North east and all 50 States

A visit to Newport, RI showed evidences of wealth with many beautiful mansions and large harbors. A number of mansions are open to the public. One of the mansions is a 70 room cottage built by the VanderBilt family in 1895 at the cost of $11 million. Here is a challenge to someone who loves to calculate - considering inflation, what would the mansion be worth today? We were impressed with the wealth and beauty, but loved our view of the Atlantic at Brenton Point State Park where we parked our motor home and ate our lunch enjoying the beauty of the ocean. The Eisenhower family owned a summer home outside of town.

We drove through Boston and up the coast into New Hampshire, stopping at Strawbery Banke. In 1630, weary seafarers, landed on the bank of the Piscataqua River and found the ground covered with wild strawberries leading the new residents to call the town Strawbery Banke. Later the city was renamed Portsmouth as the town grew into a large shipbuilding area. A museum of 40 restored homes from the period are available to tour.

We drove north up the Maine coast which finished Denny's 50th state. Now both of us have visited all 50 states.

A visit to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, was another highlight of our trip. The view from the top of Cadallic Mountain at 1,530 ft, shows Bar Harbor with a cruise ship in the distance. The park has an unusual combination of ocean and mountain vistas.

The tour of Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park was culminated by finding a little restaurant that served fresh Maine Lobster. While it was not cheap, the food was very delicious.

In Bangor, ME, we found a 31 foot statue of Paul Bunyan overlooking Hollywood - a large casino. Bangor is the commercial center for eastern and northern Maine.

Fall colors were very evident in New Hampshire and Vermont, especially the red maple trees. In New Hampshire, we traveled the Kancamagus Highway. The highway is named after the grandson of the Indian who strived for peace with white settlers in the mid 17th century. We wanted to go up to Mt Washington, but weren't allowed to take our vehicle on that road.

Our last night on the road, we stayed at the Woodford State Park on the western edge of Vermont. The park was beautiful, however, they didn't have any electricity - none of the Vermont state parks have electricity. This 398 acre park, at 2400 feet, is located on the Adams Reservoir. We had a wonderful campfire and after dark saw millions of stars. Truly a beautiful place. Then it was time to head back home to the reality of life.

National Quartet Convention.

Denny and I, along with Arlan and Elayne Matthysse, attended the National Quartet Convention in Louisville, KY. The convention is held for 6 days each year with 367 different musical groups performing their latest renditions of good gospel music.

One day we drove out to the Huber Farm in southern Indiana to see their wonderful operation and eat a free dinner.

The photo shows us at Captain's Quarters on the Ohio River enjoying more food. We stayed at the Galt House downtown which is located right on the Ohio River so we were able to watch barges go up and down the river. On Saturday we were able to see a sailboat race from our hotel window.

We finally have WiFi. Here we go.

The last week of August the entire family - all 16 of us- traveled to Sevierville, Tennessee where we spent a week together. We enjoyed a day at Dolly's Splash Country moving down the lazy river, spending time in the tide pool and enjoying the many water rides. Fun was available for every age.

We spent two more days at Dollywood enjoying more water rides, roller coasters, kiddie land and sluice area. The adults were able to enjoy the fast rides while the children played with a tamer type of play nearby.

We had quite a bit of rain due to a hurricane that was giving its last hurrah in the area, however we are able to work around the rain with various other activities. One day the clubhouse featured a bird show. A couple other days, we drove to the Smokie Mountain National Park for some hiking. We hiked to Clingman's Dome which is on the Appalachian Trail. The day was cloudy so we weren't able to appreciate the vistas that are usually evident however the exercise was good and the energy released by the children was great.

Another day we drove through Cades Cove. The highlight of that trip was a bear up in a tree. We hated to leave and wanted to see what could happen next, but needed to move on down the 16 mile loop viewing homesteads of early settlers.

A third day most of the group hiked to Laurel Falls. Because of the rains earlier in the week, the falls were spectacular.

At the resort we had swimming pools, mini golf, a small water park, and lots of good fellowship. At the end of the week we all returned home with lots of memories.