We went to Portland, ME for a day this past Thursday. The park provided tickets for the Red Socks farm team. While in Portland we had a delightful boat tour of the bay and the many light houses in the area. It was even more delightful being in the cool bay breezes as the temperature in Portland hit 90 that day.

Opening weekend broke records for high temperatures. The first day we worked together on the balloon chase (a Ferris wheel type ride). The second day Ginger was back on that ride and Richard was on the flying fish (a fun ride but very hot). The third day Ginger went to flying fish and Richard was on the Tractor ride. Next weekend Ginger does the Safari Jungle Tour. She gets to sit but must memorize a lot of speeches. It should be fun.

On Thursday we go up north somewhere to meet up with some friends we worked with in Adventureland, Shirley and Dick Green. We look forward to that day trip.

We were delighted with a phone call from son David. They have arrived safely in Melbourne for some R&R before going to their new assignment. We plan to fly down on Monday, June 4 to see them. We will have to return on Thursday as we work on Friday. Three days are short but better than none. We will update after our trip on Thursday.

Orientatiion

We spent Saturday and Sunday in orientation. On Sunday, while being trained on one of the rides, Richard look down the path, about 25 yards, and saw a black bear loping across the path toward the pavilion where we had just eaten lunch. There are a lot of bears here. They fence the dumpsters with 12-foot high fences and fence the fence with electrical fence. The bears still get in and make a mess. Sunday night, Ginger had to take Glee out around 3 AM. Needless to say, she was a little nervous in the dark. She didn’t want to make noise as to wake up others. She did survive (and so did Glee).

Monday, the sun finally came out for the first time since our arrival. We were able to see Mount Washington. Today we are going to two places, Echo Lake and something else (we’re not driving). Friday they have given us tickets for some kind of ball game in Portland. We will spend the time up there looking around.

Arrived at Story Land

Sorry for the delay. Ginger's computer caught a virus at the last posting at a Panera's. Richard is busy trying to restore it. Richard asked Ginger what she wanted for Mother's Day and she said, "Sit still." We found a Passport America campground and went to a Methodist college church Sunday morning. We sure miss the friendliness of our church. After church we drove to the "Grand Canyon of the East Coast" It is a steep, thin canyon of black granite rock with 3 levels of water falls. It was beautiful and we will try to post some photos. On Monday we continued up the road and stayed in another Wall-mart for the night. We discovered cool weather. We arrived in Story Land on Tuesday to find snow still on the surrounding ski slopes. Today, Thursday, the high will be in the low 50's. Our friends from Adventureland arrived yesterday and are in the site next to us. We've met the manager of the park and a few of the employees and think the work atmosphere will be delightful. We report for orientation on Saturday morning so will spend today and tomorrow checking out the surrounding area. This is a high tourist area with many attractions. We are enjoying the scenic views. There are moose, deer and bears here. Because of that, there is no dumpster near the RV's. It is chained up behind a fence.

Travel Part 2

We are sitting at Panera's enjoying their AC and good food and free Y5 in Columbus, Ohio. It was, finally, a very uneventful travel day. We seemed to hit rush hours in every major city. The heaviest was here in Columbus -much heavier than Cincinnati. Cincinnati looked very old and dirty but we did stop for lunch at White Castle. White Castle preceded the Crystal burger. Richard enjoyed it and Ginger waited to eat some left overs in the rig. Tomorrow we head through Cleveland Ohio and are hoping to find cooler temperatures. We are parked in a Super Wal-mart which was a challenge to find in the traffic. Of course, while here in Panera's we will forget our food plan and buy some goodies for breakfast.

On the Road, Part 1

Tonight, May 10, we are in a PA park in the Kentucky hills. It is nice to have full hook-ups after 2 nights in Wal-Mart parking lots. This has been a very memorable trip. It started out at home when Richard was backing up in our driveway with a blow out tire (of course, the inside dully). The road service could not get anyone out until 10 the next morning. After the tire was changed we drove the rig and car into town and bought a new spare. We hit the road around 1 in the afternoon. The next day, while Ginger was driving, the spare that they said was good and on the inside dully, spit off the tread. She was able to pull over to the side of I 40 (Memphis area) saving room for placement of a jack. We waited on the side of the interstate for 3 hours for the service to come. They are very polite drivers in Memphis during rush hour. A female truck drive let us in the rush hour traffic. We pulled into the next Wal-Mart/Sams parking lot to search for another new spare. They didn’t have our size but a Goodyear store across the road could get one by 10 the next morning. It was a hot and stormy night.

We left Memphis around 10:30 this morning and had an uneventful drive. The trees in the Kentucky hills say it’ early spring but the thermometer is higher than in TX. We will spend the evening in AC comfort and head on in the morning. We passed Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby and are just down the road from Mammoth Cave. We gave some SKP hugs to our neighbors then went inside to enjoy the AC. We look forward to whatever tomorrow’s adventures bring but will not take off very early. More next time we have a free Y5.

Leaving for New Hampshire

We were planning to leave for New Hampshire on Monday, May 7 but the night before, we were both so tired we decided to wait another day. On Tuesday afternoon we were going to back the RV out so we could put the car behind it and attached it but the RV wouldn't move. We discovered a big bubble on an inside tire. We let the air out and moved the rig over to the concrete during which that tire popped. The auto service said someone would be out within 3 hours. After an hour and a half the service called. It seems the tow truck driver didn't want to work any later that day and would not be available until 10 am the next morning. We are grateful to God for His timing and protection. It was so nice that this happened in our drive way and not on the side of a road somewhere. We have a good spare so will just go to town with the rim of the bad tire and have a new one put on. Then, we will head off this afternoon as we only plan about 3-4 hours on the first leg of our journey (Texarkana). We've heard from friends who say the further north they get the cooler it is and we are looking forward to that. Our next blog will be from Story Land NY. We plan to be there around the 17 as orientation is on the 19.