August 31, 2012 Blue Moon in New Jersey

John returned the rental car, we are not using it. I spent the day doing laundry and sitting at the picnic reading our blogs and plotting our route for the trip so I can embroider it onto the map. I was pretty vague  on our route early on. Left out a lot, I will have to be better from now on. But I did learn we have been on one heck of good trip! After that we went on a hike, that ended up longer than we meant it to, by missing a couple turns. Beautiful weather , in the high 70’s low 80’s. Sunny. It so much cooler outside here than the west. There are so many trees you are never in the sun.

Laundry and my research on the picnic table.  A cool backlit moss from the hike.

The afternoon light in the forest is really pretty. Here is a tree growing around a rock.

dinner outside tonight. Waldorf salad and left over meat loaf and feta stuffed chicken. The ROUTE. The black-in Colorado, Utah and Arizona is the maiden voyage. The red is the first year and the blue is the second year, and this year so far. I need to get another color for this year. I will have to get day glow thread for the map so it will show up.

The campground is full for the holiday weekend. All of the campgrounds in the US are full for the holiday weekend. Esp. trying to find a place this late in the game. John spent hours on the phone and internet trying to find a place.  We were considering  Wal-Mart parking lots. He finally found one place that had room for us this weekend. Get ready for this-a clothing optional country club! Should be very entertaining.  they have a golf course, nice olympic sized pool, volley ball, cabins , camping. We wanted to experience the whole US and how different people live.  Can’t take photos, but will keep you posted on how it was.

August 30, 2012 New Jersey still again

The transmission is now bad in the car. They ordered in a used one,it came today,t he idea was to have the car tomorrow. The used tranny was seized up when it arrived. Boo. So another used one is coming, can  pick up the car at the earliest Tues- Holiday weekend. We had to change spots at the campsite, our old one is reserved. After Fri night the whole place is full, we need to find somewhere else, and the whole USA is full this holiday weekend.   We will figure it all out. We just want the whole car thing to be over. . .

New site, looks pretty much like the last one- a quiet campground in the woods. Mini cocoa swirl cheesecakes for dessert tonight. I made black bean and goat cheese toastados too, but we ate them before I could get a photo. Yum, yum.

My USA map is now in one piece. I just need to plot our route across it

John was beside himself today on our hike.

August 29, 2012 New Jersey still!!

Boo, hiss. John dropped off the rental, picked up the car and drove it all the way back here. It started smoking and leaking fluids, so he drove it back to the service dept. The transmission seal is leaking. So they are now fixing that, and it should be ready tomorrow. John got another rental and came back.

Every day we have been here squirrels have been eating acorns above the bus, and throwing the rejects at the bus. Waking me up even in the morning. Here is the top of the bus, I thought I should sweep it off before we went.  The new car engine. John said it worked well, shifted well, jus leaked, and smoked. . .

Here is the new rental car. While poor John was driving to and from the service and rental shops I sat in the lawn chair and quilted my USA map. I was going to zig-zag it on the machine, but it would not work through all the layers.

I think we have been here too long. I went to pay for another night at the site and noticed 4 different kinds of spiders on the sign. And this cool grass seed, pink flowers and seed pods on a bush.

August 26-28 New Jersey

We are still entertaining ourselves while the car is being repaired. A used engine with half the miles of the one we have now is being installed. It came in on Monday and they may have it in by this afternoon, then they can see if the transmission works, if so we can get the car and be on our way. Sunday we hiked about 3 miles  in the park we are camped at.

Very green, beautiful day, John  photographing the forest, I photographed him.

A beetle face, orange fungus on a tree stump, a wild colored  mushroom, the side of the beetle, a red flower, a red berry, a fall leaf, a half eaten mushroom

We were there. Got a little confused on the trails, but made it out ok. Monday we went to the Jersey shore. Yah, I can sunbathe, John can get his low point of New Jersey.  The GPS took us right through Newark on the way, really bad traffic.

I always knew my husband was a saint! We got to the beach and boo, it was pouring rain, thunder, lightening, cold. John got his low point and we left.

Lovely day on the Jersey shore. You can catch these fish here. Most of them I have never heard of. You can catch 50 eels, or scups, but only one tautog or shark.

John enjoying a day at the beach. Today we hiked 4.4 miles in the park, saw a few things- a dragon fly, asters, a spider web and some white berries. Still waiting to hear about the car.

August 29 update—THE CAR IS READY, John is picking it us, I don’t know details yet, but it is good news to get it back and running. We are off to Lake Champlain for the long weekend.

August 25, 2012 NJ-NY-CONN

Since the states here are so small John wanted to drive to Connecticut , right on the line between NY and Conn he wanted to bag the two low points. It sounds good in theory. Perhaps 130 miles round trip.

The three state day. Kind of reminds me of when we were in Summit county and decided to ski all for ski areas in one day. Not really, the ski areas are closer together. The GPS took us the scenic route up. Very lovely country, out in the country. On the way back she took us through New York City.  The Hudson river on the way up.

I got to see one sight on this quest for low points. We went to Sleepy Hollow.  Cute little town. It is the home town of Washington Irving, the author of the story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.Here is a sculpture of the headless horseman throwing his pumpkin head at Ichabod Crane.  The Headless Horseman Bridge, which is now gone, replaced by a more modern bridge was where the headless horseman hurled his pumpkin head at Ichabod Crane.  Behind the sign is the Sleepy hollow cemetery  where the graves of Washington Irving, Andrew Carnegie, William Rockefeller, Brook Astor, Elizabeth Arden and William Chrysler are.

The first photo is John at the low point in New York. It is of course on the Long Island Sound. Which is mostly  private property with huge mansions on it, or like here an industrial area with docks, plants and fences are. This is as close as you can get to this part of the sound here. We did not feel like going into New York City to the sound. It was in Port Chester which seemed to be a low income Latino area. The second photo is in Greenwich, Connecticut, directly across the border, only a few miles away. It was a very high income area, the sound had huge expensive mansions on it, with gigantic yachts on it. We found this park to get to the sound.

On the way back the GPS took us right through New York City, here is a shot of the Bronx. This is not what you want to see on your GPS in the middle of New York City!

View of Manhattan from the Bridge into New Jersey. This is closer than we wanted to drive to in the car.  Then you come off the bridge and have to decide which lane is really the one you want. Thankfully there was not much traffic here.  We had not wanted to go to New York City, but we must have been meant to go, first the car blows up, then the GPS takes us there. . .

August 24, 2012 Mahlon Dickerson Reservation, NJ

They called this afternoon and said the engine is rebuild able for a fraction of the cost of buying a new car and modifying it so we can tow it. We won’t know if the transmission is ok until the engine works. John’s gut feeling is the tranny is ok since all 4 wheels still roll and it does not make noises when it does roll. If all goes well we could be on the road again by mid to late next week.  John is the best person in the world to be with when sh—hits the fan, he just calmly checks all the options and then takes care of it. I try not to freak out.

We had to move to another campsite to stay the weekend, the other one was reserved for the weekend. John rented a car so we don’t have to drive the bus out sightseeing. He took the kayak out of the bathroom. We are staying in Mahlon Dickerson Reservation, it is a 3000 acre county park. Nice campground, lots of hiking.

I am starting another project. A cloth map of the USA so I can embroider our route on it. Here is the drawing and the tracing onto the back of the iron on backing, it goes on the back, so it is backwards. Is that like a triple negative, 3 backs??

After we heard the car was getting taken care of we went out for a hike. The the highest spot in the county.  Here is a tree growing out of a rock and the afternoon light in the hardwood trees.

Me at the highest point, 1,395 feet. In front of the shortest highest point sign ever.  A tree growing over a rock.

An inch long toad, a couple funnel shaped mushrooms and an orange mushroom. John calibrating his GPS to the altitude.

John on the trail. The bus in the new site, with the rental car, and the boat out of the bathroom.

Some of our gear from the car stuffed into the bay under the bus. The tray in the bay slides out, but if we slid it all the gear would fall out. The car usually looks like this.