A "Birdy" Day...

We didn't leave the campground today. We spent a good chunk of time trying to plot our remaining travels in New England. Any of the campgrounds near the coast are all very expensive. We've been looking through those campgrounds affiliated with our memberships to see what we could find that would not bankrupt us!

There are quite a few birds here at Frosty Acres. We came across this Killdeer taking its morning bath. It was playing in the water, getting itself wet all over. I tried to get a picture of it when it came out when it was fluffing its feathers, but it was just moving too fast. Members of the Plover family, we have seen Killdeers in many parts of the country. I am sure that the ones close to Auntie Violet must have nests nearby as they are really into their "broken wing" act trying to lure trespassers away.

We have spotted this Baltimore Oriole flitting in and out of the trees the past couple of days. This morning in perched enough in the open for me to get a picture of it. It, too, had been bathing in the ditch on the other side of the road.

It flew into the tree and was fluffing its feathers following its dip --

We'll have to keep watching it to see if we can spot its nest, which should be a woven pouch hanging in the trees.

Just Thinking...

What a difference a day makes! Last evening when we were walking around the campground, it was incredibly noisy and busy. There were golf carts going in every direction and kids on bicycles racing up and down. There were lots of parties and the "good ol' boys" were having a great time.

This evening it is very quiet and still. Many of the rigs who came in for the long weekend with young families packed up and left early this afternoon. A good share of the more permanent RVs are dark tonight and there are no longer cars parked by them, so I am assuming they have gone back to their regular homes as well.

We have started thinking about our next couple of stops. We normally aren't too much for planning or making reservations a long way ahead. We will often call the day before, or even the day of, a stop to see if there is a space for us. But, it doesn't seem to work as well to do that here on the East Coast. We've also been trying to plan things so that we can add all of the New England state stickers to our map. Our goal is to have been in all of the 48 continental US states by the time we return to Washington State later this summer.

We've made reservations to spend a few days at the Harper's Ferry KOA in West Virginia, then move on to eastern Pennsylvania for a week's stay. We were attracted Homestead Campground in Green Lane, Pennsylvania because of the campground's information that you could take a train from near-by into historic Philadelphia. Sounds like it costs $1 to park at the train station all day and another dollar for Seniors to ride the train. I like the sounds of that.

Back in another life, I was fortunate to have had a Fellowship with the Public Health Service in Washington DC that enabled me to spend a month in the city. Forry was able to spend a portion of the time with me and we did a great deal of exploring on the weekends. We were also in DC several times during my years with the National Rural Health Association, so we are not really feeling like we want to spend any of our time there.

We do want to explore the New England states. We have good friends who have retired to a farm in Maine that we are anxious to see. I am also very much looking forward to seeing Niagara Falls. It does seem that even if we spend a week or more in a state, we barely get a taste of it. There are so many things to see in this wonderful country of ours!

And Now We Are in Ohio!

Fall is definitely in the air and it is also getting chillier.  After weeks of Indian Summer with daytime temperatures in the the high eighties and nineties, a cold front has come through with rain, wind and a definite drop in the temperature. We had been thinking about going up to Maine and then coming down the east coast to eventually winter in Florida.  Because of our detour for repairs, it is getting late in the year to head north without thinking about the possibility of snow...

My friend Cathi sent me a page and one-half note of lists of places to see and things to do in Maine (where she used to live) and New England.  I also had a list of some other places I wanted to see as well as visiting out friend Wayne in Waldoboro, Maine.  After we sat and talked about it for a while, we decided that we would wait until Spring to visit New England when we wouldn't have to sweat out bad weather. Then we would head back to Washington visiting North Dakota and Nebraska on the way.  We had been thinking about driving to Alaska next summer, but we have been there twice (by air) and that may not be a priority.

So, with that decision made, we headed south into Ohio today.  We stopped at a Welcome Center and chatted with the friendly fellow on duty.  When he found that we had never spent time in Ohio, he suggested we head towards Chillicothe (south of Columbus) and do some exploring in that area.

The country we drove through today was a little more open then where we had been in Indiana.  There are STILL lots of fields of soybeans and corn -- and corn and soybeans!

One thing I did notice -- the majority of the houses in Ohio are square!  They may have dormers like this one, or they may have a porch attached, but they are square.

This perfectly square building is a county courthouse we saw on the way --

We passed some Amish farms and furniture marts along the way and saw evidence of Amish buggies along the road.  The one buggy we saw had white stripes on the back instead of the orange "slow vehicle" triangle on the ones we saw in Indiana.

 It was NOT a nice day to be driving today.  The cold front that came through brought last night's rain, but also brought gusty winds all day! Highway 23 south is two-lane part of the way, so that meant for extra concentration as well.  We drove longer then we usually like to in order to get to Sun Valley Campground outside of Chilliclothe.  We got here about 6:30, just before dark.