood and I think that we might be a bit cultured-out right now. Time to hit the road again and head north towards New York state and then Canadian eastern provinces.

Deep South - part 2

We’ve been moving at such a pace that I’ve not had time to document our travels of late!

Still in South Carolina, we paid a visit to the state capital of Columbia. There we toured the SC Confederate Relic Room and museum. Founded in 1896, the museum focuses on South Carolina military history from the Revolutionary war to the present. After learning more about the Civil War, we headed down to Congaree National Park to check out the bald cypress and water tupelo trees. 

Our thanks again go to Alyssa who took time out to show us around.

North Carolina was our next stop and base for visiting Virginia. We drove part of the Blue Ridge Parkway and even though the views weren’t as clear as I’d have liked, they were still stunning.

We also stopped by historic Appomattox. At the McLean House, General Robert E Lee signed the surrender document drafted by General Ulysses S Grant, thus ending the Civil war in 1865.

On the road again, this time heading for the Outer Banks. Kitty Hawk/Kill Devil Hills is where the Wright Brothers took to the skies with the first powered flight. This hill was a huge sand dune and the brothers trekked up this and nearby dunes thousands of times to conduct their glider experiments

On to Cape Hatteras and the lighthouse, with its black and white candy-cane stripes, is one of the most famous and recognizable lighthouses in the world. Protecting one of the most treacherous stretches of the Outer Banks known as the Diamond Shoals, with a beam of light that spans 20 miles into the ocean, the lighthouse is also the world's tallest brick lighthouse at a staggering 208' ft. tall.

Having said that we weren’t going to travel to Washington D.C. we decided to go there after all, just for a few days and is the subject of my next blog…