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WE CAUGHT ANOTHER ONE!

SUNDAY

TRAVEL DAY
YEAR #3 - STOP #38

We have started to make our way back to Cape Cod for the upcoming Labor Day Weekend. We chose to look for a private campground with electric hookups so we could run our air conditioner during the 90°F days forecast for the rest of the week.

What we found is Highland Campground in Scotland, CT, which is actually $1 a night cheaper than we were paying for our non-electric site in the state park. This is entirely due to the state park charging a $10 per night surcharge to any out of state visitors.

It's nice and quiet since no one is home on either side of us

It is an older park with lots of permanent resident sites who don't appear to be here right now. This place is definitely a campground and not a fancy resort, but we don't mind, we kind of like the campground atmosphere here!

The laundry and restrooms are conveniently right across the street from our site.

They do have free cable TV, laundry equipment (which we were in need of), private hot showers (which we were also in need of) and even a residential sized swimming pool up by the office.

Plenty of space even though sites are not separated with any kind of foliage.

What they don't have are a lot of screaming kids running around our site and dogs subsequently barking at anything that moves, compounding the noise and distractions. It is a peaceful place where we hope to get some work done this week. That way we are free to visit with family all around Cape Cod for the next two weeks, before heading south for the rest of the year.

SATURDAY - Yesterday, after I was all finished setting up camp, I walked over to ROVER to close up the tailgate and saw a mouse headed out of the bed of the truck. He got one look at me, made a u-turn, and headed back inside the truck bed, darn it he was fast!

Now I can't be sure if he has been traveling along with us for a while or he just joined us at this new campsite. Just to be safe we loaded up all four of our mouse traps with some Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter, they seem to love it, I don't, and placed two of them in the usual places inside of THE POD and the other two inside the bed of ROVER.

It didn't take long to snag the hungry little bugger, even though I had all ready decided to leave all the traps out for the entire week while we are here.

The very next morning I checked all the traps and found him in one of the two I set inside the bed of the truck. Using a zip-lock baggie I placed him in with the rest of the trash and went to the dumpster to dispose of him. Let's hope the rest of his friends were watching and learned a valuable lesson today!

NEWS UPDATE: It's now the end of the week and no more mice!


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CONNECTICUT PIZZA

MONDAY

TRAVEL DAY
YEAR #3 - STOP #37

Today was supposed to be a very short 31 mile travel day. What could go wrong? Everything was going great, we were only a mile and a half from the campground when the GPS told us to get off Highway 8 at Exit 38 Watertown. OK!

Problem was the southbound exit was closed. The exit ramp leading off the highway was not only closed, it was missing. There was a crew there putting in a new exit ramp, but they looked to be not making much progress, you know how road work goes.

Anyway we continued past the exit and luckily it was just three miles further down the road to the next exit. We got off, made a u-turn and got right back on the highway going back to Exit 38. It seems the northbound exit ramp on the other side was just fine so we made it to the new campground with no further mishaps.

I'm unhappy because you have to understand that I take the time to faithfully download and update the maps on my GPS, usually once a month, to avoid just this situation. That exit ramp work has obviously be underway for more than a month and has more than a month to go before completion. Isn't that the type of update that is supposed to be addressed by the GPS data people? If you think I'm asking for too much, let me know in the comments!

TUESDAY - This really is a great campsite we are at this week, even if we don't have water or electric at our site. What we do have is a wide open space with no trees to block the sun from reaching our solar panels. There is a break in the foliage behind THE POD that allows what ever breeze happens to blow through the area to come right in the back window where we sit at the dinette for work and meals, then it exits the bedroom where we sleep, making the temperatures very comfortable most of the time. It also blows through our outdoor seating area in front of the door and under the awning.

Plenty of room on both sides of THE POD.

Along with a fairly level spot at the back of the site.

The strong daily solar recharging we receive here means we don't have to conserve power to operate our necessities like lights and fans, recharging our Verizon Jetpacks, cell phones and laptops, or constantly powering little things like our CO2 and smoke detectors, and the water pump.

We will also be guaranteed to have plenty of power when it's time to leave to raise the stabilizer jacks, close up the huge front power awning and lift the tongue jack to place THE POD up onto ROVER's hitch ball.

Heck we could even be a little bit frivolous with our battery power and turn on our 120V inverter to watch a little television. Or run our refrigerator and water heater off of electric during the daylight hours to save on our propane costs.

It's nice to have these decisions to make! Back in our sticks and bricks home all we had to do was pay the electric bill every month and not worry about whether everything would have power, that is until hurricane season rolled around every year.

WEDNESDAY - Today it's all about PIZZA! You've undoubtedly heard about New York pizza and Chicago pizza, but what about Connecticut pizza?

Last year when we made our brief three day stop in Connecticut, we took the time to visit Mystic Pizza (opened in 1973) located at the seaport in Mystic, CT (founded in 1654). In October of 1988 the movie Mystic Pizza was released and included a future superstar, the then 21 year old Julia Roberts in her first major movie role.

Since there were no sporting events being televised while we were dining they instead had the Mystic Pizza movie playing on a dozen large screen TVs throughout the restaurant.

As predicted the pizza was good, but not great, although the chance to visit the actual location where most of the movie scenes were shot added greatly to the over all atmosphere and dining experience. The walls were covered with autographed pictures of the movie's cast and other celebrities who have visited the restaurant since the movie was shot over 30 years ago.

But that was last year, this year we had another Connecticut Bucket List item involving pizza to take care of. One of the iconic Connecticut must taste food items is White Clam Pizza from Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven, CT. Their White Clam Pizza is made on a thin crust with Fresh Clams, Grated Pecorino Romano Cheese, Garlic, Oregano & Olive Oil.

Normally we would have chosen to visit the original location in New Haven (opened in 1937) to once again get the full indoor dining experience, but with the current COVID restrictions on restaurants that's not going to happen. So we did the next best thing! We ordered takeout from one of their other six locations here in Connecticut and ate it back in THE POD.

Once again the food was good, but not my new favorite, other than the fact that if you try and order a White Clam Pizza anywhere else in the United States you'll probably get the same response, "You want whaaat?"

The other two items in the photo are a sampling of Frank Pepe's Cannoli Pie, basically an open face cannoli (can you say YUMMY?), and a Gassosa Soda (an Italian inspired lemon soda) that is bottled and distributed right here in Connecticut.

SATURDAY - Most weekday mornings Tricia is up bright and early taking her morning walk. She is walking with one or both of her girlfriends from back in Florida, on the phone of course. I'm not sure how well that's going to work when we get out west with the time zone difference. I'm not sure Tricia will want to wake up at 4:30AM to go walking in the dark.

While her friends are usually walking the same route over and over everyday from home, Tricia's route changes every week or so while we travel around the country.

Here are a few photos from Tricia's morning walks while we were here at:

BLACK ROCK STATE PARK

The walk begins overlooking the athletic field here in the park.
The swimming beach here at Black Rock Pond.
An illuminated boulder during an early morning scene over the pond.
A pedestrian bridge that connects the pond and the campground.
A brook leading out of Black Rock Pond
Another nearly dry brook leading away from Black Rock Pond
The back side of the Army Corp of Engineers dam the creates Black Rock Lake upstream and feeds Black Rock Pond downstream.
We are now in the home stretch of this morning's walk. Know how I can tell?
Because I recognize our back yard.
Back home safe and sound!


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CAMPED ON THE HOUSATONIC RIVER

THURSDAY

TRAVEL DAY
YEAR #3 - STOP #36

For the first 25 miles of today's route we traveled due south on Route 9J until we were just outside of the town of Columbiaville, NY. From there we merged onto the more highly traveled Route 9 until we were outside of Hudson, NY where our travel direction finally shifted to a more southeasterly direction toward Connecticut on Route 82.

Sure we could have taken a quicker route using the Interstate Highways but then we would have missed seeing all the quaint little towns along the way. Most of these smaller towns have their Police and Fires Stations, Town Halls and Libraries, General Stores and Liquor Stores all on one street, usually renamed Main Street as it passes through town, and we got to see them all. It sure beats watching the mile marker signs go by on the Interstates.

A short two hours later and we had arrived at our new home inside Housatonic Meadows State Park in northeast Connecticut.

FRIDAY - Last week we were camped near the Hudson River in New York and this weekend we are camped on the Housatonic River in Connecticut. We can't see the water from our campsite, but we can sure hear the water as it cascades over and around the small boulders and shallow rapids. At night the sound is very soothing and makes for a peaceful night's sleep.

Our spacious Campsite #40 here at Housatonic Meadows State Park, CT

The reason you can't see the water from our campsite is twofold. There is very dense tree coverage and the water level is 30-foot down a 45° embankment at the back of our site. But we risked life and limb to climb down at take this photo for you all.

The river as seen from behind our campsite

SATURDAY - When we arrived here Thursday afternoon I would have estimated the campground to be about 10% full. By Friday evening that estimate would have climbed to about 75% full and by Saturday morning it was up to 90%.

As the head count went up, the cell phone signal went down. All day Friday we managed to receive a usable cell signal at our campsite, using our built-in WeBoost 4GX booster paired with our antennae 20 feet high in the air. But today with all the extra people (i.e. cell phones, tablets and laptops) competing for same signal we were out of luck. Tricia has work that is due out by the end of today so what did we do?

We packed up our electronic gear and loaded it all into ROVER. We then moved to the other side of the campground where they have four rental cabins and only a few tent campsites. The cabins are currently not being rented due to COVID-19 precautions so they are going unused. As usual the higher priced cabins have the best view in the entire campground and we simply moved our office from THE POD to the backyard of one of the empty cabins.

We set up our small aluminum table with two of our comfortable rocking camp chairs. We placed on the table our laptops, cell phones, WiFi and battery jump starter to power our portable cell booster. There was enough space on the chair pockets and arm rests to make our drinks and snacks accessible.

Our Saturday office view.

But if you have to work on a Saturday, this is not a bad place to be! Our course we did have to deal with a few pesky ants and flies during the day. Then when we pulled out our snack crackers for lunch we had a couple of chipmunks eyeballing us. I guess they were just waiting for us to drop something on the ground. Some people still insist on feeding the wildlife, we never do, intentionally that is!

Later in the afternoon we were even treated to a slow moving train going by on the opposite bank of the river.

Three big engines and only three cargo cars?

SUNDAY - The following is a warning to all those who have been "sheltering in place" for the last few months. Cabin fever, going stir crazy, call it what you want, this could happen to you if you don't get outdoors and breathe some fresh air every once in a while. We received this text message from Tricia's aunt and uncle who we plan on visiting for the upcoming Labor Day Weekend.


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CAMPED NEAR THE HUDSON RIVER

FRIDAY

TRAVEL DAY
YEAR #3 - STOP #35

Today we experienced a rare Friday travel day, usually we travel on Monday or Thursday. I guess that's why you never say never! With five hours to kill between check-out and check-in times today and only 133 miles between destinations we decided to take the scenic route.

We traveled due south from Brattleboro, NH though the western forests of Massachusetts, all the way down to Springfield, MA. We then traveled west by northwest up to Albany, the capitol city of New York state. Even trying to stretch out our trip we arrived two hours before check-in time, but had no trouble checking in early. Thank you New York State Parks!

We were informed upon check-in that the local volunteer fire department of Schodack Landing would be hosting a fund raiser under the riverside pavilion starting at 5:00PM. The State Park was also supporting their efforts by waving the $6 park entrance fee for anyone attending the fund raiser. They were serving up Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Fish Sandwiches, Sausage and Peppers Hoagies, Meatball Subs, French Fries, Fried Dough and my favorite, homemade Cream Puffs.

We are always happy for the opportunity to support the local communities we visit. It's an added bonus when we don't have to worry about what's for dinner when arriving late afternoon on a travel day.

Our current location is just twelve miles south of Albany and directly on the Hudson River. If you were to take a 160 mile long kayak trip due south from here, you would pass right in front of the Statue of Liberty. Not that I would recommend doing that, the Hudson River is well traveled by large ships and the water is not all that appealing to be near.

View of the kayak launch on Schodack Creek which merges with the Hudson River just south of the State Park

View of the Hudson River from Schodack Island State Park

SUNDAY - Tonight at 9:00PM we did something we haven't done in quite a while as we lay in bed! I know what you're thinking, get your minds out of the gutter people, we got up, closed all the windows and turned on the air conditioning in THE POD.

While reading my book in bed I was sweating profusely. It was still in the mid-80°Fs outdoors and at an elevation of just 15 feet, with absolutely no breeze, there was no way our roof top exhaust fans were going to cool things off anytime soon. We are paying for electricity here, why not use it? In less that ten minutes I was pulling the sheet over me in 72°F temps to stay comfortable.

The next two days are forecast to be even warmer, so I guess we will be living in the air conditioned comfort for a while. We try not to use the air conditioner too often, preferring to leave the windows open so we can listen to and smell the nature all around us.

Our luscious campsite here at Schodack Island State Park

Plenty of room to stretch out here

TUESDAY - We are expecting company today! During our second visit to Winhall Brook Campground in Vermont last month we met a nice couple, Harry and Laureen, who were camping right next to us. They invited us over to their patio for conversation, always maintaining our social distancing of course, and we had the customary RVer discussion. You know, Where have you been? and Where are you going?, those kinds of things, plus so much more.

We mentioned our reservation dates for Schodack Island State Park and they said it was on their list of favorite places to visit. We made tentative plans to meet up again, exchanged email address and were pleased to find out they made a 3-night (Tuesday through Friday) reservation that overlapped our 6-night (Friday through Thursday) reservation. Even though they won't be camped right next to us this time, I'm sure we'll get together several times during our 2-day overlap.

WEDNESDAY - Last night, just after dinnertime, we made it over to Harry and Laureen's campsite and sat around sharing stories for several hours. By 9:00PM the temperature (mid-80°F), humidity (also mid-80%) and the insects became just too much to handle, so we said our good-nights and retreated back to the safety and air conditioned comfort of THE POD.

Harry and Laureen with their two pugs, Smalls and Clarice

Harry dropped by after lunch to say hello while he was out walking around the campground. We spent a few minutes chatting and making plans to meetup again tonight after dinner. We'll have to cut our time together a little short tonight because tomorrow we are moving over to Connecticut and there is a 10:00AM check-out time here. There are several things we like to take care of the night before travel day, like dirty dishes, putting away the BBQ and bringing in our outdoor chairs.

In the morning, after breakfast and posting this blog, we'll be doing things like stowing away the cell booster and weather station antennas. Then we'll be putting away the laptops, clearing the table and countertops, then securing the cabinet doors.

The next chores are closing all the windows (all ready done when the A/C is on) and lowering all the blinds, close all three awnings, disconnect the water hose and electrical cord. Then it's time to turn on the inverter, open and turn on both ceiling fans, make sure the refrigerator is properly running off the batteries (not the propane), turn off the water pump and then double check everything!

Now it's just a matter of hooking THE POD up to ROVER, stowing the leveling blocks and stabilizer jack pads, check that the trailer lights and backup camera are working, manually pull the mirrors out to the towing position (wish I had gotten the automatic electric ones), get the GPS plugged in and locate our programmed route for the day. Also we turn on the TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) and make sure all eight tires are ready for the road.

And then we are finally off to hit the road, all the way to the dump station, where we have to empty our two waste tanks and fill the fresh water tank. This is where we take one last look at everything before actually getting on the highway.

We do all of this as often as every three or four days! But it's the small price we pay to be able to live this nomadic lifestyle.


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