Hawaii was a great trip. It was my 3rd visit and Laurie’s 1st.
Our first stop was Maui. We arrived a few days before the wedding. This gave us a chance to go snorkeling. While on the
boat going to the snorkel area we got to see many humpback whales and they were really active and acrobatic. The next day
we drove up to the top of Haleakala Crater in the Nat’l Park. The view from the top is fantastic. You are above the
clouds looking down. Along with all the people biking down we got to see one person on a skate board.
The next day we drove the road to Hana. Due to a bridge being out you cannot drive all the way around the island. We drove
about 10 miles past Hana. This a very scenic and fun road to drive. It is two lanes with one lane bridges and has a maximum
speed of 25mph. The road is curvy and mountainous.
The wedding was next.
Friday evening we had dinner with friends and family at a Mexican restaurant John and Kathy had been to before.
Saturday morning I dropped Laurie off to have her hair done. Kathy along with her mother, sister and Laurie went to get
their hair done and dress for the wedding. Then they drove to the private estate where the wedding was held. I would meet
them there.
The wedding site was on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It was a beautiful and set with a ring of flowers for the bride
and groom to stand in. The service was done by a local minister and was very nice. The one problem was that it was raining
for the full wedding. They say that rain on a wedding day is good luck. Hopefully it will be. For those of us who got wet
we would have preferred a dry day. Everyone enjoyed the service and really did not mind the rain.
That evening John and Kathy hosted a reception dinner at Roy’s. The food and the company was excellent.
The next morning we left for Oahu where we spent three days and then went on a 10 day cruise. Needless to say to the cruise
was fun and there was too much food. We enjoyed all of the port cities and went on a lot of worthwhile tours.
On Oahu we spent a day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. This is a must see for anyone who goes to Oahu. We attended a
Luau there and then they had a 1 ½ hour additional show about the many traditions of the Polynesian cultures.
After returning to Las Vegas for two weeks, we are heading east. This will give us some time to visit with family and friends
along the way and arrive at Storyland in NH where we will be workamping for the summer.
April we finished our visit in Las Vegas and headed out the beginning of the month. We stopped and did some visiting
with friends and family along the way,
Our first main stop was outside Jackson, MS. From here we took a ride to Meridian,
MS so Laurie could visit her fathers grave.
The next day we went to Vicksburg. We traveled around the civil war battlefield.
There was a museum for the USS Cairo which was a ship that had sunk during the civil war. They raised it up and reconstructed
it at this site, Due to the fact that it had been buried in mud it was well preserved. By the river in Vicksburg they have
a wall with about 20 large murals. We then had to stop at a casino so as to donate to the local economy.
The next
day we started up the Natchez Trace. The Trace is a parkway that follows the route used by traders in the early days of the
south as well as troops during the civil war.
The Trace runs from Natchez, MS to just south of Nashville, TN. Since
we were stopping along the way , we spent the night in Tupelo, MS. We finished traveling the Trace and stayed in Nashville,
TN for a few days.
In Nashville we visited the County Music Hall of Fame. This is a very well done museum and one
you really need to see if you are in Nashville. We also went to “Hermitage” . This is the estate of Andrew
Jackson. It is well kept and they have the grave yard where he and his wife are buried on the estate.
On to Indianapolis,
IN. This was our first visit here. We stayed in town at the Fairgrounds which had full hookup sites. We visited the Indianapolis
500 racetrack and also a number of museums in town. There was also a rehearsal from a Barber Shop Quartet group that we attended.
The rehearsal was neat to hear since they were getting ready to put on a Robin Hood Show.
One of the more interesting
and different museums was a Medical one. This was in the original building from a mental hospital complex and was built in
1896. It still had all the original equipment there. They had stopped using it in the 1960’s.
Our next stop
was at the Carriage Factory in IN to have some work done on the rig and take a tour and see how they build the rigs.
We
then visited with Barry and his family. Seeing the grandchildren is always fun. We also got to visit with Mitch’s
parents who are 91 & 92. Debbie joined us for a few days. It was Mothers day weekend and also coming up on Mitch’s
parents 70th anniversary. We decided rather than go to a restaurant we would go to Barry & Johna’s house for
the afternoon.
Now it was time to head to NH and Story Land. This is where we will be Workamping this summer. There
are pictures in an album on the main page on the Link.
Hi from Laurie to all of you. Story Land has been a fun experience.
Mitch is running four different rides. I need to take a picture if him in coveralls and a red and white checkered shirt. I
work in Story Book Corner. It is a delightful gift shop. I just wear slacks and a work shirt. This amusement park is aimed
toward youngster from age 2 to 12. However, a lot of adults seem to be laughing and having a great deal of fun.
We are at the end of Sept. and starting to get ready to head south (Orlando, FL) for the winter. We will take about 3 weeks
and stop at Mitch’s parents, Barry & Johna (and the grandchildren of course), Debbie and Jessy, and Laurie’s
sister, Rhoda.
Now to highlight some of the exciting things we did this summer.
We arrived at Story Land on May 15 and got our rig set up for the next few months. That meant getting it leveled and setting
out the mat and awning and putting things around the inside.
Story Land had just finished putting in the sites and they were nice and wide with a long blacktop area to park on.
We were offered an opportunity to work during the week if we wanted. The park would only be open weekends until Fathers
day and then we would go fulltime until Labor day and then weekends again until Oct. 8th.
Our first weekend was orientation. It started Sat morning with an introduction to the full time staff and a tour of the
park. We then were given lunch. After lunch we broke into groups to learn about the area we would be working in. Laurie was
sent to the gift shop and Mitch was to be trained on how to run some rides. Sunday we had seminars on guest service as well
as more training in our work area.
Mitch was trained on the following four rides (pictures in Story Land Album). The flying fish, the great balloon chase,
the crazy barn, and Dr. Geysers remarkable raft ride. These are the rides that he would run the rest of the summer.
Laurie learned that there are five gift shops and that each had a different theme. She luckily ended up in a store that
sells lots of lovely books. It is called Story Book Corner. The store also has lots of stuffed animals and Story Land logo
souvenirs.
One of the best parts of working in the store is listening to the children and hearing the best and the worst of the amusement
park. They are so tickled to meet Mother Goose and getting wet on certain rides. This is not a wealthy part of the country
and few of the children have been to a Disney park. Story Land is geared toward children 2 - 12 years of age.
There are nine workamper couples and one single here for the summer. There are also about 40 foreign students working here.
The rest of the staff are local people.
The workampers, along with the foreign students and some of the regular staff, had a number of pot luck dinners and the
park had some cast parties. This helped keep us busy after the park closed at 6 PM.
At the start of the season we were given area passports (books with free admission to area attractions). We managed to
go to almost all of these attractions. There are also numerous covered bridges and water falls in the area.
Before the season started we drove around the area and stopped to see about a dozen water falls and as many covered bridges.
The White Mountains are a wonderful place to visit.
Webshots - (the site I use to upload the picture albums) They picked our album of “Covered bridges of NH” as
the featured album on day. This was nice since they have over 100,000 albums to choose from.
Below is an outline of a few attractions we went to and what they were;
Polar Caves - This is a group of caves that were formed by granite boulders that fell at the base of the cliff. They were
fun to climb through. They also had a maple museum which showed Maple Sugaring techniques from the day of the Indian to the
modern day.
Clarks Trading Post - This had a fantastic show of black bears that have been trained to do different tricks. It also had
some interesting rides and displays. Mitch managed to climb part of the climbing wall here.
Mt. Washington Auto road and Cog RR - Both of these lead to the top of Mt. Washington, but totally different ways. We could
not drive up the Auto road because out truck was to big, so we went up in the vans they have. The trip was nice and the driver
was very informative. When we reached the top the winds were at 60 mph, but the visibility was good. Story Land arranged for
us to go to the top of Mt. Washington to see a sunset. Unfortunately it rained, but the trip was fun and there was an amateur
singing group at the top that entertained us.
The Cog RR was completed in 1869 and is a very unique way to get to the top of MT. Washington. The train goes from a 12%
grade to a 31% grade. At the 31% grade when you stand you are at an angle to the ground. This is a really different feeling.
Flume Gorge - This is a two mile walk through the area of Franconia State Park. There is a boardwalk with steps that go
through the gorge and then a path that continues to a couple of small falls and to a covered bridge. It was a very pleasant
hike and we did it in the spring and then again in the fall to see the change of scenery. We went just short of the peak season
for fall foliage. The blend of colors is rich and wonderful.
Conway Scenic RR - We took the 5 hour train ride through Crawford Notch. This was very interesting. There was a narration
that told us about the area from a geological and historic point of view. The view from many of the points above the notch
was wonderful.
We took an number of different ski lifts and gondola rides to the top of different Mts. The ski lifts take you to the top
so you can see on a clear day over to VT. We went to the top of Loon Mtn., Cannon Mtn., Wildcat, and Attitash. All were great
views of the area.
We also drove to Portsmouth, NH and took a boat ride to the Isles of Shoals. This a group of islands off the NH coast.
The day was clear and the ride very enjoyable. We got to see a number of lobster boats pulling up traps. Keeping the big ones
and throwing back the small ones. We also went to Strawberry Banke museum. This is an accumulation of buildings from the pioneer
days and extremely well done.
In Aug, Barry, Johna and the grandchildren came for a visit. It was a great time. We kept busy all the time they were here.
The came to Story Land a couple of times and we spent a day at Attitash and went to Lost River.
Attitash is a ski area that is converted to a water park in the summer. They have two water slides as well as an alpine
slide and a euro bungee jump. The alpine slide is a track that comes from the top of the Mtn and you ride down on a sled with
plastic runners. The bungee jump is a trampoline with bungee cords (pictures in album).
Lost River is a board walk through a area with a group of boulder caves. It was great to do this with the children. Laurie
got to go through what they call the lemon squeeze. This is a 14 inch opening in the boulders. Mitch got to watch and take
pictures of everyone crawling through caves.
We also went to the top of Wildcat Mtns and hiked around some waterfalls and along the rivers. Pictures in Aug album.
It was a great week with them and one of the highlights of the summer.
We got to work with other workampers, foreign students, and lots of local teenagers as well as the fulltime employees.
Overall we have had a wonderful summer in the White Mtns and working at Story Land.The area is beautiful and the fall foliage
is now starting. The people who run Story Land are very caring and do everything they can to make sure the guests as well
as the workers enjoy their experience here.
4th Quarter
The summer went by very fast and as I said in the 3rd quarter report it was a lot of fun.
Oct 9th we left Story Land and headed for PA. It was sad to leave after 5 months of getting to know people,
but we plan on returning this summer and will get to see most of them again.
Our first stop was in Reading, PA to visit Mitch’s parents (ages 91 & 92). At this time we got them to agree
to move into an assisted living home in Harrisburg, PA. This way they are near Barry and his family. This was not an easy
discision for them since Mitch’s dad (age 92) was still running his business in their home. He finally said he would
retire.
Next we went to Harrisburg to visit with Barry and the family for a week. We celebrated our 8th anniversary
and Ian’s birthday with them. We had a pleasant surprise when we looked out the window of our rig and David and Nancy
Inman (parked next to us at Story Land) were pulling into the RV park followed by Jerry and Peggy Martin in their car.
We had a very nice visit with the grandchildren and really enjoyed being with them as always and miss them when we leave.
Next we were on to Richmond, VA to visit with Debbie and then Jacksonville, FL to see Rhoda. Then we spent a few days in
Cape Canaveral.
In Cape Canaveral we had the remnants of a hurricane and wind up to 50 mph and rain and overcast. We really did not get
to see much there.
Nov. 1st we got to Kissimmee, Fl where we are currently and will be here until March 1st when we
head north.
Laurie went to Las Vegas for 10 days to visit with her mom who just turned 90. She enjoyed her visit, but was happy to
return home so as to get ready for our cruise at the beginning of Dec.
Dec 3 we flew to San Juan and started on our 11 day Southern Caribbean cruise. This itinerary included 8 ports. We were
seated at a dinner table with 3 other very interesting couples and looked forward to dinner each night.
We did land excursions at each port and some that were very interesting and some that just took us around the island.
St. Lucia was a pirate adventure. We boarded the ship that was used in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. We went to
an island where we searched for treasure and then spent some time exploring the island. We also got to help aboard the ship
and what is a pirate adventure without rum punch being served? Yo ho ho!
The St. Kitt scenic RR was another interesting adventure. They take you around on the island on a narrow gauge RR track
that had originally been used to transport sugar cane. It gave us a interesting view of the island.
In Aruba we went on anIsland tour which included a ride on a semi-submersible boat which took us to a sunken ship and around
a sand bar where we go to see different fish and coral.
Before we knew it the 11 days were over and we had to leave the ship and all the food behind and head home.
The balance of Dec. seemed to pass quickly. We went to a pot luck Christmas dinner here at the RV park. The was plenty
of food and all of it was good.
New Years we were going to spend at Sea World, but it was raining and we decided on a quiet evening at home. We plan to
go to Sea World and Epcot in January or February when the crowds are smaller.
