Stan and Connie Spielbusch's Web Site

StanAndConnie.com

September 2000

Lake George and the Adirondacks

September 1st - 13th, 2000

There's a lot to do in the Lake George area, and it's a popular summer vacation spot for many New Englanders as well as Canadians (only a couple hours from the Canadian border and Montreal, Quebec). Lake George is on the edge of the Adirondack Park, which is a huge forest (larger than the state of Massachusetts) with lots of lakes, rivers, and people with canoes.

Of course the whole area was packed for Labor Day weekend, but cleared out nicely immediately afterwards. We're enjoying a large forested campground now with only a few other campers here, and only one other RV even in view. Very peaceful. We're getting ready to leave in a couple days, but we saw quite a few things while we were here...

The first stop of course was the Great Escape amusement park, which is home to the Comet roller coaster -- the #1 wooden coaster in the world. I rode it a couple times, and it's definitely a good one, with good "air time" (hills where you leave your seat, and lose your glasses if you're not careful). Besides that it's a fair amusement park, with 3 other roller coasters and all the typical rides, plus some older style rides that I remember from local carnivals. The best thing about the visit was the weather, which was cloudy and cool all day.

Connie's favorite attraction was Fort William Henry, in downtown Lake George, right at the edge of the lake. Here's a view of Lake George from the fort wall, with a cruise steamboat at the dock and the bordering mountains visible in the distance:

(Click photos to enlarge)

It's a very nice museum inside a rebuilt historic fort, originally built in 1755. It's featured in the story "Last of the Mohicans" (but only in one of the original 1936 movie adaptations), and was burnt to the ground by the French in the infamous "Massacre at Fort William Henry" in 1757. Hundreds of British men, women and children were massacred by the indians after the battle (while they were captured by the French). The fort was rebuilt in 1952, exact in every detail to the original fort and including parts of the original fireplaces and other stonework. Here's the interior of the fort:

The tour at the fort included a musket loading and firing demonstration, a cannon loading and firing demonstration, and other re-enactments. It was very entertaining and informative. You might say we got the whole tour, "lock, stock, and barrel"!

Another interesting display at the fort was their excavation of a well, which contained coins and various tourist's items that were thrown into the well from the 1950's up to the 1990's. They cleared out the well and have many items on display, including thousands of coins (no wonder there's a penny shortage!), toys, camera equipment, and all sorts of odds and ends. I know it's just "junk", but it's interesting to think of all the previous tourists throwing the stuff in the well (why were perfectly good toys thrown in?), and even more interesting to imagine being one of the people digging it out and making the "discoveries".

It turns out that we're still right next to the Hudson River. We just can't seem to get away from it, all the way from New York City. But up here it's a crystal clear mountain stream (but still pretty large). We took a scenic railroad trip from North Creek to Riverside and back (round trip about 2 hours). Although most of the ride was in dense trees with no view, there were a few spots with great fews of the Hudson. It was interesting to learn that the trees in the whole Adirondack area were devastated back in the 1800's "industrial age", when they needed wood for fuel (mainly for manufacturing steel) and other uses. Virtually all of the trees you see in the park today are new growth, less than 100 years old. We also saw our first red-leafed tree of the season.

Of course we had to also visit a Garnet Mine. It turns out that 97% of the world's garnet comes from here, most of which is used for sandpaper and other abrasives. Most of the garnet is too fractured for jewelry, although some nice gems have been turned up. It's interesting to see hundreds of boulders with the remains of 6-inch garnets in them. The mine is an open pit, and the tour includes about 1/2 hour for you to "collect" anything you want (for $1.00 per pound). Of course we don't have room for boulders in the coach, but we picked up a few small clean pieces of garnet for a keepsake.

Another fantastic museum is the Adirondack Museum, right in the middle of the park. It's a world-acclaimed "outdoor" museum, with 20 points of interest and several indoor exhibits, a historic hotel building, schoolhouse, and much more. We had about 3 hours to tour it before it closed, and we were quite rushed at that -- it could easily take 5 or 6 hours to enjoy the whole thing. The main focus is on the life of people in the area back in the 1800's and early 1900's, including camping, mining, logging, and working. Exhibits in the transportation exhibit alone included everything from stage coaches to a motorized toboggan (1940).

Finally, we went to the "Natural Stone Bridge and Caves" attraction. It's a self-guided tour around a fast-flowing creek and a stone "bridge" and caves (holes carved in the rock, not underground caverns). It wasn't exactly awe-inspiring, but it was interesting and a nice day for a walk along a creek. The best part actually was the restrooms:

(Click photos to enlarge)

The Maine Coast

September 14th - 19th, 2000

Boothbay, Maine

Newmar (the makers of our RV) was having a rally here so we thought it would be a good way to visit Maine for the first time. Rallies are organized gatherings with planned activities (food and tours), so they make for a good introduction to an area, as well as fun visiting with other people with the same brand of RV.

Of course the meals included seafood (lobster, clam chowder, etc.), so Connie was happy. There was also Philly cheese steaks, sausages, donuts, and cheesecake, so I was happy. (Funny how we spent a month in New York, and I didn't have cheesecake until we got to Maine!)

Going on the organized tours was an experience in itself. There were about 120 RVs at the rally, which meant about 250 people. The activities included a dinner theatre, a train ride, and a 3-hour cruise (just like in Gilligan's Island!).

The train ride was just about as boring as the one in the Adirondacks, and everybody agreed. But we sat with another couple our age, and we had a great time talking to them while waiting for something interesting to come into view. When a spot of early fall colors was spotted in the trees, everyone gave a sarcastic "oooooh". Actually the most colorful thing was the train itself:

(Click photos to enlarge)

The cruise was somewhat more interesting, at least for us, since it was the first time we'd been to the ocean up here. The captain did the narration as he drove, and he was great (make sure Cap'n Fish, the owner of the outfit, is driving if you take the tour). Unfortunately it was an overcast day with a bit of rain, but it was still enjoyable (especially since the boat had an enclosed lower deck with a snack bar) -- it just made for poor photos. We rode the Pink Lady II (its sibling is seen here at the dock).

We saw lighthouses of course, and learned a lot about the star-studded history of the Boothbay area (lots of famous people had homes here). Here's the obligatory lighthouse photo:

One of the more interesting sights was this turnstile bridge, which has to swivel open for boats to pass. It's manned 24 hours per day, so there isn't much of a wait most of the time -- but if there is a fire truck or ambulance active anywhere in the area, they can't open the bridge until the emergency is over, in case the road is needed.

By the way, there are small multicolored buoys in the water everywhere (except in the fresh water), which are actually attached to lobster traps. You can see some in the photo above. It's a fair challenge just to steer a boat through them. Each person uses a different color combination on their buoy. There must be some strong honor system (or severe punishment) to keep people from grabbing lobsters from somebody else's traps.

Finally of course there is Boothbay Harbor itself, and the village surrounding it. In our spare time we walked around the town, which I suppose is a typical little fishing/tourist village. It's a nice well-kept area with some colorful buildings, lots of boats in the harbor, and of course a restaurant shaped like a tug boat.

One of the most common foods here is the "Lobster Roll". Every cafe has them. It's actually chunks of lobster and a little lettuce and mayo on a hotdog bun. Of course you gotta try one. I had a crab roll, with shredded crab meat. Not bad. Of course we also had blueberry pie (lots of blueberry farms are in Maine). Yum!

Rockland and Camden, Maine

September 20th -- 30th, 2000

Now we're a little farther up the coast. We have a phone hookup here, and there's even a local number for internet access. Woohoo! I can get online as much as I want!

This campground has a little picnic area with an ocean view, which is nice for just relaxing or reading with the sound of the waves hitting the rocks and the seagulls calling. Some are a little more adventurous and actually read on the rocks. Not sure how she got there...

We're staying here awhile to catch up on work, ralax, and watch the foliage change. It's starting!

The campground office/cafe has a nice little deck with tables, and we're parked right across from it. Here's Connie relaxing on the deck with our rig behind her.

Thank you for visiting our travel site. Please visit our other sites too:

Campground Master -- A tracking program for your campground or inn. Easy to use and learn, but modern and powerful. One of the most inexpensive systems, great for small campgrounds. Designed by campground owners and full-time RVers.

MysteryPhotos -- Every week a new photo is shown, which may be a close-up of something, or a section of a common object or sight. Guess what it is and you might win a prize. Lots of fun for the whole family! Free screensaver and wallpaper too.

Awesome Screen Savers -- Cool photographic screen savers of the highest quality, for Windows PC's. Download FREE Lite versions of them all. Some are created with photos from our travels, some are awesome photos from NASA. (Contact me to have a screen saver made with your own photos!)

Cottonwood Software -- My shareware business site, currently featuring File-Ex 98: a Windows 95/98 dialog enhancement tool. Great for people who work with a lot of files.

Free -n- Cool -- Tons of Freebies, Giveaways, and Cool Sites -- all in one! You'll find a large selection of free samples you can get mailed to you, free games, screen savers, internet services, etc., plus hundreds of contests of all types, and a unique "intensely cool sites" list.